GBMWolverine: Coach’s Corner — Michigan Football — Michael Shaw — Spring Evaluations
Posted at 6:00am — 4/28/2011
GBMWolverine: Coach’s Corner — Michigan Football — Michael Shaw — Spring Evaluations
GBMWolverine Football Spring Evaluations: Position by Position — Player Profile.
GBMWolverine readers: Here is a brief overview of Michael Shaw 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 Shaw
Height: 6’1
Weight: 187
Number: 20
Position: Running Back
Year: Senior
City/State: Trotwood, Ohio
High School: Trotwood-Madison
Overview:
Michael Shaw, will he ever stay healthy? Since arriving at Michigan it seems he has had one injury after another.
Nobody can deny that Michael has athletic ability or can be a good running back at Michigan, if he could just stay healthy enough to get into the rotation and show the coaches what he can do.
Shaw is one of the fastest players on the Michigan football team, although not one of the quickest regarding the first two or three steps.
Strengths:
Having experience should help Michael with knowing what it takes to succeed at this level. And Shaw, even though he has been limited in the amount of carries he has had at Michigan, has gone through tough times (both team and individual) and continues to battle.
He is Michigan’s fastest running back when healthy.
We expect Michael to be in the running back mix for playing time and getting carries each game, if, of course, he can remain healthy and show the coaches what he can do when he is healthy.
Needs Work:
As simple as this sounds Michael needs to get healthy and stay healthy.
Even as a veteran, some question whether or not Michael Shaw can be a successful running back at Michigan.
Success will shatter that perception, but time is running out.
Like all of Michigan’s veteran backs, Michael needs to secure the ball and eliminate costly fumbles. Some of the security problems may have been associated with injuries in the past, but to see the field this fall he needs to limit those mistakes, no matter what happens.
Michael was very limited this spring and only really started spring practice the last few weeks. So he needs to pick it up in the off-season to show the coaches he can contribute and hopefully he can work on catching the ball out of the backfield. The staff believes Michael could be a weapon getting the ball in the flat area or down the field working against linebackers.
Michael, like every other running back on the team needs to be more consistent.
Michael needs to work on pass blocking, again a comment concerning almost every running back on Michigan’s roster.
Contributing This Year?
If Michael stays healthy the staff envisions him being a contributing part of the offense this year.
He is battling for the #1 running back 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.
The biggest issue with Michael, as we have mentioned several times, is staying healthy.
Final Thoughts:
Michael Shaw is one of those players you root for because it seems like if he did not have bad luck he would not have any luck at all especially when health is the biggest concern.
As we stated under the quarterback section 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 Shaw, Michael Cox, Fitzgerald Toussaint, Stephen Hopkins, 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 these running backs have show improvement but they all 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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