Michigan Football: Kevin Grady charged with DUI

from Detroit News
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080703/SPORTS0201/807030327/1131

Michigan tailback Grady charged

Wolverine faces court date next Wednesday after being arrested for DUI in Kent County.

Michigan tailback Kevin Grady faces a hearing July 9 in Wyoming, Mich., District Court on charges he was driving while intoxicated.

Grady was arrested early Wednesday morning in Wyoming, near his Grand Rapids home, and was taken to the Kent County Jail. He was released on a $5,000 personal bond.

Grady, 5-foot-9, 228-pounds, sat out last season after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

U-M coach Rich Rodriguez said in a statement that the matter will be handled internally.
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from Toledo Blade
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080703/SPORTS17/661165797

Michigan running back arrested on misdemeanor drunken driving charge

WYOMING, Mich. — Michigan running back Kevin Grady was arrested and will appear in court next week on a misdemeanor drunken driving charge.Kent County Jail records show the 22-year-old was released on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond. Grady is to appear Wednesday in the Grand Rapids suburbof Wyoming.

He’s a graduate of East Grand Rapids High School, where he set state scoring and rushing records.Grady missed all of the 2007 season because of a knee injury suffered during spring drills.Wolverines coach Rich Rodriguez said in a statement the matter will be handled internally after he meets with Grady and reviews the details.
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from the Free Press
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080703/SPORTS06/807030418/1054

U-M RB Kevin Grady faces DUI charge after blowing 3.5 times the legal limit

BY MARK SNYDER • FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER • July 3, 2008

Michigan junior tailback Kevin Grady was arrested early Wednesday on a charge of operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

The arrest, which came in Wyoming, Mich., just outside of Grady's hometown of Grand Rapids, was confirmed by Wyoming district court administrator Chris Kittmann.

Grady was stopped and arrested at 1:54 a.m. in the vicinity of Byron Center and 44th Street in Wyoming. He remained in jail until mid-morning and was released on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond. The Grand Rapids Press reported he blew a 0.281.

Michigan's legal definition of drunk is 0.08.

Grady is scheduled to have a hearing next Wednesday morning on the charge.
Though Grady is the state of Michigan's all-time leading high school rusher, his U-M career has not matched that standard.

The 5-foot-9, 228-pound tailback rushed for 483 yards and scored five touchdowns as a freshman in 2005 but slipped to just 187 yards and three touchdowns in 2006. He missed the 2007 season after tearing his ACL in spring practice.

"I have been made aware of the incident involving Kevin by the Grady family," U-M coach Rich Rodriguez said in a statement. "Once we have an opportunity to meet with Kevin and review the details, we will handle the matter internally."

Three months ago, Grady talked about having a breakout year. Carries are up for grabs following the departure of tailback Mike Hart.

"It's going to be a little bit different me than you guys have seen before," Grady said at the end of this year's spring practice. "I'm a lot quicker. I'm a lot stronger."

Grady's father, Kevin Grady Sr., had no comment about the incident.

Michigan Football: Stadium Renovations Pictures part 1

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Michigan Football Mailbag Question: Regarding Barwis

Hey Guys,

What does Barwis mean when he says they do things that other programs don’t do ... if you might know ... also how are the winter conditioning workouts different then the summer ones? Are they harder as well? How do the freshmen adapt to it this quickly compared to the other guys or are they on a different workout program until they learn what they are doing?

What do you guys think are the best things about Barwis? Also what do you think he will help out the most for the Michigan program.

Just found this blog ... very good blog and I went through many of the archives as well ... great stuff guys.

Dan
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Thanks for the question and thanks for the comments about the blog. Best thing about Coach Barwis is that he establishes relationships with his players. He gets them to believe in him and themselves. What helps is he backs up everything he says. Actions and performance always speaks louder than words. He actually shows the guys what he wants and does it as well so you have a person that will not only show you, but do the work as well. It is similar to the Army, but the instructor actually goes through the drill.

What Coach Barwis told us as the spring clinic was that his focus was different from most teams. He is more about core strength and developing ability to transfer energy through that core to where it is needed. He said yes, we are going to get bigger and stronger, but that will only be about 20% of our overall program.

Generally speaking the biggest differences between in season S & C and out of season is twofold.

*****First is Michigan will not do as much running that will be done as part of overall practice.

*****Second will be that the length of time spent on S & C. One other difference Coach Barwis talked about was in season training. Coach Barwis said he expected his players to continue to get stronger during the season. Some programs will taper off their strength training during season. Coach Barwis stated he expected his players to keep gaining strength, and in fact, his players at West Virginia set personal records of 500 lbs in the clean during the season.

written by CoachBt and ErocWolverine

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Michigan Football: New Fieldhouse pictures

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Coaches Corner: Michigan's "New" Offense

Been planning to do something on Michigan's offense based on what Coach Rod and Coach Magee talked about at the Michigan coach’s clinic. However, I could not find my notes and did not want to misquote either of them. While spotting a player in the squat this morning someone said something about West Virginia. Then it hit me, I had put them in my West Virginia file for some dumb reason. Blame it on old age, or orneriness, but I can know I can share at least some of what Michigan’s offense will look like, or the strategy and theory behind the offense. I know this is choppy, but this how the coaches presented to us, and I do not want to put any spin on it. if I miss something, just e-mail Eroc and will do the best to answer.

This was done on GBW premium board from CoachBt and with a little tweaking put on here by CoachBt and ErocWolverine.

Will start with Coach Rod's lecture.

Coach Rod spoke about coaching as nothing but teaching. Experienced vets teaching youngsters are just as important as coaches teaching players. Always practice fast, and Teach to your least-smart player.

As for the actual offense:
1) Run north and south as fast as can, avoids running east and west.
2) The Running Back needs to react to guy who is tackling them.
3) Controlling all aspects of the game is essential.
4) Conditioning is the most underrated thing in football.

This is how Coach Rod recommends teaching his offense:
1) Teach from back end up: teach Running Backs and Quarterbacks first and then to slots, Offensive linemen and Split Ends.
2) Shrink what the defense can do, this gives you less to prepare for and makes reads and blocking the defense easier.
3) Attack the defense where they are not, makes them run to cover you, either high to low, or east to west.
4) Make them defend what they are defending. If defense is trying to take away Running Back in Quarterback read option, make them defend the Running Back before using Quarterback.
5) Quarterback gives the defense a false snap look to fake defense into tipping what they are doing. After this, coaches will take second read of defense and signal new play/scheme to Quarterback.

Here is the key to what Coach Rod is talking about when he says make defense defend what they are defending. If opponents sell out to stop the run and more specifically Quarterback read option, one of the benefits of zone blocking is the scheme alone helps to alleviate the eighth man in the box. In addition, if a defense sells out to stop the run they have to give up something else. Therefore, if I give them what they expect I do two things.

1) I set up everything that comes off the base play. Therefore, they must stay in that defense to continue to stop what I am doing.
2) If they line up to stop the run and I still am able to run the ball, the defense is in a world of crap. Because now they have to add another body to the box, or let me continue to have success. Everybody they add to the front, creates more space, and better mismatches in the secondary.

****Example, if Defensive Coordinator decides to play nickel, but rolls nickel into the box, and I can still run the football, Defensive Coordinator will probably go to base. Now that makes a mismatch in space.

They have set scheme or package, pre-snap; defense is trying to confuse pre-snap reads. Therefore, Quarterback fakes snap so defense gives away what they are planning. Some teams actually give players wristbands to make process smoother. All offense is eventually about execution. You will not consistently fool or trick good defenses. Eventually all offenses have to block and make plays.

Coach Magee used a slightly different tact in his lecture. He gave us two lists of things the offense needs to accomplish, or make the defense do.

First list is things offense needs to do.
1) Create mismatches- biggest is slots on Outside Linebackers or Safeties.
2) Get the ball to your playmakers.
3) Use Shotgun/so Quarterback can see the defense.
4) Make the defense defend all skill players, including the Quarterback.
5) Keep it simple for the Offensive Line, confused Offensive Linemen can kill an offense faster than anything can.
6) Make the defense play in space.

Second list is what offense does in a game.
1) Make defenses defend the entire field. Quarterback has pre-snap and post snap reads.
2) Always, play at multiple tempos to keep defense off balance and control their substitution patterns.
3) Make defense prepare for dual threat Quarterback, both run and pass.
4) EXECUTION - You want a simple, not predictable offense (most of you should love this one, LOL).
5) Execute your base plays to perfection: Reps and Reps, and more reps, get good at something!
6) It is a numbers game.
7) Create best angles to block, both Offensive Linemen and Split Ends.
8) The final one - Find empty Grass!

First key number is one or two safeties. This is from my personal experience; this read is the single most important in this offense. It tells you what Outside Linebackers and Cornerbacks are going to do. All three Coaches, Coach Rod, Coach Magee, and Coach Frey, said the Outside Linebackers are the most dangerous defenders to this offense.

Second key is how many defenders in box is next read.

In zone blocking, Outside Linebacker is almost impossible to account for. He is free to flow to the ball. The defense has both the Defensive End and Outside Linebacker to outside of Offensive Tackle. If positioned correctly he is also in position to disrupt the short passing game.

In blitz packages, he can cause an overload of one sideline. What Defensive Coordinators have been doing lately is walk the Outside Linebacker out with slot, but splitting the difference between Slot and Offensive Tackle. This way he can takeaway some of the short routes, but still be effect in run defense. This is especially true when defenses are playing cover two.

They can lineup cover or eliminate #2/the Slot and then have Safety to help over top. Offenses have adjusted to put Outside Linebackers in a bind. What they came up with is the vertical, access play. The Slot to side you are attacking does exactly what name says, he heads vertical, Slot to back side then runs a drag to area vacated by defender. If defender sits, you hit Slot going vertical; if Outside Linebacker also goes vertical with Slot, you hit the drag. If Safety sits over top of Slot, you throw either hitch in front of Cornerback, or you throw fade over top depending where Cornerback lines up. This is brainchild of Brian Kelly and Cincinnati staff.

written by CoachBt and ErocWolverine

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Michigan Football: Mike Barwis S&C Clinic Pictures part 2

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Michigan Football Recruiting Mailbag Question: Regarding Roh

Hey Coach,

I know high school football is a lot different from college, but why wouldn't the coaches come back around for the Roh visit. I realize these guys need to get away just like anybody else, but seems like having Coach Rod there and the defensive coaches especially the DC and DL coach there would have made a big difference? It seems especially since DL recruiting is not going very well or at least not yet.

Could this be an ego deal as well where the coaches are saying one person will not make a big deal or is not going to change their plans for nothing?

Fred
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Thanks for the question. It could be many reasons. First, they may have speaking events already scheduled. They could have recruiting visits with other prospects. It could be personal business they could not be rescheduled. Maybe the coaching stafff needed a break and knew they would not get one if they kept coming home for a visitor. Possible could also be that Roh and his family wanted to visit without pressure of coaches be present. In this type of situation, the coaches who are actually involved and close to the situation need to be given benefit of the doubt.

written by CoachBt and ErocWolverine

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