Tag: 2010 Season Countdown

2010 Countdown: #16 Martavious Odoms

Name: Martavious Odoms
Height: 5’8″
Weight: 175 lbs.
High school: Pahokee High School in Pahokee, FL
Position: Slot receiver/wide receiver
Class: Junior
Jersey number: #9
Last year: I ranked Odoms #13 and said he’s not a gamebreaker, but always a threat. He caught 22 passes for 272 yards and 1 touchdown; had 1 rush for 13 yards and 1 touchdown; and returned 6 punts for 54 yards.

When I think of the beginning of the Rich Rodriguez Era at Michigan, I think of Odoms. Even though Odoms wasn’t the only player Rodriguez added to the Class of 2008 when he took over, he was the most successful and at times the most frustrating. He had an up-and-down freshman season in ’08, where he led the team in receptions but also had fumbling problems and muffed several punts and kickoffs. Of course, normal teams would have had enough depth to put an upperclassman in his spot, but Rodriguez’s other option was the misplaced and disgruntled Toney Clemons. Last season Odoms was involved a little less in the offense due to the emergence of Kelvin Grady and Roy Roundtree, who combined for 43 catches. However, he had the game-winning touchdown reception against Indiana and did the following, which endeared him to many Michigan fans:

Broken play? Not a problem. Here, let me go run full-speed into the middle linebacker, get knocked down, then get up and chase down the play to try to block someone else!

Adding to the awesomeness, Odoms was fast enough to nearly catch Denard Robinson from behind after getting knocked down – he reportedly beat Robinson in the spring’s Fastest Man Competition. I guess that’s why the University of Miami (FL) tried to give him a track scholarship out of high school.

Anyway, Odoms is a great glue player. He’s not a superstar, but he’s versatile and gives a superb effort. He won’t juke many defenders out of their shoes, but he will try to accelerate through tacklers and split defenders who might misjudge his speed. I’ll take a kid like that any day of the week. However, fellow slot receiver Roy Roundtree emerged toward the end of the season to lead the team in receptions, racking up 30 in the last four games. I expect to see a lot of four-wide sets with Junior Hemingway, Darryl Stonum, Roundtree, and Odoms this fall. That gives the team a good possession receiver (Hemingway), a deep threat on the outside (Stonum), a guy who can get open over the middle of the field and get deep (Roundtree), and a good bubble screen guy (Odoms). There are also rumors that Roundtree and Odoms will see time at wide receiver, not just in the slot. If the quarterback play is consistent, Michigan’s receiving corps should be a bright spot in the 2010 season.

Prediction for 2010: Starting slot receiver; 35 receptions, 420 yards, 2 touchdowns

Programming note: 2010 Season Countdown

Despite Troy Woolfolk’s apparent season-ending injury, I will leave him at the ranking which I have already determined. We’re already to the top 16, and it’s no more inaccurate to put him at #16 than it is to put him higher on the list. As it is, he probably belongs down around #80 with guys like Christian Pace, but it’s too late now. Oh well.

2010 Countdown: #17 Michael Cox

Name: Michael Cox
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 211 lbs.
High school: Avon Old Farms High School in Dorchester, MA
Position: Running back
Class: Redshirt sophomore
Jersey number: #15
Last year: I ranked Cox #70 and said he’d get a couple mop-up carries. He carried the ball 13 times for 113 yards and 2 touchdowns, and caught 1 pass for 11 yards.

Headed into the 2009 season, it seemed that Cox was going to be an afterthought. Seniors Carlos Brown, Kevin Grady, and Brandon Minor were recruited by Lloyd Carr and would almost certainly get the majority of the carries. Junior Michael Shaw, freshman Vincent Smith, and freshman Fitzgerald Toussaint all signed with a Rodriguez-led Michigan. Cox was the only non-senior who had signed with Lloyd Carr, and many thought that he wouldn’t fit Rodriguez’s system. Cox wasn’t small and fast like Noel Devine, and he wasn’t a giant bruiser like Kay-Jay Harris. But practice reports said that he looked like a slightly smaller version of Brandon Minor, and that seemed to be the most accurate description once the 2009 season played out. Fans’ first sight of Cox saw him punishing Eastern Michigan tacklers for 24 yards on his first carry, and he added an impressive 57-yard touchdown run a few weeks later against Delaware State.

In the spring of 2010, the battle to replace Minor and Brown started to heat up. There can be a case made for several players. Shaw is extremely fast and shifty, but he can’t stay healthy or break tackles and has questionable vision (he also might be academically ineligible for the season). Smith is shifty and has good hands, but is small and coming off a torn ACL. Toussaint was a highly touted recruit and possesses the best all-around skills, but is coming off a season-ending injury and didn’t see any game action in 2009.

In my mind, though, there are very few questions about Cox. He has good size and speed. He runs hard. He hasn’t suffered any significant injuries. There is but one question, really . . . but it’s a huge one: Does Cox know what he’s doing? He suffers brain farts occasionally, and that may have been to been to blame for a fumbled exchange in the spring game, although it should not be overlooked that early enrollee Devin Gardner was on the other end of the handoff. He looks silly at times, but he also runs for a bunch of yards – the 24-yarder against EMU, the 57-yarder against DSU, and a 22-yard TD against Michigan in the spring game. It’s an extremely small sample size, but Cox looks better on paper than any other back on the roster. That’s good enough for me.

Prediction for 2010: Starting superback; 140 carries, 700 yards, 9 touchdowns

40% of voters picked Will Hagerup to be #17. Only 13% chose Cox.

2010 Countdown: #18 Brendan Gibbons

Name: Brendan Gibbons
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 227 lbs.
High school: Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach, FL
Position: Placekicker
Class: Redshirt freshman
Jersey number: #34
Last year: I ranked Gibbons #66 and said he’d be the team’s kicker. He redshirted.

Not many people expected Gibbons to redshirt in 2009. He stepped into a situation with one oft-injured kicker (Bryan Wright) and a bunch of walk-ons. But despite being the #8 ranked kicker in the 2009 recruiting class, he sat for the entire year and watched fifth-year walk-on Jason Olesnavage handle the placekicking duties. Gibbons definitely has leg strength; in his senior year of high school, 93% of his kickoffs were touchbacks and he had 7 field goals of 40+ yards, including a long of 52. However, reports of inaccuracy and inconsistency have been rampant, and Gibbons is fighting several former walk-ons for the kicking job again this year.

I’m not sure what will happen with Gibbons. He has been erratic, and walk-on kickers make an impact at various schools around the country every single year. I would not be surprised to see him lose the job, so this #18 ranking encompasses all the kickers, in a way. I think Michigan’s offense will be high-powered enough that field goals won’t be a premium mode of scoring points in most games. Games in 2010 aren’t going to be won or lost with scores of 17-14 or 14-13. These are going to be high scoring affairs, and even though I’m sure Michigan will lose a few games, it will mostly be due to a questionable defense and not entirely the kicking woes that are sure to surface.

And hey, the lower my expectations are, the more likely I am to be pleasantly surprised.

Prediction for 2010: Gibbons will be the kickoff specialist; a walk-on will be the placekicker

Gibbons was the leading vote-getter with 20% of the tally.

2010 Countdown: #19 Patrick Omameh

Name: Patrick Omameh
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 299 lbs.
High school: St. Francis DeSales High School in Columbus, OH
Position: Offensive guard
Class: Redshirt sophomore
Jersey number: #65
Last year: I ranked Omameh #44 and said he’d be a backup offensive tackle. He was . . . until he started the last three games of the season at right guard. I also said he’d be in line to take over the left tackle job vacated by Mark Ortmann in 2010, but it looks like he’ll still be at RG.

Omameh was a lightly recruited defensive end prospect coming out of high school, garnering a late offer from the Wolverines once Rich Rodriguez took the helm. He was very light for an offensive lineman, but was 276 lbs. by 2009 and now weighs in at a svelte 299 lbs. He played sparingly at the beginning of last season, looking up at offensive tackles Mark Ortmann, Perry Dorrestein, and Mark Huyge. However, with the offensive line rejiggering triggered by the David Molk injury, Huyge moved inside to guard but couldn’t cut it inside. That’s when Omameh stepped in and took the RG position by the throat, looking powerful and athletic over the last three weeks, including tough opponents Wisconsin and Ohio State.

The departure of David Moosman leaves the right guard position as Omameh’s to lose. There’s a possibility that redshirt freshman Taylor Lewan might win the left tackle position, but otherwise, Michigan has six offensive linemen with starting experience (Omameh, Huyge, Dorrestein, Molk, Stephen Schilling, and John Ferrara). This gives Michigan an experienced unit that should be perhaps the strongest group on the offense. Omameh himself is perfectly suited to the athletic line play that is required for Michigan’s offense. He has the speed, agility, and power to get up to the second level and latch onto linebackers. Between fifth-year senior Schilling, veteran center Molk, and Omameh, Michigan should be able to run the ball effectively, no matter who wins the starting running back job by September 4th.

Prediction for 2010: Starting right guard

Only 17% of voters picked Omameh to be #19 in the poll. The leading vote-getter was Brendan Gibbons, with 20%.