January 11th, 2011 at 1:08 AM ^
Drawing any conclusions about the futility of the spread is pure ridonkulousness
For the spread in general, yes. For the type of spread that Oregon runs, the evidence is mounting that there are problems with this scheme being able to get it done in short yardage situations, especially against bigger, more physical defenses.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:30 AM ^
Yeah that's right. They should be a pro-style team, like Auburn. WTF?
January 11th, 2011 at 12:38 AM ^
I think his point is that, although both teams run versions of the spread, the defenses controlled the offenses. I think it's pretty clear. Offense wins game. Defense wins championships.
To hell with finesse. Give us Les.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:48 AM ^
This has become a common theme on the message boards lately. Rod gets fired b/c of the spread and let's get back to pro-style ball? It was the defense that failed us, not our spread "finesse" offense. And defense wins championships is a tired cliche. Big plays and turnovers win championships. Auburn happened to have a few more.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:53 AM ^
Actually, our offense failed us plenty of times. Against the five best defenses we faced (OSU, Iowa, Miss St, MSU, Wisc), we averaged 18.8 ppg. We could not control the line of scrimmage against those teams. That can't continue if we want to be a Big Ten contender.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:58 AM ^
He was fired b/c of the defense. Putting that aside, doesn't your point suggest we need a better offensive line more so than a change in scheme? OSU blows people off of the ball out of the shotgun. It has nothing to do with scheme and everything to do with talent. Despite what people think around here, our o-line was vastly overrated and a significant weakness in those games you cite.
January 11th, 2011 at 1:17 AM ^
Putting that aside, doesn't your point suggest we need a better offensive line more so than a change in scheme?
Not really. It's in the scheme and the plays that are called. So much of the playcalling in Oregon's typical offense all season was predicated on the quickness of their players in space being too much for the defenses to handle. Against the better (and quicker) defensive teams, they struggled. The same thing happened with Michigan. As soon as we started playing defenses with legitimately talented players, who could play (relatively) better in space, the schematic advantages dissipated. The comments about "the spread" should be more reflective of the specific type of spread (i.e. those predicated on zone read components and run with smaller, quicker players), rather than "the spread" as an entire category. This isn't really something I would expect most Michigan fans to understand who haven't followed other spread teams all that closely, though. If Miles is hired, however, this should become abundantly clear pretty quickly. Miles runs a spread-based scheme, as well, but it is much more slanted to traditional power football elements. He'll be able to use the same players, and simply by having having a fundamentally different underlying philosphy in the spread, the offense will appear completely different.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:41 AM ^
Maybe Chip Kelly will accuse Auburn of stealing signals too, like he did against Ohio State. No, Chip, that was your offensive line getting dominated by a stronger, more athletic front again. Let's not play the blame game, Fairley may be a total douche, but the dude was in the backfield more than LaMichael James, just like Cam Heyward.
The spread can work against anyone, as long as the offensive line is good. Don't blame the "offense", blame the personnel.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:58 AM ^
Best thing about Les Miles: he's an old OL coach.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:26 AM ^
how much credit coaches get. you're only as good as your players are. without Newton, Auburn loses at least 3 games this year. that's why i'm not too worried about how good of a coach our new coach is, but he needs to recruit his butt off. i'm more worried about getting the star athletes to come here.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:30 AM ^
I mean you have to give Chizik some credit. He has a $200k player that he was able to get eligible all season long. Has to count for something.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:27 AM ^
What--is this a music awards show?
January 11th, 2011 at 12:29 AM ^
January 11th, 2011 at 12:36 AM ^
If by "instrument" you mean Cam's father.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:48 AM ^
do you mean 'tool'?
January 11th, 2011 at 12:47 AM ^
Instruments, or tools?
I'm pretty certain that Cam IS a tool.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:27 AM ^
January 11th, 2011 at 12:27 AM ^
You have to be impressed by the quality defense played by both teams, The speed at all positions, the tackling, taking correct angles-everything we lack. Regardless of who coaches this team, we have an enormous way to go to catch up to these truly good teams.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:32 AM ^
Completely agreed about the game--the defenses played their asses off, and did so very well. Auburn's D-line was STOUT!
Hopefully our new coach will get things rolling for Big Blue again soon.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:34 AM ^
January 11th, 2011 at 12:29 AM ^
Hopefully he takes it. Who would be the best DC we have a shot at (besides Hoke)?
January 11th, 2011 at 12:34 AM ^
John Chavis would be my pick.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:35 AM ^
January 11th, 2011 at 12:42 AM ^
I'm not sold on either he or Chizik anyway. Put Cam Newton on a lot of teams and you get this result. He's just that dominant of a college athlete.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:29 AM ^
And boy, cannot wait till we get more athletes on the field like these teams.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:29 AM ^
And here I am, late at night back on the boards, waiting out the search with the only people who understand me...
January 11th, 2011 at 12:59 AM ^
drinks all around
January 11th, 2011 at 12:29 AM ^
Dear Rich:
Good defense always trumps good offense. But, hey, the spread-and-shred sure is cute.
Best, Les
January 11th, 2011 at 12:36 AM ^
the need to take a backhanded shot at Rich even after he is gone? I swear, people who disliked RR can't even stop taking random shots at the man, after he is gone.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:39 AM ^
When one spread team beats another spread team by three points in the national championship game you just sound like a retard.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:45 AM ^
I feel like "spread" and "pro-form" are used way too liberally on this board. Almost like every spread offense is exactly the same and every pro-style offense involves nothing but running plays. As you point out, there are some differences between teams that run the "spread"
January 11th, 2011 at 12:53 AM ^
What's your point? Auburn is not a pro-style team by any measure.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:55 AM ^
Auburn and Oregon run completely different offenses yet they are both the "spread". Just like Stanford running a "pro-style" doesn't mean that it is the same as Brady Hoke's offense at SDSU. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find a spread and a pro-style offense of two different teams that is more similar than two spread or two pro-style teams.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:51 AM ^
I guess you very, um, literal-minded. The point is that two "unstoppable" spread offenses were mostly neutralized by defense. The spread gets too much credit. Listen to Nick and Urban: building a top defense trumps building a top offense. The point is completely relevant, given our switch from an O coach to a D coach.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:55 AM ^
How does one sloppy game prove this? Even if it did, why couldn't it be that two defensive lines had better games than their offensive lines? I don't think anyone has much respect for either of those defenses, outside of Nick Fairley for Auburn and Casey Matthews for Oregon.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:52 AM ^
Rich Rod's spread and Auburn's spread are totally different animals. Rod's is much more like Oregon's with the small and quick athletes.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:37 AM ^
dear rich haters:
upperclassmen players always play better than true freshmen. accept that young teams don't play well. reality sucks sometimes.
yours, realistic michign fans
January 11th, 2011 at 12:48 AM ^
yeah that young michigan basketball team sure looked horrendous vs kansas on sunday.... oh wait, they competed?! Based on Rich Rod apologists I thought it was impossible for a team with sophomores and freshmen to compete with a ranked (let alone #3) team.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:58 AM ^
You can't possibly be serious. You're comparing basketball and football games? That's just stupid. Physicality is not nearly as important in basketball and the game isn't nearly as complex. Please end your futile attempts to be witty.
January 11th, 2011 at 1:17 AM ^
What the hell does physicality have to do with age when you're talking about the difference between 19 and 20? If anything the age argument can be used to say that the younger players don't have as much experience and therefore decision making ability.
And what do you say to the fact that Brady Hoke competed with both #2 or 3 TCU and Missouri in his 2nd year at San Diego freaking State? He had essentially 0 talent in his first year taking over the 2-10 SDSU team, and any talent he brought in was no older than a true sophomore, and most were true freshmen.... Yet he was able to be competitive with strong teams. Quit using this backdoor garbage, made up logic to defend Rich Rod when anyone with a brain (i.e. a majority of college football followers) can admit that he didn't get it done here.
January 11th, 2011 at 1:22 AM ^
And on second thought, are you really trying to argue that playing corner back isn't as confusing as playing point guard? Point guard is an unbelievably complex position, more complex than corner back for sure. Not that this is even relevant because of my previous response, but for the love of God stop making up pure nonsense to defend your argument. I don't really care if you feel the need to argue this basketball/football claim; if you want to dispute something go ahead and dispute what I said about Brady Hoke being able to field a competitive team at SDSU in year 2
January 11th, 2011 at 1:34 AM ^
Well, in BB you have players so good and so young that the can skip college game and just go and make millions in the NBA; i don´t really think any HS FB player can go to an NFL team and compete, maybe they grasp the game pretty well, maybe even better than some pros, who knows, but they're just not ready...
January 11th, 2011 at 9:37 AM ^
It's funny because I'd be willing to bet (if you even follow basketball which is questionable) that you were one of the people last year saying "man wait until darius morris gets older he will be so good."
Also, you should inform Brian of your logic considering that he has been saying all basketball season that he doesn't expect much from the team because they have only 1 junior and 0 seniors starting.
January 11th, 2011 at 2:10 AM ^
you don't understand sports.
hai guys, 16 year old gymnasts are better than 25 year old gymnasts! so what's wrong with cullen christian!?!?!
January 11th, 2011 at 9:34 AM ^
yep playing cornerback is more complex than playing point guard you're right.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:29 AM ^
did I hear Chizik congratulate Oregon on a great season or a great game in either his of post game interviews. He just kept saying War Eagle like a dickhead. Maybe he'll get around to it later, but he seems like a douche nozzle to me.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:58 AM ^
You just won on a field goal as time expired...give a little shout out to the opposition.
And ESPN, please put Lee Corso out to pasture. It is so difficult listening to him struggle to get his words out, forget which teams are playing, etc. Why humiliate the man? It's obvious he is getting senile and losing his mind. UGH! Just make it stop!!!
January 11th, 2011 at 1:29 AM ^
I thought the exact same thing before I found out that he had a stroke a year or so ago...so I'm pretty sure that has more of an effect than becoming senile.
January 11th, 2011 at 12:30 AM ^
Nick Fairley what a tool
January 11th, 2011 at 12:31 AM ^
There are rummors going around that Kellen Jones has defected to Colorado. I certainly hope this isn't true, he seemed like a a true blue kid...