dothepose

March 27th, 2013 at 3:26 PM ^

Who is the chode with the one comment on that article? Devin's arm strength looked pretty good to me. Did that guy miss the 50 yard td to Dileo off his back foot after running around for 10 seconds?

JimBobTressel

March 27th, 2013 at 3:54 PM ^

Borges, who does a forensic study each offseason of the top offenses in the nation in an attempt to discover why those offenses worked, has a much greater understanding of the allure of the spread option after working with Robinson for two years.

sweet

colin

March 27th, 2013 at 4:23 PM ^

"Borges, who does a forensic study each offseason of the top offenses in the nation in an attempt to discover why those offenses worked, has a much greater understanding of the allure of the spread option after working with Robinson for two years. The offense can always scheme to overload the defense on the play side, overwhelming with superior numbers. Still, it has one major drawback. “There is a case for spread offense. Because it looks so good on the board,” Borges said. “There are no runs that look bad.""

Not that it wasn't evident in the play design, but this is good to hear. Further evidence that Borges definitely gets X's and O's. Execution was the problem last year and that's obviously the other half of it. But there are plenty of B1G coordinators who seem to struggle with both. So cheers to that.

AtkinsDiet

March 27th, 2013 at 4:35 PM ^

"Execution" can be blamed for anything.

I don't want to keep reflecting on the second half of the OSU game last year, but Barnum, Mealer and Omameh did not fail on those critical short-yardage runs because of execution. They failed because they were poor blockers in the power run game and had consistently showed that all season against opponents with a lot less Front 7 talent than OSU had.

Hopefully it was a wake-up call for Borges and it sounds like it might have been.

 

colin

March 28th, 2013 at 1:01 AM ^

I didn't say anything about play calling, I said play design.  They consistently had trouble throughout the season executing runs that weren't inverted veer.  Whatever you think of the play calling, lack of execution consistently put us in trouble throughout the season.

Meanwhile, there's no hint from this article that he's learned anything new.  Just that he is doing what he always does, which is look over what good offenses have done and how they were successful.

Tater

March 27th, 2013 at 6:54 PM ^

I think the same as I have since day one: we won't truly know what Borges is capable of until he has his own senior class to work with.  The change to the spread, only to scuttle it just when the correct personnel were old enough to do some damage, caused more years of transition.  

This year is still a transition year, but it will look closer to what we will ultimately see from Borges.  I am still hoping that he uses some of the spread elements that are being used out of the pro set in the NFL.

DonAZ

March 27th, 2013 at 8:03 PM ^

"I am still hoping that he uses some of the spread elements that are being used out of the pro set in the NFL."

I'm going to guess he will ... given the talent on the field to execute it.

I realize that's just my opinion, which isn't worth all that much.  But my reasoning is this: Borges was smart enough to maintain a good portion of the spread given the personnel he had.  It's clear Michigan (and pretty much everyone) is seeking speed along with size and strength. 

Devin Gardner has the athletic ability to be an effective read option QB.  My sense is Borges won't rely on Gardner in that role, but he will likely use him.

But your question suggests a return question -- given the 2013 roster as we understand it today, what kind of spread elements would you like to see Borges use?

 

 

LSAClassOf2000

March 27th, 2013 at 8:38 PM ^

"Lewan had figured he and the other seniors would have to ride herd on the youngsters during offseason workouts, but he said that wasn't necessary. All the Wolverines came ready to work. "They know what they want," Lewan said. "What they want is a Big Ten championship."

It might seem like a minor thing, but from an organizational standpoint, I think this shows how engaged this team is and how focused they are on what the hip business white papers call "true north", or where the team would ideally like to be. To have gotten this sort of uniformity of message in two seasons is an excellent measure of how well this staff connects to the team. That can only be a good thing - if you think of seniors and captains as having something of a supervisory role, that they don't need to restate team goals - that the expectation is well-communicated - is something even the best corporations struggle with. Yes, we have a well-run team indeed. 

Blazefire

March 27th, 2013 at 9:52 PM ^

Absolutely loving this.

I think we're all going to be in for a big shock.this season. It doesn't seem like that long since Chad Henne and the gang were running between the tackles and passing out of a 5 or 7 step drop, but it really has been. It's not gonna feel normal.

Just watch the Outback Bowl Highlights again and again. Remind yourself that THAT is what you're looking for. (Except with wins.)