Michigan Football Tidbits: Safeties

Michigan Football Tidbits: Safeties

So how would you like to be the defensive coordinator at Michigan going into the 2009 football season.

Some pretty good players, very young kids, and while you are watching films, your putting in schemes and practice drills for the start of August. We are sure one thing keep coming up in your mind "What am I going to do about safety position"?

This has been such a problem at Michigan for years and it is our belief that the safety position is the one constant problem that Michigan has had for years. Why cant Michigan recruit and develop the safety position?

For this year:

Woolfolk: Right now, a sure starter at free safety. A hard working player who is one of the fastest in terms of straight line speed. He will be thrown into the fire quickly this year.

In spring he had an okay spring, but at this point, who backs him up if he gets hurt or does not produce? Our initial thoughts and still believe that player will be J. Turner. Back to Woolfolk, he is more physical that people think. Actually is a pretty good tackler and he will be able to at least stay with most wide receiver's, but he really has not played a game yet at free safety and that has to be a concern.

Last year, one of the reasons Michigan struggled so much defensively is because coaches has so little confidence in safeties that they went to almost entirely zone defenses in order to protect safeties.

In order for Michigan to be good this year, coaches will have to let our cornerback's do what they do best and that is play man coverage. This will only happen if safeties prove they can play.

Williams: Strong safety right now. Actually some think he is the best kid on the team to fill the "spinner" position. Remember a year ago, Williams played linebacker at times, but right now, Williams is the brains in the secondary and is the most sure tackler.

His biggest problem is overall speed, but is the type of kid who seems to play better in games the more he plays. Would like to see him start and keep him in the game.

Vlad: We know at times we get excited about certain kids. We remember when Jeremy LeSuer arrived at Michigan in spring game his freshmen year. You could just tell the kid had a ton of athletic talent and would of been in our opinion, a great player if not for a severe knee injury.

Vlad is the same type of player. Of all the years we have seen practices, Vlad is the player who "looks" like a safety. He has size, speed (his knee is now 100%), and has football sense which is similar to Williams.

This is why we think eventually Vlad will have to play somewhere. He simply is one of our better players in the backfield. In a normal situation, Vlad would red-shirt and be a starter for four years, but he is going to have to mature quickly.

T. Gordon: He has a real shot to play this year. Especially on special teams. Keep in mind that in high school, Gordon spent a majority of his time as the teams quarterback. But coaches felt coming in that Gordon was the kid who physically was the most ready to play of the three Cass Tech kids.

We mentioned when people were attacking Gordon (remember when Shafer offered him at Syracuse) that Gordon was the type of kid we need at Michigan. He is going to be a player, a good player, and could be along with Vlad the best true safeties on the team.

He is going to be more of a strong safety and we still think the safety position will be much improved once they decide where to play J. Turner.

Put yourself in our oppositions place. They are game planning for Michigan right now. If you were an offensive coordinator against Michigan would you not make sure Michigan's safeties are involved in a lot of the plays. Especially when you need a big play or first down. Our safeties are going to be tested.

Side Note: We know a lot of people believe next year (assuming M. Robinson shows up in Ann Arbor) that he will become our next spinner to replace S. Brown.

At one time, we was in that camp as well, but now, we do not think so or at least not in the beginning. Lets look at the roster, you have Hawthorne, M. Jones, Bell and now maybe B. Smith who are all capable and athletic enough to play "spinner", but you basically have nobody that can play safety except for those listed above.

The great thing about Vlad is that we think he could play either position and Williams could be better as a back-up. Now maybe C. Christian (if he comes to Ann Arbor like we believe) will end up being a safety, but we would feel much better a year from now with safeties crew of Vlad, Williams, J. Turner, and M. Robinson. From what we hear around coaches, they feel M. Robinson can play safety.

Another thought: Incoming class is loaded with wide receiver / slot receivers. And there have been speculation of which one could possibly play defense. Well from coaches perspective that would be J. Robinson. Who was actually told at one time by coach Gibson they expected him to play safety.

But after camp, they told him wide receiver. Right now, its probably going to depend on how the other wide receiver's progress this year. J. Robinson has some talent and if the idea is to get best players on the field, look for him to change positions.

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Written by MaizeMan and ErocWolverine