2016 spring game

Every snap

Spring games are mostly useless because there are so many weird guys on the field. Most of the freshmen haven’t arrived yet, guys with injuries are held out, and those who’ve earned starting jobs appear briefly if at all.

But we did get to see one matchup all game that is of some interest: new starting center (probably) Mason Cole vs. returned from the dead NT Bryan Mone. Both are expected to be very good this year, but Cole is moving down from two years of playing left tackle, while Mone lost all of 2015 to injury. So I thought we might take a trip through the spring game, focusing solely on plays when they went at each other.

Please don’t take this as a UFR—Brian has his own system for that, and I’m not trying to recreate it here. We’re not looking at what Mone does to JBB or walk-ons, but who scored points against each other.

FIRST HALF:

Q Time Type Mone's Job Cole's Job Winner
1 0:50 Run Left A Pull & seal Mone
Cole is pulling around the left guard (JBB), whom Mone put on skates at the snap. Cole correctly IDs that he has to deal with that and uses up his block, which means this play is about to be dead. Mone wins the point by pushing Cole backwards to cut off even the hope of a cutback, then tossing Cole to the side to close in on the back, leaving Godin totally free. Monster start for Mone.
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1 0:16 Pass 2-gap 3-team Mone Tie
Mone shows great hands as he works from a 2-tech (over the LG) to the A gap on the other side and remains clean. He doesn't pressure but the offense is using up 3 blockers, meaning the rest of the protection is 1-on-1 (including Isaac vs. Godin). That creates pressure and Speight's throw downfield is a bit too far OOB. Cole did his part though so this round has no victor, except Don Brown.
2 8:00 Run Left A Step & seal backside Tie
On a power play like this Cole is starting playside and just has to block down and seal, a job he is put in an advantageous position to do. We will see this a lot so I’m establishing a precedent that Cole doesn’t get a “win” for this even though he successfully blocked Mone. If Mone gets blocked down and beats it he gets double points. If Mone pushes Cole enough to bother the pulling guard, Mone gets a point. Here Mone tried to push Cole backwards to cut off running room but Cole stalemated him.
2 6:17 Run Left A Mone m2m Cole
The Isaac run I broke down last week. Mone burrowed inside at the snap and delayed JBB's release while working Cole back, but Cole got the last little shove downfield that allowed Isaac to escape downfield so Cole FTW.
2 5:34 Pass Left A Protect left A Cole
Cole got some help from JBB but didn't need it, keeping Mone at arm's length and giving Speight a pretty pocket to throw the Butt TD.
Q Time Type Mone's Job Cole's Job Winner
2 2:08 Pass 2-gap Protect middle Mone
3rd and 10 and they're one on one. Cole absorbed the first punch then Mone tossed him aside. Cole did well to spin around and regain position between Mone and Speight, but by then the center's in the QB's knees.
2 2:03 Pass Left A Protect left A Cole
Cole wins the arm war this time and keeps Mone at bay without help, leaving Peters a nice pocket to step into if he chooses.
2 2:00 Run Left A Step & seal backside Cole
They're running power away from Mone again so Cole just has to block down. He erases Mone and then releases downfield, nearly taking out a linebacker and setting up to cut off pursuit. Point Cole.
2 1:50 Pass 2-gap Protect left A Mone
This pass (the one Wheatley dropped) got off, but Cole got shoved deep into the pocket by Mone before handing the NT off to Pliska and picking up another rusher. No pocket equals point Mone.

Standings are at 4-3-2 in favor of Cole at this point. Obviously the white/maize team was game-planning to run at Godin (at 3-tech) instead of Mone.

[The second half, after the jump]

This is spring ball. There are guys on the field who are never going to play, there are guys on the field who are going to play who not playing very well, and the coaches, whom I haven't spoken to, are not going to show the really juicy stuff in a public scrimmage. Therefore all of this is written in very light sand.

But I think…I think I saw a cool variation of a thing that's all over Don Brown's 2013 playbook, and if you'll bear with me and a lot of asterisks we might learn a thing about how Michigan's personnel fits the stuff we've been talking about in the Dude Glossary.

So late in the spring game the Blue team ran a backside power play and got stuffed. Some of that was good play by the defense, some of that bad play by the offense. But the play design itself appeared to illustrate an example of a "Bear"-like* defense they can get into any time they're in 3rd and short or near the goal line, and then change up at the line based on what the offense shows.

* [It's not a real Bear because the backside DE is not in a 3-tech. Speaking of the Bear, JeepinBen wrote a thing on Buddy Ryan's 46 Defense when it appeared in Hoke/Mattison's first year if you want a refresher on that)]

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THE PERSONNEL: BUTKUS, TECHNICALLY

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"Butkus" is the one I described where they trade some middle meat on the line for extra upfield rush. BC would usually use this formation for a 46 Bear defense. I mentioned at the time that Michigan's NTs work just fine as the gap-attacking meatheads the Bear likes, and here Maurice Hurst is indeed the tackle. The "Butkus"—a hybrid specialty position that's meant to be a DE/OLB (Jake Ryan-esque player), is Alex Kaminski, who is 5'10/215 (the standup guy hanging off the edge at the top of the line above).

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As for the rest, the End (E) is Chase Winovich, the Will (W) is Mike McCray, the Mike (M) is walk-on Cheyenn Robertson, the free safety (F) is Dymonte, the Anchor (A) is walk-on Garret Miller, the Rover (R) is Tyree Kinnel, and the Sam (S) is Lawrence Marshall.

If you said "huh?" at the last bit, yeah Marshall is a defensive end. In this formation that's not so important since he, like the Butkus, is in there primarily to be an edge-rusher/-setter. Forget that "Sam" is a "linebacker" and instead think about Will Gholston lining up outside tight ends and getting unblocked sacks.

Also remember Peppers is going to be somewhere on that map this year, and it's my guess from the way Brown set this up that the somewhere will be Butkus, i.e. the place they've got Alex Kaminski.

Anyway if you're counting that's really four DL who are the same as the white team's base DL, three linebackers who were the base linebackers, and the same four defensive backs. In other words Brown didn't take his 4-3 personnel off the field. He did, however, put them in places that emphasized different skills. I bet that will be a regular feature of this year's defense.

[After the jump: how they attack (I think) and how it works (I'm pretty sure)]



Same. [Eric Upchurch/MGoBlog]

The Question: What was your biggest revelation from the spring?

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Adam: The biggest thing the spring game did for me was ease lingering fears about two defensive position groups. The linebackers were almost universally question marks heading into the spring (unless you count the snaps we saw Ben Gedeon play last season) and they played well enough to quell concerns heading into the fall. I don't remember noticing Gedeon live or in the three or four times I've rewatched the game, which is passable for the Mike position; he also didn't get many snaps, which is indicative of how the staff feels about him. Mike McCray looked good in the spring game, while Devin Bush Jr. looked good in the open practice at Ford Field. Jabrill's gonna Jabrill at Sam; it's unfortunate that Noah Furbush was on crutches considering the hype he received from the coaching staff, but at least there's an excellent starting option at that spot.

Even though we've seen Delano Hill and Dymonte Thomas play quite a bit I was a little concerned about them, particularly Thomas taking over Wilson's free safety spot. Thomas lived up to the hype he'd received this spring whether he was jetting up to support the run or dropping and covering acres of space; his interception in the back of the end zone is a great example of what he can do with his athleticism. Thomas mentioned that he didn't feel like he hit his stride last season until he fully learned the playbook; it looks like he's learned this playbook very quickly. Tyree Kinnel looked like an excellent backup to Hill at SS, reading the field well and bumping receivers off routes regularly.

When I step back and take a 10,000-foot view of things, I find myself taking twisted joy in the things that cause hand wringing about the defense. Sure, some of the position switches on the defensive line are curious, and though I've written in this very space about trying Gary out at WDE (or End in Don Brown's defense) and keeping Wormley at SDE (or Anchor to Brown) it's fun to worry about how to best deploy an armory of Dudes who deserve significant snaps instead of whether there are any Dudes to be deployed. After the spring game, we know the latter isn't an issue for any defensive position group.

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[Hit THE JUMP for more positive defense feels, Tyree Kinnel hype, quarterback reassurance, and a stunning reversal of course from Brian.]