The new site has given us a lot of new options that we didn’t have on Blogger. The ablity to do something like this easily and locally is probably the biggest.

We have put together a page on each current 2009 commit and pulled information from the recruiting board, recruiting updates and Friday Night Lights posts.  Now almost all the information Varsity Blue has on a particular commit is in one place where readers can comment and discuss (and share video highlights, news stories, etc).

The page can be found here as well as in the Quick Links box at the top of the page.

Posted under Blog News, Recruiting

Tonight at 8pm, the fine gentlemen of Wolverine Liberation Army are hosting a Cover-it-Live chat event featuring the proprietors of many of the prominent Michigan blogs across the great internet. Please stop by and contribute, or just watch us talk to each other.

Official Release from WLA:

Tonight, starting at 8pm ET, we will be hosting the Michigan Worker’s Congress with Brian from MGoBlog, Tim and Paul from Varsity Blue, Beauford Bixel from Maize n’ Brew, Johnny from Ronald Bellamy’s Under-Achieving All-Stars, and Coach Gsimms from Three and Out. Some special guests may show up as the night rolls on.

Be there or be square.

Posted under Blog News

The Michigan Athletic Department reports that Michigan Defensive Coordinator Scott Shafer has resigned from his position.

Shafer was in his first year as defensive corrdinator at Michigan, and the unit, which was expected to carry the offense through a rebuilding year, was unable to perform to expectations. The search for a new defensive coordinator will likely start immediately.

As someone who watched the games with something of an analytical eye, this move irks me somewhat. It appeared that players were often in position to make plays, but failed to wrap up their tackles, or made poor plays on the ball. At what point are players and position coaches responsible for poor safety and linebacker play?

Posted under Coaching, Football

Recruiting Boards:
2009 & 2010.

2009 LA DT Commit DeQuinta Jones was his district’s Defensive Player of the Year. Teammate Rueben Randle, who is nominally still listing Michigan, was his offensive counterpart. Picture by Kita Wright of the Bastrop Daily Enterprise.

Chalk another Michigan commit up to the national All-star game list:

a Michigan-bound Tiger football player will be headed to San Antonio for the
All-American Bowl, as J.T. Turner has been chosen to play in the ninth edition
of the game on Saturday, Jan. 3 at the Alamodome.

As the date approaches, I’ll make sure to keep you updated on who to watch in each game.

2009 MD RB Tavon Austin decision details:

Austin has narrowed college choices to West Virginia, Maryland, Michigan and North Carolina. He said he will wait to decide until the Feb. 4 signing date.

This is consistent with what has been coming out of the Austin camp recently. It wouldn’t seem that Michigan has a great shot at him, but with McGuffie leaving, the situation with Austin can only be helped.

Removed FL S Jonathan Scott from the 2009 board:

And now, Jonathan will choose between West Virginia, South Carolina and Alabama, the three schools that have offered him a free ride so far.

After getting on him early, Michigan never really seemed to be a real player for Scott, so this is no surprise.

2009 SC DE Sam Montgomery will visit Michigan in January. The 4-star is favoring LSU over the Wolverines, UNC, Tennessee, Oregon, and the in-state South Carolina schools.

Removed MI TE Dion Sims from the 2009 board. I was never high on him as a recruit for Michigan (we don’t need a TE in this class, and he doesn’t seem to have the nasty edge to play DE – never mind the fact that his heart isn’t in football at all). He will choose between Ohio State, Michigan State, and Miami of Florida.

Added to the 2009 board: AL LB Tana Patrick. Info in a Scout Header:

Alabama linebacker Tana Patrick still denies a leader, but mentioned Alabama, Auburn, Michigan, Miami, Florida State and LSU as his six favorites

2010 OH LB Scott McVey was Player of the Year according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He should be a bigtime recruit not too far down the road. Ohio State has already offered.

Pahokee is likely to be a recruiting point of emphasis for the foreseeable future. 2010 Slot Dennis Hall highlights from SoFlaFootball:

Dennis Hall from SoFLAfootball on Vimeo.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

At some point during the first half of the basketball game against Duke, I decided that I was going to go to the basketball game against Eastern Michigan.  As opposed to previous years, I have actually enjoyed watching this team play.  They are generally likeable players who are well coached and play hard for the entire game.  I remember watching the teams with Horton, Hunter, Abrams, among others, trying to win games and do well, but failed by their coach.  Watching Tommy Amaker stand there and wave his finger as though that meant anything other than pass it around the perimeter then let Horton make a huge play was one of the most frustrating things to watch.

I saw flashes of the Beilein system last year and was really excited for the season this year.  This year with only a few new contributors (Novak and Douglass) Beilein has made this into a very entertaining and, more importantly,  competative team.  I’m committed now to attend as many games as I can.  Tim is probably going to head to the Big Ten Championship.  This is almost exclusively the result of Beilein’s coaching.  He has, in less time than I ever thought possible, made Michigan Basketball relevant on campus again.  Now there’s a plan for a new practice facility going before the Regents in January.  This is a program on the rise, and I can see Beilein getting Michigan getting this team all the way with the right personnel and a bit of luck.

Eastern Michigan Specifically

• The attendance was actually fairly impressive for a game where most of the students are either home or studying for exams.  Granted the fact that the “away” team was a defacto second home team and student tickets are free, but no way would this game be that well attended last year.
• It was kind of weird that they never announced at the game that Beilein wasn’t there.  I didn’t know until someone texted me.
• If you told me that Manny Harris would be held to 2 points in the first half and DeShawn Sims wasn’t all that effective either, no way I would have guessed that Michigan would have a 10 point lead.
• No one can stay in front of Kelvin Grady.  I actually look forward to seeing teams trying to press him.
• Manny Harris has this ability to get wherever he wants on the floor whenever he wants.  It’s a bit absurd how he can knife through  the defense.  It wasn’t just against Eastern, either; he was able to do it against UCLA and Duke.
• Jevohn Shepherd may be my favorite player on the team.  He doesn’t have the tools of Sims or Harris, but he’s gone from being an afterthought to a very solid contributor.  He even carried the team a while in the first half.
• The biggest applause of the game was when Lloyd Carr walked in during half time.

Posted under Basketball

Every 2009 commit’s season has now finished. The 2010 commits’ junior wrapup is forthcoming sometime this week.

New Commits
MI WR Cameron Gordon
Season Totals: Inkster 8-1. Lost in the state finals.
Individual stats for Inkster are hard to come by, but Gordon did have 4 catches for 58 yards to go along with 6 tackles in the state championship game.

AZ OL Taylor Lewan
Season Totals: Chaparral 9-1. Lost in the state finals.

Still Playing
FL RB Vincent Smith
This Week: Pahokee v. Trinity Catholic. Pahokee wins 21-17. Article 2.
Season Totals: Pahokee 8-3. State Champions!

FL LB Brandin Hawthorne
This Week: Pahokee v. Trinity Catholic. Pahokee wins 21-17. Article 2.
Season Totals: Pahokee 8-3. State Champions!

Seasons Over
CA QB Tate Forcier
Season Totals: Scripps Ranch 7-3. Lost in the third round of the playoffs.

TX QB Shavodrick Beaver

MI RB Teric Jones
Season Totals: Cass 7-2. Lost in 2nd Round of the playoffs.

Season Totals: Liberty 8-2, lost in first round of playoffs.

FL Slot Jeremy Gallon
Season Totals: Apopka 8-2. Lost in 3rd round of the playoffs.

Also, 1 KO return TD.

IL OL Michael Schofield
Season Totals: Sandburg 6-3. Lost in first round of playoffs.

OK DT Pearlie Graves
Season Totals: East Central 10-0. Lost in 3rd round of playoffs (state semifinal).
Graves: 61 Tackles, 4.0 Sacks, 2 fumble recoveries for touchdowns.

LA DT DeQuinta Jones
Season Totals: Bastrop 9-1. Lost in 4th round of the playoffs.

AZ DE Craig Roh
Season Totals: Chaparral 9-1. Lost in the state finals.

NJ DE Anthony LaLota
Season Totals: Hun 4-4. Missed the playoffs.

FL LB Mike Jones
Season Totals: Edgewater 5-5. Missed the playoffs.

OH S Isaiah Bell
Season Totals: Liberty 8-2, lost in first round of playoffs.

FL S Vladimir Emilien
Season Totals: Plantation 6-4, lost in first round of playoffs.
Emilien missed the entire year with knee ligament damage.

MI S Thomas Gordon
Season Totals: Cass 7-2. Lost in 2nd Round of the playoffs.

Obviously Gordon’s stats are woefully incomplete at this point. If you can help out, leave a message in the comments.

OH CB/S Justin Turner
Season Totals: Washington 6-4. Lost in first round of playoffs.

TX CB/WR DeWayne Peace
Season Totals: SGP 7-3. Lost in 1st round of playoffs.

Peace must have been hurt near the end of the year, because his production dropped off completely, and they stopped trying to get him the ball in the run game.

FL K Brendan Gibbons
Season Totals: Cardinal Newman 2-8, missed the playoffs.

Posted under Football, Recruiting

Welcome to our new place.  Make sure to take your shoes off before you come in.

A couple things to point out:

1. Links to the recruiting boards and personnel info are on the top left.  Check out the boards if you haven’t; we’re constantly adding video and notes about the recruits.
2. In addition to tags, we’ve added categories.  For example,  all the recruiting updates and commitment announcements are under Recruiting. Podcasts/photo libraries are under Media.

We’ve had this up and running for a while, but both Tim and I are a bit close to the project and, more specifically, run OSX, so if anyone notices something off or not working with IE6 or any other paleolithic browser, leave a comment on this post.  Beyond that, let us know what you think and of any new features you might want to see on the site.  It’s obviously still evolving and we have a lot more freedom on this site.

Hope you all enjoy the new digs.

UPDATE: I think I solved the issue the right sidebar in Safari. Can someone with IE5/6 chime in and let me know how it looks? Also, if someone wants to let me know how it looks on a mobile device, that’d be great.

Posted under Blog News

Taylor Lewan, a 6-7, 280-lb offensive tackle from Scottsdale, Arizona. Lewan is a high school teamate of Michigan defensive end commit Craig Roh, and becomes the 21st commitment in Michigan’s class of 2009.

Recruiting Notes
Lewan was unknown early in the recruiting season, but a solid senior year at a new position and a new school has given him the ability to pick from a virtual who’s-who of colleges. Michigan offered him after the first few games of his final high school campaign, and when they landed Craig Roh, it greatly increased their chances to land Taylor. However, Lewan’s father is a native Minnesotan, and attended the University in St. Paul. Because of his father’s roots, Lewan has described himself as a displaced midwesterner. After a Minnesota visit, Lewan maintained that he would still take trips to Michigan and Oregon before making his decision. Taylor visited Ann Arbor the weekend of December 13th, and attended Michigan’s basketball victory against Eastern Michigan. Shortly thereafter, he told Rich Rodriguez that he wished to be a Michigan Wolverine, and committed to the Maize and Blue.

Player Notes
In his junior year, Taylor Lewan was a little-known defensive end prospect from Cactus Shadows High School in Scottsdale, Arizona. A transfer to Chaparral High School (a more successful program) and a move to the offensive tackle position (at which he is a better physical fit) gave Lewan a new lease on football life. He has become one of the fastes-rising prospects in the country over the course of a few short months. Lewan is a true offensive tackle, and a four-star prospect to both recruiting sites. He plays with an edge to his game that sets him apart from other offensive linemen. New teammate Craig Roh had a mutually-beneficial relationship on the practice field with Lewan, and the pair helped each other improve. Roh has described Lewan as a gym rat that won’t be outworked by anyone. Roh and Lewan also faced

Video
Junior Film

Posted under Football, Recruiting

…and there was much sadness.

Freshman running back Sam McGuffie has announced his intentions to transfer from Michigan. McGuffie was Michigan’s 2nd leading rusher on the year, but missed parts or all of several games with concussions. He received his unconditional release from Michigan this morning, according to both pay sites.

McGuffie-and-Michigan never was a perfect fit after the departure of Lloyd Carr and the pro-style system, and McGuffie will likely transfer somewhere closer to home that is a better fit for his skill set. His injury history and family issues are reported to be the reasons for his departure from Michigan.

Varsity Blue wishes McGuffie the best of luck with whatever he plans to do in the future. Scholarship count will be updated accordingly.

Posted under Football, Personnel

Action since last rankings:
12-7-08 Notre Dame gains commitment from Jordan Cowart.
12-8-08 Michigan State gains commitment from Corey Freeman. Purdue gains commitment from Xavier Melton.
12-9-08 Indiana loses commitment from Kenny Watkins.
12-11-08 Michigan gains commitment from Cameron Gordon.

New Rankings:

Up: Robinson (From 1)

Posted under Football, Recruiting