Scout has next to nothing on this kid, but Michigan Elite Football has 4 videos of him. He plays mostly RB in them, but catches a few passes.

Link.

Posted under Recruiting

Maybe I should read all the news before I decide to post it.

Troy Woolfolk, a 6-0, 180 CB from Sugarland, Texas, has commited to the Wolverines. He is the son of former UM running back Butch Woolfolk.

This makes me wonder about the recruiting of defensive backs. We already have three (though Finch will probably be a weakside linebacker), and have yet to gain commits from the two we apparently covet the most – Ronald Johnson and Dionte Allen. This, combined with the recruitment of players like CA CB Michael Williams ,akes me wonder why we are taking so damn many DBs.

Is defensive back more of a position of need than I thought it would be, is this recruiting a reflection of English’s new position giving him more power, or a shift in ideology to a more-speed oriented defense? Only time will tell.

Posted under Recruiting

James Rogers, a full-week camper from Madison Heights Lampheer committed today.

He is a 6-3, 185 Wide Receiver who got the Smokehouse Award as camp’s fastest player. His previous offers were all for the RB position, from MAC-level schools and Colorado.

Rogers is not yet ranked on Scout.com

Posted under Recruiting

Per his camp statments, Ryan Mallett is currently enrolled in summer classes at his high school (though he is taking the whole week off to camp) , and plans to graduate early from high school. This makes him a January enrollee, and clarifies a little bit of his plans for the future.

Posted under Analysis

Courtesy of the athletic department. It includes archives of all the updates from the athletic department, as well as some updated problems.

I got 99 problems but a site ain’t one. Link me!

Posted under Misc.

Come out to Michigan Stadium from 12:30 to 2, have your car washed by football players, and support C.S. Mott Children’s hospital.

http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2006/carwash.htm

Posted under Misc.

College Football News has created a list of the most over- and under-rated teams of the past 35 years. This is based on preseason rankings compared to final rankings for each year. Michigan ended up 24th most overrated, while the most overrated team was MSU.

Posted under Analysis

ESPN reports that Vanderbilt will be getting a new quarterback for next season.

Since Richard Kovalcheck has graduated from Arizona, but still has eligibility remaining, he will be able to play right away for the Commodores, and is expected to do so.

Despite the graduation of Jay Cutler, Vanderbilt was expected to be a passing-oriented offense, so this development will help them be more successful in that regard.

Posted under Analysis

Scout has posted 3 Mallett highlight videos, and no, I’m not going to repost them, because they’re not free. However, I have a few quick points about them that I’d like to say about them.

• He is not slow. I would say he’s much more of, say, a Roethlisberger than a Navarre. He had a play-action QB draw touchdown form maybe the 10 yardline, and he was trucking it in there. Also, there was a play where the protection broke down, and he at least was able to get away form a couple defenders, which brings me to the next point…
• He actually ran a defender over on that play, and kept on running (though not very far). It certainly demonstrated that he had some pretty strong legs. Also, he plunged forward on a QB sneak touchdown (something we could have used against Notre Dame), and actually pushed the pile behind a pretty weak burst by his o-linemen.
• He has good pocket presence, and gets the ball out of there petty quickly. When nothing’s open, he’ll move around in the pocket a bit and wait for something.
• He is really accurate, which is actually a little surprising, as you hear almost exclusively about his strength, rather than laser-like precision. Like any QB, he made a couple errant throws, but most of them were spot-on. (Keep in mind that this video was only of completions, so maybe the 30% that he didn’t complete were piss-poor, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt).
• He plays from the shotgun and under center about equally, which is to say, a lot more shotgun that he’ll ever run at Michigan.
• He runs some pretty good play action (something his team also does often), and a couple times faked out both the entire defense AND the cameraman. If we move to a more play action oriented offense under DeBord, he should be able to fit right in.
• He has a couple pretty good teammates, including #4 Joseph Anderson (who, I was surprised to see, was nowhere in Scout’s database).

That’s all I really took away from it, but if I think of anything else, I’ll be sure to post it. I’m still planning on going to his game against Findlay (OH) and trying to get some film, so I’ll keep you updated. The film (assuming I get it) will certainly be MUCH MUCH higher quality than any I’ve ever seen on Scout.

Posted under Recruiting

If the team does these things, I get the feeling that everything else will take care of itself.

1. Crush Vanderbilt in the first game (set the tone for the season, and establish a good home field advantage)
2. Go to South Bend, beat Notre Dame with an emphasis on making Brady Quinn look bad.
3. Beat Michigan State, and help them begin their spiral away from bowl-eligibility.
4. Beat Penn State on the road at night. The fans will be really into this game, so it could be a great test. Plus, it’s one of ABC’s 12 Saturday Night national games, which is good exposure for the program. We want to leave recruits with a positive image.
5. Win out until Ohio State, including a big home game against Iowa.

After that, there’s nothing we can do but hope for a great game against OSU.

Posted under Analysis