The Rest of College Football

[hack]

I hope he stays so that when MSU reverts to usual form he can take his beatings.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Somebody mentioned up thread here re the WVU butt kicking of hapless Clemson that they didn't like watching football like that.

I do.

The offenses are incredibly creative. Keep in mind, what WVU runs is pretty close to the basic RR read option with some modifications. They run more veer and the passing game is more complex.

The point of this is that against Fosters, VT defense , Borges was pretty uncreative. It's not easy to tell yet whether that was on Denard or scheme/game plan going in. I didn't see too much DR under center so, I'm not blaming that but I was pretty disappointed that Borges/DR weren't able to back Foster out of his literal 9 man fronts. With more screens, quick throws to the middle off of slants, wheel routes using the back, etc.

It's also not clear whether this is a trend or not. Borges' scheme and in game play calling was horrible against Iowa and MSU (for different reasons) and M lost both of those games. Most are saying M was pretty lucky to win the Sugar. I may not agree with that entirely but there is some truth to that.

So may teams are heading in the direction of complex hybrid spreads with big, athletic running QBs that one has to wonder where Borges is heading. He is frank in his pressers and seems to be open to working what works but running spreads, like RR has built in the past and tired to build at M, worry me. They are prolific against all but the most elite defenses. While I'm glad RR is gone and Hoke is at M, I'm somewhat concerned about what M's offense will look like going forward. If M were in a position to consistently recruit elite defenders, I might not worry so much but it does not appear that it is for a lot of different reasons.

[Jamie H]

I don't think there is any question Michigan got lucky in the Sugar Bowl.

Lucky #1: VT fumbles kickoff. Michigan botches fake FG on 4th down only to get a first down after the ball pinballs. Michigan ends up with 3 lucky points.

Lucky #2: VT botches fake punt, giving Michigan good field position to get another FG. Their offense was dead at this point--I don't see any points coming without help.

That's 6 lucky points, and it allowed us to win the game. I'm not saying we didn't deserve to win, but without those 6 points I think we would have been toast, and we were lucky to get them. Michigan also played great red-zone defense and Hemmingway made 2 fantastic TD grabs.

[Mike]

Not to mention the roughing the kicker penalty which enabled us to drive 96 yards for our first TD - over half the total offense for the game.

[UMStan White]

Worthy announces he's leaving MSU for the NFL

[hack]

I don't think the kickoff fumble was lucky -- that ball was poked out of the returners hand. Otherwise, yeah. I thought the fake was a terrible idea on their part because the Michigan offense wasn't moving the ball at all.

[Jamie H]

Well, it WAS a good play to force the fumble, I'll give you that.

[lineygoblue]

Worthy announces he's leaving MSU for the NFL

Good. I'm sure his little tattoo will be a big hit amongst his new teammates.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Yeah ...... but what does the forum think about Borges as M's OC and the derp sort of play calling he came up with against Foster's D (which was a lot like MSU's and Borges went Derp there too).

Am I being a little paranoid here or is there cause for concern over regression to Debord like play calling just using a different model (Pro-Set Hybrid, WCO)?

Don't get me wrong. Borges had some terrific games as M's OC but when the stakes were high (MSU and VaTech esp.), I sensed a lot of Lloyd Ball going on - just a little different style. I don't want to see a return to that. It meant a lot of 9-3s and that's not going to cut it in the current environment for competing on the national stage.

There's a theory that one can play a lot more conservatively when you can recruit and develop the athletes to do that (See Saban and UA and to a lesser extent Miles and LSU). When you can't/don't there needs to be some creativity to grab scores. Classically Lloyd incorrectly thought that he had the athletes on offense and defense to play Lloyd Ball. He didn't which is why the end of his career was disappointing.

It's pretty clear to me that the population trends indicate that the better players are going to come from or go west and south advantaging the SEC and maybe the PAC12. Therefore, teams in the B10 better plan for that. M just shit-canned a guy who understood creative offenses utilizing less talented players in Rodriguez (not saying he shouldn't have been fired). furbin at osu is going to have talent and creativity in his game. M/Hoke/Borges should be thinking about these things and I'm not convinced they are but rather are trending back to the old school kind of thinking that permeated the Fort for decades.

[hack]

You talked me off the ledge earlier in the year about Borges and now you wanna push me back out there? OK, well ... fine. Agreed. I share your concern. I thought that was a very poorly called game.

[Jamie H]

I give Borges a break because NOTHING was working. We couldn't run with the RB. They were doing a great job of bottling up Denard. And Denard did NOT have a good day throwing.

Borges got Hemmingway open on a jailbreak fly route early in the game and Denard threw the ball into a d-lineman. It was a guaranteed TD if he gets the ball anywhere near Hemmingway.

Given that our center was playing at about 25%, I'm willing to give Borges a mulligan on this one. He minimized the turnovers and we won with defense. It wasn't pretty but I'm not sure there was any grand strategy that was going to bust our offense open in that game the way certain people were playing.

My only complaint is that we continually failed to deal with the A-gap blitz, just like against MSU. I don't know how much of that was Molk's injury, but Borges needs to adjust our protections somewhat because they are clearly vulnerable to blitzes that are overloaded at one point of attack. Often I'd see several of our O-lineman standing there unengaged as a V-Tech guy was streaking into the backfield untouched.

[lineygoblue]

what does the forum think about Borges as M's OC

I'm fine with him for at least another season. I think it shows that he's more comfortable with a pro-style of offense, and that he's not at his best in calling plays for someone like DR at QB. But, I think now that Borges has had a year working with Denard, he's got a better first-hand knowledge of what he wants to do, going forward.

I think a lot of what he did this year was trying to figure out what works, and what doesn't. I think Va Tech and Moo showed that a very aggressive front can cause big problems with DR. They'll have to work on that during the off-season. Defenses that gamble that way, have got to be burned. So, he's got some work to do.

I wouldn't compare Borges with DeBord. I think Borges has shown MUCH more innovation than DeBord could ever show. Just remember what the Oregon players were saying following their destruction of Michigan back in '07. They knew exactly what we were running, before the snap. That's Mike DeBord.

So, I think Borges has earned another year, and I think if Michigan can put together 8-9 wins next year, his job will be secure. If Borges can't find a way to burn the highly aggressive defensive fronts, his job will be in danger a year from now.

[hack]

Did he call more than 1 or 2 passes on first down?

[Jamie H]

That's probably my biggest complaint with our offensive game plan against V-Tech. Way too many 1st down runs for nothing.

[entropy]

heh..

http://thefw.com/lamichael-james-scared-on-rollercoaster-photo/