Least talked about player so far this fall...

Submitted by pkatz on
James Ross III and/or the SLB position. Any insight as to why we aren't hearing anything?

MichiganTeacher

August 19th, 2014 at 9:31 PM ^

Montbrun is from Ispheming. I had a bunch of friends up there back in the day, although they were Hematites, and he is apparently a Patriot.

He definitely deserves to be talked about more, for the name alone.

maize-blue

August 20th, 2014 at 11:17 AM ^

I watched Ishpeming in their recent back to back state championship games. They beat Detroit Loyola both times with Malik McDowell on Loyola the first one. They were undersized but tough and gritty. Loyola had close to 300lb lineman and Ishpeming had little 140-150 pounders. Interesting though in the second championship game Loyola had to pass alot to try to come from behind. Ishpeming had a lock down secondary and the announcers spent a majority of the broadcast noting this and complementing their coaches. 

TheDirtyD

August 19th, 2014 at 10:16 PM ^

Mason Cole is currently holding his own at this position. Peppers could see time at this spot as well. As soon as he's done nickel and dimming offenses.

Naked Bootlegger

August 19th, 2014 at 9:25 PM ^

Before clicking on this, I already thought Ross myself.   I was hoping among hopes that this would be the year he would make a run for All B1G status. 

I'm pleasantly surprised to year some RJS buzz, though.   Sounds like things are clicking for him.

chomz14

August 19th, 2014 at 9:27 PM ^

Reon Dawson and Strobel. Not too surprised about Dawson with all the talent at corner and him not being a highly rated recruit but nothing at all on him.

A little surprised about Strobel with the accolades he came to the program with.

Wolverine Devotee

August 19th, 2014 at 9:29 PM ^

Antonio Whitfield. The shortest player in Michigan Football history.

18 Antonio Whitfield RB 5-4 156 SO Canal Winchester, Ohio (Canal Winchester)

He passed 2010-2011 walk on kicker Jeremy Ross (5'5) for the title. 

Raoul

August 19th, 2014 at 9:53 PM ^

What's your source for this? I'll bet the shortest-ever Michigan football player isn't known as the heights for many players from the early years aren't available.

I did a quick search and found a Hercules Renda, a halfback in the late 1930s listed in the Bentley database at 5-4. An mgoblue.com obit on him actually has him at 5-3, but even they don't call him the shortest ever:

Renda may have been one of the shortest football players in U-M history, standing only 5-3, but his speed and quickness plus his 17-inch calves made him an extremely tough running back to tackle.

Wolverine Devotee

August 19th, 2014 at 10:31 PM ^

I used my roster database I use for my superguide. I just used the sort feature for heights from shortest to tallest. 

Only thing is that it goes back to 1949 because its base is from the MGoBlue stastical archive because I used it to help mold my statistical record book. 

There probably were much shorter guys in the 1800s. The problem is, those details were never recorded. 

Eventually I'm going to have to expand my database manually using Bentley to avoid dumb mistakes like this. Thanks for the correction! 

CarrIsMyHomeboy

August 19th, 2014 at 10:32 PM ^

It's much too early to conclude his star is extinguishing but it's also too late to begin *entertaining* the possibility that it might extinguish before shining again.



I'm worried about him. The only positivity about him comes from ignoramuses like us, who predict things about starting lineups in April and whine when they're not that way in August. The coaches stopped celebrating him a long time ago. And yet his position is the defense's weakest and shallowest. What's his problem? Not athleticism! Or size! I hope it isn't smarts. But I by now entertain that isn't impossible.

Gitback

August 20th, 2014 at 8:56 AM ^

Looking at his recruiting write up, Brian pretty much said Dymonte had all the athletic tools but would probably take some time to figure it out as a DB.  He was compared to Stevie Brown in that he might not figure out the safety position until later but has the physical skills to be an NFL quality talent.  His seeming "lack of development" worries me less than someone who we thought would come in and have an instant impact and we ended up not hearing about at all.