Vlad redshirt?
I'm sure this has been touched on at some point but while watching the game yesterday during Indiana's huge late TD run I kept wondering why in the world Vlad doesn't play over a walk on. Kovacs took the wrong angle on that play and doesn't have great overall speed. I'm almost positive Vlad catches him.
September 27th, 2009 at 10:14 AM ^
He can't redshirt. He plays special teams. More people need to trust the coaches. If a guy is not playing it's because he's not as good as he guy that is.
September 27th, 2009 at 10:17 AM ^
The only way he can redshirt at this point is if he is ruled injured for the year and applies for a medical. There were some reports that his knee was still bothering him, but the fact that he keeps playing special teams seems to go against that.
And fwiw, here's the player participation report
http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/092609aac.html
September 27th, 2009 at 10:16 AM ^
If Warren (I think it was Warren, anyway) couldn't catch him at an angle, I don't know if Emilien would have, either.
If Emilien were better than Kovacs, he would be playing. It's not like the coaches are trying to save Emilien's redshirt - he's already burned it.
September 27th, 2009 at 10:41 AM ^
IIRC it was Mouton who had the best angle on that run and couldn't make the tackle towards the end of the play.
September 27th, 2009 at 10:54 AM ^
Warren comes in from the other side and cut off Woolfolk, who was in front of Floyd and Kovacs. If Warren hadn't cut him off, Woolfolk may have caught him at the end zone stripe.
September 27th, 2009 at 10:22 AM ^
I guess I just wonder how a 4 star safety that had he not had his knee injury in high school would have been 5 star is currently behind a walk-on. Props to Kovacs. I just want the Defense to keep getting better..
September 27th, 2009 at 11:45 AM ^
I don't think its fair to assume that he would have been a 5 star recruit if he never would have been injured. There are only about 30 5 stars in each class and a lot of amazing recruits aren't 5 stars every year.
September 27th, 2009 at 10:33 AM ^
Vlad makes some plays in the special teams game and starts to see some PT on D
September 27th, 2009 at 11:09 AM ^
on October 17th - Delaware State?
You can expect to see a lot of Emilien, Teric Jones, Vincent Smith, Je'Ron Stokes, Denard Robinson, and other youngsters in that game.
September 27th, 2009 at 12:39 PM ^
I don't see Turner on your list or on the player participation list as a special teamer. Is he injured? Puzzling. seems like our defensive backfield is our weakest link. Any insider insight?
September 27th, 2009 at 2:40 PM ^
He's only been on campus 6 weeks, which is probably why he's behind right now. If he were better than JT Floyd he'd be on the field. If we don't see him against Delaware St., I'm guessing they will try for a redshirt.
September 27th, 2009 at 2:45 PM ^
Turner is way behind, and every week he falls even further behind. Rodriguez has said that he'd like to see him redshirt... so I doubt we're going to see him this year.
September 27th, 2009 at 3:55 PM ^
He named Turner, specifically, as a freshman who hasn't yet played, that may.
I would guess - and this is pure speculation - that if he doesn't play in the next three games, the coaching staff will do their best to hold him out for the remaining five. An injury to a corner could change that, of course.
Yet, it's interesting to look at the passing proficiency of our remaining opponents. To date, only Michigan State seems to be a prolific passing offense, currently ranked 8th nationally. Other than that, we're not playing too many teams that are putting up big numbers through the air
Maybe the coaches won't feel that his presence is needed after MSU. It might be far more important to get Sagesse, Banks and Campbell more time given the strength of the rushing offenses coming up. Not that you have to choose betwen the two, of course.
Interesting side note: check out the current passing offense ranks: MSU #8, ND #14, Western Mich #21, PSU #40, Purdue #44, Indiana #46, Wisconsin #49, Iowa #71, Ohio State #82, Michigan #88, Illinois #110, Eastern Mich #113. In other words, if Turner doesn't play this week, might the coaches sit him the rest of the year?
September 27th, 2009 at 10:42 AM ^
he also went after the QB on that option which opened up the TD for the RB. however, he did make a couple good plays behind the line of scrimmage on run blitzes.
i'm actually more disappointed in woolfolk. he's supposed to have serious speed, but he couldn't get to the sidleline to break-up that bomb along the sideline. that ball was up there forever. he's got to make those plays.
September 27th, 2009 at 10:48 AM ^
I'll defer to the X's and O's guys but I don't think those options were his fault. Especially on the first one. To me it looks like the blame falls more with Cissoko. It's the first play in these highlights. Boubacar looks lost as he's dancing around inside. It would make more sense that the CB has outside contain then the SS/FS. But again, I will defer to the X's and O's guys. I'm sure Magnus can jump in and clarify.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:02 AM ^
I'm having a tough time seeing the first option play, but it doesn't look like there's a CB out there. Likely Mouton has "ball," i.e. the QB, and Kovacs has "pitch."
But, they brought a triple option and I think Kovacs paused on the first faked hand off. He might have been responsible for the that ball carrier, too.
Looks to me like Indiana straight up caught us in a situation where we were outnumbered.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:07 AM ^
There was a later play where Kovacs was playing on the LOS and completely crashed on a handoff. I was surprised that Indiana didn't see that and take advantage of it later.
Kovacs is good when he doesn't have to read plays/make quick decisions. He just doesn't have enough football experience yet to read and react appropriately.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:08 AM ^
just as the play starts he is the second player from the top at LB depth. He is standing just inside Kovacs.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:03 AM ^
What's up with this commentator on these highlights? He's about 5 seconds slow on scoring. It's like he's so concerned about saying yard lines, he doesn't care whether or not he keeps up with the game.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:05 AM ^
It's the radio play-by-play on the video feed. It's always delayed.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:03 AM ^
I think there was some confusion on that option play that turned into a TD. Kovacs should have had the pitch man. Cissoko dipped inside because he had man coverage. Because of that, it should have been Kovacs who had outside contain and responsibility for the pitch man. You can't expect Cissoko to keep outside contain from where he was aligned (provided he was aligned correctly), but he certainly didn't react very well, either.
That play is on Kovacs. He's a walk-on and they haven't seen much option this year at all, so I'm not surprised that they were rusty.
Luckily, we still won the game and they can learn from it.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:09 AM ^
That makes sense. My main issue was the "provided he was aligned correctly" part. The way he was dancing around and then went after the dive man on the fake made me think he was playing out of position. But if he was in man to man then I guess that makes sense.
September 27th, 2009 at 5:18 PM ^
the outside man takes the pitch option. kovacs was the outside man on this play. he moved toward the QB leaving an easy TD for the pitch man. in his defense, i'm not sure if anyone would have stopped the QB had Kovacs kept contain.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:53 AM ^
I haven't seen the play again, so I don't know if they were in cover 3 or cover 2 man on that play. Regardless, I think that play was on Cissoko. You can't really expect a safety to get to the sideline like that. If Cissoko needs help, he's supposed to force the guy in toward his safety help.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:09 AM ^
In the end they all fell over like dominoes and Warren scored. That dude has some speed; from what I saw, even if the secondary guys didn't fall over one another, he would of been hard to catch. IU has themselves a good running back in him and he's just a freshman.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:11 AM ^
Yeah, he does have some wheels but you can see Woolfolk turning on the jets just before Warren cuts across. On this play and the 73-yard TD against WMU, it seems like it takes Woofolk a while to get to full speed and then he can catch just about anyone.
September 27th, 2009 at 5:22 PM ^
wish he would have made the play on that bomb along the sideline, though.
September 27th, 2009 at 11:31 AM ^
sorry but our defense is not good lol we have a few studs that is about it we need to seriously start recruiting the defensive hard, cause they are bad
September 27th, 2009 at 12:12 PM ^
the option td was not Kovacs fault. He took the qb, but there was no cornerback to take the pitchman as there should have been. That one may go on GERG as the play caught us completely off-guard. The pitchman started in the slot as I recall. If Kovacs had taken the pitchman, then qb would have turned it up with no one on him. He couldn't cover both, although occasionally you will see outstanding defenders pull it off.
As to the 85 yard run - Van Bergen said it was on him.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090927/SPORTS17/909…
September 27th, 2009 at 12:20 PM ^
It may be on Greg Robinson, you're right. In each defense, each player should know his responsibility against the option. Perhaps he didn't emphasize it enough or go over it at all.
The way I see it is this:
a) Cissoko was aligned incorrectly and should have been outside to take the pitch man
OR
b) Kovacs should have seen that Cissoko was aligned inside in man coverage and therefore checked to having outside contain.
Either way, I wouldn't trust Ray Bentley. That guy is a moron.
September 27th, 2009 at 12:21 PM ^
You don't see it on the replay, but Kocacks motioned for Booboo to align inside before the play. Assuming that's his role as defensive playcaller, he misaligned the defense, leaving the weak side undermanned. Kovacks did all he could physically, but I think he made a mental error before the snap.
September 27th, 2009 at 3:29 PM ^
Just may be the worst announcer of all time.