Monday Quick Hits: Game Week Has Arrived

By Sean · Monday, August 25, 2008 · 1:59 AM |  Share | Leave a Comment 

• Last Thursday was Michigan’s final two-a-day practice. They wrapped up the week on Friday with a scrimmage in Michigan Stadium called the “Beanie Bowl.” The team’s focus now turns fully toward Utah as the first game week has arrived.
• MGoBlue has a video report on the “Beanie Bowl,” detailing exactly what it was all about. Basically, the coaches treated it like a home game to give the players an idea of what they should expect on game days in Ann Arbor. They took buses to the stadium, went into the locker room, ran out of the tunnel and touched the banner, and then scrimmaged in front of an empty 106,201 seats (note: capacity is reduced until the end of the stadium renovation). Even the band was there to help simulate a game day in the Big House.

  Due to construction, this was actually the first time Michigan players and coaches have even been in Michigan Stadium in quite a while, so it was a good idea to get them acclimated with the environment, even if the crowd was empty.

• The Ann Arbor News’ John Heuser wrote a great piece on where Rich Rodriguez came from. It’s a long read, but is worth the time as it provides a detailed look at Rodriguez.
• Also from John Heuser is a 2-deep depth chart for Michigan. I don’t know how accurate it is, but for the most part it seems to be correct. The only inaccuracies I noticed are that Steven Threet is listed as the starting quarterback and Zion Babb is Greg Mathews’ backup at receiver. At this point it seems like Nick Sheridan will be the starting QB and I haven’t heard a single thing about Zion Babb that would indicate he will even see the field at WR. I guess we’ll just have to wait until the official depth chart is released to see how accurate Hueser’s is.
• Freshman linebacker Marcus Witherspoon claims that he is coming back to Ann Arbor and will be returning to practice. Witherspoon went back home to New Jersey earlier this month after something came up. The general consensus was that the issue had something to do with the NCAA Clearinghouse. Witherspoon is saying that he wasn’t ineligible or anything like that and called the issue a “personal matter.”

  I don’t think anyone ever believed he was ineligible as most people were under the impression that he had to fulfill a class requirement or something of that sort. It’s not that he didn’t pass a class or anything like that, but instead Witherspoon had to make sure that he had enough credits in certain categories to be eligible.

• The reasoning behind Kevin Newsome’s decision to decommit from Michigan appears to be that he didn’t want to risk being moved to a position other than quarterback. That is what his father told ESPN, and to me it sounds like Newsome got some bad info, meaning Michigan was negatively recruited.

  It sounds like Newsome was afraid that if Shavodrick Beaver beat him out at QB in the future then he would have been moved to another position. In reality, though, nothing could be farther from the truth. Newsome would still have been a QB even if he was beat out by Beaver as Rich Rodriguez wants to have as much depth as possible at that position. In case something happens to the starter, Rodriguez wants to make sure the backup is just as good, which is why Newsome would not have been moved to another position.

  This was either a case of being afraid of competition or being told false things to further the recruitment of other schools. I have a feeling it’s a little bit of both, but the latter probably was the biggest reason Newsome decided to decommit.

• The Free Press has a recap of how Michigan athletes did at the Olympics, which just came to a close yesterday.
• Michigan is playing Oakland University in basketball at the Palace of Auburn Hills on December 20. The game will start at 4 p.m. and will be broadcast on FSN Detroit. Also, Michigan is not on UCLA’s schedule. This is likely due to the fact that the two teams could play each other in the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament.
• USC’s Nick Perry, who was at one time strongly considering going to Michigan, still is not qualified. He will have one more shot at passing a test that would make him eligible to play this season.
• Matt Hinton, formerly of Sunday Morning Quarterback fame, can now be found blogging at Yahoo’s Dr. Saturday.