Thanks for the post. Hopefully this trend will help ZZ's draft stock, as he certainly fits the mold, and hasn't been getting any mock draft love post-injury.
I know the Lions have to be extremely mindful of how they spend in free agency with so many huge internal signings looming, but damn.... Mike Onwenu was my dream free agent. He's my second favorite lineman to watch after Sewell. The thought of them next to each other in the run game I guess was an impossible dream, but what a dream. Plus Big Mike's versatility would have covered so many bases when injuries hit, or potentially cushioned the blow if they don't resign Decker when his deal is up. Oh well.
Thanks for linking, I haven't looked at any 3 Rd mocks recently. Which reminded me...
What in the world is going on with Zinter's stock, how is he out of the top 3 rounds? I understand out-of-sight-out-of-mind from a media perspective, so post combine is where I expected to see him start coming back into the conversation. Maybe its still a little too early.
Big, tough, road-grading guards are coming out the gate getting paid in free agency. You'd think that a guy like Zach who fits that mold would be getting more attention.
Its just such a perfectly called and executed play all around, a thing of beauty.
They catch the Bucs slanting strong side, and expertly sell the strong side run. The Bucs' weakside backer completely short circuits, but even if he hadn't, Decker and Ragnow get great releases to the second level to pin their guys outside. At worse, Gibbs is running through an arm tackle near the LOS for a nice gain. Sewell's heroics and Gibbs' jets turn it into six.
Agree on the underachievement (esp in bowl games) compared to talent analysis.
Hard disagree on the game plan. JJ's not throwing to Terrell and Walker, and Bama's CBs/pass rushers are the strength of their defense.
M's been hamstrung plenty over the years by overly conservative play calling. I think this is a game where we need to swallow hard and live with it. UT beat Bama because they won the TO battle. Bama beat Auburn and Georgia because they won the TO battle. A few wrinkles (throwing to some angle route/choice routes instead of screens to Edwards, and coaching JJ to be a little more aggressive on his keep reads) would be nice. But otherwise, unless we're down by a couple touchdowns in the 4th like we were in that Orange Bowl, continue to be methodical on O and put the game in the hands of our D.
I guess they probably study UM less than the average fan, but these are actual SEC coaches. I'm not surprised by their vibes based analysis of UM, but you'd think at least a few would say to themselves, "Hey, '23 Bama ain't '21 Georgia. Or even '21 Bama. And UM's strengths on paper at least match up pretty well."
What drives me crazy isn't that so-called experts (or in the case of SEC coaches, I suppose we can drop the qualifiers and call them experts) give a firm edge to Bama in this game. There's a case to be made if you're of that belief.
What boils my blood are the flippantly stupid rationals. To your point... ask any pro scout if Will Johnson is the most coveted outside corner in all of college football right now. Then ask them who'll be the first nickel off the board in this year draft. That's 2/3 of our starting corners man, and this is the so called "weakness" of our defense!? Think maybe Will Freakin' Johnson and Mikey Sanristl are going to make life a little tougher on Milroe and his receivers than fucking Auburn's corners? Put Georgia and UM's corners in a room and see how fast Kirby Smart takes them with the first two picks. Come on.
PFF isn't the end all, but UM rolls out the #10/44/61 ranked defensive lineman and # 3/60 LBs. Milroe is gonna look like '05 Vince Young running all over that crew, and no one needs to check the tape to know that Bama is gonna wall up and crush our ground game with the 278/361/515 DL and 279th ranked backer?
Haha more like, "What would they have said right after the Auburn game?"
IMO that 'win' was a worse data point for Bama than the South Florida game. Auburn is trash. They were coming off a curb stomping at home to New Mexico State in a game that will forever make RichRod feel better about himself any time he hears the name Toledo. Bama was +3 in turnovers. Jalen Milroe outdueled the Great (checks notes) Payton Throne in that one, who put up a whopping 6 completions for 93 yards on 5.4 yards per attempt. If you look at the 4th&31 horseshoe Milroe pulled from his ass and come to scouting conclusion that "You can't beat a team who's QB literally walks on water" then... like... I don't know what to tell you man.
But if you can wipe the slobber off your chin and devote 90 seconds of sober analysis to this Bama match-up, then maaaaaybe you can see that a mere one game ago, in his rivalry game, with everything on the line, Saban's troops surrendered nearly 250 yards on the ground to a team with sub-service academy level play at QB.
Is it possible that UM's OL, TE's and backs are just a tad better than Auburn's? That our outside weapons are in the same zip code? To put it terms that SEC coaches can better understand, how many nights at home alone with his wife would Hugh Freeze be willing to suffer through if he could have traded JJ for Throne in that game? A few 100? A thousand even?
I have no issue with the quotes coming anonymously because obviously we'd never get them otherwise, and agree/disagree they're always entertaining.
But wouldn't they be even more entertaining if the coaches included some scouting takes on their own teams to go side-by-side with the UM analysis? Its anonymous anyway so what the hell.
"Their offensive line is good, but this year they're mostly dining out on a Moore awarding winning rep of the past two seasons. Once we committed all of our resources to stopping the run, they couldn't break 3.5 ypc. It also helped to know going in that they have zero respect for our program, and the JJ runs would be turned off all game. And hoo-boy, thank god for that! Our 5th year senior DE still can't read the mesh, and our LB's foot speed is for shit. If we hadn't been losing cornerback recruiting battles to MAC teams on the regular for the last three years, we could have easily held UM below 28 points at the half. If it were up to me, we'd claw back the scholarships of every last one of those bums and staff up fresh with transfers from the Sunbelt and Div II. At least those kids would have a little fire in their belly. And UM isn't just overrated on the OL. Our boxes were so stacked, regard for sound pass defense fundamentals was so light, and secondary was such trash, that your basic replacement level Heisman candidate with middling weapons on the outside should've touched us up for at least 200 yards and 3 tds by halftime. JJ barely hit those numbers before he went out with the rest of the starters late in the 3rd, so you have to wonder if he'll be able to bring it against the big boys. He did hit a couple of tight windows though, you can see the talent is there."
Somewhere in Africa, without a doubt, would be the coolest for me. South Africa is probably the most logical from a logistical and fan service standpoint.
Putting your guard up in that situation is would be like an invitation to fight. True that Poole pushes Green to get him out of his space, but then starts to back off with his hands down. And Green even pauses for a beat before the attack. Nobody would anticipate a "teammate" (even Draymond) to start throwing haymakers at that moment.
Bob Meyers, the day before the video came out. Are you serious?? Oh, wait, Jordan was 'in the room' when Draymond apologized?? I didn't realize that. Must be all good.
"Look, it's the NBA," said Myers. "It's professional sports. These things happen. Nobody likes it, we don't condone it, but it happened. Draymond apologized to the team this morning. Jordan was there in the room. I was there in the room, the team, the coaches, players, and we heard that.
"As far as any suspension, punishment, fine, we're going to handle that internally."
Excellent point. The video speaks for itself, you don't need the victim as a witness to make your case.
I'd take it a step further, saying its 10x more clear cut than an average DV case, where the prosecutor has to weigh the fact they may be depriving a family of the bread-winner's ability to earn a living, or the prospect of a revenge minded convict eventually being released back into the victim's home.
The story had been discussed as a possible one (pre)game suspension for Green, so I assumed it was some sort of open handed baby-slap. That video is nuts!
This wasn't two guys in the heat of the moment squaring up, and one actually decides to push the button and throw a punch. Green is the aggressor, invading Poole's space who clearly makes the push just to get Green off of him. After the push Poole's hands are down and even appears to be turning his head away from Green (who has about 4inches and 50 pounds on him). Draymond hits him flush with a right cross that would make Kermit Washington blush. How Poole escaped without a fractured jaw, broken orbital, concussion, or some combination thereof is astounding.
I understand its pro sports, winning/$$$ over everything, etc. But even in that context how, how are the Warriors not seriously considering a quarter season suspension or more? How could Poole ever step on the same court as that chump again without a massive public apology? Or the rest of his teammates for that matter? Poole is far more valuable to the Warriors than that washed up trash, and the team's first reaction is to treat this as Draymond gonna Draymond? If I were Poole I'd want to see Joe Lacob show some serious backbone here or I'd be lawyering the fuck up.
Those defensive clips were impressive, especially watching when a smaller player was switched off on a big. The front the post so aggressively it prevents a quick entry pass, and show help lurking behind to discourage a high lob to get it over the fronting player.
I can't wait to see how UM looks to exploit these tendencies. I agree that this game calls for more Terrance, but they may come more at the expense of Diabate than Houstan. If TWill is out at the 3pt line that lifts their help defender from pestering the lob entry or digging down. And he is also our best player at flashing to the elbow and delivering that high-low entry pass to Dickenson.
With Terrance at the 3 spot, you still have the issue of Diabate's man being able to play rover down low.
TV coverage didn't catch all of the first one, but on the Vols first trip (I think) down on offense, Plavsic reared back and threw two elbows square into Dickenson's chest. Total non-basketball moves. Did anyone else catch that? Obviously the refs didn't. Plavsic clearly wanted a piece of Dickenson and got all he wanted.
I've since been able to watch the first half of the game, and I don't think you can definitively say that going to Diabate there was a game plan thing versus flow of the game thing.
And assuming it was, its not the worst idea to see if you can catch an early foul on a hyped-up Roddy.
I don't completely disagree with your sentiment. But I would say that 1) Collins played 31 minutes 2) Kobe's development as a player hinges a lot on confidence, and as a coach you need to factor that into the equation any time you're tempted to pull immediately pull him after he fumbles a pass and blows a rotation to sit him for the rest of the half.
His "antics" versus Maryland we're equally viewed as evidence of a fiery take-no-shit attitude that you love to see in a coach. I completely understand if you see it the other way, but I didn't include that in my point because I was talking about positive versus negative impressions, and I'd call that one a wash because at least as many people were fired up by the Turgeon run in as they were put off by it.
Something that gets lost in a lot of the hype around recruiting class rankings is the level of the recruiting class itself, and then also the separation within each class.
Yes we got a top 3 class but this year's overall crop of recruits just isn't that great.
Also, in lots of years Cal or Duke are going to have a class with 3 top 10 guys, and likely one of them is the top overall or second rated players. UM headlined with the number #9 and #12 guys (far from slam dunk one-and-done territory), and their overall rating was boosted by having 6 recruits in the class.
I'm prone to trusting the coaching staff and especially Elston in this case, but at 6'6 hopefully they can get him to hunker down, I'm leery of that sort of height in the middle of the line. Also the kid looks pretty filled out already I don't necessarily see where he's going to add 50 lbs. 3 bills seems about right.
I'm not bullish on Chet's unicorn potential but am fascinated to see what becomes of him. On the other hand, I'm also not crazy about Ivey's potential to be anything more than the 3rd banana on a 2nd round playoff team. So I'd probably close my eyes and roll the dice on Chet with the 3rd overall.
Can't argue with you there, but there's no rush to move Grant unless they get an outstanding offer.. Its a lost season any way and Grant's trade value probably isn't going to fluctuate much from where it is now. Take some more time to evaluate how they all fit together, see where they fall in the draft, then decide whether to move Bey or Grant over the summer.
As long as the Pistons stay among the bottom 3, it shouldn't affect their lottery odds of lading a top 3 pick in what I'd say is a 3 player draft (Jabari Smith, Banchero, Holmgren). And Bagley certainly isn't going to move that needle so rest easy lol.
I really like the pick up. The Pistons are in need of a 5 who can attack the rim from the PIR and protect the rim at the other end. Bagley has been a huge disappointment but a chunk of that sentiment is due to the Kings' idiocy of picking him over Luka, and injuries, neither of which are his fault. His play has still been underwhelming relative to his evaluation as a prospect, but that's what made him available and a perfect target for a team like Detroit. Young, talented, reclamation project with upside at a position of need. Also relatively cheap with a contract that's up at the end of this year. He gets to audition for half season and if it pans out they can extend him, if it doesn't they didn't give up any pieces that were part of the future blueprint.
I'm with you, certainly not a rewatchable game. But could prove to be a memorable one if M ultimately claws its way into the tournament field. Because what wasn't predictable is how they completed the comeback, doing it on offense with cold-blooded 3s from Jones, Caleb and Williams down the stretch. Starring down an emasculating and devastating loss they didn't blink. Having watched this team all season, I think confidence is the most important factor in turning things around, and though they didn't execute like they did against Maryland and IU, this game still represents another palpable step forward in that area.
That analysis of Moore's fit in UM's scheme seems to have gone right out the window lol.
Though, I'd would say that his year Ojabo and Hutch were playing as "quasi" DEs 90% of the time, just out of a two point stance. How Moore would transition to lining up that way is anyone's guess, but I think its a natural assumption that posture would benefit a player who tilted more toward speed than power.
I think the key word that gets lost in all of this is "relies". I haven't seen any scouting reports that question Moore's strength (the opposite in fact), and if that ever was the implication, I think his all star week performance should have laid those to rest. He's more like that big back who is still faster than everyone in high school and always looking to bounce it outside. A hopefully correctable habit in order to unleash full potential, not necessarily a liability.
The only way I see Moore putting on 40-45 lbs and playing 3T is if it turns out he's not a capable pass rusher off the edge, or eats his way into the spot a la freshman BG. Both of which seem pretty unlikely.
So what we're really talking about is whether college S&C should be targeted toward adding 5-15 lbs and playing WDE/OLB, or going 20-30 lbs as an anchor/3-4 DE. Considering his pass rushing skills and our current roster to me it seems like an obvious choice IMO.
Yeah, I'd have to agree with you that moving up 70 spots and winding up #51 is no slight on his stature as a recruit. At that level you're splitting a lot of hairs, especially considering that you're comparing him against other players at 7+ different positions.
I realize that many people who do this for a living and savvy amateurs such as yourself consider Moore a candidate for 3 tech or 3-4 end. I still don't understand why. You're messing with his primary assets buy putting on bunch of weight to play somewhere that his main perceived weakness is going to get exposed? And not to go all OMG shirtless here, but I don't see room for 45 pounds of decent weight on his frame. If he were a Carlo Kemp-type who didn't have the athletic ability to pay on the end, then maybe you think about bulking him way up and moving him down. If he turns out to be Tim Jamison-esque and for whatever reason (with TJ I think it was due to injury) doesn't show the same explosiveness off the edge that he did in high school, then sure let him go up to 275-280 and play strong side. Out of the box it seems to me like a no brainer that you dial his target weight to 260-265 and turn him loose. If lack of playing strength is an issue in that role then so be it, it'll be less of an issue there than anywhere else on the line.
That's a good point on the draft. I'm not sure if Rivals is one of them, but I do know that many if not all recruiting services base their ranking on NFL projections. How or why that makes any sense is another topic, but if you're looking at Moore from an NFL perspective, I suppose its fair to say that as a pass rusher he doesn't have the get-off/bend you want to see in a first or second round pick. Can't agree on the size issue though since he seems to be universally listed at 6'4 250 before he even hits college.
I guess my main takeaway is the lack of consistency in the method of player evaluation, both in this class and from years past. Which I guess should itself come as no surprise!
As has been mentioned elsewhere on this thread, Will skipped the camp circuit and his athleticism (which for a taller corner can be tough to assess on tape) wasn't measured against top competition until he got to the all star game. Where, by all accounts his play put those concerns to rest over the course of the week. I'm still somewhat surprised to see him get up to top 5 where you usually see more of an emphasis on athletic "freakishness" for lack of a better description. Not saying he isn't worthy of the ranking, just out of the norm based on my observation of recruiting rankings.
Also, if that's the reason for Will's dramatic jump, why wasn't the same logic applied to Moore? I've never been the in the tweener camp on Moore. What is it about 6"4 250 with great closing speed that doesn't say DE? That said, I do recognize that the label was viewed by many as a valid question mark that put a ceiling on his rankings. But then Moore went out and put together an all star week that was equally, if not more impressive than Will's. He showed the tools you want to see in a top end pass rusher and did it against great competition.
Moore did move up 70 spots after all and is parked right outside of the top 50. Johnson has always been highly rated and seems to climb whenever he's evaluated. So maybe a better description of my reaction to these final rankings is 'curious' as opposed to 'surprising'.
I know you can't and shouldn't overvalue all star game performances, but Moore still seems a little low at 51.
And as much as I love Will, top 5 seems like a stretch. Obviously an incredible player. Yet, you usually don't see CBs with things like "underrated athleticism" in their scouting report profiling that high.
Any time you hear about Zeke Berry from someone who's scouted him, they're over the moon and aghast at his national ranking. When you factor in that he plays in one of the toughest conferences in the county, him being out of the top 150 is such a head scratcher for me.
From what I read his all star performance was uneven at best, and he also dropped like 50 spots on the on3 rankings. Not that I really care, I'll still take him in a heartbeat. Just seems kind of strange.
No question Gary showed out and will hopefully start to get more of the recognition that his play deserves. NFL types are quick to point out that pressures are a more important Stat then sacks, and he's at or near the top of the league.
I actually thought his most impressive play was blanketing the 49ers RB out of the backfield on Green Bay's goal line interception, Jimmy was looking for his check down on that play and had nowhere to go before he decided to throw late and ill advised to Kittle.
His 4th down stuff was impressive too,, but he died by the sword when he crashed inside again late and allowed Samuel to get outside on that critical play that got the 49ers into more comfortable field goal range. But overall I thought this was a big time coming out party.
I haven't seen enough from Bell to put him that high just yet. For his first couple years, I also think Bell's production got a huge boost based off where he fell in the scouting report relative to M's other top receivers. And IMO, based on the height of his peak, I'd slot Chesson slightly ahead of Darboh.
There's no question (in my mind) that with significant losses on defense and short yardage/first down machine Hassan Haskins, Michigan will have to build its identity around the passing offense if its going to match last year's success.
Michigan absolutely has the skill to make that transition. Does it have the will? Is there anything in JH's coaching track record to suggest that when presented with an unreliable defense/running game, he's willing to go pass heavy and try to out score people?
We live near Evanston, its annoying that we don't play there every season. We've gone every year starting with the double OT loss in '15, which inexplicably tipped off at 8pm central time (school was skipped the next day). Pre-rennovation, Welsh-Ryan was one of the coolest game experiences that I could imagine. You could walk right down to the floor during pre-game shoot around and nobody would say boo. Players and coaches were relaxed and didn't mind some respectful interaction. Before half time we would run down to where the "tunnel" was to the visitors locker rooms, which was actually just a hallway that lead past a concession stand, and you could line up and high five the players on their way in and out. Then again after the game, the ushers had not problem letting us hang out courtside until the players eventually came out to see their families and do interviews. Players had no problem taking pictures and signing autographs, and there was rarely anyone else around. So cool.
I might agree if you were only looking down the road. But Houstan was the top shooting recruit in his class, Bufkin/Tschetter had shooting at the top of their recruiting profiles, and Barnes may have as well if not for his athleticism.
Personally I don't think he undervalues shooting (or things like size at the PG), its more a matter of what recruits we have a realistic shot at in a given cycle., and taking the best available. Judging by the next 2 classes, where you may have a point is that it seems Howard is more likely to take the best "talent" available and try to coach up their deficits, rather then lower rated players with traits that round out the roster. But I guess we'll see.
Back when the (eventual) name change was first announced, I heard Red Tails being talked about as the front runner. That would've been awesome. Disappointing that its not even a finalist.
Same here. I guess you have to trust what the coaches were seeing in practice, but on game days, I thjought that Baldwin's hands, separation, and blocking were all pretty iffy. Not sure why Anthony didn't take all of his minutes.
Agreed that edge guys don't normally make a big impact as Fr, but players who are going to be big impact guys down the road often flash as freshman and carve out a role (even if its in a fairly limited package) by the end of the season. After watching Moore's Under Amour practice clips and his performance in the game, I think he fits squarely in that category. Esp given our depth chart. Don't think I'm stepping too far out on a limb to predict he'll see 10+ meaningful snaps per game as a pass rushing specialist by midseason.
Hopefully he gets a call from Stephen Schilling. We need to re-fire that Washington 5* OL pipeline!
I remember when we used to regularly pull from CA and Texas, and wondering why we couldn't seem to tap that Florida geyser.
I think the answer is that having coaches with deep roots in a region is critical for success even at a nation school like UM, and you can only have so many guys on staff. Its that blanket you can stretch and stretch and not quite seem to cover everything. Seemed like Morgan was going to be an incredible west coast asset. Turns out he was a little too good, and we had nowhere to promote him to.
As we sit here, I'm projecting a very frustrating 2022 season. Lazy/boring "Cade or JJ?" analysis will dominate all offseason coverage of the team. The defense takes a noticeable step back and struggles to find an identity without the two ends, and with continued LB inconsistency. The offense sputters without Haskins' superhuman ability to convert in short yardage, and keep the offense on schedule by picking up an extra 2 yards on every run.
M is going to need an explosive scoring offense if it wants to be in contention for the BTT heading into Columbus. I think there's hope in the OL. Losing Stuber will hurt, he was our most consistent lineman, and while Jones won't match his level, if he can an at least be solid (esp in pass pro) they should be even better this year, with Hayes, Keegan and Zinter all taking a step forward and no drop off at C. Whoever wins the QB battle will then need to play at an AA level for us to sniff the success of 2021.
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Thanks for the post. Hopefully this trend will help ZZ's draft stock, as he certainly fits the mold, and hasn't been getting any mock draft love post-injury.
I know the Lions have to be extremely mindful of how they spend in free agency with so many huge internal signings looming, but damn.... Mike Onwenu was my dream free agent. He's my second favorite lineman to watch after Sewell. The thought of them next to each other in the run game I guess was an impossible dream, but what a dream. Plus Big Mike's versatility would have covered so many bases when injuries hit, or potentially cushioned the blow if they don't resign Decker when his deal is up. Oh well.
Thanks for linking, I haven't looked at any 3 Rd mocks recently. Which reminded me...
What in the world is going on with Zinter's stock, how is he out of the top 3 rounds? I understand out-of-sight-out-of-mind from a media perspective, so post combine is where I expected to see him start coming back into the conversation. Maybe its still a little too early.
Big, tough, road-grading guards are coming out the gate getting paid in free agency. You'd think that a guy like Zach who fits that mold would be getting more attention.
Its just such a perfectly called and executed play all around, a thing of beauty.
They catch the Bucs slanting strong side, and expertly sell the strong side run. The Bucs' weakside backer completely short circuits, but even if he hadn't, Decker and Ragnow get great releases to the second level to pin their guys outside. At worse, Gibbs is running through an arm tackle near the LOS for a nice gain. Sewell's heroics and Gibbs' jets turn it into six.
Agree on the underachievement (esp in bowl games) compared to talent analysis.
Hard disagree on the game plan. JJ's not throwing to Terrell and Walker, and Bama's CBs/pass rushers are the strength of their defense.
M's been hamstrung plenty over the years by overly conservative play calling. I think this is a game where we need to swallow hard and live with it. UT beat Bama because they won the TO battle. Bama beat Auburn and Georgia because they won the TO battle. A few wrinkles (throwing to some angle route/choice routes instead of screens to Edwards, and coaching JJ to be a little more aggressive on his keep reads) would be nice. But otherwise, unless we're down by a couple touchdowns in the 4th like we were in that Orange Bowl, continue to be methodical on O and put the game in the hands of our D.
I guess they probably study UM less than the average fan, but these are actual SEC coaches. I'm not surprised by their vibes based analysis of UM, but you'd think at least a few would say to themselves, "Hey, '23 Bama ain't '21 Georgia. Or even '21 Bama. And UM's strengths on paper at least match up pretty well."
What drives me crazy isn't that so-called experts (or in the case of SEC coaches, I suppose we can drop the qualifiers and call them experts) give a firm edge to Bama in this game. There's a case to be made if you're of that belief.
What boils my blood are the flippantly stupid rationals. To your point... ask any pro scout if Will Johnson is the most coveted outside corner in all of college football right now. Then ask them who'll be the first nickel off the board in this year draft. That's 2/3 of our starting corners man, and this is the so called "weakness" of our defense!? Think maybe Will Freakin' Johnson and Mikey Sanristl are going to make life a little tougher on Milroe and his receivers than fucking Auburn's corners? Put Georgia and UM's corners in a room and see how fast Kirby Smart takes them with the first two picks. Come on.
PFF isn't the end all, but UM rolls out the #10/44/61 ranked defensive lineman and # 3/60 LBs. Milroe is gonna look like '05 Vince Young running all over that crew, and no one needs to check the tape to know that Bama is gonna wall up and crush our ground game with the 278/361/515 DL and 279th ranked backer?
Come on
Haha more like, "What would they have said right after the Auburn game?"
IMO that 'win' was a worse data point for Bama than the South Florida game. Auburn is trash. They were coming off a curb stomping at home to New Mexico State in a game that will forever make RichRod feel better about himself any time he hears the name Toledo. Bama was +3 in turnovers. Jalen Milroe outdueled the Great (checks notes) Payton Throne in that one, who put up a whopping 6 completions for 93 yards on 5.4 yards per attempt. If you look at the 4th&31 horseshoe Milroe pulled from his ass and come to scouting conclusion that "You can't beat a team who's QB literally walks on water" then... like... I don't know what to tell you man.
But if you can wipe the slobber off your chin and devote 90 seconds of sober analysis to this Bama match-up, then maaaaaybe you can see that a mere one game ago, in his rivalry game, with everything on the line, Saban's troops surrendered nearly 250 yards on the ground to a team with sub-service academy level play at QB.
Is it possible that UM's OL, TE's and backs are just a tad better than Auburn's? That our outside weapons are in the same zip code? To put it terms that SEC coaches can better understand, how many nights at home alone with his wife would Hugh Freeze be willing to suffer through if he could have traded JJ for Throne in that game? A few 100? A thousand even?
I have no issue with the quotes coming anonymously because obviously we'd never get them otherwise, and agree/disagree they're always entertaining.
But wouldn't they be even more entertaining if the coaches included some scouting takes on their own teams to go side-by-side with the UM analysis? Its anonymous anyway so what the hell.
"Their offensive line is good, but this year they're mostly dining out on a Moore awarding winning rep of the past two seasons. Once we committed all of our resources to stopping the run, they couldn't break 3.5 ypc. It also helped to know going in that they have zero respect for our program, and the JJ runs would be turned off all game. And hoo-boy, thank god for that! Our 5th year senior DE still can't read the mesh, and our LB's foot speed is for shit. If we hadn't been losing cornerback recruiting battles to MAC teams on the regular for the last three years, we could have easily held UM below 28 points at the half. If it were up to me, we'd claw back the scholarships of every last one of those bums and staff up fresh with transfers from the Sunbelt and Div II. At least those kids would have a little fire in their belly. And UM isn't just overrated on the OL. Our boxes were so stacked, regard for sound pass defense fundamentals was so light, and secondary was such trash, that your basic replacement level Heisman candidate with middling weapons on the outside should've touched us up for at least 200 yards and 3 tds by halftime. JJ barely hit those numbers before he went out with the rest of the starters late in the 3rd, so you have to wonder if he'll be able to bring it against the big boys. He did hit a couple of tight windows though, you can see the talent is there."
Somewhere in Africa, without a doubt, would be the coolest for me. South Africa is probably the most logical from a logistical and fan service standpoint.
Putting your guard up in that situation is would be like an invitation to fight. True that Poole pushes Green to get him out of his space, but then starts to back off with his hands down. And Green even pauses for a beat before the attack. Nobody would anticipate a "teammate" (even Draymond) to start throwing haymakers at that moment.
Bob Meyers, the day before the video came out. Are you serious?? Oh, wait, Jordan was 'in the room' when Draymond apologized?? I didn't realize that. Must be all good.
"Look, it's the NBA," said Myers. "It's professional sports. These things happen. Nobody likes it, we don't condone it, but it happened. Draymond apologized to the team this morning. Jordan was there in the room. I was there in the room, the team, the coaches, players, and we heard that.
"As far as any suspension, punishment, fine, we're going to handle that internally."
Excellent point. The video speaks for itself, you don't need the victim as a witness to make your case.
I'd take it a step further, saying its 10x more clear cut than an average DV case, where the prosecutor has to weigh the fact they may be depriving a family of the bread-winner's ability to earn a living, or the prospect of a revenge minded convict eventually being released back into the victim's home.
The story had been discussed as a possible one (pre)game suspension for Green, so I assumed it was some sort of open handed baby-slap. That video is nuts!
This wasn't two guys in the heat of the moment squaring up, and one actually decides to push the button and throw a punch. Green is the aggressor, invading Poole's space who clearly makes the push just to get Green off of him. After the push Poole's hands are down and even appears to be turning his head away from Green (who has about 4inches and 50 pounds on him). Draymond hits him flush with a right cross that would make Kermit Washington blush. How Poole escaped without a fractured jaw, broken orbital, concussion, or some combination thereof is astounding.
I understand its pro sports, winning/$$$ over everything, etc. But even in that context how, how are the Warriors not seriously considering a quarter season suspension or more? How could Poole ever step on the same court as that chump again without a massive public apology? Or the rest of his teammates for that matter? Poole is far more valuable to the Warriors than that washed up trash, and the team's first reaction is to treat this as Draymond gonna Draymond? If I were Poole I'd want to see Joe Lacob show some serious backbone here or I'd be lawyering the fuck up.
"In the Ghetto" - Elvis
They also needed 'Nova to shoot 52% from the FT line! Crazy game.
Other interesting stats from that game, Purdue was only plus-2 on OREB and only got 1 block for the game.
Purdue's 14 turnovers kept it close.
Those defensive clips were impressive, especially watching when a smaller player was switched off on a big. The front the post so aggressively it prevents a quick entry pass, and show help lurking behind to discourage a high lob to get it over the fronting player.
I can't wait to see how UM looks to exploit these tendencies. I agree that this game calls for more Terrance, but they may come more at the expense of Diabate than Houstan. If TWill is out at the 3pt line that lifts their help defender from pestering the lob entry or digging down. And he is also our best player at flashing to the elbow and delivering that high-low entry pass to Dickenson.
With Terrance at the 3 spot, you still have the issue of Diabate's man being able to play rover down low.
Wish I could help out on the technically issues because this is great stuff, thank you! I'm in for parts II and III if you get it sorted out.
The scary thing is that Purdue shot the shit out of the ball in that game and only won by 6pts.
52/43/85 line for the Boilermakers. Oh and 'nova only hit 52% of its FTs!!! And they only lost the OREB battle by 2 boards. Crazy game.
TV coverage didn't catch all of the first one, but on the Vols first trip (I think) down on offense, Plavsic reared back and threw two elbows square into Dickenson's chest. Total non-basketball moves. Did anyone else catch that? Obviously the refs didn't. Plavsic clearly wanted a piece of Dickenson and got all he wanted.
I've since been able to watch the first half of the game, and I don't think you can definitively say that going to Diabate there was a game plan thing versus flow of the game thing.
And assuming it was, its not the worst idea to see if you can catch an early foul on a hyped-up Roddy.
There was also some decent clay there for JB to mold with Manny and Peedi.
I don't completely disagree with your sentiment. But I would say that 1) Collins played 31 minutes 2) Kobe's development as a player hinges a lot on confidence, and as a coach you need to factor that into the equation any time you're tempted to pull immediately pull him after he fumbles a pass and blows a rotation to sit him for the rest of the half.
His "antics" versus Maryland we're equally viewed as evidence of a fiery take-no-shit attitude that you love to see in a coach. I completely understand if you see it the other way, but I didn't include that in my point because I was talking about positive versus negative impressions, and I'd call that one a wash because at least as many people were fired up by the Turgeon run in as they were put off by it.
Something that gets lost in a lot of the hype around recruiting class rankings is the level of the recruiting class itself, and then also the separation within each class.
Yes we got a top 3 class but this year's overall crop of recruits just isn't that great.
Also, in lots of years Cal or Duke are going to have a class with 3 top 10 guys, and likely one of them is the top overall or second rated players. UM headlined with the number #9 and #12 guys (far from slam dunk one-and-done territory), and their overall rating was boosted by having 6 recruits in the class.
I'm prone to trusting the coaching staff and especially Elston in this case, but at 6'6 hopefully they can get him to hunker down, I'm leery of that sort of height in the middle of the line. Also the kid looks pretty filled out already I don't necessarily see where he's going to add 50 lbs. 3 bills seems about right.
Not sure if that's true of Loyola in Wilmette but he should stick it out regardless
I'm not bullish on Chet's unicorn potential but am fascinated to see what becomes of him. On the other hand, I'm also not crazy about Ivey's potential to be anything more than the 3rd banana on a 2nd round playoff team. So I'd probably close my eyes and roll the dice on Chet with the 3rd overall.
Can't argue with you there, but there's no rush to move Grant unless they get an outstanding offer.. Its a lost season any way and Grant's trade value probably isn't going to fluctuate much from where it is now. Take some more time to evaluate how they all fit together, see where they fall in the draft, then decide whether to move Bey or Grant over the summer.
If the Pistons were to get the #1 pick, I'd bet very heavily on Jabari Smith.
As long as the Pistons stay among the bottom 3, it shouldn't affect their lottery odds of lading a top 3 pick in what I'd say is a 3 player draft (Jabari Smith, Banchero, Holmgren). And Bagley certainly isn't going to move that needle so rest easy lol.
I really like the pick up. The Pistons are in need of a 5 who can attack the rim from the PIR and protect the rim at the other end. Bagley has been a huge disappointment but a chunk of that sentiment is due to the Kings' idiocy of picking him over Luka, and injuries, neither of which are his fault. His play has still been underwhelming relative to his evaluation as a prospect, but that's what made him available and a perfect target for a team like Detroit. Young, talented, reclamation project with upside at a position of need. Also relatively cheap with a contract that's up at the end of this year. He gets to audition for half season and if it pans out they can extend him, if it doesn't they didn't give up any pieces that were part of the future blueprint.
I'm with you, certainly not a rewatchable game. But could prove to be a memorable one if M ultimately claws its way into the tournament field. Because what wasn't predictable is how they completed the comeback, doing it on offense with cold-blooded 3s from Jones, Caleb and Williams down the stretch. Starring down an emasculating and devastating loss they didn't blink. Having watched this team all season, I think confidence is the most important factor in turning things around, and though they didn't execute like they did against Maryland and IU, this game still represents another palpable step forward in that area.
That analysis of Moore's fit in UM's scheme seems to have gone right out the window lol.
Though, I'd would say that his year Ojabo and Hutch were playing as "quasi" DEs 90% of the time, just out of a two point stance. How Moore would transition to lining up that way is anyone's guess, but I think its a natural assumption that posture would benefit a player who tilted more toward speed than power.
I think the key word that gets lost in all of this is "relies". I haven't seen any scouting reports that question Moore's strength (the opposite in fact), and if that ever was the implication, I think his all star week performance should have laid those to rest. He's more like that big back who is still faster than everyone in high school and always looking to bounce it outside. A hopefully correctable habit in order to unleash full potential, not necessarily a liability.
The only way I see Moore putting on 40-45 lbs and playing 3T is if it turns out he's not a capable pass rusher off the edge, or eats his way into the spot a la freshman BG. Both of which seem pretty unlikely.
So what we're really talking about is whether college S&C should be targeted toward adding 5-15 lbs and playing WDE/OLB, or going 20-30 lbs as an anchor/3-4 DE. Considering his pass rushing skills and our current roster to me it seems like an obvious choice IMO.
Sucks ass, but Jim seems to have a knack for pulling rabbits out of hats when it comes to replacing unexpected departures. Fingers crossed.
Does this departure significantly impact anyone we're still targeting before signing day, or commits in the '23 class?
Yeah, I'd have to agree with you that moving up 70 spots and winding up #51 is no slight on his stature as a recruit. At that level you're splitting a lot of hairs, especially considering that you're comparing him against other players at 7+ different positions.
I realize that many people who do this for a living and savvy amateurs such as yourself consider Moore a candidate for 3 tech or 3-4 end. I still don't understand why. You're messing with his primary assets buy putting on bunch of weight to play somewhere that his main perceived weakness is going to get exposed? And not to go all OMG shirtless here, but I don't see room for 45 pounds of decent weight on his frame. If he were a Carlo Kemp-type who didn't have the athletic ability to pay on the end, then maybe you think about bulking him way up and moving him down. If he turns out to be Tim Jamison-esque and for whatever reason (with TJ I think it was due to injury) doesn't show the same explosiveness off the edge that he did in high school, then sure let him go up to 275-280 and play strong side. Out of the box it seems to me like a no brainer that you dial his target weight to 260-265 and turn him loose. If lack of playing strength is an issue in that role then so be it, it'll be less of an issue there than anywhere else on the line.
That's a good point on the draft. I'm not sure if Rivals is one of them, but I do know that many if not all recruiting services base their ranking on NFL projections. How or why that makes any sense is another topic, but if you're looking at Moore from an NFL perspective, I suppose its fair to say that as a pass rusher he doesn't have the get-off/bend you want to see in a first or second round pick. Can't agree on the size issue though since he seems to be universally listed at 6'4 250 before he even hits college.
I guess my main takeaway is the lack of consistency in the method of player evaluation, both in this class and from years past. Which I guess should itself come as no surprise!
As has been mentioned elsewhere on this thread, Will skipped the camp circuit and his athleticism (which for a taller corner can be tough to assess on tape) wasn't measured against top competition until he got to the all star game. Where, by all accounts his play put those concerns to rest over the course of the week. I'm still somewhat surprised to see him get up to top 5 where you usually see more of an emphasis on athletic "freakishness" for lack of a better description. Not saying he isn't worthy of the ranking, just out of the norm based on my observation of recruiting rankings.
Also, if that's the reason for Will's dramatic jump, why wasn't the same logic applied to Moore? I've never been the in the tweener camp on Moore. What is it about 6"4 250 with great closing speed that doesn't say DE? That said, I do recognize that the label was viewed by many as a valid question mark that put a ceiling on his rankings. But then Moore went out and put together an all star week that was equally, if not more impressive than Will's. He showed the tools you want to see in a top end pass rusher and did it against great competition.
Moore did move up 70 spots after all and is parked right outside of the top 50. Johnson has always been highly rated and seems to climb whenever he's evaluated. So maybe a better description of my reaction to these final rankings is 'curious' as opposed to 'surprising'.
I know you can't and shouldn't overvalue all star game performances, but Moore still seems a little low at 51.
And as much as I love Will, top 5 seems like a stretch. Obviously an incredible player. Yet, you usually don't see CBs with things like "underrated athleticism" in their scouting report profiling that high.
Any time you hear about Zeke Berry from someone who's scouted him, they're over the moon and aghast at his national ranking. When you factor in that he plays in one of the toughest conferences in the county, him being out of the top 150 is such a head scratcher for me.
From what I read his all star performance was uneven at best, and he also dropped like 50 spots on the on3 rankings. Not that I really care, I'll still take him in a heartbeat. Just seems kind of strange.
No question Gary showed out and will hopefully start to get more of the recognition that his play deserves. NFL types are quick to point out that pressures are a more important Stat then sacks, and he's at or near the top of the league.
I actually thought his most impressive play was blanketing the 49ers RB out of the backfield on Green Bay's goal line interception, Jimmy was looking for his check down on that play and had nowhere to go before he decided to throw late and ill advised to Kittle.
His 4th down stuff was impressive too,, but he died by the sword when he crashed inside again late and allowed Samuel to get outside on that critical play that got the 49ers into more comfortable field goal range. But overall I thought this was a big time coming out party.
I haven't seen enough from Bell to put him that high just yet. For his first couple years, I also think Bell's production got a huge boost based off where he fell in the scouting report relative to M's other top receivers. And IMO, based on the height of his peak, I'd slot Chesson slightly ahead of Darboh.
1. Collins
2. Chesson
3. Darboh
4. DPJ
5. Bell
Is it too early to call Will Johnson?
There's no question (in my mind) that with significant losses on defense and short yardage/first down machine Hassan Haskins, Michigan will have to build its identity around the passing offense if its going to match last year's success.
Michigan absolutely has the skill to make that transition. Does it have the will? Is there anything in JH's coaching track record to suggest that when presented with an unreliable defense/running game, he's willing to go pass heavy and try to out score people?
We live near Evanston, its annoying that we don't play there every season. We've gone every year starting with the double OT loss in '15, which inexplicably tipped off at 8pm central time (school was skipped the next day). Pre-rennovation, Welsh-Ryan was one of the coolest game experiences that I could imagine. You could walk right down to the floor during pre-game shoot around and nobody would say boo. Players and coaches were relaxed and didn't mind some respectful interaction. Before half time we would run down to where the "tunnel" was to the visitors locker rooms, which was actually just a hallway that lead past a concession stand, and you could line up and high five the players on their way in and out. Then again after the game, the ushers had not problem letting us hang out courtside until the players eventually came out to see their families and do interviews. Players had no problem taking pictures and signing autographs, and there was rarely anyone else around. So cool.
I might agree if you were only looking down the road. But Houstan was the top shooting recruit in his class, Bufkin/Tschetter had shooting at the top of their recruiting profiles, and Barnes may have as well if not for his athleticism.
Personally I don't think he undervalues shooting (or things like size at the PG), its more a matter of what recruits we have a realistic shot at in a given cycle., and taking the best available. Judging by the next 2 classes, where you may have a point is that it seems Howard is more likely to take the best "talent" available and try to coach up their deficits, rather then lower rated players with traits that round out the roster. But I guess we'll see.
Well one of those things is already true
Back when the (eventual) name change was first announced, I heard Red Tails being talked about as the front runner. That would've been awesome. Disappointing that its not even a finalist.
Same here. I guess you have to trust what the coaches were seeing in practice, but on game days, I thjought that Baldwin's hands, separation, and blocking were all pretty iffy. Not sure why Anthony didn't take all of his minutes.
Agreed that edge guys don't normally make a big impact as Fr, but players who are going to be big impact guys down the road often flash as freshman and carve out a role (even if its in a fairly limited package) by the end of the season. After watching Moore's Under Amour practice clips and his performance in the game, I think he fits squarely in that category. Esp given our depth chart. Don't think I'm stepping too far out on a limb to predict he'll see 10+ meaningful snaps per game as a pass rushing specialist by midseason.
Hopefully he gets a call from Stephen Schilling. We need to re-fire that Washington 5* OL pipeline!
I remember when we used to regularly pull from CA and Texas, and wondering why we couldn't seem to tap that Florida geyser.
I think the answer is that having coaches with deep roots in a region is critical for success even at a nation school like UM, and you can only have so many guys on staff. Its that blanket you can stretch and stretch and not quite seem to cover everything. Seemed like Morgan was going to be an incredible west coast asset. Turns out he was a little too good, and we had nowhere to promote him to.
As we sit here, I'm projecting a very frustrating 2022 season. Lazy/boring "Cade or JJ?" analysis will dominate all offseason coverage of the team. The defense takes a noticeable step back and struggles to find an identity without the two ends, and with continued LB inconsistency. The offense sputters without Haskins' superhuman ability to convert in short yardage, and keep the offense on schedule by picking up an extra 2 yards on every run.
M is going to need an explosive scoring offense if it wants to be in contention for the BTT heading into Columbus. I think there's hope in the OL. Losing Stuber will hurt, he was our most consistent lineman, and while Jones won't match his level, if he can an at least be solid (esp in pass pro) they should be even better this year, with Hayes, Keegan and Zinter all taking a step forward and no drop off at C. Whoever wins the QB battle will then need to play at an AA level for us to sniff the success of 2021.