Michigan Football, Team 138, 2017 Season.

[Hannibal]

I wish that he had worked out in football. It would be nice to have at least one guy there from the Hoke era.

[hack]

I was gonna say that WRs aren't the problem, but last year Darboh and Butt and to a lesser extent Chesson rescued a lot of high throws. Still, no evidence Harris would have been able to step in for Black. Maybe we get a little more from him on the basketball side. I like it.

[Jeff Buchanan]

On Black's injury ......JH said words to the effect that it's on the side of the foot.

The most likely injury is to the mid shaft of the 5th Metatarsal, non-displaced fractures usually heel in 6-8w in a boot cast and no weight bearing for 3-4w. That he needs surgery means it is a displaced fracture and most likely more than 4mm of displacement either laterally or AP.

These are easy fractures to fix provided they do not involve the 5th MTP joint. A simple displaced FX is pinned (ORIF - open reduction internal fixation). The surgical incision is minimal; a skilled orthopedist (and M is loaded with them) may be able to do this procedure arthroscopically reducing incision size and healing time. The portion of the foot that is involved has little to no muscle tissue to cut through minimizing the impact of the procedure.

However, recovery time from this kind of injury is at a minimum of 4 months and and at least 8w Black is going to be in a cast of some sort and on crutches with return to weight bearing based on how the pinned bone fragments heal. Best guess, he could return to practice for a late December/Early January post season game but more likely nothing involving contact until Spring. 98% certainty he'll take a Medical RS.

[The Oracle]

End result, we agree on, i took a little bit different route to get there.

[Jeff Buchanan]

mgoblog posted this picture that features the tackle that likely broke Black's foot. The comment under the picture at mgoblog tlks about an ankle injury. Note the position of the foot and where the force is going to be applied as Black goes down. It is right in the center of the forefoot, not around the ankle.

When the foot is compressed on the lateral aspect with a vertical force component, the tarsal bones are at risk, so is the tarsus (the gathering of bones behind the metatarsals that are like the wrist bones in the upper extremity). If the MT are fractured at the tarsus, it is called a Lisfranc injury. It's common in sports and can be serious enough to severely limit the potential for a player to come back at the same level he was playing at before the injury. lets hope it is 5th MT FX.

See picture below for the injury mechaincs then see picture in the next frame for the Lisfranc injury (we hope it is not this.

[Jeff Buchanan]

This is a Lisfranc FX. Note the interarticular fx of the distal MTP joint of the 2nd MT as well as the circled area where the proximal portions of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th MT are mashed into the cuboid bones of the tarsus. This is a nasty, serious injury. Let's hope it isn't this.

[hack]

I agree with whatever Wiz says, as long as it's maximum five words.

[froot loops]

It sounds lime a pretty serious Dancer's fracture if they decided to do the surgery right away.

[Hannibal]

Weird since he got up and walked away from it.

Sucks but we can afford one (but not more than one) injury there.

[Jeff Buchanan]

S&P+ ratings/rankings are out to include games played through 9/16 .......

M is ranked 11th overall, down from 9th last week. The drop is caused by terrible Offensive S&P. There's been a ton of discussion about M's Offensive Efficiency. Brian at mgoblog had a good (long!!!) discussion on this yesterday. Bottom line for him was this isn't about play calling by the coaching staff - an issue that got a lot of run on Sunday. His reasoning: JH didn't all of a sudden become a bad coach when he came to M.

My reasoning, and Brian has some of this in his piece from yesterday, is that M is playing from behind the sticks on almost every possession and that is because the average ytg on 3rd down is way up for M in 2017 compared to 2016/15 and much higher than about 77 other FBS teams . Efficient teams either don't get to 3rd down and long at all becasue they get 1st downs before that or their ytg on 3rd are in the 2-3y range (manageable).

I said this during the Cincinnati game: Speight is not completing the 1st or 2nd down throws he needs to complete to keep Harbaughffense on schedule. Why is this? IMO, its a combination of Speight's inaccuracy, inexperienced receivers running the routes, poor OL play.

The staff has done everything it can possibly do to create a pocket for Speight to throw in (just look at the formations using 2TEs and Ruiz in some kind of 6th offensive lineman role). Does not seem to have aided Speight's accuracy.

Other's have noted that Wilton often does not see open receivers and, instead, tends to try to fit his throws into tight windows. It's hard to explain this for a QB supposedly known to "see the field better" than other QBs on the roster.

OTH, the run game is averaging over 5ypc with the removal of the sacks and other junk. So, this isn't the problem in 2017 like it was the well documented problem in 2016. There is little arguing, except for those who continue to blow sunshine and unicorns out their asses, therefor that Speight IS the problem despite what appears to be solid numbers (60% completion rate) ...... those numbers don't tell the whole story. Speight may be completing passes at a high rate but he's not getting the offense into the high gear it needs to be in to get to manageable down and distance IF 3rd downs do occur. Moreover, it is very clear, he's not hitting the 1st and 2nd down passes he HAS TO HIT in Harbaughffense to keep it on schedule.

JH is a patient guy. He undoubtedly sees Speight as entirely capable of moving the O. He talks about it all the time in his curt, staccato style when he's asked about the tepid M offense. Fine. But for me, and a lot of other observers, M is not going to win 10 or more games unless offensive efficiency takes a marked up tick; it's not going to be competing for silver and the objective data supports that notion. If the coaching staff, like it collectively always says it is doing, is to put the offensive players into positions to succeed, Speight and his passing game (and that includes OL pass-pro, rBs and TEs picking up pressure, making blocks and tackles down field and receivers running great routes) must improve.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaa

[Jeff Buchanan]

Weird since he got up and walked away from it.

Sucks but we can afford one (but not more than one) injury there.

Probably and hopefully why this isn't the more complicated Lisfranc FX. One can walk on a fractured 5th MT, it's uncomfortable for that but very painful if your pushing off on the forefoot as in running. Nobody can walk on a Lisfranc fractured foot no matter how tough they might be.

[hack]

I said this during the Cincinnati game: Speight is not completing the 1st or 2nd down throws he needs to complete to keep Harbaughffense on schedule. Why is this? IMO, its a combination of Speight's inaccuracy, inexperienced receivers running the routes, poor OL play.


Which is why, when you have 2nd and 4-6, or 2nd and 10, RUN THE DAMN BALL. Get to third-and-manageable.

[hack]

Does Quinn Nordin have sort of an unusual mentality for a kicker? Seems like a pretty confident and outspoken kid.

“Uh, no. I find nothing unusual about Quinn.”

LOL. Great answer.

[Jeff Buchanan]

[I]........
Which is why, when you have 2nd and 4-6, or 2nd and 10, RUN THE DAMN BALL. Get to third-and-manageable.

Well, that would be nice but ....... since Jesus was a Pvt. DCs have been loading the box with great success in stopping M from running. It's been pointed out to me that there are not many great OLs in CFB and there are a lot of reasons for that beyond the point of this post.

There's no question my mind that every coach since Elliot has worked to establish M as a powerful running CFB team. It's in the genes. RR could have changed that but, again, for a lot of reasons that have been beaten to death, he failed.

JH has an established record of being a run to pass HC wherever he has been. He's also been reasonably successful with it. I do think however, that Harbaugh is innovative but he's not going to stray from the run fundamentals much. I hear a lot of talk that his run schemes are complex. It takes brainy linemen to execute them. Maybe that's so and it takes time to learn and then execute. Fine. A good case can be made, there isn't time for that ..... fuck it, go spread, all zone blocking, up-tempo and bring in the most athletic dual threat QB you can.

I think there is middle ground and that is particularly applicable in the BIG where there are teams like Wisconsin and MSU, probably PSU and definitely osu (for different reasons) that will run right over and through the lighter weight kinds of guys that are used on spready teams, both sides of the ball.

So, I can wait and watch and see how JH adapts to M's struggles on offense while at the same time understanding tressel ball - a middling offense that plays to STs and defense - is not dead. Makes for rather tense watching though at least for M and for me.

[hack]

Yeah, I get it. At this point you can't keep a defense truly on its heels with a balanced attack or by overpowering them, so you're picking between bad options. I'd just rather pick the one with less downside.