WTKA Roundtable 8/11/2017: Did You Not Hear About the Shark?

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wilton speight
wtka roundtable
jim mcelwain is definitely not mad

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Things discussed:

  • Is Michigan getting overrated? Weakness of the national picture makes 9th-ish okay. 15th seems about right. Hope is one of those Ohio State-like years when they’re super young and super talented and the next generation of NFL talent breaks out.
  • The spread comes back to Michigan. Patriots offense: spread out and work one-on-one and then Blount them. M’s personnel really fit more wide stuff.
  • Reviewing Speight’s 2016.
  • The returner battle is ON: Nate Johnson is good, Oliver Martin is forcing his way in, McDoom still exists. Nobody will be Peppers. How did Michigan block all those punts?
  • Offensive line: Bredeson, Kugler’s being a senior. Onwenu is all about endurance; can Ruiz give him a breather?
  • Is this a 9-3 team or a 9-3 team?
  • Ed doesn’t know about Jim McElwain and the shark.

You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream on Audioboom.

Segment two is here. Segment three is here.

THE USUAL LINKS

Comments

dragonchild

August 14th, 2017 at 12:41 PM ^

He's an old guy who has no idea how the Internet works.  If I was in his position I would've turned it into a CompSci research project -- can you kill a meme through viral saturation?  Just have the folks there spam every thread, forum, feed and article with mentions of it until the Internet gets sick of it.  I mean, it's not like the opposite ever works. . . just ask Barbara Streisand.

Joined: 10/13/2011

MGoPoints: 61315

ST3

August 14th, 2017 at 12:54 PM ^

Rush Offense

  G Att. Yards Avg. TD Avg./G
Ohio State 13 583 3188 5.5 33 245.2
Michigan 13 574 2768 4.8 41 212.9
Wisconsin 14 658 2843 4.3 31 203.1
Maryland 13 533 2594 4.9 26 199.5
Minnesota 13 558 2387 4.3 34 183.6
Michigan State 12 471 2072 4.4 14 172.7
Penn State 14 540 2406 4.5 34 171.9
Iowa 13 502 2234 4.5 23 171.8
Nebraska 13 523 2199 4.2 24 169.2
Northwestern 13 501 1991 4.0 22 153.2
Indiana 13 534 1979 3.7 18 152.2
Rutgers 12 489 1739 3.6 8 144.9
Illinois 12 353 1686 4.8 14 140.5
Purdue 12 361 1154 3.2 12 96.2

How is 3rd in rushing yards, 3rd in Avg. per carry and 2nd in yards per game average? The line was average in the nation, but they were clearly above average in the Big Ten. There are 14 teams in the Big Ten, not 5. (I know the median and the mean aren't the same thing, but OSU wasn't that good that they skewed things that much.)

http://www.bigten.org/library/stats/fb-confldrs.html

P.S. Noted arm-punter Trace McSorley was first in passing efficiency by a wide margin:

Pass Efficiency

  G Comp.-Att.-Int. Pct. Yards TD Long Rating
Trace McSorley, Penn State 14 224-387-8 57.9 3614 29 80 156.9
P. Hills, Maryland 11 122-197-4 61.9 1464 12 66 140.4
Wilton Speight, Michigan 12 204-331-7 61.6 2538 18 56 139.8

His WR bailed him out sometimes, but it's not like he was throwing to Jerry Rice and Randy Moss.

Joined: 09/11/2010

MGoPoints: 52748

jdemille9

August 15th, 2017 at 8:56 AM ^

Sometimes?! McSorely was bailed out an inordinate amount of times (they came down with 75% of the 50/50 balls) and one of those guys is now gone.

I'm not saying McSorely's not good, he is, but that sort of success tends to drop back down to the mean the following year. 

 

As for Michigan's rush offense, yes statistically they were good in the Big Ten, but they were by no stretch an elite rushing offense last year. So yes, average.

 

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