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Previously in this series covering the 2010s: Favorite Blocks, QB-RB-WR, TE-FB-OL, Defensive Line, Linebacker, Secondary, Worst Calls, and Dumbest Plays so might as well do the flipside.
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10. Martin and Van Bergen, Coaches at Large
2012 SUGAR BOWL
Football hmmm… [Eric Upchurch]
The press got word after the 2011 Ohio State game that senior DTs Ryan Van Bergen and Mike Martin had been given the green light by their coaches to make the line calls for each play, including when and how to stunt. That in itself wasn’t highly remarkable; the modern Michigan equivalent of RVB’s position, the Anchor, makes line calls for the defense today. The reason it goes down in the lore of these guys is they got so good at it.
They were also the two who lined up and dove into the A gaps to stop VT’s hurry-up 4th and 1 sneak, called the slant that got Frank Clark in to intercept a screen pass, and the slant that got Jake Ryan inside the tackle then chasing inside out on the ensuing rollouts. RVB was doing it on a broken foot too.
-Seth
[After THE JUMP: Glasgows be here]
This Week's Obsession:
Ten Michigan players were drafted and everyone's angry about it. Where do you fall on the "everything is fine" vs "panic and run around screaming" continuum?
Ace: Should we explain why people are angry? I’ve stayed off the internet this weekend and had no idea this was a thing.
David: Yeah, I missed why everyone is angry, too.
Brian: There's a combination of things.
- Josh Uche went in the second round and Michigan took heat for his low snap counts
- Michigan had the same number of draft picks as OSU and got nuked for the second consecutive year
- Bleed-over recruiting anger because the first round was 24 four or five star players and M hasn't recruited a four star defender.
Seth: Without looking I'm going to guess the responses to today's hello post for a 3-star cornerback from one of the biggest schools in the country will tell you all you need to know about the current fan zeitgeist.
Brian: So this weekend was a resurgence of the fanbase schism. Fun! But also what else we gonna talk about.
Ace: Ah. So the draft bit I think is most worth pointing out in this context is that, despite Michigan getting ten players off the board, Shea Patterson very much wasn’t one of them.
David: That's a very big point...I don't even think he signed a FA deal, yet?
Ace: He has not.
Brian:
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┻┳| •.•) maybe the charting guy was
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Seth: Neither was Lavert Hill for whatever that's worth. This doesn't so much apply to Shea, but sometimes there's no accounting for NFL taste.
Ace: Hill got snatched up within hours (possibly minutes?) of the draft ending. Also: quarterback is a very important position.
David: Yeah, McKeon signed right after well...so, 12/13 guys had an NFL team by Saturday night.
Brian: Princeton's QB signed with Cleveland.
[Hit THE JUMP for, eventually, a rundown on where Michigan's players went in the draft, plus more of this.]
My goodness, the levels to this one. You have Tarik Black's initial flex, the theatrical shock at the taunting flag, and the slow turn to Josh Gattis, who Black somehow senses is right behind him. Then Jim Harbaugh emerges from the depths of the sideline and, well, he's not pleased. Gattis appears more resigned to the whims of the refs. This isn't a GIF; it's a three-act play.
[After THE JUMP: speaking of tragedies, MSU tried to football.]
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