As I watched my recording of the game yesterday I was a little surprised how much Bob Griese stated, flat out, that Steven Threet cannot run the spread option offense. I generally like Griese, and he and Nessler are the best pair on ESPN (I just pretend Maguire isn’t there), but he is flat out wrong in this instance.

No one will confuse Threet with Pat White; all one needs to see is them each throw a 10 yd out (zing!). Pat White was really successful in the zone-read option offense because of how much the defense respected his ability to run. It would open up holes for Slaton if the defense played disciplined and White could punish them when they didn’t maintain their assignments.

The play that, in my mind, really cemented the fact that Threet could in fact run this offense wasn’t the absolutely ridiculous 58-yd keeper, but rather the Minor touchdown run. Take a look:

Deandre Levy, a senior linebacker, is rocked back on his heels by the threat of a QB keeper. This, combined with the inside linebacker blitz, opened up a huge seam for Minor. If Levy didn’t respect Threet’s running ability he could have a crashed in and stopped the play for little or no gain.

Threet is not Pat White, and he won’t be successful in this offense in the same way that White was, but that doesn’t mean he cannot run it. He can run the zone-read and pick up yards when he keeps it, as we’ve all seen. This forces the defenses to at least respect the threat, which can open up holes for Michigan’s talented backs. He may not break the big runs as often as Pat White did, but if he can consistently get 3-5 ydson his keepers, Threet can keep the defense honest. Beyond that he’s getting better touch on his passes. Once he gets those hitch-and-go routes down, we could see yet another dimension added to Michigan’s big play potential.

I’m not convinced that either of the freshman quarterbacks will be able to come in and unseat Threet. If they do (and judging by Rodriguez’s personnel choices this year, they’ll get a shot), we can feel confident that they beat out someone who can, at least competently and at best efficiently, run the zone-read based spread option.

Posted under Analysis

The board lives here.

Posted under Recruiting

With the recent commitment of Cass Tech’s Thomas Gordon, it appears that the 2009 recruiting class is nearly full. Assuming William Campbell recommits to Michigan (which appears likely but certainly not set in stone), Michigan may save a couple slots for surprises from top prospects.

Several of Michigan’s commits have mentioned the possibility that they might enroll early. Curious? let’s run through the list:

• CA QB Tate Forcier
• TX QB Shavodrick Beaver
• FL RB Vincent Smith
• FL LB Brandin Hawthorne

Campbell, if he recommits, has also mentioned that he is on track to graduate early, and that he would like to enroll in the winter. Of course, he has also mentioned that he won’t commit until the Army All-American game, clearly unaware that he would have to register for classes before said game, which would give just a teeny hint where he was leaning.

Forcier and Beaver are obviously the most important early enrollers on this list. With the shaky situation at quarterback throughout the 2008 season, Michigan needs a signal-caller that can help ASAP. With Tate Forcier’s polished game coming out of college, and early enrollment would allow him to use spring practice to adjust to the speed and physical nature of the college game, in preparation for contributing during the 2009 year.

Since early-enrollees don’t count against the 2009 class, but rather against the group from 2008, I’m curious about whether Michigan’s 2008 class size, full save for the defections f Marcus Witherspoon and Taylor hill, will violate NCAA recruiting rules if too many of these players enroll in the winter. If anyone has particular insight into the regulations, let’s hear about it. My suspicion is that early-enrollees can count towards either class.

Ratings
for those worried about lower-ranked guys in the class, you can take heart in the following:

• Anthony Fera may only have 3 stars, but he is considered the #2 kicker in the country. Kickers are rarely given anything higher than that by the recruiting services.
• Jordan Barnes has been mentioned by others as a guy who may see a ratings bump.
• Michael Schofield is a four-star to Rivals (three on Scout).
• Brandin Hawthorne is an athletic prospect who may be a bit of a project, but has high upside.
• Jeremy Gallon has four stars to Rivals (three on Scout), and has been running up tons of yards (in several different ways) in his senior season.
• Teric Jones started the year lowly-rated because he didn’t start last year, as he was stuck behind another Division-1 prospect, Indiana’s Cortez Smith. He has been having a solid season thus far in 2008.
• Isaiah Bell doesn’t really impress either Scout or Rivals, but ESPN loves the kid.
• Fitzgerald Toussaint was already a four-star to Rivals (three on Scout), but he has been absolutely killing it this year. He has averaged well over 200 yards and a few touchdowns so far this season. If that production continues, he might even be able to make a case for five-star status.
• Mike Jones was lowly rated because he was injured his entire junior year. He is healthy this year, and is playing linebacker in HS (where he will likely play in college; he had been playing safety in high school to this point). His ranking could improve (though that isn’t always the case with early-committed players).
• DeQuinta Jones may be overshadowed by the fact that he plays on a very talented defensive line. If nothing else, he helps Michigan start a pipeline to a very strong program.
• Vincent Smith doesn’t have the height to be considered a top-top prospect by the recruiting services, but he perfectly fits the mold of Rodriguez slotback.
• DeWayne Peace was only offered after he impressed the coaches at summer camp. He is a good example of a “trust the coaches” case.

So who, aside from Campbell, might still end up in this class? The most likely prospects include another offensive lineman or two (Craig Roh’s teammate Taylor Lewan, or one of the Carolina duo of Quinton Washington and Travis Bond), possibly another defensive end, another linebacker (Jelani Jenkins plz), and perhaps even another DB. 

Posted under Recruiting

GoBluewolverine is reporting that Ricardo Miller, a Wide Receiver/Tight End from Orlando’s Dr. Phillips High School has given his word to become Michigan’s first commitment in the class of 2010. Miller is a big receiver at 6-2 and over 200 pounds.

Recruiting Notes
Miller has always been aware of Michigan, as his mom is an alumna (who favored Michigan as a destination for Ricardo). However, Michigan fans first became aware of him when he attended the summer 2008 Rich Rodriguez Football Camp for the entire week. He also attended the Friday Night Lights camp at the University of Florida, but still seemed to be favoring Michigan. Through these events, Miller formed friendships with Michigan 2010 targets Marvin Robinson (who also appears to favor Michigan early in the process) and Jeremy Jackson (the son of RB coach Fred Jackson). In August, Miller went on the record saying that Michigan was his leader (info in header), and made plans for a fall visit to Ann Arbor for the Michigan State game. However, it didn’t take Miller that long to pull the trigger, and he became Michigan’s first 2010 commit tonight.

Player Notes
As previously noted, Miller is a big wideout, who may find his home at Michigan as an athletic pass-catching TE. In fact, tight end is where he spends most of his time on offense for Dr. Phillips, and he even has enough size to play defensive end on the other side of the ball. However, without a growth spurt, I would expect him to stay at WR on offense, being a big red zone threat. He has very good speed for a TE (decent for a WR), and is even known to take a tight end-around or two for his high schol team. He also has a big body, allowing him to overpower defenders, and he has decent hands. As a blocker, he is good on the high school level, but would need to improve his strength to block D-I defensive linemen.

Video

Sophomore highlights at TE and WR.

Posted under Recruiting

Since I let Paul’s post stand on its own after the game Saturday, here are a few things I’d like to add:

Posted under Analysis, Coaching

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Oklahoma	1
2	LSU	4
3	Alabama	14
4	Texas	1
5	Missouri	3
6	Penn State	1
7	Brigham Young	4
8	South Florida	4
9	Florida	6
10	Southern Cal	9
11	Oklahoma State	2
12	Auburn	2
13	Ohio State	3
14	Texas Tech	1
15	Georgia	11
16	Utah	—
17	Kansas	1
18	Illinois	4
19	Vanderbilt	4
20	Boise State	4
21	Fresno State	—
22	Florida State	4
23	Virginia Tech	3
24	Wake Forest	5
25	Northwestern	1

Games Watched: USC-Oregon State, much of Louisville-UConn, Ohio State-Minnesota, First half of Michigan State-Indiana, Most of UMiami-UNC, Michigan-Wisconsin (live only), A tiny portion of Oklahoma-TCU, Georgia-Alabama, Penn State-Illinois. Less than usual because the Michigan game wiped me out. Plus I forgot to DVR things.

Posted under BlogPoll

As you can see, when I purport to give comprehensive stats, it looks dumb when the stats are anything less than comprehensive. If you know of an article that can help out, let me know. I’ll fill in the remaining game articles/stats as I find the articles.

CA QB Tate Forcier
This Week: Scripps Ranch v. Morse. Scripps wins 47-7.

Season Totals: Pius 2-1

MI S Thomas Gordon
This Week: Cass Tech v. King. Cass wins 17-0.
Season Totals: Cass Tech 5-0.

Since this is Gordon’s first week in FNL, I stuck him at the bottom, and his stats are really incomplete. He’ll move in with the safeties (and hopefully with a more complete stats section) next week.

Posted under Recruiting

This is a collection of text messages I sent to Tim during the game. They are in chronological order:

Posted under Analysis

Action since last rankings:
9-26-08 Michigan gains commitment from Thomas Gordon.

Apparently while I wasn’t paying attention (and I rarely am), Rivals updated its rankings. I’ve adjusted them accordingly below. Also, for consistency’s sake, I’m now only including prospects who are listed on the Rivals commit lists.

New Rankings:

Down: Berry (from 5)

< td style="border:1px solid rgb(0,0,102);">***

Changes: None.

Up: Turk (from 1).
I still anticipate a drop for Fox. There’s got to be a reason a guy from Ohio never even got on the radar of OSU or either Michigan school.

Up: Klatt (from 3).
I’m going to be honest here: I’ve seen Maxwell play this year and BOY HOWDY does he suck. He might end up a three-star when all is said and done, unless the game against Saginaw just happened to be the worst of his life.

Down: Arcidiacono (from 3).
Up: Dukes (from 2).

Changes: Kraig Appleton not considered committed.

Up: Duckworth (from 2).

Changes: None.

Changes: Keyt not listed as a commit.
Up: Barnett, Zachery, Carr, Bolser, McShane, Ewald (from two).

Changes: none.

Changes: None.

Changes: Kris Cooke not considered committed.

Posted under Recruiting

Detroit Cass Tech QB/S Thomas Gordon (6-0 200) has given his word to become a Michigan Wolverine. Gordon will likely be a defensive back at Michigan, but could fill in as a signal-caller if an injury situation were to require it. Gordon becomes the 19th member of the 2009 Michigan recruiting class.

Recruiting Notes
Gordon made it no secret from the get-go that the Wolverines were his favorite school, and spent much of the recruiting cycle waiting for his offer. He attended Michigan’s camp with his teammates Teric Jones and Will Campbell this summer, but his performance did not earn him that coveted offer. Gordon became a more serious prospect for Michigan later, as more schools began to offer. Thomas attended Michigan State’s game last weekend on a visit, where the Spartans gave him an offer. Shortly thereafter, Michigan followed suit, but Gordon chose to not immediately end his recruitment, giving respect to those that had offered him earlier. Gordon scheduled his announcement for September 26th, and despite a few changes to that schedule, he went with his heart on that date, picking the Wolverines.

Player Notes
Gordon is the starting QB for Cass Tech High School, but wasn’t deemed worthy of an offer at that position. When he attended college summer camps in 2008, several coaching staffs requested that he work out at the safety position. Though his performance didn’t garner any big-time offers, it did pique the interest of Rich Rodriguez and company. 2 games into the 2008 Cass Tech season, the coaches were convinced he could contribute at safety. He will be a DB at Michigan, though he would also be capable of playing QB in an emergency. Gordon is given two stars by Scout, though Rivals deems him worthy of the third star. He is a high-upside guy who might see his ranking increase, since he has only been playing safety for a half season.

Etc.
With two of his good friends and teammates now solidly committed to Michigan (on top of Boubacar Cissoko, who is a freshman standout in Ann Arbor), there is a good chance that William Campbell is more likely to recommit to Michigan.

Posted under Recruiting