OT: Scouting the enemy. OSU Spring game on BTN now

I hope the coolers don't start overflowing from all this rain.

It seems strange to me that a 2x national champ legend wants to imitate Oregon. Is his genious that he knows who to copy, or is he an innovator?

A lot of injured LBs, so a lot of inexperience over the middle.

elusiveness

Maybe I should say "general sense of when to run" instead of elusive. Love me some Denard but it often pains me to see slower guys have such a better sense of when to just take off and get the gimme yards instead of tossing a jump ball into triple coverage. Also, I think elusive does kind of apply as Denard also tends to want to blow past everyones shoulder as opposed to angles or knowing that sometimes slowing down in the open field can throw a slower guy off balance allowing for more yards. Again, he plants and truly runs so hard it looks painful and its straight-line forward even if its right by a defenders shoulder. He thinks he can just run faster than they can react even when in front of him. Sometimes he can but very often not. Sure, he sometimes "wiggles" but its almost always been within a few yards of the LOS and before getting tackled or said plant and painful looking runs ending in a TD or more often a 10ish yard run that should have gone much further if he had that sense I clearly cannot explain well in my sleep deprived state. haha

FWIW, Meyer coached Tebow and Alex Smith who aren't quite Stafford, Rogers, or Brady. I think Miller's development as a QB is going to take a back seat to his ability to run the offense. I think he will improve, but I don't think he will lighting it up for 3000+. DG on the other hand....

Defenses aren't allowed to make contact with the QBs, so there's no real pressure.   On the other hand, Braxton's not allowed to run, so I suppose it evens out. 

Ryan Shazier is going to be that defense's best player, in my opinion. He's a star in the making. That he played the whole game in increasingly poor shape due to injuries really helped last season.

Just to add to Scarlatina's info.- Simon didn't really play because Urban, quote "knows what he can do", so that took away from line strength, and Perry was out with injury as well.

That was an unusually good game by OSU (predictable given the rivalry), and an unusually bad game by Michigan's defense. We both know weird things like that happen in rivalry games like that, I wouldn't take much from it if I were you.

competent O Coord? You mean the guy from ISU? he was alright, but certainly wasn't a world beater. 

It was a nice game from braxton and all, but in all reality to blown plays from our D accounted for about 120 of those passing yards in that game.

N=1 studies are the most scientifically rigorous I hear.

I think Ohio fans who discount Mattison have to also consider the talent we had on defense last year.  Kovacs and Heininger started their careers as walk-ons, and there were very few 4 & 5 star recruits who played significant time besides Mike Martin, Craig Roh, and Blake Countess.  Last year's team and possibly this year's team are the least talented Michigan teams that Ohio may face the next decade if Hoke continues to recruit like he has the last 2 years.

An upgrade in talent is way more valuable than any offensive coordinator.  Games are won with Jimmies and Joes, not X's and O's.  If the talent gap between Michigan and Ohio closes, then we will see how it plays out...