About Last Night: Recap Eastern Michigan

Brady Hoke & Ron English discussing the craziness that is Denard under center...

Do you think Brady Hoke is discussing how dumb he realizes MANball is here, when he has Denard Robinson at his disposal? Probably not here but, if Al Borges and Hoke haven't realized it by now than we are in for 12 games of ridiculously sloppy offensive first quarters. Where upon, by the end of said first quarter a bolt of lightning will strike Borges in the head reminding him we had to run Denard 29 times to beat Eastern. As inadequate as the defense looked on those first few EMU drives, the offense looked like Akron going against the Alabama defense. If you've allowed your mind to remember anything from Notre Dame that isn't the fourth quarter you'll remember all those early game drives that made you do nothing but face palm.

12 plays, 32 yds. Interception, Punt, Punt. Guh... Denard went on the rest of the game being Denard and Michigan won 31-3. Minus the first 2 opponent drives of games, I'm scarily allowing myself to pseudo-like our defense, which my reasoning I will discuss, but they've consistently shown enough this year to make me not hate them...

Offense:
I have to call myself out. When this season started, I didn't predict that the minimal MANball, our offense would run would be a very difficult transition. I was... what's the word? Wrong, that's it, I was wrong. Power-I couldn't be run against Eastern. When Denard isn't tossing up rainbows to Junior Hemingway, he's looked shaky and I haven't done a statistical analysis but the structures of common knowledge would lead me to bet that, YPC is significantly lower than runs out of the gun. Running zone for 3 years straight doesn't translate into  man blocking well and I thought it would. Other than being tall, lengthy, and remotely fast, this is why I didn't play Offensive Line.

After 3 series of this MANball, I-formation stuff not working, Denard got to be Denard. Thus ensued Michigan racking up 376 yds rushing, because the threat of Denard, handing off, running, or throwing is much scarier to a defense than, him sitting in the pocket, frantically panting the ball, or handing it off to a running back going straight up the middle.

I mean you guys have all seen it too right? I can think of Vincent Smith's long run, the Koger TD pass, and the Dileo TD pass all prime examples of why Denard being the focal point of this offense needs to stay true for the next 2 seasons. Sorry MANball but you will have to wait while we have a, dreaded water bug as our QB. Kudos to Borges, because he's saw what was happening, realized how he's going to win games and strayed far, far away from whatever that is, that we try to run from under center from time to time.

Passing the ball has scared me. I feel like Lloyd Carr on 3rd & long every time their is a pass. Denard has taken steps backwards, and I don't know why. It'll be interesting to see if the passing game starts to reflect the running game and digs into the Rich Rodriguez playbook.

Defense:
Why this defense always starts out slow is beyond me. The logical explanation is that Mattison is feeling the opponent out. Well, if that's the case... Stop feeling the opponent. Howeva, if you were to tell me that Michigan would be tied for 5th in the country in turnovers forced I'd have called you a liar. So if cupping a good feel on our opponents will lead to turnovers I'm all for it. The defense gave up 196 yds in first half (147 on first 3 drives) and Eastern only gained 236 on the day.

Let me be sentimental for a moment here. I love a defense that can adjust mid-game. It's like having a crush on the pretty girl and finally getting her. At first you're just infatuated and angry that it's not working out and then something clicks you change your approach and boom. You got the girl. Now, this is probably an exaggeration. Well, not probably, it is, we aren't that good yet. But, allowing that few points and that few amount of yards against anybody after the past 3-4 years was rewarding and the signs of an improving defense are there.

Eastern never really threw it so judging our secondary on the day is difficult. Thomas Gordon is looking better and better and that interception was smooth. Allowing outside runs to break contain is a concern on the DL. I like Jake Ryan to keep improving and hopefully the problems that have plagued him are coachable and he can hold that spot down.Craig Roh finally let the opponent know he was on the field and made some plays. My season prediction of 12 sacks is looking bleak but one can hope. Jibreel Black has also been a positive on the D-line, rotating in for Roh. Also, unless I'm my eyes are blind to what I hope to see, William Campbell has not looked bad when he's seen the field. Let us all hope this continues.

Greg Mattison is a great coordinator. He can, as they say, in the cool defensive circles, "adjust".

Special Teams:
Michigan has made 100% of their field goals. Jeremy Gallon can field punts and do something after catching all the while, I don't need to scream at the television for him to hold on to the ball. This is improvement.

Let's not squib kick at the end of the half ever again okay?

Good Feeling To Take Home With You:
Al Borges isn't going to regulate one of the greatest talents in America. He will play to his talents ie.) Denard. Something else Borges did very well, was setting up plays out of the zone-read. It was really nice on the Dileo touchdown pass to go back watch the game and see how the 3-4 plays ahead of that set that play up. The dude can call plays and at the end of the day if Denard is healthy he will let Denard be Denard to win games.

As Always, Go BLUE.

Quickies: The O-Line

Taylor Lewan's Mustache Tattoo Makes Me Giggle

The Low Down:
Minus Denard Robinson, this unit was Michigan's best position group on the field last season. Anchored by David Molk and Sr. Steve Schilling, this unit allowed all of 11 sacks last year. They paved the way for the nations 13th best rushing offense. How much of those numbers were predicated on the spread offense and elusiveness of Denard? Maybe a good amount, but offensive lineman don't collect any stats but penalties, so I'll take those provided stats as indicators to how effective they were as a whole.

David Molk finished the season on the All Big-Ten first team and was the only Wolverine to make the team. But, that doesn't bother me, the Big Ten is always deep when it comes to offensive lineman and last year was probably one of the best years in the conference in a long time.

Taylor Lewan, is the second coming of Jake Long so accept that. He shut down first round pick Adrian Clayborn, but does have this problem of holding onto the opponents jersey and not knowing the snap count, as he was head and shoulders above the rest of the offensive line when it comes to penalties.When Patrick Omameh wasn't struggling with high caliber DT's he spent his time blowing up stud linebackers...

Steve Schilling played well and never caused me to curse terrible things at the television screen. Lastly Mark Huyge played his normal Dr. Jackyl & Mr. Hyde with his performance starting at tackle until Taylor Lewan proved himself to be a much better option and then splitting time with the often injured Perry Dorrestein.

1 Year Later:
Have I mentioned that we're like transitioning to MANball? Yeah? Alrighty than...Michigan was primarily a zone running team last year out of the gun and general consensus is that, this year the team will gradually move toward a straight forward power run game. This will be a transition for the line.

A major factor in this transition being a smooth one, is that, the line returns 4 of 5 starters only losing 4 year staple in the line, Schilling. Ricky Barnum will step in and so far there has been nothing but good praise coming in on Barnum, from fall camp. Huyge has been in a battle with highly recruited red-shirt sophmore Michael Schofield for the starting RT position, but so far all words point to him starting over Schofield.

The depth chart is a little scary this year.We lost what would've been 2 scholarship lineman when Jake Fisher made the decision to decommit from Michigan and go to Oregon and Tony Posada got homesick or something and left the program. However, one thing this line has shown over various David Molk/Perry Dorrestein injuries is some versatility. Guys have been able to slide around the line without too much drop-off. Obviously this year the scheme is going to be different but I can only go off what I've seen in the past.

Expectations: What Is Them?
How does one go about making predictions for an offensive line? (Insert name) will have X amount of pancake blocks and Y amount of penalties? No, that's just silly. But here are some things I expect to see...

We will see more sacks allowed this year. This will be a combination of Denard being in the pocket from under-center and the line getting used to the new scheme. If we are allowing like 2-3 sacks a game, that will be extremely disappointing. A betting man would think that many of the sacks will be within the first couple weeks of the season, and by the time conference play swings around the line should be comfortable.

We will still run for a BOATLOAD of yards. Call this my "Guaransheed" if you will but Michigan will finish in the top 3 in the conference in rushing again. By the way top 3 in this conference is not a small feat as the Big Ten had 5 teams in the top 14 in the country in rushing yds last year if you count Nebraska, 4 if you don't. I'm a firm believer that past quarterbacks if you can run, catch, block, whatever in one scheme you can do it another. Michigan's line will be good. We need Molk to stay healthy as he is definitively the leader of this unit and should be All Big-Ten once again. The team will still run the ball well. I can just envision Brady Hoke pointing in pleasure as the line runs off the field after many of bulldozing touchdown runs.

Taylor Lewan, will have fewer penalties, should make a solid push to be on some All Big-Ten teams by seasons end, and will continue to steal the hearts of all our ladies with his mustache tattoo...

Upnext, A quick season preview, followed by a preview of tomorrows showdown with Western. As always, Go Blue.

Quickies: The Committee In The Backfield

The Low Down: Did Denard Robinson count as a running back last year? No? Shoot... Unlike the days yore, Michigan's running back situation was more of a running back by committee last season. If you would've asked Fred Jackson he would've said the committee had the same skill set but only better than this committee...
 

Remember these guys?

We know this not to be true... So what was the committee?
Presumed starter last year, I guess was, scat-back extrordinaire Vincent Smith. He did lead the team in rushing yards outside of Shoelace. Behind him was Brandon Minor version 2.0, Mike Shaw, who ran with rage right into lingering injuries. The 3rd back in the mix was meaty freshman, Stephen Hopkins. Next up, was high-school highlight tape super-star, Fitz Toussaint. Toussaint has been victim of the nagging injury plague seemingly, since his arrival on campus. He did take his first career carry 61 yds and followed it up with a TD on his next run. The official MGoBlue website lists his position last year as "superback", so that must be good... Lastly, we had Mike Cox who's career stat-line looks like one helluva good game: 19 carries 169 yds 2 TD's... The big problem with Cox, has been his lack of knowledge on the playbook.

If the committee was one, the committee back would've come in 19th in the country with 1297 yds on 264 carries. Not to shabby... The problem in my mind is that's 4 dudes who totaled just a smidgen under 400 yds less than your quarterback. But, then my mind is all like, "Denard though?"... "Denard..." Rich Rodriguez was fighting for his job and he needed to do what he had to do to win. None of the backs stood out more than the others so he stuck with what worked, Denard left, Denard right, Denard pass, Denard left, so on and so forth...

1 Year Later:
MANBALL!!! 1 RUNNING BACK!!! I wanted to stop here, but better judgement said I'd be selling you short.

Since Brady Hoke came in, he has placed an emphasis on this team establishing a power run game with a feature back to take the work load. I would suspect that of the 264 carries all the running backs combined got last year, Hoke and Borges would like to see about all of those go to 1 guy. The rest of the carries that don't go to Denard will be divided up between everybody else.

General consensus back in the spring was probably that you'd see Michael Cox or Stephen Hopkins take charge by the fall as the lead back. Both are bigger, stronger, bruising backs. Cox, who committed to this style of play for Lloyd Carr, was definitely excited to be back to running downhill...

“When I came in, I committed to coach Carr, and I committed to this type of system,” Cox said. “I'm definitely happy to be back in the system that I came here for.”

Much has seemed to change from then till now however. Michigan brought in two pretty highly-regarded recruits in consensus 4* Justice Hayes and under-the-radar 3* Thomas Rawls. Hayes was more fit for the spread and is likely to be a slot-type player for Michigan. He likely won't see the field for Michigan this year as a running back, but fall-camp reports suggest that, he could return punts or kicks. Rawls is like Mark Ingram only better. What say you Fred Jackson?

“Honestly, I did get a chance to watch Mark Ingram a few times,” Jackson said. “Mark is probably one of the best guys ever to come through here. Mark was great, but there’s something about this kid Thomas. If I was to compare them as high school backs, give me Thomas Rawls.”

So there's that... And then there's this..
Fitz Toussaint apparently blew up at the scrimmage last Saturday causing the internetz to go into an uproar and as recent as 8-23 Shaw is the projected default starter due to consistency.Vincent Smith is also pretty much locked into a 3rd down back. He's a great blocker and causes some matchup problems out of the backfield, with his pass catching abilities. There hasn't been much news on Cox or Hopkins, so with those guys we'll see.

I Know I'm Forgetting Something... OHH YAH... Fullback... Guess What? We will use one this year. John McColgan will be it and  I suspect that he will be relieved by Stephen Hopkins (maybe Steve Watson too) from time to time. 

Expectations: What is them?
Umm...

Seriously, I want to sound smart here and say X, Y, & Z are for sure going to happen, but really if you have an idea, maybe you could email me and I'll post it. So, since this is my blog and nobody takes me seriously I am just going to take what I do know and mix it in with my best educated guess.

EDIT: I had this post about ready to go, got busy, and over the weekend Michigan had their scrimmage. Brady Hoke announced Shaw would most likely be the starter, more than likely backed up by Fitz.

So before the presser, I would've said Shaw starts by default, maybe gets backed up Fitz and only that because of practice hype. Thanks for reaffirming my thoughts Brady, I appreciate it.  Yeah, Shaw will start, how long his body can take the pounding of being the man at running-back, is yet to be determined. I like Fitz backing him up and taking over if Shaw goes down, if only for the reason I've had an affinity for Fitz since the first time I saw the gold that was his high-school highlight tape.

How good the offense looks early will be very important for the stat line of the RB's, If the offense struggles early, how long until Denard starts to see more and more designed runs? The offensive line in my opinion, should still be very solid and create many of  those running lanes for the backs. I will make my ridiculous prediction now and say that by the end of the season whomever our starting tailback is will amass over 1,000 yds by the end of the season. If I had to boldly predict who that'll be, I'd say Toussaint. That's my story and I am sticking to it. Next up, the wide receivers. As always, Go Blue!

Quickies: Quarterback

Man, Denard's Smile Gets Me Every Time

The Low Down:
Michigan began last season returning, the previous years starter, Tate Forcier, along with Denard Robinson. They also brought in highly touted dual-threat QB Devin Gardner. Well, Tate Forcier lost his wings at the start of camp and by the end of camp he lost his starting job, as Denard beat out Tate and Devin, to win the starting job and Rich Rodriguez believed he had found his next Pat White. Michigan for the 3rd time in as many years would have a first year starting quarterback.

Rich Rodriguez by all accounts made the right decision. In 2010 Denard Robinson put together arguably the best all-around performance a quarterback has ever had accumulating 4,272 total yds, helping Michigan's offense be one of the most prolific offenses in the country. He was named the Big Ten player of the year and was named an All-American. For those of you keeping track Robinson was responsible for just a hair over 67% of Michigan's total offense last year (6,353 yds). Denard's legs were, in my opinion, his most valuable asset as he amassed an NCAA-QB record of 1,702 yds on the ground, which was only 29 yds shy of being the nation's top mark for the year. He also proved that his arm was a Div-1 arm as he completed 62.5% of his passes for 2,570 yds. Not too shabby for a first year starter, that wasn't recruited as a QB by basically any other program, save UCF.

However, for all of the exciting plays and incredible memories, the picture isn't all roses and butterflies. Because of the heavy emphasis on the usage of Denard's legs (19.69 att/gm), Denard missed time in 10 of 13 games last season. Devin Gardner began the season as the backup until the emphasis of him getting a redshirt cleared the way for the more experienced Forcier to be the immediate back-up to Robinson. Forcier seemed to pick right up from '09 and even led Michigan to a win in triple-OT against Illinois, securing Michigan's first bowl in 2 seasons.

Robinson tied for the league lead in INT's with 11 and he also struggled in the red zone where he only completed 44.1% of his passes. I attribute much of those struggles to a first year starter who felt the need for his offense to score on every drive to keep pace with the opponents walking past our defense.

1 Year Later:

Much has transpired since the Gator Bowl. Tate Forcier was sent home during the bowl week for grades. He then awkwardly left the program after he was maybe told, "thanks but no thanks", by Dave Brandon. He was going to play at Miami, than maybe Hawaii, and eventually he has found a home at San Jose St. We'll always have Notre Dame 2009.



Welp, On To The Next One



In that same time Rich Rod was canned and Michigan  lost the proposed puppet master to, Denard and the offense's success and in the process scratched the whole spread 'n' shred. Would he stay or would he go? That was the big question surrounding Denard Robinson after Rich Rodriguez was let go. Denard stayed and it does not appear that, to him, leaving was ever a question. So, Denard's back, Devin will be backing him up, and Michigan was able to snatch yet another recruit from the grips of Purdue on national signing day, in project QB, Russell Bellomy.

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QB- Depth Chart

Denard Robinson (Jr.)

Devin Gardner (Soph.)

Russell Bellomy (Fr.)

Jack Kennedy (RS Jr.)

Al Borges is now our offensive coordinator. He will bring his west-coast offense and  Brady Hoke wants to run MANBALL, allowing the offense establish a running game that doesn't consist of Denard, Denard, and more Denard. The fascinating thing about Denard's numbers last season was that he did it, missing time in all of those games and it's not like teams didn't know it was coming either. Week-in and week-out teams knew they'd be getting a heavy dose of Denard. The major transitions for Denard will be coming from under-center, and the passing game which is going to be much more timing oriented. Denard seems to be doing a good job adapting according to Borges.

"He's playing good. He's kind of a kick to coach. He's upbeat all the time." He's been receptive to every bit of coaching since he's been here. Timing is getting better in the passing game every day. The guys worked in the off-season, but there was room for improvement. "It's not there yet, but it's showing some promise."

If there's one thing the previous coaching staff could take from the RR tenure is that whole, not coaching to your talents thing, RR was accused so adamantly of doing in his first year. I think Borges is a smart guy and he's still going to let Denard be Denard. Ace from thewolverineblog, posted this blurb from a Rittenberg piece on the offense. Al Borges had this to say...

Our offense is not zone read or spread,” offensive coordinator Al Borges said, “but we’ll do some of that stuff.”
Borges envisions Michigan’s quarterbacks lining up under center about half the time, perhaps a little more than half. The rest of the time, they’ll line up in the shotgun. In the shotgun, Michigan will use two running backs about half the time and one back or no backs the other half the time.
But before you think you have it all figured out, read this.
“Schematically, we’re blowing everything up and starting over again,” Borges said. “We’re still going to gear everything we do offensively to the skills of the people that are doing it, in particular the quarterback. Are we going to look just like we did at San Diego State? Probably not.
“We may in three or four years. We’ll see how this thing evolves.”

Brady Hoke takes it one step further...

"You've got a system that you wanna run, but you're not going to be putting a square peg into a round hole either." Al Borges has a coaching pedigree that proves he can adapt to different personnel. He'll get playmakers the ball. "At the end of the day, we've still gotta block up front, and knock people off the football."

So yeah, MANBALL with a good amount of things the Denard's really good at, like running stuff from the gun.

Expectations: What is them?
So the general consensus across the national media seems to be, that this new offensive scheme is most likely going to hurt Denard's production. I personally couldn't disagree more. While they focus on just the idea of a scheme change, I prefer to focus on what the coaches have said and what that actual scheme change means for Denard, Devin, or anybody else that lines up at QB next season.

So let's run it down... Denard missed significant time last year, if Michigan can find a #1  running back to take the running pressure off of Denard, that only means a better chance of having a health Denard all year and it doesn't allow teams to key on him alone. I don't know about you, but healthy Denard all year? Yes, PLZ!!!

Running things from under-center is only going to open up opportunities for the QB's to make plays with their feet. Many of Denard's runs last year were designed runs. What happens, when Denard or Devin drops back, can't find an open receiver and has wide open running lanes? With the ability Denard has, I expect him to absolutely break off some big ones this year when the play breaks down. Will he run for over 1700 yds again, probably not. The good news is, I don't think he will have to.

The one area of slight concern for me, is in the passing game. Once we get in the red zone Denard has to improve on that 44% number from last year, and how does he respond to timing and precision routes. To answer both of those I think he will look like a quarterback with a year of experience under his belt. We saw what kind of jump he made from year 1 to year 2 and there has been nothing but positive feed back from the summer and the start of fall camp about his work ethic towards the changes to his footwork and the passing game in general.

There's a great chance for Denard to be just as effective, he'll probably throw for more yards, maybe somewhere in the 2,800-3,000 range and probably run for less, most likely somewhere between 1,000-1,300. If one of the backs takes charge and becomes very serviceable, I will be just fine with those numbers and I expect him to be right up there for All Big-Ten contention. Lastly, if Denard does go down, I don't think Gardner will be too much of a drop off. He's not as much of a threat in the running game, but he's a big tall guy who can see the field from the pocket and when he does run, he's dangerous (think Bowling Green last year).

So fear not, my friends, when doubt creeps in your mind between now and September 3rd, remember this smile and you will be at ease...

As always, Go Blue

Out With New, In With The Oldish

Well This Was Fun Wasn't It?

It took 2 seasons, but last fall when Denard Robinson beat out Tate Forcier and Devin Gardner for the starting quarterback role, it was evident by game 1 that, Rich Rodriguez had found his guy to run the spread offense. All of the slot ninjas, quick nimble lineman, and quarterbacks that could run, seemed to be finally meshing. Through the first 6 games of the season Denard was the Heisman Trophy front runner (he finished 6th in final voting). Shoelace became the first player in NCAA history to rush and pass for more than 1,500 yds and set the Big Ten single season total offense record with 4,272 yards of total offense (2,570 yards passing and 1,702 yards rushing) and led the conference in rushing.  By the end of the season the offense statistically was one of the best in the country and one of the most exciting Michigan offenses to watch in memory.

Michigan 2010 Offense
Total Offense:	9th
Rushing Offense	13th (238.5 yds/gm)
Passing Offense	36th (250.2 yds/gm)
Scoring Offense	25th (32.6 pts/gm)

For all of its successes the spread seemed to have its down falls as Denard missed time in 10 of 12 games last season and the offense seemed stagnant against the better teams on the schedule.  The offense also seemed to flounder in the redzone ranking 92nd in scoring %. Personally, I think that statistic is somewhat not conducive of the circumstances. Our defense couldn't stop the JV girls powder puff team from getting in the end zone, forcing the offense to score on nearly every possession. Oh, and that field goal kicking thing? Uhh...


Thank you Barbrady, you're right I did not want to see that.



Well, after a 52-14 beat down by the hands of Mississippi State, Rich Rodriguez was gone and so was the spread. Brady Hoke brought in Al Borges to take the reigns of the offense. There were rumblings about whether or not Denard Robinson would stay... he did and here we are.



Al Borges is a journeyman offensive coordinator, with four schools under his belt in the last eleven years. The performance of his teams?

Al Borges Offenses	Team	Rush Off.	Pass Off.	Total Off.	Scoring Off
2001	CAL	87th	96th	77th	104th
2002	IU	93RD	84th	69th	95th
2003	IU	59th	101st	98th	114th
2004	AUBURN	29th	40th	25th	18th
2005	AUBURN	25th	70th	37th	30th
2006	AUBURN	47th	88th	76th	56th
2007	AUBURN	53rd	103rd	97th	84th
2009	SDSU	116th	30th	86th	85th
2010	SDSU	48th	12th	16th	19th

My reaction, very MEH... But, in this what have you done for me lately world we live in, the progress he was able to make at previously abysmal SDSU in just two seasons, is where I find my hope and encouragement. Borges was able to move the ball against quality teams last year when SDSU played TCU, Missouri, Utah, Air Force, and Navy.

Brian at MgoBlog had this to say about Borges.

Borges looks like just a guy by the numbers, and he's just a guy who seems like the worst possible fit with Denard. Jason Campbell ran more when he got to the NFL. Hopefully there's some more flexibility in this offense than it appears at first glance, otherwise it's a fourth straight year with a new, underclass starting quarterback.

Borges and Hoke both came in saying there would be an emphasis on establishing the run and running a more  pro-style/west coast, MANball type of offense. Think Lloyd Carr offense, but without that old man I need a diaper look, every time we drop back to pass. Borges likes to zing it around a little bit more. But, with a talent like the Denard the old adage, can't fit a square peg into a round hole seems to apply. It appears as after spring ball Borges is beginning to feel the same. In a recent Rivals article Borges dropped these bits on his plan.

 "What we're trying to do as we go is take the next step, understanding what we want in the offense, and his skills are going to be explored," said Borges. "We're probably going to run the quarterback more than I ever have because he is so talented we have to explore that option, but then develop other parts of his game. Because he wants to be a next level player, he's been very receptive."

And this about running out of the shotgun.

"We will be under center half the time and more in shotgun than we've ever been before, though we've always run a good degree of it. We ran 35 snaps in one game at San Diego State last year. It's not news for us. But there's a transition not just for Denard, but everybody."

You'll notice here in the spring game highlights that, the first play was out of shotgun and Denard was able to, well... be Denard.



 The rest of the time, made me maddeningly confused wondering, "is this that turn around for the defense we've been waiting for, or are we really going to be this bad on offense?" I think somewhere in between. What I find most encouraging is...

• The progression Denard was able to make from his freshman year to last, which leads me to believe he will put in the time and effort this summer to make the transition smoother.
• Al Borges I think clearly sees he has a talent he can't under use just to install his system. Something that plagued Rich Rodriguez early in tenure at Michigan.
• We have 9 starters returning offense. This is a veteran group that are no longer freshman and sophomores who are still working the squeak out of their voices. These are matured dudes who have had adequate time in the weight room.

Concerns?

• Who steps up at running back to make MANball work and keep the load off Denard? Many out there seem to believe that incoming freshman Thomas Rawles may be the dark horse in the running back race. Rawles was an under the radar recruit who would've been ranked higher had their not been questions about his ability to qualify.
• The offensive line is the least of my concern. From my time playing football I am under the distinct impression that moving from a zone scheme to a man blocking scheme isn't that difficult for a lineman. If you're blowing people up you're blowing people up. If that assumption is far and away inaccurate it could be a problem.
• Too many receivers not enough balls. With all of the slot ninjas on the team how do they become incorporated into this offense.

Expectations?

•  I expect to see an offense hovering somewhere around the 40 in the country. There's too much talent coming back on this team for me to believe we will take a drastic dip. If we struggle the first two games of the season to move the ball against two defenses we haven't had a recent problem against than, I may be putting my foot in my mouth sooner rather than later.
• I expect to not see a clear-cut back until the 3rd or 4th game of the season unless someone emerges from camp head and shoulders above the rest. My starting back prediction is... Michael Cox

The true tale of the story will be, if we aren't moving the ball well early in the season, how quickly will Borges and Hoke scrap all that is MANball and cater the offense to our skill set.  The hope and my belief is that we never get to that point. We will definitely see some "uhh ohhs" and "ohh EFFFFFF" plays along the way but nothing compared to 2008. The offense seems to have all bought in to the new system and I think we won't be last year but we won't be even close to 2008 either. At the end of the day we have the best smile in college football leading our offense and if this doesn't put your heart at ease, than I do not know what will.



Up next we get caught up on recruiting. As always, Go Blue.