Michigan Football: Spring Football — Chat Notes — Quarterbacks
Posted at 12:00pm — 4/16/2014
Michigan Football: Spring Football — Chat Notes — Quarterbacks
We are going to share some notes from our past chats. Not all the information will be available, but we will share some of our past Michigan football spring chat reports.
Quarterbacks:
At times this spring, the quarterbacks struggled which everybody should expect because of new offense and also how Coach Nuss asked the defense to bring everything at them.
Think a lot of it had to do with them learning what Coach Nuss wants, the offense, the scheme, along with Coach Nuss wanted Coach Mattison to throw everything at the quarterbacks and have them learn on the fly. Coach Nuss believes a guy will learn faster with having adversity and not just going through the motions as you work on installing the offense. Also the “struggled” could be a good thing because the coaches seemingly was working on things that the quarterbacks didn’t do as well so they practiced a lot on those things and the things the quarterbacks did well on they kind of just touched on them this spring.
The quarterbacks look great at times as well this spring so don’t let the above confuse you or allow the opinion that they haven’t looked good. Think most of the times the quarterbacks haven’t looked good is because the coaches were working on the weaker things that not only the quarterbacks do, but also the offense as a whole as well.
Apr 5, 2014; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines quarterback Devin Gardner (98) before the Spring Game at Michigan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY SportsThis has been the most talent we have had at this position in a very long time and something that we believe is a good thing with each guy being able to push the other and in some ways each guy does something better than the other so Coach Nuss can use that to motivate the others saying this guy is better than you here and you need to work on your game.
When our quarterback’s make a play, even if it is successful, but they used improper fundamentals Coach Nuss coaches them on what they did wrong and how to correct it.
Devin Gardner in our opinion solidified himself as our starting quarterback throughout the spring practices. Not basing it on one practice of the TV practice or what came out of that day of practice. He had a very solid day in the big scrimmage of the spring the week before the “spring game”.
Devin Gardner not messing around this year and seems like it was all business for him compared to past years.
He will be a different quarterback in our opinion because he won’t be expected to carry the team like he had to do last season or like Denard Robinson was expected too. Coach Nuss told him not to scramble and not one time did he run the ball in the big scrimmage, but he delivered the ball accurately, on time, and very precise in his accuracy which most didn’t see in the TV coverage of practice the following week.
Apr 5, 2014; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines quarterback Shane Morris (7) during the Spring Game at Michigan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY SportsThere were two notable throws in the big scrimmage that defense blitzed Gardner and he had to throw the ball way before Funchess had made his final break and throw was right on the money. That was something that Devin didn’t do at all last year especially later on after his confidence was shot.
One tell tail sign when Devin is struggling is when he drops his elbow he is not very good, Saturday TV practice his release point was low.
Gardner has been good, but with some mistakes. The same is true for Shane Morris.
Shane is much more accurate than Devin, especially when he throws over the middle of the field.
Bellamy has actually been pretty good, much better than expected, not saying that he’s the number one, two, or third quarterback, just surprised.
Apr 5, 2014; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines quarterback Wilton Speight (19) hands the ball off to running back Derrick Green (27) prior to the Spring Game at Michigan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY SportsSpeight actually threw one touchdown pass in the big scrimmage, but defense on this day blitzed about 80% of the time, so the younger kids struggled, and on the big scrimmage Morris struggled as well.
We really like Speight and think Morris is going to have some tough competition in 2015 which is a very good thing. His decision-making needs to improve, but he is a high school Senior right now and won’t be a true freshman till this fall. Let’s hope they can red-shirt him as well so they can have a little distance between him and Morris.
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Written by GBMWolverine Staff
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