Saturday, February 07, 2009

Mailbag question: What changes will we see?



I have three questions for you guys:

1) What position switches do you see happening and how do you expect them to pan out?

2) Which walk-ons have the best chance to contribute?

3) What, if anything, must Coach Rod do differently to win in the Big Ten versus the Big East?

John Case from Mason, Ohio

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Thanks for the questions.

There are some questions about where players end up: Does C. Brown stay at running back, or move to slot -- especially if Shaw breaks out and other running backs move up? (Carlos has had trouble staying healthy at Michigan.)

What happens with Tony Clemons?

Does Koger play tight end, slot, or split end?

What does Coach Rod and staff do with back-up tight ends Watson and Moore?

A lot of these questions we will be able to answer once we see spring practice and see first hand how well players are performing. Then we'll be able to give our best assessment on whether we thing the offense will change at all. Remember, last year at this time we heard that Michigan was going to pattern their offense close to Missouri's and now we have heard they want to pattern their offense closer to Oklahoma's. We'll believe it when we see it. That is not a knock at all, but if they were going to change, last year would have been the year to change.

Two switches we'd like to see -- but not sure we will -- is Ezeh to defensive end and Steve Brown to outside linebacker or at the nickel position.

We would be surprised if any walk-ons have a huge effect anywhere but special teams. If Michigan is counting on that then we might be in worse trouble then we thought.

With two recruiting classes under Coach Rod's belt and with nearly 60% of the team now his recruits, we should start to see some of these young players start to develop.

I watched a press conference with the Lion's new coach Schwartz. He said something that really hit home: when you coach in an area with weather issues, you need to be able to run the football and play strong defense. In our opinion, strong defense is priority #1, and running the football #2.

Written by CoachBt and ErocWolverine

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Agree to a certain extent with the comment on weather but November football is much different than December and January football the lions are trying to play. The january football UM is trying to play is in California, Arizona and Florida.

GregGoBlue said...

With Ezeh moving to Defensive end, won't we be a bit short on Mikes?

How can we solidify our defense without linebackers? We didn't really recruit any middle linebackers.

and wait, wait, wait. Don't the lions play their home games indoors? (yes, I know the NFC North is cold...)

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