- BOLEACH7 wrote:
- Hey sandy speaking of can’t miss 5* players what’s your take on Daxton Hill so far ? Seemed to be out of position quite a bit watching this season .... some reports he was suffering from injury from the opening game .
well as I've said before, I'm not an Xs and Os guy. I'll try my best at times to give analysis but I'm clearly not the guy on this board with those types of answers. I will however take a stab at this one just because I saw a few things this last season that stuck out to me.
1. Yes there were rumblings that Dax was not playing at 100% last year and that may be the case but there were SEVERAL plays that I saw throughout the year where he didn't even seem to be in the right position at all. Particularly the switch offs with the CBs. Maybe that is a communication issue with the DBs but it just looked like he was lost.
2. Bob Shoop just wasn't the guy. I don't remember safety play under Partridge being all that bad but Shoop was just a terrible safties coach. To be fair I'll mention a few things on safety play...
a) the D line got zero pressure this past year so there were a lot less quick play check downs from the opposing QBs. Even an extra second can make a world of difference. Those quick slants are typically where safties tend to thrive and "make their money" and with receivers getting an extra second of separation or route running time it really exposed Dax.
b) I don't think the CB talent was on par with what Michigan has fielded in the past few years. We saw a TON less man coverage or press this year. I've heard others argue that it's because the refs call everything as interference these days but regardless, opposing receivers had so much separation this past year and QBs with that extra second seeing their guy run down field with separation tend to take shots downfield. If it's not to Dax's side then you can't expect him to get all the way over to the top to help.
3. I constantly saw Dax watching receivers on zone play. I don't know much but I do know that he's supposed to be fixed on the QB in those instances.
So what's the answer moving forward? Well I sure hope that Bellamy is it. I am optimistic though because from all accounts Bellamy is a hands on guy. He's also a very relatable guy on a lot of levels and I had heard in the past that Shoop wasn't so much. I even read somewhere that someone posted something about Shoop holding zoom meetings even though the coaches and players could meet in person. I can't confirm though but it's food for thought. Back to Bellamy, he's a former receiver so that knowledge that he will bring should help the safeties understand the mindset of a receiver.
I think with the talent coming back and the talent coming in and the new-look young, fresh, hungry coaching staff we are going to see major improvement across the board. Then again, that was the worst defensive I've seen UM field since 2008 so it can only get better.
I think Dax feeds off of that shows his 5* talent.
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Sometimes people standing on third base think they hit a triple, but they didn't - Jim Harbaugh