From Sunday’s game. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this slideshow is worth about half a normal Formerly Anonymous post.

Posted under Baseball, Other Sports, Photo Album

One of the most convenient things about Youngstown, Ohio, is the fact that it resides directly next to I-80. I-80, you may realize, is the route taken from Ann Arbor to State College. How perfect, then, that Youngstown Liberty Leopards, who boast two Michigan commits on their football team, had a home game at their stadium (from which you can literally see I-80), on the night before Michigan’s game at Penn State?

Being the enterprising Michigan fans/bloggers/general creeps that we are, Paul and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take in a game starring Fitzgerald Toussaint and Isaiah Bell. Want to hear more? Well, read on…

The game began at 7, but we arrived shortly after 6. The stadium was your general high school type, with a set of aluminum bleachers for both the home and away fans. We were among the first people there, so we tested out the camera, looked around, and practiced signing our names with the last name “Toussaint.” During warmups, Fitzgerald Toussaint was one of the team captains. In fact, throughout the night, he seemed to be a real leader of his team.

By the time the game began, we were pumped and ready to see Fitz destroy all comers. Essentially, the story of the night is that this never happened. Toussaint had some opportunities to make plays, but a couple of his teammates (including Julius Ferrell – who didn’t look much like a D-1 prospect, though the knee brace he was wearing may have had something to do with it) got the better opportunities, as Howland’s defense was keying on Fitz all night. He ended the game with 124 yards rushing on 30 carries, including a 5 yard sack on a halfback pass. His long run of the night was 21 yards. He was thrown to once and it was intercepted.

Isaiah Bell was also a starter on offense, at one of the wide receiver positions. He was thrown to 3 times, with 1 reception (on a screen) for four yards. The other two passes, using the UFR metric, would be classified as a 0 (bounced to him) and a 1.

Bell was also one of Liberty’s safeties, playing free in the middle of what appeared to be a cover-3 system most of the game. It was clear that, despite his size, Isaiah’s job was to play centerfield and let absolutely nobody by him. He was hesistant in run support, but I think that was a schematic choice, rather than a criticism of him. He finished the game with 5 tackles, though he left during the fourth quarter with an ankle injury (he could put almost no weight on his left leg).

So with a couple of big-time players in the mix for Liberty, how did they manage to lose this game? There are a couple of main reasons. First things first, Howland was determined to stop Fitzgerald Toussaint, no matter the cost. This hurt them when he motioned to the slot and another running back ran up the gut for a long touchdown. This selling out would have hindered their ability to win even more had Liberty’s QB not been something approaching awful. I didn’t keep stats on him, but he was something like 3/15 with 2 or 3 picks. Yikes. Not good. Howland also avoided Bell and Toussaint on special teams. Those two were the deep men on punts and kickoffs. All the kickoffs were squibbed, and only one punt made it to the returners (a Toussaint 18 yard return was negated by a block in the back).
In terms of playing style and projections, Fitz appeared to me to be much more of an inside runner than expected. Like every high schooler, he has work to do in the weight room, but he should be just fine once he gets to college. Though Bell has athleticism, he also has a pretty strong build. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was able to stay at safety in college, and be a big hitter. However, it is more likely that he adds bulk and becomes a linebacker. As you can see, he has big thighs, and a frame that might be conducive to putting on more weight.

Posted under Football

As suspected, the Morgan Trent 4.13 was an agility drill, not a 40yd dash.

Posted under Photo Album

Taking a page out of the MGoBlue.com book, instead of having a heavy a page with a lot of images, you get a slide show!

If you’d like to get high quality versions of the images you can look through them here or just click on the picture. I guess you can even order prints if you’re into that kind of thing.

I’m going to try to get my initial impressions posted tonight before the standard college Saturday night starts. Look for player and coach interviews to be up tomorrow. The footage from the scrimmage, warm-ups and position drills will be posted throughout the week.

Posted under Blog News, Photo Album, Spring Coverage

Sorry for the shoddy excuse for content – I’m out of town. Regular blogging resumes tomorrow.

MGoBlue gallery.

Posted under Photo Album, Spring Coverage

Pictures uploaded to Facebook because I have yet to figure out the optimal way to do a pictures post. Score-O was first intermission (he did not score), interview was second intermission/beginning of third period.

Posted under Hockey, Photo Album

Posted under Photo Album

Orchard Lake St. Mary’s took on Detroit Cass Tech today in Orchard Lake, and a number of Michigan prospects/commits were in action. I previously took in an OLSM scrimmage, and reported on two of their prospects here. Today, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s prevailed in a fairly lopsided game (the 28-6 score did not tell the whole story) where both teams tried (without much success) to run the ball much of the time. Cass Tech seemed to be the more athletic team, but not as well coached as the Eaglets.

Boubacar Cissoko Cass Tech WR/CB #2 Michigan commit ’08
Cissoko was Cass Tech’s do-it-all man, returning punts and kicks, playing corner on defense, and wide receiver on offense. Oh yeah, and the soccer player also handled kickoffs and punts for the technicians. In my previous experiences with Cissoko, I had been under the impression that his listed height was greater than the 5-7 he is typically reported to be. However, seeing Cissoko in action, it was obvious he was a tiny guy. As just a high school senior, it is possible that he is still growing.

On defense, Cissoko was not afraid to get physical with much bigger players, and he was frequently matched up against Dion Sims. Despite giving Sims almost a foot in height and close to 100 pounds, Cissoko showed no fear in jamming Sims off the line and downfield. Cissoko did get burned once deep, as he got his head around too late on a long pass, and due to his height, was unable to compensate. He did, however, make the tackle a couple yards shy of the endzone. As a tackler, Cissoko tends to focus on the hit, rather than wrapping up the ballcarrier. However, on the occasion that Cissoko wasn’t able to get a clean shot on the carrier, he wisely used his arms to take out the legs. Cissoko chased down two sweep plays in the backfield, one of them on a shoestring tackle.

Offensively, Cissoko impressed more than I thought he would. He ran crisp routes, and when he was open, he threw his hand in the air to demand the ball. Cass Tech’s QB, Thomas Gordon, only found him a couple of times as he was under pressure much of the contest. When Cissoko did get his hands on the ball, he was a breaston-like playmaker, using his quickness to get YAC. I actually liked him on offense almost as much as I did on the defensive side of the ball. Cissoko did get by a defender deep once, but Gordon overthrew him in the endzone.

On special teams, Cissoko returned a few punts and kicks, but was unable to make anything truly special happen.

William Campbell Cass Tech DT/OT #73 Michigan commit ’09
William Campbell was a man amongst boys on the lines for Cass Tech. He was a healthy 6-6, 310, and had at least 4-5 inches and 30 pounds over just about everyone else he played with and against.

On Defense, Campbell played both inside and outside. He was not quick off the edge, but could easily take on blockers to make plays. He helped Cass’s D-Line control the line of scrimmage (as both D-lines did on this day), holding St. Mary’s to negative yardage on most plays, except when they could scrounge out 1-2 yards, though OLSM did manage to break into the secondary on a coupld occasions. Campbell showed a willingness to chase down plays from the backside, though with his speed he was unlikely to catch anyone.

I liked Campbell on offense more than I did on defense. He manned the right tackle position for Cass Tech, and showed decent technique. He finished all of his blocks, and was a whistle-to-whistle player in the trenches. At his size, he projects as a tackle at the next level, with his long(ish) arms. I wouldn’t be surprised if Campbell played offense in college.

Dion Sims OLSM TE/WR/LB #8 Michigan prospect ’09
I still see Sims as a TE on the next level if he stays on offense, and if he goes to defense, he would be a defensive end, as he doesn’t play well with his hands, or make great reads, as a linebacker (view the previous OLSM report).

It was a wet day today, so the ball wasn’t thrown around too much, even though neither team could get consistent production on the ground. I don’t believe Sims was thrown to once all day, and certainly not was he was being defended by the lilliputian Cissoko.

Christian Brandt OLSM OT #77 Michigan prospect ’09
Nothing new on Brandt from the last OLSM report. He looked a little more in shape, thuogh that’s more likely my memory playing tricks on me, since the last time I scouted Saint Mary’s was a little over a week ago. He didn’t play on every down on offense. Neither offensive line had a good day, though OLSM was able to break a couple long runs.

Posted under Photo Album, Recruiting

Enjoy.

Posted under Photo Album

The stadium is on its way to looking like this. pix4u:

Posted under Photo Album