College Football

Orange Bowl: Jimbo Fisher Says Michigan Offense Is 'Real Football'

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 7:23 p.m. ET

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Oct 1, 2016; Tallahassee, FL, USA; Florida State Seminoles head coach Jimbo Fisher before the game against the North Carolina Tarheels at Doak Campbell Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports

Florida State takes on Michigan in the Orange Bowl on December 30. FSU coach Jimbo Fisher says Michigan’s offense is real football.

Jimbo Fisher and company are in the game planning stages of practice for the upcoming Orange Bowl game against Michigan. FSU senior defensive end commented last week that Michigan was old school in their approach to offense, and Fisher was asked his opinion of their offense.

“Real football, not old school, ain’t old school at all..it’s real ball. Watch Sundays. It’s what you see on Sundays. They’re good at it, they’re physical, they can run it they can throw it…mix formations and play action,” said Fisher.

Michigan is coached by Jim Harbaugh, who like Jimbo Fisher, was a college quarterback and both come from the days of pre-spread or pro-style offenses.

A number of teams on FSU’s schedule ran some variation of a spread offense:

Thoughts

It’s evident that Fisher isn’t a fan of spread offenses by his tone in speaking about Michigan. Michigan’s offense averaged 6.06 yards per play this season and averaged 41 points per game.

Michigan ran the ball 62 percent of the time while on offense this season and averaged nearly five yards per rush. Also, 51 percent of Michigan’s first downs on the season came via the run.

By contrast, FSU ran the ball 55 percent of the time on offense and averaged 5.13 yards per rush. FSU averaged 6.49 yards per play offensively and is rated as one of the top offenses in the country according to S&P+ metrics.

The ‘Noles gained 46 percent of their first downs on the season came via the run. Their offense as a whole only passed for 2,593 yards the entire year.

Michigan’s offense really is old school football despite Jimbo’s bias towards pro-style offenses. It’s a little better than three yards and a cloud of dust, but it’s still old school smash mouth football.

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