Michigan 2010

Michigan (2009 Statistics)

• Head Coach Rich Rodriguez is known for his development and use of the Spread Option Offense.  This type of system relies on very specific personnel, including a Quarterback who is equally skilled at playing Running Back.  Because Rodriguez is a coach who doesn’t develop his plan based on the talent and players around him, but rather sticks to his scheme regardless of the personnel, this approach will take him longer to find success because he needs specific players for it to work.  In his third year at Michigan he has had the opportunity to recruit those players and implement the right personnel into his offense so if Michigan is going to find success under Rodriguez it should happen now. 
• Watching games throughout the season, there will be many mentions of “former Wolverines” as there was a mass exodus when Rich Rodriguez arrived in 2008.  These players include Justin Boren (OG at Ohio State) and Ryan Mallet (QB at Arkansas) amongst others.
• Entering 2009 the strength of the offense is the Offensive Line—all five are back this year and this should make a significant difference in terms of running the ball and allowing the Quarterback time to pass…whoever that Quarterback may be.
• Beware of early hype for this team.  It happened in 2009 when they began the season 4-0, scoring 30-plus points in each of those games.  But the fact is that not one of those teams had a winning record last year.  After their 4-0 start, the Wolverines won exactly one more game over the remaining eight games in their schedule (and that was against FCS School, formerly I-AA, Delaware State).
• A key concern from last year that may not be readily obvious is time of possession.  This team had the ball less than 115 other schools last year.  That’s probably why they allowed so many points and yards.  And despite so many minutes played on defense, they weren’t even able to use those extra minutes to create turnovers.  They were one of the worst teams in the nation in that category as well. 
• Under Rich Rodriguez Michigan’s defense has declined and was even worse in 2009 than in his first year.  I looked back at 25 years of Michigan football history and couldn’t find a worse season statistically on defense than last year.  Their 393 yards of total offense allowed could possibly be the most yards ever given up in the history of Michigan football (the statistics they list don’t include opponent yardage prior to 1984).   
• What has Rich Rodriguez done for Michigan since implementing his version of the SPREAD OPTION? Well, he’s increased the number of rushing yards per game.  It’s not the highest ranked rushing offense of the last decade, but technically 2009 recorded the most rushing yards (186 yds/gm) by a Michigan team since 2000 (215 yds/gm).