Tag: Delonte Hollowell

Defensive Backs Preview: Michigan vs. South Carolina

Jordan Kovacs was the team’s MVP this season

MICHIGAN
Starters: Michigan will be missing its two starting cornerbacks from the beginning of the year; sophomore Blake Countess tore his ACL in the opener, and fifth year senior J.T. Floyd has been suspended for the Outback Bowl for breaking team rules.  Sophomore Raymon Taylor (5’10”, 182 lbs.), who replaced Countess for most of the year, will likely slide over to Floyd’s boundary corner position.  Taylor had his share of ups and downs on the season, but did a fair job overall and ended the regular season with 42 tackles, 2 interceptions (1 returned for a TD), 1 fumble recovery, and 1 pass breakup.  Junior Courtney Avery (5’11”, 173 lbs.), who normally starts at nickel corner, will probably step in at Taylor’s regular field corner spot.  Avery struggled there in some limited time early in the season, but he’ll have more reps this time around; playing a new position against Alabama is an extremely difficult task.  This year Avery has 16 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, .5 sacks, 1 fumble forced, and 1 fumble recovery.  Fifth year senior strong safety Jordan Kovacs (6’0″, 202 lbs.) has actually seen his statistics decline a little bit this year, but he was named the team’s MVP by his teammates; he has 65 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 1 interception, 2 pass breakups, and 1 forced fumble.  Redshirt junior Thomas Gordon (5’11”, 207 lbs.) is more of a strong safety masquerading, but he has shown a knack for creating turnovers in the past; he has 75 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 2 interceptions, 1 forced fumble, and 2 pass breakups.  This is not a great group individually, but along with Floyd, they had the #2 passing yardage defense in the country.
Backups: Freshman safety Jarrod Wilson (6’2″, 194 lbs.) has played more extensively than any other backup, but he hasn’t had a signature positive play.  The game is moving too fast for him, as it often does with young safeties.  He could play a little bit at the nickel corner and has made 7 tackles and 1 fumble recovery on the year.  Another candidate for slot corner is sophomore Delonte Hollowell (5’9″, 176 lbs.), who has 4 tackles and 1 fumble recovery but is more of a special teams player.  The most interesting candidate for playing time is freshman Dennis Norfleet (5’7″, 161 lbs.), who returns kicks and ran the ball occasionally; he has now moved to defense in an attempt to shore up the depleted cornerback position.  Junior safety Marvin Robinson (6’2″, 200 lbs.) is a run stuffer who has played sparingly on defense and made 7 tackles and 1 fumble recovery.  Redshirt sophomore Josh Furman (6’2″, 203 lbs.) plays a lot on special teams but is a liability on defense; he has 10 tackles.

SOUTH CAROLINA
Starters: Redshirt sophomore Victor Hampton (5’10”, 197 lbs.) starts at one cornerback spot; he has made 34 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 1 interception, and is tied for the team lead with 6 pass breakups.  The other starter is senior Akeem Auguste (5’9″, 188 lbs.), who was injured early in the season and returned to start the last couple games; he has 15 tackles, 1 interception, 1 pass breakup, and 1 fumble recovery on the year. Senior D.J. Swearinger (6’0″, 210 lbs.) is the free safety and has 70 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 2 interceptions, 2 fumble recoveries, 1 forced fumble, and 5 pass breakups.  Sophomore Brison Williams (6’0″, 205 lbs.) starts at strong safety and has made 48 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 2 interceptions, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery, and 4 pass breakups this season.
Backups: Redshirt junior Jimmy Legree (6’0″, 189 lbs.), the other starting corner when Auguste was hurt, did a solid job.  Legree is a converted free safety and has 43 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, and 2 interceptions.  Redshirt freshman Ahmad Christian (5’10”, 189 lbs.) has 8 tackles and 2 pass breakups as the backup to Hampton.  Sophomore Kadetrix Marcus (6’1″, 185 lbs.) backs up the strong safety position and has made 5 tackles.

THE TAKEAWAY
The Wolverines have the #2 pass defense and #35 pass efficiency defense in the country, but quarterback play in the Big Ten has been woeful and they’ll be down a starting corner (or two, if you include Countess).  Meanwhile, the Gamecocks have the #16 pass defense and the #34 pass efficiency defense in a schedule that included Georgia’s Aaron Murray, Tennessee’s Tyler Bray, Arkansas’s Tyler Wilson, and Clemson’s Tajh Boyd, not to mention East Carolina and UAB teams that put up pretty decent numbers through the air.  The Wolverines have played a steady diet of teams that rank in the 70’s or lower in passing offense, and Alabama’s A.J. McCarron – whose team blew out Michigan – was the only decent passer on the docket.  I don’t think South Carolina quarterback Connor Shaw will shred the secondary, but the edge in defensive back play goes to the Gamecocks.

Advantage: South Carolina

2012 Season Countdown: #54 Delonte Hollowell

Delonte Hollowell (#24) (image via AnnArbor.com)

Name: Delonte Hollowell
Height: 5’9″
Weight: 164 lbs.
High school: Detroit (MI) Cass Tech
Position: Cornerback
Class: Sophomore
Jersey number: #24
Last year: I ranked Hollowell #79 and said he would redshirt.  He made 6 tackles and 1 fumble recovery on special teams.

Hollowell was on his way to a redshirt last season when Brady Hoke tossed him in for the first time at the beginning of November.  He proceeded to play in five games, mostly on special teams.  Toward the end of the season, Hollowell made a bit of a name for himself as a gunner on the punt team.

Look for more of the same in 2012.  It stands to reason that he’ll continue to play on special teams, but Michigan returns its two starters at cornerback, Courtney Avery returns as the slot corner, Terrence Talbott was pushing for playing time in the spring, and Raymon Taylor appears to be the other second-teamer.  It will be an uphill battle for Hollowell to earn playing time on defense, and incoming freshman Terry Richardson could also push for time.

Prediction: Special teams contributor; backup cornerback

Poll Results: Which freshman defensive back will have the best career?

Blake Countess

CB Blake Countess: 75%
CB Greg Brown: 11%
CB Raymon Taylor: 6%
CB Delonte Hollowell: 3%
FS Tamani Carter: 2%

I accidentally let this post go by the wayside back in August, but the results are interesting, if only confirmation of what we already knew.

It turns out that 75% of voters were right – Countess had the biggest impact.  He developed into a starter and perhaps the best cover corner on the team.

Greg Brown barely played before deciding to leave the team.  Taylor played early in the season when Troy Woolfolk was hurt, but saw very little time down the stretch.  Hollowell burned his redshirt late in the season just to run down the field on special teams.  And Carter redshirted.

The correct answer would have been Countess – Hollowell – Taylor – Brown – Carter, but the voters did a pretty good job for what was known.  Greg Brown screwed up the voting by leaving mid-season, but it happens.  Maybe we should re-think how advantageous it is for kids to enroll early; many of the recent early enrollees have struggled just as much as the average freshman.

2011 Countdown: #79 Delonte Hollowell

Delonte Hollowell

Name: Delonte Hollowell
Height: 5’8″
Weight: 163 lbs.
High school: Cass Tech High School in Detroit, MI
Position: Cornerback
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: #24
Last year: Hollowell was a high school senior (commitment post here)

TTB Rating: 58

Hollowell is just one of many Technicians to pick Michigan in the past few years.  He was Michigan’s second commitment for the class of 2011 and never wavered when the old coaching staff was fired in early January.

Hollowell looks like the most likely of the freshman cornerbacks to redshirt.  At only 163-ish pounds and having run track this spring, he probably hasn’t had much time to bulk up.  And college players in the Big Ten generally need to be bigger than 163 to play.  A few of these freshmen defensive backs will probably play, either on defense or special teams, but my guess is that Hollowell won’t be one of them.

Prediction: Redshirt

So about all these offers . . .

5-star receiver Stefon Diggs

Many Michigan fans seem worried that the new coaching staff has thrown out offers with what fans deem to be reckless abandon over the last couple months.  At last count Michigan has verbally offered 130 prospects from the class of 2012.

The key word there is “verbally.”  Due to a new rule for this recruiting cycle, high schoolers cannot receive official, written offers until August 1 of their senior year.  That means someone like Stefon Diggs (pictured above) won’t be 100% sure of who’s recruiting him until a little over four months from now.  In the olden days, kids could receive written offers on September 1 of their junior years, meaning Diggs would have been offered several months ago.

One thing to watch is how many kids actually accept offers this early in the process.  Since they can’t have official offers in hand for another several months, kids may be feeling out the process a little longer.  It seems that there have been fewer early commitments in the class of 2012 overall.  Only 19 of the 130 offered have already committed to a particular program.

While offers are coming at a much faster rate this year, they seem to be going to higher level athletes.  Of the 130 offers, 84 of them (56%) are on the Rivals 250 to Watch list, which means they are likely to be 4-stars or higher.  In my opinion, many of the other 46 players have a very good chance of being 4-stars, as well.

By about this time in the past few recruiting classes, Michigan not only had offers out to some lower level guys, but actual commitments from guys like Teric Jones (buried on the bench at RB), Antonio Kinard (a non-qualifier who ended up at Miami), Isaiah Bell (buried on the bench at LB), and Delonte Hollowell (who ended up as a middling 3-star prospect).  This is not to say that those guys won’t end up being solid players at some point, but early offers and commitments should be elite kids.  You can find the Teric Joneses and Antonio Kinards of the world late in the recruiting game, like Michigan has with Ray Vinopal, Jake Ryan, and Russell Bellomy.

Additionally, Michigan’s midwest recruiting base is pretty talented this season, which means the coaches – and recruits – don’t have to travel far.  Forty-four of the 130 offers (34%) are to kids from Big Ten states.

I was not a huge fan of the Brady Hoke hire, so this is not coming from the we-need-a-Michigan-Man-to-right-the-ship perspective:  I am legitimately not concerned with the number of offers the Wolverines have put out there.  This coaching staff seems to have a better grasp on the type of talent Michigan can and should recruit.  I will voice my concern if and when Hoke starts tossing out offers like candy to MAC-level and Big East-level talent, but so far that’s not the case.