Green shoots used more recently in terms of RECOVERY. Something which was in the tank and starting to come to life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_shoots
Our defense against CMU was pretty bad. Surprisingly bad. There was no Dan LeFevour or Antonio Brown out there for CMU.
There WERE green shoots on OFFENSE despite the dismal score:
1). Karutz continues to show he is the real deal. No fluke.
2). The WRs/TEs looked pretty good to me. Young and good. I was afraid he'd have the WRs KPJ posted about (e.g., Scott) but no one to get them the ball.
3). Our RBs are getting there but hurting. I read a lot of them are hurting with several including Scherer with high ankle sprains. Marrow will be the up back lining up ahead of Scherer next season and the up back we need behind Payne. We need HEALTH here. EDIT: Javonti Green also has a high ankle sprain per Annarbor.com. IF healthy, we'd be okay here.
4). The BIG green shoot for me yesterday was PAYNE. What potential this redshirt frosh has and he has 45 more games in his EMU career to develop. His arm, I think, will rank up there with Big Ben, Leftwich, etc. in time if he develops. Before one series in the Miami game and yesterday, basically all we knew about him was his HIGH SCHOOL reports in Rivals or Scout. Yesterday we saw him vs. a good defensive team. He was not the erratic QB I expected to see.
If he continues to develop, I can't see Gillett holding the #1 job even though Gillett won it in spring/pre-season practices.
EDIT: 5). I believe all of the OL recruits are either being redshirted. Don't think hardly any have played as true frosh. I like that we are redshirting OLs. This is a + going forward.
Interesting enough all of my favorite 'green shoots' are on offense.