Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Hornibrook is going to have to win this game for UW. M will stack the box for Taylor and force this.

Michigan might stack the box, but that's not their M.O. Usually they win up front with 4-6. Excepting goal line (or and-1) situations, Don Brown isn't an 8-man box kind of guy. His main priority is a free athlete to cover every eligible receiver in man (...) until a team proves perfectly one-dimensional (running or otherwise). And then, changing mid game, he sells out against their one thing and they're done dead.

not sure I agree. I think his defenses are great. He blitzes a lot but that doesn't really bother me.

It's his desire to play man to man with his safeties and LB's like every f'ing snap that bothers me. Sure, you should be able to trust your CB's to hold up in man a lot. But not your safeties and especially not your LB's.

Haskins came in when OSU was down last year and he went 6 for 7 and took them in for the go ahead and never looked back precisely because Brown kept playing man. Made it easy pitch and catch for a frosh QB. Instead of disguising coverage and using zone blitzes to confuse a rookie QB they just let him play pitch and catch vs man to man across the board.

Don Brown is great but he leaves his defense exposed to really big plays because he relies on the safeties and LB's to hold up in man to man so much and 99% of them can't do it. That really reared it's ugly head against Penn State last year. The safeties were abused that game and so was Mike McCray. You need an athlete like Jaylon Smith (pre-injury) at LB AND Dax Hill at safety to play as much man to man across the board as Brown likes. And those sort of guys don't grow on trees. There isn't an athlete like Smith at LB in all of college football right now and not sure there's been a safety recruit like Dax Hill in many years. Hill is true 6'1.5+, 190 lbs with legitimate 4.3 speed and a 40" vertical. He's a safety that could play CB because he covers so well.

I came back to add to what I wrote before because actually you can make Brown put 8 or 9 crashing guys in the box. But only if you elect to have that few TEs+WRs+eligible receivers out of the backfield. But unless you have a dominant QB and Calvin Johnson, playing out of alignments like that all game will be severely self-limiting versus Brown. He's very good at forcing offenses to become one-dimensional. Offenses shouldn't do that to themselves for free.
For as long as they can afford to, offenses should fight Brown's balance with balance.

I'm sure this is why no opponent is shaping their game plan to exclusively or primarily go after those guys. Because even if it's "the weakness" of the D, it's still filled with B or B+ players (Metellus, Kinney, and Gil/Ross) who either make plays or permit medium gains. It's very hard to consistently move the ball playing like that.

not sure I agree with those guys ratings. I see Mettelus and Kinnel as more of C+ players. Gil and Ross are TBD because neither has played very much. I like what I've seen out of Ross more than Gil. Although I have to say that I do like that Gil is bigger than Devin Bush and probably just as fast if not faster. Not sure he's got everything else down pat yet.
bolded part- that is why Brown's defenses flourishes in college. IN college it's very hard to consistently move the ball like that because most college teams you face just don't have the combination of QB, WR/TE's, RB, and OL. Need the OL that can block Brown's front, AND a QB that is accurate with his passes deep, AND WR's/TE's that can beat man coverage, AND RB's that can run routes and catch the ball. Very few college teams have even 2 of those things. Almost none have them all.

It will be very interesting to see what Paul Chryst can come up with to combat what Don Browne will throw at him. I'm thinking if Taylor and Co. can get to 180 or so, UW has a chance in this thing. If not, it will probably be a long night for Big Red.

180 is not unreasonable. This isn't Nebraska, NU or UMd (well, UMd has an explosive run offense but still, this is a whole 'nother level). Michigan can't hold everyone under its thumb, especially teams like this. Chryst already has major counterpunches in store and players to pull them off. If Michigan eventually wins, it won't be obvious until late. This will be a game for a long time.

I think the more controversial conversation would be about how many yards Hornibrook would have if Wisconsin gets 180 on the ground. My thought has been that - one way or the other - UW would earn 240 to 300 total yards.

180 is not unreasonable. This isn't Nebraska, NU or UMd (well, UMd has an explosive run offense but still, this is a whole 'nother level). Michigan can't hold everyone under its thumb. If Michigan eventually wins, it won't be obvious until late. This will be a game for a long time.

I think the more controversial conversation would be about how many yards Hornibrook would have if Wisconsin gets 180 on the ground. My thought has been that - one way or the other - UW would earn 240 to 300 total yards.

Horni has to get to 180 too.