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Former Michigan Athlete of the Week: Charles Woodson

Charles Woodson sacked Alex Smith on Sunday evening

Charles Woodson made 8 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 1 sack, and 1 quarterback hurry in the Oakland Raiders’ 24-20 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. He also returned 1 punt for 5 yards.

Honorable mention: Tom Brady was 38/53 for 349 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception in the New England Patriots’ 34-9 win over the Detroit Lions. Chicago Bears safety Ryan Mundy made 8 tackles, 1 interception, and 1 pass breakup in a 21-13 win over the Minnesota Vikings.

Houston Texans quarterback Ryan Mallett didn’t have a good week, but I thought it would be worth mentioning that after going 21/45 for 189 yards and 1 pick in a 22-13 loss to the Cleveland Browns, he was diagnosed with a torn pec and will miss the rest of the season. That was his second career start after being acquired from the Patriots, an unfortunate turn of events for the former Wolverine (and Arkansas Razorback).

Recruiting Update: November 25, 2014

Keisean Lucier-South is heading to UCLA

DECOMMITMENT
Detroit (MI) Cass Tech running back Michael Weber decommitted from Michigan (LINK).

ADDED TO THE BOARD: 2015
Nacogdoches (TX) Nacogdoches cornerback Jaylon Lane decommitted from Oklahoma State. Lane is a 6’1″, 177 lb. prospect with offers from Florida State, Georgia, Oklahoma, UCLA, and several others. He’s a 247 Composite 4-star, the #22 cornerback, and #203 overall. Oklahoma State has lost five games in a row, and head coach Mike Gundy has been rumored as a front-runner for the Florida job (although it’s tough to get fans excited about a coach who will probably lose his final six games of the year). Additionally, Lane was arrested for a felony and a couple misdemeanors. I do not expect Michigan to get involved.

ADDED TO THE BOARD: 2017
Plano (TX) East linebacker Anthony Hines III decommitted from Mississippi State. Hines is a 6’2″, 218 lb. prospect with offers from Clemson, LSU, Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, Tecas A&M, and UCLA, among others. He’s a 247 Sports 4-star, the #6 outside linebacker, and #113 overall. Hines basically wants to check out other options without being tied down so early, and he also was turned off by head coach Dan Mullen yanking the scholarship of a committed 2015 quarterback last week. Again, Michigan is unlikely to have much of a shot here.

OFF THE BOARD
Orange (CA) Lutheran defensive end Keisean Lucier-South committed to UCLA. Lucier-South once called Michigan his dream offer, and there was some confidence among Michigan folk that they could land the 247 Composite 5-star, #2 weakside end, and #23 player overall. Unfortunately, Michigan’s poor season combined with a solid one from UCLA was too much to overcome. He will probably play outside linebacker in the Bruins’ 3-4 scheme, whereas he would be a defensive end in a 4-3 front.

MISCELLANEOUS
Here’s a list of visitors who saw Michigan lose to Maryland (LINK).

Over on Recruiting Season, I updated the profiles of Farmington Hills Harrison DE Khalid Kareem, Brother Rice WR Grant Perry, and Auburn Hills Avondale RB Joshuwa Holloman, among others.

Ex-Wolverine Updates

Demetrius Hart goes airborne for one of his six scores

Former DT Richard Ash: Ash had 4 tackles and 1 pass knockdown in Western Michigan’s 32-20 win over Central Michigan.

Former S Josh Furman: Furman made 2 tackles in Oklahoma State’s 49-28 loss to #6 Baylor. After starting off 5-1, the Cowboys have now lost five in a row and will be fighting for bowl eligibility next week against Oklahoma.

Former RB commit Demetrius Hart: Hart carried the ball 20 times for 230 yards and 5 touchdowns in Colorado State’s 58-20 win over New Mexico. He also caught 2 passes for 42 yards and 1 touchdown. His receiving touchdown was from 20 yards out, and his rushing scores came from 76, 55, 6, 4, and 2 yards. He’s now up to 1,139 yards and 16 rushing touchdowns this year on a 7.0 yard average.

Former RB Thomas Rawls: Rawls had 19 carries for 76 yards and 2 catches for 10 yards in Central Michigan’s 32-20 loss to Western Michigan.

Former head coach Rich Rodriguez: Rodriguez and his Arizona Wildcats beat #20 Utah by a score of 42-10. That’s the same Utah team that beat Michigan 26-10. I wonder how badly Arizona would beat Michigan right now. Anyway, running back Nick Wilson had 20 carries for 218 yards and 3 touchdowns. The team is 9-2 with a game next week against a pretty good Arizona State team.

Former S Ray Vinopal: In Pitt’s 30-7 win over Syracuse, Vinopal had 5 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 2 forced fumbles, and 1 pass breakup. Pitt will be fighting for bowl eligibility next week against Miami.

Michigan vs. Maryland Awards

Devin Gardner

Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . a healthy Devin Gardner. Gardner had some very nice throws, and he had several that were just a little off target. Most of all, though, he looked healthier, which means that he can be dangerous on the ground. That adds an element to Michigan’s attack that has not existed for the last several weeks. A healthy Gardner gives Michigan a chance. He ran for over 80 yards in this game, including a 24-yarder and then a 15-yard touchdown. When Gardner is on, he looks like Colin Kaepernick. Hopefully he can stay healthy and break out a big game like he did last year against Ohio State.

Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . De’Veon Smith. Smith has no speed element to his game, and he doesn’t break enough tackles to warrant being the main guy. Michigan gave Smith 10 carries in this one, which earned them 28 yards. Meanwhile, Drake Johnson (14 carries, 94 yards) and Justice Hayes (6 carries, 36 yards) combined for 20 carries and 130 yards. Michigan’s offensive line isn’t great, but there are some holes occasionally. I am looking forward to next season, when Derrick Green will hopefully be healthy and Ty Isaac will be in the mix. There’s also a chance that Green could return for the Ohio State game after missing the last several weeks with a broken collarbone.

Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . Willie Henry. I’m assuming Henry has been playing a limited number of snaps because of the hand injury he suffered several weeks ago, so I don’t know if anyone deserves blame here. But without Frank Clark on the roster, I think Henry is arguably the best defensive lineman on the roster. He played a little bit against Maryland, but he didn’t show up on the stat sheet and we’re seeing a lot of Matt Godin. Godin did okay and even notched his first career sack, but he’s not Willie Henry.

Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . Matt Godin. I don’t know who else to pick, so I’ll choose the guy who would be replaced by Henry. You can’t argue with that pristine logic.

Play of the game . . . Joe Kerridge’s fake punt run. It showed some creativity in play calling that we haven’t often seen from this Michigan staff. Granted, it was perhaps the most boring kind of fake punt possible. Baby steps. Kerridge rumbled for 52 yards before being taken down inside the 10 yard line. I’ll just throw this out there, but if that were Ben Gedeon, I think Gedeon would have scored. But hey, that will probably go down as Kerridge’s biggest play of his career (he had only 1 career carry for 3 yards going into the game, and his longest catch was a 17-yarder against Indiana a few weeks ago), so hopefully he enjoys the memory.

MVP of the game . . . Devin Gardner. There aren’t many options here. Nobody really stood out on defense as they gave up two fourth-quarter touchdowns, and the offense stalled out regularly, as usual. Gardner looked more like the player from the second half of the 2013 season, someone who was dangerous on foot (14 carries, 82 yards, and 1 touchdown) and potentially through the air (13/24 for 106 yards and 1 interception), though his receivers dropped numerous balls.

Michael Weber, Ex-Wolverine

Michael Weber

Detroit (MI) Cass Tech running back Michael Weber decommitted from Michigan on Saturday afternoon. Or at least he made it public, via his Twitter account. Weber is a 247 Composite 4-star, the #13 running back, and #113 overall in the 2015 class. As a senior this season, he ran for over 2,000 yards during Cass Tech’s run to the state semifinals.

Weber had committed to the Wolverines back in August over offers from Michigan State, Ohio State, USC, and Wisconsin, among others. Almost immediately he mentioned that he still wanted to visit other schools, and I have been saying all along that I did not trust his commitment. Of course, Michigan fans shouldn’t hold it against a kid when he sees the coach who recruited him sitting on the hottest of hot seats. It’s practically a foregone conclusion that head coach Brady Hoke will be replaced sometime in the coming weeks, so it’s understandable that he would want to explore his options.

Hit the jump for thoughts on the position going forward.

This leaves Michigan in a somewhat precarious position. Destined to be a small class, anyway (Hoke said the biggest he thought it would get is 16, but that seemed high), the Wolverines are down to seven commitments for 2015. Weber is also the seventh  2015 recruit to renounce his commitment to Michigan, which is an absurdly high number. Furthermore, he is the second consecutive running back recruit to decommit, following Kentucky’s Damien Harris. Michigan does have decent numbers at running back with five guys there (Justice Hayes, Drake Johnson, De’Veon Smith, Derrick Green, and Ty Isaac) and a few others (Ross Douglas, Dennis Norfleet, Wyatt Shallman) who could fill a role. Michigan doesn’t absolutely need a running back in the class, but Hoke has said previously that he wants to take “a couple” backs in every class; you generally want those types of players because they can sometimes play receiver, safety, linebacker, cornerback, and special teams. If they do not take one in 2015, then that makes the running back position a priority in 2016.

Late in the class, the easiest guys to pull in are lower rated guys from within the state, or at least within the region. We have seen Michigan do that in recent years when they nabbed Thomas Rawls in 2011 and Dennis Norfleet in 2012. Unfortunately, there are few options in the 2015 class. Oak Park (MI) Oak Park’s John Kelly played running back in high school and has been offered by Michigan as a defensive back, but he was leaning toward Michigan State or Minnesota, and he is good friends with Weber. Auburn Hills (MI) Avondale’s Joshuwa Holloman is a genuine speedster committed to Cincinnati, but he lacks great running instincts. Other options include 247 Composite 2-stars Romello Ross (committed to CMU), Alex Grace (WMU), and Bobby Banks (CMU).