outside zone

UFR GLOSSARY is here.

FORMATION NOTES: Minnesota was mostly an under-center or shotgun 3-wide with a WR jetting across.

Their 4th down formation was Unbalanced; the guy at the bottom of the line is a TE/eligible receiver.

And Michigan used a weird formation on 3rd & 7 with 3 DEs on the field and Harrell and a LB stacked behind the nose that I called 3-1 stack.

They also split a DE wide on their 5-2s odd formations that I called 5-2 split—the nose is still over the center.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: There were 40 snaps before Tuttle Time in this one. Graham led the DTs in snaps, playing DT or nose depending on whom he was with. Grant got 14, Jenkins 25, Goode 14, and Benny 16. The DEs were the same except Cameron Brandt got in a bunch after the four starters, signifying he's moved ahead of Kechaun Bennett, who played on the last drive. LB was Colson until Tuttle Time and a split of Hausmann and Barrett. Keon Sabb cycled in with the safeties and got a few snaps in a 3-safety look with Paige at slot. McBurrows returned as the backup nickel. Wallace came off the field for the 5-2 sets and Sainristil shifted outside. Amorion Walker and DJ Waller were the deep backup time CBs, with a few snaps from Keshaun Harris before that, but none of the other CBs played.

[After THE JUMP: Stretch practice.]

If you were around for the first Rich Rod year, when Michigan's offensive talent wasn't on the same level as most of their competition's, you may remember there would often be some cute trick in the Wolverines gameplan. This gambit would work for a quarter before the defensive coaches got a moment to explain what's happening. Their answer would stress another part of the late-aughts Michigan offense that couldn't take it, and that would be that. Still, the yards and scores all counted. Several of the results also made Paul Nelson's legendary 2009 hype video, which has since become this site's anthem.

Now that you've watched that to remember how far we've come, turn back to 2:54 for the Purdue/Penn State sequences. Michigan actually led Penn State 10-0 in the 1st quarter in 2008. They lost 17-46.

Fast forward 15 years, and Michigan's the heavy favorite adjusting to some cute gambit in the 1st quarter before shutting it down with a simple reaction. Minnesota's trick, which led to a 54-yard field goal attempt, was actually pretty similar to Rich Rod's against 2008 Penn State, another team built on the strength of its defensive tackles.

The base play Minnesota was using was zone stretch. Or outside zone. We never decided on what to call it, but it's the second time we've talked about it this year because Michigan spent the UNLV game trying to rep it. When that happened I posited that Stretch is tough to add as a second pitch to your running game because it takes a lot to get right. Minnesota uses it as its #1, and found ways to repeatedly crack Michigan's front by using backfield motion to stretch the of horizontal space Michigan's linemen had to cover on their own.

The short explanation is Minnesota attacked the way Michigan prefers to play the run without committing much material to it. Minter's defense likes to set its edge and leave their defensive tackles to keep things under control in between them until the ball is handed off. This allows the linebackers to pursue passing targets and the edges to remain in position to rush the passer, stressing the DTs to gain a measure of immunity to play-action. Minnesota was using motion from their tight ends and receivers before and after the snap to spread out those edges, which overstressed the tackles, and created wide lanes before the linebackers could get back to help. Hit the jump and I'll show you how and why, and how Michigan responded.

[After THE JUMP: Stretch in Space]

FORMATION NOTES: UNLV was highly multiple, with a slight tendency towards running the 404 tite stuff mentioned last week.

Note the safety at 15 yards; UNLV was less aggressive than ECU, also less weird.

UNLV also ran some stack fronts and regular old 4-3.

They rushed their three down linemen a bunch; the eighth guy in coverage did not help.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: OL and QB the same as last week. Michigan intended to give Jack Tuttle most of the fourth quarter but he got a cheap shot on his first play so Warren got the rest of that drive and then Jayden Denegal got in.

At TE, Loveland and Barner both got around 30 snaps with Bredeson picking up about a dozen. Jones got four snaps as bonus OL. Matt Hibner got scattered snaps before garbage time so he's likely back to full health. At WR, Johnson got 40 of the 50 snaps the first team offense was in for; Wilson and Morris were about ten back. Morris was much more prominent in this game after ceding third WR snaps to Fred Moore in the opener.

DIRECTOR NOTES: CBS gets a +2 for the copious replays.

[After THE JUMP: NBA jam time]