Preview: Akron 2013 Comment Count

Brian

Other stuff here: Ace FFFF!

roo_display_image[1]Essentials

WHAT Michigan vs Akron
WHERE Michigan Stadium,
Ann Arbor, Michigan
WHEN Noon Eastern
September 14th, 2013
THE LINE M -38
TELEVISION BTN
WEATHER sunny, upper 60s
0% chance of rain

I'm trying real hard, Mr. Roo.

Run Offense vs Akron

The Zips were 109th in rushing defense a year ago, ceding nearly five yards a carry even without removing sacks. It's possible they've improved in that department after holding UCF to four yards a carry and James Madison to 3.7, but doubtful that Michigan will notice such a difference.

I mean:

That's Akron playing defense against Central Florida.

For Michigan, it's about identifying guys correctly and blowing them up. They've had opportunities to break long ones submarined by one missed assignment here, one missed assignment there. That's understandable with a young line and (still) young tight ends. Michigan wants to develop those guys over the course of the season; now would be a good time to put the spurs to an opponent.

Key Matchup: The offensive line vs generating false hopes because they smash low level competition.

[Hit THE JUMP for more condescending key matchups.]

Pass Offense vs Akron

James Madison sophomore Michael Birdsong was 29/42 for 310 yards, 3 TDs, and 1 INT against Akron. UCF junior Blake Bortles was 18/24 for 314 yards, 3 TDs, and 0 INT against Akron. Last year, Akron was 104th in pass efficiency defense.

Devin Gardner.

Etc.

Key Matchup: Akron defensive backs vs the fountain of blood spurting from their eyes midway through the first quarter.

Run Defense vs Akron

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Akron rushed for just over four yards a carry against UCF thanks to a big gain from 5'8" freshman DJ Jones against UCF's backups. As Ace detailed in FFFF, before the fourth quarter Akron had two drives longer than 11 yards, one of which ended in a punt, the other an interception, so… yeah.

Last week they won a 35-33 thriller against I-AA power James Madison on which 55 of  their 83 rushing yards (sacks excised) came on one carry from Jawon Chisholm, a returning starter who averaged almost 90 yards a game last year. He'll probably get the bulk of the carries, but since the "bulk" against James Madison was 11 carries, that's not saying much.

Michigan had some scheme-related struggles against Notre Dame; their defensive tackles had a hard time holding up to Notre Dame doubles. That shouldn't repeat against last year's #105 rushing offense.

Key Matchup: Michigan players versus boredom.

Pass Defense vs Akron

dalton williams[1]

This pass is going eight yards maximum.

This will be the usual MAC passing spread heavy on wide receiver screens, hitch routes, and petrified attempts to keep the quarterback upright. Akron lost its starting quarterback from a year ago but still return two guys who had over 50 attempts. Their statistical profiles are pure dinkball:

  • Kyle Pohl, sophomore: completing nearly 70% of his passes for 5.5 YPA.
  • Nick Hirschman, junior: completing nearly 60% of his passes for 6.6 YPA.

Hirschmann had ten attempts last week, Pohl, 22. That might have been more even, but Hirschman hit a bomb over the top against James Madison… and subsequently hurt his knee celebrating. (BIG TENNN!) He's probable this weekend, but if there's any chance he could aggravate that injury, Akron will hold him out of what projects to be a bloodbath.

Akron's spread out its receptions extensively. Nine different players caught passes in both of their games. There's no returning go-to guy. Their pass protection was mediocre a year ago despite all the quick throws, ceding an average of 2 sacks per game and gave up three to JMU.

This will be an exercise in tackling for the Michigan defensive backs, as Akron doesn't project to have the skill players, protection, or quarterback to attack them deep. Expect a blizzard of five yard throws on which YAC is the difference between first downs and punts, with the latter more prevalent.

Key Matchup: Taylor, Hollowell, and Countess versus missed tackles.

Special Teams

This will be of no consequence. If Michigan punts, hopefully they do not shank it and actually cover it. Maybe Dennis Norfleet breaks one, if he catches the damn ball.

Key Matchup: CATCH THE DAMN BALL

Intangibles

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nobody puts kitten in a tire well except everybody

Cheap Thrills

Worry if...

  • Akron does anything.
  • Anything at all.
  • Notre Dame struggles against Purdue.

Cackle with knowing glee if...

  • Jehu Chesson is activated in the passing game or moved to tight end.
  • Brian Cleary lays waste.
  • They don't play In The Big House for the third straight game.

Fear/Paranoia Level: 0 (Baseline 5; –1 MACrifice, –1 for MACrifice That was 1-11 Last Year, –1 for MACrifice That Lost to UCF 42-7, –1 for Six Score Spread, +1 for OH GOD I REMEMBER IT ALL, –1 for Yeah But This Is Akron, Man, Akron, –1 for Seriously I Am Done Pretending I Remember It All)

Desperate need to win level: 10 (Baseline 5; +1 for Never Forget, +1 for I Just Got Used To Not Worrying About This, +1 for Also I Just Got Used To Being A Near Top-Ten Outfit, +1 for I Like Thinking Positive Things About The Direction Of The Program…, +1 for …And Not Eating Pulverized Glass)

Loss will cause me to... grind every piece of glass in my house into powder and eat it.

Win will cause me to... change in no way whatsoever.

The strictures and conventions of sportswriting compel me to predict:

Victory by lots.

Finally, three opportunities for me to look stupid Sunday:

  • Jehu Chesson gets four catches.
  • Akron crosses midfield once.
  • Mike Shaw bursts out of the tunnel midway through the third quarter, gets five carries, bounces each of them to the sideline, scores five touchdowns.
  • Michigan, 62-0

Comments

Mr Miggle

September 13th, 2013 at 1:26 PM ^

I can only remember two games where we made a point of doing so: 1986 vs Illinois (69-13) and 1992 vs Houston (61-7). In both cases it was because of hard feelings toward the opposing head coach. If Tressel were to make an appearance on the sideline I'd be in favor of doing it again, but I don't see either happening.

DelhiGoBlue

September 13th, 2013 at 8:14 PM ^

Prior to the Michigan game their greatest margin of victory was 24-7 against Iowa.  After being "punished" by Bo 70-21, they went on to beat Indiana 35-14 and NW 49-12.  Or maybe it was the prior year...greatest margin of victory for Illinois was 35-9 against NW.  I'm not getting where Illinois was running up the score.

Blue in Denver

September 13th, 2013 at 3:52 PM ^

Same as for the Illinois game.  Houston was full run-n-shoot back then and liked to see how many points they could score against decidely lesser teams.  If memory serves they were trying to hit the 1000yd mark in a game.  After one game a player had defended their deep throws late in the game with a huge lead, saying something like "well they were taking away the short stuff and giving us the long ones."

I was in college at the time and running up the score was a bit of an issue back then with Nebraska being the poster child for running up scores to try to influence poll voters.  With the general senstivity to running up scores it was somewhat suprising when national media was generally positive about Michigan abusing Houston.  Apparently pretty much everyone agreed they deserved it.

DelhiGoBlue

September 13th, 2013 at 7:59 PM ^

in 1976 sank Navy 70-14, and in 1975 whooped on NW 69-0, exaclty who was being punished, and for what?

BTW, you might want to look at the scores Illinois and Houston were putting up in that era.  Nothing to write home about.  Irony is, after Moeller's boys "punished" Houston 61-7, Houston turned around and destroyed LA- Lafayette 63-7.  I guess Houston learned their lesson well.

M-Wolverine

September 14th, 2013 at 12:05 AM ^

Houston only ran up the score against mismatched teams.

Illinois wasn't actually getting punished for running up the score. They were getting pounded for firing Moeller and hiring a big cheater in his place.

Sopwith

September 13th, 2013 at 7:17 PM ^

and they kept scoring.  I believe Elvis Grbac was injured and Todd Collins was getting the start, but they were giving lots of PT to true frosh Mercury Hayes and Amani Toomer (both scored TDs IIRC) and the tailbacks went 4-deep.  They put up 42 in the first half, but it wasn't exactly running it up to add 19 in the second (two missed xp's).  By the end, Riemersma (this was before he was a TE) was throwing TDs to Toomer.  I didn't think it was deliberate, they weren't keeping the starters out there.

But if anyone deserved it, John Jenkins did, apart from trying to lay 100 on a totally depleted SMU squad (they got to 95).  After that game, he was quoted as saying "We've got dump trucks rolling up, we're breaking glass, kicking ass, and taking names, making women scream and babies cry, this is sweet."  God, he was a douche. After the 61-7 final, he said "I guess Michigan's backups are better than our backups."  

Yeah, I'd say the starters were a little better, too.

never a bad time for Wolverine Historian:

 

worth a few minutes of your time.  Or at least skip to 5:12 and watch Derrick Alexander's brilliant reverse.

Perkis-Size Me

September 13th, 2013 at 1:34 PM ^

Unless we see Tressel roaming the sidelines with Akron tomorrow, I'm not really a huge proponent of running up the score. Akron is already a bad team and we wouldn't be proving much by having an additional 20-30 points on them.



And its just kind of a dick move unless you have some serious beef with the school or opposing coach.

sdogg1m

September 13th, 2013 at 1:48 PM ^

One other question, really in the end what is the point of playing a cupcake if you are just going to let up and not play to potential?

I guess you can say this is a part of a greater problem with the polling system but none-the-less we are stuck with watching games against Akron. If that is the case I want to see all the players do well.

WolvinLA2

September 13th, 2013 at 2:14 PM ^

I'll answer this one.  Even though Akron is a bad football team, the starters still get at least a half a dozen drives of in-game reps where they can work on getting better.  It's also a good chance for the coaches to experiment a little with rotations and to get extended reps for guys who wouldn't get them in a close game, but who might be needed later in the season.  

Take Channing Stribbling for example.  He's a true frosh who got only a couple snaps against ND (which would be the norm for him in any closer game).  But what if Taylor or Countess goes down at some point during the year, even for a few drives?  Stribbling will be called upon at that point, and you'd like for him to have some real game minutes under his belt.  

sdogg1m

September 13th, 2013 at 2:23 PM ^

I see the coaches doing this but at the same time they are trying stuff against an "inferior" opponent. The same play could be blown up by OSU.

I know that additional players will get playing time but for the most part they will be going out to make play that are EXPECTED to fail. There is a reason we call it garbage time. Garbage time is WASTED time. Just let the second and third strings prep for the big time. In other words, call plays that you would expect them to make as if they were the starters.

If we are truly worried about hurting Akron's feelings over a score of a football game then why don't we really put on a show and write articles like Akron is a powerhouse. Let's eliminate words like cupcake or creme puff. Of course, such logic is rediculous.

WolvinLA2

September 13th, 2013 at 4:26 PM ^

I don't get this argument at all.  Sure, Akron is an inferior opponent, but that doesn't mean that the reps against them are without value.  They're a lot better than going against the scout team D, right?  And in reality, most of our games are against inferior opponents, but that's a good way to prepare for the big games. 

And it's not called garbage time because it's wasted time (whatever that means).  It's garbage time because the result of the game is no longer in question, but not that the players who are out there are no longer trying. 

As for your last paragraph, I honestly don't have a clue what you're saying.  Are we worried about hurting Akron's feelings?  I don't get this part.

WolvinLA2

September 13th, 2013 at 4:53 PM ^

I see.  I was just replying to the "Why do we play Akron" thing, and I wasn't prepared for him to bring up other arguments. 

That said, I have no problem running up the score.  Never stop trying, ever.  Now, I'm all for taking out our starters once the game is out of hand, but I think we should run good plays for our back ups and if they score 60 more points, good for them.  This isn't middle school soccer. 

sdogg1m

September 14th, 2013 at 12:42 AM ^

Read my other comments. Outside of this douches nitpicking on a misspelled word and failure of a comparison between an "ass whopping" and an athletic competition, he has failed to grasp the simple concept that you aren't helping your players OR your opponent by wasting a half of football.

When you call Yost a dick, you forfeit your Michigan fan card. Go troll some other forum.

DelhiGoBlue

September 13th, 2013 at 8:22 PM ^

Has Hoke ever said anything about an expectation of failure?  Even once?  On the contrary, all I've ever heard from him and his coaches is that every player that takes the field is to perform to an excellent standard.  That means the 2 and 3 deep are expected to perform as if they are in fact starters.  The expectation is not failure, rather it is success and victory.

Blazefire

September 13th, 2013 at 12:40 PM ^

Alright, so, he's been decent, but NOT living up to the hype to date. I agree there. But now you've got a 278 lb DE with incredible athletic ability... Someone taking snaps for Akron is going to be made of bruises Sunday.