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]
FORMATION NOTES: Minnesota was a dedicated 4-3 team, probably the first of the year depending on how you want to classify "multiple" outfits that base out of stack personnel. Note the low safety. This is after Bredeson's motion starts and that guy is moving up to ~7 yards deep. Minnesota had a lot of late shifts that occasionally gave Michigan trouble. They don't really have any dudes this year but I can understand why they ranked highly in SP+ defense last year. Their system seems pretty good. SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Nothing particularly unusual at this point, except that TE domination continues to, uh, dominate. Snaps for skill positions: Barner: 40 Loveland: 34 Johnson: 31 Wilson: 24 Morris: 21 Bredeson: 19 Clemons 13 Moore: 11 Morgan: 9 TE 2 is now above WR 1 in snaps. Dios mio man. FWIW, the backup line was Jones/El-Hadi/Crippen/Persi/Hinton, so they're not trying to get a redshirt on Hinton. Jones also got five ponus OL snaps. RB snaps were split about down t
UFR GLOSSARY is here. FORMATION NOTES: Minnesota was mostly an under-center or shotgun 3-wide with a WR jetting across. Their 4th down formation was Unbalanced; the guy at the bottom of the line is a TE/eligible receiver. And Michigan used a weird formation on 3rd & 7 with 3 DEs on the field and Harrell and a LB stacked behind the nose that I called 3-1 stack. They also split a DE wide on their 5-2s odd formations that I called 5-2 split the nose is still over the center. SUBSTITUTION NOTES: There were 40 snaps before Tuttle Time in this one. Graham led the DTs in snaps, playing DT or nose depending on whom he was with. Grant got 14, Jenkins 25, Goode 14, and Benny 16. The DEs were the same except Cameron Brandt got in a bunch after the four starters, signifying he's moved ahead of Kechaun Bennett, who played on the last drive. LB was Colson until Tuttle Time and a split of Hausmann and Barrett. Keon Sabb cycled in with the safeties and got a few snaps in a 3-safety look with
10/7/2023 – Michigan 52, Minnesota 10 – 6-0, 3-0 Big Ten A couple years ago I watched Michigan beat Ohio State for the first time since the paleolithic era and I couldn't really commit emotionally. I fundamentally could not let myself believe they would win. This feeling extended into the distance; even after it was clear they were going to win I did not feel the same kind of thing it appeared other people were feeling all around me. The same thing happened last year. While I've made the argument that the postgame success rate/"it was just five plays" takes were bad, it is true that the nature of the game lent itself to believing OSU was far better down-to-down, at least through 30 minutes. Michigan was bleeding OSU down the field and relying on their short-yardage deficiencies to prevent points; Ohio State was maniacally determined to not let Hassan Haskins 2.0 happen to them. So you're watching this and it feels like Michigan is hanging on by a thread. On
FORMATION NOTES: Though Nebraska was touted as a 3-3-5 coming in, in this game they were highly multiple. I had them in some variety of a 4-3 on a majority of plays, mostly under-shifted with a five man line. Note the unusual depth of the linebackers, generally around five yards instead of three. Nebraska played with light boxes a fair bit and would spin down a safety late. Michigan didn't do anything unusual. SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Henderson got his first start at LT, kicking Barnhart to RT. When Tuttle Time started Michigan put El-Hadi at LG and Trente Jones at RT, then gradually replaced the rest of the starters. Notably, Andrew Gentry played at LT and Jeff Persi played at RG. This is a shift from earlier in the season when Gentry snaps were at guard, and suggests to me that they've decided he's LT of the future and are going to rep him there the rest of the year. RB snaps were split down the middle between Corum and Edwards, though Edwards got a half dozen snaps on the