Carvin Johnson Starting in the Scondary. Devin Gardner likely won't redshirt.
My twitter is blowing up this morning. Two true freshmen starters, according to the first official depth chart, Carvin Johnson at a hybrid saftey spot. And Will Hagerup at punter.
And according to Varsity Blue "Rich Rod: Devin Gardner probably won't redshirt."
http://mgofootball.com/ This is the best link I have found this morning to the new depth chart.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:29 AM ^
sure went down the chart
August 30th, 2010 at 12:47 PM ^
Illinois last year, and Brian's DELICATELY WORDED COMMENT
August 30th, 2010 at 1:36 PM ^
that Mike Williams is not listed on the depth chart makes me feel better about our defense already.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:28 AM ^
Thats the speculative depth chart that was discussed days ago, thats not official.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:21 AM ^
Not sure If i scream...YYYYEEEESSSS, a recruit that will be better then advertised or NNNOOOOOOO, a true freshman who wan't anticipated to play starting.
August 30th, 2010 at 12:03 PM ^
I agreed with your sentiment until I got to wan't.
August 30th, 2010 at 12:07 PM ^
should start to go over work before sending...
August 30th, 2010 at 12:34 PM ^
I don't know why I couldn't figure that out for myself. Thanks... and now I can say I agree without reservation.
August 30th, 2010 at 1:28 PM ^
You had me at wan't...
You had me at wan't
August 30th, 2010 at 11:21 AM ^
I remember when reading all the hype and info about Carvin in the past year, I kept thinking he seemed like the type of player that could step in early, he seemed to have the intelligence to pick up a defense and play well early on. I just hope this is because Carvin outplayed Thomas Gordon/et all and not because everyone else struggled so much it's come down to a "well lets see if this works" type thing.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:22 AM ^
...RR has to pull out all the stops and win this year (8 or 9 wins minimally) or his tenure is over. Therefore, redshirting talent like Gardner isn't in the cards, unless DRob and Tate perform exceptionally well. Just my opinion, but I think it's "all hands on deck" time for RR and the Michigan program.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:35 AM ^
For some reason, I really like that saying.
August 30th, 2010 at 8:03 PM ^
What about if it's your deck?
August 31st, 2010 at 4:54 AM ^
and whose hands?
August 30th, 2010 at 1:06 PM ^
These are the most $%!& assumptions we can make. Play on the field and direction of recruiting will be heavily considered. If we make a bowl, beat one or two of our rivals and don't get blown out by anyone I would think DB will bring RR back. We would be bringing back all but one starter on O and one or two on D. RR deserves a chance to coach them next year unless this season blows up in his face.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:23 AM ^
Let the kids play!
August 30th, 2010 at 11:24 AM ^
Put the best players on the field, freshman or not. Might not be ideal, but whomever can makes plays should be out there.
Hope Carvin does Stevie Brown proud at the Hybrid.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:41 AM ^
August 30th, 2010 at 1:30 PM ^
Good Luck Carvin. Tip of the hat to GERG...Wag of the finger to Edsell.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:26 AM ^
that asked that Carvin Johnson be the next Charles Woodson in terms of Freshman success.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:26 AM ^
CJ is going to prove these people (and a lot of others)wrong:
Even happier that he might be a true safety prospect. But no big offers scares me a little. Yes we all know Pat White was a nobody and RR turned him into a giant killer of a QB but could we please wait until we are out of the running for some of the higher rated options before we start taking fliers on low rated small offer recruits.
I am not bashing on the kid but to not be rated at this point of the season might say something about his top end ability. Here's hoping that we still land the Knights, Grimes, and Christians of this class because lets face it, Michigan needs help now and can't wait for "projects" to mature.
November 3, 2009
Seems a bit strange to accept a commitment from him at this time. We're not in absolute crunch mode, but we're pretty darn close. I know the offer isn't new, but I feel maybe we should have waited till after the OSU weekend when we might know more from Cullen, Knight, etc.
It's not that these guys will be scared away, but if we can take more talented DB's, I'd prefer it. With Avery, Talbott, and now Johnson we have three "meh" DB prospects. I'm all for filling up the backfield, but do we need to take this many fliers? Or are they fliers at all?
I'm not good at evaluating talent, and if we can dig up some video on this guy, I'd defer to someone like Magnus to provide a little insight.
November 3, 2009
Meaning I'm indifferent.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:51 AM ^
I remember reading that Johnson was a shy kid and didn't hit the summer camp circuit, which hurt his rankings immeasurably. Michigan (Fred Jackson) found out about him first, and LSU was showing interest late but by then he was solid Blue. Watch the Beanie Bowl Countdown to Kickoff. He blitzes in the end zone, #13. It's one play, but it's clear the kid can MOVE.
August 30th, 2010 at 2:05 PM ^
seeing if this changes anything.
edit: nope.
August 30th, 2010 at 6:10 PM ^
What is this "November 3, 2009" thing all about?
August 30th, 2010 at 7:24 PM ^
...he was too subtle. Hint: at that time, Carvin was not highly regarded.
To be honest, my treacherous fingers still want to type "Calvin." Then again, I can barely type my own name.
August 30th, 2010 at 10:15 PM ^
What a bunch of complete bs this re-hashing of Carvin Johnson's status to Rivals on November 3, 2009 is...
This adds nothing to discussion of his current status as a potential starter on the defense or related to his development as a player.
Apparently, the 3 Star Mafia treatment is Hotel California status around here? How god damn ridiculous. Let's be happy the kid is developing as described earlier in the thread by one Mike Martin.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:38 PM ^
Dude, the only time in the past several months I have read the words "3 star mafia" is when you bring them up complaining about some potential appearance that never occcurs, or about some mistaken appearance that never happened (here). YOU are essentially the 3 star Mafia on this board. It will only die if you let it.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:27 AM ^
Interesting. I was just watching the Countdown video from Saturday last night (i.e. the video with the scrimage highlights) and noticed that Carvin Johnson was just flying around the field in several of the clips. I'm really excited to see what he can do!
August 30th, 2010 at 11:36 AM ^
I just re-watched that video after hearing this news and noticed just how much better Johnson looks now - he suddenly looks so much bigger, stronger, faster than he looked the other day.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:57 AM ^
Seriously, last night I saw a play on the Countdown to Kickoff vid, saw somebody flying around and thought, 'who the *%#$ is that?' Replayed it, froze the frame, #13 C. Johnson. Glad to know Rich Rod and I see eye to eye.
August 30th, 2010 at 1:38 PM ^
I'm sure Rich Rod is glad you agree with him as well.
August 30th, 2010 at 12:24 PM ^
I'm reading what you've said as some type of sarcasm aimed at what I wrote, but if you would read carefully what I wrote you would see that I said that I was watching the video last night (i.e. before this news came out). I was just commenting on it because it was one of the first times I've seen a play he's made featured in any of the videos this month and then the next day this news comes out. I definitely was not saying that I heard this news, then went back and re-watched the video and then posted what I wrote. Since I had not seen any film of him from this spring before yesterday it would be kind of hard for him to look bigger, stronger and faster than he did the other day...
August 30th, 2010 at 12:26 PM ^
No, your post just sparked the idea for my post. It was more of a topical reply rather than a critical or complimentary reply. Maybe I am sarcastic too often. But no /s.
August 30th, 2010 at 12:31 PM ^
Ah, ok, I apologize then. I'm far too sarcastic myself, so I usually read other people's comments that way. Sorry about that.
It is interesting how this came out, though. Who ever is editing these Countdown videos seems to be on the same page with the coaches on quietly leaking out information on position races or camp performance. There have been several instances now where the video comes out highlighting plays from certain players and then later that day there is big news about those players in press conferences. The same can be said about players that have been noticeably absent from the Countdown videos.
August 30th, 2010 at 12:44 PM ^
Yeah, it makes you wonder about the process from the editing room to the website - I would think that while the video team has some general guidelines from the RR as to what is allowed in the final video, RR or a coach has to give the final approval of each video. But if that is the case, it seems the coaching staff are more concerned with giving the fans something to be happy about (thus the overlap with what we see and camp performers) and perhaps even using it as a tool to push the kids (perform well and you will be an internet star for a day), than with giving away any secrets about who might start. Which makes sense in the current atmosphere.
August 30th, 2010 at 12:53 PM ^
Yeah, there does seem something to it. Not sure which of those reasons it would be for, but I'm not complaining about it!
August 30th, 2010 at 11:34 AM ^
In annarbor.com's season preview from yesterday, there was a quote from Denard that I thought was telling:
Asked about Gardner’s progress this summer, his competitor Denard Robinson said, “Pssh, he’ll play.” Robinson paused, and his eyes opened as wide as saucers. “He’s a player. He’s a player.”
August 30th, 2010 at 11:36 AM ^
Good thing he's #1 on the depth chart, beacause we all know how Carvin feels about being #2...
August 30th, 2010 at 11:37 AM ^
slight PANIC regarding DG. We need some separation between the QBs. We know RR wouldn't throw in DG just for garbage time so it means 1 or both of our soph QBs isn't getting it done, most likely. There is always the chance that DG is just insanely good and ready to take over but I'm not so sure...
August 30th, 2010 at 11:47 AM ^
1) Devin's definitely going to be in the mix for the starting role next year, so it's in the team's best interest to get him meaningful experience now.
+
2) Devin's got a very good chance to be taking snaps in the League in four years regardless of eligilibility status, so we might as well play him while we have him.
August 30th, 2010 at 1:09 PM ^
Why is it always that people think Robinson and Forcier need to be playing bad for Gardner to get talk about playing time? Seems very possible to me that our second year guys are very good and Gardner just picked things up faster and is very good as well. Is that too unlikely?
August 30th, 2010 at 1:11 PM ^
Do you honestly believe that DG would be here for FIVE years? If the kid is as good as everyone believes it's four years max so why redshirt?
August 30th, 2010 at 1:51 PM ^
redshirt players unless its necessary to burn them (i.e., the secondary, injuries, etc.). I hear your point about DG likely not being here all 5 years, but that's speculative, especially with a rookie salary cap going in.
Scenario 1 - Burn redshirt. Get him some game experience, though likely nothing of major consequence, then let him compete on a little higher level for playing time in 2011-12. Could be gone after 2012 and a solid Junior year. In any event must be gone after 13.
Scenario 2 - Redshirt. He is available 2011-2013 for sure. Create more separation between our talented QBs. Have a decent chance at a 5th year senior year in 2014, where he should be a monster.
I'll take 2, but that's just me. I also think scenario 1 would create transfer or position switch possibilities for the other 2 QBs.
August 30th, 2010 at 9:46 PM ^
You're back.
Unless I'm mistaken scenario 2 is off a bit, if he redshirted this year he could still leave after the 2012 season, if he so chose.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:57 AM ^
You mean gems like these?
Tim: "My point is that we can't be scraping the bottom of the barrel for S recruits when we're a strong leader for a couple big-time (at least much bigger than Johnson) S/CB rospects in Cullen Christian and Rashad Knight, to go along with a couple more true CB possibilities."
"As you can see, Johnson is a COMPLETE STUD that the recruiting services ABSOLUTELY LOVE and have even HEARD OF. One of the few snippets out there on him comes from his coach..."
August 30th, 2010 at 11:39 AM ^
waste a year on DG if he wasn't going to play often, he's obviously played well enough to get into the mix as a contributor. And he's clearly been working. With Denard starting and Tate now working in all areas, we've an embarassment of riches at QB.
We're still stacked until '13
Good for Carvin if this is true, he's been a likable recruit all along. Since we had limited info. on this spot anyway, don't know how to feel. Trust the coaches that he's the best
The stadium must be very loud on Sat. to give this D some help
August 30th, 2010 at 11:41 AM ^
I thought we would hear if he made the grades in summer school today?
August 30th, 2010 at 11:52 AM ^
He is on the depth chart. I would expect that mean's the coaches think he will play.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:43 PM ^
he takes his test tuesday