Jeff DelVerne's Tweets on the Scrimmage

Submitted by FitzTou10 on

Former Michigan kicker Jeff DelVerne was at the scrimmage and tweeted these observations...

I was at the U of M scrimmage today and they look very organized! Fitz Tousaint was the star for me.. Defense looks amazing

Denard is the real deal in this offense.. Seems to be easier to scramble in this offense cause defense doesn't expect it

I would say that the coaching staff today spent a lot of time on tackling, technique and teaching (less ranting). Black @ DE looks quick

Demens is baaaadddd to the bone

Kicking game looked solid! This freshman kicker has a lot of swagger/confidence and I couldn't believe it. Going to be a good year

I was shocked to see the growth from last year to spring to now! Very sharp on both sides of the football.

 

Needless to say, the part about Fitz made me feel all giddy. 

Chi-Blue

August 20th, 2011 at 10:52 PM ^

well we should for sure be able to trust the analysis of the kicking game which may be the most important news we could hear. the off and def will continue to improve as the year goes on, but with the kicker either you got it or u dont.

BlueDragon

August 21st, 2011 at 3:03 PM ^

for "Hoke Arbor."  That's got to be the funniest thing I've seen all week.

As for the vassal states, we should grant baronial titles to famous Wolverines and give them gold scepters to wave about as they rule over these communities with a maize-and-blue fist of justice.

bacon1431

August 20th, 2011 at 9:51 PM ^

Must. Tame. Optimism.

But in all seriousness, gotta take these things with a grain of salt. Don't get me wrong, it's better than hearing "Team looked lost", but it was just one scrimmage.

RickH

August 21st, 2011 at 12:13 AM ^

I agree completely.  It's always bitter sweet to here good things about the team, players, and recruits.  It's awesome because they're supposedly doing well; it's no so awesome when they don't perform to their hype, your fantasy based on the compliments, or turn out to be a 3 star recruit who was suppose to be borderline 5 star.

One Inch Woody…

August 20th, 2011 at 10:00 PM ^

Alright, well my decipherment of this post is that if we want to win the B1G on a consistent basis we need to develop elite-level consistency, but the scrimmage has shown that we can acheive elite-level play in flashes on both sides of the ball but need to get more consistent. We are a far cry from the middle-of-the-pack team we had last year. I'm probably taking it a lot more positively than he intended.

Wonk

August 20th, 2011 at 9:57 PM ^

I've noticed that thread throughout a lot of analysis too.

If the difference between Hoke and RR is brought up so much, what was a standard RichRod practice like? I know from gamedays that he looked violently disgusted at times on the sidelines, so I imagine it was something like that, but probably worse since he wasn't on national TV.

donk_destroyer

August 20th, 2011 at 10:07 PM ^

i went to michigan coaches clinic back in 2003 and 2005. lloyd and staff were always polite and when we viewed practice he and staff coached them and they ran a basic practice. when i went to coaches clinic in 2008...1st yr on job...i thought it was a will ferrel saturday night live skit the way he and his staff screamed and yelled and cussed at all the players. i thought to myself if this is how he is in front of coaches tht might send players to him...whats it like when no one is watching. i gave him the benefit of the doubt becuz i herd bo was like that...but it did give me a bad vibe.

blueheron

August 20th, 2011 at 10:37 PM ^

I've not surprised to hear that RichRod had problems with impulse control. You alluded to his sideline demeanor, which was often unmistakably cloudy.

Still ...

I don't mean to go all Section 1 on you, but did you have to give even a drop of praise to that @#$% Rosenberg? I'm at least 11% serious. Those articles went too far and hurt the program unnecessarily.

hart20

August 21st, 2011 at 12:33 PM ^

You should read Martha Nussbaum's writings on shame. Destructive shame, which would be caused by too much negative reinforcement and not enough positive reinforcement, would have detrimental effects on a team. Constructive shame, on the other hand, has positive effects. That's what the current staff seems to be causing in the players. Long story short, just yelling at your players isn't going to result in anything positive. It may work in the immediate future, but will come back to bite you in the ass. I'm sure any teachers or coaches can back that up.

wolverine1987

August 21st, 2011 at 9:51 PM ^

I'm sure Nussbaum would have much to teach him.

To be clear, I'm not saying any yelling is good, just that a blanket statement like above that lots of yelling is counter-productive to player development is not correct. Great coaches can come in the yelling and non-yelling varieties. 

hailhail97

August 22nd, 2011 at 9:42 AM ^

I think you mean Positive Punishment instead of Negative Reinforcement.  Negative Reinforcement is still reinforcement not punishment.  Negative Reinforcement strenghtens a behavior because a negative condition is stopped or avoided as a consequence of the behavior.

Negative Reinforcement is often confused with Punishment because of the word "negative".  However, they are very different.