Morgan Trent and the Cinci Bengals
morgan trent has had a solid day against the steelers. hes had the ball thrown at his side a few times and made some nice plays, including a tip pass that led to an interception, i believe. im really happy for the kid who was a 4 year punching bag among many of the fans.
on a related note, with dhani jones, leon hall and now morgan trent is the bengals the honorary all michigan defensive unit?
November 15th, 2009 at 3:58 PM ^
just popped the tube on and saw Trent make a solid tackle on santonio holmes on the sideline 1 on 1. Good seeing him succeed - why wasn't he better at M?
November 15th, 2009 at 4:44 PM ^
That is one reason...db coaching.
November 15th, 2009 at 4:00 PM ^
I thought the loss of him alone would have made our defense better this year. Boy was I wrong.
November 15th, 2009 at 4:04 PM ^
Does this say that our defensive system is that bad, or that he's improved that much? Hard to imagine him improving that much, so.....
November 15th, 2009 at 4:24 PM ^
i always thought he had a poor shake and thought he was better than many of us gave him credit for. but the fact that hes playing this well, as a rookie, is something that i never thought. good for him.
November 15th, 2009 at 5:22 PM ^
... and Chad Henne had a great final drive that put the 'Fins over the Bucs...
Go Blue!
November 15th, 2009 at 6:54 PM ^
Jason Avant and Breaston are having great days too, especially Avant hes over 120 yards so far. Imagine the the possibilities if we threw the ball more with that receiving corp we had in 04, simply amazing.
November 15th, 2009 at 7:25 PM ^
Not bad at all for a rookie who was recruited as a WR, had some trouble at his position in college, and was drafted in the 6th round. I'm really glad to see he's playing well. It takes a special kind of person to forget about all the doubts that people might have about him and to break out at the professional level. Go Trent!
November 15th, 2009 at 7:30 PM ^
Morgan Trent got a bad rap when he was at Michigan. He was good as a redshirt junior and suddenly - when the ENTIRE defense went to hell - he didn't have a good year. Shafer was not only the defensive coordinator but also the cornerbacks coach...
Anyway, Trent has played pretty well in the NFL, which kind of shows that he had some ability in the first place.
November 15th, 2009 at 8:16 PM ^
Michigan players are all over the NFL and playing well. Avant, Breaston, Henne, Woodley, Trent, Hall, Manningham, David Harris, Dhani, etc, etc, etc.
Strange that Hart and Henson are not in the league (unless Hart has been picked up in which case, I apologize). Just goes to show, college play does not translate like a glove to the pro game, and is only more an indicator.
Might explain why the Lions refuse to recruit Michigan players, meanwile, the NY Giants love Michigan players (correction: Bill Parcells loves Michigan players-at least OL, TE, RB, and QB).
November 15th, 2009 at 8:38 PM ^
Hart is back with the Colts.
If Henson would have stayed for his senior year, he would have been a 1st rounder. That would have guaranteed him a rich first contract, and even if he did poorly, a couple other teams would probably have given him a good shot.
November 15th, 2009 at 9:02 PM ^
If Henson would have had a chance in the NFL had he stuck with football. He was out of football for three years, and in part because he wasn't fresh out of college he didn't get much of a chance with the Cowboys.
Had he played his senior year at Michigan, he likely would have gone pro as a first or second rounder. Even if he had gone to the NFL after his junior year, I suspect he would have gone at least in the third or fourth round based on the fact that the NFL was strongly interested in him years later.
As a reasonably high draft choice, his team would have been invested in him and frankly given him more of a chance than the Cowboys did. Three additional years of experience certainly couldn't have hurt.
No guarantee he would have made it, obviously. I admit I'm still annoyed with him for going to the Yankees (mostly because it put Navarre in the starting role before he was ready).
November 15th, 2009 at 9:44 PM ^
Henson was actually hyped as a potential Heisman candidate during the 2001 offseason (before he quit football). That's what sucked the worst about the Yankees stealing him. We were deprived of what could have been one of the best seasons by a Michigan QB ever. He showed glimpses of what could have been at the end of the 2000 season. He was amazing in the OSU game that year.
November 16th, 2009 at 6:53 AM ^
OSU Alum George Steinbrenner tampered with UM's roster when he gave Henson the "take it or leave it" ultimatum. Sadly, it was legal and there was nothing UM could to about it. I wonder if Henson is glad he took Steinbrenner's money now?
I think Henson's biggest problem is that throwing a football is a different motion than throwing a baseball. The distal upper limb is pronated almost ninety degrees more when throwing a baseball overhand than when throwing a football. When you do that for three years and don't throw the football as much, it can't do much for your passing skills.
It's too bad Henson didn't turn down Steinbrenner's money and stay at UM. He would have gained folk hero status for turning down OSU alum money to stay at UM. And he may have started a precedent for mobile QB's at UM.
Instead, it's taken until now for UM to finally have that mobile QB so many fans have wanted to see. And now, we will get to watch a bunch of them.
November 16th, 2009 at 10:21 AM ^
I live in the NY area and saw Henson play when he came up on the Yankees expanded roster in September of that one season. He had been spotty in the minors and they wanted to see what he could do. Several things were obvious right away.
- He could not hit a major league curveball - not even close.
- He was not a good 3rd baseman - that was his position - at one time he was billed as the next great power hitting 3rd baseman ala Mike Schmidt. Speculation was he two tall for the infield - don't know if they ever tried him in the outfield.
Interesting point on the throwing motion difference - I always figured he could step right back into football but apparently not.
Elway played in the Yankee system briefly before heading to football but I think it was less than one season.
November 15th, 2009 at 9:00 PM ^
It is great to see former Wolverines playing well in the nfl, now you can vote for them for the pro bowl.
http://www.nfl.com/probowl/ballot
Tom Brady, Chad Henne, Jason Avant, Steve Breaston, Braylon Edwards, Mario Manningham, Jake Long, Steve Hutchinson, David Baas, Leon Hall, Charles Woodson, Larry Foote, David Harris, Dhani Jones, Jay Feely
Feel free to add if I have left someone off this list.
November 15th, 2009 at 9:40 PM ^
Jeff Backus!
November 15th, 2009 at 10:51 PM ^
How is Adrian Arrington doing?
November 16th, 2009 at 12:00 AM ^
He's currently on their practice squad. Shame, too - last year there was some good hype about him as a rookie and then he got hurt and went on IR and hasn't had time yet to build a good rapport with Brees.
November 16th, 2009 at 12:10 AM ^
Yeah, plus NO is pretty loaded with receivers. Hopefully AA will get noticed and break through somewhere. Dude has tons of potential.
November 16th, 2009 at 9:13 AM ^
Caught a little bit of Morgan Trent yesterday and what he's doing is impressive. It begs a question many of us have - was the coaching that bad last year (and several prior) or do some guys just suddenly blossom in the NFL? Was the safety play that bad that it hurt the corner play that much? You could analyze it forever.
While he was certain to be drafted last year I think just about everyone had questions about whether Trent could play in the NFL. That question is answered.
The 2007 Michigan team we now know was loaded with NFL talent.