While reading the thread about the O/U prediction for the season, it got me thinking about the most important position on the team. I believe the Bowman I remember us playing against has all the tools to be a successful quarterback to run his offense, and I'm especially excited to see utilization of the entire field as well as multiple receivers being threats. That being said, I've wondered about his health and if there are any lingering effects.
I found an article that talked about his injuries (from last June, while he was still with Michigan, obviously), and I found this quote from him interesting:
“There were definitely times in my life where football was hard,” Bowman told MLive in a phone interview. “I felt I lost the love for it at some point. With so many injuries -- I mean, the first four years of my career, I had four different offensive coordinators. So I could never get into a rhythm, I could never feel confident in myself, I was always getting injured. I didn’t know how good I could be. I was always the, ‘Is he gonna be able to stay healthy’ guy? So yeah, there were a couple of times and doubts in my head going through, ‘Is it worth of all this going through it?’ I’m so glad that I did and I came to Michigan. It’s paid off in every way.”
Well, he's obviously going to have another "new" coordinator, and I hope he feels he has a "rhythm" going now.
I really liked this quote from him:
"I’m spending nights in the hospital on morphine and I don’t even know what day it is and I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on. So the highs and lows that I’ve gone through at such a young age really kind of helped prepare me and I feel like I’ve had that underdog mentality ever since high school, and that kind of really helped me.”
It's good he has an "underdog mentality," because that seems to coincide with the prognosticators out there concerning our season.
He had a collapsed lung, but that was 5 years ago. However, it happened to him twice that season. The first time, he lost 55% of his lung capacity and 10% the second time. Then, in 2019, he suffered a broken collarbone. I couldn't find any injuries that impacted him since that time, but he also didn't start any games for Michigan or saw any significant action. All this to ask..are there any concerns about him getting hurt again (season-ending) type stuff? For those that saw him this spring, do you sense any hesitation on his part when executing the offense? I know his health + the O-line effectiveness pretty much go hand-in-hand, but I know the OL question marks won't be settled/realized until this fall anyhow.
Finally, I wanted to share this quote from that article:
“Coming from Texas Tech, I threw the ball all over the yard,” he said. “Did that my whole life, just throwing it around the yard, air raid. I threw the ball like 56 times in one game. I didn’t take one under-center snap ever. Then I come to Michigan and we’re under center, we’re seven-step drops, we’re play action, we’re deep posts, we’re crossers, we’re checking, we’re doing a lot of things I’ve never done before. So it was very difficult to come in in the summer and try to compete to start in six weeks. Now I feel like after I’ve been here for a year, I’m able to understand the offense now and know it really well.”
I know we're not running an air raid offense, but I honestly don't know what the Hell you'd call the type of offense we run anyhow. To try and simplify it, I would guess our offense would be similar to what he did at Tech (either under Kingsbury or Wells) than he did at Michigan, so hopefully that translates to him feeling more comfortable.
This post isn't sharing anything new, really, but I was just curious about everyone's thoughts about Bowman taking the reins both from his health standpoint as well as overall confidence in running the offense.
I found an article that talked about his injuries (from last June, while he was still with Michigan, obviously), and I found this quote from him interesting:
“There were definitely times in my life where football was hard,” Bowman told MLive in a phone interview. “I felt I lost the love for it at some point. With so many injuries -- I mean, the first four years of my career, I had four different offensive coordinators. So I could never get into a rhythm, I could never feel confident in myself, I was always getting injured. I didn’t know how good I could be. I was always the, ‘Is he gonna be able to stay healthy’ guy? So yeah, there were a couple of times and doubts in my head going through, ‘Is it worth of all this going through it?’ I’m so glad that I did and I came to Michigan. It’s paid off in every way.”
Well, he's obviously going to have another "new" coordinator, and I hope he feels he has a "rhythm" going now.
I really liked this quote from him:
"I’m spending nights in the hospital on morphine and I don’t even know what day it is and I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on. So the highs and lows that I’ve gone through at such a young age really kind of helped prepare me and I feel like I’ve had that underdog mentality ever since high school, and that kind of really helped me.”
It's good he has an "underdog mentality," because that seems to coincide with the prognosticators out there concerning our season.
He had a collapsed lung, but that was 5 years ago. However, it happened to him twice that season. The first time, he lost 55% of his lung capacity and 10% the second time. Then, in 2019, he suffered a broken collarbone. I couldn't find any injuries that impacted him since that time, but he also didn't start any games for Michigan or saw any significant action. All this to ask..are there any concerns about him getting hurt again (season-ending) type stuff? For those that saw him this spring, do you sense any hesitation on his part when executing the offense? I know his health + the O-line effectiveness pretty much go hand-in-hand, but I know the OL question marks won't be settled/realized until this fall anyhow.
Finally, I wanted to share this quote from that article:
“Coming from Texas Tech, I threw the ball all over the yard,” he said. “Did that my whole life, just throwing it around the yard, air raid. I threw the ball like 56 times in one game. I didn’t take one under-center snap ever. Then I come to Michigan and we’re under center, we’re seven-step drops, we’re play action, we’re deep posts, we’re crossers, we’re checking, we’re doing a lot of things I’ve never done before. So it was very difficult to come in in the summer and try to compete to start in six weeks. Now I feel like after I’ve been here for a year, I’m able to understand the offense now and know it really well.”
I know we're not running an air raid offense, but I honestly don't know what the Hell you'd call the type of offense we run anyhow. To try and simplify it, I would guess our offense would be similar to what he did at Tech (either under Kingsbury or Wells) than he did at Michigan, so hopefully that translates to him feeling more comfortable.
This post isn't sharing anything new, really, but I was just curious about everyone's thoughts about Bowman taking the reins both from his health standpoint as well as overall confidence in running the offense.
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