Michigan Football: Coach’s Corner — Stephen Hopkins — Spring Evaluations
Posted at 6:00am — 4/27/2011
GBMWolverine: Coach’s Corner — Michigan Football — Stephen Hopkins — Spring Evaluations
GBMWolverine Football Spring Evaluations: Position by Position — Player Profile.
GBMWolverine readers: Here is a brief overview of Stephen Hopkins 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.
Stephen Hopkins
Height: 6’0
Weight: 227
Number: 33
Position: Running Back
Year: Sophomore
City/State: Double Oak, Texas
High School: Marcus
Overview:
Stephen Hopkins is taking on two roles this upcoming year with playing the featured running back and in certain sets acting as a fullback.
He is the big running back for the University of Michigan between the tackles, that is for sure. The coaches seemed to be impressed with his running style.
Stephen has played both fullback and tailback in certain situations, which is a plus. In his and Michigan’s current situation.
Strengths:
Playing two different positions will help get him more reps and see the field more often.
He is most likely going to be the short yardage guy for sure when UM needs those tough yards close to the goal line or when the defense knows Michigan wants to run the ball.
Stephen is a true hard running, between the tackles, thumper. He takes the battle to the defenders and runs with authority.
He has very good size and the attitude we believe Michigan is looking for in its running backs.
We expect Stephen to be in the running back mix for playing time and without injury should get carries each game.
Needs Work:
Not as fast or explosive as some of Michigan’s other running backs.
Stephen needs to be more consistent, a comment fitting every running back evaluation from the spring practices reports.
He needs to work on becoming a better blocking back, again a comment apt for every running back at Michigan.
We haven’t seen him in the passing game that much either, but would like to see him working on catching the ball a little better.
Contributing This Year?
We believe Stephen 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 him getting many reps/carries this year with the starters and believe the coaches are going to be looking for the “hot hand” and go with whoever that might be for a certain game.
Final Thoughts:
Stephen Hopkins has improved his size, strength and being ready to play football this season.
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 Stephen, 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).
Stephen Hopkins, Michael Cox, Fitzgerald Toussaint, 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 these 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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