What's on your Al Borges "Best Of/Worst Of" list?
Now that his tenure at Michigan is officially over, I've been reminiscing over the last three years. There have been highs and lows, but certainly some extreme lows. Personally, the 4th and 1 call from the Michigan State 9 yard line in 2011 still sticks out to me as particularly terrible, though the two point conversion in the BWW Bowl is a close second, while 2013 Ohio State was a high point. I kept waiting for the offense to stagnate but they put together a great game. What do you think are the most infuriating or best playcalls Borges made during his three seasons as OC?
January 9th, 2014 at 4:56 PM ^
January 9th, 2014 at 5:00 PM ^
Best: 2011 against a hapless Minnesota, debut of the several crazy formations (Fritz?). UTL I had just happened, Brady Hoke was still shiny and new, and the sky seemed to be the limit for our offense with Denard.
Worst: 2011 Iowa. Losing at State was disappointing a few weeks prior, but there were mitigating circumstances. Iowa was soul crushing to me and shattered the "we're back" illusion for me completely. IIRC the BIG championship was on the line still too, even with the 1 loss up to that point. We did absolutely nothing all day and showed no signs that we could. If that wasn't bad enough, we flipped a switch and whipped down the field like it was nothing, only to have our hopes dashed by back to back questionable calls. Not only did we suck, we showed late in the game that sucking was a conscious decision by the guy calling the plays and we didn't have to (and ok, Iowa's porous "prevent" defense also helped us at the end)
January 9th, 2014 at 6:58 PM ^
was pure borges to a T. let's have denard be "mr pocket passer" for the first half and do absolutely nothing. then in the 2nd half, let's let denard be denard. and boom. we have drive after drive only to have borges decided to go back to pocket passing for 4 downs on first and goal to end the game (bad ref calls aside).
northwestern 2011 was the same thing, except denard pulled that one out.
January 9th, 2014 at 5:00 PM ^
Some really good moments. Like Brian I don't really think UTL 2011 was so much Borges, though it was a classic. But anyway:
2011 Nebraska
2011 OSU
2012 Northwestern
2013 Notre Dame
2013 OSU
Unfortunately the list of failures is at least twice as long.
January 9th, 2014 at 5:11 PM ^
That two point conversion play in the Copper Bowl was great. Just a month too late.
January 9th, 2014 at 5:17 PM ^
With the most important game of the year on the line, Borges choked on his playcall for the 2 point conversion.
forget that he showed them the formation, OSU called timeout and he came back with the same formation.
forget that his call required a QB with a broken foot to quickly plant hard on the broken foot and make a quick throw. that the throw was late was no surprise.
But I almost vomited when we ran the Gallon end around option pass against K State. Do I remember Gallon as a running QB in HS? What an awesome play? Borges would still have a job if he called the Gallon option and won the OSU game.
forget that this is the guy who made Denard Robinson into an ordinary QB
I have always felt a 14 year old with decent Madden skills would have done a better job.
January 9th, 2014 at 5:24 PM ^
While the bad moments outway the good ones for me
Best- 2013 ND Game
Worst- 2nd half of 2012 OSU
January 9th, 2014 at 5:26 PM ^
January 9th, 2014 at 5:33 PM ^
2013
Michigan vs MSU- 168 yards of offense
Michigan vs Iowa- 158 yards of offense
Michigan vs Nebraska- 175 yards of offense
Despite some good moments, this is what I will remember. Three games in one season of under 200 yards of total offense (one against a very good defense, two against not as good defenses). God bless the guy and all the work he put in, but it just wasn't getting results.
January 9th, 2014 at 5:38 PM ^
Most infuriating Borges play calling for me was 2012 at OSU...
Denard goes into the half avergaing 21.5 yards a carry...
2nd half borges decides to take Devin out of the game and play Denard at QB when he can't throw.. Did he not watch any of Denards freshman film?
It was a complete joke and not being able to cross the 50 yard line is a joke that only a dumbass like him could accomplish
January 9th, 2014 at 5:50 PM ^
January 9th, 2014 at 6:14 PM ^
January 9th, 2014 at 6:31 PM ^
January 9th, 2014 at 6:44 PM ^
It has to be what I believe was the 2-point conversion you speak of in the Chicken Wing Bowl. A lefty QB, speed option right. Damn near got Shane killed and forced me to say out loud, "Al Borges, the man who wants his spread QBs to throw from the pocket and his pocket QBs to run the most demanding of option plays."
January 9th, 2014 at 7:09 PM ^
January 9th, 2014 at 7:31 PM ^
January 9th, 2014 at 8:16 PM ^
January 9th, 2014 at 7:36 PM ^
January 9th, 2014 at 8:27 PM ^
best: clearly the 1969 osu game. what an upset!
worst: when he went 3-8 in 2008. wow what a bad year.
best: beating stanford in the first rose bowl by a lot.
worst: losing on charles white's phantom TD. we got ripped off.
hold on, what is this thread about?
January 9th, 2014 at 8:53 PM ^
...his dreads.
January 10th, 2014 at 4:28 AM ^
Who are you to be using foul langauge and calling people names. The people who were too lazy and complacent to speak up are the ones who should be ashamed. The ignorant ones who defended such poor performance should be quiet. The weaklings who suppressed those who care about the University of Michigan and have a committment to higher standards, those weaklings are the traitors to a long and honored tradition.
The question of who was right or wrong in this debate was clearly settled by the decsion of Dave Brandon and Brady Hoke. Those who had the courage to speak up, whether they lost silly points or not, now stand justified.
January 10th, 2014 at 10:17 AM ^
is that you could literally ruin someone's day but saying his name. What a weapon.