UM O-line

Submitted by baleedat on
I know we were all disappointed with the O-line as a unit, but were there any specific linemen that stood out as particularly bad?  It's hard to tell from the nosebleeds, and I haven't heard any players singled out by anyone.  How did Schilling look? Did Ferrara get in the game?
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O-line

Marques Slocum…

September 3rd, 2008 at 9:48 AM ^

Whoever was on the outside edges was struggling to run block. McGuffie only had 1 yard of rushing. I think all of his yards were after the catch...

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 82

StevieY19

September 3rd, 2008 at 11:18 AM ^

Overall, I didn't think the pass blocking was that bad at all.  The way I saw it, a lot of the pressure was after the QB made two or three reads.  It's not easy holding off that pressure when you're typically blocking with just five.  The poor timing on offense made the pass blocking look bad at times.  The run blocking on the other hand.....

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 127

Magnus

September 3rd, 2008 at 11:33 AM ^

Ferrara played on special teams, but not on regular offense.  He's listed as an OR with Moosman at right guard for this week.  Presumably, if he's ready, Moosman will shift to center (presumption mine).

 I thought McAvoy and Molk struggled the most.  They really shouldn't have, because Utah's DT's weren't very good.  But Utah blitzed some up the middle, probably because we have such young guys in there.

Schilling had a couple horrible plays, but overall he and Ortmann played well on the outside.  I'm not sure about Moosman.  I didn't notice him playing horribly, but they were getting pressure up the middle, so I guess all three interior guys deserve some blame.

Joined: 07/17/2008

MGoPoints: 166007

goody

September 3rd, 2008 at 11:58 AM ^

I believe it was sometime in the 4th quarter (possible while we were rallying), but Ortman had a TE next to him with a DE playing in the gap and at the snap of the ball the OLB blitzed wide TE picked him up and Ortman blocked down to help on DT and DE came in free.   I believe he thought the TE would pick up the DE but he had to get the blitzing LB.  Just lack of time together and communication.  Hopefully all will get worked out the more the line plays together.

 Hopefully!!

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 1532

Ellipses Man

September 3rd, 2008 at 1:11 PM ^

I think some mad changes will be coming out of the lab this week. Look for oddities and trickery as far as run blocking goes. Sure the old fashioned run block will be there. But they need to pull out all of the tricks they can.

Joined: 08/09/2008

MGoPoints: 2

mvp

September 3rd, 2008 at 1:24 PM ^

...our offensive line had a combined 15 starts before Saturday.  Against Miami they will have 33% more experience than they did before. 

They are young and need to keep improving.  Schilling, in particular, seemed better than last year.  I'm looking forward to the UFR...

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 2417

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

September 3rd, 2008 at 1:50 PM ^

I specifically remember a play in which McAvoy was helping to double team the DT, leaving a giant gap through which a blitzing linebacker was churning completely unblocked toward Threet.  All McAvoy would have had to do was to disengage the double team and take one step to his left - he could have at least chipped the LB.  I swear he looked and decided not to - possibly he thought there was an RB around to take care of it.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 41586

chitownblue (not verified)

September 3rd, 2008 at 1:58 PM ^

Honestly, I think the O-line was ok with pass blocking. They didn't pick up some blitzes at the end, but, if you told me that someone like McGuffie, whose HS team didn't really pass, wasn't too great at picking up the blitz at this point in his career, I'd hardly be shocked.

Joined: 12/12/2017

MGoPoints: 0

Michigan Arrogance

September 3rd, 2008 at 2:08 PM ^

i thought the line looked like All Americans. honestly, Odoms has never blocked a guy before in his life. that's one thing no one is discussing... the WRs. it never bothered me that LC used FR WRs in a 'token' capacity (ie, block only)... b/c WRs usually suck at everything their 1st year. running the proper route, knowing the right check down, blocking, etc. the biggest blame i could place on RR was running plays that required odoms (and other FR WRs) to block a guy... any guy. that's asking for FAIL, and we got it.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 35493

UMFootballCrazy

September 3rd, 2008 at 2:34 PM ^

In the end I don't think the O-Line stood out particularily one way or the other.  If you look at the number of freshmen playing, it is somewhat impressive that it was not much worse.  They were decidedly mediocre.  And likely they will get better and be aorund for a while...both good things.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 489

gmbblue

September 3rd, 2008 at 3:07 PM ^

While I am waiting for the UFR's to watch cloer the plays that I replayed, and those shown spotlighted last night on BTN showed a complete lack of physicalness from these two.  There were plays where they were simply run over and could not even engage their man for a half second.

With as bad as these guys were its hard to evaluate the running backs and even the scheme.

Wont shock me to see Will Campbell starting next year on the O Line, its clear to me that is the biggest weakness, greater then if we have a dual threat qb.

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 6

formerlyanonymous

September 3rd, 2008 at 5:49 PM ^

I thought the LT was poor throughout the game be it run or pass.  I think it was Ortmann, but I can't even remember any more.  RT (presumably Schilling) was meh in the pass block but was worse than awful in the run block.  I do agree the WR blocking was terrible, but when Odoms is considered a "small electron" guy, that might explain a lot of it.  He's small, he's meant to be a fast guy, not a blocker.  As for clemons and hemingway, I can't say I watched closely enough.  Mathews put on at least one good block that I saw.  Other than that I think he was going deep more often. 

My only good note was Carson Butler, while his blocking wasn't particularly good, he didn't get a penalty for bear-hugging anyone.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 38964

mjv

September 3rd, 2008 at 6:20 PM ^

The only tricks that need to be brought out of hiding is more time together.  Fat Chuck demonstrated the wisdom of hashing out a new scheme during a game week last year before they came to AA.  They just need more time playing against real competition together. 

Linemen need to develop an understanding of what each other is going to do each play given the front they are facing.  It has a great deal to do with snaps played.  Doing anything tricky that minimizes the number of snaps taken using their standard approach is a waste.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 3656