15Feb 2011
Al Borges interviews
I meant to post these awhile ago, but I never got around to it. Here’s an interview of newly hired offensive coordinator Al Borges:
I meant to post these awhile ago, but I never got around to it. Here’s an interview of newly hired offensive coordinator Al Borges:
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| Jonas Mouton (#8) makes a tackle at Iowa |
2010 Countdown: #10 Jonas Mouton
Linebacker Jonas Mouton played his final game for Michigan on January 1 against the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
HIGH SCHOOL
Coming out of high school in Venice, CA, Mouton was a very highly touted player. He was a 5-star recruit and the #6 safety in the country, according to Scout. Rivals ranked him a 4-star player and the #3 safety. At 6’2″ and already a solid 210 lbs. or so coming out of high school, it should have been clear that he would bulk up and become a linebacker. I’m not sure why Scout and Rivals didn’t catch on to that.
COLLEGE
Mouton arrived at Michigan and almost immediately became a linebacker. He redshirted as a freshman in 2006 to learn the position and add some weight. After the redshirt year, he backed up Chris Graham at weakside linebacker in Ron English’s 4-3 system. That year (2007) he made 5 tackles at linebacker and on kick coverage. Once Graham graduated following the 2007 season, Mouton backed up Marell Evans for one game and then earned the starting WILL job in the second game against Utah. He finished the season with 76 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, and 1 sack. As the incumbent in 2009, Mouton had a subpar year. The defense was abysmal, and the inside linebackers – Mouton and Obi Ezeh – constantly looked lost. Mouton ended the season with 66 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 2 interceptions, 1 fumble recovery, and 4 pass breakups. As a fifth year senior in 2010, Mouton led the Big Ten in tackles with 117. He also had 8.5 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 2 interceptions, 3 pass breakups, 1 forced fumble, and 2 fumble recoveries.
CAREER STATS
264 tackles, 18 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, 4 interceptions, 7 pass breakups, 1 forced fumble, 3 fumble recoveries
AWARDS
2nd team All-Big Ten in 2010 . . . Roger Zatkoff Award (U of M’s best linebacker) in 2010
SUMMARY
Mouton’s 4-star ranking on Rivals was a bit more accurate than Scout’s. He turned into a solid starter and even earned All-Big Ten 2nd team honors as a fifth year senior. However, I’m not exactly sure how a player leads the league in tackles, tosses in a couple sacks and interceptions, and doesn’t get 1st team all-conference status. If Michigan’s defense wasn’t the worst in the school’s history, I have to believe that Mouton would have been 1st team. In fact, if he played for Ohio State and put up those numbers, he might have been up for Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. So the lack of respect might have to do with Michigan’s overall defensive performance. It also might have been based on Mouton’s underperformance. With all the speed and agility Mouton has, he didn’t make many spectacular plays. Aside from the interception against Notre Dame and his pass rush on the final play against Illinois, he looked like just a guy.
PROJECTION
Mouton ought to play in the NFL. He has prototypical size (6’2″, 240 lbs.) and decent speed in order to play several positions. He could be an OLB or ILB in a 3-4, or he could be a weakside linebacker in a 4-3. The coaching at his linebacker position was subpar throughout most of his career, but Mouton still made mistakes as a senior that he shouldn’t have been making by that point. Still, I expect him to be a late round draft pick for a team that thinks they can coach him up.
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| This guy will be gone after 2011. Ruh-roh. |
Over at Maize ‘n’ Brew, I put up a post about how Michigan should use its scholarships in 2012.
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| Cass Tech cornerback Terry Richardson |
The 2012 Offer Board has been updated:
Added Maty Mauk (QB).
Added Derrick Woods (WR).
Added Ron Thompson (TE).
Added Dan Voltz (OT).
Added Terry Richardson (CB).
Added Royce Jenkins-Stone (ILB).
Added Vince Biegel (OLB).
Added Aaron Burbridge (WR).
Added Devin Funchess (TE).
Added Mario Ojemudia (DE).
Added Tom Strobel (DE).
Added Zach Banner (OT).
Last year I became curious about how successful Michigan was at recruiting each state. That curiosity has spilled over to the 2011 class, and the chart above shows the percentages of successfully recruited players from each state. This is all based upon offers recorded on the 2011 Offer Board located at the top of the page. I can’t promise that it’s 100% accurate, because sometimes reporting of offers is a little bit iffy. But it’s the best I could do.
It should also be pointed out that Brady Hoke’s late hiring as Michigan’s coach somewhat skews the numbers. Players who decommitted (Jake Fisher from Michigan; Matt Goudis from California; Kevin Sousa and Dallas Crawford from Florida) would have changed the numbers slightly.
As might be expected, Michigan was the most successfully recruited state. Nearly 50% of in-state offers were accepted; the decommitment of Fisher was the only thing standing in the way.
Texas was a bit of a surprise. Michigan pulled in three commitments from Texas – a heavily talented state – while only giving out eleven offers. But it’s a bit curious that Michigan’s coaches didn’t pursue more players in the state. Running backs coach Fred Jackson has some contacts in Texas, and even though several Rich Rodriguez assistants had connections in Florida (where Michigan tossed out 43 offers), the success rate in Florida over the past couple years has been abysmal. Michigan went 3-for-46 (7%) in Florida last year, and that number looks like an unbridled success when compared to the 1-for-43 showing this year (2%).
After crunching the numbers for two consecutive seasons, it seems that Michigan’s coaches probably wasted quite a bit of time recruiting the Sunshine State. Maybe it was a risk-reward thing with Rodriguez (after all, Denard Robinson is from Florida), but a batting average of .020 is horrible, no matter how you slice it. When you hand out 190 offers, you probably spend quite a bit of time talking to kids or the coaches of kids who have very little chance of attending your university. Perhaps Rich Rodriguez and Co. would have benefitted from making more intimate connections with fewer kids rather than, as one commenter said, “carpet bombing” the country with offers.
Ohio was once again recruited with some success (37% in 2010; 24% in 2011), and Hoke will surely continue to work hard in the state. Even though Rodriguez got a large number of 2010 recruits from Ohio, he didn’t seem to hit the state very hard in his last season. The percentage of accepted offers jumped significantly once Hoke was hired. He reeled in four recruits in approximately three weeks on the job, including the likes of Tamani Carter, Antonio Poole, Keith Heitzman, and Frank Clark. Prior to his arrival, Rodriguez had accepted only three commitments from Ohioans – Greg Brown, Jack Miller, and Chris Rock.
Altogether, Michigan offered players from 27 different states. The Wolverines struck out in twenty of them, including:
Pennsylvania: 12
Louisiana, New Jersey: 8
Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina: 6
North Carolina, Virginia: 5
District of Columbia: 2
Arkansas, Colorado, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Wisconsin: 1