Friday Happy Hour Is Going To Blogtoberfest

by Maize n Brew Dave on Jan 21, 2011 2:24 PM CST in Michigan Football

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MVictors.com wants to know which one you are.

Stuff You Need To Read Right Now

Keep Me in Your Heart - Genuinely Sarcastic reminds me how much I enjoy their writing and how much I wish they'd write more with this heartfelt piece on Rodriguez and the mountain he tried to climb. One of the best pieces on the heartache many of us feel following Rodriguez' dismissal.

Unfortunately, as fate would have it, the best he could fell well short of even the most modest of expectations, and on a personal level, that saddens me most of all, and it produces a sort of repulsion in my gut that I find myself on the same side of the fence as people like Michael Rosenberg, Drew Sharp, Mark Snyder, and so many others who passed judgment not just on the coach, but on the man. The fact that these people are celebrating today brings me angst that is beyond words.

In Rod We Trust – Final Update (Really) - Farewell In Rod We Trust. You guys did great work. Hopefully you'll open up shop under another name. But if not, you'll be missed.

The Tin Age Of Gold - MGoBrian takes a look at the question that's on everybody's mind, how will Borges implement Denard? The easy answer is "who the hell knows" but the hard answer is much more complicated.

Reading this piece I get the impression that Brian is already in the process of writing the offense's obituary before the season begins. That may not have been his intention, but that's the way it comes off. In fairness, Brian paints both Rodriguez and Borges as inflexible coaches who are where they are because they are good at the one thing they coach.

Coaches are old and crotchety and just are who they are. They have a very specific, gradually moving corpus of knowledge and when they deviate from that performance suffers.

The expectation that Borges will stick with what he knows rather than attempt to GERG himself into coaching a system he is ill-equiped to teach is not only reasonable, it's almost a 100% lock to happen. Michigan's pro-style offense is going to be night and day different from what's been run the last three years. And let's be clear about this, I think this is a good thing.

To an extent I agree that next year's offense will not be as prolific in terms of total yardage as the 2010 squad. However, and here's the big caveat, I suspect it will be more effective. What continues to get lost in the discussion of Michigan's offense is just how lousy it was in the first half of games against decent competition. No matter how pretty the final stat sheet looked and how great we looked piling up points in the second half of a game we had no chance of winning, it doesn't change the fact that Rodriguez' offense was useless against any defense with a pulse. And this was WITH a really good offensive line, good receivers, a slew of marginal running backs and the most electric runner in college football at QB. I don't care what the "numbers" say, the spread n' shred didn't work last season when it mattered.

But one of the main reasons it wasn't successful was the same reason we thought it was so awesome early in the year: Denard Robinson. Robinson's yardage, efficiency, and passing all plumetted as the competition improved. He was making bad reads on the zone read, he was launching balls into triple coverage, and as Brian points out he seemingly refused to run when the opportunity was so obvious it was basically humping his leg. But the other main reason for the offense's sputtering was the play calling. Robinson wasn't put in a position to suceeed by McGee and Rodriguez. In many respects Robinson's running plays were as obvious as the half-back waggle we all despised. The only difference was the half back waggle gained yards against good teams.

The key to this offense depends less on Broges adaptability than it does Denard's. Denard was the key to last season's offense and will be to the 2011 version. If he is able to adapt to Borges scheme then Michigan will be fine. If he's not, well, we're not going to be very good on offense and we're likely looking at Devin Gardner taking over as the starting QB (as he's more of a pro-style QB [height, arm, pocket presence]). To me, this isn't an issue of a drop off from a Rodriguez style offense to a pro-type set. It's an issue of whether Denard can adapt to the system he's responsible for executing.

The spread is dead. You'll pardon me if I don't send flowers.

Why would Denard change positions? - Along these lines our buddy and contributor here at Maize n Brew MagnusThunder tackles this subject over at his home blog Touch the Banner, and gives you his opinion on whether whether or not Denard is really a good fit for Al Borges offense. He reaches an answer that you might not like, but deep down, you know very well he probably right. The question of the 2011 season will be whether Denard Robinson can become a pocket passer or whether this offense is better suited for Devin Gardner.

Michigan Football

The Process - Dear lord this is funny. The WLA take a humourous swipe at the Brady Hoke hiring process. They knock this one out of the park, and it would've been above the fold (sotospeak) if I hadn't gone off on a rant about the offense. Like I've said before, I think that Brandon did a pretty good job in the search process, but this is too funny not to link.

Discussing the Divisions (WTKA audio) - A modern Michigan Classic. Greg at MVictors and Craig at Hoover Street Rag compiled a list (humorous list, people) of the different Michigan factions emerging from the Rich Rodriguez Hire/Fire. Hysterical and well thought out stuff. Here it is in graph form with audio.

The Clans. The Factions. Defined. - And here it is broken down into descriptors.

Expanding on the Clans - And here is is expanded upon by MGoBlog.

Clans Expanded - And here it is with Northwestern thrown in.

Much more after the jump...............

Ex-player, bosses rave about Michigan's Greg Mattison - The tounge bathing an incoming, former NFL Defensive Coordinator with Michigan connections deserves. Former players (pro and college) put new DC Greg mattison on a pedetal and genuflect.

Preview in Review: 2010 Predictions Revisited - For some reason Ace feels like punching himself in the nuts, so he decided to go back and review his 2010 pre-season predictions. Despite his prediction of a 6-6 season, he really wasn't that far off. Re-live the pain, if you're so inclined.

Holdin' The Rope: Thermidor - Comparing the coaching debacle (Rodriguez hire/fire and Hoke's eventual hire) to the french revolution. I'll co-sign this portion though:

I don't want to talk about whether I think Brady Hoke is a good coach or not, or whether I think he can provide us the success that we all know. He might be. He might not be. Projection is useless.

Michigan Hockey

10 Things to Know About Alaska - Michigan hockey has a big weekend at Yost with Alaska Fairbanks coming to town. The 'Nooks split with Notre Dame (league leading Notre Dame) last weekend and are a solid middle of the pack CCHA squad. As such, they're fighting for a NCAA tournament berth, and beating Michigan at Yost would go a long way towards a climb up the Pairwise standings. The Blog That Yost Built breaks it down with a gusto.

Having a Seat Over There: Travis Lynch - Red Berenson secured the commitment of forward Travis Lynch of the USHL Green Bay Gamblers. Lynch is a "defensive-forward" who Yost Built projects as a third-liner.

More on Kampfer; JMFJ in his own words and more - Massive hat tip to Jason over at Michg for the links on Steve Kampfer's arrival and subsequent broken nose with the Bruins, as well as two awesome pieces by and on former Michigan great Defenseman Jack Johnson.

Jack Johnson will stick to his roots - Jack Johnson RULES.

Johnson, who left Michigan after his sophomore season and signed with the Kings, has also been keeping his promise to Wolverines coach Red Berenson, taking a few classes at Michigan each summer to complete his degree.

My Story: Jack Johnson - More Johnson awesomeness, this time in his own words.

When I did get to Michigan I was determined to simply enjoy every minute of college. I wanted to win four national championships when I first got to Michigan, that was the goal and those were the expectations. I think the reason I left school, I think hockey-wise, athletically it was the right decision but emotionally it was really hard to leave.

Michigan Hockey: Wolverines Sweep Dogs, Nanooks Sled Into Yost Next - Nice wrap up of last week's sweep of a decent Ferris State team with an eye toward Friday and Saturday's matchup with Alaska.

Michigan Football Recruiting

Big Recruiting Weekend on Deck - 5 big prospects coming to town this weekend. According to BHB, we've got 11 commits and 9 spots to fill in roughly 11 days. Keep your fingers crossed folks.

Welcome to: Recruitin' California - Brice Brings us up to date on Michigan's California targets and what Hoke's hire might near in their pursuit.

The Potential of Michigan's 2012 Defensive Recruiting Class - UMGoBlog.COM looks ahead to the potential of Michigan's 2012 defensive recruiting class.

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Comments

Spread is dead

Dave, one contention that I have always had with the argument that the 2010 offense was a paper tiger is that everyone seems to view the offense in a vacuum.

First, I will agree that the play calling wasn’t always the most inspired, and we saw a lot of three and outs that seemed underwhelming because of a recurring Vinny Smith ZR left, Robinson QB Draw right, Rollout Pass and INC to Roundtree pattern that seemed to crop up a lot.

However, I think when you call the offense inefficient you have to include the fact that the offense was often playing with one hand behind it’s back. The defense constantly put the offense at a disadvantage. TD drives for the other team routinely pinned the offense back around it’s own 20 yard line. When you add in the inability of the special teams to convert long drives that come up short into FG’s you have the perfect storm of circumstances that is going to make a prolific offense look ineffective.

There are always counterpoints to this:

1. The defense posted stops in the beginning of the MSU, Iowa, Wisconsin, and OSU games, and the offense was unable to capitalize by putting points on the board. Some of these mistakes were bad turnovers (Robinson’s INT against MSU, fumble against OSU) and some of them were just bad 3-and-outs. However, while our bad defense caused a couple lucky stops, the other teams in each of those cases—with significantly better defenses—were able to make stops. You can wag your finger at the offense, but that holds them to the unfair standard of “the defense got a stop so you HAVE to do something with it”, which is how most of us—myself included—saw things this year due to the total inadequacy of the defense. Expecting an offense to come out on fire all the time is a little unfair, especially an offense that relies on picking apart defensive weaknesses and overreactions.

2. Also, you can say that the offense couldn’t get anything going until the second and third quarter when the game was already outside of two scores, but again this doesn’t take into account the defense completely folding. In those four top games our defense gave up 17, 14, 17, and 24 points (counting the ST gaffe) in the second quarter. Say we have a regular defense that holds all those scores to 7 or 10 points, like you should expect out of any average defense. All of the sudden the third quarter scoring runs don’t look like garbage time crap because the games are closer. Also, from watching those games, I don’t recall any of those four teams putting in the second team defense or going into soft prevent defenses in the 3rd. In fact we gave two of those teams (Iowa, Wisconsin) runs in the second half but couldn’t do anything with it because the defense took the quarter off. As for the MSU game, our soph QB just threw two terrible INTs when we were trying to mount a comeback. Not what we want to see, but understandable for a guy who is playing against his first solid defense that is specifically geared to stop him. If he doesn’t yakety sax those two second half throws against MSU (much less the first INT), we are probably having a much different conversation this week.

3. The one place where the offense suffered the most was at RB. Injuries (Smith’s long recovery, Fitz’s and Shaw’s case of the Minors), and other problems (Hopkins fumbling “problem”, whatever kept Cox on the bench) meant that the team never once found the kind of consistent production at RB that would open up the offense. I realize the old saying about if’s and but’s, however, I’m still going there: if this offense was able to plug in a dynamic playmaker at RB—maybe someone we had lined up—it is reasonable to see the offense become even less predictable and more productive.

4. I can haz FGs? Apparently not. This isn’t the offenses fault.

In the end I see the statistical evidence for the 2010 offense being underwhelming, but I think this is a case of statistics not presenting the whole picture. The offense wasn’t able to score like we wanted when we expected (after defensive stops), and wasn’t able to score until later in the game when things looked out of hand (because the defense quit getting stops). But if you pair this offense with even an average defense and special teams—and whether you believe RR could have done that is another argument entirely, that I have no interest in rehashing—then the results on the field are going to look much different.

Those of us who loved the spread when it was here will be disappointed next year and beyond. Don’t get me wrong, I like winning, but hell, I saw something in the spread offense that I don’t think we will ever see at Michigan again: a truly dynamic offense capable of beating teams on it’s own—which, unfortunately was how we had to win all of the games this year. I was willing to wait for the defense and special teams to catch up to continue to watch that offense. I wouldn’t wait long mind you, but another year wouldn’t have hurt in my eyes.

Go Blue!

http://www.maizenbrew.com/

by Zach Travis on Jan 21, 2011 3:11 PM CST reply actions

MGo is too harsh

After watching him all year, if Denard wanted to move to RB, he’d be a stud, which is why I don’t understand Brian’s concerns at MGo about the offense loosing production. Yes, we’ll have to wait and see if Denard can improve his passing mechanics enough to be potent in a pro-style offense as a passer. But, he’s such a good runner that we can stick a top notch blocking fullback/TE in the backfield, and whenever there are designed runs that would’ve gone to the RB, Denard just keeps it. Maybe Touissant will be useful for something.

For every complex problem, there is an answer that is simple, easy to understand, and wrong.

by MosherJordan on Jan 21, 2011 3:39 PM CST reply actions

Robinson needs to be switched to RB

He wont be a QB in the NFL, it’s best he learn another position. With his speed and athleticism, He could be like Chris Johnson, But also have a Ronnie Brown ability to throw.

by nugz85 on Jan 22, 2011 1:57 AM CST reply actions

One thing a lot of you might not know...

When Hoke went to SDSU and brought in Borges as his OC, he had to switch SDSU out of the spread option offense. This is not something new for Borges. As for those who laugh about Borges converting Denard into a pocket passer, you need to factor in some important points:

The first is that Denard will have more value in the draft if he can make the conversion to a Pro Style offense, so he will be motivated to make the switch.

Al Borges developed Cade McNown and Jason Campbell. Both of those quarterbacks performed well enough in college to be a first round selection in the NFL draft. So Borges has a track record of being an exceptional QB coach.

Denard Robinson managed to pass for 1500 yards as well as run for over that. He can throw a very nice pass when he is using proper technique and patience. Those ARE things that can be learned. So writing him off as a pocket passer is premature.

For those who think he is too small to play a pro style offense, he is about the same size as Drew Brees. I think Brees has done pretty well, so that is not really a valid argument.

I am not going to count out Denard and I think it is MUCH too premature to try.

by TuffLynx on Jan 22, 2011 6:44 AM CST reply actions

I am not disagreeing with any of your fine points, but… I think Gardner is going to emerge in the near future. I think if they are both competing for a more tradition style for the QB position, Gardner has the better skill set. I hate waiting!

by Pinchy The Lobster on Jan 23, 2011 10:42 PM CST up reply actions