Borges Letting Gardner Audible

Submitted by GotBlueOnMyMind on

Great article on the Borges-Gardner dynamic we will get to see this fall. The most interesting quote to me was this:

"We don't want him calling the whole game," Borges said, "but there are instances where there are things he can take advantage of. There are situations where I don't call the right play, and he's got to get us out of that." 

A common complaint around these parts seemed to be that we would run into stacked fronts and that our QBs did not appear to have the power to audible at the line. That apparently will not be the case next year.

 

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/74161/michigans-devin-gardner-gains-mental-edge

 

Zok

April 4th, 2013 at 3:24 PM ^

B/c I think they will pretty much eliminate all QB designed run plays given the QB depth chart. Probably tell Gardner not to run unless its 3rd down scrambles.

Hopefully Gallon and Dileo get on the same page as Gardner for some sweet check-downs or audibles. Both guys are slippery in the open field.

 

LSAClassOf2000

April 4th, 2013 at 3:45 PM ^

"Gardner devoted three weeks of the offseason exclusively to studying defensive fronts. The junior felt he had a good grasp on identifying pass coverages, but seeing where pressure would come from required more work. " - from the article

I think you can get the sense just by watching Gardner that he is an avid student of the game in addition to a talent, but I do like the "no limitations" approach and the drive it shows. This is a pretty cool development really, and I like that the coaches feel comfortable giving Gardner some control of the action and the ability to take advantage of situations as he sees fit. With Borges wanting to curtail the amount of running Gardner will do (10 carries per game or so, per the article), I definitely think this will help.

bostonsix

April 4th, 2013 at 3:47 PM ^

At least he sees and is willing to admit he's made some terrible calls. He just earned himself a +5 on my respect meter. This year is going to be wild, just 5 months to go. :(

Never

April 4th, 2013 at 4:20 PM ^

Am really curious to see what the offense will look like since Borges now has most (all?) of the pieces he desires (albeit not fully developed pieces..yet).

Bill the Butcher

April 4th, 2013 at 5:05 PM ^

All you guys are acting as if Borges had some strict policy against audibles.  Could it perhaps be that Denard was incapable of reading defenses and audibling, and that once Devin moved over from wide receiver there wasn't enough time to teach him everything and thus he didn't audible either?  

Now that Devin is comfortable reading defenses and is focusing soley on being a QB he is allowed to audible.

Sten Carlson

April 4th, 2013 at 5:21 PM ^

Well said Bill!

I was just getting ready to respond to Boston and say pretty much exactly what you said.  I love(d) Denard, but as a pure QB, a guy able to exploit the naunces of offensive football, Denard seemed to leave a great deal to be desired.  His talent, passion, and flat out speed kept him on the field, but there is no doubt in my mind that Borges was very reluctant to give him the wheel completely. 

It was pretty obvious to everyone once DG came in that he was a more of a pure QB than Denard, and it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that Borges' comfort level with DG's command is rapidly rising. 

I am very excited to see what DG and Borges can create in the upcoming season, and even more so in the 2014 season. 

Blue in Yarmouth

April 5th, 2013 at 8:14 AM ^

but if I remember correctly he actually audibled quite a bit last year. To me that reinforces your point that it was more likely that Denard had the green light to audible, but just never chose to do so for whatever reason (whether that be lack of confidence, lack of ability ec). So I guess what I am sayiing is I agree with your reasoning completely, but I believe Devin audibled on a fairly frequent basis in his limited time last season, so this shouldn't be much of a surprise. 

Magnus

April 5th, 2013 at 8:40 AM ^

All those times when I said Denard Robinson was "not a good quarterback," these were things I was talking about.  He played the position of Quarterback and put up some good numbers/performances at times, and he even won a lot of games in 2011.  But things like audibles, accuracy, etc. were always an issue.

Gardner was bred to be a quarterback.  He was one of the top players at his position in 2010 for a reason, and his play during the second half of last season reinforced why Michigan was lucky to have him grow up in our backyard and pick the Wolverines.  I'm excited about watching him play this fall.