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Matt Demorest, Realtor and Lender and I have brought back our (sometimes-)weekly video short. The purpose of these is to show you something on film that you as a fan will be able to pick up on when you see it in the future.
This week we talked about Michigan's favorite short yardage play, Dive, and how they've developed a pair of complementary edge runs for short yardage situations to keep defenses from selling out against it. If you're in the housing market, Matt's the guy.
There is nothing after the jump because it's video content.
FORMATION NOTES: Though Nebraska was touted as a 3-3-5 coming in, in this game they were highly multiple. I had them in some variety of a 4-3 on a majority of plays, mostly under-shifted with a five man line.
Note the unusual depth of the linebackers, generally around five yards instead of three. Nebraska played with light boxes a fair bit and would spin down a safety late. Michigan didn't do anything unusual.
SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Henderson got his first start at LT, kicking Barnhart to RT. When Tuttle Time started Michigan put El-Hadi at LG and Trente Jones at RT, then gradually replaced the rest of the starters. Notably, Andrew Gentry played at LT and Jeff Persi played at RG. This is a shift from earlier in the season when Gentry snaps were at guard, and suggests to me that they've decided he's LT of the future and are going to rep him there the rest of the year.
RB snaps were split down the middle between Corum and Edwards, though Edwards got a half dozen snaps on the Tuttle time drive. Mullings got 8. Non-RB skill position snap counts again favored TEs, but less so than last week:
- Barner: 36
- Loveland: 35
- Johnson: 32
- Wilson: 26
- Morris: 25
- Clemons: 24
- Moore: 20
- Bredeson: 20
- Morgan: 18
- English: 16
- Beetham: 16
- Klein: 14
Clemons got in for a fair number of snaps with McCarthy on the field and got a dig target, which is a good sign for his future.
[After THE JUMP: it expands]
FORMATION NOTES: Rutgers ran a normal-ass defense.
They were in a 4-3 virtually all day. The safeties were not exceptionally nosy and the linebackers did not blitzball. Normal defense.
SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Nothing unusual except for the Henderson/Hinton rotation you're already aware of. Some interesting WR/TE snap counts, though:
- Barner: 49
- Johnson: 46
- Wilson: 45
- Loveland: 40
- Bredeson: 20
- Morris: 18
- Moore: 9
- Hibner: 5
- Morgan: 3
TE #3 had more snaps than WR #3. There can't be another program in America that's done that this year.
[After THE JUMP: reach out and mash face]
Don't call it a cutback.
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