FORMATION NOTES: In general Bama was so multiple that I had a hard time deciphering whether something was a 4-3 with a standup end or a 3-4 with a SAM; they would go with a 5-1, they would shift constantly. Surely the thickest playbooks in college football went head to head in this game. I called this weird thing 30 nickel slide SAM: You've got your line shifted to the run strength, you've got a standup end in a SAM spot, and you've got your LBs shifted to run strength. This is Bama's "please run at Justin Eboigbe" formation. SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Johnson, Wilson, Barner, and Loveland all got at least two-thirds of Michigan's snaps. Corum wasn't far behind. Morris, Edwards, Morgan, and Bredeson had 10-20; Mullings and Orji had cameos. [After the JUMP: retired that so and so]
FORMATION NOTES: MSU was a very basic 4-3 even, as they have been forever. Aside from pass rush exotics, this was the whole game. They would occasionally slide the line to the run strength, and they'd put a nickel on the field for passing downs. They ran a lot of the Dantonio-vintage double-A gap twist blitz from the linebackers; this was about their only gambit on the day. SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Nothing unusual. WR/TE snaps, as per usual: Cornelius Johnson: 50 Roman Wilson: 43 Colston Loveland & AJ Barner: 37 Tyler Morris: 35 Semaj Morgan: 21 Max Bredeson: 9. Morris and Morgan both got a bunch of snaps in Tuttle time. This was a bit of deviation from recent games, where Barner was your #1 snap recipient; my assumption is that Michigan felt like MSU's LB crew was vulnerable to approximately everything when passing and leaned slightly more towards three-wide sets. Only slightly, because Harbaugh. [After THE JUMP: a beatdown]
Essentials WHAT #4 Michigan (8-0) vs Michigan State(3-4) WHERE Venue By 4M Stadium Piscataway, NJ WHEN 7:30 Eastern THE LINE M –25.5 TELEVISION BTN (Gaudin/Butt) TICKETS From $221. WEATHER partly cloudy, minimal chance of rain minimal wind 70 dropping to mid 60s(!!!) Overview What's the funniest way to say Rutgers? I say "Grubbers" but reasonable minds may disagree. "Ruggers" is good, "Rubturs" better, but "Grubbers" just has that je ne sais quoi, you know? Uh… right. Cable Subscribers are 4-4 thanks to nonconference wins against BC and Temple that came by a total of three points. They outgained Iowa but lost 27-10 thanks to two pick-sixes, got trashed by OSU, outgained Nebraska but lost 14-13, beat Indiana in a "never speak of this again" game, and then got trashed by Minnesota. [After THE JUMP: nice numbers with no backing, also some not nice numbers]
Essentials WHAT #4 Michigan (8-0) vs Michigan State(3-4) WHERE Venue By 4M Stadium Piscataway, NJ WHEN 7:30 Eastern THE LINE M –25.5 TELEVISION BTN (Gaudin/Butt) TICKETS From $221. WEATHER partly cloudy, minimal chance of rain minimal wind 70 dropping to mid 60s(!!!) Overview What's the funniest way to say Rutgers? I say "Grubbers" but reasonable minds may disagree. "Ruggers" is good, "Rubturs" better, but "Grubbers" just has that je ne sais quoi, you know? Uh… right. Cable Subscribers are 4-4 thanks to nonconference wins against BC and Temple that came by a total of three points. They outgained Iowa but lost 27-10 thanks to two pick-sixes, got trashed by OSU, outgained Nebraska but lost 14-13, beat Indiana in a "never speak of this again" game, and then got trashed by Minnesota. [After THE JUMP: nice numbers with no backing, also some not nice numbers]
Michigan football now gets a chance to refresh after an emotional rivalry week (in more ways than one) by playing everyone's favorite punching bag, Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights have a solid defense but today we're looking at the offense which has been, for lack of a better word, godawful. The Film: The Rutgers QB situation greatly constrained my options here. They have been rotating through three players at the QB position this year, Noah Vedral, Evan Simon, and Gavin Wimsatt. Schiano announced this week that Wimsatt will get the start on Saturday against Michigan and the only B1G game that Wimsatt has appeared in was this past weekend against Minnesota. So, Gophers it is. One quick note on the Minnesota-Rutgers game: the powers that be in the world of CFB game replay footage have decided that no one should be able to see this game. The usual sites we use to find copies did not have any. not even the Russians thought it was worthwhile for people to see Minnesota-Rutge