February 17th, 2012 at 1:58 PM ^
There may just be a few position switches as well..
February 17th, 2012 at 2:25 PM ^
Is it just me or is The Wolverine Blog down for the count?
February 17th, 2012 at 2:27 PM ^
...but it definitely appears to be down
February 17th, 2012 at 2:02 PM ^
February 17th, 2012 at 2:32 PM ^
I'll trump you with Steven Threet and Nick Sheridan and then....
Spring Ball is all about finding bodies at DT and TE. If there are a couple standouts at each position then there will be very little pressure for true freshman to make immediate impacts (still expectation... but less demand)
Here's hoping that Ricardo Miller has been eating and has a break out spring... as well as Ash, Q, and Wilkens (well, maybe not as much eating)
February 17th, 2012 at 3:00 PM ^
If Wilkins is at 280 and is playing at the 3 tech, I wouldn't mind him packing a few more pounds.
February 17th, 2012 at 3:16 PM ^
I'm not as worried about DT. With Beyer moving to WDE and Roh moving to the 5-tech (and Jibreel Black fitting in there somewhere) we really only need to worry about the 1-tech and the 3-tech, and we have enough bodies that finding four guys who can play should be doable. Pipkins should certainly be one of those 4, so we realistically need 3 guys currently on the squad to show they can play. BWC and Q were adequate last year, and those guys should be two of the three. Then we have Ash, Wilkins, Rock, and maybe Heitzman or Brink to take the last spot.
It won't be the strong point of our D, but we should have a solid rotation on our interior DL. And size certainly won't be an issue.
February 17th, 2012 at 2:50 PM ^
Yet another stunningly in-depth piece from ESPN's Big Ten "bloggers".
February 17th, 2012 at 3:30 PM ^
Please please please please PLEASE let the Spring Game this year be an actual GAME type format. Where there are two teams. Blue vs Maize (White)
February 17th, 2012 at 3:49 PM ^
You have to remember that in spring ball the team is operating with a scholarship deficit essentially the size of the incoming recruiting class. You also know that upperclassmen with playing experience aren't going to be out there if they have any kind of mild, nagging injury. At that point you're down below 60 guys and you can't really form two teams with a two-deep out of that.
On top of that, the coaches get a very limited amount of time to work with and evaluate the team throughout the year and if they can rig the "game" to get more experience/practice in certain areas they are always going to do so.
February 17th, 2012 at 4:07 PM ^
Just like last year, you would likely be playing a guy like Erik Gunderson on one of the offensive lines...and that's assuming nobody gets injured. Last year we had a couple linemen get injured and miss the spring game, including Taylor Lewan. It's just not that feasible to put two competent teams on the field.
February 17th, 2012 at 5:38 PM ^
Coaches dont see much from that.
February 17th, 2012 at 3:53 PM ^
They kind of made that sound discouraging, like we lost a whole lot.