APB out on 2008 Michigan Offense

Oh, 3-9 Michigan offense of yesteryear, where art thou?

After just 2 games Michigan fans can see some significant differences in the performance of the Wolverines offense, aside from the obvious 2-0 start.

While it’s not 100% accurate (or necessarily fair) to compare Michigan’s first two 2008 opponents Utah (13-0) and Miami (OH) (2-10) with the first two 2009 opponents Western Michigan (0-2) and Notre Dame (1-1) and then make definitive conclusions from them, it is nevertheless very interesting to compare these identical slices of time and observe how Michigan’s offensive team firepower appears to have changed:

After 2 Games: 2009 Michigan Offense vs. 2008 Michigan Offense

Year	Rush. Yards	Pass. Yards	Total Yards	Pts	Plays	YPP	PPP	INT	Fum.	Total TO's	TOP
2008	214	270	484	39	116	4.17	0.34	1	2	3	48:53:00
2009	482	387	869	69	149	5.83	0.46	1	0	1	62:55:00
Variance	268	117	385	30	33	1.66	0.13	0	-2	-2	14:02:00

Key Observations after 2 Games:

1. RUSHING YARDS: Massive up tick in Michigan rushing yardage.
2. PASSING YARDS: Significant increase in Michigan passing yardage.
3. TOTAL YARDS: Whoa. Basically doubling of total yardage
4. POINTS SCORED: Whoa II. Almost doubling of points scored (30 more points than 2008).
   
5. PLAYS: Michigan is running more plays. More attempts, more opportunities.
6. YPP: Significant improvement in Yards Per Play (almost +2 yards more than same juncture in 2008)
7. PPP: Significant improvement in Points Per Play from 0.34 to 0.46, i.e. Michigan’s offense has become more effective turning attempts into points.
8. TO's: Dramatic decline in turnovers (Gee, ya think that might help!?)
   
9. TOP: Significant increase in time of possession by just over 14 minutes.

And that's just on the offensive side of the ball. We’ll revisit these offensive stats each week and see how things are progressing. The above suggests that Michigan offensive coaches Calvin Magee (OC), Rod Smith (QBs), Greg Frey (OL) and Fred Jackson (RBs) as well as head coach Rich Rodriguez are starting to turn the corner on the implementation of the read spread option offense at Michigan.