HTTV NOTE: Our kickstarter ends TOMORROW for HTTV. We plan on having at least two live, socially distanced pickup events in August. One at…

Five Shores Brewing up north in Beulah, Michigan. Neck Sharpies/HTTV sponsor Matt Demorest didn't pick the best year to open a brewery, but he did pick the best brewer, and also a location that has lots of outdoor space so you can lawn it this year. If you're in the Traverse area this summer stop in and try it. Watch this space for updates on the pickup events and how those are going to work while keeping the safety of our readers foremost.

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Someone not yet very practiced at the art of explaining things once described to me why Pokemon is so popular. Forgive me if I get any of this wrong but as I understand it you capture a basal creature with some kind of elemental property. Then you train it. After a certain point your creature gains access to more of its baked-in power, and then with more training it reaches a level of maturity where it can use that same basic elemental ability to deal with all situations. To reach its final iteration you have to add some kind of outside element, at which point your Pokemon is a spiky, accoutrement-covered bad-ass.

And I thought that's a lot like how football plays work. You've got your basic play, and as you get better at it you can run it from different looks and adapt it on the fly to whatever the defense is doing to it. #SpeedInSpace is that added item, which one determining the thing's ultimate form.

The offensive gameplan for the Citrus Bowl was really the culmination of a season in which Michigan steadily tweaked and improved their base Pin & Pull running game. One of the ways they did this was to toy with motions, personnel, and formations to create the matchups they desired on the outside. Observe this beauty:

I call it Pin & Pullazord.

There's a LOT going on with this play, too much to unpack with one graphic. I expect you already know how to play Pin & Pull, and its intermediate forms so we can go right to Level 64 and beyond.

[After THE JUMP: add Held Item BenchMasonite]

THE BACKSIDE IS A TRIPLE-OPTION

Score covered Nico so I added him back

Hearkening back to the 2017 Ohio State game when Michigan first unleashed its Pin & Pull stuff, the backside of this play has two quarterback options baked in. One is a zone read of the Jack (Alabama's weakside OLB). The other is a pitch option to Mike Sainristil, who came across on orbit motion, versus the free safety.

HAVE DOWNBLOCK, WILL TRAVEL

Those dudes taken care of, let's return to the actual Pin & Pull. We'll start with the pin, which is a bit unusual. You can't really see those blocks well from that angle so here's another from the all-22 a coach sent me:

As in any P&P the offense will attempt to block down on the non-edge DL and the frontside linebacker. Those are typically advantageous blocks but here they're trusting Mayfield, Ruiz, and Runyan to block guys more or less lined up directly over them. It'll become even more difficult when those DL step playside right before the snap when they see motion.

Fortunately there's room to account for that. Note where Ruiz is snapping it above and where he is when Charbonnet is making his cut for the hole:

That isn't power blocking but stretch zone. Even if those backside pin blocks are in their gaps, it's fine so long as they don't get into the backfield. The key block is Mayfield's because he actually has to set the inside of the intended gap. When you talk about plays that made the NFL take notice of the guy not yet in the NFL, I bet this was one of them. It's one step to head off the DE, arms out to gain control, and then he swings the other leg around and anchors before the DE can push back. McKeon also sealed his guy far inside but the design of the defense allowed for that: the DL's playside shift is made good by the linebackers' taking inside gaps and that's all the hesitation McKeon needed.

Was this the playcall? Probably not. That's why this is an evolution of Pin & Pull: they're so used to running it they can adjust on the fly. Didn't get your downblock? Don't panic—zone block your guy and we'll get to it further outside.

SENIOR GUARDS ARE NICE

I would be remiss if I addressed this play without discussing why this became the base in the first place: Pin & Pull asks the guards to make very good split-second decisions and win those decisions with their size and agility. Emphasizing guard play was a good move for a team with fourth-year seniors Bredeson and Onwenu.

Mike Onwenu's job as the first puller is to set the right side of the run play. That means he has to get out there as quickly as he can, find the defender setting the edge of the defense, and deal with him. Ideally the play calls for Onwenu to kick out that defender, thus setting a gap between himself and Mayfield's "down" block. In this case he got the guy he expected—the SAM—trying to set a hard edge and force everything back inside. But you never know. Defenses like to swap out edge defenders to make this complicated, and even when you get the guy you expected in the spot you expected him, he might set a soft edge instead, diving inside of you and "playing to spill," trusting another defender to sweep around and string the play out to the edge or the next defended gap.

Onwenu has to do more than that, however. Remember this play isn't just a simple Pin and Pull but a Stretch Pin and Pull. The gap Charbonnet has to run through isn't on the hashmark where the SAM began but yards outside of it. The difference is how much Onwenu can move the guy.

Ben Bredeson as the second puller gets to do a different complicated thing. You can see WLB #8 giving chase from behind in the second frame above. That's the guy who would normally be flowing unmolested to the tap. Why is he in the backfield, and more importantly why is he so far behind Charbonnet it's not even worth his best effort to keep up anymore? Well, that's like Bredeson's concern, man.

The second puller's job, broadly defined, is to hit the first defender to appear in the hole. All this pinning and pulling takes time, and that's time every non-Rutger defense will use to get anyone available to the hole. There should be at least one available defender who relates to the running back, and then another defender who relates to the puller. Alabama believes they've got a way to get one of those guys, the WLB, to the ball against Pin & Pull without having to deal with the puller while covering all their gaps in case it's not: have the WLB blitz to where the second puller is vacating.

This is why I said the second puller's job is defined broadly. He's the only one who can catch the WLB, whom Bredeson must have been expecting to come across the formation and need to be dealt with later down the line. Bredeson cuts off his pull and gets enough on this very troublesome athlete to push #8's momentum away from the ball.

I'll save you a scroll if you want to watch these two blocks again.

Mmmmm seniors.

CHOOSE YOUR MATCHUPS

The last piece I want to talk about is what they're doing with BEN MASON. Typically when they've run Pin & Pull in the past they would just have another receiver out in a half-assed pattern to occupy a defender. That's a cheap way to get where you're going, sure, though it leaves the defense a few more options. What they can't undo is a good block.

Remember, a fullback is going to draw attention to where he's going, since that's usually where the ballcarrier is going as well. To make this worthwhile we don't want to just have Mason crash into any old linebacker or even a safety. Let's find him a maximum squishy cornerback perhaps?

That's accomplished by motioning Mike Sainristil across the formation right before the snap. Michigan is familiar with Alabama's base defense and that the reaction to this will be to rotate the safeties and the Rip/Liz call. Now they've got the safeties all moving away from the play they're ultimately going to have to stop.

The rotation also makes the SAM the curl/flat defender so he's not going to be blitzing into the run anymore. The cornerback becomes the overhang and has responsibility for the new #1 receiver to his side, which resolves into Mason. So he can't really scream into this either, else he leaves Mason out there all alone for a pass (come to think of it, they should teach an RB to look for a pop pass off this look next year).

Clearly this isn't the matchup Alabama wants—transfer cornerback Josh Jobe versus Ben Mason. But that's the tradeoff for the design of their defense so their cornerbacks can focus on #1 receivers, safeties and outside linebackers can play the curl/flat zones, and one safety is always the deep guy.

Initially of course the matchup is the SAM versus Mason, and you can see that because the SAM initially sets up for the fullback, after using his outside arm to fend off a false release step from McKeon. All of this creates confusion for that guy so Onwenu can make the play's key block. Now it's just up to Mason to take out the cornerback and all that green space—which might otherwise have been occupied by a receiver and cornerback dancing around downfield.

Why does this matter? Because…

I think my favorite part is as Charbonnet's being tackled, when Josh Jobe finds himself two yards past the numbers, and mistakenly believes Ben Mason's Ride to Hell is over before he gets an Oh-No-You-Don't yank right out of the frame.

The end.