META: A Humble Suggestion - Produce Classic UFRs
Adam's special teams UFR is a tremendous idea, because of course more actual nuts-and-bolts discussion of football is always great. And UFRs are always a blast.
But there is an untapped resource that I would greatly enjoy seeing developed by someone on this here blog, and with Adam getting delegated to do an additional UFR, this seems to be an option Brian might be ok with in the right context:
Develop UFRs of classic Michigan games.
Yes, I understand that the purpose of the UFR is at least in part to analyze what will occur in the future, but c'mon: We like reveling in what has happened in the past. UFR is Brian's signature feature, so any vague thoughts I might have had of trying one myself were swept away with the belief that it would basically be appropriating someone's IP. But if Adam can do special teams, why not a UFR of well-known games? Alternatively, Brian could do this in the off-season if there are suitable down periods.
Yeah, the camera angles are worse, and some of the concepts might be a bit different, but I think it would be great.
And I really want to see the +3s for Charles Woodson owning coverage or some of our classic OLs destroying defenses.
Some games that would be worth seeing:
Rose Bowls - 1988-9, 1992-3, 1997-8. OSU games - 1985, 1986, 1988, 1995, 1997, 2000. Notre Dame games - 1991, 2003 (was going to say 2006 but Brian did that...). Michigan State games - 1996, 1997 (Woodson +4?), 2004. Penn State games - 1997, 1999. Others - Gator Bowl 1990-1, Purdue 1999, Orange Bowl 1999-0, Minnesota 2003.
Just a suggestion. But I would click.
September 15th, 2017 at 7:55 PM ^
September 15th, 2017 at 9:17 PM ^
September 15th, 2017 at 7:55 PM ^
some classic games in isolation? IDK. I'd be more interested in classic seasons to help compare and measure player performance historically.
the perfect example would be UFRing the whole 1997 season. how would Woodson really score? the DL? Greise?
1991- how would Grbac's DSR be that year?
September 15th, 2017 at 11:17 PM ^
FWIW I think the offense would be a drag to read through, but the defense would obviously be a blast. Just watched the '97 PSU WH highlights and, dude.
September 15th, 2017 at 7:59 PM ^
September 15th, 2017 at 8:05 PM ^
All understandable issues. Having stuff off-camera is frustrating but in the case of these classic games it seems like it's a bit easier to hand-wave missing footage since we don't really NEED to know what these guys will do in the future.
Anyone who has worked hard to produce something creative understands Brian's ownership over the UFRs and should have no objection to that, so in that case this seems like something that could provide good offseason content.
September 16th, 2017 at 11:52 AM ^
I want an Oompa Loopmpa and I want it now
September 15th, 2017 at 9:03 PM ^
It takes a smart person and a dedicated effort to build such an intricate system. It takes even more for someone to take that intricate system and train another on its use. That's where architects tend to get jammed up. They can build a perfect mousetrap, but cannot build one that others can use...
I guess what I am saying is... anything that is good and not replicable is doomed to end sooner than you think. Maybe he should start working with other people at the site to get them attuned to his grading methods.
September 15th, 2017 at 9:30 PM ^
by Brian's needing to familiarize himself with the rosters, gameplans etc. Doing one UFR from say 2000, has got to be much harder than doing any of the ones from this season. A lot of the work that goes into a UFR is undoubtably preparation based on the previous UFRs, opponent previews, etc.
September 15th, 2017 at 8:05 PM ^
September 15th, 2017 at 8:07 PM ^
Some of those are interesting games and some of those are games that I would set fire to my computer screen before reading.
September 15th, 2017 at 8:43 PM ^
September 15th, 2017 at 9:01 PM ^
September 15th, 2017 at 8:05 PM ^
September 15th, 2017 at 8:10 PM ^
Making my first post in 2+ years to support this idea. It would be an awesome way to contextualize performances -- (i.e. Gary vs. Brandon Graham, Devin Bush vs. David Harris, Wilton vs. Navarre, etc.)
Any background on what happened with not renewing the PFF subscription? I liked this reference point.
September 15th, 2017 at 8:17 PM ^
I know this is going to be of those,duh of course moments when i hear the answer .
But whats a UFR ?
thank you
September 15th, 2017 at 8:40 PM ^
September 15th, 2017 at 8:58 PM ^
September 15th, 2017 at 9:44 PM ^
September 15th, 2017 at 8:24 PM ^
but this would be a lot of work, sure enough
how about the 76 Ohio State game or even the 69 Ohio State game...they should be absolutely classic games in UM football history...but might need some understanding of the rules applicable to a certain era
September 15th, 2017 at 8:27 PM ^
This does sound like awesome off season content, that I would consume wholeheartedly. But I also very much get the roadblocks why Brian might not want to do this. Still, would be a very interesting read.
September 15th, 2017 at 8:44 PM ^
September 15th, 2017 at 9:00 PM ^
there's an Electrified Further Reviewing Machine. But that's a loooooooot of work by human hands, at least until Brian gets his sweatshop of slave Oompa Loompa film reviewers up and running and coversant with basic 3-3-5 terminology.
EDIT: Upon Further Review, none of the classic games would have been using a 3-3-5. So really it's just a matter of getting OL (Oompa Loompas) conversant with Hennecharting.
September 15th, 2017 at 9:00 PM ^
September 15th, 2017 at 8:59 PM ^
Here's to seeing someone try to UFR the scant films of those 1940s Mad Magician teams where 8 guys touched the ball on any given play.
September 15th, 2017 at 9:05 PM ^
September 15th, 2017 at 9:46 PM ^
Here you go (apologies to Brian):
0 0(0) 0 0 0 0 0 0(0) 0 0%
The forward pass wasn't legalized until 1906.
September 16th, 2017 at 8:04 AM ^
I was just thinking a UFR of 1950 M-Ohio State would be...interesting.
September 15th, 2017 at 9:14 PM ^
Or Brian could do a re-appraisal UFR of M00N :) (ducks)
September 15th, 2017 at 11:50 PM ^
You could tweet that UFR:
"Yep, still sucks."
September 15th, 2017 at 9:36 PM ^
Perhaps if he did a post releasing his UFR formulae in detail, others could do the old game work and post in diaries.
September 15th, 2017 at 9:50 PM ^
The formula isn't difficult (if it were there's no way he'd release it) and one could do a close approximation just by reading his UFRs closely. The problem is: 1. It's a lot of work; 2. Attempting to produce one is essentially stepping on Brian's signature product and his intellectual property and he won't be cool with it (note Seth's response above). And I'm fine with him feeling that way.
September 15th, 2017 at 10:45 PM ^
there's a vault somewhere waiting for Brian. He does nothing that doesn't help Michigan in the long run. It is somewhat surprising Michigan hasn't packaged historical game and scouting film from Fort Schembechler into media football geeks could peruse. If they have destroyed that tape... that would be a loss.
But the time required of Brian would be brutal. I'd imagine every hour of the off season is taken up prepping for draftmageddon. Maybe there could be some adjustments somewhere. /s
September 15th, 2017 at 11:01 PM ^
UFR is, far and away, the best thing this blog does. Drop current somewhat lame offseason content (**cough cough Draftageddon cough cough**) and do this.
September 15th, 2017 at 11:06 PM ^
Stevie Brown got a -5 on the third play of the season in 2007. Oh whoops, I just gave a big spoiler to This Month in MGoBlog History. Not that anyone will want to read it...
I would like to see some things like this tracked. Who has gotten the biggest negative/positive on one play. Who has gotten the best overall score at east positions, etc.
September 15th, 2017 at 11:17 PM ^
These are things that I think are impossible to track. For one, Brian has doubtless refined his grading over time, so a play that may have netted a -1 in 2009 may not in 2017, and so on for other scores. For two, I think the loss of data that comes with using older, lower-def, zoomed-in camera angles on not-so-good videotapes is acceptable to get the gist of the games, but a lot of detail is lost and thus the UFRs can't really be considered to have equal standing.
And too much stuff is just plain skipped. There's no way that anyone can properly, say, UFR the entire 1997 season, and even if they did they leave out stuff from 1996 and 1998 that could further illuminate the performances of those players.
September 15th, 2017 at 11:21 PM ^
michigan philosopher downvote this idea?
salty, salty, salty.
September 15th, 2017 at 11:45 PM ^
September 16th, 2017 at 1:20 AM ^
September 16th, 2017 at 4:03 AM ^
10/10 would read
September 16th, 2017 at 8:57 AM ^
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September 16th, 2017 at 8:11 AM ^
The work to UFR a full game is daunting.
Perhaps just UFR key drives of a game? Ones that are representative of the Michigan team of that year?