Sunday morning spring game musings
So I finally watched the spring game this morning, and created this thread for each viewers take on the things they noticed. I was watching certain players so I only notice what I noticed, and others were watching other things so I'd like to hear their info.
On the OL,
Gentry started at LT and looked still unready. Moved to LG and played better.
Bounds played LT and his pass pro was atrocious. Still too upright and looked like early Kalis in Utah game getting trucked and lifted. I don't think Bounds will ever play here.
Persi played RT and run block was ok and nimble, his pass pro was problematic.
Barnhart will be the starting LT, it won't be any of above and if he goes down that will be trouble. We better hope Hinton heals quickly.
Anderson looked ok.
Guidice played both ways and belonged at OG.
Hall is the rb3 and it's not close. He does in fact look like Hart. I predict this will lead to one of the 3 rbs transferring, because Hall will be getting the 3rd touches.
On D.
Benny looked as good as Grant. I didn't see Graham. Stewart moves really well, so does Hausmann and the big Pollard. Walker is cutting his teeth but his play should improve exponentially, but was surprised how mentally soft he was, he was standing above player talking trash and that will get flagged in a game, and was grabbing a ton... surprised the coaches haven't been on that.
Lorrenzetti isnt strong enough yet and got tossed around. I reckon he will go back to OL when bigger.
Please chime in and tell me what you saw.
created this thread for each viewers take on the things they noticed
Great idea. No one was capable of sharing their thoughts on the spring game on this website until now.
"Mentally soft" is a weird take.
Maybe just a bad sequence. We have high hopes for him and it is early and he has an amazing skill set, but still . . .
Getting an obvious PI penalty and then standing over the player you knocked down like you just did something amazing and then getting beat by the same player for a game winning two point conversion immediately after.
How about, "that could have gone better?" Obviously you can't do that in a real game.
Hall reminded me of Leveon Bell, just comfortably stepping around in the backfield and then pouring through the right spot repeatedly. He looks like a great pickup, and I do hope he can become the short yardage back and take the #3 spot in the rotation sooner than later.
Walker was getting owned just by O'Leary, so I'm wondering if that is a practice rivalry that the coaches purposely let spill over to the game. I didn't see Walker otherwise. Regardless, I though McBurrows looked pretty good and predict he'll be our #2 corner.
I would expect Henderson to be the LT.
Wow. You gleaned all of that from watching one spring game? I am impressed.
On a similar note, I'm considering moving some of my money around in the market. You've read this post; can you give me some financial advice?
Edit: wow, that was a quick neg by you. Your sense of humor must be broken. Oh, and you may want to consider refraining from labeling others "mentally soft."
that was a quick neg by you
Was it like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli?
More like a great beast that suddenly appeared before me. As if sensing my presence, he let out a great bellow!
Thoughts:
- I loved the straight ahead game format, no pseudo-practice BS, but a reasonably hard hitting and enjoyable game.
- The kids really seemed to be enjoying themselves. After two months of winter workouts in the weight room and 13 practices of new people and positions, it must felt good to just go outside and play.
- Hall is an exciting prospect. Like Mike Hart, but with quicker burst and more potential power. Yeow!
- I thought Jaiyre (sp?) Hill was pretty impressive for an EE. Seemed to be in the right spot when I saw him.
- When did we decide to showcase O'Leary and Thaw? I have to believe that pisses off the scholarship sophmores.
- Defense usually runs ahead of Offense in the spring, and this game was no exception. The DL was particularly impressisve, the LBs less so.
- Loved seeing how much improvement Orji showed. It seems like Tuttle was the consensus #2 in the stuff I read yesterday, but I think Orji has a higher ceiling. Better velocity and touch on the ball.
Last year I thought Orji would be our next RB. But he did look good at QB, love watching him take off to the boundary.
Well Dixon got a chance to get a catch and promptly dropped it (he might be a junior though). Harbaugh was hyping O'Leary last year so it's not out of nowhere and I think he's on scholarship now too... though I think they have something like 101 scholarship players currently or something absurd like that.
An improved Orji on the field this year.
-RG3, probably
Everyone washed their hands, trimmed their hair and nails, showered, and came with the right attitude. The result? An improved Orji…
Most players like the spring game because it means the end of spring practice (which is grueling) and then they have two months off.
Well O’Leary is on scholarship himself now after earning one after last season. Why would that piss guys off?
This has been mentioned, but I'm glad Harbaugh let them just play a regular game. It was highly watchable.
I'll try to give 10...
1. OL had guys out of positon because we were splitting the unit and we weren't going to mess around and get our All-America candidates hurt.
- Gentry has played RG and RT his entire career at Michigan.
- Bounds is a guys who I expect to challenge for a role his senior year...but that's it.
- Persi is a LT who played pretty well last year at that positon. But he has Keegan, Oluwatimi, Zinter and Barnhart with him...funny how that works.
- Barnhart is battling Henderson for the LT spot and Hinton and Jones for the RT spot. He'll get one of them, but Henderson would be getting drafted in a couple of weeks if he entered. Barnhart isn't a lock there.
- I thought Anderson was better than, "okay"...did you see Crippen?
- Guidice is a guy who I don't see playing a meaningful down.
- ...you really like the OL, huh?
2. The Spring Game takes are the best...one glorified scrimmage versus vanilla play calling and we all know who is a lock and when "it's not even close."
- Hall looked great (suck it, doubters)...but to call him a lock is crazy. You have to consider who was blocking for him and who those guys were going up against. There was one nice Hall run where he had 2-3 OL of the top 6 eligible OL...and they were blocking guys on D who have a grand total of ZERO meaningful snaps. Anyone would've looked good in that moment. You mentioned Lorenzetti, so you saw who was getting tossed around on some of those nice Hall runs. (Lorenzetti is like Guidice, IMO, I don't see it).
- Stokes is going to have something to say about RB3, he flashed last year and he looked exactly how Karan Higdon looked as a true freshman. It's going to take him one more year, but I think Stokes is going to surprise in year 2.
3. Spring games are always terrible, its fun for little kids and its nice to just see the helmet this time of year, but its so far from an accurate depiction of what you'll see in the fall. I also wish Michigan wasnt so insistent on having them so early when the weather sucks.
I wish we changed the format, where we did 2 quarters of 1's v 1's, 2's v 2's (and a possession of 3's v 3's)...then go into the locker room at half, switch the jerseys, and played 2 quarters of the drafted spring game.
Do a kicking competition at halftime while the guys switch jerseys.
Football is too much of a team sport ("the ultimate team sport")...it's tough to learn anything when you've got 1's and walk-on 3's and 4's playing together. Two weak OL against two starting DL...and it doesn't matter if the other nine guys on offense are starters - the weak link is going to hold those guys back.
4. I've said it before...Devin is a in studio guy, let him be on the sit like a Pat McAfee and use that energy and excitement. Butt is a natural on color side in the booth. BOTH are great, but Butt isn't without a natural play-by-play person (he's excellent with Lisa Byington)...and let Devin be the Shaq/Barkley/Dez/McAfee guy in the studio.
5. I never bought the Walker hype I'm glad I didn't...he's going to be great, but he needs another year and a half, IMO. The guy I've been high on is the other #1, McBurrows. I'd like to see them try him outside.
I'm sure Walker makes incredible plays, but he's an athlete playing CB right now, not an athletic CB. McBurrows and Harris (and probably Green) are better options right now. I see Walker coming on late, like Johnson did last year.
6. I can't believe I'm saying this...but I wish I would've saw more FG attempts.
7. I think they're going to open it up a little for JJ, he's the best QB Michigan has had since Chad Henne's senior year.
8. Still waiting on Darrius Clemons, something just isn't clicking yet. I'd like to hear about JJ and Darrius working all summer together (since Anthony is gone).
9. Barner is huge and looks plug and play. I'm very excited to see year 2 of Loveland, with Barner and Hibner.
10. How about O'Leary?! He could be a weapon. We could use a Greg Matthews auto 3rd down converter to avoid kicking so many FGs.
I have one question for Mr. Melon...in 27 parts.
"What's a widget?"
"It's a fictional product. It doesn't...matter."
"Doesn't matter? Tell that to the bank."
I feel like I just gave birth...to an accountant.
I completely forgot about Henderson, was thinking of only the two other OL transfers. I didn't watch Crippen, thats why I asked for others like you to give input.
I loved McBurrows senior tape and you might be right that he is the other starter.
I like point 9: (AJ) Barner. He's going to make some big plays. He and Loveland will be two go to TE. Then there's Hibner, he could emerge as well. The TE group is solid.
I’ve read a few assessments of the game that, like this one, either barely mention O’Leary or don’t bring him up at all, despite the fact that he was the player of the game and dominated the much discussed Walker. True, it was just a spring game, but he really stood out, repeatedly getting open and catching everything thrown his way, including a couple tough ones. So why is he being overlooked by some? I think it’s because he’s white. There’s nothing sinister about it, but I think some are just skeptical that a white guy could be really be that good. I submit that if Clemons had the same game and made the same catches, he’d be getting talked about much differently.
That is one theory. But you could just as easily make the same argument about a "preferred walk on" of any demographic group being overlooked.
When anyone in charge is faced with promoting/hiring someone/something that is significantly defying the odds (such as a PWO), it is a natural human instinct to pause and double check your observations. More so than you would against a highly evaluated recruit.
That being said, Kovacs did it to great success and it can be done here.
Not when you see the production in front of your eyes. And O’Leary is now on scholarship.
You are correct. I should have said former PWO. But the stigma is still there nonetheless, even for an earned scholarship part way into college player.
I remember some of Kovacs testing numbers at pro day (or was it the combine?) putting him significantly in the future NFL player conversation. He had some of the best times that year in a few of the drills. And it was pretty clear he had been bringing those skills to State Street every single practice as a PWO. Maybe this will be a similar story?
Like others have said, I'm not sure what can be gleaned from a spring game, but just from the eye-test, this roster as a whole looks bigger, stronger, and more athletic than I recall in a very long time. Maybe it's wishful blinking (see what I did there?), maybe I'm still traumatized by watching RichRod's mini mites line up against Urban's behemoths, but Michigan--from the starters all the way to the last walk-on--looks like it can go toe-toe with anyone in a street fight. As for whether they can go toe to toe with anyone in a football game . . . trends look promising but we'll know more in the Fall (duh, I know).
As for the game itself, I loved it. Highly entertaining!
EDIT: Yes, I know Rich Rod never coached against Urban.
I don't think Walker is anywhere close to a viable CB. Too tall and very skinny. I actually didn't see much athleticism and thought he looked very stiff. Would be better as a WR and let him leap and make plays. I think we're royally fucked at CB if he's a starter. Gotta put Sainristill, McBurrows, Hill or anyone else there. Walker seems like he needs a few years to develop and it might be too late by then. If you had 4 or 5 years to work with he could be an NFL caliber player, but just too much work to do. Clemons also looks surprisingly bad. Doesn't go get the ball or show any aggressiveness at the catch point. Let's the ball come to his body and lacks suddenness/twitch.
The main thought that kept coming back to me was...
FOOTBALL!!!! I'M WATCHING FOOTBALL!!!
That and we are going to be really good.
Watched today also. Fwiw, I was impressed with Benjamin Hall, Jack Tuttle and Davis Warren.