The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/230001
all to the man throwing the switches from the press box. Offensive coordinator Al Borges knows Michigan fans grew unsettled at times. He can relate. Some 113,511 sets of jaws dropped in Michigan Stadium when the Wolverines hung 603 yards and 41 points on Ohio State, coming within a single play of taking down the Buckeyes. In 240 minutes of November football leading up to that game (excluding overtime at Northwestern), the Wolverines had managed a combined 803 yards and 49 points. "You saw times where there was a great offense in there," Borges noted. "Somewhere, it's in there. It's going to come out, and I'm not sure when." When it emerged, it looked unstoppable. Those times included: • The 603-yard explosion against the Buckeyes, including 451 passing yards and four TD tosses by redshirt junior quarterback Devin Gardner, who also rushed for a touchdown. The Wolverines' offensive output was an all-time rivalry-high and the second-most yards ever given up by OSU (Illinois, 659, 1980). • A Michigan-record 751 yards of offense and 63 points on the board against Indiana, with Gardner passing for 503 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 81 and three more TDs. Fifth-year senior tailback Fitzgerald Toussaint put another 151 yards and four rushing touchdowns into the mix. • Some 460 yards and 41 points in an early-season rumble past Notre Dame, with Gardner accounting for 294 yards and four touchdowns pass- ing and another 82 yards and one TD on the ground. On the flip side, the games leading up to the showdown with the Buckeyes featured the sort of drop-off resulting in bruised egos and a battered quarterback. In those contests the Michigan ball movers managed: • Only 168 total yards and six points at Michigan State, including an unnerving negative-48 yards on the ground, a school-record low. • A second straight negative-rushing yardage week against Nebraska, the minus-21 dragging the total offensive output back to 175 yards and 13 points. • Just nine points in regulation versus Northwestern, although the Wolverines eventually got to 27 and won. • A mere 158 total yards in the 2421 loss at Iowa, with no points and 45 yards of total offense over the final 30 minutes. It's enough to make an offensive coordinator tear his hair out. Borges already goes with the Telly Savalas look, but there were moments he surely wanted to tear something. It's obvious Borges expects Michigan's offense — featuring all new starters on the interior offensive line, a quarterback who came into the season with five starts, and other seasoning and depth issues — to grow and get better. He just saw enough of what Michigan wanted to desire a sped-up process. When eyes widened on Nov. 30, including Urban Meyer's, Borges didn't flinch. He knew what the Wolverines were capable of achieving, having seen plenty of flashes.