2009 TSUN News (football only discussion)

[Buckeye86]

Originally Posted by blueinfla

He was a pretty durable qb, wouldn't you say?

no, he was injured all the time

[jwinslow]

He was a pretty durable qb, wouldn't you say?

No, not really. Unless you're fine with Denard getting dinged up regularly against PSU & missing his biggest game ever against OSU.

But then each player is there own person.

[OregonBuckeye]

Originally Posted by blueinfla

I love how this is your guys' favorite words nowadays. Not that I think either of the two freshmen UM has (Denard, Tate) are going to be the next Pat White, but White was listed at 180 lbs coming out of HS and 185 lbs his senior year at wvu. He was a pretty durable qb, wouldn't you say? Denard is listed a pound smaller and an inch shorter, and Tate at the same height, and 7 pounds heavier. Being able to avoid the big hit by being "slippery" is extremely important, probably more so than total mass. Look at Threet, the kid weighed nearly 230 lbs but was constantly hurt because he was always being tackled weird; he was always taking the grunt of the hit.

How anyone who's seen Tate can come away not thinking he's pint-sized for a D-1A football player is beyond me.

[brutus2002]

He's wirery...

[blueinfla]

Originally Posted by Buckeye86

no, he was injured all the time

Looking around at his career stats, it appears that he only missed two starts in four years.

[southcampus]

Originally Posted by blueinfla

Looking around at his career stats, it appears that he only missed two starts in four years.

Beanie only missed two games but apparently he was "injured all the time".

[jwinslow]

Originally Posted by blueinfla

Looking around at his career stats, it appears that he only missed two starts in four years.

beanie wells only missed a few. Still got nicked up a bit too often for NFL scouts' taste.

[NFBuck]

Originally Posted by blueinfla

Looking around at his career stats, it appears that he only missed two starts in four years.

He also missed significant time in a number of important games. The guy was always banged up.

[Buckeye86]

It's interesting that Pat White is being brought up by Michigan fans as an example of a smallish quarterback excelling in Rodriguez's system. By most accounts, Pat White is one of the best college football players ever, and most certainly one of the best in Big East history. Throw in Steve Slaton for good measure, also one of the best running backs around in his time at WVU.

It makes me wonder how much of Rodriguez's success was due to his innovative spread system and how much was due to him striking absolute gold with two of the best players in Big East history in Steve Slaton and Pat White. I'm not going to dig too deep into this, but I'd imagine there is an extremely high correlation between WVU losses in the past four years and Pat White being injured.

Also, WVU's record under Rodriguez pre-White and Slaton: 28-21. Not shabby, and a lot of the losses came in his first season, but definitely not elite. With White the record improved to 33-5.

Which came first, Rich Rodriguez being a quality coach or Pat White being Rodriguez's quarterback? And if Michigan fans are banking on the next Pat White to come in and dominate, I think they are underestimating how good Pat White was, and also how good Steve Slaton was, and also ignoring how bad the Big East was, particularly on defense.

I think I will do an analysis of defensive rankings per conferences and post it later today. That kind of analysis begs the question; good offenses or bad defenses? but I still think it will be interesting. Give me (edit: much more than) an hour or two and I will come back with that.

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Originally Posted by blueinfla

... but White was listed at 180 lbs coming out of HS and 185 lbs his senior year at wvu. He was a pretty durable qb, wouldn't you say?

2005 - White Shared time with then QB Adam Bednarik until game seven, when White took over for good.... Cause? Injury to Bednarik.

2006 - Battled Ankle, Neck, Wrist injuries

2007- White was injured against South Florida (Loss, 21-13), Syracuse (55-14 win) and Pitt (losing and costing WVU a trip to the title game)

2008 - Injured v. Rutgers, sat out v. Syracuse.

FWIW - a Google of "Pat White Injuries" also revealed this blog: Take it for what it's worth Which I post, admittedly, because it's in line with my own thinking on the topic. (note: the comment about Bomar being more oft injured than White, as if that's a hard accomplishment to obtain)

To White's credit he played through several of the injuries listed above. Now, Tater may well end up exhibiting similar toughness... hard to say.... It's not a "given" however. Likewise, comparisons to White are highly suspect. Granted, you've admitted as much when you comment that you're not expecting Tate to be the next White, but it must be emphasized, expecting Tater to achieve White like results is unreasonable. Sure one may hope Tater ends up having such a career as one of the better players in College football history, and certainly of this decade... but, it's a tad foolish, I think, to expect Tater to end up White-ish simply because they had/have the same head coach.

[BB73]

TSUN got a new commit over the weekend, Stephen Hopkins from Flower Mound Marcus in Texas. I think I like his high school uniform better than the one he'll be wearing in 2010. Based on those sleeves and the color of the pants, some here will like it better than the current tOSU unis!

But I'm not what color those helmet stickers are.

[Steve19]

Originally Posted by BB73

TSUN got a new commit over the weekend, Stephen Hopkins from Flower Mound marcus in Texas. I think I like his high school uniform better than the one he'll be wearing in 2010. Based on those sleeves and the color of the pants, some here will like it better than the current tOSU unis!

But I'm not what color those helmet stickers are.

http://highschoolsportsblog.dallasnews.com/hopkins.jpg

Well, I guess that evens the score for Boren, eh? Woo-hoo! From scarlet and gray into urine and bruised!

[blueinfla]

Originally Posted by Buckeyeskickbuttocks

To White's credit he played through several of the injuries listed above. Now, Tater may well end up exhibiting similar toughness... hard to say.... It's not a "given" however. Likewise, comparisons to White are highly suspect. Granted, you've admitted as much when you comment that you're not expecting Tate to be the next White, but it must be emphasized, expecting Tater to achieve White like results is unreasonable. Sure one may hope Tater ends up having such a career as one of the better players in College football history, and certainly of this decade... but, it's a tad foolish, I think, to expect Tater to end up White-ish simply because they had/have the same head coach.

Thanks for all the injury information on White. I had no idea he had that many problems. I guess I never noticed them because he was always playing through most of them and, of course, I never followed wvu football.

I absolutely agree with your last paragraph too. It is completely foolish to think Tate will be "White-ish", I was merely using the comparison in size and White's perceived longevity. Tate is much more of a passer than a runner, so that should help him stay healthy. If he's only running 5-10 times a game compared to White's 15-20 per game, he obviously has less chance of getting his head taken off.

[DaddyBigBucks]

Originally Posted by BB73

TSUN got a new commit over the weekend, Stephen Hopkins from Flower Mound Marcus in Texas. I think I like his high school uniform better than the one he'll be wearing in 2010. Based on those sleeves and the color of the pants, some here will like it better than the current tOSU unis!

But I'm not what color those helmet stickers are.

Originally Posted by Steve19

Well, I guess that evens the score for Boren, eh? Woo-hoo! From scarlet and gray into urine and bruised!

Interesting that you should mention Boren.

Boren's father wore a winged helmet in high school, and did the same in college.

There was another product of that school though that you might know who serves as a better comparison than Mike Boren's son. Just as this guy, whoever he is will go from a tOSU looking uniform to an assault on all that is holy; there was a Buckeye you may've heard of who wore a winged helmet in high school.

Archie Griffin

[blueinfla]

GoBlueMichiganWolverine is reporting that Brandon Smith has been moved to LB. I think that's the best spot for him. He was a little too slow at safety.