Joe Bolden
Name: Joe Bolden
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 232 lbs.
High school: Cincinnati (OH) Colerain
Position: Linebacker
Class: Senior
Jersey number: #35
Last year: I ranked Bolden #30 and said he would be a backup linebacker with 50 tackles and 3 sacks. He started all twelve games and made 102 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, and 1 pass breakup.
Bolden was part of an intriguing octet of inside linebackers last year that also included Jake Ryan, Desmond Morgan, and Ben Gedeon. I was under the impression that Bolden and Gedeon would be the odd men out when it came to playing time, but two things got in the way: Desmond Morgan’s shoulder injury and Bolden himself. Morgan got injured after one game, got a medical redshirt, and had his career extended by one year. Meanwhile, Bolden started week one and didn’t relinquish the job. He finished second on the team in tackles behind Jake Ryan, and he improved from a sophomore season that had him almost-but-not-quite making a lot of plays.
It’s hard to believe that Bolden is a senior already. It doesn’t seem like very long ago that he was earning rave reviews at the Under Armour All-American Bowl, but he was chosen to represent the Wolverines at Big Ten Media Days and could be in line for a captaincy this season. He has all but locked down a starting inside linebacker job, and the duo of Morgan and Bolden should be rock steady in the middle. In fact, Michigan once again has an imposing quartet of inside linebackers when you throw in junior Gedeon and senior James Ross III, the latter of whom is also playing outside linebacker. Bolden should have a very good year, and he is probably a good bet to be the team’s leading tackler now that Ryan has moved on to the Green Bay Packers.
Prediction: Starting middle linebacker; 100 tackles, 6 tackles for loss, 2 sacks
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Hoke’s staff certainly loved Bolden, and he has maintained frontrunner status with the new staff. I do think he will need to make some improvements to maintain his number-of-snaps though, especially getting quicker with his reads and becoming more of a confident force in the middle.
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The positions that Hoke recruited most heavily — RB and ILB — are the position where we have the most depth. This is why people care about recruiting numbers. I think you can argue we have “too much” depth at these positions when you consider the deficiencies at many others.
Should be less of an issue with Harbaugh, who seems to see positions as a constant experiment.
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Well, real “depth” is about more than just the number of bodies you have. It’s also about how your second-stringers stack up against other people’s starters. Can you play at a championship level and sustain it even if you suffer some injuries? Can you rotate guys in and out and keep them fresh, and still compete at a high level? Do you always have new guys ready to step in and start when you lose others by graduation or other attrition?
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Don’t look now, Lanknows, but Rivals is reporting that Ty Isaac looks like the best running back on the team…
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@ Thunder
He shall rise!
Yep. I’m excited about it. As I said many times, I’d love to be wrong…
The rumors that started flowing in a couple weeks back about him turning around his attitude, followed by the reported weight loss, were encouraging signs. And now the scrimmage reports sound glowing. Lets hope all that hype was real.
Viva la T-Train!
@WC
Agreed, but that’s just the point. I think the depth IS real. We’ve seen Gedeon and Ross play and play well, they’re both good enough to start on most teams, IMO. And whoever is a backup out of the Smith/Green/Johnson (I almost added Isaac but I’ll hold off yet) is a proven back with starting experience. That’s real depth… what stinks is how few positions we have it at.
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You mention weight loss again. He’s lost 4 pounds.
Must’ve been a real attitude adjustment, for the two weeks it took to drop those 4 pounds.
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I was really slacking on pivoting every countdown post into a conversation about Ty Isaac, so thanks Thunder.
It’s not that 4 pounds makes or breaks a guy, it’s a reversal of the trajectory of Isaac getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It’s a sign that the questions about his work ethic/determination/motivation/”mental toughness” were getting addressed.
Not sure what the 2 weeks comment comes from. Isaac was listed at 225 when he arrived at Michigan, 240 by the spring, and a week ago (or whatever) it was reported he had lost weight and was down into the 230s. Which is exactly what I wrote I hoped to see from Isaac.
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I’m hesistant to get into the “Ty Isaac is too big / No he’s not” argument on this site. But I watched the mgovideo clip of every Ty Isaac touch during his freshman year at USC again last night, and here’s what I saw:
Isaac is explosive out of the backfield. He hits top speed quickly and runs with good body lean and his shoulders square to the LOS. He can make a defender miss if he as open space to set him up, but isn’t going to juke guys in a phone booth like a Norfleet or Karan Higdon. He does, however, take full advantage of his size and power by dipping his shoulder and pumping his legs with fury. Not only that, but he’s a big and effective target in the passing game–both as a target on swing routes and screens as well as a checkdown release valve for the QB. About the only negative issue I saw with him on those clips was ball security; he wasn’t holding the ball high & tight, and though he didn’t fumble on any of those touches, that could be an issue if he hasn’t cleaned it up: remember, he was a true freshman. There also wasn’t any evidence of his pass-blocking or other non-ball activity (since, after all, it was a video of all his touches).
Bottom line is, Isaac looked really freaking good–much better than anything M has put on the field the last could seasons. I was actually a bit surprised, because previously the only Isaac footage I’d seen were his high school highlight reels where he would just run 55 yards untouched every time, and then catch an occasional jump ball over a LB. But I feel a lot better about M’s running game after seeing that footage. I think he’ll start, and I think he’ll do some serious damage this season.
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My point was: everybody looks really good in that environment. Even their FB put up impressive YPC in that context because the defensive knows they already lost the game. It’s a useful data point in the same way that high school production is a useful data point. It’s interesting, and a good point to start from (compared to looking slow) but far from conclusive of anything for meaningful situation. Mike Shaw, Sam McGuffie, and Justice Hayes looked great in garbage time against terrible teams too.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. My argument was that we had no good reason to be excited about Isaac. This recent burst of hype and, yeah, weight loss too, has me incrementing toward joining up with the consensus hype train. I’d love for the kid to go nuts in SLC — but lets see if Smith and Green hold him off (or not) before we hand Ty Isaac the Heisman.
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