Hokepoints PSA: Always MIKE Before You Hike Comment Count

Seth

tom brady pointing

Tom always MIKEs before he hikes.

We here at MGoheadquarters recently received some disturbing news about today's youth:

Kids these days are running around playing three or four years of Division I FBS major conference Block-M-Michigan football without ever identifying the MIKE. !. This sudden revelation has caused widespread histeria. Al Borges has been fired 180 times in the last several hours, and right now Dave Brandon and key personnel are closed off with Rich Rodriguez, deciding whether he needs to get a superfluous extra axe as well. This is calamitous. Catastrophic. Grievous. Pernicious. Regrettable. And avoidable.

What in the name of Double-Pointing Brady Hoke are you people talking about?

MIKE (v.): The act of identifying the middle defender inside the box on the 2nd level for purposes of establishing protection assignments.

It's basically calling out the defense's alignment, using a very simple mechanism: declare one linebacker—the one in the middle of the defense—to be a fifth guy that the five linemen are responsible for blocking.

HENNE POINT UM OSU fbc lew
Chad always MIKEs before he hikes.

This is often, but by no means always, the middle linebacker, which many defenses call a "Mike," which is where the term comes from. This is important: the [guy playing the defensive position called] Mike doesn't get to be all-time MIKE. In fact the very reason we MIKE is because Mike the Mike might not be the MIKE, and not knowing this might get your quarterback very badded.

Why is MIKEing important to my children?

Because if the MIKE blitzes there's no way for outside protection to pick him up, so the offensive line has to assign everybody's blocking with that guy accounted for somehow. Defenses LOOOOOOOOVE to screw with this because that's how you get unblocked blitzers, and unblocked blitzers right through the heart of the OL are the best!

When the defense screws with you, you don't have time to point at everybody and say "you block him; you block him." So ONE guy calls out the MIKE and everyone else in the blocking scheme already knows what that means. Usually they call out what sounds like a playcall—it's just a blocking call. "Tango!" "Lightning!" "Red!" "Green!"  "Taupe Carpet!"*

hi-res-c2d55737f7ea6824fe33d1306bd7b887_crop_exact
Brian always MIKEs before he hikes. [James Squire|Getty]

Like in running, pass pro can be man or zone (slide protection). Man makes sure every defender who could be blitzing has a guy assigned to block him (or as is often the case, a man who checks one guy then looks to another). In zone they're blocking gaps: A gap, B gap, C gap, etc. Whatever protection scheme, they have to "declare the MIKE." What they do from there depends on the scheme.

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* My dad used colors/nonsense words for playcalls: Blue Jumbo, Yellow Turbo, Purple Eskimo etc. Since he didn't like to use the same "play" twice he got pretty deep into the crayola box before parents' complaints in re: his Lombardi cigar ended his coaching career.

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[After the jump, Y U NO MIKE, DG?, and you learn to MIKE]

Why is this an issue now, and how [fires Borges again] did Gardner never do this?

Let me answer the second question first: Gardner wasn't identifying the MIKE because in Borges's offense that was the job of the center. Perhaps the coaches didn't want to put more on Gardner. I don't remember Denard doing a lot of pointing either—Molk set the MIKE. It's not, like, the HUGEST thing that Gardner wasn't MIKEing so long as his protection was.

atrain
A-Train always MIKEs before Henson hikes.

But on the other hand it's kind of a big deal because he should have learned this in the course of becoming a technical, upperclassman quarterback, and as he said, knowing who the OL aren't blocking gives you a better sense of where the pressure could come from. Changing offenses three times (or, ahem, every three weeks) likely meant Gardner was learning the fundamentals of that scheme rather than other peoples' responsibilities.

So why now? For one it's about damn time, redshirt senior. Second, it's because MIKEing is of great importance to an inside zone running team as well, since likely attackers in the middle tend to do bad things to inside zone. Third, it's hard to MIKE when you're coming to the line with 5 seconds left on the play clock.

How do you choose just one MIKE?

Coaches have various ways of doing this. One I learned is the 2nd defender on the 2nd level starting from the weakside. Other guys say "find the middle guy." There are lots of variations because it's very imperfect—remember, all you're doing is pointing out a linebacker that the OL are responsible for blocking. That's why instead of everybody reading it, ONE GUY identifies the MIKE and everybody else adjusts based on that guy's call.

That guy can be the center, or the quarterback, or someone else. When you see a guy pointing, he's usually MIKEing. If you hear him yell a number—52! 52!—along with it, it could be the jersey number of the MIKE or a number corresponding to a protection scheme. Mike Solari had a good explanation how to do it on Billick's show:

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A MIKEing Example

Mike1

Above we have an under center Ace formation against a 4-3 over front. I'm showing man blocking just because it's easier. I'm also ignoring callsides (right/left) for the same reason. Also I'm using a playcall example that puts six blockers against a potential 7 or 8 attackers (you'll understand why soon enough). If you must know the offense is planning to run four verts.

The guys in blue are the five offensive linemen responsible for the five chief suspects to be attacking the backfield: four defensive linemen and the man they've identified as "MIKE." Based on this alignment the center and LG will be taking the nose, and checking the MLB; between the two of them they should have both blocked. The RB is going to stay in and help, reading the SAM and the WILL (starting from furthest inside) to see if either (or both) is coming. The RB will have to step one way or another; they'll run a token play-action to him and he'll stop and set up on whichever side they ran the PA (up to the coach).

Suddenly the defense changes up:

Mike2

The WILL got caught trying to time his blitz, and the FS has been walking up. The center or the QB—whichever is in charge of calling out the MIKE, is now going to switch it up so that the OL will have the WLB taken care of.

Mike3

Note what happened here: the defense went into an 8-man front, and the offense had to pick a guy they're going to block using their best blockers. The RB now has three potential dudes in the box he has to watch. But because he heard the MIKE call he knows who they are and what order to watch them: MLB, SAM, FS. The WLB is the MIKE now. Aaand…

Mike4

It's a double-A gap blitz. The four down linemen and the new "MIKE" have been blocked by the OL, and the RB read the MLB coming. The quarterback, knowing all about MIKEing and re-MIKEing, knows the pressure is going to come from the MLB. He knows he'll have to keep an eye on the RB's block because that could go badly.

Any parting lessons for the kiddies?

tumblr_lsg4h8KJeR1qiqx6jo1_400tumblr_lxyfx2K5uQ1qbqmu8

ALWAYS MIKE BEFORE YOU HIKE!

P.S. Everyone should spend a night google image searching "[Michigan quarterback] pointing."

Comments

Skapanza

August 21st, 2014 at 11:40 AM ^

Was I the only one hoping the hyperlink under "Red" and "Green" was a clip of the gang from Possum Lodge? God bless you Canadian television.

"I'm a man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess"

mGrowOld

August 21st, 2014 at 12:33 PM ^

FWIW I would put the technical knowledge of football by both the proprietors of the site and certain posters like Space & Magnus and many others as well as their willingness to explain in detail what is going during a given play up against any site in the world.

You just cannot find a thread written or responded to like this one anyplace else.

Michigan4Life

August 21st, 2014 at 12:38 PM ^

It's not necessarily that you have to identify LB as MIKE. Safety can walk up into the box and that Safety can become a MIKE. The purpose of identifying MIKE is QBs and/or C knows the middle defensive alignment.

A good way to screw up ID is defense switch out at the last minute but OL have to be alert of possible blitz, stunt, etc. on the fly.


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TheHumbleBuckeye

August 21st, 2014 at 12:55 PM ^

nice write-up... informative with a dose of humor. I like it.

 

This article reminded me of a quote Matt McGloin made back in 2012 when he said that Obrien had literally taught him how to play QB, and that before Obrien came in, he really didn't know much about about reading a defense or how to identify coverages. To which I was like "LOL WUT????". I've long contended that the problem in the B1G wasn't a talent disparity between our top teams and those of other conferences. It has been outdated methods of talent development/strength and conditioning as well as mediocre coaches, both head coaches and assistants that stuck around too long. It seems like we're turning a corner in that regard, as evidenced by the short leashes that Roushar, Borges, and previous Indiana DC were on. I think in the "old B1G", they may have hung around a little longer.

 

Boom Goes the …

August 21st, 2014 at 1:01 PM ^

in that first example, if X Z U and Y are all going out on pass routes, you have a 6 man protection vs 7 potential rushers.  That is fine...  First thing is to make sure backside is totally accounted for...so C,G,T are responsible for N, WDE, Will.  G and T take SDE and 3tech.  The running back then "double reads" M and S going inside out.  If BOTH come, he takes the most inside rusher, and the QB must throw his hot route.  If only 1 comes, the RB picks him up.

Now when the FS rolls down, that adds another rusher to the backside that must be accounted for.  And you now have 8 rushers against a 6 man protection.  So the QB checks the RB to be solely responsible for the FS and the QB then double reads the M and S by himself.  If EITHER comes, he throws hot.

Reader71

August 21st, 2014 at 1:39 PM ^

This article is wonderful and I want to marry mgoblog so much right now, BUT

It doesn't deal with the run game at all. Every play in the run game also starts with a Mike call. In the old days, we used to also differentiate between the Mike in an over front or a stack and the Mac is an under front or 3-4 or nickel or what have you. The blocking schemes for the same run are different depending on the defensive alignment, and the quickest way to screw that up is calling out the wrong Mike or incorrectly calling him a Mac or whatever.

I have no imaging skills and would be too stupid to embed it even if I did, but I would love a quick rundown of, say, how we'd block inside zone against an over vs under front or how we'd decide which side to run an inside zone check-with-me.

BlueinLansing

August 21st, 2014 at 1:44 PM ^

this is that important.  Every single defensive coordinator would pick up that Michigan's QB doesn't identify the MIKE and would take advantage of that.  Every. Single. One.

 

Reader71

August 21st, 2014 at 2:08 PM ^

I don't think anyone is saying Michigan doesn't identify a Mike. I think a lot of us are considering the notion that perhaps Gardner didn't grasp what the Mike call meant about his protection. Borges might not have hammered it into to his mind.

If its true that Devin never identified the Mike, the most likely result is that he wouldn't know where the likely pressure points would be. It would mean that he was utterly unprepared for hot reads when the defense brought 1 more man than the protection was designed to block. Maybe Borges was of the belief that if they bring one more guy than we can block, I have the QBs to run away from them.

Who knows? We don't, were just talking about what a Mike call is and why its important and how fun talking football can be and so on.

Space Coyote

August 21st, 2014 at 2:25 PM ^

But almost exclusively used 7 man blocking schemes to prevent needing hot reads last year. Not many teams bringing 8 man pressures, so theoretically everything should have been picked up.

My feeling was that this was more for the young OL and young TEs (actually, young WRs as well) more than Gardner. At least that was the most logical thing I could come up with. Because Borges had preferred 6 man blocking schemes with at least one hot in the past.

YaterSalad

August 22nd, 2014 at 8:40 AM ^

I think the MIKE responsibility was probably on the Center, as it was with Molk. Problem was, after Molk (who has this lovely training through Carr and RichRod), we didnt have anyone capable. The parade of C after Molk didn't get great tutoring through Borges probably. After all, the guy was learning spread concepts, then multiple route passing plays, and then tackle over, and so on and so forth. This constant change didn't comprehend a C without training having to identify the MIKE properly. Guys like Narduzzi ate this shit up and then even DC like Neb saw it on game film. Bam. Back to back weeks of negative play from the o-line.



Devin calling out the blitzers helps in two folds. 1) It prevents a young line from figuring out who to block. They instead focus on technique and assignments. 2) It makes Devin more aware in the pocket because he can anticipate where the pressure is coming from. That allows for the hot read and quick slant passes to move the chains and counterattack pressure.

steve sharik

August 22nd, 2014 at 12:27 PM ^

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Above is basic slide protection to the right.  Since the call is to the right, the OL assignments go from left to right.  From the left, if an OL is covered by a DL, he blocks the man.  1st uncovered OL (in this case the Center) blocks the gap to his right, meaning whichever defender (DL, stemming DL, or blitzing LB or S) rushes his gap, that's who he blocks.  The RB blocks away from the slide (in the case to the left), picking up any blitzer from inside-out (since inside blitzers can get to the QB quicker).

It is unnecessary to ID the MIKE--the RB simply has to look inside out.  If both LBs from the left blitz, the QB has to account for the WHIP OLB, and throw hot.

Of course, an OC could have his QB ID the MIKE just to provide film evidence that his team uses a man protection scheme.