Miscellaneous Minutiae, 8/27/2012

Just wrapping up some loose ends here before the college football season starts...ON THURSDAY. I can hardly believe it either. 

Goodbye, offseason.

Captains. They are, as expected, Denard Robinson and Jordan Kovacs. As Michigan's most prominent senior warrior football poets, you can expect a lot about them in this space throughout the coming months.

Also, this goes without saying but I'll say it anyway: Jordan Kovacs is Rudy...if Rudy was actually good and had an NFL future. Seriously. The guy didn't make the team in 2008 due to a knee injury and then turned around and started in '09. The rest, as they say, is history. Competence is good. /Henne'd

Deciding time. This is just about the time when schools are announcing who their starter at QB will be going into the coming season. Some guys won by default, some after a long and arduous battle throughout the spring, summer, and fall.

The notable winners: Kiehl Frazier (Auburn), Josh Nunes (Stanford), Everret Golson (Notre Dame), David Ash (Texas), and Joe Southwick (Boise State), Marcus Mariota (Oregon). So, there you go. Arm yourselves with this arsenal of useless information (which I guess basically defines sports fandom as a whole, but whatever). Nunes and Southwick have the unenviable task of replacing Andrew Luck and Kellen Moore*, whereas the other three guys are trying to be better (Ash, Frazier) or better than the guy that started last year (Golson).

*Mariota has to replace a productive, successful college QB in Darron Thomas, but, as I mentioned in the Pac 12 preview, he's just the next cog in the Oregon offensive machine. At this point, I'm convinced that Chip Kelly could coach an orange with pencils for appendages to run for 100+ and pass for 250+ against your team.

Speaking of Golson. You've probably heard this already, but ND has suspended tailback Cierre Wood for a minimum of two games...that's not a good thing if your name is Everett Golson. The Irish start the season in Dublin (not the one in Ohio) against Navy. I'm not quite ready to sound the upset alert siren here, but a young QB without his top tailback, no Michael Floyd (plus, Theo Riddick is now a running back), doesn't sound like a promising thing for the ND offense. Whereas Rees managed to move the ball last season only to eventually turn it over, ND might find it difficult to move the ball at all with Golson.

Basically, you can expect approximately 842 passes thrown in Tyler Eifert's direction against Navy.

Meanwhile, in Knoxville. Also on the suspension front, Tennessee had suspended star wideout Da'Rick Rogers (he has since transferred to Tennessee Tech), which significantly puts a dent in my increasingly positive (for some reason) feelings about the Vols' 2012 team. This is a tough blow for Tennessee, especially after getting their other star receiver Justin Hunter back from injury (he missed most of the 2011 season).

From where I stand, Tennessee looks like a team with a solid but not spectacular defense that is moving to the 3-4 and an offense with a gunslinger of a QB and a not very established running game. Unless Bray is ultra-efficient--which is unlikely given that's he's going to be throwing it as if UT  had somehow relocated to the Pacific coast--then seven wins might be as far as UT can go in Dooley's third season. Is that enough? I'm honestly not sure.

Ah, there's the beef. So things had been progressing fairly normally this fall; that is, until some things about the defensive line started to leak out of fall camp. By this I am mostly referring to #76 Quinton Washington, former O-lineman, starting on the DL next to BWC.

If the Black-QW-BWC-Roh lineup is the one that gets rolled out to start, that pretty much confirms the sneaking suspicion that the coaches aren't that comfortable with Black's ability to hold up on the inside, even with the weight he's added (up to 276 from 260, as of this post). Either that, or they're attempting to compensate for Clark's suspension by slotting Black back at his original position (WDE), hopefully precluding the need to play Ojemudia at all against Alabama, which I think would mostly end in disaster. Washington is pretty big, and if there was a game to roll with QW and Campbell in the middle, it's against Alabama. Now, being big doesn't mean that you can hold up (see: "Will Campbell's first three seasons at Michigan"), but the coaching staff is in a bit of a bind. Sadly, these sorts of moves when you're about to face an offensive line like Alabama's is kind of like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Also. Devin Gardner: is the transformation to wideout complete? It certainly seems that way based on recent rumblings. Two things:

• Whatever arcane magical rituals you've been performing in order to keep Denard healthy, DOUBLE DOWN on them right now and all the way through early January. No offense to Russell Bellomy, but if he is the QB2 in earnest, then 
• At this point, however, I've come to terms with the fact that wide receiver might end up being Devin Gardner's calling. For whatever reason, his mechanics and overall QB "it having-ness" hasn't progressed as expected, and that's unfortunate but far from presages the end of the world or DG's career. We all know he can be an exceptional talent [insert that camp highlight tape where he does his best Marquise Walker impression here], but it's one thing to be a guy running out there for the occasional snap and being a starting guy. Either way, the coaches have done a great job generally keeping DG's role under wraps..I can guarantee that Saban is thinking about this. 

See, look: interesting football things to talk about. Football must be near. *Checks calendar* WOOOO!

More? Florida's 2012 QB situation is going to mirror 1998/99 Michigan's...if Brady and Henson were both not very good. Check the "ETC" section...Spencer with a zinger regarding UofM research and Greg Robinson. 

Lake The Post agrees with me, putting Michigan at #11 to start. 

Miscellaneous Minutiae, 4/10/2012

Return of the King: As you know Trey Burke has decided to return and the pendulum of life, which swings back and forth between "OMG AWESOME" and "OMG THIS IS TERRIBLE WHY"--and only these two things--has swung back to the good side. Now that this mildly stressful ordeal is over (if you were actually freaking out about this then you need to reconsider the manner in which you deal with things), these are some points of note, for me:

• WOOOOOOOOOOOOO,
• On a less cheery note, if you think about leaving early for the NBA, Michigan fans will downplay your ability, backtracking only once you've decided to stay. 
• With Burke returning, it's very hard for me to imagine a 2009-10 season Redux. This comparison will be drawn approximately 12, 485 times this offseason, but I think it's fairly clear that 2012-13 Michigan basketball>>>2009-10 Michigan basketball. It's not even close. 
• I wouldn't get too excited about our newfound point guard "depth." It really wouldn't surprise me to see Trey play similar minutes again next year, even with Spike in the fold. 
• An early 2012-13 forecast? Predicting how a team will perform in the NCAAT a year in advance is like trying to decipher Oregon football picturized offensive signals. With that said, this team is a Final Four contender. I think Michigan might have some minor growing pains as the freshman get up to speed and Michigan tailors the offense to its new personnel (see, "actually having bigs on your roster"). 
• And, last but not least: be more than a little skeptical about CBS's investigative reporting. It seems that Goodman is arguing that it was a sure thing when he reported it, but, you know, people change their minds all the time, and it's his job to discern what the odds are of a change of heart. Does that sound sort of ridiculous and/or impossible? Yes, which is why the media should cool it with the "being the first to report something that really doesn't need to be known NOW NOW NOW" operating philosophy. It's almost as if some journalists are becoming professional versions of Internet commenters that post "first!!!11!!!" on things.

Spring Highlights: Some more spring scrimmage highlights, courtesy of MGoBlue.com. These little 2-3 minute videos don't mean much, but they are giving me the general feeling that Fitz is about to have a monster year. 

Urban Meyer: I gave the Sporting News piece on Urban Meyer a quick read and, to be quite honest, didn't find it to be all that surprising or revelatory in any significant way. As for the favoritism re certain star players and rampant drug use...does that really surprise anyone (not that either are of course desirable in any way)?The implication is that UF won in despite all of these problems simply because they were better than everybody else and it wasn't even close. I tend to believe this, but the problem is that guys like Tebow and Harvin don't come around all the time. At the same time, the talent gap between Ohio (and Michigan) and the rest of the Big Ten is typically far wider than that seen between the top SEC team and the next tier of teams in that league. So, maybe this sort of stuff can happen again and work out fine for Urban and the Buckeyes*. 

In short, find me in three or four years and maybe this will all be relevant again as part of some trend that I care to talk about for more than two seconds. While the writer here is of course biased, I had a somewhat similar reaction to all of this: 

"They were all smoking dangerous street drugs and choking coaches and doing all of their homework with the help of Wikipedia," said some bitter injured backup no one ever heard of who got a mercy invite to Florida's pro day because why not. "I read OverSigning.com and began to think I had lyme disease."

*And by "work out fine" I mean winning championships. 

Rivalry!: RR and Todd Graham throw out the first pitches at an Arizona Diamondbacks game. RR asks Graham if he's "ready" to throw before they toss to home plate in unison. This polite gesture shows that RR does not GET IT or the rivalry that is Arizona State-Arizona. Also, the RR I know wouldn't have waited for his opponent to get ready: RR clearly doesn't even GET his own offense anymore.

Jibreel Black Position Switchin': In light of my post on Alabama's OL yesterday, this piece on Black's switch to the inside has me thinking one thing and one thing only: somebody get this man a copy of "The Gittleson Diet: Weight Gain for the Modern (But Not Too Modern) Athlete," ASAP.

Black says he's upped his weight to 270 this spring (up from 260), and plans to add about 10 more by fall. This is encouraging, because there's no way in the world that a 270 pound 3-tech would be able to stand up against an interior line as large as the Warmack-Jones-Steen triumvirate. Then again, our own DL coaching triumvirate is pretty formidable, too.

In other "please be good" news: It's never good when something is referred to as a "carnival of missed assignments," but, nonetheless, Jerald Robinson has being acquitting himself quite well amongst it all. I very much want him to be good because he offers something that almost none of our other wideouts have (at least until the 2012 guys, Darboh and Chesson, come in), but, at the same time, Robinson seems like he's the only guy who even could be termed a "breakout" guy vis-a-vis this position group, so this sort of praise, while better no praise, might be indistinguishable from your common spring fluff.

History and Stats re: Burke's draft status: Dave Ryan over at Maize n Brew compares Burke to a mystery player who was at one point in a similar situation. I won't spoil the surprise, but the cogent points are many here, namely that "marketing" and overall exposure are often as important to NBA scouts' perceptions of a college player as cold hard stats. Trey might not have a "better" year in 2012-13, but it's hard to envision his draft prospects getting any worse as long as he has a comparable encore season.

More? In "I don't want to live on this planet anymore" news...yeah. "I don't want to live on this planet anymore" news, part II (also, coincidentally, SEC-centric). 

Profilin' the Tide: Offensive Line

Previously: General Offensive Preview 

The first position group I'll take a look at will be, naturally, the Alabama offensive line. In a game between two schools like Alabama and Michigan, known for their Brobdingnagian lines and power running--minus the failed RR Interlude--could it be any other way? Of course not. While this game might not exactly mirror the 2000 Orange Bowl (i.e. Alexander vs. A-Train), in that the Michigan offense is decidedly not yet synced with the Tao of Power, we will see an offense/OL that Michigan hopes to become by 2014 or so.

Power off tackle: a preview

In this way, this matchup is somewhat of a double-edged sword, for Michigan fans. Although the Bama OL is about as terrifyingly huge a line anywhere outside of Madison, and will consequently pose problems for a Michigan DL lacking in depth and beef, it's hard not to watch that line play and not imagine a line featuring Kalis, Bryant, Bars, LTT, Dawson, etc. doing similar things down the line. With respect to the line play, the Alabama OL will be somewhat of a sneak peek into the future for Michigan fans and/or Darrell Funk enthusiasts.

The Starters 
Although it is only spring, Bama's starting five is as close to set in stone as it could possibly be. From left to right, it looks as such:

Cyrus Kouandjio-Chance Warmack-Barrett Jones-Anthony Steen-DJ Fluker

 As mentioned previously, the lone departure is C William Vlachos, a Rimington finalist last season. Every starter save Kouandjio has multiple seasons worth in starting experience; these guys have seen it all, of course winning two of the last three national championships while facing some of the most ornery front sevens in the country. The lone newbie is Cyrus Kouandjio, a rising true sophomore who appeared in all eight games until getting knocked out for the season in the Tennessee game with a knee injury. Kouandjio was a big time recruit, most known for committing to Auburn, not faxing in his LOI and then signing with Alabama a few days after NSD. He is the lone green starter, but, unfortunately, he does have a little experience to his name. Overall, however, the returning guys have 95 starts between them. 

Let me reiterate: these guys are enormous. From left to right, this is what our front 7 will be looking at: 6'6'' 311, 6'3'' 320, 6'5'' 302, 6'3'' 303, 6'6'' 335. Forget about the defense, this is going to be the most dominant unit of the 2012 Alabama football team. This line is so mammoth that it can inspire headlines as ridiculous as "Is that big offensive line too big?" This sort of reminds me of NFL types wondering if a quarterback can be "too athletic" (re: RGIII), which, what are you talking about Merill Hoge. Fix your your tie knot and stop headbutting random people in the hallways of ESPN's Bristol HQ. It's uncouth.

Of course, the article linked above led some commenters to have flashbacks to the bowl loss against Utah. I don't think Alabama's line is the big but slow type, but if Michigan's front does have any advantage, it's with quick, somewhat undersized guys on the outside (Beyer, Clark, Roh, Ryan in passing situations) and on the inside with Jibreel Clark, who will hopefully have gained some weight by September but not lost his quickness.

These guys are big, experienced, and have won at the highest level while also paving the way for a Heisman finalist in the process. If these the aforementioned measureables don't shoot a little spark of concern up your spine, especially considering Michigan less than ideal situation on the interior of the defensive line, well, it should. That's not to say that we should run to the hills, but you can bet that Alabama won't waste a lot of time early in the game probing the edges; they're going right up the middle. Yes, this sort of line and this sort of stage lends itself to every football cliche in the book--pad level, point of attack, power football, etc.--but in this case it is actually warranted.

The Replacements 
On the bright side, like us, Alabama's situation past the starting five doesn't seem exceedingly rosy, although it's always hard to tell in the spring. Sophomores Arie Kouandjio (yes, another one) and Chad Lindsay are both out of commission this spring due to injury, leaving redshirt sophomore RT Austin Shepherd and Kellen Williams, a redshirt junior guard/tackle type. Shepherd appeared in 7 games last year and Williams appeared in 5; however, none of said games were against marquee teams or not blowouts (you tell me under which category Tennessee falls).

Kouandjio was the first right tackle off the bench early in the season against Penn State before going down with a season-ending injury, and also was a 4-star prospect out of high school. If he can get healthy by the fall, he would make a solid reserve lineman. Likewise, Lindsay was a VHT guy on the interior. He enrolled early in 2010 but went on to redshirt, and his profile on the athletics website doesn't list any activity for 2011, so, who knows. Either way, he's out with a "head injury" right now, which I would assume would be cleared up in time for the season.

General Spring Minutiae/Encomium That Results in a "Bristling" Saban 
As expected, Barrett Jones's move to center from left tackle (and previously starting at right guard in 2009 and 2010) won't progress without some sort of learning curve. He is by all accounts a smart guy, however, and most expect him to transition quite nicely. As of now, quoth Saban:

"Pleased with the progress he's made."

 Translated to the parlance of normal human beings: He's getting better every day, and there's nothing better than seeing someone improve before your very eyes. It's not about the wins and losses or the number of trophies in the trophy case, it's about getting better, being able to end each day with the understanding that you did a little bit better than you did the day before. This is all very fun and enjoyable. 


In the same article, Saban refers to Warmack--who should be at least Honorable Mention on the annual All-Last Name Team--as Alabama's "most consistent player" last year, which I'm not sure is in reference to just the OL or the team as a whole. Either way, it is strong praise, although it may be taken with a sizable grain of salt or two. Kouandjio is understandably described as a sort of work-in-progress, although being 6'6'' 311 probably helps to assuage any concerns that Alabama fans might have about him manning McCarron's blind side. Remember, Saban felt good enough to move Barrett Jones, a would-be surefire top 10 pick at LT, to center to make room for Mount Kouandjio (I'm going to assume this nickname has already been thought of but whatever).

Things To Think About/Watch Out For/ARE WE GOING TO DIE?

• With Saban's comment about Warmack in mind, I would imagine that Alabama will probably be a left-handed team in the running game. I'd need to revisit the 2011 season to confirm this, but I would imagine that with Jones at LT in 2011, Alabama was inclined to run Richardson left more often than not. Despite Kouandjio being somewhat of a question mark due to his relative inexperience, run blocking is much easier to pick up for a young linemen, and allowing him to get out and attack would be a good way to get him some confidence when Alabama does choose to drop back. Thankfully, we have the defensive minds of Mattison and Hoke to figure out what tendencies may or may not exist, as one would imagine the offense will not change too much despite the Nussmeier taking over for McElwain. 
• Similarly, can Alabama's reserves get enough reps in the fall to be anywhere near ready to fill in in case an injury to one of the starters does occur? The backup situation seems as dicey as ours from an outsider's perspective, but I could be overstating it. 
• This is an obvious one, but Jones's transition to center is a position switch to watch. It's all relative, but Bama is stronger on the interior than the outside. Warmack and Steen are both very good and Barrett Jones is, well, Barrett Jones. If he makes the transition as seamlessly as many might be expecting, then Campbell, Ash, Washington, Pipkins, and the recently moved Jibreel Black will need to eat all the Wheaties and drink all the chocolate milk this summer. Football cliche forthcoming, but Saban knows that our interior isn't the strongest, and they will try to hit us in the mouth via the most efficient path: right up the middle.

Meaningless Grade That I Will End This With Anyway 

This group is without a doubt an A as arguably Alabama's strongest position group. Depth concerns and Kouandjio's inexperience are the only things preventing this from getting the coveted Holdin' The Rope A+*. Alabama had the #1 rushing offense in the SEC last year, with the OL paving the way for 2,788 yards at 5.5 ypc. I see no reason why they shouldn't be #1 in the conference in 2012. Whether the backs can combine to be as productive as Richardson was in 2011 is another story entirely.

*Not coveted at all. Also, doesn't exist.