Michigan Football, Team 137, 2016 Season.

[Hannibal]

" The explosion of spread offenses and teams that can score 50 points per game has made game managers obsolete."

Yeah look how Alabama has suffered over the last decade with "game managers"

We're not Alabama.

[AlabamAlum]

Coker was a decent QB. He was picked up by the Cardinals as an UDFA and placed on IR at the end of August. I hope he heals. I would like to see him make it. He's a good kid.

At Bama last year he completed over 66% of his passes for over 3000 yards with a decent TD-to-INT ratio (21- 8) and a 147 QBR.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Couple of fallacies out there need some fine tuning ......

(1) The Nick has incorporated some spready/option football into his offense if I understand Jalen Hurts role there and he looks like the starter for now. The Alabama offense has evolved.

(2) Michigan has the speed and talent on D to potentially limit the effectiveness of ufm's spread to run offense. By extension M doesn't necessarily need to score 40 to win which assumes osu will score 39. I don't think they will, but that's just my opinion and a very early one.

Like many offensive innovations over the years, defenses have learned or will learn to adapt and get better at defending spready offenses run by dual threat QBs. In the option run game of the spread, it takes speed at the LB position to do that and great DL play to defeat and feed the ball carriers into the LB level to either limit big gains or, if the run blitz is run effectively, to stuff the ball carrier. The edge must also be scrupulously protected ...... as for that, M has shown some real progress since 2015.

Because defenders are so strong and so fast in the NFL, option football that characterizes most spread offenses is severely limited in that arena and for a lot of good reasons - namely the safety of your QBs and RBs. I see that happening at the college level too with some teams that can recruit talent and develop it to limit what has become the trendy offense for the also rans as well as a nice change-up for the elites.

M's D has evolved with Brown. I still think the jury is out on how good it is against the spread. It was not great, Bob, v Colorado but that was the third game of the season. I want to see M v IU - even though there seems to be skill limitations at the QB position there, it is still and fundamentally a spread to run offense. It will be a good tune-up for the D right before The Game and a good indicator of whether or not M's D has advanced far enough to limit ufm's offense and, in particular, jtb's run and pass game.

[Pasadena Blue]

Hmmm. Pasadena Blue's opinion versus that of Jim Harbaugh. I assume you've seen a lot of O'Korn, PB?

ha ha.

Maybe my point is being lost ... I don't think Speight is the type of QB needed to get it done against O-state. I accept that O'Korn may have issues that led to his being passed up at Houston which JH could not fix, and he may not very well have what it takes to beat O-state either. My point is more that O'Korn is the TYPE (i.e. mobile, strong arm with a non-shot put like arm motion, quicker release) of QB who could potentially get it done.

[WM Wolverine]

By that same token, O'Korn is more likely to make the critical mistake/turnover that's made the M offense so efficient this season. Those critical mistakes in a close, low scoring game could be the different in The Game or vs Wisconsin too.

[WM Wolverine]

I agree with your point to an extent: M needs a better QB than Speight to beat OSU/Bama caliber; barring a very dominant defensive (& special teams) performance. I think we differ more on the quality of QB play we'd be getting if O'Korn were playing.

[Pasadena Blue]

I think we differ more on the quality of QB play we'd be getting if O'Korn were playing.

No, I don't know that I disagree with you. I do trust that JH probably knows what a QB's capability is. I more talking about QB type than the specific individual.

[Hannibal]

I don't think that anyone is calling for O'Korn as much as realistically assessing our chances against Top 10 competition with Speight. I'm hoping more-or-less that somebody beats him for the job in camp next year.

[froot loops]

We're not Alabama.

Your defense is this year.

[Hannibal]

Against terrible offenses, yes. But we were that last year too. Let's see us shut down a good running spread and then we'll talk.

[Pasadena Blue]

I agree with that. No judgements about this defense until our last 2 regular season games.

[Rocky Bleier]

I think we'll def need to score more than they will.

That's how it usually works...

[Rocky Bleier]

O'Korn passes the so-called eye test for me in comparison to Speight. Haven't seen enough of him this year to do much of a real comparison. His freshmen film at Houston looked really good - I think he was the top rookie in the conference or some such thing. Keep in mind that he lost his job to a good QB named Greg Ward at Houston.

[froot loops]

You guys are undefeated looking at a great chance to get to the Playoffs. If you get there Speight is your QB the next two seasons.

[WM Wolverine]

Not many offenses on our schedule that can run the ball and pass efficiently. JTB does both by himself along and has OL/RB/WR that makes him even better.