Former Michigan OC Al "Gorgeous" Borges & Sam Webb Break Down Offense Plays from Western Michigan Game
Hello folks,
I saw this video from the Michigan insider and really enjoyed the film breakdown. It was sufficiently simple for me to follow, and I really liked the context about the big-picture objectives of a type of play that was included in each bit.
Ideas/plays include: Corum's effectiveness, a discussion on bubbles and what they are aiming to accomplish (I hope Heiko sees this part!), 'residual effects' of previous plays to set up an explosive play, Bell's TD, AJ's TD, Vastardis's impact/value, and some of JJ's impressive flashes of talent.
As a side note, it was a surprise to see Borges on the show, now quite a bit more tan than I recall from before. Given his almost academic + mildly sarcastic approach, I could see both why he is considered impressive and why he might've had trouble connecting with players/staff.
Enjoy!
September 8th, 2021 at 10:54 PM ^
Please let me know what's unclear, and I'll try to straighten it out.
September 8th, 2021 at 11:43 PM ^
You didn’t use wingdings as the font
September 8th, 2021 at 10:43 PM ^
Sam needs to have Heiko on there with them
September 9th, 2021 at 7:09 AM ^
Has Heiko ever been on?
September 9th, 2021 at 9:19 AM ^
No, it's a joke.
But I'm pretty sure Heiko was an MD/PhD student and he might be in residency at this point. Which means he has time to maybe eat or sleep a bit and that's it. He ain't got no time to have Al throw acid on his face.
September 9th, 2021 at 9:48 AM ^
Eat OR Sleep, but not both. Poor fella
September 9th, 2021 at 9:53 AM ^
I didn't live it myself but the wife did... and that was the choice sometimes.
September 9th, 2021 at 12:25 PM ^
ha, the most peaceful moment of a medical intern's day is sitting on the hospital toilet--a nice seat and an excuse not to return the page.
September 9th, 2021 at 4:09 PM ^
My memory from my wife's residency is that she would always come home and practically bull-rush through me to get the toilet "HI SORRY I HAVEN'T PEED IN 14 HOURS OUT OF THE WAY"
September 9th, 2021 at 1:37 PM ^
In the middle of the interview... **CRASH** "Bah Gawd, that's Heiko's music!"
September 8th, 2021 at 11:11 PM ^
Any indigestion-laden commentary from gorgeous Al? I’m not able to listen currently.
September 9th, 2021 at 12:58 AM ^
If you mean this literally, I didn't hear anything like that. Apologies, but I'm not familiar with any inside joke related to indigestion.
September 9th, 2021 at 7:47 AM ^
I could be wrong, but in the past I remember Al drinking a Coke and having a little gas as he was doing the breakdown.
September 9th, 2021 at 8:09 AM ^
Ah, noted. That makes sense; I was unaware. Thanks a bunch.
September 9th, 2021 at 9:32 AM ^
TOMSULA!!!
September 9th, 2021 at 10:31 AM ^
At first I thought it was Sam Webb and George the Animal Steel.
September 10th, 2021 at 4:01 AM ^
I would not be able to do radio for this reason. I burp a lot. Of course I can keep it discreet if I have to but still. I'd have to make it part of my schtick, like Rick.
September 9th, 2021 at 1:42 AM ^
I watched this while I was wrapping up some work tonight. I hated Al toward the end of his tenure as OC here but really enjoyed his breakdowns in this.
September 9th, 2021 at 5:41 AM ^
Good stuff. Thanks for posting.
September 9th, 2021 at 5:53 AM ^
One of my favorite things is Borges' observation that it's a rare play when everyone does their job, that is, when each player executes what is drawn up.
September 9th, 2021 at 8:24 AM ^
I saw some echoes of his blaming poor performance during his time as OC on player execution, however. That might be unfair in this situation, as maybe the concepts discussed in the video are easier for players to digest, but that really stuck with me.
September 9th, 2021 at 10:48 AM ^
If I recall correctly, one of the worst things about Borges' offense was that if 1 guy didn't do his job (well or even at all), the play was basically toast. And if you watched our team then, we rarely had all 11 guys doing their job at the same time. Same thing with Drevno's failed offense in 2017.
This point was driven home to me reading the UFR yesterday where we still had at least 1 dude (usually OL) biff an assignment or a block, yet we still gained a couple yards or even scored a touchdown. I know OC's plan plays with everyone doing the correct thing, but at the college level, you have to give your play some wiggle room when it comes to error. The Gattis offense seems to be better in that regard
September 9th, 2021 at 11:22 AM ^
Awesome point--and honestly one that I only really considered with your post. Good play design is about margins of error, probably. I think Harbaugh's offenses have been on the Borges side of things (though better, as you pointed out), where the difference between this year and last year is better execution with basically the same OL talent.
September 9th, 2021 at 9:34 PM ^
I also remember an issue with weekly play installation and the use of those plays--that Borges would watch NFL games and pick up plays he'd install. The team would run them once to success, a second for less, then get stuffed. After that it was back to the sludge, run up the gut, run up the gut, play action on 3rd, punt on 4th.
September 10th, 2021 at 10:46 AM ^
I think I remember that from one of those anonymous B1G coach articles. Basically, what you said--you'd figure out his trick for the game, and then the offense is back to being very predictable.
September 9th, 2021 at 4:08 PM ^
One wonders to what extent he knew that before he coached at Michigan, or whether he learned it on the job here.
September 9th, 2021 at 6:03 AM ^
Borges is very, very intelligent as an OC. The problem is that he cannot translate that intelligence into simplicity for players.
I remember reading an article where NFL players looked at his offense of line schemes and remarked that they were too complicated even for a professional team.
September 9th, 2021 at 7:11 AM ^
Yeah, he reminds me of academics. Would be a better football professor than he was a practitioner.
September 9th, 2021 at 8:07 AM ^
If it's too complicated for the professionals, it's darn sure too complicated for the college game.
That may be less a problem for a team like Alabama, which has top talent at almost all positions. But when you come down a level or two it becomes more of a problem. The players at those levels may not possess the ability to comprehend or execute, especially in the relatively short amount of practice allowed them.
I think Urban Meyer, for all our dislike for the man, understood this well: the offensive game plan complexity is dialed up or down depending on the personnel that's available. That's why I'm really interested to see how he does in the pros. Will he dial up the sophistication when he builds the talent he desires? Or will he stick with what he knew from the college game and try to make it a go in the NFL? Time will tell.
I never disliked Al Borges, though I do believe he had a troubling stubborn streak in him.
September 9th, 2021 at 8:49 AM ^
I think that, as you suggest, talent in many sports is a combination of physical and mental ability. Physical ability enables you to execute the various tasks well. Mental ability enables you to quickly recognize which task to execute in a given situation. You have to have both to execute your responsibilities in football.
And not every player on your team or in your various position groups is going to have the same physical and mental ability. Coaches get in big trouble when they ask players to do things that they, the players, don't have the ability to do. And all it takes is one or two blown assignments on a play to end up in disaster.
Borges seemed like he knew what he wanted but just couldn't get his guys to execute it. I suspect that's the case with most OC's; in theory, every play of theirs should work; on the field, it often doesn't.
September 9th, 2021 at 11:33 AM ^
Doubtful Urban's stuff works as well in the NFL as it did in college. If he or an NFL organization was confident that his simple spread to run shit would work against professional defenses, he would have made the jump about the time he was popular with UF coed grad students.
September 9th, 2021 at 10:16 AM ^
Mike Martz syndrome.
September 9th, 2021 at 6:54 AM ^
I actually enjoy Al's breakdowns despite the fact he didn't have a whole lot of success at Michigan (the '13 OSU game I will say was called beautifully up until the last offensive play).
I do think Al understands pretty much all offensive concepts of football and can speak it in a language that the layman can understand. I enjoy the segments he does with Sam, if only because its interesting to hear a coaches perspective of what we're looking at on Saturday's.
September 9th, 2021 at 7:40 AM ^
Three yards and a cloud of smoke? I always suspected that Michigan had a self-immolation play in the playbook. Seen it enough, at least.
September 9th, 2021 at 7:53 AM ^
Al needs to do a thorough analysis of the 27 for 27 game. Until then, I wish Sam wouldn't ever use Al for anything. I was at that game in Happy Valley, where Penn State loaded the box with 9 players and left Devin Funchess 1 on 1 and Al NEVER EVER threw a single pass to win the football game. Probably the worst game I've ever been to (yes - worse than the "horror").
Go Blue!
September 9th, 2021 at 8:33 AM ^
See my comment above about Borges' stubborn streak ...
It showed itself not just in the 27-for-27 game, but in little things like his responses to press conference questions. I think he took pride in his knowledge of the game, and that blinded him to some degree to realities.
September 9th, 2021 at 10:04 AM ^
Him, Charlie Weiss, Rich Rod. Some people get so enamored with their own IQ they forget there are plenty of other people out there running the same octane.
September 9th, 2021 at 7:49 PM ^
Remember going up 10 in the 4th and thinking how relieved I was that Michigan was going to escape with a win somehow even though they couldn't run for anything. Then, all the bad things happened.
September 9th, 2021 at 8:56 AM ^
I could listen to Gorgeous Al read me a book, as long as it's not the same one twice in a row.
September 9th, 2021 at 9:07 AM ^
Well, if there is anyone who can speak to a broken down offense, it is certainly Al Borges.
In all seriousness though, I was pleasantly surprised this past Saturday with some things up to and including the absolute rope thrown by McCarthy. I hadn't seen a Michigan QB do that quite that well in a while.
September 9th, 2021 at 9:34 AM ^
In the context of that play, Sam and Al talked about Harbaugh's 'overcoaching' comment, and both seemed to agree. Borges drew a distinction between coaching out mistakes and putting fear into a kid, with the latter having disastrous consequences for a talented player using his gifts. I recently saw a video on parenting styles, and this seemed to be the difference between authoritarian and authoritative styles.
September 9th, 2021 at 3:39 PM ^
Got a link to that parenting vid?
September 9th, 2021 at 5:02 PM ^
It is you I got, fam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyO8pvpnTdE&ab_channel=Sprouts
September 9th, 2021 at 9:26 AM ^
I watched about 3 minutes of this (the part where Al breaks down the Corum run).
Now, I understand why Urban Meyer is one of the greatest coaches ever and Al Borges is just "very good". I have no idea what happened with the Corum run, but when Meyer was on Fox, I (at least IMO) understood it all.
September 9th, 2021 at 10:18 AM ^
If you're interested in 200-level courses on Offense and Defense, this is a pretty good feature Sam does.
September 9th, 2021 at 10:19 AM ^
Sam talks too much...could have been completed in half the time.
September 9th, 2021 at 8:06 PM ^
Sam’s used to filling time on radio. You fluff everything up in that realm
September 9th, 2021 at 10:50 AM ^
Al, maybe you should back off that web cam a little.
You're looking like the next incarnation of Gozer.
September 9th, 2021 at 12:11 PM ^
When you're resume has that many lines on it, one year here, two years there.....