2023 alabama

UFR GLOSSARY is here. Video note: I went back to Streamable because Youtube's been awful lately.

FORMATION NOTES: Saban got creative in his last coaching appearance. I called this one "Pistol TTBy (X)" for Trips to the Boundary with a covered X-receiver.

Reminder that "RB" means the halfback set up on the same side as the strength and a letter in parentheses means that player is covered. For example I called this "Single-Wing RB (Y)." There's a WR on the far left covering #45.

Michigan's passing downs exotic was that 30-wide front with a stand-up DE in the B-gap that I started calling "Crable" at some point because I'm an aughts guy.

In the 2nd half Bama started using two-back sets and setting up their RT in the backfield (they weren't calling anything this game) to give Milroe more protection. Speaking of respect…

[Patrick Barron]

Out of respect for your time and our photographers' skills I'm going to refrain from inserting too many screenshots of the Rose Bowl being gorgeous. Going from this to soulless NRG with its "Sports go sports! Who knows the words to Journey?" hype man that every person in the building wanted to defenestrate shifted my position from "It would be cool if they played the championship every year in the Rose" to "I am ready to rip up the streets of any host city that's not Pasadena."

[After THE JUMP: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh SEE-YUH!.]

Update: YES I GOT THE TIMEOUTS REVERSED SORRY THE INFO IS GOOD THE SLEEP IS DEPRIVED. EXPLANATION COMING.

Matt Demorest, Realtor and Lender and I have brought back our (sometimes-)weekly video short. The purpose of these is to show you something on film that you as a fan will be able to pick up on when you see it in the future. Or to just show you what people are talking about. This time we broke down the final stop against Alabama, what each team was trying to do and why, and why Michigan had it so well defended (even if Alabama had executed it better). Then we hit the Corum TD because why not.

If you're in the housing market, Matt's the guy.

Repair:

Alabama came out in an unbalanced formation and Michigan saw and called timeout.

When Alabama came out the second time Michigan responded to the extra pass threat by showing a run blitz.

Alabama did not want to run into that so they called timeout. The rest of it is correct. Michigan came out in the same look again, and Bama was in the wrong play for it, but out of timeouts and without a check at the line.

Sorry I got it wrong, I had it right when I was practicing and then I went off and did  another thing.

There is nothing after the jump because it's video content.

Here’s an interesting observation: Ever notice that a lot of the highlights from this year’s Playoffs and conference championships came from under center? Have you noticed the same thing in NFL highlights? Is this real?

Not too long ago Jim Harbaugh was one of a dying breed of offensive minds in football who still ran their offenses primarily from under center or the pistol. A decade later, under-center offenses have made a major comeback in both the pros and the highest levels of college football. It’s not that big of a surprise; defenses figured out how to react to shotgun spreads, and did so. But offenses are still primarily from the shotgun, or various hybrids like the Pistol and Offset. But I think there’s also a sampling bias going on with the big plays, because under-center plays are more likely to produce explosives.

Under-center runs have two things going for them when it comes to producing explosive plays:

1. The ball is hidden at the mesh point, and
2. The running back is able to angle towards more gaps with momentum.

The first point reduces the amount of time the defense has to react to whoever ended up with the ball after the mesh point. The second dramatically shortens the timing of the play’s development. While you’re giving up the gun’s benefit of letting the quarterback see the field, what you’re getting in return is more effective play-action, and runs that have a better chance of breaking big as the RB has access to more gaps that the defense has less time to react to.

Contrast this run from under center

With this one:

Even though they’re attacking the same spot, the way they play out is so different. Everything is compressed in the under-center run, with fewer defenders flowing to the ball because they haven’t had the chance to react. Those with the play in front of them are reacting as quickly as they can, but even that works against them, as one of these dudes overruns Corum.

If under-center/pistol running was manifestly better these teams would not have spent most of this game in the Gun. Keeping your quarterback’s face towards the defense has all kinds of benefits for passing and quarterback running. But there’s something to be said, when you need a big play, for going behind the center.

[After THE JUMP: The good explosions.]