I’m not too sure what can be drawn from these plays. The sample size is rather low. Obviously Threet is more successful, but he also had more plays as well as the first plays where Miami apparently forgot that in this offense the QB sometimes runs. It could be that Threet has a more convincing fake, but that could be a reach. What do y’all think?

Talking with a friend of mine, they each had maybe 1/2 to 1 full misread, which doesn’t seem terrible. Anyone with more football knowledge feel free to correct me.

Posted under Analysis

Let’s break down a bit of Notre Dame film from last year. Since Charlie Weis is the vaunted offensive genius who led the Irish to the Worst Offense in History, last year, we’ll look at the offensive “effort” against the Cardinal of Stanford.

First of all, I don’t know how John Latina still has a job. His offensive lines have gotten worse every year, even when they returned a lot of talent. Take a look at the regression by Sam Young, and you’ll see what I mean. In case you don’t believe me, here are some examples of the All-Star recruits of the Notre Dame offensive line getting completely owned by Stanford(!), of all teams.

Another item of note is the fact that Jimmy Clausen may just not be quite ready, but either way, there is no way he should have been starting for anyone last year, much less a team that has the QB tradition of Joe Montana and Brady Quinn. He was quite fond in 2007 of taking sacks by “scrambling” for 5-10 yard losses, when he was under little pressure and should have just thrown it away. On the rare occasion that he got good protection, he still managed to miss wide open guys, or threw passes that required superhuman effort for wideouts to catch. Another thing Clausen too often (not pictured) did was not trust his arm, and throw to the checkdown option even when his first read was open (and often widely so).

And of course, there is the lack of speed at the Irish skill positions. Slow running backs aren’t too much of a liability when they can do all the things that Mike Hart could for Michigan. When you’re just mediocre AND you get run down from behind by a Stanford linebacker, that’s a problem. This category of videos is also good for showing why Stanford lost to Notre Dame: the scheme was good, but players didn’t always execute right, and that led to several big plays.

This past weekend, we saw Notre Dame face off against San Diego State, and it appeared that few of their issues from last year have been resolved. Clausen was much improved, but it’s time to find out whether he can be so poised when he is getting killed on every other play.

Posted under Coaching

Not the blog, punks.

If you’re a Michigan student who has any interest in football, I urge you to check out the TV version of Varsity Blue. If you’re interested in joining the crew, show up on the west side of South Quad’s 9th floor today at 6:30.

As a producer emeritus of the show, I recommend checking it out, I loved it in my undergrad days (and it led to my starting this here blog). If you’re interested but can’t make it today or want more information, e-mail the producer, Alex Prasad, at atprasad@umich.edu.

Posted under Recruiting

Mike Gundy is sick and tired of Big Ten coaches telling lies and misleading not only the public, but also unwitting recruits. He’s here to set the record straight. Enjoy:

Posted under Video

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	1
2	Ohio State	1
3	Oklahoma	2
4	Georgia	—
5	Florida	2
6	Texas	—
7	LSU	—
8	Penn State	2
9	Missouri	2
10	Wisconsin	1
11	Auburn	1
12	Alabama	2
13	Oregon	2
14	Oklahoma State	3
15	West Virginia	7
16	South Florida	3
17	California	5
18	Utah	—
19	Kansas	5
20	Texas Tech	6
21	Arizona State	—
22	East Carolina	4
23	Illinois	—
24	Wake Forest	5
25	Miami (Florida)	1

Games Watched: Michigan-Miami U, Ohio-Ohio State, Minnesota-BGSU, Notre Dame-SDSU, Ole Miss-Wake Forest, West Virginia-East Carolina, BYU-Washington, Miami of Florida-Florida, Battle of Directional Floridas, Penn State-Oregon State, portions of Arkansas-ULM.

Again, I’m not married to this order, but I’m actually more comfortable with my preliminary ballot this week than I was last week.

Wake and South Florida both looked bad in wins, hence their dropping (and BYU looked bad enough to drop completely out). For anything else, let me know if something seems to be amiss, and I’ll adjust accordingly.

Posted under BlogPoll

The format of this feature is a work-in-progress. If you have any suggestions, let me know. Also, the video quality is really poor for some reason. It should be better in future weeks.

The Situation
It’s the first quarter, and Michigan’s offense has already looked kinda bad. A Utah pass interference penalty has given the Wolverines the ball inside Utah’s 10 yard line, and a Sam McGuffie rush sets up a second and goal from the 8. A touchdown here could help Michigan set the tone early in this game.

The Personnel and Formation
Michigan comes out in the shotgun with two tailbacks and three wide receivers. Nick Sheridan is flanked by Brandon Minor on his right and Michael Shaw on his left. Greg Mathews is split wide left. Darryl Stonum is split wide right, with Martavious Odoms in the slot to that side.

Utah lines up in a 4-3 defense. To the strong side, the corner is head-up over Martavious Odoms, with the safety deep, but aligned with Stonum. Mathews has a man head-up over him, showing press technique.

The Play

At the snap, Sheridan fakes to Minor, who cross in front of him to the left, and then fakes again (slightly less convincingly) to Shaw, who goes in the opposite direction. After the fakes, Sheridan rolls out to the right. He hits Michael Shaw at the seven yard line, and Shaw races to the corner for a touchdown.
Why it Happened Like it Did

Utah was playing man coverage on this play, keeping one safety in a deep zone, and one linebacker spying Sheridan (Cover-1 Spy). The Utah linebackers bit on the fake to Minor, freezing them long enough for Shaw to beat his man to the outside, and for Sheridan to have enough time to roll out and make the pass. With Odoms and Stonum running crossing routes, Shaw was given a clear path to the endzone.

Now you know what it was like Inside the Play.

Posted under Analysis

Posted under Recruiting

Moved from Committed:

Posted under Recruiting

Sure, they aren’t the Big Ten, but several Big Ten teams play at least one MAC school every year, so it may be interesting to see how the schools from the other conference in the Midwest are doing. There will also be a post-signing day edition of the MAC recruiting rankings.

New Rankings:

I actually think a couple of Central’s commits are underrated by Rivals. Redd, for example, got a pretty good look from Michigan at their summer camp. Same goes for Akuezue. He is rated low now because he is a DE who weighs about 30 pounds soaking wet, but he was virtually unblockable at Michigan’s camp. If he can add weight and maintain his explosiveness, he could be a very good player down the road.

Posted under Recruiting

Some of our unfiltered thoughts from the game:

• Tim and I both agreed that Threet looked much better than Sheridan again. He made better reads, better throws (for the most part), and even looked more authoritative on his runs. With a repertoire of two half games for each, I think Steven Threet should be the starting quarterback. I wasn’t watching the broadcast, so I don’t know why they were rotating; I think it was to give each guy a shot against the same team (again).
• Mark Ortmann came out in the third quarter, but the injury was treated with an icepack on his elbow. It didn’t appear to be too serious, and God help us all if it is.
• The gameplan seemed to be almost the exact same as last week. Even the first play was the exact same (of course, Odoms had much more success on it today than he did against Utah). Are the coaches holding back tricks for later games, and keeping it vanilla (a la DeBord), or is this everything they can do with quarterbacks who can barely throw and run?
• Shaw was running well, then disappeared. Anyone watch the broadcast and hear why that might have been? In Shaw’s stead, McGuffie was the best running back. I’m surprised we didn’t see more of Grady when they ran from the I-form. Minor was, well, Minor. That is neither good nor bad.
• The fans faded during the course of the game. When the team gave them something to be really excited about, they responded. However, the fan momentum wasn’t really maintained, and the third quarter was pretty quiet.
• The half-rolls that Miami was using on offense was pretty effective (once they went to it – nice adjustment by the Miami coaching staff). It prevents a fairly dominant D-line from getting to the quarterback. We’ll see if other teams go to that sort of strategy, and how Shafer reacts.
• This offense hasn’t been making too many big plays (aside from a couple of runs getting blown open and the Odoms screen), but when you watch them play, it is clear that they have big-play potential, and are just a slight improvement in execution away from making something very interesting happen. As the experience across the board improves (especially if Zirbel and Ortmann can get/stay healthy), and more of the playbook is installed, this offense may be adequate down the road.
• The offensive line was again a weak point. We can hope for improvement and the return of Zirbel, and they could be good (enough) by the end of the year.
• Obi Ezeh was again a badass in terms of making tackles, and seemed to defend the pass better this week (albeit against worse competition). He could be a really special player down the line.

Anything to add?

Posted under Analysis