Random Observations from Yesterday's Practice
[Ed-M: Bumped because this is all important stuff. Photos: MGoBlue.com: all from March 30 practice. Click through to see, among other things, Urban Meyer on the sidelines.]
I want to start by wishing a Happy Birthday to Bo. Born this day in 1929.
I attended practice yesterday and here are some very random notes and observations.
I gravitate to the LBs because that's what I coach and I try to pick up new drills/techniques. Here are the 11 guys who were working with the LB corp: Cam Gordon, Brandin Hawthorne, Marell Evans, Kenny Demens, Isaiah Bell, Mike Jones, Jake Ryan, JB Fitzgerald, Paul Gyarmati, Brandon Herron, Jordan Paskorz. They were running a lot of basic drills because, quite frankly, this group has a LOT of work ahead of them.
- Cam Gordon is ALL of 6' 3". He's gotten taller since he was a senior in HS (I know because I stood next to him at a spring practice last year and I was definitely taller than him). He looks good, physically. He's added a significant amount of muscle and has real good pop. During one particular drill where the LB shuffles downhill then forms up on the "ballcarrier," Cam surprised the ballcarrier with an explosive pop. It was either Bell or Demens. Whoever it was felt it, I can promise you that.
- Josh Furman has sweet dreads. He's a good sized kid too and got a lot of reps
- Marell Evans got a lot of reps with the ones during the scrimmage. He seems very comfortable with his teammates and coaches.
- Jake Ryan's helmet is chipped all to hell, which tells me he keeps his head up at the point of contact and has a nose [Ed-M: Or more accurately forehead] for the ball. I thought Cam looked taller but they're both listed at 6'3" on the roster.
During the scrimmages, the defense moved around a lot, displaying multiple looks. Although they were running a 4-3, Mike Martin was lined up over the center (or shaded) most of the time.
Big Will and Q got a lot of reps (with the 1s and 2s). I think Will probably gets more coaching than any kid on the team. It appears to me that the coaches REALLY believe they have something special in Will if they can just coach him up and bring it out of him. He is a big kid with a lot of potential and could be scary good if he makes up his mind and puts in the work. BTW, Will talks a lot of shit. On one play, he pursued Devin to the sideline and out of bounds, gave him some lip, then smacked the ball out of Devin's hands. It was all in good fun and I think it shows that Big Will is feeling like he's an integral part of this team. BW is big but QW isn't far behind. These two have a chance to make a huge impact, if they simply learn to work hard and realize what they can achieve.
Curt Mallory is by far the most intense person on the entire field. He is working hard with the DBs.
It's obvious both sides of the ball are learning new schemes. Lots of mistakes and miscues. However, the intensity is there. Ryan Van Bergen is your vocal leader of the defense.
Here are the DBs I noticed getting lots of reps: Courtney Avery, Jordan Kovacs, Thomas Gordon, Floyd Simmons, Cullen Christian, Jared VanSlyke, Greg Brown, Marvin Robinson, Tony Anderson, and Al Backey.
- During one scrimmage, Jordan Kovacs dropped the hammer on an outstretched Je'Ron Stokes. It was a BIG lick, but Stokes held onto the ball and popped right up.
- Courtney Avery ran with the 1s all the time. He looks good although I think 5'11" is generous. I talked with his dad (Courtney Sr) for a while. Super nice family (mom and younger brother were there too). He said everything is completely different for Courtney and it's like starting over: Terminology, technique, alignment, philosophy, scheme.
- Cullen Christian has sweet tats on the back of both arms. Written in old english font with a 2 and C on the left arm and 4 and C on the right. (That's some Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporting, isn't it?)
- Speaking of tats, it's one thing I noticed we have a LOT of. There's some sweet artwork out there.
- Woolfolk and Floyd were off in the corner with a S&C coach, working their asses off. The coach had one of those punching dummies that the two players would take turns delivering two handed shivers in rapid succession.
Here's something I'm sure you'll all be fired up about: the 1st team D owned the first team O in Red Zone scrimmage. Three times in a row the D stuffed the O, including a 1st and goal from the 2 which resulted in a fumble, recovered by Herron. The defense was noticably more vocal than the O, but I don't think that means anything other than the O is doing a lot more thinking, rather than just playing.
It was quite evident that this was the first week of practice under a new system. On the other hand, the 2nd team O scored in one play (both passes to the right side) TWICE against the 2nd team D.
Offensively, Rocko Khoury was the center during the scrimmages, but Molk participated in the conditioning. I don't recall seeing Molk out on the field, but maybe I just overlooked him (shame on me).
Your first O line was (from left to right) Huyge, Barnum, Khoury, Omameh, Schofield. Lewan wasn't in pads. Second O line was Barnum, Khoury, Burzynski, Pace, Gunderson.
Every time I looked up, it seemed Drew Dileo was retunring a punt or kick. There was a decent amount of time devoted to special teams at the begining and end of practice, which I thought was, you know....... important (lol). Both kickers were lined up on opposite hashes (Seth on the right hash, Brendan on the left), starting with 27 yard kicks then moving back to 35 yarders. I will leave you with this....... they need more practice.
I didn't watch the offense all that much as I was trying to concentrate on what the defense was doing and who was on the field. However Denard is sweet. His smile and personality resonate from across the field. I honestly feel like we have been blessed, not with just a hell of an athlete, but a hell of a kid. That is all.
Finally, I had a chance to talk with Coach Jerry Hanlon for a bit. I haven't seen him in a LONG time, but he looks and sounds great. I'm surprised he still has a voice because he did a LOT of yelling back in the day. I remember one spring practice, for some reason, Coach Hanlon decided to coach from the press box, which was really odd. Nobody ever did that.. Anyway, we were going through a scrimmage or inside skele and all of the sudden, from WAAaaaay on high, this high-pitched, angry voice bellowed down from above. It brought practice to a screeching halt as everyone stopped what they were doing so they could take in the ass chewing Coach Hanlon's dished out to some poor linemen from 100 feet in the air. I guess you had to be there, but it was memorable.
Go Blue!
"MANBALL doesn't even work on our defense" post...
Nice to see some in-depth, first hand knowledge. Was going to ask you how DG looked and if he is competing for the position?
DG is running the 2nd team. Denard is your starting QB.
DR is most definitely the starter, but DG looks awfully good from the limited things I've seen. Anyone else think the football looks like a brown lemon in DG's hands though? Dude's gigantic.
Who is the vocal leader on offense? I imagine its Molk, but since he wasn't out there, is there someone else that stepped up? Denard seems like more of a lead by example player than a vocal leader, so it'd be interesting to know who is.
Great stuff. I love the mixture of football tangebles and non-tangebles.
As I mentioned, the offense is is probably doing a lot of thinking and therefore more subdued. It's natural for a guy to be a little quiet when he's not trying to screw up.
Denard is your leader by virtue of his character and personality. He's not talking a lot of smack. He doesn't consider himself a star. He wants to win. On one play, he threw a fade to the corner and missed his receiver. He jumped up and down about 3 times and smacked his hands together because he WANTS to make that throw. He's just a natural competitor and takes failure personally.
I have to admit I missed that play a lot the last few years. Do you remember who is making that play? I'm guessing Stonum or Junior?
Personally, I hate the fade. I'd much rather see a WR line up on the numbers and do a quick slant. But that's just me. Sorry, don't recall how was the receiver on that play.
The guy can play at the next level because he intends to and will work until he achieves it. There is more than enough physical talent and intelligence there. If Troy Smith can hang around with a job...... It bugs me when people say "never" about him making it to the pros at his current position.
I am sure he feeds off that blather.
I really doubt that Denard even notices, much less feeds off any negativity.
So does MSU, especially when you have a Braylon or Mario running it.
Can't wait for Brady and the boys to start smacking the Sparties down again.
Why do you hate the fade? It's almost impossible to defend if executed correctly. Elvis and Desmond used to just murder people with it.
As a former possesion WR at BSU for Hoke...I hated the fade too. You gotta have a damn accurate quarterback to make that play work consistently...and any underthrown ball is almost garunteed going to be picked off by the safety coming from the center. But then again, I fast enough to be trying to chase down fades anyway.
I see you joined in the past couple of days. On MGoBlog, the voices of current and former players and coaches are very important. As a former Hoke WR at BSU, what can you tell us about the passing game under Hoke at BSU, and if possible what kinds of QBs succeeded (or failed) under his tutelage?
First, thanks for the welcoming. I've been reading MGoBlog for the past year or so pretty faithfully, just never got around to feeling like my input was necassary.
While I was with BSU, (04-06) the first and foremost thing I can point out is that we had nowhere near the talent at QB that Denard Robinson (or any other QB that has ever played Ball State) could ever provide. We also failed to post a winning record in all three of the years that I played.
The team revolved around the defense, and the offensive line. The most succesful pass plays we ever ran were always built off of the run, never traditional play-action plays but using blocking schemes near identical to run plays in order to get the linebackers to bite on the reads. Seemed to me like someone on the outside was almost always running a post or fade route, and he gave us 2 reasons for this.
1) Getting the safety to stay honest opens up the middle of the field for crossing routes that reminded me of the scheme Carr used during his tenure
2) If the safety wasn't dropping back...where there may have been a lack of talent at WR there was an abundance of speed.
Nate Davis was the closest QB we ever had to Denard, he was a run first QB coming into the system. He was a little bit larger than Denard (6'3 215) and not nearly as shifty. He was fast, but he lacked Denard's uncanny ability to dodge and accelerate. Davis amassed a 22-12 record at BSU. Davis relied on his ability to scramble in order to succeed in high school, but the most he ever rushed for was 64 yards in one game against Northern Illinois. The offensive scheme rely relied on the OL making their blocks and the running back hitting the gap downhill. He threw for 3,000 yards in back to back seasons, but he struggled when coming from behind.
I believe that we had six different QB's that started during the three years I was there, and the offense was always set up for the QB to succeed. We never really tried to throw many deep balls, the majority of the 20+ pass yard plays were short routes that opened up because of bad tackling/bad coverage.
One of the greatest decisions Hoke made at BSU, in my opinion, was to sit some semi-talented senior OL for untested redshirt freshman and sophmores. Hoke recognized the potential for greatness in the underclassman and it payed off in their undefeated regular season as these players grew in talent and size. It was somewhat of a "make more mistakes now so you can make less later" mentality.
The WR corps worked on blocking downfield at least 75% of the time. No matter what your ball catching and route running ability was, if you could not block a cornerback and/or safety, you didn't see the field save the 2 minute drills.
Sorry, sort of ranty and off tangent.
Side note: Aaron Wellman (strength and conditioning coach) is going to make the biggest difference without getting any credit. This guy was probably meant to be the 'doctore' in Spartacus. I watched him turn both Darius Hill and Dan Gerberry from guys that didn't get offers outside the MAC into NFL players. Look forward to seeing a much more physical team than under RR.
Great stuff. Positive contributions from Big Will and Q could really establish the DL as a force. Good to hear that Mallory is the most intense coach, because his unit needs the most intense work. Great update, Due. Thanks.
if BWC was a sophomore instead of a junior this year. Stupid Angry Michigan Redshirt Stealing God.
6------->Midnight
Great stuff, thanks for the update
Go Blue!
It is nice to just read about football, not all the other stuff. Thanks a lot.
Shoot!
I forgot to mention that Ben Braden and his family were there. I told him congratulations and welcome to the family.
which highschool do you coach for?
any potential big time prospects?
I believe Due51 is a former Michigan player.
Glad to hear you mention Pace. I may be wrong, but wasn't he the one who was supposedly nursing a serious injury and there was some question as to whether he'd get on the field?
Yes, it was supposedly career threatening.
Thank you so much for the insight!! Great reporting! Can't wait to see these guys on the field!
Great post. Thanks for sharing.
Our Oline depth is scary. Any chance Omameh moves to tackle?
Aren't Barnum, Khoury and Schofield supposed to all be quite good? Barnum will likely start at guard, but that leaves Khoury (guard or center) and Scholfield (tackle) as reasonable starters on the bench. If we lose tow guards/centers or two tackles at the same time we'll be in some trouble. However, we'd still have Pace at guard or center, and I believe either Barnum or Khoury played part of a game at tackle last year. Not optimal, but not one of my top concerns.
Barnum can play tackle (with Mealer stepping in or Khoury sliding), but he's not optimal there.
<br>Next year it's even worse, given Huyge will be gone and none of the redshirting freshmen (Miller, Posada, Bryant) project to Tackle. Diamond and a few other elite OTs are desperately needed in the next class.
So when is your next scheduled visit to practice? A post like this would be nice about twice a week. Thanks again for the scoop.
Luckily, I have a job that keeps me on the road as much as I deem necessary. I don't have any customers IN Ann Arbor per se, but A2 is on the way to/from lots of customers. I'm hoping to make it up there a couple more times this spring. There's also a reunion of sorts on Friday April 15th with a "team meeting" at the field house followed by an after glow party at the stadium.
+1000000. Thx
Agreed, this is incredibly informative, well written and from a knowlegable perspective. Much appreciated.
Matt Wile can't get on campus fast enough.
It's nice getting the perspective from a former player. It would be great to get production out of our two big DTs BW and QW.
Thanks for the post!
this post made my day!! Read it on lunch at work. Great job and thanks for posting!!
Thank you for taking your time to do this, awesome read. I m excited, avery is a big time talent.
Very interesting and informative. I can't wait for September!!!
"Both kickers [snip] need more practice."
GAAH! it's ok, deep breaths, deep breaths, it's only April... plenty of time... plenty of time...
but seriously thanks for this update. Gotta get my FB fix somehow.
Great post, Due. Thanks for the info.
Are we correct in assuming you're a former player and that's why you have access to practices? I'm only asking because I'd love to watch a few spring practices but don't have any ties to the athletic department. Am I SOL?
Most college programs permit high school coaches to attend practice during the spring. It serves a couple purposes, not the least of which is good PR.
and that doesn't necessarily mean that it's a character problem. When he was in high school, he physically overmatched—in most cases by a huge factor—everybody that faced him across the line. When a 17-year old kid has that kind of advantage, it's entirely normal that he will get used to relying solely on his size and strength and nothing more. He didn't have to work like a demon on technique or in the weight room to dominate in games.
Once he gets to Ann Arbor, all of a sudden he's in an environment where his size and strength advantages are minimal, if not nonexistent. He's facing juniors and seniors who are as big, and stronger, who have much better technique, and are better disciplined than he's ever had to be. It can take a while for an 18-year old kid who is used to immediate success to develop the work ethic necessary for success at the next level.
I don't think that blaming Tall is fair, since he had some pretty good results with some other Michigan DLs.
However, I do think it was completely idiotic to burn Campbell's redshirt for special teams work and the occasional spot duty in short yardage situations. Rodriguez himself should have realized that it was a terrible decision involving perhaps his highest-profile recruit. That it was done is a sad testament to the overall failures of the coaching staff in defensive personnel matters, from RR on down. There's no defending RR on this simply because he was paying attention to offensive issues—he was the head coach, not the OC.
great coaching which is typical for players from PSL. They are raw and it will take two years for them to see significant time on the field. Beside he's a DL which means that it will take 2-3 years before they make an impact which makes things worse for Big Will because he was a 5* recruit and came from bad coaching.
and it's not just a Football/athlete problem. I did really really well in high shcool without working particularly hard. Had a great GPA, ACT score, etc. got into michigan and got my ass kicked right away by college classes. I had to learn how to work to succeed at that level because I never had to work hard to succeed in school previously. Luckily for me I put it together by 2nd semester without screwing up my GPA too much, and hopefully BWC is putting it together now
Pretty much nailed it Don.
100% agree with this post.
now all I need is some TomH recruit updates with a few "Hello..."'s mixed in and a championship next week in the Frozen Four
I read:
"It's obvious both sides of the ball are learning new schemes. Lots of mistakes and miscues."
and had a 2008 flash-back. I hope this team's better talent and experience will prodct better results. I mean, it has to right?
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