Michigan to integrate RPO concepts

Submitted by DJMich23 on
According to Sam Webb's Spring Preview, Jim Harbaugh was quoted as saying the following about the RPO in regards to Michigan “We're with it and I look to have some of that in our offense”. Link is ($) but I thought it might be note worthy. Nick Baumgardner mentions on Twitter that Michigan used RPO concepts last year continuing with “we shall see if they can develop it”. https://247sports.com/college/michigan/Article/Jim-Harbaugh-says-run-pa… https://twitter.com/nickbaumgardner/status/976254632618991616?s=19

DrMantisToboggan

March 20th, 2018 at 9:21 PM ^

We've.

already.

had.

RPOs.

 

UGH.

 

Three months ago I wouldn't have guessed that the misguided RPO obsession would be the worst part of the offseason, but here we are.

JFW

March 21st, 2018 at 9:58 AM ^

"We need a Modern offense like the read option!!"

"Wait till Barwis get's his new system in!"

" We need more spread like Oregon!"

"MANBALL" (With derision). 

Second guessing schemes and decisions based on 3.5 hours of viewing a week and their HS football experience. It's what we do. ;-)

 

WAR_DAWG'S_RETURN

March 21st, 2018 at 7:26 AM ^

Is that the politically correct way of saying your tired of comments from people who don't know jack shit about football.LOL. You are one of the guys I actually look forward to hear from and actually agree with most of the time. I personally don't know all the intricacies of an offense, but most people understand any offense is going to look dysfuntional with a QB who is not very talented.

To me Michigan moves to RPO just by having Patterson in the backfield whether by design or not. He will move the chains on certain downs but I don't  think he will be asked to run the ball very often. That is what I think we will see Barrett doing.

DrMantisToboggan

March 21st, 2018 at 12:02 PM ^

Well we were quite good running the ball last year. However, with RPOs, when the read is a hand off, many people who don't know what they were looking for think that the play call was just a run, not an RPO. We ran an RPO early in the MSU game that was a handoff that Evans took for like 6 yards, but the play was an RPO, the read was just "hand off".

Occam's Razor

March 20th, 2018 at 9:22 PM ^

RPO or no RPO, I just want the offense to have a semblance of rhythm. Watching other teams' offenses, it just seemed like Michigan was completely out of whack even when things were working we'd just go away from it or run random play action passes like we're in Madden. 

WAR_DAWG'S_RETURN

March 21st, 2018 at 8:32 AM ^

Michigan runs a pro style offense and for that to function properly and look like they are in rhythm the QB has to throw on schedule. Michigan's QB's were flat out brutal at that, hence stare directly at a blitzing LB and take a sack. The ball should have allready been gone. You are throwing to a spot on time. Play action passes would have worked great and got huge chunks of yardage, but most of the time the ball was inacurate or thrown to the wrong receiver because of an improper read.

How many times did we see a receiver running wide open and either the ball was delivered out of bounds, over there heads or more often or not into coverage.

We can talk about RPO or whatever concepts anyone wants to but until you have a decent QB it will always make the coaching staff look bad. Just look at the two halves of the national championship. In the simplest terms possible Michigan's offense was really bad because the QB play flat out sucked. The bowl game the whole offense sucked along with special teams and the never reliable safety's. That game was flat out on the players. Fumbles in the red zone, ball clanking off of DPJ's helmet fielding a fair catch. ETC.

That is the stuff I hope I never see again. To me Michigan's offense will be just fine with the right player behind center running the offense. No matter what the concepts are. I watched high school games were the QB was completing passes easily that JOK could not.

My guess is while watching the spring game one QB will stand out and Michigan's offense will be much better this year and it will have nothing to do with RPO.

JFW

March 21st, 2018 at 9:51 AM ^

In many cases the execution sucked. I don't care what offense was running, or what would be whiz on the board thinks they could have done differently on the field that would have somehow elevated our offense to respectability. When the execution craters, you aren't going to do much. 

Is there cause for concern? Yes.

The coaches are the ones that put in the fundamentals; and if the players are screwing that up, then you have to be worried to some extent. And the coaches admitted they made mistakes. 

Were there mitigating circumstances? Yes.

A new, young line couldn't catch it's rythm (which is a concern, see above), and we went through 3 QB's. Our best WR was a Frosh who got injured, and our 2nd best was a freshmen. 

By the end of the season I think that they were just keeping the offense together with philosophical chewing gum and bailing wire. 

Is their reason for hope?

I think so. The coaching staff has been revamped, we have a WR coach now. Freshmen will take a leap. We have a new O line coach who is highly touted and replaces a guy who for whatever reason wasn't getting it done. 

Should we temper expectations somewhat? 

Yes. This is a brutal season and we don't have a shoe in for starting QB, or a clearly defined system. 

 

Overall, I choose to be cautiously optimistic. This isn't a Shit show. 

DrMantisToboggan

March 20th, 2018 at 9:48 PM ^

I know you're joking, but you might be more likely to lose a stunt on an RPO, especially if the run call is gap scheme, since the OL is blocking for the run call. If the front seven comes downhill, your read is probably going to be to pull the ball and throw it, but you're also probably going to get hit. It's rare to have your read on an RPO be pass and not have at least one defender get through to the QB.