The Rest of College Football

[WM Wolverine]

ESPN wants people to subscribe to satellite/cable to get their programming. The amount of bowl games and this year, the date of them (coming on the 2nd/3rd/4th) really hurt ratings and attendance... B10 imo playing so many on the same day hurts too, I attempt to watch as many B10 as I can and about 4 of them were all on at the same time...

Is it plausible to play the NYD bowl games on the Saturday before (New Years Eve) when the NFL plays on the 1st or does the NFL basically have the entire weekend? Makes it a ton easier for travel, days off work if its on a weekend rather than in the middle of the week like the Orange & Sugar were...

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Very recent talk from Slive (SEC commish) seem to indicate a 4-team playoff involving the Sugar, Fiesta & Orange Bowls is likely (SEC, B12 & SEC seem in favor) after the BCS expires after the '13 season. Rose Bowl, B10 & Pac 12 want to keep the Rose and still be eligible to get invited to the playoff.

[whodean]

Very recent talk from Slive (SEC commish) seem to indicate a 4-team playoff involving the Sugar, Fiesta & Orange Bowls is likely (SEC, B12 & SEC seem in favor) after the BCS expires after the '13 season. Rose Bowl, B10 & Pac 12 want to keep the Rose and still be eligible to get invited to the playoff.

SEC wants the +one, Big10 does not.

[Mackenzie]

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.

I think we've got to cut Hoke and Co. a little bit of slack here--particularly after putting together the year they've just turned in.

Hoke's vision is to get the team(s) back to playing Michigan football which I think he defines as playing great defense, being able to pound the ball, controlling the line of scrimmage and winning the B1G. That doesn't sound bad if he can do it. It does seem to trend away from the more prolific scoring type offenses. And, maybe the vision will not not work on the national stage but perhaps will work to compete and win B1G championships which seems to be the lynchpin (no pun intended) of Hoke's vision. The team(s) he seemingly wants to put together seems geared toward that. Doesn't sound like Hoke is looking to put up 40 points a game. And, as has been mentioned, maybe winning the B1G and competing on the national stage are not mutually exclusive if you can recruit the talent particularly on defense. But, I think it's only one year, Hoke has barely gotten his feet wet, and I think we need to give the staff a little breathing room.

Someone mentioned up-thread about M perhaps having to settle for 9-3 seasons in the future. If that is the result of running a clean program and doing right by the kids then I'd settle for that. While I would like to see M go 12-0, win a national championship every year, etc. I would not be disappointed with something less. Unfortunately, good seasons such as 9-3 are not viewed as good anymore. Coaches get fired and programs get berated. I don't see why. Well no, I guess I do see why--$$$'s and because ESPN tells us so.

[WM Wolverine]

What Slive was talking about recently wasn't merely a plus one.

[hack]

I don't fear going back to bruteball. It's proven that you can win doing that. I don't see a lurking menace in that, tho I think Brian makes a good point in his Borges ``lizard brain'' bits. I just haven't been impressed with some of the game plans and the horribly slow starts sometimes. On that first drive, maybe put Denard under center after you've just botched a snap. Pass on first down once or twice. Borges picked the windiest day of the year to throw 40 times. It's all very random, and sorta like my preschooler -- which personality shows up today? And how long, if ever, before he snaps out of it and finds a balance? I don't see much of an identity having emerged from the many packages and experiments. But let's for now maybe give it another year before being certain. Borges IMO is the potential weak link, but maybe not hugely weak. Maybe not a big deal. Maybe it's all simpler when Morris gets here. One thing I don't worry about is a reversion to overly conservative playcalling. Hoke seems to have a good feel for when to take a risk. If anything I think the playcalling on big plays was a bit too risky this year.

[WM Wolverine]

Concur on most everything, Denard isn't a good fit though for what Hoke & Borges want. He drastically changrd what Borges wanted, so much that they wanted to do mostly under center stuff and were forced to move to shotgun because Denard is far more dangerous in the shotgun...

One thing that really concerned me against the Hokies was Borges silly option on pass plays, in passing situations. VT was blitzing multiple defenders on most every play so they weren't going to be affected by a fake handoff, this: 1. took away any short routes by the receivers 2. didn't allow Denard much time to throw or as importantly, read the defense. After the time it took for the fake hand-off, Denard had one read before a defender was in his face.

[SeanB]

I'd have to go back and watch some more, but it didn't seem like Smith was in that much, either. Although small, he was the best at picking up the blitzers throughout the season. Borges didn't seem to adjust his protection plans for that A-gap blitz everyone was noticing. Just like msu.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Good stuff ......

On the macro level, I give Borges credit for adapting his offensive schemes to Denard's skill set. Borges always talks about playing what the defense gives you. I think that's ass backwards let the offense dictate what the defense has to do.

On the micro level, Borges had some good games and I agree with the general sentiment that its early, too hard to tell what the identity of the offense is and that it's going to be different when Denard graduates.

In the VaTech game, the A gap blitzes were never addressed with changes in blocking scheme ..... that bothered me (It was MSU/Narduzi all over minus the helmet and ankle twisting int he pile). I don't think we saw a two back set to counter that once. It might have been Molk's injury and choosing the best options out of a bunch of bad ones but WM nails it when he says the option on pass plays was a waste of a snap.

I also like Mac's take on 9-3 ..... if its done without cheating, fine with me too. And his take on the Hoke focus on winning the B10. After that, things tend to fall into place with regard to competing on the national stage for the MNC.

Anyway ...... fun year. I'm glad we're talking about this stuff instead of looking at 6-7, an embarrassing bowl loss and a one year post season ban. Makes our glow even more enjoyable.

[Hannibal]

I think that Borges is ultimately a mediocre coordinator. His track record, statistically, was decent coming into Michigan, but not great. He had terrible games against Iowa, MSU, and Va Tech. My memories of Jim Hermann getting humiliated about 3 times a year are fresh. I think that this is a trend that we will see with Borges, even after the Rodriguez personnel is turned over.

[hack]

That's my fear, but we'll see. We'll see what happens when he gets a second look at some conference opponents, and what happens when he's got a better passer. But one thing's for sure, he's not shy. With Denard so incredibly turnover prone a lot of OCs probably might shut down the passing game to an extent, but Borges never did that. Maybe/probably that's Hoke, but the reality is whatever he does, Borges isn't going to play to not lose. That at least is a good thing.

[whodean]

We certainly can't judge Borges on the Sugar, Denard was pretty bad, I mean I can think of 2-3 plays that might have been TDs if he would have executed.

[hack]

The Hermann comparison is a bit scary. Another guy that, if he had a good game plan going in, would look great. And if it wasn't working, seemed helpless to fix that. It is way to premature to ask this question as anything other than just wondering about Hoke's nature, but did he ever fire a coordinator in either of his previous jobs? That last thing I want is another Carr situation in which we're stuck with crap coordinators.

[Jamie H]

Hoke isn't going to fire Borges. The guy has been with him for years. And it wasn't like our offense was stagnant this year.

[SeattleLionsFan]

I think it's a little unfair to judge Borges too much when he's working with Denard. He is the engine of the offense. Unfortunately hes also erratic. When he's on, the offense is gangbusters. When he's off. The offense is off.

We're I on staff, I'd wOrk on developing ways to isolate Denard on those days. More Fritz perhaps?

[lineygoblue]

There won't be any changes in the coaching staff unless individual members decide to move on themselves. Hoke isn't going to fire anyone, because nobody on the staff deserves to be fired.

I think now that Borges has one year experience with Robinson, he'll be more prepared on his play calling going into the new season. Plus, I am just gullible enough to believe that DR hasn't reached his full potential yet. He can get better.

I think the most important improvement that DR needs to make is on throwing the ball deep. He tends to float the ball too much, which allows safeties to recover, even when they have initially been beaten. That's why we've seen so many of his passes fall into an area where there is one Michigan receiver, and 2-3 defenders. You can't "float" your passes. He's got to step into the throw and deliver it quicker. Otherwise he's still going to have high interception numbers.

And, we still need improvement in the running game. A strong running game will make Borges look like a genius.