Bowl Prep: One Month v One Week
Have been mulling the implications of the different prep times Michigan has for the playoff and championship games. Obviously, one month versus one week isn't exact--Christmas intervened during Bama prep, and the team came home from LA, briefly, before heading to Houston, so this is quite a truncated week, with (maybe) rest and health being primary considerations.
Still, what implications does the shorter prep time have now for Washington?
My sense is that the coaches are probably happy they're playing the Huskies, having seen teams like them (especially OSU) before. That the shorter time suggests that we're not going to see much deviation from what we've seen all year: We'll run the ball first. Use play action, and our tight ends (more opportunity there than against Bama). Running JJ tactically, but not a lot.
But the offense should have more chance to sparkle through two and a half quarters, and then--with luck--we'll see a classic constrictor action to bleed the victim out.
I think that all of this has set up about as well as it could, including with not incurring more big injuries against Bama.
But what say all of you?
January 6th, 2024 at 1:47 PM ^
This is the perfect time to just do what they did all season. Run the damn ball down their throat. Keep Penix on the sideline. Don't go full 2nd half of Penn St, but run the fn ball. Get the lead and have clock eating drives like the last drive in The Game.
January 6th, 2024 at 2:11 PM ^
awaken the boa!
January 6th, 2024 at 3:21 PM ^
Hopefully the psychopath is ready for the ferret.
January 6th, 2024 at 2:18 PM ^
First downs are the priority. We dont need to run the clock so much as we need to keep that ball moving. Our pace will take care of the rest.
January 6th, 2024 at 2:45 PM ^
Yep. First downs on offense when Michigan has the ball will determine this entire game.
We can't have empty first downs like we did constantly against TCU last year. Get 4-5 yards on first down and stay on schedule.
January 6th, 2024 at 3:03 PM ^
That means Michigan must be willing to throw on 1st too. I think they have a good balance.
January 6th, 2024 at 3:17 PM ^
Sam Webb hosted Borges & Bedford. One thing Borges called out was “50 / 50” run - pass on first down.
Looking forward to the game.
Go Blue!
January 7th, 2024 at 1:42 AM ^
It’s Borges - are you sure he didn’t mean “50 runs for 50 yards”?
January 6th, 2024 at 4:26 PM ^
What was wrong with 2nd Half Penn State? I'd take that in a heart beat if the results are similar. And at least on paper this D is no where near Penn States.
January 6th, 2024 at 10:26 PM ^
We punted like 4 times in a row. It only worked because PSU's offense was so putrid that we knew we could get away with giving the ball back to them so much.
Washington's offense is . . . not that.
January 6th, 2024 at 1:48 PM ^
I think Jim and Minters experience in the NFL with playoffs being week to week prep for an unannounced opponent gives them an edge against most college coaches, but DeBoer coached D-2 playoffs and they played same style, so it’ll be interesting watching their historical experience to guide their prep.
January 6th, 2024 at 3:20 PM ^
^^^^. This. Nothing against DeBoer and the Washington staff. They are a fine team - solid staff - etc.
I’m pretty sure Husky fans are happy with their staff. I’m a dyed in the wool Wolverine - and like our staff, roster, and program.
Go Blue & Team 144.
January 6th, 2024 at 4:12 PM ^
Well, DeBoer has one advantage...he's never lost to a ranked team.
January 6th, 2024 at 1:49 PM ^
I'm assuming the staff used the month to establish the bones of a game plan for both UT and UW.
January 6th, 2024 at 2:24 PM ^
Bingo. A GA was assigned to prep for each sugar bowl team
January 6th, 2024 at 4:12 PM ^
Did they use cell phones?
January 6th, 2024 at 4:39 PM ^
The Vast Network is on it.
January 6th, 2024 at 3:31 PM ^
Minter said as much during media day today
January 6th, 2024 at 2:06 PM ^
Been prepping for a couple years now. Just do it. Execute.
January 6th, 2024 at 2:06 PM ^
I think having a week is good to not let things get rusty. We never play great after a rest, even when it’s just a bye week.
January 6th, 2024 at 2:16 PM ^
The logistics of flying cross country back to AA and then down to Houston alone puts a strain on bodies and internal clocks.
Did Washington fly back to Seattle after the Sugar Bowl and then head to Houston or did they just hop over from New Orleans?
January 6th, 2024 at 2:21 PM ^
I thought I heard they flew. For us, did you see how they were flying? Luxurious. I don’t think the flights will take too much of a toll.
January 7th, 2024 at 12:58 AM ^
I was so happy to see they were on a luxury flight with lie flat seats. Hopefully they are as rested as possible given the 2 long flights in a week.
January 6th, 2024 at 4:07 PM ^
University of Washington started their Winter Quarter on January 3rd, so I assume that the team had to fly back to show up for classes.
(Insert joke about football players actually showing up for classes here.)
January 6th, 2024 at 4:45 PM ^
As a prof at a D1 school, who's had D1 athletes in his classes, I can tell you that an AD assistant will tell the athlete's professors which classes the athlete will miss for road games, and those absences are excused. Also, I generally don't bother with attendance until Week 2 because of drop/add; you can't penalize for an absence when the student hadn't registered for your class yet.
January 6th, 2024 at 2:23 PM ^
i think texas is very similar to mich on both sides of the ball. wash is similar to osu but with a bad D and a better OL. so prep shouldn't be much new for either team. i think we need to blitz penix a bit more than osu but maybe less than bama. let them try to complete 8-10 passes per drive in order to score. i like our chances.
i think mich wins by double digits if we don't beat ourselves; muffed punts, dropped passes and bad throws.
January 6th, 2024 at 4:59 PM ^
If that's what they think, they'll be in for a ride awakening. Our secondary is much better than UT. As are our edge rushers.
January 6th, 2024 at 2:31 PM ^
I think it works in our favor that Washington is not too dissimilar from OSU and thus our base defense is well suited to play them. Elite QB & WRs, not much QB run game, run offense is meh. Thats what we prep all season for, so thats about as good of a draw as I think youll get vs a top 5 SP+ offense in a national title game
January 6th, 2024 at 2:33 PM ^
Defense travels!
January 6th, 2024 at 2:35 PM ^
I'll say this, with a month off the coaches should have already had WA and TX thoroughly scouted.
January 6th, 2024 at 2:41 PM ^
History tells us that one week of prep time is loads better for Michigan. We will be much less sloppy in this game than vs. Alabama. I have no idea what it means for Washington.
If our run game was what it was in 2022, I'd say this is a tailor-made matchup. And since Blake is showing flashes, maybe it is. On defense, we'll be fine -- Washington will get theirs, maybe scoring somewhere around 27, 30, 31, something like that. If we get to 30 on offense, we will probably be fine.
January 6th, 2024 at 2:42 PM ^
If you watched Harbaugh's interview on the tarmac in Houston, he went over the schedule a little bit. He said that this is a normal football week schedule, except that "Saturday" is "Monday."
There is very little time to do much experimenting and new game-planning. You can really only practice what you already have in place.
I would imagine that there was some prep, at least by analysts, for Washington / Texas as potential NC opponents if we beat Alabama. But it's not going to be a whole new game plan.
January 6th, 2024 at 2:48 PM ^
Based on our recent bowl experience, I am thinking the shorter prep time will help us. I also think playing on an artificial surface will help us.
January 6th, 2024 at 2:57 PM ^
+1 for the artificial surface acknowledgement. We run much better on artificial surface. It especially helps the micro-cuts that Blake makes in the phone booth.
January 6th, 2024 at 3:00 PM ^
Blake ran very well on the natural grass at the Rose Bowl but if you liked the way he ran last Monday, you'll love him even more on turf in Houston.
January 6th, 2024 at 3:22 PM ^
I did notice that the footing was better at the Rose Bowl than it was in Phoenix.
January 6th, 2024 at 10:28 PM ^
Phoenix was a nightmare and should have never been allowed to happen at this level.
January 6th, 2024 at 2:58 PM ^
One item never mentioned is that Jack Tuttle was at Indiana the same time Penix was. I imagine that Tuttle knows Penix's tendencies very well. It might not make the same difference just as Saban adding Helow to his staff. Input from Tuttle won't hurt.
The one week interval in between game will allow the Special Teams to sharper up for Michigan. The prep for the Washington offense will be much like playing the '21 & '22 Buckeyes' offense when they had CJ Stroud. Michigan will be ready.
As many have already said, given the much weaker UW defense, Blake, Donovan and Kalel Mullings should each have a good day and gain lots of yards which equals more TOP. Throwing for TD will enable Michigan to build a cushion of a lead so that will be needed. I'd rather see Michigan go up 21-7 in the first half rather than 13-10. Like the 2021 OSU game, Michigan was always up 14-17 points during the second half. If Washington scores, then Michigan MUST answer with their own TD and keep that lead as large as possible.
I'd rather see Michigan play with only 7 days rest instead of 10-14 days. I also trust in Jesse Minter to dial up more confusing defensive looks. This will help to confuse Penix.
January 6th, 2024 at 2:58 PM ^
Whoops. My fingers are too fat. I need to obtain a special dialing wand.
January 6th, 2024 at 3:00 PM ^
I don't know about bowl prep but I am going to be doing some bowel prep for a colonoscopy coming up.
January 6th, 2024 at 3:44 PM ^
Been waiting for that comment. +1 and I hope everything comes out all right.
January 6th, 2024 at 4:20 PM ^
I had my first a couple weeks ago. They say the mixture tastes better cold. It does not.
Whatever you do, do NOT refrigerate the second half overnight. You'll thank me later.
Good luck! I was negative for cancer and polyps, but apparently I've done so much damage to myself over the years I'll have to take miralax daily the rest of my life. Or else they'll gave to start cutting me next time.
January 6th, 2024 at 5:04 PM ^
Potato starch, comrade. Potato starch or green bananas (in smoothies, perhaps). After three years of potato starch in my breakfast smoothy, my insides look like those of a teenager according to my last colonoscopy. (They looked like someone that was 50 for the previous colonoscopy.)
Healthy gut, healthy life.
January 6th, 2024 at 3:07 PM ^
What say I? Same thing I've been saying all season:
Go, Blue!
January 6th, 2024 at 3:14 PM ^
I hope during the month off they were practicing plays for Edwards in the passing game, just for the title game. Plays we maybe didn’t want to use against Alabamas athletic linebackers. Been waiting for Edwards in the passing game all season. But like most have said we just need to stick to what we do, it’d just be nice to see a few plays designed better for Edwards in the passing game
January 6th, 2024 at 10:31 PM ^
I love that we turned around and used Corum in the passing game. That was unexpected by everyone, especially Alabama.
JJ's gonna catch one, just wait.
January 6th, 2024 at 3:43 PM ^
Offensively you could put our plays against Alabama into 3 categories: 1) stuff we run, 2) counters to what we ran all season, 3) stuff to beat Alabama's Rip/Liz pattern match.
Everybody has their own 1) covered. Biggest question is how much of bucket 2) do we have left? Presumably we do have some. The more the better.
Category 3) is what's affected by the short prep time. We need stuff specifically for Washington's D. And time is short. A long plane ride back, another plane ride out, and plenty of media obligations.
It's been tough to analyze our team this season in large part because we knew only 2 regular season games mattered: Penn State & Ohio Soft. Imagine watching a 12-part Netflix series where 10 episodes have nothing but plot & character development and 2 episodes where all the fireworks are fired. So we're all picking over the entrails of those games - and now Bama - to figure out what's going to happen Monday.
One thing though is clear. Those "Georgia" drills the coaches ran were indicative of a program-wide prep for Monday's game. Lots of those plays in bucket 2) would have been great against Ohio Soft. We were literally saving stuff for the CFP semi-final. Its reasonable to assume there is stuff in the garage we were saving for Monday.
January 6th, 2024 at 3:55 PM ^
One week vs three weeks gives Michigan an advantage vs UW.
As the favorite Michigan knows what is wants to do and give UW less time to draw up a surprise game plan.
Also Penix has less time to study our complex defense.
January 6th, 2024 at 4:23 PM ^
Play action??
January 6th, 2024 at 5:34 PM ^
Okay. We did do a little more of it against Alabama. And I think another step up in frequency helps us keep Washington on their toes.