Michigan Player Board Week 3

Progress isn’t usually synonymous with losing but there was clearly progress on the offensive side of the ball against Notre Dame. The defensive line was terrible. The rest of the team—other than the turnovers—was actually pretty good in spite of the score. The perpetual complainers will surely use the final score as fuel for their RichRod slam fest but people who actually know what they’re looking for should be pleased with that they saw. It’s sad to think that there are actually people out there who don’t think that Rich Rodriguez is building a championship program. Those people should be ridiculed and refused admittance into Michigan fandom. The hints are out there. The writing is on the wall. Recruiting is going very well. The strength and conditioning is top notch. Heck, Rodriguez almost won a National Championship at West Virginia. If you think that’s easy to do, you might want to give Bill Stewart a call. These people need to get their heads out of their asses and use that thing inside their skull for something more than remembering where they placed their keys. Seriously, if you’re a Michigan fan and you don’t think this program is going to explode, get lost. Notre Dame and its mediocrity would love to have you. I apologize for wasting your time with that diatribe. There may not be a single person reading this who actually thinks Michigan is heading in the wrong direction. Trust me, those people are out there and they are idiots.

Top 25 Michigan Player Board

Rank	Player	Comments	Movement
1	Brandon Graham, DE	Not a great game in South Bend. Still leads team in TFLs and sacks.
2	Sam McGuffie, RB	Close to three times as many total yards as any other ‘M’ player. Tore up South Bend.	6
3	Donovan Warren, CB	Outplayed Trent in two of three games so far. Played very well against Notre Dame.	2
4	Brandon Harrison, S	Least productive game of the season but still played pretty well.	1
5	Morgan Trent, CB	Looked bad on a number of plays. Looked pretty good on a few others.	1
6	Tim Jamison, DE	The D-Line was terrible against ND but Jamison probably had the best game of the bunch.
7	Montavious Odoms, WR	Odoms is ‘M’s leading receiver in both catches and yards. He has twice as many receptions as any other WR.	5
8	Obi Ezeh, LB	Didn’t play particularly well against ND.	6
9	Zoltan Mesko, P	Weirdly had best game of the season in sloppy conditions. Four kicks for 211 yards (52.8 average) was followed by a Ray Guy nomination.	7
10	Greg Mathews, WR	Mathews has been Michigan’s best WR but has only played in 2 of 3 games.
11	Will Johnson, DT	Dropped for the second straight week. Again, the D-Line was awful.	4
12	Terrance Taylor, DT	Taylor at #12 after three games can only be described as a disappointment.	3
13	Steven Threet, QB	Improved by leaps and bounds against Notre Dame. That sort of performance the rest of the season would surely lead to a bowl game.	6
14	John Thompson, LB	Fairly solid for second consecutive game. 7 tackles, a TFL, a forced fumble and a quarterback hurry was one of better D performances.	1
15	Jonas Mouton, LB	Ditto John Thompson	1
16	Michael Shaw, RB	Hamstring injury limited reps.	5
17	Steve Schilling, OT	O-line played better against ND.	6
18	Mike Martin, DT	Contributions to date have been a pleasant surprise. Didn’t factor much in South Bend.	3
19	Brandon Minor, RB	I feel bad for Minor. Hopefully the offense will improve enough that his role will increase. Dropped a costly lateral pass recovered by ND.	2
20	Darryl Stonum, WR	Played pretty well against Notre Dame. Three catches for 35 yards were big.	N/A
21	K.C. Lopata, K	Perfect against ND with a low degree of difficulty.
22	Ryan Van Bergen, DE	Plays fairly well in limited action.
23	Dave Molk, C	’M’s second best O-lineman played fairly well despite being blown off the ball on a crucial third down play.	N/A
24	Stevie Brown, S	Surprisingly makes solid plays. Too bad they're intermingled with terrible ones.	1
25	Junior Hemingway, WR	Another zero catch performance will keep him off the list next week.	7