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| Victoria Moore |
In case you can't tell, I really like Smart Football. Chris Brown posted about a topic relevant to Michigan currently, because Michigan is in the middle of switching from the spread offense to a pro-style offense.
Check it out here.
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| Victoria Moore |
Think you forgot the link.
ReplyDeletemissing link: http://smartfootball.com/game-management/the-interplay-of-recruiting-and-pro-style-or-spread-schemes
ReplyDeletewhere??
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest reason I was happy we got RR in 2007 was because I felt like we needed a tactical advantage (landing the spread guru seemed like a great idea) to beat elite recruiting teams like USC and OSU. I hate to admit but, OSU will always out recruit us. Even when we dominated them in the 90's they still had better recruiting classes. They cheat and lie but Ohio has elite level HS talent and most of them grow up Buckeye fans. My hope when we hired RR was, Michigan would turn into this fast spread and shred team and we could beat those elite recruiting programs without the need to have a top 5 recruiting class. Things did not workout and we are going back to being a pro style team. So far it looks promising especially on the defensive side of recruiting but the big question is... can we keep this up? No doubt Hoke and staff have done a great job developing players and to me that will be key going forward.
PS - In one of Brian's Hail to the Victors magazines (I think 2009) there was an article about why Michigan running the spread is a must in order to become a national power. It was basically saying that for the most part we would always lose to teams like USC, OSU or Alabama if we were running a conventional pro style offense. Those teams have better overall talent so in order to beat them you need an athlete like Pat White running an offense that is harder to defend.
@ Anonymous December 14, 2011 1:13 AM:
ReplyDeleteActually, during Carr's tenure we were the top recruiting team in the nation:
http://michigan.scout.com/a.z?s=162&p=2&c=834176
In the history of Rivals (since 2002), we're #9, better than that school down south.
http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1238729
It's always odd to me that while most fans exaggerate their team's status, many UM fans frequently underplay ours.
I'll also add: When the NFL players voted on the top 100 of their peers before this season, UM was second only to Miami in the number of alums on the list. UM had the #1 player and QB, the #1 OL (IIRC), one of the top DBs, and Hutchinson didn't even make the list. That is elite talent.
ReplyDeleteDon't let the last few years distort your perspective. There's no reason we can't bring in and develop elite talent.
@Guanxi
ReplyDeleteIf you pair talent around #9 with a conventional/uninspired gameplan, you're going to regularly finish outside the top 10 and lose to elite teams. Which is what happened with Michigan in the latter years under Carr (and arguably before that even.)
@Anon's comments reflect the hopes of a lot of fans - that the scheme could be at least as good as the talent. That Rodriguez, with top 10 talent, would produce top 5 results. That Michigan would be innovative, like they were long ago.
Rodriguez is gone, but that hope remains. So far, under Hoke and with Borges/Mattison, it looks like we could have both the talent and the schemes at elite levels. I really like what both of them did this year, but Borges seems like he wants it to be a temporary thing.
Overall...it's too early to say. For all the talk about how great Hoke has done in recruiting, there's a long way till signing day. And what the schemes look like when they get 'their guys' in remains unknown as well.
I appreciate guanxi's research. UMich has recruited at a high level many years.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it hasn't done so (at least judging by the last few NFL drafts) since about 2004. Take a close look at the UMich pros (excluding the younger ones who will likely wind up having just a cup of coffee in the NFL) and you'll see that population "skews" old.
Lloyd's last few classes (Rivals/Scout nonsense aside) were disappointing in the end. I'm not optimistic about RichRod's classes, either.