Exit Terrence Talbott
[Programming note: sorry about the slow content from myself. Minor family emergency, emphasis on minor, but one that required some attention the last 24 hours. Anyway…]
the spring headfake
Michigan's decision to recruit ALL OF THE CORNERBACKS is now a little clearer, as Sam Webb is reporting that Terrence Talbott has decided to leave the program. Talbott was buried on the depth chart last year before a star turn in the spring practice videos that seemed to indicate he was being given serious consideration for playing time. JT Floyd reasserted his hold on the starting spot in the spring game, and now Talbott's out the door. Apologies to Andy Staples, who used the hype at this site to name Talbott to his spring breakout team.
Talbott's departure leaves Michigan thin at boundary corner. If Floyd goes down it probably sees Blake Countess slide over and Courtney Avery slide into the starting lineup with either Delonte Holowell or Raymon Taylor taking over the nickel spot. Either that or Taylor steps into the starting lineup at boundary, but he's listed at 169 pounds on the roster… other than Floyd Michigan's cornerbacks are tiny. By virtue of being listed at 5'11", 180 Talbott was the second-biggest guy available. Floyd's health, already pretty important, is now more so.
From a recruiting perspective, Talbott's exit opens up a 21st scholarship for the 2012 class. On the WTKA recruiting roundup a couple days ago, Webb mentioned that Michigan would now take a 25th player in the class, so Talbott's decision seems to have come recently and led directly to Ross Douglas's offer and commitment. Michigan is still after LaQuon Treadwell and will look for BPA with slot #25. Rivals is reporting($) that Leon McQuay III has dropped Michigan after the Douglas commitment, so who that might be is a mystery unless it's VA RB Derrick Green.
NON-BONUS: The 2010 class, originally 27 strong, has been hacked to 15 in just two years. Death by…
- ACADEMICS: Antonio Kinard, Demar Dorsey, Davion Rogers, Conelius Jones
- BEING A NE'ER DO WELL: Austin White
- INJURY: Christian Pace, Terry Talbott
- DEPTH CHART RELATED: Cullen Christian, Ray Vinopal, DJ Williamson, Carvin Johnson, Terrence Talbott (probably)
Yeesh.
We need to get back Conelius Jones. Just for his name on the sidelines.
Yukon Cornelius or the ghost of Don Cornelius!
Hope that all is well with the Cook family.
And wow to the fact that we've lost 12 guys from that class. I know that you listed 4 as academic, and all four of them never showed up (maybe Kinard did, I can't remember). But does that mean that the other 8 all transferred in good academic standing and that no one on there should be an APR killer.
Those attrition numbers seem unusually high, but they serve to highlight the problems that Penn State will face in being limited to 15 scholarships per year. If only 4 of those guys wash out, you're left with rosters of around 50 scholarship players, counting redshirts.
So 2/7 DB(MRob, C. Avery) recruits are still on the roster, that sounds about right for a RR class.
He recruited a bunch of losers who just had an awful season and totally aren't favored to go to the B1G title game this year. So pissed about how that guy's terrible recruiting continues to doom us to perpetual failure.
Yeah, stupid recruiting of potential Heisman trophy winner QB and last 1,000 yd RB! No other coach in the history of college football has ever been wrong about a player before.
He's a redshirt soph this year. In defense of Rodriguez, we were so thin at DB at the time that he had no choice but to grab a bunch of marginal recruits in the hope that some of them would stick. Only Avery has stuck so far, but M Robinson and Furman at least give the team some cushion at safety.
How does Talbott's departure open up a 25th spot? I thought we were at 20 and his departure opens up the 21st spot and 3 more guys would have to leave to meet the projected 24 spots we thought it was going to be. Should a player leave AFTER all that then we could take a 25th. That's how I thought it was. Can someone clear up why that's not the case?
Some players won't stay for a 5th year - those that have degrees, and are buried on the depth chart. I think Mike Jones, for instance, has already said this will be his last year. There is also some anticipation of attrition.
Agree, the 24 number is based on normal attrition assumptions and this definitely fits the bill. Unless the coaches know something we don't I'm not sure we can assume +1 everytime someone leaves as these departures are already baked into the original number.
I suspect that we will see more players leave for playing time as we stack up depth of talent and have back-ups that could start on many other teams. Although disappointing on some level, it's a good problem to have, in general.
Looking at the list of players not with us from 2010 and not one of them are upper B1G caliber players besides Talbott. Don't like seeing him go at all.
smh the players on that list were even recruited. (Yes even Demar Dorsey)
This staff has their work cut out for them this year. Wouldn't want any other staff in the country molding the talent on our roster at the moment.
is now listed at 5'10" 183 lbs.
As long as you avoid APR damage, having guys who aren't in the two-deep leave the program just makes you stronger by opening up more opportunities for future scholarships. There is a reason Nick Saban invents medical problems for just these kinds of players.
Whether or not it is the best thing for the player is probably debatable, but the football program is better off without everybody on that list (save maybe Dorsey and the injured Pace) taking up a scholarship that as a result couldn't be used in the incoming class. If a 27 person class all stayed on campus, it would indicate some serious problems with the strength of the program (i.e. there is no one else on the roster to compete with for PT).
The majority of those 27 are really good football players.
But your scenario is more likely.
Maybe because most have only followed recruiting recently or because it is now so much more prevalent, people seriously overestimate how good our previous classes were, especially at the bottom.
Our 2002 class lost a bunch of guys before their eligibility expired for a wild variety of reasons. Gutierrez transferred after Henne won the starting job. Quinton McCoy failed to quality, got in a year later and promptly flunked out. Larry Harrison got booted for showing his dong to strangers. Pierre Rembert transferred. Tom Berishaj left the program early. Mike Kolodjiez had to quit football due to injury after starting a handful of games.
In the end, only 8 of the 21 guys ended up being regular starters. And this is a class whose 5th year seniors went to three Rose Bowls, so clearly not one to be too concerned about. It also had a bunch of guys who hung around for 4/5 years and made little impact (Darnell Hood, Carl Tabb, Paul Sarantos, Obi Oluigbo, Kevin Murphy). If you added another 6 guys to that class most if not all of them wouldn't have approached a starting spot and you'd have had just that much more attrition, or worse, more guys holding an empty scholarship. We'd actually have been in much better shape if more of those guys had left the program and been replaced by new recruits who at least would have had a shot to make an impact down the road.
Mostly agree with Purple Stuff on Attrition. I do think, however, that you don't always want linemen, both offensive and defensive, to drop out in their sophomore year because they're not in the two deep. These guys take time to develop, and depending on the depth above you, you may have solid guys who don't see the field much until they are juniors.
I'm still kind of sad that Carvin Johnson left. He seemed like one hell of a competitor.
I think that one just showed how highly the staff think of Furman and (especially) Robinson. Don't forget how much Marvin was playing early in the year before his legal troubles.
Even a competitor isn't going to like being the 5th safety in the pecking order in his sophomore year when the top 4 guys all still have eligibility and who knows who is coming in the next few recruiting classes who might push him further down the list..
Johnson was getting a fair amount of playing time early in the year too. I seem to remember that he was one of the main culprits for the edge control issues against Northwestern, but he definitely played after that as well. Since he transferred to Arizona, I wonder if his transfer was more about a personality conflict with the new staff than anything else.
Carvin Johnson transferred to Hampton University, an FCS school in Virginia, not Arizona.
Bah. Should have known not to trust the first google result.
Completely agree on Carvin. I was also very excited about Cullen Christian's potential at one point and always thought that he just got thrown into the mix a tad early to be successful.
What do you mean he got "thrown into the mix a tad early?" He never started any games his only year here. Most of the actual game reps came in a reserve role.
Although he never started, he played in 11 games as a true freshman. The only two games he didn't see action in were against Massachusetts and Wisconsin.
Watch the practice video of Terrance Robinson again if you think Cullen was any good.
Wow, losing 2 safeties and 2 corners do to depth is pretty surprising. I guess it's a good sign that we have some depth in the secondary though
I guess this pretty much assures either a major injury or stupid arrest in the secondary now.
From the horses mouth. He got in a scuffle with a D-Lineman and both got written up by coaches. Talbott didnt like the punishment, he missed a practice in protest, refused the punishment for both incidents and decided to quit. I know the kid and didnt see this coming. Knowing his background and the chance he had it is really sad to see this happen and the decision he made. Proves that you dont know what you have till its gone. Ill be praying for you Terrance
He didn't see what coming? That he was going to quit?
I'm pretty sure he meant "and I* didnt see it coming."
Yup, my bad... missed the "and."
Missed Practice in protest? Practice hasn't started yet...
You make it sound like just a kid making a hot-head choice in the heat of a punishment. Any chance he changes his mind?
If that's what Staples did (and I don't doubt it), how sad is it that "experts" are now resigned to culling over hearsay on various blogs (a lot of it coming from the message board) to churn out these teams and lists that people actually put stock into?
MGoBlog offers arguably the msot in-depth analysis of our favorite football team. If I was a sports writer, I'd look to MGoBlog for information as well
MGoBlog does a great job. It's a perfect site for a fan like me. But if I was a known journalist with clout, I'd probably be more inclined to pick up the phone and see if I can hear anything from the horse's mouth. That's all.
"Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel?"
But a general college football writer just can't cover 120 teams in any kind of depth. Even a conference specific writer isn't going to be able to do what a team specific blog with thousands(?) of active users can do for one team that everybody involved is passionate about.
Anyone have any knowledge on where he's going? Staying at Michigan to graduate? Transferring to play elsewhere? Thanks in advance.
Oh, erhm... what I meant to say is YAY! EXTRA SCHOLLY SPOT!
/s
Curious how Vinopal is listed as a depth chart casualty when he started as a freshman?
You probably could have created another category: Inexplicable Tony Gibson love.
He started as a freshman because we had nobody else. I give the kid credit for being willing to step in there and compete, but we didn't allow 65 points to Illinois because we had a bunch of all-stars in the secondary.
Barring injury and attrition, we're going to have 9 corners on the roster in 2013.
C. Avery
D. Hollowell
R. Taylor
B. Countess
T. Richardson
J. Lewis
G. Conley
C. Stribling
R. Douglas
Looks good for the class to close with Green and Treadwell. As we know, Laquon has been a heavy lean for a while.
Given Hoke and Company's ability to close with recruits once on campus I think we have a really good shot with Green. The bbq, nice weather, interacting with other recruits and most importantly his parents being there to meet brady and see the atmosphere as well as the academic departments. I feel very good about this.
An epic recruiting class may get even better quite soon. Here's hoping they seal the deal on these last two pieces to the puzzle and Hoke's first two recruiting classes live up to the hype. If so, we may be celebrating multiple BCS bowls and dare I say a national championship in the coming years.
Rivals is reporting($) that Leon McQuay III has dropped Michigan after the Douglas commitment
FWIW, Scout interviewed McQuay's father and they are still considering UM. The scholarship crunch has pushed us down his list a little, but he's still planning on taking an official, and if a spot is available by his decision date (Nov 26th), we should have a decent chance of still landing him.
I don't know why we don't play Raymon Taylor at the boundary CB spot. He's just as big as Floyd and some thought he'd end up at FS.
WCB:
Countess
Taylor
SCB:
Floyd
Taylor
NB:
Avery
Hollowell
I can role with this lineup for a year (barring injury) *knock on wood* until the calvary comes.
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