Who is Michigan's most indispensable player?
ESPN just posted an article listing out the five most indispensable players in the Big Ten. For Michigan, they listed Mike McCray:
Michigan LB Mike McCray: The lone returning starter from a loaded defense, McCray is responsible for helping a young and talented pack of players around him get used to college football on the fly. The redshirt senior battled injuries through most of his career before finding his groove with 76 tackles and 4.5 sacks last season. He said after Michigan's spring game that his confidence was at “an all-time high” and that he thinks the whole unit can be faster that it was a year ago. When the Wolverines get up to full speed, it will largely be McCray’s job to keep them all running in the right direction.
While I can see their reasoning, I am not sure I entirely agree; if McCray gets hurt, we have some non-true freshman backups behind him. With the lack of depth on the d-line, I think any one of Hurst, Mone, or Gary are more indispenable to the team.
What do the rest of you think?
I think it's probably Mason Cole. Without him, the entire OL is an enormous question mark, and we probably end up starting two or more guys who have gotten virtually no playing time.
Although another interesting answer is one of Long and Hill at CB. Unless Keith Washington's spring game breakthrough was for real, we need both Long and Hill to be at least adequate at CB.
McCray is great, but we have options to replace him, especially since Don Brown really only uses two pure LBs on most downs.
The front 4 is strong enough to make things bearable for McCray's backups. Without Cole, the whole offense looks very shaky.
Be sure to phrase in the form of a question though!
Brandon Peters. When speight "spits the bit" as he is wont to do and fails to improve in his second season at the helm, we are going to need Peters to take over and elevate the team's performance. Sorry, but I just don't have confidence that Speight can take it to the next level, and I also believe that Harbaugh's concept of meritocracy will continue in force, leading eventually to Peters as the starter. He will need to perform at a very high level for a RS Freshman.
So, in your opinion, the most indispensable player on the team is a person who very likely could start the season as the third-string quarterback?
Your hot take is bad, and you should feel bad.
I would agree with the OP.
I was gonna say Mason Cole as well. My under the radar guy, though, is Tyree Kinnel.
Pick any starter on either line and you could make a reasonable argument. And probably any starter in the secondary as well.
Said "Mike McCray in my head."
Maybe that's just because I just read the story about his photography.
http://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnists/jeff-seidel/2017/05/08/mik…
I don't really have a strong counterargument against McCray. He'll be running the defense on the field, and even though there is a two-deep, that "QB of the defense" role is an important one.
Agreed, though, that Mason Cole would also be a critical loss. We've got some thin spots on the two-deep, and while our starting OL looks to be quite good, depth (except at Center, which looks just fine) is a concern.
but ILB just isn't nearly as high leverage a position as linemen, QB and even CB. If the Dline is as good as it should be (and even close to as good as it was last year), he might not even have a whole lot coming his way. We could hide his backup at least somewhat.
But if we lose Cole, hooooo boy, there could be pain coming off the edge every single play. Could throw off the entire offense. There's a reason it's become the 2nd most important position on the field in the eyes of NFL front offices. And we have no capable backup. So the answer here has to be Cole.
Surprised no one has mentioned Maurice Hurst. We have no DT depth, and he is a potential 1st round pick. Bryan Mone and Michael Dwumfour both have injury histories, and we were playing walkons at second string during spring practice.
I'd put the defensive tackles as 1a and defensive ends as 1b.
I'd say the least concerning position group is RB, with not much concern about TE and QB (at least in terms of how much dropoff there would be to the backup if a starter were injured). DL is definitely a concern because of the need for so much depth. You're listing a lot of true freshmen and guys that haven't played as "depth" here and those are tough to count on.
I would say Mo Hurst and Gary are probably 2a and 2b after Cole in terms of indispensibility, if that's a word.
Dwumfour is fully cleared medically this week or next week. He'll be ready to go like a beast in fall camp.
1 - Cole
2 - Bredeson
3 - Hurst
4 - Gary
5 - McCray
great last year, so I'm not sure we've seen enough to think there would be a big dropoff if we had to start Kugler/Ruiz/Spanellis there. I don't think he'd be on this list but remove him, and I agree with your top 4 with Hurst and Gary being about the same.
Any loss on the first string D line is going to be a very big set back. Particularly one of the DT's. They really need true freshman to step up.
Harbaugh
Followed by Hurst, Mone, & Bredeson.
Not much behind the others.
Outside-the-box pick: Quinn Nordin
Without a decent kicker, punts, kick-offs, and extra points are all an adventure. And forget about field goals over 30 yards.
He may not be proven yet, but I'd hate to be entering this season with Ryan Tice as our only true option.
I think it's 100% spot on.
The D line has plenty of players. So what if we lose 1 of our world-wtrecking D linemen, we put a semi-servicable back-up or a talented frosh in and compensate.
Last years D spoled everybody.
If you can't kick it changes the whole game and severely lmits your offensive optiuons.
Is absolute proof of what happens when you can't replace a competent kicker (losing Rivas to graduation hurt.)
I also think back to 2010 when dealing with the Broekhuizen debacle.
I was going to say...how has no one said Nordin yet?
Thank you...I think it's a silly topic to argue. But I 100% his name is on the list. Brian basically explains why on the front page.
is a decent kicker and that no one else on the roster is though? Prob don't have enough info for this to be the answer.
He is destined for a big year.
as an individual, as he will quarterback a young defense.
While each of Mone, Hurst, and Gary are just as indespensible, they each get only 1/3 the value of McCray since it's a single position group and the thinking is maybe the remaining 2 could make up for some of that which is lost when losing 1.
Mason Cole is the best and most versatile player returning on our O-line that has been bad to average over the past couple years - so IMO he gets the nod, as the whole thing could go to dumpster fire if we lose him.
IMO
1) Mason Cole
2) McCray
3) Any of the Mone, Hurst, Gary trio
OSU's most indespensable wasn't Ohio refs
We're vulnerable in terms of depth at several positions. Some of you listed multiple players, including Tyree, and the plural illustrates the problem. I really don't see how we can be effective on offense without Mason Cole playing at 90% or better. So Mason 'tis.
I get the QB of the defense and only returning starter thing for McCray, but I'd have to say, the QB of The Team is more important. Although, Harbaugh's 2nd (and maybe 3rd) best QBs could win 10-games this year, I think the starter needs to be better than Rudock and Speight were the last two years.
QB and OL have been the barriers to championships under Harbaugh so it's either Cole or the winner of Speight/Peters. That assumes the winner will be a difference maker who can elevate the team (and its young WRs/TEs) and is capable of winning games against the best competition.
The barrier has been the play of the offensive line, not the quarterbacks. It's been the weak link of the team since Frey left in 2011.
is the not most important position on the field. Of course that's QB on a football team in general. The question here is which is the most indispensible player on Michigan within context of the rest of the roster. In other words, which player's loss, if he went down with an injury and missed the season, would cause the largest increase in expected losses for the team?
Since Speight/Peters are so (supposedly/allegedly) close, they can't be the answer here. If one went down, we might just shrug and say, ok, no QB controversy, here we go (although I think Speight could be further ahead and thus, could be higher on this list than most are giving him credit for).
If Cole went down with an injury, there would rightfully be outright panic around here. He's the answer, probably followed by the DL starters in order of talent because the dropoff to the next guy is so large.
It has to be Mason Cole for obvious reasons. I could buy into the Nordin claim a bit if he had every kicked a collegiate extra point or FG. If he is as good as Brian suggests, than that may be true. That would suggest our danger pt for opposing defenses would be roughly the 43-44 yard line, a huge, huge advantage. I've seen Cole though, now for multiple years. I've yet to see Nordin. Now the reasoning behind Peters and Speight is logical as well, but I've yet to see Peters make a play at this level, and you are all free to feel M's offense would not skip a beat if Peters were inserted tomorrow. I hope that's true, simply because it would indicated he's far, far ahead of expectations at this point. Again......we've seen nothing.