WTKA/Sam Webb: Funchess is fastest player on team
Haterz commence the hating. Per a snippet of an interview that will be used for the 2014 preview magazine of the The Wolverine, Funchess himself said he has currently been timed as the fastest player on the team. Measured in at 6'4" (and I believe he said 3/4, but wasn't clear... and don't know how to write six-four-and-three-quarter inches numerically), 235 lbs., hand timed at 4.33. The hand-timing was done by the coaches, I believe Wellman, though that was implied and not explicitly stated.
Raymon Taylor is the second fastest. He said something like "Jay-Lu" was the third, which actually sounded like Jayru on the audio. My assumption is that was Jourdan Lewis, but could have that totally wrong.
Sam intimated that Dennis Norfleet - to those who this news may cause to haz a sad - is likely the fastest in a 20-yard window.
Bonus WR coach tweet:
Told u. Keep it coming, the negativity, the doubting!! Because within the walls of Schembechler WE BELIEVE!! #gunslingers
Yes, but he'll be there. What was your 40 time at the Combine?
Disagree with comments, don't try to act superior with your replies. (like I just did)
and the fans and commentators will all bitch about how the Lions don't need another TE.
To be fair, cloaking devices are not light.
last year i thought borges grossly under-used funchess. i think it'll be apparent after he leaves after this season and goes in the nfl first round...
I mean, the other wide receiver set a school record for receiving... I don't understand why we can't give credit to Al Borges for the successes he did have. He didn't fail at EVERYTHING.
Not to mention he re-wrote the ancient passing records at Michigan. No QB had ever thrown for 400 yards in a game, the prior record of single-season passing TD's was Chad Henne with 25 as a freshman, Jeremy Gallon cleared the modest single-season record for receiving yards quite easily, etc.
Did they do it with 3 kids (not fully mature bodies) who'd never played before, including a walk on, at the most technically and physically demanding positions on the team (interior line), where experience of the unit has been statistically shown time and time again (not that you crybabies ever read it) to be the single highest correlated factor with success running the ball?
I mean damn , take a look at the roster and that bare, bare cupboard of offensive linemen and tell me that's Al Borges' fault.
It's Al Borges' fault if you take all of the conditions you mentioned above and then try to run a very complex offense with an absurd number of blocking schemes. He should have kept it simple for the sake of the young OL. Also, last year was not the only year that the offense stunk it up against quality defenses, so that's not helping your case either.
But our offense wasn't only good against poor defenses last year. OSU had a solid D and we ran up and down the field on them pretty well.
The offense did look good against OSU, I'll give you that. However, OSU's D got torched a couple times last year, and our offensive performances against Akron, UCONN, and State were much more telling.
Then how do you explain the week before OSU at Iowa where we rushed for 60 yds and passed for 98? Did one week make that big of a difference?
You're remembering past OSU teams, perhaps. Last year, OSU got lit up on numerous occasions.
Against Clemson, Tajh Boyd threw for 378 yards (5 TDs) and ran for 127 more yards. Clemson had an RB who ran for 69 more yards (on 12 carries).
That's almost 600 yards of total offense. Heck, Cal had 500 yards in offense against them.
They weren't terrible, certainly, but they also weren't good. The OSU offense last year is what carried that team (as shown by Carlos Hyde running through our d-line at will, along with them being able to pass for copious yards).
Urbz D's have been the worst in my liftime for those Oihoians.
Assuming an academic understanding correlates to physical action (i.e., blocking success) is not, to my knowledge, a known correlation. Assuming that admissions has something to do with it is silly.
Kind of agree with your point, but willing to bet the qb position is more technically complicated than interior lineman.
i get your position on the issue and i certainly understand the need for some experience at OL and correlation bw productivity and experience - but any other team wouldve stopped running power O for negative yards and actually adapted their playbook (which borges actually did for osu, just too little too late). everyone understands the youth/depth/experience issues and should have little patience but only lasts so long.
the problem is NO team or OL in michigan history has ever been as poor as they were last year at running the ball (and thats with super freak devin gardner whos a top 5 athlete in conference, we can only imagine how awful could have been with morris all season) and it was easily the worst performing OL in past decade for a team of UMs reputation.
and of course the RBs / FBs / TEs were likely the worst in conference at blocking at well, im not ignoring their contribution to the disaster - just hoping you were really aware of how historically bad um's rushing offense was last season (the worst ever)
In the history of Michigan football, was there ever as bad a year for offensive line recruiting than 2010?
Christian Pace was the only signee. He would have been a Senior last fall (or a redshirt this year). That's it. No one else.
Patience lasts only so long...I get it but you need to actually recruit players to the position. Rodriguez left a flaming tire fire of depth on the O-Line that only now is being rectified with a line that remains scarily young.
who gives a fuck? They did it.
Our run game last year is inexcusable.
jdon
Whoops, you caught me praising the one thing Borges did right. Shame on me for complimenting him in any way.
Seems as if you and the guy above who replied directly to me mistook my post as "piling on" Al Borges, or perhaps being argumentative. Neither one was my intent. I merely stated a fact that some seemed to be overlooking - the fact that UM couldn't run the ball. I didn't place blame, did I?
Fair enough.
The fired coach is the worst. His replacement is going to be more aggressive (on D) / simplify things for our playmakers (on O). Young players will improve and most of the departed seniors were overrated anyway. The scheme changes will really fit the personnel better and, overall, the team is underrated and will surprise some people, I think.
Was he being sarcastic?
I can't believe you failed to mention "team chemistry will be much improved."
You're absolutely right. Major oversight by me.
Also, I forgot to mention that the schedule lays out favorably this year. We're tough to beat at home and you never know, anything can happen on the road if our star players play up to their potential.
Being fast and big isn't everything either, Funchess dropped a bunch of really important passes.
I watch as much as I could withstand of last year's PSU game when BTN replayed it last week, but I did watch Funchess drop a ball in the end zone that hit him in both hands. The DB didn't touch him until after the ball defelected off his hands. Had some big drops against MSU, etc.
I love the guy, but sometimes he reminds me of Braylon before he improved his hands his junior and senior years.
defelecting in the end zone any more than OSU fans should be defelecting in coolers. Not cool!
Logic.
While I agree w/Magnus, Borges didn't fail at everything. Just utilizing the talent he had to put together a cohesive offiense that got better each week and did enough to get the win. Mathew Stafford threw for 5k yards but that didn't translate into winning.