20Feb 2016
Random Saturday Thoughts
Zach Gentry, Shane Morris, and Jake Rudock
Jim Harbaugh did a signing at The M Den yesterday, and some news bits came out of it. Because this time of year is slow, I’ll recap some of the bits and share my thoughts:
- Harbaugh said that QB Zach Gentry is now TE Zach Gentry. It was always thought that Gentry could play tight end, but he was a highly ranked quarterback, too. I think a move from quarterback to tight end for Gentry – who was getting decent practice reviews – indicates that Harbaugh is pretty comfortable with John O’Korn, Brandon Peters, and others in the quarterback pipeline. If the prevailing thought holds, it has O’Korn starting in 2016 and 2017, and then perhaps Peters taking over as a redshirt sophomore in 2018. If Gentry were to stay at QB and succeed O’Korn, that would possibly have Peters waiting until his fifth year senior year to take the job. Things rarely work that cleanly, and not many highly touted guys want to wait five years to play. It’s a good idea to spread out the talent and get your best athletes on the field.
- TE Khalid Hill is getting a chance to be FB Khalid Hill. The redshirt junior is not a great fit for fullback at 6’2″, 270 lbs. and with little experience carrying the ball, but he does provide a body at the fullback position that is severely depleted with seniors Joe Kerridge and Sione Houma graduating. I am more fond of the idea of playing tailback De’Veon Smith in the role that Houma held (part-time FB, part-time TB), but Hill is a talented pass-catcher and this would give Michigan a chance to get another starter-quality player on the field. There is a logjam at the tight end position, so it’s not a bad idea to spread those players out.
- LT Mason Cole is going to be working at center this spring. Cole played some center last spring, but snapping the ball was an issue. He will presumably be a little further along this spring. Someone needs to step up at center, and it seems that the coaching staff isn’t pinning their hopes on redshirt junior Patrick Kugler. As of right now, the line looks like it will probably be: LT Grant Newsome, LG Ben Braden, C Mason Cole, RG Kyle Kalis, RT Erik Magnuson. However, there are rumors that a further shakeup could take place before the season.
- Michigan will hold its spring game on the evening of April 1, 2016, which is a Friday. It will begin at 6:00 p.m. There is some grumbling that out-of-towners will not be able to make it to town, that it will be cold as the sun goes down, etc. Compared to other schools’ spring games, Michigan’s has not been anything special for a while. Maybe there isn’t even a need to make a glorified spring practice “special.” Regardless, it’s not the worst idea in the world to try something different. If out-of-towners are so dedicated that they’re grumbling about the time, then they probably won’t mind taking a day/half-day off of work to see the “game.”
- The first spring practice will be held on February 29th.
