Damning quotes from Nebraska DE Randy Gregory

After attending the game yesterday I can honestly say that the effort and atmosphere did not represent that of the other 15 or so games I have attended in my life.

Offensive play calling is atrocious. I myself am a offensive coordinator at a local hs and I honestly struggle at time to find rumor and reason to the gameplay. Al's first season here i praised the man for being able to adjust his offense to our strengths. Now I can't help but shake my head as we run an ISO Behind our left guard on 2nd and 13 when we already had -23 yards rushing (yes I know most were from sacks and a bad snap)

The interior o-line is not good. However, I did not think blocking up front was atrocious. Guards are slow to pull and there is absolutely no push. This aspect will improve with experience.

Running back blocking is a serious area of concern. Idk why we seemingly give old Fred a free pass. I haven't seen a back consistently block here since Brandon Minor. We look timid, slow, and outmanned at the point of attack. I can see it from Green because he is a freshman. Fitz is just not everything we hoped he would be. Not fast enough for his size, no longer shifty (probably due to injury) and not physical enough to block defensive ends our lbs... Since we don't run anyway we mine as well default to green.

DG needs to raise up out of this slump and produce. He has the physical tools but when the going gets rough it's like e forgets all his footwork. His progression is becoming slower and it appears as though he makes his decision pre-snap at times. Do we have a QB coach? I know out of hs he was very raw (Inkster taught him next to nothing about the position) but with consistency comes success. Compile DG's inconsistency with the o-lines problems and you have a serious issue in the passing game. Bottom line, the man looks gun shy. Almost can't blame him after all the sacks.

The receiving core really seems limited by scheme. This offense asks receivers to do a lot of things by themselves to get open and make plays. Al's 'stack' formations are his attempt to hide our lack if size and isolate our larger receiver (funchess). There is usually a check down, but it is rarely a route that will get us anything. Yesterday, DG simply held the ball too long. There were times were guys were open and he just could not find them. We should have been able to take advantage when Nebraska went cover 0, but we did not (with the exception of our one huge mismatch in funchess) gallon played solid, devin simply could not find him.

I would like to continue to incorporate the te, especially butt, into the offense more. Easier pass for devin and the kid makes plays. However, blocking needs to improve significantly at this position in the near future.

We need a true center as well as a true punter (if in fact will is or is not returning). These two positions have been underachieving IMO. I know some will argue with me about Wile, but the guy is bit a punter and you an see that from his inconsistency.

I am not one to normally pass judgement on coaches but IMO funk, Borges, and even Fred have to seriously be evaluated after the season. These areas have become a serious are of concern and I do not see improvement over the course if the season. We can blame the 'stars' all we want, but I believe this team has some talent that is seriously underutilized in this very limited offensive scheme Borges has marched out the last month and a half.

Signed, a fan that sees potential but believed changes need to come quickly.

I saw some play-calling progress.   We threw to our FB twice yesterday.  Twice.   Two times.   So take that opposing defenses who thought we were going to run just because our FB was on the field.   Progress, I say.

/trying to find silver linings

What will lead to some changes? A 6-6 finish? (very possible IMO) Urban and the boys hanging "half-a-hundred" in a few weeks? I'm honestly curious... up until yesterday, I agreed with Brian's stance that nothing would change, but now...  

USC defenders said the same thing after the Rose Bowl following the '06 season. But that team could still move the ball. I don't think it is unfair to say Michigan has suffered from simplistic offensive design for years. The problem this year is the lack of overall talent and/or experience combined with Al's inability to adapt with a week or two of preparation, let alone on the fly.

We're looking inept. If you didn't know better, you'd think this was year 1 under a new staff. Nebraska essentially had 11 in the box on a few plays yesterday. Not on the goaline, not on short yardage situations ... on regular downs with Gallon/Funch on the field. That is embarrassing. It's obvious that they had no respect for our offensive abilities.

whats wrong with this team, but I do think it has to be a combination of many things going wrong at the same time. At least offensively Like poor play calling, poor QB play, poor blitz pickups in the backfield, poor line play, poor timing and or luck. It also looks like Nebraska asked MSU for their gameplans against UM with sending two players into the same gap or at least copy catting them. Except they did not give Lewan the same respect, MSU did by blitzing his gap rather than the centers gap.

The Nebraska player made on his back FOR A FIRST DOWN, WTF....Talk about the football Gods loving you, are they living right or what...If he does not catch it the ball sails harmlessly out of bounds, but as he fell and the QB throws the ball too low the reception was pure unadulterated luck like this team has never seen, save the Sugar bowl. I would have laughed if it weren't  so sad

My first year of coaching youth football I asked a local HS coach about under center vs. shotgun snap. His reply was that if your QB is exceptionally quick getting away from the center AND you have a strong running back, you go from under center because you will have an advantage. If not you go shotgun or pistol. His statement was that "you're going to spend 2 hours of practice working center exchange. You will be able to teach either method in that time relatively well"(for youth football). Devin Gardner is EXCEPTIONALLY slow at getting away from center. I mean unusually slow. He has been since day 1. I watched youtube vids on denard, devin and several other QBs and he is SLOW getting away. There is no missing it.

So I can't remember... don't WANT to remember... the botched blocks by our RBs.

 

Were they merely outmuscled because they were facing DL instead of blitzing LBs due to our transparent offense?  If so, it makes the blocking issues not nearly as much in the hands of the RBs themselves, but more so on the easy to scheme against offense.

Brian has been telling everyone that we are tipping our plays for years now.  It was only a matter of time before everyone else in the world figured it out.  The question is, why the F*** hasn't Borges figured it out???