Weight Watchers
It says a lot about this time of year that the next exciting UM football news (other than a commit) that I am looking forward to is mgoblue.com's Spring Roster with the players' current heights and weights. The ones I am most interested in are:
Lewan - Is he big enough to start (290+)? (some info on this in a recent pay-walled article)
Barnum - Has he finally put on enough good weight (280+)?
Roh - He needs to be near 250 to hold up against the run.
LaLota - At 270 or so he could be a force behind RVB.
Tate - I would like to see him have more of a physical presence at a solid 195+ (and with some meat on those pipe stem arms).
Fitz - I have heard rumors that he is in the 200 range; that could add a greater dimension of power to his game.
Jones and Hawthorne - Both would fill the hybrid role better if they get to the 215-220 lb. range.
I. Bell - Comments by his high school coach indicated that he might not have been in the best of shape at X-Mas. He has the frame to be a solid 230+ inside LB but it must be Barwisized weight.
Any other Weight Watchers out there?
February 24th, 2010 at 8:36 AM ^
I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how much these kids have grown. But I'm not expecting too many weight issues this spring. We're not as young of a team as we have been the last year or two, so all these guys will have a year (or most of a year, anyway) under their belts.
Toussaint is the only one on this list whose weight I don't really care about. He was probably big enough to play last year, unlike the rest of them.
February 24th, 2010 at 8:48 AM ^
About ideal weights for frames or anything like that, but is there a point when guys are gaining too much weight so that they sacrifice speed? Or is that something they don't need to worry about at this level?
February 24th, 2010 at 11:08 AM ^
to individual positions. There are just as many speed / conditioning workouts in the winter as there are lifting. In my experience at a D-1 program in the mid-90s, everything is closely monitored by the training staff. We were given a target weight, in part based on position, which if you were under you got to eat a lot more, if you were over, you did extra cardio. We did our running in positions groups, with times and drills tailored to the position. For example, I played tight end freshman year and then was moved to center. When this happened, my target weight went up by 15-20 lbs and the running with the OL became a lot easier than with the TE/LB's.
February 24th, 2010 at 8:53 AM ^
I don't go to the meetings reliably enough to be a member.
Oh... OH! Right, team weight, yeah...
I'm definitely expecting substantial muscular gains. I look forward to seeing the photos from practice.
February 24th, 2010 at 9:43 AM ^
...that the Michigan players and coaches are on a mission this year. Damn the torpedoes!
I hope they turn every opposing team into whimpering, emasculated panzies and spare no one's feelings in the process.
February 24th, 2010 at 11:33 AM ^
This is not specific to the Michigan football team as I am sure that RR and Michigan will never stoop to fraud and cheating. However - past few years I have seen some college football players that just scream Steroids! We have heard so much about steroids in Baseball but not as much in Football where I guess increased muscle mass and strength should be more of a factor.
Does NCAA have a stringent drug testing program (random testing I hope) to make sure that student athletes are not pumping themselves until their balls become the size of peanuts?
Have there been any obvious candidates for the "Hey Steroids!" award past few years?
(again to stress - this is not about Michigan - we do extra practice and exercise for our weight gain! :-)
February 24th, 2010 at 8:01 PM ^
I'm also interested in Will Campbell's weight. He seemed almost (but not quite) Gabe Watson'esque last season. If he's fit, he could be a terror next to Mike Martin.