2018 fall practice

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32

Fall Football Bits Shoulda Wore Sunscreen
Seth •

[Bryan Fuller]

EVENTS:

Thursday, Ann Arbor: FOOTBAL EVE, 6pm ‘tis Football Eve at 327 E. Hoover—the same place as last year. 12802hsllogoAlso the same food as last year—Scratch BBQ and Catering—since Adam and David didn't get to try it. And I think we’re getting beer from Wolverine If you’re coming say so in the form so we know how much beer to get.

Friday, South Bend: PEP RALLY, 7-9pm, with Jon Falk, hosted by the Michiana Club of the Alumni Association

Saturday, South Bend: TAILGATES. The Alumni Association has two: the big on-campus one (exact location to be shared gameday morning) in the Library Lot, and another at The Triangle, which will convert to a huge watch party if you don’t get tickets. If you’re looking for something more low key, Matt Demorest will have the MGoBus parked at a reader’s backyard—reach out to him if you wanna stop by.

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Probably not going to do another of these as we’re now into THE WEEK THAT THEY PLAY THE FOOTBALL so here’s a quick roundup that’s mostly observations from the boring practice they probably could have done without.

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Injuries/Not Present

I’ll list first the guys who weren’t in pads or I didn’t see on the field, and we’ll discuss in their position groups. Just because I couldn’t see him doesn’t mean someone else didn’t—let me know in the comments if you spotted someone or something I didn’t.

  • Dressed but didn’t participate in drills: HB Karan Higdon (did some, not all), WR Nate Schoenle, DE Rashan Gary, DE Chase Winovich
  • Spotted in street clothes (a t-shirt jersey and shorts): RB Christian Turner, RB Berkley Edwards, FB Jack Wangler, WR Tyler Grosz, WR Jack Young, TE Mustapha Muhammad, OL Griffin Korican
  • I didn’t see him out there: OT Andrew Stueber, MLB Cam McGrone, DE Luigi Vilain, CB Benjamin St-Juste, CB Casey Hughes the Utah transfer, P Brad Robbins

St-Juste, Vilain, and Robbins are injured per people who talk to me; process of elimination makes Hughes the center of speculation for that rumored guy no longer with the program.

The running backs and defensive line were practicing at the two corners opposite from where everyone was allowed to sit (the tunnel side), so I couldn’t read the backs of the t-shirts of anyone over there. QBs were right in front of us with CBs to the left and WRs to the right so that’s what we were able to see the most—you could see the offensive line pretty well but couldn’t tell much except the pecking order. Someone else was standing next to Jack Young (#81) on the sideline but I wasn’t able to identify him.

[Hit THE JUMP for the positional breakdown]

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Comment Count

131

Fall Football Bits Hates Donuts
Seth •

(via official M twitter)

MGOEVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS:

CHICAGO, Wednesday, August 22, 6PM CDT: UM Chicago Alumni Association Football Kickoff. I'm going to be there doing a Power Point spiel on how Michigan might be responsible for all the stupid names of football positions. Todd Howard will be there for how stupid good the cornerbacks were last year. Also Steve and Derek Kornacki. Location is Rock-it at 22 W Hubbard. By the way they accidentally wrote Steve Lorenz instead of Kornacki on the page, but Lorenz has got some national convention for Dart Jabronis of the Jersey Shore that he chose to attend instead. (Facebook link).

ANN ARBOR, Thursday, August 30, 7PM EDT: Football Eve!  Our annual "we're too nervous let's have a beer" event, hosted by HomeSure Lending. We're getting together at the same place as last year, on Hoover just past Elbel Field and the train tracks. There shall be food and beer and football to imbibe. The Detroit Pistons will be there too, giving away a signed GRIII ball and promoting…

DETROIT, Date TBD: MGoNight at the Pistons MGoBlog is working to plan an event with the Detroit Pistons this season. We do not have a date because the NBA schedule just came out, and we need to coordinate it around Michigan Football/Basketball schedules, and the Big Ten hasn't put out the hoops calendar yet. pistonsThe hope is to have an outing with discounted tickets to a game with alumni from the basketball program, in addition to Glenn Robinson III now that he is a Piston. The outing will also contribute to Ace’s CEF/ME Fundraiser, with the Pistons donating $5 from each ticket.

Please comment below if you're interested in doing it. I think we need 10-20 people minimum to make it happen.

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Guys look:

The footballs are nigh! Time to capture the tiny morsely crumbs and call it a feast. Format is there are things we as fans are looking to hear, there are things the program wants us to hear, and there's the deep inner meaning that we can wriggle out of the things they want us to hear versus the things that they didn't say.

This is not insider info. Subscribe to a service if you want that sort of thing. I'm just trying to make sense out of the news that gets out of practice.

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Quarterback

image

[Isaiah Hole/WolverinesWire]

What we want to hear: Shea Patterson is springing ahead as a Clear #1 but Brandon Peters has grit in his saddle and spurs in his hindquarters and Joe Milton is also a horse metaphor. Horse metaphors everywhere!

What we're hearing: More and more it seems like Shea Patterson is seizing the top job (Sam update, $), with not a lot of Peters in the mentions except that he's the clear #2. Patterson was seen wearing a black box camera, which could be a training mechanism or some cool multimedia thing they're capturing because our athletic department is crawling with tech nerds.

Not that they can keep it a secret when everybody's asking the players and coaches (WW):

“He can do everything you want him to do,” Gary said. “He expands plays, so you have to watch the rush lanes and can throw the deep ball. Playing against him is going up against a quarterback who can do anything – run the ball, throw the ball.

Zordich is probably the most media savvy member of the staff (e.g.). See if you can follow what he's doing:

"This guy's awesome…this other guy's this thing, this freshman got potential and then you've got the last guy. Oops I've said too much."

joncusackwink.gif

What it means: Michigan wants you to think there's a QB battle going on, but it seems pretty clear Shea Patterson has distinguished himself, in case the fact he's all over the marketing wasn't a clue already. Also: you don't prepare just one quarterback, and no Michigan fan needs to be reminded that the 2nd and 3rd string QBs need to be ready to go, especially considering the OT situation. I gather Peters is as safe in the second spot right now as Patterson is in the 1st. Given normal freshman-to-sophomore progression that tells me Michigan's quarterback situation is still not excellent but it's got a floor now of at least the better-ish (Speight v Florida, Peters v Wisconsin) parts of last year. Also without a good OL that won't matter much.

Guess the depth chart: (Mind you that's NOT inside info just me guessing.)

  • Patterson, (gap), Peters, (gap), Milton, McCaffrey.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the team]

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