DG: "Before Nuss, I never had to identify a MIKE."
August 20th, 2014 at 7:23 PM ^
August 20th, 2014 at 7:24 PM ^
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August 20th, 2014 at 7:26 PM ^
Al Borges was old school, very old!
August 20th, 2014 at 7:32 PM ^
...for an offense to identify the MIKE to be able to know when and where pressure from and have hot reads built into the route tree.
August 20th, 2014 at 7:36 PM ^
August 20th, 2014 at 9:35 PM ^
That's what I am more hopeful about. Borges seemed too stubborn and tied to his preset game plan. An OC needs to take what is given sometimes.
August 20th, 2014 at 11:43 PM ^
Yeah, but I'm sure some player at Alabama is probably saying "We never did XYZ under Nuss".
You can always make any coach look bad with selective player quotes after that coach leaves.
August 21st, 2014 at 12:41 AM ^
Alabama did not put up negative rushing yards against one of the worst run defenses in the country.
Borges did more to make himself look bad than any fans ever did, he was a good coordinator a decade ago, he hasn't been for years.
August 21st, 2014 at 12:51 AM ^
No bubble screens allowed. Borges said so.
August 20th, 2014 at 7:50 PM ^
I'm confident this year is going to be a success. I believe a shitstorm of factors came together last year that can't possibly align again, but let's stop anointing people as the second coming when we haven't seen a thing yet...let's leave that stuff for ND.
August 20th, 2014 at 9:35 PM ^
August 21st, 2014 at 12:53 AM ^
August 20th, 2014 at 8:07 PM ^
August 20th, 2014 at 10:16 PM ^
August 20th, 2014 at 10:29 PM ^
August 20th, 2014 at 10:59 PM ^
Of the receivers performances. His response was that he didn't know, he was busy watching the middle of the OL to see how the DL was doing. I thought that was a terrible response . It's becoming obvious he can't handle the whole team as head coach and maybe he should focus on DL and recruiting .
August 20th, 2014 at 11:10 PM ^
August 20th, 2014 at 11:11 PM ^
He only has two eyes, and unless he's really drunk they both point in the same direction. In addition to head coach, he's also a position coach for... drum roll ..... the DL. It's his job during practices and scrimmages to work with the DL and give them feedback after every rep, the same as it is for every position coach, the same as it is for every head coach in the country that also has a position coach responsibility (most of them).
That's what film is for, that's what his assistants and WR coach is for. To be able to see what all 22 guys are doing simultaneously from field level is just impossible, and to make judgements on his coaching chops based on it is assinine.
August 21st, 2014 at 4:51 AM ^
Its very difficult to watch an interaction between two-four players and also watch the ball. That's why I like the spring/fall scrimmages, I don't feel guilty of cheating myself out of the action watching something that may have zero to do with the end result of a play. I zoned in on Peppers, Ryan to name a couple, to see what they do start to finish on several plays, ignoring the ball.
During the season I do this a lot less because where the ball is going seems to be higher priority. DVR would be a supreme modern tool for being able to do both, alas its not in my toolbox at present.
August 21st, 2014 at 6:25 AM ^
August 21st, 2014 at 9:28 AM ^
part of the team, exactly where would you want him looking?
August 21st, 2014 at 6:23 AM ^
August 21st, 2014 at 10:02 AM ^
August 20th, 2014 at 10:20 PM ^
August 20th, 2014 at 8:30 PM ^
trampling all over themselves to get to Borges from my house in Florida. Suddenly a couple of sane people posted stern qualifiers and I heard them all licking themselves like cats do when they're caught being stupid.
August 20th, 2014 at 8:38 PM ^
I seem to remember reading somewhere Young's senior year he had to look to the sidelines for a signal to tell him if the defense was in man or zone
August 20th, 2014 at 8:46 PM ^
Probably true, but that's how it is for many teams. The issue is that the team needs to get to the line in time to then look at the coaches and make an adjustment
August 20th, 2014 at 8:40 PM ^
August 20th, 2014 at 8:52 PM ^
I prefer my QB's to identify the hot routes, mismatches, & ways that the defense is at a disadvantage. Identify the MIKE is a bit overrated
August 21st, 2014 at 2:25 PM ^
August 20th, 2014 at 9:26 PM ^
jesus hockey sticks
August 20th, 2014 at 9:37 PM ^
The problem with the Borges offense was the fact that we were one of the slowest teams in the country. Even if the QBs knew what every single player on the defense was doing, it wouldnt have mattered. When you line up with 5 seconds left there isnt a whole lot of time to do anything.
August 20th, 2014 at 9:59 PM ^
August 20th, 2014 at 10:03 PM ^
August 20th, 2014 at 10:34 PM ^
August 20th, 2014 at 10:42 PM ^
As opposed to the people who can't stop beating the dead horse even after he's gone? I didn't post the thread, I'd be very happy never talking about the dude ever again, but when people take things so completely out of context and intepret it completely wrong, I guess I feel compelled to give my two cents to try and set the record straight.
August 20th, 2014 at 10:34 PM ^
- Why does he care who the MIKE is?
- And isn't the MIKE just the middle linebacker? Seems not so hard to figure out....
Feel free to answer People Who Know More Football Than Me
August 20th, 2014 at 10:50 PM ^
http://mgoblog.com/content/hokepoints-reps-inside-zone#comment-2599661
There's some good discussion among the coaching types here.
Basically, when the offense ID's the "MIKE" it isn't necessarily the same position for the defense (i.e. Jake Ryan). The offense is trying to determine the alignment of the defense and determine it's blocking assignments off of it, the "MIKE" is a common reference point in the center of the formation.
August 20th, 2014 at 10:58 PM ^
Jeebus
August 20th, 2014 at 11:39 PM ^
One bit. Of course he knew the Mike...he was the guy offering him a hand up after just crushing him -10 yards for a sack. Now, after those beat downs could he REMEMBER the Mike's name???? Heck, no.
August 21st, 2014 at 9:59 AM ^
turn into a meme thread.
August 21st, 2014 at 10:03 AM ^
There's some debate back and forth on these comments about who is supposed to identify the Mike, and what DG's comment means. But regardless of the specifics, I think this is emblematic of one of Borges' biggest failures, which we can probably agree on: he didn't give his offenses a chance to react pre-snap to the defense's alignment. The offense almost never got to the line with more than 10 seconds left on the play clock, and our formation would often give away what we were trying to do (Ace slot formation? Tunnel screen to the outside guy. Tackle over? Power run to strong side. Ace pistol? Speed option. Etc. etc.). I virtually never saw Devin audible at the line, with the exception of that speed option TD versus ND.
This is how we end up running into stacked boxes all day against PSU, or how we end up taking 7-step drops facing blitz looks vs. MSU. It's also probably why we had such success versus Ohio: they amost always used vanilla looks, so there wasn't much that we needed to react to.
August 21st, 2014 at 11:39 AM ^
Dude just made me thank Hoke for letting him go and getting a coach who can actually adjust w game and make the proper adjustments. And move on and put our team in a place to win!
August 21st, 2014 at 6:26 PM ^