Yesterday I decided to turn a series of Twitter arguments into a post about Michigan’s relative talent level. My argument was that Michgian’s overall talent level under Jim Harbaugh has actually been plenty high, but they haven’t been strong enough in the box to win with the run game and their aggressive defensive strategy and … [Read more…]
Bruce Feldman of the Athletic recently released his “freaks” list, which is always a fun read. No. 1 on the list is Michigan defensive end Kwity Paye, which I found striking particularly in light of how much talent has been passing through Ann Arbor since Jim Harbaugh took over. I noted as much on Twitter: … [Read more…]
For the 2020 season, the Tigers lose 15 starters from what might have been the greatest team in college football history. Certainly there’s no team from any previous year that could beat them in a hypothetical matchup, the changes in tactics would ensure that. Then there’s the resume, which is also astounding and included multiple … [Read more…]
The 2020 Iowa State Cyclones are going to make a big push to become the 5th Midwestern team to win a Big 12 championship in this upcoming season. They may not have it in them, God knows the league could be competitive this season (or be hampered in a dozen fashions by COVID-19), but their … [Read more…]
After getting their doors blown off by Ohio State 62-36 in 2018, Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan made some big adjustments the following offseason. He hired an up and coming assistant coach from Alabama named Josh Gattis and beat out competitive offers from other schools, including Alabama, by giving him direct control of the Wolverine offense. Harbaugh … [Read more…]
In part II the other day, I broached the same topic I’ve mentioned when I was explaining the theoretical advantage of the “bash bros” against the “Raid bros” in the Big 12. That didn’t work out so great, because it turns out that having easy answers for 3rd and 1 isn’t as valuable as being … [Read more…]
Before Urban Meyer’s run or the less successful eras of Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain, the original breakthrough Florida Gator teams were the Steve Spurrier squads of the 90s. Those squads won six SEC titles and a National Championship in 1996. Those Gator teams come up tangentially in my book… …his 95 team went to … [Read more…]
If you’ve read this blog regularly, you’ll notice that I have an uneven relationship with the service rankings of players and teams. In one post I’ll come strongly against the idea that the class rankings are predictive or should be taken particularly seriously, in the next I’ll use 247’s data even to the point of … [Read more…]
Someone asked Bill Connelly a really good question on Twitter yesterday in response to his article about how the spread has “won” in college football and is now the strategy. I have a lot of thoughts on this, indeed I wrote an entire book before the season on the topic of what’s been driving offensive … [Read more…]
That was a fairly interesting first round to the NFL draft. I have a bunch of notes on how things have shaken out so far. The Detroit Lions did the right thing? It happens from time to time, but Lions fans in my area should be happy that they signed the best Buckeye cornerback. Obviously … [Read more…]