Urban Analysis-Wisconsin Offensive Concepts
Urban's breakdown of the Wisconsin's Offense vs. Michigan. One thing of note for me was watching efficient blocking from the UW WRs. Even their QB gets in on the action.
WR blocking is critical to making an offense run well and Michigan' has been awful this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeshM-HRdGM&list=UU4LeRw7pIZ_kseS4Krn_DQA
November 21st, 2020 at 12:07 PM ^
I know younger fans are tired of hearing Bo this and Bo that, but if you were a WR and didn't block, you were unlikely to get on the field when he was coach.
November 21st, 2020 at 12:16 PM ^
... and if you did get on the field, and you were a seldom-used or young WR, the opposing team screamed "THEY'RE GONNA RUN!" internally and played the run ... and more often than they should have, stopped the run.
Predictability ... a Michigan tradition.
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All that said, Don's main point is a good one.
November 21st, 2020 at 12:33 PM ^
Does Jim know this?
November 21st, 2020 at 12:37 PM ^
How can you block well as a WR when your WR’s all look to be 5’10” and 165lbs!? Who is Sainstril and Roman Wilson gonna block?
You can block when you have WR’s built like Arrington, Terrell, Braylon, etc.
November 21st, 2020 at 2:41 PM ^
Against Minnesota Wilson, Bell, and Sainristil all performed very well on blocking assignments in that game. Since then? Yeah, a lot to be desired...
November 21st, 2020 at 3:13 PM ^
November 21st, 2020 at 12:09 PM ^
You'd think having an offensive coordinator who was a former WR coach would make UM better. But, nothing that should work ever seems to for UM for very long.
November 21st, 2020 at 12:11 PM ^
It sometimes feels like you could have Belichick as head coach with Meyer and Saban as the coordinators here, with Jeff Bezos as our under the table bagman and somehow it wouldn’t work.
November 21st, 2020 at 1:58 PM ^
Just wait for the NIL....
The "money cannon" will solve everything
November 21st, 2020 at 3:37 PM ^
The "money cannon" will solve everything
At one point I would have argued that recruiting would be the answer. This year we are at a new low. We have more 4 & 5-stars than everyone else combined we've played so far yet we are 1-3. This staff would find a way to make Tom Brady look like Steven Threet. Talent is important. But, right now talent is not our problem. If talent guaranteed wins we'd win 10-12 games ever year.
November 21st, 2020 at 12:12 PM ^
The main thing I took away from last weeks game is Wisconsin is a very good coached team.
November 21st, 2020 at 12:15 PM ^
and Michigan is not
November 21st, 2020 at 12:17 PM ^
What was sad for me was realizing that for the past decade, Wisconsin is clearly a better football program than Michigan.
November 21st, 2020 at 12:36 PM ^
Our recruiting has waned while Wisconsin has improved.
November 21st, 2020 at 12:39 PM ^
Not buying it. At least starting with Harbaugh. Sometimes better, sometimes not. Didn’t exist in B1G East.
Also, our WRs have been good at blocking under Harbaugh. Not sure what they’ve been doing since August. But then again Milton probably looked great against our secondary in practice.
Michigan, like many other teams, is suffering more in 2020. Some of it is the B1G’s cancellation resulting in two critical departures. Some of it is injuries since season start. Much is a recruiting class that has mostly left so the team is young. Then there is the assistant who is working from home and not coaching for personal reasons. Now it is team morale and self confidence too.
AFU
November 21st, 2020 at 3:08 PM ^
How do you feel about Iowa? For the last 25 years we've been a mirror image of Iowa.
November 21st, 2020 at 12:34 PM ^
And the WR blocking vs Minnesota was exceptional. What happened....
November 21st, 2020 at 12:44 PM ^
IIRC WR blocking under Harbaugh has been outstanding every other year. How much of this issue is the fact that our receiving corps is extremely young and there was no spring practice? That seems like a really important factor for our team.
November 21st, 2020 at 1:09 PM ^
Too me it seems more like an issue of want to vs how to. It’s about toughness.
I’m sure there may be some youthful missed assignments and yes Nico can body a guy better than Ronnie Bell but watching guys take a hard pass on contact and seeing our guys get blown up pisses me off.
One of the leaders on this team should get right in the grill of any player that lets that happen.
November 21st, 2020 at 1:26 PM ^
What's so special about spring that couldn't be overcome with the extra fall practice?
November 21st, 2020 at 1:59 PM ^
I'm not sure, but the other really inexperienced teams are uncharacteristically bad and the really experienced teams are uncharacteristically good. Gotta be something to it.
November 21st, 2020 at 2:18 PM ^
In other words you can't be reasoned out of something you didn't reason your way into.
November 21st, 2020 at 2:34 PM ^
I'm just looking at the evidence and trying to figure out what it means. Michigan, Michigan State, LSU, Baylor, and Syracuse are P5 teams with very little returning production that have played a meaningful number of games at this point. They are all shockingly bad. Meanwhile, teams like IU and Northwestern are uncharacteristically good.
November 21st, 2020 at 3:00 PM ^
Maybe older, more mature teams are better able to handle all the turmoil that is 2020. Players in and out of lineups...
November 21st, 2020 at 3:02 PM ^
It's highly unlikely it means there are magical properties to spring practice.
November 21st, 2020 at 3:11 PM ^
Nobody said anything about magic. Coaches seem to think spring practice is really important.
November 21st, 2020 at 3:21 PM ^
I'm not disputing spring practice is important. I'm disputing that almost 2 extra months of fall practice can't make up for two weeks of spring practice. Which doesn't apply to three of the teams you mentioned because they started on timeish and didn't get extra fall practice.
November 21st, 2020 at 7:18 PM ^
It's always nice to hear some insightful X's and O's analysis from Jim Harbaugh's father.