Michigan Football: Lets Talk Football — Line Play

Posted at 12:00pm — 11/4/2013

Michigan Football: Lets Talk Football — Line Play

#1, well stated Higbe, just get the thing fixed. As I watched the film again a few things stood out. Again this is on 84 inch screen and with a special projector. #2, it was clear that MSU was selling out against the run on early downs. The number of 2nd and longs was crazy. This offense is not high powered enough to make many 1st downs in these situations. As most know I am not a huge play calling guy, execution is more important IMO than which play is called. But have wonder out loud why UM kept running on 1st down with MSU blitzing to stop the run. Asking our inexperienced line to block these types of games and stunts after a while is just like beating your head against a wall. The wall is more than likely going to win.

Apr 13, 2013; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines offensive line gets set during the Spring Game at Michigan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY SportsI have to give some props to Schofield and Lewan, I watched as they continued to coach and keep the youngsters engaged. Nice job seniors! Most know we run this defense, a version of it and one of the great things is it real difficult to have your scout team emulate. They just don’t have the time to get good a the zone blitzes or the secondary rotations. Hence you don’t appreciate the speed or precision of the stunts until game day. Can also say with some certainty that MSU threw a few new ones at UM, things UM had not seen before. I went to spring practice at East Lansing and have clinic-ed with Shafer and Narduzzi multiple times and in all my notes could not find some of the blitzes MSU ran. You can see UMs young interior literally waiting for a certain blitzer or stunt and blocking no one. Once that confusion sank you could se them start to get tentative. And the more tentative UM got, the more aggressive and confident MSU got.

Went back and checked on something after reading my friend DieHards post. And yes the hot receiver was open many times, Funchess in particular was open very quickly. Devin was gun shy after all the his and started bringing ball down earlier and earlier.

What next, I don’t claim to have anywhere the knowledge or pedigree our staff does, but will tell you when faced with similar situation I have found that going back to the chalk board and basically starting over does not work. What has is really simplifying things and finding a few things and really concentrating on them. Trying to find something your players can hang their hat on that they have great confidence in will work in majority of situations. IMO that has been a huge problem. There has been nothing, no scheme that UM has consistently ran well and they must find something.

End Of Rant!

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Written by GBMWolverine Staff — CoachBT

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