National Signing Day predictions

Tag: Roy Roundtree


3Feb 2010
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National Signing Day predictions

A couple quick predictions, as I don’t/haven’t had much time to write:

– Rashad Knight already announced for Rutgers, and I don’t think Michigan will end up with Sean Parker (who will announce at 10 a.m.) or Demar Dorsey (who will announce at 1 p.m.), either. And that is unfortunate.
– I do think we’ll see a surprise commitment or two from a linebacker and/or an offensive lineman. Rodriguez needs to fill these scholarships, and those are positions that are lacking. I think he’ll toss out a late offer or two to some guys who are waiting until the last minute. He pulled out Ricky Barnum and Roy Roundtree a couple years ago, and I think something similar will happen again, although maybe not surprises of the 4-star variety like those guys were.
– Nobody will decommit at the last minute.
We’ll see how it goes. Happy National Signing Day!
10Jan 2010
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What Could Have Been . . . Marquis Maze

Marquis Maze
Wide receiver Marquis Maze was committed to be a member of the 2007 recruiting class. Recruited as a wideout for Michigan, he always seemed to be a bit undersized; he was 5’8″ and 160 lbs. during a time when Michigan was annually churning out 6’3″-ish wide receivers like David Terrell, Marquis Walker, Braylon Edwards, and Adrian Arrington, among others.

Before signing day arrived, though, Maze decommitted from the Wolverines and decided to attend Alabama. He redshirted as a freshman in 2007 and has earned more and more prominent roles the past two seasons.

Unbeknownst to him, Michigan coach Lloyd Carr would be replaced by Rich Rodriguez in December 2007, who would bring an offense in which Maze could have thrived. Rodriguez was reduced to playing a true freshman (Martavious Odoms) and a bigger receiver who was a misfit (Toney Clemons) at the slot receiver position in 2008. Odoms did well, but Clemons floundered and transferred to Colorado prior to the 2009 season.

This past season as a redshirt sophomore and now listed at 5’10” and 180 lbs., Maze started at wide receiver and recorded 31 receptions for 523 yards (a 16.9 yard average) and 2 touchdowns, including an 80-yarder. Oh by the way, he also won a national championship.

Meanwhile, the majority of Michigan’s snaps at slot receiver went to the trio of Kelvin Grady, Martavious Odoms, and Roy Roundtree. Those players combined for 64 catches, 808 yards (12.6 yard average), and 5 touchdowns. Redshirt freshman Roundtree turned out to be the most explosive of the three, leading the entire team in each category and besting Maze in receptions (32 to 31) and touchdowns (3 to 2).

Maze is a big-play threat for the Crimson Tide, but his presence on the Michigan team in 2009 probably wouldn’t have made a huge difference. He would have been more valuable in 2008, when he likely would have started for then-freshman Odoms. Still, Maze has a good thing going at Alabama, and Michigan has some promising athletes going forward into the 2010 season. This is a departure that most Michigan fans shouldn’t – and probably don’t – regret.

Image via nydailynews.com

21Nov 2009
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Ohio State 21, Michigan 10

Brandon Graham was the best player on the field.

Bullet point immediate reactions:
  • Brandon Graham had a great game. He is perhaps the player from the senior class that I will miss most. He dominated his side of the line repeatedly, ending the game with a sack amongst 4 or 5 tackles for loss.
  • I really thought Brandon Minor would play, but he was in street clothes. His inside running was missed in this game, as the running game was forced to play the third- and fourth-string running backs (Michael Shaw and Vincent Smith) with Carlos Brown also limited.
  • Vincent Smith might be Michigan’s running back of the future. He doesn’t have the speed to be a game-breaker, but he gains yards consistently, runs tough for his size, and makes decisive cuts. I was wrong about him being unready to play this year.
  • The defense played extremely well in this game. For the most part, Michigan didn’t allow the big play. They did allow the 29-yard TD by Brandon Saine, but OSU picked on walk-on DE Will Heininger on that play.
  • J.T. Floyd got picked on and was beaten a couple times. Fortunately, OSU quarterback Terrelle Pryor was horribly inaccurate on the two deep balls he threw. I still maintain that Floyd’s future should be at safety, but I liked the move by the coaches to move Troy Woolfolk back to safety and re-insert Floyd at cornerback. It may not have helped Michigan significantly, but it certainly didn’t hurt.
  • Speaking of Pryor, I’ve been thinking this all season but had no reason to mention OSU sooner – why does a 6’5″, 230 pound, speedy guy run like such a pansy? He runs through arm tackles, but anytime someone gets a chance to tackle him solidly, he wusses out. He either stops moving his feet and collapses into the fetal position, or he prances out of bounds. For example, when he scrambled early in the game and Steve Brown came up to pop him near the sideline, both players bounced off each other, Pryor gathered himself and had a chance to gain two more yards, and he . . . side-stepped out of bounds.
  • Tate Forcier had a horrible game. Ohio State didn’t do anything too confusing defensively. Forcier just made bad reads and bad throws. And that fumble on the opening offensive series was inexcuseable. Not only did Forcier retreat into his own end zone, but then he didn’t tuck the ball away when he scrambled. He’s been lucky all year that his lack of ball security didn’t cost him more, but it showed up in the biggest game of the year.
  • I liked the wrinkle where Denard Robinson started in the backfield, shifted to wide receiver, and ran a fly pattern. I did not like the facts that a) Forcier underthrew him and b) Denard was interfered with by the cornerback and it wasn’t called. Denard was clearly being pushed while the ball was in the air, and it wasn’t an instance where both players were jostling each other. That was a textbook interference call and the officials blew it.
  • I did not like the modified pistol formation. Out of shotgun, Shaw lined up as the deep back with a fullback to either side of Forcier. It led the defense to the play each time, and Michigan didn’t show a play to complement it.
  • Roy Roundtree looks like he might be the next Michigan wide receiver to wear the #1 jersey.
  • For the love of all that is good, can Michigan please install the sprint counter draw? It worked against Michigan for the thousandth time over the last several years, where the shotgun QB takes the snap and rolls toward the running back, who pretends to block and then takes the handoff going in the opposite direction. Ohio State, Michigan State, Oregon, and Purdue have all torched Michigan with that play, and those are just the times I can think of off the top of my head. I have never seen Michigan run that play, but it works every time against us.
  • I will miss Brandon Minor, Brandon Graham, Greg Mathews, Mark Ortmann, David Moosman, and Steve Brown. All of these players are good to great college players, and it’s disappointing that their careers coincided with such a huge reconstruction project for the program. They might have been here during a couple bad years, but they weren’t the reasons for these two losing seasons.
  • Go Blue!
2Nov 2009
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Illinois 38, Michigan 13

Carlos Brown taken down on first contact? Inconceivable!
Nope…wait a minute…yeah, that’s conceivable.
This was a day that will go down in history as . . . a loss to Illinois.

What I learned from Saturday was that Rich Rodriguez is not the savior of the Michigan program. He is not a genius who can make lemonade out of . . . I don’t know . . . used bicycle tires. He is a football coach who has huge flaws, especially when his team has huge flaws itself.

Illinois was a 1-win football team before Saturday, and that win didn’t even come against an FBS school. They beat the winningest program in college football history, and it wasn’t even close. Michigan’s inexperienced and untalented defense gave up 500 yards total, 377 of which came on the ground. Illinois had not one 100-yard rusher, but two (running backs Micheal Leshoure and Jason Ford) . . . and that’s not counting the 97 yards rushing from their nearly-benched starting quarterback, Juice Williams.

In last week’s game against Penn State, the offense seemed to blame. They consistently failed to give Michigan’s defense a chance. This week both sides of the ball seem to have regressed from earlier in the year. Michigan continues to turn the ball over on offense (3 fumbles) while failing to get turnovers on defense (uhhh . . . 0 fumbles, 0 interceptions). Prior to Saturday’s game, Michigan was 105th in the country. I’m assuming they’re even lower now, although I refuse to look up the stats.

I have to admit that I turned off the game with a few minutes left in the third quarter. I’m usually very calm when watching games on TV, but when free safety Mike Williams lost contain on Juice Williams for about the tenth time on the zone read option, I screamed “Stop doing that!” at the TV. I figured that meant I had had enough, so I shut it off. Mike Williams goes full speed all the time. Unfortunately, he’s often aimed in the wrong direction, despite racking up 16 tackles. Other leading tacklers this year include walk-on safety Jordan Kovacs and walk-on linebacker Kevin Leach, so when safeties and/or slow, undersized quasi-linebackers are notching the majority of your takedowns, something is wrong.

Speaking of something horribly wrong . . . 38-13. Against a one-win team. A one-win team that led by a score of only 14-13 at halftime.

Offensive game ball goes to…Roy Roundtree? Sure. I guess. I don’t know. The offense only mustered one touchdown and two field goals against a bad defense. Choices are slim.

Defensive game ball goes to…Brandon Graham. Seven tackles, one sack, one blocked punt.

Let’s see less of this guy on offense…Carlos Brown. I can’t believe Rich Rodriguez left Brown in on the goal line. That was the most ridiculous coaching decision from yesterday. Brown is fast, but he hasn’t broken a tackle since that one time in his freshman year when he was playing Madden and hit the truck stick. If Minor is healthy enough to come in on fourth down, he’s healthy enough to come in on first down. And if he’s not? Put Moundros in at fullback and Kevin Grady at tailback. Hell, put John McColgan in at fullback with Grady at tailback. Put Vincent Smith or Michael Shaw at tailback. Brown pussy-footed his way into the hole on 3rd down (maybe 2nd down) and I let out a loud sigh. That whole set of downs was asinine.

Let’s see less of this guy on defense…Michael Williams. I’m sorry for predicting that he would/should start at safety prior to the season. I thought he was better than this. He’s not. He was single-handedly responsible for Juice Williams’s rushing TD and about 50 more of Juice’s yards. My high schoolers can defend the zone read option better than he did. Put Troy Woolfolk back at strong safety, move Kovacs to free safety, and plug J.T. Floyd back in at cornerback. I’d rather have a bad cornerback than a bad safety.

10Aug 2009
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2009 Countdown: #46 Roy Roundtree

Name: Roy Roundtree
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 170 lbs.
High School: Trotwood-Madison High School in Trotwood, OH
Position: Slot receiver
Class: RS freshman
Jersey Number: #12
Prediction for 2009: Backup slot receiver

Roundtree showed in the spring game that he can be a dangerous receiver (2 TDs); however, both those scores came against second- and third-string defenders. It’s practically assured that Roundtree will be behind incumbent starter Martavious Odoms; the bigger question is whether he’ll be second, third, or lower on the depth chart. I think he’ll get the second-most reps at slot receiver, but he’s probably not going to run the same kind of routes as someone like Odoms because Roundtree isn’t as elusive. Roundtree is more of an outside wide receiver who’s playing in the slot, and he’ll give Rodriguez and Co. some different options if he comes into the game.