Al Borges, a former offensive coordinator for Michigan football, discusses the offense’s performance during Michigan’s National Championship victory over the Washington Huskies with Sam Webb of The Michigan Insider.
Every week TMI’s Sam Webb and former Michigan offensive coordinator Al Borges come together for the Michigan offensive breakdown, a review of the prior week’s contest with a deep dive into game strategy and analysis. Borges uses his decades of coordinating experience to explain key takeaways for the Wolverines moving forward. To view the most recent installment in its entirety, press play on the video embedded below.
In the transcribed excerpt below Borges gives us his thoughts on a 4th down play.
Sam Webb: Yes, I get what you’re saying regarding the national championship game being [the Bama game]. However, I thought they were superior to both. Bama, Michigan committed mistakes, which is why the game was tight. Not that we’ll be televising it, but consider the two mishandled punts they made in that contest, the field goal that was missed, and the extra point that was missed. I mean, I wonder if Bama is run off the field in the game if those things don’t happen. The Huskies were very nearly run off the field in this Washington contest. Because of the fourth down call, I believe it was a little misleading. Al, I’m curious about your thoughts on it from the standpoint of a play call. due to the fact that on third and seven, they ran a split zone. I was thinking, “All right, this must be… he’s running it here and he feels like if he gets close enough he’s going to go for it on fourth down,” after reviewing the split zone on third and seven. When they gained four yards, I told them to punt. All well, then. And since it’s not close enough, they both stated the same thing. Subsequently, they modified it. They said it’s close enough after having a change of heart. And that ultimately kept Washington in the match, so I was curious about your thoughts on that particular scenario.
Al Borges: What they did is fine in my opinion. They ran the double stick during the fourth down. This indicates that two players will run quick outs and the two inside players will go stick routes measuring around six yards. I take it that’s just enough yardage for the first down? And JJ responded to it really quickly once the Washington safety noticed the quick out. And he simply protected it by jumping the hell out of it. The play was excellent. Really, congrats! I don’t think twice about going for it. They did a decent job of defending the play, so I don’t really question the call.
Al Borges: You won’t be able to get every fourth down if you go for it. Additionally, they will constantly bring up the ones you don’t. Alright? They won’t discuss the ones you do nearly as much. Overall, I don’t feel like I made a mistake by buying that, and I’m working to close the split zone. It’s likely that they intended to get it closer than it was, but Sam has seen them do that before. That is not at all rare. Split zones on third downs are no longer news. The past few years have shown us that. Correct? Therefore, I don’t think the strategy was all that poor. Simply put, things didn’t work out the way they had hoped.
