Michigan Tidbits: "Some Concerns on Offense" Part 2We are going to be looking back at some of the concerns with the team that we have seen in the spring, summer, and fall practices.
Probably the number one has to be the offensive line right now. If Cory Zirbel would not have went down it might have been the quarterback position.
Offensive Line:
The biggest thing with the offensive line is the depth issues and talent level. Remember that now after the Florida bowl victory this position took the hardest hit for departures with Alex Mitchell, Grant DeBenedictis, Brett Gallimore, and Jeremy Ciulla. If you remember spring of 2007 as well, Justin Schifano did not come back to the team for the 2007 season after spring football, which would have helped with the depth issues. Justin Boren left in the middle of 2008 spring football as we all know and read about his side of the story. We have gotten many e-mails blaming the old regime with the lack of depth. Well hard to do that when so many of these people had eligibility left and decided for their own reasons not to continue playing football at Michigan.
Cory Zirbel out possible for the season who in our opinion was the best run blocker on the team and have that bulldozer type mentality of wanting to plow the defenders five yards back and pancake them into the ground. Really, feel bad for the kid because we know how hard he had worked to put himself into this position of starting for Michigan.
This leaves Michigan in our opinion with only six quality offensive linemen that are ready to play. The Michigan coaches just recently moved over John Ferrara with the loss of Zirbel. How fast will Ferrara pick up the scheme is going to be the biggest issue for him. Ferrara was one of the hardest working kids in the off-season and possible will be seeing a chance to play this year because of all the time he put in the off-season. We know that Coach Rod made comments that Ferrara could possible see playing time right away as well told us that he is not very happy with the level of talent that is behind the starters right now with a defensive lineman already pushing for playing time and only being moved over less than a week ago.
Besides the starters (Mark Ortmann (LT), Tim McAvoy (RG), David Molk (OC), David Moosman (RG), and Steve Schilling (RT) we just do not have the depth with Cory Zirbel out possible for the year and also Mark Huyge out for a few weeks. Coach Rod said on the BTN practice show when you have so many freshmen on the two deep that is scary. The thing in our opinion we lack real talent on the offensive line behind the starters. They could also move Schilling over to a guard position and bring in Dorrestein to take Schillings spot if say Molk doesn't do well and move Moosman back to center.
Molk is a person we need to look out for early and see how he does because he has not done as well as we hoped he would. Possible because he is going against two very good defensive tackles in Terrance Taylor and Will Johnson. Players that could see playing time this year could be Perry Dorrestein who is the third offensive tackle and Rocko Khoury depending on how Molk handles the center position. Ricky Barnum could see sometime at guard and possible Dan O’Neill. If we go past those people, we could be in serious trouble. Not trying to bash kids here, but some of them are not ready for division one football at the college level at a place like Michigan. This is a position of need and a place where we need serious upgrade in talent in a hurry. We think this is a position where high school elite offensive lineman would be salivating over because of the depth issues a long with the talent level. You could see several kids come in and red-shirt a year and start for four years at a major program like Michigan.
Quarterbacks:
This has been beat to death and has been overblown as well by posters/e-mailers taking what we have said and putting their own spin on it. Coach Rod is a demanding coach of his quarterbacks and he acts more like a quarterback coach during scrimmages then Coach Rod Smith. He stands right behind the quarterback and if the center snaps it wrong Coach Rod could catch the ball.
Another problem that I saw in spring and continues in fall is Michigan’s new version of the “check down” pass. What they do is take one of the slots and he will run a flare toward the sideline (which means does not take steps down the field, but “drifts” to the sidelines. When Quarterbacks feel pressure, they are told to get rid of the ball which more times than not is just throwing a short pass to the slot who has run the flare toward the sideline.
This is why Coach Rod is recruiting those allusive slot type players because they will be asked to get about five-six yards out of virtually nothing. So far, our Quarterbacks are throwing this pass excessively often and think it is due to lack of confidence.
Good news is our Quarterbacks are learning a new system and they are learning it against our defense.
Nick Sheridan:
There is some definite strength to his game. First off, he is a coach’s son and has been raised around the game all his life so you know he has the knowledge and the understanding of football. He is also a good athlete who uses his legs to make some plays. He is no Pat White for sure with his legs, but he can scramble out of trouble along with being able to run the read option offense.
The concerns that we have is that he has not shown a major college arm and it has more than arm strength or how far you can throw it. He had problems with accuracy more than the problem of arm strength. Everybody has seen Sheridan throw the ball during practice drills and against the scout team. He throws a nice ball, but the thing we worry about is when the first team defense is going against him and going live in which the quarterback will be hit and put pressure on he usually goes to the check down receiver. He rarely looked downfield in the live scrimmages and usually did the check down receiver.
Steve Threet:
He has the stronger arm along with the person that has been using the whole field a lot more and going to the wide receivers deeper as well. He lacks confidence and his decision-making has been poor. He really needs to get rid of the ball sooner and his reads needs to improve in which confidence comes into play. In this offense, you need to throw the ball before the wide receiver makes his break and needs to get the ball to them when they make their break so they can run after the catch in this offense. He has been trying to get the ball deeper like the coaches have been harping on these guys about, but he is a little late in his decisions and the defense has been able to cover or intercept the ball. One other thing that we have seen and it looks like it is being corrected is Steve has been throwing with a weird sidearm motion lately, but in the recent scrimmage, it looks like somebody has been working with him on it.
David Cone:
He is a guy that will be a program kid and work well for the scout team. Not sure why people kept thinking he would leave Michigan because if he wanted to play or thought he had a chance why would he have stuck around when Mallett was here. Sometimes you need a program kid and I believe he is that kind of person that will do what is asked of him and he will walk away from Michigan someday playing for the football team and getting an excellent education.
Wide Receivers:
Not many concerns except for not many of them have game experience besides Greg Mathews. Darrly Stonum has really flourished and could be a serious weapon in this offense this year if we can get him the ball. The biggest concern is not having enough speed or deep threat on the outside wide receiver or split ends. Besides running back, the outside receivers probably have the most depth ready to play this year. This is a group as well that needs to stay healthy to help stretch the field with our slots and running game.
Slot Receivers:
Toney Clemons:
Might not be the ideal “slot”, but he does everything really well and the coaches really like his attitude especially in the spring when they asked him to change positions for the team in the spring and had done quite well. In addition, he knows every position for the receivers so he can be used in many different situations.
Terrence Robinson injury might hurt a little bit for depth reason, but he is a person that is very thin and you almost think he could be torn in half watching him go against defenders if they could ever get a solid hit on him. I am wondering if he might have the “Steve Breaston” disease where he is a heck of a football player, but is always banged up because the size of the kid.
Martavious Odoms is a player that could be very special in this offense and at Michigan for four years. He makes the first defender miss almost every time he touches the ball. He has that mentality that he cannot be stopped and is good size for his stature and build.
Roy Roundtree:
I know that Coach Rod said he expects him to play, but I am wondering if it has to do with depth issue more than anything else does at this time. We do not see that he is ready, but it might be one of those things where he might see sometime depending on the formation and the team we face. Also Coach Rod might be thinking that Roy could be used on special teams along with Michigan having several people coming in next years class at the slot position that might as well use him even if it is wasting a year.
Running Backs:
Well this is the deepest a Michigan team has been in quite awhile at this position and has several different types of backs to use at their disposal.
Brandon Minor:
He has really stepped up his game and had shown back in the spring a new attitude. He looks extremely faster and does the little things a lot better than last year like picking up the blitzing blocker.
Carlos Brown:
He has become a different player as well this year and looks to be the second running back in the game. He and Minor both could be used in the same backfield as well. A lot of times they will start in the backfield together and put Carlos in motion.
Coach Rod has not really said, but we believe that both Minor and Brown were held out of some of the practices/scrimmages to give them a needed rest before the season starts and also to see how the two freshman will handle the pressure of playing this year.
Sam McGuffie:
He is a very good running back, but he is not as fast as the other Freshman Michael Shaw. McGuffie and Shaw actually compliment each other very nicely because one is a better pure runner where the other is a better all around running back.
Michael Shaw:
People that thought he was just a track star are sorely mistaken. This kid is a football player and a damn good one. It is a good thing he picked Michigan at the end because we would have hated to face him for four years at Penn State.
Kevin Grady:
He looked great this spring and looked like a different player, but then he got into trouble with the law and kind of has been in the doghouse. Can he get out this year and be productive that is the big question. With the freshmen doing so well and having more speed, Kevin might only be used in certain situations now. In addition, we do not know what kind of self punishment Coach Rod has put on him either. He could be a person used down on the goal line or when the team has a third and one.
Michael Cox:
The forgotten freshmen who is really put together, but not sure, where he will ever really fit into Coach Rod’s offense. He would have been a perfect running back for the old regime, but with the young running backs in Shaw and Mcguffie along with Fitzgeral Toussaint and Teric Jones coming in next year just not sure, where Cox will fit in for the long haul at Michigan.
Tight Ends:
No real concerns except for injuries and stupid mistakes by this group. Mike Massey can he stay healthy a complete year and can Carson Butler not jump off sides/hold or drop the ball. Not really sure how much Martell Webb will play this year, but it will probably depending on those two guys above and how they play first.
Should see Kevin Koger and Brandon Moore both redshirt.
Part 3 “Some Concerns on the Defense”
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