Selfie: Go save Christmas again.
[Fuller]
Kids! Gandalf the Maize's follow-up on which factors seem to be the most predictive of offensive line play compared the r-squareds of 19 things, from o-line experience as a whole, to their recruiting stars, to the left tackle individually, depth, QB talent, how much the team goes long, etc., and found the ONLY factor with relatively high significance is…
[drumroll…]
.
.
.
Interior. Offensive. Line. Experience!
Let's get a DotW to the wizard, and tell Funk to put some years on his charges, RIGHT NOW.
Ron Utah followed up by showing the relative age of Michigan's whole roster versus teams of significance.
Part II by dnak438 on Michigan's offensive regression this week went back and added 2011-12 to the study of YPP versus opponents, tracking it by dividing Michigan's yards per play each game versus the average that team gave up. The results are charts that really show the history of Al Borges's various offensive strategies:
Here's the progression:
[after the jump]
------------2011------------
WMU, ND, EMU, SDSU: MANBALL! [Doesn't work.] Fine—(harrumph)—spread. [works.]
Minnesota: Let's use every trick play we know.
Northwestern, MSU, Purdue, Iowa, Illionis, Ohio State: We have no idea what our offense is; let's run the other team's.
Sugar Bowl: Mayday, Molk is down, secondary OL options: nil. Complete shutdown. Let's not even call plays; just run around and if you're not on your back after 8 seconds chuck it deep to Hemingway or something, I dunno.
 |
| As soon as he didn't have a David Molk in the middle Borges's offenses began to fall apart. [Upchurch] |
------------2012------------
Bama, Air Force, UMass, ND, Purdue, Illinois, MSU: Try to MANBALL while leaving Denard in the shed until it's absolutely necessary for us to score, since if he were to ever get hur…
Nebraska: DAMMIT!
Minnesota, Northwestern, Iowa, OSU, Outback Bowl: Lol we have no plan. Let's run PLAYS and put Denard in PLACES and have Devin go do stuff. [Devin goes and does stuff].
------------2013------------
CMU, ND, Akron: Lol we have no plan. Let's run random plays and have Devin go do stuff. [Devin goes and does stuff].
UConn [Devin doesn't do stuff].
Minnesota, Penn State: Let's get rid of passing and receivers and make everyone an offensive lineman, then run into brick walls. [Defense adapts to this].
Indiana, MSU, Nebraska, Northwestern: Okay, fine, if we can't run like that let's replace two of those offensive linemen with TEs/FBs who can't block and have Gardner sit back and wait until Gallon or Funchess gets open. [Indiana decides not to cover Gallon] Whee!!!! [Everyone else does] Doh!!!!! [Defense/special teams get NW'ern to third OT] Hey, a winning strategy!!!
Iowa: Play for triple overtime when the defense is so worn out from tackling us in the backfield we can just shove them into the end zone! [Devin fumbles on game-tying drive]. Doh!
Did this make any sense? Of course not!
Weeklies: Turnover Analysis says Michigan is now +4 on the year; obviously the interceptions were a huge factor in Michigan remaining competitive against the team that lost to OSU but 10 and no that's not a sliver of irrational hope leaking through yes I know it's emo week. LSA looked at down differentials in addition to the weekly Boilerquest chart. This is depressing:
PROGRAMS HEEEYAR! Best and Worst. Inside the Boxscore.
Etc. Big Ten Hockey returns this weekend, and Gordon Berenson [NNTGB] has your history of the conference that was and is again. AC1997 showed what you already knew: before 2007 Michigan nearly always had a major something on the line going into the OSU game. We usually had a chance, too.
Best of the Board
YOUR AVATAR IS THE HC FOR THE GAME
Wot is sez on th' tin. No fair changing avatars. Some coaching possibilities Michigan can look at it if it comes to that (it's not coming to that, at least not for a few years yet):
: DantoniYoNoid. Positives: has a strong system that his players by into and gets wins. Negatives: is an insane jerk whom nobody has ever liked. So basically Brian Kelly.
: Skeleton Boy. Positives: thinks the read option is "old school football," gives players juice boxes after practices. Negatives: will quickly tire of Michigan and move on to middle school.
: Horace Prettyman. Positives: tough. Negatives: just learned the forward pass is legal, so expect a severe regression in route running.
: Rocket Half-Novak. Positives: knows what it takes to beat rivals. Negatives: will always have that walk-on asterisk next to name.
: NyanFett. Positives: modern, doubles as halftime show. Negatives: does just 3 things over and over and over and over and over
: Is this Guy Faukes, or V, or a member of Anonymous? I'm going with C. Positives: Press conferences! Negatives: seems intelligent but doomed by lack of cohesive strategy.
: Positives: relatively safe choice, properly attired for walking around athletic campus given AD's endless construction plans. Negatives: like we really need another rebuilding project.
The rest of the board was emoquest and ST3 singing a crazy song and the answer to your question Erik_in_Dayton is "yes," and links except for that one thread where people were like "let's think about how cute puppies are."
SOOOOO CUTE!
Your Moment of Zen
Here is my dog.
