Mailbag Question: Regarding your recent article

Hey Guys,

Here is the paragraph that spurs my question:

10) Can staff generate competition despite lack of depth:
Nothing makes people better than competition. Complacency is death to a team. That was what helped kill last years team, especially early. Not enough competition. I was so pleased at how Coach Rod and staff changed depth charts day to day. Playing time was earned every single day. Ezeh was starting middle linebacker at practice on Friday. He was average and Thompson started scrimmage next day. However, there were few key positions where drop off was so much that competition really did not exist. Hoping that freshmen or other player step up game to push key players.

I was curious as to what are the positions in your opinion where the drop off is the biggest? Any insight you could give that would perhaps be surprising to those of us who have not had access to practices and such would be especially interesting. And I guess along those same lines, what players are most critical to Michigan's success; not looking for the best players, but rather the players we REALLY need to have healthy and on the field because the drop to 2nd string is a long one.

Thanks,
Tyler

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Thanks for the question. Thinnest areas of the team in our opinion were defensive ends, offensive line, cornerback, and linebackers. With the lose of Slocum, defensive tackle also gets a bit thinner than we would like.

At defensive ends Michigan had three who were ready to contribute, Jamison, Graham, and RVB. Banks, Criswell, and Patterson were also competing, but as of spring not ready yet.

Linebackers were a bit thin do to injury this spring. The drop off at outside linebacker was very noticeable to us.

Cornerback was interesting position. Trent and Warren are going o be solid and Woolfolk showed some marked improvement, but after top three the drop off was very noticeable.

Biggest problem area depth wise in our opinion was offensive line. There were seven competent linemen. When group two came out the quality of play noticeably fell off.

As for defensive tackle, it went five deep this spring with top four playing very well. Slocum was probably third on depth chart and quite possibly the most talented. His loss puts the position a gray area depth wise. It is not as thin as others are, but not as deep as we would like.

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