gemon green should apologize to the gypsy
Substitution Notes: Smith most of the way, Jenkins was in for about half, Graham got his usual quarter-ish, and Rayshaun Benny got more play than usual, with Grant and Goode getting some run late. End was a rotation led by Morris. Harrell got in first and as much as Okie but the balance shifted towards Upshaw later, with 2 drives for D.Moore and McGregor. Linebacker was Colson and Barrett until garbage time. At CB, Turner went the whole way, and Sainristil most of it moving outside for a few snaps as Gemon Green gave more time to him and Johnson after the TD drive. Moore and Paige held down safety, spelled for a drive each by Moten, who adding another third of his ~20 snaps at nickel when Sainristil moved out.
Formation Notes: ESPN/ABC missed the start of a lot of plays while doing replays or following players/coaches around, which is a common old issue that I had forgotten about so remind me to write a kind letter to Fox thanking them for not missing plays. MSU had a bunch of funky alignments that I mostly shoehorned into old boxes. This half-bone/half-Fritz got called "Pistol WF" since the TEs are linked up like a wing and a fullback, though both at fullback depth.
Often a TE would then motion across the formation to an offset fullback position (Pistol WF-Cross) like so:
...which usually indicated a lead zone to that side. The other fullback weirdness was a thing in my NCAA playbook as "F stack" so that's what I called it:
They also sometimes lined up the RB in front of the QB, which is a thing that "Yes we are passing but we can't pass protect either" teams do. I called it Empty RB since it's not really shotgun once the back is no longer in a spot to get a handoff.
[After THE JUMP: Another short show]
Formation Notes: Michigan responded to Washington bone look with this front I called 4-2 Eagle.
John Donovan likes his tight WRs and TEs off the line where they can crack. I think that opens you up to safety blitzes and the like, but what do I know—I have never coordinated anything. This play was a double safety blitz that delivered Hill to the RB at the handoff.
I don’t know what to call this, which came out on passing downs:
We went with “5-1 split” but that’s Ross between the nose in the frontside A-gap and Hutchinson in a 7-technique on the weakside.
OForm/Fronts. I gave up on the numbering for techs because it wasn’t enough detail for coaches and too much for the laymen so we’re back to “Even”/”Odd” stuff. But I’m adding personnel numbering to the offensive formations so I can track O-Pack. The first number is how many RBs and the second is how many TEs, and you subtract from 5 to get the # of WRs. So 22 personnel is 2RB, 2TE, 1WR, and 11 personnel is 1RB, 1TE, 3WR, etc. If not mentioned it’s standard: 11 for Shotgun, 12 for Ace, 21 for I-form. “Wk” or “St” refers to where the slot receiver is in 3-wide sets. “F” means the lone TE is off the line. “[ ]-Flex” means that box positions is split out wide, or if they all are I’ll just say “5-w.”
Substitution Notes: The starting line was Morris (WOLB), Hinton, Smith, Hutch. Still plenty of rotation on the line: Morris plays both T and OLB, Smith is the N or a T, Jenkins is the next T in, then Welschof, then Speight. Jeter the first one out. Whittley came in as a nose a few times and wears #3. Rod Moore was the dimeback and non-Dax Hill nickel, and got meaningful snaps. Junior Colson rotated possessions with Nikhai Hill-Green. Michigan debuted a pass-rushing front of Hutchinson, Morris, Upshaw, and Ojabo that I called “Racecar.”
On with the show.
[After THE JUMP: What did I say about John Donovan?]
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