Moving to the other side of the ball today to discuss the world of possibilities that lie ahead of this offense in year three of the Rodriguez spread experiment.
Most of the blame for UM's poor performance in '08 fell on the shoulders of the two-headed monster at quarterback. Nick Sheridan and Steven Threet certainly played awful under center that year, but the offensive line was so bad that a converted DT switched to offensive guard and won the starting position. Youth won the day, and the worst offensive performance any UM fan can remember was well on its way to the record books.
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| And so went the 2009 season. |
2009 was a year of hope. The quarterback situation finally looked to have steadied under the hand of true-freshman Tate Forcier (that last statement is a testament to just how bad the Threet/Sheridan combo was) and the offense was poised to make the same jump that Rodriguez coached offenses had done in the past. Things looked promising until center David Molk went down with a broken foot three games in, only to return for a single (7 yard run) play against Penn State before tearing his ACL. The line struggled for a second year and subsequently so did the offense.
There are no more excuses. The youth of '08 is gone, and the line is working with a legitimate two-deep unlike in '09 when the Molk injury caused massive restructuring. The sky is the limit for this group, but where is the floor?
