down g

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: Michigan used a ton of tight ends.

I charted 10 plays with three tight ends—we're still considering Bredeson a TE and not a hybrid—and another 19 with two. There were almost none with zero. Since there's a chunk of passing downs in there, a majority of Michigan standard downs had two tight ends or three.

Other than that not a whole lot of formation hijinks. Michigan did run a two-back formation out of the gun for the first time this year:

This was the wheel to Corum with Bredeson staying in to protect. You better believe that's going to be the #1 thing opponents expect out of this formation after M put this on tape.

Maryland alternated between a bunch of different fronts but never beefed up to match Michigan beef, with the results you see in the box score.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Just McCarthy at QB. Almost just Corum at RB; Stokes fumbled his first carry and Isaiah Gash got a couple of runs. OL was Hayes/El-Hadi/Olu/Zinter/Jones the whole way. WRs were the usual at this point: Wilson/Bell/Johnson clearly in front of Henning/Anthony, with cameos from Walker and Clemons. TE was without Erick All, and virtually all snaps were sucked up by Schoonmaker, Bredeson, and Honigford. Loveland and Hibner had cameos.

[AFTER THE JUMP: a palpable opponent]

So tomorrow (Saturday, April 25) at 1pm, here or on my twitch stream (https://www.twitch.tv/mgoseth/) we're going to be re-watching the 1995 Ohio State game with Dr. Sap, Jarrett Irons, and Rod Payne (set your calendars).

Remember that game? A refresher:

One of the questions I had going into this was what did Michigan run to break Biakabutuka so wide open so much. This was the offense coordinated by Fred Jackson, who inherited Gary Moeller's modernized version of Bo's. The run concepts are not that different from what you see today up front. They were also different from what Michigan ran most of the year. The '95 offense leaned heavily on Power (when you pull a backside guard), and Counter Trey. In this game they came out with Inside and Stretch Zones, Down G, and a Counter play that Wisconsin still runs where they pull the guard and tackle.

I only had time today to get the first two drives done, but it's a good setup and if I need to revisit later I wonder if you'll mind.

The First Crack: Lead Zone

This is an inside zone with a fullback that goes backside after loading up the frontside with tight ends. You'll have to remind me to ask Rod tomorrow what they saw after flipping the tight ends.

The key to this play is the right guard, offensive captain Joe Marinaro, who came off his not-finished double on the backside DT (Luke Fickell!) with Payne to kick out the middle linebacker (Greg Bellisari). It's also FB Chris Floyd controlling the WLB (Ryan Miller), and Biakabutuka having the patience and agility to get around that in the backfield, running over a prone Fickell, and breaking another tackle. Imaginary RPS-2, this was supposed to catch Fickell slanting, instead it got an activated linebacker directly in the gap.

You can also blame Fickell for falling down after he was blown back by the double.

Yards: 22 (total: 22)

[After THE JUMP: If you're a fan of offensive line play you may need a kleenex]