Attended the game last night, just finished rewatching it this morning and wanted to share my thoughts. I don’t want this to come across as if I know better than the Michigan staff, but as a former college player (WR) fresh out of college I think I can provide a unique perspective:
It’s fair to be underwhelmed by the offensive performance, I won’t fault you for that. There’s been a lot of finger pointing at Warren, OL, Donovan, etc.. and on the surface level, also more than fair. What I was least impressed with was, Kirk Campbell. My complaints below:
Kirk gave Iowa a run for their money in terms of calling one of the most uncreative and vanilla games. The lack of creativity to get Tyler Morris and Semaj Morgan involved was shocking. Jet sweeps, touch passes, orbits (where the WR goes behind the QB in motion)… nothing. If you’re gonna go with Warren, you absolutely have to get playmakers in the open field. With all due respect, the most used man in motion was Max Bredeson who is the least of the defenses worry when hes split out… Great player for what he does, but let’s be real, him lining up outside the numbers is a prank. I have zero problems with motioning him from within the tackles for blocking schemes, however.
How have we not figured out how to use Edwards yet? If I have to watch him slam himself inbetween the guards again next week I’m going to lose it. We used him and Mullings as if they were identical backs. No crap Mullings looked better, because all we did was run inside. Donovan needs primarily outside zones, off tackles, sweeps, stretches and schemed routes in the passing game. He’s an elite weapon and this offense NEEDS him. Throw him screens, get him matched up against LB’s, for the love of god it’s not that difficult to do.
Orji’s pass on the run was bad, no other to twist it. I refuse to believe that’s standard for him, but I think it does speak to the “inconsistency” we heard of. In his defense, when the playcalling caters to him running inside zone options, whipping out a random pass on a whim and then not giving him another chance isn’t totally fair to him. I would really like to see him get more passing opportunities before I close the book on him. His running ability is some of the best I’ve seen at the college level. For an offense who is in desperate need of playmakers, a dual threat QB can solve a lot of those problems. I’m interested to see how they use him going forward (I hope it’s more creative).
Long story short, players have to make plays. But our OC needs to put them in positions to be successful in terms of catering to their skills. Don't be stubborn with your philosophy, there’s a happy medium. Curious if anyone else was overly frustrated with the playcalling. For sakes of being optimistic, I’m going to say the staff didn’t want to open it up and ease the guys in / not showing Texas everything we got up our sleeves with all the unique skill traits our guys have.
It’s fair to be underwhelmed by the offensive performance, I won’t fault you for that. There’s been a lot of finger pointing at Warren, OL, Donovan, etc.. and on the surface level, also more than fair. What I was least impressed with was, Kirk Campbell. My complaints below:
Kirk gave Iowa a run for their money in terms of calling one of the most uncreative and vanilla games. The lack of creativity to get Tyler Morris and Semaj Morgan involved was shocking. Jet sweeps, touch passes, orbits (where the WR goes behind the QB in motion)… nothing. If you’re gonna go with Warren, you absolutely have to get playmakers in the open field. With all due respect, the most used man in motion was Max Bredeson who is the least of the defenses worry when hes split out… Great player for what he does, but let’s be real, him lining up outside the numbers is a prank. I have zero problems with motioning him from within the tackles for blocking schemes, however.
How have we not figured out how to use Edwards yet? If I have to watch him slam himself inbetween the guards again next week I’m going to lose it. We used him and Mullings as if they were identical backs. No crap Mullings looked better, because all we did was run inside. Donovan needs primarily outside zones, off tackles, sweeps, stretches and schemed routes in the passing game. He’s an elite weapon and this offense NEEDS him. Throw him screens, get him matched up against LB’s, for the love of god it’s not that difficult to do.
Orji’s pass on the run was bad, no other to twist it. I refuse to believe that’s standard for him, but I think it does speak to the “inconsistency” we heard of. In his defense, when the playcalling caters to him running inside zone options, whipping out a random pass on a whim and then not giving him another chance isn’t totally fair to him. I would really like to see him get more passing opportunities before I close the book on him. His running ability is some of the best I’ve seen at the college level. For an offense who is in desperate need of playmakers, a dual threat QB can solve a lot of those problems. I’m interested to see how they use him going forward (I hope it’s more creative).
Long story short, players have to make plays. But our OC needs to put them in positions to be successful in terms of catering to their skills. Don't be stubborn with your philosophy, there’s a happy medium. Curious if anyone else was overly frustrated with the playcalling. For sakes of being optimistic, I’m going to say the staff didn’t want to open it up and ease the guys in / not showing Texas everything we got up our sleeves with all the unique skill traits our guys have.
