Weekend Nugz? Yes, Weekend Nugz for 7/18-7/19
by JG2112 on Jul 18, 2009 7:16 PM CDT
2 comments
Wow. It's been a good weekend so far for Tom Watson, but a truly bad weekend for Erin Andrews (good for her lawyers, though).
Oh, and no link, but it's common knowledge now: Grant Potulny, Gopher hockey hero, is back at the Mooch as an assistant coach to Don Lucia. Welcome back Grant.
It's also a great weekend for TDG readers and purveyors of the Nugz - a weekend link dump with opinions! Here are five morsels for you to digest until Monday:
(1) Here is a great read from Dr. Saturday asking why more spread teams haven't adopted the triple option offense, which also rips Stewart Mandel (which I rarely disapprove of). You'll notice that Air Force is prominent in the article, including the ridiculous statistic that AFA ran 85% of the time in 2008. Irony notwithstanding, this is an offense unique to anything Minnesota will see in 2009, and while it will prepare the Gophers well for Jadvid Best on 9/19, I hope the Gopher defense is ready for what will be a very tough test from the Falcons. They won't get one from Syracuse.
(2) A couple weeks back I referenced the Wolverine Revolution Army's inquest into Rich Rodriguez's first season in Ann Arbor (which was, to be polite, a disaster). Here is part one. This past week, they posted part two. My take? Rich Rod felt he could impose his system regardless of players. While it was the right thing to do, it didn't work - 1 returning starter on offense, and an historically bad defense. Many players transferred out, the head coach and D-coordinator didn't get along, and the unsuccessful recruitment of Terrelle Pryor equalled the worst Big Ten quarterbacking since the 1950s. The talent level is higher now, the returning players are all healthy. Michigan should win 6-8 games this year. In 2010, they'll be back in the BCS.
(3) The California Golden Blogs is running a very interesting series about how the Cal offense sets up defenses with similar-looking plays. Here is part five of their twelve-part series about setting up the flea flicker in the 2008 Emerald Bowl against Miami (yes, that Miami). My position is that Cal's speed is going to be very difficult for the Gophers to deal with on 9/19. Posts like this make me very concerned about our secondary, which is why losing Tramaine Brock is significant. Players with Division I-A experience are always missed, even if Royston ably replaces him. Ryan Collado is still too close to the field for my liking in the current depth chart.
(4) Hammer and Rails, a trusted Purdue blog, drops knowledge about the Gopher football team. Purdue visits the Gophers to be the sacrificial Homecoming opponent to be worthy Homecoming adversaries on October 10, 2009. And I must say I significantly disagree with H&R's assessment and truly worry for Minnesota's season if we lose to Purdue.
(5) This might be the most amazing stat I've seen since I started caring about college football recruiting: Boise State has only FIVE scholarships available for the 2010 class.
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Rich Rod has way to go
I know he is recruiting very well, but you still need chemistry and some experience so I just don’t see the Wolves BCS ready in 2010. Last year he had weak offense, lots of defense, this year defense is very young and I believe will give up lots of points if you factor in a pure fresh QB who will turn the ball over some while he gets used to the game. I don’t think this turn around is a sure thing because it will take a BCS game w/in the next 3 years to keep his job – and it could be down to the wire because there are just too many teams now improving (MSU, IA, MN, NW) to keep them down in the pot a bit more. Depends on how patient they are – because he is bringing in A list players.
Sorry...
…I meant 2011, not 2010. Michigan’s schedule sets up to allow them to dominate in odd numbered years because they get Ohio State, Notre Dame and (usually) Penn State at home.
Michigan’s D has a mixture of youth and experience – All-American Brandon Graham at DE, 3 year starter Obi Ezeh at MLB, 3 year starter Stevie (Oh God Stevie) Brown at WLB, 3 year starter Donovan Warren at CB. Yes, there is a lot of youth at other positions, but most of those players (Jonas Mouton, Mike Martin, Vladimir Emilien, JT Turner, JB Fitzgerald, Ryan Van Bergen) would be underclassmen starters at Minnesota, for example.
As for Tate Forcier, there is not a true freshman QB more ready to play than him, Matt Barkley included. Forcier has been running Rich Rod’s offense for 4 years at Scripps Ranch in San Diego, enrolled in January, and has already taken a leadership role on the team. In many games last year Michigan wasn’t that far away from winning, and by the end of the year their spread option running game was very good even without a run option at QB, which is the key to the offense. If the offense cuts in half the fact that it had 50 three and outs out of 150 offensive possessions, the time of possession goes up, the defense gets more rest, the opposition scores fewer points. Michigan will get the Year 2 Rich Rod bump this year, and this talk about him losing his job will go away – he’s the best offensive mind in college football and he’ll prove it in the coming years.
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