devin bush must be kept away from kim jong un

ah squirrel [Bryan Fuller]

Seth • March 17, 2020 • 11:31am

Our ongoing series covering Michigan's 2010s. Previously: Our Favorite Blocks, QBs, RBs, and WRs, TEs, FBs, and OL, Defensive Line, The 2000s.

Methodology: The staff decided these together and split the writeups. Considering individual years but a player can only be nominated once. Because of the various iterations of defense over the decade we decided on three types: two interior linebackers who could play MLB or WLB, a DE-ish rush specialist like a 3-3-5 Quick, 4-3 Under SAM, or Don Brown's Uche position, and a hybrid safety, considering the guys who played Spur (2010), Nickel (2014-'15), or Viper (2016-'19).

INTERIOR LINEBACKER: Devin Bush Jr. (2018)

Picking a year for Bush is difficult because he is one of those players who burst onto the scene fully formed. His first game as a starter came against Florida, which is a delightful team to debut against when you are a rabid squirrel man.

His numbers were actually better in 2017, his sophomore year, but a large portion of that dropoff was a shift in defensive scheme that forced him to drop into anti-slant zones. He did this with aplomb because he did everything with aplomb. Another chunk of it was the existence of Chase Winovich and Rashan Gary, particularly the former.

Bush got picked 10th overall after 2018 so we'll go with that season. He was the same guy both years he started.

That was the fastest linebacker in the country. You could occasionally get Bush to take a false step; often it didn't matter. Attempting to edge him was a recipe for second and eight…

…if you were lucky.

Bush rewrote the UFR record book for a linebacker because he was a true triple threat LB, able to blitz, play the run, and cover. Not bad for a guy whom Florida State offered a couple of weeks before his commitment.

-Brian

[After THE JUMP: This is MGoBlog, what did you think we were going to carp about?]

Michigan All-Small Team

Seth • January 29, 2019 • 10:25am

Last offseason I was making these Michigan All-____ Teams and I didn't get around to all of the ideas. So let's.

Previously:

Today's Rules: You must be in the bottom quartile of height for your position and get extra points for being shorter than that. Weight doesn't matter as much as height (because most of these guys had to add a lot of it). Also this has to be relative to the players of your era—with a heavy recency bias—because there was a time when a six-foot offensive tackle was considered huge. For example, here's 5'11" Anthony Carter with some of the other 1979 offensive starters (via a Dr. Sap article on MVictors):

I'm going to use my discretion as we go, but if a player wasn't remarkably tiny for his era, even if he would be in ours, he doesn't count.

The problem: Rosters lie, especially regarding these players, because listing a short guy at his real height could depress his pro future. Where I have knowledge of a guy's actual height I'll use that, and beyond that I'm just going to do my best.

Quarterback: Denard Robinson

Last listed size: 6'0"/197 (2012)

[Brian Fuller]

Strangely, 2019 recruit Cade McNamara, at 6'1", is the third-shortest Michigan scholarship quarterback since Bo, with Denard and 2008 proto-Denard Justin Feagin both listed at a straight six. Or maybe that's not so strange because height in a quarterback is so highly valued. In my opinion it's highly overrated; the last two Heisman winners were Oklahoma quarterbacks listed at 6'0" and 5'11", QED. Notably, despite Michigan's clear preference for tall guys, some of their best were all on the shorter side, including Chad Henne and Shea Patterson, both just 6'2". Anyway, the rosters lied about Denard's height, which was probably 5'11" or just under it. I should mention the 2011 roster lists Denard as 5'9", which is wrong but feels right. His height led to a few batted balls, but since his center also appears later on this list (and Ricky Barnum wasn't very tall either), and because defenders in space had to approach warily lest Denard escape the pocket, the % of batted balls from Denard in the UFRs is lower than that for Henne.

Honorable Mention: Dennis Brown (5'10"/175), Tate Forcier (6'1"/190), Harry Newman (5'7"/174), Boss Weeks (5'7"/161) lots of other old dudes. Michigan's first great quarterback (and college athletics' first great athletic director) Charles Baird was listed at 5'6". Michigan's shortest QB on the Bentley database was 1914-'16 bencher Harold Zeiger, at 5'4".

[After THE JUMP: Not who you think]

We can't hold on forever. [Bryan Fuller]

Exit: Devin Bush Jr.

Seth • December 19, 2018 • 10:03am

As we all expected he should, Devin Bush announced he will forego his senior season to enter the NFL Draft. He also will miss the Peach Bowl, and explained why:

God bless!! pic.twitter.com/dLgcZvU9Ee
— Devin Bush ll (@_Dbush11) December 19, 2018

As much as we regret not having our dear little deathbacker on the field later this month, I think we all would have regretted it more if Bush had reaggravated that ginger hip in a ~~meaningless~~ less meaningful game. It's clear he was considering playing anyway. Alas, Bush swinging from the shoulders of two trainers as the wheels fell off against Ohio State will be the final image Michigan fans will see of one of the best linebackers to ever come through the program, and the previously #1 defense in the country will play its bowl game without its literal and emotional core.

From the beginning Harbaugh pursued Bush, a three-star to most sites for most of his recruitment, with the same furor that Bush pursued quarterbacks, allowing onetime 4-star commit David Reese to switch to Florida and five-star-to-some Caleb Kelly to join Oklahoma with less than five-star resistance. Harbaugh planned his biggest satellite camp of 2016 at Bush's high school, recruited Bush's teammates Josh Metellus and Devin Gil—both of whom are now starters—and later hired Bush's head coach, who also happens to be a Florida State All-American and Bush's dad, Devin Bush Sr., to an important position on staff. The legacy of Bush's recruitment is now enshrined in two ridiculous NCAA rules—satellite camps and hiring people associated with recruits—pushed by programs upset that Michigan got to enjoy a true Southern talent without resorting to their more southern strategies.

That all-out pursuit paid off as Bush earned the primary backup role at middle linebacker as a true freshman, and exploded into a future first rounder in his first game as a sophomore starter. Many tried, but no ballcarrier ever managed to find an edge that Bush couldn't beat him to, and late in his career Bush was picking up a horse-crap personal foul per game by appearing in a quarterback's chest faster than a Big Ten ref's neurological network could process it. MGoBlog's Upon Further Review scoring comes every year with a disclaimer that linebacking is hard and an equal number of plus and minus plays is a good outing, and Bush is only the second guy in the blog's history—after David Harris—to ever challenge that expectation by grading consistently well into the positive. This season the degree and amplitude of Bush's impact on the field was hardly a secret known only to the wonks who watch every play: Devin was a consensus All-American and the face of an elite defense.

The face of an elite defense. [Paul Sherman]

It would be nice for Michigan if the NFL hadn't in recent years grown wise to the fact that a 5'11" rabid death squirrel is more valuable to the modern game than the neck-rolly rageoholics they used to prefer. Since they have, despite his size, Bush is a near lock for the first round. Whichever franchise is smart enough to trade up when he's still available in the middle of it won't regret that decision any more than Michigan has.