Michigan Football, Team 140, 2019 Season

[lineygoblue]

Regarding the "foreign soil" game, I've heard rumors (not from Mgoblog) that it could be what Jeff mentioned, (service academy in London), a return trip to Rome, or possibly a game in Mexico City. The Mexico City thing would make a tad bit more sense, seeing that they would actually play in a time zone where people in the US could actually watch the game. And, they might find more suitors for opponents, in a Mexico City game.

I hope Michigan doesn't STUPIDLY give up its home game with Oklahoma, to play it in Mexico City.... (don't give them any ideas?)

I'm also wondering if this might be a resurrection of the "13 game schedule" where M would play another game after ttds, or maybe on its bye week. Of course, if Michigan were to find itself playing in the CCG (lol!!) that week, they'd have to push it out even further, and that would interfere with Christmas vacations and semester finals.

The NCAA has granted waivers for a 13th game in the past. Michigan did it with Hawaii back in the 80's. We probably won't have to wait too long to find out.

[hack]

Will it be more embarrassing when they lose to the Rough Riders (or the Roughriders), or less?

[Hannibal]

Another possibility is Sydney ala Cal and Hawaii from a few years back.

[Hannibal]

Sounds like Ambry Thomas is going to be out for a long time.

[Hannibal]

No way are we giving up a home game to play in London.

[Whitley]

Sounds like Ambry Thomas is going to be out for a long time.

And the road to a 9-3 at best starts......another season of being meh awaits..

[lineygoblue]

Sounds like Ambry Thomas is going to be out for a long time.

Where did you read this? I can't find anything about an injury to Thomas.

[hack]

I googled his name and ``working through something''. Gets you the confirmation from the coach, and a mono rumour on another board. I think I recall something vague about an unnamed DB a few weeks ago on mgoblog's forum.

[iam416]

Stay the course. HARBAUGH!!!!! Preseason favorites and deservingly so.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Yeah the Harbaugh comment and something about mono is all I have seen or could find on a search.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Seeking a jolt Scoring: Second at 35.2 points per game (No. 1, Ohio State, 42.4)

? Rushing: Sixth at 203.8 yards per game (No. 1, Wisconsin, 273.4)

? Passing: Ninth at 215.7 yards per game (No. 1, Ohio State, 364.3)

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sp...se/1857794001/

These stats appeared as part of a DetNews article today in my news feed (linked above). I thought it was good. It has quotes from players about Patterson being much more comfortable with the tempo of the offense as compared to last year's tempo. Which BTW ranked in the bottom half of the possessions per game (ppg) stat along with, surprisingly, Alabama. M ranked in the bottom 13 along with, again surprisingly, UGA, not surprisingly with Wisconsin and Navy

Syracuse at #1 with 15.75 ppg, osu at 14.69, Clemson at 14.31, Bama at 13.46, M at 12.25. These may seem like minuscule differences. They are not. View the link for other stats that are interconnected and show you why.

https://www.cfbanalytics.com/2018-tempo

Some think, including myself, that the change in tempo is what is going to be the biggest difference between the 2018 offense and 2019 that we'll see right out of the gate. In 2018, the typical start by M in each of their games incorporated the classic PepBall deep throws to one or two WRs going long. That surprised no one of course, and after this kind of thing predictably failed to get M the fast start with scoring that the coaches looked to get, JH would settle in to his version of BoBall - no surprises, we are going to try to cream you by running the ball right at you..... try and stop us.

Naturally, that worked OK when M's OL outweighed and out-skilled it's early opponents and could overpower them. Not so well when that wasn't the case and, in this day and age of CFB, where DCs are good, even in the BIG's lower tier teams, and could scheme to stop M from doing that. This was especially true when M had absolutely nothing up it's sleeve - or at least maybe M did but it appeared there weren't a lot of good counters to what the opponent's D was doing - to change that in-game dynamic. At least last season, M's defense was decent, not elite, and proven so v. osu and UF, to hide the inherent inefficiencies of Harbaugh's offense: Patterson was really not a run threat, we hoped for an RPO flavor to M's offense that never materialized, the over-use of the FB and TE limited a more wide open offense that stretched the field vertically and horizontally. It was never that hard to stop M's offense when M played most ot it inside an area that was around 10 yards by 10 yards with the football square in the middle of it. Yikes!

Is tempo alone going to fix all of that? I don't think so but it is a part of it. Tempo stops a defense from substituting at will. That begets personnel mismatches. M was terrible at developing those I thought in 2018 as the opponent D was ready for whatever M's offense telegraphed to it inside that small area and, at a snail's pace. Moreover, Pep's passing game and most of M's run game (probably JH's) sucked and failed miserably to stretch the field innovatively and challenge defenses to account for more than one or two guys...... and running Tariq Black or Oliver Martin on a misdirected sweep was weak sauce.

Those kinds of changes are hard to see live. Most probably won't see them and TV analysts will suck, as usual, at pointing them out. mgo's UFRs will see them post game. Looking forward to those.

[lineygoblue]

For me, the bottom line was when even I could tell when Michigan was going to run the ball, and I'm not a football expert by any stretch. When you saw a FB, and a TE coming into the game, there was about a 100% chance that the upcoming play was a run. They made it an easy read for defenses. Harbaugh admitted in the presser in Chicago that the offense was better with Shea in a shotgun, and giving him more options, including keeping the ball on a run. Enter Josh Gattis, who is all about getting the ball to playmakers in open space and letting things happen.

Its going to be a big change, but I wonder how long it will last. The first game where the new offense doesn't look so great, will we see Harbaugh re-take control, and put in the "offset I with a FB and TE", or will he stick with Gattis' philosophy?

I'm hoping that this is a sign of a long-term change, because Harbaugh also mentioned that Dylan's development indicates that he has a lot of the same skills as Patterson, which is why he wants to get him into the games this year for meaningful snaps. I'm hoping Dylan turns out to be a larger version of Patterson with the same skills.

After that, the biggest problem would be how long we get to keep Gattis before he's snatched up by another team or the NFL.

[Rocky Bleier]

Classic Bob Ufer... Just watched a replay of the '76 OSU game on YouTube with Ufer doing play-by-play. He mentioned having seven children. Then he said,"That's right, I have seven youngsters. No, I'm not Catholic, just careless."

[Jeff Buchanan]

Who did the "over-under" contest last season? JD?

It's time.

[*JD*]

Who did the "over-under" contest last season? JD?

It's time.

I didn't even tally up the winner from last year. The end of the season was so deflating. I suppose I could do it again, if there's really a demand for it.