ADVERTISEMENT

Watched the entire UM game again... thoughts

myk3077

Newbie
Oct 24, 2011
108
3
18
Ok I watched the entire game again...this time charting plays and taking observations on every play.. Its not pretty and I see things much clearer now.

Special teams: we need a special teams coach. 1) I am not sure about the personnel we have on kick-off and punt return teams.. maybe its a lack of quality depth.. maybe our personnel grouping choices just are not that good.. but there not doing the job... they cant sustain blocks at all and appear to give ground way to easy before trying to engage their blocks. This could be a coaching issue.

2) The punt attempt BEFORE the blocked punt was almost blocked even though UM hadn't committed to blocking it... The very next Punt they commit to blocking it (they saw they could make a good run at blocking one) and what do you know... A dedicated special teams coach in game would have identified that and either adjusted or made the kids aware.. you can clearly see on tape the kids were not prepared for it. Not sure a ST coach can help with field goals but its killing us also. Bottom line a shared ST coach is not getting it done for us guys.. Problem is your only allowed so many coaches and we are at the limit.. but it is killing us not having one.

Offense: 1)There were a few head scratches on play calls.. not on if it was a run or pass.. but particularly what patterns were being run... The dreaded 4 guys running up field and all of them doing button hooks (both in and out) appeared a few times on 3rd down and the coverage is so tight we basically have a very small percentage of success with that play call...you got the D defending the 1st down line and we are not creating any space and moving LB's off there spots or putting any pressure on DB's.... overall though play calling was decent but could have been better. For example.. 3rd and short and we have phillips in the game.. we run the 4 dude button hook plays and they are playing basically man to man and we are running all button hooks...and worse is that Phillips was pass blocking that play...guess whats open? if he leaks out into the flat we get the 1st down easy because they were blitzing and playing man.. but watching Phillips try and block the blitz up inside was terrible...you can tell he was not comfortable and it showed. GM also has to be aware that his personnel packages are giving some things away.. you can see on tape they were cheating when AAM comes in the game on first down to protect against the run.. I want to see more play action with him pass protecting. definately not Phillips though and if were putting him in the game why aren't we running him out of the backfield to get a LB on him and not doing a button hook in front of the MLB either.. clear out some space and get him in the open...imagination and common sense is needed here.

2) It is very apparent on tape what the biggest problem is/was on offense. Quite simply it was Hunt. Accuracy was off for a lot of plays but there are bigger issues than that. Against CMU why was Hunt so good... I can tell you why now.. If you look at the successful passing plays that game.. almost all have one thing in common.. they were 1 read primary option throws that were for the most part quick. against UM whenever Hunt had to read the D downfield (once the play started) he got uncomfortable missed open receivers. Also you can clearly see the staff has instructed him to look to the middle of the field but he is only looking at his short middle patterns and primary receivers and if they are not open he is not looking at his second and third options.. because in this game we had guys wide open on the edges numerous times..he missed them.. as a matter of fact I think I would be correct in stating I think that he is deciding where he is going with the ball 70% of the time pre-snap regardless of defensive set-up and coverage after the play has started and he is only comfortable with short quick throws.... that leads us to this: there are many times he does not give the receivers enough time to let a play fully develop with its patterns.. that 1 to 2 seconds more would do wonders for our receivers.. yes we could use some speed.. but Hunt is half the problem also. We are looking at a QB with only 1 yr of playing experience and it shows and he needs better pocket poise and presence. but also it might be a talent issue as well.. I am not sure yet.. but if you watch our passing game it looks different than almost any other successful passing team in college football...some of it is play calling/confidence in Hunt.. but a lot of it is Hunt... He needs to be better in the passing game for us to get to the next level on offense.. otherwise we are going to see inconsistency with red zone offense and passing success all year. The read option is saving our bacon right now.. but against the better teams we are not going to pull 10-20 yds runs multiple times a half like we did against UM.

One more thing on Hunt.. I wonder if the staff has given him any leash to change plays at the LOS because even though the read option is giving him a few choices per play.. there were a lot of situations where a change of play call at the LOS would have benefited us.. you could clearly see with some coverages pre-snap that what we tried to run had a very low probability of success.. particularly 3rd down...if they give him the latitude then they need to expand what he can do..

Defense: The only thing I noticed on the D is that our pressure is occasionally putting our guys way out of position.. its great 3/4 ths of the time but there are too many plays our guys are just simply out of position because of it.. The 90 yd screen play is an example (but I saw atleast 4 others).. we blitz both the ILB and OLB from the wide side of the field.. leaving our CB and safety to defend against 3 dudes because the TB ran a screen... this is a very undisciplined defensive call.. on the short side you had only 1 receiver...why not man him up and blitz the LB from the short side so you have the TB covered? also what are we trying to accomplish by this call? if we bring that much pressure then there only option should be a very quick pass play because they don't have time right? why the hell do we have both the corner and safety on the wide side playing 11 and 14 yards off the LOS then? even if we would have gotten lucky and 1 of our guys beats the block they had atleast 12 to 15 yards because no one was out there... you have to move the CB up to within 5 yds of the LOS in that call.. I love our pressure packages and its designed to help our pass rush.. but Bullough CANNOT put our guys in that position... Plus every team knows were bringing a ton of pressure.. how do they combat it? they go with either deep one on one coverage plays or quick pass plays to negate it.. you saw that UM had a solid game plan on offense.. Bullough has to be smarter than this going into a game.. this game he did make some adjustments at halftme.. and our D was pretty good in the second half because he started getting smarter when to sell out the blitz.. I was surprised after seeing the game a second time that yes UM started being a little more conservative in there pass plays in the 2nd half.. but not as much as I originally thought.. we just played smarter in the second half.. Bullough needs to call and have the D prepared for a smart COMPLETE game...

One more thing that is bothering me.. When reviewing every play and watching both offense and defense... I get this feeling that the tiny details (things like route running and position...awareness from the LB's when dropping in coverage) are not being conveyed to the players very well... its either that or we have some serious awareness issues. Its just a feeling I get when focusing on what every player is doing on the field.. I see dudes that are not sharp sometimes in routes... bad angles... not understanding when to break some patterns off a step early to create space to be open.. sometimes on defense it seems like our guys aren't thinking about what down and distance it is for our opponents before plays begin.... I think we got the athleticism... its very weird.. it might explain why we are so inconsistent overall the last couple of years...




















This post was edited on 9/23 2:31 AM by myk3077
 
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Go Big.
Get Premium.

Join Rivals to access this premium section.

  • Say your piece in exclusive fan communities.
  • Unlock Premium news from the largest network of experts.
  • Dominate with stats, athlete data, Rivals250 rankings, and more.
Log in or subscribe today Go Back