Michael Shaw vs. UConn

I think that you are right about some of the plays.  Denard made a couple of incorrect reads (that's scary to think that he actually should have run the ball more than 29 times).  I thought Shaw gave a very underrated performance.  He was successful on short yardage and on 2nd and goal from the 4 he rumbled through traffic and barreled into the end zone.  What a huge difference from the Carlos Brown 2.0 that everyone thought he was.

How about we wait for the guy who spends hours trying to figure this out and read his analysis?

Better yet, without knowing the play call, you're never going to do anything better than guess what was supposed to happen, as opposed to what actually happened.

30-10 is all that matters man.

I can't answer your question, but I'll bet the UFRs will.  I'm looking forward to them, myself. 

As far as I could tell (I've rewatched the game 2 times now plus every offensive snap Youtube series) Denard made quite a few poor reads where he handed it off to the rb while the DE was crashing. Now, I'm also an untrained observer but my guess is that this is a form of the scrape exchange where the LB picks up the QB while the DE goes after the RB. Either way it looked like Michigan was having a difficult time getting their backs into the open.

I was a lot more impressed with Shaw after watching the replays.  From the 96th row my impression was just "oh, we just ran for four yards.  Good deal.", but on the replay he broke a lot of arm tackles and wiggled just out of the reach of a lot of defenders.  His yards did not come easy.

did a great job on limited carries, too.  Assuming Fitz can't go, we'll see both again this week.  Just HOTTDB in South Bend. 

I don't know why there's a negative aura on this site around Shaw. I thought he played really well his true freshman year--better than McGuffie--and didn't really get a lot of chances last year. He's not Carlos Brown; he runs much tougher. I thought he made some great cuts in the UConn game, too, and the explosiveness was palpable when he and Denard were in the backfield together. He had a couple disappointing games last year and has struggled with injuries, but the guy was a four-star back out of high school, has made some nice plays in limited time as an underclassman, has great speed, and has some shiftiness, as well. What's not to like?

hey guys, 3 days til game day

Tough back who is going to break some runs this year.  Really liked him Sat.  I assume he only came out because Vincent Smith played well also? 

We'll see on the UFR - unfortunately, I don't think any of our 3 superstar QB's are naturals for the read option.  But with an OL this good, great backs, DROB (and Tate/DG), and an offense capable of strategically calling plays and manipulating a Defense (because now we have the ability to execute), it may not matter as much

Question about what ND's defense should do with Denard.

 

Common logic would assume they would want to limit his touches because he will be the most dangerous player on the field. However, what about crashing the DE to force Denard to run every draw play.  This may work against them, however they have more of an opportunity to lay a lick on him.

The beauty of the zone blocking scheme is that even when it appears a play is going nowhere, a simple cutback can yield positive yardage.  Shaw did this several times and was mostly successful.  He had a very solid day against UConn except for the one run where he was dancing around and then went backward for a 10 yard loss and got chewed out by RR.  He will continue to get better as the year goes on which is a scary thing for opposing defenses.

Even on that one play where he lost ten yards, a great RB probably loses at least five. That play was horribly doomed from the beginning.  Other than that, I though Shaw got the most out of his opportunities.