don brown's rocky long impersonation

[Christopher Cook]

This is our weekly staff roundtable. Readers are always welcome to submit questions.

The Question:

Most encouraging thing you saw this weekend?

The Responses

BiSB: Two related things struck me on the offensive side of the ball. The first was that the running backs looked really good. In particular, Evans, Higdon, and Isaac all showed good vision, which was a continuation of something we saw in the spring game. Other than the sprint draw to Higdon in the 2nd quarter, it didn't seem like they missed any obvious reads. All three did a good job of pressing the hole and looking for a crease. This was the kind of game that would have seen a number of Michigan backs of recent years get regularly buried in the line. On Saturday, the only TFLs were the ones where the line just gave them nothing to work with, which will happen against a defense like Florida's.

Ain’t stoppin. [Cook]

The second thing was how consistently Michigan moved the ball. They only had two three-and-outs in the entire game: the first O'Korn series, and the drive with two minutes left in the game where first downs weren't really the point. Other than those two, every Michigan drive in the game (that didn't end with a pick or a the end of the half) either scored points or gained at least 30 yards. After Michigan took a 9-point lead in the middle of the 3rd quarter, they moved the ball 30 yards and pinned Florida at its own 8. Then they moved the ball 51 yards before a false start and a missed field goal. Then they moved the ball 58 yards into the red zone before they missed another field goal. People talk about the offense's ability to "close out" games, and to me, THAT is what that looks like. With that kind of help from the offense, this defense can turn a nine point lead into a stone cold lock. (edited)

[After THE JUMP things make us happy with Florida caveats]

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The Question:

Gentlemen. We're two weeks in and the true cupcakes have been stomped. What is

1) the biggest pleasant surprise so far?
2) the biggest unpleasant surprise?

First responder gets Speight. Get to it.

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The Responses:

Adam: 1) I had Wilton Speight resigned to the passenger's seat as recently as last month's Draftageddon, in which more rounds passed _between_ the selections of Speight and O'Korn (13) than passed before O'Korn went off the board (12). The ignorance is somewhat forgivable. Speight said yesterday that he basically learned his scout team assignment in 2014 and checked out. He got reamed in B-roll footage of a "Real Sports" piece on Harbaugh's arrival. He tore a groin and barely played in spring 2015. He got into a game against Minnesota later that year, and his performance was good enough to keep the Brown Jug but not good enough to unequivocally be anointed Rudock's successor. Fast forward to last Saturday, where it all ended on that first deep post completion to Chesson. With that one in the books, we'd seen enough throws of varying distances and degrees of difficulty to confidently assess Speight's ability to read the coverage and place the ball precisely where his receivers have a chance to reel it in while the DB does not. As it turns out, said ability is quite good. After 120 minutes as Michigan's starting QB, Speight looks very little like we expected him to, and that's been nothing short of a revelation.

2) Nitpicking is nitpicking, but the left guard platoon has been underwhelming. This was supposed to be a position manned by the more consistent of the two guards; Braden's return from injury against UCF didn't bear that out. He struggled, and though he has Bredeson to spell him it's hard to expect a true freshman OL to do much more than tread water. Braden's likely still recovering from injury, but I'll be nervously gnashing my teeth if the LG revolving door hasn't stopped spinning in two weeks.

[Hit THE JUMP for what we come up with besides “phew, so Quarterback’s alright.”]

[Photo: Upchurch]

Last week we introduced the defensive terminology for Don Brown's base defense and his 4-lineman sub packages. Quick clicky-popup diagrams of the 4-3 and 4-2-5 forms we covered:

This week I'd like to get into the 3-4 and 3-3-5 and 3-2-6 looks, or in Brown's terminology, the "50" formations.

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SO WHAT DOES THE 3-4 LOOK LOOK LIKE?

The BC defense Brown brought over is a base 4-3 and 4-2-5 nickel, and they'll run a relatively small suite of plays from that base on most downs. But a lot of the fancy stuff—truly, most of the playbook—are out of what are usually called "30" and Brown refers to as the "50" fronts*, i.e. formations with three defensive linemen.

Here's the basic version, as taken directly from the 2013 Boston College playbook that James Light posted.

Technically, the "Tackle" (Hurst's position) has been replaced with a "Backer" (B). When you hear about a guy you thought was playing defensive end being called a "linebacker" (e.g. Kemp) it's possible he's playing the Backer position. If a dude's getting mentions as an "OLB" that's also a sign they're using him in that Backer/Sam role, where "Sam" means "Jake Ryan-esque."

That isn't anybody yet—I've been using Winovich as a placeholder—but the ideal here is clearly LaMarr Woodley: a 6'2/260-ish, athletic, stand-up, high-burst, space-tackling, strong-enough-to-stand-up-to-blocks attacker who can play rush end or cover some. That last is notable because it gives the 50 formations a suite of tactics that are generally absent from Brown's 70 formations: zone blitzes.

* [It's 50 and not 30 because look at the pic above and count the guys on the line. Now think back to that ol' Schembechler 5-2 "angle" defense. The more things change…

] 

[After THE JUMP: bandits, canidae, diagrams that look like they're saying "Mike Gedeon" and "Will McCray", and blitzes. Oh lawdy do we got blitzes.]