SB Nation - John Ferrara

The 2009 Michigan Football Preview, Part One: The Offensive Line

Maize n Brew Dave — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:45:16 -0000

It's go time people. There are just four days until kickoff. Frankly, those days can't end quick enough. After three weeks of practice. Months of tedium. Oh, and a two-day stretch of mind blowing incompetence from the Free Press editorial staff. Football is just about here. That means it's time to get a better handle on how the Michigan Football team looks heading into the 2009 season. In Spring practice we thought we had all the answers. After a week of Fall Practice, all those answers went out the window. So what we're left with is a pile o' questions about who is going to start where and whether talented player A will overtake talented played B for position X.

That's what we're here for. Over the next few days leading up to kick off, Maize n Brew will be providing you with some answers to your questions about the team, the season, and what to expect. We'll try to keep it grounded, but we're not guaranteeing anything. We are fans (compete and total homers), after all. If you can't wait for the season to get here and want answers on how it'll play out, we've already previewed the season in depth. Wins and losses too! Take a look, here are Beauford's, MnB Dave's, and SCM's season predictions. There's your quick fix if you need a baseline.

But this is going to be a little more indepth. That's why I'm splitting things up in to a couple of separate posts. The unit we know the most about at this point is the offense, so lets start there. The Depth Chart is out, so we'll break it down.

2009 Michigan Football Season Preview: The Offensive Line

The linemen do the dirty work, so they get top billing. They also get top billing because this unit, more than any other, will determine the fate of Michigan's season. Don't believe me? Ask yourself how much better Michigan's season would've turned out had Threet/Sheridan not been running for their lives and had time to throw? What about the run game? You saw the improvement as the line improved. For this offense to work, the linemen are the linchpin of the system. They have to be mobile, quick, and able to get to the second level of blockers; something they were rarely able to do last year.

This year Michigan returns 4 starters and 7 players with starting experience. From Left to Right, the line is as follows: Mark Ortmann (LT), Steve Schilling (LG), David Molk (C), David Moosman (RG), Mark Huyge (RT). Your primary backups will be Perry Dorrestein (LT), Ricky Barnum (LG), Rocko Khoury (C), John Ferrara (RG), and Patrick Omameh (RT).

The Starters

via www.mgoblue.com

Of the starting lineup, only Huyge hasn't seen game action. To an extent my concerns about his abilities were assuaged by his performance in the spring game, praise he garnered when the Big Ten Network did their Michigan practice show, and the fact he would've started last year if not for a knee injury. Everyone else has extensive starting experience, and frankly, the inside of Michigan's line may be one of the strongest three man sets in the Big Ten. Both Molk and Schilling were blue chip recruits, with Molk being rated the #1 Center in his class and Schilling a 5 star tackle. Moosman wasn't as heralded, but he progressed wonderfully last season and at 6-5, 295, with quick feet, I'm to the point where I'm expecting big things from him as well. The interior line's experience combined with their talent should mean very big things for the interior running game. Looking at the schedule, only Penn State returns a pair of outstanding Defensive Tackles. There are some units with one good DT returning, but no one else in the conference has a dominant interior defensive line. What that means is look for Rich Rodriguez to use that straight up the gut advantage in the run game a lot more than last season.

(more of the preview after the jump...)

While I'm confident in the Guards and Center (David Molk is a badass), I'm still a little concerned on the edges. Sure I think Huyge and Ortmann will be more than serviceable at Right and Left Tackle. But I don't think they're going to be dominant. Reports out of camp were that Brandon Graham was tearing through the tackles on a semi regular basis. Your reaction is probably "so what, it's Brandon Graham," but I think there's a little more to it. The Big Ten is absolutely loaded with excellent Defensive Ends this year. Top to bottom you could probably rank the ten best DE's in any order and make a legitimate argument for it. Want proof? Even Indiana has a pair of DE's that would start tomorrow at Penn State. Trevor Anderson is back at MSU. Thaddeus Gibson at OSU. Ryan Kerrigan at Purdue. And the list goes on. Wanna know what's weird, the tackles dodge a bullet because Correy Wootton and Northwestern aren't on the schedule. Ever thought you'd say that? Ortmann is a good Tackle, but he can get caught up in his own feet from time to time. Huyge moves well, but we only have limited video to go on. Honestly we're throwing darts with a partial blindfold on here because our info is so limited. Ortmann played last year with a series of injuries including a shoulder injury of some kind that meant he could barely move on of his arms. Huyge's ankle injury caused him to miss the entire season. When you combine uncertainty at the position with the depth of talent at the End position in the Big Ten this year, even optimistic fans have to admit the Tackles may be better than they were last year but could still have a rough year despite it.

The Back Ups

This is the biggest difference between this year and last. Depth. If someone goes down, we've got two guys behind him that are ready to go. Last year you were holding your breath because no one had played. If an unknown starter went down, you plugged in another young, unknown to get mauled. Notsomcuh this year. The line took its lumps last year, but in the process Michigan was still able to redshirt a number of talented players. A year later, they're much larger, much stronger, and have a full year of practice under their belt in Rodriguez' system. With Ortmann and Moosman departing after this season, they're ability to step in from time to time will critical not just to Michigan's success this year, but in 2010 as well.

via blog.mlive.com

At this point you're probably aware of who Perry Dorrestein and John Ferrera are. But just in case here's a quick catch up. Dorrestein was a middling recruit on the offensive line who actually walked on to the team sans scholarship. Ferrara was a low mid Defensive Tackle recruit who was moved to offensive line last year when the Coaches went "Holy hell, there's no one on the Offensive Line!" They are your primary backups at Left Tackle and Right Guard. Now before you go jumping out a window, keep this in mind, Ferrara started five games at Left Guard last year before Schilling moved inside. For a guy that played guard for all of fifteen minutes before the season started, he was actually pretty good. His experience and size (6'4" 280) make him a more than capable backup and fill in starter if need be. Dorrestein I'm not as high on, but the fact remains he started in four games at Tackle last year and acquitted himself well. He's not going to be a starter unless injuries require it, but he's a capable backup.

The rest of the backups you should be excited about too. Patrick Omameh is apparently going to be an absolute beast at right tackle. The very definition of a sleeper, Omameh was a lightly regarded prospect who everyone said had the "potential" and "body" to be something special. Just no one wanted to expend a scholarship in the Big Ten for the kid to develop. Michigan did. Now they get to reap the benefits as Omameh made a massive push to overtake Huyge for the RT slot. Not bad for a redshirt frosh. Ricky Barnum was one of the snake oil pitches that worked two years ago, as Rodriguez slithered Barnum out from under Urban Meyer. Barnum was the 5th rated center in his class and seems to have emerged as one of Michigan's soon to be stars on the OLine. He's another kid who made a push for playing time but ran into having Schilling ahead of him. Then there's Traverse City's own, Rocko Khoury. The big redshirt freshman likely won't see a lot of time at center with David Molk in front of him, but you should be glad to have him back there. The 6'6" 280 pound kid has a nice little mean streak and had enough of an off season of Mark Ortmann to throw some praise his way at Big Ten Media Days. One other guy to watch for in the back-up category is true freshman Quinton Washington. Washington shocked a lot of the older members of the team with his natural strength. Steve Schilling noticed it immediately when the freshman was standing up defenders on the first day of pads even though he'd only been in camp Barwis for a couple of weeks. I can't wait to see what happens to Washington after a year in the gym.

Injuries?

One guy I haven't mentioned is Tim McAvoy. Unfortunately, McAvoy suffered a knee injury in practice and Rodriguez indicated he be out for a couple of weeks. It's really too bad. McAvoy had a legitimate shot at playing time this year, but it's likely his senior season will mostly be spent in the trainers room and on the bench. At this point though, everyone else seems mostly healthy.

2009 Outlook

With the exception of tailback, the Offensive Line is easily the deepest, most experienced position Michigan has this year. The starting five are talented and mobile. The backups are experienced or brimming with talent and strength. As an added bonus, Michigan's ability to ~~tort~~ trot three quarterbacks onto the field who can run or roll out of the pocket should greatly increase the line's effectiveness because it will prevent teams from pinning their ears back and bumrushing the quarterback like they did last year.

The strength on the line will clearly be it's interior. I suspect you'll see multiple plays this fall where the center or one of the guards is used to maul a linebacker or two. When you've got the strength and speed of the interior line, you can do those sorts of things. The edges won't be quite at the level of the intereior, but it should still be measurably better than last year. Ortmann and Huyge have without a doubt learned a substantial amount going face to face with Graham all summer long. I think Ortman should have a decent year, but he's not going to remind anyone of Jake Long. He'll be a good tackle, to expect anything more at this point is unfair and unwarranted. On the other side of the line I am very excited to see Huyge in game action. I can't really tell you why. Rumors, hype, TV, and spring film all make me think he's actually going to be pretty good. It's a total hunch, so take it FWIW.

One of the biggest differences you'll see this year the that you'll see all five linemen on the same page. For the majority of the 2008 season the Michigan Offensive Line was a mess in terms of execution. Players were blocking the wrong guy, they were running aimlessly after they released to the second level, they were telegraphing the snap counts. You're not going to see that this season. These guys actually know where they're supposed to go, who they're supposed to block, and how the plays work. The result will be our running backs and quarterbacks having room to run and not having to escape their first tackler five yards behind the LoS. In the passing game, we'll have to see. I think the group will execute much better than they did last year. But until we see Tate, or Denard or Nick throw the ball, I don't know how it'll turn out. What I do know is that they'll have a lot more time than last year.

Overall, this should be one of the most improved units in the conference, let alone the team. Play on playas.

2009 Michigan Football, Position by Position: Defensive Tackle and Defensive Tackle Recruiting

Maize n Brew Dave — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:12:37 -0000

Going into the 2009 season there are three positions on the Michigan Defense that are causing a great amount of concern among the Michigan faithful. Cornerback. Safety. Defensive Tackle. All three of these positions have highly touted players starting for the Wolverines. All three of these positions are also an injury away from becoming an aneurysm inducing mess. In an effort to assuage those fears (or stoke them like coals in a furnace) we'll be taking a look at Michigan Football's positions of need, the quality in place, the replacements on the way, and recruits that hopefully will carry the load for Michigan going forward.

Defensive Tackle

If you're looking for an iconic photograph that basically encapsulates how Michigan fan feels about Michigan Football, you really need to look no further than the aftermath of Alan Branch planting Anthony Morreli in 2006.

The end of Times, via www.thewolverineblog.com

It's all there. Strength. Power. Devastation. Arrogance. This photo sums up both the expectations and historical results of Michigan Football. So, as emblematic as the Corner position has become for Michigan over the past couple of decades, Defensive Tackle may be a more apt symbol. Will Carr, Rob Renes, Alan Branch, Gabe Watson, Terrance Taylor, and the lot. Just like Michigan's football seasons, they've run the gambit from overachievers, to underachievers, to just what you'd expect, good or bad. If you're looking for a positional representation of Michigan's Football fortunes, look no further than Defensive Tackle.

Along those lines, the last two years have been down ones at Defensive Tackle. The talent was certainly there in the forms of Terrance Taylor, Will Johnson and Mike Martin. Unfortunately the results (save Martin) haven't been. Taylor was projected to be a second round pick in 2007, came back to a revamped (totally screwy) defense and wound up dropping into the fourth round after a disappointing senior season. Will Johnson, despite being one of the strongest guys on the team, never lived up to his billing. As a result, teams ran all over Michigan. Now you can't pin the failure of the run defense on these two guys. But the reality is they were serviceable at best for most of the year, with the occasional flash of brilliance. Regarding Martin, it appears he's got star written all over him. But that's easy to say when you're coming off the bench fresh mid game rather than starting.

While game play at the Defensive Tackle position has been adequate, it's impossible to classify Michigan's recruiting at this position as anything better. When you think about the spectacular flame out of Marques Slocum; the underdevelopment Renaldo Sagesse and Jason Kates (transfer); and the fact that we've moved Vince Helmuth from fullback to DT, well, you start to wonder what the hell is going on.

Defensive Tackle has been such a frustrating recruiting slot that John Ferrara, a DT recruit, is now on the opposite side of the ball as an Offensive Guard! I mean how screwy do things have to be when you move a player to a position of need, and his former position becomes the most dire on the team? However you want to read it, with the graduations of Taylor and Johnson Michigan was down to one starter worthy player, a handful of guys whom we really have no idea whether they'll provide any serviceable time, a converted fullback, and an all-star freshman in the mold of Terrence Taylor. In a word: Yikes.

The DT position wasn't supposed to be this dire heading into 2009. Michigan had all but inked a pair of highly rated DTs to the 2009 class in Pearlie Graves and DeQuinta Jones to go along with uber-recruit Will Campbell. Unfortunately, as the weeks leading up to national signing day unfolded, Michigan lost both Jones and Graves to last minute defections. This left only Campbell to fill what was suddenly a cavernous DT void. This isn't to suggest either Jones or Graves would be contesting for starting time, but a couple of extra bodies in the middle would come in real handy this year, ready or not.

So where does that leave Michigan heading into 2009? Surprisingly adequate, but an injury away from a serious, serious problem. Greg Robinson's transition to the 3-4 Deathbacker defense takes some of the pressure off the middle of the line in terms of numbers. Michigan won't need to prance out both of its best DTs on any one play unless Robinson switches to a more traditional 4-3 just to mess with the other team. Based on Robinson's track record, I don't see that happening... too often. The Deathbacker means that Mike Martin will start the season as Michigan's 1st team DT. Martin had a solid year as a freshman in 2008 and on several occasions outplayed his senior teammates. You might recall Martin doing this against Wisconsin:

Skip to 8:00. Courtesy of Wolverine Historian, of course.

Yeah. The kid can play.

Backing him up, though not confirmed, will likely be freshman Will Campbell. Campbell was an all-world recruit in the 2009 class who enrolled at Michigan early, despite rumors and a head fake toward LSU. The book on the kid is he is a monster in that Alan Branch mold... when he wants to be. The fear is Campbell is a lot like Terrance Taylor in that he was known to have lapses mid game, and take a play or two at 50%. Even so, he's a dominant style DT that absolutely throttled anyone who challenged him at the recruit camps or on the high school field. The key to Campbell, at least from what I've read, is when he's challenged he's a beast. When he's bored, meh. Still, a bored Campbell would start for all but the top 5% of college football teams, so it's hard to nit pick too much. But if Michigan can motivate this kid, Michigan will arguably have the two best DT's in the conference by the season's end.

The next player on the depth chart depends on who you talk to, when you talk to them. It could either be large, Biggie-lookin' Canadian Renaldo Sagesse or new to the position Vince Helmuth. My money's on seeing a bit of Sagesse this season. He's a monster, size-wise, at 6'5" 300+. Unfortunately, three years in, the kid hasn't cracked the starting rotation. He's been good enough to see the field, but not good enough to log appreciable minutes. It's hard to blame the kid for not taking the leap forward we'd like when you consider he's had a new position coach every year he's been at Michigan. But players step up, and Michigan needs Sagesse to do just that because after him things are more than dicey. Vince Helmuth, while more than talented, isn't a DT. He's a fullback playing DT, strike that, learning to play DT. Maybe in a year or so Helmuth can contribute, but I'm not holding my breath that he's going to be a difference maker anytime soon.

DT Recruiting for the 2010 class is at best, questionable. Michigan continues to pursue this year's all world DT prospect Sharrif Floyd of Philly. Floyd's been fairly tight lipped about where he'll end up, but Michigan hasn't really garnered a lot of press in his recruitment. Without the instate pull that Michigan had on Campbell, I'm not high on Floyd's prospects of ending up a Wolverine. Though it'd certainly help. After him are a plethora of prospects who don't seem to be decided one way or another.

Richard Ash 4* Pahokee, FL

Ricky Heimuli 4* Salt Lake City, UT

Mike Thornton 3* Stone Mountain, GA

Johnathon Hankins NR Detroit, MI (no offer/claims OSU offer) (3* Scout)

Michigan's best bet a DT appears to be with Ricky Heimuli. Heimuli stands 6'4", 280, and appears to be one of the risers in the recruiting process. Michigan offered him in early May, but that offer simply piled on top of an impressive sheet that lists 20 other offers (including USC, LSU and Oklahoma). While Heimuli is from Salt Lake and the cold might not be as big a turn off as it is for other recruits, he recently camped at USC and his mom liked USC. On the plus side, a recent Scout article said Michigan's history with LDS athletes help it stand out. So we've got a shot. TIFWIW.

After Heimuli, things aren't so rosy. Despite Michigan's connections at Pahokee, Ash appears to be looking at the Florida instate schools. If he goes out of state I'd be shocked. The only other DT in this class that's still available and actually holds a Michigan offer is Georgia DT Mike Thornton who received his offer this week. Thornton seems to have rocketed up the recruiting charts over the last few months and holds a number of offers from top tier BCS programs, including Georgia and Alabama. It's a little early on in Michigan's recruitment to get a picture as to whether Thornton's a legit candidate to accept, but you have to expect that other schools who've been on his trail for a while are in a better position than Michigan at this time. Finally, there's the curious case of Johnathon Hankins, a Detroit kid with an unrequited love of Michigan who can't seem to buy an offer from the Wolverine. Hankins camped, but didn't receive an offer apparently due to conditioning issues. Unless Michigan changes its mind, Hankins will probably end up at OSU or MSU. I'd list the remaining DT prospects, but none of them are holding Michigan offers, so it's the above guys or nothing.

So that's where Michigan stands. A position that really needs at least two 2010 commits, but realistically will only see one guy accept an offer. With Martin a sophomore, Campbell a freshman, and Sagesse still with two full years to live up to his potential, Michigan's in a not-bad, but not-good position. Going forward, unless Michigan pulls in another DT or two, it could get ugly. If Michigan lands a commit for 2010, start breathing again but don't relax. Two commits, breath easier. None? Panic Cloverfield style.

But for this year, Michigan's playing with two kids and one underachieving upperclassman. Only one player at DT has logged significant playing time. Even though Michigan's got talent at DT, an injury to either of the top two and it could be a rough year up the middle for Michigan.