Zoltan-based Offense?
The Michigan Daily's U-M FB blog, The Game, summarizes RichRod at the press conf today saying our Space Emperor "has been asking to add more plays to show off his athleticism."
It's about damn time. I'm thinking of a Wildcat-esque formation in which Zoltan powers through all weakly peons in his path. The only problem is christening this world-beating play with a worthy title. Any ideas?
Michigan claims the only defensive player to ever win the Heisman. Who's to say we won't invent the Heisman punter?
If and when I ever have a son or daughter, I'm going to go all Earl Woods on them. I'm going to have them punting to sideline targets at the age of 3. By the time my kid reaches college, s/he will have the ability to punt like Tiger hits approach shots. Distance, trajectory, and spin will be a piece of cake to control.
Punting from your own endzone, no problem, we've mastered the high speed, line-drive topspin punt for maximum roll and minimum hangtime. Tresselball punts from the opponents 35 yard line on 3rd down and short? No problem, this kid can drop a punt inside the 5 yard line with smart-bomb like accuracy.
There's no reason a punter can't develop the same sort of accuracy with the leg that Tate Forcier has with the arm. Anyone who can drop and stick a punt inside the 5 yard line 80% of the time is worthy of the Heisman in my opinion. The problem is a lack of dedication to punting at an early age.
The punt is a freight elevator to the top of the athletic universe. The MGoBlog community owes it to the school, the fan base, and the legacy of The Space Emperor to concentrate our efforts on developing the Tiger Woods of punting.
That would be a very odd aspiration for a parent to have for their child, "Son, you are going to be the best damn punter in the history of football!"
BTW, my sarcasm meter is on, but I figured I'd add that. There are some psychos out there that would probably try to do this.
See the entire Gramatica (spelling?) family (albeit kickers not punters)
See, there ya go. The Gramaticas are definitely psychos. I do not wish harm upon anyone, but I definitely laughed when Gramatica broke his leg celebrating a made field goal.
not that anyone should push their child to be anything, especially not a kicker, but if you're not exactly D-I size and you enjoy football and are even semi-athletic, isn't punting/kicking really the route to master? You're not doing a ton, but you can get a free FANTASTIC education for being some weird dude who plays like 10 plays a game.
I really like this quote, "The punt is a freight elevator to the top of the athletic universe." Well done. Plus 1 to you good sir.
As for the name, I think that "Zoltan and his Space Conquistadors" could work... but since that's a bit long how about the Bootleg (see what I did there).
Oh, so that's taken eh, then the only other things I can think of are "The Romanian Run", "The Wild Boar Formation" (wild boar are native to Romania), or "The Wildebeest Formation" (it sounds similar to "Wilcat" and is native to Romania).
Many people have a rugby style punter, we're going to have a Heisman winner running back style punter (I don't know why more teams don't do that, it seems like it would work out better).
that's funny. my best friend has said this for years. he said no kid of his would be athletic enough to even be a kicker...just a punter. so he's going to raise his son to punt from the time he's a toddler.
I'm willing to do this to my kid. I probably wouldn't "go Earl Woods" on my kid, but I would definitely push them to work hard in sports. I have always loved playing sports, and I'm sure my kid will love sports too.
Well RichRod did say that Mesko was asking to get more plays to show off his athleticism, but RichRod followed that with saying that he hasn't done that yet. Sounds like he isn't too concerned with getting Mesko involved, and I'm hoping he doesn't worry about it. If anything, RichRod wants Mesko to stay out of the game completely due to our offense's officiency.
Your comment about offensive efficiency made me think about how many times we punted vs. one of the most efficient offenses of 2008, Oklahoma. We all know that they hung 60+ points on more opponents than anyone else ever before so I looked up some quick stats.
Oklahoma
Punts: 54
Total punting yards: 1971
Average yards/punt: 36.5
Michigan
Punts: 83
Total punting yards: 3490
Average yards/punt: 42.0
All stats taken from: http://cfbstats.com/
So, we punted A LOT. But we were good at it.
Sorry, I know it's not entirely related to the original topic, but I just started thinking about it after reading this comment.
I really don't think they care how good their punter is when they're scoring more touchdowns than punts.
you're as serious as a heart attack
Before "Z", I never thought there could be such a thing as a celebrity punter on campus.
... what was before Z?
i think it was "Y"
It's no longer there?
I once had a 97 speed punter on NCAA '09. He was good for at least one 40 yard scamper per game. It was about the only time on my online dynasty where I would line up to punt.
If you create a Punter in NCAA, but give him 99 speed, throwing power, throwing accuracy, etc.. but 40 kick power and 40 kick accuracy...the dude will show up in the recruiting lists as a one star punter...so you can easily recruit him. Then you switch him to QB once he's on campus and he'll be a 99 QB.
We caught the commissioner in our online dynasty cheating that way. Pretty clever though.
Ultimate dick-move. But, old news.