Preview 2013: Cornerback

Previously: Podcast 5.0, The Story, Quarterback, Running Back, Wide Receiver, Tight End and Friends, Offensive Line, Defensive Tackle, Defensive End, Linebacker, Special Teams.

Cornerback

Rating: 4.

Boundary Corner
Yr.
Field Corner
Yr.
Nickelback
Yr.

Blake Countess
So.*
Raymon Taylor
Jr.
Blake Countess
So.*

Channing Stribling
Fr.
Delonte Hollowell
Jr.
Dymonte Thomas
Fr.

Terry Richardson
So.
Jourdan Lewis
Fr.
Courtney Avery
Sr.

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The headliner here is the headliner last year, frozen in carbonite: BLAKE COUNTESS. Countess was Mattison’s prophesied War Daddy at field corner, and then he got blocked on a punt return in the first game. That blew up his ACL and ended his year.

A year later, Countess is back to full health—he could have gone in spring if it wasn’t, you know, spring—and ready to fulfill the promise he had a year ago. But that doesn’t mean I’ve got anything on Countess that I didn’t a year ago, save the occasional coach quote.

What I had last year: Countess started on the traditional Michigan Star Corner track, getting into the second game as a reserve corner and emerging as a starter halfway through the season. In six starts, Countess had six PBUs; he was named to various freshman All-American teams. As a freshman he manned up on Marvin McNutt pretty well:

The downside was the Ohio State game in which he was no match for Devier Posey on one of OSU’s three long touchdowns. That’ll happen when you’re a freshman.

Despite that, even then he was Michigan’s best corner. Anonymous Big Ten receiver:

On the cornerbacks: “Two years ago, they had a kid [Blake Countess] that was different. He played with a swagger and just seemed to attack every ball thrown his way. Last year, he wasn’t out there, and it made my job a lot easier because I could use both sides of the field. Their corners were good, but they didn’t go after the ball. They just wanted to stay between our receivers and the big play.”

Countess seems to have had no problem reclaiming his starting spot and should resume the star corner track he was on before injury intervened.

[After THE JUMP: Taylor! Depth! Special Nickelback section!]

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yoink [AnnArbor.com]

After some uncertainty, it appears that RAYMON TAYLOR has taken over the spot opposite countess. Since Taylor’s about the same size, it seems like Michigan has dumped the boundary/field distinctions this year and will play “right” and “left”; they may end up switching guys to get Countess on their best wideout.

In any case, Taylor emerged into the starting lineup last year and rather well for himself when he wasn’t busting zone coverage. Even when he didn’t do so hot sometimes his recovery speed made up for it; sometimes when he was beat it was just Trevor Sieman being an unstoppable throw-god. Opponents chose to test JT Floyd again and again instead of Taylor despite the fact that Floyd was far less vulnerable to getting bombed over the top than the targeting patterns implied. (Except against Ohio State. Sigh.) While his individual UFRs were only okay, he was the field corner on a secondary with these coverage metrics:

Opponent
+
-
TOT
Comment

Alabama
9
13
-4
Could have been worse.

Air Force
15
15
0
Push good against this kind of offense.

UMass
19
7
12
Open downfield guys were about zero.

Notre Dame
8
11
-3
Close enough to even.

Purdue
34
5
29
I don’t even know what to do with myself.

Illinois
7
4
3
what is this pass you say of speaking

MSU
22
8
14
Maxwell helped here with some indecision.

Nebraska
17
21
-4
Lots of open corner routes.

Minnesota
23
18
5
Again, good day but helped out by opponent.

Northwestern
20
16
4
NFL windows hit: like four.

Iowa
15
15
0
Relatively low number for this secondary is something I have been happy with for the last six years.

0 is acceptable here.

The individual numbers were around zero save for a –3 against MSU and –6.5 against Nebraska, but those numbers don’t tell the whole story since the video I’m working with doesn’t show downfield areas; anything I see a DB doing more than a few yards down the field is necessarily because a quarterback thought he had a guy open. For Taylor to be rarely targeted on a defense putting up those coverage metrics is pretty good.

There were some big plays against, unfortunately:

Taylor also gave up a long TD against Alabama that we can write off as a guy thrust onto the field against Alabama for his first playing time.

It seemed like a strong season from a sophomore thrust into the starting lineup, one where Taylor beat out Courtney Avery for the corner job and was not an obvious weak link. But in spring, Taylor was seriously pressed first by Avery and then Delonte Hollowell; for a while it seemed like Avery was going to start opposite Countess. Ominous sign? I don’t know. Avery is reportedly healthy, or at least healthier, this year. And Taylor did come through to start despite the challenge.

Taylor should improve, as kids do, and he could even do so significantly since he’s moving from true sophomore to true junior. Last year he was not much of a playmaker (two interceptions, just one PBU). He’s already pretty good at dissuading cornerbacks most of the time; now he has to make them regret it when he doesn’t.

Side note: Even though Michigan has dispensed with the boundary and field distinctions for the moment, I bet Taylor is the more boundary of the two. He was rather good in run support a year ago, something Hoke liked about his game as a recruit: