2010 True Freshman Starters

Submitted by Marley Nowell on

With Michigan's relative youth on the depth chart there are sure to be several players from the 2010 class that will make a contribution this year.
However I think that true-freshman starters are something you don't really want to happen.

Let's look at who started as true freshman (at some point) in 2009:

Quarterback: Tate Forcier
Running Back: Vincent Smith
Linebacker: Craig "Death" Roh
Box Safety: Jordan Kovacs

This is way too many freshman starters, especially since V.Smith was the only player to actually beat out possibly better options.

2010 should see a lot less true freshman from playing. I think that Troy Woolfolk will be the Deep Safety so one of the CB spots will be open if JT Floyd doesn't win the job. Also the Spinner position will be open.

2010 Potential Starters

Spinner: Josh Furman/Marvin Robinson
Cornerback: Cullen Christian/Demar Dorsey
Punter: Will Hagerup

Hagerup is almost guaranteed to start but the other 2 positions are undecided. It is quite possible Michigan will have no true-freshman starts in 2010. Yay depth!

GO BLUE!

spacemanspiff231

February 17th, 2010 at 3:16 PM ^

I think it's been discussed on this board and enough other places a thousand times. Marvin Robinson is going to play as a safety, not the "spinner", at least to begin with. And it is highly unlikely that Furman will be a starter. Possibly a backup, but not a starter. I'm pretty sure that both Hawthorne and Mike Jones will play in front of him on the depth chart for at least this year. Both showed many flashes of ability all last year. Plus, each has had a year to learn the system.

evenyoubrutus

February 17th, 2010 at 3:49 PM ^

please don't kill me, and this is probably unlikely, but I think that since this coaching staff doesn't really enjoy playing true freshmen a lot, there's a chance the secondary looks like so:

CB: Troy Woolfolk
SS: Mike Williams
FS: Vlad Emilien
CB: J.T. Turner
NB: J.T. Floyd (or Dorsey or Cullen)

At least against UConn, I would not be surprised if this was your starting lineup in the secondary. We will see how things progress throughout the season.

Victory Collins

February 17th, 2010 at 6:01 PM ^

If Vlad is capable, he plays the deep safety position, and Kovacs plays the other safety position closer to the line. After last year, I don't see how Williams cracks the line-up, especially if we're operating under the assumption that Vlad is ready to go at the deep safety position.

Also, keep in mind that true freshman can contribute at the CB position. Woodson, Jackson (arguably his best year), Hall, Curry, Warren (arguably one his best two years) and probably some others all had good to great years at CB as true freshmen. If Chirstian or Dorsey can even approach what any of these guys did as true freshmen, they will play despite any pre-conceived notions by the coaches against playing true freshmen.

Dientrous

February 17th, 2010 at 6:07 PM ^

this is a great point...kovacs was serviceable as a box safety in the run game, but was atrocious as a deep safety...so if cullen or dorsey can be pretty good and lock down 1 corner position along with turner, then that allows woololk to go back to deep safety and we could take our DBs from complete weak link to decent or above average...i think we definitely need to make woolfolk our deep safety though (unless vlad is a GOOD option there)...because its easier to hide an average or below average player at corner than at our deep safety

Blue in Yarmouth

February 18th, 2010 at 10:25 AM ^

You could have ( and I hope we see) Christian or Dorsey show enough skill to ake one of the CB positions as a Freshman. If this is the case and Turner wins the other (as we all expect) then we have a couple situations that look far better than last year with our safeties.

First you can have Woolfolk at SS (or deep safety) which is where heplayed his best last year. Second you could have either: Emilien, M Robinson, M Williams or Kovacs as the FS (or box safety).

My hope would be that the starting D backfield looked like so (based on these players out performing everyone else):

CB-Turner
CB-Dorsey
SS-Woolfolk
FS-Emilien (or Robinson, either is fine by me).

I think the best case scenario for this defense next year is that one of the many freshman CB's steps up and wins a job at CB or Floyd shows that he has made enormous strides in his game and can win the job. We need Woolfolk at deep safety.

tpilews

February 18th, 2010 at 10:42 AM ^

I find it amazing that the vast majority of posters here want a first year starter at FS over a second year Mike Williams. Looking at the UFRs, Mike was constantly negged for over pursuing plays. This is coaching and experience. Everyone is willing to give Obi and Mouton another shot after how atrocious they were, but not Williams in his second year? Williams was a good tackler, if the light bulb goes on for him, he could be very good for UM.

gremlin

February 17th, 2010 at 3:53 PM ^

I still believe we may see up to two starting true freshmen on defense, but not in the manner you think. Spinner will be either Hawthorne, or Jones as noted above. The defensive backfield is where we may see two. Out of four positions, Woolfolk is the only proven starter, and he's still not great, but he's serviceable. If Turner lived up to his hype he would have already seen the field, regardless of coming into camp late and unconditioned. Therefore I'm assuming his ceiling has been lowered, as well as Vlad's by the same reasoning. Thus the Dbackfield is wide open. What I'm hoping for:
s troy
s vlad
cbturner
cb talbott/avery/christian/demar

This is still quite a questionable secondary... but I don't think it can be worse than:
s williams
s kovacs
cb troy
cb warren

chris16w

February 17th, 2010 at 7:41 PM ^

Part of why Turner was kept off the field last year was because the coaches clearly valued the extra year that redshirting him provides. Him playing sparingly in the second half of the year after he had learned the defense and gotten in game shape wasn't worth burning a future year of eligibility.

Blue boy johnson

February 17th, 2010 at 8:20 PM ^

I think they would have burned his redshirt in a heartbeat it they thought it help them get that 6th win. Winning a game down the stretch last year and making a bowl game would have been an enormous benefit to this team. The extra practices for everyone would have been worthy of burning the redshirt to me, plus a shot at a winning record, hot damn.

Dientrous

February 17th, 2010 at 8:30 PM ^

see im just not so sure that they would burn an entire year of eligibility on the hopes that a true freshmen at CB would win them 1 more game...because i think RR thinks hes here to stay and will get that extra year of eligibility that he redshirted him for, and i hope he does...and i believe RR thinks turner will help him more by winning more games as a 5th year senior than hopefully winning 1 and MAYBE 2 more games as a true freshmen, which as i said is really optimistic thinking...

Dientrous

February 17th, 2010 at 4:06 PM ^

i think we will see marvin robinson and either cullen or dorsey starting at least at some point this season...other than that i dont expect to see anyone else...we shouldnt see any DL unless there is an injury, same as DG....and although one of the true freshmen RBs may contribute i dont think either will be the "starter"

Troy MiIler

February 17th, 2010 at 4:09 PM ^

I think that Dorsey or Christian will end up starting the opposite side of Justin Turner. Only way I can see that not happening is if JT Floyd makes a huge leap in the spring which doesn't seem likely.

My defense prediction, except for LB's because I have really no idea outside of Roh who will be starting.

Safties: Troy Woolfolk, Vlad Emilien
CB: Dorsey/Christion - Turner
Dline: Van Bergen, Campbell, Martin

Beavis

February 17th, 2010 at 4:54 PM ^

You can bet your ass that Dorsey or Christian will start. Why?

- JT Turner hasn't shown us anything yet.
- JT Floyd was the lowest ranked coming out of high school and didn't look too good last year
- Woolfolk moves to safety

Honestly, I think anyone anointing Turner over Dorsey or Christian is putting the cart before the horse. We have yet to see anything from these three.

That being said, No to Williams to Kovacs. You guys are the Nick Sheridan of our CBs. I appreciate the effort, but it's time to move on.

Dientrous

February 17th, 2010 at 5:07 PM ^

im not sure its so fair to say that dorsey or cullen are sure to play but turner isnt...the reason people are assuming turner will start is because of the 3 he was the highest rated and has had an entire year to learn the system and receive college coaching

jtmc33

February 17th, 2010 at 5:22 PM ^

The fact that the coaches chose not to "burn" Turner's red-shirt when Cissoko was off the team and Floyd was flailing around as an overmatched CB leads me to believe that he was no where near ready (hopefully due to injury and/or experience and not due to talent) to step in at the half-way mark of the season. A legit true freshman should be able to come in and start by week 6-8.. even moreso when depth mandates it.

If he was capable of playing (basically a better option than Floyd) then he would of been out there and Woolfolk would of stayed at safety making the defense significantly better. That didn't happen. Turner not being that True Freshman star CB we have had over the years hurt us in a bad way

Either way, I have to believe (pray) that between Turner, Christian, and Dorsey... two of them can start at CB and Woolfolk does not

Dientrous

February 17th, 2010 at 5:34 PM ^

well from everything i heard, turner showed up late and out of shape, so they chose to redshirt him...and this is just what i think happened, so maybe he isnt as good as advertised...but i think that he probably was the better option over floyd or moving woolfolk and playing kovacs or williams, but by that time in the season RR thought it better to keep his redshirt on him and give him 4 full years with experience over 3 full years with experience and a few games as a true freshmen...because i heard R say a few times last year that he didnt want to send some of his freshmen out there to fail...because in almost all cases a true freshmen isnt going to be a GOOD player...and RR probably didnt think turner was going to fix our secondary problems all by himself...if i am right would he have helped? sure, but our secondary likely still would have been a weak link, so why burn the redshirt?

but again, i may be wrong...he may not be as good as advertised

Beavis

February 17th, 2010 at 6:26 PM ^

I never said they would BOTH start over Turner, or that either would start over him.

I simply said that he hasn't shown anything to us yet, so to assume he's a lock to start is the same assumption as saying Dorsey or Cullen are locks to start.

Dorsey was obviously higher rated on ESPN as well. So Turner being the highest rated depends on who you listen to.

Basically there's two starting spots open, and 3 of the guys are uber-talented but unproven guys. I'm just saying that either one of the two will be a true frosh, whether JT Floyd makes it and Turner doesn't pan out, or Turner pans out and the frosh outplay Floyd. Seems pretty elementary to me.

Dientrous

February 17th, 2010 at 8:06 PM ^

i never said that you were saying both cullen and dorsey will start ahead of turner...all i was saying is that people think turner will start because of the 3 he was the highest rated (average-wise among the 3) and has been here for a full year already...and the fact that you said that "you can bet your ass that cullen or dorsey will start" but then said one reason was because turner hasnt proven anything...

and to your first comment...neither williams or kovacs ever played CB so how were they the sheridan of CB...

rickiew04

February 18th, 2010 at 11:27 AM ^

Just because Turner didn't burn his redshirt last year even though the secondary was horrific doesn't mean he might not be as advertised. A true freshman CB will not help you win a game when your defense was as bad as ours was. Why would RR put him in half way through the season when it wouldn't have done anything but waste half a year of eligibility and possibly hurt his confidence? Saving the year of eligibility would help more in the long term. As they say in business, never sacrifice long-term profits for short-term profits.