For today’s video offering, there will be no recruiting podcast (and there was much sighing). I humbly request that you accept a repost of the basics of spread offense video:

Posted under Coaching

RJ:

I was listening to a wtka podcast Phil Steele. He thinks Penn State is going to be good. Why is it that our transition to the spread is looked on as a rough one but Penn State’s transition is going to help them for next year already. What gives?

I admittedly have not finished the Penn State preview yet, but I do think a lot of “experts” are overrating them, if only slightly. In regards to the spread question, I think the transitions by Michigan and Penn State are rather different.

Michigan has a completely new coaching staff, with new terminology and a new base offense. Penn State, on the other hand, has the same coaching staff, and will still use the same base offense, but incorporate spread elements into it. Sadly, Penn State also has an experienced quarterback (Darryl Clark) with a skill set more suited to the spread than any of Michigan’s returning players.

Anonymous commenter:

I think Rich Rodriguez is trying to bring the West Virginia-style jerseys to Michigan. Didn’t he learn anything about Michigan’s tradition with the #1 jersey debacle?

The new jerseys probably have nothing to do with Rich Rodriguez, and I think he has far more important things to care about than what jerseys look like.

The “new jersey” that was leaked is a product of the Adidas deal (and Adidas trying to go for a change from the Nike jerseys) than anything to do with rodriguez. I don’t think it is likely to end up as the final product, and when a final design is decided upon, there will probably be some sort of official unveiling.

Commenter phillip provides:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/football/news/story?id=3459062

and I raise with:
http://www.roanoke.com/sports/college/wb/167203
These two articles definitely provide less chicken little-fodder for the Michigan fanbase. It is clear that Newsome is willing to do what it takes to improve his game, and become a better teammate, football player, and quarterback. As fans of the school to which Kevin is committed, that should be wholly acceptable to you, loyal reader.

The move to Hargrave, at this point, seems to be on account of his wanting to get the best coaching (and competition:

“The kid just came to play against better competition. That’s it. Nothing controversial. He gets to play against [junior-varsity teams from] Marshall, East Carolina and the University of Tennessee.”

) available and to get away from pro-VT pressure close to home. Until further notice, Kevin Newsome should be considered firmly committed to Michigan.

RJ:

do you think the fact that buckeyes class is virtually full will help Michigan..Especially considering the Zach Borens and James Jackson that Michigan didn’t want that bad?

It certainly can’t hurt with top prospects who like both Michigan and Ohio State because OSU simply won’t have enough room to take all of the guys who are interested in committing. That doesn’t necessarily mean those guys will come to Michigan, but there is certainly one less team in the running for a lot of top prospects that Michigan is interested in.

Posted under Coaching, Mail Bag

I’ve heard a lot of rumbling about how all of Michigan’s commitments are skill players, rather than linemen. While this is partially true (Michigan also has had a commitment from Will Campbell since the beginning of time), Michigan’s pickup of Michael Schofield changed this somewhat. Of course, the fans are never satisfied, and a couple defensive ends or safeties could go a long way to assuage their fears.

I figured this change was more a reaction to the new regime coming in and needing to be established, until I found an article with this fairly interesting quote:

While the current 10 verbal commitments to the Mountaineers’ next recruiting class are predominantly skill-position players…

This made me wonder about whether there is an inherent quality of the system, or perhaps even the personality of the coaching staff (while most of West Virginia’s old coaching staff is now in Ann Arbor, some members – including the new headman – remain in Morgantown).

West Virginia fans are apparently suffering from the same restlessness of Michigan fans, in hoping that they will stop picking up skill players and start getting some big fellas. The Mountaineer even have 3 linemen to Michigan’s 2, and this is still not enough.

I did a bit of historical research to see if West Virginia’s early commits were typically skill position players. It appears that this wasn’t always the case. Is there a trend here, or just a coincidence? I certainly couldn’t decide.

Posted under Coaching, Recruiting

According to Vegas, Michigan is among the favorites to take home the BCS title in 2008. This is most curious, as the prominent preseason magazines fail to even include Michigan in their top 25 lists.

The Freep inconveniently doesn’t give the favorites in numerical order, so I have painstakingly arranged the Vegas odds for you. Included are teams with better than 100/1 odds and other relevant teams:

1. USC 3/1
2. Ohio State 6/1
2. Florida 6/1
2. Georgia 6/1
2. Oklahoma 6/1
6. LSU 12/1
7. Missouri 14/1
8. Clemson 22/1
9. WVU 25/1
10. Michigan 30/1
11. Texas 30/1
12. UMiami 35/1
12. UCLA 35/1
14. Alabama 40/1
14. Auburn 40/1
14. VT 40/1
17. Florida State 50/1
17. Illinois 50/1
17. Penn State 50/1
17. Rutgers 50/1
21. Notre Dame 55/1
22. Kansas 65/1
23. Tennessee 75/1
24. Arizona 80/1
25. Cal 80/1
25. Nebraska 80/1
25. Texas Tech 80/1
25. Wiconsin 80/1
Michigan State 100/1
Iowa 100/1
Field 25/1

In an interview that appeared today on WOWK-TV in West Virginia (and will appear again tomorrow), Rich Rod had some interesting things to sya about his departure from West Virginia.

Rodriguez said the thinly veiled criticism by Stewart was just the new head coach following the crowd.

“I don’t think you should say one thing at one point, then two weeks later, just because it’s popular to be anti-Rich Rodriguez, to say another,” Rodriguez said.

The annual Michigan Football Takeover on WTKA was Friday. MVictors has a bit of audio.

Posted under Coaching

While it is not news to anyone who follows the Big Ten that Penn State fans have an… uncomfortable fixation on Michigan, typically this has been restricted to fans. Nittany Lions supporters have a focus on Michigan that seems unwarranted but for the Wolverines’ dominance over PSU in recent years. Now, even those who write in the mainstream media have latched onto the obsession as a crutch for writing their terrible columns (entire relevant section quoted to avoid giving this idiot clickthroughs):

An interesting sidebar to these rankings: How much will they be different if QB Kevin Newsome winds up in a Penn State uniform? He committed to Michigan earlier, but all indications are that Penn State is still recruiting him hard. So much for the gentlemen’s agreement between Big Ten teams about not talking to verbal committments. What years of sportsmanship and living up to one’s word built up, Rich Rodriguez and Michael Shaw tore down.

While I don’t need to point how how dumb the bolded portion of this quote is (nor do I need to point out that Donnie Collins doesn’t know how to spell “gentleman’s” or “commitment”), I will anyway.

Of course, due to a highly-publicized quote from Joe Tiller, suddenly Rich Rodriguez is to blame for Penn State’s recruiting tactics. Umm… what? If he wants to try to hold Penn State up as a bastion of sportsmanship, maybe he shouldn’t do so in reference to an incident where they are doing something he deems to be “unsporting.” If Penn State was as virtuous as Collins intends to imply, they wouldn’t be recruiting Newsome, regardless of what Michigan did last year.

In addition, it’s great to see him trying to slam an 18-year-old kid for picking a school that he liked more than Penn State. If Penn State was worth going to, Shaw would have ended up there. Rich Rodriguez is not some sort of hypnotist. Of course, Shaw wasn’t even the recruit that caused the “controversy” in the first place (that would be Roy Roundtree).

And of course, Collins’s entire argument hinges on the presumption that Rodriguez was the first coach to recruit other schools’ commits, which (actually good) columnist Sam Webb pointed out to be not at all true in an unfortunately-no longer free Detroit News article.

Posted under Coaching, Recruiting

All the questions pertaining to things other than recruiting:

ikgodofsky inquires:

How will the current roster adjust to the spread? Who will be Owen Schmitt? Do we really need all these slots? I want to avoid a USC situation where we have tons of guys taking up roster space when they can’t all play at once.

The current roster is certainly not composed in a way that is suited perfectly for the spread. The O-line was allowed to get fat and slow under Andy Moeller and Mike Gittleson, the quarterback isn’t that mobile, and there is a complete dearth of slot receivers. Michigan will certainly need to count on several incoming freshmen to contribute, or it could be a very rough first year offensively.

Owen Schmitt was considered the heart of the WVU offense (in terms of effort and enthusiasm, the guy who was actually the key to making it run was clearly Pat White). Though fullbacks may not be the rare athletes that wideouts or running backs are, Schmitt was definitely a near-perfect fit for the role in the WVU offense. Whoever plays the role in Michigan’s offense will have huge shoes to fill. It’s almost like asking “who will be Michigan’s next Jake Long at the tackle position?” That question is setting unrealistic expectations for anyone. The players who will contend for fullback in the first year will be Mark Moundros and Vince Helmuth. Both played last year, and Moundros was the player used more often of the duo. He also had a better spring, but Helmuth is the more athletic player of the two.

Michigan’s offense relies on having a bunch of little slot receivers. Considering Rich Rodriguez inherited a team with none of them, it will obviously be a big need in his first two recruiting classes. The roster at Michigan will be composed in a different way than it has been in the past, carrying slightly fewer offensive linemen, but more QBs and receivers. Michigan will have Terrance Robinson and Martavious Odoms (both true freshmen), along with several other guys who may play some slot. It is obviously a recruiting need. These players are also capable of playing multiple positions, so they aren’t just taking up dead roster space.

As far as the USC comparison, I’m not sure that is quite accurate. While the Trojans did have 10 running backs coming into 2007 (which led to some of them transferring), there is a difference between the types of players Michigan has and the types of guys USC had.

USC’s players were all big, classic running backs. There is only one of these guys on the field at a time, or occasionally two. In addition, the running back position is one that traditionally has a true starter that takes most of the snaps, then a couple backups who get the rest of the carries.

Michigan’s offense, on the other hand, will use at least 1 slot receiver on pretty much every play, most often 2 of them, and sometimes three. There is a lot more playing time available to slot receivers than running backs. In addition, the wide receivers on a team rotate more frequently than do feature backs. The final thing to keep in mind is that these guys are pretty much all capable of playing multiple positions (having played WR, RB, or QB in high school). The versatility of the athletes will also allow for there to be much more of them at a time.

So, if there is a fire sale on slot receivers, Rich Rodriguez is snart to be the first in line. The team needs many more of these players than currently populate the roster, and they will play an important role in the Michigan offense of the future.

A lot of people have asked me some variation of this question:

How does USC/OSU/ND/other get away with cheating? Michigan should be rewarded for doing things the right way.

I really disagree with the notion that everyone except Michigan cheats. Sure, there are certain schools (mostly in the SEC) that don’t quite keep everything aboveboard, but to claim that the reason Michigan hasn’t won a championship in 11 years is ridiculous.

I would much prefer that Michigan fans accept the fact that we don’t have quite as much to sell right now as do schools like Ohio State and LSU. Instead of trying to claim they cheat, I would rather they hope that the Wolverines are better in the future to compensate. This makes us look less like Notre Dame fans/head coach (whiny excuse makers), and more like true fans of the game who understand that everyone can’t win every game, and instead just focus on our own team, and wish them the best in the future.

Jared from Chicago asks:

So I hear you’ve had some experience with Big Ten Network in the past. I’m also fairly certain the whole Comcast debacle will make a blip on the Michigan Football/Sports radar for at least a few more months. What’s your take on the campus programming they have lined up recently? Is this just a revenue source to help them break even until Comcast can signed with? Is this a way to try and sell BTN to comcast as not just a sports tier package? Most importantly, is this going to be permanent non-sport coverage? I tell you what, I know I can’t wait for “Purdue Campus Programming: Vet School Diaries – Large Animal Hospital” showing Wednesday (5/21/08).

I am led to believe by various reports that the Comcast deal should be resolved by the time football season rolls around. This is a relief for fans of every Big Ten school (unless, of course, you are a huge fan of the remaining spring sports). This time, it sounds like something is actually going to happen, rather than empty promises from both sides. I think Comcast lost a lot more subscribers over the past year than it would like to admit, many of them simply because they wanted to get the BTN.

The campus programming has been part of the Big Ten Network’s plan from the beginning. Unless something changed over the course of a year, these programs are entirely produced by the universities. BTN’s reasons for presenting this information are many:

• Something to show in the summer when there are little or no sports.
• Outlet for Universities to show off some of their facilities and programs, enticing new students to apply.
• Chance for the universities to show that they are about more than just sports.

The third reason is the one that the Big Ten Network was really pushing immediately prior to its launch, and when President Mark Silverman toured all the universities in the conference to take questions from concerned citizens. I don’t believe the presence of this programming has ulterior motives in terms of profiting without Comcast, or getting the Annoying Corporate Monolith to pick up the station as something other than a Regional Sports Network.

To the best of my knowledge, the Network is still planning to keep this coverage each summer as a permanent fixture of the schedule. Personally, I think it’s a bad idea. The BTN is, first and foremost, a sports network. If this material was really worth watching, it would appear during the sports seasons as well, when there weren’t any games on. BTN needs to understand that its audience is composed of not just Big Ten fans, but primarily sports fans. This type of programming should probably be relegated to late-night programming, since it is essentially just infomercial material.

Posted under Coaching, Mail Bag, Personnel

Many people (mostly in the mainstream media) have recently mentioned that Michigan is abandoning its “3 yards and a cloud of dust” tradition in favor of a “wide-open spread.” I will contend that this is not quite accurate, and it involves a misunderstanding of both concepts.

First, the “three yards and a cloud of dust” ideology. It focuses on the run game, and only passing the football when entirely necessary. While teams in the past that favored this philosophy typically featured heavy sets with many tight ends, and relied on a bruising RB to hit the hole hard and gain yards after contact, that is not the only way to run the football effectively.

Now, the “wide-open spread.” The implication of this phrase is that the ball goes all over the field (hence “wide-open”). While Rodriguez’s spread runs off-tackle, it is easier to get the ball to the perimeter with a quarterback who throws tons of screens, and can stretch the ball downfield. Purdue has a “wide-open” offense Rich Rodriguez has an offense that tries to run the ball 60% of the time (and has actually run for a greater proportion in the past). Michigan didn’t use star receivers often enough when they had Mario Manningham and Steve Breaston, so if anything changes in that department, it seems as though it will be for the better.

So, it is plain to see that a spread offense does not necessarily preclude running the ball often, and with effectiveness. Don’t be surprised when Michigan runs for far more yards this year than they have in the recent past. If the goal of both offenses is to do the majority of damage on the ground, and pass only when necessary (for example, in 3rd-and-long situations, when behind by a large margin, or to prevent the defense from selling out on the run), is it really that different? Michigan tried to keep the ball out of Chad Henne’s hands and in those of Mike Hart as often as possible in their careers. Just because Michigan is going to run more effectively now, I wouldn’t expect them to run for a vastly different percentage of attempts.

Finally is the idea that Michigan’s philosophy has been a static and unchanging entity that is going to be vastly shattered. Bo Schembechler liked to run. Lloyd Carr liked to run. Rich Rodriguez likes to run. Bo himself even had an option game with QBs like Rick Leach before the pro-style got established in Ann Arbor.

So, next time you hear mention of the “wide-open spread” that Michigan will be using next year, think critically. In the context that it was used, is this an accurate statement? And, if change happens, is it necessarily a bad thing?

Posted under Coaching

Hack columnist thinks Michigan will be fine at QB. He goes on to state that Kevin Newsome and Shavodrick Beaver shouldn’t expect to ever throw the ball. Here’s his reasoning:

But there’s something that these guys need to remember, as quarterbacks.

Based on recent history, here’s what these guys can expect when they get to Michigan.

(All numbers are rank in the country in stated category)

Rushing Offense
Year	West Virginia	Michigan
2002	2	59
2003	13	38
2004	7	61
2005	4	44
2006	2	21
2007	3	47
Average	5.17	45

Passing Offense
Year	West Virginia	Michigan
2002	108	44
2003	105	22
2004	104	45
2005	115	61
2006	100	64
2007	114	61
Average	107.7	49.5

This is one of the most common misconceptions about Rich Rodriguez that I see out there: he refuses to throw the ball. He does not take into account that maybe WVU didn’t throw downfield because their QB couldn’t pull it off.

And Pat White is already being projected as a wide receiver.

I’m a firm believer that talent is talent, and if you have the skill set to be a QB in the NFL, you can become a QB in the NFL. If Pat White could throw downfield, he wouldn’t be “already being projected as a wide receiver.” Perhaps it’s a chicken-and-egg argument, but WVU’s lack of downfield passing didn’t make Pat White a non-NFL QB. Pat White’s status as a two-star safety coming out of high school made WVU unable to pass the ball downfield. The same could be said for Rasheed Marshall, who was such a great QB that he couldn’t even make it into the NFL as a wideout. He currently reside in Columbus, playing for the AFL’s Destroyers.

I hope that people who constantly write about Rich Rod’s lack of creativity on offense eventually come to realize that he was limited in his playcalling by the talent he had available to him. Maybe then, we will stop seeing poorly-constructed arguments published.

Posted under Coaching

The Detroit Free Press has the entire Rich Rodriguez deposition in three PDF files:
One
Two
Three

If you don’t feel like reading the whole thing, some highlights can be found at the Times West Virginian. Some highlights:

Rodriguez says board members Steve Farmer, Drew Payne and Perry Petroplus also assured him all outstanding demands Rodriguez had for the football program would be met when Mike Garrison became WVU president.

“And that’s the time when (Garrison) said he didn’t believe in buyouts, and that he would reduce it anyway, once he took office,” Rodriguez testified.

Rodriguez said he considered the $4 million “excessive” and “unfair,” but acquiesced when he learned Kendrick had insisted on the amount. Kendrick had pledged $2.5 million to the WVU Foundation Inc., contingent on Rodriguez remaining coach.

Flaherty told Rodriguez that Kendrick withdrew the pledge after Rodriguez resigned.

Rodriguez said he was called by Arkansas about the Razorbacks’ vacant coaching job after WVU lost to Pitt in the 2007 regular-season finale, but he wasn’t interested. He later mentioned that call to Garrison at a Fiesta Bowl function, saying “we need to sit down and talk about the issues.”

Garrison agreed, “but we never did, other than that Saturday night before I made the decision,” Rodriguez said.

After he got Michigan’s offer Dec. 14, Rodriguez met with Pastilong and Walker. Though he’d been hopeful of an agreement, he said that changed during a private 10 p.m. meeting at Garrison’s house on Dec. 15.

As expected, it certainly sounds like WVU tried to strong-arm him more than he was eager to get the hell out of Morgantown.

Posted under Coaching

The football program at a big-time Division I University is a multi-faceted entity, and it requires many changes to individual aspects in order to radically change the program as a whole. Improvement can be measured in terms of wins, merchandise, exposure, academic achievement, even recruiting rankings, but most accurately by some sort of aggregation of these things. The Michigan football program, while still the nation’s winningest of all time, has room for improvement. To move in a direction of positivity and modernity, I propose the following changes. Some of them apply to the athletic department on the whole.

• Upgrade/update the spring game.
• Create a new website (separate from MGoBlue) about Michigan’s facilities. People (including recruits in every sport) care about the facilities at schools. A virtual tour of every facility for practicing, competing, or studying would be entertaining and enlightening. You have the facilities, so make a well-designed website to brag about them. Model it after the Arkansas version of same.
• Speaking of websites, scrap the new MGoBlue. It looks terrible and is a pain in the ass to maneuver. Cloning the (terrible) layouts of CSTV sites was an awful idea. The new video, audio, and photo items are great, but there had to have been a better way to integrate them into the site.
• Encourage more media exposure. With the Rich Rodriguez regime, this has improved a great deal. Rod has been all over ESPN and the local media, and even Mike Barwis is getting interviewed by Brice Feldman. Still, encourage more of this. The all-access feature on College Football Live was a great start. Being more friendly to the media (local and national) means that the media will be more friendly back to you.
• Encourage walkons. Like media exposure, Rodriguez has already started doing this. Like Bo Pelini’s plan to revive Nebraska football, having homegrown walkons will help the team because they are proud to be Wolverines. Take kids from Michigan and Ohio especially, but also any other student who can make the cut. If kids would rather walk on at Michigan than get a scholarship at Michigan State, it would put a smile on my face.
• At least try for a night game. If it means the old alumni won’t come, well… that may not necessarily be a bad thing.
• Give out free maize shirts to fans during maize out games. A sponsor will undoubtedly cover the entire cost, and the “special event” game will no longer look like crap.
• Like Beilein’s meeting with the Maize Rage to brainstorm ideas, have Rod (along with Bill Martin, Bruce Madej, even Marty Bodnar) meet with students for the same purpose. I am not the only person with these sorts of ideas, let the other ones come out.
• Perhaps most importantly (and, unfortunately, least under our control), continue beating Notre Dame and Michigan State, and start beating Ohio State. On top of bragging rights and prestige, this helps recruiting. Enough said.

This is just a little collection of some ideas that didn’t take me more than five minutes to come up with. If you have any of your own, drop them in the comments.

Posted under Coaching