Let's Overreact To: Spring Scrimmage #2
Via MGoVideo:
The king of tight camera angles was really feeling it this time around, so we don't get a whole lot of detail, but it's April. Events are not thick on the ground.
Play 1: Denard fires a TE out to Brandon Moore, immediate tackle by Kenny Demens and Jake Ryan. Ricardo Miller comes into the frame late: 2TE set from the shotgun, or Miller's splitting his time between TE and WR.
Play 2: What looks like an inside zone from the shotgun breaks big. Ryan is coming around the backside and gets butt-blocked by Lewan, and that's all she wrote. Where is the SDE?
Play 3: Similar but Toussaint hits his gap closer to the frontside between Omameh and Barnum. Black gets handled one-on-one by Barnum and Toussaint jukes a filling safety I can't identify to dance into the endzone. I think that was probably Marvin Robinson since he was not a white guy and Gordon comes into the frame at the end of the play. Bolden and Talbott are also in with what seems like the first unit.
Play 4: Denard zips a deep slant just over the outstretched hand of Brennen Beyer that Jeremy Gallon snags impressively:
That's Countess to the left. He's concentrating on the interception instead of the tackle and gives up a bunch of YAC as a result.
Play 5: Marvin Robinson clubs a quick TE out for little gain. Second unit there: Ringer and Mike Jones are on the field.
Play 6: More 2-on-2s action as an inside zone to Rawls is well defended on the front side; Rawls cuts back behind Quinton Washington for a big gain. Washington is a three-tech next to NT Ash, so it's not really his fault. Where is the WDE?
Play 7: Denard under center. Iso handoff to Toussaint goes nowhere as Ryan makes a nice play. Campbell beat Barnum and forced Toussaint behind the A-gap where Hopkins was leading into; Morgan thumped the FB at the LOS. Bolden now running with the first team. probably because this is after Demens did this:
He took the opportunity to claim he'd be out for the season as an April Fools joke before revising that down to a few weeks and then a couple days.
Play 8: Vincent Smith power from under center goes nowhere. Bolden ends up tackling near the LOS. He does not bring his feet, causing someone to cry out "bring your feet!"
Play 9: Gardner launches a deep fly to Gallon; Countess is all over it, knocking it away.
Play 10: Under center power is pretty much stuffed until Ryan can't quite make a tackle on Toussaint as he breaks outside containment. He did a good enough job of stringing him out and slowing him down that Countess and other members can rally and hold it down. Michigan still can't run power from under center.
It is possible that Toussaint had a decent gain if he slammed it up in the hole.
Play 11: Denard sits in the pocket, getting no pressure, then runs around being all fast and stuff.
Play 12: Gardner waggle does not meet pressure on the edge. Gardner lofts a nice touch pass over Frank Clark to walk-on former DE Chris Eddins.
Interlude: Man, is Elliot Mealer's forehead red.
Also he has a great mountain man beard going on. Some potential here for Mealer to be Mike Hart's Pet Viking down the road.
Play 13: Another under center run should be consumed until Toussaint makes it into a decent gain. Toussaint has to dodge Beyer in the backfield. Campbell is stunting behind this and overruns the play a little bit; he's got help to the frontside and lets Fitz behind him. He gets enough of Toussaint to put him to the ground but not before the play gets six or seven.
Play 14: Denard hangs in the pocket and zings it to Gallon; ball is well behind him and Gallon has to make a moderately difficult catch. I don't think this is that bad of a throw—at the coaches' clinic Borges said he wants his QBs to hold the receiver up when throwing against zone, which this is. He doesn't want the QB to lead the WR into a defender. So this is somewhat intentional.
Talbott still out there with the first team.
Play 15: Another TE out, this one from Gardner to Jordan Paskorz and a bit deeper. Jarrod Wilson appears for the first time.
Play 16: Denard zings a TE in to Moore for a first down. Gordon tackles.
Play 17: Taylor Lewan blocks Ryan. We don't see the ball.
Play 18: Unidentifiable leaping guy (probably Ryan or Beyer) dissuades Denard from throwing the throwback screen. Instead he takes off and is fast and stuff.
------------------------------------------
Any takeaways here? It feels like the offensive line depth chart is approaching ink: Barnum has won the center job and Mealer is the guy at left guard. We haven't seen a snap that would suggest otherwise yet. Things can change when the cavalry arrives in fall; for now it looks like the veterans have the edge.
There are a lot of plays featuring tight ends, which is kind of odd since everyone's claiming their tight ends are a major issue and won't feature much during the year. Eddins, Moore, and Paskorz all feature. This may be the Johnny Sears move where you promote the weakest link on the team in an effort to keep spirits buoyed.
Other bits: Bolden passed Mike Jones the minute he showed up. Terrence Talbott could be a viable option at corner and may be pressing for some time. Also he has six arms and an FTL drive. /BOOM FredJackson'd. Campbell isn't getting blown up by Barnum. They've got some edge issues. Big ones, issues where you wonder if they weren't playing with ten guys on the field.
Denard is fast. Their under center running game is still poor. Jeremy Gallon is making some nice downfield catches, and Toussaint is on another level from Rawls and Smith. You can see the difference immediately in these tight-frame closeups.
Toussaint looks really quick and his cuts are sharp. Im thinking he could have a Heisman caliber season if given enough carries.
I love the fact that Denard is looking to run quicker if his first option or two are not there. Unless those were designed runs and I just missed it.
Gallon made some nice catches. If he blows up this year, I'd feel a lot better about our recieving corps.
I would feel a whole lot better too. Lets also hope that Gerald Robinson blows up too.
It's August 2nd, right? One month to the season?
No man, I'm going to be a senior. I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE!
power running game is concerning, but its still early. With the receiving and TE play getting stronger, its encouraging that opposing defenses will have more than one weapon to focus on. Denard will always be fast, but if the threat of an improved passing game is legit, the running game will come around.
it's presumably good for the defense to practice against it. And perhaps we can feel a little good that the drop-off on the DL isn't very precipitous if they are able to hold up to our (granted, less than excellent) power running game.
Morgan is a sure tackler. I thought he might be replaced by the incoming class. But I doubt it now.
I'm really hoping to see Hayes a bit. He's going to have to be our speedy/slashy zone runner runner in the coming years. Heard he looks as if he spent the time in the weight room over the winter. Want to see if he's still got his speed and moves. Not to mention he probably has a good shot at returning kicks this year.
what does:
Borges said he wants his QBs to hold the receiver up when throwing against zone
mean?
that he doesn't want the WR to catch it in stride? that he wants the receiver to sit in the hole of the zone and make the catch before turning upfield?
thanks to anyone who can clarify.
IF the receiver is running through the zone instead of sitting, the QB should hold up the receiver by throwing into the opening instead of leading the receiver into coverage. It doesn't mean that the QB can't lead the receiver, but that the location of the pass should be determined by the positions of the defenders rather than the position of the receiver, even if that means throwing a little behind the receiver.
...the location of the pass should be determined by the positions of the defenders rather than the position of the receiver, even if that means throwing a little behind the receiver.
That strikes me as a pretty darn good encapsulation of what coaches mean when they speak of a QB having more "maturity" and making "better decisions."
I never played QB, and certainly not at this level ... but I have to imagine it's all quite a blur early on in a college QB's time. As time goes by the blur starts to come into focus.
This also makes me shake my head and think what might have been had Tate Forcier screwed his head on straight and stuck around. He had his football faults, but I thought he had a certain swagger that could have produced good results if properly channeled.
I bet Hoke has asked for so as not show the formations.
Hoke probably saw the last video and made sure he communicated by pointing extra hard at the camerman to stay in close. Looks like the message was received loud and clear.
I've always felt like DG was a little too calm in the pocket. My interpretation was that he had no sense of urgency. Obviously I'm wrong and that's just his demeanor.
The throw by Denard to Gallon is inches away from a pick 6. I can't believe that was the right read. Seems to me he was telegraphing that pass.
I'm sure you agree, the tight angles are intentional to keep people from going ape shit over the line personnel and play.
his first 3 years?
Thanks.
Are there enough hours in the day?
4th and 23 does not lend itself to anything approaching normal decision-making. I doubt he would have done this on 2nd and 4.
Anyone notice how the Gardner loft to Eddins(?) got a little heated at the end? I'm sure the players are trying to show they're tough and want a chance to play, but please no unnecessary roughness calls.
I don't know what their practice schedule is but either way, the amount of time, energy and passion you're putting into football during camps/off season workouts you're going to get chippy. even in low level HS football like I played two-a-days brought out the nastiness in guys. You reach your "breaking point." It happens on every team...guys get heated when they're spending that much time with each other and no one else to take it out on. I wouldn't worry about it. I'd venture to guess if you had all-access you'd encounter a least a couple "fights" in spring and/or fall practice. It happens.
"lunchboxthegoat" -- that wouldn't happen to be a reference to Fowlerville's "The Bloated Goat" bar, would it?
no, the only thing I know of Fowlerville is at some point the Grand Wizard of the KKK lived there (allgedly) and that sign for Fowlerville Farms off the side of the freeway with the ducks.
Also, the Fowlerville McDonalds and of course Tiger HOF'er Charlie Gehringer hails from Fowlerville
One more of these videos and Brian will end up doing UFR-level analysis.
Of course we are all reading too much - but my takeaway is that as long as what we see on early video is not overtly negative (e.g. interceptions, stuffed runs, edge issues) - its fine. I don't see much to be concerned with right now. We have depth issues at lines and those are being addressed, we have TE talent/depth issues and those are being addressed as well. The established pieces (QB, RB, DBs) are working as well as they did last season - so overall - we are good. Spring can continue to get better.
Just want to share a few things I heard regarding the scrimmage on Saturday.
- Lewan and Schofield will be the best OT tandem in the Big Ten. SDE and WDE were not able to do much at all against those two, but dominated anyone else at OT.
- T. Talbott is doing much more than pushing for PT. He is pushing for a starting spot.
- Fitz was unreal on Saturday. A lot of that is due to the o-line, but the other backs did not have near the success he had.
- Jarrod Wilson and Joe Bolden will both get PT this year. Wilson had a nice pick off of Denard.
- Denard is making much better decisons thus far this spring. Other than the pick mentioned above, he was very impressive.
- No one has really stepped up at WR and thus far that is looking like the lone weak spot on the team.
This is just one day of practice, so don't read too much into it. Just wanted to share these items with my MGoBrethren.
Much appreciated, consider this my +1.
the other OTs that our DL are going against are pretty poor, so it might be tough to say just how well they're doing/how well our OTs are doing.
so the praise on roundtree and jerald robinson...you're not buying it?
You're right about the other OT's. If either Lewan or Schofield goes down, we are in a heap of trouble.
As far as Roundtree and Robinson, I honestly don't know. I wasn't there and my brother-in-law (who game me the breakdown) didn't mention any WR by name. He just said that as a group they were pretty meh, at least on Saturday.
What happened to the other Talbott?
Pretty sure he received a medical hardship and his career is over. Could be wrong, as I have been wrong once before :)
Chronic back issues. Only blog link I could find quickly linked to a Freep article. Fortunately it was no longer available on line.
I've heard the same things regarding Talbott. Supposedly he has really gotten stronger and is pushing Floyd hard. We should have a damn strong rotation at CB this year with Countess, Floyd, Talbott, and Taylor.
He got a fair amount of CB PT last year...
My bad. Avery is in there as well. It is nice to have depth in the defensive backfield!
but i really don't like the way that DG fiddles with the ball after a shotgun snap. he twirls it 4 out of 5 times he gets it - looks like a future fumble.
Good catch. Not a big deal for pass plays, he's just getting to the laces and has two hands on the ball while doing it. What I don't like is that he is instinctively doing it on the run calls, just before handing off the ball... would hate to see it still spinning through his hands when the RB tries to mesh.
If he didn't do it on run calls, he'd be tipping off the defense that the play will be a run. Obviously you'd rather the transition be smoother, but if he's going to have a hitch I'd rather he keep the hitch on *every* play.
DG doesn't look very comfortable in the shotgun; i think I saw it twice in that video. Does anyone know whether he was under center in high school?
he ran shotgun in high school, too. Watched him plate at southgate for a state playoff game his senior year...
It feels good to have a running back establish himself as THE guy.
at 1:14 to block is impressive, but I cringed when he fell.
Would love to know how the progress is going...
IMO he should just get certain sets. That we he can focus on those plays.
With that said, he also needs snaps at QB...#1 to get better...#2 to give Denard's arm a rest
look faster? I thought that just maybe he did. A quiet assurance about him that also bodes well.
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