Spring Practice Insight
I realize news out of the fort has been scarce. For those of us clamoring for any tidbits, I found the following articles on Go Blue Michigan Wolverine. As Brian has said, they display some "rough prose" over there but beggars can't be choosers.
http://gbmwolverine.com/2014/03/07/michigan-football-2014-thoughts-part…
http://gbmwolverine.com/2014/03/07/michigan-football-2014-thoughts-part…
http://gbmwolverine.com/2014/03/07/michigan-football-couple-quick-posit…
Keep in mind this is one man's opinion. He says he watched two practices in shorts. As always, Spring Practice means very little once the fall arrives.
I'm not sure that your opinion has been vindicated. The "history of Michigan football" is quite lengthy, and there have been some bad coordinators. Also, Borges had a couple pretty good seasons (2011, 2012) and some record-setting performances (Gardner, Gallon).
The reason this site is so popular is because it's not a bunch of 50 year olds with parking passes in the Blue Lot and insider bitzzzz (althought they're getting more access, it seems). It's intelligent people applying thougtful analysis to a subject that usually has the luxury of neither. MGoBlog empowers the average nerd fan to have confidence in his or her data (i.e., personal observations and statistics). Sometimes they get it right (e.g., Borges), sometimes not (e.g., RichRod). But people "show their work," are intellectually honest, and nobody pretends to be something they're not.
"a bunch of 50 year olds with parking passes in the Blue Lot"
Trust me -- insightful remarks among that crowd are, for some reason, few and far between. Is it too many years of mass-market sausage and beer? I don't know, but the handful of times I hear anything other than "toughness," "establishing the run," "keeping the defense off the field," and "playing together as a team" in that part of the parking lot are rare.
I am a 50+ year old and although I have zero insider info and less in parking passes, I also woudnt be able to find the blue lot much less park there, I do enjoy this site and hope to be at least maybe funny. I am semi intelligent I think and have a nerd for a son and even though he has yet to be right about anything, I love to listen to him. I don't have a clue how to write and I am sure my run on sentances annoy the hell outta some, but you have to take the good with the bad and old farts like myself. I will say this, I am intellectually honest and next to Brian (or a lot of people on here) I don't know anything about football but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night and my back is killing me, anyway I did play pop warner football then voluntarily chose hockey while going to high school. I want to say to everyone who I am sure already know that I am a nobody but I love my family and my family loves me and that makes me a somebody. So before you make fun of the old guys remember we have feelings, old ones, but they indeed are feelings and right now I need a nap after all this writing so I will bid you a wonderful day. and as always GO BLUE!!!
I'm not going to bitch about the writing, but I definitely didn't learn anything that I didn't already know except maybe the first tidbit about J. Lewis (who I already had pegged as the starting Dime CB and backup Nickel to Peppers). Also the Dawson part was encouraging.
***IMO***
Devin will be the starting QB - but if he struggles, coaches will feel more comfortable with Morris. However, he's still a year away.
Green and Smith are your RBs.
Funchess and Darboh are your starting outside WRs and Chesson will be the #3 WR even though Canteen is the "slot" WR
Bunting will redshirt and we'll use multiple backs and WRs more early with the absence of Butt.
Dawson will be the #3 OT, but that wasn't a huge prediction. He really doesn't have much competition IMO. Mags and Braden will start...Dawson will be the #3. Just like I think Bosch and Kalis will start and Burzynski is the #3 OG. Kugler and Glasgow at the C spot.
Clark-Pipkins-Henry-Beyer is the starting lineup in the fall IMO, but...
Ojemudia-Henry-Wormley-Godin back them up...Charlton gets some solid run at both DE spots. Hopefully Mone can be that 4th guy on the interior
I don't see Morgan doing anything to lose his starting spot, but we rotate the LBs enough that it doesn't matter. Snaps with Gedeon at WILL will be 50/50. Ryan and Bolden will be more like 75/25. Ross and RJS/McCray will be more like 65/35 IMO.
I think Stribling is your #3 outside corner all year with maybe Lewis supplanting him. I've got Lewis as your "starting" Dime CB and backup Nickel CB to Peppers (who I think plays Nickel all year because the coaches saw what moving Thomas around last year did to him and will be too scared to move Peppers around...I think he's the starting NB from day one and all season there is an injury)
Hill has always been the #3 S behind Wilson and Thomas...Clark is the #4 S.
To me, this offseason isn't really about guys finding roles and positions. It's about one thing and one thing only...getting better. Improvement is all we should be worried about. We finally have enough experienced bodies for the most part. They just have to take that next step...err LEAP forward.
All this seems reasonable, but you're forgetting about Hurst. He's definitely going to be ahead of Mone and judging from hype I've heard, might be even with Wormley. Probably depends on the spot. He's better in a nose role than Wormley I would think. I just hope Mone redshirts actually. I don't think he'll be more effective than Hurst and I want to lose a year of Mone if we don't have to.
He's DEFINITELY your 4th interior guy with Mone playing the Charlton role (at DE) as your 5th guy.
I don't think Mone redshirts because I believe he's already enrolled and Pipkins is hurt so he's getting some good reps right now.
From Mattison...and a little from Hoke.
That's all I heard. Basically it said that Hurst was the one getting all the buzz in practice in the fall/bowl season, but Poggi is really coming on now. He's playing SDE right now so he's kind of a tweener between that and the interior.
I don't see him making a huge impact this year because we have Beyer, Godin and Charlton at the SDE spot. Plus Strobel is there (even though I think he's ahead of Tom). I think both are bouncing back and forth between SDE and DT, but we're really starting to get some depth at both positions.
As for Darboh, he was the clear #2 before he got hurt last year. I think it really affected us because Chesson wasn't really ready early on.
I think Darboh reclaims his spot across from Funchess and Chesson is the 3rd guy. But all 3 will be on the field the majority of the time. I'm just not going to call Chesson a slot. Funchess has played in the slot, I'm sure Darboh will get snaps there. I just think those are your 3 WRs that are generally always on the field. Canteen/Norfleet will get sprinkled in just like Shallman/Kerridge.
Godin has been playing 3-tech.
These guys might be a little rough in their writing but who gives a shit? They don't write for a living.
*I* give a shit. Blogs like that make it easy for the "Walmart Wolverine" stereotype to endure.
I think if he gets healthy, I think he will be a sleeper WR this year.
Also think Shallman could do some damage given the rock.
I was really starting to like the play of Kerridge, he had a few errffs here and there but blew a lot of LBs up while blocking. I hope he and Houma aren't lost in the program as I believe they have something to contribute.
I would love to see Peppers get the ball a few times even if it just an early season crowd pleaser. Hopefully he takes right off from there.
Safety play still worries me a bit. But I will defer more opinions than that until the ball is snapped in the fall.
The unbridled optimism era of last year was fun for awhile. Like that there are some much lower key positives regarding development coming out. ALso like that there would appear to be a good upside going forward as the young team gets this one under their belt.
eroc must be drunk when he posts.
Needs to get laid.
Bad.
Things that make me want to gouge my eyes out:
erocwolverine - It is always nice to be playing good basketball going into the tournaments, but also doesn't mean much either because we have seen in the past teams that have played great going in lost on the first weekend and our own team has shown even last year that playing well down the stretch doesn't mean you won't do well in the NCAA tournament as well such as what happened last year which you need to play well, have good match-ups, hope for some teams to get upset, and of course like anything else you need some luck along the way -- such as the Kansas game.
Also look at it this way, right now we are in a lot better position this year and playing better at this time now than we was last year at this time. Remember? How many Michigan fans were complaining about the team last year at this time? Just as many fans were complaining about Coach Beilein remember that? Remember the comments about "I don't think he can lead us to greater heights". Down the stretch we wasn't playing that well or very consistent and didn't even look at that good the last 10 games or more of the season including the Big Ten tournament. Remember all the talk about "we will be lucky to win one game" in the NCAA tournament.
You and I get his point from the post, so please don't highlight his poor writing.
The first rule for the writer is to communicate. If he only wishes to communicate with himself gibberish may well sufice. However if his aim is to communicate with others and persuade them that he has a point, doing so with gibberish probably isn't the most effective way to do it. In his defense, such as it is, he is most likely a product of our public school systems.
There's a reason we learn grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. in elementary school.
You calling someone a "douche" for pointing out poor grammar is just as judgmental as someone pointing out bad grammar.
Ummmm...okay? I don't read GBMW, I've only visited about twice in my lifetime, and I'm doing just fine without their info.
So I guess I'll keep being a dick about it.
I guess you showed me, huh?
gee whiz Mr. Magnus, couldn't you please find it in your heart to not be a dick? Make it a christmas miracle sir.
Maybe when you learn to capitalize "christmas."
They're running a website whose success is based on having people read their writing. At that point, criticizing their execrable command of the English language is fair game. You would think they could put just a little effort in doing a better job. Instead they seem to take the tack that their poor writing is a badge of honor, shows they're pure football guys. Frankly, I've wondered sometimes whether they even read their own work.
that they are a product of the creative writing craze that swept the country during the 1990s. As a parent I was berated at parent teacher conferences because I was stifling my boys creative writing. My mortal sin was that I demanded that they use correct spelling and grammar on their homework assignments.
Exactly. A writer who can't write is like a teenage driver; he might get from Point A to Point B, but it's not going to be pretty.
past their wives/friends, even use the editing function in their word processor. That's just not pro-grade stuff, even for a very lax internet. You lose readers whether your insights have value or not. If a kid hands me a paper this poorly edited in an English class, I quickly assume s/he doesn't give a crap. It's disrespectful to readers to offer up run-on junk like that.
He seems like a reputable 14 yr old
I'm really upset that coaches and other people actually think Gardner is on a short leash. Dude is easilly the most dynamic playmaker we have and was our whole offense last year, not to mention a warrior. Yea he had 11 picks but he also had 30+ TDs and was second in the Big Ten in pass efficiencey despite being saddled with god awful protection, a running game that was killing drives on first down and screwy scemes virtually every week. We put in Morris . . . ugh, I don't even want to think about it.
DG was the QB, and that Shane was very talented with a ton of learning still to do. Laugh at them though Brian does, people still keep talking up the controversy. It IS annoying. Makes me want to pull out my race card and slap them upside their ignorant heads.
It feels like it did not happen or that it is not happening. So did spring practice start 2 weeks ago, and the NCAA allows 4 weeks? I hope the OL is getting motivated with Nuss there! We will have talent on the offense at the skilled positions, I just hope the young OL can improve.
Michigan had two practices, and then they went on spring break. That's why it's scarce.