Michigan State lands their Al Borges in former OSU OC Jim Bollman

The big news of the morning almost goes without saying. In a complete and utter head scratcher, former Ohio State defensive coordinator turned Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio is set to name former much scrutinized OSU offensive coordinator Jim Bollman to be the Spartans' new offensive coordinator. Bollman had been previously named Purdue's offensive line coach under fellow former Buckeye assistant, Darrell Hazell, after a year in exile at the line coach at Boston College (who's o-line was a venerable turnstile, FYI).

Given that Bollman often under recruited the offensive line while at Ohio State and even worse, failed to develop the four/five star types he did get into viable professionals with but a few exceptions, he as a position coach hire was suspect enough. But now that Bollman is expected to step back into the role of play calling, something any Ohio State fan would tell you more often than not left you tearing at your own flesh just to feel something, anything. Well, it's certainly not a tremendous day to be a Michigan State football fan.

While the revelation is bringing plenty of "WHY GOD WHY" from both Spartan and Buckeye backers alike, it's hard not to hear the chortling originating from Ann Arbor. Potshots at the likes of John Shoop, Bollman, and Greg Davis have been heard a plenty, and deservedly so, but Auburn fans would likely be quick to point out that Al Borges isn't far removed from that class. Anyone who watched Michigan's offense in the second half of the 2012 version of The Game probably wouldn't have a hard time seeing Borges as an analog in that sense as well.

But because Michigan fans are ever the skeptics and in the interest of SCIENCE!, we decided it would only be fair to go back and take a look at the offenses Al Borges has coordinated over the years, from both a total offense ranking perspective as well as scoring offense sense.

It gets dicey making a comparison to Bollman, because there's been plenty of bizarro revisionist history about just who was calling plays for Ohio State and when (allegedly Hazell took the honors briefly when things got stale in 2008/2009 but since he's claimed that was never the case and that Bollman was the guy all along?). None the less, here's a look at how the careers of Jim Bollman and Michigan offensive coordinator Al Borges stack up, side by side:

		vs.
Advantage	Total Offense Ranking	Year	Total Offense Ranking
N/A	37th	1995	N/A (Position Coach)
N/A	42nd	1996	N/A (Position Coach)
N/A	13th	1997	N/A (Position Coach)
N/A	8th	1998	N/A (NFL)
N/A	85th	1999	N/A (NFL)
N/A	63rd	2000	N/A (NFL)
	77th	2001	65th
	69th	2002	70th
	98th	2003	93rd
	25th	2004	98th
	37th	2005	23rd
	76th	2006	26th
	97th	2007	62nd
N/A	N/A (Out of football)	2008	76th
	86th	2009	68th
	16th	2010	20th
	42nd	2011	107th
N/A	78th	2012	N/A (Position Coach)
	56th	Average	64th

		vs.
Advantage	Scoring Offense Ranking	Year	Scoring Offense Ranking
N/A	39th	1995	N/A (Position Coach)
N/A	30th	1996	N/A (Position Coach)
N/A	3rd	1997	N/A (Position Coach)
N/A	5th	1998	N/A (NFL)
N/A	90th	1999	N/A (NFL)
N/A	40th	2000	N/A (NFL)
	104th	2001	67th
	95th	2002	41st
	114th	2003	74th
	18th	2004	71st
	30th	2005	26th
	56th	2006	8th
	84th	2007	41st
N/A	N/A (Out of football)	2008	45th
	85th	2009	49th
	19th	2010	11th
	26th	2011	81st
N/A	57th	2012	N/A (Position Coach)
	53rd	Average	47th

We'll leave you to draw conclusions for yourself, but at least in terms of a head-to-head comparison in many of the same years as well as from a more aggregate sense, I'm not sure the bodies are work aren't that comparable. Borges definitely did his best work in the mid-to-late 90's, and who knows, maybe Shane Morris is the next Cade McNown and Michigan can recreate the magic all over again. Either way, I think it's safe to deduce that when Michigan heads to Spartans Stadium the first Saturday in November, we're all in for a treat.