Where is Brandon Minor these days?
From appearances, from what has been selected for us to see and read, Minor has been, well, minor in practice. Just glimpses here and there.
Why have we seen so little of Minor lately? Even since he was supposed to be recovered from his car accident we have not seen or heard much from him. Any knowledge out there? What am I missing? For example, we did not see him at all in the Beanie bowl highlights. I would have thought Minor would be tearing up these younger kids in practice, producing highlights galore.
Does anyone have any idea what is behind what his apparent absence? Or, am I just making this up?
August 29th, 2009 at 10:40 AM ^
Michael Shaw will be our leading rusher for the season without ever being the leading rusher for a game. Minor and Brown will split time between being the #1 back and being injured.
August 29th, 2009 at 10:44 AM ^
That is a bold prediction, although I do think Shaw (like Junior Hemmingway earlier in the off-season) is a seriously underrated talent among the fanbase.
While I look forward to the 2010 season when he establishes himself as the #1 back, here's hoping that you're wrong with respect to this year. (not because I think Shaw can't do it, but because I don't want anyone to get injured and I'd like us to have all our weapons at our disposal).
August 29th, 2009 at 11:44 AM ^
I have similar thoughts about Carlos Brown. He is fast as hell and probably extremely motivated to put up big numbers his senior season. Wouldn't be surprised if both he and Minor rush close to 1000 yards this year.
August 29th, 2009 at 10:42 AM ^
He's been injured and having headaches from that car accident.
August 29th, 2009 at 10:48 AM ^
This is good to know (um, in a selfish sort of way) - I thought he had recovered. It still seems strange how little we have heard about his progress/recovery. Perhaps it is just a factor of the position (depth) and the spotlight being on the QBs. Minor is my favorite kid on the team, thus I have really high hopes for him.
August 29th, 2009 at 10:42 AM ^
I think they've been treating him with kid gloves a bit. The car accident didn't help any and I think he's been slow to recover. They don't want to rush him back.
The good news is we have Brown, Shaw, Smith, etc... That's the one position I'm not too worried about.
August 29th, 2009 at 10:43 AM ^
I remember reading that they were tapering down his work to keep him healthy.
August 29th, 2009 at 10:48 AM ^
There is no way they are going to take their chances on their only known offensive commodity.
August 29th, 2009 at 11:14 AM ^
Do Martavious Odoms or Greg Mathews count?
August 29th, 2009 at 11:27 AM ^
as offensive commodities? no sir, not imhe.
why?
Brandon Minor had 9 TD's last season including 7 in the last 5 games.
Odoms' only TD was on a punt return and matthews has 5 TD's in his whole career.
If ANYONE besides Minor was a returning offensive commodity it would have been McGuffie (800+ all-purpose yards and 4 TD's).
Sad Face for wishing mcguff was still here: :-(
August 29th, 2009 at 11:37 AM ^
Yes, but our passing game was OH GOD, KILL IT WITH FIRE!! bad last year and Odoms still managed to have 49 for 443 yards and Mathews had 35 catches for 409 yards. Plus in 2007, Mathews had 39 catches for 366 yards in a good offense. You can't just look at touchdown receptions, especially when our offense was so bad at scoring touchdowns.
August 29th, 2009 at 11:44 AM ^
I guess it depends on your definition of "known." We KNOW what we're going to get from Greg Mathews. To a lesser extent, we know what we're going to get from Odoms.
People like Shaw, Roundtree, T. Robinson, etc. aren't known offensive commodities because we haven't seen them play much.
In my opinion, Greg Mathews would be 1,000 yard receiver if Chad Henne or Drew Henson or Tom Brady were our quarterback.
August 29th, 2009 at 3:13 PM ^
Agreed on Mathews and that assertion on what his numbers would be with those QBs.
He was following the standard Michigan progression at that position. He spent '07 coming up big on third downs with catch and runs for first down. I thought he was ready to bloom like Walker and Avant did as upperclassmen.
August 29th, 2009 at 11:06 AM ^
there were plenty of observations made by people watching practice as well as the games last year that Shaw was a much more physical runner than Sam, and delivered blows on contact as opposed to Sam's getting hammered. His injury, as well as Minor's, really set our running game back. I think it's amazing that as a team we outrushed Sparty, considering the inexperience on the line and the horrible QB play.
August 29th, 2009 at 11:49 AM ^
Their excuse is that if it were a game today - he would play. They just don't want to risk anything with him so they are keeping him limited. I think Minor will be good this year if not great.
August 29th, 2009 at 12:23 PM ^
Starting to see some real concern from mods at the pay sites about this guys health. I hope everyone is right, that its overly cautious but this would be a big blow if he can't go.
August 29th, 2009 at 1:55 PM ^
I think the coaches are just keeping him out just to be safe. Hopefully he can stay healthy this year because I think him and Carlos Brown could be one of the best one-two punches in the country.
August 29th, 2009 at 2:02 PM ^
should know that concussions are a major cause for concern. The Mets totally screwed up Ryan Church last year, bringing him back well before he was ready. This year, they DL'd David Wright the moment he had issues after his concussion. Wright's issues apparently have cleared up; Church's cleared up after several months; Corey Koskie's issues led to his retirement. I have no knowledge where Minor falls along this continuum, but the fact that he's not resume regular duties would concern me.
August 29th, 2009 at 2:49 PM ^
Hopefully he's fine. It'd definitely be a blow if this hampers him all year long. Maybe it's more than headaches from a crash? I'm sure this is blasphemy, but I think Brown is about just as good and probably more ready since Minor hasn't been playing a whole lot.
August 29th, 2009 at 3:33 PM ^
Brown's never broken a tackle in his life.
August 29th, 2009 at 4:37 PM ^
In his two chances to start games and carry the load at RB, he ran for 100+. Did he do it without breaking any tackles? Do I care?
August 29th, 2009 at 5:17 PM ^
I'm guessing "hyperbole" is a new term for you.
Regardless, he ran for 113 yards (or something like that) against Northwestern last year. If he could break through an arm tackle or two, that might have been 130 or 140 or 150.
Do you care? I don't know. Should you? Probably.
August 29th, 2009 at 6:11 PM ^
I can tell you that I can not recall a time that Brown was tackled behind the line of scrimmage or pushed backwards when tackled. He always moves forward while being tackled.
To sum up, I think Brown would be great on his own, in the unfortunate scenario that we don't have Minor available.