Devin Gardner Update 3-Sept.

Submitted by top end savoriness on

I just attended the Inkster vs. East Kentwood game this evening. Devin Gardner put on quite a show. Unfortunately, the supporting cast was less impressive.

#15 (I believe his name was Deon Butler) was the only receiver who seemed to be able to catch the ball consistently. #3 (Tremonte?) was a very, very fast defender that was the only other player to make much of an impression.

The first play from scrimmage was a busted play that Gardner turned into a ~70 yard TD run. He appeared to be almost jogging as he outran the EK defenders.

Some early passes weren't so accurate, but after the first 10 minutes, I don't recall seeing a Gardner pass that wasn't very catchable. There were several potential TDs dropped in the second half, and lots of beautiful passes hitting the receivers in the numbers only to be dropped.

There was a Gardner fumble on the 1yd line that was a crushing play. Inkster was on the verge of pulling back into the game. He'll have to work on holding the ball a little better, but I would imagine that's pretty correctable with some good coaching.

I'm certainly not the most skilled judge of talent, but I was extremely impressed. He looked ready for the prime time already.

Anyhow, EK won the game -- I'm embarassed to say I've already forgotten the score. Their Wing-T offense seemed to be pretty confusing to Inkster's defense -- the tackling was atrocious.

MH20

September 3rd, 2009 at 9:35 PM ^

I had entertained thoughts of going to this game (I live in Kentwood, near the airport) but alas, I stayed home so I could watch the incredibly boring matchup of USC-E and NC State.

top end savoriness

September 3rd, 2009 at 9:53 PM ^

I also live in Kentwood. There were quite a few obvious non-Inksterites sporting Michigan gear on the Inkster side of the field. Hopefully there will be some other reports from other MGoBloggers that can add more insight than my limited observations.

I should also clarify that Gardner did throw at least a pair of TDs that weren't dropped. He should come out of this game with some pretty impressive stats.

TTUwolverine

September 3rd, 2009 at 9:55 PM ^

was pretty fun to watch when they had Noel Aleman. I went to Grandville HS from 01-05, and we were one of the few teams that seemed to know how to figure it out.

That said, I hope Inkster's recievers don't suck it up the rest of the season.

Sgt. Wolverine

September 3rd, 2009 at 9:58 PM ^

The announcer at tonight's Chelsea JV game was keeping the crowd informed of the Inkster score, and the last score he announced was 45-33 with five minutes to go.

I suspect Gardner misses Gordon.

uniqenam

September 3rd, 2009 at 10:30 PM ^

What happens this year if Indiana's team is filled with minotaurs? What happens this year if Jim Tressel benches Terrelle Pryor? What happens this year if Brian Cook becomes best friends with Rosenberg and deletes all MGoBlog content? What about skynet?

You really should delete your post before you get too far into the negatives.

me

September 3rd, 2009 at 10:32 PM ^

Per Rivals

http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=984085

Gardner finished the game 19-of-31 passing for 334 yards and three touchdowns. His last throw of the game resulted in his only interception of the contest. Gardner racked up 86 yards on his first two carries from scrimmage, but did not manage much on the ground after that. He finished with 10 carries for 102 rushing yards, two touchdowns and two fumbles.

DingleberryFinn.

September 3rd, 2009 at 11:25 PM ^

I live up in Canada, and when I played highschool ball (last year) we watched videos of EK running the Wing-T because we also ran it. Needless to say, I was fucking impressed by how well they fooled the defense with their misdirection.

Magnus

September 3rd, 2009 at 11:35 PM ^

East Kentwood's Wing-T is different than the one they ran before. Their coach was in his first year at East Kentwood last year. He was my high school coach and I used to coach with him.

The guy knows what he's talking about when it comes to offense. I'm not a big fan of his incarnation of the Wing-T, but it can work if you have the right players, which he apparently does at EK.

Magnus

September 4th, 2009 at 6:37 AM ^

I believe that was the coach before this one. I think they got a new coach in '05 or '06 that had a couple crappy seasons and they fired him. Then they hired the current head coach, who did poorly last year but looks like he's off to a good start this year.

He's a pretty good coach - perennially in the playoffs and took a previous team to the state championship game (which they lost, but still).

Colt McBaby Jesus

September 4th, 2009 at 1:02 PM ^

I believe the previous coach (not the crappy one) is now at Zeeland West and has already won a state championship with them. I watch one of their games that year and hated it because on every play there were at least two guys running down field and I always thought the wrong guy had the ball. It funny how delayed the crowd reaction was on each play though. One guy would get tackled and the other wouldn't and they wouldn't know if they should cheer or groan. Good times.

Magnus

September 4th, 2009 at 2:06 PM ^

I love watching football like that. I love watching teams that are great at fakes. I try to encourage our coaches to coach that, but they don't think it's that important. (I'm not the running backs coach, so I have little control over what they spend their time doing.)

Our fullback in high school was great at fakes. We ran a veer play where our QB faked a handoff to the FB and then kept the ball through the other center-guard gap. The FB got tackled and the referees actually blew the play dead while our QB ran untouched for 60 yards. So we had to replay the down.

The very next play we ran the same thing to the opposite side. This time the FB still got tackled but the referees didn't blow the whistle...and our QB ran untouched for another 60 yard TD.

Knappster

September 3rd, 2009 at 11:36 PM ^

I was there as well. Impressive. He would be even more amazing if his receivers could catch. I think there were 2 potential TD passes dropped. EK is quick though. Inkster's D was huge (size) but could not stop their running game.

ArborBlue

September 4th, 2009 at 12:40 AM ^

I'll post this here since I don't have enough points to start a board topic and not enough info to make it a worthy diary. Ricardo Miller caught two TD passes in Ann Arbor Pioneer's 45-0 win against Dexter. He also had a third TD called back for an illegal forward pass. Ricardo got open pretty much all day, although Pioneer's quarterback badly overthrew him once for a pick and badly underthre him for another one. The first TD was a short out route that Ricardo turned up field and turned into a long touchdown due to shoddy arm tackling by Dexter. The second was just a deep throw on 4th down where Ricardo was simply bigger and faster than the coverage and it behind both defenders covering him. For anyone who saw the NC State game it was very similar to the dropped TD with 3 minutes left in he 4th. Except Ricardo caught it. It should be noted that Dexter us bad, even for a MI high school football team.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled program.

Sgt. Wolverine

September 4th, 2009 at 2:32 AM ^

Yeah, Dexter can make nearly anybody look good, anybody good look awesome, and anybody awesome look like the best ever. When Chelsea played Dexter last year, there wasn't a single snap taken on Chelsea's side of the 50 until the second quarter, and Chelsea's average starting field position for the entire game was its own 49.

It's a little weird because the towns of Chelsea and Dexter are pretty similar, and yet while Chelsea has made the playoffs for ten straight years, Dexter has only one winning season in that same span (5-4 in 2005). I really can't figure out why Dexter can't seem to field even a respectable football team.

Zoltanrules

September 4th, 2009 at 11:35 AM ^

You have to look at the coach and the lack of importance football relative to other sports in Dexter. Probabaly a cause and effect between the two. Cross country, swimming, baseball, soccer, basketball seem to be better run from grade school up. The grade school football seems to be picking up but results wont show for a few years.

Sgt. Wolverine

September 4th, 2009 at 12:00 PM ^

That's true. I also know they had a few years with an athletic director who had exactly no love for football, and that didn't help. The reason I'm still a little baffled, though, is that contrary to what I used to think, Dexter hasn't ever really put together a streak of good seasons in football; their winning percentage in the last 50 years is just below .400, which puts them in the same range as Lincoln (ouch).

I remember having a conversation at a JV game a few years ago with one of the Dexter football dads; we were talking about Chelsea's stadium improvements and what Dexter wanted/needed to do to its stadium, and he very openly lamented the lack of serious community support for the Dexter football program. But that would go along with what you said, and that also may change if youth football gains momentum.

I do hope you're right about the future looking brighter. Even as a Chelsea guy, I don't enjoy seeing Dexter lose so many games every year.