Tag: David Long Jr.

2018 Season Countdown: #13 David Long

David Long (image via Twitter)

Name: David Long
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 198 lbs.
High school: Los Angeles (CA) Loyola
Position: Cornerback
Class: Junior
Jersey number: #22
Last year: I ranked Long #22 and said he would be a backup cornerback (LINK). He made 21 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 0.5 tackles for loss, 6 pass breakups, and 2 interceptions (returned for 105 yards).
TTB Rating: 92

Long seemed to be in a battle for the starting cornerback job going into his sophomore season last year, and I had Keith Washington pegged to be the starter over him. Washington ended up transferring (he’s now at WVU), which was a pretty good indicator he didn’t win the gig. The winner in that battle was Long, obviously, who started all thirteen games. With this cornerback crew, the starters have got to be studs, and Long was a lockdown guy. No matter what metric Pro Football Focus uses (completion percentage, passer rating against, etc.), Long pops up as one of the top few corners in the nation.

This year Long appears to be a shoo-in for the cornerback spot, where he can build upon his sophomore season. He was listed at 187 lbs. going into 2017, and now he’s listed at 198 lbs. after the arrival of new strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert. He was all-conference honorable mention, and a lot of times that portends a slide up the charts as long as he maintains – or improves – his performance. Of course, Michigan has an excellent defensive line and blitzes a lot, so that helps Long and the other defensive backs. It should be another excellent season for Long, and I expect him to get some more all-conference honors in 2018.

Prediction: Starting cornerback; 25 tackles, 2 interceptions

Penn State 42, Michigan 13

This looks like a “Finish him!” moment from Mortal Kombat (image via AL.com)

A loss is a loss. I predicted a 20-9 loss, which was obviously incorrect. It ended up being a 42-13 loss. Remember when Michigan beat Penn State 49-10 last year? The Nittany Lions went on to win the Big Ten. Obviously, a 42-13 loss hurts at the time, but so do close losses. The bottom line is that Michigan is 5-2, and this game was confirmation that Michigan doesn’t have it this year. It was said all off-season – you don’t lose that many players to the NFL and go right back where you started. Michigan lost its top two wide receivers, one of the best TEs in the country, three senior starting linemen, and basically 11 starters on defense. And this year, they’re already down the #1 QB and the #1 WR. No rational person was expecting a Michigan win in Happy Valley at night, so let’s not overreact.

Hit the jump for more on the game.

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Michigan vs. Florida Awards

Chase Winovich and Noah Furbush (image via GBMWolverine)

Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . Ty Isaac. Isaac averaged 10.4 yards per carry on 11 carries, giving him 114 yards on the day. He had 50% as many carries as starter Chris Evans, who averaged just 3.5 yards/carry, and Karan Higdon averaged 4.0 yards/carry on 7 chances. Isaac had the hot hand on Saturday, and some observers have said he’s in better shape now than he ever has been. I’m done expecting Isaac to be a breakout star, but I sure wouldn’t mind a few more performances like this.

Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . Grant Perry. This has less to do with his performance on the field than his behavior on and off the field. The guy faced felony charges in the off-season, and on his first time touching the ball during the year, he spun the ball and earned his team a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Did he learn his lesson? Nope. He spun the ball again later in the game. I’m not saying the off-the-field and on-the-field things are related, but maybe he needs some more tough love to help the messages sink in.

Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . David Long. It’s too early to call Long injury-prone, but he was injured and redshirted in 2016. Then he missed some time this spring with a nagging injury. And he exited this game early with a leg injury. He seems like a guy who’s in need of a steady diet of steak and whole milk.

Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . Brandon Watson. Directly related to the Long situation, I don’t think Watson is a starting-caliber cornerback and he could be taken advantage of by teams who game plan for him and have the right athletes. He’s a stop-gap guy, and I think it’s concerning if he’s a long-term starter. It helps greatly that Michigan has a very good pass rush, which mitigates some issues on the back end.

Play of the game . . . Chase Winovich’s strip sack for a Noah Furbush touchdown. There are a few options for this honor, such as a couple Ty Isaac runs, a Brandon Watson pass breakup, a Josh Metellus tackle in the open field, a Wilton Speight deep ball to Nick Eubanks, etc. But the Winovich sack of Florida QB Malik Zaire sealed the game for the Wolverines, and Furbush did a great job of corralling the ball before it could trickle out of the back of the end zone.

MVP of the game . . . Ty Isaac and Devin Bush, Jr. I can’t really choose between the two. The offense struggled to move the ball through the air, and Isaac averaged a first down every time he touched the ball. He also made a couple clutch plays to keep drives alive. On the other side of the ball, Bush made 7 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, and 2 sacks. He was all over the field and did a great job in his first game as a starting middle linebacker. He almost got booted from the game on the first defensive play when he was investigated for targeting, but luckily he stayed in the game to help Michigan win.

2017 Season Predictions

Tarik Black (image via MLive)

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LEADING RUSHER
There has been talk over the past few months that there’s a race for the #1 running back spot, but so far I have yet to see evidence of that. Chris Evans and Karan Higdon are thought to be the top two by most, and some have said that Ty Isaac looks to be in the mix for #2, as well. Until I see otherwise, I’m going with the front-runner.
Prediction: Chris Evans, 900 yards

LEADING RECEIVER
This one is really a crapshoot with no returning yardage producers to speak of and a bunch of freshmen in the running to play. The top returning receiver is Grant Perry, who had some off-the-field troubles and lost jersey #9 to freshman Donovan Peoples-Jones. Peoples-Jones, Kekoa Crawford, and Tarik Black also seem likely to play a bunch. I’m going with the guy who looked best in the spring, and that was Black.
Prediction: Tarik Black, 830 yards

Hit the jump for the rest of the season predictions.

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2017 Season Countdown: #22 David Long, Jr.

David Long (image via Twitter)

Name: David Long, Jr.
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 187 lbs.
High school: Los Angeles (CA) Loyola
Position: Cornerback
Class: Redshirt freshman
Jersey number: #22
Last year: I ranked Long #49 and said he would be a backup cornerback. He played in four games.
TTB Rating: 92

Long entered 2016 with a fair amount of hype, and he played early like many expected. However, he didn’t make any flash plays, and he didn’t play for long. Due to an undisclosed injury, he sat out after four games, presumably preserving his redshirt. The early word was that he was ahead of Lavert Hill, but that situation may have changed since then.

Hill continued to play throughout the season, and the coaching staff seems to think he’s the most talented corner on the roster. The coaches also implied that both Hill and Long need to toughen up and play through the bumps and bruises that come along with playing high-level football. There’s a four-way battle for the starting cornerback jobs between Long, Hill, Keith Washington, and Brandon Watson. I don’t think Long is going to win that battle, but considering his talent and early experience from last season, he should be a key backup on the outside. Michigan has some highly ranked recruits and a couple lower-rated guys who have developed nicely, so it will be interesting to see how the cornerback spots all shake out through the season.

Prediction: Backup cornerback