aussie punter alert

Previously: Maryland Offense

It’s like we’re in Hell or something.

D.J. Durkin is an excellent defensive coach. Last year, until they ran into Urban Meyer’s historic buzzsaw without any nose tackles, Durkin had Michigan’s run defense playing so well that a non-Rutgers Power Five school offered him a head coaching job. And yet his first defense at Maryland has been horrendous.

Obviously the time continuum has been disrupted, creating a new temporal event sequence resulting in this alternate reality.

English, Doc!

Here, here, let me demonstrate. Let’s say this line represents four yards from the line of scrimmage, and each line break hence is a tenth of a yard per carry, with sacks removed:

---------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

         <----Here’s Michigan in 2016 (4.33 YPC)

         <----Here’s Michigan in 2015 (4.45 YPC)

         <----Here’s Maryland in 2015 (4.55 YPC)

         <----Here’s the FBS average (4.65 YPC)

 

         <----Here’s Michigan’s historically bad 2010 (4.89 YPC)

 

 

 

 

 

         <----Here’s Maryland right now (5.45 YPC)

Somewhere in the transition Maryland skewed down into this tangent, creating an alternate Durkin defense. Alternate to you, me, and people who watched more than the Ohio State game last year, but reality for everyone else.

Recognize this?

It’s the formation we used all last year with a “buck linebacker” who’s not a linebacker hanging off the edge. I know, because there isn’t a free safety in sight. I found it in the Maryland-MSU game! Along with this…

[After the JUMP: we go back to October 22, 2016, and BTN2Go’s awful streams, to find out how to get good at PFF while being literally one spot from dead last in rushing S&P]

AUSSIE PUNTER ALERT [photo via Standard Examiner]

A move that's been rumored for a while is now official, as the football program announced the addition of Australian punter Blake O'Neill, a graduate transfer who played for Weber State in 2014.

"We are looking forward to having a player of Blake's level of maturity, background and skill set -- growing up playing Australian rules football -- in our program," said John Baxter, U-M's special teams coordinator. "Australian players have made a big impact on college football in the kicking game, like last year's Ray Guy Award winner, Tom Hackett from Utah. We are looking forward to the impact that Blake will have on our team and within our conference."

O'Neill finished sixth nationally (Football Championship Subdivision) in punting during the 2014 season at Weber State. He played in all 12 games and averaged 44.1 yards per punt, setting a single-season punting average record for the Wildcats.

O'Neill tallied 62 punts for 2,737 yards with a long of 74 yards. He boomed 18 punts of 50-plus yards and notched 25 boots inside the opposition's 20-yard line. O'Neill ran for a first down on a fake punt and tossed a completion for a first down on another fake.

O'Neill didn't play American football until 2014; prior to that he played Aussie Rules Football. First year or not, he put up some really impressive numbers.

Are you ready for some punting highlights? Because we've got punting highlights. (Also fake punting highlights, which is a very exciting development.)

O'Neill displays all the skills you'd ask for in a punter; he's got the Aussie-style directional/backspin kick down, he booms traditional punts, and he can pull off a fake. Most important of all, he's Australian, so we can only hope he can replicate the Brad Wing experience minus the totally BS celebration penalty.

We don't know the current pecking order at punter since Michigan didn't punt during the spring game, but I don't think O'Neill transferred here to sit on the bench; he's the new favorite to take over the starting job, with Kenny Allen representing his chief competition.