Mailbag question: Young players on defense

Posted at 12:00pm -- 1/29/2010


Mailbag question: Young players on defense

Hi Guys,

I love the blog, long time reader, first time e-mailer. Thank you for the great work you do.

My question:

With the defense being so atrocious last year some new blood needs to flow through that crumpled body to re-energize the spirit so that the players can hit people in the mouth like the Michigan defenses I remember. What younger players do you see contributing in the upcoming season to get this defense going? What newcomers will emerge and become stars?

Thanks, I'll stand by and read.

Jim

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Thanks for the question.

First off the offense can help the defense. One of the younger defensive players that impressed us last year was Will Campbell, who has the potential to be special. His improvement last season was impressive, especially considering what we saw in the spring (much work to do).

J.T. Turner is another player who we believe could be special (maybe very special). It will be interesting to watch J. T. this spring and see how he has developed over the off-season.

Craig Roh, if he gains enough weight to move to defensive end, could continue to become a high level player. He still needs to get bigger and stronger to be able to take on the run better.

Other Players:

Hawthorne, Vlad, and Jones also showed some talent, although we doubt they will ever be stars, but all could very well end up being quite good. Guys we have not seen but have received good reports on include Bell and T. Jones. Although some state that Jones is being moved back to offense.

Vlad, the real question is can he get 100% healthy and be able to go full out? He was impressive in the spring, but then faltered with his knee swelling up, along with hanging out with the wrong crowd.

The youngster we are personally looking forward to seeing is Lalota. The reports we are getting are encouraging and as with all the youngsters GBMW is anxious to see his improvement. We have heard Lalota has gained a lot of weight and strength, which is exactly what he most needed.

Written by GBMW Staff

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