The Evaluation

Michigan Football: Oh, The Humanity! (The Re-Broadcast)

Thinking about our 52-14 clubbing yesterday at the hands of the 5th place team in the SEC West division reminded me of this video all over again.

Rich Rodriguez: Great coach, not the right coach

Dan Hawkins is a great football coach.  He got his head coaching start at tiny Willamette University and, from 1993-1997, he never had a losing season, going 40-11-1 during his tenure.  His final team went 13-1 and made it to the NAIA championship game.

From there Hawkins moved to Division 1-A at Boise State where he was promoted from assistant head coach to head coach when Dirk Koetter left for ASU.  In five seasons at the helm in Boise, he went 53-11, won four WAC titles, never finished worse than second in the conference and was named WAC Coach of the Year three times.

Then he went to Colorado.  Yet in five years in Boulder, Hawkins went 19-39 and never had a single winning season before being canned last fall.

 Dan Hawkins is still a great coach.  But he wasn't the right coach for CU.

Judging by his resume, Rich Rodriguez is also a great head football coach.  He went 43-28 at tiny Glenville State before going 60-26 in seven seasons at West Virginia.  In his last three seasons in Morgantown, he went 32-5 and led the Mountaineers to two BCS bowl games.

Then he came to Michigan.  But judging by his results, Rich Rodriguez isn't the right coach for Michigan.  And after the latest belly flop in the Gator Bowl, it's time to for both parties to realize it's not going to work out.

No more excuses, no more promise, no more "will be."  When you're making in the neighborhood of $2.5M a year, it's about execution, performance and "We won!"  Roriguez's stellar resume got him the job at Michigan, his poor results leave Dave Brandon no choice but to make a change.

Some will say that Rich Rod was doomed to fail at Michigan because he wasn't a "Michigan Man" in the eyes of some fans.  That he never would have their support.

Well I call bullshit on that one. 

U of M fans don't give a rat's corn hole if Rodriguez is from Mars if he was winning.  But turn the winningest program in the history of the game into an embarrassment and Rich Rod could be from Bo's attic and people would be clamoring for change.

So while I agree with the vast majority of Michigan fans that Jim Harbaugh would be a great choice and great fit, I don't think it has to be Harbaugh or bust.  I don't believe it has to be an obvious "home run" name.  In fact, I'm not opposed to taking a chance on an "unknown" from a smaller school as Ohio State did with Tressel...and Michigan did with "Bo who?" back in '69.

But I do know it can't be Rich Rodriguez anymore.  He's a great coach, but just not the right coach for Michigan.

Sometimes things are just a bad fit

ED. NOTE:  You'd think I wouldn't have to write a post like this.  It seems obvious.  But even in the wake of the Gator Bowl fiasco, if you've glanced around various Michigan message boards you'll notice there are still hold outs who don't think it should be over for Rich Rod at Michigan.  Folks who genuinely believe he deserves a 4th year in A2.

Then again, there were allegedly Japanese hiding in the jungles of the south Pacific to continue the fight 10 years after WWII ended as well.  So I'm sure the Rich Rod Kool-Aid crowd will be out there in the far reaches of cyberspace continuing to fire away for quite some time.

Gator Blowout Heal-athon

ED. NOTE: In-depth commentary to come, but right now we're simply too disgusted. Until then, enjoy the healing below.

OUCH.

As the 51st Mississippi State point was rolling up on the television crawl (I had long before turned the channel because couldn't take it) -- I decided it was time to bring out the mega-healing post.

The only thing that is going to make me feel better after this curb-stomping is the press conference later this week by Dave Brandon to announce he has completed the annual evaluation of the football program and has decided to go in another direction.

Discuss.

UPDATE: MZone reader Crock suggested one more healing pic...

MZone Holiday Twitter Drive

ED. NOTE: New posts below this one. Just leaving it up top over the holidays for our Twitter Telethon.

Dear MZone Reader,

Want to help your favorite one of your favorite the Michigan-centric college football blog that shows the most semi-clad coeds on the Interweb?  Please follow us on Twitter.com/MZoneBlog.

Since returning several months ago and expanding the brand across platforms, I've grown to really like the Twitter.  It's a great way to give folks a short burst o' funny, let them know when we have something up we're proud of and helps grow our readership.  But right now, we have a very un-Ashton Kutcher-like 230 followers and I would love to see if we can increase our numbers.   I have a number I'd like to hit by the end of the year but I'm not going to say it lest we fall short and I embarrass myself.  So I'll just give you a hint by revealing it's between 231 and 1.4 million.

Thus, like the Salvation Army guy outside the mall ringing the bell (who dresses eerily like a member of the Tosu marching band), I humbly beseech you to give to the MZone this holiday season not with your wallet but by following us on Twitter and recommending the site-slash-our Twitter feed to any of your Michigan-loving college football-following friends.  It would be most appreciated.

Thanks for reading!  Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging below.

Let's Heal It For The Girls

ED. NOTE: Title 9 puts up a couple healing pics for our female readers.

Healing pics for the ladies out there....

4-3 vs. the Oregon Spread - DL Play

The Oregon Spread - definitely "blurrier" this year, lol.

I am starting a five-part series on defending the Oregon Spread offense that will run up until the National Championship game.  This series was inspired by watching the DL play of Arizona and Boise St. vs. Oregon last year.  I have always heard that the 4-3 DL's top priority was to not get reached.  This made sense since the 4-3 is a gap-control defense that is dependent on each defender playing his gap.

I heard a different viewpoint of 4-3 DL play last year on the Coach Huey site.  Coach Currier said that he taught his DL to work vertically vs. a reach block.  He also mentioned that this is the way that Nebraska teaches their DL.  I looked at all the Oregon Stretch plays from 2009 vs. Boise St. and Arizona, and these words came back to mind as I saw this same technique being used very effectively.

The video will show how the playside DL will work to push their OL vertical into the backfield vs. the Stretch play.  Fritz Shurmur talks about attacking the offense on their side of the line of scrimmage in  the defensive bible, Coaching Team Defense.  This type of pressure "reduces the angles and options for the offense and makes the gaps smaller.  If players' pursuit lanes to the ball are only lateral and not toward the offense, the chances for the opening up of of wide cutback lanes are greater."

This brought to mind the painful (for a Dolphins fan) Miami Dolphin-Buffalo Bill contests of the early 90s.  The Buffalo Bills used to kill the Dolphins on the Stretch play.  The playside Dolphin defenders would be in their gap, but the Bills OL would push them past the play and Thurman Thomas would cut up the seam and gash the defense time and time again, year after year.  The Dolphin defenders might as well have been on roller skates the way they were being pushed horizontally.  The problem was that the Dolphin defenders were not working to get vertical into the Buffalo backfield.

The playside DL may get reached a bit initially by the OL, but as he works vertically, he is able to re-gain leverage and his outside gap.  Let me use physics to  try to describe how this works.  If the OL is applying force horizontally and the DL is applying force vertically, the resultant vector will be at a 45 degree angle into the opponents' line of scrimmage.  Both the OL and the DL's shoulders will be turned at this angle, and once the OL's shoulders are turned, he is beat.  The 45 degree angle is the exact angle a defender wants to be in to defend the run, and the exact same angle we want our Force player to attack blocks to force the ball to cutback inside  with as little room for the ballcarrier as possible (see previous post).   

 
The playside DL will "set the post," as our DC, Coach Miller, likes to say.  The backside DL then must pursue quickly to suffocate the play, but they must stay in their gap.   It is also important for the backside DL to stay on their feet so they can pursue quickly enough (this is why Alex Gibbs teaches his backside OL to cut on Stretch).  

Everything starts with the get-off and punch for the 4-3 DL.  The DL will get-off the ball quickly to get his hands on the OL first.  He will then "follow his hands."  The DL must learn to trust his hands because they will take him to the play after the initial punch.  The 4-3 DL wants to get vertical against the reach block, but he does not want to get vertical if he is not being blocked.  A DL who gets vertical without punching and getting his hands on the OL will be easily trapped or teams will option him and run right by him.  This is why the hands are so important. to the 4-3 DL  (thanks to Jerry Gordon for pointing this out).

Watch and see for yourself:

DL Keys vs. Stretch

1.  Frontside - get vertical push, Backside - pursue in your gap

DL Mistakes vs. Stretch and Other Keys

1.  Frontside - going horizontal, not vertical; Backside - not pursuing in your gap

2.  DL vs. Power

3.  DL vs. Screen

4.  DL - Ricochet Technique
5.  Hands Up vs. Pass

4-3 vs. the Oregon Spread - schedule of posts

Jan 1 - DL Play

Jan 3 - Zone Blitzes

Jan 5 - LB Play

Jan 7 - Defending Bash and Midline

Jan 9 - DB Play and Coverage Fundamentals

Jan 10 - (National Championship Game - Oregon vs. Auburn - 8:30 pm)

After the National Championship game, I will have an outstanding series of articles and videos with some terrific guest writers that Brophy talked about in his blog recently.