Spring Game to be only situational practice

Submitted by NashvilleBLUE on
I was reading the web today and saw where people were saying this year's Spring Game is just a practice and not a scrimmage. Any truth to this? I'll still watch, but I'm certainly less excited if this is the case. Edit: Nick Baumgardner just listed this on Twitter
Nick Baumgardner @nickbaumgardner · 40m Michigan's spring game stuff will technically start at 5:45 p.m. at Michigan Stadium. BTN/IMG broadcast will run from about 7-9 p.m. This is a situational scrimmage. Michigan won't be splitting into two teams this year. No draft, full game, etc.

DrMantisToboggan

April 10th, 2018 at 11:54 AM ^

Yeah, there's not a ton to do about meniscuses, I don't think. They don't really ever heal (IIRC from my football trainer/PT friends) and all you can really do is "clean up" the injured area.

 

As far as Gentry goes though, just let him do absolutely nothing for a few weeks. Do NOT mess with a groin injury - groins are champion lingerers up there with backs and hamstrings.

robpollard

April 10th, 2018 at 1:20 PM ^

I coach a team of 11-year olds and, while we were talking about practice, I went into a version of AI's rant. Almost all of them knew what I was referencing, which is odd for something that is 15 years old. It confirmed for me two things:



- The rant really speaks to people -- sometimes you just can't believe people are talking that way about practice

- The youth of America watches a ton of YouTube and also love memes

robpollard

April 10th, 2018 at 6:38 PM ^

I only have them for 1.5 hours of practice each week so you try to fit a lot in -- but they're 11, have the attention span of a gnat, and just want to "GO!".



They always want to scrimmage (when their fundamentals and other drills are far more important) for a 1/4 of the practice time, and so when they say "but scrimmaging is like a game. It will get us ready!", that's when I went into "we're talking about PRACTICE...not a game...PRACTICE" to emphasize practice prepares you for the game -- you won't get better unless you work on specific skills or sets in a controlled environment, instead of a scrimmage, which tends to devolve into a mess of just running up & down the court.



We had a losing record, but we improved and were the only team to beat a higher seed in the playoffs, so I think I'm ready to take over for Bacari Alexander at U of D.



Also, beyond this quote, I'm not sure how many of them have seen AI play -- they just all want to be Steph Curry (which is another problem; they all want to jack 3's and basically none of them can).

Kevin13

April 10th, 2018 at 11:44 AM ^

pretty much is nothing more then a glorified pracitice/scrimmage.  Part of many practices are offense going against defense, so I would expect some of that again on Saturday.

MEZman

April 10th, 2018 at 11:48 AM ^

I'd rather watch it this way. 1 vs 1's and so on rather than some randomly shuffled team based on a draft. At least that way I can watch the OL work together with the dudes they'll probably be playing with. Not that I really have much of an idea about what the OL is doing most of the time but at least I can figure out if they blocked a stunt or not.

Don

April 10th, 2018 at 11:57 AM ^

Sure, if the weather's good, it's nice to sit in the stadium in the sun and watch the team go through some drills, but in terms of the actual action on the field, it's barely more interesting than watching videos on MGoBlue of practice workouts.

Its value is primarily as a sign that the end of the offseason is within sight and winter is finally over.

As for that second point, the joke's on us this year.

mgobaran

April 10th, 2018 at 12:12 PM ^

It's absolutely nothing to obsess about, or look too far into. But it is one of 13-16 times Michigan Football is on TV/can be viewed in a stadium each year. I'd be really disappointed if it was gone. 

UMProud

April 10th, 2018 at 1:31 PM ^

*throws you the "/s" you forgot*

BTW what impression did you come away with from the Michigan Amazon documentary?  I really liked it...warts and all.  I did not play sports in college and it was pretty awesome to take a peek into the lives of student athletes. 

mgobaran

April 10th, 2018 at 1:14 PM ^

Who could have? Jim Harbaugh just stated this on the podcast released this morning. Ira on the Michigan Insider showsaid the same thing this morning, and only knew because he helps produce that podcast (just recorded yesterday). 

It's my opinion that Jim Harbaugh would love to have a game. Regardless of his weirdness shown in the Amazon series, he is uber competitive and wouldn't pass up on an opportunity to put on a competitive game. Normally it shifts from a game to situational scrimmage based on injuries. My personal guess is that Harbaugh finally relented the chance of people healing in time to get 2 rosters together. Either that or it's better for the team to practice 1v1, 2v2 etc instead of mixing OLs just for fan entertainment.