Michigan Football Tidbits: Sound bites from The Clinic

Michigan Football Tidbits: Sound bites from The Clinic

It was a long day at the Coaches Clinic, but Michigan coaches could not have been nicer to all the coaches who attended.

Coaches talked from 9:00 to 2:30 today. Offensive coaches talked in the morning. Defensive coaches in afternoon, and of course, we saw a one hour presentation from Barwis -- crazy as ever!

Some highlights from the coaches:
Michigan's program is based on conditioning, it's always part of the mindset of everything they do.

Michigan's summer camps: this summer he is inviting all level of college coaches to work the camps, so kids should come to camp no matter what level they may end up playing in college.

This summer at Michigan’s 7-7 camp he wants 40 teams along with an offensive line/defensive line camp at the same time, so coaches can bring their whole team.

Coach Rod said Michigan is the greatest place to be: it has the largest alumni -- 500,000 alums, 495,000 of whom have coaching credentials, 110,000 of which are offensive coordinators!

He loves to teach. He'll never be an enabler, he's a teacher, there's a difference.

Anyone who says it is harder to stay on top than to get there does not know what they are talking about.

He loves to hire assistants who have been through every level of football, from the bottom up, like himself, guys who have ground things out.

You have to believe in your system and approach; if you try to change who you are the kids will see through it. Be yourself.

As far as players leaving, he likes winning too much not to play the best players, so kids are free to leave. 12 or more have left so far.

The media, like Scout and Rival sites, want to make football an individual game, but it's all about team. He judges a kid on how they contribute to the team first.

The main thing they ask a recruit is “do you really love football”. "We ask them to do a lot, so we want kids who love what we ask them to do. High school kids think they love football, but at this level, you REALLY have to love it."

He does not like to use the word starter. He never uses it, even though he might know who the starters will be. Why would the backups want to compete if it does not matter and they're out of the running? Kids who compete daily are the ones who end up on the field.

Coach Rod talked tonight about how he feels Michigan needs to vastly upgrade and update the marketing of Michigan football. Here's a couple of things he mentioned:

Starting next year, in the next few years, Michigan will be slowly implementing ideas to make game day more eventful for fans. He said "Fans want to be part of the game and we need to find ways to allow them to be part of our program".

He wants to set a record for spring attendance in the future. He wants to have the stadium full.

Barwis had a funny little story today. When asked how the young guys are taking to his program coming from high school, he said, "Well, there is a certain defensive line guy that just came in that was amazed at all they do and all the running they do". The funny part is when Barwis said, "That kid hasn't even seen running yet."

Barwis said right now with spring practices going on, they are just trying to "maintain" the kids right now and keep them toned up. He said when summer workouts come around, that is when they will run the players into the ground. He guarantees that they run more than any other team in the country.

There are many Graduate Assistants now under Coach Rod’s staff, called quality control coordinators. They are doing a lot of the coaching drills.

Recruiting areas:
Magee and Robinson: No set recruiting area.

Gibson: SC, NC, PA, Youngstown / Warren area in Ohio.

Dews: Detroit, Chicago, VA, NY, DC, everything west of Mississippi.

Hopson: Cincinnati / Dayton area of Ohio, Miami, parts of Southeast US.

Smith: Central east Florida, some parts of southeast Michigan.

Tall: Rest of Ohio, Indiana.

Frey: Western Michigan, Western Florida, New England area.

Jackson: Ann Arbor / Flint / Saginaw, Houston, parts of Louisiana.

Friday’s practice was in shorts and helmets -- no hitting. Scrimmage on Saturday.

Boo-boo was the star of practice today along with B. Graham, but that is expected. Boo Boo has really improved his fundamentals and is a very physical corner, despite his size. No wide receiver caught a ball against him in one-on-ones and he has the best closing speed of all the cornerbacks.

Warren participated in some drills, but not in others. He looks like he has a lingering ankle problem that has not seemed to heal since football season. There is talk he will get his ankle checked out soon after spring practice and maybe get minor surgery if needed. Floyd, therefore, played with the first group today.

We're not comfortable predicting that Vlad will be a SURE starter on opening day next fall, but he has certainly been playing like one. He's our best safety prospect ( we're trying not to get carried away here). When you factor in both his speed and size along, and add to that his mental approach to the game, he just may be the best prospect Michigan has had at this position in a long time. Safety has been a major problem. Vlad will have a tough learning curve, but his potential is obvious. He has been impressive to almost everyone at the clinic.

Another player who has been impressive is Herron. Defense worked on pass defense again today. At times, we saw Herron becoming the fourth down-lineman when they rushed four. He sure passes the eye test.

Fitzgerald has been more impressive than Ezeh in these last two practices. Maybe we're just a little down on Ezeh because he is a junior and it's time for him to step up, but Fitzgerald has gained a ton of strength and is obviously ready to play.

B. Graham actually had an interception in practice, as did S. Brown.

Same starters on Offense as yesterday, including the same on the offensive line.

From a short conversation with one of coaches: he expects both Turner and Whitty to come in at cornerback this fall. Depth, or lack thereof, is the reason. Turner could push for immediate playing time.

Roh was at practice today.

Do you dare think this may be the year for C. Brown. He is easily the fastest player on the team and looks great physically. People might question the fastest-on-the-team label, but it came directly from the top man of the S&C department.

As of now, Stonum and Matthews are solidly the starters at wide receiver.

How about this for good news -- Coach Robinson spent almost his entire presentation talking about how hard the team is working, and will continue to work, on tackling. Kids are being taught a new way of tackling -- different type of fundamentals as it pertains to angles and pursuit. The players really seem to like the new approach.

Coach Robinson also is a big zone-blitzing coach. He talks about how he groups the kids in three's when rushing the passer. Time will tell.

Scrimmage tomorrow. Once again we came away from practices thinking our defense looks much quicker than a year ago, but tomorrow they will be getting a huge dose of run plays. That is their main concern along with the inexperience in the defensive backfield.

Coach Rod also has a new name for the slots (not on our team, but when other teams have them … lol ... He does not care for the slot-dot name -- and let us just say his name is not rated PG-13. He also has a name for the "snippers" as he calls them: the defensive lineman that drop back into zone coverage. Again, we cannot say the name for fear of making our readers blush.

Coach Robinson remarked Stevie Brown will be a special player -- as a linebacker (hybrid).

He is also looking forward to getting Mouton back. On the film he watched, Mouton was the best linebacker out there.

In Tate's defense, regarding his struggles yesterday, Coach Robinson revealed that yesterday was the first day the defense unleashed their blitz packages on the offense, which Tate had never seen them before.

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Written by MaizeMan and ErocWolverine