Team 137 by Jim Harbaugh. Football talk and Predictions.

[iam416]

Peppers wasn't so great against OSU. It's too bad Brian doesn't do UFRs for "The Game."

IMO, he's a slightly undersized Darron Lee. He should be great horizontally and offer M great flexibility in pass coverage. You still need the DL/LBs to handle traditional power teams like Wisky or Iowa, etc. OSU, e.g., needs the DL/LBs to cope with M's offense.

To win the the CFP you may to beat Alabama and Clemson. Think about that and hard it is to put together a defense to effectively defend BOTH of those offenses.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Great points on Peppers. He is a bit undersized for the SAM role against, say Alabama, his style of play in a quarters D v. Clemson et. al, works better.

I guess what it comes down to, and yeah, if anyone has been paying attention to our discussion on this, it comes down to great line play. If you have that on D, LBs almost become guys who just clean up the leakers. If you have players like Rashan Gary up there who can make it hard on a QB who is going to drop back and throw it deep, your corners don't have to be that great either.

[hack]

He'll do UFRs when it's not painful. Which is a problem. As much as I like what he's done there, there's a degree of professionalism missing. As Hunter S Thompson once said in Vegas, you have to Cover the Story.

[Hannibal]

He's getting progressively worse about that.

[hack]

Agreed. Do your job, Brian.

[The Oracle]

hack

[hack]

yes?

[Jeff Buchanan]

A poster of Diaries at mgoblog, Space Cyote, has a different take than Brian who speculates Brown may be moving to a quarters D. Space Cyote does not see that as M's base D. He also notes Peppers is not going to be an in the box SLB (accounts for talent's observation that Peppers may not be big enough to do that effectively against pure power teams in the conference).

Here's a summary/conclusion. Go to the link if you want to read the detail.

"Michigan won't be playing much quarters (Cover 4, like MSU and OSU). They will play two-high safeties in what is mostly a Cover 2 look. In their blitz scheme, they will utilize mostly single-high safeties (Cover 1 and Cover 3). They will run multiple coverages rather than prioritize a single coverage to become great at it (which is different than MSU and OSU).

Also, Peppers won't be playing inside the tackle box much."

http://mgoblog.com/diaries/don-browns-defensive-coverages-and-formations

[Wellington_beefhouser]

Also posted by space coyote:

Q: how does this scheme work against OSU and Barrett and how different is it from last year?

A: Because it has more eyes in the back field. That will help Michigan. It's something that, if Durkin stuck around, I think he would have incorporated more of as well. But that part of it will help.
The "Anchor" position is something Michigan did a lot with Wormley last year (i.e. line him up head up or inside the TE), and OSU's answer was to get outside of it, and they did so with success. Sticking Peppers in that area puts speed and playmaking ability there to help mitigate that concern, but it's still there to an extent, particularly with how much OSU crack blocks.
But the idea here, with the front, is to stop the interior run, plug lanes on the inside (Brown typically has a larger MIKE as well that is a gap plugger, with speed around him). The idea is correct for stopping OSU, but of course, on paper it's always much easier said than done against a team that executes at their level with their level of athlete.

[Prime2]

Still in Bradenton for the weekend, Michigan Practices at IMG Academy, nothing short of spectacular.

The entire event was run with NFL precision and the 5K+ fans loved all 4 hours of it, there was not a single second wasted on the field.

Breif observations:

O'Korn looks ready to lead the offense, surprisingly Morris looked good too in pitch and catch drills but lags behind in finding open receivers still.

The entire team is Miles ahead of where they were last year, after 4 wasted years under Hoke.

There were countless young recruits from the state & IMG players in the stands, no doubt they were impressed, Michigan is definitely on their radar now. It will be interesting come NSD to see the net results.

Well done Harbaugh and Staff, mission accomplished!

[WM Wolverine]

We'll see if any IMG recruits visit that weren't on our radar before the spring practice.

[Prime2]

I think net signings is the metric, these recruits were obviously impressed, ton of exposure and early relation building a mere 3 weeks post NSD.

It would have been persuasive to showcase the #1 recruit in the nation wearing maize and blue, Rashan Gary.

Team looked hungry and motivated.

[WM Wolverine]

That is the certainly the metric come signing day. Before then we can see if our 'vacation' at their high school helped any if at all in terms of recruiting by if any of them come up to Ann Arbor this spring, summer.

[hack]

I bet the bigger benefit comes beyond this recruiting cycle, in 2-3 years. It may be a tad much to expect a guy like Moses.

[iam416]

Heh..."tad much"....