How 'bout some love for James Rogers (#18)???
Gotta give the boy credit... he was all over his guys today. He was consistently there, right with the ball arriving. Thought he showed he deserved to be out there.
Also, thought Gordon (#4) delivered on the big-hitter potential. Can't wait to see some of what he'll grow into.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:18 PM ^
It would be a great story if he could go from thinking he would be buried on the depth chart in the beginning of the season to becoming an important contributor in his senior year.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:20 PM ^
I think James did a great job also. I am a little concerned with Gordon's tackling...wish he would just lower the head and lay the wood!
September 4th, 2010 at 11:33 PM ^
Last I checked "lowering the head to lay the wood" is the worst tackling technique possible... you get 1 of 2 scenarios:
1. you lose eye contact with the ball carrier and he jukes the bejesus out of you
2. you make contact, and fracture your neck between CVI and CVII
That being said, head up, shoulders square, drive the hips. And lay the wood and all that.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:35 PM ^
Oh, sorry I wasn't technical on that one. I guess I should have just said "hit someone hard while making the solid tackle and not missing the ball carrier!"
September 5th, 2010 at 12:24 AM ^
pissing on the ceiling.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:22 PM ^
Definitely promising. One area where being there beats the heck out of TV is you can really watch the secondary. Rogers seemed very active.
This is a pass defense that will give up some yards because there will be a lot of protective zones with large seams for open receivers. But I thought we were very athletic, tackled pretty well and moved good in space. For a first day, it looked like an upgrade from last year.
Having a good pass rush will help and I liked that a lot of the time too. Everybody played with a lot of energy.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:23 PM ^
I didn't really notice him during the game. I think that is good since it means that he wasn't making huge mistakes.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:27 PM ^
He looked good, but I wish UConn pushed deep a little more. I would love to see us defend some deep stuff! It looked like they did alot of zone where the CBs would cover then pass the WR after about ten yards. Not sure how big the seem is between that switch, but could be something to watch out for.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:32 PM ^
Well, I think we'd all like to see us defend against some deep passes. It's those damned other things that can happen when a team throws deep that most of us find terrifying.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:49 PM ^
next week.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:28 PM ^
Out-friggin-standing.
Much love for #18.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:29 PM ^
...several very nice tackles. An impressive debut for him under difficult circumstances.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:29 PM ^
Heard his name out there a lot today. Can't wait to see the impact he can have this year.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:33 PM ^
Dudes are STEPPING UP!
September 4th, 2010 at 11:41 PM ^
i thought Rogers played very well today. On a side note, Cullen really needs to improve his tackling.
September 4th, 2010 at 11:57 PM ^
He got pretty luck on his first tackle. The guy went down like Carlos Brown.
September 5th, 2010 at 12:03 AM ^
That "fall down backwards on my butt and flail one arm out to trip you up" technique was executed PERFECTLY... ;-)
September 4th, 2010 at 11:47 PM ^
Rogers was very impressive. I also thought Floyd made some good plays. I am a little concerned about C. Gordon and Kovacs, but hope they will continue to improve. Overall a good to great performance by our young secondary.
September 5th, 2010 at 12:08 AM ^
Kovacs is a smart, heady player but I strongly believe Marvin Robinson will see the field in the near future. His athleticism, speed, and size are scary good.
September 5th, 2010 at 12:22 AM ^
Yeah I think the Marvin will see the field too, but maybe not for Kovacs. There was one point today when he made about 4 tackles in a row.
September 5th, 2010 at 12:55 AM ^
Thomas Gordon made some plays filling in for Carvin. Although experience is nice to have, especially on the road, I would love to see Carvin and Marvin playing at the spur and bandit. Kovacs could still start and is a perfect mentor for Marvin.
September 5th, 2010 at 12:58 AM ^
I thought earlier today I was told Kovacs was garbage and just not good enough to play in the Big Ten.
September 5th, 2010 at 12:10 AM ^
stepped up today.
They are all going to get challenged like hell against ND and MSU. So we shall see. Today, they played like Schembechler/Moeller/Carr defenders.
Cam Gordon missed a chance to break up the big bobbled pass that led to the UConn t.d. but he also made a monster hit that prevented a t.d. earlier.
Mike Jones got some good playing time.
Kovacs and Ezeh are still slightly disastrous in pass-coverage.
September 5th, 2010 at 12:11 AM ^
It's been clear that Rogers is our best man-to-man cover corner (although I haven't seen much of Cullen). Floyd is slower, and more of a zone corner (which is just fine if he can keep tackling like he did today).
September 5th, 2010 at 12:36 AM ^
He looked like he belonged out there. The staff was not afraid to put him in tight coverage at times and he got it done. We can start to see now why no offensive guys were moved back there.
September 5th, 2010 at 12:52 AM ^
...there's enough love to go around for everyone on the team.
September 5th, 2010 at 5:50 AM ^
All I have to say is he has a GREAT body for a corner. I haven't seen someone his size play corner at Michigan for a while. He's listed at 6'1 and I'm pretty sure that's not exaggerated.
September 5th, 2010 at 9:33 PM ^
I thought James Rogers did a great job and I think he's a great story for perseverance and hard work.
-UMichGA
September 5th, 2010 at 9:44 PM ^
Watching the game back on DVR, Cam missed an opportunity to rearrange some brain cells on that bobbled catch. Looked like he couldn't decide whether to go for the pick, or drop the hammer. Easy fix though.
September 5th, 2010 at 9:48 PM ^
He made some nice tackles, and a really nice hit to break up a pass. I was keeping an eye on him, and outside of one play where his man was open but dropped the ball, he was playing very good man-to-man coverage. He actually looked better, man-to-man at least, then Floyd.
However when Cullen came into the game late, he missed like 3 easy tackles. Horrible form on his part, he needs to pick that up. It looked like he'd never tackled anyone in his life, what with the horrible angles he took.