Should be interesting for the Wolverines next year

http://media.www.michigandaily.com/media/storage/paper851/news/2008/01/09/Football/Mallett.Arrington.Manningham.To.Leave.Football.Tea m-3148102.shtml

Arrington and Manningham will turn pro. Their expected started QB will transfer. And Rodriguez doesn't care.

"Obviously, with Mario and Adrian, they made decisions they thought would help them professionally and decided to come out early, and we certainly wish them well," Rodriguez said about the junior wide receivers, who came in first and second on the team in receptions and touchdowns this season.

Rodriguez spoke bluntly about Mallett's plans.

"I don't care - he's not playing for Michigan," Rodriguez said of the freshman quarterback. "I'm concerned with who's playing for Michigan. That's my concern."

Losing Manningham and Arrington hurts, but the Wolverines are usually pretty good about producing a steady stream of impact receivers (those two, Breaston, Edwards, Terrell, etc.), so I don't think Rich Rod will have too many problems filling out his receiving core.

Losing Mallett is a positive if it guarantees Terrell Pryor goes to Michigan. It has to be his top choice now, with Rich Rod coaching and the chance to start as a freshman. As bad as Todd Boeckman looked during the BCS championship game, I doubt OSU drops him to start a freshman right off the bat.

Surprised Arrington is turning pro. One year as Michigan's #1 would really boost his stock.

Losing Manningham and Arrington hurts, but the Wolverines are usually pretty good about producing a steady stream of impact receivers (those two, Breaston, Edwards, Terrell, etc.), so I don't think Rich Rod will have too many problems filling out his receiving core.

Losing Mallett is a positive if it guarantees Terrell Pryor goes to Michigan. It has to be his top choice now, with Rich Rod coaching and the chance to start as a freshman. As bad as Todd Boeckman looked during the BCS championship game, I doubt OSU drops him to start a freshman right off the bat.

Mallett did what was best for himself. RR's offense if designed for a mobile QB, which Mallet is not. Michigan's offense would have to be designed more like the Patriot's offense for Mallett to be effective as the QB.

As I understand it, if a player transfers he must sit out the next 2 semesters before he can play sports again. I know that there are a few schools, like Stanford, that use the Quarter system instead of the 3 Semester system that most schools use. If Mallett went to Stanford, then I believe he could play in 2008.

But, according to his list, he wants to get to either Texas A&M, UCLA, Tennessee, or Arkansas.

I would assume Tennessee would have a couple of high recruits last season or two given that Ainge was a senior this year. So, there's big competition there.

Texas A&M, don't know much about them.

Arkansas, they lost Mustain last year to USC and I'm not sure what class the starting QB was last year or whether they have any big recruits.

UCLA, Ben Olson will return for a senior year, but none of their other QBs last year were outstanding. Nuehesial is their new Head Coach, so you have to look back at his Colorado and Washington days to see what kind of offense he likes to run.

Unless UCLA has a big recruit this year (they could, given that any big time High Schooler would be crazy to go to USC this year, with Sanchez as a JR and Mustain as a Sophomore at QB. Won't play until junior year), UCLA would be a good place for Mallett.

Mallett did what was best for himself. RR's offense if designed for a mobile QB, which Mallet is not. Michigan's offense would have to be designed more like the Patriot's offense for Mallett to be effective as the QB.


The spread can be altered for a slow QB. Mallet ran the spread throughout high school. Rodriguez has had success with a throwing QB when Shaun King was in college. It's more successful with a running QB because there are more option plays and the threat of the QB taking off, but the spread can work with a pocket passer. He had to do what was best for him so best of luck to him. He has a huge arm, but he needs to be more accurate and make better decisions. He played before he was ready this year because of the injury to Henne. It may help with the recruitment of Pryor because he would likely start from day one if he were to sign. Still a month to go with recruiting so a lot can happen.

Losing Mallett is a positive if it guarantees Terrell Pryor goes to Michigan. It has to be his top choice now, with Rich Rod coaching and the chance to start as a freshman. As bad as Todd Boeckman looked during the BCS championship game, I doubt OSU drops him to start a freshman right off the bat.

Pryor has said he is willing to redshirt as a freshman, let alone needing to start right away.

I'm not saying he's coming to OSU, who knows what he's going to do, but he's said repeatedly that Mallett and/or immediate playing time have zero to do with his decision.

Plus, I would think starting as a freshman is a little less appealing when surrounded by what he'd be surrounded with next season in terms of experience. It's not like he'd be the last piece of the puzzle.

Michigan has a kid named Threet who was sitting out a transfer from Ga. Tech this season. Has all 4 years of eligibility left, similar to Mallet in his style of play. If they don't get Pryor they will probably end up going with him.

The WR situation is not that worrying. They have plenty of young talent ready to move forward(Manningham missed several games this year), plus they have a stud recruit in Stonum who just enrolled early this week.

Mallet is a heck of a talent, but there have been rumors about his attitude and his off the field drinking that worried me about his future at UM. Not that sad to see him go. Jeff George type arm.

Plus, when you look at what Rich Rod has done at WVU. He has never had a recruiting class ranked in the Top 30. Now most of that has to do with getting people to play at WV. But it also speaks to his ability to find the right talent for his system, no matter what their recruiting rankings are.

Yes, slow QBs can work in a spread offense, but there are plenty of variations of the spread offense that it won't work in. Without players like Pat White and Steve Slaton to run his offense, Rich Rod's teams probably wouldn't have been good enough to land him the job at Michigan. I lost count of how many teams got killed because they let pat White run around and fool them all game with the option spread. But it remains to be seen if he can tweak his offense for a dropback sort of QB, especially in the Big Ten (Shaun King in the Conference USA doesn't count).

I think the Patriots offense is a good example of using the spread with a drop back passer.

I have heard Rich Rod is looking at what Mizzou did with their offense, not as much for a non-mobile QB but because Michigan has some solid young TEs that he wants to work into his schemes.

It will be a work in progress for a year or two, but I was one of many who was wrong when I thought Urban Meyer couldn't make his offense work with Chris Leak.