Name: J’Marick Woods
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 210 lbs.
High school: Florence (AL) Florence
Position: Safety
Class: Junior
Jersey number: #26
Last year: I ranked Woods #42 and said he would be a backup safety and special teamer (LINK). He made 13 tackles and 1 blocked punt.
TTB Rating: 80
Woods came into the 2018 season as a guy with a reputation for being a heavy hitter and run supporter, but a guy who couldn’t be trusted a ton in coverage. Tyree Kinnel and Josh Metellus handled most of the safety snaps, with Brad Hawkins stepping in to handle most of the coverage duties when necessary. We always knew Woods was a bit of a project when it came to being an all-around safety. Woods had a big punt block against Florida, but otherwise he didn’t accomplish a lot of noteworthy achievements as a sophomore.
J'Marick Woods (@WoodsJmarick) blocks the punt and Jordan Glasgow recovers. Michigan has the ball at the Florida 30-yard line with 7:54 left in the first half. pic.twitter.com/yz1XqvgNbx
— Evan Petzold (@EvanPetzold) December 29, 2018
The 2019 story might be different. With Kinnel having graduated, there’s an open safety spot. Freshman safeties are dodgy, so Woods and Hawkins seem to be in a race for that starting position. Based on practice reports and coach talk, it seems like they want to give Woods every opportunity to be the guy. I would not be surprised to see the two play a pretty equal number of snaps, because they offer different strengths. That’s why they’re ranked back-to-back here in the countdown. Safeties seem to really come into their own as junior and seniors, so this competition ought to breed some pretty good play.
Prediction: Starting safety; 45 tackles
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I could imagine a 50/50 rotation with Hawkins – something like what we saw with Ross & Gil last year.
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Jeez, up 7-6 with a blocked punt and favorable field position; 7 to go in the half. Who would have thought the drubbing would go in the other direction from there?
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It feels like there are more guys this year on defense who have real strengths and weaknesses(rather than well rounded guys you usually find on top teams). Reminds me of Brown’s BC defenses with multiple sub packages and really creative plays. Very interested to see how the defense plays this year and if Brown can make another top 10 defense like he did at BC. Biggest worry is teams like ND or OSU going up tempo to keep a bad matchup on the field for a long drive.
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Brown’s toughest challenge yet at Michigan.
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Is that true? I don’t think that’s true. There’s more talent on this defense than there was in 2016. Jim Harbaugh/Don Brown have recruited better than Brady Hoke did. And while the starters don’t have significantly better recruiting profiles than Ben Gedeon, Jabrill Peppers, Taco Charlton, etc., the real difference is in the backups – with 5-star Daxton Hill (presumably) coming off the bench, 4-stars Jordan Anthony/Cameron McGrone backing up at linebacker, a star transfer DE in Mike Danna. There aren’t a lot of proven players on Michigan’s defense, but the talent is stacked up everywhere – even at DT, where two freshmen are #31 and #105 overall in the 2019 class.
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Recruiting profiles? That you WCB? OK – I’ll bite anyway since this is more like 7-5 trolling than 3-9.
It’s not particularly relevant to my point, which is more about having proven experience than raw talent, but 2016 clearly had superior talent anyway.
Consider:
Dax Hill is probably a good talent, but Gary and Peppers were the top overall recruits in the country and lived up to it as 1st round NFL picks.
Mike Danna’s recruiting profile reads went to CMU. The backup DEs in 2016 were Winovich and Gary.
Jordan Anthony is junior who hasn’t done anything and playing behind multi-year starter Devin Gil. The equivalent in 2016 was Devin Bush sitting behind Gedeon was a 4th Round NFL pick.
Hudson is not Peppers.
There is 1 proven CB in 2019 – Hill. The CBs in 2016 where Lewis, Stribling, Clark, Hill, Long, Watson.
Both ’16 safeties were elite athletes now playing in the NFL.
The 2016 DL was the best in Michigan history.
Wormley
Hurst
Glasgow
Charlton
Gary
Winovich
Godin
Mone
2019 we’re trying to convert a FB to DT and crossing our fingers on some freshman that, best case scenario, we hope, can come close to Rashan Gary.
I consider myself pretty optimistic about our defense (see my argument about Dwumfour and high expectations for Jeter) but it’s not close and I think when we look back 10 years from now and see who is in the NFL and who isn’t that will be pretty obvious. Mostly because most everyone on the 2016 defense is already there.
2016 was Brown’s easiest job – everybody was back and the defense was loaded with talent, depth, and experience. It was expected to be a top 5 defense and it was.
2019 is Brown’s hardest – tons of turnover and big questions at DT, CB, and S.
Brown’s still in good shape compared to most schools, the cupboard isn’t bare at all, but nothing like 2016 when it was stacked with luxury goods.
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I mean, recruiting profiles/ratings are data points. Everything else is just feelings.
If you want to go by your feelings rather than recruiting rankings, then…that sounds way more like WCB.
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Tough but fair.
As far as data points go, I’d go with returning production, starts, or snaps over recruiting rankings. It doesn’t matter what ESPN/Rivals/247 said about Metellus 4 years ago anymore.
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2017 had way more turnover than 2016 and was tougher. Still less than 2019.
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2017 returned potential – a great deal of potential, but that’s it
2019 we have a potential AA Corner, a two time All-Conference Safety and and guys like Uche, Paye, and Ross who played a ton last year, with the former two earning a ton of praise
I don’t know if 2019 D will be as good as 2017, but preseason outlook is quite comparable. With a good – to – very good O helping to win games, we’ll probably remember this year’s D as better
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Well it depends on your criteria – if you use the WCB/Thunder criteria of recruiting profile as talent it’s a lot of the same guys (Metellus, Hill, Hudson).
Set that argument aside for a sec and lets talk positions in 2017 vs 2019
DL: Significantly stronger in ’17
Hurst>Dwumfour
Gary>Hutchinson
Winovich>Paye
Mone>Kemp (just due to size)
Freshman Solomon>Freshman Hinton/Smith
2017 was not just potential but guys who were great as backups. Dwumfour, Hutch, Paye not on the same level. And again, nobody was trying to move a FB to DT.
Hybrids: 2019 is better, but it’s mostly the same guys
Furbush<Uche
Hudson then<Hudson now
Glagow then<Glasgow now
DB: Eye of beholder
Hill theninjured Thomas
Watson>Gray
Kinnel>Hawkins/Woods
Metellus then<Metellus now
Freshman Thomas<Freshman Hill
It's closer than I thought off the cuff but I would note that the marquee guys returning in 2017 where more proven and promising than 2019. There is no Hurst and Gary expected to cause havoc. Maybe people avoid throwing at Hill but that's not quite the same as worrying about which DL terror you're going to double team and which you're going to try to dodge in the backfield. Metellus is good but not scaring anybody.
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It is close:
Hurst over Dwumfor. No arguing that!
I’d put 2018 Paye over 2016 Winovich, easy. Will it turn out that way? Doubtful, but noone knew chase would be chase!
I think Mine – Kemp is a push, not because of size but how Brown plays his DL
Sorry, Solomon over two guys? Given they’re all freshmen and unlikely to impact a season, I’ll take depth
MLB is same as Chase. Knowing what we know now, sure take Bush! But small unknown bush over battle tested Ross? Without knowing we had one of the best Wolverines about to take the field, I think the safe pick is Ross
Give me Hill & Mettelus, with Ambry’s elite speed and either Hawkins/Woods or stud Dax over an all new starting back4, with young mettelus forced into PT way early
Again, I’m pretending we have no idea how good some of these guys turned out. Just Aug17 v Aug19
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Yes – you have to pretend you don’t know. Apples to apples means impressions in Spring/Summer. I’d argue expectations for Bush were higher than for Ross. Ditto Gary and company. Kinnel was expected to be really good – though he was only OK it turned out.
I was real worried about corner back then, but Long/Hill had the pedigree at least and Watson was a nice vet. I’m real worried about corner again but don’t see the same talent options unless Thomas gets healthy or Dax Hill moves over.
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2016? How about 2017? We lost a crapton of talent to the Draft, and returned a bunch of “potential.”
Sure, we expected a lot out of Gary, but two brand new Corners? Mettelus starting at Safety? Tiny Devin Bush? Could Chase handle starter reps? I remember 2017 as one big question mark. And Brown won us 8 games. Not his fault the Offense couldn’t deliver against SCar, but that year we weren’t winning much more
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