McGuffie and Contact
I'm not calling him out and I'm not questioning his toughness, but it seems to me that McGuffie tends to turn his back to contact.
I noticed this at first when I watched his high school game last year and attributed it to playing injured and catering to his injury.
I still see him doing it though, and I'm wondering why. Is he still carrying an injury? Does he get more power pushing back than going in head down? Or does he shy away from contact?
Am I making this up or has anyone else noticed this tendancy?
October 6th, 2008 at 1:39 PM ^
I have noticed this. He isn't a power back though and tends to try to escape contact where he can (like Reggie Bush used to). This isn't a bad thing. You may just be used to bulky between the tackles guys. He is not that big, he is quick and has great vision. He is also a true freshman. Keep that in mind as well.
October 6th, 2008 at 1:41 PM ^
October 6th, 2008 at 1:46 PM ^
Wow. Where did that come from? the dude said he saw McGuffie shy away from contact and noticed if anyone else noticed it... grip your little stress ball.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:14 PM ^
you're right. i should take a few deep breaths. ah go fuck yourself. we're bad this year, we suck. all around we're not a good team. we can try to find all the little details as to why we're bad but if you take a step back and look at what's going on it should be obvious.
i remember thinking going into this season we'd be .500, at best. now obviously i have no way of backing this up but i remember thinking that going into this season we we're going to be a complete mess. and we are. and it sucks. but we'll be fine, this season is basically a wash and i don't think that 97% of all michigan fans realize that.
so it's not necessarily this particular post that bugs me but just so many of posts where people find new reasons as to why we're bad. we're young. new coaches. inexperienced OL. new scheme. add them up and you got a shitty team. and unfortunately, we are the shitty team this year.
October 6th, 2008 at 1:52 PM ^
October 6th, 2008 at 2:02 PM ^
You know who does run over people? Brandon Minor. I'm just sayin'.
McGuffie isn't the world's greatest power runner, but then again, Chris Perry and Anthony Thomas weren't the world's greatest gamebreakers. McGuffie is different. He's probably not a short yardage back, but that's why people like Minor, Grady, and Moundros are on the roster. You wouldn't expect Peyton Manning to run the option. He's just not that kind of QB. The same type of thinking should be applied to McGuffie, although obviously being stronger would be good.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:04 PM ^
I'm just sayin'.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:09 PM ^
October 6th, 2008 at 2:15 PM ^
Grady's fumble was the most excusable fumble ever. Tsunami, 3 defenders ripping at him, both hands locked on the ball, forward progress stopped for 3 seconds, and it's ripped out. Are you comparing this to Minor's ability to hold onto the ball?
If by "over, around and past" you mean he's had a couple nice runs when he wasn't throwing the ball to the other team.
Look, no one here is saying Minor is a terrible RB, and that there is no way he's not better than McGuffie. All we are saying is that you can't have a RB that fumbles on 20% of his touches. Why is this so fucking difficult to grasp?
October 6th, 2008 at 2:17 PM ^
disguises the averages. He's had 7 rushes, 5 receptions, and 11 kick returns. That still leads to a fumble percentage that is half of Minor's on more touches.
McGuffie can't carry them all, but one of RichRod's stick/carrot for Minor is playing time. If you'd like, I can also calculate fumbles per yard gained or fumbles per touchdown, but I'm thinking Minor might not look that good there, either.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:10 PM ^
October 6th, 2008 at 2:05 PM ^
October 6th, 2008 at 2:18 PM ^
I feel your pain turbo. I like McGuffie, it's fun to watch him play. I think we'd be in a bigger hole this year without him. I just noticed that he backs into hits like I do in snow football. I know why I do it, I'm wondering why he does it. That's all.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:30 PM ^
Magnus, your constant drum-beating for Minor, while attempting to sweep his limitations to the side, while MAGNIFYING the limitations of other backs is getting crazy.
Grady has one fumble, which, as Shock has detailed, was about the most excusable situation ever. You want to excuse Minor's first fumble (which instant reply confirmed) and ignore the fact that he got both hands on Threet's ill-advised pass and STILL dropped it. Threet is culpable on that play, but it's not as if Minor is blameless.
Further, Minor has fumbled for years, and has never been particularly good when he's not fumbling (he was worse than Carlos Brown, who is now banished). He has had 2 good runs - one against Utah, and one against Wisconsin (on a play on which every single skill position on our team would have scored).
October 6th, 2008 at 2:40 PM ^
October 6th, 2008 at 3:17 PM ^
October 6th, 2008 at 3:59 PM ^
Because I'm curious, and a nerd, and bored, I looked up a brief history of recent Michigan fumblers:
Kevin Grady has fumbled 5 times in his career (203 touches), or 2.5% of the time. 3 of these were in the first 2 games of his career.
Carlos Brown has fumbled 3 times in his career (97 touches), or 3.1% of the time. 2 of these came when he had a cast on one hand.
Brandon Minor has fumbled 7 times in his career (151 touches), or 4.6% of the time. He has no excuse. 3 of these have come this season.
So, I know we like to say that Grady is "fumble prone" but the following people have fumbled as many times as Grady since the 2nd game of his freshman year:
Jason Avant
Matt Guttierez
Willis Barringer (I don't know how this possible, but still)
Antonion Bass
October 6th, 2008 at 4:59 PM ^
. . . . Carlos Brown? Never heard of him.
The guy that needs to play more is Mark Moundros.
Sam, Minor, whoever.....all gained yards following his lead blocks. He runs good route out of the backfield, which helped free up Odoms on the corner routs. Minor also had some awesome blocks that sprung some runs, so I am ok with him playing.
I smell a runaway Moundros Beer Truck taking Happy Valley by storm in a few weeks.
Or, I am drunk. Not sure. But all this handwringing about the backfield depth chart the last couple of weeks, is driving me crazy.
Sam and Moundros start and let the rest just sprinkle in.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:42 PM ^
The days of Chris Perry or Anthony Thomas power through would-be tacklers in likely done in AA for a while.
Size isn't everything. Perry and Thomas were big, but they weren't necessarily the most punishing runners. They were happy to bounce outside. Perry, especially, had a rep for shying away from contact for much of his career. Mike Hart really was more of an inside runner than either of them.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:02 PM ^
October 6th, 2008 at 9:17 PM ^
I noticed the same thing, McGuffie sort of leans into tackles sideways. It doesn't work very well but I wonder if in high school he was able to just push through weak opponents that way? Mike Hart was the master of falling forward for an extra couple yards, but it seems like you've got to go head on into the tacklers.
I'm happy with McGuffie so far, I think he'll figure out how to get yards after contact other than by spinning before we know it.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:10 PM ^
He came over and blew a kiss to the MSU student section after the game...my buddy (a Sparty fan) was furious.
I, on the other hand, was pleased.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:52 PM ^
here is that he's simply trying to "spin out" of tackles.
I personally don't have a problem if he isn't "going tit to tit"* with 300 lb lineman.
*To quote my old high school coach.