Awards, Sweets, Early Returns, 4 Year Olds and Bubblin' Crude

The Heisman Hype Has Begun

Chad Henne wins the first award of his senior campaign (err, the other senior campaign). Congratulations, Chad, on the College Big School Player of the Year award. Does this foreshadow a more well known award given to the best "big school college player of the year" for Chad? Mini me says . . . Yes.


SCCHHHHWWWEEEEEEET!

The women's hoops assistant coach from Grand Valley won a national championship last year. Not sure how that escaped me. Anyway, B-Bo and she go way back, and she is totally in love with B-Bo. Let's call her P-Bo. Oops, sorry, can't do that. How about Coach Sweet? That'll work. By the way, that's two national championships among the hoops coaches, one for B-Bo and one for Sweets.


Early Times and Early Returns

Kelvin Grady not only stays committed, but offers the scoop that his big brother may not be as badly injured as previously reported. Given his comments to the Daily, it's conceivable KG will be back this year:

But Grady’s brother, Kelvin, told the Michigan Daily that Kevin had torn his left ACL and that the injury wasn’t as serious as everyone originally thought.

“He should be recovering more quickly than they expected,” Grady said during a phone interview.

4 Year Olds

You've heard, no doubt, of the terrible twos. From my experience the terrible twos happen (at least to my daughters) after they turned 3 and before age 4. But my four year old daughter will tell me she wants go outside and play and 30 seconds later is crying because she can't stay inside and play with Itty Baby. She asks to drink milk with her cookies, and changes her mind -- juice please (she is polite!) She wakes up and wants to play soccer, but will cry when its time to leave. Fortunately, she will grow out of this in another 6-10 months. At least her 6 year old sister did. What you ask, does this have to with this Blog? Good question. The answer, of course, is that some people, especially those coddled and sucked up to their entire lives never outgrow this nasty trait; e.g. Alex Legion. Recall that he committed to Michigan. Then he opened up his recruiting again. He again committed to Michigan several months later. He then asked to be released from his LOI because Amaker departed. Now he is apparently considering us again and intends to visit Michigan on April 28.

What the #*$?!

Why do you need to take yet another VISIT? How many have you had? How many times have you gone to a game not counted as a visit? How many times have you talked to the coaches (Amaker and Beilein)? Now, I know this kid is only 18. But, c'mon!

Why can't you just make a decision? (throat clearing -- Tim Green). Which brings us to the:


Bubblin' Crude


Sing that tune to the following lyrics and you have the Allen Academy fight song as written and directed by Tim Green "Backs":

Come and listen to a story 'bout kid Leg-ion
A poor kid from Inkster, with only mama 'Nette
Then one day Al was shootin' up some hoop
When came Tim Green with the promise of a fool.

AAU hoop that is, influence and cash.

Old Tim, don't you know, was just a lyin' cheat,
He told young Al to move away from here
Said UCLA is the place you ought to be
They'll pay, both me and the Acad-emy

Hansomely, that is.
Wads of cash and strippers.

Time for Al to go and for Green to take his cash,
But ole' mama 'Nette, she finally smells the rat
She quick calls Keener and Beilein to do some droppin' in
Now Al's again thinking 'bout this locality
But without heapin' helpin' loads of Green's hospitality.

'Til next time that is. When he'll be back. AAU style. "Can't get rid of me now, y'hear?"

As I mentioned last night, the "AAU game" is slimy. It's also significant. Legion is obviously seriously affected by his AAU coach/guardian, whatever and whoever he is. Mom confirms the Green factor in an interview with Freep. While I can, with a straight face, compare Legion to my four year old daughter, Alex apparently does not have the luxury of people that actually care about his best interests surrounding him. Alex Legion's mother told the Freep:

"I want to make it clear, Tim Green is not part of this process," Williams said Tuesday. "I'm tired of him trying to persuade my son against the University of Michigan and his family."

Green, principal of Allen Academy in Detroit, refused comment Tuesday.

"I've been quiet for four years, but Tim Green does not speak for my son, and I'm tired of him trying to make decisions for my son," Williams said. "Mr. Green wants my son to go to Connecticut or UCLA, but my son will go to neither institution."

"I really like what I'm hearing about Beilein," she said. "I really want to thank coach Keener, who has talked very positively about my son to coach Beilein. We just needed to get rid of Tim Green."

Legion's coach at Oak Hill (named Keener) appears to be straight. Beilein has met with him. Keener had this to say. From the Freep:

"Even after Alex's departure [from Oak Hill Academy], I still have a good relationship with him and the family," Keener told the Free Press. "It wasn't that he left on bad terms or anything. When this whole thing with Michigan started to unravel, I knew Annette didn't have the support system she needed, and I've been through the recruiting wars and she could bounce things off me."

Keener said Legion is "a good young man. He's had some poor counsel and misguidance from AAU people in his past."

Hmm. I wonder if Green has a commitment from UCLA and Connecticut for donations to his AAU Hurricanes and the Allen Academy?

Spring Practice Musings Part I (QB's and RB's)

I could not attend the spring scrimmage. I have read quite a bit. There are several links from which I've pulled this information and the links are listed at the bottom of this post. As we all know, and as the coaching staff reiterates, even this week, the expectation is not for the player but the position. I'll endeavor to update the comments and performance by position. In a glowing report of the individuals, Lloyd gave a typical response of the group effort. While comments of this type are made by every coach, and in every year, I suspect there is genuine sincerity in this comment:

I like the attitude of this team, they've worked as hard as any team we've had. Practices have been very physical."

Physical, yes. Is nice? No. In fact, there are so many injuries, it makes more sense to list them by position. Fortunately, only a hand full are likely still unresolved by August.

Quarterbacks: Not surprisingly, this is one position that, even with Forcier's transfer, we're doing well. In fact, so well that I doubt there is another team with as good a returning senior, with a bona fide (albeit young) player to jump right in behind him. This is reminiscent Tom Brady's time at UM when Henson came in, except, Henne is better at this point that was Brady.
Chad Henne took the Meyer Morton Award for the player who shows the greatest development and promise as a result of spring practice. Greatest development? Since when? If since last year that's really quite an accomplishment. Let's hope the line can give him 2.5 to 3.2 to get the ball out of there. David Cone was said to have made "progress". That was the only comment. Don't expect Cone to make any contribution soon. Lloyd had glowing things to say about Ryan Mallett. While no quotes, Loeffler thinks Mallett may be the most advanced of any quarterback coming in. Lloyd had these comments about Mallett:

He's a very bright guy. He's really picked up the things that we've asked him to do as far as in the huddle and at the line of scrimmage. He's got a lot of poise, and they'll see a guy with a great arm. He's a guy that has such great physical stature in terms of his height and size, he's able to see down the field, and when he lets it go, it's a strong throw.

"(He) picked things up very well, and he got a lot of repetitions throughout the spring, I think his development is continuing. He's a talented guy, a very bright guy.

I think what he has done might not be as noticeable to a fan, but certainly to a coach. Now he still has a lot to learn, but I think he's made a lot of progress. He's done some things that's going to enable him this fall to come into training camp with confidence, knowledge, ability and his understanding of what we're trying to get done."

Running Backs: Mike Hart didn't' practice, so no real word on Number 20. It's hard to tell from the comments whether Minor or Grady would have been second string this spring. With Grady's injury, there's no question that come the fall Brandon Minor will assume the backup role to Hart. Lloyd said of Grady:

The disappointment, of course, is Kevin Grady. Kevin was having an outstanding spring, and he was developing the patience it takes to play at that position.

I think Kevin will have surgery on [April 16th], and I don't know what the future for him regarding next year is. But the good news for Kevin is that he's got such a great work ethic and he's still a very very young guy. So I don't think there's any question that he'll be able to return. The disappointment for us: he was having a great spring. He just had gone to another level, so certainly that's a disappointment for all of us.

Brandon Minor had a very nice freshman year. That should only get better:

'"Brandon Minor has had an excellent spring," Carr said. "He's much more confident because he's been around, and he got a lot of work.

In the long run, Carlos Brown will be happy he stuck with it. If he's as talented and fast as it sounded out of high school he should get playing time before he leaves. It's likely that will include this fall, including in the opener September 1. Run Carlos Run, we can use your speed!

While there was reported enthusiasm about former walk-on Mark Moundros at fullback, enough so to claim he is competing for the starting spot, it's hard to believe that he'll beat out a tight end transferring to fullback, much less Vince Helmuth. Oh, that's right, we haven't a tight end to move. To end the suspense, I announce here that the starter will be . . . Helmuth.

Sweet Angel (ique)

Angelique says this afternoon that the rumors of a Carlos Brown transfer are untrue (well, at least he's decided not to transfer). She says that he's back at tailback (instead of corner where he had apparently practiced some this spring) which will add some needed depth behind Mikey Hart now that Grady is out for the year with his ACL. What's interesting to me is that, assuming no other redshirts Grady, Minor and Brown will all play their last year together. I'd like to see Carlos get a little more flexible and at least consider corner. He is fast. Even if only a fifth or sixth back, he could likely play some both ways even if only sparingly at tailback. Here's hoping he improves enough to compete with Grady and Minor. We could use a small, fast, deceptive back after Mikey is gone.