Your All-Decade Michigan Football Team
The Athletic is doing a ton of "All-Decade" content right now and will be releasing their All-Decade Michigan Football Team. So I thought it would be fun to share mine to start a discussion of who is on your all-decade list. Please note I did not want to put one player at two different positions so that takes Jabrill out of the returner category. Here's mine with my other candidates in parentheses:
Offense:
QB: Denard Robinson (Devin Gardner, Jake Rudock, Wilton Speight, Shea Patterson)
RB: Karan Higdon (Fitzgerald Toussaint, Deveon Smith)
WR: Jeremy Gallon, Amara Darboh, Nico Collins (Devin Funchess, Roy Roundtree, Drew Dileo)
TE: Jake Butt (Zach Gentry, Kevin Koger)
OT: Taylor Lewan, Michael Schofield (Ben Braden, Erik Magnuson)
OG: Mason Cole, Ben Bredeson (Graham Glasgow Michael Onwenwu, Patrick Omameh)
C: David Molk (Caesar Ruiz)
Defense:
DE: Chase Winovich, Taco Charlton (Chris Wormley, Rashan Gary, Ryan Van Bergen, Frank Clark)
DT: Maurice Hurst, Mike Martin (Ryan Glasgow, Willie Henry, Will Campbell)
LB: Devin Bush, Jabrill Peppers, Jake Ryan (Kenny Demens, James Ross, Joe Bolden)
CB: Jourdan Lewis, Lavert Hill (David Long, Channing Stribling, Ramon Taylor)
S: Jarrod Wilson, Delano Hill (Jordan Kovacs, Thomas Gordon, Josh Metellus, Tyree Kinnel)
Special Teams:
K: Kenny Allen (Brendan Gibbons, Matt Wile,
P: Will Hart (Will Hagerup, Blake O'Neill)
PR: Donovan Peoples-Jones (Dennis Northfleet)
KR: Giles Jackson (Jourdan Lewis, Dennis Northfleet, Jehu Chesson, Ambry Thomas)
What does your list look like? Who would you have changed from mine?
November 26th, 2019 at 12:06 PM ^
For QB I'd like to cheat and pick 'Devin Gardner that got to play under Harbaugh all 4 years'
For linebacker, I'm a little surprised you picked Joe Bolden even as an alternate. Is my memory fading me or wasn't he pretty bad? Gedeon was immediately better and I'd take freshman McGrone over anytime Bolden
November 26th, 2019 at 12:18 PM ^
Also, if we are talking unspectacularly boring players let's throw De'Veon Smith on the RB list, and Hammering Panda in at FB. Smith wasnt fast or anything but he was pretty efficient.
November 26th, 2019 at 12:19 PM ^
I almost feel like this list should be stricken from the record
November 26th, 2019 at 12:25 PM ^
Are you Drew Dileo or Ramon Taylor? Because neither of them belong on this list even as honorable mention.
Peppers HAS to be the punt returner. 13.1 yds/return, 1 TD over 39 returns. And if memory serves he had a few called back a few where the punter tripped him to save a TD. DPJ has more than twice the sample size and 2 TD's, but only 8.5 yd avg. and has made numerous QUESTIONABLE catches inside the 10 without calling fair catch - although thankfully he seems to have grown out of that. From the eyeball test Peppers was a legit threat to house it every time, DPJ is good but not on Peppers' level.
Other that not much worth arguing about.
November 26th, 2019 at 1:12 PM ^
Also David Long and Lavert Hill at corner I know JL had a career but I want the athletes Ambry can be my nickel.
Also we all have a soft spot for Denard but I think I have to take Shea or Rudock over Denard.
Metellus Makes a strong case at safety no pun intended.
Darbo DPJ Collins at WR! Im assuming DPJ ascends even more back for a 4th year pre med student!
Jabrill Punt Returner, Khaleke at Viper (3rd LB)
November 26th, 2019 at 1:20 PM ^
Rudock's half season of verygoodness over Denard though? I disagree. Denard was the only QB on this list (so far) to beat OSU, FWIW. Denard at ND in 2010 and UTL I vs ND in 2011 surpassed Rudock's resume, IMO.
November 26th, 2019 at 1:17 PM ^
With respect to your "one position only" constraint, JD Lewis the CB means JD Lewis cannot be on the KR list.
Similarly, Dennis NorthSouthEastWestfleet (it's Norfleet) cannot be both PR and KR.
Personally I would drop Speight, Dileo, Bolden and Taylor off this list. Glad they came here, behaved well, competed hard, etc ... but even in the dark days of the 2010s they do not belong on this list.
November 26th, 2019 at 2:25 PM ^
My take is you are trying to hard to be inclusive of early decade players. We had some bad teams back then. I'd take Mcgrone or Gedeon over Demens or Bolden, and Ambry Thomas over Taylor. And Will Campbell was pretty horrible.
November 26th, 2019 at 2:34 PM ^
Does my hypothetical all decade team actually run an offense suited to it's players? Because if so who know what kind of stats Denard would have had in an offense that actually utilized his talents properly.
November 26th, 2019 at 10:21 PM ^
It has been mentioned above, but Junior Hemingway not even getting a mention is very odd.
I stan hard for that 2011 team especially their seniors who dealt with all of that and then gave us our most fun team of the decade.