keon sabb

Things Discussed:

• NCAA as Romanovs? How to talk to your kids about systems of government.
• How to fix the NCAA: Gonna need contracts and collective bargaining, but the NCAA should be at the point now where they realize they'll get more negotiating with the players than getting sued by them.
• Transfers should NOT be open. You're devaluing education, which is still the best thing the schools have to offer.
• Keon Sabb: hurts, but get that Bama was able to sell him a bill of goods on playing time.
• Defense: Find a 2nd corner, McBurrows at nickel, gonna miss Sainristil lining everybody up and running their complex coverages, but Rod Moore knows his stuff.
• Offense: Who's going to be the quarterback? Denegal talk. Seth: You need accuracy with these receivers, because you're taking advantage of the space you get from Tyler Morris or Donovan Edwards—no jump-ballers on the roster.
• Basketball: Juwan will get another year, has to start building like Purdue not Calipari.

[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]

A pair of headlines involving Michigan Football this Friday, the reported hiring of LaMar Morgan as defensive backs coach and the decision of S Keon Sabb to enter the transfer portal. We'll check off both of these in today's short combo piece: 

Introducing: LaMar Morgan, DBs Coach 

If you read my piece about the new coaches on Wednesday and then tuned out until today, you are probably stunned since I introduced a DBs coach in that piece, Stephen Adegoke. Well, as it turned out, after Adegoke accepted the Michigan job, DeMeco Ryans of the Houston Texans put on the full court press to keep Adegoke's services. As it seems to go these days, if a college team finds themselves seriously bidding against the NFL for a coach's services, they are usually going to lose that battle, as Michigan did. Thus, we have a new new DBs coach to introduce: 

Michigan is hiring Louisiana defensive coordinator LaMar Morgan as defensive backs coach, sources tell @247Sports.

Morgan impressed Michigan during the interview process and came recommended from ex-Michigan DC Jesse Minter, whom he worked with at Vanderbilt.… pic.twitter.com/rYiiXy4O8M

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) February 16, 2024

Morgan was one of the two finalists alongside Adegoke for the job, so it was a pretty easy pivot for Michigan when they lost Adegoke. And while some may view Morgan as "Plan B" his profile offers lots of reasons to get excited. While Morgan is not nearly as young as Adegoke, he is still under the age of 40, keeping the theme of this very young staff. He was a safety for the University of Louisiana-Lafayette in the mid-2000s before going into coaching, which began as a GA under James Franklin at Vanderbilt in 2012-13, the last time the Commodores were any good. From there Morgan moved on to be a DBs coach at Western Carolina in 2014-15, then coached by Mark Speir, followed by a stint at University of Louisiana-Monroe in 2016-17. After that he did a year at Houston as the safeties coach under Major Applewhite (2018) and then returned to his alma mater Louisiana-Lafayette as an assistant head coach/cornerbacks coach.

Morgan held that job down for two seasons (2019-20) before leaving for one year to take his first P5 job, as cornerbacks coach of Vanderbilt under new DC... Jesse Minter. The two worked together for one season but when Minter departed for Michigan, Morgan headed straight back to ULL, where he got to be his alma mater's defensive coordinator under new head coach Michael Desormeaux, in addition to coaching the safeties. For the past two seasons Morgan has coordinated ULL's defense, the team finishing 29th in SP+ defense in 2022 and 107th this past season. What do we take away from that? Probably not all that much, as there was likely a bit of a talent decline with another year removed from Billy Napier's juggernaut teams that went 23-2 between 2020-21. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: More news]

FORMATION NOTES: The UFR Glossary is here and you may want to brush up because DeBoer made me bring out rare formations like a true under-center Single-Wing, and weird notations like Z->Y means the WR and TE have switches spots. This is the Go Go setup (aka Single-Wing RB) that UNLV was running way back in September.

I put covered players in parentheses, but Washington also managed to get away with some illegal formations where nobody was covered, in which case I just put a question mark in there, e.g. Go Go Right (?).

"Hide H" was a trick where Rome Odunze hid out at tight end and got M to align in a mismatch. That's him trying not to be noticed as the H-back on the top of the formation (where all the Michigan players are pointing).

I'm using "Flex" for a TE split out wide for a 2x2 set. "Demi" means the TE isn't tight but neither is he in the slot (see #37 on the left). Also we were treated to a skycam version of this game, so I can provide a few canonical examples of terms we're often flinging around, and some new ones. Michigan in the above is in an G front, which means the nose is head up over the guard. Sometimes he was over the tackle, which I call Wide, where the DT is lined up over a tackle.

Letters or numbers (A, AA, 0) in the defensive front that means they've added LBs on the line of scrimmage in that alignment (A gap, both A gaps, head up on the center, etc). Another nuance I can capture with greater accuracy than usual is the difference between Kirby Smart's "Mint" front and a true 404 where the DL are heads up on the tackles—I think a lot of the Tites I charted this year were actually Mint. Michigan got creative too. This is "Crable":

I'll also try to note in the text when Michigan used sim pressures, since that's going to be relevant.

[After THE JUMP: Winning a natty.]