BLUEinRockford

August 8th, 2019 at 6:36 AM ^

I had the pleasure of talking to Chris at Picture Day in August of 2000. What an engaging and articulate young man!

Loved to watch him run, a great Michigan Man!!!!

GO BLUE

UM Fan from Sydney

August 8th, 2019 at 7:04 AM ^

Definitely Chris Perry. One of my all-time favorite players. Set the record for carries in a game with 52, I believe. MSU game.

DualThreat

August 8th, 2019 at 9:33 AM ^

But haven't we learned over this past decade that "establishing the run game" is no more or less important than "establishing the pass game"?

Gotta admit, when Gattis mentioned the other day we were "establishing the run game first", I groaned.  That's old Big Ten walrus mentality.  I'd rather he say "establishing a scheme tailored to exploiting the weakness of our opponent" instead.

 

lostwages

August 8th, 2019 at 10:13 AM ^

Couldn't disagree more... see Dick Rod years, we broke all the wrong records. Furthermore, the defense was on the field more than the offense, and eventually would get shredded by opponents.

We haven't had a dominant running game in a long time; whereby we wear teams done and beat them physically on the line. Denard was an outlier, and his sub-par passing is what made him less of a threat.

Establish the run game, bring the defense up closer to LOS then drop the "Speed in Space".

Tired of the new age BS of passing on every down, because as soon as you come up against a proficient defense, those teams get throttled. Problem with your perspective is that you haven't seen a good run game in a long time...because we haven't had one! (A-Train, Touchdown Timmy, Hart)

Good run game = Consistency, time management, beat teams in conditioning, less of a chance for a pick six and the ball going the other way.

DualThreat

August 8th, 2019 at 10:57 AM ^

Wow, guess we're just on polar opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to game planning then.  To each his own.

I'd rather an unpredictable offense that threatens any action on any play.  "Establishing the Run" implies a focus on one aspect of the game unnecessarily.  If the defense is poised to stop the run, why slam your head into a brick wall?  Sure, you could out-talent the competition, but unless you are confident you can do so, why not pop some deep balls right out of the gate?

If I'm a coach and I see your philosophy above, I'm going to stack the box early in the game and then know that you're trying to "bring my defense up closer to the LOS" for some Speed in Space later.  You've just given me information that only hurts your game plan.  Don't do that.  Don't insist on "Establishing the Run".  See what works in each individual game and make the opponent fear for their lives on every play.

Hail2UM83

August 8th, 2019 at 10:19 AM ^

Did anyone see Steven Threet's post on twitter? I'm paraphrasing here, but he said something tells me when we get to 10 days it won't be Steven Threet days until Michigan Football with a picture of Tom Brady below it. I mean what he said was a given, just thought it was funny that he poked fun at himself.