Coaches Corner: Michigan, Coach Rod and the Tight Ends -- Ten things of interest.

Coaches Corner: Michigan, Coach Rod and the Tight Ends -- Ten things of interest.

Since spring, there has been much chatter going on about Michigan/Coach Rod and the use of the tight ends.

We believe, with a better passing quarterback in T. Forcier and more experience throughout the entire offense, that the returning tight ends will be more comfortable and fully understand Coach Rod's offense.

We have observed the tight ends and see the opportunity for M. Webb and K. Koger to be a nightmare for opposing defensive coordinators, especially if UM can create match-ups of Webb and Koger against linebackers.

Here is a summary of what we witnessed at this year’s spring practices/scrimmages and what Coach Dews described when CoachBt asked him about tight ends.

1) Tight ends were, in our opinion, Michigan 's second and third best athletes/offensive threats this spring. M. Webb and K. Koger are just outstanding athletes.

2) We charted what Michigan was running this spring and the tight end was used in about 50% of plays, either as a tight end, slot receiver, or as the H-back.

3) Michigan ran the I-formation with a tight end about three times as much this spring compared to last year.

4) Coach Smith diagrammed and discussed the use of tight ends in Michigan 's new short passing game called Trojan.

5) When CoachBt talked to Coach Dews (Friday) Coach Dews gave a heads up to expect Michigan to use the Ace-formation this season. Ace is a two tight end formation.

6) Coach Dews smiled at CoachBt when he (CoachBt) asked about Ace and said, with those two great athletes we would be very stupid if we did not use both of them.

7) We know this for a fact, and not an Internet rumor: the Michigan staff met with the Missouri staff in 2008 (like we earlier confirmed) and talked about the use of the tight end in a spread offense. This came from a member of the Missouri staff that CoachBt is friends with.

8) There were a few plays ran this spring that used K. Koger in a backfield/max-back set. And the passing packages UM used were scary. K. Koger, out of the backfield, is a match up nightmare, ala Owen Schmitt at West Virginia.

9) The above formations and sets are just what we saw. We can almost guarantee that Michigan has other sneaky little secret going ons with the tight ends.

10) Tight ends can create coverage mismatches and also force the defensive backs to further concentrate and account for them. This creates an opportunity for the slot receivers or split ends to create big plays.

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Written by CoachBt and ErocWolverine