There is nothing like Michigan Football and for a day in April, I will take full team scrimmage. It's great to see a real Spring Game and how the coaches and players were into the game. Of course, there were good things and bad things and I will do my best to let you know what my eyes saw.
Cheers
- As expected the defense is ahead of the offense.
- Joe Bolden is going to be an All Big Ten and maybe a shot at an All American LB
- I love Michigan's Defensive Line: Hurst, Henry, Wormley are going to be hard to run on
- Lawrence Marshall might be special
- Have to love that Norfleet played both DB and WR
- Shane Morris showed flashes of being a starting QB
- I loved the focus on throwing to Jake Butt
- Peppers doing pushups when he dropped that pick
- I thought Malzone looked pretty good for a HS senior
- The trick plays were fun
- Congrats to a crowd that was estimated near 60,000
- No major in game injuries reported
- The offensive line on both sides didn't look very good
- RB's weren't great outside a couple of runs (could be the line)
- The offense was very vanilla (as expected)
- Shane seems to struggle with touch, accuracy and the deep ball
- Neither QB looked great in the pocket
- We didn't see Speight and Isaac due to injuries. Isaac is a hamstring.
- The WR's didn't look good as a group, too many drops
I also loved the coverage nationally. ESPN had a reporter at the game and there was plenty of updates on SportsCenter during the day before the Final 4 games. The LB's were reported to be struggling during practice but I didn't see that at all during the game. I'm also thinking that Butt and Bunting could cause some serious miss-matches at TE.
This defense could be special and will need to be as the offense finds it's identity during the year. I thought the offense looked much better in the second half, then they did in the first. I know we don't like to compare Michigan to MSU but the Spartans team two years ago should be what the goal is for the Wolverines in 2015. MSU had a good defense and a game manager at QB, the offense struggled early and the defense won games for them. The offense got better during the year and they won the Rose Bowl.
All in all it was a great day and a nice re-start for our program.
1 comment:
Some of my takeaways:
* I agree with your assessment of the DLine. They're going to be tough. Marshall (as he continues to fill out) is going to be really tough to stop.
* Hill was all over the field in both pass coverage and also supporting the run when necessary. Looks like we have gone from terrible safety play to that being a real strength on this team.
* Bolden looked great. Looks like a leader too.
* The OLine, I agree, didn't look too good. Tough atmosphere for them though.
* Malzone will red shirt for sure. He's not there yet.
* Shane has all of the tools. I think you're being a bit unfair about his lack of touch. he showed me that he's improving in that area. I wouldn't be uncomfortable with him under center this year. I also agree that he won't redshirt.
* The RB's are slow, have limited burst, and never make people miss. They're a below average group. With that said, Drake Johnson and hopefully Ty Isaac have a real opportunity to be the 1/2 punch we are looking for. I find it hard to believe Isaac isn't better than Green and/or Smith.
* Darboh looked like he will be the top guy for sure. BIG JEER to Cole for allowing Countess to knock him on his back AND make the tackle on that one flanker screen. LOL wow! get in the weight room young man! LOL chesson will never be any good.
* Norfleet at CB? I hope to never see that again in my life. I realize he was there because of the numbers game associated with the spring game, but he's not a CB thats for sure.
* Peppers had a couple good plays. He'll be fine.
* Hoke sure screwed Morris out of a year of eligibility. Sad.
* Got a few commits too this weekend.
Life is good! #GoBlue
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