SeattleWolverine

December 31st, 2016 at 11:50 AM ^

I could see someone spending a 6th on Magnuson.

 

But yeah, to your overall point, hey're meh generally. 

 

Not sure Kalis isn't talented. Think his growth is just too stunted at this point. Actually, he could be a project OL practice squad guy too. Honestly, once you get past the first 120 guys or so per draft the margin between the roster filler guys and starting power 5 players at good schools is not that big. 

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PutInPeters18

December 31st, 2016 at 1:08 PM ^

Sure, I kind of agree. Im not saying Drevno is a bad OL coach. The OL has been ruined by being coached by Funk for so long. All I'm saying is that Drevno wasn't able to turn a very experienced OL into anything close to decent. So any comparison between Drevno being the OL's "Don Brown" is a ridiculous statement because Drevno definitely is not Don brown. Drevno has the chance to prove himself this next year with a new OL, including guys he recruited. Between Cole, Bredeson, Onwenu, Kugler, JBB, Dawson, and whoever else, I really hope he can manage to put out a competent OL next year or else we're not gonna be beating the Buckeyes or whoever else

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SeattleWolverine

December 31st, 2016 at 12:28 PM ^

People are acting like there is no talent there but the shiny new recruits will be fantastic and then turbo-Harbaugh! I don't think the facts bear that out. Let's see:

 

Kalis was a top 100 recruit, a 5 star on 2 of 4 services

Dawson was a 4 star recruit on all 4 services, top 100 on 2 of 4 services

Cole was a 4 star recruit on all 4 services, top 100 on 2 of 4 services

Kugler was a 4 star recruit on 3 of 4 services and 5 star on the other. Top 101 on all 4 services.

JBB was a 4 star on 2 of 4 services

Braden, yeah, ok, just a 3 star. 

 

Also, look at all of their offer sheets from other schools. It's not Eastern Michigan and Buffalo for these guys. 

 

Newsome was solid 4 star too but let's ignore that due to injury and the real young guys who need time to develop. Anyway, I'm skeptical that the recruiting services were all that wrong on these guys. Compare Hoke's OL guys to Harbaugh's as recruits and they aren't really worse or less talented coming out of high school. And they might not fit Harbaugh's paradigm perfectly but these are Hoke manball dudes, not small quick 3 star RRod zone blocking OL types. 

 

Now, I am completely open to the idea that Funk funked all of these guys up and the new guys will be so so so much better due to coaching. But what's the basis for saying that all of our older lineman are a bunch of 2 star unathletic scrubs is not based in facts. 

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SeattleWolverine

December 31st, 2016 at 1:00 PM ^

Funk was 1000000% the issue. Past that, I don't know. 

 

I just think it is a little bit inaccurate to say our upperclassmen are not talented but Harbaugh's new guys are. That was true circa 2008 when RRod took over, and also true circa 2012 when Hoke took over and had some young small 3 star OLs to work with. Don't think it is really the case in 2016. Unless they are all busts. But...I tend to think more Funk. 

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SeattleWolverine

December 31st, 2016 at 2:05 PM ^

Not seeing it. That could be a good distinction, but if you go through the heights and weights of the kids that Harbaugh has added, in the 2015-17 Hello posts, they dont appear to be any bigger than the junior/senior group at the time they were seniors. Well, at least if you exclude Onwenu who is an anomoly. But the rest, nah. Braden was 308, Kalis 294, JBB 320, Mags 285, Kugler 280 etc as recuits. Heights are similar too. Obviously you can't quantify the frame of a kid but if the heights and weights are the same, there's probably not a big difference in frames And kids with large frame potential are also often known as kids with not enough muscle eg it will take years to be college football ready because they are projects. 

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hailtoyourvictor

December 31st, 2016 at 8:24 PM ^

That's just simply not true. Let's look at an offensive line made up of the top recruits in Hoke's final 3 classes:

 

OT Kalis 6'5 300

OG Bosch 6'5 305

C Kugler 6'4 270

OG Dawson 6'4 280

OT Magnuson 6'6 275

 

Now a look at a projected (because of Filiaga not being committed) Harbaugh offensive line from his first 3 classes (actually 2.5 classes):

 

OT Newsome 6'6 290

OG Bredeson 6'5 307

C Ruiz 6'3 315

OG Onwenu 6'6 360

OT Filiaga 6'6 335

 

 

Those are not similar weights. Not even close. Ruiz is way bigger than any Hoke center. Filiaga is huge. Onwenu is even more huge.

 

 

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lhglrkwg

December 31st, 2016 at 11:02 AM ^

I think the 10 new starters thing is a touch overblown as Michigan really didn't play just 11 guys out there, but it makes a cool talking point for ESPN talking heads which I get

The whole D-line was rotating in this year (Winovich, Hurst, Mone, Gary), one of the linebackers played a lot in Bush (and maybe Furbush), and Kinnel got a lot of PT toward the end. It's not like we're marching 10 new guys with no game experience out there. The heavy rotating the defense does will serve us well next year and in future years as well

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Night_King

December 31st, 2016 at 11:10 AM ^

Valid points indeed. Metellus got his feet wet and honestly I thought he was pretty decent. First game ever at SAM and didn't look like a liability at all. He will only continue to improve. Cornerback I think will be the biggest question mark. Hill and Long have all the talent in the world, but will they be ready yet? This off season is going to be huge for the secondary and offensive line. Many of the recruits that come in this year will fight for early playing time for sure.

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ghostofhoke

December 31st, 2016 at 11:16 AM ^

Metellus actually did have a really good game last night. I think by next year he'll have enough mastery of the scheme to really turn him loose and be disruptive. For a guy who had to fill in on such short notice I thought he had played really well. Not sure I enjoyed watching McCray and Furbush try to defend Cook down field but that will all get worked out once the new pieces are slotted.



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Bigscotto68

December 31st, 2016 at 12:52 PM ^

Love me some J Lewis, but last nights performance was puzzling. It makes me wonder if he was fighting some physical issue. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who sighed with relief when he was in coverage on the gw td pass. Something didn't seem right with him last night...

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Hotel Putingrad

December 31st, 2016 at 1:31 PM ^

I don't understand all the Lewis griping. Sometimes when you give up four inches, you get beat on a fade. I thought Francois made a great throw and the war made the play. Tip your cap to them. The long score was a busted coverage not Lewis getting beat clean.

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SeattleWolverine

December 31st, 2016 at 11:29 AM ^

Charlton and Glasgow are really good...Winovich and Mone are probably not going to fully fill their shoes. True, the first group of DL is experienced, more or less. But the second group is unproven so probably fair to think of it as replacing half or 2 starters worth of DL. Less depth-- they'll need to stay healthy.

 

I think we'll have some more athletic LBs but ithey won't be 2016 Peppers quality, or even Gedeon level necessarily next year. 

 

Secondary was lockdown and is being completely replaced despite Kinnel getting some run. We'll see. Young secondaries get burned a lot, even if talented. Watson, Hill, Long, whoever will have to be good fast. If you can't cover, you're toast. CB is my biggest concern.

 

It's not 10 starts per se but it's like 8 of 11 and lots of very talented guys at that. New players always carry a lot of downside risk. It might be fine, it might not. You never know until next year.  I think you might be underestimating the impact.

 

And maybe if you had a veteran offense then ok, they carry you till defense is up to speed. But you're losing starters: 3 OL, RB, 2x WRs (maybe 3x), TE etc. And senior leadership. And your P/K. 

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lhglrkwg

December 31st, 2016 at 10:59 AM ^

The effort against OSU was truly incredible. To me it goes down with Devin Gardner's performance in 2013 as moumental, legendary performances in the game that are going to be forgotten because we couldn't eke out the win

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Night_King

December 31st, 2016 at 11:13 AM ^

Bush-McCray-Metellus will be pretty good, I liked what I saw from Metellus last night. Hoping McCray slides into Gedeon's role in the middle, because Bush Jr. is more athletic and probably has a better chance covering RB's out of the backfield than McCray or Gedeon did this year. We will also have very good (albeit very young) depth at LB. 

I'm still praying we land Willie Gay. I think he could fight for early playing time at SAM. 

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Night_King

December 31st, 2016 at 11:08 AM ^

Glad we've locked him down for perhaps the last 5 years of his career. We're starting to get more and more athletic recruits on the defensive side of the ball and I can't wait to see how the young kids look over the next several years. 

I wonder what, if anything, will we decide to do on the offensive side of the ball..

 

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FLwolvfan22

December 31st, 2016 at 11:12 AM ^

Love this guy, love that he gambles with the blitz, it bites you sometimes here and there but percentage wise it's successful. You have a moderately successful offense and it's no problem.

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ghostofhoke

December 31st, 2016 at 11:12 AM ^

This is great news. I remember seeing a comment from him last year that he would be happy if this was his final stop. Looks like with this kind of money it likely will be and he will eventually be able to retire happily but I hope he keeps trucking for many more years. The job he did with the defense this year was masterful. I hope we can develop an offense that keeps them off the field more than we did last night. Can't really ask for more from a unit than what they gave this year.



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