Could Jeremy Clark play Wide Reciever?

Submitted by kaykaybroke on

Reading over Brian's report on the front page of Jeremy Clark, would it be beneficial to the team to switch him to WR?

We're pretty deep at free safety with TRob (ed. Thomas Gordon, my bad guys), Jarrod Wilson, Marvin Robinson, and Josh Furman(?)... and according to Sam Webb's evaluation....

 

This 6-4, 175-lb. safety was one of the surprises of the day. He flashed good speed and EXCELLENT ball skills.

We could use a 6'4 body with excellent ball skills and good speed in our WR corps! Just some food for thought. Seems to me Clark could have more of an early impact there.

HALOL

April 20th, 2012 at 4:11 PM ^

I don't think having good ball skills necessarily means he catches the ball well, more than it means that he just puts himself in a good postion to make a play on the ball when it is thrown. He could probably play WR but with 2 guys coming in and the report of Ricardo Miller moving back to WR it wouldn't be a huge need to move him.

flysociety3

April 20th, 2012 at 4:18 PM ^

T-Rob is the graduated slot receiver... you mean Thomas Gordon...

Additionally, I definitely think Clark could play WR.... 

His film really does look a lot like Jarrod Wilson's

WolvinLA2

April 20th, 2012 at 4:23 PM ^

In your last paragraph, did you mean to put "WR corps" where you wrote "secondary?"  You made a post about him moving from the secondary, then you finished it by saying you think he'd be a good fit in the secondary and we could really use him there.  Not too clear.

Also, as a poster said above, "ball skills" refers to a player's ability to play the ball in the air.  This is good for receivers too, but less so since they usually know where the ball is supposed to go, and the person throwing the ball is trying to get it to them.  I suppose it's better for a WR to have good ball skills than bad ball skills though.

Your mom has good ball skills.  Sorry, had to.

DefenseWins

April 20th, 2012 at 4:33 PM ^

That's the first thing I thought of too when I saw that some reports say he is 6'4.  But it sounds like he can run and is athletic enough to play in the secondary.  I just get a bit queasy seeing a guy that tall back there.  HIPS people HIPS!!!

Mr. Yost

April 20th, 2012 at 4:58 PM ^

Not unless Tamani Carter is a safe bet at FS.

IMO we DON'T have that many Free Safeties...we have Gordon and Wilson and that's it.

Furman plays FS, but he's GOT to move to SS...he just has to.

Robinson already backs up Kovacs at SS.

Right now I have:

FS: Thomas Gordon
2 - Jarrod Wilson
3 - Tamani Carter
4 - Jeremy Clark

SS: Jordan Kovacs
2 - Marvin Robinson
3 - Josh Furman

...right now Wilson is a true freshman and we have no idea what is going to happen with Carter and Furman.

We're just now starting to get depth in the secondary and everyone wants to move guys around. NO NO NO! Maybe down the road if Carter is solid and Wilson is All-B1G do you move Clark.

One more thing to think about...we may not sign a FS in the 2013 recruiting class.

GoBlueInNYC

April 20th, 2012 at 6:05 PM ^

Furman plays FS, but he's GOT to move to SS...he just has to.

I was under the impression that physically Furman is a good fit at FS in that he's not as big but is extremely fast. Is it a skill set thing (e.g., good hitter, bad in coverage)? Just curious why you seem so adamant that Furman will make the move to SS.

GoBlueInNYC

April 20th, 2012 at 8:43 PM ^

Well, I'll be damned. You're right. Furman is tied for biggest safety with Gordon (both listed as 208 on mgoblue.com). I don't know why I thought he was smaller than that. (And consequently, I thought Marvin Robinson was a fair bit bigger than he really is.)

As penance for my ignorance, here's a picture of a cat in a football helmet:

Lampuki22

April 20th, 2012 at 5:04 PM ^

Listening to Tanehill,on Gruden and i know its spin tp explain his mere 19 starts but his comments about playing receiver

DG is beast in the open and MUST get on the field. Bellamy can take snaps if fergodsakesforbid there is an injury. It makes perfect sense. More than Clark.

He could be Megatron II


IronDMK

April 20th, 2012 at 5:18 PM ^

He'll play receiver.  I don't imagine the coaches would have a guy that can play the position really well but decide that they would rather redshirt him so he can maybe play FS the following year.  Common sense dictates the best players for a given position will play that position.  Am I wrong here?

coopfour24

April 20th, 2012 at 6:36 PM ^

With the depth we have at safety, he can rotate in there and still be fresh enough to play wide receiver where we can also rotate guys in and out. If he can handle learning both routes and schemes, then I don't see why he can't do both.

CoachBuczekFHS

April 20th, 2012 at 9:01 PM ^

At this level of football it takes more than great hands and pretty good speed to make that switch. There is route running, learning the offense, and various other factors to consider. It takes time to get a feel for a position and unless he is going to give us a significant boost at WR in terms of potential production I think we should leave him. I don't think you can ONLY consider size and speed. I hate to say this but I think the elephant in the room this season is going to be WR's. I've been watching Michigan football for almost all of my 25 years of life and I can ALWAYS remember Michigan having a serious playmaker at WR. Roy Roundtree is a good reciever. However, he is not an elite playmaker. I was at the spring game and our WR's had trouble getting seperation from the defense. Last year we had Hemingway, but this year we have a few talented WR's but no real threat that defenses need to worry about. So even if Denard does significantly improve his passing skills my worry is that we don't have the playmakers defenses have to worry about. Making it more likely that they will add more defenders to the box to stop D and Ftiz. To me, this is a bigger worry than our DL. Mattison is a magic man and our D will be solid. Thoughts? 

B-Nut-GoBlue

April 20th, 2012 at 11:15 PM ^

With much of what you say.  Maybe not quite a quarter-century under my belt, but I know what you mean.  This year will be different on the outside (and inside, with a question-mark at tight end?), and right now, not in a good way.  Freshmen?  Can I haz Amara Darboh come in and be a playmakerz?!  I don't know if the receiving corps out-weighs the other worrisome positions, but it's up there.

rob f

April 21st, 2012 at 4:13 AM ^

He's coming in to be a member of the "receiving corps", while on the other hand, Roy Roundtree is a good "reciever" and we're discussing "Could Jeremy Clark play Wide 'Reciever' ?"

I beleive we'll be OK; Hoke and Borges will find someone to retreive the passes of Denard. One or more of them haz to be playmakerz---if that happens, this is a team that could acheive graetness!

 

Roachgoblue

April 21st, 2012 at 1:36 AM ^

It is up to the coaches that do this for a living. This is not for some fucking bloggers to decide. We have about 20% of the information that the coaches have. You are just guessing.

Bo Nederlander

April 21st, 2012 at 11:32 AM ^

I have to respectfully disagree with the Furman assessments. Regardless of his size, Josh playing anywhere near SS doesn't make any sense when the guy has been clocked as fast as 4.2, 4.3 on an average day. Clark moving to WR is a fantastic idea with his kind of height. Furthermore, like someone mentioned before, 6'4 at safety scares me a little. Wideout makes much more sense. Plus, I think if SS were in the discussion for Furman, the coaches might have addressed that by now. I would trust their judgement more than blog speculation. Just my 2 cents.