Through a scanner darkly, Wolverines outscore Gators 41-35
I haven’t experienced these types of schizophrenic emotional swirls in a Michigan football game very often over the past half dozen years. The game against Ohio State last season and the Rose Bowl game against Texas might have been the only times in six seasons prior to today. Of course, being a Lloyd Carr-coached team, the spread offense played a role in all three games. Only this time the spread wasn’t strictly an instrument that existed solely as a Saw-like torture device that brutally tears through the flesh, bone and cartiledge of Michigan’s defense. Prior to today the final scene for these types of games involved a lifeless Wolverine corpse laid out in a pool of its own blood.
Given the way the Wolverine offense underperformed all season and the defense’s inability to not collectively crap themselves when facing 4 and 5 wide receiver sets featuring a dual-threat quarterback, many Michigan fans feared for the worst in the Capital One Bowl. But a funny thing happened that will no doubt spark debate about the role new head coach Rich Rodriguez played in helping the Wolverines unleash a ball of knives offensive attack that gashed and throttled the Gators: the Wolverines rolled up 543 yards en route to a 41-35 win. The Wolverines would have likely won going away if not for two very uncharacteristic Mike Hart fumbles. If not for those fumbles - one on the Florida 4 yard line and the other at the Gator 1 - Michigan probably puts up well over 50 points.
During the entire first half the Michigan offense looked nothing like it had during any point of Lloyd Carr’s tenure. You couldn’t look at any game in his 13 years as head coach and compare the playcalling to what the Wolverines unleashed on a stunned Gator defense. Oh sure, there were reverses, which was Lloyd Carr’s bread and butter trick play. But there were also lots of snaps from the shotgun formation that featured reads where Henne either handed the ball to Hart out of the shotgun or threw the football. He was also just as likely to hand the ball off to Manningham on an end around. There was one play where Michigan ran a reverse to a receiver who turned around and threw a screen pass to Henne, who chucked the ball downfield. Hell, Michigan threw a screen pass to Jake Long. This type of offense simply isn’t part of Lloyd Carr or Mike DeBord’s DNA.
My guess on what happened was Carr and offensive coordinator Mike DeBord sat down with Rich Rodriguez and worked with him to install a number of plays from the spread formation to completely throw the Florida defense for a loop. The plan in my conjecture would be that if the spread formations were successful it would force the Gators to play more conservatively and not stuff the line of scrimmage to stop the run. Michigan was less gimmicky in the second half but had success running the ball, likely due to much less aggressive fronts.
If that is in fact what happened it worked. Another nice benefit is that current players and recruits got a very nice taste of what Rich Rodriguez’s offense is going to look like when it features the high-quality talent Michigan recruits. If Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington are still considering returning next season they have to like how they were used against an overmatched Florida secondary. The team couldn’t have worked on the offense for more than two weeks - at most - and it still completely dismantled a Gator defense that prior to this afternoon allowed 99 rushing yards per game [the Wolverines ran for 170], and 24 points per game [Michigan should have doubled that - Mike Hart fumbles about as often as Haley’s Comet is visible].
So the Scanner Darkly reference is to the spread offense, which is an offense that completely baffled Carr and his defensive coordinators. It was somewhat fitting that Carr’s final game was won not because he was able to triumphantly stop the offense but instead accepted it and unleashed it on another team. Based on how the Wolverines won this game you have to think this bowl game was an auspicious start to Rich Rodriguez’s tenure as the head coach at Michigan.
Rodriguez will lose Chad Henne, Mike Hart, Adam Kraus and Jake Long on offense. Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington could enter the NFL draft. So the new head coach will need to replace a lot of talent. But if there were any questions whether Ryan Mallett could be successful in this offense they should have been put to rest with this game. If Tyrelle Pryor decides to come to Ann Arbor the offense could potentially become even more explosive by featuring a dual-threat quarterback. At a bare minimum, anyone who wondered if Rodriguez’s spread attack would work against the teams at the top of the BCS just got a large dose of definitive proof this afternoon.
The Capital One Bowl provided a nice ending to Chad Henne, Jake Long, Mike Hart and Lloyd Carr’s tenure with the football program. It was fantastic in particular to see Carr win his final game. I felt really happy for him when the players lifted him onto their shoulders after he received the ritualistic gatorade water shower. The fact the Wolverines likely won this game by implementing portions of Rich Rodriguez’s spread attack gives Wolverine nation reason to believe the new head coach has what it takes to be very successful in Ann Arbor.
No Comments
No comments yet.
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
