Thomas Rawls
This is neither a snarky comment nor an attempt to troll (or be trolled); I honestly am seeking the opinion of those smarter than me in football.
How could Thomas Rawls be THIS obviously good (incredible burst, great power and balance) and have been so seemingly insignificant when he was on our team for 2 years? I know some will say "Hoke duh" or "Jackson being Jackson", but seriously were they THAT bad?
I remember Sam Webb saying this dude was the REAL deal; seems Sam has a better eye for talent than our perivous staff?
Ok got that off my chest.
November 15th, 2015 at 10:46 PM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 10:51 PM ^
In fairness to Fred Jackson, he was the one who recruited Rawls and offered him a scholarship.
I think it's clear the coaches made some promises to some higher ranked guys and did not necessarily play the best kid at every spot.
November 15th, 2015 at 11:29 PM ^
November 16th, 2015 at 8:45 AM ^
I think it's a little questionable that Green, who came into his freshman year out of shape, got the majority of the carries behind Toussaint. I don't think Rawls even got one carry in Big Ten play that season. But, maybe there were some issues with Rawls that kept him off the field.
November 15th, 2015 at 11:59 PM ^
When Rawls was on the team they weren't running the ball well at all. He got opportunities to run; he didn't do much with it. There's a good chance that the OL was the problem, yes, but it's not like he wasn't getting time. And it's not like they would give Toussaint, who was late in his career, extra carries if they thought a younger guy could do better.
The plain fact is that Hoke came to Michigan promising "manball," an old-fashioned power running game.* With a powerful offensive line opening holes for running backs.
And Hoke failed at that particular area miserably. Yeah, he had some other issues. He didn't manage the program well, wasn't a good game-day coach, etc etc. But there are guys who have lasted a long time in football with those weaknesses. Hoke's colossal failure was the offensive line, a unit that at its nadir took 4-star players and made them literally perform worse than Mac teams (just look at how they did against Akron).
He failed with RR's players, he failed with his own players. The OL destroyed the ability of the running backs to perform and develop; it destroyed the ability of Al Borges to build around base running tendencies with play-action; it destroyed the quarterbacks one by one by one; it destroyed the wills of the Michigan fanbase; and it destroyed the coaching career of Brady Hoke.
*I'm not a big worst-case-conspiracy guy, but I think it is quite possible that DB made running Power a priority or even a condition of Hoke's hire. It is entirely plausible that DB could have brought in Hoke, a guy who would give his left arm to coach here, tell him that Michigan needed a guy who would bring power back to the program, and ask Hoke if he could do that. And Hoke would say yes. It would explain why Hoke pounded on that nail so hard when his previous history at places like SDSU suggested he was open to more spread-out offenses.
The irony here is that Brandon probably associated zone running plays with the fancy-schmancy spread offenses and had no idea that teams like Alabama used zone blocking schemes in their pro-style attacks, thus by ignorance removing from Hoke the opportunity to use the holdover OL's strengths (zone blocking) in its development. The 2012 line was at best mediocre, but there were a couple of future NFL players on it; that's the line that couldn't open holes for Thomas Rawls. If Hoke had been a better/stronger coach, perhaps they are using zone blocking on that team and perhaps Rawls gets a chance to emerge.
November 16th, 2015 at 1:17 AM ^
Your last asterisk is something I've thought about for a while. I'm not a huge conspiracy theorist myself, but when you look at Borges and Hoke's tendencies before coming to Michigan, the star power of the O-line, and what Michigan's running backs have become, you start to think that things don't quite add up.
Or maybe it's not that at all. But one wonders.
November 16th, 2015 at 6:34 AM ^
After what we've learned about DB from Bacon's reporting, I could totally see him doing this. Yes, it seems so idiotic and incredibly narcissistic that you'd think one would have to be a conspiracy theorist to believe it. But this is DB.
November 16th, 2015 at 7:17 AM ^
I'm not sure I'd say it destroyed his career yet. I think that he will be employed next year. It will be a matter of seeing whether or not he is what he was at the end of his Michigan reign or closer to the beginning. Did it ruin his career or was it just a bump in the road? We don't know yet.
And yes, I know I am picking on a very small part of a very solid post.
November 16th, 2015 at 11:16 AM ^
Maybe as a DL coach. I'd be surprised if he's ever again a head coach at a high level.
November 16th, 2015 at 11:00 AM ^
Our OL in that period could make just about any RB look bad. Combine it with suspect coaching and I wasn't all that surprised when Rawls excelled at CMU. There may be no better example of the lack of player development and good coaching during the Hoke years than Thomas Rawls.
November 15th, 2015 at 11:03 PM ^
end up at Akron?
November 16th, 2015 at 6:35 AM ^
If you can't beat em, er...never mind.
November 16th, 2015 at 6:46 AM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 10:48 PM ^
Wasn't he the one that was compared to Trent Richardson in high school? Seems like he could have a better career than him in the pros.
And the answer is yes. They were that bad.
November 15th, 2015 at 10:49 PM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 10:50 PM ^
Mark Ingram, but faster
November 15th, 2015 at 10:49 PM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 10:48 PM ^
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November 16th, 2015 at 12:19 AM ^
November 16th, 2015 at 7:26 AM ^
Yes and to further that if you remember when Harbaugh first came in the Spring, Kalis was so frustrated with the old coaching staff that he was considered a team cancer. He had some in depth OL coaching coming out of high school and was considered college ready only to look lost out there come game time.
Gedeon was about to leave the school because, in his opinion, the rotations didnt make any sense and he wasnt being "coached."
I feel like the Hoke era truly wasted a lot of potential and sadly costs some kids a lot of money. Think of all the talent wasted by that coaching staff.
November 15th, 2015 at 10:50 PM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 11:17 PM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 11:23 PM ^
... because he had to change direction the second he had the ball in his hands. Our issue was the OL.
November 15th, 2015 at 11:43 PM ^
Sorry, but I disagree. I saw flashes in Rawls that I really, really liked while he was here. When my then-untrained-football-mind was already screaming at the field to put Rawls in, I think it was more than misperception or hunch.
It wasn't consistent enough for him to be a starter, but with proper development--which he later received from better coaching--he maximized his potential. I saw the same kind of flashes in Deveon Smith, in that both demonstrated an ability that made them somewhat special runners, and both were underdeveloped by the previous staff. In the end, it seems Rawls may have been the better of the two.
November 16th, 2015 at 8:18 AM ^
is it your now-trained-football-mind offering these comments?
November 16th, 2015 at 11:11 AM ^
Fine, but if he developed all of this "burst" and ability only after leaving the program (where very highly-paid coaches were charged with developing him) then it is still fair to consider this a datum against the previous coaching staff.
Also, we didn't see much of him in games, but the coaches saw a lot of him (and everyone else) at practice. Clearly, the kid had big-time talent, that was unrecognized and undeveloped while he was here.
November 16th, 2015 at 12:29 PM ^
At Michigan, Rawls simply didn't look like the same player, even despite the OL (which didn't help anyone at Michigan).
My guess, he basically was forced to leave Michigan and realized it was his last chance and started actually dedicating himself more to football. This meant more time with the S&C staff at CMU, working on actually improving his burst and things of that nature. He looked like a completely different athlete at CMU than he did at Michigan, not just a better player.
In my opinion, it's something of a combination of "it clicked" and "he woke up".
November 16th, 2015 at 2:04 AM ^
He reminded me a lot of Derrick Green--big guy with good speed that seemed do get tripped up easily and had a few runs that made you think he could be really good.
November 15th, 2015 at 10:51 PM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 10:52 PM ^
Our coaches were not bug program coaches!!! Besides Madison and Nuss! Nuss wasn't given much time and walked into a mess.Where are they all now ? None are at big programs and Brady can't get a job he is part time retired and part time on Sirius radio.
David Brandon fault to most of this and not doing the proper home work when hiring our coach as we all know. Which lead to why you type above. Just my opinion of many.
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November 15th, 2015 at 10:53 PM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 11:00 PM ^
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November 15th, 2015 at 10:59 PM ^
Brandon did his homework and either A) none of the obvious candidates would work with that son of a bitch or B) Hoke was the first one willing to be Brandon's bitch.
Either way, thank God Brandon is gone. One year ago imagine where we were, 5-5 coming off a 10-9 win in the MOON game, not knowing who our coach would be this year, praying it would be Harbaugh but a long way from that happening.
Now look where things are.
November 15th, 2015 at 10:54 PM ^
Was that good and that is the whole point. This is why Michigan changing from a place where talent either dies or goes sideways to a place where it gets multiplied and developed is such a big deal.
This 8-2 team was bequeathed by Hoke. Yet no one in their right mind sees any more than a 5-5 team without the regime change.
Rawls was always an ill temptered beast. He was just born a couple years to early for us die hard Michigan fans!
November 15th, 2015 at 10:59 PM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 11:03 PM ^
Your comment once. Sorry.
That is the whole point.
November 15th, 2015 at 11:13 PM ^
November 15th, 2015 at 11:31 PM ^
November 16th, 2015 at 12:02 AM ^
We almost lost those two games with Harbaugh here. Hoke doesn't just flip games like that, he removes every bit of fighting spirit the team showed in the shutout streak and probably turns one or two of this year's blowouts into losses.
November 15th, 2015 at 10:55 PM ^
any of our offensive lines for the past 10 years?
November 15th, 2015 at 11:01 PM ^
And the current regime has taken them from extreme liability to servicable.
November 15th, 2015 at 11:09 PM ^
is barely serviceable. the pass pro is solid though
November 16th, 2015 at 12:18 AM ^
our pass protection was far from serviceable...s there is that.
November 16th, 2015 at 8:50 AM ^
We had a pretty decent OL when Rodriguez was here, at least toward the end of his tenure. The guy coaching the OL was Greg Frey, whose OL just helped Indiana run for 307 yards against us.
Funk was not a good coach, but Frey can coach the crap out of a team running those zone systems. It's not a coincidence that people are talking up Dan Feeney as a potential All-American.
November 15th, 2015 at 10:56 PM ^
November 16th, 2015 at 8:54 AM ^
I think Toussaint was a better college running back, and that's why he didn't get more of a shot. But Rawls never did anything special when he was at Michigan, other than that late 60+ yard run against Illinois in a blowout. He was supposed to be a power back, but he couldn't run through tackles. He was basically what Derrick Green is now.
I think it might just have been a case where he didn't "get it" and didn't mature physically until he got to CMU and then NFL. Or maybe the success he had at CMU, against lower-tier competition, was what gave him the confidence and drive to be decent in the NFL.
November 16th, 2015 at 11:59 AM ^
I always wonder about this with good players. They want the best coaching they can get, but why go to Michigan, OSU or Alabama and sit on the bench? If a kid isn't necessarily there to "play school" it seems like they are better off playing for a CMU, or Toledo and getting to play. You get better at football by playing football.
November 15th, 2015 at 10:56 PM ^
In terms of the biggest waste of talent under Hoke. He ruined both.
November 15th, 2015 at 11:14 PM ^
i would add him to that list
November 15th, 2015 at 11:20 PM ^
it makes me sad to think of how great Denard would have been with 2 more years of RichRod as OC. Rawls and Gardner dont combine to equal the wasted talent of Denard.