After sitting around for some seven months, drawing plays on napkins, visiting with other coaching staffs, watching tape hour after hour, it would not be surprising to learn that many a college offensive coordinator opts for Ambien and leg manacles the night before the season opener.
Truth is, the first offensive possession of the season is like no other. It’s the first time coaches get to see the near-finished product.
For information purposes alone, that first possession often yields a ton of information.
“I can speak from my NFL experience; we have shifts and motions and different formations just to make sure a team was aligning [as we expected],’’ said Syracuse coach Doug Marrone, whose team opens Saturday (Noon, ESPN2) against Northwestern.
No team might have more to gain from its first offensive possession than Michigan, which meets mighty Alabama Saturday night in Dallas (8 p.m.; ABC). The Tide, of course, is coming off a national championship but star linebackers Don’t’a Hightower and Courtney Upshaw are gone to the NFL.
The Wolverines, with Heisman Trophy candidate Denard Robinson at quarterback, have a chance to catch The Tide in some overly aggressive pursuit.
“The defense and the defensive they are, not in every game, but in many cases, they’re trying to identify players, they’re trying to identify formations and then what people underestimate is, when you’re thinking, you’re done,’’ Kirk Herbstreit told The Post.
“That’s what every offensive coordinator wants, to get the defense to think and talk to each other. All they’re hoping is throughout that communication, they misfire and they bust a coverage. That’s why you see so many different wrinkles, especially in Week 1.’’
The season began Thursday night with one Big East Conference team in action. Connecticut thumped UMass 37-0. They learned a lot on a seemingly vanilla first play.
On first and 10 from its 25, coach Paul Pasqualoni changed the strong side of his line by moving the tight end and fullback from left to right. The simple off tackle play netted five yards by Staten Island’s Lyle McCombs. But the Huskies got the info they wanted: They could run on the Minutemen.
The Huskies went 75 yards in 12 plays, using 7 minutes and 29 seconds, with McCombs scoring on a 1-yard run. McCombs, the 5-foot-8, 166-pound sophomore from Staten Island, had a nice game with 105 yards in total offense and one touchdown.
“That first possession, considering we have a new quarterback, went about as well as it could go,’’ Pasqualoni said yesterday. “We thought we could run and we wanted to establish that early.’’
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Allan Pinkett will not handle the radio color commentary today when Notre Dame opens the season against Navy in Dublin (9 a.m.; CBS) because of comments he made this week.
“I’ve always felt like to have a successful team you’ve got to have a few bad citizens on the team,” Pinkett said on Chicago’s WSCR-AM (670). “That’s how Ohio State used to win all the time. They would have two or three guys that were criminals, and that just adds to the chemistry of the team. I think Notre Dame is growing because maybe they have some guys that are doing something worthy of a suspension, which creates edge on the football team.’’
Ironically, those words are probably the first insightful and controversial ones Pinkett has uttered. He is an insufferable homer. His duties will be taken by Jim Jeffers, who we believe, will offer analysis and color, not an endless stream of Notre Dame cheerleading.