This Week’s Obsession: Things We Want To Hear in Spring, 2017 Edition
An onlooker or two literally fainting at something Gary does
this spring would be nice. [Bryan Fuller]
Our annual rite. The Question:
What do you want to hear out of spring practice?
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Adam: There's depth on the D-line. Not "there are humans and they are large and they have played football before so yes, they are football players" depth. I'm looking for reports gushing about how much the backups have developed.
We've seen this a bit with Michael Dwumfour in last season's bowl practices. That assuages fears about NT depth a bit; Mone still has to stay healthy for a full season, but at least five-star Aubrey Solomon is available and, if his high-school highlights are any indication, ready to enter the rotation.
Every other spot on the line, though, is returning a starter with a fair bit of on-field experience and really unproven backups. Rashan Gary will start at SDE/Anchor, but he'll need Carlo Kemp or Donovan Jeter to spell him. Mo Hurst is the best 3Tech in the conference; positional nomad Lawrence Marshall or true freshmen James Hudson and Deron Irving-Bey are ostensibly his backups. Chase Winovich got to live out his dream and actually chase things down last fall, and if Don Brown's effusive practice reports are any indication then he should continue to do so this fall. There's a veritable stable of options behind him in Reuben Jones, Ron Johnson, Corey Malone-Hatcher, Luiji Vilain, and Kwity Paye; this group has a combined four games of collegiate playing experience. There's a ton of talent along the line, but it still has to be cultivated if Greg Mattison is going to have the eight-man rotation he prefers.
Kemp has been around long enough now that we have a photo of him in the old jerseys. It’s time for one of those guys to emerge. [Fuller] |
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Ace: Charles Matthews is hitting his jump shots. Wait. Shit.
Seth:
/reaches over to Acebot
/flips switch
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Ace: Okay, Cesar Ruiz is on track. With the depth at tackle in its current state, Michigan needs interior linemen to step up so there’s at least the option of shifting someone (probably Mason Cole) to tackle to get their best five out there. While there are a couple other bullets in the chamber in Jon Runyan Jr. and Stephen Spanellis, freshman Cesar Ruiz seems like the best bet to crack the starting lineup, whether at center or guard. He’s far from your average true freshman interior lineman: he played center, not tackle like most D-I OL prospects, at IMG Academy, so he’s already acclimated to playing on the interior. He was consistently talked up as the best interior lineman at the Under Armour All-American game. He’s got the build at 6’3, 320. Michigan doesn’t need him to be the star this year that he should become; it’ll be encouraging to hear that he’s on track.
[After THE JUMP: can you play tackle? No asking seriously do you have eligibility and really quick feet for your 6’7/310 frame?]
Brian: Similarly, anybody can play tackle. Look at this team. Look at it. It's all right, you know? It could go places. As long as barely-blocked hell-demons are not flying off the edge with eyes on Wilton Speight's bird-bones, this could be a real good season. I just don't know what the hell they're going to do there.
I assume the Grant Newsome talk is just that and we won't see him until 2018, so Michigan's options there include 1) starters on the interior last year, 2) guys who got passed by a starter on the interior last year, and 2) freshmen. None of whom are enrolling early. (I believe JaRaymond Hall is a guard.) Soooooo... just exiting spring with a plan would be great. To be honest I kind of want that plan to be moving both Cole and Bredeson outside and rolling with Onwenu/Ruiz/Kugler on the interior, in whatever order you want.
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David: While we’re on the line, I want to hear Mike Onwenu is crushing more than grapes. IIRC, Onwenu looked solid in his spotty mop-up minutes in 2016. He's always had the size and nimbleness -and apparently he's even slimmed down a bit to enhance his efficiency. So, it is not a stretch to think he can compete for and win a starting job, but getting positive returns early will give Michigan more options moving forward...and put bloggers minds at ease.
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Seth: Yes yes yes to all of these OL things but specifically the one I want to hear most is Ben Bredeson is competing at left tackle. Remember last spring when Little Ben was supposedly giving Newsome a run? They’re not even suggesting it now. We got a very early glimpse of the OL status recently and the configuration had Ruiz at center and Mason Cole flipping back out to LT, with JBB at RT and Bredeson remaining at LG. Of all configurations that one probably has the lowest ceiling for this year: Cole will never be more than adequate at left tackle, Bushell-Beatty should have cracked the lineup by now if he's going to be better than mediocre, and I don't care how IMG you are, a true freshman at center when the two guards are true sophomores is a recipe for Borgesian levels of blown assignments.
The best chance Michigan had of avoiding that this year was for Bredeson to emerge from a freshman season that was, at best, excusable. After recently rewatching the Orange Bowl, where Bredeson made a ton of non-opponent-dependent blunders, the likelihood of a big leap since is low. But lights can go on. If Bredeson locks down a tackle job, Michigan can either solidify the other side with Cole, or JBB or one of the freshmen can actually play. The ideal lineup would have Cole stay at center with Ruiz at his left as understudy. Every lineup that doesn't give me heebie jeebies has Bredeson outside.
We questioned the eligibility of a 250 year old building but if a retired professional Australian football player can get 4 years at Ohio State why not a famous landmark? |
Ace: Little Ben?
Seth: Big Ben = Braden. These things are relative. Also last year's left side after the Newsome injury was Ben and Ben. I can't be the only person to have made this connection.
Ace: I guess he’s smaller than the clock.
David: The clock at LT is not the worst option.
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Ace: Since we’ve focused entirely on the trenches, I’ll throw out a short and somewhat obvious one: David Long and Lavert Hill have locked up the starting corner spots.
That’s 100% the expectation; it’d be disconcerting if it didn’t come to fruition.
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Brian: Switching to explosion based desires, I'd like to hear that Chris Evans can break tackles now and Donovan Peoples-Jones is ready to go right now. Evans was about five broken tackles from having an absurd YPC, and most reports have him the clear #1 back entering spring. Another ten or fifteen pounds to run through the arm tackles opponents have to resort to on him frequently would presage a breakout year.
Meanwhile, DPJ is already causing exclamations in winter conditioning. This guarantees nothing, but these days maybe a third of five star wide receivers can make an immediate impact. The opportunity is there, and I'm down with Braylon 2.0 (with hands!).
BiSB: Obligatory:
Alex: "Braylon but with hands!" initially struck me as Fred Jacksonish but I'm not gonna bet against DPJ eventually being a star.
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Seth: With quarterback I think we'll have to trust our eyes more than anything the coaches say, but given how Speight's year ended I'm gonna be watching carefully for signs that he's completely healed and has his pocket presence back. After Indiana we got a small sample baseline for the rest. Peters was redshirting so he was excused, but one thing I don't want to hear is that O'Korn is the anointed backup. Ideally we'll get some raving about Peters followed by a Spring Game where he and Speight are taking turns lobbing bombs to all manner of receivers.
Adam: As far as Speight's pocket presence is concerned, he lost 20 pounds in the offseason. I'm interested to see the way that translates to the field.
Ace: I’m here for the raving about Brandon Peters.
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Seth: Anything else guys? Wheatley crushing a known quantity at DL? A favorite in the VIPER position battle? In-house fluff piece about Kekoa Crawford that suggests he's secured a starting job?
All: Nope. Just a tackle.
Does anyone else think that Brandon Peters looks like Peyton Manning? He looks a lot like him to me. Maybe it's because he wears 18.
I think I would like to hear:
1. Whatever fantastical piece of optimism best suggests that our offensive line has a chance to not be terrible next season ("Onwenu has solidified his guard spot" is kind of a high floor low ceiling remark, whereas the dream statement might be "JBB is solidly beating Mason Cole at LT, so he's moving to the right").
2. "Wilton Speight is calling audibles and has mastered the offense." He already has good familiarity with the offense, and while Harbaugh tends not to be big on QB audibles, Speight earning the confidence to check out of a bad play would be a great next step.
I have no idea if this is realistic.
Sounds like what I was saying in 2013.
Having a top quality offensive line papers over lots of other things.
March 29th, 2017 at 11:13 AM ^
Exactly. Which is why, intriguing as other things may be, I don't care about anything other than the OL proving it can be meerly average exiting spring ball. If they can't move the ball and pile up a bunch of three and outs, that puts all sorts of pressure on the defense and whatever depth there may or may not be on the DL. And if they can't block longer than a second, it doesn't matter how good DPJ is because they won't have time to get him the ball.
March 28th, 2017 at 11:32 PM ^
Michigan did very well against a lot of bad teams. They rushed for 3.64ypc in 6 games against teams with winning records, and 5.72 ypc in 7 games against teams with losing records.
For comparison, Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin all played 8-9 games against teams with a winning record. Ohio St. averaged 4.9ypc in those games and PSU and Wisc were both right around 4.2. Against teams with a losing record, Ohio State was at 6.2 ypc while PSU and Wisc were both around 4.7 ypc.
So those nice averages for Michigan don't look all that nice when you really look at them. Our main competition in the Big Ten all played 2-3 more games against good teams and did half a yard to a full yard better per carry. That's a pretty big difference. Ranked within the conference, Michigan was 8th in ypc against winning teams. Right below MSU and right above Iowa.
Still feel good about the OL?
Wisconsin and PSU. OSU was at 4.1 and 4.2 YPC respectively, Michigan was 3.0 and 6.7. Seems pretty close to a wash.
In your arbitrary stat comparison, OSU ran up those "winning record team" stats against Oklahoma and Nebraska (terrible defenses) and Tulsa (Tulsa). Michigan ran the ball well in 9/13 games. It could have been better and there's room for improvement, but it's nothing like the disaster you're putting out there.
A lot of good teams struggled to run the ball against Wisconsin, OSU, FSU and yes, even Iowa late season. You can't beat math in the box when the other players are good.
March 29th, 2017 at 12:51 AM ^
that'd be like the 65th best o-line in football which is terrible for a team hoping to contend for the Big Ten. In year 3 of Harbaugh, that'd be extremely disappointing. If you mean average for a big ten team, that might be ok. But our defense would have to also be very good just to get to 9 wins. It's a rebuild year. We all need to tell ourselves that so everything won't seem terrible.
They had a middle of the conference OL last season, and a generationally good defense and that was good enough for 10-3 and 4th place in the Big Ten. That's likely your ceiling this season -- not the floor.
I recognize you as an offensive line troll from other threads, but I'll bite.
Can you name the half of the B1G that had better lines so we can properly debate this? Michigan was maybe #2 to OSU. Wisconsin had major holes on their line, Penn State was all Saquon Barkley big plays and Maryland is the only other high YPA/volume team (and we remember what that line looked like).
The other guy gets a say. They weren't great last year, but they were certainly good.
March 30th, 2017 at 11:10 AM ^
B1G teams ranked by Adjusted Line Yards:
1) OSU (#1 in country) 134.6 2) Maryland 113.6 3) Iowa 113.6 4) MSU 111.4 5) Wisconsin 103.7 6) Rutgers 103 7) Michigan 102.3 8) Northwestern 101.8 9) Indiana 100 10) Nebraska 94.9 11) Illinois 94.4 12) Minnesota 92.7 13) Purdue 92.2 14) PSU 85.8 Adjusted sack rate: 1) Nebraska 185 2) Purdue 140.8 3) PSU 132.1 4) Indiana 130 5) Michigan 128 6) Minnesota 126.7 7) Illinois 111 8) MSU 107.9 9) Wisconsin 94.8 10) OSU (#1) 94.4 11) Northwestern 87 12) Rutgers 82 13) Iowa 80.2 14) Maryland 57.4 Indiana and Michigan were the only teams in the conference to be above "perfectly averag" (100) in both.
I'm a bit younger so the Carr groups are my baseline. Totally agree there's room to improve, my point was just that the "terrible" feeling is a stretch.
Not to relitigate the losses, but when good teams stack the hell out of the box and you don't make them pay over the top, the game results you referenced are nearly inevitable. It's hard to fight against math when the other guys are really good, too.
I want to believe in Patrick Kugler still. If he emerges finally, against all odds, that will unlock a lot of options on the line. He can play center, he can play guard, and at least mentally he should be prepared. WOTS was his issues were at least partially injury based, so maybe there's a glimmer of hope for him to have a break out year.
"(Kugler/Ruiz) is pushing Cole outside" would seem to be a good thing to hear. Either would be fine. The "pushing" is something that would be nice because it would mean they were earning the spot rather than just getting a chance by default because the tackles are so depleted.
I'm confused by the comments about Ruiz at center in the early glimpse. The mgoblue videos I have seen show Kugler at center in all shots but 1 or 2 (Cole in these) with a plausible Cole-Bredeson-Kugler-Onwenu-(Not in video/JBB) first string. I'm buying this until someone says differently.
I've shifted into the Cole at LT camp and like the line above. Bredeson at RT replaced at guard by Ruiz or Runyan would be good too.
March 29th, 2017 at 12:54 AM ^
spring, because they're not going to throw a freshman right in there. Unfortunately, this probably means Bredeson isn't moving outside. Lot of football left for him before the season start though.
I'd be really surprised if LTT coming back happened. Is there any smoke here or just echo chamber wishful thinking?
March 29th, 2017 at 12:59 PM ^
I hope its either Kugler or Cole because I just don't see any scenario where having a true freshman center results in anything but bad news. Maybe one exists somewhere in the annals of CFB lore, but I can't think of any successful team that's ever started a true freshman at center.
Go Ruiz-Cole/Kugler-Onwenu in the middle and pray for miracles on the outside. Think that's your best bet.
Didn't Kugler start in the opener when the oline had some injuries? He was at least pushing for time then. I'd like to think one of the reasons he's back for a 5th year (unlike Dawson) is Kugler is in the mix. Whether he emerges from the mix, we'll have to wait and see.
That flip over the fence is absurd.
It's pretty straight forward. This team is built to win everywhere, except the glaring problem spots on the OL. And it's not the "oh we just graduated a bunch of NFL ready OL", but it's that we survived with a group of guys that were here forever, were passable, and now we're replacing all of them (basically) with youth and question marks.
This will be the thing to keep on eye on, obviously, and to also gauge how we adapt our offense to thrive with this uncertainty on the OL.
In Harbaugh I trust!
March 29th, 2017 at 12:44 AM ^
starts Ruiz at C. I will assume that Speight will make all of the line calls that the C normally makes due to Ruiz inexperience. That's a scary proposition because it will put a lot on Speight's plate to make this call and set the rest of the offense.
The idea of a freshman making those calls is horrifying, though. Speight at least has a couple of years on him under Harbaugh. I think he'll be up to the challenge.
Is it impossible for a guard to make the line calls? I understand that it's usually the center, but why can't a guard (who has more experience) do it?
March 29th, 2017 at 10:23 AM ^
I was wondering about this as well.
March 29th, 2017 at 10:50 AM ^
If he can ball out, it doesn't matter to me what grade level he is. If Cole at T and Ruiz at C makes for an overall stronger line, then I say do it.
March 29th, 2017 at 11:11 AM ^
A good QB with a good OL coach allows a QB to make calls instead of a Center. It's not optimal, but we'd need to get to the LOS and organized about 5 seconds earlier than normal. And remember, there are other youngsters on the OL. Expect a few TO's.
for a sack due to miscommunication between lineman. We have to expect if they start Ruiz at C. Starting off against Florida isn't ideal considering Florida is strong at front 7.
Bredeson at LT this year. He looked too much like a Freshman on the inside last year, to make that move would have to mean huge improvements. I think he can take a step forward this year and be a very good guard.
I think our best option for LT is Cole. He has two years experience there already and being a Senior I would expect him to be very good there. Ruiz already has the body of a college player and plenty of experience at center. Think he could actually start there. I see a line of;
Cole - Bredeson - Ruiz or Kugler - Onwenu - JBB. I think that would have the possiblitly of being better then what we used last year.
Well the good thing about Bredeson is that he was a freshman, and now he has had an entire year to build on S&C, and refine technique.
I'd guess Cole - Bredeson - Kugler - Onwenu - JBB, with Ruiz being the sixth guy like Newsome was as a true freshman.
Better athletes carrying the ball will do wonders for the OL.
Also more spread (scheme) will help.
All I really, truly care to hear for this spring is no injuries. Not to starters, not to walk-ons. Not to anyone. But other than that, I'm thinking the OL has a chance to be at least as good as the OL was this past year.
Give credit to guys like Kalis, Magnuson and Braden for working their asses off. That's all you can really ever ask for. But the production just wasn't where we all hoped it would be. Especially the run game against better opponents. We're replacing guys who have been in the program for a long time but could seemingly never put it together with young guys who have a lot of talent, and perhaps most importantly, will not start their careers off on a bad foot with bad coaching.
I'm hoping the OL can at least maintain the status quo next season. 2018-19 is where I hope to see it really take off into a full-on Harbaugh OL, which lays waste to all in its path.
And every time I see a new way in which I would have absolutely killed myself trying that move even at my peak athletic ability.
I keep wondering how he didn't slice his hand on the cut end of the chain links as he flipped over . . . but perhaps that's because this is so far past any range of my athletic ability past or present that I don't even think about how badly it would end if I were to try it.
March 29th, 2017 at 10:38 AM ^
No hand slice because it was this type of chainlink:
Not his type of chainlink:
I envy you. I never even had "peak athletic ability." I would have worried about falling off the swing just sitting there!
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