Monday, August 4, 2008 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 15 FOOTBALL BREAKDOWN 4 Threet leads in quarterback race The quarterback job is red- shirt freshman Steven Threet's job to lose. The Georgia Tech transfer is more of a pro-style quarterback than Pat White, who ran Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez's offense the last three years to great success at West Vir- ginia. Threet has a powerful arm and could open up Rodriguez's offense the way Shaun King did under Rodriguez at Tulane in the ldte 1990s. Threet doesn't have anywhere near the running abil- ity of White, but if he can be accu- rate on his deep throws, he will give defenses another element to watch that White doesn't. Redshirt sophomore Nick Sheridan was in the running with Threet coming out of spring prac- tice, but he offers very little that Threetdoesn't. Both are similar in skill-set, but Threet is bigger and has a better arm. Sheridan, the son of former Michigan assistant Bill Sheridan, may have a slightly higher football IQ, but Threet is a heady player, too. After battling injuries, Sheridan had no schol- arship offers coming out of high school and, barring Threet strug- gling to pick up the offense, prob- ably doesn't have the pure ability to win the job. Freshman Justin Feagin is the wild card. Feagin is the dual- threat quarterback who fits the latest incarnation of Rodriguez's evolving spread offense. But can he pick up the scheme in less than a month? Junior running back Carlos Brown, who played some quarterback in high school, may have had a chance to be the dual- threat quarterback. But an injury kept him out for most of spring practice, so he doesn't have a leg up on Feagin as far aslearningthe offense. At this point, it may make more sense for Brown to focus on running back, leaving the dual- threat possibility to Feagin. If neither wins the starting job, either could still play quarterback as part of a package the Wolver- ines use a few times per game. Redshirt sophomore David Cone doesn't have the arm strength of Threet, the football savvy of Sheridan or the athleti- cism of Feagin or Brown. He's chasing the pack. - DAN FELDMAN Fifth-year senior Morgan Trent has developed into one of the nation's best cornerbacks after moving from wide receiver. Trent and Warren lead secondary Fifth-year senior Morgan Trent and sophomore Donavon Warren comprise the Big Ten's second-best cornerback combination, trailing just Malcolm Jenkins and Donald Washington at Ohio State. Trent has quietly become one of the nation's premier cornerbacks. He's very speedy and has devel- oped excellent coverage skills after moving from wide receiver. Warren played very fundamen- tally sound as a true freshman last year. He showed immense talent playing a finesse game but could have some problems with more physical receivers. Junior Stevie Brown will likely be the starting free safety. He has enough ability, but he must prove his football IQ is high enough to be a successful starter. Senior Brandon Harrison is a bit small for a strong safety, but he can hit with the best of them.Fifth-year senior Charles Stewart is tied with Harrison on the depth chart, but Harrison's knockout blows should earn him the job. Freshman Boubacar Cissoko, fifth-year senior Doug Dutch and possibly Stewart are battling for the nickel and dime back spots. How ready is the undersized Cisso- kothis year? Dutch has more expe- rience, but hasn't done much on the field for the Wolverines. Stewart has bounced around the secondary, looking solid at times, but never good enough to secure a spot. All three have definite weaknesses, but they aren't too glaring consid- ering the best of the three will be Michigan's third cornerback. - DANFELDMAN For more on Michigan's quarterbacks and defensive backs and break- downs of the other position groups, see www.michigandaily.com. Check back during throughout the week for updates from the Wolverines'fallpractices. HARRIS From Page 14 racing, but who knows what will happen? It's like when you haven't been on a golf course in a long time, and you just go out there and, wham, in the first couple holes you're playing better than you ever have before." So Harris was more than happy to take a break from his training to make the trip to a small meet in Toronto. His parents, Albert and Darlene, had just come back from watchingAdam's older brother, A.J., play in a Canadian Football League game for the Edmonton Eskimos. They went back to Michigan for just long enough to pick Adam upbefore what's amazing about the guy. I returning to Canada. really had two or three times when During Harris's warm-up there'd be kind of a dead period stretch an hour before the race, when something was supposed to the meet was canceled because of happen that didn't happen, and I'd a severe thunderstorm. It was the say, 'I just don't know if I can see last chance Harris had to run com- this happening.' But he just kept petitively before the Olympics. going." Harris could have gotten dis- couraged. For that matter, the daily THE CHAMPAGNE FLOWS? grind of intense workouts to pre- pare himself for a goal that, accord- LaPlante just couldn't pass up ing to LaPlante, had "less than a the opportunity to at least offer a 50 percent chance" of happening glass of the bubbly to Harris after could have gotten to him. But did word came from Guyana that his he ever worry about not competing citizenship had been accepted. On in the Olympics? July 23, about a week after Harris's "You. could probably see it in disappointment in Toronto, his my face, but you never saw it in , spot on the Guyanan national team him," LaPlante said. "I mean, that's became official. Harris kindly declined the invi- tation to celebrate. "He acted like he knew it was going to happen the whole time," LaPlante said. "I think in his mind, he deserved to go. He ran the mark, which is what he wanted to do. He wanted to run for Guyana." Harris understands the oppor- tunity in front of him - not just the unique experience that competing in the Olympics can give to an ath- lete, but also what his time in Beijing will meanfor his future in track. Few collegiate athletes get the chance to compete internation- ally before graduation, so running against the best talent in the world will be a great help if Harris choos- es to pursue a career in sprinting once his days at Michigan are over. Not only that, but the colors Harris chose to represent will have a pro- found impact on the types of events he'll be able to book in the future. "Years from now, when he gets in these track meets, the meet promoters'- usually, the top eight guys in the world are American - they don't want eight Americans," LaPlante said. "They want a runner from Jamaica and Finland and so on and so forth." But for now, Harris is solely focused on his time in Beijing. "I actually have no idea what to expect, because I haven't raced in so long," Harris said. "I'm just look- ing to go over there, run mybest and hopefully get a (personal record)."