Other Possible Michigan QBs for 2008
So there's a lot of worry about the quarterback situation next year. About how our best prospect is Georgia Tech transfer Steven Threet, who has yet to throw a pass in college football and would probably trip over himself if he tried to take off running. And about how the only dual threat quarterbacks we have for next year are walk-on Nick Sheridan and incoming 3-star freshman Justin Feagin. While one of these three lucky fellas will probably walk onto that football field as a starter next year, I for one would like to take a look at two other players on the Michigan team that just might be better prospects.
RB Carlos Brown - Mr. Brown played quarterback and running back at his Heard County High School. He completed 27 of 52 passes for 541 yards, and even practiced a bit as quarterback as a freshman at Michigan. And just as important, he's a proven runner who racked up 100-yard games against Illinois and Minnesota last year, even while splitting time with Brandon Minor! He's 6 feet tall, only 2 inches shorter than Henne. He is a true dual-threat option: a quick, proven runner who can heave the ball when necessary. More details here: http://thosewhostaywillbechampions.blogspot.com/2008/01/should-carlos-brown-switch-to-qb.html.
Incoming DB Brandon Smith - Again, played quarterback in High School in New Brunswick, NJ. His highlights on YouTube show more passing than DB play (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Wv3BrV6Uis4). He is 6-3, great height for a QB, and runs a 4.5 according to rivals. He passed for over 1000 yards both junior and senior years in high school, and rushed for another 800 his senior year. This guy is a real-deal quarterback, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's given a serious shot at handling the offense when he gets on campus.
Threet will be much better than anyone is expecting. He's a very accurate passer and moves much better than Michigan's last two starting QBs.
Like Chitown said, this guy was a very good recruit and being in the Elite 11 is nothing to sneeze at. This guy has the chops. I find it funny that people at South Carolina and Pitt are super excited about their new star QBs who were rated along the same lines of Threet in the same incoming freshmen class. We, and everyone else, are downright dejected about QB prospect.
Granted, the apprehension towards Threet is that its hard to picture him in the Pat White mold. But, that assumes RR is going to try and carbon copy the last couple years at WVA right away at UM. He's smarter than that. In Threet he has the best passer he's had as a head coach. In UM's recieving corps, he has more talent, even if its raw, than he's ever had. He scored a big commit with McNeal and is working his ass off to get Rueben Randle. He would not be doing this if his plan was to do nothing but run.
Look at the Big 12. The spread offense dominates that league, but all of them run a relatively pass first type of offense. RR will incorporate a lot of that to match the talent on hand.
The key is the OL. If they can develop and give Threet time, our offense will be much better than expected. But if the OL struggles--and lets face it, they struggled last year and are now both less talented and experienced--it could be very dicey.
would he be a Senior or a Junior?
If only.... damn.
Here is a quote from Lloyd Carr from the spring of 2007 when Carlos was considering switching to CB
"Carlos Brown came in to see me after the bowl game and has an interest in moving to cornerback. That's going to be a great move for us. We will still work him some as a tailback, but Carlos, because of our situation a year ago at quarterback with Antonio Bass being out, Carlos' development as a tailback was limited because during the course of the season, we prepared him to play a role at quarterback if we had so needed. Jason (Forcier) had some problems, and we weren't sure he'd be able to hold up. Carlos played quarterback in high school. He has handled a difficult first year extremely well. I'm really excited about what I've seen from him this winter and his potential to develop over there."
As for seeing any time at quarterback in 2007, Coach Carr said, "He had an unbelievable number of repetitions last fall for a couple of reasons. Antonio Bass probably would have been our backup quarterback a year ago. We also needed to prepare our defense against some spread teams. What we decided was to create an offense with a limited number of plays where we could utilize some of the things Carlos can do. He's not going to play any quarterback at least in my plans this spring, but to say that he never would – I can't say that."
Getting repetitions when the backup QB is nicked up and the rest are walk-ons, redshirts, or injured doesn't imply that he was ever Henne's backup. On every depth chart in 2006, Forcier was listed in the 2-deep and even played in 6 games (garbage time obviously). He also ran the scout team offense.
The quote you bolded is even more convincing that he wasn't good enough to seriously compete at QB for the reasons Carr gave. First, an unbelievable amount of repetitions is what, exactly? Unbelievable amount for a RB, a backup QB in a weak depth chart? Next, preparing the defense for spread teams is basically saying he's just scouting for the defense, so he's good enough to be a scout team dummy QB, pretending to be Troy Smith or whomever running QB we were playing. Great. Finally, they wanted to try an offense they made for Antonio Bass. Also great. Antonio Bass as an option at QB was an experiment that unfortunately wasn't completed b/c of his injury. With Brown, they were experimenting with an experiment. That doesn't give me any confidence that he would've been good enough for game action, especially in conference play.
As for Carr's comments on his potential, coaches always says stuff like that about players and it's usually fluff. Brown was a journey player who tried at a few positions on the field (RB, DB, KR/PR, QB). With an athlete like him, you have to try him somewhere or you will waste his obvious talent. If you try him at enough places, something is bound to work and for a lil while, it looked like nothing was working. As an aside, I'm glad he worked out at RB. He's strong, home-run threat fast, and has experience. We are so excited about the freshman coming in that we ignore how well Brown could do as a RB in this offense. Keep him there.
by originally? The only time i remember him being mentioned as a DB was when they threatened to move him there and he threatened to transfer, then grady broke his leg so carlos stayed.
I remember lloyd saying something like carlos was hurt in his development at RB because he was forced into some backup QB duty and was running the scout team at QB. Was forcier nicked up at anytime? if so that would have moved carlos ahead of the cone/richards/sheridan mess.
Also, smith is not a QB, yes he played one in h.s. but feagin is the much better running qb prospect. I would expect carlos and feagin to both get snaps unless threet just all of a sudden has the light bulbs go on.
It's gotta be hard for a guy that's had 5 offensive coordinators in just under two years. (H.S. Gatech1, gatech2, lloyd's, RR's. That's like learning 5 different languages so he's bound to be a little confused for a while. But he should have a good philosophical understanding.
you're absolutely right.
what happens to newsome/forcier(?)/beaver if threet has a good year? how about a great year?
that's right. he enrolled at gtech in the spring of 2007, then transferred to UM before the start of the 2007 season, but he still had to sit it out.
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