The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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ichigan offensive coordinator Al Borges' task wasn't enviable last season. Although he inherited a number of weapons, includ- ing quarterback Denard Robinson, Borges needed to move the Wolverines in the direc- tion they'll eventually go, as well as accom- M OFFENSE Q&A modating what Robinson does best to win immediately. The Wolverines wound up scor- ing more points per game (33.3) than they did the year before, while complementing a dra- matic improvement in the Michigan defense. Borges sat down with The Wolverine to talk about last year, and what's ahead. BY JOHN BORTON Coordinator Al Borges Discusses Michigan's Plan Of Attack GAME PLAN Versatile The Wolverine: What was the single big- gest adjustment you had to make with Robin- son last season? Borges: "Adjusting my thinking to better fit his skill set. It was so much the antithesis of what we've done in the past. "As we got into the 2011 season, it became increasingly obvious the spread was more his cup of tea, and in turn, our cup of tea. We leaned more in that direction, without com- pletely abandoning our pro-style play. We put it a little more on the back burner and ran it some, maybe 20 percent of the time. "There was a point in the season it got down to about 10 percent of the time. Toward the end of the season, it went up a little more. Our passing game, which was completely different than what they had done here in the past, was starting to take in our last four or five games of the season. "Number two, from a fundamental per- spective, was teaching him the footwork that went with the West Coast passing game. It's really still a big part of what we do. It is not the nuts and bolts of our offense, like it's been in the past and will be in the future, but it's still very much a part of how we teach." The Wolverine: This team scored 33.3 points per game last year. Do you measure how good an offense is by bottom-line points? Borges: "The bottom line in football is not sional hurry-up, but not much. Right away, when you decide to do that, you're going to take a hit on total yards. The more plays you run, the more chances you have to get more yards. We've done it. It's not anything new. "I ran an up-tempo offense in 1991. It's not new, although it's much more in vogue now. A lot of teams are doing it. Sam Wyche did it years ago with the [Cincinnati] Bengals. "We decided that was not going to be our starting point. We wanted to improve our whole team — special teams, defense, the whole thing. We wanted to play the game at a more even pace. "Number two is, we did not want our quar- terback to be the only featured runner in our offense. We wanted to find another player to take the pressure off the quarterback. "When I first met with Denard, I told him: 'There's very little chance you're going to rush for 1,700 yards.' I told him that from the top. Sometimes, as a coordinator, that makes you look bad. People say, 'How come he is not as productive as he was before?' "That's not our goal. Our goal is to win football games. If it meant less yardage for the quarterback, less yardage for whomever, less total offense, that was fine. I can live with that. I'll take the hits as a coordinator. But we've got to make sure we're aimed in the same direction. 82 s THE WOLVERINE 2012 FOOTBALL PREVIEW In 2011, Borges helped lead the U-M offense to an average of 33.3 points per game, slight - ly up from the mark of 32.8 in 2010. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL "The offensive coordinator's goal is not to score points and get yards. His job is to win games. Whatever it takes to reach that, that's what you do. That gets clouded with some guys. "Our next thing was that we found an- other featured runner. That took awhile. That didn't happen as quickly as we wanted it. We went through spring football and we still were searching. We had some guys show up that we thought might be the guy, then we started playing games, and nothing still was jumping out. "I don't know which game it was, but four or five games in, we decided we were going points. The bottom line in football is wins. If that requires scoring fewer points, then that's what you do, if you're a team player. "Our job as an offensive team is to give ourselves the best opportunity to win football games. That goes beyond just when you have the ball. That has to do with special teams. That has to do with defense. That has to do with the ability to play situational football. "A lot of times, that means putting your ego on the shelf and not chasing big numbers, which I see being done a lot today. When we came here — and this goes with the philoso- phy of the head coach — we were not going to up-tempo. That was going to be equipment for our offense, but not our M.O. "We were going to play a style where the game was played at an even pace, aside from two-minute situations and maybe an occa-