Bo's playsheet and UM coaches' headset audio recordings
Did y’all see during the Nebraska game the announcers put a screenshot of a Bo Schembechler playsheet? I'm posting it below. Coaches’ playsheets have always fascinated me. Filled with alien scribbles and odd codes, they are indecipherable to my amateur eye. So to all the MGoCoaches out there, can you interpret any of this gobbledygook?
On a related note, I noticed recently the resurfacing of an audio recording from Gary Moeller’s headset during the big Desmond Howard catch. It makes me wonder whether football historians could match up the headset audio with game film for interesting analysis. Are there hours and hours of headset recordings out there? Maybe a carefully tailored FOIA to the university could dislodge some. Would be pretty cool to listen to headset timed to play with old games, and maybe even with old coaches’ playsheets for added reference. It would be enlightening to have old players narrate old games and tell us everything that was really going on. Kind of like listening to a director’s commentary over movies.
September 26th, 2018 at 12:21 PM ^
Look right there under Goal Line, the second run column. It says 'CJK5H"
September 26th, 2018 at 1:19 PM ^
That's a code for "3 yards and a cloud of dust"
September 26th, 2018 at 12:21 PM ^
Those aren't plays. Those are coordinates to a buried treasure. On the back of the declaration of independence.
September 26th, 2018 at 12:24 PM ^
that can only be interpreted by either Nicolas Cage or Jon Voight
September 26th, 2018 at 12:50 PM ^
With lemons!
September 26th, 2018 at 1:36 PM ^
I told you, you need heat!
September 26th, 2018 at 2:02 PM ^
Throw it in the oven...
September 26th, 2018 at 1:53 PM ^
Well, what a coincidence, we just HAPPEN to have a whole heaping pile of lemons right here in a house with just one occupant!
September 26th, 2018 at 4:09 PM ^
but you need Bo's special sunglasses with the 3 flip lenses!
September 26th, 2018 at 1:45 PM ^
That's high praise.....
September 26th, 2018 at 12:23 PM ^
To answer your second question about headset recordings, what happens on the headset stays on the headset. I doubt coaches would want any of that getting out. Those would be some heated conversations. ESPN actually has an article about it today.
September 26th, 2018 at 12:31 PM ^
Moeller’s recording from Desmond’s diving catch is on MVictors so I wonder if there’s a vault that has all the recorded headset audio somewhere here.
September 26th, 2018 at 1:53 PM ^
Or someone that day decided that the play was big enough, and Desmond's season was trending in such a way that they wanted to preserve every angle and piece of audio surrounding The Catch. So a headset recording that may have been for internal use and usually got wiped got saved. Wouldn't surprise me in the least if that's all there was.
September 26th, 2018 at 2:34 PM ^
Bando Calrissian is part of the sacred order for protecting headset audio.
September 26th, 2018 at 2:43 PM ^
Headsetus Dominus.
September 26th, 2018 at 2:32 PM ^
It would be a good question someone could ask the guy managing the UM football archives. If it turns out that there is a vault of those tapes, it would be cool for them to release occasional audio from interesting plays or interesting moments.
September 26th, 2018 at 3:37 PM ^
The game program from the 2011 ND game has the recording of Mo before Desmond's catch. It's cool.
September 26th, 2018 at 12:31 PM ^
Neat.
It looks like it was all hand printed - not the laser printed laminated trifolds we see today.
It looks for 3rd and shrt, that there were 6 passes and 10 runs (?)
Guessing RT - right? WT - Wide?
September 26th, 2018 at 1:43 PM ^
Neat?
September 26th, 2018 at 12:33 PM ^
The two digit plays are runs the three digit plays are passes.
The additional writing on the situational list includes the formation details.
September 26th, 2018 at 2:37 PM ^
Thanks OwenGoBlue!
September 26th, 2018 at 12:35 PM ^
Interesting. And it's especially facinating if you watched Michigan football closely during the Bo years cause I'm pretty sure he only had four plays he liked to call:
1. Off tackle (always the first play of the game and ALWAYS behind the left tackle)
2. QB option. In his later years it wasnt really much of an option - it was simply a keeper with a trail RB but for Franklin & Leach it was definitely the "go to" play for the offense
3. Draw. This became a Bo staple in his later years. I think in the 86 Rose Bowl, for example, he called something like 37 draw plays to Jamie Morris
4. Deep post. And for God's sake NEVER throw the ball to the RB - they are meant to have the ball handed to them, not thrown to them, in Bo's eyes.
There might've been a play or two more in his arsenal but those four were the staples.
September 26th, 2018 at 1:27 PM ^
Actually, Bo loved a good screen pass. I was at that damn Indiana game in 1987 when the weather turned nasty in the 4th quarter and Michigan's last drive fizzled on a screen pass floated into a gale force wind. Bo swore up and down the screen pass was well set up to succeed...if the damn wind wouldn't have caught the ball!
September 26th, 2018 at 2:40 PM ^
When I think of Bo I think of off-tackle and draw plays. I like beginning with the unstoppable off-tackle, but I was never a fan of the draw play. Seems like on every third and long he was calling a draw play up the middle that never came close to getting a first down.
September 26th, 2018 at 11:53 PM ^
It was the 1987 Rose Bowl against Arizona State.
September 26th, 2018 at 12:37 PM ^
This complexity is why Matthew McConnaughey had to run "The Veer" at Marshall...
September 26th, 2018 at 12:38 PM ^
I'm surprised that headset recordings were made back then. But if they were made, I doubt many survived. A reel to reel would have probably been used to make the recording and those tapes are both expensive and large. They most likely would have been erased so the tape could be reused (many many times).
September 26th, 2018 at 12:43 PM ^
Not just that, but in Bo's early years, the "headset" was a conventional phone with a really long cord that he'd pick up and occasionally use to talk to the press box. He wasn't plugged in for 60 minutes.
September 26th, 2018 at 12:46 PM ^
Exactly right.
September 26th, 2018 at 1:13 PM ^
Ah, the rare blazer-mock turtleneck sideline duds. Did that getup even make it halfway through the '69 season?
September 26th, 2018 at 12:44 PM ^
I was just thinking that the audio quality on those later recordings (which would be most likely to have survived) would be utter garbage for this same reason.
September 26th, 2018 at 1:18 PM ^
Reel to reel actually gives you great sound quality in a studio (I still have a player and reels), but it would probably be crap over a headset during a game.
I always remember Bo wearing the blue/green David Clark headset. Seeing him on the phone is before my time.
September 26th, 2018 at 2:20 PM ^
I remember snippets from Denny Franklin's time, but only snippets. And they don't include seeing Bo with a phone. The David Clarke's were all the rage back in the day...
September 26th, 2018 at 2:27 PM ^
There's a Dennis (not Denny) Franklin snippet, every football home game in the Big House !
Go Blue!
September 26th, 2018 at 2:49 PM ^
They still make outstanding headphones, mostly used for aviation now. If their marketing people knew their asses from holes in the ground, Harbaugh would be wearing them during games instead of that lame ass Ram truck advertisement over his ears.
September 26th, 2018 at 12:47 PM ^
If Bo were our coach today - I am sure you would hear on the headset: "Give the ball to Bench. Bench, you are an animal run behind Ruiz and Bredeson blocks, but pulverize anyone in your way. Just do it son!"
September 26th, 2018 at 12:55 PM ^
I've heard the headset audio of Moeller before and during the Desmond Howard catch against ND. The most amusing part - in a way - is that it seems like it nearly didn't happen because Moeller was second guessing himself right up until the snap, if I remember correctly.
September 26th, 2018 at 1:46 PM ^
Back to back, he says:
"Here's what we are going to do. We are going to throw it to Desmond and he is going to score a touchdown."
"Awwww, should I be kicking a fieldgoal???"
Ha, the life of a coach.
September 26th, 2018 at 4:02 PM ^
Yes, although in the interview with him, he said that was just his way of talking through his nerves and not that he would really have changed the play call at the last second.
I would have definitely assumed that they wouldn't make, much less keep, audio recordings of the coaches, but the existence means they certainly made recordings for some period of time, and makes it more likely at least some have been kept. I really loved the recording, and the interview with Moeller was just fascinating to me (as a guy who loves but doesn't really understand football in strategic way). Would be pretty awesome if there were more. I mean, what exactly did Bo say to Fielding Yost up in Football's Valhalla?
September 26th, 2018 at 12:55 PM ^
Anyone know where I can get some recordings of Brady Hoke's headset conversations?
September 26th, 2018 at 1:03 PM ^
How much blank tape do you want?
September 26th, 2018 at 3:36 PM ^
Actually if you turn up the volume enough, you can hear football.
September 26th, 2018 at 1:18 PM ^
They're just a lot of clapping
September 26th, 2018 at 2:06 PM ^
With the occasional outburst of, "Well....!"
September 27th, 2018 at 7:57 PM ^
Underrated and surprised it took that long haha well played
September 26th, 2018 at 1:01 PM ^
I saw a picture of Harbaugh's from this weekend... written in blue sharpie, covering almost the entire thing was, "Ben Fucking Mason"... true story!
September 26th, 2018 at 2:06 PM ^
Hold on, it's didn't say "Ol' Murderface"? I call bullshit.
September 26th, 2018 at 3:49 PM ^
BEN SMASH!
September 26th, 2018 at 1:05 PM ^
assuming this is classic stuff (and that's a safe assumption) the double digit plays are going to be runs. the backs are numbered (1-2-3) and the holes are numbered, even to the right, odd to the left. so to the right the holes would be 0-2-4-6-8; to the left, the odd counterparts.
the triple digits are going to be pass plays and the third digit is telling you usually what direction to slide if you're the o-line.
the other stuff is fairly self explanatory. X and Z are your wideouts, Y is your tight end. and a typical pass pattern is a 'Z out' you see up there. that's a wideout and a slot both doing post patterns and then the slot guy turns out to a corner.
September 26th, 2018 at 1:13 PM ^
I think one key to understanding this would be the list of formation codes. Here are the ones I remember (for some reason; I didn't even play football)
For a lot of these plays, the two-digit #s refer to the formation. the first number is how many RBs, and the second is the # of TEs. Since there are five total non QB/non-OL positions, any "Remainder" would be the number of receivers. So:
00= 0 RB 0 TE (5 WR)
22= 2 RB 2 TE (1 WR)
For passing plays, the a three digit number tells you about the play design. The first number is usually the # of steps in the QB's drop, the second number has to do with the routes that the receivers will run, and the third number is the blocking scheme. Someone more knowledgeable could fill in the gaps.