Bostick to the portal
- Thread starter fearthefuture21
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Well I guess you did say I was a little off, so maybe you think I wasn't totally wrong?
I guess where you and I are not seeing the same thing is in what defines "a modern concept." For example, you bring up RPO...it is A modern(ish) concept...but it doesn't define modern concepts. It is just one. The real modern concepts are spread and pro-style borrowing aspects of each but fitting them into their core (the play is 80%/20% pro/spread or spread/pro).
I think you'd agree that Michigan runs a pro-style o...guess what...we run rpo...it is not our bread and butter but built into our play book. We also run a pro-style that if it was 1990 you'd call a run & shoot...four reciever (even if two are stretch TEs), a single back and in the shotgun.
Now here is the thing...one of things I learned from our Rich Rod experience is the biggest difference between a pro-style and spread is not the number of relievers, its not the shotgun, its not the lack a FB...it's certainly not getting smaller but quicker skill guys...
It's the OL splits and blocking scheme...and by blocking schemes I don't just mean OL
Yeah, you can also throw in route trees as that feeds into blocking scheme
In the beginning of this...15-25 years ago...one of the differences between the two styles was inline vs zone blocking. The original concept of the spreed, for college, was based on a notion that college Os didn't make you defend the entire field and if you created 1on1 match-ups at every position (including OL) you could beat bigger/stronger teams...and if you were more athletic and faster you run past them...because 1on1...this was different than the standard college O which relied on grouping players together (before or after the snap) so you had (hopefully) more numbers than they did. A HUGE PART OF THAT WAS THE OL SPLITS...earlier spreads really did spread out the OL (way more than a few or so inches) and the QB had one or two reads because if a D player made a decision you read that and BOOM! No multiple hats to the ball
D coaches finally figured it out and put in packages of stunts and twists and coverage packages that didn't allow you to read it...it's not HS anymore. As much as I can't stand him, I give Urban Meyer credit for adapting and creating "the power spread"...it took concepts from "pro-style" in that they went back to bigger backs...tightened the splits a bit (not all the way)...and dominated (hate to admit it)...he didn't let the other team attack parts of your O while putting your best 1on1 defenders against your best so they were neutralized
But pro-style coaches did the same...they learned to adopt some of the spread stuff...again...not talking about 4 WRs and shotgun....I'm talking about things like a combo of inline and zone blocking....ON THE SAME PLAY...you know why Michigan won the Joe Moore Award 2 years in a row? Without a single 1st rounder? On a single play we might have something like the center pull as a zone blocker, have the two OGs crash the middle to take out the NG...the off tackle protect the back side, the tackle (on the side the plays is going) crush the man in front of him and a TE chip a LB before leading the way for the back as a zone blocker
That is a modern concept which brought in learning from the spread to pro-style...and it wasn't too hard to teach...
You really think the players are that much smarter than the guys at Iowa? I'm sure you know this...Michigan doesn't actually go to mensa meetings for our recruits. Sure, we have a floor we don't touch but our average player couldn't get in as a normal student and I would be shocked if our players average hs GPA, SAT/ACT, is all that different...it wouldn't surprise me if yours were higher...we both recruit kids who can pass classes but whether or not they could get in without FB is irrelevant....
So let's go back to the "modern concept " thing....what Michigan has been running is a true modern pro-style....way more sophisticated than whatever you guys have been doing in a SENCE. I see you guys going gaga over you are know running motion in practice (to be fair, a good number of you are going "dude, it's not revolutionary since basically everyone else does it...and those people are correct).
In the past 3 years I've seen Michigan literally run run the same play 3 times in a row...multiple occasions. It started with different formations, maybe a guard pulled instead of a tackle, maybe the TE released instead of staying into block...maybe the back started on the left side of the QB instead of the right before motioning...at the end of the day it was an off-tackle run (or another play done in a row)
Again...we don't exactly have 115 Albert Einstein's on our roster...we just teach them to make one of two decisions depending on how the other team reacted (and that'snot all 11...on a given play it might be 3/4 as the other 7/8 just run what is called exactly)...speaking of which...when you guys got Cade I made a post about his skills and noted his true superpower was getting his team into the right call...on bigger plays Harbaugh and crew would give him a second play "just in case"...if he didn't see what he wanted at the LOS he could audible into something different but not that different...it wasn't rocket science...the play was something they'd run before and out of a similar formation
I don't understand how you say BF took his O from the NFL...Jim was and is again an NFL coach. His biggest mistake at Michigan was to go too far towards a spread (the whole speed in space thing)...when he came back to his roots it wasn't always pretty...but it produced points...but it was never ugly like whatever BF tried to do....and it wasn't rocket science
Fwiw...if anyone read my whole diatribe...well you have too much time on your hands or an insomniac like me...either way...thanks for getting through it
If I was leaving my team, I think I would just change to a different photo. Just me I guess.
I doubt that Iowa hasn't been weaving in "modern concepts" as it relates to blocking.
Iowa's O has only been in full "Jalopy"-mode since 2021. However, before then ... there was at least some modicum of eptitude on the offensive side of the ball. Even Iowa fans would admit that when Brian was a OL-coach ... he seemed to do a good job there. Hell, he seemed to effectively scheme TEs too (not surprisingly).
It's not like there has been some great seismic shift in the game since 2021.
To be honest, I have absolutely no clue as to why the wheels seem to come off so completely on Iowa's O. The O really didn't seem so ... even just back to '19 and '20. Iowa had a historic woodshed event in '17 against Ohio State ... the O kept on managing to score points (over 50 of them ... and it was 1 of only 2 losses for the Buckeyes).
Iowa has been through a plethora of variations schematically too. Under the Greg Davis years, the O still mostly blocked the same ... but the O simply tried to use space differently. To give Greg his due, the use of space really opened up our inside-zone runs.
Brian learned from that and was also influenced by Polasek's contributions too (at least led to some of our 3 RB looks). My main point being that Iowa's O has been ever evolving. Thus, it's kind of a tired argument to solely put the blame on scheme. Why were things working one year ... but not the next? ... if you get what I mean there. There're more to the story ... but what it is, is not at all clear to me.
I think what you are describing too without directly saying it is that despite being one of the most storied college football programs of all time, Michigan is a true development program. Some schools claim they are a development program but really that is largely cover for a bad season(s).
During my son’s recruitment, I had the fortune of being invited to a practice. I will say that it was one of the best run practices I have ever been to. One of the things that stood out was the concept of double repping, which for some reason most schools do not implement. There was very little standing around as all the depth kids were getting as many reps as the starters.
In addition, you had a head coach in Jim Harbaugh that despite his personality quirks, was not too arrogant to think that he too had room for improvement. I will never forget him coming up to me and asking ME how he could improve the practice based on the fact that we were attending practices from multiple programs. No other coach in the more than 15 schools we visited asked me a question similar to this. It is no surprise to me that they went on to win the National Championship with that sort of mindset of always looking for ways to improve the process.
Well said. To be fair it’s not clear to anyone, including the coaches why our offense is so bad.
This got me thinking. We’ve seen some other sports like fueherbach and haluska in women’s and men’s come to Iowa. Alex Thompson go to isu. Trying to think last time had someone swap schools between Iowa and isu in football. Obviously have recruits flip but can’t think of any for football off the top of my head.
Got it. I was thinking you meant he should have been wearing ISU gear.
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