Hokepoints: Charting Defensive Rotation

Wot it sez up dere^. Despite the blowout nature we got a good look last Saturday at the various positions that Michigan will rotate this season. So I charted who was in at what spot for every play. The results (link to Google doc):

Things:

Here's your starting defense, with everybody in their base 4-3 under spots. I want to self-congratulate the MGoStaff for nailing the starting lineup in HTTV with the exception of free safety, since Avery, though out of the lineup, was nominally ahead of Wilson on the depth chart.

The corners lined up to the field or boundary; the line was usually aligned to the formation but then CMU usually aligned to the boundary anyway. The safeties were always lined up to the formation. They split who ended up the deeper guy; usually it was the field guy, and usually that was Wilson.

Rotation

There was heavy rotation in the front four, an almost even three-man rotation in the linebackers, and the secondary stayed put until it was time to empty the bench. It was rotation, not platooning; guys would go in for a certain number of plays then come out. I charted 44 non-garbage (before 14:59 of the 3rd quarter) plays; rotations as follows:

[Jump for breakdown, nickel, garbage time]

Nose: 32% Washington, 20% Pipkins, 48% lifted for nickel back.

3-tech: 61% Black, 30% Glasgow, 2% Henry, 7% lifted for nickel.

5-tech: 36% Heitzman, 34% Wormley, 27% Godin, lifted once for nickel.

WDE: 61% Clark, 39% Ojemudia

SAM: 57% Beyer, 39% Gordon, 5% lifted for nickel.

MIKE: 66% Morgan, 34% Bolden

WILL: 77% Ross, 20% Bolden

Safeties: 100% Wilson and Furman

Corners (4-3): 100% Countess at field and Taylor at boundary

Corners (Nickel): FCB was 60% Stribling, 40% Hollowell, though when CMU was still within three scores that was more like 85% Stribling. 100% Countess at nickel and Taylor at boundary.

Beyer got the majority of snaps while the rest of the starters were in; both he and Gordon kept playing into garbage time. Final snap count: Beyer 32, Gordon 22. Will wait for UFR but I thought Gordon was clearly better.

Type of Defense Breakdown:

CMU played with a lot of 3-wide, especially once they fell behind, and Michigan matched with the nickel. Non-garbage:

During that time the nose tackles basically disappeared. There was a stretch of 15 plays covering most of the 2nd quarter and the start of the third when Michigan played a nose tackle just once. On the 3-4 they just had the WDE stand up.

Nickel Packages:

The rotations stayed the same. Stribling was the usual extra DB until the last real drive of the 2nd quarter, when it became Hollowell. Countess went to nickel. Usually they'd run out 3-3-5 personnel but the SAM had his hand down on the weak side (the usual WDE lined up to the strong side) to make it a good ol' fashioned 4-2-5 nickel. The guy removed for the nickel back was usually the nose tackle (Washington stayed in on a few).

They also brought out a 3-3-5, and this:

…which got Cam Gordon a free sack. You may remember this as "3-3-5 WTF," the thing they used to blow up Northwestern last year:

…except CMU has a TE in there instead of a 2nd back so Clark isn't spread out half-way to the slot.

The next play, on 3rd and 15, they brought in Dymonte Thomas for WLB James Ross, and then put him right on Clark's toushie:

Result was a false start.

Goal line:

Only got to see two plays. Strobel came in as an extra DE. They lifted a cornerback (Countess).

Garbage time things:

They did the same things, lifting the NT for a defensive back, but instead of a SAM with his hand down they put Taco Charlton on that end of the line and Ojemudia at WDE.

Gedeon is ahead of RJS and you can see why: he played very well. I hope Brian gets to this part in the UFR because Gedeon made a string of nice plays, picking through traffic and beating a block for a TFL on a stretch play, and immediately sticking on a 3rd down catch that was short. Mark it down now: I'm on the Gedeon Hype Train.