football

it seems in an interview, Harbaugh says he has very little interest in returning to college football.

http://247sports.com/Bolt/Report-Harbaugh-has-little-interest-in-returning-to-college-31447016

Okay let me start this by informing you I am an insulin dependent diabetic (20 + years ) and awoke this morning to a severely low blood sugar. This may have effected my dream. 

While sleeping last night, I had a dream which involved an in depth conversation with the Michigan football team. The convo came at the end of this season, a season in which we ended up going 10-2. 

I'm not a prophet, or a psychic. Unless I am. Maybe we can go 8-0 to close out the season. I know that the product on the field hasn't been good so far, but things can change. Let's not give up yet. Jump back on the wagon. It starts with Minnesota on Saturday. 23-3 Michigan. Hail. 

 

EDIT: Spelling and stuff. 

Hoke, on naming the starting QB vs. Minnesota: We'll wait until game time.

— Michigan Football (@umichfootball) September 24, 2014

 

Hoke says Michigan has an idea of what it wants to do. Sounds like the decision has been made. He's just going to wait to announce it.

— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) September 24, 2014

No clarity until Saturday, it seems. Let the speculation commence:

Baseless speculation: Shane Morris will start. Not much reason to wait to announce the QB starter if there's not going to be a change.

— Ace Anbender (@AceAnbender) September 24, 2014

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/eye-on-college-football/2472289...

 

Saban took heat when he hired Kiffin - so he is mocking the 2nd guessers.

 

Interesting quote from Saban - Would love to see some 1 / 2 down passing plays

Saban had previously been asked if Kiffin had been allowed to open up the offense more than his offensive coordinating predecessors.

"No, no," Saban said. "I've been begging the offensive coordinators around here to open it up ever since I've been here ... My philosophy hasn't changed at all. I've always asked for this. 'Why don't we throw the ball on this look instead of running this play where we can't block everybody?'"

 

 

Hello.  First Diary entry, woo! [ EDIT: Lol nope, my 2nd. forgot about the one I did  in '09]

So, when the offensive line struggles, the claim is frequently made that the offensive line is too small.   I heard this alot on call-in radio shows during the RR era, and it's starting to creep back into style, or so it seems to me.

So, I thought let's see just how big Michigan's line is compared to the rest of the B1G.   I basically went through every B1G teams site, got the roster and then checked the game participation notes from the most recent game they were in to see who was listed as starting on the OL.

I then computed the average weight of the OL for that team/game.

Notes: I didn't include any TE's or FB.  Just  from one tackle to the other.

I didn't check for situation subs (unbalanced lines, etc.)

I went by weight alone, didn't look at height.  Perhaps I should have gone by body mass index?

Would be nice to do a comparison of games played / experience as well.  Maybe next time.

Also some teams rather suspiciously seemed to have players weights in exact increments of 5 pounds. Some teams roster's were worse than others in this regard.  But the roster is all I really have to go on, so, it is what it is.

So, here is the sorted list of average weight of offensive lines in the Big Ten.

Weight Team
321.0  Wisconsin
312.8  Penn_State
312.0  Minnesota
308.0  Illinois
304.8  Purdue
303.8  OSU
303.6  Michigan*
302.0  Nebraska
300.6  MSU
299.0  Rutgers
299.0  Maryland
298.0  Iowa
295.0  Indiana
294.0  Northwestern

*If Kalis is in UM's line instead of Glasgow, the average drops to 301.0

Michigan is smack right in the middle.  No surprise Wisconsin is tops, by a relatively large margin.  Iowa, a somewhat run-first offense, is surprisingly near the bottom.  Indiana's potent offense is also only at 295.

The most notable thing here is probably that in terms of weight most lines are roughly the same.

So IMO this shows that Michigan's line isn't undersized.  To some this may not be a big deal, but I've always bristled at the claims of UM's line being small for a reason for them struggling.  I always felt that is just a knee jerk superficial criticism. It's kind of a pet peeve and I wanted to dispel any such notion.

Raw data below

UM
52    Mason Cole    OL    6-5    292    FR
78    Erik Magnuson    OL    6-6    294    RS SO
60    Jack Miller    OL    6-4    299     RS JR
61    Graham Glasgow    OL    6-6    311    RS JR
71    Ben Braden    OL    6-6    322    RS SO

alternate
67    Kyle Kalis    OL    6-5    298    RS SO

average weight: 303.6
w/Kalis instead of Glasgow:  301.0

 

Nebraska
LT 71 Lewis, Alex 290
LG 68 Cotton, Jake  305
C 56 Pelini, Mark  290
RG 74 Moudy, Mike  305
RT 57 Sterup, Zach 320
302

Purdue
LT       66      Cermin, Cameron  303
LG       72      King, Jason      309
C       57      Kugler, Robert   298
RG       70      Roos, Jordan     312
RT       73      Prince, J.J.     302
304.8

 

Illinois
LT       68      Cvijanovic, S.  310
LG       5H      Hill, Alex      310
C       71      Spencer, Joe    300
RG       69      Karras, Ted     310
RT       74      Heitz, Michael  310
308

 

Minnesota
LT       65      Campion, Josh  317
LG       52      Epping, Zac    318
C       58      Olson, Tommy   306
RG       77      Bush, Foster   304
RT       78      Lauer, Ben     315
312

Northwestern
LT       78      Jorgensen, Paul 295
LG       53      Mogus, Geoff     295
C       66      Vitabile, B.     300
RG       57      Frazier, Matt    290
RT       76      Olson, Eric      290
294

Iowa
LT       68      Scherff, B.     320
LG       79      Welsh, Sean     285
C       63      Blythe, Austin  290
RG       65      Walsh, Jordan   290
RT       78      Donnal, Andrew  305
298

Ohio
LT       68      Decker, Taylor   315
LG       65      Elflein, Pat     300
C       50      Boren, Jacoby    285
RG       54      Price, Billy     312
RT       76      Baldwin, Darryl  307
303.8

PSU
RT       59      Nelson, Andrew  305
RG       53      Dowrey, Derek   323
C       66      Mangiro, Angelo 309
LG       70      Mahon, Brendan  292
LT       76      Smith, Donovan  335
312.8

MSU

74    Jack Conklin    OT    6-6    303    SO
63    Travis Jackson    OL    6-4    291    SR
66    Jack Allen    C    6-2    299    JR
76    Donavon Clark    OL    6-4    306    JR
79    Kodi Kieler    OL    6-6    304    SO
average weight:  300.6

Wisc

61    Marz, Tyler    OL    6-5    321    RS JR
73    Lewallen, DallasOL    6-6    321    RS SR
70    Voltz, Dan    OL    6-3    311    RS SO
54    Costigan, Kyle    OL    6-5    319    RS SR
78    Havenstein, Rob    OL    6-8    333    RS SR

average: 321

Rutgers

Lumpkin 310
Johnson 300
Bujari 295
Muller 300
Alexander 290
average: 299

Indiana

LT   78 Spriggs, Jason    300                
LG   68 Kaminski, David   295              
C    64 Rahrig, Collin    285                
RG   67 Feeney, Dan       305             
RT   62 Evans, Ralston    290
average 295

Maryland

T       76      Dunn        300
G       68      Altamirano  290
C       65      Conaboy     295
G       66      Zeller      310
T       55      Doyle       300
avg 299