New preferred walk-on fullback commits

Submitted by VivaCommieFootball on

Sorry if this has been posted, but I haven't seen it. Michigan picked up a preferred walkon from this Illinois fullback. He's a big guy — 6'2" 235 — and Rodriguez seems to believe he might be the next Owen Schmitt. In any event, he's probably the next in line after Moundros, who'll be a junior this season, because Rodriguez apparently uses exclusively walk-ons for his fullbacks.

Calvin Smith, Joliet Catholic Academy
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/sports/highschools/142173…

West Texas Blue

February 10th, 2009 at 12:10 PM ^

"Coach Rodriguez said all his fullbacks start out as walkons."

Interesting quote from that article. Moundros was highly effective this year, so good to know that the staff is working to develop more FBs.

mhwaldm

February 10th, 2009 at 12:19 PM ^

ironic that we had a four star, and the number 1 rated, fullback in the country, Vince Helmuth, ride the bench for two years, and were gonna see a walk on get a chance to play.

I realize that moundros was our most effective run blocker, but i still would have liked to see helmuth get a chance to run the ball and give us a powerback aspect to our offense. o well

GNM

February 10th, 2009 at 2:21 PM ^

JCA has been a machine at the 6A level here in Illinois where the rules severely favor private, non-boundaried schools. IIRC, they have been nationally ranked before.

Chester Copperpot

February 10th, 2009 at 4:19 PM ^

"JCA has been a machine at the 6A level here in Illinois where the rules severely favor private, non-boundaried schools."

While I certainly agree that JCA has been a powerhouse in the past, the rules certainly DO NOT favor private, non-boundaried schools. The multiplier used for private schools (especially co-ed private schools) has taken care of that and pushed most of them into the 8A division with schools that have four times the number of students enrolled. Just look at the state champions in 6A and above since the multiplier went into place. Sure, JCA won the title 2 years ago, but the team they played in the championship game was pathetic. You'd think by placing just about every private school in 8A, it would be enough to appease the public schools, but evidently not.

formerlyanonymous

February 10th, 2009 at 6:14 PM ^

How many divisions does the state of Illinois have? Here in Texas we only need 5 1/2 (half being the 6-man teams). I guess we end up granting something like 8 playoff champions, but that is because playoffs split off in the 5A and 4A divisions.

The largest school (enrollment numbers) making the playoffs in 5A district gets placed in 5A Div1 playoffs, the smaller two are placed in 5A Div2. Same with 4A. It helps sort out schools like mine that have 5k students from the ones that only have 1k, in 5A at least.

Just thought it was interesting they have things like 8A. That's crazy.

tomhagan

February 10th, 2009 at 4:34 PM ^

I love what RR is doing with his walk on program. There is enough at Michigan to attract these type of kids who want a chance to play, and the FB position is a perfect one to find diamonds in the rough.

As for the "Rudy" reference, if this kid has a Rudy type heart... well with his physical skills, that would be a nice combo. Reading his quotes, he seems to have very realistic goals for next year... aka special teams and short yardage. It sounds like he could be a hell of a blocker.