Football Strategy Discussion: Play it coy or open the kimono?
During the OSU depantsing of Nebraska the announcers made comments about how hard it is to prepare for OSU because they put so much on film and in college you only get so much time to prepare.
The general belief about Michigan is they keep stuff in the bag early in the season to have something new to reveal against tougher opponents.
So what say you? Better to show it all and force the other team to try to prepare or keep some of it hidden in an effort to surprise a key opponent later in the season?
My vote would be to show it all and force the other team to prepare. The primary reason for this is it provides a chance to "practice" against lesser opposition so you have some experience and film to learn from prior to running it for the first time in a big game situation which can not fully be replicated in practice.
September 30th, 2019 at 6:19 PM ^
Just let loose. Whatever the fuck strategy we've employed for the last 20 years hasn't resulted in anything but torture
September 30th, 2019 at 6:26 PM ^
Coaches don’t hold back plays for the sake of unleashing them against better teams, and if they do they shouldn’t coach. Coaches implement the best game plan they can to contribute to a win. If anything, Michigan should be putting more on film to make it harder for opposing defenses. I don’t buy the idea of teams saving the playbook. Call plays that will win the game, period.
September 30th, 2019 at 6:36 PM ^
There is a progression to this offense anyway. Michigan need's to continue with the pocket movement enough to divide the field and lesson Shea's reads when the pressure is tight. Other than that, just continue to develop the RPOs and space offense. If they are successful doing that the run game will steadily improve.
September 30th, 2019 at 6:42 PM ^
Presumably, if we are hiding anything, we would be hiding it for OSU. What’s our record again against OSU in the last 15 games? So, let’s try the other method.
The notion that we sucked in a particular game bc we were strategically hiding good plays is one of the dumbest things that people keep repeating on this board. The other is that Vegas tries to set even money lines. That’s not how sports books work.
September 30th, 2019 at 6:43 PM ^
Weirdly, split the difference.
In 2006, OSU had a ton of stuff on film and they still came out with five wide against Michigan which they had not run all year and executed it to perfection.
September 30th, 2019 at 6:52 PM ^
I think the "save film for OSU" is a myth.
We needed Army to miss a FG to beat them, and we were down 35-0 to Wisconsin. I find it really hard to believe we were deliberately keeping our cards tucked away in those games
September 30th, 2019 at 6:54 PM ^
It's important that what's under the kimono be aesthetically pleasing, lest you embarass yourself. Wait, who am I kidding?!? Show it all! I'm too old to care about embarassing myself...
September 30th, 2019 at 7:07 PM ^
I've always thought that "hide stuff and deploy it for the big game" stuff is cockamamie nonsense. Run your offense and try to score as many points as you can. If you hang half a hundred on 'em, just play the 2nd strings and 3rd strings so they get in game reps.
Running your offense at 75% so you got stuff to hide has the side negative of nobody getting real game reps doing your cool shit, and it also means you play more unnecessarily close games where your backups didn't get reps. Boo on that crap.
September 30th, 2019 at 9:11 PM ^
More likely to get starters hurt too, if you play too many unnecessarily close games.
September 30th, 2019 at 7:15 PM ^
Open Kimono! ...with a strap-on and my pubes in cornrows ...
If that don't confuse, I give up.
September 30th, 2019 at 7:18 PM ^
Is "open the kimono" an expression? I have heard "open it up," but have never read or heard that expression. Honestly curious, not trying to be an ass.
September 30th, 2019 at 7:18 PM ^
The general belief should not be that Michigan keeps stuff in the bag. If we do, we never open it, let alone take something out of it.
I wish this would go away. We don't keep jack in the bag.
September 30th, 2019 at 7:21 PM ^
We should have saved the train formation for osu
September 30th, 2019 at 7:35 PM ^
Kind of depends... if it’s a clever wrinkle, I’d probably keep it under wraps. If it’s something very different, I’d run it because it probably needs to be practiced anyways.
September 30th, 2019 at 8:45 PM ^
OSU plays on a different level than most schools in college football. Michigan chooses not to play on the level that OSU chooses to play.
September 30th, 2019 at 8:50 PM ^
But we don't "save" plays. This idea is something that folks have hitched their hopeful wagons to for years.
Open the kimono...but leave the sexy high heels on.....
September 30th, 2019 at 11:31 PM ^
No high heels with kimonos. Just those flat, sandals.
September 30th, 2019 at 8:59 PM ^
If you got it, flaunt it. Unfortunately we don't got it right now
September 30th, 2019 at 9:34 PM ^
Nobody on here knows what the coaches are doing.
September 30th, 2019 at 9:56 PM ^
The idea of “saving” stuff is probably not realistic anyway. If OSU gets 4-5 plays that we haven’t seen I’d bet that those evolved in the previous couple weeks practice and aren’t some project x that’s been hidden since fall camp.
September 30th, 2019 at 10:18 PM ^
When you're significantly more athletic than your opponent, it doesn't really matter what you put out there.
September 30th, 2019 at 10:36 PM ^
Foreplay is always important, though it can take many different forms.
October 1st, 2019 at 12:22 AM ^
Most of saving stuff for later is BS. Usually this said when we have a vanilla game plan against a team we should blow out but some how the score was closer. Then I always here, we are saving our good stuff for later, when we play OSU. This offense needs to practice Gattis' system and they need to be experts at it by the time we play OSU.
October 1st, 2019 at 1:03 AM ^
I'm the growing type. I don't show much.
October 1st, 2019 at 6:18 AM ^
That’s the general belief of Michigan? No shit? I never knew that...
October 1st, 2019 at 7:38 AM ^
If you wanna let them anticipate some wrinkles, good. Under my robe, I got wrinkles. But if you don't show much all season, you ain't got much. And you certainly aren't going to have a lotta practice with your wrinkles. Plus they will assume they can kill you and their confidence will be high. Plus you didn't have any fun killing others with it. Which if you're a killer you wanna kill.
Ergo: play. With yourself. With everybody. Just do it.
October 1st, 2019 at 7:55 AM ^
I think it's hard to extrapolate what has happened in the past to this year offensively since we have a new coordinator. That will also handcuff us a bit because the kids need to learn the offense and Gattis is limited to call what the kids understand. As they get more reps and a better understanding he can open up the play book more. But, so far we don't really know what his philosophy is in this regard.
October 1st, 2019 at 8:44 AM ^
get really good at executing plays.....
October 1st, 2019 at 9:41 AM ^
I agree- let it all out. If you are confident in your offense, then it's like telling them- try and stop us. Guess what we're doing.
On the other hand, when you only put the vanilla out there early, they already know your base, and then can figure what you might run out of that.
On the third hand- Maryland- opened up their playbook early and looked like world beaters. Now, their offense is stagnant. So, there's that.
It all comes down to confidence and in-game adjustments by the coaches.
Personally, seeing the ball go downfield to the now FOUR top caliber WR's is what needs to be done. Bell, Black, Collins and DPJ- who can cover all four?