Rivals rehash of important transfers (incl. UM)
In this Rivals article on impact transfers you'll see three former Wolverines (Clemons, McGuffie, and Threet) in the featured list and another one (O'Neill) in the smaller list.
http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1096994
Which one was the biggest loss? I think McGuffie is the pick. I'd prefer him at slot receiver, though.
Who will make the biggest impact at their new school? Sam, again, I think.
Just saw this too. Way to (unintentionally) bring back bad memories Rivals. At least they didn't portray it in a negative manner for the most part.
I think McGuffie may have been too small. Wasn't he having problems with concussions before he transferred? I'm very curious to see how threet does at ASU. I think he is being put into a good situation there and should do well.
If the spring game is any indicator, Threet just might not be a good QB whichever situation he is put in. I don't think ASU's defense is THAT amazing.
I bear Threet no ill will but here are his numbers from ASU's spring game;
Threet was 9 of 27 for 117 yards. He threw three interceptions.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/asu/articles/2010/04/24/20100424asu-sun-devils-football-spring-game.html#ixzz0rn6hWXHW
Like. Ugh.
Rice Football Roster: Sam McGuffie 6'-0", 200 lbs as a RS Sophomore
Michigan Football Roster: Sam McGuffie 5'-11", 185 lbs as a true Freshman
Michigan Football Roster: Mike Hart 5'-9", 195 lbs as a Junior
Michigan Football Roster: Mike Hart 5'-9", 194 lbs as a true Freshman
Sam was leaner than Mike as a Freshman. Now he is bigger at the same point in time. I think Sam played injured more because he had an young and inexperienced line in a bewildering new system and he did not yet have college level playign weight on him. I also think Sam would have been much better off with a redshirt year under the Barwis plan to get up to that safe fighting weight. (So for that matter would have Tate.)
Bottom line is we had to play Sam (and Tate) before we ordinarilly would have if we had a solid roster of upperclassmen. That coupled with the line play exposed him.
Anyway - like I talk about Notre Dame Tate, there was Notre Dame Sam (my ND homer friends were in awe of him).
It's a strange world where you wish individual ex-Wolverine players success at other schools, but Sam and Steve are two in that book for me. They put it out there for us in less than ideal circumstances, and they left in a gracious way.
Bottom line is we had to play Sam (and Tate) before we ordinarilly would have if we had a solid roster of upperclassmen.
Yeah, right.
We just graduated Minor and Brown - both of whom were Juniors when McGuffie got his shot.
I like McGuffie and wish him well, but the reality of the situation was it did not work out at Michigan. He got clobbered too much, had too many concussions, and felt homesick. He wasn't leaps and bounds above Minor/Brown. Why RR went with him as the starter early on in the season, I do not know the answer to (I assume he looked better in practice, where guys weren't allowed to try to separate his head from his body).
Maybe by solid upperclassmen he meant "a solid roster of upperclassmen that didn't injure themselves peeling an orange or combing their hair." I am going to guess McGuffie being named starter had to do with the fact that Minor himself said he slacked off a little his Junior year and also the fact that he couldn't carry or stiff arm with the injured wrist he had. I think Brown was trying to work with an injured groin (or maybe that was last year) also, so to say they were the solid roster of upperclassmen is a bit misleading. Those two would have made up a solid roster of upperclassmen had they stayed healthy enough to play.
I was told that Minor and Brown were banged up at the beginning of that season. That was before I read MGoBlog though, so I may have just been misinformed.
That may be listed but he appeared no way near the weight on the field-probably exagerated like most of those numbers are. combine that with his running straight up style, he ran with little power and was pulled down constantly with arm tackles. Good luck, but good riddance
McGuffie suffered three concussions in 2008. That's scary. I'm glad he had the past year off, but even so, he is still probably more likely to be concussed than a player who has never had one.
McGuffie's really the only answer to both questions. We won't miss the others much at all.
I agree, McGuffie is the only guy in that group who would have done much had he stayed.
I'm curious what makes you both say Sam would have done well. I just finished watching the 2008 Wisco game and it looks like he just got knocked around like a pinball out there. Plus with the concussions (was it 2?) he got in his freshman year wouldn't have made him fragile going forward? I don't really mean in comparison to the others, I just mean in general.
to see what McGuffie could have done if he had someone to, you know, block for him once in a while and stuff.
He probably wouldn't have been a guy to get 20+ carries a game, but I think he could have been productive in the more mature version of the offense I hope we'll see this year.
I agree that he sometimes looked like a pinball (with low YAC), but I thought he was very good "in space." Putting him at the slot position would allow him to do his Wes Welker thing. He seemed to have good hands and receiver skills, too, based on a few longer routes.
IMO, McGuffie was a better slot receiver as a freshman than Odoms was. I'd still love to have McGuffie around, just not as a running back.
Am I the only one that remembers 08 ND?
receivers might disagree with that
The real guys we miss are guys like Artis Chambers.
This week is the anniversary.
I dont see any as a big loss. I dont think McGuffie had the combination of build, durability, and elusiveness to make it in the Big 10. Yeah I know he left for family reasons, but I think he was effectively done before that.
Wait a minute... that article states that Clemons and Threet both left "because the offense wasn't a good fit."
I was told by various media outlets that every transfer was due to a lack of family values and RR not being "a Michigan Man."
Rivals must have it all wrong.
None of those hurt us that much, I don't think. Threet and McGuffie are the only two key players, and neither left at a time we needed them. Threet was here for the only year duty was ever going to call him at Michigan, and McGuffie, IMHO, was not what he was cracked up to be and if he were still here probably wouldn't have been first string this year or last year.
I mean that as respectfully as possible, of course. I hold Threet in very high regard for toughing it out in 2008 and I do not blame him at all for heading for somewhere with a better shot at success (and playing time). McGuffie was homesick and couldn't avoid concussions every other week while here, so I can't blame him at all for transfering closer to home and in a league where he was less likely to take beating that was getting to him here. I'll never forget the sandwhich he got returning a kick against MSU. I was near the top row and I could hear that over everyone yelling. Probably the only time I ever excused someone for fumbling, and hopefully the last.
between getting concussed while playing for Michigan or concussed while playing for the Rice Owls.
There's a troubling tendency here. Hopefully Sam has a great, safe year.
Neither do I. Tulsa's players are pretty big, too (to take an example), and I'll bet they're nearly as fast as players from teams in the bottom half of the Big Ten.
I think McGuffie definitely would have contributed, but I don't think he would have started, even if he had been healthy.
I don't much care about transfers out of our program.
That being said, I wish none of them anything but the best - except for Justin Boren (and that has more to do with the way he left, even more than where he went.)
Just hope the MGoKarma shows up at his doorstep soon...
Should really consider quitting football altogether, 3 concussions in one year is serious. If he gets another this year, he should seriously consider hanging up his cleats. I also understand that a 19-20 year old kid doesn't understand that. So hopefully, the year off helped his brain heal and I wish him the best at Rice.