All-Time Leaders: Top Performances Against Purdue

Tag: Martavious Odoms


3Dec 2022
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All-Time Leaders: Top Performances Against Purdue

Brandon Minor (image via SUIE)

It was fun to walk down memory lane to remember the top games against Ohio State last week, so what the hell? Let’s do it for Purdue, too.

SINGLE GAME PASSING YARDAGE LEADERS

  1. 271 yards – John Navarre (2002)
  2. 270 yards – John O’Korn (2017)
  3. 264 yards – Chad Henne (2007)
  4. 259 yards – Chris Zurbrugg (1984)
  5. 256 yards – Drew Henson (2000)

Hit the jump for more.

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24Aug 2020
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Ranking Michigan’s Wide Receivers

David Terrell (image via Michigan Football History)

Previously, I ranked the Michigan quarterbacks (LINK) and running backs (LINK) from the beginning of the Lloyd Carr era onward. That corresponds with the time that I have paid close attention to Michigan football.

Now we will take a look at the receivers. Because I don’t have an endless amount of time, I have to trim this down to guys who started at least twelve games in a Michigan uniform, which represents roughly one full season as a starter. The lone exception here is Devin Gardner, who started a bunch of games, but mostly at quarterback.

Hit the jump for the list.

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13Jul 2019
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The All-Rodriguez Team: Defense and Special Teams

Brandon Graham

This is the second installment of the All-Rodriguez Team (offense here), the brightest and best of the players coached by Rich Rodriguez and his bumbling henchmen defensive colleagues.

And I’m choosing players for a 4-3, not that moronic 3-3-5* they tried to shoehorn in there.

DE: Brandon Graham (2009)
64 tackles, 26 tackles for loss, 10.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery
Graham was the single most dominant defensive player during Rodriguez’s tenure.  He put up ridiculous numbers for a bad defense, even though he was double-teamed frequently.  And the best thing about Graham was the way his motor improved throughout his career.  He ate his way into playing defensive tackle as a freshman, but by his senior year in 2009, he never stopped going 100%.  That year turned him into a first round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles.

DT: Mike Martin (2009)
51 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 1 forced fumble
Martin seemed like a better player at the beginning of 2010 than in his sophomore year, but a couple sprained ankles slowed him down as a junior.  Even as a crippled junior, though, he would have deserved to be on this team.  Undersized for a nose tackle at 299 lbs., he still defeated double-teams on the regular.

DT: Ryan Van Bergen (2009)
38 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, 5 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 1 touchdown
Van Bergen’s production in 2010 was virtually the same as 2009, but technically, all thirteen games he started in 2010 were at the defensive end position.  I need a tackle, and he’s my man.  He’s another high-motor guy who played well at DT despite having the body of a strongside end.  I was tempted to choose Terrance Taylor here based on overall talent, but Taylor really didn’t produce much in his only season under Rodriguez (2008: 35 tackles, 1.5 sacks).

DE: Tim Jamison (2008)
50 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles
Jamison didn’t really stand out in 2008, but I think Michigan fans were shell-shocked by how bad the team was overall.  And while Jamison wasn’t a huge difference maker, he would have fit in just as well on a good defense, too.

LB: Steve Brown (2009)
80 tackles, 8 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 3 pass breakups, 1 forced fumble
I don’t know if Brown was miscast as a safety or if he was just coached poorly in his first three years, but he took a quantum leap as a senior when he was moved to the SAM linebacker position.  Brown never came off the field, playing linebacker on first and second downs and then becoming the nickel back on third downs.  Brown’s position change was perhaps the best personnel move of Rodriguez’s tenure, and Brown parlayed it into being a late draft pick by the Oakland Raiders.

LB: Kenny Demens (2010)
82 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, 1 pass breakup
I will be the first to admit that I was not enamored with Demens during his first couple years, but he made me a believer in the second half of the season.  He only started seven games after backing up Obi Ezeh for the first half of the year, but he still ended up third on the team in tackles.  I still think Demens makes some poor decisions due to being overaggressive in attacking the line of scrimmage, but that’s probably better than whatever Ezeh did from 2008-10.

LB: Jonas Mouton (2010)
117 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 2 pass breakups, 1 forced fumble, 2 fumble recoveries
Based on statistics alone, Mouton was borderline First Team All-Big Ten.  He averaged 9.8 tackles a game (which was .9 more than teammate Jordan Kovacs and 1.1 more than the next best Big Ten player, Indiana’s Tyler Replogle) and led the conference in tackles, despite playing in only twelve of Michigan’s thirteen contests.  But players on bad defenses don’t get much respect, especially when they make some inexplicably bad plays (see the long TD run by Illinois’s Jason Ford).  With a solid supporting cast, I think Mouton’s play would have stood out more.

CB: Donovan Warren (2009)
66 tackles, 4 interceptions, 7 pass breakups, 1 touchdown
Warren thought his junior season would propel him to NFL stardom, but just like Ernest Shazor, he left early and didn’t even get drafted.  Four interceptions isn’t too shabby, and it helps that one (vs. Iowa) went for a touchdown and another (vs. Indiana) was a fantastic diving interception that preserved a victory for the Wolverines.

CB: Morgan Trent (2008)
41 tackles, 3 interceptions, 2.5 tackles for loss, 2 pass breakups
Michigan fans will hate me for this, but Trent beats out James Rogers.  This just shows how poor Michigan’s defense was over the past three years, because everybody’s whipping boy was the second-best cornerback.  The thing that bugged me about criticism of Trent was that he took a lot of heat on message boards for playing 10 yards off the line of scrimmage, but that was clearly a coaching decision.  I think Michigan fans realized this by 2010, and if Trent had played for Michigan a year or two later, he might not have drawn as much ire.  Trent wasn’t the most agile corner, but he did have good speed and was a better tackler than many gave him credit for.  All that being said, I would actually like to put Troy Woolfolk here, but I need a free safety.

FS: Troy Woolfolk (2009)
46 tackles, 1 pass breakup
Woolfolk could fit on this team at cornerback or safety, but Michigan’s horrible defense was horribler once Woolfolk moved to corner for the second half of the year.  The Wolverines gave up 23 points per game with him at safety, an average that ballooned to 37 points per game (not counting FCS soup can Delaware State) once he switched to cornerback.  His statistics aren’t great, but stats don’t tell the whole story.  He was a consistent presence, a solid tackler, and had the speed to prevent some big plays.

SS: Jordan Kovacs (2010)
116 tackles, 2 interceptions, 8.5 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 1 pass breakup, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery
For two years, I’ve been hoping that someone more athletic would take Kovacs’s job.  But I’ve got to give credit where credit is due – Kovacs has been the best guy so far.  He rarely gets out of position, and I didn’t see a more dependable open field tackler on the team.  His 116 tackles (second only to Jonas Mouton in the Big Ten) speak for themselves, but he fills up the stat sheet in other ways, too.  You can’t help but love the guy.

P: Will Hagerup (2010)
33 punts, 1440 yards, 43.6 yards per punt, 11 punts inside the twenty
This was the most difficult choice of the entire All-Rodriguez team, a head-to-head matchup between Hagerup and Zoltan Mesko 2009.  Mesko averaged 44.5 yards per punt in 2009, but fully one-third of Hagerup’s punts were downed inside the twenty yard line (only 28% of Mesko’s were downed inside the twenty).  If you have a good offense (which this squad does), then you want a guy who can pin the opposing team deep.  It doesn’t matter if you can boom a punt when your offense moves the ball down the field before having to give it up.  But if you do need a long punt, Hagerup has a 72-yarder to his credit.  Both players would be good choices, though.

K: Jason Olesnavage (2009)
11-for-15 on field goals (73.3%), 42-for-43 on extra points (97.7%)
Special teams weren’t a strength under Rodriguez, but Olesnavage was pretty solid.  Along with being nearly perfect on extra points, he was 9-for-10 on field goals longer than 30 yards (only 2-for-5 from 29 yards in).

PR: Martavious Odoms (2008)
10 returns, 126 yards, 12.6 yards per return, 1 touchdown
Do I have to choose?  Seriously, this is painful.  Punt returns have been atrocious since 2008.  Odoms is really the only choice, even though he seemed to muff a punt every other game.  That’s not an exaggeration, either.  I wish it was.  I can either choose Odoms (who did have an exciting 73-yard touchdown against Purdue), or a handful of guys who averaged somewhere around two or four yards a return (Donovan Warren, Greg Mathews, Jeremy Gallon).  I would like to choose Drew Dileo, who looks like the best returner for the near future, but he only had 2 returns for 13 yards in 2010.

KR: Darryl Stonum (2009)
39 returns, 1001 yards, 25.7 yards per return, 1 touchdown
Partially due to the defense giving up a ton of points, Stonum had the most kickoff return yards in any season in Michigan history.  He beat Steve Breaston (2004: 28 returns for 689 yards) by 312 yards.  His 94-yard touchdown return against Notre Dame was one of the most exciting plays of the year.

*For clarification purposes, the 3-3-5 itself is not a moronic concept.  It can work, just not when your personnel is more suited for a 4-man front and your defensive coordinator is clueless about how to run it.

This content was originally posted on April 4, 2011.

5Feb 2018
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Review of 2008 Recruiting: Wide Receivers

Darryl Stonum

I haven’t done one of these in a while, but here’s a look back at the 2008 recruiting class – one whole decade ago.

THE ROSTER

LaTerryal Savage (RS Jr.)
Greg Mathews (Jr.)
Zion Babb (So.)
Toney Clemons (So.)
Junior Hemingway (So.)
James Rogers (So.)

THE COMMITS

Martavious Odoms
High school: Pahokee (FL) Pahokee
Ratings: Rivals 3-star, #71 WR
College: Michigan
Other notable offers: Auburn, Miami, Notre Dame, West Virginia 
Scoop: Odoms started 11 games as a true freshman, but his playing time and productivity diminished throughout his career. He made 94 career catches for 1,087 yards and 5 touchdowns. Interestingly, he only had 7 catches in his senior year of 2011, but 3 of them went for touchdowns. He also was a punt returner and scored 1 touchdown against Purdue as a true freshman. He was not drafted in 2012 and did not play beyond college.

Terrence Robinson
High school: Klein (TX) Oak
Ratings: Rivals 4-star, #9 APB
College: Michigan
Other notable offers: Nebraska, Oregon, TCU
Scoop: Robinson redshirted in 2008 and went on to make three career starts, all of which came in 2010. He caught 2 passes for 56 yards, returned 2 kickoffs for 27 yards, returned 1 punt for 11 yards, made 6 tackles on special teams, forced 1 fumble, and recovered 1 fumble. Those defensive statistics came entirely on special teams in 2011, Brady Hoke’s first year. He did not return for a fifth year and did not play professionally.

Roy Roundtree
High school: Trotwood (OH) Trotwood-Madison
Ratings: Rivals 4-star, #44 WR
College: Michigan
Other notable offers: Nebraska, Purdue 
Scoop: Roundtree redshirted in 2008 and then had a bit of a breakout campaign out of nowhere in 2009. He caught 32 passes for 434 yards (30 for 390 yards in a four-game stretch) and 3 touchdowns. He was Second Team All-Big Ten in 2010 with 72 catches for 935 yards and 7 touchdowns. With the new coaching staff in 2011, he caught just 19 passes for 355 yards and 2 touchdowns. He capped his career with 31 catches for 550 yards and 3 touchdowns in 2012. In both of his final seasons, he averaged a healthy 18.7 yards/catch. His career-high of 246 receiving yards against Illinois in 2010 was #1 all-time at Michigan until Jeremy Gallon surpassed him with 369 against Indiana in 2013. Roundtree was not drafted in 2013, spent some time with the Cincinnati Bengals before getting cut, and played in the Indoor Football League. He was the wide receivers coach at Indiana State last year, where several of Brady Hoke’s staff members now reside, and he will be returning to Michigan as a graduate assistant in 2018.

Darryl Stonum
High school: Stafford (TX) Dulles
Ratings: Rivals 4-star, #7 WR, #41 overall
College: Michigan Baylor
Other notable offers: Alabama, Florida, Florida State, USC
Scoop: Stonum caught 14 passes for 176 yards and 1 touchdown as a freshman in 2008. As a sophomore in 2009, he caught 13 passes for 199 yards and 1 touchdown; he also returned 39 kickoffs for 1,001 yards and 1 touchdown, a 94-yarder against Notre Dame. In his junior year of 2010, he caught 49 passes for 633 yards and 4 touchdowns. Despite solid production, he was suspended by Brady Hoke for the 2011 season – a redshirt year – for having multiple incidents with alcohol. He transferred to Baylor for 2012, where he caught 3 passes for 51 yards and 1 touchdown. He was not drafted in 2013 and is out of football. He totaled 76 catches for 1,008 yards and 6 touchdowns at Michigan.

Hit the jump for a look at the rest of the receivers offered by Michigan in 2008, along with some thoughts on the class overall.

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26Apr 2012
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2012 NFL Draft Preview: Michigan-style

Mike Martin will probably be the first Wolverine drafted, but not until Friday night

Last year saw only linebacker Jonas Mouton and offensive tackle Steve Schilling get drafted, both by the San Diego Chargers.  It’s no sure thing that Michigan will beat that number this year, especially now that tight end Kevin Koger suffered an Achilles injury.  Here’s a look at the Wolverines who are eligible for the draft:

Mike Martin, DT
Martin is the likely top choice out of Michigan.  He’s 6’1 3/8″, 306 lbs. and ran a 4.86 forty yard dash at the NFL Combine.  He also put up 36 repetitions on the 225 lb. bench press.  Martin is too undersized to play nose tackle in the NFL, but I think he can play as a defensive end in a 3-4 look or as a 3-tech defensive tackle in a 4-3 defense.  Martin is pretty quick and uses leverage very well, and best of all, he’s a hard worker with a good motor.  I don’t know if Martin will be a Pro Bowler, but he could have a ten-year career.
Projection: 3rd round to Chargers

David Molk, C
Molk is 6’0 7/8″, 298 lbs. and ran a 5.2 forty.  The general knock on Molk is that he’s not very big, which is true.  He is very quick, though, and excelled in the zone blocking system run by Rich Rodriguez from 2008-2010.  Molk looks like an NFL backup, but one of the problems with him will be that he doesn’t offer any position flexibility – he’s a center and that’s it.  Lots of teams like their backup centers to be able to be plugged in at guard, too.  I doubt anyone’s going to hand Molk a starting center job, but he could be brought in as the heir apparent to a veteran center or to work in for a zone running team.
Projection: 5th round to Texans

Junior Hemingway, WR
Hemingway is 6’0 7/8″, 225 lbs., and ran a 4.51 forty yard dash at the NFL Combine, which is much faster than I expected him to run.  Hemingway doesn’t play that fast, and his real strength seems to be the timing on his jump balls and his ability to outmuscle opposing receivers.  For a receiver with just average height, 225 lbs. is a lot.  Hemingway struggled with staying healthy early in his career, and his inability to get separation consistently limit him to being a possession receiver at the next level.
Projection: 6th round to Bears

Ryan Van Bergen, DE
Van Bergen is a 6’4 1/2″, 290 lb. defensive end with a 4.99 forty.  He’s a high character guy who has a little bit of surprising athleticism.  He lacks the pass rush abilities to make a star-level impact at the next level, but he could be an Aaron Smith-like defensive end for a 3-4 team or a left/strongside end for a 4-3 team.  I think he might be able to play for five or six years, but his ceiling is probably a journeyman type of career.
Projection: Undrafted

Kevin Koger, TE
Koger measured in at 6’3 3/4″ and 253 lbs. with a 4.8 forty.  He was borderline draftable before hurting his Achilles, so I sincerely doubt whether he’ll get picked.  Koger has decent size and speed, but he’s not a particularly good runner after the catch and his hands are a bit shaky.  He might be able to be a second or third tight end for someone, but I don’t think he’ll ever be a starter.
Projection: Undrafted

Other undrafted players: WR Kelvin Grady, OT Mark Huyge, WR Martavious Odoms, RB Michael Shaw, CB Troy Woolfolk