What do you want to see out of the 2014 Spring Game?

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

Welp, with another amazing Basketball season in the books and having 24 hours to reflect on it, I'm ready to move on and have the spring sports quench my thirst for Michigan Athletics.

The warm weather today in SE Michigan has caused me to bitten by the Football bug.

Yesterday I was dreading the fact of going to watch a glorified practice on Saturday, but the weather looking good (knock on wood) for the day and the Lacrosse game after have me in good spirits on the matter.

What do you want to see out of the spring game to send you home happy/make you happy?

  • NO INJURIES
  • Run the football for positive yards
  • A good OL combo that can keep me from waking in a cold sweat during the summer worrying about this upcoming 2014 season.
  • An effing pass rush. PLEASE?! (no hitting the QBs, obviously)
  • Catch the football

For those who ask the annual question "will this be a spring game?". Nope. Hoke said it's going to more of a practice. Again. For the 13th(?) year in a row due to depth issues.

I'd like to see some kind of scoring system. RR's spring "games" had a way where the defense could score points, but nobody could figure it out since the ADept didn't bother telling us.

I'd like to see some kind of scoring system so I can be more entertained.

You?

uofmdds96

March 31st, 2014 at 5:34 PM ^

She has a crush on him. She wants to get there early enough to sit in the first row behind the bench so that when she screams his name and hold up a sign he will hear her. So that is what I want to see from the Spring Game. So I will need to know what side of the field he will be on. I am sure that will be posted here on Friday. Other than that, Devin connecting on a couple of deep route and a couple of nice runs for Green would make me happy.

Erik_in_Dayton

March 31st, 2014 at 6:06 PM ^

I think we learned in 2009 that Tate Forcier was pretty skilled.  I think we knew one year (can't remember which) that we were in trouble at kicker.  I remember noting the lack of impressive defensive moments during the RR years. 

I think it will be somewhat telling if the offense cannot run on the defense with the RBs (rather than Gardner).  I say that b/c I think we can be pretty sure the defense is not a shutdown unit right now, so an inability to run on them would be a genuinely bad sign - though of course the OL/RBs could improve this summer and fall. 

So, sort of. 

denardogasm

March 31st, 2014 at 5:55 PM ^

A good OL combo AND a pass rush?  Seems difficult to achieve.  Also, you are specifically asking to be pandered to with an arbitrary and meaningless score for a practice.  Is that seriously going to alter the experience?  You're cheering for both sides. 

I want to see Gardner threading the needle, Green/Smith hitting any hole hard, and WRs getting open.  I'm not really worried about the defense.

Wolverine Devotee

March 31st, 2014 at 6:05 PM ^

Nebraska makes their spring games fun.

They draft teams up and actually keep records.

The last game format was 2001 IIRC. I don't think there has been severe depth problems like there are now for 13 years.

Obviously the weather plays a HUGE factor in attendance. 2009 was an estimated 50,000 which was believed to be a record for Michigan Football.

They could try a little harder to make it more fun for the fans. Even if they get one of those ridiculous score systems that go up into the 70s like the 2009 one did.

LSAClassOf2000

March 31st, 2014 at 6:12 PM ^

I had always thought that there were some play variants in zone schemes where you do see some pulling, but I don't know exactly how frequent it is. Minnesota used to have zone runs in the Glen Mason days where uncovered linemen would pull, but his was more outside zone, as I recall. A few teams in the NFL have run similar plays as well - typically, they are in single-back, 2-TE formations too. This is just something I've noticed - I could be off.

ama11

March 31st, 2014 at 6:22 PM ^

The concept you are referring to is called the "Pin and Pull" concept. Glen Mason's Minnesota teams made this a staple. USC also used this quite often in the early 2000's. Like you said, uncovered OL pull and covered block the man covering them or down block the man in their inside gap. Cool stuff.

UMMAN83

March 31st, 2014 at 6:18 PM ^

Show up instead of tweating and cherping. Get out of your chair kinda Michigan types. Probably the same "fans" that don't go to all the games or are not there before kickoff. Its a tradition. I want real fans there. It will probably be the same 15K true blue. Then they ccomplain about the SEC ... watch their Spring games!

nowicki2005

March 31st, 2014 at 6:29 PM ^

if we get no pash rush does that mean we have the worst DL ever because our OL is terrible?

if we get a great pass rush, what does that say about our OL?