The Wolverine Magazine excerpts (actual football stuff)
So I buy The Wolverine magazine's season preview every year, and it's always excellent. This year's edition is no exception. But this isn't about the season preview, it's about the September 2012 issue that just came out a week or so ago. You see I went ahead and got the subscription because it's pretty sweet. Here are some excerpts of said sweetness that I thought I could share with the board...
- This year's opener against Alabama is the first time we've been in a Top 10 vs. Top 10 match-up in the opener since 1992 against ND (they #3, we were #6)
- Jordan Kovacs needs 34 tackles to become the first Wolverine defensive back in school history to amass 300 tackles in a career. Like, ever. In 133 years.
- They have a Magnus-style list of top impact players for 2012, a sampling: 3. Kovacs, 5. Schofield, 10. Jake Ryan, 15. Blake Countess, 16. JT Floyd, 23. Stephen Hopkins
- 5 Freshmen most likely to play? Funchess is #2, Pipkins is #4
- Gardner switched from #7 to #12 for reasons that remain between he and coach Hoke (not a teaser, he doesn't say so in the magazine either)
- Back-ups to Brennen Beyer? Tom Strobel is practicing at WDE along with Mario Ojemudia
- 2011 Brink vs. 2012 Burzynski hype is probably about 5 parts to 4
- So they did a little poll of 16 players at Media Day. Who's the team's predicted breakout player? Gerald Robinson (hmm... just like that ESPN poll of outgoing seniors last year)
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Our old friend Tim Sullivan has another great piece on our awesome recruiting, including a look at decommitments of the past. Remember these and heartbreak no longer: Caleb Stacey, Tony Drake, Jordan Barnes, and Shavodrick Beaver are all out of football.
- Bonus 2013 recruiting awesomeness: "When Derrick (Green) first walked into the Big House, I was standing there. He said, 'Man you're a real big dude,'" Tuley-Tillman said with a laugh. "I said, 'Wait until you see the rest of us. There's three more of me upstairs.' We had an amazing time together."
- BONUS 2012 PREVIEW ISSUE material, in which this statement is made: "Jake Ryan has star potential and will be expected to vie for tackles for loss records... that's how much confidence the defensive coaches have in him."
- BONUS OMG WILL CAMPBELL 2012 PREVIEW ISSUE material: "I was really big when I first got here, 356 pounds, and when you're taller it's harder to bend your knees so you have to overcompensate at your waist, and when your gut is in the way, you can't bend over," he said. "So for me, I needed to get my weight down. I needed to get rid of my gut." The gut is gone. Come on baby.
- BONUS 2012 PREVIEW ISSUE material ALL OF THE KOVACSES: "When you talk about a Michigan defensive football player, embodying everything you want, he's who I think of. A guy that comes to work every day and plays as hard as he can. That studies football. That is a team player. That is tough. All of it. I wish I had 11 Jordan Kovacses." - Greg Mattison
Again it's a great magazine, and this is just a fraction of what's inside each. Preview issue was $12.95, last month's issue was $3.95. Hopefully they don't mind the brief content and the plug, though mods do what you will if inappropriate. Just trying to share some football.
August 19th, 2012 at 4:41 PM ^
footbawl!!!!!
August 19th, 2012 at 4:51 PM ^
I had a suspicion that Strobel might get a look WDE this year, especially with Clark still in limbo. He's at a great size to step in for WDE, but I have to imagine that he makes the move to SDE for next year after putting on weight. Also, I don't know if Kovacs setting that record is good news or bad news...God, I never want to re-live the days of literally everthing the offense does getting to the defensive backfield.
August 19th, 2012 at 4:54 PM ^
Kovacs!!!!!!!
Man, I am going to miss Kovacs when his playing days are over.
August 19th, 2012 at 4:57 PM ^
August 19th, 2012 at 5:03 PM ^
I'm taking a look at Big 10 all-time career total tackle leaders on sportsreference.com and looks like Kovacs will be the first Michigan player ever to rack up 300 tackles. He is #16 in total (266) and #17 (151) solo tackles. It favors 4-year players, but he will pass current Michigan #2 Jonas Mouton and #1 Obi Ezeh this year. If he stays healthy this year and keeps pace with the first 3 seasons, he should end up top 5 all-time in career tackles. Not bad for a walk-on.
[EDIT: In speaking to snarling wolverine's point below- Ezeh/Mouton/Kovacs as top all time tacklers really goes to show we had never had to put that much youth on the field at LB, or anywhere for over a century.]
August 19th, 2012 at 5:18 PM ^
I hate to break it to you, but the list you referenced clearly states across the top of it that it only includes players that played from 2000 until the present. There are tons of Michigan players with more tackles than Ezeh. I'm positive guys like Jarrett Irons and Ron Simpkins would blow him away without even trying (I'm too lazy to look it up).
If I had to guess why the list doesn't start until 2000, it would be because tackles were not always considered an "official" stat at many levels. Maybe this was the cut-off for college football as well.
August 19th, 2012 at 5:41 PM ^
Makes sense and should have been obvious at a glance. You're too lazy too look, I made a bad choice for my source. Between the two of us some useful information has arrived afterall via Bentley Statistics Archives (you'll need to query by individual stats - career - defense - total).
You were dead on with Irons and Simpkins, with Kovacs coming it at #15 all time at Michigan in total tackles (this list goes back to at least the 70s). Could crack top 5 all-time with another year of what he's been doing, all positions included. Much less of an achievement than I erroneously reported, but still impressive.
August 19th, 2012 at 7:12 PM ^
/cool story
August 19th, 2012 at 5:00 PM ^
I love Kovacs, but I hope we don't have any more DBs getting 300 career tackles, because that's usually a bad sign for the defense overall.
August 19th, 2012 at 5:38 PM ^
Exactly. Tells you how bad our LBs have been during the Kovacs years. That is certainly not to take anything away form what he had done, but when a DB is leading you team in tackles every year, that spells nothing but trouble. We have had to bring him up in the box a lot more than we should have because, prior to last year, the guys up front weren't good enough to stop the run.
August 19th, 2012 at 5:48 PM ^
One sign of how much we improved last year defensively was that Kovacs's tackle total dropped from 116 (!) in 2010 to 75 in 2011. We didn't need our strong safety to be making double-digit tackles on a weekly basis anymore.
August 20th, 2012 at 9:05 AM ^
He's one of my favorite Michigan players ever, but part of that stat is running backs blowing through 3 down lineman every friggin play.
August 19th, 2012 at 5:04 PM ^
I was at Barnes and Noble yesterday looking for HTTV, they didn't have it, so I picked up The Wolverine Magazine, but only browsed it. It is a great pre-view Mag, and I should have bought it, but had my heart set on HTTV.
LTT line is hilarious, but no, they aren't all as big as him, that kid is a giant amongst giants.
August 19th, 2012 at 5:07 PM ^
Shavodrick Beaver is on Midwestern State's football roster.
August 19th, 2012 at 10:58 PM ^
the OP's statement and yours aren't both true.
August 20th, 2012 at 4:58 AM ^
He said Shavodrick Beaver is out of football. I said he's on Midwestern State's football roster. Those are contradictory statements.
August 19th, 2012 at 5:08 PM ^
No more deserving guy of that accomplishment. He would be remembered generations from now regardless but he deserves to have his name in the record books as well.
August 19th, 2012 at 5:09 PM ^
Caleb Stacey is out of football? That sucks. Even though he never enrolled here he was one of the pioneers of the "Recruits Come in Pairs" meme and he helped get Hoke's recruiting ball rolling. Whatever he ends up doing I wish him well.
August 19th, 2012 at 5:10 PM ^
He left Cincinnati before practices even began.
August 19th, 2012 at 5:19 PM ^
August 19th, 2012 at 5:21 PM ^
August 19th, 2012 at 5:12 PM ^
'Wait until you see the rest of us. There's three more of me upstairs.'
We've got a duplicating machine in Schembechler Hall. It's just like House of Cosby.
August 19th, 2012 at 5:41 PM ^
different. At least I did laugh a few times.
Would that mean everything 10th lineman cloned would be an all american? Can we clone Jake Long?
August 19th, 2012 at 5:23 PM ^
Sounds like I just read an advertisement for The Wolverine. Nevertheless, I think I'm going to have to buy one now.
August 19th, 2012 at 5:30 PM ^
August 19th, 2012 at 5:48 PM ^
I put together a piece the other day on decommits and transfers over the last few years:
http://touchthebanner.blogspot.com/2012/08/ex-wolverine-updates-pre-season-2012.html
August 19th, 2012 at 5:56 PM ^
Who is Toney Clemson, Mr. "I rag on people who spell players names wrong"?
August 19th, 2012 at 6:00 PM ^
Obviously a typo, and I spelled his name correctly twice later in the post. When you type as much as I do without an editor, you're bound to make some mistakes.
August 19th, 2012 at 6:01 PM ^
Magnus, I am your editor.
August 19th, 2012 at 6:03 PM ^
Cool. I love cheap labor.
August 20th, 2012 at 8:42 AM ^
What happened to Chris Barnett, former TE commit? Neither you nor The Wolverine had an update
August 20th, 2012 at 1:02 PM ^
From what I've heard, he's no longer playing for his local community college. Beyond that, I'm not sure.
August 20th, 2012 at 1:17 PM ^
Right when I switched to the SNF preseason game, Tony Clemons recorded a catch.
August 19th, 2012 at 10:36 PM ^
It always surprises me how little success, on average, these guys have after they leave Michigan. I would assume after having enough talent to earn a Michigan offer, these guys could find success at smaller programs, but that is rarely the case.
August 19th, 2012 at 10:41 PM ^
I think it has less to do with talent than attitude. Davion Rogers was tearing it up at Youngstown State (an FCS school, of course), but it sounds like he and the coaching staff didn't see eye to eye.
If kids aren't going to work hard at Michigan, I don't think they're any more likely to work hard at a MAC school or at a Division II program.
Anyway, thanks for the compliment.
August 19th, 2012 at 6:49 PM ^
I'm not sure if this is correct, but didn't Gardner say he didn't like #7 last year or something. For some reason that fact stuck with me but I'm not sure where it came from.
August 19th, 2012 at 7:04 PM ^