Having an O-Line to believe in, what if?
January 17th, 2018 at 4:31 PM ^
I hope he come back but im not optimistic since he hasent even been cleard to practice....
January 17th, 2018 at 4:31 PM ^
Great OP.
January 17th, 2018 at 4:48 PM ^
January 17th, 2018 at 4:49 PM ^
I haven't believed in the OL for a long time. However,
- if Newsome came back healthy,
- Even better, if Calvin Anderson transferred in,
- even better, if Patterson was able to play next year,
Well, that could be a huge, huge jump start for next season. Badly needed.
I am waiting and hoping about all the redshirt freshmen on the OL. But adding a solid starter would take pressure off, and provide even more depth.
- With meritocracy,
- with two solid incoming tackles,
- with three upperclassmen tackles
- with two redshirt freshmen tackles,
- with two true freshmen tackles,
- with potentially TWO MORE true freshmen tackles
There's gotta be a solid two guys, with a solid two backups. I would really hope that with a pool of 11 guys, you'd come up with a couple who were decent. Right?
January 17th, 2018 at 4:53 PM ^
January 17th, 2018 at 4:55 PM ^
January 17th, 2018 at 7:16 PM ^
January 17th, 2018 at 11:44 PM ^
January 17th, 2018 at 5:00 PM ^
January 17th, 2018 at 5:04 PM ^
January 17th, 2018 at 5:06 PM ^
to play at 100% much less back to his athleticism. Michigan have a huge hole at OT on both side that it will handicap Michigan's chances of winning B1G
January 17th, 2018 at 5:13 PM ^
January 17th, 2018 at 5:16 PM ^
A lot of whistling past the graveyard on this thread.
January 17th, 2018 at 5:22 PM ^
Going to be good-to-great inside for the next several years. Tackles will be better pass blockers in '18; athletic redshirt tackle X/Rice Guy/Newsome will be a pass pro upgrade on Cole if a run game downgrade and JBB/whoever beats out JBB will be better than '17 JBB.
Most importantly, the communication and blitz pickup should improve with experience and time on task together.
I'm predicting they're better pass blockers, rush for 200+ game, land three guys on the All-B1G lists, and have a bunch of people on here whining about them. So basically 2016 OL prior to the Newsome injury-ish overall performance.
January 17th, 2018 at 6:26 PM ^
FIFY.
January 17th, 2018 at 5:32 PM ^
should get their hopes up about Newsome. Really love this kids attitude and work ethic, but to return from what he went through and play tackle in the B1G, taking into account he hasn't played in 2 years???? I think it's a long shot he can really add much to the OL next year.
Now if Bredeson can shift to tackle and play well we should be in decent shape, especailly if he can play LT. Then you have Hudson, Horningford, Filiaga, Stueber and Ulizio to compete for RT and would hope out of all of those bodies we can find a serviceable RT.
Inside Ruiz should be a very good center and Onwenu at one guard is very good. Then you have Runyon Vastardes and Spanellis to compete for the other guard position and feel out of them you should be able to get a very good interior line.
If we can somehow land the Rice transfer this line could be vastly improved next year.
January 17th, 2018 at 6:26 PM ^
January 17th, 2018 at 6:52 PM ^
But a solid (and hopefully improved) 3rd-year starter with an imperfect skillset for LT is probably better than one of the kids coming off redshirt. Only a fully recovered Newsome or the Rice grad transfer is likely to be better than Bredeson at LT.
Remember, the staff trusted Bredeson to start as a true frosh once Newsome was injured. They did not yet trust any of the guys who redshirted in 2017, or you would have seen one of them at RT this year.
January 18th, 2018 at 9:30 AM ^
so flip him to RT and let our others battle it out for the LT spot and hope we land the Rice transfer.
January 17th, 2018 at 11:37 PM ^
Onwenu needs to get into shape. Early in the season he couldn't play a full game, so we saw a lot of Runyan. Once Ruiz got up to speed we didn't see him again until bowl time when he was playing LG for the first time due to Bredeson working through something. If you can't stay on the field...
January 18th, 2018 at 10:21 AM ^
I just don't understand this Calvin Anderson hype. You say nobody should get their hopes up about Newsome (Are you close with him? How's his leg?), and that our gang of offensive tackles will max out at "serviceable". Quite pessimistic.
And in the next breath say our line could be "vastly improved" by landing a former 2-star recruit who just finished up 4 years with one of the worst football programs in all of FBS. All of our guys are shit, but this guy is a the best? Based on what?
No offense. Just pointing out the mentality. This is how the board ends up convincing itself that John O'Korn is the next Steve Young.
January 18th, 2018 at 10:37 AM ^
90% of the talk will be of the unicorns and rainbow variety until we actually see team play in South Bend.
January 17th, 2018 at 5:40 PM ^
Ruiz >> Kugler
RS So Onwenu > RS Fr Onwenu
Jr Bredeson > So Bredeson
January 17th, 2018 at 7:16 PM ^
Long time viewer and fan. First time creating an account on a message board. Bear with me. If you watched the bowl game you saw Spanellis come in for Kuglar at center and he did a very good job with the line calls and pass blocking. The ability to have a large dominant center allows the horseshoe to form for the pocket and lets the qb have a place to step into his throws. I think ruiz will be a good gaurd. If the line play takes a step forward with age and experience and gets decent tackle play we could be very good. Our problem with stunts will improve with practice and having a dominant physical center.
January 17th, 2018 at 7:13 PM ^
In ESPN's way too early Top 25 that was updated today, they have JBB listed as a key loss. Has there been any official statement on his status with the program?
January 17th, 2018 at 7:32 PM ^
I think it's a mistake on ESPN's part - believing he has no eligibility left.
Anderson would be a nice pick-up and like many on this board, I'm not so certain we can count on Newsome to contribute this season.
LT: Hudson vs Stueber vs Anderson?
LG: Bredeson, Spanellis
C: Ruiz, TBC (Runyan vs Vastardis as back-up?)
RG: Onwenu, Filiaga, Ulizio, Honigford
RT: JBB vs Hudson vs Stueber vs Filiaga
January 18th, 2018 at 12:08 AM ^
January 18th, 2018 at 9:33 AM ^
really put on that much weight. I thought he was in the 260 range and I was hoping he would come in like 275 and spend a RS year getting up to 300
January 17th, 2018 at 8:42 PM ^
January 17th, 2018 at 8:43 PM ^
I'm just not seeing how Newsome can regain all that lost strength, muscle and athleticism in such a short amount of time. Hope he can do it but it would be superhuman if he got back to fighting form in time for the 2018 season.
January 17th, 2018 at 9:04 PM ^
January 18th, 2018 at 11:08 AM ^
The video is still pinned to his Twitter account. August 2017, 10 months after his injury but only 9 months after he completed his 40-day/6-surgery hospital stay, he was running down the Michigan practice field. He went from dead-legged near amputee in October '16 to running down the field 10 months later.
He will have had 13 months (from that video until Notre Dame) to go from relatively recovered running to the necessary strangth and agility to play tackle. Is that asking a lot? I have no idea. Maybe? It depends? How much agility did he have at that point in August? Could he only run straight lines? Was he able to shuffle side-to-side? Does anybody know?
And if you don't know the answer to any of those questions (which I definitely don't), how can you assess the probability of his return, positive or negative?
January 17th, 2018 at 9:01 PM ^
January 18th, 2018 at 10:00 AM ^
That's been the biggest disappointment for me for a decade. We get good guys and they end up being terrible to meh. Why? How? We've had good coaches teaching them, or coaches who have had success in prior stops.
And in the same time we've rebuilt and relaoded the D line.
It's vexing.
January 17th, 2018 at 10:01 PM ^
Same story, new year for the better part of a decade.
January 18th, 2018 at 8:36 AM ^
We've just got to be able to pass block. Our power success rate was 79.5% which was good for 7th best in the country. The OL ranked pretty bad on standard down sack rate (118), passing down sack rate (104), and adjusted sack rate (117). I know this is pretty much an obvious statement that we all witnessed, but unless we can pass protect better it's going to be another frustrating season.
January 18th, 2018 at 10:13 AM ^
Whether Newsome makes it back or not, hopefully this year the O'line takes a step or two forward.
Hopefully the new o'line coach and s&c coach are improvements, but either way these guys are going to be adjusting to a new coach and his methods, most likely different than the last. If Drev is the O'line guy at least he's a familiar one.
Go Blue