Count it: Michigan and B1G football

Submitted by Ron Utah on

On a week with no news (other than bad news), I thought I'd share some of the interesting numbers about Michigan and B1G football that have caught my eye.

Devin Gardner before he was 98, which now feels like his age and his number

Senior Day

  • 12...or is it?  I'm not sure if Brady Hoke was still counting Frank Clark as a senior or not when he mentioned the "12" seniors we'll be honoring this week, but there are only 11 on the roster, and that includes Desmond Morgan.  If there were actually 12, it would be the same number of seniors we had on the roster in RR's final season (2010).
  • Eight.  The number of seniors on the depth chart, including the kicker and punter.  Of course, that doesn't count Clark.
  • Four.  There are four seniors on the defensive depth chart, with Beyer, Ryan, and Taylor as starters and Hollowell as a back-up.
  • One.  There is only one senior starting on offense (Gardner), and only one other senior on the offensive depth chart (Burzynski).

TFLs were the trademark offensive play in 2013

Improvement?

  • 4.51.  Michigan's YPC is a full 1.23 yards better than 2013's pathetic 3.28 per carry mark.  That's good for 57th in the country, compared to 115th in the country last year.
  • 3.23.  Against Minnesota, Michigan's YPP (yds/play).  It's the worst of the season so far, although 3.26 against MSU is awfully close.  Last year, U-M was under 3 YPP three times--Iowa, MSU, and Nebraska, with a low of 2.77 vs. Iowa.
  • 113.  At 8.96 TFLs allowed per game, Michigan's total of 113 for the 2013 season was the worst (125th) in college football.  This year's current total is 54, which is 54th in the country.
  • 5.28.  Michigan's 5.28 YPP (85th) on the season is worse than 2013's 5.44, 2012's 6.07, and 2011's 6.23.  That's an easy (and awful) trendline to draw in your head.
  • 117.  Michigan's rank in YPG this year.  We are also 112th in scoring offense, one spot better than Northwestern.  We were 46th in scoring offense in 2013, 57th in 2012, and 26th in 2011.  We are just barely over 20 PPG this year.  Melvin Gordon averages 15 PPG by himself.
  • 114.  Michigan's rank in passing YPG.  We finished 2013 at 51.  Shockingly, there are three teams in the B1G with lower ranks (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana) and two of those teams have better records than Michigan.  The B1G has six teams ranked 94th or lower in passing YPG.
  • 4.  The B1G has four teams (OSU, MSU, Wisc, Neb) ranked in the top 15 in scoring offense this year, more than any other conference.

This guy still has four years of eligibility

Talent

  • 36.  According to Rivals, the number of four and five star players Michigan has recruited since 2012.  ALL of those players are still on the roster, and all had offers from top-tier programs.
  • 13.  The number of returning scholarship OL in 2015, 16 total.
  • 6.  The number of four-star (Rivals) players who committed in 2011.  Two are starters (Beyer and Taylor)--the same number who are no longer with the team (Barnett, Bryant).
  • 3.  In what should be the class's RS SR year, only three commits from the 2010 class remain on the team.

Please come home.  Or send your brother.

Harbaugh

  • 5.  The number of "Jim Harbaugh to Michigan" rumor stories on Google News in the past three days.
  • 5.  The number of "Jim Harbaugh to Oakland Raiders" rumor stories on Google News in the past three days.
  • 18.  Number of days since a "John Harbaugh to Michigan" rumor story appeared on Google.

Comments

maize-blue

November 18th, 2014 at 3:48 PM ^

I think the biggest and maybe only positive you can take on the offensive side of the ball this season is the fact that they have improved quite a bit in TFLs and Sacks Allowed. If they can finish up the season at their current middle of the pack position, that will be a hell of an improvement from last season. I am optimistic that they are figuring things out on the Offensive line and it is headed in the right direction, but it's just happening at a much slower pace than we hoped for.

I thought if they could sure up those areas this season that the offense would improve dramatically even with a new scheme, but the overall downturn was unexpected to me at least.

Soulfire21

November 19th, 2014 at 9:28 AM ^

This is what is so perplexing to me.  Gardner is getting considerably better protection this year and he's performing way worse.

Is it injuries?  Coaching? Scheme?  I don't know the answer, but it's frustrating to watch him struggle the way he does because I feel like he's a much better athlete than what we've seen, then again maybe not.

MaizeandBlueBleeder

November 29th, 2014 at 10:24 AM ^

I'd like to see stats on dropped passes this year. This is the worst year I've ever seen in UM football for this. Especially Funchess, it seems to me he's dropped more than he's caught this year. I realize it's hard to measure this but as far as I'm concerned, if you can touch it you can catch it as my HS football coaches always said.