mgoblog - Jeremy Gallon en Jeremy Gallon - Draft Day <p>Here&#39;s a nice article on MLive about Jeremy Gallon and what his plans are for draft day.</p> <p>Nothing too exciting but it&#39;s Jeremy Gallon and he deserves a NFL draft thread.</p> <p>He&#39;s someone I will follow wherever he goes. I think he&#39;s going to make a good pro because he&#39;s never going to stop working to improve.</p> <p><a href=""><u><em><strong>Link</strong></em></u></a></p> <a name="more"></a> MGoBoard football Jeremy Gallon Thu, 08 May 2014 12:34:53 +0000 BlueCube 87206 at Gallon in the East-West Shrine Game <p>Obligatory</p> <p><img alt="" src="" /></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Gallon should help his draft stock after a solid week of practice. &nbsp;Hopefully he can make a big play in this game.</p> <a name="more"></a> MGoBoard football Jeremy Gallon Sat, 18 Jan 2014 21:15:17 +0000 Marley Nowell 84631 at Jeremy Gallon at East-West Shrine Game <div> I might&rsquo;ve missed them, but I can&rsquo;t recall having seen any threads about <em><strong>Jeremy Gallon</strong></em> at the East-West Shrine Game in St. Petersburg, Florida that will be played this Saturday.</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> One analyst says that he was the best wide receiver for the East Team in the January 15 practice session. &nbsp;<a href=""></a></div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> <em><strong>The best receiver today was Michigan&rsquo;s Jeremy Gallon, who consistently got the type of separation I was optimistic we&rsquo;d see this week. The smallest receiver here, Gallon needed to prove he can get free route-wise other than on underneath drag routes and deep comebacks. So far, he&rsquo;s done it this week. Much of it is thanks to his quickness at the top of his routes. He snaps his head around so quickly, transitioning from a smooth, appearing-to-be slow start into a quick burst away from his defender</strong></em>.</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> Another analyst says that Gallon should be linked to another player who once wore a winged helmet in college, University of Delaware alumnus Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens.</div> <div> <a href=""></a></div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> Another analyst has some links to the coverage of the practice sessions.</div> <div> <a href=""></a></div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> Final Thoughts:</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> It might be time to revise the comment about Jeremy being &ldquo;five-eight, but he plays like he&rsquo;s five-nine.&rdquo; &nbsp;He was measured at 5-7 and 3/8 and 183 pounds. &nbsp;(I suspect that his skill, his heart, his mind, his attitude and his video-bombing ability probably measured off the charts.)</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> In a surprise move, the bowl sponsors have Jeremy rooming with Jackmerius Tacktheritrix from Michigan State.</div> <div> <object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//;version=3" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//;version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560"></embed></object></div> <a name="more"></a> MGoBoard football Jeremy Gallon Michigan Football Team 134. 2014 East-West Shrine Game Wed, 15 Jan 2014 19:33:21 +0000 chatster 84559 at Inside the Boxscore - Team 134, Copper Bowl <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Late in the 2013 Copper Bowl there was a two play sequence that epitomized Team 134. First, Shane Morris threw a nice pass to Jeremy Gallon for a 22 yard gain. That catch moved Gallon past Braylon Edwards into first place for most receiving yards in a season for a Michigan receiver. On the very next play, Morris threw an interception that was returned to the Michigan 7 yard line, thereby proving that we cannot have nice things, at least not this year. I guess you could extend that sequence by a couple plays to include the resulting Kansas State touchdown. Too often, especially early in the season, the offense put the defense in difficult situations and the defense was not able to make a stop. We blamed the offense and Al Borges for the early season woes that extended throughout the season. But that just masked the fact that our defense was not up to the standards of the traditional Michigan Defense. The Ohio game and this Copper Bowl finally exposed our defense. Digging through a boxscore to try to explain defensive deficiency is a difficult task. But that&#39;s what I&#39;ll try to do.</p> <p><strong>Link</strong>: <a href="" title=""></a></p> <p><strong>Burst of Impetus</strong><br /> * Michigan won the toss and rightly deferred. The idea is to let the game get started and let our true freshman QB - in his first start - calm down before throwing him to the wolves. On K-State&#39;s first drive, they faced four third downs. They converted all four. The first time our defense stopped K-State on 3rd down, we were down 21-6 and there was only ~6 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. In fact, on K-State&#39;s 2nd and 3rd drives, they never even got to third down before scoring TDs. In a game where we needed everyone to step up and help out our backup QB in his first start, the only one who stepped up was our backup QB.</p> <p><strong>Who&#39;s on First?</strong><br /> * 24 players recorded a defensive stat for Michigan. K-State had 19 players record a defensive stat. This is something I&#39;ve harped on all season long. On the first drive of the game, I saw numerous subs get into the game. Are you telling me that our guys are getting tired 10 minutes into the game? I want the best guys out there who give us the best chance to win. I want guys to get into the flow of the game, read the queues and start figuring out the offense. Instead, there is a constant revolving door where guys are being shuttled in and out before they get a chance to get into the flow of the game or break a sweat and they spend more energy sprinting to and fro the sideline than they do playing the game.<br /> * Of the 9 players who recorded 4 or more tackles, 4 were middle linebackers. Have you ever seen another team split playing time between the first and second string MLBs?<br /> * We only recorded 4 TFLs, as K-State&#39;s line was continually driving our line off the line of scrimmage. I can understand a beast like Carlos Hyde getting significant YAC, but K-State&#39;s starting halfback was doing the same thing, and he&#39;s about 5&#39; 7&quot;, 160 pounds.<br /> * Spielman said something about how he asked Mattison who his best defender was this year, and the first thing out of Mattison&#39;s mouth was &quot;Frank Clark.&quot; Against Ohio State, Frank Clark had one tackle. Against Kansas State, Frank Clark had one tackle. When your best defender is averaging 1 tackle per game in his last two, something is wrong.<br /> * Say what you will about our defensive backs, they did have a penchant for getting interceptions and breaking up passes this season. Against Kansas State, we had 0 interceptions, 0 passes broken up, 0 passes blocked, and only 1 QH. The DBs were giving up way too much cushion, and even then, Countess was beat deep on a double move. The turf looked suspect, which may have caused some of the hesitancy, but at some point don&#39;t you have to change your cleats or your gameplan to account for that?<br /> * In the previews, we read how K-State&#39;s main offensive weapon was WR Tyler Lockett. So naturally, UofM single covered him all game and gave him a huge cushion on critical third and short situations. I asked this of Borges earlier in the year, and it applies equally well to Mattison after this game, did he bother to scout K-State, at all?</p> <p><strong>Lefty</strong><br /> * Shane Morris finished 24 of 38 for 196 yards, exceeding all sane expectations for his first start. He did throw a late INT, but that&#39;s understandable. The high completion percentage was a result of numerous short throws, but for the most part, he was accurate and on target. The one thing that was missing was a little more accuracy on a couple long balls.<br /> * Morris also showed decent pocket awareness, only getting sacked one time.</p> <p><strong>20 Pound Cheeseburgers</strong><br /> * As Ace pointed out, our two leading rushers were our QB and Tight End. Our running backs should be made to watch how K-State&#39;s little Hubert ran. I get it that the offensive line generated zero push, but eventually someone has to break a tackle or make someone miss. Our 4 RBs combined for 8 carries and 13 yards. Our offense was slightly better in not giving up so many TFLs, but that&#39;s because we rarely had the ball. K-State had 5 TFLs for a total of 13 yards lost. Hey, I&#39;m looking for positives, no matter how small.</p> <p><strong>V. Sinha Legends Jersey</strong><br /> * Jeremy Gallon caught 9 balls for 89 yards with a long of 22. He set two Michigan records in the process, one for consecutive games with a reception at 39, and the other for single-season receiving yards. All season, we were concerned that Gardner was focusing in too much on Gallon. Well, 9 of Morris&#39; 24 completions went to Gallon. Could it be, the guy just gets open and catches the d@mn ball, garnering trust from his QBs? The biggest question mark next year - besides the offensive line, of course - will be who steps up to take Gallon&#39;s place? Even if it&#39;s by committee, that&#39;s a lot of offense that needs to be replaced.</p> <p><strong>Norf and Souf</strong><br /> * Norfleet had one nice end-around (which technically was a pass reception) for a 9 yard gain, and promptly never saw the ball again. Thanks, Al.</p> <p><strong>Meh Teams</strong><br /> * Yeah, they were bad. We did average a net of 40.6 yards on 5 punts, so at least that unit performed well, but the kick coverage was atrocious. Meanwhile, our punt return team got an incomplete grade, as K-State only punted once.</p> <p><strong>I&#39;m an international umpire</strong><br /> * Brought this section back just to comment on the Umpire, Matt Jordan, who showed more athletic ability than anyone on our defense when he dove into the pile after K-State&#39;s first fumble to see who made the recovery. Dudes got mad skillz.</p> <p><strong>100%BLU</strong><br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I was born in 1970. I started going to games in 1976. Michigan always won. I went to the Rose Bowl in &#39;78 and saw Michigan lose for the first time, by 7 points to Warren Moon and the Huskies. That day I learned that Michigan doesn&#39;t always win, but for the next two decades, you could be sure of one thing - Michigan would have a shot at winning at the end, even if you extend that definition to include a Hail Mary / on-side kick combo.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; To quantify that feeling, I went back through the Bentley records. In the 70&#39;s, Michigan lost 2 games by double digits, and the worst loss was by 16 points to Minnesota. In the 80&#39;s, Michigan lost 7 games by double digits, and three of those were the year Harbaugh broke his arm. In the 90&#39;s, Michigan lost 10 games by double digits, with the two worst losses being by 20 points. In the aughts, we lost 17 games by double digits. The worst was a 35 point loss to Ohio in RichRod&#39;s first season, but the game I remember most as being a wake-up call was the 2002 Citrus Bowl loss to Tennessee by 28 points. How could a good Michigan team lose by 4 touchdowns? It just didn&#39;t make sense. Lloyd got the program back on the right track until &#39;07, when Oregon embarrassed us by 32. Now we&#39;re in whatever this decade is called, and so far, through 4 seasons, we&#39;ve already had 13 double digit losses. Yes, 6 of those were in Rich Rod&#39;s last season, but we had 3 last year and 2 this year. Brady has to turn things around in a hurry if we don&#39;t want to experience another decade worse than the last.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Which brings me to my final questions from this season. First, what do I want for Michigan football? I&#39;m a realist, at least sometimes, and understand that we&#39;re not going to win every game, but I want us to be competitive in every game. I want to think we have a chance of winning just about every game. How does that happen? In my 43 years of watching Michigan football, the answer is not having a modern offense that can outscore the other guys, it&#39;s having a shutdown defense that can keep you in the game when your offense is struggling either due to turnovers or your QB having a bad day accuracy-wise. Can Borges construct an offense to score enough points? Frankly, I don&#39;t think that&#39;s the right question. Rather, can Mattison build a dominant defense? He has before. I think he will be able to again. It just takes time. We&#39;ve got to have safeties he can trust, lock down cover corners, the Man in the middle, size up front, and a healthy JMFR wreaking havoc from the wings. Can we get there in 2014? Time will tell...</p> <a name="more"></a> boxscore defense wins championships football Jeremy Gallon kansas state Shane Morris Mon, 30 Dec 2013 00:18:26 +0000 ST3 84135 at Inside the Boxscore - Team 134, Game 12 <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Warning, I have a feeling this entry is going to be a little longer than my typical diary, bordering on TL:DR length. But that&#39;s OK, since this is my &quot;own personal section of MGoBlog, to post in&quot; as I like. If you don&#39;t like it, feel free to scroll down to the link.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; If you check my avatar, you&#39;ll see I joined this Blog in September, 2010, for Rich Rod&#39;s last season. I spent that first season making ridiculous comparisons between Cam Gordon and Ronnie Lott. I was a freshman. For as many good posts that I made that first year, I metaphorically jumped offsides numerous times, a la Kyle Kalis. Once I got the hang of things around here, I think I started improving. Heck, Misopogon (as he was known back in the day) even bumped one of my board topics to the diary section at the start of my sophomore season. I&#39;ve been bringing you the link to the boxscore ever since. Why do I do this? My reason back then was that I thought that something was missing from this Blog. Every sports section I read as a kid had a page of boxscores. How can one truly appreciate what happened in a game if one does not have numbers to back up their feelings? Quantitative analysis uber alles! Besides, I figured that you, the MGoReader, were going to go to anyway, so the least I could do for the blog is to provide a link and get a few more page views (read: advertising dollars) for the Blog, since I was too cheap to contribute to the Beveled Guilt.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I don&#39;t know who to attribute this quote to, but someone once said of freshmen, the greatest thing about them is they become sophomores. I expect dramatic improvement from Kalis and all the other freshmen who saw the field this season, and from the few who were redshirted. I guess that leaves me cautiously optimistic about Team 135. I won&#39;t be predicting a 13-1 season for them like I did for Team 134 (yes, I seriously underestimated the effect that an inexperienced interior offensive line would have on the offense. I should know better.) Getting back to me for a moment. Metaphorically, I&#39;m finishing up my senior season on the Blog. The question for me is, did I redshirt that first year with my ridiculous comments? Or is there some youngster out there with a tribal tattoo on his left biceps and a penchant for writing about boxscores? Should I step aside for him/her, oh who am I kidding, him, and start writing about the Detroit Lions&#39; boxscores? Part of me says it&#39;s time to step aside. I feel the same way after a grueling fantasy baseball season, but come March, I&#39;m first in line to sign back up. I&#39;ll see how I feel in August.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Since this is my personal section of MGoBlog, I want to take the opportunity to address the 800 pound gorilla, the 500 pound elephant, and the 90 pound mole on Ginny Sacrimoni&#39;s butt.* These items are, in order, &quot;fickle fans,&quot; &quot;mailing it in,&quot; and the decision to go for two. First, the &quot;fickle fans&quot; comment. I took a swipe at the students in my Rush song parody post earlier in the week. I apologize. Even though the now omnipresent empty rows at the top of the student section were once again visible, I saw hardly any red in that sea of yellow pom-poms. However, in the alumni section, while not quite a sea of red, numerous buckeyes were spotted. Maybe that&#39;s because it&#39;s harder to scalp student tickets. I don&#39;t know. I do know that the renovated Big House provides our team with one of the better home field advantages in college football, and it&#39;s a shame to give that up due to being 17 point underdogs. During the first half, as Michigan kept taking the lead, I began to sense the makings of the Bill Simmons classic, &quot;No one believed in us game.&quot; Now, I don&#39;t think Brady Hoke called the fans fickle to build on that, &quot;no one believes in you, let&#39;s go prove them wrong&quot; mentality, but it didn&#39;t hurt. The players sure came out motivated to win one for THE TEAM, THE TEAM, THE TEAM. But like Brian, I was upset at Brady for calling out the fans, the ones who indirectly pay his salary.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Next up, &quot;Mailing it in.&quot; I was recently assigned a mentee from the University of Michigan&#39;s College of Engineering. In our initial meeting, one of the things he mentioned that he&#39;d like to get out of our partnership is an understanding of how I balance work and life. I&#39;ve given this some thought, and I think the advice I&#39;d give him or you or Brian, for whatever it&#39;s worth, is when you are starting out in your career, you should choose to put your career first. When I was a grad student at UofM, the first paper I had to give was at a conference that was scheduled the week after Thanksgiving. My experiments were not going as expected and I found myself a few charts short of a full presentation with a few days to go prior to my flight. As Thanksgiving approached, it dawned on me that I was going to have to choose between Thanksgiving dinner with my family, and getting that extra data that would make my talk more meaningful. So I worked till 5pm on Thanksgiving day, grabbed a couple students from Hong Kong who had nowhere else to go for Thanksgiving, and headed to the Grand Buffet. Of course, by 6pm on Thanksgiving, they were completely out of Turkey, and every other meat product, so I think I had soup, spaghetti, and garlic bread for dinner. Twenty years later, I&#39;m established in my career. I&#39;m happy where I&#39;m at workwise, so I took Wednesday off and wrote a silly song parody for MGoBlog. Time and situations matter. Prince looked cool wearing a puffy shirt in the movie Purple Rain. Ten years later, Jerry Seinfeld made a whole episode around the puffy shirt. &quot;But I don&#39;t want to look like a pirate!&quot; So if Brian Cook decides to take a week off and not write up UFRs, I think that says more about the success of this blog than anything else. He has built something great here, and if he wants to spend Turkey Day with family, more power to him. But if the same urge hits next year, might I suggest assigning the defensive UFR to Heiko and the offense to Ace. Present it to them as a learning experience and an opportunity to take on a stretch assignment. They are young. They can write up the UFRs and then head to the Grand Buffet for soup and salad and complain about their boss.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Third, the &quot;go for 2&quot; decision. I&#39;m going to focus on this more in the sections after the link. In defense of Brady&#39;s decision, I should just point out that Lou Holtz thought he should go to OT and leave it at that. Pardon the war metaphor, but I think it gets my point across. We are in a battle with Ohio State. So far, we are winning the war, 58-45-6, but OSU is catching up quicker than we&#39;d like. There are a couple sports-related things that I&#39;d prefer not to witness in my lifetime. One is having some team catch us in all-time wins, and two is Ohio State taking the edge in the all-time record. While we lost the battle this year, I think Brady&#39;s decision to go for two will help us in the future. Recruits like uniformz and coaches with onions. Brady is a players&#39; coach and a guy I&#39;d want to go to war with. That can only help with recruiting. The future is, dare I say it, bright. Highlighter yellow bright.</p> <p>*I watched the series finale of the Soprano&#39;s on Friday. I watched the earlier seasons numerous times. It seems every time I&#39;d introduce the show to someone else, I&#39;d start from the beginning and rewatch the series. So I probably saw season one 7 times, season two 6 times, and so on and so forth. I recently realized that I haven&#39;t rewatched the final season since watching the final episode that left me wanting more answers. As I sat watching that final episode again, I felt myself hoping for a different ending, as crazy as that sounds. But then, when Steve Perry sang, &quot;Don&#39;t Stop,&quot; that final time, the realization sunk in that the ending is set in stone. I may not like it (I don&#39;t) but I&#39;m going to have to live with it. What does this have to do with football? I suspect that sometime in the future, say 5 to 10 years from now, ESPN Classic or the B1G Network will reshow this UofM / OSU game and label it as a classic. I&#39;ll probably watch a few minutes until remembering how the game ends, and then I will sadly change the channel. For however great this game was (especially for fans of offensive football) the ending will always be the same, and that sucks.</p> <p><strong>Link</strong>: <a href="" title=""></a></p> <p><strong>Burst of Impetus</strong><br /> * On our first possession, Gardner threw a screen to Gallon that went for 84 yards. On one play, we accumulated more than half the yardage we put up against Iowa. We effectively said to Ohio State, &quot;If you want to dress like Indiana, we&#39;re going to treat you like Indiana.&quot; Eventually, the impetus faded and Ohio State was able to build a 14 point lead and seemingly take control of the game. However, Michigan never gave up. A huge forced fumble&nbsp;got us back in the game&nbsp;(hey, Todd Blackledge, STFU, that was not a &quot;gift&quot; turnover. Michigan raked that ball free.) After the Penn State game, and after I calmed down a little, I rescinded my call to fire Borges. Instead, I said he should be evaluated at season&#39;s end. Before the game, I thought he was dead man walking (hence, the Ballad of Borges.) Now? I just don&#39;t know. The team did not quit on him like they did with Rodriguez. Call me crazy, but if Devin comes back for a 5th season, and I think and hope he will, I think he and Borges deserve an opportunity to finish what they started. Handing Devin another new coordinator in year 5 just continues the chaos.</p> <p><strong>Gedeon&#39;s Bible</strong><br /> * I know, no politics or religion, but the pun was unavoidable. Ben Gedeon, Thomas Gordon, and Raymon Taylor led us with 6 tackles each. Joe Bolden was 4th with 5 tackles. The young linebackers played well at times, but they were dealing with OSU linemen seemingly on every play. Perhaps Ross would have more quickness to avoid some blocks, but I think he&#39;s a little undersized and would get trucked by Hyde like everyone else.<br /> * We had 18 players in the defensive stats to Ohio&#39;s 20. That may be the first time that the opposition has had more players show up in the defensive stats. That&#39;s partly due to Michigan running 82 plays to Ohio&#39;s 61, and our depth being hurt due to injuries.<br /> * Frank Clark only had one tackle. We needed more production out of him. He did have one QH that wasn&#39;t credited to him. OK, I&#39;ll admit it, I have no idea what constitutes a QH. I thought it was a QB hurry or QB hit, but Clark deposited Miller on his backside early in the game and doesn&#39;t have a QH to show for it.<br /> * QWash didn&#39;t register a stat. If he was commanding double teams and freeing up linebackers, that would be acceptable. Instead, Ohio averaged 8.5 YPC.<br /> * I don&#39;t know how to defend the spread. The folks that claimed it wouldn&#39;t work in the Big Ten are swimming around aimlessly in a fetid soup of cognitive dissonance today. I saw numerous posters after the game complain that Mattison didn&#39;t put 8 or 9 in the box to stop Hyde. What, and leave two wide receivers completely uncovered? The best you can do against the spread is put 7 in the box and go man-to-man with the WRs. But then you need your 4th best cover corner to stay with their WR, and if the running back breaks through the box, there is no safety to clean up. No, the best you can hope for is to win one-on-one battles along the line and get to the mesh point before they can option you. We did this once with Jake Ryan. Auburn did this numerous times to Oregon in the championship game a few years ago when Fairly and some other dude shut down Oregon. We don&#39;t have the Fairly and other dudes we need on the d-line yet.</p> <p><strong>Young 98</strong><br /> * Gardner finished 32 for 45 for 451 yards and 4 TDs. That&#39;s good for 71%. So getting back to the end-of-game situation. A successful pass basically wins the game. He&#39;s 71% for the day. That beats a 50/50 chance in OT. Additionally, he couldn&#39;t walk anymore, so that somewhat limits your attack in OT.<br /> * ABC showed that Gardner had thrown 110 passes without an interception, as if trying to jinx him into a poor throw. DAMN YOU ABC!!! And yet, according to Todd Blackledge, Gardner has turnover problems. I see pro quarterbacks throw INTs all the time. Yes, I watch the Lions, how did you know? I think Gardner is being held up to a ridiculously high standard. Yes, I&#39;d like to see fewer INTs next year, and better ball control, but stuff happens. Even the great and powerful Carlos Hyde fumbles occassionally.</p> <p><strong>20 Pound Cheeseburgers</strong><br /> * We have a running game to talk about, whoo-hoo! A week after I noticed that De&#39;Veon Smith had exactly one yard lost this season, in the season of TFLs, he led us with 57 yards on 7 carries. That was boosted by a 38 yard run, but again, he had no carries of negative yardage. (I thought I saw Kalis trip him up in the backfield for a yard loss, but the boxscore doesn&#39;t lie.) Smith runs north and south and gets to the hole quickly. He may miss some gaping holes as a result, but the negative plays are minimized. I like the way he runs. I wish he had 4 years of eligibility left.<br /> * Derrick Green had 12 carries and no lost yards.<br /> * Fitz Toussaint had 5 carries and no lost yards.<br /> * Imagine what the odds would have been for Michigan running the ball 24 times with RBs and having zero lost yards. All this behind an offensive line starting it&#39;s 5th different&nbsp;left guard of the season. Kudos to Kyle Kalis for not giving up, fighting back, and earning his starting spot again.<br /> * I thought Kerridge&#39;s blocking was much improved, except for one pass block where he got shoved into Gardner. I&#39;d rather he attack the defender than try to backpedal&nbsp;while staying in front of the defender.</p> <p><strong>V. Sinha Legends Jersey</strong><br /> * What more can be said about Jeremy Gallon? He&#39;ll go down as one of the all-time greats.<br /> * What was truly impressive about the receiving stats is that 9 different players caught passes. That kind of diversity prevents the defense from focusing on two receivers, helping everybody get open. Jake Butt caught five balls for 85 yards and a TD, and caused me to exclaim, &quot;WIDE OPEN BUTT,&quot; and &quot;GO BUTT!&quot;<br /> * Dileo caught five passes, and a few of them were not 4 yard button hooks that the defense knows is coming. Regarding the 2 point conversion, I watched the first two Michigan drives again this morning. On the second TD, we were lined up just like we were for the 2 point play. Instead of passing to Dileo, Gardner ran the option away from the triple stack and basically waltzed into the endzone untouched. I think that would have worked again, assuming Gardner still had the ability to move his legs. The TD occurred 3 hours earlier, so I think the Ohio defense would have forgotten about it by then. Oh well. I really shouldn&#39;t complain about one bad play call out of 82.</p> <p><strong>Norf and Souf</strong><br /> * Norfleet had the kick return we were all waiting for called back by a bogus holding call. The blocker had his hands inside the defender&#39;s jersey, the defender was backpedaling, and a third player bumped into the M blocker and ohio defender. This caused the ohio guy to lose his balance and get pancaked. How was that a holding penalty? If that&#39;s holding, you could call Ohio&#39;s o-line for holding every play. It seems they are coached up to grab the defender by the name on the back of his jersey and shove him where they want.</p> <p><strong>Go for the Win</strong><br /> * In overtime, you need 25 yards to score a TD. I checked the drive chart, thinking this would confirm my gut feeling that going for 2 was the right call. Ohio State had 11 real possessions. They gained at least 25 yards on 7 of them. Michigan had 11 real drives (not counting the end of half because Brady didn&#39;t try to mount a drive.) We gained at least 25 yards on 8 of them. Hmmm, maybe Lou Holtz was right.<br /> * We had 31 first downs to their 23. So our offense was at least as consistent as their&#39;s, if not moreso. Hmmm, I&#39;m really starting to doubt myself.<br /> * Yeah, but Ohio State averaged 8.6 yards per play. That&#39;s basically a TD in OT every three plays. Yeah, but we averaged 7.4 yards per play, that&#39;s hardly a significant difference.<br /> * But we gained our yards passing while they gained their&#39;s running, and more bad things can happen passing than running (sacks, incompletions, interceptions.)<br /> * In addition, our starting FG kicker was in street clothes and our QB was a bag of bones loosely held together by duct-tape and chewing gum.<br /> * OK, I convinced me, go for the win. Everything was perfect, except for the final play when the guy with the members only jacket emerged from the bathroom and put a bullet in our collective temple. We never saw it coming.</p> <a name="more"></a> al borges boxscore Devin Gardner football I am fickle Jeremy Gallon Ohio State Sun, 01 Dec 2013 23:43:32 +0000 ST3 83532 at Gallon: One of best WRs ever at M? <p><span>Earlier this year, Seth had an&nbsp;</span><span><u>incredible analysis of Gallon&rsquo;s 2012 numbers</u></span><span>&nbsp;that compared Jeremy Gallon&#39;s statistical output to receivers around the country in 2012 and Michigan receivers from 2005-12 (obviously post-Braylon). It basically showed that he&rsquo;s been the best since Braylon for us.</span></p> <p>Although I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;ll ever say Gallon was better than Braylon, it is interesting to see where yesterday&rsquo;s numbers leave him both all-time, and with respect to single-season stats.</p> <p>If you remove Gallon&rsquo;s lowest and highest yardage totals this year (because 361 yards receiving is a major outlier) and apply it to 6 more games this season (assuming we don&rsquo;t make the B1G Championship game and have 7 more), Gallon&rsquo;s projected to finish the season with 1,348 yards receiving &mdash; surpassing Braylon&rsquo;s single-season record of 1,300. That&rsquo;s averaging of 86 yards/game the rest of the way.</p> <p>At the pace he&rsquo;s on, here&rsquo;s roughly where he would finish (didn&rsquo;t remove the max and min for TD and Rec because I&rsquo;m lazy it doesn&rsquo;t matter as much):</p> <ul> <li> Receiving yards-Season: <b>1,348 </b>(Best-evaaa), already 19th</li> <li> <span>Receptions-Season: <b>83 </b>(4th-best)</span></li> <li> <span>Touchdowns-Season: <b>13 </b>(6th-best), already tied for 20th</span></li> </ul> <ul> <li> <span>Career Yards: <b>2,679 </b>(3rd all-time), already 11th</span></li> <li> <span>Career Receptions: <b>167 </b>(4th-best), already 13th</span></li> <li> <span>Career Receiving TD: <b>21 </b>(7th all-time), already 11th</span><br /> &nbsp;</li> </ul> <p>There&rsquo;s a lot to factor in to where he&rsquo;ll actually finish (ie. Can he stay healthy? How many blowouts will we have where we just don&rsquo;t throw the ball in the second half? (lol) How will he perform against the tougher defenses ahead? etc.), but given how stressful this year has been, it&rsquo;s nice to see Gallon putting together an outstanding year to finish out a highly productive career.</p> <p>Thanks, No. 10/No. 21.</p> <a name="more"></a> football Jeremy Gallon Sun, 20 Oct 2013 22:29:31 +0000 YoungGeezy 82329 at Inside the Boxscore - Team 134, Game 7 <p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Holy Offensive Extravaganza Batman! In the interest of time, I&#39;m going to break format again, skip the introductory paragraph and get right to the numbers. Michigan gained 1237 yards on 98 plays, accruing 73 first downs in the process. Devin Gardner led the way with 712 yards passing. Jeremy Gallon&#39;s 26 receptions accounted for 560 of those yards. The rushing game returned in grand style, with Fitz Toussaint running for 234 yards and 8 touchdowns, behind a line featuring a fourth string left guard and three high school seniors. Michigan won the time of possession battle, 52:12 to 7:48. Michigan punted negative three times, and finished seven for four on third down conversions. Raymon Taylor led the defense with 37 tackles and 16 pass breakups. Yes, these numbers are completely made up. They are ridiculous, but so are these numbers:<br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /> <strong>Link:</strong> <a href=""></a></p> <p><strong>Burst of Impetus</strong><br /> * Early in the game, it was obvious that Indiana was throwing to the receiver guarded by Raymon Taylor. Taylor got beat deep, giving up a 59 yard TD to IU. On the next drive, they went back at Taylor, hitting Latimer for a 14 yard gain. After an incomplete pass and a five yard run, Sudfeld went back towards Taylor. Taylor absolutely lit up the TE, Bolser, forcing an incompletion. Later in the first quarter, on another third down, Indiana went back at Taylor down the sideline. He just barely turned his head around and got another deflection. Later in the game he got another PBU on third down and forced a field goal. The boxscore lists him with 4 of Michigan&#39;s 5 pass breakups. He did make 9 tackles, so it&#39;s obvious Indiana was targeting him and giving him opportunities. He wasn&#39;t perfect, BUT HE MADE PLAYS. In a back and forth game, the key to winning was who was going to be able to break serve. Indiana was 8 of 14 on third down. Half of those stops are directly attributable to Taylor. The other defensive player who MADE PLAYS (2 of them, in fact) was Thomas Gordon. He did not record a tackle, but he did make two huge interceptions that gave the Impetus back to Michigan both times.</p> <p><strong>Young 98</strong><br /> * Devin Gardner was 21 for 29 with ZERO INTERCEPTIONS! (That&#39;s not difficult to do when IU&#39;s DBs were rarely in the same time zone as our WRs, and the line provided good protection for the most part.)<br /> * He threw for 503 yards, 2 TDs, and a long of 70 yards (thanks to Gallon.)<br /> * His bad habit of flinging wild throws to avoid sacks returned, but fortunately, did not result in any INTs.<br /> * Al Borges is the QB coach. Is Al the one responsible for teaching Devin how to pitch the ball to Fitz? I&#39;m, of course, referring to the fumble. It was attributed to Fitz, but the pitch was the problem. I have a hard time picturing in my mind, Al out on the field giving Gardner instructions on the proper way to pitch the ball back to the RB.</p> <p><strong>The Bluesmobile</strong><br /> * After suffering through the 27 for 27 documentary, Fitz ran 32 times for 151 yards net. The longest run was only 27 yards, so this is not one of those cases where a guy&#39;s stats are inflated by a 60 or 70 yard TD run. He scored 4 TDs.<br /> * Derrick Green pitched in 21 yards on 6 carries.</p> <p><strong>V. Sinha Legends Jersey</strong><br /> * Jeremy Gallons actual stats were 14 receptions for 369 yards and 2 TDs. He caught 2/3 of Gardner&#39;s completions.<br /> * Devin Funchess was the second option, catching 4 balls for 84 yards. Towards the end of the game UofM was trying to run out the clock. They faced a 3rd and 6. Instead of running on third down, Al called for a pass. 38 yards later, Funchess had given UofM another first down, and three more opportunities to run clock. I think that is the go-for-the-win attitude that we became accustomed to under Brady Hoke, that was sadly missing last week against PSU.<br /> * Jeremy Jackson returned to the field, catching 2 balls for 23 yards.<br /> * I love Dileo and if I were in charge of the offense, I&#39;d involve him more, so what I&#39;m going to say next may amount to heresy. Is it possible that he&#39;s not getting open on the other ~60 plays, or that he&#39;s not great at blocking? I also wonder if he got hurt, because he wasn&#39;t back there fielding punts. Maybe Borges just wanted to give Devin a slightly bigger target in Jackson.</p> <p><strong>Waffles</strong><br /> * Midway through the first quarter, Joey Burzynski got hurt. So let&#39;s review our situation at Left Guard this year. Glasgow started the season there, only to move to center in an attempt to shore up the middle. Chris Bryant was the next man in. He&#39;s either injured or not as effective as the staff would like, so he was replaced by Burzynski. When he got hurt, Kyle Bosch entered the lineup. Yep, our 4th string left guard. Indiana did get 2 sacks and 7 TFLs, but I can honestly say, I didn&#39;t notice Bosch out there, and that&#39;s a compliment for a lineman. He may have made a mistake or two, or missed an assignment, but I didn&#39;t notice.<br /> * A bruised and bloodied Taylor Lewan returned to the lineup. I was a little worried before the game started, as Lewan showed very little enthusiasm jumping up to touch the M Club banner. To think he could be making millions of dollars today, all I can say is thank you, we appreciate your effort and loyalty to our shared University.<br /> * I would be remiss not to mention Graham Glasgow&#39;s hustle. At the end of Gallon&#39;s 70 yard run after the catch, Glasgow was right there. There were several other long plays where I noticed Glasgow hustling down the field looking for another block. The guy can move for someone his size.</p> <p><strong>Norf and Souf</strong><br /> * Norfleet returned 6 kicks for 121 yards. He made a couple poor decisions, but on average, the results were fine.</p> <p><strong>Special Teams</strong><br /> * So is this blocked FG thing something I&#39;m going to have to worry about for the rest of the season?<br /> * Five of Wile&#39;s 10 kickoffs were touchbacks. IU didn&#39;t do much with 4 of the 5 they returned.<br /> * On one kickoff, we kicked from the 50 due to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on IU. Doesn&#39;t game theory demand an onside-kick there? Or at least a high, short, coverage kick where you can pin them back inside the 20? If they recover the onside kick, they get the ball at their own 35. Instead, we kicked it out of the endzone and they got the ball at the 25. For 10 yards, I&#39;d take that chance at getting the ball back. This was not a field position game. This was a ball possession game, as in, if you had possession of the ball you were likely going to score.</p> <p><strong>I&#39;m an international umpire</strong><br /> * The refs let them play. IU had 3 penalties for 20 yards and Michigan had 4 for 15 yards. I noticed some holding and maybe some DBs getting to the WR a little early, but nothing outrageous, and the officials didn&#39;t get nitpicky. I&#39;d rather they call a foul a foul, but it kept the flow of the game going nicely, and they were consistent, which is all you can ask for.</p> <p><strong>Defense?</strong><br /> * I covered the important stuff in the Impetus section. We got some stops.<br /> * Help me out, Alannis Morrissette, is it ironic that we ended the game by sacking IU&#39;s QB? I say yes.<br /> * Besides Taylor&#39;s 9 tackles, JR3 had 8, Jourdan Lewis and Morgan had 5, and Wilson had 4. That&#39;s a lot of DBs, but that&#39;s to be expected in a game like this.</p> <p><strong>Miscellaneous Bullets</strong><br /> * It seemed like neither defense could stop the opposing offense. In fact, it seemed like neither team faced many difficult third downs. So I decided to review the play-by-play and see how the two teams did on first and second down. My numbers aren&#39;t quite adding up, but they are close to being accurate. In the all-important second down conversion stat, Michigan dominated Indiana going 14 for 26, to Indiana&#39;s 10 for 24. On first down, Michigan was 14 for 41 to Indiana&#39;s 10 for 35. That&#39;s right, we had 35 first downs, and gained 28 of them, 80%, on either first or second down. Indiana&#39;s defense is horrible.</p> <p><strong>100%PINK</strong><br /> * I mentioned in the Game 1 diary that my dad passed away from cancer this summer. Michigan broke out the pink accoutrements to raise awareness. I think most people are &quot;aware&quot; of the major cancers - breast, lung, prostrate, etc. In fact, my dad was a five year survivor of prostate cancer. Spending our limited resources attacking the most common cancers makes sense (Spock would agree, the needs of the many, etc.) but let&#39;s also spend some time raising awareness of the less common cancers, because these are often the ones that aren&#39;t diagnosed in a timely manner. A year and a half ago, dad was diagnosed with urothelial cancer. The problem was mis-diagnosed for a good 3-4 months, during which time the cancer may have doubled in size and changed from something that could be dealt with, to something that was fatal. I&#39;m all for raising awareness, but I also think we need to be doing more in terms of improving diagnosis and treatment options.</p> <p>My dad took my brother to the Anthony Carter/IU game. I suppose I should be jealous of my brother for that, but I was the one who got to hear Bob Ufer call the play. So who was the lucky one? HONK! HONK! HONK! HONK! HONK!!!</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <a name="more"></a> boxscore Devin Gardner football Graham Glasgow Indiana Jeremy Gallon Kyle Bosch Raymon Taylor Taylor Lewan Sun, 20 Oct 2013 03:57:38 +0000 ST3 82307 at First DOWN <p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="" style="width: 275px; height: 183px;" /></p> <p class="rtecenter"><i>Is Borges TRYING to do this on first down?</i></p> <p>Much has been made of Al Borges using first down much like the CFL uses fourth down. I wanted to know exactly what has been happening to us on first down this year. &nbsp;Is the play-calling really that bad, or is AB hamstrung by a turnover-prone QB? &nbsp;How stubborn is the play-calling? &nbsp;Are we a bad passing team on first down?</p> <p>What&#39;s open for debate is whether or not Hoke is mandating the first down MANBALL attempt. &nbsp;What&#39;s not open for debate are the results:</p> <p><em>Chart? &nbsp;Chart of 1st down rushing attempts. &nbsp;NYP = Negative Yardage Plays</em></p> <style type="text/css"> table.tableizer-table { border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif font-size: 12px; } .tableizer-table td { padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; } .tableizer-table th { background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold; }</style><table class="tableizer-table"> <tbody> <tr class="tableizer-firstrow"> <th> RUN</th> <th> YDS</th> <th> YPP</th> <th> NYP</th> <th> NYP%</th> <th> RUN%</th> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td> 132</td> <td> 462</td> <td> 3.5</td> <td> 25</td> <td> 18.9%</td> <td> 70.6%</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>This is the story you know. &nbsp;For me, it was even worse than I thought in one respect (NYP%) and better than I expected in another (YPP). &nbsp;The 3.5 YPP feels high, but that&#39;s because nearly one in five times we go backwards. &nbsp;And, 11 more times, we gained nothing. &nbsp;That means that 27.3% of the time--more than one in four plays--we end-up in 2nd and 10 or longer. &nbsp;Those are drive killers.</p> <p>But that average still feels high...what&#39;s brining it up? &nbsp;Glad you asked. &nbsp;Gardner has only had one NYP on his first down attempts, and averages 4.9 YPA when he runs it. &nbsp;When you add in the WR runs with DG, the YPA jumps to 6.6. &nbsp;What this means is that if you remove the 21 attempts by non-RBs on first down, you end-up with 2.9 YPA. &nbsp;That&#39;s more like it.</p> <p>So, 59% of the time, we&#39;re running our RBs on first down, and averaging 2.9 YPA. &nbsp;Even that sounds good (isn&#39;t that three yards and a cloud of dust?) until you remember that only TWO of the NYPs happened between the QB/WR carries, and there was one bad snap. &nbsp;That leaves 22 NYP out of 110 RB attempts--an even 20%--that we go backwards with our RB on 1st. &nbsp;</p> <p>Want me to make it hurt more? &nbsp;Okay. &nbsp;Add-in the zero yardage plays, and it&#39;s 33/110 (30%) NYP. &nbsp;Yep. &nbsp;We have a 30% chance of ending-up in 2nd and 10 or longer when we run with a RB.</p> <p>Should we be passing more? &nbsp;I really wasn&#39;t sure about this. &nbsp;Can we trust DG to be throwing on first down? &nbsp;There&#39;s only one way to know...</p> <p>Chart!</p> <style type="text/css"> table.tableizer-table { border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif font-size: 12px; } .tableizer-table td { padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; } .tableizer-table th { background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold; }</style><table class="tableizer-table"> <tbody> <tr class="tableizer-firstrow"> <th> PASS</th> <th> INC</th> <th> YDS</th> <th> YPP</th> <th> INT</th> <th> INT%</th> <th> NYP</th> <th> NYP%</th> <th> PASS%</th> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td> 55</td> <td> 14</td> <td> 692</td> <td> 12.6</td> <td> 2</td> <td> 3.6%</td> <td> 3</td> <td> 5.5%</td> <td> 29.4%</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>THIS! &nbsp;This is much, MUCH better than I thought it would be. &nbsp;In fact, it&#39;s TOO good (I&#39;ll explain in a moment). &nbsp;We only pass 29.4% of the time on first down, but man, does it work. &nbsp;We average a ridiculous 12.6 yards per play (this includes scrambles), have only 14 incomplete passes (25%), and DG is MUCH less turnover-prone, throwing INTs at a rate of only 3.6%. &nbsp;There have been only three negative plays (sacks or TFLs).</p> <p>It is obvious that our tendencies set us up for big passing plays on first down. &nbsp;But is it worth it? &nbsp;To end-up in 2nd and 10 or worse 30% of the time we try MANBALL? &nbsp;We end-up at 2nd and 10 (or worse) 34% of the time when we throw (including INTs), so the risk is almost exactly the same. &nbsp;The reward is more than four times better. &nbsp;That&#39;s a good investment.</p> <p>The reason I believe these numbers are too good is that they indicate that our run tendencies on first down are so strong that there is wide open space to be had in the passing game. &nbsp;I&#39;m not telling you anything you didn&#39;t already know, but now it&#39;s quantified into a ridiculous 12.6 YPP.</p> <p>This is a problem because it means that defenses are staying in stacked fronts against us and betting we simply won&#39;t even try to pass. &nbsp;We aren&#39;t good at run-blocking, but we&#39;re REALLY bad at run-blocking against stacked fronts. &nbsp;Against both Akron and UConn, the running game took off when the defenses backed out of their stacked fronts when they had the lead late.</p> <p>And what about those two INTs? &nbsp;Both were on go routes way down the field. &nbsp;AB dials-up bombs on first down, which is fine, but I think it&#39;s clear there&#39;s room for some short-to-intermediate stuff.</p> <p>Furthermore, if you want your QB to stop turning the ball over, stop putting him in 2nd and 3rd and long--ALL of DG&#39;s INTs have come with distances of 5 yards or more to go.</p> <p>TL;DR - While passing more on first down is likely decrease its effectiveness, it is still FAR better than running with our RBs, and it should open-up some space to be better at that.</p> <a name="more"></a> al borges hates UFRs Devin Funchess Devin Gardner football Jeremy Gallon Sat, 19 Oct 2013 00:22:31 +0000 Ron Utah 82282 at U-M Football Game Five Rhymin' Time - MGoBlog Sonnet 105 <div> While the federal government was in shutdown mode.</div> <div> <em><strong>Wolverine</strong></em> fans were worried their heads might explode</div> <div> &lsquo;Cause a Homecoming victory was looking in doubt.</div> <div> But that close game at halftime turned into a rout.</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> Though not always &ldquo;accurate*,&rdquo; <em><strong>Gardner</strong></em> got yards in bunches</div> <div> With seven grabs for one fifty on his throws to <em><strong>D. Funchess</strong></em>.</div> <div> There was offensive line shifting and some other nice tricks</div> <div> Like <em><strong>Jibreel Black</strong></em>&rsquo;s forced fumble and the <em><strong>Countess</strong></em>&nbsp;&quot;pick six.&quot;</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> There were key catches by <em><strong>Jeremy</strong></em>, <em><strong>Jehu</strong></em> and <em><strong>Drew</strong></em></div> <div> And TDs for <em><strong>Fitz Toussaint</strong></em> and <em><strong>Derrick Green</strong></em>, too,</div> <div> And <em><strong>Wile</strong></em>&rsquo;s fifty-five-yard punt downed inside the one,</div> <div> But concerns that, for <em><strong>Pipkins,</strong></em> his season is done.</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> So, <em><strong>Jon Falk</strong></em>, you can still keep that Little Brown Jug!</div> <div> And Drew Sharp ranks <em><strong>Michigan</strong></em>!** &nbsp;(Must be his new drug.)</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> * Listening to the Mike Patrick/Ed Cunningham RegurgiThon commentary about <em><strong>Devin Gardner</strong></em>&rsquo;s lack of passing accuracy almost made me want to throw up.&nbsp;</div> <div> &nbsp;</div> <div> ** &nbsp;Drew Sharp ranks <em><strong>Michigan</strong></em> 24th in the country this week.</div> <a name="more"></a> MGoBoard Blake Countess Derrick Green Devin Funchess Devin Gardner Drew Dileo Fitzgerald Toussaint football Jehu Chesson Jeremy Gallon Jibreel Black Jon Falk Matt Wile Michigan Football Team 134 Ondre Pipkins Mon, 07 Oct 2013 12:12:01 +0000 chatster 81956 at Go vote for Gallon as Capital One impact player <p>Bottom right of the page.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="" title=""></a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>He is currently in 2nd place but only 1,300 votes in.</p> <a name="more"></a> MGoBoard football Jeremy Gallon Sun, 08 Sep 2013 05:44:37 +0000 DeathToTheBCS 81202 at