Rothstein article on Gardner's split time

Submitted by Blazefire on

A nice little article from WolverineNation about Gardner splitting time.

http://espn.go.com/colleges/michigan/football/story/_/id/8293704/devin-gardner-juggles-two-positions-michigan-wolverines

They get input from Drew Bennett, which is a nice touch. Bennett was a heralded QB recruit who split time between QB and WR at UCLA while working under Borges. Want more 'it's a small world?' According to the article, at that time, Borges travelled to Ann Arbor to speak with Carr about how Michigan was managing with a certain two way player of their own, one Charles Woodson.

If you don't know, Bennett went on to be an NFL WR, something that I imagine had to make the split time appealing to Gardner. If Borges could get Bennett drafted at WR, he sure as heck can do it for Gardner.

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August 24th, 2012 at 10:24 AM ^

According to the article, at that time, Borges travelled to Ann Arbor to speak with Carr about how Michigan was managing with a certain two way player of their own, one Charles Woodson.

This was front-paged a few weeks ago; I believe Borges mentioned it in one of the fall practice pressers.

Still an interesting read.  Gardner really is a remarkable athlete...as Kovacs said, "I feel like he can play anywhere."

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Blue in Seattle

August 24th, 2012 at 10:57 AM ^

Borges did make the statement at a press conference, but Rothstein took that quote and then actually did some investigating and interviewing to bring more information together and make it a story. No wonder mainstream media doesn't bother with the effort of real journalism, the Internet readers of today can't make it past the headline.

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Moleskyn

August 24th, 2012 at 10:53 AM ^

I am cautiously optimistic about this move. Gardner is such an incredible athlete that I feel like he could quickly become a star receiver. But at the same time, he's faced with the challenge of learning a new position, plus all the physical rigors of WR (as outlined in the article). So I don't want to set unreasonable expectations in my mind, but man, he could be awesome.

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LSAClassOf2000

August 24th, 2012 at 1:05 PM ^

I had a similar thought about this when it comes to being cuatiously optimistic, but it may help Gardner out - at least some - that the positions where he will be splitting time are both on offense so he's staying within the same system. I believe Borges even touched on this in a presser a couple weeks ago. Still, it is a challenge all the same - especially physically - but I also feel that there is great potential in having Gardner at WR. He would be a legitimate deep threat, I think.

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