Here is my thoughts on Book. I have been defending Brandon Wimbush (BW) all summer and season long. now, he has not always made me look good for doing that, but overall, i still feel like he gives us the best chance to win. His erratic throwing has been overblown. He has had a lot of drops by receivers, bad routes and poor offensive line play. He basically ran for his life the entire ball state game. And while running around, avoiding sack after sack, you think a receiver could come back to him and help out, nope, often they would stand around and watch or continue on a route that didn't allow for him to throw the ball. I think he was pressured like 20 times against ball state. Now, he has had some bad throws, but he is much improved from last year and made quite a few throws that not every QB could make. The offense did look great against Wake Forest, but if you watched the game, lets be honest, that was basically 7 on 7. Almost every completion was to a wide open receiver, he almost never was pressured, it was a pretty easy day. Book did everything you needed him to do. He gets the ball out much quicker that BW and has a very nice touch on his passes. But i am still very concerned that in a big game under pressure that he will not be able to make those throws. For all that criticism on BW, who is 13-3 as a starter, in those 16 games he has faced i think 9 or 10 top 50 defenses and 4 in the top 15. So he has not had an easy go. The problem was he would still show the same struggles whether it was a top 10 defense or 100 defense.
When IB was pressured against wake forest, i believe it was really only 3 times, he had 1 completion, took 1 sack and had 1 dangerous throw for an incompletion. That is where my concern comes. He only threw it down the field once, everything was drag routes and WR screens and to running backs, etc. Easy completions. Even last year, he faced North Carolina, not impressive and his stats were average. Against LSU, everything was short easy throws against a banged up defense that wasn't sure who the starter would be. And his big game winning TD was a better catch then throw.
I just am nervous when that WR screen is against a DB who can fight through, or a defense end who is athletic enough to make a play. basically, now that Stanford has a complete game film on him, what will they come up with to beat him. BW is much harder to beat.
his running ability is fine, he is above average, but BW is significantly better.
So my big question that i can not answer, really comes down to play calling. The game plan against ball state was complete crap. They literally told BW not to run. He had 7-8 yard runs all day, but stood in the pocket. Against Vandy, it was better, but still forcing the RPO when it wasn't there. Now IB comes in against WF and the play calling is completely different. The drop off passes are there, better run plays, more creativity, etc. So IB executed very well, but it was set up for him to do so. During the summer we kept hearing about how BW and our offensive coordinator spent a lot of time together to really get on the same page and its going to help a ton.. blah blah blah. but in 2 and most of a 3rd game, the game plan for BW was terrible, 1 game for IB and its perfect. So i asked, why did they have to spend so much time together, what is the disconnect between those 2 that they couldn't work through last year, and clearly it carried over into this year. Do they not like each other? Not really sure. Did he just want IB to start?
I was very happy to see our offense be so efficient, but the complete bashing of BW by fans, people on line, commentators, etc made me very frustrated. There is no way that Book beats michigan to start the year, not with the way that team was playing.
So, basically, i would not be surprised if we don't see both against Stanford. i do agree that sometimes the better QB isn't the best option and different players just jell better with the teams, so maybe that is the case. But he is going to have to show me a lot more then he did to convince me he can win against Stanford and others. I think IB starts, if the o line can hold up (which i think it will struggle), and receivers can get some separation, he probably plays the whole game. But if your DB's can lock down on our receivers and get pressure, you have to bring in BW. He has a bigger arm and better feet. I think IB could beat 5 of the remaining teams on our schedule, but it will take both the win the other 3.
Also, everyone is very excited about the return of Dexter Williams for this game (suspended the first 4). I am not. he is the fastest RB we have, but, at least last year, couldn't pass block at all. I think the 3 RB's we have been using have found a nice rotation and he could disrupt that, but we will see.
When IB was pressured against wake forest, i believe it was really only 3 times, he had 1 completion, took 1 sack and had 1 dangerous throw for an incompletion. That is where my concern comes. He only threw it down the field once, everything was drag routes and WR screens and to running backs, etc. Easy completions. Even last year, he faced North Carolina, not impressive and his stats were average. Against LSU, everything was short easy throws against a banged up defense that wasn't sure who the starter would be. And his big game winning TD was a better catch then throw.
I just am nervous when that WR screen is against a DB who can fight through, or a defense end who is athletic enough to make a play. basically, now that Stanford has a complete game film on him, what will they come up with to beat him. BW is much harder to beat.
his running ability is fine, he is above average, but BW is significantly better.
So my big question that i can not answer, really comes down to play calling. The game plan against ball state was complete crap. They literally told BW not to run. He had 7-8 yard runs all day, but stood in the pocket. Against Vandy, it was better, but still forcing the RPO when it wasn't there. Now IB comes in against WF and the play calling is completely different. The drop off passes are there, better run plays, more creativity, etc. So IB executed very well, but it was set up for him to do so. During the summer we kept hearing about how BW and our offensive coordinator spent a lot of time together to really get on the same page and its going to help a ton.. blah blah blah. but in 2 and most of a 3rd game, the game plan for BW was terrible, 1 game for IB and its perfect. So i asked, why did they have to spend so much time together, what is the disconnect between those 2 that they couldn't work through last year, and clearly it carried over into this year. Do they not like each other? Not really sure. Did he just want IB to start?
I was very happy to see our offense be so efficient, but the complete bashing of BW by fans, people on line, commentators, etc made me very frustrated. There is no way that Book beats michigan to start the year, not with the way that team was playing.
So, basically, i would not be surprised if we don't see both against Stanford. i do agree that sometimes the better QB isn't the best option and different players just jell better with the teams, so maybe that is the case. But he is going to have to show me a lot more then he did to convince me he can win against Stanford and others. I think IB starts, if the o line can hold up (which i think it will struggle), and receivers can get some separation, he probably plays the whole game. But if your DB's can lock down on our receivers and get pressure, you have to bring in BW. He has a bigger arm and better feet. I think IB could beat 5 of the remaining teams on our schedule, but it will take both the win the other 3.
Also, everyone is very excited about the return of Dexter Williams for this game (suspended the first 4). I am not. he is the fastest RB we have, but, at least last year, couldn't pass block at all. I think the 3 RB's we have been using have found a nice rotation and he could disrupt that, but we will see.