Strength & Conditioning

While your viewpoint is not going to be popular in these here parts, you raise a very valid and fair point - we were getting overpowered in the trenches time and again.  With our size and experience up front, this should not be happening to the level that it did.  I can somewhat (although less so every day) get the defense of the defensive backfield based upon injury, youth, inexperience, walk-ons, etc., but up front, there are no excuses.  We just did not look good.

The point that I do not agree with is the body cramp - as someone knowledgeable in training, a cramp is almost always not training related.  It usually results from dehydration, low sodium balance, random positioning of a limb while the relevant muscle is flexing or some other non-training event. 

you exclude the fact the Michigan defense was well conditioned and throwing their full effort during 90-some downs against UMass. Can't be selective with your critique

It was one game.

Watching the game, there were a lot of runs we stuffed close to the line of scrimmage.  Where we got killed defensively was giving up big plays, which had more to do with positioning and instinct and youthful secondary than necessarily brute phsycial prowess.

Offensively, we were moving the ball at will in the first half, but got away from the ground game as we fell further behind.  We shot ourselves in the foot and left 18 points on the board between the two endzone picks and the overthrow of Stonum - plus blocked field goal and 4th quarter pick.

Because I'm not one of those who put Barwis on a god-like pedestal just because he's good at his job.  He's not a miracle worker, we weren't THAT bad before he came (pretty apparent now), and S&C is important, but other good teams have good coaches too, so it's not like Barwis is some magically advantage.

I'm more concerned with your other point - speed.  Because we've spent 3 years recruiting smaller guys (who naturally would be pushed around vs. a bigger guy) on the idea that we were getting speed in return. And the thousands of "slot ninja's" "whooo speed" posts we've gotten when the recruiting classes come in, and we're explaining why we have the most under 6' players ever in  a class, and so forth, was all predicated on them being really fast. On both sides of the ball.  

And other than Denard, who's world class, I don't really see it.  Our receivers and running backs get caught from behind. We keep hearing about our defensive players as being too slow to be a corner...or in the case of the hybrids, a true safety....and most of the recruits we've gotten lately in the "Hello" threads have been listed as "good, not great speed".  And the few players we have who are considered fast, I don't know that they're really that much faster than the guys we've recruited in the past. We did have fast players before, too. I'm just not seeing the team-wide speed that was supposed to compensate for some smaller players.

Bo learned early on, when he was coaching before Michigan, and he thought football was all about technique, and his other assistant coach kept knocking him on his ass, that technique with size will beat technique every day.  And kinda conversely, speed does kill, but being small, without speed, is a good combination for getting beat.

We don't need or should expect 5 or 6 Denards out there.  But a few receivers and running backs who aren't a danger of being caught from behind, and some defensive players who make up for having to run a 3-3-5 by being quick to the ball and closing quickly in zone coverage would certainly be nice.

for Iowa talk.

is, for the most part, something you're born with.  Cam Gordon, JT Floyd, Cullen Christian, etc. can improve their speed a little by doing squats and lower-body work to build their fast-twitch muscles, but some guys (Edwin Baker) are just faster than they are.

Cramps: Not strength and condition staff's fault. Some people are cramp prone. Some people get caught up in the game and don't keep up on their hydration. Some people live in Michigan where it's been in the 50's-60's the last few weeks and their bodies have already done a fair bit of acclimatization to the colder weather. Throw those people into 80 and sunny weather and have them sprinting all over a football field all day boom- cramps. Again: NOT Barwis's fault.

Speed: Muscle fiber composition, anatomy and geometry of the hips, fatigue- These plus other factors determine how fast you can run. You can lift and do plyometrics until you're blue in the face, but if your genetics say you're muscles will be predominantly slower (slow and slow-fast) fiber types.... you're going to be slower! Also, narrow hips make for slower runners. The only variable here that Barwis can control is fatigue. We've seen the team play well for nearly 100 plays a couple times this season. So he's done his job there.

The issue that bothers me is the 2nd half scoring trends.  I'm not smart enough to blame anyone other than we're getting our asses kicked in the 2nd half.  Is it conditioning?  Don't know, but it needs to be addressed.

If we tackle better and get stops then our D can get off the field. Thus keeping us fresh for later.

Win Win

Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week!

So I was surprised to see M getting overpowered in the trenches on both sides of the ball by MSU. 

Yes, our OL was overpowered so badly that we only rushed for 171 yards on 33 carries (subtracting the one sack), despite not having any long runs. 

I believe the UFR will show that our OL played fine.