Tag: Toney Clemons

An article from Joe Schad confirms the report from the Detroit Free Press, which stated that Michigan requires time commitments beyond the allowable maximum. Let’s parse Clemons’ statements line by line.

The allegations are true. Nothing is fabricated or exaggerated in that story.

Okay.

This isn’t the point. If guys needed treatment, that doesn’t break the rules. A visit to the trainer does not count against the 20 allowed hours. Also, I’m from southeast Michigan – daylight in Ann Arbor does not begin at 10:00 or 11:00 a.m. And regardless of how long the player is at the facility, the question isn’t about the time at the building; the question is about how the time inside the facilities is spent. In the football off-season, I spend about nine hours at school. I come in thirty minutes early to get work done. I take a half-hour lunch. I spend about an hour playing basketball after school. That doesn’t mean I’m teaching for nine straight hours.

On Sunday, it was lifting, film, dinner and practice. I usually got out around 10:20.

Okay, specifics. Let’s deal with specifics. Weight training doesn’t count against the limit if it’s done voluntarily. One down, three to go. Film doesn’t count against the limit, as long as the student-athlete watches it voluntarily. Two down, two to go. Team training tables don’t count against the limit. Three down, one to go.

Pesky practice. Practice is probably required. If the practice part goes over four hours, that’s a problem. Especially if you’re Allen Iverson.

I truly don’t want to be associated with the program back there.

I don’t blame you, Toney. You were the 91st best player in the class of 2007 and the 12th best receiver in the nation. Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington both entered the NFL draft early, opening the door for you to start . . . and you promptly got displaced by Martavious Odoms, the #71 wide receiver and a true freshman from the class of 2008. You could barely get on the field. On top of that, you couldn’t beat out Laterryal Savoy for the outside receiver position, a guy who was so bad in practice that he auditioned to play defensive back in the spring of 2007. I would want to forget about that time in my life, too. Those are good reasons to transfer. You know, to disassociate yourself. When I get dumped by a girl, I usually try to forget about it by talking about it for months . . .

. . . wait a minute. You don’t want to be associated with Michigan? Then why bring this up? Oh, yeah. This:

Clemons’s old teammates want Michigan to lose scholarships, see. He’s trying to help them. If there are fewer scholarships and thus fewer quality players, that means his old teammates will get additional playing time. And if they have less practice time, that will make them better football players. More playing time + less practice time = NFL stardom. And if they have less practice time, maybe the kids can improve their collective GPA, which was the football team’s highest in twenty years.

This is a few days old, but former Michigan wide receiver Toney Clemons has decided to continue his college football career in Boulder as a Colorado Buffalo.

Clemons was recruited by Lloyd Carr and played one season under that regime before Rich Rodriguez was hired. He made an ill-suited position switch to slot receiver and caught only 11 passes for 101 yards this past season.

Yet new Colorado offensive coordinatorEric Kiesau, who coached previously at Cal-Berkeley, said this:

“‘He said he feels I can come in there and be at Colorado what [DeSean] Jackson was
at Cal,’ Clemons said.”Uhhh . . . right. Jackson had 601 and 1,060 and 762 yards receiving in his three years as a Golden Bear. And he was a first round pick. Clemons’ biggest achievement has been earning high rankings (such as #91 overall on Rivals in 2007) coming out of high school. This is an example of the type of B.S. that college coaches feed players in order to lure them to a school. Clemons might be a successful receiver, but DeSean Jackson he is not.The total number of remaining players from Lloyd Carr’s final recruiting class has dwindled from 20 to 14. Zion Babb (destination unknown), Artis Chambers (Ball State), Avery Horn (destination unknown), Ryan Mallett (Arkansas), Austin Panter (graduation), and Clemons have all opened up scholarships.Clemons said nice things, especially about Carr and his staff, on the way out. Michigan fans should harbor no ill will toward him. I wish him good luck . . . unless we schedule a non-conference game against Colorado . . . and we’re down 26-21 in the waning seconds of a game at dusk . . .

Toney Clemons is officially transferring. He mentions Pitt as a possible destination, but he hasn’t decided yet where he’ll go.

According to reports from spring practice, it looks like the roster will be shaken up some.

Rumors are swirling that junior wide receiver Toney Clemons will no longer be playing for the Wolverines. This has been a rumor for a while, but he has been absent from practices, so the writing appears to be on the wall.

Redshirt freshman Patrick Omameh is running with the first team offensive line, and it looks like the odd man out could be redshirt junior John Ferrara. Redshirt junior Steve Schilling has moved to left guard to take Ferrara’s spot, and Omameh has been plugged in at right tackle. The rest of the offensive line will likely remain the same.

Sophomore Justin Feagin, redshirt freshman Terrence Robinson, and senior Carlos Brown have all been practicing throwing the ball. None of them is being looked at as a possible quarterback; they are simply in the mix for occasional direct snaps.

The competition at running back seems to be working wonders. Reports are that all the available running backs (Michael Shaw is injured) look good and are running the ball well, and that includes true freshman Vincent Smith.

Sophomore J.B. Fitzgerald is battling Kenny Demens for the open linebacker job, but it looks like Fitzgerald has a leg up in that fight. The other linebacker who earned a starting nod last year, Marell Evans, is playing the hybrid DE/OLB position, along with Brandon Herron, Steve Watson, and Anthony Lalota.

The coaches are giving redshirt freshman Brandon Smith every opportunity to win the starting strong safety job. It looks like redshirt sophomore Michael Williams will be the starter at free safety. It’s yet to be determined what role senior Steve Brown will play, but it looks like his role will change. He’ll be playing closer to the line of scrimmage if Smith can prove himself worthy of the starting job.

This quite possibly means nothing, but one picture I saw showed Kevin Grady as the long snapper.