Dear Diary Plays Jazz Metal

beangoblue wallpaper

OMIGOD OMGIGOD OMIGOD OMIGOD!

What is it, bolded collective subconscious of the board?

NEW ROAD JERSEY!!!

Somewhere a man in the employ of Hackenberg is forcibly holding down an Adidas designer who is clutching several yards of yellow piping and screaming "Bitte! Bitte lassen sie nur ein wenig auf den schultern! Biiiiiiiitte!"

In which we are all Pritchard. This one-off diary by dragonchild is an extremely allegorical example of how Harbaugh quarterbacks operate:

Late in the fourth quarter, down a TD, Pritchard was facing 4th and 20.  Harbaugh's calling in the play.  And then this happens:

"I just remember being across the field, and [Harbaugh] yelling something to me. And I don't remember being able to hear it. . . I knew there could only be a couple of things, so I went back to the huddle, and I was like, 'OK, here's what we're going to do.'"
-Tavita Pritchard, Stanford backup QB

Let that sink in:  In Stanford's do-or-die play of the game, their unheralded backup QB didn't have Harbaugh to tell him what to do.

There really are only a couple things any team but an Air Raid can call upon for such a long situation. This has been a repetitive theme going back to his recruiting for his dad's Western Kentucky program while still in the NFL: Harbaugh likes smart guys. His smart guys are confident in their own intelligence, and use that brain to make a lot of pre-snap reads. Pritchard wasn't a Harbaugh recruit, but he was a highly regarded drop-back recruit who got into Stanford. So in that regard the offense is complex.

What Pritchard means, and how it compares with Borges, is rather than all those magnificent Borges west coast routes, Harbaugh uses only a handful of route/blocking combinations so the QB will have practiced where certain receivers will be until he has an innate feel for that. Often a Harbaugh QB comes to the line with three of those combinations ready, and calls the one they'll use based on how the defense is lined up. This frees up the QB to focus on things like pass rushers and coverages after the snap. He can also tell the backs to stay in if he catches a blitz coming. Luck and his fullbacks would often vamp that route during the play based on whatever the linebackers did. The receivers have look-back points planned in their routes, so for example if he's running a post, before that cut inside the WR will look back for a quick seam.

I've made this comparison before but I think it's a good analogy: If Borges is conducting an orchestra, Harbaugh's offense is more like jazz musicians jamming.

...with a death metal vocalist.

In case you're too cheap to buy HTTV alum96 has been previewing all of Michigan's opponents in some order that might be ascending interest. I like that he has a section specifically geared to how Michigan matches up. Expect to have these linked in the previews this season but here's what he's done so far:

Utah (new), Oregon State, UNLV, BYU, Maryland (new), Northwestern, Michigan State(new), Minnesota, Rutgers, Indiana, Penn State (new), Ohio State

For those of you who still care about the Big Ten West even though for all intents and purposes they're as affiliated with Michigan as any Pac Ten team used to be*, Brhinodid a quick rundown including the next time we play thing.

*[IE we schedule two of them per year and if we have a really really good season we get to play their champion afterwards. ]

This used to happen (it still happens). Before the USS Michigan went deep, John Baxter told reporters he's mad Michigan hasn't returned a field goal block for a touchdown. WD went and found all the INT and fumble returns for a TD in recorded M history. I tried plotting those—the light blue line is the five-year running total and says something:

If you correct for fewer plays per game in the 20th century the rate of returns since the 1990s is on par with the 1970s Bo teams. This is way too small a sample to draw real conclusions, but man the 1980s were a drought. I bet the fumble returns are up across the game because more tackles happen in space—a dropped bubble screen is a lateral fumble just waiting to be turned into six points by the defense, unless the crap refs from the trash tornado game blow it dead ARGH.

Wrong All 22. Lunchboxthegoat made a silly list of the best starters he saw play in college, for any team. Do Michigan, man! Here's a starting 24 I'd make out of a pool of guys I remember watching AND knew enough to make my own judgments.

I did this Draftageddon style, ie I get to decide what style to slot these guys into. Drew over Denard because man if the option was part of Michigan's playbook back then he'd have been legendary instead of just really really good for one year. Likewise I'm using Woodson in the slot because that's what he'd be today. Having to use Marlin as my free safety tells you all you need to know about safeties in my time.

Now I want to do a Draftageddon of Michigan players.

TUEBOR!

Tuebor ("I will defend," from the state flag) is the first-person singular future active indicative of "tueor", which means Latin has too many tenses. By UMProud.

Etc. jonvalk made a 1969-style schedule for this year. The full 1981 Bo feature is found again, still gold. Tons of numbers but I'll wait for the formatting to be fixed before we highlight, Forciers gonna QBForce. Statistical model makes NFL playcalling as predictable as a Hoke offense. There is no QB drama, Liz. EMU is rebranding as Oregon 2010. This is a case example of things from the past which should be left there.

YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN:

Dr. Sap