The Victors

The run game has been a crushing disappointment so far. It's been significantly worse than last year, an outcome nobody expected -- or had any reason to expect, given the returning talent on the line and Marshall/Hiter.

Every aspect of the run game has disappointed: our blocking schemes are often a mess, the targeting is all screwed up, the backs are not making extra yardage. UFR sees some green shoots here, and there's certainly some reason to think we can get a lot better. Run games are complicated and often take time to gel. Plenty of historic UM running attacks that ended the season in dominant fashion were a mess in September, and reversion to talent expectations is a reasonable prior to hold.

We're very fortunate to be undefeated given how bad the running attack has performed. Hopefully, the defense has bought us time to get it into shape without a loss, but we're getting into the part of the schedule where it's going to be hard to keep winning without a better performance from this unit.