Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Crying Over Spilled Molk

I'm getting a little nervous...

Center David Molk is expected to miss 4-6 weeks with a broken foot. This news is very worrisome to me. I consider Molk the most consistent offensive lineman for M in the RichRod era. Center is a thinking man's position that requires a lot of communication with the four other lineman and quarterback to adjust blocking assignments at the line - and I think Molk has done it very well in the past 15 games.

I will be interested to see how Tate Forcier does without Molk in there - a good center/quarterback relationship can really contribute to a solid offense. Michigan's running game seems to be developing nicely and it always helps to keep your offensive line consistent. Guard David Moosman missed the EMU game and M survived (some would even say thrived) but I never like to see musical chairs on the offensive line.

Am I just being an alarmist here?

Any other early-in-the-week thoughts about the upcoming Big Ten opener against Indiana?

One other note...the Big Ten Network claimed the Michigan-Michigan State game as its headliner for Saturday, October 3 at Noon. I can't say I'm thrilled about that scheduling. Frankly I like noon starts (and for this game it will give all those Spartans fans less time to drink before the game - I hope) but the Michigan/MSU game should be more of a marqee event...and that usually means a 3:30 start.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree, you are the best writer ever!

GregGoBlue said...

You are not the only one who is worried. I, for one, am a huge Molk fan, and this news was very saddening to me. Good news, though, is that offensive line is our deepest position next to RB, and there's not an enormous dropoff in talent.

From what I hear, Mooseman will be back in the lineup, and either he or RS freshman Rocko Khoury will play center, while the other plays tackle. I would love to see Pat Omameh get a few snaps as well, since I hear great things about his athleticism. Also, Greg Frey (Offensive line coach) and others are very high on 4-star true freshman Quinton Washington out of South Carolina. He is really big, really fast and really athletic. He won't play this year though, as our coaches typically look to redshirt O-Linemen in most cases.

Molk is a big loss. Hopefully we can make up for it. Go blue!

GregGoBlue said...

ah, I made a mistake. This is what will happen this saturday: " David Moosman was expected to start in David Molk's place if he was healthy and he is [healthy]. Moosman will be replaced by John Ferrara, who played against Eastern, or by moving Huyge inside and starting Perry Dorrestein at RT." via MGoBlog

MKaz said...

Check out this story from the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel:

It's called "Is this the Hoosiers' year to win at Michigan?"

http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090925/SPORTS/909250316