The Blue Board

Time to start questioning our strength and conditioning for linemen maybe?

Been saying that since last year. I know everyone wanted Mannie, but 6 seasons in you can't roll out even one upper-half OL?

No complaints about the back-7/skill player physical development. OL/DL don't seem to get any stronger as time goes on. Just anecdotal evidence/eye test stuff.

Dantonio has to take note of the undeveloped linemen we seem to have because he does seem to be developing other guys at position. Hopefully he makes some corrections. Granted the injury bug hit, but perhaps that has something to do with S&C too.

My wife yells down to me: "You said you were going to watch a movie with us tonight, YOUR MEMORY IS SHORTER THEN A MICHIGAN FIRST DOWN!".

Man I love a women who knows football and has a sense of humor.

Great points all. I hope somebody in the building has that same insight. It's more then enough to raise an eyebrow.

Also, do we know when Jackson and Fonoti are supposed to be back practicing and in the weight room? We really need them back as quick as possible, particularly Fonoti. I think our best OL, talent-wise, would have Fonoti and Burkland at OT, Jackson and Treadwell at OG, and Allen at C. Maybe McGowan beating out Treadwell at some point.

I also think the coaches shouldn't have the OL so fluid; it hampers their development IMO.

I think it's logically based and if dantonio is worth his weight, he needs to understand that and ask questions. If we just continue to say "well it happens" I think it will keep on happening.

Hey after your TCU/MSU break down and dead on prediction, everybody should take note.

All joking aside, that was impressive.

I'm more and more convinced he doesn't have "it". He has unbelievable tools. Jaw dropping in practice, but he's just not passionate enough. Classic case of bright light fright I believe, but damn he has the basics. He might be a real security blanket for us next year on the sidelines. Put the youngsters in and let em fly knowing if they get rattled we have a guy who can come in and chill everybody out for a couple series. Kind of like ND lite.

Yea, that was my thought; you could just see the O perk up when Cook came in the huddle. He wasn't THAT much more successful than Maxwell, but he had confidence and that's important.

Reminds of when Hoyer came in in relief of Stanton in '06. Could see the O perk up.

No doubt that Maxwell's arm strength is fantastic and he actually did a great job at avoiding INTs (threw 9, 1 fewer than Cousins last year, despite playing a couple of games with a bum elbow and throwing more than any MSU QB not named Jeff Smoker). He just doesn't have that "we are not going to lose" mentality that Cleaves/Draymond/Cousins/the great MSU captains have had.

Defense should be outstanding once again next year; at this point I think we can count on a top 20 unit as long as Narduzzi is the DC. I'm going to roll the dice and assume that K is a wash, given Conroy's misses (9 in 13 games). I feel that every other year MSU has good return games; next year should be a plus for that area.

So can the O improve? If so, MSU can win 10 or more games. If not, I think 7 is the ceiling, with the Purdue game replacing tOSU as a W (IL for Wisky is a regular season wash, since MSU beat Wisky the last 2 years; just talking in terms of record. Team should be healthier next year because of the double bye and 2 much less physical opponents in PUR and IL instead of tOSU and Wisky).

I think Michigan will be good next year; 8-10 Ws. Nebraska is in the same class. Northwestern is probably 7-9 W's; they drop PSU and IU and get to play tOSU at home and @Wisky in their first 2 Big 10 games. Playing IL every year helps a ton.

In the Leaders, tOSU will probably go 11-1 or so; it's extremely hard to rattle of 24 straight regular season wins. On the "plus" side, MSU and Nebraska drop off the schedule & Wisky is in transition. Crazy as it sounds, I think IU may have the best chance to knock off tOSU in a Leaders game. Still, I'd be surprised if another Leaders team finished better than 8-4.

Ok? I like the kid as a person and think he'll have a nice NFL career as a PR/KR/slot receiver. He was always humble and represented Michigan well.

He also struggled against good teams and was largely ineffective as a passer. There's no denying that he was an electrifying open field runner, but one who largely struggled against the better rush D's on the schedule (didn't hit 5 YPC vs. Bama, ND, MSU, Nebraska and S. Car, had 1/4 of his yards in 2 games vs. Umass and Purdue).

He was a very good college player. I don't know if I'd go so far to call him "great".

Looking over UM's stats, very surprised to see no RBs with more than 4.6 YPC this year (Hayes, with 18 total carries). Going to be hard to replace Denard's rushing.

Sometimes, a player like Denard also becomes the biggest focus of his own coaching staff. It takes away from a balanced attack, and it gives them a myopic view of what could be done with the team. Had the staff at Michigan seen the possibility of Gardner at QB, (though he's not all conference by any stretch) and Denard as a tailback/flanker, I wonder how good that team could have been?

The fact that so many people openly talk about Michigan changing the looks of their offense next years tells me that perhaps a very professional staff let themselves be button holed into catering to one player. While that player was, as you have said, electrifying, was that the best for the team? We'll never know. He was fun to watch though.

Save yourself the aggravation. Enjoy him for who he was and how he represented Michigan.