Borges: "That's their approach, and it's unique to college football."
It's a Tuesday afternoon, and many of us are about to head home in order to take the MGoWife out to dinner. Before said venture, it is often nice to hear a positive word. Might I recommend Dr. Borges, starting around 1:05:50
November 8th, 2022 at 4:55 PM ^
We're a boa constrictor, slowly draining the life out of our enemies.
November 8th, 2022 at 5:00 PM ^
We might even say it is evolving to be a reticulated python.
November 8th, 2022 at 6:04 PM ^
I'd say we're more like the Saarlac at the Great Pit of Carkoon, whose prey are digested over 1,000 years.
At first your thinking, "this could be worse" but on the 4th run attempt with goal to go you realize your existence on defense has been pointless
November 8th, 2022 at 4:56 PM ^
Most of the teams in this conference, they don't do what Michigan does. - Al Borges
November 8th, 2022 at 5:18 PM ^
And those that try to don't do it nearly as well. I assume this will be on full display 19 November.
November 8th, 2022 at 6:13 PM ^
And 26 November
November 8th, 2022 at 5:00 PM ^
Honestly, is there any team offensively quite like Michigan right now in college football?
David Shaw's Stanford, maybe?
I imagine that makes the Wolverines a bit of a pain in the ass to prepare for.
November 8th, 2022 at 5:02 PM ^
Georgia runs heavy sets like Michigan with multiple tight ends.
November 8th, 2022 at 5:31 PM ^
That's what I was going to say. I've not watched a lot of other teams but really only Georgia compares from what I've seen.
November 9th, 2022 at 7:12 AM ^
Georgias Michigan but on Dantonios supplement regimen.
November 8th, 2022 at 6:12 PM ^
I hate saying this, but I feel like Georgia is Michigan with better players. They have two absolute stud TEs that play a lot, and they like to run first and often. It feels like Kirby Smart has built an offense similar to Saban's early Alabama days before he joined the rest of college football in the spread/RPO.
November 8th, 2022 at 7:32 PM ^
Georgia has Darnell Washington at TE. He’s 6’-7” and 270. He’s basically an OL who can block AND is athletic and can catch passes.
November 8th, 2022 at 5:20 PM ^
Harbaugh's approach has been a Zig while the overwhelming majority of CFB has zagged. Complex run game, road grating offensive line, it's completely different than the Big XII throw it 60 times a game or the Chip Kelly lightspeed offense that has taken over all of football. It's essentially just another case of trend forecasting, as one area becomes bloated, others will strike out and do the opposite or something different. It's sucked and been painful at times, but the program is so well positioned right now it's great. We're an outsider in much the same way Georgia Tech, Stanford, Wisconsin have been but we have better talent than all of them did at their respective peaks.
To theorize, we're just a few degrees of separation from a service academy. Schematically, Michigan is incredibly rare; you cannot spend all off-season scheming up for just one game. Add in the fact that we can get legit NFL talent, the combo of it is insane. At the end of the day, Harbaugh and his staff knows ball. It was a looooong road to hoe, but thats why our coaches are coaches and the cottage industry of CFB journalists are writers despite how much guys at certain outlets like to think they know ball better. *cough* Richard Johnson, Bud Elliot, Stephen Godfrey *cough*
November 8th, 2022 at 8:53 PM ^
Excellent analysis! We certainly have been doing something schematically different than most, and approaching game planning differently. It may not always be sexy but it's damn effective
Two bones to pick, unrelated to the analysis:
It's road GRADING. We're not using a cheese grater here.
and it's a long ROW to hoe
Road graders smooth out the road. Long row to hoe is gardening/farming metaphor, not a construction one
November 8th, 2022 at 10:14 PM ^
Hoes hoe rows.
November 9th, 2022 at 10:10 AM ^
This may sound flippant, but I do appreciate those call outs. I have always goofed those up haha. Thanks Bluem.
November 8th, 2022 at 5:41 PM ^
Yes it's unique AND it's working.
November 8th, 2022 at 6:01 PM ^
Sure it's great that they are so amazing at running it but we are going to run into someone who can take it away before the end of the season whether it is Ohio State or Georgia. Last year it was Georgia. We need to be better at hitting the receivers and the receivers need to be better at catching it. You can't be one dimensional just like it's going to hurt OSU at some point that they can't run the ball.
November 8th, 2022 at 7:56 PM ^
Michigan is not nearly as one dimensional as the 5***** BPONE folks believe. In fact, this offense is tremendously dynamic and forces a defense to both cover vertically and sideline to sideline. On almost every play there are four options the defense has to defend. In the larger picture, which Jim Harbaugh holds near and dear to his heart, it is exceedingly complimentary. Truthfully-and I do not believe this is a guess, Jim Harbaugh does not want a vertical offensive attack...he does want the opposition to have to be concerned about one-and they do. Folks can ridicule this 'complimentary "stuff" all they wish but it is a very real and very meaningful thing. Look at the yardage, the number of plays, the number of first downs and the time of possession-Michigan is a frickin' clinic. There is nothing more valuable in football than having a fresh defense on the field-think about this reality.
November 8th, 2022 at 10:17 PM ^
I think that if the defense continues to adjust like they have all year If they stay close in the first half they will constrict them in the second half exactly what seems to happen every game
November 8th, 2022 at 6:02 PM ^
I think about this all the time. We’re basically like Army but with top-10 talent. Not in the sense that we run Army’s scheme, but that our offense is very difficult for opponents to replicate in practice.
November 8th, 2022 at 6:38 PM ^
My biggest positive takeaway this season compared to other seasons but maybe not last season is that we play for 60 minutes, and our play gets more intense and targeted in the second 30 minutes. No giving up or losing momentum, just adjusting and attacking.
November 8th, 2022 at 8:47 PM ^
The halftime adjustments have been lights out all year. I feel if we are within 7 points at halftime, against anyone, we win.
November 8th, 2022 at 6:43 PM ^
A bit OT but I certainly wasn’t going to create a new thread for this so this seems like a good enough place for it, but has Michigan ran a flea flicker this year? I feel like we seen nearly one a game last year, but can’t remember a single one this year? Why?
November 8th, 2022 at 6:54 PM ^
Ran one against MSU and Roman Wilson got grabbed and held with absolutely no call. JJ threw it a little shorter as a second option to Bell I believe.
November 8th, 2022 at 9:00 PM ^
What did he say?
November 9th, 2022 at 8:46 PM ^
"Michigan is going to beat the fuck out of Ohio State."
Or at least that's how I heard it.