More Optimism - A Look at HS All-Americans
Coach Rod got some talented freshman great experience this year (aside from the obvious Tate and Denard on offense and Roh (UA AA) on defense) that will get unleashed at the beginning of the 2010 season including Vincent Smith, Roundtree, Omameh and Campbell (Army AA), and there should be even more talent to contribute in 2010 as the season unfolds like these kids did in 2009.
The following guys were Under Armour or Amry All-Americans and redshirted this year (not sure on Stokes):
2009:
Army AA
JT Turner - CB
Je'Ron Stokes - WR
Anthony LoLata - DT
Brendan Gibbons - PK
Jeremy Gallon - Slot
UA AA
Taylor Lewan - OT
Isiah Bell - LB/S
Quinton Washington - OG
That's some pretty stellar looking talent spread across the field waiting in the wings.
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A look ahead:
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2010 Commits:
UA AA
Devin Gardner - QB Marvin Robinson - FS - Early Enrolee!
Army AA
Will Hagerup
Possible:
Dillon Baxter?
Tony Jefferson?
Dior Mathis?
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A look back to see where our past AA's ended up or how they contributed:
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2001:
Pierre Woods - Patriots
Marlin Jackson - Colts
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2002:
Mike Kolodjzei - backup O-Lineman?
Jason Avant - Eagles
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2003:
Garret Rivas - awesome kicker/nickname "Pork Chop" also awesome
Clayton Richard - MLB Pitcher
Will Paul - backup DT?
Ryan Mundy - Injured/transferred then drafted
Leon Hall - Bengals
Shawn Crable - Patriots?
Anton Campbell - Transferred?
Prescott Burgess - Ravens
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2004:
Max Martin - transferred
Tim Jamison - multi-year starter
Chad Henne - Dolphins
Doug Dutch - Special Teams contributor - never found position
Jeremy Ciulla - left at coaching change?
Alan Branch - Cardinals
Adrian Arrington - Saints
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2005 - bad year except for Space Emporor of Course:
Marquez Slocum - yeah...that whole Lion thing
Zoltan Mesko - Best punter EVER
James McKinney - ?
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2006:
Stephen Schilling - should dominate next year
Jonas Mouton - hopefully can put it together for Sr. year
Brandon Graham - best player on the team this year
Steven Brown - best LB on the team
Mr. Plow - argh
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2007:
Mike Williams - still young, hopefully the light goes on here
Donovan Warren - will be best the player on the Defense in 2010
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2008:
Brandon Smith - monster on Special Teams as a RS Frosh
Sam McGuffie - bler
Boubacar Cossoko - bler
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That's a pretty good record of good play from All-American kids that didn't end up transferring/quitting or pulling a Benedict Arnold. An especially big haul (9 contributers)in 2003 and 2004 probably directly contributed to the stellar 2006 season.
I'm hoping all the 2009 talent (10 All-Americans) will emerge en force in the 2011 season and we will see an 11-0 spread 'n' shred edition of the Maize&Blue destroy the Buckeyes the next time they come to Ann Arbor...maybe on the way to a National Championship.
That's a pretty good record of good play from All-American kids that didn't end up transferring/quitting or pulling a Benedict Arnold. An especially big haul (9 contributers)in 2003 and 2004 probably directly contributed to the stellar 2006 season.
I'm hoping all the 2009 talent (10 All-Americans) will emerge en force in the 2011 season and we will see an 11-0 spread 'n' shred edition of the Maize&Blue destroy the Buckeyes the next time they come to Ann Arbor...maybe on the way to a National Championship.
November 23rd, 2009 at 3:53 PM ^
I read on rivals that Marvin Robinson will be in one of the All-American bowls. The Under-Armour bowl I believe.
November 23rd, 2009 at 4:08 PM ^
http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1019699
"Before enrolling at Michigan in January, Robinson will participate in the UnderArmour All-American Game in Orlando on Jan. 4."
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:45 PM ^
Didn't Robinson have a season-ending injury this year?
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:54 PM ^
He had a groin injury that kept him out a few games, but word was he sat out the last few because his team was horrendous (they won 1 game or something) and he didn't want to risk re-injuring it. He wanted to be healed and ready for winter conditioning/spring practice. That was the rumor I heard.
November 23rd, 2009 at 3:58 PM ^
I had forgotten about Lewan until I saw a shot or two of the sidelines on Saturday that he was in. He looks like he's going to be a monster.
November 24th, 2009 at 8:49 AM ^
Quinton Washington if absofuckinglutely enormous. Lewan at tackle and Washington as the ultimate road-grader at guard sounds like a plan to me.
November 23rd, 2009 at 4:01 PM ^
I can't believe he wasn't a selection to play in one of these games. Travesty.
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:54 PM ^
If we can pull off Cullen Christian (CB), Grimes (CB)- Murphy (DE) combo, Furman (S), Beau Allen (DT), Beachum (DT) and any other defensive three to four star talent this will be an incredibly successful recruiting class. The pipeline of offensive talent began last year. Defense is around the corner. The OSU loss hurt, but having it a be a close game where the defense looked competitive was huge for the future of the program.
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:08 PM ^
I could be completely out in left field on this. Didn't Mundy graduate then go to WVU as a grad student to use his last year of eligibility that he had coming?
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:10 PM ^
This is strictly from memory and could be way off...but I think he had a funky neck injury and the michigan staff didn't want him to play with it.
Yes, he did transfer to WVU by going to Grad school there. There was a funky rule that has been repealed where you could do this if the school you transferred to offered a graduate degree your current school did not offer.
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:45 PM ^
all of the freshman of this year were redshirted besides stokes
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:52 PM ^
you mean the ones I have listed as redshirting, correct? Because obviously quite a few true freshman played this year...
I did see a chart this afternoon that had Stokes as not getting a redshirt and sophomore eligibility next year.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:17 PM ^
Cullen makes his decision tomorrow, it is looking good that we get him!!
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:50 PM ^
This is a great post and has me really excited for next season. I had forgotten how much talent we redshirted this year. Here's to hoping they can make big contributions to next years team
edit: and this list doesn't even include the talent that didn't play in the AA game
December 2nd, 2009 at 12:37 PM ^
Cullen Christian was picked as an Army All-American.
http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/varsityblog/archive/2009/11/30/…
That makes 15 over what will be five classes assuming a few red shirt this year. (2007, 08, 09, 10)Plus any we get next year that don't redshirt. Significant upward trend as well!
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