Preview: Michigan at Penn State

Tag: Kevin Newsome


29Oct 2010
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Preview: Michigan at Penn State

This must be how the remainder of Penn State’s two-deep feels.

This is a big Saturday for me.  Not only does Michigan get a chance to avenge two consecutive losses to Penn State and earn a bowl berth, but I live in some fairly heavy Penn State country and these people talk a lot of smack.  I have some friendly bets with some of my players – the loser(s) have to run a mile after practice on Monday.

Rush Offense vs. Penn State Rush Defense
In comparison with a similar offense to Michigan’s, the Nittany Lions gave up 282 yards on only 54 carries against the Illinois Fighting Illini two weeks ago, and that defense has further been depleted by injury.  Interestingly, Michigan has the #7 rushing offense in the country and averages . . . 282 yards a game.  Despite that outburst, Penn State sits at a middling #52 against the run.  As one might expect, Penn State’s bad opponents (Kent State, Youngstown State, Minnesota) have run the ball poorly, and the solid opponents (Alabama, Illinois) have gashed them.  I have not been impressed with Michigan’s running backs this season, but with PSU’s injury issues on defense, I expect Denard Robinson and the Running Back du Jour to have a great day.
Advantage: Michigan

Pass Offense vs. Penn State Pass Defense
Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson has suffered a lull in his passing efficiency over the past couple weeks, turning in subpar passing games against both Michigan State and Iowa.  Iowa has the somewhat unique quality of being able to stick to their game plan and do a pretty good job of stopping whatever offense the opponent runs.  Whereas Michigan flops between several defenses, Iowa just played their base personnel and Cover 2 defense and they were able to stifle the previously explosive Michigan passing game.  Prior to the season, I suspected that Tate Forcier would become more valuable when the Big Ten season arrived; true to form, Forcier stepped in once Robinson got hurt in the third quarter and rallied the Wolverines to 21 points.  However, opponents are completing 63% of their passes against the Nittany Lions, and leading interceptor Nick Sukay will miss the game with an injury.  And not that defensive linemen have much of an impact on Denard Robinson, but the injuries to Penn State’s defensive ends will make it difficult for Penn State to add to the total of only 4 sacks allowed by the Wolverines this season.
Advantage: Michigan

Rush Defense vs. Penn State Rush Offense
I don’t know what to think here.  Running back Evan Royster has torched Michigan over the past couple seasons, rushing for something like 500 yards on 2 carries.  On the one hand, Penn State’s offensive line is made up of wet Klee-nex, Stefen Wisniewski, and a balloon animal.  On the other hand, replace “Stefen Wisniewski” with “Mike Martin’s sprained ankle” and that’s a pretty good description of Michigan’s defense, too.  Considering that Michigan hasn’t been able to stop the run at all this year, I have to assume that Penn State will gash the Wolverines once again.  It will be the #86 rush offense against the #54 rush defense, but keep in mind that teams feel like they can beat Michigan through the air whenever they want; just ask Indiana and Notre Dame whether the running game was important for running neck-and-neck with Michigan.
Advantage: Penn State

Pass Defense vs. Penn State Pass Offense
Penn State is the #71 pass offense and the #93 pass efficiency offense.  So . . . they’re crappy.  Recent reports indicate that freshman starter Robert Bolden will miss Saturday’s game with concussion symptoms.  I got a chance to see former Michigan commit Kevin Newsome back in the spring of 2009 when he enrolled early at Penn State, and he looked like me playing quarterback, except only if I drank a fifth of whiskey first.  That means that redshirt sophomore, former walk-on Matt McGloin will likely get the start on Saturday.  McGloin’s career stats are 6 completions on 15 attempts, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception.  And now that we’re aware of the mediocrity that is Penn State’s pass offense, you should expect at least 350 yards passing and a few touchdowns.  Okay, maybe not.  I’m feeling gutsy, so . . .
Advantage: Michigan

Final Predictions

  • A healthy Denard Robinson runs for 180 yards
  • Michigan exploits the middle of the field for 220+ yards passing
  • For only the second time this season, Evan Royster rushes for 100+ yards
  • One of Michigan’s inexperienced cornerbacks gets his first career interception
  • I won’t be running a mile after practice on Monday
  • Michigan 42, Penn State 24
8Apr 2009
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Penn State coaches clinic: Saturday scrimmage

On Saturday afternoon, Penn State held practice from 1:30 until 2:30 and then held an offense-defense scrimmage until 3:30. I started to pull out my camera to take pictures until I was reminded that we weren’t allowed to take pictures of practice, only drills. Oops.

A few notes:

From the way it looked to me, Kevin Newsome is behind redshirt freshman walk-on Matt McGloin on the depth chart. McGloin isn’t anything special, but he looks more comfortable in the pocket and he’s more accurate than Newsome. We knew this already, but if Daryll Clark gets hurt, the Nittany Lions are screwed.

Kevin Newsome is not ready to be a college QB. He was highly ranked early in the 2009 recruiting cycle until he started showing up to camps resembling a drunken discus thrower; that thing will fly a long way, but it might kill a bystander in the process. Newsome patted the ball, even in one-on-ones. He gave all kinds of unintentional pump fakes because he didn’t know when to throw the ball. As I mentioned in a previous post, in the time I was watching him during one-on-one drills (WR vs. DB) on Friday afternoon, he completed 3/15 passes. His throwing motion is inconsistent, but usually it comes from a sidearm delivery. If his passes miss their target (which they often do, obviously), they usually sail high. He has happy feet and because of that, he doesn’t step into his throws properly; when he finally throws the ball, it looks rushed and he fails to throw downhill, which also contributes to his passes sailing high.

Newsome does have a very strong arm. Seemingly without much effort, he was throwing the ball 60 or 65 yards. He hit a deep ball in one-on-ones that got safety Nick Sukay chewed out by Joe Paterno. I was unable to stay for the last fifteen minutes of the scrimmage, but Newsome completed 1/1 pass (a short crossing pattern) that gained about 11 yards and then scrambled for about 12 yards on a separate play. I was somewhat surprised that they didn’t have him throw the ball more, but I guess he had better get used to the running game, since that’s all he should be doing if Clark gets injured. I’m glad we got Tate Forcier instead of Newsome. Newsome has the size, speed, and arm to be a very good quarterback, but there’s a lot of work to be done between now and then.

Michigan fans are up in arms about running a three-man front. Penn State runs a three-man front, which a lot of people don’t realize. They have a strongside rush linebacker. He does drills mostly with the linebackers. When the defensive line does drills, Larry Johnson runs them with three guys down. Yet most people would say that PSU runs a 4-3, so this 3-4 that Michigan might run really doesn’t have to be a big deal.

I was looking forward to seeing Stephfon Green run the football, but he has some kind of injury and was sitting out. Evan Royster was still fun to watch, though; he had about a 40-yard TD run, but that might be partly because PSU’s secondary has been decimated by senior departures.

Linebacker Chris Colasanti, from Lakeville, MI, was playing inside linebacker with the second team. He didn’t look spectacular, but I have no doubts that Ron Vanderlinden will coach him up. He did have a play during seven-on-sevens in which he deflected the ball to himself and then made the diving INT.

I am not particularly afraid of PSU for 2009. I expect that the offensive backfield will be excellent with Clark, Royster, and Green, and the front seven will be decent despite the departures of Maurice Evans and Aaron Maybin. But the receivers and offensive line aren’t impressive, and the defensive backfield is severely lacking talent and depth.
6Apr 2009
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Penn State coaches clinic: Friday afternoon

Friday afternoon began with a presentation by Jeremy Scott, PSU’s speed coach. Several outgoing Penn State players, who were training for the NFL draft, went through a workout: center A.Q. Shipley, cornerback Lydell Sargent, safety Mark Rubin, and offensive tackle Gerald Cadogan. They did various agility and speed drills for approximately an hour.

An interesting connection was made at the next session. Strength coach John Thomas brought a graduate assistant and some weight equipment into Holuba Hall. They did a session of manual resistance training, in which the GA did various exercises while Thomas used his strength and body weight to work him to failure. For example, the GA did pushups while Thomas pushed down on his back; the kid looked like he hated him for it.

The funny thing was that Thomas mentioned four or five times that he had learned some of these techniques “from a guy who’s probably going to hate me saying his name, and that’s Mike Gittleson.” He looked over toward the opposite corner from me, as if Gittleson were over there somewhere. Of course, most of the coaches at the clinic were from Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, and New Jersey, so I don’t know if anyone else recognized the name. But I immediately started looking for someone who might be Gittleson. I couldn’t find him initially, but I eventually saw him. I spoke to him for a minute about resistance training, but I didn’t mention anything about Michigan, since I thought that might bring up bad memories. Interestingly enough, when I got home and Googled John Duncan, one of the first hits I came across was this article in which ex-PSU players suggested that players were actually getting fatter and weaker under Duncan; those are the exact same criticisms that Gittleson suffered from fans, although I’m sure many S&C coaches face the same questions.

After Duncan’s presentation, the team came out for spring practice. I immediately scoped out some players of interest for Michigan fans, players like Kevin Newsome, Devon Still, Chris Colasanti, etc. I was concentrating on defensive line and linebacker drills, since those are the positions I coach, but I also spent some time watching Newsome throw. I’ll have a more in-depth analysis later, but Newsome completed 3 out of 15 passes in one-on-ones that I saw.