2019 michigan state

Things discussed:

• Craig feels bad for MSU, think they're not dead. The rest: c'mon man: Lewerke when he's off his back foot makes some terrible throws, and that's the best they've got.
• Did you see a single safety at 8 yards this year?
• Ed learns what happens on an RPO
• Shea is making pre-snap reads on the bubble.
• This felt like a Gattis thing. Sam: schematically Michigan is more 2018 Bama than 2018 Michigan.
• Brian: I don't buy it. Run offense didn't make sense at start of the year.
• (This goes on for some time)
• This is it for Michigan State, but the messed up bros at MSU don't have the stick to get rid of Dantonio.
• Urban Meyer's brackets.
• The defensive line: Sam's seeing Kemp since Iowa. No scrambles vs these ends—that wasn't true with Winovich or Gary. Boa constrictor D.
• Next year: McGrone, Dax Hill, replace Hudson with Barrett and LFG.
• Hoops: boards, turnovers, sample sizes.

[Player after THE JUMP]

SPONSOR NOTE: Upon Further Review is sponsored by HomeSure Lending and Matt Demorest. Rates are the lowest they've been in three years so it can't hurt to check whether you can save money on a refinance. Or you could buy a house in Ann Arbor! Good luck with that!

Matt's relocated the bus to Pioneer this year, BTW, and invites everyone to stop by and say hi. There's beer. I mean, obviously. Matt. Matt and beer: a good pairing.

FORMATION NOTES: Michigan had a couple unusual things. Here's a pistol diamond formation:

This covers up the slot WR and somewhat limits your options. Michigan had three snaps out of this, all runs, and got 5, 3, and 1 yard, although I think Michigan execution was the problem on the one-yard run. There were also three wildcat snaps.

These were minor deviances. The larger news is that MSU safeties are no longer your, uh, older brother's Michigan State safeties. At no point did MSU stick both guys at eight yards. Frequently they were outright conservative with their positioning:

Safeties at 13 and 15 yards on second and eight; no coincidence that this play was the easy RPO slant for Collins.

Michigan ran a lot more fullback stuff in this game than the RB/WR/TE charting below suggests because I glossed over some Ben Mason snaps when he was in a wing TE spot. Not that there's a huge difference between Mason and McKeon in terms of what a play might accomplish. But FWIW.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: One snap for McCaffrey; RB was again about equal between Haskins and Charbonnet with Wilson getting a bunch of snaps late. Mason is back at FB/TE full time and got ~20 snaps. TE usage was reduced, with only a few 2 TE snaps. McKeon got the bulk of the work.

Now-standard 4 WR rotation has Sainristil vying to make it 5—he got about 20 snaps himself. Jackson got a few.

Vastardis got 5 snaps replacing Ruiz on one drive. Hayes got a few bonus OL snaps and then the final drive at RT.

[After THE JUMP: speed in space]

SPONSOR NOTE: Upon Further Review is sponsored by HomeSure Lending and Matt Demorest. Rates are the lowest they've been in three years so it can't hurt to check whether you can save money on a refinance. Or you could buy a house in Ann Arbor! Good luck with that!

Matt's relocated the bus to Pioneer this year, BTW, and invites everyone to stop by and say hi. There's beer. I mean, obviously. Matt. Matt and beer: a good pairing.

FORMATION NOTES: About 50/50 3-3-5 and 4-2-5, although the former got almost all of the last third of the game when MSU was in a big hole. Early it was mostly a four-man line. MSU's offense looked almost identical to Michigan's, formation-wise, with almost all gun and a lot of 2TE sets. Notably, Michigan was almost all two-high:

I noted about a dozen one-high snaps, some of which were pretty ambiguous. The rest of the game was either two high or Michigan's occasional three-high look (six snaps), which generally plays out as a two high where you don't know which S is coming forward presnap.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Completely standard, with Paye/Hutchinson/Danna rotating at DE with Danna a bit behind in snaps, Kemp omnipresent, and Uche/Dwumfour replacing each other with Uche getting a slight majority. Vilain, Upshaw, and Jeter got in late; Chris Hinton had scattered snaps earlier. That appears to be your second-string DL.

McGrone/Glasgow/Hudson at LB; Hill/Gray/Thomas rotation at CB, Metellus/Hawkins at S, Dax Hill got a dozen or so jetpack snaps.

The near-total lack of novelty here is good because it means Michigan is healthy and settled.

[After THE JUMP: OL? more like No, L!]