Support Boubacar Cissoko this Saturday

Submitted by jg2112 on

Boubacar Cissoko is 5-9 and allegedly 177 lbs. Last weekend he was asked to defend Michael Floyd for most of the game, who is listed at 6-3 and 220 pounds.

This weekend, unless Gerg is crazy and decides not to put Donovan Warren on CAW's primary wideout Jacory Stone, Cissoko is likely to be defending one of the following players:

Trey Hunter - 6-0, 200 lb. senior.
Marvon Sanders - 5-9, 160 lb. sophomore.
Dontayo Gage - 5-11, 190 lb. senior.

Gage was a 2 star recruit, the others were unstarred.

Cissoko has now played a little over 90 minutes as a primary, starting cornerback at Michigan. He has played this year with a nerve injury that doesn't allow him to raise one of his arms above his head. He has an INT as well as a swagger that I think many Michigan fans want in their players.

It's absurd to jump to conclusions such as "Cissoko just isn't any good" with nothing more than a 90-minute sample size. I couldn't imagine having to play 77 defensive snaps against 2 of the 15 best wide receivers in college football. Cissoko did, did what the coaches asked of him, and didn't cause Michigan to lose the game despite playing injured. That's a gutsy performance and I applaud him.

For those of you at the game Saturday, cheer a little extra for Boubacar. For me, he's become my 2009 version of 2008 Martavious Odoms, a player who is being criticized for many reasons, but most of which he has little control over.

baorao

September 17th, 2009 at 1:07 PM ^

lets sing kumbaya for the most recently criticized football coach/player thing has run its course. the Coach Rodriguez thing was nice, but making sure everyone knew the Savoy drop was tipped and now this, is too much.

and to be clear I am speaking about Michigan fans on message boards in general, not just you.

Block M

September 17th, 2009 at 1:26 PM ^

We should definitely support him because we need him to do well. And with this lingering injury I hope he sees some playing time this weekend to add to his experience, but also if we can work in the younger guys so we can hopefully add some depth at the position and get him healthy...

ish

September 17th, 2009 at 1:31 PM ^

I'm with you on this and disagree w/ Brian. Also, I think Floyd is taller than 6'3". And BooBoo shorter than 5'9". There were a few plays where he was right there and just couldn't out-jump Floyd. Happened in the Army AA game too. Nothing you can do about it.

Erik_in_Dayton

September 17th, 2009 at 1:34 PM ^

Cissoko hung tough, though he obviously had a very bad day, and sometimes that's as good as it's going to get. Anyone who wants to bash him should consider what the team would look like without him.

mgoblue911

September 17th, 2009 at 1:35 PM ^

he tones down (or preferably eliminates) all the gesturing and histrionics after every play he is involved with. I can't stand the arm crossing, pointing, and woofing after every play, particularly when he had little to do with the result (dropped ball by a receiver). This is Michigan, not Miami (yeah, that Miami). Celebrate with your teammates all you like, but enough with the posing and gesturing, IME.

All that being said, I am looking forward to seeing him beat up and abuse anyone that is even close to his size. He is tough and looks amazingly strong for his size.

Erik_in_Dayton

September 17th, 2009 at 1:50 PM ^

I'm not saying that your take is wrong, but I thought he was just trying to keep himself psyched up and in the game. Golden Tate was talking a lot of shit and Cissoko needed to show that ND wasn't in his head...CB is a mentally tough position and confidence is something that has to be treated like a precious resource...Again, I'm not saying your reaction is wrong. Who knows what was going on in his head?

Blue in Yarmouth

September 17th, 2009 at 1:41 PM ^

I support Booboo because he is a wolverine. That support won't fade due to a subpar performance in one game against stellar competition. He is a true sophmore and we will see some growing pains with him like any other sophmore. I agree that it is way too premature to say he stinks given the circumstances. I just hope last game was a statistical outlier and not something that becomes the norm. Either way I will support him because he is a wolverine, but I really want him to pick it up from here on out.

Edit* also agree with mgoblue911 that the posing has to stop. When you have been torched all game long it isn't a good idea to pull stunts like that even if you did make a play, much less when a receiver just dropped a pass you had nothing to do with.

aenima0311

September 17th, 2009 at 1:50 PM ^

What's with this nerve injury? That's the first I've heard of it and it explains a bit. Seems pretty major for a CB not to be able to lift on of his hands.

BC showed some good skills on the field this year. Let's not forget he was on an island with Floyd most of the day.

Go Bouba!

hailtothevictors08

September 17th, 2009 at 2:00 PM ^

but man Saturday was rough ... and that one pick hit him right in the hands ... iirc he dropped one against wmu too .... id be alright with him getting burned if he take advantage of the big plays for us

3rdGenerationBlue

September 17th, 2009 at 2:01 PM ^

Cheer for the players. If you are All In for Michigan be All in for ALL of the players. That doen't mean we can't do some UFR analysis but it is tough to call a guy out that is only a soph playing against some of the best receivers in the country.

SFBayAreaBlue

September 17th, 2009 at 2:05 PM ^

exactly right. I was going to make a diary about this, but I'll just put my arguments here.

There were maybe 3 or 4 plays that I thought he was really bad on. 1) the first long pass to floyd where it looked like he got a little lost. 2)The touchdown to tate where he was way too far off for being near the goaline. 3) the second touchdown to tate where he missed the tackle and 4) the 3rd down play at the end of the game where he gave too much room to the guy on the comeback. but the pressure forced a bad throw so it wasn't a big deal.

It was obvious that the coaches had him playing off, maybe because of his injury, or height difference.

But even then, he made almost an equal number of positive plays. It was a tough matchup for him, and he held up enough to get the win.

He was pretty solid on tackling too, with that one glaring exception.

I've seen a lot of bad starting corners come through michigan, and he is not the worst, by far.

So in summary: part of his apparent suck was due to the height/talent difference, part of it was due to his injury (not holding onto the interception), part of it was due to scheme (which may have been developed to compensate for the first two things), and yes part of it was actual suck.

But I like his tenacity. And if I had a crystal ball, I would predict this to be the nadir of his performances this year (fingers crossed).

jerseyblue

September 17th, 2009 at 2:25 PM ^

If he was a high character guy who's had a few bad breaks I might pull extra hard for him. But he's not. I hate it when anyone showboats. It's like 10 times worse when someone showboats and their play doesn't back it up. He fits in that catagory. He's also the same guy who mouthed off to cops when his friend got pulled over. So he has an unwarranted, overinflated ego AND he's an immature punk.
Will I root for him any less. No, he's blue and I support the team. I'll root for him the same as any other Wolverine. But it leaves a slightly bad taste in my mouth doing so.