Michigan @ Wisconsin, Saturday, 9/21/19, Noon(EDT), Fox Sports

[lineygoblue]

I think Superfan's "irresponsible guess" is spot on. There has to be a non-football explanation for what is going on with him. He's not the same guy that coached at Stanford and San Francisco, and he's not the same guy that was hired by Michigan.

[AlabamAlum]

I thought, overall, he was just average at Stanford - which is really the only comparable job he has had to what he has now at Michigan.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I don't usually do this but I'd like us to move the discussion on the state of Harbaugh and M football to the thread I just created. Thanks for you cooperation.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I said I was done with this but, this point needs hammering home. Youtube has made it hard to embed videos, hence the links.

defense.png

Brian did his UFR Defense and called this formation a 3-3-5. He remarks this is Michigan's defense "in a nut shell." In that it is a 3 man front comprised of 3 DL, he's not totally incorrect but, in the parlance of modern naming which is intended to name formations by where a player is positioned, this is a 2 man front. The two tackles are Kemp (2) lined up over center and Jeeter (95) over the B Gap. They define the 2 in 2-4-5. Watch how this play unfolds. It's 4th and 1. There are 4 LB types. Keep in mind LBs and Ss are becoming interchangeable. They read the play perfectly and attack the POA. If this isn't Wisconsin beef doing the work, if it wasn't Taylor doing the leaping. Michigan gets the stop.

hhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0eq...ature=youtu.be

This formation does not, as Brian describes, define the defense in a "nut shell" which suggests to me this alignment is base. It's is Brown's goal line D. He does state later that Brown deployed a 3-3-5 base and some 4-2-5 sprinkled in. Given that there are different naming conventions, I get it but, my view is that this misses the point. It's a good alignment given what Brown is trying to do out of the 2-4-5 with the players he has. It's not after Coan audibles. It's a weakness - nothing is perfect.

In the video link above, look closer at the players on the LoS: From L to R, Woods (26), Paye (19), Glascow (29), Kemp (2), Jeeter (95), Hutchinson (97). Paye and Hutchinson are Rush DEs. Woods is a SS and a blitzer in this formation. Paye is lined up over the C gap but he is shading and so is Glasgow over the C Gap. A shade for a DE or 3-Tech (Glasgow) allows those two players to read OL blocks and determine the POA then get to it.

This video depicts the exact same defense on Coan's QB sneak for a TD. The difference is that Dwumfor (5) is in place of Jeeter as one of the 2 DTs. Given how Wisconsin lines-up before the snap, this is a good alignment expecting Taylor to be the ball carrier behind the two lead blockers. But Wisconsin has this scouted, Coan audibles to the QB sneak through the uncovered A gap and scores untouched. Brown, as the analyst in this video says, gets had. It is certainly a weakness in this version of Brown's D. I suspect it will be gone v. Iowa, MSU and maybe ND but OK to use against spread teams. Go to the 18:00 mark in the video.

https://youtu.be/ukrT38GLONA?t=1086

Right now, Brown does not have the stable of 300+ Lb. NTs and that may very well be on purpose although everyone is sighting recruiting failures. The BT predominantly runs variations of spread offenses and Brown is structuring his defense and recruiting to a quicker, more mobile DL. It's easier to find dudes in this mold than it is to find Mo Hurst and Bryan Mone types who have a combination of size and agility that is rare. I think Brown wanted to harass the Wisconsin offense and limit Taylor as a dominant force. Put Wisconsin in 2nd and 3rd and long and dictate Coan having to pass.

This approach, the way the game unfolded, was probably toast v. Wisconsin with Taylor and Coan having career days. It wasn't going to turn out well if the Badger's dictated the game and they did. I think Brown and Harbaugh new that. The strategy was to dictate a shoot out and you could tell that from the start. IOW, the offense had to be able to get out in front of Wisconsin or at the least keep up and put the pressure on Chryst. That put a shit-ton of pressure on the offense and particularly Patterson. He didn't handle the pressure well.

My point is two fold: I've come to not trust Brian's takes on M's offense and defense because I think he has a motivational bias to dump on the team. That he does not seem to understand what Brown was trying to do out of 2-4-5 (using modern naming conventions) convicts him to an extent. I don't think Brown did well at all v Wisconsin overall - it was both, at times, good and bad. But, he's already invested in a scheme that is intended to do better v' spreads than it is v. pure power. Given the make-up of the BT, that makes sense. I think he k nows the problems he'll face v. Iowa, MSU and ND and will adjust his goal line D accordingly.