GBMWolverine: Coach's Corner -- Michigan Football -- Richard Ash -- Spring Evaluations

Posted at 6:00am — 7/16/2011

GBMWolverine: Coach’s Corner — Michigan Football — Richard Ash — Spring Evaluations

GBMWolverine Football Spring Evaluations: Position-by-Position — Player Profile.

GBMWolverine readers: Here is a brief overview of Richard Ash 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 (Defensive Line) we will not evaluate #96 Terry Talbott (injury), #60 Alex Schwab, and #67 Nathan Brink. 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: Brennen Beyer and Chris Rock. Could add Keith Heitzman as well, but we have him coming in as a tight end right now.

Losing: #68 Mike Martin, #53 Ryan Van Bergen, #58 Brandon Herron, and #39 Will Heininger.

Richard Ash
Height: 6’3
Weight: 320
Number: 54
Position: Defensive Tackle
Year: Red-shirt Freshman
City/State: Pahokee, Florida
High School: Pahokee

Overview:

Richard is another big body, one that the program needs on the defensive line, but maybe a bit too big at this stage of his college career at Michigan.

Michigan will be losing many of the few high quality defensive linemen on the roster after this year. So, Ash needs to be ready and able to give the coaches confidence that he can take the next step and play with success.

Strengths:

Richard does have the tools/skills to play on the defensive line at Michigan. He has the size that Michigan has been lacking and must have to stop the opponents’ running game up the middle.

Needs Work:

Richard does need to improve his overall conditioning and body type structure if he is to help this year. He will not completely surface as a successful college player until he adds strength and improves conditioning.

Contributing This Year?

Yes, Richard will most likely be in the defensive line rotation because of the lack of depth at the defensive tackle position. Is he ready for contributing at this level? That is the biggest question currently surrounding Richard.

Final Thoughts:

As all readers have read before, here is another player that will need to be ready that Michigan has not counted on beforehand. There certainly are many question marks regarding the depth of the defense, especially on the defensive line. Michigan needs Richard to step up and help with both the depth and size of the defensive line. It is fortunate that three of Michigan’s coaches have demonstrated expertise in developing defensive line prospects. But the biggest part of the improvement equation still rests upon Richard and others in his situation to step it up, coaching can only provide so much assistance.

Will Richard see enough snaps to contribute? The answer to the aforementioned question depends on how much the coaches trust him to give the starters a break when needed, allowing the starters not to wear themselves out.

Richard is one of those players to watch and keep an eye on as to how he progresses this year. With the talent that seems to be coming in this year, and the players that the Michigan coaches are currently recruiting, this might be the make or break year for Ash to show the coaches he can compete at this level.

We wish Richard Ash and all Wolverines the best.

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Written by GBMWolverine Staff

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