Tag: Kenny Demens

Video: Robinson, Demens, Morgan interviews – Purdue week

2012 Season Predictions

This is always fun.  Take a look at my 2011 predictions.

2012 Season Countdown: #14 Kenny Demens

Kenny Demens

Name: Kenny Demens
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 242 lbs.
High school: Detroit (MI) Country Day
Position: Linebacker
Class: Redshirt senior
Jersey number: #25
Last year: I ranked Demens #3 and said he would have 100 tackles.  He had 94 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, 2 pass breakups, and 1 forced fumble.

Demens went from a part-time starter in 2010 to almost never coming off the field in 2011.  At a solid 248 lbs., he looked like a prototypical linebacker for a 4-3 defense.  He was pretty good against the run and pretty good against the pass, although he never really seemed to have a signature play or signature game.  Ask a bunch of Michigan fans what their favorite Demens play is, and you’ll either get no answer or a bunch of different answers.  Regardless, he was a mainstay on the field, even in obvious passing situations when a 6’1″, 248-pounder with seemingly limited athleticism might seem to be a liability.

Now Demens has lost six pounds, which is probably a good thing.  While he wasn’t overweight last season, the Big Ten is no longer a power run-heavy league and his weight seemed to be a bit cumbersome for chasing down all the spread running backs and receivers.  Maybe being a little lighter will give him an extra half step to make a few more plays, and 242 isn’t small by any means.  I put Demens at #3 last season partly because he had no viable backup, and that was evidenced by the fact that he was rarely replaced, except in blowouts.  Now that freshman Joe Bolden is on campus, Demens should be able to get a breather.  Bolden likely won’t be a crunch-time player, but he’s more reliable than the backup MIKEs who were available last season.  Brandin Hawthorne also got more reps at MIKE in the spring and could be a situational replacement there, although he’s more of a weakside ‘backer.  Demens should get a little more rest this season, but he’ll still have a big impact on the defense.

Prediction: 90 tackles, 1 interception

Butkus, Lombardi, Biletnikoff Award Watch Lists

Some award watch lists were released on Monday and Tuesday.  Michigan’s very own Kenny Demens and Taylor Lewan appear on the Rotary Lombard Award watch list, and Roy Roundtree was mentioned for the Biletnikoff Award.  Here’s a look at the rest of the players of note for Michigan fans:

Butkus Award (Top college linebacker)
Johnny Adams – CB – Michigan State
Chris Borland – LB – Wisconsin
Jonathan Brown – LB – Illinois
Max Bullough – LB – Michigan State
Gerald Hodges – LB – Penn State
Nico Johnson – LB – Alabama
Michael Mauti – LB – Penn State
C.J. Mosley – LB – Alabama
Etienne Sabino – LB – Ohio State
Bruce Taylor – LB – Virginia Tech
Manti Te’o – LB – Notre Dame

Rotary Lombardi Award (Outstanding lineman who best exemplifies discipline of Vince Lombardi)
Denicos Allen – LB – Michigan State
Chris Borland – LB – Wisconsin
Jonathan Brown – LB – Illinois
Michael Buchanan – DE – Illinois
Max Bullough – LB – Michigan State
Braxston Cave – C – Notre Dame
Kenny Demens – LB – Michigan
Tyler Eifert – TE – Notre Dame
D.J. Fluker – OT – Alabama
Travis Frederick – C – Wisconsin
Jaymes Gayle – DE – Virginia Tech
William Gholston – DE – Michigan State
Johnathan Hankins – DT – Ohio State
Jordan Hill – DT – Penn State
Gerald Hodges – LB – Penn State
Nico Johnson – LB – Alabama
Barrett Jones – C – Alabama
Taylor Lewan – OT – Michigan
Spencer Long – OG – Nebraska
Zack Martin – OT – Notre Dame
Chris McDonald – OG – Michigan State
James Morris – LB – Iowa
C.J. Mosley – LB – Alabama
Marcus Rush – DE – Michigan State
Kawann Short – DT – Purdue
John Simon – DE – Ohio State
Akeem Spence – DT – Illinois
Baker Steinkuhler – DT – Nebraska
Jake Stoneburner – TE – Ohio State
Bruce Taylor – LB – Virginia Tech
Mike Taylor – LB – Wisconsin
Manti Te’o – LB – Notre Dame
Ricky Wagner – OT – Wisconsin
Chance Warmack – OG – Alabama
Jesse Williams – DT – Alabama

Biletnikoff Award (Most outstanding wide receiver)
Jared Abbrederis – Wisconsin
Corey Brown – Ohio State
Keenan Davis – Iowa
Marcus Davis – Virginia Tech
T.J. Jones – Notre Dame
Roy Roundtree – Michigan

MGoBlog: Clinic Items – Greg Mattison

Greg Mattison is awesome.

Brian at MGoBlog attended a clinic at which Greg Mattison spoke.  First of all, I’m jealous.  Secondly, though, I loved every bit of Brian’s post.  You should go there (if you haven’t already) and read it in its entirety, but here I just want to a bit of a point-by-point analysis of what Brian shared.

“Occasionally it felt like it was a college class as Mattison asked the room what player X would be doing in a particular situation.”  In my experience, the best speakers are the ones who keep the audience involved.  This isn’t news to anyone who does frequent public speaking or is involved in education.  If you’re just speaking at people, they often lose interest fairly quickly.

“As I wrestled with how to handle this various coaches in the room told every-damn-body that Mattison said Brennen Beyer was moving to WDE and Craig Roh to SDE. This was explicitly stated.”  This is confirmation of my post from the other day.  Not that I’m a genius – the info was e-mailed to me – but there were some questions about the validity of my info.  I try not to post information I’m not confident in, so I like when my info is confirmed by multiple sources.

“Mattison took the opportunity to point out that this was an example of the corners not coming hard enough and gush over Floyd (“I love this kid”) in general and specifically as an exemplar of the Michigan philosophy.”  I think my criticisms of J.T. Floyd often get misconstrued as hating on a kid or holding a grudge.  I’ve never questioned Floyd’s hustle or attitude.  What I’ve questioned is his overall athletic ability, and I think Brian’s comment here somewhat confirms my criticisms.  Floyd hustles and indeed makes a nice play by chasing down Braxton Miller, but one of the issues here is that Floyd helped allow a giant run in the first place, which is acknowledged by Mattison.

“Here he also noted that everyone hits the sled every day and that this was not something the previous coaching staff did frequently, if ever. This is where the bit about “I’ve never seen such awful technique” came in. Pretty much the only thing negative Mattison said was about the state of the team he was handed.”  The sled is such a useful tool in coaching football.  I know we saw clips of Rodriguez’s teams hitting the sled, and I doubt they just did that for the camera.  I think Mattison might be underestimating how often Michigan hit the sled, but still it might be a significant improvement.  Whether it’s a blocking sled, a tackling sled, a five-man sled, a two-man sled, whatever, they’re the best simulation for live play.  And there’s only so much man-on-man hitting you can do before people start getting injured.

“Inside linebackers. The usual: the mike has to be a little bigger, a little stronger, and the will has to be able to adjust to coverage outside of the box. An important difference between the two is the WLB has to be able to run vertically down the seam whereas the MLB can pass his guy off; IIRC this year the guy running down the seam was Demens, not Morgan. Adjustment based on Demens’s surprising ability to stick with guys downfield?”  The MIKE and the WILL are interchangeable, especially with a guy like Desmond Morgan, who is essentially a MIKE (albeit young and small-ish) playing because of a void at the position.  I think Demens was often dropping into coverage because offenses flipped the formation’s strength.  The inside linebackers don’t flip with a change of strength, so then the MIKE becomes the WILL and vice versa.

“Corners. “Corners are corners” but the field corner (Countess) is not involved with “heavy work” and usually just has to clean up plays that have been strung out. The boundary corner (Floyd) has to be a bigger guy better in run support. It’s a seven man front; if you go eight you’d “better have a war daddy” at field corner because he’s got to cover an outside receiver with little additional help.”  This is where the loss of Anthony Standifer hurts.  I really think Standifer, who was committed to Michigan for several months, could have developed into a good run supporter and boundary corner.  Richardson is a lot like Blake Countess, so now Michigan has two young field corners (three if you include Courtney Avery) and one senior boundary corner (Floyd).  I think that’s why you’re seeing so many big corners getting offered in the class of 2013.  Michigan needs run supporting corners right NOW.  It might also be why incoming free safety Jarrod Wilson might get a shot to play cornerback.

“Brennen Beyer. Beyer was talked up like a future star. Reportedly up to 250 pounds and will be given an opportunity to win the WDE job in the spring.”  This sounds like a good plan to me, because Beyer seemed a little out of place at SAM.

“Departing DL. Heininger “really became a football player.” Seems like they think they’ll miss him. Van Bergen “really, really played” for M and Martin was of course the best player on the team.”  I agree that Martin was the best player on the team.  Yes, better than Denard Robinson.  Heininger is replaceable, and Van Bergen’s loss will be mitigated somewhat by the move of Craig Roh to strongside end.  This isn’t news, but the biggest loss here is Mike Martin.  As much as I like most of the defense, the loss of such a big-time nose tackle is going to hurt.  Even when Martin wasn’t making plays, he was causing the offense to scheme around him or he was making running backs redirect in the backfield.  Teams often improve in the second year of a system, but that might be difficult unless William Campbell and/or Ondre Pipkins has a breakout season.