James Rogers, #18

James Rogers breaks up a pass to Notre Dame's Michael Floyd.

2010 Countdown: #56 James Rogers

HIGH SCHOOL
Coming out of high school in 2007 from Madison Heights, MI, Rogers was a mid-level recruit.  He was a 3-star player, the #68 athlete, and the #27 player in Michigan, according to Rivals.  Scout said he was a 4-star and the #17 safety in the country.  I guess Rivals made the better evaluation here, since Rogers bounced back and forth between cornerback and wide receiver all four years.  At no point did he play safety.

COLLEGE
Rogers was a pretty dynamic offensive player in high school, so many assumed he would be a receiver.  But he first appeared as a cornerback and special teamer, burning his redshirt for a small slice of playing time as a freshman in 2007.  He ended the season with 6 tackles, 1 pass breakup, and 1 fumble recovery.  When Rodriguez showed up and needed an influx of receivers for 2008, Rogers moved to that side of the ball.  He started two games, making 3 receptions for 64 yards in addition to 2 special teams tackles.  Rogers stayed at receiver into 2009, but when attrition took its toll on the cornerback position, he found himself back on defense and special teams, making 7 total tackles.  A shortage of defensive backs continued and injuries mounted, which left Rogers on defense.  So in a somewhat surprising turn of events, the high school running back/wide receiver-turned-cornerback-turned-receiver-turned-cornerback became a 13-game starter as a senior.  He made 40 tackles, 3 interceptions (tied for the team lead), 3 pass breakups, and 2 tackles for loss throughout the year.

CAREER STATS
55 tackles, 4 pass breakups, 3 interceptions, 2 tackles for loss; 3 receptions, 64 yards

AWARDS
None.

SUMMARY
Rogers is a pretty good story.  He's the type of kid who stuck around for four years and never complained, even when it looked like he would never see the field.  If it weren't for the injury to Troy Woolfolk in the preseason, Rogers probably wouldn't have played much this past year, except for spot duty and special teams.  But he persevered and ended up as a 13-game starter.  I always wished Rogers could stay at wide receiver and stop bouncing around, because I thought he had the speed and hands to be a decent wideout.  But obviously he was needed at cornerback this past season, and he made an impact on that side of the ball.

PROJECTION
Rogers was not invited to the NFL Combine but will likely work out at U of M's upcoming pro day.  He has excellent speed (witness his rundown of a Mississippi State running back in the Gator Bowl), but he's not very smooth in the hips, he's somewhat slow at diagnosing routes, and he's not a great tackler.  I would be very surprised if he plays football at the next level.

Nike Coach of the Year Clinic: Day 2

Tom Williams, Yale's head football coach

Friday morning we woke up and ate donuts at the clinic.  If you didn't know before, it's tough to be healthy when you're a football coach.  It was beer and pizza on Thursday, donuts on Friday.

The first session I attended was that of Sean Connors, the quarterbacks coach at Diablo Valley College in California.  Connors talked about the pistol offense and, more specifically, the option route.  DVC is a junior college with an explosive offense, and the offense is predicated on the option route.  If I remember correctly, he said that they run some form of the option route on 52% of their plays.

If you're wondering, the option route is a play where the slot receiver on either side makes a read at the beginning of his route, deciding whether to run an in route or an out route.  The slot receiver tries to get open at six yards (no matter which side he chooses).  The outside receiver on the slot's side must get an outside release and create a deep threat downfield, which hopefully takes the cornerback and/or safety out of the equation.  The deep route is obviously a lower percentage pass, but it often comes open because safeties jump the 6-yard route.  On the opposite side, the slot receiver and wideout run a "high-low stretch" in which one stays short and the other goes long.  It's not a difficult concept, but it seems like it could be effective with the right personnel.  As a junior college, DVC doesn't get many players who stick around very long, so Connors said that his players can learn it pretty quickly.  I'd say it's working, because I think they averaged 41.3 points per game last year.

The second presentation I attended was Tom Williams, the head coach of Yale.  Williams is not exactly what you might expect from an Ivy League head coach.  He's loud and boisterous and a little rough around the edges, but he was very entertaining.  I could see why players would want to play for him.  He grew up in Forth Worth, TX, and played for both Jack Elway and Bill Walsh at Stanford.  He ended up playing a little special teams in the NFL, but ended up coaching shortly thereafter.

Before Williams really started talking about himself, he gave us a history lesson on Yale football.  He said that Yale was the first college football team to reach 800 wins.  And then the conversation detoured into territory that's close to my heart.  He put up a chart of the teams with the most wins in college football.  It went like this:

1. Michigan - 883
2. Yale - 865

He said, "I kinda hoped Rich Rod would stick around a little bit longer.  He's a good guy, though.  But Brady Hoke is coming back and gonna bring some tough, hard-nosed, I-formation football."

I don't know if Williams has some sort of connection to Michigan, but the talk about the Wolverines didn't stop there.  As the head coach and assistant special teams coach, he talked about how he teaches players to avoid blocks on kickoffs.  And regarding avoiding blocks, he said, "Bo Schembechler used to say 'The issue is the ball.'  Too many guys spend too much time figuring out how to get past blockers.  'The issue is the ball.'"  He repeated that theme several more times.  Williams had several interesting drills and techniques to share, but I don't imagine too many of you are interested in reading about his kickoff drills.

He did, however, reveal the results of an interesting study.  When he was an assistant coach with the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, he went back and studied film of all their games.  What he wanted to find out was, How important is tackling form?  He found a couple of interesting statistics:

• 76% of encounters that involve a tackler making body-to-body contact (in other words, not "arm tackling" but actually having a collision between both torsos) result in tackles
• 70% of encounters that fail to make body-to-body contact (in other words, "arm tackles") result in missed tackles

Williams had a lot of energy and had film of himself sprinting downfield with his charges on kickoff practice.  I thoroughly enjoyed his presentation.

Later, I attended the session by Mike McQueary, the wide receivers coach (and former quarterback) for Penn State.  He was five or ten minutes late because he went to the wrong Holiday Inn first.  Oops.  He shared some insights and film on running screens and draws, but nothing that groundbreaking.  I attended the Penn State coaches clinic in 2009 and saw some of the same information about wide receivers that he shared during the second half of his session, so I went to eat lunch instead.

The same afternoon I went to the session of Todd Bradford, who is the new defensive coordinator at Maryland under Randy Edsall.  Bradford came from Southern Mississippi this offseason, but he has quite a resume for a little known coordinator.  He spent time at Eastern Michigan (where his defense broke a bunch of team records) and Wisconsin (where he coached first rounder Jamar Fletcher), among others.  He runs something like a 4-3 Under defense, but it's extremely complicated.  Whereas Sean Connors, the QB coach at Diablo Valley College, used the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid), Bradford's defense seemed to be extremely complicated.  I think it was partially due to his use of jargon, but several coaches that I talked to were confused by some of his terminology and schemes.  For example, he would use the phrase "Sam" and "Star" almost interchangeably, and it was unclear if it was something like Greg Robinson's Sam/Spur position. Eventually, I think I determined that the Star referred to the slot corner that would come into the game in passing situations, but I'm not positive.

Anyway, Bradford had a very interesting approach to defense.  He would have his boundary safety (the one to the short side of the field) making adjustment calls literally right up to the snap.  But the boundary safety doesn't communicate to the corners or linebackers - he talks to the defensive linemen.  Let's say the 3-tech defensive tackle has B-gap responsibility and the 5-tech defensive end has C-gap control.  If those defensive linemen take their first step and realize that the offensive linemen are trying to reach them (i.e. step outside the defenders to seal the edge), a certain call will tell the 3-tech and the 5-tech to take the gap to the inside so the boundary safety will then have outside contain.

In other words, pre-snap the safety could have A-gap, the DT could have B-gap, and the DE could have C-gap.  But if the safety sees something he doesn't like, he could make a signal for the DT to take A-gap, the DE to take B-gap, and then for himself to take that outside gap.  But it all hinges on those defensive linemen immediately reading the block in front of them.  

Like I said, it sounds extremely complicated.  Maybe that's one reason why Southern Mississippi finished with the #13 rushing defense in the country in 2010.

Yes, I know all kinds of people, and I'm not afraid to say it.

The final speaker of the evening was Kirk Ferentz, Iowa's head coach.  He was both the coach I was most looking forward to seeing . . . and the most disappointing speaker.  Maybe he's genuinely just a very friendly and engaging guy, but if he's not a "name dropper" then I don't know who is.  Don't get me wrong - it's a great quality that he can remember the name of a mother of one of his players back in 1988.  Names are difficult to remember, and it shows that he probably listens to people when they talk.  

But when you're sitting in front of a few hundred coaches in Podunk, Pennsylvania, and naming little known players and their mothers from Podunk, Iowa, or Podunk, New Hampshire, then it just seems a little forced.  

He did tell an excellent story about some woman's outstanding recipe for stuffed red bell peppers, so there's that.

Most of Ferentz's talk was about the offensive line, which is no surprise, since that's the position he's known for developing most.  He talked very little about technique, but showed a lot of film.  Much of the film was looking at drills, but there was a decent amount of game film, too.  Every time a clip of Iowa vs. Michigan would pop up on the screen, my co-workers would look at me consolingly.  We all knew that somebody was about to get crushed, and sure enough, there goes Adam Patterson being pushed from his nose tackle position about eight yards downfield and almost to the sideline.  There goes Jonas Mouton getting swallowed by a guard.  There goes the entire right side of the defense just getting obliterated.  It was sad.

Anyway, it's pretty amazing to hear him talk about where he finds his offensive linemen, because those kids are often virtual nobodies coming out of high school.  Michigan fans make a big deal about getting 4- and 5-star recruits, but Ferentz turned two walk-ons - from the same high school, no less! - and turned them into Big Ten starters on a solid team.  

Ferentz is also one of those guys who ends his talk about 18 times.  "I just want to finish with a couple things" turns into "Before I finish, I just want to say" turns into "There are a couple things I want to leave you with" turns into "And as a side note" turns into "Two things I'd like to share with you are" turns into me wanting to fall asleep.  I'm not sure if I would have stayed awake for the entire thing, except for the fact that I was wondering if he would mention anything about Michigan.

He didn't.

When he was finished, everyone - including Ferentz - went to a separate banquet room, sat around, and drank beer.  I sat nowhere near him, but he was there well past midnight.

Nike Coach of the Year Clinic: Day 1

Danny Hope looks like this 100% of the time.

This past weekend I attended the Nike Coach of the Year Clinic in Allentown, Pennsylvania.  Several coaches at my school visited, and we all headed up on Thursday afternoon.  Due to some commitments after work, I left later than most of my colleagues.  I missed some talks from a Kutztown coach about the 4-2-5 and a Villanova coach about the Wildcat, but I was going to arrive in time to see Danny Hope, the head Boilermaker.

Since the clinic was held at the Holiday Inn, we checked in and headed down to the room.  While we were waiting for the elevator, I glanced back and a familiar face was walking through the door.  Danny Hope himself came around the corner and said, "How you guys doin'?"  I said, "Good, Coach.  How are you?"  He said, "Good to see you guys" as he sauntered down the hallway, presumably toward his room.

Let me tell you something about Danny Hope - he walks like a cowboy.  I assume he has old joint injuries, because he walks all bowlegged and stuff.  He was an offensive guard at Eastern Kentucky in the '70's and '80's, and offensive linemen often end up with bad knees from bending down all the time and lifting so much weight.

Shortly afterward Hope was the main speaker on Thursday night, and as I entered the banquet room, I noticed a familiar face sitting about two rows back.  He was wearing a baseball cap and a heavy coat, but I tapped my friend on the shoulder and said, "That's Matt Millen sitting a couple rows behind us."  Yep, the guy who drove the Detroit Lions even further into the ground was there, too.

Hope talked mostly about pass blocking fundamentals for offensive linemen.  We watched a lot of film of drills, but here were a few key points.

• Offensive linemen should keep their nose on the defender's inside number and have a "tit in each hand."
• Defensive players shouldn't threaten the depth of the pocket.  In other words, he doesn't want interior blockers (mostly centers and guards) to give ground when creating the pocket.  This refers mostly to defensive tackles and blitzing linebackers.
• Defensive players also shouldn't threaten the width of the pocket.  That means offensive tackles who hinge back shouldn't allow defensive ends or outside linebackers to squeeze the pocket from the outside.  The tackle should keep his inside toe pointing toward the line of scrimmage to prevent from getting turned.
• Tackles should only hinge backward immediately if the first player outside him on the line of scrimmage is "loose."  In other words, if the man is close enough and fast enough to beat the OT to the inside, then he's "tight" and the OT should protect the depth of the pocket by not hinging backward.

Millen was being super annoying.  For approximately half of Hope's hour-long presentation, Millen was talking to someone sitting next to him.  A bunch of coaches were sitting there in the room, taking notes, learning, etc., and Millen was being completely disrespectful to the man on the stage.  At one point I even heard him say in a condescending tone something like, "High school kids aren't going to be able to understand this stuff," when Hope was talking about how much weight to load on your back leg.  Not that I'm a fan of Hope or anything, but rude is rude.

In the middle of Hope's speech, a tall, well dressed guy walked in the door and sat somewhere behind us.  He looked familiar but I couldn't quite place the face.  Then it dawned on me: Neil O'Donnell.  He didn't have a beard anymore, but it was Neil O'Donnell nonetheless.

Neil O'Donnell tries to avoid Sean Jones

After Hope's presentation the attendees retired to a separate room for a "coaches social" with beer and pizza.  Millen stood up and addressed the crowd, introducing surprise guest speaker O'Donnell.  The old quarterback talked a lot about his background.  The main gist of his speech was what he thinks quarterbacks are lacking in today's game.  His assessment is that college quarterbacks (some of whom he trains) lack the ability to handle pressure.  He said his old coach Bill Parcells used to stand right behind him in practice and scream "NOW!" whenever he thought the timing was right to throw a pass.  And if he didn't throw it right then, he would get his ass chewed out.  According to him, game day was easy since Parcells wasn't standing right behind him.  O'Donnell was a little bit awkward and didn't seem like he knew what he wanted to say, but I wasn't expecting to see a former NFL quarterback speak, so I didn't have any expectations.

As for Hope he was very, very serious.  I don't think I saw him crack a smile the entire evening.  I learned quite a bit about stance, footwork, technique, and practice drills, but he wasn't a very inspiring speaker.  I do have to give Hope some credit, though.  He was perhaps the most energetic presenter of the entire weekend. He hopped on and off stage several times throughout the evening, and every time he did, he looked like a 70-year-old man.  But when it came time to demonstrating footwork and technique, that guy got down into a good stance, showed good footwork, and really worked his hands.  In his opening comments, he said "Explanation without demonstration is simply conversation."  He said that demonstration from coaches seems to be disappearing, and he certainly put his words into action.

Attractive Michigan Girls of the Week: Neon Hats!

If you have any other pictures of attractive Michigan girls, drop me an e-mail at touchthebanner@gmail.com.

2012 Offer Board Update

Maryland running back/defensive back Cyrus Jones

The 2012 Offer Board has been updated:

California LB Jabari Ruffin committed to USC.

Added Maryland OG Mike Madaras.

Added Texas OG Michael Starts.

Added California WR Bryce Treggs.

Added Maryland RB Wes Brown.

Added Pennsylvania DE Noah Spence.

Added Maryland RB Cyrus Jones.

Added Florida OG Ty Darlington.

Added Maryland DE Ryan Watson.

Added Texas FS LaDarrell McNeil.

Added Pennsylvania OT J.J. Denman.

Texas LB Peter Jinkens committed to Texas.

Added Texas DE Devonte Fields

Clinic time!

I hate this guy.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I'm going to be attending the Nike Coach of the Year clinic in Pennsylvania from Thursday through Saturday.  There are various high school, college, and professional coaches speaking at the clinic, including Iowa's Kirk Ferentz, Purdue's Danny Hope, Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson, and Syracuse's Doug Marrone.

I'm not sure if any readers are planning to go, but feel free to drop me an e-mail if you are.

I plan to have some write-ups about the clinic, but in the meantime, posting might be light.

P.S. I asked the head coach of our program, "If I don't wear our team gear, can I heckle Danny Hope while we're there?"  He said he didn't care.  Yes!

Am I expecting too much from Michigan's running backs?

Brandon Minor was Michigan's most successful running back of the Rich Rodriguez era.

If you're a frequent reader, I'm sure you're aware that I've been unhappy with the performance of some of the running backs over the past few seasons.  Due to some recent conversations with fellow fans, I started to wonder: am I expecting too much from Michigan running backs? 

So I thought I'd do some research.  Below you'll find a listing of the explosive runs (20+ yards) by each starting running back for the last couple decades.  I don't have access to each and every run, so what I used was a player's longest explosive play from each particular game.  The weakness here is that a player with two 20+ yard runs in one game (say, a 50-yarder and a 25-yarder) only has the 50-yarder listed.  Additionally, the maximum number of plays to be listed is 13 (the most games Michigan has played in any given season) and the minimum is 0.

NOTE: I listed each of the team's top few rushers in the Rodriguez years just for recent comparison's sake.  However, the player with the most carries is highlighted in yellow.

Denard Robinson 2010 (256 carries): 87, 72, 47, 32, 32, 29, 24, 20, 20

Michael Cox 2010 (6 carries): 35
Michael Shaw 2010 (75 carries): 50, 39, 21
Vincent Smith 2010 (136 carries): 56
Carlos Brown 2009 (81 carries): 90, 41
Michael Cox 2009 (13 carries): 57, 24
Brandon Minor 2009 (96 carries): 55, 32
Denard Robinson 2009 (31 carries): 38, 36
Michael Shaw 2009 (42 carries): 22
Vincent Smith 2009 (48 carries): 37
Sam McGuffie 2008 (118 carries): 29, 26, 21
Brandon Minor 2008 (109 carries): 45, 40, 36, 34, 32, 21, 20
Michael Shaw 2008 (41 carries): 48, 30
Mike Hart 2007 (265 carries): 61, 54, 37, 23, 23
Mike Hart 2006 (318 carries): 54, 42, 33, 23, 23, 22, 21
Mike Hart 2005 (150 carries): 64, 20
Mike Hart 2004 (282 carries): 34, 33, 32, 26
Chris Perry 2003 (338 carries): 63, 41, 30, 27, 25, 21
Chris Perry 2002 (267 carries): 57, 43, 34, 23
B.J. Askew 2001 (199 carries): 30, 30, 25, 20
Anthony Thomas 2000 (319 carries): 68, 61, 54, 35, 32, 28, 25, 21

Anthony Thomas 1999 (301 carries): 60, 39, 31, 26, 23, 20

Anthony Thomas 1998 (166 carries): 80, 69, 59, 36, 24

Chris Howard 1997 (199 carries): 51, 30, 29, 28, 28, 27
Clarence Williams 1996 (202 carries): 32, 30, 26, 21
Tim Biakabutuka 1995 (303 carries): 60, 47, 47, 44, 37, 35, 34, 20, 20

Tyrone Wheatley 1994 (210 carries): 67, 36, 34, 24, 24, 22, 21, 20

Tyrone Wheatley 1993 (207 carries): 59, 47, 45, 43, 26, 25, 25

Tyrone Wheatley 1992 (185 carries): 88, 82, 54, 30, 23, 22

Ricky Powers 1991 (240 carries): 48, 39, 36, 33, 21

Next you'll see a chart of the top running back's rushing average for each of the past 20 seasons.  You'll notice that after Tyrone Wheatley and Tshimanga Biakabutuka departed, the running backs usually alternated one or two good years with one or two poor years.

Do those numbers have anything to do with wins?  Probably not.  The same chart as above, overlaid with the wins for each year:

CONCLUSIONS

1. Denard Robinson is awesome, as if you didn't already know.  He had a 20+ yard run in nine out of the thirteen games he played in 2010.  In the last twenty years, that number has been matched only by Tshimanga Biakabutuka in 1995.

2. Anthony Thomas was more of a big play guy than I thought.  He had at least seven rushes of 50+ yards in his career.

3. The number of carries for Michigan running backs dwindled greatly in the Rodriguez years.  From 1991 to 2007, eight running backs had 250+ carries in a season.  From 2008-2010, the highest number of carries for a running back was Vincent Smith's 136 in 2010.  Even if you combine the top two running backs from the past three seasons, the highest total is McGuffie/Minor's 227 back in 2008.

4. As far as Michigan running backs go, Vincent Smith falls at the bottom of the heap when it comes to explosive plays.  In his two seasons at Michigan, he has two 20+ yard runs.  The closest one to Smith is the 2005 version of Mike Hart, who missed several games due to injury and got only 150 carries.  Hart's 64-yarder and 20-yarder in that year are actually pretty close to Smith's longest two runs from 2010 - a 56-yard touchdown and a 19-yard run.

5. For being an offensive genius, Rich Rodriguez sure didn't have a great effect on Michigan's running backs.  I don't think there's any question that Michigan's best running back during his tenure was Brandon Minor, but Minor (109) split carries pretty evenly with Sam McGuffie (118) in 2008.  That was followed by a 2009 in which no running back carried the ball more than 100 times.  Injuries played a big part in the production (or lack thereof) from Minor, Carlos Brown, McGuffie, Shaw, etc.

6. I'm probably overreacting a little bit to yards per carry.  There are certainly more important aspects to winning football games than simple yards per carry, like turnovers, defense, quarterback play, etc.  For example, Michigan didn't lose 13 games over the past two seasons just because Vincent Smith has been a mediocre running back - the horrible defense played the biggest role in losing most of those games.  But at the same time, the only players with the same or worse rushing averages than Smith were:

a) the often forgotten Clarence Williams in '96 on an eight-win team
b) Anthony Thomas in '99, whose 4.3 yards a carry was a full yard below each of his surrounding seasons
c) Chris Perry's subpar junior season in '02
d) Mike Hart's injury-plagued '05 year
e) Sam McGuffie's freshman year in '08, when he suffered from concussions and a horrible unit around him


SO WHO CARES?

Well, I do. 

But so do defenses.  When teams don't respect your running back's ability to make big plays, they can concentrate on stopping the pass.  Or, in the case of Denard Robinson-led teams, they can concentrate on stopping the quarterback.  The lack of a big-play threat to play alongside Robinson in the backfield limits his abilities to be as effective a runner as possible.  Imagine a zone read option offense with Tim Biakabutuka or Tyrone Wheatley standing next to Denard Robinson in the backfield.  Which one do you defend?  Or do you curl up into a fetal position and pretend you pulled a hamstring?

Furthermore, big plays take away the opportunity for a team to bog down going from Point A to Point B.  Long runs aren't just fun to watch - they serve a purpose.  A guy who moves the ball in small chunks might be a fine running back, but at some point his short gains might force a few punts when the offense fails to get a first down. 

Clearly, a guy like Biakabutuka doesn't guarantee you a big play every time he starts a new series.  But he can move the ball in large chunks, and his presence opens up the play action passing game and keeps the defense off balance.

WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT IN 2011?

Better running back play.  That's the bottom line.  Over the last twenty years, Michigan's running backs have alternated good years with mediocre ones.  On the heels of a poor year from the Wolverines' backs, it seems Michigan is ready for an upswing in running back production.  Hoke seems committed to running the ball like Michigan used to do, and unlike a season such as 2008, the offensive line should be decent, despite losing a couple senior starters in Steve Schilling and Perry Dorrestein.  Whether it's Michael Shaw, Fitzgerald Toussaint, Stephen Hopkins, or someone else, the starting running back in 2011 should be better than in 2010.