MnB: Film Focus on Michigan's "Chocolate" Offense vs. BYU

Submitted by Eye of the Tiger on

Thought this was super interesting, and includes lots of purdy pictures to explain the game's more exotic plays. Intro:

In its last two games against Oregon State and UNLV, Michigan's offense was vanilla. Jim Harbaugh, Tim Drevno, and Jedd Fisch didn't need to dial up any plays that were fancy or unconventional. Even if Michigan left rushing yards on the field against the Beavers or ran into nine-man boxes against the Rebels, the Wolverines had enough talent up front to win the line of scrimmage and overpower their sub-par opponents. One example of this is when Michigan ran power 24 times against Oregon State because the Beavers couldn't stop it -- those runs gained 133 yards (5.54 YPC). Another is when Michigan decided to run sweeps to attack the edge of UNLV's loaded boxes, which led to scores on Jehu Chesson's 36-yard jet sweep and Ty Isaac's 76-yard toss sweep. The end result was that Michigan ran for 231 yards on 44 called runs (5.25 YPC) and 242 yards on 37 called runs (6.54 YPC) against Oregon State and UNLV, respectively. Vanilla worked just fine.

But vanilla wasn't going to work against BYU. Unlike Oregon State (76th in S&P+) and UNLV (97th in S&P+), the Cougars were a quality team. They may have been a tad overrated in the polls, but it was understandable given that they had just escaped a three-game stretch at Nebraska, versus then-No. 20 Boise State, and at then-No. 10 UCLA with a 2-1 record. Therefore, Michigan needed to unveil an offensive game plan for which BYU was not prepared. And, boy, did Harbaugh and his crew do just that on Saturday.

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Everyone Murders

September 29th, 2015 at 5:36 PM ^

To the extent this is true (and further exacerbated by the expected bad weather), I think we can expect something more vanilla than vanilla on Saturday against the Terps. 

Maybe a "frozen plain yogurt offense"?

Joined: 12/14/2010

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MayOhioEatTurds

September 29th, 2015 at 5:36 PM ^

I noticed while watching the games how vanilla the Oregeon State and UNLV offensive game plans were.  I secretly hoped Harbaugh was saving some fun plays for BYU, but after the last few years I was concerned what I saw might be the weekly scenario.  

I was overjoyed to see the fun stuff saved for BYU.   

Can't wait to see some MSU plays . . . .

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Farnn

September 29th, 2015 at 6:17 PM ^

My biggest concern for the MSU game is they always seems to spend months watching Michigan film and are able to exploit something that other teams hadn't found.  I'm sure Harbaugh has been made aware of MSU's intense focus on this game and can show some completely different looks to waste all the time MSU spent preparing.

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Reader71

September 29th, 2015 at 10:13 PM ^

This is demonstrably false. Borges was pilloried for running so many plays, and even schemes, from one game to another. He didn't have a coherent system at all, because he switched everything up all willy-nilly from week to week. Maybe you're thinking of Nussmeier. More likely, you're just making stuff up.

Joined: 08/30/2009

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wahooverine

September 30th, 2015 at 10:57 AM ^

By design Harbaugh's offense is pretty tough to plan for even with months of tape. Just about any base play can be run from any formation (plus shifts and motion) plus it's corresponding constraint/counter and play action. So many different combinations. There is very little to key on in terms of formation or personnel. Even if you do guess the correct defensive call, you still have to show up en mass at the point of attack and get slugged by big dudes which is draining for teams that don't normally face power attacks.  Not saying were gonna ride roughshod over them - but Harbaugh is one of the top football minds out there. He'll cook up something real nice for MSU, don't doubt that.

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m1jjb00

September 29th, 2015 at 6:14 PM ^

There has been lots of talk of trick plays, opening up the bag of tricks etc.  It's true that Michigan didn't show much against the Beave and Rebs.  But, if anyone is going to beat any defense with pulse you have to make them guard the whole field.  

Spread 'n' shreads and Air-raids do it with their base plays and formations, so they don't have an option of playing it close to the vest.  It all looks pretty much the same, which is also why teams like that look fantastic against tire fires.  

Pro-style teams (and I don't want to get into a discussion of what pro teams look like) don't have that luxury.  Hence, against good teams they have to do something that looks different. They have to run constraint plays, different looks, etc., otherwise they're not going to be successful.  Thankfully, we now have a coach who's going to do that, in his own way, but do it nonetheless, at least when needed.

So, I wouldn't go overboard with calling the offense a bunch of trick plays.

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DreisbachToHayes

September 29th, 2015 at 6:44 PM ^

granted most of them were more basic as far as trickeration goes.... reverses, end arounds, maybe a flea flicker.... did a few passes to QB... I remember one to Henson and of course Navarre with his 39 blockers escorting him down the sideline.

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LSAClassOf2000

September 29th, 2015 at 6:48 PM ^

I've seen Florida and South Carolina run the Emory And Henry formation too, at least once in a while over the years, and both times, under Steve Spurrier - I really didn't even think about what that was until someone near me at the stadium actually asked if that is what it was. The larger point here is that I really did like that they were not only running these "less vanilla" plays but running them well for the most part. 

 

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