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One interesting topic might

One interesting topic might be evaluating the quantity vs quality strategies. For instance, in the 2010 class thus far, USC has pulled 14 total commits to Oklahoma's 29. But the avg star rating for USC is 4.0 while the avg star rating to Oklahoma is 3.52 (as per rivals). It might be interesting to determine which of these strategies is historically more successful. Of course this might be harder than it sounds, as teams may not utilize this strategy on a consistent basis. I suppose you could base ur research on team performance 2/3 yrs after each particular class.

He was listed at 6'4" 197lbs.

He was listed at 6'4" 197lbs. I thought prior to the game that he was closer to 215 but I would say about 200 is accurate. There was a play where he got plowed over when laying out a block for the rb when he reversed fields after a hand off. It had a lot to do with poor pad level on the block, but you could tell that he could definitely use another 20-25 lbs. But based on tate's physical progression, i dont think that would be a problem.

he definitely had some

he definitely had some flashes of brilliance (that play in one of the early games where he pointed the receiver into the endzone was incredible). but there is no question that his decision-making could use improvement, which is obviously expected of a freshman. But there is really no excuse for putting the ball on the ground as often as he did. Hopefully he'll be able to clean that up going into next season.

i didnt mean that i dont

i didnt mean that i dont think he can play safety. its just that the more coverage responsibility he has, the more likely he will have to wait to see the field.

lets not get ahead of

lets not get ahead of ourselves. if we end up with the 10th best recruiting class, which im somewhat doubtful of, that means that 10 teams either improved by more than we did (if they were worse of as bad as we were) or reaffirmed their current position (if they were better than us). Although if our chances of a NC went from 0.5% to 1%, i guess your statement still holds...u so smart

Out of curiosity, has anyone

Out of curiosity, has anyone seen what this kid can do in pass coverage. every defensive highlight iv seen have been strictly pass rush and run support. i no some people were saying that he might project as a safety, but i think that was based primarily on his current size and speed. im not even sure he had coverage responsibilities in hs. he looks like a guy that can really cover the outside runs and can beat the rb to the edge. he obviously has great athleticism, but if he doesnt have coverage ability/experience yet, i think hes a shoe in for a redshirt.

i just dont see enough change

i just dont see enough change in the defensive personnel next season to think that they will be substantially better. although if the offense can duplicate its progress from yr1 to yr 2, well be scoring 40+ points a game and the defense wont even matter

the linebackers scare me tons

the linebackers scare me tons but this certainly looks like a solid team. however there are a number of big10 teams that have brought in good to great recruiting classes over the past two seasons, namely PSU (especially in the current recruiting class) and OSU, so i wouldnt declare us the big10 champions just yet. we should certainly compete, but i think the big10 in general will be pretty competitive.

If we could find 1 kid out of

If we could find 1 kid out of the 20,000+ undergraduate students here at Michigan that can shoot the 3 at over 30% the system would probably be more effective

in this order...

in this order...

1. latwan anderson
2. cullen christian
3. marquis flowers
4. tony grimes
5. josh furman
6. dior mathis
7. rashad knight

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while i tend to agree that

while i tend to agree that the LT is somewhat less important to the passing game in this system than in traditional pocket passing systems, LT will still have an extremely significant impact on the run game. And being that LT is the most glaring questionmark on the line, i do think that Ortmann's play will be very important to the success of the UM offense

im thinking 12-1 with a loss

im thinking 12-1 with a loss to DState, but for the sake of being realistic, ill go with 13-0

im not just basing this on

im not just basing this on his rushing numbers. in watching his highlight tapes, which are supposed to be his most impressive plays, i didnt really see the incredible and elusive running ability youd expect from a guy with his speed. granted he was playing at a high level of competition, but his opponents will only be getting better. he seems a lot more fast than quick; he picks a sideline and runs for it rather than make cuts and evade tacklers.

sadly i dont think denard

sadly i dont think denard will ultimately pan out. dont bite my head off plz...i know a lot of people here are very high on him. but the completion percentage in h.s. is a bit scary, and to be honest, im not sure hes really the running threat that his track numbers make him out to be. watching his film, he didnt seem to have the type of shiftiness that it takes to elude D1 DEs and LBs; and his rushing numbers seemed to reflect this.

My hopes are that he can hold down the back up position for the next two years. by the time denard is a junior, hopefully DG will have established himself as a feasible backup, and DRobinson can make the switch to WR.

I think tate will actually be very effective during his time in college. perhaps this is a bit of a cliche term, but i think tate will epidemize the title of "game manager." He doesnt have the game changing athleticism of a pryor or a vince young, but hes got sufficient arm strength, and exceptional accuracy. this seems to fit perfectly with the RR system: screens, slants, qb rollouts, increased utilizaiton of the TE. I wouldnt expect the Henne to Manningham 40 yard bombs. but I do expect Tate to spread the field well, hit open recievers in stride, and annoy defenses with his elusiveness and ability throw on the run.

With all of that said, I predict DG to redshirt his frosh yr. During his redshirt freshman yr, i think he will get occasional snaps spread out throughout the season + the insignificant minutes (assuming we ever blow somone out). I think his redshirt sophomore yr will start out much the same way, but by the later games I predict he and tate will be splitting snaps, close to fifty-fifty (or 60-40), a la leak and tebow.

i think your looking at the

i think your looking at the rich rod approach a little wrong. people have noted that he is able to succeed with less than spectularly rated guys. but that is not to say that RR doesnt prefer the 4-5 star guys. while RR can use a 5'7 electron slot guy in a way that most teams wouldnt, he would still prefer having a 6'0 slot guy with the same type of shiftiness. recently we havent gotten much of the latter, but things could certainly shift in that direction with a few solid seasons under his belt.

im still very concerned about

im still very concerned about linebacker. especially if m. robinson stays at linebacker, im not sure how many viable starters are coming out of this class so far. i think people got so caught up in our dline during the 2006 and 2007 seasons that they didnt give due credit to our lbackers. burgess, crable and harris were, to put it mildly, key to our defensive success. and right now, both on the roster and in the 2009 and 2010 recruiting classes, i dont see anyone with that caliber of talent (especially at mlb)

...and if we can establish a

...and if we can establish a solid pass game and spread the field, perhaps even a show a downfield threat, it should open things up for a more effective run game.

I wasnt basing my analysis on

I wasnt basing my analysis on stonums, or anyone elses, numbers. If you watched stonum play, he wasnt getting seperation on his routes, he wasnt able to get off jams, he failed pretty miserably at blocking, and he dropped a lot of catchable balls. None of those can really be attributed to the poor QB play. Granted he might have done better with more opportunity and more balls well-thrown his way, but at the very least u cannot deny that he is at least unproven, and in my opinion disappointing thus far

People have said this before,

People have said this before, but the fact is that our WRs, with the exception of Matthews, are entirely unproven/unreliable. Its easy to get excited about ther potential (a la stonum), but until we see them perform on the field, it really is just potential. If you go down the list, I dont know that we have that much to get excited about YET.

Slot:
Odoms looked great at times, but he had less than stellar hands in 08.

Terrence Robinson hasnt played in game yet.

Roy Roundtree, althou impressive in the spring game, was playing against the michigan 12th string defense.

Gallon has had some nice fluff said about him thus far, but hes still a true freshman.

WR Z:
Stonum was one of the biggest non-qb disappointments on the team last yr. hopefully hell live up to his initial hype this yr.

Savoy is unfortunately not our savior

JeRon Stokes is a true freshman

WR X:
Matthews is a good hands, big bodied reciever. But hes also very slow, and not really a #1 type.

Hemingway is back and look for him to be our guy.

TE/Big WR:
Koger had a solid yr and hopefully can continue to develop

Martell Webb has gotten some attention over the spring and could contribute some.

Overall there is potential, like I said, but outside of Matthews, Koger, and possibly Hemmingway Im not sure who on that list we can really feel confident about. In order for this to be a successful WR core, someone (be it Hemmingway, Stonum, Stokes, or other) needs to establish themselves as a legit deep threat so that we can open the field for our speedsters. Moreover, said speedsters need to consistently catch the ball cleanly and consistently.

i think ur forgetting the

i think ur forgetting the fact that denard had about a 42% pass completion percentage in high school. from what iv heard its not that hard to look good in a 2 minute highlight compilation of your whole career.

Bottom line is we have a lot

Bottom line is we have a lot of options this yr at returning. Between Smith, Gallon, Odoms, Toussaint, Matthews, Cissoko, Warren, Turner (im pretty sure he took back kicks in HS), Shaw, Woolfolk, etc., there are some options and im sure theyll all get looks. I have faith that the staff will lend plenty of attention to finding a few adequate players and developing them into smart and secure returners

Well if u ask me sam mcguffie

Well if u ask me sam mcguffie shood be returning punts and kicks... at least then we woodnt have any drops or fumbles

Come on give the guy a break.

Come on give the guy a break. Lets treat this thread as a: "Who should get the kick and punt returns?"

And we can consider McFarlin's position to be: not odoms

does anyone else find it

does anyone else find it crazy that hes actually recruiting other wide recievers (chris dunkley) to compete against him. gotta love the team player mentality!

As has been said repeatedly,

As has been said repeatedly, in all likelihood he is a silent commit; meaning that he has informed RR of his commitment to UM, but has elected to not publicly announce due to the fact that his coach is an assbag (i mean this in the nicest way possible)

Iv loved everything Iv seen

Iv loved everything Iv seen and heard about lewan, but i really think he has the least chance of seeing the field of all of the freshman Olineman. He needs to add a considerable amount of bulk, and he is new to football. all of the scouts have said that his cieling is thru the roof, but hes not ther yet. i suspect hell backup in 2010, and hopefully start as a redshirt sophomore; althou if Omameh and Hugye lock up the tackle positions, he may have to wait until hes a junior.

1. i did mention Oneal. I

1. i did mention Oneal. I have him slotted at RT. and from everything iv heard bout him, hes more of a marshmellow man than a monster.
2.i dont think i ever said that any of the freshman Olineman would definitely not be redshirting. I said at least two (which implies possibly more). I said conditionally that one may not redshirt if he is far enough along, and the coaches see him as a potential starter next yr.) I think Quinton Washington is the most likely candidate, depending on how Barnum performs.
3. How comfortable can u really be with Omameh, Barnum, Huyge, Khoury, Mealer, Oneal, Wermers having all never seen the field? Outside of maybe Hugye and Omameh, i think u need to tone down ur confidence levels. Wait until they get at least a few snaps against a first team Dline.

I dont know if that is

I dont know if that is something they can do midseason tho. I think that is more of a summer practice decision. If ortman gets f'd up in game 1, i dont see them moving someone over with just one week to learn the new position. i think it is more likely that they mean that they will take the best 5 Olineman, and move them around now (a la Schilling). That is why i asked about the possibility of Omameh moving to LT.

I could be wrong tho...so ill leave that up to somone who has played our coached the Oline

But u have to consider the

But u have to consider the fact that 2 projected starters are seniors. and schilling could depart if he has a breakout yr (this is a bit overly optimistic). thinking about next yr, u want ur young talent to get some in-game experience so that they can compete for the starting job. i think it really depends on how far away they are. For example, if the coaching staff thinks that Washington could potentially start at RG when Moosman departs, then ther gonna want him to get in some time this season.

right u r

right u r

I think the key is really

I think the key is really what you said about the quick distribution on the part of the qb in this system. i do think that the bullrush will be a huge problem with a number of our Olineman

However RR focus seems to really be on having our Oline get into the secondary and lay down blocks. Molk was being used very effectively in pull-blocks towards the end of the season.

My concern is that we likely will have a freshman taking the snaps. althou tate seems like a very sharp kid, i have heard things about he, and denard, holding onto the ball a little too long. this will be an issue because it will be hard for smaller lineman to hold open the pocket against bigger dlineman. hopefully this can be mitigated by focusing on short quick routes (a lot of screens and slants).

No doubt brown has got some

No doubt brown has got some jets, but if our somebody doesnt teach our safeties how to take better tackling angles we are gonna get lit up for long runs all season.

Cant say much bout his arm

Cant say much bout his arm strength in the video, but you hafta like how natural and fluid he looked on those screen passes and the passes on the run. He seems to have a very good touch. I just hope he can shock people with his arm strength. although im not sure how many sideline to sideline passes hes going to be making (a la henne). i think well see a lot more roll outs and boot legs that will partially hide any deficits in arm strength

would you rather we wait till

would you rather we wait till ther 21/22 and heading out of college

ummm fail

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I generally agree with the

i generally agree with your order, accept i would drop down qb a few spots to either 6th or 7th. I realize that depth at qb is currently a huge issue, but with dRob coming in the summer, and assuming gardner stays committed, i think we have greater depth issues at cb and DE. and just a flat out lack of skill at safety, assuming turner is a cb. so i would probably switch safety and cb.

and now that im thinking bout it, DT and LB are prob even in my book. DT has an extremely scary lack of depth, but we have at least a solid group of starters (assuming our DE recruits and Campbell reach ther expected potential). At LB, like safety, im more concerned about a lack of skill than a lack of depth.

I tend to agree that we need

I tend to agree that we need 3-4 yr kids to build up the program. However you could argue that having kids like mayo come to UM and then succeed in the NBA might be attractive to potential recruits. Althou im not sure you could attribute those kids' successes to college development.

tru story on the defender

tru story on the defender comment. however grady's 36.6%3pt is the 3rd best on the team behind eric puls's 75% (which doesnt really count) and david merrit's 38.2%. Just for reference, 4th place is douglass with 35% and 5th is LLP with 34.8%. And considering Merrit only has 34 3pt attempts to Grady's 82, I would consider Grady our best 3pt shooter. (mabe give the slight edge to douglass since hes taken 143 3pt attempts.)

thanks good stuff

thanks good stuff

I usually keep pretty up to

I usually keep pretty up to date on my recruiting info and my blog reading, but i was away for the week on vacation and was too busy getting my tan on.

And my concern was obviously not his height blue(x3) so dont be an ass. I also was not degrading his skill based on a lack of reviews, i was merely asking if anyone had any further info on the guy, b/c the sites dont have much. My concern was with his lack of weight. Of course he has the height to add lbs, but putting on the 40 or so lbs that it would likely take to compete, and maitaining speed, is not exactly an easy task in a yr and a half. For this reason i expect hell redshirt.

But to re-state my earlier question:

do you guys think that we are intentionally looking to recruit smaller, quicker DEs like roh and kinard, or is that just the way things are working out? This seems extremely different from the mentality under the Carr staff who seemed to go for the big guys at all the dline positions.

http://michigan.rivals.com/co

http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=924045

On a player that stood out in

On a player that stood out in winter conditioning:

"There have been a lot of them. It's really hard to pin it down to just one. The upperclassmen that have been doing it for years – the Brandon Grahams and Stevie Browns, are doing a tremendous job, Steve Schilling. Our young guys, Michael Cox is a young freshman that did a terrific job in the offseason. Mike Martin has done a tremendous job."

Im sry...did u say "stevie browns"? as if hes the model of what a safety should be? i mean, i wasnt one of those guys declaring him the death of michigan football, but if hes the one getting specific recognition...

Obviously hes not ideal for

Obviously hes not ideal for our system. but with two unproven freshman competing for the starting job, (even with potential big time 2010 qb recruit in Gardner, i dont think M would turn away a solid, experienced qb, even if he is a pro-style qb.

I was just watching godfreys

I was just watching godfreys youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26TfWOLRfhw

Theres no question hes got a strong arm. He throws this one ball off of one foot, while scrambling that goes about 60 yards and hits the reciever nearly in stride. but they show a lot of clips of him over throwing recievers down field by significant margins. obviously its hard to know whether its a shitty video or whether that is a common occurrence for godfrey.

nonetheless i love his potential, but i hope accuracy is not a major weakness for him b/c weve all seen the effects of qb's missing open recievers.

Do we know anything about

Do we know anything about darryl baldwin? is an an OSU lock. I know he visited us for the Wisco game.

unfortunately BC (one of

unfortunately BC (one of those bubble teams) upset Duke a few days ago, which definitely makes things harder for us

how do u no this kid wont end

how do u no this kid wont end up being 5'6 135lbs and run a 5.3 40. i dont care how good his arm is RR wont give him 2 looks

I didnt say that i didnt like

I didnt say that i didnt like converting safeties, i just said that i thought that a lot of people were overly confident in that our safety recruits (who were not that highly rated to begin with) will turn into starter-quality LBs.

Im glad to hear im not alone

Im glad to hear im not alone on this. but as for the safeties were looking to convert to LB, none of them were especially high rated safeties in the first place. i dont no y everyone is so confident in their abilities to play a completely different position. granted mouton was a converted safety and performed ok, he was also i believe the 6th ranked safety by scout, while mike jones is the 49th, and isaiah bell was the 46th (althou I believe he is significantly underrated)