Shuffling the right side of the line

On Monday, August 28, 2006, Coach Carr made the following somewhat surprising announcement at his weekly press conference. He stated that, "Mike Kolodziej's season is over. Early in the camp we had a problem, and so I think in his best interest Mike is not going to play this fall. I would hesitate to say it, but I think I can say it's been ongoing. That's where we are." The reason I say the announcement was somewhat surprising was because Kolodziej himself was quoted a day earlier in the August 27, 2006, edition of the Detroit Free Press as saying, ""They were just checking up, everything's good," he said. "It wasn't much of a situation. I'm good to go." Apparently, Coach Carr and Kolodziej were not on the same page. Unfortunately for Kolodziej, Coach Carr's opinion always carries the day. With Kolodziej out of the picture at Right Tackle the offensive line had to be re-shuffled once again. It appears that the versatile 5th-year/Senior Rueben Riley will slide over to the Right Tackle spot and highly regarded Jr./So. Alex Mitchell will get his first career start when he moves into the starting role at Right Guard. Mitchell appeared in 5 games last year and played on the left side of the line in four of those games. The one game he played on the right side last year was as a reserve at Right Guard in the Indiana game.

The left side of the offensive line has been set since early in Spring Practice and now with the right side set (for now) the line looks like this from left-to-right: LT Jake Long; LG Adam Kraus; C Mark Bihl; RG Alex Mitchell; RT Rueben Riley. Go Blue!