Mailbag question: What are you looking for in the Spring Season from the offense?
Posted at 8:00am — 2/22/2011
Mailbag question: What are you looking for in the Spring Season from the offense?
GBMW Staff,
What are three or more (I know how CoachBT always likes to sneak a couple of extra things into his discussion) things that you as a staff are going to be looking for in the spring practices from this new Michigan offense?
For example, here may be some good starter points:
What offensive players do you think will step-up in this offense?
What will determine a successful spring with this offense?
What will be the biggest difference from last year’s offensive team compared to this year’s team?
How do you think the new offensive coaches will do with the challenges of putting together a game-plan in a short amount of time with the players they inherited?
I will have another questions for you guys about the defense later.
Jim S.
—————-
GBMWolverine Response:
#1 item for us is team attitude. Attitude is the single thing that in our opinion may have the biggest effect on this season.
#2 item is the physical size of the team, this will be determined by Coach Wellman’s off-season efforts have worked.
#3 item is how much improvement the team demonstrates over the course of spring ball. We expect to see some growing pains early. Learning a completely new system is never easy.
#4 item is how well the quarterback’s pick up the system. In our opinion how well they pick up the new system will be the number one factor on how well the team fares in the 2011 season.
#5 item would be the running back’s, will one of the holdovers, or one of the newbies, step up and be a true threat and will they have the hands to make this offense work?
#6 item is what happens to all the slots.
#7 item is how much the tight end’s are used.
#8 item is how fast the offensive line adjusts to more man blocking. Michigan used some last year on the ISO and power, but we expect to see more this season.
Players that we believe will step up include tight end’s Koger and Moore. We think this offense will also be a better fit for Hemingway and Stonum.
Here are some big ifs we will be watching: if the offense is showing signs of getting timing and rhythm down; if the quarterback’s are starting to make proper reads, and if the offensive line is controlling the line of scrimmage against the #1 defense.
We believe that the ball will be spread around more this season. It will be far less reliant on one player carrying the majority of the load.
The biggest challenge for the staff will be getting players who were recruited for one system to buy into a new system. That will be more important than any of the X’s and O’s. We expect to see quite a bit of player experimenting in an effort to find proper roles for some of the players.
Written by GBMWolverine Staff
Go Blue — Wear Maize!