OOC Over - End of Vanilla?

Submitted by Drew_Silver on

With our out of conference schedule over, can we now expect an end to our vanilla play calling?  By vanilla I mean designed to win the game with talent rather than 'decided schematic advantage'

I want to posit that our offensive line play has been limited by our coaching staff's lack of concern over RPS wins losses in the OOC.

We saw one interesting play - the Morris pitch to Peppers - which was due to the fact Speight was dinged, not a desire to be unique.  (When can we expect the return of the full house backfield?)

It will be interesting to see what wrinkles come out against Penn St. / Wisconsin /Rutgers / Illinois

Any time the staff can get MSU to chase their tail in the film room and practice will be determiend by what they see on film in these 4 games.

Maryland / Iowa / Indiana will be the petri dishes for OSU

 

I believe the line will improve this week signifiacntly due to PSU being back on their heels trying to figure out what we are doing.  I believe the coaching staff will get them guessing and that will be the difference in the run game.

 

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lilpenny1316

September 21st, 2016 at 9:34 AM ^

If you take out QB runs, we averaged over 5 yards per carry against Colorado.  That will work in conference play.  UCF stuffed the box which made it silly to run against when you have the WRs we have.  

Alabama had a similar issue against Western Kentucky (3.2 YPC) that we faced against UCF (3.8 YPC).  But they threw for 351 and all people talked about was how dangerous their passing game was.

Teams will stop stuffing the box in conference play because of our weapons in the passing game.

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michgoblue

September 21st, 2016 at 10:40 AM ^

I think that you may be mis-reading the OP.  He isn't saying that the game plans for the first three games weren't good enough, or that they weren't the right plan for those games - we won, we scored a ton of points and we were able to hide the playbook.

What he is asking is whether, now that we are in the conference portion of our schedule, and approaching our more important games, Harbaugh is going to show some more exotic plays to (1) make other teams prepare for them, and (2) achieve an element of surprise. 

It's an interesting question.

My view is that while PSU is "in conference," they are probably not much better than Colorado, so I don't expect us to open up the playbook by much.  We match up well with them and should be able to win based upon talent and decent execution.

 

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Needs

September 21st, 2016 at 1:16 PM ^

PSU is playing very few upper classmen, though. Something like 65% of their roster is freshmen and sophomores. Not to mention they're likely down their three starting LBs this week. Colorado may have not had high recruiting rankings, but they had a bunch of experienced players and until the QB went out, very few injuries.

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Maddogrdt

September 21st, 2016 at 8:37 AM ^

Think of it as a base, the more base you can run successfully, the better. Also, as the season progresses and teams know all your base sets, you can add wrinkles constantly to throw them off...

Oh stats say we run left tackle when in a 3 TE set split to strong side, oh look a counter to weak side.

Vanilla is just us focusing upon the base we will use this year and add wrinkles to over time as needed. 

Not every play can be 5 WR streaks or triple option RB passes...Vanilla is GREAT and we should keep running it until we need to alter it. 

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crg

September 21st, 2016 at 11:50 AM ^

Remember that vanilla used to be the mostly costly and rare flavor to grace the palates of those who could afford. It required hundreds of man-hours to laboriously harvest and process the seed pods, with any mistake in technique or timing ruining entire crops. It was valued for uniqueness, quality and it's lack of availability - a true testament to culinary mastery. Only when the key compound was isolated and mass produced commercially did vanilla lose its status and public appreciation - but the quality of true vanilla is still there. Apply what you will to the "vanilla" of Michigan football.

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turtleboy

September 21st, 2016 at 8:39 AM ^

The Morris Peppers pitch happened before Speight was dinged. I think both backup qb plays in the first quarter were done to keep the defense guessing, and for a bit of in-game experience. 

I agree though, I can't wait to see what new wrinkles come out each week. I'm glad we didn't wait until mid-season to unleash Peppers on offense this year.

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OwenGoBlue

September 21st, 2016 at 12:52 PM ^

If you're doing it in practice then players are used to it. Think the only real "flow" problems occur when it's on a coaching whim and deviates from the gameplan and prep. S/o to Texas for doing what people did in video games for years but in real life.

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I Love Lamp

September 21st, 2016 at 8:41 AM ^

If you don't need to. I understand the angle of giving teams more to study and worry about, but teams like MSU probably are breaking down everything we do on a weekly basis, since we are their everything. Might just be better to go with the element of surprise and see if we can mess those teams up on the field. I honestly don't think we need to get too exotic until Oct 29th.

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KungFury

September 21st, 2016 at 9:01 AM ^

I don't think that's the strategy of this staff. Harbaugh was clear in a presser this week that he put out a lot of stuff like the Morris run specifically to put it on film for other teams. I think this staff is elite because they can design a play to start out looking exactly like a previous play but then be completely different. So I do think we will throw out lots of new formations and motions. And good for other teams if they want to memorize them, because when we play the next game the plays are going to have a new wrinkle that our staff intends them to bite on.



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jdemille9

September 21st, 2016 at 9:56 AM ^

I think it'll be a bit of both. Throwing formations/plays on film for opponents to plan for AND keeping stuff in-house to release upon a poor unsuspecting opponent. 

Either way, I'm cool with it. This staff is elite and while there may be some base tendencies they're gonna throw in new wrinkles and trick plays, etc. every game. I can't wait to see what happens in 2-3 years when there's a ton of stuff on film and Harbaugh still comes up with new ways to mess with their opponent's heads.

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