Yay Tempo! Yay Nussmeier!
Among other great things Nussmeier brings to the table, he apparently runs tempo in practice which IMO leads to an ability for the offense to, you know, actually run tempo in games.
It could also actually help our defense get used to tempo so they won't be seeing it for the first time in September or October.
Yay us!
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2014/02/doug_nussmeier_mum_on…
February 28th, 2014 at 11:43 AM ^
I would imagine actually having to practice against tempo will help our defense as well. We sometimes seem surprised last year when teams didnt wait till there were less than five seconds on the play clock to break huddle.
February 28th, 2014 at 7:48 PM ^
"We sometimes seem surprised"? Unless you were out there on the field, you mean "They." This is an example of fans subconsciously mistaking thier identity as being an admirer of some thing with actually being a part of that thing. They start using pronouns like "we' when they really should grammatically use "they." And then its just a short walk to getting all worked up over something as trivial as wearing a headset.
Or something.
February 28th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^
February 28th, 2014 at 12:04 PM ^
I would really hope if that was a problem at Bama, that Nuss and Hoke would have worked that out beforehand.
February 28th, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^
I'm sure that was worked out in the first phone call from Hoke to Nuss.
Nuss: It's my offense right, no questions asked?
Hoke: What's an offense?
Nuss: My man!
Hoke: Seriously
Nuss: Don't you worry your chubby little head, I got this.
Hoke: Toughness, execute, manball um well this is Michigan!
Match made in A2
February 28th, 2014 at 2:14 PM ^
February 28th, 2014 at 11:45 AM ^
I used to think 120 beats per minute was the standard tempo but seems like it's changed to 140 bpm last 10 years or so.
February 28th, 2014 at 12:33 PM ^
Ah yes, the good old days of 2004, when everyone and her mother were 120bpm Sousa march specialists. "The Stars and Stripes Forever" was never so well subdivided as when conservatory students were only allowed to practice at 120bpm. 140bpm? Have you tried to single tongue 16th notes at 140bpm? Now try playing the famous bassoon excerpt from "The Marriage of Figaro Overture."
February 28th, 2014 at 2:25 PM ^
I suppose you're not the Michigan Music School grad who plays bassoon for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra? No, I think I'd know that by now. But for perspective I think I'll check with him as to the traditional tempo and whether he's willing to take up your challenge.
But alas, I am a mere clarinetist and have no job with the Met. I'd love to hear his thoughts on the Marriage of Figaro Overture bassoon excerpt - he's probably played it live plenty of times by now!
February 28th, 2014 at 11:46 AM ^
does this mean we won't casually run the 2 minute drill as if there are 6 minutes?
February 28th, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^
Hey man, don't you dare bash NASCAR! I got dizzy watching Michigan in 2-minute drills
February 28th, 2014 at 12:19 PM ^
I got that a lot too
February 28th, 2014 at 6:14 PM ^
We might even have enough aptitude in high-tempo situations to not spike the ball when the clock is already stopped!
February 28th, 2014 at 11:47 AM ^
But I'm happier about the additional practice reps. I know we won't be Oregon, but anything that pushes toward max speed/reps in practice is beneficial
February 28th, 2014 at 2:41 PM ^
Sometimes quality over quantitiy is best.
I agree we want as many reps as possible but we also need to make sure they're still doing the right things instead of quickly reinforcing bad habits.
February 28th, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^
21st century preparation and tactical weaponry.
February 28th, 2014 at 11:52 AM ^
"Practices are really fast, we get a lot of reps. This was probably the fastest practice I've ever been a part of ... I feel like, right now, there's a lot of energy in practice. I'm happy with it. ... Coach Nuss definitely pushes tempo, makes sure we get to the ball fast, get the calls out, do everything you need to do and then get the ball hiked. He's pushing that a lot. And sometimes we just go hurry-up to get more reps." - Devin Gardner
That description seems reminscent of the way in which people have talked about Oregon's practices through the years, and while we may not go quite that fast, I do like the idea of incoporating tempo and maximizing the time like that. Especially with a new system, I think that this in conjunction with the sort of phased change that Nussmeier hinted at in the presser should help ease the transition. As someone else mentioned too, I think it will eventually mean the defense will get a great variety of looks too and that will hopefully help them against teams that change up the tempo as well.
February 28th, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^
1) i think its necessary to at least incorporate some up tempo sets in all modern college offenses, if not more than some. 2) and yeah it absolutely helps max effeciency during installs and evals - especially for new coach with young players running new system. they only have so many allotted team hours. great to hear, but im not surprised given nussmeiers rep and his intelligence. hopefully the OL appreciates this approach and comes along a tad quicker via repetition
February 28th, 2014 at 12:05 PM ^
Ford Tempo = BAD!
Nuss Tempo = G O O D ! !
February 28th, 2014 at 6:55 PM ^
February 28th, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^
But he wanted to work toward it, whereas I think Nuss wants it simply as part of the offense.
It does seem clear even on video that the way they teach is quite different. Borges was more methodical in that way. "Alright, let's stop for a second and think about this, go through the whole approach again, go through the motion again, go through the technique again, understand it, then snap it again." Nus is more energetic in his approach. Seems to jump in there, what's the exact thing you did wrong, correct it quickly, alright, let's rep it again.
Both styles can work, but sometimes a change can really help players in situations like these. I hope tempo is a part of the offense this year. I also hope the offense can nail down the fundamentals that they seemed to struggle at through much of last year as well.
February 28th, 2014 at 12:49 PM ^
like having any idea whatsoever who to block on the OL
February 28th, 2014 at 2:34 PM ^
One of the things that's always perplexed me is why that process took so long here. By the second year in San Diego they were going full-bore with the tempo: lots of no-huddle, including 100% of the scripted stuff as far as I can remember, but after three years here they still hadn't gotten that far. Communication issues? Lack of depth made them not want to lengthen the game? Whatever it was, I hope it's been resolved....
February 28th, 2014 at 6:19 PM ^
You don't need to "work toward" it when you inherit a bunch of Rodriguez players. They were already doing it.
February 28th, 2014 at 12:04 PM ^
February 28th, 2014 at 12:11 PM ^
damned delay of game penalties or having to burn timeouts. Also, it could help build up more stamina of the offensive players which will help us wear down defenses later in games -things like we used to to in the good old days.
February 28th, 2014 at 12:18 PM ^
have this as part of their offensive repetoire. Michigan ran no huddle, then went back to the huddle and is now probably going to do a little of both, I don't know.
I'm pleased about "up-tempo" if others are pleased. I'm just not convinced that offensive tempo was the reason Michigan lost as many games as it did last year. What I remember are Michigan's failures to sustain blocks, while getting regularly rogered along the line of scrimmage in most games.
February 28th, 2014 at 12:45 PM ^
But I also see uptempo as a different way of learning the offense. I am reminded of what CS Lewis said about how he learned languages. His teacher had him jump straight into a language and attempt to translate a large swath. " At first I could travel only a very short way along the trail he had blazed, but every day I could travel further… He appeared at this stage to value speed more than absolute accuracy. The great gain was that I was very soon able to understand a great deal without (even mentally) translating it; I was beginning to think in Greek. That is the great Rubicon to cross in learning any language." To put this in football speak, by working at a fast tempo you are can immediately turn responsibility into reaction.
February 28th, 2014 at 7:54 PM ^
Wasn't Lewis more of a West Coast guy than uptempo spread?
(j/k - I liked your comment)
February 28th, 2014 at 12:53 PM ^
is different from doing it in practice every play. The former is nice and all, but the latter better prepares both your offense and defense even if you don't run tempo in the games much.
February 28th, 2014 at 2:13 PM ^
I think the issue is more than merely the tempo. It is also an emphasis on pre-snap reads, which is absolutely essential and which we did not seem to emphasize under Borges. High tempo is not merely to keep the defense on their heels, but is also to get to the line of scrimmage in time to read the defense and adjust. This would be awesome!
February 28th, 2014 at 12:24 PM ^
Hopefully this allows Devin to get comfortable calling plays at the line and maybe even changing the play because it did not seem like that was possible last year (I realize that part of the problem was the problem was how long it took us to get to the line).
February 28th, 2014 at 2:57 PM ^
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/aj-mccarron-we-practiced-no-huddle-saban-di…
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/ot-saban-brings-interesting-point-tempo-tea…
I don't know why Bama would practice no-huddle and not run it in a game. Saban thinks it's bad for your defense because you can't teach in between plays.
February 28th, 2014 at 3:54 PM ^
you can't run a no-huddle offense if you plan on lobbying aginst it at the end of the season. saban's attempt to slow down the offensive side of the ball in the name of "player safety" is the reason why bama didn't employ this style.
http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/19/bielema-joins-saban…
February 28th, 2014 at 5:41 PM ^
So Saban was ok with the first team O putting his scout team D in harms way? Got it.
February 28th, 2014 at 6:34 PM ^
February 28th, 2014 at 11:12 PM ^
An up tempo offense that goes 3 and out will not be good news for their defensive team mates.
Been there, done that. It wasn't pretty.
Please watch this.
That video is on the front page of elevenwarriors but no one here is interested. Ok.