If whoever starts at QB can build some timing with Chesson (Like Rudock did 2 months into the season) he could have a MONSTER year. I mean, that dude is a machine on the outside, and made the #1 CB in this year's draft look like a damn fool. I like Darboh, and expect him to have a good year as well, but I'll need to see it before I can believe that he's the best WR on the team.
Also, pretty disappointed with Wyatt Shallman. With Houma and Kerridge gone, I thought this was his chance to see the spotlight at FB. He's the perfect size, and he's got running skills (to a degree), so you'd think he'd be perfect for a Harbaugh offense. I do like Hill at FB, given his size and ability to catch the ball, but hopefully he improves over the summer because NOBODY looked good at FB during the spring game.
but he ended up playing around 260-270 pounds. I feel like given our current depth/needs, it makes more sense to use Uche at LB than DE. 20 pounds puts him at OLB where he can still use his explosivness and speed to rush the passer. 50 pounds puts him at DE where he still might be undersized and who knows what kind of speed/explosivness he'll lose with that much weight.
He's anywhere from 6'1 to 6'3 and around 215 lbs. He sounds like a Safety, but to move to the Dline he's going to need to add some SERIOUS bulk, which I think would impede on his speed/explosivness. Seems like it'd make more sense to have him gain 20 pounds and play OLB than gain 40 pounds and play WDE.
Plus his height. If he's 6'3, sure, he COULD play DE, but if he's closer to 6'1, that's a VERY undersized DE.
If the weather thing is true, I can see why the chatter isn't louder, but you're right, that makes his OSU visit very intersting. I mean, he visited UM in November, but it was pretty damn mild. If he didn't like THAT, I can't imagine how he'll feel visiting Columbus in January.
I feel like I haven't read anything about Mecole Hardman Jr. on any UM site in quite a while. I understand that Georgia or Bama are the "favorites", but UM made his top 6, which he only released two weeks ago. He was seen wearing a Michigan sweatshirt an a combine event in Georgia. Am I missing something as to why nobody is even mentioning him?
Does anyone have any insight on why Walker's scoring production dropped significantly? His stats went down as a whole from his junior to senior year, but they're still relatively comparable (only 100ish less yards, 8 ypc to 7ypc) except for TDs (26 to 13). I'm not going to jump and say this is a bad sign going forward, but you'd typically like to see improvement from junior to senior, not stagnant/decline.
I agree completely. Once they realized their plans weren't working, you might as well sell out for the high risk/high reward of the 3-4 against them. Man coverage takes away our DBs from stopping the run (that, plus Elliott is likely to beat down a DB one on one) and our LBs aren't fast enough to cover sideline to sideline. I'd run a 3-4 with press man coverage and get my fastest linebackers on either side with the big guys in the middle.
Peppers has the perfect size/skill set to be a hybrid satefy/linebacker, but I think because they want to use him on offense and special teams, they put him at nickle (and ran tons of nickle packages) to utilize his skill without sacrificing his body too much. I like him at nickle, tbh. I think he could be a shut down corner, but because we have Jordan Lewis, putting Peppers at Nickle lets him make more plays.
who is thinking Hoke might not be a bad idea? 1. He's not currently coaching. 2. He loves Michigan. 3. He's a Defensive-minded coach. 4. He's an excellent recruiter. 5. like 90% of the kids on the roster are his guys.
Syracuse finished the season ranked #99 in total defense. Is that a sign of his abilities as a coach? Perhaps. To be fair though, when Shafer was ONLY the DC, Cuse had a top 10 D.
like the one we had against UNLV, where O'Neill held it for a second, and casually booted it down to our defender who caught it inside the 5... I mean, it was like they were playing catch in the backyard!
They did look good, and lucky, against Oregon, but they've given up over 800 yards to Western and Airforce, and both of those games's scoreboards did not indicate MSU being a dominate team. I think we are seeing an instant impact of losing Narduzzi (I think Dantonio is a great HC, I didn't see the dropoff being signifcant or quick). I mean, Airforce doesn't throw the ball, you KNOW what they are going to do, and they still gain over 400 yards and keep it a game for 4 quarters. I'm not saying MSU isn't a good team, far from that, but I dont think they're actually the 2nd best team in the country, and I don't think OSU is the 1st either. If it weren't for preseason rankings, I'd currently put MSU around 6th and OSU around 8-10.
If they're college teammates of yours who played him in High School, they're what, a year or two older than him? I'm not saying they're wrong, but a lot of growth and development can take place in that time, especially given he's 17 years old now so I'm sure he's grown and developed quite a bit from when he was 15.
but, has anyone thought about who is going to play LB for us next year? Morgan, Bolden, and Ross are all Seniors this year, Gant is a senior, and Gedeon and McCray are both Juniors who barely see the field. After that, it's gets pretty unimpressive awfully quick.
I agree, fix the stickers. The blue ( I think( stems from the fact that everyone is wearing the current mainstream gear, and harbaugh wears the "throwback" gear. You can buy either on campus. It's basically (as you can tell in the picture) a darker blue and a skinny M. I don't mind the darker blue, but I'm not a huge fan of the skinny M. Could just be that I'm too young (26) but I like the current M better.
You keep seeing the criticism, but clearly you didn't see what (seemingly) everyone else on this blog, maizenbrew, B/R, etc saw. The blocking wasn't great, no arguments there, but there were plenty of opportunities for additional gains that Smith was oblivious to. Sometimes you need to "make yourself skinny" (as the announcer put it referring to Booker) when the holes aren't huge. If the hole isn't where it's supposed to be, Smith just runs into his blockers and tries to push the pile instead of seeing other holes, cutback opportunities, or trying to break it outside. He did it all year last year, and last nights game confirms that he hasn't learned how to use his eyes.
Smith can't be our feature back. He runs hard, and he doesn't go down at first contact, but that only gets you so far if you can't follow a block, pick a hole, or make a cut. He never had vision last year, and he still has none this year. I'd like to see how Drake Johnson looks when he gets on the field, but at this point give me Ty Isaac. BTW, what the hell happened to Derrik Green? What did he get, like 1 or 2 carries for no yards? #1 RB in his class and he's 3rd (more like 4th) on the depth chart? Pathetic.
Other concerns - Rudock's progressions.... Stare down a receiver much? After his umpteenth consecutive pass to Butt I said "jeez, throw to somebody else!" Well, he started throwing to Perry, and we all know how that turned out. I'm not ready to throw in the towel on Rudock just yet however, I think that would do more harm than good. He's an experienced QB, yes, but he's still in a new system with new WRs. This doesn't excuse all of his poor play, but Morris has been with the program for years, he's been with these WRs for years, and he STILL didn't earn the job, so I'm not sure throwing him in is the right choice... yet.
OL looked great in pass protection, but pretty bad in the run game. They got zero push against the defensive front. Granted, Utah has a good def. front, but so do many other teams Michigan will play, and that's not an excuse.
Defense as a whole looked great until Utah ran hurry-up. Once the Utes picked up the pace, our secondary was torched; I'd put most the blame on LBs poor coverage. This can be fixed however, just need to make sure everybody knows their jobs; they looked a bit lost at times.
All in all, they played harder and tougher than I've seen in recent years, and if Rudock can get his bearings straight (I think he can) then this season is far from over. I say we have a pretty good shot at winning the next 5 games, Rutgers and Indiana should give us 7 wins, and we can probably at least split Penn St/Minnesota for 8. I know people love to panic with the way the offense played, but keep in mind we had 3 INTs (one for a TD) and still only lost by 7, on the road, against a good Utah team with a heisman conteding RB. Our defense is excellent and will continue to improve, and the offense just needs to settle down a bit. GO BLUE
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If whoever starts at QB can build some timing with Chesson (Like Rudock did 2 months into the season) he could have a MONSTER year. I mean, that dude is a machine on the outside, and made the #1 CB in this year's draft look like a damn fool. I like Darboh, and expect him to have a good year as well, but I'll need to see it before I can believe that he's the best WR on the team.
Also, pretty disappointed with Wyatt Shallman. With Houma and Kerridge gone, I thought this was his chance to see the spotlight at FB. He's the perfect size, and he's got running skills (to a degree), so you'd think he'd be perfect for a Harbaugh offense. I do like Hill at FB, given his size and ability to catch the ball, but hopefully he improves over the summer because NOBODY looked good at FB during the spring game.
but he ended up playing around 260-270 pounds. I feel like given our current depth/needs, it makes more sense to use Uche at LB than DE. 20 pounds puts him at OLB where he can still use his explosivness and speed to rush the passer. 50 pounds puts him at DE where he still might be undersized and who knows what kind of speed/explosivness he'll lose with that much weight.
He's anywhere from 6'1 to 6'3 and around 215 lbs. He sounds like a Safety, but to move to the Dline he's going to need to add some SERIOUS bulk, which I think would impede on his speed/explosivness. Seems like it'd make more sense to have him gain 20 pounds and play OLB than gain 40 pounds and play WDE.
Plus his height. If he's 6'3, sure, he COULD play DE, but if he's closer to 6'1, that's a VERY undersized DE.
If the weather thing is true, I can see why the chatter isn't louder, but you're right, that makes his OSU visit very intersting. I mean, he visited UM in November, but it was pretty damn mild. If he didn't like THAT, I can't imagine how he'll feel visiting Columbus in January.
I feel like I haven't read anything about Mecole Hardman Jr. on any UM site in quite a while. I understand that Georgia or Bama are the "favorites", but UM made his top 6, which he only released two weeks ago. He was seen wearing a Michigan sweatshirt an a combine event in Georgia. Am I missing something as to why nobody is even mentioning him?
Does anyone have any insight on why Walker's scoring production dropped significantly? His stats went down as a whole from his junior to senior year, but they're still relatively comparable (only 100ish less yards, 8 ypc to 7ypc) except for TDs (26 to 13). I'm not going to jump and say this is a bad sign going forward, but you'd typically like to see improvement from junior to senior, not stagnant/decline.
Could be why he lost his 5th star?
I agree completely. Once they realized their plans weren't working, you might as well sell out for the high risk/high reward of the 3-4 against them. Man coverage takes away our DBs from stopping the run (that, plus Elliott is likely to beat down a DB one on one) and our LBs aren't fast enough to cover sideline to sideline. I'd run a 3-4 with press man coverage and get my fastest linebackers on either side with the big guys in the middle.
Peppers has the perfect size/skill set to be a hybrid satefy/linebacker, but I think because they want to use him on offense and special teams, they put him at nickle (and ran tons of nickle packages) to utilize his skill without sacrificing his body too much. I like him at nickle, tbh. I think he could be a shut down corner, but because we have Jordan Lewis, putting Peppers at Nickle lets him make more plays.
who is thinking Hoke might not be a bad idea? 1. He's not currently coaching. 2. He loves Michigan. 3. He's a Defensive-minded coach. 4. He's an excellent recruiter. 5. like 90% of the kids on the roster are his guys.
Syracuse finished the season ranked #99 in total defense. Is that a sign of his abilities as a coach? Perhaps. To be fair though, when Shafer was ONLY the DC, Cuse had a top 10 D.
at least we get to say Hippenhammer for the next 4 years!
at least we get to say Hippenhammer for the next 4 years!
are you giving me the 'it's not you, it's me' routine? I INVENTED 'IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME'!
like the one we had against UNLV, where O'Neill held it for a second, and casually booted it down to our defender who caught it inside the 5... I mean, it was like they were playing catch in the backyard!
They did look good, and lucky, against Oregon, but they've given up over 800 yards to Western and Airforce, and both of those games's scoreboards did not indicate MSU being a dominate team. I think we are seeing an instant impact of losing Narduzzi (I think Dantonio is a great HC, I didn't see the dropoff being signifcant or quick). I mean, Airforce doesn't throw the ball, you KNOW what they are going to do, and they still gain over 400 yards and keep it a game for 4 quarters. I'm not saying MSU isn't a good team, far from that, but I dont think they're actually the 2nd best team in the country, and I don't think OSU is the 1st either. If it weren't for preseason rankings, I'd currently put MSU around 6th and OSU around 8-10.
If they're college teammates of yours who played him in High School, they're what, a year or two older than him? I'm not saying they're wrong, but a lot of growth and development can take place in that time, especially given he's 17 years old now so I'm sure he's grown and developed quite a bit from when he was 15.
but, has anyone thought about who is going to play LB for us next year? Morgan, Bolden, and Ross are all Seniors this year, Gant is a senior, and Gedeon and McCray are both Juniors who barely see the field. After that, it's gets pretty unimpressive awfully quick.
Well in that case, I'm not sure.
I think they get some for practice & off the field things, don't they? Like, leadership, work ethic, maybe good grades or something?
I agree, fix the stickers. The blue ( I think( stems from the fact that everyone is wearing the current mainstream gear, and harbaugh wears the "throwback" gear. You can buy either on campus. It's basically (as you can tell in the picture) a darker blue and a skinny M. I don't mind the darker blue, but I'm not a huge fan of the skinny M. Could just be that I'm too young (26) but I like the current M better.
You keep seeing the criticism, but clearly you didn't see what (seemingly) everyone else on this blog, maizenbrew, B/R, etc saw. The blocking wasn't great, no arguments there, but there were plenty of opportunities for additional gains that Smith was oblivious to. Sometimes you need to "make yourself skinny" (as the announcer put it referring to Booker) when the holes aren't huge. If the hole isn't where it's supposed to be, Smith just runs into his blockers and tries to push the pile instead of seeing other holes, cutback opportunities, or trying to break it outside. He did it all year last year, and last nights game confirms that he hasn't learned how to use his eyes.
Smith can't be our feature back. He runs hard, and he doesn't go down at first contact, but that only gets you so far if you can't follow a block, pick a hole, or make a cut. He never had vision last year, and he still has none this year. I'd like to see how Drake Johnson looks when he gets on the field, but at this point give me Ty Isaac. BTW, what the hell happened to Derrik Green? What did he get, like 1 or 2 carries for no yards? #1 RB in his class and he's 3rd (more like 4th) on the depth chart? Pathetic.
Other concerns - Rudock's progressions.... Stare down a receiver much? After his umpteenth consecutive pass to Butt I said "jeez, throw to somebody else!" Well, he started throwing to Perry, and we all know how that turned out. I'm not ready to throw in the towel on Rudock just yet however, I think that would do more harm than good. He's an experienced QB, yes, but he's still in a new system with new WRs. This doesn't excuse all of his poor play, but Morris has been with the program for years, he's been with these WRs for years, and he STILL didn't earn the job, so I'm not sure throwing him in is the right choice... yet.
OL looked great in pass protection, but pretty bad in the run game. They got zero push against the defensive front. Granted, Utah has a good def. front, but so do many other teams Michigan will play, and that's not an excuse.
Defense as a whole looked great until Utah ran hurry-up. Once the Utes picked up the pace, our secondary was torched; I'd put most the blame on LBs poor coverage. This can be fixed however, just need to make sure everybody knows their jobs; they looked a bit lost at times.
All in all, they played harder and tougher than I've seen in recent years, and if Rudock can get his bearings straight (I think he can) then this season is far from over. I say we have a pretty good shot at winning the next 5 games, Rutgers and Indiana should give us 7 wins, and we can probably at least split Penn St/Minnesota for 8. I know people love to panic with the way the offense played, but keep in mind we had 3 INTs (one for a TD) and still only lost by 7, on the road, against a good Utah team with a heisman conteding RB. Our defense is excellent and will continue to improve, and the offense just needs to settle down a bit. GO BLUE