Michigan Football: Tidbits from Off-Season Workouts

Posted at 6:00am — 2/26/2008

Michigan Football: Tidbits from Off-Season Workouts

Well several guys are not doing the work-outs right now (Terrance Taylor, Will Johnson, Brandon Harrison and Carson Butler). Nothing major to really report right now except for the fact they are being held out so no worries right now. This is probably a good thing right now.

Regarding Mike Barwis and we know that we have been in the group that is thrilled he is at Michigan and he is a major improvement, but some fans are going a little bit overboard saying this is going to take us over the top against teams like Ohio State. OSU has a great S&C program as well and we are just finally getting to the other programs as far as S&C and accountability. Do not get me wrong he will be a great benefit.

Barwis himself has stated that he would rather have five star kids and improve them even more than have three star kids and try to make them into five star kids. One thing Barwis will do is make these guys work up to their potential compared to the previous staff where the kids really had to push themselves. They do not have to worry about that under Barwis he will push them to the limit and will make some kids look elsewhere. Will tell you that everything is going great right now and the kids have really bought into the program, but remember that is just S&C and not football.

Reunion:
The former players were all excited and impressed with the accessibility to the all the coaches and that they were able to talk with Coach Rod himself. They talked to him about what their expectations were for the Michigan coach running a clean program, being aggressive, remembering tradition, and doing it the Michigan way.

Recruiting:
Coach Rod recruiting in 2009 will mold his program at Michigan. We really need to improve our recruiting and the athletic ability in these classes coming in the next several years. Yes what they do this football season will be very important, but the kind of kids he will recruit in his very first complete year will dictate the direction he wants his program. The interesting thing we will be looking at is what kind of quarterback he goes after in 2009. We all know he is not interested in a pro style quarterback, but it will be interesting to see if he goes after a pass first quarterback then run (scrambles) when needed or will he go after a run first quarterback then pass when needed. That might just dictate the kind of wide receivers we will be able to land in the future.

Really, Coach Rod and Coach Carr are not that different in the type of kids they want to get at Michigan. They both want great athletes who have great potential at the college level. The only two real differences is that Coach Rod once a dual threat QB where Carr went for a pro-style QB. Coach Rod is looking for faster, smaller, quicker slot wide receivers where Carr did not really look for them and just went after the pro-style wide receivers that are tall and bigger built.

You could probably say a little difference in the offensive line where he is looking for more athletic type kids, but the major differences is that Coach Rod wants them to be thinner and quicker where Carr wanted the kids bigger. Defensively they will be looking for the same type of kids the only problem is getting those types of kids where Michigan has struggled at times at certain positions. Every defense wants their defensive players to be aggressive, fast, can hit, etc. They want the strong and quick pass rushers while getting the big strong run stoppers while having linebackers that can cover TE’s in the passing game and be able to go sideline to sideline in the running game. The biggest difference will be getting these guys prepared to play in shape compared to Carr’s players and that is where Barwis is holding these kids accountable.

Defense:
We are lacking athletic ability at several positions. Safety right now we have Stevie Brown as being most athletic safety. Some people might say Artis Chambers, but he is not a great athlete. You have the corner-back position in which now they want to play press coverage and we might struggle a little bit. Well Morgan Trent has not been able to play press coverage yet at Michigan at least not for along period. Will he be able to do that the entire game? You have Trent and Donovan Warren, but no proven depth to do this yet. Michigan has Troy Woolfolk, James Rogers and Boubacar Cissoko who is all-good kids, but unproven.

The linebacker positions we have good kids coming, but again unproven. Fitzgerald needs a lot of work and strength is a big issue and he might not be ready until later in the year, but again we have lot of unproven kids in this position and these kids will indeed have to step up this year for our defense to be dominant. We are trying to win a Big Ten Championship here and the defense is supposed to be our strength of the team this year and will carry this team early. Remember defense wins championships.

Offense:
Regarding the offense, we are starting over and kids that have not played a lot at Michigan. We are starting a new QB, RB, WR’s and several offensive linemen. Hemingway and Clemons are not super fast and either is Mathews. Darrell Stonum is indeed the fastest wide receiver Michigan has right now and could be a starter with his deep threat capabilities or at least plays a lot this year. Clemons has the ability to stretch a defense vertically also. While not as fast as Stonum he makes up for this with superior jumping ability and height. Very similar to the way David Terrell could stretch a defense with less than blazing speed. Also, think that Roy Roundtree has more speed than other WR’s mentioned (Clemons and Hemingway), but will probably red-shirt.

Also in Coach Rod’s offense, SE’s can also stretch a defense with combination of speed and height. An athlete as Webb or Moore could easily out muscle or jump smaller CB’s to help stretch a defense vertically. SE’s are very often one on one in secondary running fades, slants, and hitches. So I believe Michigan will look for another speed tall wide receiver. Martell Webb we are not even sure what position he is going to be playing this year. The funny thing is our strongest position will be the RB’s even though hardly any of them have gotten much playing time behind the four-year starter Mike Hart who carried most of the load.

Next years recruiting class could be twenty-five member class again.

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Written by GBMWolverine Staff

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