Mailbag question: Regarding Tate

I watch and listen to everything Michigan football and I love your guys' blog. I have seen reports and videos of the progress of different position groups this spring.

My question is about the quarterbacks: What are your guys' impressions of them? I have have not seen one report or video of Tate throwing the ball. Does Tate pass the eyeball test? How does he throw the intermediate and vertical routes? These are the routes that I feel we were lacking last year.

Eric U.

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Thanks for the question and comment.

We will be able to give you first-hand impressions in early April. From pictures, available film, and what we are hearing Forcier looks like he could use a good ten pounds or more of muscle. He needs to putt some weight on and build his strength to adapt to the rigors of college football and the hard hitting defense's looking to show him some "love." Aside from this, his throwing looks very solid at his point.

Again, it is very easy to look good without a pass rush in your face. We think it is extremely important that expectations on all the young players be kept in check. There will be times where Forcier looks great, and times where he looks like the true freshmen he is.

Forcier's arm could be getting tired right about now because of the sheer number of passes he has thrown. He probably has not thrown this much with so few, and short, periods to rest his arm, in a long time -- if ever. He came in early and started throwing right away, and a lot, to whoever he could get to stay over after workouts. On top of this, add in spring ball where the coaches want to see what he can do, giving him as many reps as possible. It's understandable if the zip on his passes might be lagging a bit by now.

Thanks for stopping by http://gobluemichiganwolverine.blogspot.com/
If you have any questions please e-mail erocwolverine@gmail.com

Written by CoachBt and ErocWolverine

Michigan Stadium pictures from MGoBlue

Mailbag question: Our two-bits on Clemons

Like your blog.

Question: what do you think of the receiving corps now that Clemons is gone? What do you think of Clemons leaving? Was it a big loss, or not so much? How are the slot receivers shaking out? You have not commented yet on Clemons.

Anonymous (left message on one of the articles written)

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Thanks for the question and comments.

From a talent and playing time situation, he is not much of a loss. He was probably no better than the 4th split end on the team at this time. As for slots, this is a position where the players need to elevate their level of play if Michigan's offense is to improve. We would not be surprised if freshmen play a major role this season. Remember, that T-Rob is healthy and will be a factor, not only at slot receiver, but also as a punt and kick returner. Let's hope that all the other 2009 commits make it in this year to help round out the slot position.

From a team stand point, Clemons leaving was much more of a loss. From all indications, Clemons was a great team player, the type of player every program needs. He took one for the team last spring when he played slot receiver. Michigan had exactly zero players with the skill set to succeed in the slot receiver position. Even though it was a terrible fit for him, Clemons gladly played the position to help the team. He put the team in front of his own best interests. Any time you lose this type of player, it hurts the team.

Some have said that he is a player without a position. This is simply not true. Clemons loves Michigan for all that the University offers outside of the football program. Its part of the reason he stayed around, despite knowing he was not going to play much. It did not help that Clemons and some family members had a rift with Coach Rod and crew, dating back to his junior year in high school when he was being recruited by West Virginia.

In doing so, he hurt his chances at playing split end in Michigan's offense. He lost time in spring, and then lost more time due to injury in summer and fall practices that put Clemons so far behind he had no chance to catch up.

People have brought up his dropped balls in games and say he's too slow.

We disagree. He is every bit as fast, probably faster, than Mathews. Koger played tight end, slot receiver, and split end positions last year in different formations, so I do not see how Clemons is too big or slow for those positions.

As for dropped passes, sure, he dropped some, so did other Michigan split ends, and with Clemons playing so much in slot, this hurt. Split ends face a number of different factors than slots, for instance, the ball arrives at a different angle and is in the air longer. A number of wide receiver coaches have told us that this is the reason they do not like to move split ends into the slot. They are two completely different positions. Remember Breaston having problems catching the DAMN ball as a split end, but doing much better catching the ball as a slot receiver

At the end of the day, Clemons will always love Michigan, and consider himself a Michigan man. I just hope everyone will still consider him one of the Michigan family. The kid gave his all while here. He deserves it.

Thanks for stopping by http://gobluemichiganwolverine.blogspot.com/
If you have any questions please e-mail erocwolverine@gmail.com

Written by CoachBt and ErocWolverine

2010 Michigan Recruiting: Jordan Hicks -- Linebacker

Jordan Hicks from Lakota West high school in West Chester, Ohio.


CoachBt/ErocWolverine quick comments: Very active and hard hitting outside linebacker. Excellent in space and covers well. He has a very good burst and closing speed. Needs to add some strength and weight.

Michigan Stadium Picture

Mailbag question: How many more QB's and WR's do we need?

Coach and Eroc,

Michigan seems to be recruiting a lot of quarterbacks and receivers -- a disproportionate number, even.

Any thoughts on why this is? Do not get me wrong, I believe in Coach Rod and trust his tactics; I am just surprised. I would like to see some defensive commits, immediately.

Thanks,

Patel

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Thanks for the question.

Michigan's base set requires four wide receivers/slot receivers.

The offense also uses a fifth split end/slot formation.

To effectively practice and to have adequate depth it takes eight to ten of these types of athletes.

It will be interesting to see if they will be able to get Koger (TE) involved in the offense this year, because we believe he has the potential to be a first round NFL draft pick someday. Thus far, the biggest obstacle to this has been the quarterback play along and the fact that in Coach Rod's offense he does not use the tight ends as effectively as other teams that use the same type of spread offense as Michigan. That is why we believe Michigan's staff met with Missouri last year to learn how they worked the tight end into their plans, in addition to talking with Oklahoma the past two years about their passing game.

We believe that Coach Rod and the assistant coaches are not happy with the split ends they have right now nor the quality of the depth at the position to work with their scheme.

These types of players can also help on special teams. Our take on quarterbacks is simple: the roster did not have any quarterbacks who were a good fit for Coach Rod's offense. Michigan had to take larger than normal numbers than is usual for each class to provide the offense with athletes capable of running Coach Rod's schemes and to provide quality depth. We believe besides Gardner (2010 commit), they will try and get another quarterback to commit in that class.

Trust us, we know where you're coming from, because we are defensive minded people as well and have been bringing up the seemingly anemic defensive recruiting since last spring considering the depth issues and lack of talent on defense which we witnessed last spring.

Thanks for stopping by http://gobluemichiganwolverine.blogspot.com/
If you have any questions please e-mail erocwolverine@gmail.com

Written by CoachBt and ErocWolverine

Michigan Spring Practice