Michigan Football: Michael Cox (RB) — Spring Evaluations
Posted at 6:00am — 4/26/2011
Michigan Football: Michael Cox (RB) — Spring Evaluations
GBMWolverine Football Spring Evaluations: Position by Position — Player Profile.
GBMWolverine readers: Here is a brief overview of Michael Cox and GBMWolverine’s analysis concerning his progress this spring with the new system.
Note: We will not evaluate every player on the team and with this position group (running backs) we will not evaluate #14 Teric Jones (injury), #18 Jihad Rasheed, and #32 O’Neil Swanson. If you would like to chat about these players bring them up on the message board, in chat on Monday nights or send us an e-mail request.
Coming in: Thomas Rawls (Flint Northern) and Justice Hayes (Grand Blanc) at the running back position this fall.
Losing: Michael Shaw, and John McColgan.
Michael Cox
Height: 6’0
Weight: 211
Number: 15
Position: Running Back
Year: Red-shirt Junior
City/State: Dorchester, Massachusetts
High School: Avon Old Farms
Overview:
Michael Cox seemed to be the best running back at the start of spring football practice.
Well it would not be an understatement to say Michael is very happy with the new coaches and new offensive scheme, which seems to benefit him. He believed he was not given a fair shot at the running back position because he wasn’t the idea fit/size for the previous coaching staff.
Towards the end Michael appeared to taper off a little bit or could be that the other running backs just got better and closed the gap and showed what they could do after learning the system.
Mike is built solid and is what you want to see in a running back that plays in a powerful running scheme.
Like Fitz, Michael is really having fun and battling for the running back position.
Strengths:
Michael has all the talent to be the “man” for this team as running back.
He is that great combination that a lot of programs want in their running backs; a big and physical back with enough speed to take it to the house.
Looking at Cox, one is impressed with how he prepared in the off-season regarding strength and conditioning. He now looks like a football running back that Michigan used in the past.
This spring he seemed to find a hole and get through it a lot better than last season along with finding the right cut back lane when needed.
We expect Michael to be in the running back mix for primary playing time.
Needs Work:
Michael still has some ball security issues and must be more consistent. Again, this comment refers to the collective group of backs.
Michael and all backs at Michigan need to work on pass blocking. That could be a deciding factor on playing time or the amount of reps a running back gets on Saturday’s because that is how close together the running backs are right now.
Contributing This Year?
As we mentioned in an earlier article a lot of these comments can be applied to all the running backs.
We believe Michael fits this new offensive scheme very well. He is battling for the #1 running back right now with no clear-cut favorite coming out of spring football practices.
We see Michael getting many reps/carries this year with the starters and believe the coaches are going to be looking for the “hot hand.”
He seemed to enter spring practice with a new attitude and new lease on life knowing he has a chance to contribute with this team and for these coaches this year.
Final Thoughts:
Michael Cox has really shown great improvement this spring and it is easy to discern he is having fun again playing football at Michigan.
As we stated under the quarterback final thoughts, here is another new (and quite different) offense to learn and another new coaching staff from whom to absorb the necessary knowledge and technique. This is tough on players, especially with limited access prior to spring practices and only having fifteen practices in the spring to get acclimated to the new scheme.
We will see the biggest improvement, not only with Michael, but the entire team, during the summer workouts and fall camp.
Competition in a coach’s eyes is a beautiful thing with Coach Borges (OC), Coach Jackson (RB) and Coach Hoke (HC).
Michael Cox, Fitzgerald Toussaint, Stephen Hopkins, Michael Shaw, and Vincent Smith pushing each other during the spring practices and beyond will only make them better, especially with the opportunities of summer workouts, film studies, and fall camp.
All the running backs have demonstrated a history of putting in the time to get better. This spring all of the running backs have show improvement, but they just need to be more consistent and try to separate themselves from the others.
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Written by GBMWolverine Staff
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