Football Spring Practice aka Thorn in the SEC Side

[Mike]

And he's never losing to MSU again so I'm happy about that.

[Hannibal]

Hack, I think Harbaugh has already coached his worst team. It only gets better from here on.

2017 might be worse but it should be consistently better after that.

[hack]

I think so too, but that catchphrase bothers me. Sorry, but OSU has it better than us. So does MSU.

[Detroit Dan]

RE O'Korn and "happy feet", the evidence seems to be that he took what the defense gave. As noted at mgoblog, the top 6 DBs were all on the other team. 2 drives -- 2 TDs for O'Korn. The knock on O'Korn (by Harbaugh and others) had been that he had been trying to make throws that weren't there, leading to interceptions. So that was corrected in the only way possible. As Brian at mgoblog said,

"He took off after one or two reads a ton. At first I was pleased since the result of those plays was generally good; then I was annoyed since the sheer frequency of his scrambles was indicative of a guy who wasn't seeing the field; then I re-checked those wide receivers and the amount of pressure O'Korn was getting. Scrambling a lot was the move." [http://mgoblog.com/content/spring-st...-offense#more]

Ruddock ran a lot too, with good success, this past year.

In contrast to Brian at mgoblog and others around these parts, I think O'Korn's got the job pretty much locked up. There's a reason he played the first set of downs and then didn't come back until the last drive. The job has been his to lose and that has not changed. O'Korn is Harbaugh's guy. Speight is a holdover. Harbaugh will go with his guy unless the other guy is clearly better, which is clearly not the case.

[hack]

The teams aren't drawn at random, are they? In other words, Harbaugh stacked one team with the best DBs and put O'Korn against them?

[Hannibal]

I think there was a draft.

[Detroit Dan]

Plus, we know a little about Harbaugh's modus operandi. Last year the QB race was "too close to call between Rudock and Morris" right up to the last minute. And Speight only became the backup so that Morris could redshirt. Without anyone noticing, that is now revealed as BS with Speight being clearly ahead of Morris. Of course, it could be that Speight has been coming on like gangbusters, but that seems like a stretch.

Competition is good, and things can change, but most of the time they don't. What has clearly changed is that Morris is out of the QB picture. Harbaugh has been masterful in putting a positive light on this.

[hodgkal]

I too was concerned with O'Korn"s "happy feet". He hardly spent any time reading the field and moving in the pocket before taking off. I'm no expert on these things but this stood out for me. I don't sense that we have now landed the true blue ribbon QB that will be needed to move to the next level.

OTOH, Rudock didn't look that great at the start of last season and Harbaugh did wonders with him. So what do I know? I don't have as much time as most of you guys and I want to see Michigan back on top before I'm gone.

My Michigan family tradition goes back to the end of the 19th century when my Dad's father held the big ten record in the 440 yard dash for something like 11 years! His mom was a active in her sorority and majored in Latin and Greek. Lots of family lore since then. Both parents and 3 grandparents were alums. My Dad lettered in tennis and my Mom played field hockey and was pres. of her sorority. My Dad's brother got his law degree there. My daughter got her RN degree at the U. and my son got his engineering masters degree there. And of course I spent 7 years there.

Call me all Maize and Blue!

[Detroit Dan]

Even Tom Brady has to use his feet when the receivers are covered and the protection breaks down. Instead of "happy feet", let's call it intelligent feat.

2 TDs in 2 drives against Michigan's defense is pretty good. 2 of the 4 TDs in the spring game came on runs. Without the scrambles, we'd all be complaining about another piss poor offensive performance. We're learning.

[Detroit Dan]

Anybody still buying the "legitimate QB competition" line? Harbaugh has eased Morris out of that conversation, and O'Korn is set to take over. The Speight competition is a sideshow.

This is no knock on Speight. You have to be really good to be the #2 QB on this team.

[lineygoblue]

I tend to agree Dan. I think the job is probably O'Korn's to lose.

I'm just puzzled as to why Shane Morris is still at Michigan. There is nothing pointing to him winning the starting job. It appears that even Speight has jumped ahead of him, and maybe even Peters. The only other reason that I can think of why Morris was being used as a receiver would be due to a "numbers" thing at the spring game. He surely can't be a serious contender for a receiver position with the guys that are returning in the receiving corps.

[Detroit Dan]

Yeah, that's a good point about Morris. Maybe he's concluded he's not going to be a professional FB players, so he'll just get his Michigan degree and try to part of a winning team.

[jaadam4]

Morris and Malzone will exit stage left. There's no at they stick around

[jaadam4]

Not with how Harbaugh is recruiting

[Hannibal]

I figure at this point he's finishing out his Michigan degree.