Thursday, April 10, 2014

Quick-ish Thoughts on the Spring Game

DeVeon Smith (image via The Wolverine)
Due to prior commitments, I was unable to watch the spring game live or immediately afterward. Normally I would have posted a review of the spring game on Sunday or Monday, but I just didn't have time this week. Now it has lost its immediacy, and everyone has rehashed the short scrimmage over and over again. I'm going to offer some quick thoughts on each position group, but this won't go into a great deal of depth.

Quarterbacks. Devin Gardner looks like the clear starter even if he did go 2/9 for 55 yards and 1 interception. The defense is bound to be ahead of the offense at this point, and the change from a 4-3 Under to a 4-3 Over (if that's truly what Michigan does) doesn't really affect the coverage much. Shane Morris (4/8, 65 yards) looked pretty solid with a plenty strong arm, but he doesn't have the athleticism or the feel for the game that Gardner does. Morris will be good down the road, though. I do not see Wilton Speight or Russell Bellomy as legitimate options for the upcoming season.

Running backs. I have never been impressed with DeVeon Smith's speed (10 carries, 32 yards), but he looks like the #1 back right now. He runs harder than anyone else, he carries out his fakes better than anyone else, and he looks like he's in great shape. Derrick Green (5 carries, 14 yards) can be tackled pretty easily down low because he doesn't have great balance, and while he looks quicker than he did last fall - and quicker than Smith - it really seems like the coaches trust Smith more. Justice Hayes (6 carries, 33 yards) seems to be sensing an opportunity to play, and he looks more physically ready than he did last season. I like Sione Houma's potential as an H-back much more than Joe Kerridge's; Houma is a better athlete, and Michigan needs as many athletes as it can get on the field. Kerridge is a decent old school fullback, but that's about it.

Wide receivers. I believe the Freddy Canteen (1 catch, 45 yards) hype. He doesn't understand what he's doing, but he has the physical skills to be very good - and let's face it, that's a huge part of playing wide receiver. Canteen will be on the field in some capacity this fall, whether it's in the slot or on the outside. Even if he doesn't start, he'll play. Devin Funchess (1 catch, 10 yards) had some drops but we've seen him succeed in the past. He will probably continue to suffer from lapses in his concentration. Braylon Edwards had the same issue . . . until he was a senior. Funchess will be good when it's time to shine. Bo Dever (2 catches, 34 yards) had a couple nice catches, and he looks like a guy who could play situationally, but I'm not going to go overboard with what we saw out of him. I'd take him over Jeremy Jackson, though. Jehu Chesson (2 catches, 29 yards) is a good complementary receiver who can hurt you if you forget about him, and he's a very aggressive blocker. Dennis Norfleet can make some plays with the ball in his hands, but Canteen is already a better option in the slot. If the Wolverines go four wide, I wouldn't mind seeing Canteen and Norfleet working in the slots.

Tight ends. Keith Heitzman looks like he's ready to play at tight end this year after switching from defensive end. He and A.J. Williams are too slow to be receiving threats unless there's some misdirection or a broken play, but they are what they are. Wyatt Shallman was working with the tight ends, which is where I expect him to play - as a tight end or H-back.

Offensive line. Michigan is in a world of hurt on the offensive line right now. I think it's going to be another fairly ugly season, although I doubt it will be as bad as last year. They need Chad Lindsay, the transfer center from Alabama, in the worst way. I still believe the offensive line will develop in the coming years because there's too much talent for that not to happen, but it's not happening yet. Michigan needs Erik Magnuson back on the left side. Mason Cole was the starting left tackle, and he didn't look any worse than the other guys . . . but that in itself is a problem. I do think Kyle Kalis has taken a step forward at right guard. I didn't like what I saw out of Logan Tuley-Tillman (who has been limited due to a wrist injury). In a reversal of last year, I think the interior might be better than the tackles this spring, although Magnuson's return should help. In my opinion, Michigan's best five (not counting Lindsay) right now are Magnuson, Bosch, Glasgow, Kalis, and Braden, from left to right.

Hit the jump for my thoughts on the defense.



Defensive ends. I don't like the idea of Brennen Beyer playing strongside end in an Under defense, so I hope Michigan sticks with an Over when he's in the game. I would prefer to see a bigger body in there at the 5-tech if we're going to run Under (such as Henry Poggi, Taco Charlton, Frank Clark, etc.). I don't want to take too much away from Frank Clark and Mario Ojemudia, who handled Michigan's tackles pretty well - they should be doing that to the guys Michigan is throwing out there right now.

Defensive tackles. The defensive tackles are going to be just fine this year if everyone is healthy. There's a lot of talent on the inside between Ondre Pipkins, Willie Henry, Bryan Mone, Chris Wormley, etc. I'm still not a fan of Ryan Glasgow, so I hope some other guys get a fire lit under their butts. The coaches want him to be Rob Renes, but he's not. People keep raving about Mone's quickness, but I don't see it yet. He still looks out of shape to me. I still have questions about Matt Godin being able to generate power and stay low enough to be a tackle. Until I see otherwise, I think his height is more suited to play 5-tech in an Under front.

Linebackers. Michigan goes two-deep at every spot, and I wouldn't be particularly nervous if any of those six guys started. SAM is a better fit for Royce Jenkins-Stone than middle linebacker, so that's a positive step. He's a downhill player, not a guy who should be reading and reacting. Ideally, Jake Ryan is a SAM linebacker, too, because he's lost a few years of development as a read-and-react guy. However, he's Michigan's best playmaker at the linebacker position, so I understand the desire to put him in the middle. I do have a slight preference for Desmond Morgan over Joe Bolden at WILL, but Bolden got the start. Bolden is a better athlete, but Morgan is more physical, more cerebral, and more experienced at this point.

Cornerbacks. The hype about Jourdan Lewis (2 interceptions) appears to be well deserved, and I really liked him coming out of high school. Last year he looked tiny, but he looks more put together this year. It's going to be really interesting seeing how the defensive backfield shakes out. Blake Countess was an All-Big Ten corner last year with 6 picks, so there's no way he gets pushed to the bench by Lewis. The more likely event, in my opinion, is that we'll see Raymon Taylor get knocked to the bench, only to play in nickel situations. Taylor isn't as gutsy as Lewis in man coverage situations. Despite being small-ish, Lewis thrives in press man coverage. You could see that last year and in his seven-on-seven performances in high school. I don't think Stribling has what it takes to see the field a ton this year unless something happens. But Michigan currently has three starter-quality cornerbacks, and that's not counting incoming freshman Jabrill Peppers, who will probably reach that level by the end of the year.

Safeties. Jarrod Wilson has one spot locked down. The other spot looks to be a battle between Delano Hill and Jeremy Clark. I've seen people talk about Hill's superior speed, but I don't see it. Clark looks to have more range than Hill, in my opinion. I'm still waiting to see Dymonte Thomas do something special, but he looks more like a slot corner to me. I wish Michigan had enough depth at safety to keep Thomas in the slot, even though that would saturate the corner position even more. I've always liked Wilson's potential, so hopefully the brain farts disappear now that he's looked at as a leader. I wouldn't be entirely surprised to see Countess or Peppers playing some safety by the end of the year.

23 comments:

  1. If Countess/Peppers goes to Safety, What does your back 5 look like?

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    1. Lewis at CB, Taylor at CB, Countess at FS, Wilson at SS, Peppers at nickel corner by season's end.

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    2. CB - Countess and Lewis, with Stribling and Peppers rotating in a bit.
      NB - Peppers
      Safeties - Wilson and Taylor

      Countess is too good of a corner for me to want to move him back to safety. With Mattison's "bend but don't break" play the last few years, Taylor did just fine keeping the play in front of him. I think he would translate well to safety.

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  2. Smith makes me think a little bit of Hart sometimes in that while he doesn't have enough shake to make you miss, he has just enough so that you mostly get a reduced piece of him enabling him to break the tackle or at worst, fall forward.

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    1. Smith is a better athlete than Hart in my opinion. The balance Smith shows does remind me of Hart though.

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    2. Nobody else is like Mike Hart.

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  3. What's the starting OL if we do get Chad Lindsay?

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    1. My initial guess would be Magnuson, Glasgow, Lindsay, Kalis, and Braden.

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    2. Mine would be: Magnuson, Bosch, Lindsay, Kalis, and Glasgow(Week 2)

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    3. I didn't really like what I saw out of Glasgow at the spring game at RT, but he hasn't played it much. Personally, I would prefer to strengthen the interior of the line, so if he's our best or second-best offensive lineman, I would want him at one of the guard spots. I'm not entirely sold on Braden, though, so I wouldn't rule out Glasgow taking his spot at RT.

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    4. We had better pray that it is Braden and that he is at least functional. If Glasgow is playing tackle (a walk-on who will be switching positions), then that is a horrible sign, reminiscent of Mark Moundros playing linebacker in RichRod's last year.

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    5. ....except for the fact that Glasgow looked much more comfortable than Braden at RT in the spring game. Long past time to retire the walk-on label. He is UM's best OL at this point.

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    6. There's really no reason other than recruiting hype to think Braden can be a starter. The OL was brutal last year and he never saw the light of day. He wasn't heavily recruited either...

      Magnuson and Galsgow are locks to start. Kalis and Bosch very likely. Finding the 5th guy will be the challenge. Hopefully Lindsay is in there...otherwise we may be looking at walk-on types or freshman again.

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  4. I was reading an article on gbmwolverine.com about the O-Line the writer said after re-watching the spring game the O-Line was picking up their assignments much better than last year but just getting over powered by the defense. If the O-Line can stay healthy and keep improving through the off-season they should be okay come BIG Ten Season in October.

    I really like Mattison and the defensive coach’s aggressiveness on defense it can only help the offense in the long run.

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    1. I agree somewhat on the offensive line. However, I think it was a pretty vanilla "game plan" so I don't want to assume too much. They basically ran zone and power, which should be similar to what they did last year. I think they were generally blocking the right people, but they were absolutely getting overpowered. I think a lot of that has to do with youth and inexperience. Logan Tuley-Tillman against a junior or senior defensive end just isn't really a fair fight right now.

      I think they'll be better, but this won't be the mauling unit that we got used to watching at Michigan in the 1990's and early 2000's.

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    2. The other point is that the 1st team interior OL got to face R. Glasgow, a 17 yr old Mone, and the Massey-like Strobel/Godin combo. That's not exactly a murderer's row of DT's. I'm guessing that Hurst, Henry, Pipkins, and possibly Wormley are UM's most difficult to handle DT's and the 1st OL did not face any of them.

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  5. You REALLY weren't a fan of Jeremy Jackson, eh? :)

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  6. Peppers at safety -- does this squander some of his super-athleticism? I think of corner as a position where it gets put to better use. To be an elite shutdown corner, you've got to be fast, a good leaper, and really agile. He is being compared to Charles Woodson but how much impact would Woodson have had at safety instead of at corner?

    Any chance that with none of our RBs looking inspiring Peppers goes there right away and plays there permanently? Maybe he is one of those once-a-decade guys that is so great that even Fred Jackson can't make him mediocre.

    And what's up with Dymonte Thomas not even being in the Top 2 at the open safety spot? He's behind two guys with the same eligibility? That's pretty discouraging.

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    1. Peppers is big and could get bigger, so that's why there's ambivalence about him at corner vs. safety.

      Some people really don't like Fred Jackson for whatever reason. I don't get it.

      Dymonte Thomas never played safety before coming to Michigan. The other guys did. Still, Thomas did line up at safety for a number of plays. Plus, Clark has a redshirt year, so this "same eligibility" bullshit is a word game to make a vacuous point.

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    2. Dymonte Thomas enrolled early, and a redshirt year doesn't give you any experience in live fire exercises. The benefit of the experience that you get from just practices for one fall isn't vast. So no, the eligibility comment isn't "bullshit".

      If he had to learn the position coming in, then fine, but he burned his redshirt and he's only got three more years. He doesn't have forever to catch up. Thomas wasn't billed as a raw superathlete who was going to take four years to shape. He was billed as a borderline 5* guy, immediate impact player.

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  7. What are the porspects of Raymon Taylor moving back to safety if he gets bumped from the starting corner spot? IIRC, wasn't he a tweener CB/S prospect coming out of HS?

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  8. Nice recap and team overview.

    I'm in the camp that thinks Taylor is the one that slides to Safety. Countess seems more locked in at Corner and Courtney Avery showed they're not afraid to put an undersized guy at safety.

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  9. I agree with the assesment of Green and Smith. Green looks to be in better shape than he was last season and is probably the quicker of the two. But I like Smith's power. He is the tougher of the two to bring down, at least right now.

    But Smith seems like a guy who needs to get his momentum going before he is truly effective. I don't know if he is shifty or quick enough to create his own space and with that being said I don't know how effective he can be until they have a good line.

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