Inspired by a comment in this morning's diary, I have decided to supplement today’s analysis of the Michigan offense through the last decade of so with some snapshots of the Michigan rushing offense in comparison to the conference average.

The one thing which will undoubtedly strike virtually everyone on this board is something that has been termed rather succinctly “The Denard  Effect”, and indeed it is apparently in what would be, by conference standards, an abnormal and abrupt increase in Michigan’s productivity on the ground. Granted, it has decreased this season because of the offense shifting to a West Coast style,  offensive line play, Denard’s injury and other factors, but it can be seen here that our ground game has been statistically very good in the conference.

Another thing that is rather interesting to me is the fact that we gave  many carries to RBs (and later QBs) most years, but until recently, we have more or less piggybacked the conference average for yards per carry. We were doing more to get the same result essentially, and this is also reflected somewhat when you look at net yards – fairly average until the “Denarding”, if you will.

Someone also brought this up in my earlier diary, but the averages do smooth out quite a bit of individual variation among teams. Indeed, in passing as well as rushing, there are teams with far more interesting stories when it comes to upswings and downswings in productivity than Michigan actually. 

 

 

Michigan Rushing - Total Carries - 2001-2012 (to date):

 

Michigan Rushing - Net Rushing Yards - 2001-2012 (to date):

 

Michigan Rushing - Average YPC - 2001-2012 (to date):

 

Michigan Rushing - Rushing TDs - 2001-2012 (to date):

 

Michigan Rushing - Avg. Yards Per Game - 2001-2012 (to date):