Michigan Football: Coach’s Corner — Thomas Gordon — Safeties — Wolverine’s Spring Football — GBMWolverine Evaluations
Posted at 4:30am — 6/19/2012
Michigan Football: Coach’s Corner — Thomas Gordon — Safeties — Wolverine’s Spring Football — GBMWolverine Evaluations
GBMWolverine Football Spring Evaluations: Position-by-Position — Player Profile.
GBMWolverine readers: Here is a brief overview of Thomas Gordon and GBMWolverine’s analysis concerning his progress this spring in our opinion.
Note: We will not evaluate every player on the team and with this position group (Safeties) we will not evaluate #14 Josh Furman since he didn’t participate in spring practices, #19 Charlie Zeller, and #23 Floyd Simmons. If you would like to chat about this player bring them up on the message board or send us an e-mail request.
Reminder: Also noted that we didn’t attend every practice and realize things happen during those fifteen practices, but our evaluations are based on what we seen first hand and in our opinion and not what we hear like just about every other site out there that relies on second, third hand information to make their evaluations of the players during the spring.
Losing from 2011 (Team #132) on scholarship: Nobody on Scholarship.
Coming in for 2012 (Team #133) on scholarship: Jarrod Wilson, Allen Gant, and Jeremy Clark.
Commit for 2013 (Team #134) on scholarship: Dymonte Thomas.
Thomas Gordon
Height: 5’11
Weight: 208
Number: 30
Position: Safety
Year: Red-shirt Junior
City/State: Detroit, Michigan
High School: Cass Tech.
High School Coach: Mike Thomas Wilcher
Thomas Gordon is a player GBMWolverine has been critical of in the past regarding spring observations. But this spring his improvement was nothing short of amazing and he has really seemed to learn the position. It appeared that Thomas now understands what the coaches expect from him. Thomas simply looks like he now feels comfortable in the secondary. The old saying “Less thinking — more hitting” comes to mind with us. Keeping it simple, line up, read and react is the simplified stimulus/response method that eliminates much wasted time.
In two years Thomas has gone from a liability to a solid safety. At times in the past it was a liability having Thomas in the deep secondary because of his pass coverage and less than adequate tacking. As a safety he needs to be a sure tackler and someone that the team can count on to make the routine tackle and not just try and make the big hit that everybody sees on ESPN on the highlight segment. That was his biggest problem in the past, he was always looking for the big hit and never really undertook the fundamental way of tackling by wrapping his arms around the ball carrier and simply bringing him down. This is akin to basketball where a lay up and a thunderous dunk both count two points.
Thomas is still going to have some problems in the passing game with speedier slots and good #2 receivers, but he is no longer a serious liability playing in space, and that is probably the biggest issue he has had since arriving in Ann Arbor.
It will be interesting to see how the defensive backs play this season after losing three solid defensive linemen from last year’s team, but GBMWolverine believes the back seven should be better than last season; only time will tell.
Like Marvin Robinson, Thomas Gordon is a physical specimen. And like Marvin Robinson, Thomas Gordon must pay attention to technique and understand the theoretical aspect of safety play.
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Written by GBMWolverine Staff
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