TheWolverine.com - Notebook: Roundtree's emergence, Woolfolk's focus

November 10, 2009

Chris Balas
TheWolverine.com Senior Editor

Michigan redshirt freshman slot receiver Roy Roundtree took plenty of abuse before and during the game from players at Purdue, to whom he was committed before signing with Michigan. He let his play do the talking. Plus, is junior defensive back Troy Woolfolk peeking ahead?

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Michigan plays at Wisconsin this weekend (at last glance, the Wolverines were a near 10-point underdog), a game in which U-M would become bowl eligible with a win. Junior safety Troy Woolfolk, however, violated protocol when he announced his top remaining goal for the season.

"The main thing I would want for our team is No. 1, beat Ohio State, which would result in going to a bowl game," he said - though again, the latter could be accomplished this weekend. "That's the main thing. Wisconsin, we want to beat them too, but we haven't beaten Ohio State in five years. I just think that would be a good accomplishment.

"As bad as the season is going, I think it would be redeemed if we beat Ohio State ? a Bowl game would be a great accomplishment versus last season."

Michigan should probably be 7-3 with momentum heading into the last two games, but blew opportunities against Illinois and Purdue in the last two games.

"It just hurts knowing you had the ability to beat the team, but you kill yourself," said Woolfolk. "Michigan beat Michigan that day. And it hurts to know it shouldn't have gone that way."

But it would hurt more if U-M failed to get the seniors to a bowl game, he and several of the other underclassmen acknowledged. That's on the line the next two weeks, giving the Wolverines plenty to play for.

Roundtree Responds

With sophomore Martavious Odoms on the bench nursing a sore knee, redshirt freshman Roy Roundtree responded against the team he'd committed to before reneging and inking with Michigan on Signing Day 2008. The switch created plenty of controversy, including Purdue coach Joe Tiller's comment about Rodriguez being "a snake oil salesman in a wizard's hat."

"That's recruiting ? but [the story] was national, in USA Today. I was like man, I didn't want to take it this far," said Roundtree. "It happened."

What else happened in the aftermath? Plenty of trash talking (and trash texting), before, during and after this year's game.

"Most of them were directed at me, but I was blocking them out," Roundtree said of the postgame barbs. He got several during the game, too. "I was looking to the sideline trying to read the plays, see what I was supposed to do.

"They were just talking a lot of junk. It's football, so you hear everything, even at home games. Purdue defensive backs were talking smack about how hard they were going to hit me on the next play, or you're gong to drop this pass because you see me coming.

"Tori Williams, No. 2, was my host ? he'd text me, 'be ready for this week, cause I'm coming.' It was letting me know ?"

Roundtree got the better of the sixth-year senior, earning praise from several of the Boilermakers defenders after the game. He got behind Williams and broke his tackle on one 43-yard touchdown.

"That's the one I stiff-armed him and just ran into the end zone," Roundtree said with a smile. "But I don't say nothing when I'm on the field ? I just play football."

The Skinny ?

Neither Roundtree nor freshman quarterback Tate Forcier were much into weights in high school - now both are trying to make up for lost time.

For as much as he was groomed to be a quarterback, Forcier said, his trainers simply took a different approach when it came to conditioning.

"When I was in high school I did a different style of working out, more plyometrics, speed training, boxing, that type of stuff," he said. "In regards to weightlifting, I never did weights. I saw a new light when I came up here."

Forcier made it to 190 pounds before losing "three or four pounds" in fall camp. He's now working to get it back.

Roundtree, meanwhile, might be as slight in the upper body as any receiver to play at Michigan in the last few decades, but that didn't prevent him from laying one of the big hits of the year on a Purdue defensive back. Roundtree caught Brandon King off guard during Brandon Minor's 29-yard, first quarter touchdown run.

"I was just playing football and saw Minor come back across the field. I thought, 'I've got to hit somebody,'" he said. "Brandon King was the one I hit. I got a good shot on him."

Head coach Rich Rodriguez demands physical play no matter how big (or small), said Roundtree. Like Forcier, he's working to get bigger.

"I'm still working to get stronger on the bench, getting to the gym and getting stronger on the squat so I can get faster," he said. "Coming in, every football player on our team would laugh at me. I would squat 135, bench press 145. Overhead squats ? it was a broomstick I had. They laugh about it all the time, but now they see the difference from a year ago."

Everyone will see even more of a different next year, said Forcier.

"We're so young. A lot of people view this team differently when they don't understand ? there are a lot of freshmen out there playing," he said.

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