Being a freshman is hard. Your away from home for the first time, you have to figure out where your classes are, you have to meet a bunch of new people, your classes are much more difficult then high school, and by the way you have a new full time job - Michigan football. That is a lot to take on for an 18 year old kid.
That is why if coaches had the option they would hardly ever play a freshman. They need time to get used to college life, the Michigan football program, the weight room, their position, the schemes and the plays. It's like getting to college and starting a job where millions of fans are counting on you. That is a lot to put on anyone, mostly a kid that just got to campus in July or August. Kids that enrolled in January do have an advantage because they can join the program at a much less hectic time before spring ball starts.
I get that, but why are some freshman more successful then others?
Sure some kids are just naturally talented and make a "better on the field" transition then others. The best example this year is Marcus Lattimore from South Carolina. He was clearly one of the best football players in the country last year in the class of 2010. A Michigan example is Chad Henne. Chad came to Ann Arbor in Early August as the QB of the future but was pretty much going to be second string as a freshman. The week of the first game, Michigan's starter hurts his throwing shoulder and Chad is now the starter on opening day. With a veteran WR core and a good running game, Chad leads the Wolverines to the Rose Bowl and never gives up the starting gig for 4 years.
Those are great stories but I wouldn't consider them the norm. Running Back is probably one of the quickest ways to get on to the field right away. You just need to teach them the plays and then let their natural talent take over. The biggest things freshman running backs struggle with is blocking assignments and blitz pick ups.
Justin Turner is another example of a talented kid out of high school (5 star recruit). Who struggled with the transition to college football on and off the field. He didn't play his freshman year and only made it through two days of fall practice in his sophomore year before he left the team The rumors were he was having some programs in his personal life and couldn't focus on football at Michigan.
Most kids that are recruited to Michigan are the best athletes on their high school team, the best athlete in the county, or maybe even the best player in the entire state where they grew up. High school coaches aren't dumb and when you have a special player on your team you put them at a position where they can touch the ball a lot, like QB Which is exactly the example I want to use.
Courtney Avery is a talented smart athlete. He played QB for Lexington High School in Mansfield, OH and broke a number of records, passing and running with the ball. He had offers from a number of programs including Stanford and Florida but picked the Wolverines last year. The key is that Courtney's ticket to Michigan or any other top programs was as a defensive back not as a QB. His 5'11 167 pound frame just wasn't what these programs were looking for in a QB. Courtney knew the value of a Stanford or Michigan education and decided that DB was the place for him.
In Courtney's case it would have been prefect if Michigan could have him 3rd or 4th on the depth chart so he could learn the position, learn the defensive schemes, understand the different WR routes he was going to see and make the proper transition from quarterback to cornerback. As we know, something happened on the way to redshirtville and Courtney finds himself in the below situation.
This was a miss tackle on one of the drives where Michigan was starting to muster up a comeback attempt late in the 4th quarter. When all of sudden Michigan's CB depth goes "Boom" due to injuries, transfers, non-enrollments and crime/prison. You have a freshman/former QB trying to make a tackle on a running back to save a game.
Anyway you slice it that is not a good position for Michigan or the Michigan coaches to be in.
Who's to blame? Everyone.
Lloyd Carr is on the list for not recruiting defense for a number of years.
Rich Rodriguez is on the list for recruiting kids that were borderline in getting in to Michigan.
Michigan's 3 defensive coordinators over the past 4 years.
It's everyone.
Every D1 prospect in the 2011 class wants to start as soon as they get to college. A better approach would be to take a redshirt or work you way up the depth chart and get some spot play. This "trial by fire" is causing way too many burns in the Wolverine family right now.
6 comments:
Hi Bob am having trouble with this account, for some reason won't let me comment.
Come on, man. Lloyd's worst was RR's best. In his dreams. Lloyd won a national championship, *always* had a winning record, never had any violations and, oh, quit coaching 4 years ago. ZERO about Rich Rod's complete lack of success has anything to do with Lloyd. Zero.
It's hard for me to blame Lloyd at this point but he's no savior. Remeber Brian, he won that National Championship with Moeller's guys! Also chalk the winning record up to having a solid consistent program. Earth shattering change is what our AD decided to go with when we hired RR and for that we pay with 3 years of struggle. Oh well. You're either a M fan or not and you being upset about our coach doesn't do any good bc you have no say in what Brandon will do.
As for the defense Bob, I like your take. It's hard to place a blame on a single person but at least it's on the up and up. Everyone is screaming and crying bc they want success now and can't be patient, but in 2 or 3 years who knows, Courtney Avery (and the other 11 freshman on our two-deep) could be one of our best defensive players bc he was able to get early experience. Like they say, mistakes are going to happen and are fine as long as you learn from them.
Unfortunately we are in a tough position with the youth on defense and NOTHING will make it better except time. No coaching change, no change in schemes, nothing is going to make this defense better when we have this much inexperience.
The defense would be in bad shape now if LC was still coaching or Les was here.
It was a fact that LC had holes in his last few classes on the defensive side.
I also agree LC would have won more games in the past 3 years but defense was a problem even at the end of LC's run. App. State is a good example.
"The defense would be in bad shape now if LC was still coaching or Les was here"
If you’re talking about Les Miles, Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, or even Vince Lombardi taking over the Michigan Wolverine’s head coaching position at the beginning of the ‘10 season, then yes the defense would more or less be the same. If you’re talking about any of those coaches accepting the Michigan head coaching positing back in December 2007 then your quote is completely irrational.
Bob, with all due respect, how can we still place any amount of blame on Lloyd Carr and the supposedly hopeless defensive players he left behind for our current defense? We can talk about Lloyd Carr's recruits during Rich Rod’s 1st and 2nd season but currently we're about halfway through RR’s 3rd season.
Simply put, from Jan/Feb ‘08 to Oct ‘10, Rich Rodriguez has not done a good enough job recruiting stars, developing players, game planning, or hiring good assistant coaches.
here we go: leave lloyd alone he did a great job. out only problem then was we were not in good condition, example when a good offense took us for a long drive we got winded real bad. Not pointing fingers but a the time our strength and conditioning coach from what i was told was the same guy that was with BO. Lloyd was not going to fire him, but what he could have done was brought in a fresh mind to revamp our S & C. That was our only issue.
If i had it my way, i would have kept lloyd, english, and added someone like Barwis. That would've been the total can of whoop a__.
So let's stop blaming lloyd, cause he did his part and did it well.
Now we have a great S & C (Barwis), But our DC is PISS POOR. and that fellas is our problem. Cause like i set before a good DC brings the best out of his players and the don't quit and transfer. I probably would've jump ship myself if i wanted to have chance at the NFL and coach PISS POOR was my DC. With him at the helm nobody is looking line NFL material. maybe we get lucky; English get's fired from EMU with an 0-22 record and RR fires coach PISS POOR and offers the DC job to English, that's a stretch i know.
HAVE A GOOD DAY FOLKS
Post a Comment