The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/465847
advancing to the NFC Championship Game all three years and the Super Bowl in 2013. It came about through old school grit blended with plenty of offensive creativity, according to Branch. "He's called his three coaching heroes Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes and his dad, and they're all very much run-oriented," Branch observed. "His offensive coordina- tor with the 49ers was Greg Roman, who was a former defensive lineman in college, but his background had b e e n c o a c h i n g t i g h t e n d s a n d offensive line — again, a real run emphasis." That said, the 49ers' approach d i d n ' t i n v o l v e three yards and a cloud of anything. The blocking involved plenty of creativity, featur- ing pulling guards enhancing a mo- tion/misdirection attack, and highly talented tight ends such as Vernon Davis and Delanie Walker. "They often go to two tight ends, which oftentimes screams, 'We're go- ing to run,' but with those guys, they didn't really tip their hand," Branch observed. "They could run or pass out of the two-tight end sets, to get mismatches with a guy like Delanie Walker on a linebacker. "I remember talking with Tim Ryan, a former NFL defensive line- man who now works as an analyst for the 49ers on the radio. He said the 49ers had by far the greatest vol- ume when it comes to the run game. He was saying most teams have five or six basic runs that they used pre- dominantly, and with the Niners it got into the 20s. He was always very impressed with how they schemed that up. "What they like to do is use the passing game off play action. It's es- tablish the ground game, and use play action to get over the lineback- ers, depending on who would bite." The 49ers led the NFL in rushing attempts dur- ing Harbaugh's first three sea- sons there. Still, Harbaugh will a d j u s t t o h i s personnel and h a s n ' t s h i e d away from dual- threat quarter- backs. "It was not as if they were back to leather-helmet ball," Branch said. "He knows the passing game. He is a former quarterback, and there was a real interest whether [Colin] Kaeper- nick was going to take off [running] even more than he did." Of course, in the NFL, one has to pick one's spots regarding quarter- back scrambles. "They took advantage of Kaepe- rnick's legs, but it was really game specific," Branch noted. "A lot of people think when he first arrived in 2012, they ran him all the time and progressively dialed that back. If you look at the stats, his rushing attempts per game, it's not that way. "If you look at all of Kaepernick's Former Stanford offensive lineman Chris Marinelli on Harbaugh "I think he looks forward to challenging the Big Ten, just like he challenged the Pac‑10."