Tag: Donovan Peoples-Jones

Michigan 33, Florida 17

(image via MGoBlue)

The elephant in the room. Wilton Speight doesn’t look any better than he did in the spring. He was 11/25 for 181 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions. He threw more touchdowns to Florida (2) than he did to his own guys. I don’t believe this is a Jim Harbaugh thing. Harbaugh has shown elsewhere that he’s capable of coaching the quarterback position. Speight is the lone guy in Harbaugh’s history who has regressed. I hope Florida was just really good defensively – despite having 10 players suspended and a starting safety out with a torn Achilles – but I have no faith in that being the case. Speight consistently overthrows balls, a frustrating thing when guys are wide open, and a dangerous thing when guys are in traffic. I’ve seen people insisting that the first pick-six was on Kekoa Crawford, whose hands it bounced off of, but that throw was high and a tough catch. The second pick-six in the general vicinity of Grant Perry was wildly overthrown.

The hippo in the room. John O’Korn looked about the same as he did last year, too. I don’t understand yanking Speight in order to have O’Korn hand off the ball three times before punting, either. You don’t need a backup QB to hand off the ball. Speight is better with the ball handling, anyway, so that first O’Korn series was a waste, and the draw play on third down was awkward.

The armadillo in the room. I sure hope Brandon Peters gets some playing time this year.

Hit the jump for more on the game.

read more

2017 Season Countdown: #34 Donovan Peoples-Jones

Donovan Peoples-Jones (image via Bleacher Report)

Name: Donovan Peoples-Jones
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 193 lbs.
High school: Detroit (MI) Cass Tech
Position: Wide receiver
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: #9
Last year: Peoples-Jones was a senior in high school.
TTB Rating: 92

Peoples-Jones was perhaps the jewel of the 2017 class, as he was the most highly sought recruit in the State of Michigan, and one of the best in the country. He had the highest SPARQ score as an underclassman in the summer of 2016, and everyone raves about his speed and athleticism. Toss in the fact that he’s academics-oriented and wants to go to medical school someday, and Michigan seems to have pulled in a pretty solid all-around guy. He ended up playing in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl before enrolling early at Michigan.

Now Donovan Peoples-Jones is going to wear the #9 at Michigan. This is noteworthy, because he yoinked it from junior Grant Perry. (Perry may have yoinked it from himself with his alleged felonious behavior in East Lansing, but we’ll kind of ignore that for the purposes of this post.) Peoples-Jones impressed in the spring, though he doesn’t seem to have an otherworldly grasp on the game to the point where he’s going to be an immediate star in college. That’s a difficult task for almost anyone, but especially in a pro-style offense with lots of adjustments and virtually no emphasis on tempo. Kekoa Crawford will likely start at one receiver spot, so it seems to be a race between Peoples-Jones and fellow freshman Tarik Black for the open wideout position. My take based on practice rumblings and what I saw in the spring game is that Black might have the edge for now, but I think Peoples-Jones has the higher ceiling in the long run. Either way, both should play a considerable amount, but neither is destined for an all-conference year here in 2017.

Prediction: Backup split end

2017 Spring Game Thoughts: Offense

Brandon Peters (#18) with Michael Onwenu (#50) and Ty Isaac (#32)

SITE NEWS: Right now we have 35 users with avatars uploaded. When that number reaches 50, I’ll do a drawing for a $50 gift card to Amazon.

The Maize team won Saturday’s spring game by a score of 31-29 with a last-second field goal by Kyle Seychel. You can find videos and highlights here (LINK).

Hit the jump for some position-by-position thoughts on what we all saw. (Note: not every player will be mentioned.)

read more

Michigan’s 2017 Spring Combine Results

Rashan Gary (image via The Wolverine)

Jim Harbaugh tweeted out the results of Michigan’s spring combine. I won’t list all of the results (though I’m embedding the tweet below), but here are a few notable achievements and takeaways:

• Freshman WR Donovan Peoples-Jones is the fastest guy on the team with a 4.41 forty
• Peoples-Jones also has the best vertical at 39″
• Chris Evans swept the RB drills and ran a 4.62 forty
• Zach Gentry is back at TE and ran a 4.7 forty
• Jon Runyan, Jr. almost swept the OL category, with one lone loss to Cesar Ruiz in the pro shuttle
• Lavert Hill and David Long tied with a 4.52 forty
• Rashan Gary led the defensive line with a 4.57 forty, so he’s just 0.05 seconds slower than Michigan’s two presumed starting corners

Proud to announce top position performers of 2017 Michigan Football Spring Combine. Offense led by Chris Evans, defense led by Rashan Gary! pic.twitter.com/hAQKJo07Lc

— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) March 16, 2017

2017 Recruiting Grades: Offense

Donovan Peoples-Jones (image via Rivals)

QUARTERBACK: A-
Commits (1): Dylan McCaffrey
Decommits (0): N/A
Why? McCaffrey was a U.S. Army All-American and there have been whispers that Jim Harbaugh believes McCaffrey is the best high school quarterback prospect he’s seen in a long time, maybe going back to Andrew Luck. So there’s that. McCaffrey has the height, the bloodline, and the athleticism to be a very good quarterback. However, there are questions about his arm strength and mechanics. So while Harbaugh really likes him, I would have preferred someone like Davis Mills, who chose Stanford instead.

Hit the jump for the rest of the offensive grades.

read more