Michigan 2nd slowest team in the NCAA
This is a pretty funny tweet:
A MICHIGAN MAN SAVORS THE MOMENT MT @McMurphyESPN: Slowest teams in seconds per play this year: Army (31.1) & Michigan (30.9)
— Ryan Nanni (@celebrityhottub) September 15, 2014
On the other hand, it does raise serious issues. What is with Michigan's tempo? One answer is that Nussmeier and Hoke aren't averse to tempo but are focusing on executing a new offense, and as the team settles in, tempo will become part of Michigan's offensive arsenal.
Another viewpoint is that there must be other teams breaking in new offenses, which have less experienced coaching staffs, as well as less good football players learning these offenses, and they are faster on a per play basis than Michigan (except for Army).
I wasn't able to find the full breakdown of each team, but it's something worth keeping an eye on, especially as it's been a topic of some interest for Brian and the rest of the MGoStaff.
September 16th, 2014 at 10:50 AM ^
September 16th, 2014 at 11:00 AM ^
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September 16th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^
September 16th, 2014 at 12:00 PM ^
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September 16th, 2014 at 12:45 PM ^
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September 16th, 2014 at 1:16 AM ^
It really screwed up the last drive of the first half last Saturday both because we got a delay of game and we would have run too much time off the clock if we didn't punt on their 30 yard line.
September 16th, 2014 at 8:12 AM ^
September 16th, 2014 at 1:17 AM ^
"One answer is that Nussmeier and Hoke aren't averse to tempo but are focusing on executing a new offense, and as the team settles in, tempo will become part of Michigan's offensive arsenal."
The flip side of this is that if they are trying execute the playbook, then maybe they need to get to the line quicker so they can run through proper checks in order to get into the best play.
What was Alabama's tempo under Nussmeier? How does it compare? I find it hard to believe we can't get the plays called in quicker especially with Nuss standing on the sideline.
September 16th, 2014 at 1:37 AM ^
Before and during Nussmeier's stay there.
Done properly, slow tempo is just as deadly (if not moreso) than up tempo play.
Slow tempo's problem, though, is it only works if you have the lead.
http://www.footballstudyhall.com/2013/4/24/4263582/tempo
According to that guy, in fact, Alabama was the slowest team in the country from 2008 to 2012. But I didn't double check his facts.
September 16th, 2014 at 8:09 AM ^
between plays prohibits the team from getting to the line earlier. In fact it seems that the team spends quite a bit of time at the line assessing the opposition.
September 16th, 2014 at 1:20 AM ^
Things I'm not surprised at, for $800 Alex.
September 16th, 2014 at 1:25 AM ^
... the daily double!
September 16th, 2014 at 3:03 AM ^
What's the rule if you have negative value and hit the daily double, cuz that's likely my situation!
September 16th, 2014 at 4:34 PM ^
I believe you can wager up to $1000 in Single Jeopardy and up to $2000 in Double Jeopardy; i.e. the maximum dollar amount for categories in that round.
September 16th, 2014 at 1:34 AM ^
I knew that we were slow. I didn't realize that we were THAT slow. I mean, we're epically slow.
Utah plays up tempo, so it'll be interesting to see how we respond when we have the ball.
September 16th, 2014 at 8:11 AM ^
Conversely it will be interesting to see how Utah responds when Michigan eats up the clock leaving the Utes offense on the sideline and impotent.
September 16th, 2014 at 11:04 AM ^
I must have missed it where up-tempo offenses can only work if they're playing a team that's equally up-tempo.
If we eat up the clock with our possessions and don't score and Utah runs quick possessions and score, I foresee a very rough game for us.
September 16th, 2014 at 1:43 AM ^
This actually concerns me with regards to how practices are run. Chip Kelly has made it a point to use every single second of the limited time he has practicing to get the most out of it. If we are this slow in games I can't imagine the snail's pace we have in practice.
September 16th, 2014 at 7:10 AM ^
They go much faster in practice. There have been numerous articles about Nuss and the tempo upgrade.
September 16th, 2014 at 8:19 AM ^
Why would we practice fast but play slow?
Certainly it can't just be to give our defense practice against a faster team.
September 16th, 2014 at 8:54 AM ^
In practice you want to get as many reps for as many players as possible, in a game that obviously isn't the focus.
If we moved in practice the speed we moved in games, practice would be over and we would've gotten 5-10% of what the coaches wanted to accomplish that day accomplished.
Not trying to sound like an ass, but I've heard that questioned a lot...seems reasonable to me.
September 16th, 2014 at 2:03 AM ^
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September 16th, 2014 at 5:24 AM ^
September 16th, 2014 at 6:04 AM ^
Per TeamRankings, we are a comfortable 117th when it comes to offensive snaps per game at 64.7 so far for the season. Not that it is much slower, but Army gets about two less than that at 62 snaps on average, which is good for 125th. The fewest? Florida Atlantic at 57.7, but I think this is perhaps attributable to many drives that are brief and end badly in their case. The fastest Big Ten team on their metric is Northwestern - ranked 17th at 84 plays on offense per game on average.
September 16th, 2014 at 6:12 AM ^
September 16th, 2014 at 7:06 AM ^
September 16th, 2014 at 3:03 PM ^
Sitting in this conference as I was today, I thought more about this - could you achieve a meaningful synthesis using average plays per game but also account for time of posession (probably through simple division) to get a plays run per minute metric? I think this would consider at least the attempt at tempo regardless of success rates on completions (although that would be an interesting transformation as well, to separate out pass / rush).
September 16th, 2014 at 7:45 AM ^
September 16th, 2014 at 8:18 AM ^
Jabbering idiots saw something that didn't reinforce the meme, they ignored it.
September 16th, 2014 at 10:05 AM ^
Jabbering idiots? C'mon, man.
September 16th, 2014 at 11:16 AM ^
We also haven't had the chance to use a 2-minute drill this season, ignoring the fact that we probably should have been doing so at some point against Notre Dame. That and your incompletions statistic should even out through the course of the season. It's why it's silly to put too much stock in this statistic after three weeks.
That being said, with the exception of the triple option teams, I think the plays per minute of game time statistic will give a reasonable look at tempo after a certain number of games. Up-tempo teams don't seem to have an extremely higher number of incompletions than slow-tempo teams. Auburn is averaging 8 through 2 games. A&M is averaging 13 through 3 games.
September 16th, 2014 at 6:24 AM ^
Maybe they like to take their time, if you know what I mean.
September 16th, 2014 at 7:05 AM ^
Also, for what it's worth, this IS playing with tempo.
September 16th, 2014 at 9:08 AM ^
These coaches are leaving the players at the line of scrimmage with little to no time left on the play clock. Alabama was a well oiled machine. Saban would never tolerate the terrible use of the play clock by Michigan. Actually, neither would their fan base. How any one can watch this dumpster fire and keep making excuses is beyond me.
September 16th, 2014 at 7:09 PM ^
And that has resulted in how many delay of game penalties, exactly?
September 17th, 2014 at 9:59 AM ^
what I read here. My point is that the defense is plowing through our line. You cant protect your snap count when the clock is down to 1 second. The defense is not caught off guard at all. The better question is how many times have the dline/lb's been in our backfield withn a micro second of the snap count. I mean its not like DG is running for his life turning the ball over constantly right?
September 16th, 2014 at 7:16 AM ^
This isn't something to complain about. Michigan is going slow because they want everyone to internalize the responsibilities and assignments of a new offense. When this team can rep their base plays with ease and...sign...execute, they should speed up.
Exactly what about this collection of a young shakly OL, RBs that miss holes, a QB with shaky confidence, young recievers who are getting their first game experience makes you say "Speed them up!!!"
September 16th, 2014 at 7:39 AM ^
September 16th, 2014 at 9:44 AM ^
Except we're already slow and bad a lot of the time. We were slow and bad last year, but of course we couldn't use a higher tempo according to all the mouth breathers because then the offense wouldn't...I don't know what they possibly could have done worse, but well you still can't do it!
People keep saying things like "Well, Alabama" or "But, LSU"....How the fuck (seriously) are we comparing ourselves with these teams? The point is, Hoke's chosen control the clock approach hasn't worked and the offensive flaws were really only masked by having Rodriguez's QBs playing out of their minds and David Molk.
But I could even understand some sort of "control the clock, learn the playbook, etc." BS that I don't believe if a Hoke team had ever shown an ability to run a two minute drill or used a faster pace when necessary. I mean think about the Notre Dame game. We're down 21-0, taking our sweet time, running the football. Its awful and it goes beyond "Well, the players are young, once they know the offense, we'll speed up".
September 16th, 2014 at 12:52 PM ^
"slow and bad" is not a reason to move to up tempo. If they're slow and bad, what makes you think they would become good if they moved faster? Bad is bad.
And it's not particularly accurate anyway. You're ignoring the obvious improvements of the offense this year. A stat that others have brought up is they've already gained 44% of the rushing total from last year. So, close to one-half of last years rushing totals in just a quarter of the season. Oh, and nearly all of those yards were RB yards, so less Devin running around and taking shots, which should help in the long run. Remember how banged up Devin was last year? The offense relied almost entirely on him, and after the MSU game he was completely battered and shellshocked until OSU. So, Nuss is trying to get the pass blocking right to reduce sacks (so far an improvement) while getting the run blocking right so that there is less of a need to rely solely on Devin (a definite improvement). I think going deliberately and slow in the game offers the young inexperienced (and last year, turrible) OL to actually, you know, gain experience and execute their assignments. It's ben a mixed bag so far, but the trend arrow is most definitely up. So no, it's not just "slow and bad",
September 16th, 2014 at 8:31 AM ^