What's the Most Creative Play of the Harbaugh Era?
There isn't going to be a ton of analysis in this post, but my goal is to find the 4 most creative plays from each season and we can hash out which one is the best. So you have been warned: this is going to be a fairly lengthy (but hopefully fun!) post that is designed to pump you up for football.
I'm not going to seed any of these plays, as I don't want to commit myself into doing a bracket and I also don't know how to efficiently conduct a poll on a blog, so videos will just be listed. As a side note, I'm coming in with the hypothesis that my personal favorite play will come from '15 or '16, as Jedd Fisch really seemed to be a mastermind in play design during those seasons, but I'm more than happy to admit I'm wrong if the tape proves otherwise.
Let's begin!
2015:
Fake Jet/Play action/TE Screen vs. Maryland:
Double pump-fake swing to TE vs. BYU:
Fake jet/reverse to FB wheel vs. Rutgers:
Poor Rutgers
Fake Peppers... option maybe? to end around vs. Minnesota
2016:
Original Train vs. Wisconsin:
The play itself is not very creative but I think I speak for everyone when I say it's a worthy addition.
Fake McDoom jet/play action/fake RB screen to McDoom swing vs. Illinois:
Fake Peppers sweep to flea flicker vs. Maryland:
Occurred during Speight's Michigan magnum opus (this game's 1st half)
Fake jet/option to FB trap vs. Rutgers:
This might not be as deserving as others, but allow me to justify. First, during the 2016 season shane morris being on the field was typically a tell that michigan would run the ball outside (either with morris or via a pitch), so having morris in to bait the defense into thinking this would happen was almost a half-season long con. Second, I vividly remember Brian complaining about putting this play on tape while up 57-0 because it's so delectable.
2017:
Rollout with pre-snap motion to TE screen vs. Minnesota:
Trips RB wheel vs. Rutgers:
Fake pitch/swing to TE vs. OSU (starts at 0:26):
$%@#!!!!
Ihavenoideawhattocallthisbutitworkedbeautifully vs. Purdue:
2018:
Fake RPO to handoff vs. Nebraska:
First big Patterson read option vs. Wisconsin:
While not insanely creative itself, it was a season-long con that they pulled out in a big moment. Also got drawn up by Seth because of the TE assist that's baked into these plays and their familiarity to Kaepernick's read options with the 49ers.
Fake jet/play action to WR crossing route vs. SMU:
End around to pass vs. Maryland (starts at 6:22):
So since I've gotten this far I'll violate my own code of 'nobody online cares what you think' and input my personal favorites (feel free to skip):
2015: It's between the double fake to TE and the FB wheel, but I'm going FB wheel because of how rare that is in football games. The other dynamics of that play were beautiful, and the double fake to TE has been repeated in variants during other games and seasons, making it a touch less unique.
2016: No-doubter: the McDoom swing vs. Illinois because that season saw McDoom used almost exclusively as a jet recipient or jet fake, but after that part of the play was over he was typically irrelevant. This play makes the defense pay for making the same assumption.
2017: Fake rollout TE screen, with the Evans play vs. Purdue a close second. Loved this one because it has pre-snap motion that has 1 player change direction multiple times (a rarity) and seems like a play that was inspired from their earlier matchup with Purdue and Brohm.
2018: The SMU play because of the multiple fakes and the fact that the coaches made sure the best athlete on their team would get the ball in space.
Overall favorites:
1. 2016 McDoom swing vs. Illinois (hypothesis correct imo)
2. 2015 FB wheel
3. 2018 SMU fake jet/PA to DPJ cross
4. 2015 Double pump-fake swing to TE
5. 2017 ??? vs. Purdue
Let me know your other personal favorites, I mostly recalled these from UFRs that highlighted them. And for your information, my family was out of town today and I had nothing else to do.
wow - an impressive amount of thought and effort. Thanks for the work Piston Blue. My personal favorite was always the double screen fake/pass to TE - which I think they also ran against Florida in the bowl game to a similar positive effect.
Yes they did. Pulled out the BYU version both because it was the first time I could recall it was used and might also have been the most effective
To be fair, creativity isn't *always* a good thing. Like being creative and sending gunners on a game-ending punt when the other team is going all out to block a kick...
Also (not so much in the Harbaugh years but in previous regimes), only playing 10 guys at a time when the rules allow for 11.
.... sigh
To be fair, if he catches the snap, it isn't an issue.
Correction: if he catches the snap, it *probably* isn't an issue. Things could still have gone haywire even if the catch was good, which is why being in proper formation from the outset always helps.
No use crying about the past, but at least learn from it.
I actually liked the play when we were flagged for something like, "intent to deceive."
That’s what I was thinking too. Can’t remember what game it was. I recall thinking that deceiving the other team is the objective of calling plays. I still don’t get it.
Intent to deceive was against Rutgers in 2015.
13:31 of this clip:
Explanation of why it was ruled illegal (basically Jake Butt arguably pretended to leave the field as part of a substitution):
My personal favorite was #4, the BYU play, especially because it was sold so well with the pre-snap formation adjustment.
The BYU play has been one of my favorites for awhile now so I'll stick with that one. In the Peppers option one, did the RB screw that up? Because the pitch was pretty awkward. Also the Chris Evans one against Purdue doesnt seem like it should work, there isn't much of a fake on the play as no one runs any routes, but somehow he goes untouched.
What a stark contrast in the 'creativity' of the plays in 2018. Theres a zone read in the top 4...in 2018. Theres also just a straight handoff.
A common theme in the 2015 and 2016 plays is a lot of presnap motion and checks to changing formations which confuses the LBs and secondary. You'll notice that in those 8 plays ,they break the huddle early and are lined up by 15 seconds on the play clock, giving them enough time to motion around and stuff. Two of the plays in 2018 are snapped with 4 seconds on the play clock.
They played much faster under Fisch. I remember that.
August 4th, 2019 at 10:57 PM ^
It seems like the BYU is the board favorite so far, so you're definitely not in the minority haha. On the Evans play I wondered that a bit too, but you have to keep in mind that it at least appears to look like a generic toss play, so the safeties and linebackers are assuming that Evans will break to the outside at some point, which is at least what gets one of the safeties to bite and essentially remove himself from the play. Also, the hole is well blocked and it actually is conceivable that Evans could have picked up a bunch of yards had he cut outside, so that combined with instincts that every football player grew up with is part of the trickery.
Chris Evans vs Purdue I described why it worked here (along with a few other plays): LINK
August 12th, 2019 at 2:28 PM ^
I appreciate the write-up! This link is well worth it.
My favorite is probably that Peppers sweep fake to flea-flicker/double pass, whatever the term is. Clever way to make a defense overplay their hand and get some chunk yardage out of it. Also reminds me of how kick ass Chesson was for us.
Also a fan of that little trips right/HB wheel play against Rutgers in 2017. It's not exactly a trick play, but it's a nice, quick developing play and a clever route combination. Not every play can be a trick play, of course, but most of them can/should be well-designed like that.
Involuntarily clenched my teeth at the 2017 OSU play. Great play design, but hard to tell what's part of the fake and what's O'Korn having an error:404 moment in his brain, leading to a bad pass thrown an hour too late. Woof.
Thanks for putting this together, Piston Blue, very nice.
August 5th, 2019 at 10:53 AM ^
Missing Jedd - not missing Pep ...
Ah yes, the days of yore when we would fuck with teams using our FB, pulling guard, even the damn huddle.
Pep's version of misdirection was "I bet they won't expect THIS run up the gut!"
Actually, wasn't it an actual, real quote of his to the effect of "I like to take one shot per quarter." Like wtf man?
Train would have been more impressive if it shifted into something more imaginative at the line of scrimmage. If the defense had to scramble around to figure out where they had to be it would have meant something.
August 4th, 2019 at 11:35 PM ^
I see most of the creativity from the past 4 years was put to good use securing wins against the conferences best... Rutgers, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota. Really looking forward to this season and seeing what Gattis has to offer against OSU, ND, PSU, and MSU.
Agreed. Is it that Michigan only deploys its "creative" stuff against poor competition? Or does it only work against bad competition? Neither is great.
There are a few reasons to run trick plays: 1) Because you're outmatched; 2) Because you want to put something on film; 3) It's a constraint
Most of (3) doesn't get put on this list because it's relatively nuanced. That said, there are several plays that come to mind vs MSU that didn't make the list.
Here's Michigan running a fake jet to FB trap vs MSU for a big gain in 2015: LINK
Michigan did a bunch of decoy stuff with Peppers in that game, also ran a fake screen with Peppers running the wheel (it was incomplete). Also this.
The FB trap with Morris in was actually first run vs MSU, and it was set up beautifully and should have busted big. But one missed block and it got cut down rather quickly.
Michigan's most creative games in 2017 were Wisconsin and OSU as well. They put out some really nice wrinkles. The Wisconsin wrinkles were probably a little more nuanced than fancy trick play stuff, but well set up based off what was on film. OSU that year was basically dumping everything in the book to give themselves a shot.
Michigan has also been known to put these things into game plans early only for the game to end up a blowout. Many times those were in games that were expected to be close, but remember, despite the OSU game outcome, Michigan has had a lot of blowouts in games that were supposed to be close.
Michigan rarely falls into the (1) category. Trick plays often cause variance. If they don't want variance because they feel they are better, and against better teams that variance goes up (because you are equally matched so teams don't need to bite on the primary thing), than trick plays aren't always great.
So a few things going on: a) yes, you see them a lot against worse competition because it gets things on film and forces opponents to scout/prep for them; b) you see a lot of those on this list because they are more likely to be successful; c) you do see an increase in them when Michigan feels they need to take chances against certain opponents; d) many of the constraints are missed in these sort of things because they are more nuanced and less flashy; e) and also perception bias.
Awesome post. So basically what you are saying is that Pep Hamilton sucked at being creative
August 5th, 2019 at 11:59 AM ^
sucked.
With a capital "S" and a whole lot of "uuuu's"
For me, the "intent to deceive" play against Rutgers in 2015 was the best creative play of the Harbaugh era so far. Great thread, thanks for putting this together.
August 5th, 2019 at 10:45 AM ^
Plays against Maryland, BYU, Rutgers, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maryland, Rutgers, Minnesota, Rutgers, Ohio State (play did not work), Purdue, Nebraska, Wisconsin, SMU, and Maryland.
Seems like Wisconsin is the only good team that we can pull off a creative play against.
August 5th, 2019 at 11:27 AM ^
This is a great post. Did you make the list from memory or do some kind of research?
The odd thing that I figured I was going to find is that most of plays against teams that one might not expect Michigan to need the fancy plays to beat or more importantly the teams you would normally expect Michigan to bring the fancy plays out for are largely missing.
There's a lot of Rutgers on there and other middling Big Ten teams. OSU only shows up once, and not with one of the more creative of the plays, and MSU is totally lacking.
I know it would be different if you did this for MSU. The Michigan game would be highly featured. I suspect the same would be true for OSU.
Recently, Michigan has seemed to want to play it super safe and eek out a win against MSU (and it has "mostly" worked.) And certainly in the last two seasons, the offense against OSU was basically the game tape. One recalls all the Peppers wild cat runs with no wrinkle in 2017. Like. Yeah. I think they know about that.
It's just weird. They get wacky when they don't need to and tighten their sphincters up when creativity is called for. If the rumors are true, that's Pep's MO.
August 5th, 2019 at 11:52 AM ^
1) Most of these came from memory, I specifically remember the 2016 McDoom swing and FB trap because of their multiple mentions in UFRs, podcasts, and game reviews by Brian et. al. The rest are mostly the specific plays that made most of these wins memorable, i.e. Peters coming in against Rutgers in 2017 and leading the offense to 2 non-stagnant possessions.
2) A lot of people are talking about the creativity against lower opponents as well, and while to some extent I'd say that's warranted against MSU (there's a nice jet sweep with McDoom in 2016), I saw a decent amount of creativity in OSU games (2017 in particular is pretty good, many swing passes/over-the-middle/screens to Evans to get him in space), I just didn't want to clip them as frequently because of the pain haha. A note though: much of what makes the above plays successful is not only the element of deception designed to get the defense out of position, it also depends somewhat on the opponent's lack of athleticism to mitigate that. A Maryland linebacker, for instance, probably isn't as athletic nor received as quality of coaching as an Ohio State linebacker so he might have more difficulty diagnosing different aspects of a play and trying to recover once he's fooled.
3) The changing of the offense under Pep to my eye added more shotgun and less pre-snap motion, and was seemingly predicated on every player being able to execute at an NFL level, which just isn't going to happen in college. The logic behind this (I think) was that M has more talent than most other teams, so if they can execute properly they won't need creative plays like these to get by. This can work at times as well, I think the 2017 Evans wheel vs. Rutgers and the 2017 3rd & 13 run with Isaac (a fake bubble screen shotgun handoff that got Mason Cole to block in the open field) come to mind, but since college players obviously aren't as good as NFL players the execution wasn't always as clean.
I recall that about the 2017 OSU game now. They had some great plays that they just couldn't connect on due to poor QB play.
I did not see much creative going on in the 2018 OSU offensive game plan--at least in the part of the game that mattered. I couldn't tell you much about the 4th quarter.
And, of course, it is true that it is easier fool bad, less athletic teams than good one.
August 5th, 2019 at 12:00 PM ^
throwing on first down.
/s
i loved the 'butt jogs out of huddle as if subbing but lines up just inside the field to only be called back because the defense was lazy' play. and JH's response to the ref's call after it as well.
My primary takeaway from this post is that we've been missing a lot of "good shit, Jedd" moments in the past few years.
There was a great fake WR screen where DPJ was wide open vertically in 2018. Shea missed it or DPJ dropped it but they sold the hell out of it and it was really solid design. Believe it was a week or two before OSU as Brian was mildly annoyed in UFR.
Great list! While I'm hardly a Pep apologist I thought he got a little too much shit around here. This is making me reconsider that.
August 6th, 2019 at 12:01 AM ^
Train.
August 6th, 2019 at 10:38 AM ^
Awesome write-up, and a great trip down memory lane.
The McDoom swing and double pump fake to the TE win out for me. Although I'll admit I have a soft spot of the use of FBs in any offense, a wheel route just doesn't scream creative.
Thanks for this. Keep it up.
August 6th, 2019 at 11:18 AM ^
Why are most of the tricks used against bad teams?
How about in the 2015 Rutgers game. Don't remember the exact specifics but we had Jake Butt deceptively line up near the sidelines and threw a nice little bomb to him... only to get called back for "intent to deceive the opponent". First time I've heard that call.
QB forward pass to WR.
August 9th, 2019 at 12:13 AM ^
Have to admit: I felt a bit too much like a skateboarder making up ridiculous names for tricks for comfort haha
August 10th, 2019 at 1:01 PM ^
Haven't seen it yet.
August 12th, 2019 at 3:01 PM ^
Not pictured: Running power on the opening kickoff against Northwestern in 2015.
August 12th, 2019 at 8:48 PM ^
I remember quite a few good plays drawn up against Florida in the 2017 opener
August 14th, 2019 at 6:04 AM ^
The fake double pump vs BYU was s thing of beauty to watch live. That has my vote.
August 14th, 2019 at 7:31 AM ^
Definitely enjoyed the post with a lot of fun highlights that definitely got me excited once again for football to start! And despite the play itself vs Wisco in 2016 not being exceptionally creative you could definitely see the impact the formation had on the defense with the amount of push the pile got toward the endzone after contact, showing that formation got the defense on their heels.
August 14th, 2019 at 9:27 PM ^
Meant to say this before but after looking again this is the best thread/diary in a long time. Kudos.
August 15th, 2019 at 3:22 PM ^
For my money, it was the simple 2 TE crossing routes. It's one thing to expect a college linebacker to pass cover a slot receiver, but it's another thing entirely to expect them to cover the 2 tallest receivers on the team running through their zone in opposite directions. It was a fast play, hardly ever long enough for the defence to collapse the pocket, and both targets were directly in front of the qb. Pretty much an easy, guaranteed first down when we used it. Set defenses on their heels, built the qbs confidence, and set up the run game. I can't think of many other plays that asked so little of the offense, yet achieved so many consistent, positive results.
August 24th, 2019 at 12:51 AM ^
I am noticing that many of these highlights were from the Jedd Fisch years. Good shit, Jedd.
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