Mailbag question: Several off-season questions (More)

Posted at 12:00pm — 1/24/2010

4. What happened to the jumbo athlete? Carr collected these guys like they were going out of style, often too many in my mind, but it’s hard not to envy his legacy with guys like Aaron Shea, for example. Rich had great success with his fullback at WVU, and he has some killer athletes at TE right now and Moundros and Kevin Grady are relatively athletic FBs. What is going on here?

5. Oh what the heck, I already asked about the other units: does 2010 DL depth scare the bejeesus out of you? RVB-Campbell-Martin is fine, maybe even pretty good, first unit, and Sagesse is a pretty nice backup, but after that … Terrifying, right? Who is going to play 15 snaps a game as a 3-4 DE? Can’t see a freshman up to the task.

6. This is the thing I maybe think about most: how is it possible that our staff, which I still believe (although this is becoming an article of faith, not something I can prove to myself anymore) has some real offensive genius, couldn’t teach Shoelace to run the read-option? I thought that was our most basic play. What happened there?

Cheers and go blue!
-DJ

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Thanks for the questions.

4) For all the talk about Owen Schmitt, he only averaged six touches a game over his career. Michigan does not have an athlete on Schmitt’s caliber yet. Maybe a Hopkins will step up and be that type of threat.

The biggest thing is West Virginia used him more than what the staff has tried to do with the current roster the past two years. Is this because the coaches are trying to get more talent on the field and using the entire field and all of the players on the field?

The thing with this offense is, the more weapons that you use, the easier it will be spreading and using the entire field We are hoping they can find a deep threat that will stretch the field and get the ball into the playmaker’s hands.

5. We include Roh in this group, also Banks and Henniger will more than likely get some reps. But yes, defensive depth is still a MAJOR concern and something we have been complaining about for two years now.

Getting added depth always helps, but a team also needs to get talented players as well that have the size and ability to come in and play early, and frankly we do not see that right now. Almost all the committed kids we have seen will need a couple of years in Coach Barwis’ system to develop and get bigger and stronger.

We do not have that elite player that can come in and make an immediate impact. Just like Roh did last year. He had to play because of depth and also talent issues. If he would have played for a team like Ohio State we believe he would have red-shirted and been able to get into the S&C program to develop and be ready come the following year.

6. Denard Robinson had been in a traditional pro style offense in high school. Read option was a completely new concept to him. There is limited time and reps available to teach in the summer and fall. It is in the spring where the real teaching can happen.

That was the big learning curve for Denard. because Coach Rod had to teach two players the position and when Tate Forcier came in early and got the added practice time this made it easier to go with Tate and he was the best option at the time to win games.

We will see how much Denard has improved and has actually learned the system over the off-season. The biggest question will be how well will he do now after being in the system and also how quickly does Devin Gardner pick up the position and what does the coaching staff do with him this year.

Written by GBMW Staff

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