Michigan Football Tidbits: Few Observations — Players
1) Huyge: Do not know if he is going to hold on to right tackle spot (certainly the favorite), but what a great kid. He really works as hard as he can. People forget that when Carr recruited Huyge he was a very young senior who needed development. The combination of Barwis and Huyge maturing has put him in a position to contribute.
2) The biggest advantage of Huyge development and work ethic is Omameh understands he really has to progress and produce. But even more important it also sends a message to Barnum. Who is the type of kid who needs this type of pushing internally. Barnum fully expected by now to have won a starting position. Athletically and fitting the scheme he should have, but injuries have really slowed his progress and now he sees he is in a fight.
3) Sometime kids just mature faster than others. One kid who has had some issues at Michigan has struggled despite his talent, but in the past year and half has really turned it on — B. Graham. There were times coaches were frustrated with his inconsistent play and effort and B. Graham is an example of how important a program like Barwis is. Not only is the program difficult, but it is relentless and it makes kids like B. Graham decide if this stuff is worth it. In Graham’s case, he has become a our best player and our team leader. And now, if he stays healthy has a future on Sundays.
4) Kudos to Nick Sheridan. On the one hand he is still competing and on the other he goes beyond the call of duty in mentoring younger quarterback’s. Sheridan is a kid who we all know lacks certain abilities, but having a year under Coach Rod has made him tough mentally. His primary message to younger quarterback’s is “be the hardest worker on the team, but learn to take criticism as contrastive coaching”. and also said “if you do not or cannot you wont play at Michigan”.
5) One of a personal weaknesses and can be really stubborn. Notice over the past three years we are probably one of the lone S. Brown fans left. And now, have a new one in Patterson. Just think he is going to contribute this year. Do not know why, because he has shown hardly any production in games, but the kid is a workout warrior. He is one of most productive kids in Barwis program. We know S&C is not the sole indication of how kids will play on Saturday, but just keep asking ourselves why would a kid go through al this crap and not compete as hard as he can in practices and games.
6) Wide Receiver’s: Starting to feel better, in fact, much better. Stonum catching the ball and Stokes is the real deal. Roundtree just throw him the ball and Matthews is doing fine. Still do not see a huge homerun threat and this team is going to struggle at times if we get too far behind, but just think teams are going to have to put that extra guy in the box this year and this should allow wide receiver’s to have some big games.
7) Okay, just a small beef. Cannot understand why posters/bloggers claim that we have given up on a certain kid or we wont get a certain kid because he already have a commit at that position. Case in point cornerback. We have one cornerback commit — 1.
This on a team that is using walk-ons on in the two deep. And some of the potential commits are probably better suited for safety and doesn’t anyone remember the year Ohio State had about eight defensive back commits. Why is it okay for other schools to do this, but Michigan fans use this as an excuse.
And as far as Mathis — please — stay positive on the kid. Why would anyone rather have Grimes a kid who if he does not come to Michigan will go somewhere that does not compete with Michigan and here is Mathis who is just as talented, but could go to a school who is one of our rivals and use it not only against Michigan, but the media as well. Sometimes the recruiting game is not only who you get, but who the other guy does not. (this is one part of recruiting that agreed with Carr).
My point is overall, If Michigan had a choice between two kids who are equal in talent we prefer to take the kid who will not only help, but keep him from opposition and may help with future recruiting.
Another point about this argument about Florida three star vs. Michigan four star is un-provable and in our opinion not true. Top rated kids in Michigan can compete with anybody and think this has been proven over the years.
Michigan’s biggest problem with “Detroit area” kids in the past decade were a matter of player development — not a matter of talent. Mathis is a talented kid. Now one could argue he would be better at slot receiver, but he wants to play cornerback. And with Turner and maybe Cullen coming to Michigan, we could always get another taller cornerback in next years class.
Of course, overall, yes, take them both. We need both of them. Our depth chart should be attractive to any cornerback and we do not see why Michigan would only limit itself to one or two in this recruiting class. It is not just about depth, pure numbers. In our opinion, it is about quality of that depth as well. The drop off after our three 1st group defensive linemen was striking.
8) Quarterback position is fine. Not a big fan of 7 on 7 drills in terms of judging quarterback talent or how things are going. Every quarterback looks good in shorts. Quarterback’s are working hard and look fine.
9) Stokes is playing both split end and slot receiver which if learns both positions gives him that much more playing time this year we believe.
10) Patterson is the back-up to RVB, but will push him
11) Demens: Definitely on two deep and will pushing for playing time.
12) Helmuth will add depth, but role will be limited and a lot will depend on how fast Big Will develops.
Coaches:
1) Tall: He just wants to coach. So he will accept any system he is working under and do the best he can
2) Hopson: Another guy who just wants to coach, but see him as having bigger dreams and so he is willing to learn and teach any system he feels will improve his coaching.
3) Gibson: Is Coach Rod’s guy — his right hand man, so Gibby will buy in as long as system is successful. Gibson wants to win, mainly for Coach Rod’s sake so its not like Hopson who wants to be a head coach someday. Gibson will adhere to anything Coach Rod puts in place.
4) Magee is a big time recruiter, but in Coach Rod’s system coordinators do not have an area.
Thanks for stopping by http://gobluemichiganwolverine.blogspot.com/
If you have any questions please e-mail erocwolverine@gmail.com
Written by MaizeMan, CoachBt and ErocWolverine
