VIDEO: Norfleet's Returns

It's not really that he is missing seams so much as the seams fill so quickly with Alabama athletes. I'm excited to see what he can do against smaller, slower competition. 

Musberger was trolling us all game.  

"He has some burst." "This kid will take one to the house before the Big Ten season starts." Those are the only things Musberger got right during that game.



Also, Id love to see him get some carries or maybe put him in the slot fot some quick passes. Hes by far the quickest guy on the team not counting #16.

Did you see how fast he accelerates?  I think that's the big thing.  He gets upfield and he gets there quickly.  One should take into account the level of competition; our kickoff return team was facing Alabama athletes.  Decent returns (I think he averaged a little over 22 yards) against Alabama are suddenly very good returns against Air Force, UMass, Minnesota, etc.  And I guess we'll see how Nebraska, Ohio State, and MSU measure up.  He looked pretty darn promising to me.

Are you mental? Do you not realize that this was against (OMG)ess-eee-cee speeeeeeeeeeed?

-only slightly serious, but you do have to admit that he did pretty well for a true freshman in his first game which happened to be against the best team in the country. Theres definitely some speed there that M's been lacking in its returners.

For one thing. On the return right after he got blown up around the 15 (was that the Dee Hart one?), he caught the ball, accelerated straight up the middle of the field, and crossed the 30. Pretty impressive. He definitely needs to get stronger, but that's to be expected given that he's a true freshman.

Don't compare this year to last year - remember the ball is being kicked off from the 35 instead of the 30 this year, so the kick off team is getting their 5 yards earlier.  I'd say getting to the 25+ regularly is a big deal.

So he's like Steve Breaston, but faster?

Fred is that you?

Norfleet stole Hayes's thunder because Norfleet is better.

You are supposed to consider the play, not the result.  You can't just say "he didn't get past the 35" -- there are many different ways to return a ball to the 25, and his was impressive and (to me) it seems evident that he will be very good at returning kicks.

Remember, they are also kicking from 5 yards closer, so it's harder to get the longer returns.

...but just once as a kickoff returner.

I didn't think they looked too bad.  They were the best alternate uniforms we've worn to date in my opinion, but it's all a matter of personal taste.  It didn't look as gimmicky to me as the others.

I don't even think we have traditional away jerseys anymore FWIW.

What does our "traditional" road jersey look like? We've had a dozen over the recent years. As long as they don't mess with the home unis or make our guys look like bumble bees, I'm fine with it. I actually thought these were pretty good.

I'm also tired of the uni discussion.  Regardless of what they wear there will always be a dissenting opinion on them.  I'd rather focus on the play-on-the-field.  As that continues to improve I don't think many of us will really care whether they are wearing Bumble-bee yellow or Bubble-gum pink.

This is a great observation.  I don't know much about Alabama's kicker, but I suspect that kicking it from the 35, he could probably put it through the endzone most of the time, which implies he was intentionally kicking it short, knowing that their coverage team has a 5 yd head start and thinking that the returner has little chance of getting to the 25.

With that in mind, if Norfleet establishes himself as a talented or even elite return man, I think you'll just see more teams do their best to "kick it away from him" by putthing it through the endzone for a touchback.