Split zone is not a read play.

And the unblocked Nelson is intentional, and also not a read.  Bash deletes him from the play because 2 can outrun him any day of the week.

Double post.

Cyan or Saiyan?

You (jokingly) called out Seth.

I think the answer will now be:

CYA

:P

If you think Cade is overrated, you're right.

If you think Cade is underrated, you're right.

No sense in fighting about it. If you're someone who believes you need a QB to make pinpoint accurate throws and creates plays, you're going to think he's lacking. If you think you need a QB who avoids mistakes at all costs and doesn't give the other team more opportunities, then you're going to think he's awesome.

He can be both things at the same time.

Nicely done.

I can't believe I keep reading about this non-issue.

Something I've always loved about Ann Arbor and Michigan is how quick people are to demand satisfaction. I was one of those horrible people who worked in a record store and told people to get out because they wore the wrong button on their jacket. it was Mao. I don't regret this. Those 90 pound Commie High bastards who worked at Drakes were hilariously awful to every customer. After one of my first shifts at WCBN I swore the engineer was gonna kill me because I played a Who song. Too commercial. To paraphrase Chuck Heston from Planet of the Apes; Keep the flags of discontent flying. 

For one thing, props for the write-up. Well balanced. Second, I think most rational people understand McNamara has limitations. Limitations other teams key on, just like every other player on our team.

He is limited. What he isn't is a "trouble spot" because he can't run a read-option, and is suspect in post-snap reads in general. We have guys who can run better than he can, how about we let them do that.

He appears to know his limitations and works within those limitations. That's smart. He ain't Brett Favre.

I suspect McCarthy will eventually pass McNamara and win the job, but until then he's been good enough to beat Wisconsin and Nebraska, who explicitly dared Michigan to pass to win.

Kudos for clever use of "oubliette."

Soduk (opposite of "kudos") for neglecting a key element here, the feelz. With Cade not doing all we expected / hoped / wished, if feels disappointing.

Saiyan-ara.

A quibble. You state:

"and it's starting to visibly frustrate his teammates:

Erick All is pointing at the OLB lining up inside of him. He’s also looking at McNamara. Something is being communicated, and the most sensical thing that could be is “RIGHT HERE CADE. THIS GUY IS COMING INSIDE OF ME. READ THAT!” He doesn’t read that. And when All gets up after that he’s like “What the HELL man?”

That's reading an awful lot into a moment-in-time photo with, obviously, no sound that happened exactly once. I thought Seth made an error including it in his write up. It's completely insufficient to draw the conclusion that Cade's teammates are frustrated with him, and I've seen no other evidence to support that inference.

I won't pretend to have the knowledge to judge this either way, but +2 for entertainment value. If the level of football played was anywhere near the level of writing at this blog, we'd be Alabama.

I appreciate the time you've taken here to explain the Cyan (I am one of the "deeply" offended, I guess). I understand the missed RPO reads. That is definitely a problem and worth pointing out and being honest about etc. I can see here and have noted in other UFRs how crucial this issue is to putting the defense in crisis and forcing them to essentially not tank our run game by playing only the running back and loading the box. This is, in today's game, bad QBing. 

That said, there are other stresses he does put on a defense (deep ball accuracy mostly) that to my untrained eye make up at least a bit for the RPO miscues/ineptitude. This is the old school way of "unloading" the box. These were not abilities that Second year Shea had nor Milton and are skills I think rather important to the position. I had to go back and check but I would note that in the FFFF for the 2020 Rutgers Defense Milton did not have a Cyan circle. Milton did not have throwing accuracy or particularly efficient RPO abilities to my memory (much like Second Year Shea who also was not Cyaned).  

And this is why, to me, the Cade Cyan is perplexing (I'm not mad really just confused). Cade seems like (again, I'm an idiot on these points) the best QB we've had in sometime (since first year Shea at least). To me, if going into the 2020 Rutgers game Milton wasn't Cyan worthy in essentially this same offense how is Cade worse? Was Milton just crushing every RPO read and the missed deep balls were somehow less significant to our offensive success? It's just a difficult logic to follow to the untrained eye (maybe my gripe here is more about consistency). 

Furthermore, if we are saying that this is the offense and Cade needs to figure it TF out and the Cyaning will continue until moral improves, that too seems inconsistent to me. For one (see Milton discussion above) but then too I would offer the entire Don Brown defense last year. That was a classic case of this is the scheme and this is what we run and if you can't do that then that's the players' fault because the scheme is the scheme and won't be changed. 

I'm sure these decisions are not come to lightly and that Seth has incredibly good reasons for the Cyan (as you've noted well here). I love and have deep admiration for his work on this blog and I'm jealous of the knowledge he's gained over the years as a result of this work. I wish I could make sense of the game on his level. I also hope this offers some more nuanced explanation for the "What the Hell, bro" crowd. Who I think aren't so much offended as confused. 

Thank you Seth and Dragonchild for all your work. This is the last word on this you'll hear from me... probably. 

Go Blue!

It is amazing how narrow the line is on this. As I read the game column where Brian discusses the goal to go success rate: How different that is if Cade puts the ball in the right spot on those tight end releases (one v Rutgers one at Nebraska) and just a little more air under the bomb to Sainristil. The deep shot, less of a concern as he has hit quite a few, but UM is going to need those TDs in the red zone the rest of the way. 

You had my upvote at

Knowing that the current hobby sport here is to shred anyone who thinks Cade might actually deserve that cyan, I'll go ahead and stick my neck out. The rules are made up, and the points don't matter.

I think you covered most of what makes the cyan understandable. And I thank—yea, laud, even—you for that.

What makes it justifiable is the "correct read" column of the first stat box you threw up there. 9 correct reads out of 26 plays. When he goes o-fer downfield except for one circus catch, "game manager" is the absolute ceiling. And getting 2/3 of the reads wrong is a catastrophic fail if you're trying to be a game manager.

I think he's so close to what he needs to be. I don't think JJ is ready. But I think the cyan is justified.

I love this diary. The content. The flavor. Chef's kiss.

Obviously, it means cyan saiyan.

In the “acres of nothing” photo, there’s a Wisconsin CB on the 50 yard line waiting for Cade to keep. Cade runs laterally, the CB shoots up and tackles him for a 3 yard loss. Seth is so attached to his narrative that it’s affecting his objectivity. It’s sad, really.

Somebody deserves a "trouble spot" rating for Michigan's read game woes. But I think that someone is Gattis (or Harbaugh), not Cade. "Not so great at post-snap reads" may be a thing with Cade, but he is so consistently wrong, and always in the same direction (hand off when he should keep) that I have to believe he is being instructed to never keep except in very specific situations. A bad reader would sometimes make a bad keep read, but Cade has only kept once where it was a bad idea vs. multiple times a game where he hands off staring at acres of space. 

Given that a) Patterson had exactly the same issue, b) Cade was better at this last year and c) the "solution" to Cade never keeping seems to be "trot out JJ McCarthy to run a blindingly obvious zone read into a QB run blitz", I think the cyan needs to go on the offensive coaching staff. 

The only alternative is that no one on the Michigan coaching staff is capable of coaching a zone read in 2021, but that amounts to the same thing: they are a "trouble spot". 

I really do think the coaches are just trying to keep the quarterbacks alive. We have enough of a past history with a starter who goes out to know how that disrupts the season. We have also seen evidence in the past few weeks of other quarterbacks who were knocked out with disastrous results. Is read option installed so they can go nuts later in the year? I just don’t know, but since everyone else around here is moving the goalposts I guess I can too.

"split zone" as I believe it is commonly called, means instead of leaving the backside DE unblocked, there is a FB/HB/TE going opposite the flow of the play to handle the backside DE.

The QB read is only one way of handling the BS DE unblocked. Bootlegs, Reverses or Arounds, even counters are other ways. You don't need a QB read to run zone or counter/power. But having that in your arsenal, either with your starting QB or second QB, is just one more thing for the opponent to have to prepare for and be aware of.

Anyone care to explain the background of Cyan QB for me.  I mean I’ve picked up some context, essentially it indicates a quarterback who is about to be replaced.

Thank you for taking the time to write it Dragonchild. I enjoyed it. I encourage you to write about other controversial causes as much as you could. Well written.