I agree with all of those takes and I'll add a few of my own:
+ It seems Michigan will have a legit 2 deep at every OL position this season which is quite exciting.
+ Freshman WRs impressed. Besides Darius Clemson physically looking the part, Amorion Walker seemed formidably tall & long. He'll benefit from college S&C as an early enrollee. Finally, redshirt freshman Cristian Dixon played and made a catch.
+ CB play seems much improved across the board. DBs staying in phase and turning their heads in time to bat down passes is a positive development.
+ Freshman TE Colston Loveland had a nice catch (on the pass from Erick All). There are some whispers that Loveland can have a significant impact like Georgia TE Brock Bowers did but he'll have to contend with upperclassmen (Erick All, Luke Schoonmaker) at his position group.
+ Alex Orji struggled with passing accuracy but I think we can use him selectively in some diamond formation plays.
It's strange. OP typed out the entire post but couldn't be bothered to spell out names which would've needed just a few more seconds per each abbreviation.
Was this the OP's attempt at being cryptic? If so, why?
Kirby Smart is a heckuva coach. I don't understand why fans think he's not elite. He's absolutely a smart Xs and Os coach. Those who think he's purely the product of excellent recruiting are fooling themselves.
But the coach many Michigan fans overlooked was Todd Monken - UGA's OC since 2020.
At halftime, a friend texted me that UGA doesn't look like a spread team (the way Oklahoma or Ohio State does) but felt spread-ish.
I texted back that his instinct was right. About a decade ago, Monken was OC for Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State. Monken effectively married UGA's brawn with modern passing/sequencing concepts. He has quietly elevated UGA's offense to a new level despite not having a Justin Fields-esque talent at QB. (More on this later.)
For instance, did you notice the number of times UGA was able to generate around 7ish yards on 1st down with quick passing? That was by scheme.
Or how Monken schemed favorable match-ups (i.e. James Cook on freshman LB Junior Colson x2) for huge soul crushing gains?
Monken understands the spread offense. Tonight, he put a clown suit on our defense by outscheming young Mike MacDonald. (This will be a bitter learning experience for the coaching staff.)
Stetson Bennett is in that zone between a game manager and game-breaking QB that discombobulates fantasy-minded fans who think any QB not putting up ridiculous video game numbers is automatically trash. No, Bennett won't pass for 4500+ yards and 40+ TDs in a season (which are Heisman numbers) but he will pass for around 3100 yards and 30ish TDs (despite starting in only 12 games). And with that dominant defense, those numbers are more than enough against 98% of teams. But Bama is the 99th percentile. And so far, Bennett is 0-2 against Bama with both games ending as 41-24 Bama victories.
Edited to add:
But Bennett most certainly isn't as good as the Michigan defense made him look today.
- Vincent Gray suddenly stopping was a mistake. He was in phase and could've easily knocked the ball down if he hadn't stopped. That's 57 passing yards and a passing TD.
- James Cook had catches of 53 yards and 39 yards (TD) against freshman Junior Colson who simply wasn't ready to cover a back 1 on 1. (UGA clearly scouted us well and noticed that our LBs are bad in coverage.)
Those 3 plays add up to 149 yards which is 48% of Bennett's 313 passing yards and 66% of his TD total.
Btw, remember when UGA had a 3rd and 14 and a simple screen pass went for 18 yards plus a 1st down because of poor tackling?
Yeah...
Our coaches were outcoached/outgameplanned but a number of plays were just about poor execution.
LSU's transformation on offense in one off-season is borderline miraculous considering what LSU was known for before Joe Brady was hired: game-managers at QB, underutilized athletic WRs, and downhill power rushing.
I'm hopeful Josh Gattis can lead a similar transformation for Michigan.
I'm old enough to remember when clemsoning was a thing. To anyone that has forgotten, I recommend watching the 2013 game in Death Valley between #5 FSU and #3 Clemson. Think 62-39 was bad? A Brett Venables coached defense was embarrassed by redshirt freshman Jameis Winston. FSU won 52-14. Clemson added a garbage time TD with 13 seconds remaining.
Swinney won 1 ACC Championship in his first 6 seasons (not including interim year in 2008). Clemson's current 5 year dominance is recent and started in 2015. Before Swinney, Clemson was last formidable in the 80s under Danny Ford.
FYI: Swinney also started 0-5 versus Steve Spurrier's South Carolina.
Recent Comments
This is a very disappointing finish to an otherwise great season.
0 National…
This is BRUTAL.
0 National Championships to show for our 7 Frozen Fours in about 20-ish seasons.
I agree with all of those takes and I'll add a few of my own:
+ It seems Michigan will have a legit 2 deep at every OL position this season which is quite exciting.
+ Freshman WRs impressed. Besides Darius Clemson physically looking the part, Amorion Walker seemed formidably tall & long. He'll benefit from college S&C as an early enrollee. Finally, redshirt freshman Cristian Dixon played and made a catch.
+ CB play seems much improved across the board. DBs staying in phase and turning their heads in time to bat down passes is a positive development.
+ Freshman TE Colston Loveland had a nice catch (on the pass from Erick All). There are some whispers that Loveland can have a significant impact like Georgia TE Brock Bowers did but he'll have to contend with upperclassmen (Erick All, Luke Schoonmaker) at his position group.
+ Alex Orji struggled with passing accuracy but I think we can use him selectively in some diamond formation plays.
"Everything coming up Millhouse!"
It's strange. OP typed out the entire post but couldn't be bothered to spell out names which would've needed just a few more seconds per each abbreviation.
Was this the OP's attempt at being cryptic? If so, why?
Kirby Smart is a heckuva coach. I don't understand why fans think he's not elite. He's absolutely a smart Xs and Os coach. Those who think he's purely the product of excellent recruiting are fooling themselves.
But the coach many Michigan fans overlooked was Todd Monken - UGA's OC since 2020.
At halftime, a friend texted me that UGA doesn't look like a spread team (the way Oklahoma or Ohio State does) but felt spread-ish.
I texted back that his instinct was right. About a decade ago, Monken was OC for Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State. Monken effectively married UGA's brawn with modern passing/sequencing concepts. He has quietly elevated UGA's offense to a new level despite not having a Justin Fields-esque talent at QB. (More on this later.)
For instance, did you notice the number of times UGA was able to generate around 7ish yards on 1st down with quick passing? That was by scheme.
Or how Monken schemed favorable match-ups (i.e. James Cook on freshman LB Junior Colson x2) for huge soul crushing gains?
Monken understands the spread offense. Tonight, he put a clown suit on our defense by outscheming young Mike MacDonald. (This will be a bitter learning experience for the coaching staff.)
Stetson Bennett is in that zone between a game manager and game-breaking QB that discombobulates fantasy-minded fans who think any QB not putting up ridiculous video game numbers is automatically trash. No, Bennett won't pass for 4500+ yards and 40+ TDs in a season (which are Heisman numbers) but he will pass for around 3100 yards and 30ish TDs (despite starting in only 12 games). And with that dominant defense, those numbers are more than enough against 98% of teams. But Bama is the 99th percentile. And so far, Bennett is 0-2 against Bama with both games ending as 41-24 Bama victories.
Edited to add:
But Bennett most certainly isn't as good as the Michigan defense made him look today.
- Vincent Gray suddenly stopping was a mistake. He was in phase and could've easily knocked the ball down if he hadn't stopped. That's 57 passing yards and a passing TD.
- James Cook had catches of 53 yards and 39 yards (TD) against freshman Junior Colson who simply wasn't ready to cover a back 1 on 1. (UGA clearly scouted us well and noticed that our LBs are bad in coverage.)
Those 3 plays add up to 149 yards which is 48% of Bennett's 313 passing yards and 66% of his TD total.
Btw, remember when UGA had a 3rd and 14 and a simple screen pass went for 18 yards plus a 1st down because of poor tackling?
Yeah...
Our coaches were outcoached/outgameplanned but a number of plays were just about poor execution.
LSU's transformation…
Agree.
LSU's transformation on offense in one off-season is borderline miraculous considering what LSU was known for before Joe Brady was hired: game-managers at QB, underutilized athletic WRs, and downhill power rushing.
I'm hopeful Josh Gattis can lead a similar transformation for Michigan.
I'm old enough to remember when clemsoning was a thing. To anyone that has forgotten, I recommend watching the 2013 game in Death Valley between #5 FSU and #3 Clemson. Think 62-39 was bad? A Brett Venables coached defense was embarrassed by redshirt freshman Jameis Winston. FSU won 52-14. Clemson added a garbage time TD with 13 seconds remaining.
Swinney won 1 ACC Championship in his first 6 seasons (not including interim year in 2008). Clemson's current 5 year dominance is recent and started in 2015. Before Swinney, Clemson was last formidable in the 80s under Danny Ford.
FYI: Swinney also started 0-5 versus Steve Spurrier's South Carolina.
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