donnie warner

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):

image

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)

image

[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]

Previously:

This week: We continue picking the best number for each position with the defensive side. Offense is here.

Rules: It's what you wore when you contributed there. Starts, stats, big plays, etc.

All photos from priceless resource UM Bentley Library unless stated otherwise. All-Americans highlighted.

-----------------------------------------

A Short History of Defensive Positions

My goal so this wouldn't just be some useless offseason #content was to include all players since they started having numbers in the '20s. That way it's not just "here's the guys we remember from the last 10 years."

That makes defense WAY harder to do this (correctly) than for offense. Great two-way players are best known for their offensive feats and were typically listed with their offensive positions, for example Benny Friedman played quarterback on offense but halfback (cornerback) on defense. Defensive positions have changed dramatically over the years, and what you call a thing often takes another generation to change after the job has changed (for a taste, watch this 1940s defensive tutorial).

image

From the '30s to the '60s centers, fullbacks and one of the guards played linebacker. One safety played in the parking lot to deter quick punts because offenses would take a 50-yard field position swing over possession any day.

Transition periods are good for new position names and player nicknames—we're going through one now with Viper—but tough on roster data. Exempli gratia: the starter data list Dominic Tedesco and John Anderson as defensive ends in 1976. In 1977 they were both starters again but now at "outside linebacker."

No, Michigan didn't "switch" that year from a 5-2 defense to a 3-4. They just fixed the glitch. This gets especially troublesome when you consider how often shifts put 3-4 "tackles" on the edge. I mean, they called Mark Messner a tackle his whole career, even though he spent that career aligned up like so:

image_thumb[28]

#60 at the bottom

Since the jobs haven't changed nearly as much as the names, I'm going to do defense by job description.

[After THE JUMP: The numbers.]

I thought Air Force had a very good defense. They weren’t big or super fast, but they were smart and sound—if a defense as a whole could get a nickname I’d call them Ol’ Eleven Kovacses.

Their gameplan was also brilliant. They knew Michigan wanted to run inside the tackles, get Speight some confidence, and get athletes out to the edge, so Air Force came in with a plan to jam up running lanes and make Michigan try to guess where the big hole would be. This is AF’s look on Michigan’s first running play:

image

They’re in base 3-4 personnel, with both ends lined up in 5-techniques (over the tackles’ shoulders), both OLBs in 7-techniques (over the TE or hypothetical TE’s shoulders) and one safety down at linebacker depth to react to Michigan putting a lineman (Ruiz) at tight end.

Now this is not Belicheck’s mother’s 3-4. That nose tackle was 5’11/260. He certainly wasn’t going to be two-gapping. Rather out of this setup Air Force’s plan was to have the nose attack almost like Brown’s 3-3-5 linebackers, appearing in any A or B gap on any given play and making life hard on Michigan’s inexperienced interior OL to figure out what to do with him.

If that all sounds familiar, it’s because you’re old, and it is:

That’s right: that sonovabitch Calhoun walked into Michigan Stadium and tried to run Bo Schembechler’s defense on us.

image

[After the JUMP: The 50 slant, and picking holes in it]