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Sellers dweller Offline
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(Fake) spring ball thread
Well okay, since spring ball isn't happening, there are also questions as to if the season will happen (we all hope that is not the case!). So I figured why not start a place to throw some thoughts on how a hypothetical spring ball would have gone, since I'm sure a lot of us have extra time to kill these days.

Here is how I see our starters looking (feel free to pick any of these apart!):

QB: Hutchinson
RB: Parker
WR: Drummond
WR: Williams (CJ Parks also gets a ton of snaps, the same as a starter, basically taking Jackson's spot from last year)
Slot: Beydoun
TE: Cannon
RT: McAdams
RG: Donnellon
C: Van Hoeven
LG: Sow
LT: Dooley
QB/RB/WR: Grissom

-On the line, McAdams is just a guess. I think four starters (Donnellon, Van Hoeven, Sow, Dooley) are pretty set. Maybe they kick Sow outside and Howie takes a guard spot? They've recruited well on the o-line lately so I'm not too worried about that spot

-TE spot is stacked with Cannon, Odukoya, and Oakes.

-Grissom sees the field a lot more this year in a lot of different roles, mostly as a WR but I could see him in the backfield from time to time, maybe even taking a few snaps.

-What is with John Branham? We know he isn't on the roster, but still enrolled, and according to his twitter seems like he is still planning/hoping to be apart of the team. It'd be nice to have him, was a big recruit.

-Does DJ Smith or Darius Boone emerge at RB? Between those two and Parker (and hopefully Branham) we could have a nice stable of backs.

DE: Rush
DT: Scott
DT: Eddington
DE: Haney
LB: Myrick
LB: Speights
CB: Vines
CB: McGee
CB: Hernandez
S: Bogan
S: Phelps

-The D-line has a lot of option, no one has really set themselves apart as an elite level MAC player (yet) thought. The guys I listed and guys like Merritt, Holford, Trueman, Stagner, Ramirez, Hamilton, and DJ Jackson should all get looks. I think the D-line is very fluid.

-Myrick is a solid player, but after him not a lot of experience at LB. Speights had a great juco career and played a bit last year so I'll give him the nod. How will young guys like Charles Brown, Matt Buschman, and Luke Cameron look?

-Lots of options in the secondary! The guys I listed are all at least solid players with experience. You can add in Hubbard, Vaden, Lee, Lafleur, Watson, Simpson, Shine, Williams, and Nowling as guys either with experience or young guys who were pretty big recruits. It hurts to lose three guys like Hoying, McGill, and Calhoun, but I think the mix of guys we have coming back will create a lot of competition and make for a solid to good secondary.

Obviously Julien and Ryland are clear front runners for their spots.

How does everyone else see "spring practice" going?
03-29-2020 08:58 AM
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TheWoodenNickle Offline
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Post: #2
RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
(03-29-2020 08:58 AM)Sellers dweller Wrote:  Well okay, since spring ball isn't happening, there are also questions as to if the season will happen (we all hope that is not the case!). So I figured why not start a place to throw some thoughts on how a hypothetical spring ball would have gone, since I'm sure a lot of us have extra time to kill these days.

Here is how I see our starters looking (feel free to pick any of these apart!):

QB: Hutchinson
RB: Parker
WR: Drummond
WR: Williams (CJ Parks also gets a ton of snaps, the same as a starter, basically taking Jackson's spot from last year)
Slot: Beydoun
TE: Cannon
RT: McAdams
RG: Donnellon
C: Van Hoeven
LG: Sow
LT: Dooley
QB/RB/WR: Grissom

-On the line, McAdams is just a guess. I think four starters (Donnellon, Van Hoeven, Sow, Dooley) are pretty set. Maybe they kick Sow outside and Howie takes a guard spot? They've recruited well on the o-line lately so I'm not too worried about that spot

-TE spot is stacked with Cannon, Odukoya, and Oakes.

-Grissom sees the field a lot more this year in a lot of different roles, mostly as a WR but I could see him in the backfield from time to time, maybe even taking a few snaps.

-What is with John Branham? We know he isn't on the roster, but still enrolled, and according to his twitter seems like he is still planning/hoping to be apart of the team. It'd be nice to have him, was a big recruit.

-Does DJ Smith or Darius Boone emerge at RB? Between those two and Parker (and hopefully Branham) we could have a nice stable of backs.

DE: Rush
DT: Scott
DT: Eddington
DE: Haney
LB: Myrick
LB: Speights
CB: Vines
CB: McGee
CB: Hernandez
S: Bogan
S: Phelps

-The D-line has a lot of option, no one has really set themselves apart as an elite level MAC player (yet) thought. The guys I listed and guys like Merritt, Holford, Trueman, Stagner, Ramirez, Hamilton, and DJ Jackson should all get looks. I think the D-line is very fluid.

-Myrick is a solid player, but after him not a lot of experience at LB. Speights had a great juco career and played a bit last year so I'll give him the nod. How will young guys like Charles Brown, Matt Buschman, and Luke Cameron look?

-Lots of options in the secondary! The guys I listed are all at least solid players with experience. You can add in Hubbard, Vaden, Lee, Lafleur, Watson, Simpson, Shine, Williams, and Nowling as guys either with experience or young guys who were pretty big recruits. It hurts to lose three guys like Hoying, McGill, and Calhoun, but I think the mix of guys we have coming back will create a lot of competition and make for a solid to good secondary.

Obviously Julien and Ryland are clear front runners for their spots.

How does everyone else see "spring practice" going?
Seems like a solid breakdown. CC seems like a coach that likes to rotate a lot of players at every position, including QB. All of the players you mentioned will see plenty of PT.
(This post was last modified: 03-29-2020 02:09 PM by TheWoodenNickle.)
03-29-2020 10:48 AM
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EagleSam Online
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Post: #3
RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
Good stuff. If Hutchinson can come in and be solid, we could have a really good offense. I think we will see RBBC, with at least 3 guys getting multiple carries a game. No true workhorse (yet), but several guys that can get the job done. Receiver is just loaded.

Defense...yikes. Our worst one on paper since 2015. Let’s hope we score lots of points.
(This post was last modified: 03-29-2020 12:02 PM by EagleSam.)
03-29-2020 12:01 PM
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Sellers dweller Offline
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RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
(03-29-2020 12:01 PM)EagleSam Wrote:  Good stuff. If Hutchinson can come in and be solid, we could have a really good offense. I think we will see RBBC, with at least 3 guys getting multiple carries a game. No true workhorse (yet), but several guys that can get the job done. Receiver is just loaded.

Defense...yikes. Our worst one on paper since 2015. Let’s hope we score lots of points.

I agree with your point about the defense, but I'm somewhat optimistic. Neathery has shown himself to be a pretty good DC, and I think some of the younger guys (Haney, Speights, Vines, Bogans) with starting/playing experience have a chance to take a step forward. It'll also be interesting to see how all those young guys in the secondary play. Some of them were pretty highly recruited and I'm sure excited to show what they could do.

Another key element of the defense is not just the production they lost, but I feel those guys (Hoying, Beltram, McGill, Calhoun) were all good to great leaders. Hopefully someone can fill that void as well.
03-29-2020 01:25 PM
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emu steve Offline
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RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
One thing folks are not focused on, and I'm not sure how to judge it, is that true frosh, transfers, md-year JUCOs, etc. etc. are missing ESPECIALLY valuable spring ball time. The worst case, and not something too common with EMU FB, is the mid-year high school enrollee who comes early for spring ball.

This will effect different players and different teams differently. Heaven help teams which are rebuilding as spring ball is critical.

Generally speaking I don't see it as a big negative for our team. Most anyone who is expected to have major minutes has played or at least done one spring ball. As we often note, our true frosh usually don't play their freshman year.
03-29-2020 02:44 PM
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FrankAnderson Offline
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Post: #6
RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
We were also lucky to at least get a few spring practices in the books before the MAC shut everything down. I think one full week? Many teams around the country hadn't even practiced once yet.
03-29-2020 04:03 PM
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Sellers dweller Offline
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RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
(03-29-2020 02:44 PM)emu steve Wrote:  One thing folks are not focused on, and I'm not sure how to judge it, is that true frosh, transfers, md-year JUCOs, etc. etc. are missing ESPECIALLY valuable spring ball time. The worst case, and not something too common with EMU FB, is the mid-year high school enrollee who comes early for spring ball.

This will effect different players and different teams differently. Heaven help teams which are rebuilding as spring ball is critical.

Generally speaking I don't see it as a big negative for our team. Most anyone who is expected to have major minutes has played or at least done one spring ball. As we often note, our true frosh usually don't play their freshman year.

Great point! Hopefully fall practice can go on as planned, since those younger guys are missing this valuable practice time.

To your point, I think this shutdown has actually made our bowl bid last year even more important than even previously thought. Had we not made it, all of last years young guys (especially the true and RS freshmen) would have been done after Thanksgiving. Now at least they got all of December, and as Frank pointed out, that week this spring to get extra work in.

One guy that came to my mind that this is a bummer for is DJ Smith. From what I understand he graduated high school in 2019, was going to go to San Jose State last year but didn't end up going. I'm not sure why or what he ended up doing last year, but I assume that while he worked out he wasn't playing or practicing football. I believe he is currently at EMU and would have been able to get some practice reps this spring. That could have been big for a guy like him who was a pretty highly thought of recruit and could be an instant impact player given he isn't your typical "true" freshmen.
03-29-2020 05:13 PM
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Sellers dweller Offline
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Post: #8
RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
In this realm, came across some spring bowl projections:

LendingTree Bowl
Date Coming
ESPN
Ladd-Peebles Stadium, Mobile, AL
MAC vs. Sun Belt
Spring Projection: Eastern Michigan vs. Troy

https://collegefootballnews.com/2020/03/...-version/2
04-01-2020 10:02 AM
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fanfrompowellspub Offline
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Post: #9
RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
Spring ball thread
every one looks bigger faster and stronger.
Our new plays are better then old plays and will lead us to a MAC championship.
Defense looks bad because they can't hit and wont want to kill team mates.
Spring game cancelled (normal for most teams now anyways.)
04-01-2020 11:50 AM
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emu79 Offline
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RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
I am not totally sold that Hutchison will be the starting QB
04-01-2020 12:12 PM
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FrankAnderson Offline
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RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
(04-01-2020 12:12 PM)emu79 Wrote:  I am not totally sold that Hutchison will be the starting QB

Interesting. Who else do you think has a shot? Helbig? Jackson?

I'm pretty confident Hutch will at least start the first game of the season. I think the WMU win gives him the best case for the QB1 spot. Helbig started a lot but never defeated an FBS team. I don't see Grissom as a full-time QB but definitely getting more snaps out of the wildcat/similar sets.
04-01-2020 12:15 PM
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emu steve Offline
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Post: #12
RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
(04-01-2020 12:15 PM)FrankAnderson Wrote:  
(04-01-2020 12:12 PM)emu79 Wrote:  I am not totally sold that Hutchison will be the starting QB

Interesting. Who else do you think has a shot? Helbig? Jackson?

I'm pretty confident Hutch will at least start the first game of the season. I think the WMU win gives him the best case for the QB1 spot. Helbig started a lot but never defeated an FBS team. I don't see Grissom as a full-time QB but definitely getting more snaps out of the wildcat/similar sets.

Helbig was really hurt by the cancellation of spring ball.

He is obviously a very experienced QB but he needed spring ball to accumulate to EMU and the MAC.
04-01-2020 12:48 PM
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emu79 Offline
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RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
I would say Helbeg He was brought in for a reason. Really not sure about Jackson and whether he will ever reach the potential we hoped for when he was recruited. Helbeg has started against FBS competition like UNLV, Arizona, Idaho St and Oregon St. I would agree with Steve that he needs to learn the offensive system but actually since CC is now the new offensive coordinator all the QBs may be learning a new system. I view competition as a good thing at each position.
04-01-2020 02:56 PM
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EMUGLORYDAYSthe90's Offline
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RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
(04-01-2020 02:56 PM)emu79 Wrote:  I would say Helbeg He was brought in for a reason. Really not sure about Jackson and whether he will ever reach the potential we hoped for when he was recruited. Helbeg has started against FBS competition like UNLV, Arizona, Idaho St and Oregon St. I would agree with Steve that he needs to learn the offensive system but actually since CC is now the new offensive coordinator all the QBs may be learning a new system. I view competition as a good thing at each position.

Agree, because we need A QB with all the offensive weapons we've on this team, and we'll need to outscore teams most likely! 38-34, 41-38 type of games! I looked at our roster, and I would say on paper, talent wise the defensive talent is on par with the 2015 roster, nothing like 2016-2018! I hope I'm wrong...…...
(This post was last modified: 04-01-2020 10:51 PM by EMUGLORYDAYSthe90's.)
04-01-2020 05:13 PM
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Sellers dweller Offline
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RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
(04-01-2020 05:13 PM)EMUGLORYDAYSthe90s Wrote:  
(04-01-2020 02:56 PM)emu79 Wrote:  I would say Helbeg He was brought in for a reason. Really not sure about Jackson and whether he will ever reach the potential we hoped for when he was recruited. Helbeg has started against FBS competition like UNLV, Arizona, Idaho St and Oregon St. I would agree with Steve that he needs to learn the offensive system but actually since CC is now the new offensive coordinator all the QBs may be learning a new system. I view competition as a good thing at each position.

Agree, because we need A QB with all the offensive weapons we've on this team, and we'll need to outscore teams most likely! 38-34, 41-38 type of games! I looked at our roster, and I would say on paper, talent wise the defensive talent is on par with the 2015 roster, nothing like 2016-2018! I hope I'm wrong...…...

With the cancellation of spring practice, I think that gives Hutchinson a clear lead for the QB spot. However, CC has shown in the past he isn't afraid to pull the trigger on a QB change (although sometimes not as quickly as all of us might like). So if Hutchinson stumbles at all I'm sure he wouldn't be afraid to give Helbeg a shot.

We all know CC is also fairly loyal to his guys, so that also plays into Hutchinson's favor. I remember not long after the QL bowl there was an interview with CC and they asked him about replacing Glass, the first guy he mentioned was Hutchinson (it was also interesting that he then mentioned May before mentioning Helbeg, Jackson, or Stiebeling).
04-02-2020 07:46 AM
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emu steve Offline
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RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
04-04-2020 09:07 AM
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TheWoodenNickle Offline
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RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
(04-04-2020 09:07 AM)emu steve Wrote:  https://ypsilantieleven.substack.com/p/p...hutchinson
Helbig has 2 years at EMU? I figured he had only one year as a grad transfer.
04-04-2020 10:32 AM
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emu steve Offline
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RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
(04-04-2020 10:32 AM)TheWoodenNickle Wrote:  
(04-04-2020 09:07 AM)emu steve Wrote:  https://ypsilantieleven.substack.com/p/p...hutchinson
Helbig has 2 years at EMU? I figured he had only one year as a grad transfer.

I think you are correct with this caveat:

I believe he only played 4 games one season at Southern Utah and maybe he gets a med redshirt and maybe two more years to play his four full years.

The way I see it, he has played 2 1/3 seasons. Is 2 1/3 seasons 2 or 3, not higher math, with rounding rules, BUT NCAA rules.

Bottom line: I assume EMU has him as a grad transfer senior with one year of eligibility, subject to NCAA ruling on a 2nd season.
(This post was last modified: 04-04-2020 11:11 AM by emu steve.)
04-04-2020 11:05 AM
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RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
04-07-2020 09:12 AM
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EMUGLORYDAYSthe90's Offline
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RE: (Fake) spring ball thread
Creighton will give the job to Parker, even if Smith and Boone are better! Creighton's beyond loyal to his players!
04-07-2020 09:23 AM
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