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| Jordan Kovacs |
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 202 lbs.
High school: Curtice (OH) Clay
Position: Safety
Class: Redshirt senior
Jersey number: #32
Last year: I ranked Kovacs #13 and said he would make 75 tackles. He was All-Big Ten Honorable Mention with 75 tackles, 8 tackles for loss, 4 sacks, 1 pass breakup, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery, and 1 interception.
Nope, that's not a typo - I predicted the exact number of tackles Kovacs would make. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Kovacs had very good season in 2011, when he finally had a defensive coordinator who understood his strengths and weaknesses. Greg Mattison used him as a blitzer, contain man, and disguising his underneath coverage responsibilities. Mattison avoided using Kovacs deep whenever possible, and that allowed the sure-tackling safety to find the ball carrier and bring him to the ground. His best game in 2011 came against Western Michigan when he had 10 tackles and 2 sacks, including the fumble-causing hit that linebacker Brandon Herron returned for a touchdown. Last season also marked the third consecutive year in which Kovacs grabbed a pick in a big game - Wisconsin in 2009, Ohio State and Notre Dame in 2010, and then Notre Dame again in 2011.
Going into the 2012 season, Kovacs is one of the most indispensable members of the team - from walk-on to likely team captain. His backups are junior Marvin Robinson and freshman Allen Gant, with Josh Furman also able to play there if necessary. Robinson is a capable backup, but last year's legal struggles and some mental lapses place him a step or two below Kovacs. There's not much we don't know about Kovacs at this point. He's a very good tackler, a relentless blitzer, and a heady player. What he lacks in speed and athleticism, he mostly makes up for in angles and intelligence. He will be a good-to-very good football player, because he has been since his first season. I used to bemoan his lack of athleticism as a serious downside, but the deployment of Kovacs is one of the things that convinced me of how well Mattison fit with this team. Unlike Greg Robinson, who used Kovacs to cover a deep half or the middle of the field in 2009-10, Mattison will continue to blitz Kovacs off the edge and use him mostly as an in-the-box defender. He will continue to rack up tackles, take down the quarterback a few times, and pick off one or two passes. I wouldn't be surprised to see Kovacs earn All-Big Ten honors, if only as a Lifetime Achievement Award type of recognition.
Prediction: Starting strong safety; 80 tackles, 3 sacks, 2 interceptions; All-Big Ten Second Team
Poll results: Ricky Barnum was first with 59% and Fitzgerald Toussaint was second with 29% of the votes. Kovacs was third with just 9%.
KOVACS: 34 tackles away from being the first Michigan d-back to amass 300 tackles in school history.
ReplyDeleteAnd he should exceed that.
That's kind of a good thing...but kind of not.
DeleteWhen will anyone ever acknowledge Kovacs as a great athlete? Dude closes as fast or faster than anyone on the team since he first saw the field. Yet, it seems nobody gives him credit for his speed.
ReplyDeleteHe takes great angles and is always in position. I don't think he's that fast in a straight line. If he was, then Mattison wouldn't mind putting him back deep more often.
DeleteKovacs is not and has never been a great athlete. When he closes, he covers this up by taking a good angle and fully committing to that angle early.
DeleteA good parallel is Austin Collie of the Indianapolis Colts even though he's a receiver. Collie is a 4.6 dude at best, but you'll often seen him wide open with a defender in his wake. This is because like Kovacs, Collie runs very efficiently; he doesn't waste energy on taking a wrong line and comes out of his breaks smoothly. Over short distances, this can mask a lack of raw speed.
I don't know why, instead of a 40 yard dash, the NFL doesn't have several 40 yard dash trials that go in random directions: left, right, forward, back. An indicator would tell them the direction at the start of the timing, but they wouldn't know before. That way, you'd have a better indicator of 'football speed' - at least for defense.
DeleteOf course speed is the best and only way to deem someone as a great athlete. All of the responses to the above question talk about speed is if it's the be all end all for athleticism. How about guys with great speed who are uncoordinated? Are they still great athletes? Thunder/Magnus, I'm sure as a coach you've seen guys who were more "athletic(faster)" than others, yet they had no balance, or vision, or ability to get their body to work together(bringing hips...etc)-I know I have. I surely didn't consider those people to be athletic. I considered them to be fast. Conversely, I've coached a guy who was 5'10''. He was an amazing basketball player and was extremely quick, could dunk, had great vision, quick hands...etc. In other words, he was a great athlete. Being a great athlete is Much more than speed. A great athlete is someone who has multiple physical tools that they can put together to produce great results. Raw speed is not sufficient to declare someone as athletic.
DeleteThe shots at Greg Robinson are getting gratuitous. He's a bad coach, but it's not like he had a lot of other options back there. SOMEBODY has to cover. The alternatives to Kovacs were mostly other walk-ons, true freshman, or guys who were even more LB-like. We're talking about people like Cam Gordon, Mike Williams, Jared Van Slyke, Ray Vinopal, Tony Anderson, etc. Mattison's a MUCH better coach but GERGs not so stupid that he he's asking Kovacs to cover people in space by choice.
ReplyDeleteKovacs is a great kid who plays to the maximum of his abilities. I agree with you that he might find his way on to an all-conference team. His reliability is a great asset to the team. I think it gives Mattison confidence to make aggressive play calls that he couldn't otherwise. If somebody else (like Marvin Robinson or Josh Furman - who, from all the reports I see, seems well ahead of people like Gant) was in there I think Mattison would call things a little bit differently.
Great prediction last year. Thanks again for doing the countdown. Its been a fun daily read. Almost time to kick the season off at last!
I'm glad you're enjoying it. It's fun to do, but very time-consuming...
DeleteSpeed is obviously an overrated attribute for a SS, since Kovacs is about to become UM's best since Marcus Ray. Heck, he will wind up more productive than Ray when his career is over. I also suspect that Kovacs' speed is in the same range as guys like Hendricks, June, Brown, Shazor. Maybe some of those guys were a little faster, but not significantly so. Regardless, the guy has great instincts and goes all out. He's plenty quick on the blitz and in run support. I agree that he is hugely important and I think the drop-off to the next guy would be big.
ReplyDelete