I say we call him "Quick Burst, Mo Hurts." Nobody is on board with me on this. [Fuller]
- The Question:
- Seth: After the spring game which player are you bullish on, and which are you hedging?
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The Responses:
Ace: Brian and I did a segment on this during the podcast, so I'll keep this relatively brief. (That's called a teaser, folks.)
MAURICE HURST had arguably the best performance of anyone during the spring game, lining up at multiple spots and blowing up plays at all of them. His first step, which was his greatest strength coming out of high school, is still very quick after adding weight, and he looks very ready to see a significant role this fall.
Given that some practice reports had him as a potential starter, it's hard not to be a little disappointed in Logan Tuley-Tillman's showing, which featured three flags and a couple olés. He was a major project coming of high school, to the point that this year was the earliest he could feasibly see the field, so it's not a devastating blow that he doesn't look ready yet. He has so much upside, though, that it would've been really encouraging to see him push into that starting five.
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Adam Schnepp: I was looking for a weakness. There had to be one; the practice reports had practically reached tall-tale status, but now I see why. It almost feels like I need to pick someone else because this is too easy, but I'm bullish on JABRILL PEPPERS. I know that we've been bullish on him since last August, but now it's like Raging Bull(ishness). Except not about boxing. Or self-destruction. I was really just going for the bull imagery here.
As a hybrid space player, Peppers is going to have to read run/pass and react immediately. On the Blue offense's first play Peppers peers into the backfield, reads the handoff from Morris, and comes off the edge to take out Shallman, limiting him to a one-yard gain.
While his run stopping was adequate for an HSP, I was more impressed with Peppers' coverage skills. He played almost exclusively with a seven-yard cushion and not only was able to jam guys who had already built up a head of steam but consistently re-routed them to the side he had a help defender. I can't find a good example of this on the video thanks to BTN's zoom-o-matic cameras, but Ace can confirm that if I tweeted the above as many times as I said it to him you'd all either unfollow me or think I accidentally set up a scheduled tweet.
I'm hedging on BRIAN COLE. It's important, however, to delineate "hedging" as separate from "disappointed with." It's hard to judge a receiver when they aren't targeted often, and doubly so as the offense's predilection for two- and three-wide sets often left Cole on the sideline. I expected him to compete for time with the known commodities; I did not expect him to have the same number of receptions and receiving yards as 5-9 walk-on fullback Joe Beneducci. I wouldn't rule him out as a contributor in the fall*, but I expected the ball to be thrown his way more often last Saturday.
*(I don't think any of the receivers have locked down a spot with the exception of maybe Darboh, who was lined up against a dude who'd been a corner for maybe four practices.)
[Jump for the defensive backs are gonna be good, even if the passing game makes them look so.]
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Brian: Dangit Ace and your getting to this question before I did: yes, we did a podcast segment on stock up and stock down guys and Hurst was our riser while Tuley-Tillman was our faller in separately-assembled lists verified by Price Waterhouse Cooper.
Failing that and some of the also-taken answers:
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| BWATSON! That's a good nickname for him right? BWAT! BWATTED! [Fuller] |
Stock up: BRANDON WATSON. Watson's high school tape was literally all him lining up an inch from the wide receiver's nose and riding them into oblivion. So it was bizarre when the previous coaching staff moved him to safety. I interpreted that as you usually do: this guy is not fast enough to play corner, so let's try him at safety. That greatly downgraded my assessment of his chance to play.
Now that he's back and corner and pressing the pants off people again he looks pretty dang good. He recovered to intercept a pretty well thrown fade; he blanketed a number of short routes; he looked like a contender for playing time. Maybe not this year, but certainly next year.
Stock down: ALEX MALZONE. I thought he might come in and be the kind of precocious freshman that college football has seen an increasing number of the last decade or so. The practice reports gave you a lot of hope in that department, at least insofar as that he was in the conversation with Morris or Speight and rarely out of it. What we saw on Saturday was a guy who needs to be 100% robotically, ruthlessly efficient to succeed a la Brady or Brees and is a long way away from that. Morris was clearly better; Malzone will have to wait his turn.
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Seth: Peppers stock right now is like investing in Google: sure it's a great company that is in the process of taking over the world, but the speculators are all over this.
I am going with a redshirt defensive back though, and dangit Brian and your getting your answer in seconds before I sent mine because the reason I asked this question was I thought BRANDON WATSON looked like Darqueze Dennard out there. What we knew about Watson as a recruit is that he went to that academy with Canteen, where Brandon majored in getting between receivers' electrons. Michigan's receivers are suspect so this may not translate against, like, Ohio State's bomb squad, but what I saw was a huge boundary cornerback who could utterly erase a receiver for however long it took to ruin Alex Malzone's day.
Even before his very nice interception I was pointing Watson out to people around me and watching him instead of the ball, figuring (correctly it turns out) they wouldn't get him on pore-o-vision. That was productive, as Jehu Chesson spent the better part of the afternoon within five yards of the line of scrimmage, and the video just shows a lot of Malzone glancing that direction before checking down to something on Jourdan Lewis's side.
Jourdan Lewis: our consensus number 1 cornerback.
Two times Watson wasn't in his man's grill. The first he allowed Ways to get over top of him but recovered to yank the ball out and intercept. The second he backed off when Chesson motioned inside on a third and long, then was all over the dig route (which is supposed to be a man-to-man beater), forcing a throwaway.
Prior to Saturday we knew the coaches considered Lewis-Countess-Stribling a big step ahead of the other corners, so I'm buying low. Given the scouting report on Watson matched both what I saw on the field and what Michigan would like to do with its nickel coverage, I'm bullish on what it means for M's pass defense in general. If as expected Wayne Lyons is your opening day boundary corner, it means Lyons looked better in August than what I just described.
Sticking with the "corners" sadly it's time to unload whatever shares of DENNIS NORFLEET you're carrying in your portfolio. Not that anyone was investing in him as a cornerback, but that went badly for reasons that are not changeable. As much as Watson's performance says nice things about what the coaches must be seeing from Stribling, Norfleet starting for the maize team says the rest of the cornerback depth, well...
I guess Ross Taylor-Douglas was at RB so that ellipsis only applies to Terry Richardson and Reon Dawson. Meanwhile Norfleet is a senior in a new offense that doesn't use slot bugs, and spent the last week or so on defense; sorry smurf fans, I don't think it's gonna happen.
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David Nasternak: If you were on Twitter, at all, during the Spring Game, you may have noticed that 'breakout players' were being MGoClaimed left and right—Watson, Bolden, Hurst, etc. If you were at the Spring Game (or watched it, I suppose), you would also know that while there might be a few players who wished there could have played better, there were also odd/mitigating circumstances that could have explained some of the discrepancies.
While I was tempted to talk about Lawrence Marshall or express my concerns with a cornerback being sat in favor of a former slot wide receiver (or flat-out steal 'Norfleet's future' from Brian), I've decided to go rogue! My breakout player from last weekend is Ian King!
photo: Marc-Gregor Campredon
Just less than 24 hours after Michigan's Spring Game ended, another Michigan outfit took the turf at the Stadium. The Men's Lacrosse team! While Michigan has had a sluggish start to their Varsity Program, last year provided a glimpse of hope and this year a chance to take the next step. I wouldn't exactly say that Ian King had a breakout game on Sunday...but he had a great comeback game. After scoring the 3rd most goals in the country by a freshman, in 2014, King started the year off by setting a Michigan single-game scoring record -8 points (6G, 2A)- in the second game of the season...winning the National Player of the week award in the process. Previous to the clash against Rutgers on Sunday, King missed the last 4 games due to injury. In his comeback game, Ian notched 4 goals to lead Michigan to their first ever Big Ten win. Although his totals are diminished due to injury, his goal, assist, and point averages are still in the Top 2 in the Big Ten.
Michigan's win over Rutgers was absolutely crucial to their season. Not only are both teams similarly ranked (43 and 44), only four of the six teams make the conference tournament (what an idea, Hockey!). So, if Michigan can knock off either Penn St or Ohio St -both home games- they should be able to secure a place in College Park, MD. Penn State has played a very difficult schedule, but sit at 3-7 (0-2) and score more than a goal less than Michigan on average. This should be Michigan's best chance for a win; however, with Ian King back in the mix, there could be more!