2018 spring practice
1 hour and 47 minutes
We are at the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, our gracious hosts and yours this fall if you act fast enough.
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1. The Offense wsg Seth Fisher (that’s me!)
starts at 1:00
Peters is running with the ones, Shea is probably the guy, Milton in the future. Black and DPJ, Crawford moving to 41 is probably not a Lytle reference. We’re all for Gentry in the slot. Offensive line: Hudson is our rooting interest, Onwenu was fine last year, Ruiz is probably real, Runyan at RT isn’t ideal. Super max protect Gentry 500 FTW! I like the way Lewerke.
2. The Defense wsg Seth again (yes THAT me!)
starts at 29:53
The happy section, where we bring up the 2014 Rutgers game, the Cleveland Browns, Brady Hoke Punt Fest 2013, and several times the 2010 defense. Hype for Dwumfour started last year; we disagree somewhat on how ready the redshirt freshmen are. Zordich ornery after his corners were all injured but Ambry. Brian is against safeties. Lots of linebacker weapons. We pronounce Uche correctly.
3. Recruiting Football, Basketball, Hockey
starts at 57:55
Three sports, three football commits, a bazillion hockey commits, and lots of interest in the basketball program. Newburg is a wrastler. Herron is clearly waiting for Stanford admissions to decommit. Stewart committed from Connecticut, his school’s one to watch (2020 ND quarterback commit). Iggy finally jumped to the composite top 50. DeJulius and Castleton late jumps too. Could be better than the Fresh Five class. Girard? Balas thinks so. Hockey crootin.
4. Moritz and Matthews Draft Futures
starts at 1:31:15
This section became a 2018 hoops class segment. Expected Moe to go—unless his arms grew longer he wasn’t going to be a better NBA prospect. Find usage elsewhere, more pick and roll than pop, Teske D on the floor all game. Matthews is going to find out what he needs to work on—has NBA talent but probably won’t get a draft grade.
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MUSIC
- “No Diggity”—Blackstreet ft. Dr. Dre, Quenn Pen
- “While You Wait for the Others”—Grizzly Bear
- “Goggles”—Post Animal
- “Across 110th Street”
THE USUAL LINKS
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link
- What's with the theme music?
Let’s try to make as many of them ineligible as possible.
lada dida dada dada dada deeda dida dum [Eric Upchurch]
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The Question:
Things we would have wanted to see if there was a spring game but there isn't so let's all imagine
…except with defense.
whoa. I wonder how far
this box in a box
thing can go
(sorry)
Brian: No injuries, the end.
Ace: This is kinda short, man.
Seth: Before every Michigan coach jumps in to say "Michael Dwumfour" I'm going to say Michael Dwumfour.
Brian: Ooooh sorry seth that didn't make it before the end of the post.
Ace: Do not tempt the wrath of Don Brown.
solving this problem with aggression [Patrick Barron]
Seth: Actually Dwumfour just fired off the line so fast he was already in the post before you typed that.
[After THE JUMP: The snap. Get it?]
you can’t throw a rock at Schembechler Hall without hitting someone talking up Bush and Dwumfour [Patrick Barron]
We got a lot of good stuff from over the weekend so let’s do another one of these. Depending on what’s leaking the rest of the week I may or may not get another out before the spring game, so I’ll try to make this one pretty comprehensive.
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Quarterback
Do you know what people say you are? [Bryan Fuller]
What we want to hear: Hosanna, hey-sanna, sanna sanna ho, sanna hey, sanna ho, sanna!
What we’re hearing: Multiple practice observers believe Patterson is well ahead of the other two, and the gap between him and Peters/McCaffrey is about equal to the gap between those two right now and where they were last year.
First the scouting. Harbaugh on his podcast said Shea Patterson has the best release and that he really shines when going off-script. Insiders are spitting out super-foobally platitudes: He’s “a leader.” He “makes plays.” That jives with his seat-of-the-pants film at Ole Miss and the general “Tate Forcier Except Goes to Class” impression we got from that. The insiders are way more bullish. The “he’s a leader” thing got emphasized by all three of my “SOURCES”, with one saying he’s probably the best offensive juice guy Michigan’s had since Harbaugh got here.
Brandon Peters throws the best ball, which is again something we knew. The biggest mover is Dylan McCaffrey, last year’s scout team player of the year, who benefited the most from Herbert in the offseason, and who gets rave reviews about his pocket command.
As for eligibility, Brian discussed it depth earlier this afternoon. The short version is it’s no surprise that Ole Miss opposed these waivers because the only way to avoid significant sanctions is casting Ohio State* and beating the NCAA’s wisdom throw.
*
What it means: The first episode of the Amazon thing was a good reminder that nobody outside of the quarterback room knows the real status of the quarterback battle, so this is guesswork based on lay observations. But nothing can be done to stop the shouting; if every tongue were stilled the noise would still continue—the rocks and stone themselves would start to sing. Unless the NCAA (and again, we’re talking about the NCAA, not some group of responsible, potty-trained adults) buys Ole Miss’s innocence act, Patterson is your presumptive starter. For now.
There’s another clue that this is where the coaches are leaning: one of the points insiders made about is Pep is putting more emphasis on scramble drills. We all noticed last year how, with the notable exception of Grant Perry, Michigan’s receivers would end up standing around after running their routes instead of working back to the QB. If there’s a greater emphasis for the QBs on checking down and improvisation, and a greater emphasis for the WRs on providing those outlets, that kinda sounds like they’re shaping the offense to Shea’s strengths.
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[After THE JUMP: My two offensive lines theory, did you hear about Dwumfour?]
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