Tag: Sam McGuffie

Ex-Wolverine Encyclopedia Update

Adrian Witty (#8) helps recover a fumble in Saturday’s win over Austin Peay

Former quarterback commit Shavodrick Beaver was going to sit out the upcoming season as an academic redshirt at Tulsa, but instead he decided to transfer to Midwestern State, a school in his hometown of Wichita Falls.  Beaver was a part of the 2009 class until the December prior to National Signing Day.

Former Michigan running back Sam McGuffie had 1 carry for 4 yards in a 34-9 loss to Texas.  McGuffie had a leg injury and the coaches didn’t want him to worsen the injury.

Former Michigan safety/linebacker Brandon Smith is no longer on the roster at Temple.

Former Michigan wide receiver Je’ron Stokes is transferring to Bowling Green State University.  His younger brother Malik is a redshirt freshman quarterback for the Falcons.

Former tight end/fullback commit Christian Wilson had 2 receptions for 37 yards in North Carolina’s 42-10 victory over James Madison.

Former Michigan signee Adrian Witty didn’t start in Saturday’s game for Cincinnati, but he notched 5 tackles as a backup cornerback against Austin Peay.

Check out the Ex-Wolverine Encyclopedia for more.

Am I expecting too much from Michigan’s running backs?

Brandon Minor was Michigan’s most successful running back of the Rich Rodriguez era.

If you’re a frequent reader, I’m sure you’re aware that I’ve been unhappy with the performance of some of the running backs over the past few seasons.  Due to some recent conversations with fellow fans, I started to wonder: am I expecting too much from Michigan running backs? 

Michael Cox 2010 (6 carries): 35
Michael Shaw 2010 (75 carries): 50, 39, 21
Vincent Smith 2010 (136 carries): 56
Carlos Brown 2009 (81 carries): 90, 41
Michael Cox 2009 (13 carries): 57, 24
Brandon Minor 2009 (96 carries): 55, 32
Denard Robinson 2009 (31 carries): 38, 36
Michael Shaw 2009 (42 carries): 22
Vincent Smith 2009 (48 carries): 37
Sam McGuffie 2008 (118 carries): 29, 26, 21
Brandon Minor 2008 (109 carries): 45, 40, 36, 34, 32, 21, 20
Michael Shaw 2008 (41 carries): 48, 30
Mike Hart 2007 (265 carries): 61, 54, 37, 23, 23
Mike Hart 2006 (318 carries): 54, 42, 33, 23, 23, 22, 21
Mike Hart 2005 (150 carries): 64, 20
Mike Hart 2004 (282 carries): 34, 33, 32, 26
Chris Perry 2003 (338 carries): 63, 41, 30, 27, 25, 21
Chris Perry 2002 (267 carries): 57, 43, 34, 23
B.J. Askew 2001 (199 carries): 30, 30, 25, 20
Anthony Thomas 2000 (319 carries): 68, 61, 54, 35, 32, 28, 25, 21

Chris Howard 1997 (199 carries): 51, 30, 29, 28, 28, 27
Clarence Williams 1996 (202 carries): 32, 30, 26, 21
Tim Biakabutuka 1995 (303 carries): 60, 47, 47, 44, 37, 35, 34, 20, 20

Do those numbers have anything to do with wins?  Probably not.  The same chart as above, overlaid with the wins for each year:

CONCLUSIONS

1. Denard Robinson is awesome, as if you didn’t already know.  He had a 20+ yard run in nine out of the thirteen games he played in 2010.  In the last twenty years, that number has been matched only by Tshimanga Biakabutuka in 1995.

2. Anthony Thomas was more of a big play guy than I thought.  He had at least seven rushes of 50+ yards in his career.

3. The number of carries for Michigan running backs dwindled greatly in the Rodriguez years.  From 1991 to 2007, eight running backs had 250+ carries in a season.  From 2008-2010, the highest number of carries for a running back was Vincent Smith’s 136 in 2010.  Even if you combine the top two running backs from the past three seasons, the highest total is McGuffie/Minor’s 227 back in 2008.

4. As far as Michigan running backs go, Vincent Smith falls at the bottom of the heap when it comes to explosive plays.  In his two seasons at Michigan, he has two 20+ yard runs.  The closest one to Smith is the 2005 version of Mike Hart, who missed several games due to injury and got only 150 carries.  Hart’s 64-yarder and 20-yarder in that year are actually pretty close to Smith’s longest two runs from 2010 – a 56-yard touchdown and a 19-yard run.

5. For being an offensive genius, Rich Rodriguez sure didn’t have a great effect on Michigan’s running backs.  I don’t think there’s any question that Michigan’s best running back during his tenure was Brandon Minor, but Minor (109) split carries pretty evenly with Sam McGuffie (118) in 2008.  That was followed by a 2009 in which no running back carried the ball more than 100 times.  Injuries played a big part in the production (or lack thereof) from Minor, Carlos Brown, McGuffie, Shaw, etc.

6. I’m probably overreacting a little bit to yards per carry.  There are certainly more important aspects to winning football games than simple yards per carry, like turnovers, defense, quarterback play, etc.  For example, Michigan didn’t lose 13 games over the past two seasons just because Vincent Smith has been a mediocre running back – the horrible defense played the biggest role in losing most of those games.  But at the same time, the only players with the same or worse rushing averages than Smith were:

a) the often forgotten Clarence Williams in ’96 on an eight-win team
b) Anthony Thomas in ’99, whose 4.3 yards a carry was a full yard below each of his surrounding seasons
c) Chris Perry’s subpar junior season in ’02
d) Mike Hart’s injury-plagued ’05 year
e) Sam McGuffie’s freshman year in ’08, when he suffered from concussions and a horrible unit around him

SO WHO CARES?

Well, I do. 

But so do defenses.  When teams don’t respect your running back’s ability to make big plays, they can concentrate on stopping the pass.  Or, in the case of Denard Robinson-led teams, they can concentrate on stopping the quarterback.  The lack of a big-play threat to play alongside Robinson in the backfield limits his abilities to be as effective a runner as possible.  Imagine a zone read option offense with Tim Biakabutuka or Tyrone Wheatley standing next to Denard Robinson in the backfield.  Which one do you defend?  Or do you curl up into a fetal position and pretend you pulled a hamstring?

Furthermore, big plays take away the opportunity for a team to bog down going from Point A to Point B.  Long runs aren’t just fun to watch – they serve a purpose.  A guy who moves the ball in small chunks might be a fine running back, but at some point his short gains might force a few punts when the offense fails to get a first down. 

Clearly, a guy like Biakabutuka doesn’t guarantee you a big play every time he starts a new series.  But he can move the ball in large chunks, and his presence opens up the play action passing game and keeps the defense off balance.

WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT IN 2011?

Better running back play.  That’s the bottom line.  Over the last twenty years, Michigan’s running backs have alternated good years with mediocre ones.  On the heels of a poor year from the Wolverines’ backs, it seems Michigan is ready for an upswing in running back production.  Hoke seems committed to running the ball like Michigan used to do, and unlike a season such as 2008, the offensive line should be decent, despite losing a couple senior starters in Steve Schilling and Perry Dorrestein.  Whether it’s Michael Shaw, Fitzgerald Toussaint, Stephen Hopkins, or someone else, the starting running back in 2011 should be better than in 2010.

What Could Have Been . . . Austin White

Former Michigan running back Austin White has enrolled at Central Michigan University and joined the football program there.  White was a part of the Class of 2010 and enrolled at Michigan in January 2010, but he clashed with the coaches and got into some trouble over the summer.  White was one of the players who had to “earn his wings” in fall camp, and the two parties decided to go their separate ways prior to the season.

Visit the Ex-Wolverine Encyclopedia page to find updates on former Michigan commits/players like Dewayne Peace, Sam McGuffie, Ryan Mallett, Shavodrick Beaver, Pearlie Graves, DeQuinta Jones, Dann O’Neill, Bryce McNeal, Kevin Newsome, Toney Clemons, Cobrani Mixon, and Quintin Woods.

Top 10 Failures of Rich Rodriguez

1.  Losing games.  This is obvious, but it belongs on the list.  Rodriguez finished his three years at Michigan with a 15-22 record.  That winning percentage (.405) is the worst in Michigan history.

2. Losing to rivals.  Rodriguez was 0-6 against Michigan’s two biggest rivals, Ohio State and Michigan State.  If you want to include Penn State, he was 0-9.  He was outscored by a total of 317-140 in those nine games.  It’s unclear how much a couple victories against Ohio State or Michigan State might have affected Rodriguez’s tenure, but wins against Indiana and Purdue don’t carry the same weight.

3. Neutering Scott Shafer.  Shafer has proven to be a solid defensive coordinator at every other stop – Western Michigan, Stanford, and Syracuse.  The former two were prior to Shafer’s hiring at Michigan.  But Rodriguez’s other defensive assistants were proponents of the 3-3-5 and seemed to undermine his authority.  Late in the season, Rodriguez even authorized a mid-season switch of defensive schemes from the 4-3 to a 3-3-5; Michigan subsequently allowed 42 points to Purdue, a team using a converted running back to play QB.  Shafer could have been a good coordinator at Michigan and helped Rodriguez keep his job, but he was fired after the 2008 season because, well, someone’s head needed to roll after a 3-9 season.

4. Hiring Greg Robinson.  Robinson had intermittent success as a coordinator in the NFL and in college.  But just like Shafer, Robinson was a 4-3 or a 3-4 guy.  In my opinion, the defense showed some promise in 2009, when Robinson used safety Steve Brown as an outside linebacker and freshman Craig Roh as a rush linebacker.  However, Rodriguez used the 2009-10 offseason to convert to the 3-3-5, and Robinson was obviously uncomfortable and inexperienced with running that defensive set.  That resulted in 458 points allowed in 2010, an average of 35.2 points per game.

5. Not retaining holdover players from the Carr era.  Michigan was extremely short-handed in 2009, fielding a team of 69 or 70 players who were given scholarships right out of high school.  Some of those players were bound for a career of anonymity, I’m sure, but others were not.  Quarterback Ryan Mallett was vaguely in Heisman contention this season.  Justin Boren became an All-Big Ten guard at Ohio State.  Adrian Arrington chose to enter the NFL Draft (and became only a 7th round choice) a year early.  Rodriguez can’t shoulder the blame entirely for these departures, but there’s no question that a guy like Boren would have been helpful in 2008 and 2009, the former season featuring a starting guard (John Ferrara) that was a mid-season position switcher from defensive tackle.

6. Stretching too much.  The Detroit Free Press reported some trumped-up charges regarding Michigan’s practice schedule, and that sparked an NCAA investigation.  While the charges were blown out of proprtion, they were a black mark on the Michigan program and resulted in probation and some lost practice hours.  Rodriguez wasn’t responsible for everything that went wrong in the compliance department, but his staff did fail to keep track of its countable practice hours accurately and a graduate assistant watched some voluntary 7-on-7s, which is a no-no.

7. Not finding his Steve Slaton.  Pat White got a lot of hype at West Virginia, but running back Steve Slaton was almost as important as White.  And prior to White’s arrival on campus, Rodriguez used running backs like Quincy Wilson and Kay-Jay Harris to great effect.  Rodriguez never found “that guy” at Michigan, partially due to injuries and partially due to recruiting.  Therefore, the offense wasn’t as spectacular as it might have been.  The lack of a running game cost Michigan a couple games throughout his tenure.

8. Not developing top prospects.  Rodriguez seemed to have an abnormal number of high-end recruits bomb out of the program.  And it’s probably a coincidence, but most of them seemed to come from the defensive secondary.  Four 4-star players recruited by Rodriguez never made a significant positive impact at Michigan (Demar Dorsey, Boubacar Cissoko, Justin Turner, Vladimir Emilien), which resulted in five true freshman defensive backs seeing significant time in 2010.  Furthermore, arguably Michigan’s best prospect in the last few classes (William Campbell) has yet to make an impact at Michigan and just switched from nose tackle to offensive guard in the middle of the season.

9. Handing out the #1 jersey to J.T. Floyd.  Before Rodriguez ever coached a snap at Michigan, he tried to give the #1 jersey to true freshman cornerback J.T. Floyd.  He was either unaware of the jersey’s significance or chose to ignore that aspect, but it was nonetheless a mistake.  Nothing seemed to highlight the fact that Rodriguez wasn’t a “Michigan Man” more than the #1 jersey snafu, which pitted some alumni and fans against him from the start.

10.  Poor player personnel decisions.  Part of the heat falls on the assistant coaches, but Rodriguez shoulders most of this blame because he has the final say: Rodriguez didn’t put his players in their best positions to succeed.  Running backs Sam McGuffie and Vincent Smith played far too much when there were more productive and explosive backs on the roster (Brandon Minor and Michael Shaw for starters).  Obi Ezeh should have been an outside linebacker starting back in 2008; and at least according to their play on the field, Ezeh should have been replaced by Kenny Demens much earlier.  Cameron Gordon – who has linebacker speed – spent half the 2010 season playing free safety.  William Campbell spent two years toiling on the defensive line before making a permanent move to the offensive line, and he didn’t even redshirt to allow for a fifth year of eligibility.

Michigan Recruits are Speedy

Lies!

A few days ago, Dr. Saturday wrote another column about how 40 times are exaggerated. In the recruiting world, 40 yard dash times are thrown around by players, coaches, and fans in a careless game of one-upmanship. You know that guy at the party who says he drank 30 beers when you say you had 12? That guy is all over the place in high school and college football.

With the recent NFL Combine results being posted on the internet, I thought I’d compare those times to the times of recent Michigan recruits at a few positions.

QUARTERBACK
Denard Robinson – 4.48
Jarrett Brown (WVU) – 4.54
Tate Forcier – 4.55
Dan LeFevour (CMU) – 4.66
Zac Robinson (OK St.) – 4.71
Tim Tebow (UF) – 4.72
Colt McCoy (UT) – 4.79

RUNNING BACK
Sam McGuffie – 4.32
Jahvid Best (Cal) – 4.35
C.J. Spiller (Clemson) – 4.37
Michael Shaw – 4.40
Ben Tate (Auburn) – 4.43
Austin White – 4.44
Ryan Matthews (Fresno) – 4.45
Joe McKnight (USC) – 4.47
Teric Jones – 4.47
Montario Hardesty (Tennessee) – 4.49
James Starks (Buffalo) – 4.50
Fitzgerald Toussaint – 4.50
Mike Cox – 4.50
Stephen Hopkins – 4.52
Lonyae Miller (Fresno) – 4.53
Shawnbrey McNeal (SMU) – 4.56
Dexter McCluster (Ole Miss) – 4.58

WIDE RECEIVER
Jacoby Ford (Clemson) 4.28
Roy Roundtree – 4.40
Darryl Stonum – 4.40
D.J. Williamson – 4.40
Taylor Price (Ohio) – 4.41
Emmanuel Sanders (SMU) – 4.41
Golden Tate (ND) – 4.42
Brandon Banks (KSU) – 4.43
Kyle Williams (ASU) – 4.43
Je’ron Stokes – 4.44
Marcus Easley (UCONN) – 4.46

LINEBACKER
Josh Furman – 4.37
Jamar Chaney (Miss. St.) – 4.54
Dekoda Watson (FSU) – 4.56
Davion Rogers – 4.60
Jake Ryan – 4.60
Kavell Conner (Clemson) – 4.63
Cody Grimm (VT) – 4.64
Harry Coleman (LSU) – 4.65

So if one were to believe Rivals, Scout, and other recruiting articles, you would find that in the last three years, Michigan has recruited running backs who would have posted 7 of the top 14 times in the 2010 NFL Combine; wide receivers who would have posted 3 of the top 4 times; and linebackers who would have posted 3 of the top 5 forty times.

Furthermore, one would believe that Sam McGuffie would be the second-fastest player in the draft (behind Clemson wide receiver Jacoby Ford) and that linebacker Josh Furman would have tied Clemson running back C.J. Spiller for the third-fastest time.

What conclusions can we reach from this information? The first answer is . . . well, nothing that we didn’t already know. High school forty times are exaggerated greatly. But the degree to which they are exaggerated borders on the ridiculous.

The second conclusion is that if Clemson can’t win with such elite speed on its roster, then heads need to roll.

And the third conclusion is that, whether his time is fake or not, Denard Robinson is still really, really fast.