If we were to make a change, whose offensive system in college football would you like to see us emulate?
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:21 AM ^
Oklahoma, one of the best offensive lines this year, receivers are catching the ball on the run, scoring ton of points. Couple that with our defense that can shut down most teams in the BIG, we should be good.
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:27 AM ^
They keep getting those magic QBs that can take over a game. How have they done with a more "normal" QB in their system?
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:47 AM ^
Let me answer that: You said it yourself: THEY KEEP GETTING THOSE MAGICAL QUARTERBACKS.
The question of how have they done with more "normal" quarterbacks? Well, if they're not "magical" then probably not as well!
January 3rd, 2019 at 11:01 AM ^
Systems help QB's too.
If we want to have a magical QB, we need both the talent behind center AND also to run a system that gets him the routes in which he can develop into MQB...
January 3rd, 2019 at 12:12 PM ^
They don't recruit "normal" quarterbacks. 'Crootin!!!
January 4th, 2019 at 12:51 PM ^
Who has the QB whisperer, Oklahoma or Michigan?
January 3rd, 2019 at 9:11 AM ^
Part of the job is to find/recruit/coach them. Baker Mayfield was a walk-on (twice).
January 3rd, 2019 at 9:54 AM ^
What do you mean TWICE? he got cut? Geez. Now is the next Tom Brady too.
January 3rd, 2019 at 9:57 AM ^
He was a walk on at Texas Tech and then an a walk on at Oklahoma, smart ass.
January 3rd, 2019 at 10:42 AM ^
How does any fan not know about the lore of Baker Mayfield, at this point?
January 3rd, 2019 at 1:21 PM ^
Because some of us only watch the games?
January 3rd, 2019 at 1:48 PM ^
93, You may really want to consider getting more knowledgeable about college football before you post anymore here.
I mean, dude was ONLY the Heisman winner & no.1 overall pick in the NFL draft and you didn't know that?
Cumong Man. Embarrassing yourself
January 3rd, 2019 at 12:22 PM ^
Josh Heupel lost his job at Weber State and transferred to a Junior College. Mike Leach found him and he was the Heisman trophy runner up.
January 3rd, 2019 at 9:15 AM ^
2014: 36.4 ppg (21st) with Trevor Knight at QB.
2013: 32.8ppg (40th) with Blake Bell.
2012: 38.2ppg (16th) with Landry Jones
2011: 39.5ppg (10th) with Landry Jones
2010: 37.2ppg (14th) with Landry Jones
2009: 31.1ppg (29th) with Landry Jones
2008: 51.1ppg (1st) with Sam Bradford
2007: 42.3ppg (5th) with Sam Bradford
2006: 30.3ppg (19th) with Paul Thompson
2005: 26.9ppg (56th) with Rhett Bomar
2004: 34.8ppg (14th) with Jason White
2003: 42.9ppg (3rd) with Jason White
2002: 38.6ppg (5th) with Nate Hybl
2001: 30.5ppg (32nd) with Nate Hybl
2000: 37.0ppg (9th) with Josh Heupel
1999: 35.8ppg (6th) with Josh Heupel
Only 3 years worse than #30 in scoring, 7 years in the top 10 - out of 16 years.
January 3rd, 2019 at 9:18 AM ^
I'm sold. I'll take two please.
January 3rd, 2019 at 12:27 PM ^
I heard Dave Warner might be available. Maybe we should take baby steps regarding this whole modernization thing.
January 3rd, 2019 at 9:42 AM ^
True, but remember, that is not opponent adjusted. A quick glance at total defense (passing and running yards) for Michigan show that we have been consistently strong (except for the RR years, of course) going back to 2004.
A lot of raw statistics are paced based and conference based.
So, OK, undoubtedly, had had a very good offense for a long time, but it hasn't been elite more than 5 ish years. Probably close to the same number of years the Michigan defense has been elite in the last 15 years.
January 3rd, 2019 at 10:58 AM ^
Prior to Mayfield -
S&P+ for Oklahoma:
2005: #41
2006: #26
2007: #15
2008: #4
2009: #60
2010: #6
2011: #22
2012: #6
2013: #22
2014: #17
Top 25 S&P offenses 7 of 10 years. Harbaugh has had top 25 S&P offenses 3 of 8 years he's coached.
Oklahoma has had a top 25 FEI offense 6 of 8 years. Harbaugh has had top 25 FEI offenses in 5 of 8 years he's coached.
January 3rd, 2019 at 12:50 PM ^
Why are people so obsessed with "opponent adjusted" stats? According to S&P we have a better overall offense and passing offense than Washington State. I can use my brain and tell you that's not the case.
January 3rd, 2019 at 10:09 AM ^
Most of those QB's weren't even running the same system that Oklahoma is currently running... and with Harbaugh Michigan should be able to recruit better and more athletic quarterbacks than the likes of Landry Jones, Blake Bell, and Trevor Knight.
January 3rd, 2019 at 10:19 AM ^
If we had a wide open offense we could recruit better QBs but nobody wants to come here and throw 15 passes a game .. These QBs want to be able to put on a show
January 3rd, 2019 at 10:24 AM ^
Yeah I meant if we ran a system like that Harbaugh should be able to recruit the top dual threat QB's. I agree, not with our current system.
January 3rd, 2019 at 12:32 PM ^
Our QB room next year will be one of the most talented in football. Kids want to play in the league. Playing for Harbaugh has proven to be good for that.
January 3rd, 2019 at 2:01 PM ^
I know, I'm just talking about recruiting dual threat QBs.
January 3rd, 2019 at 12:15 PM ^
....he is after all the QB Whisperer!
January 3rd, 2019 at 10:10 AM ^
Yeah. That's not "magic quarterbacks" or luck.
January 3rd, 2019 at 12:51 PM ^
Jason White, Sam Bradford, previous walk-on Baker Mayfield, SEC transfer Murray. Josh Heupel, a junior college transfer. Paul Thompson, a guy who lost the job to Jason White and Rhett Bomar multiple times and moved to wide receiver and then moved back his senior season and had a pretty good year. Landry Jones. That’s the list of QBs who have played significant snaps at Oklahoma basically since 2000. How many of those guys were NFL QBs? How many were even 4 star guys? Oklahoma has always had a good system for QBs. Going back to Mike Leach, Chuck Long, Kevin Wilson, Lincoln Reilly. And Bob Stoops was a lifetime defensive guy, he was just always willing to make the right hire and let his guys run their offense. Maybe Michigan should just hire one of Oklahoma’s two co-offensive coordinators. They have a long history of great offensive minds coming out of there.
January 3rd, 2019 at 4:12 PM ^
When you have back to back different heisman winners the system is greater than the QBs.
January 3rd, 2019 at 10:55 AM ^
I'd rather our opponents emulate the quality of opposing defenses they play.
January 3rd, 2019 at 12:20 PM ^
If our offense is better, our defense is worse.
January 3rd, 2019 at 12:55 PM ^
Maybe but opposing teams can’t score if Michigan has the ball. If the opposition is playing from behind then Brown is especiallly tough. Michigan’s loses have been when they can’t run the ball, so if they score more . . .
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:21 AM ^
the one that scores touchdowns on every drive and never turns the ball over and always calls the perfect play that is executed exactly as planned.
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:34 AM ^
then we'd be #winning.
January 3rd, 2019 at 12:50 PM ^
Georgia Tech, run the triple-option.
It's all about the body blows guys.
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:22 AM ^
Air raid.
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:25 AM ^
Who's your best example? Oklahoma? Ok State?
It probably would have been Texas Tech back in the day, but I have not kept up with them more recently to know what they are doing now.
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:29 AM ^
I like Lincoln Riley's a lot. Of course, it's easy to use as an example when their offense has been awesome.
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:23 AM ^
Lots of changes afoot in the Big Ten East.
Ohio State appears to be shifting toward the Big 12 side of the spectrum. PSU went from "pro style" to zone read with Moorhead, Maryland is bringing in Locksley (albeit without Alabama-level players). Indiana manages to keep some form of chaos going no matter what.
It's not you father's Big Ten anymore . . .
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:27 AM ^
It's pretty clear that OSU has been shifting to Big 12 style football, which makes me incredibly jealous. Sure, it's nice having a strong defense, but in this era of football, it's about having offenses that can score almost at will and quickly. We need lots of fast receivers and running backs. We also need a QB who is a threat to run. The "defense wins championships" is so dated. I would love it if Michigan would play Big 12 style football.
Why didn't you just put your post that I replied to in the OP?
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:31 AM ^
It's also clear that our defense under Don Brown cannot defend Big 12 style offenses. I'd be interested to see how we would have fared against the Big 12 this season if we played in the Big 12 conference.
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:41 AM ^
Yeah, exactly. And conversely, I'd be curious to see how the "terrible" Big 12 defenses would do against non-OSU Big 10 offenses. Would they still be terrible??
January 3rd, 2019 at 8:59 AM ^
Yeah, all of a sudden Alabama's vaunted defense looked pretty terrible when they went up against Oklahoma. Oklahoma scored 34 and scored on every single possession in the second half. Once they shook the rust off and got warmed up, Oklahoma was not being stopped.
Some of the "bad defense" of the Big 12 is really more a case of facing great offenses.
All those "good" Big Ten defenses would get their heads handed to them in the Big 12.
January 3rd, 2019 at 9:22 AM ^
Frankly I don't know if MSU's defense would have. Oregon was averaging 430 yards of total offense and close to 35 points per game with a really good QB and MSU held them to 7 points. Their secondary looked rock solid and their defensive line was mauling. State's offense was a total mess (like 10x times worse than our struggles) but their defense looked pretty damn impressive.
January 3rd, 2019 at 10:18 AM ^
They did pretty well against OSU too, but they always get to play them in crap weather, so you're never really sure.
January 3rd, 2019 at 10:48 AM ^
Truth/\
January 3rd, 2019 at 6:11 PM ^
Good thing MSU is losing there two best defensive backs and dowell....
Also good they lost Davis, LJ Scott and Beadle.
January 3rd, 2019 at 10:40 AM ^
Which is why it's interesting that recently Saban switched offensive philosophy from a manball/control approach to score as quickly and frequently as possible. He saw the writing on the wall and got with it. We need Harbaugh to do the same. When OSU is rolling your defense, the offense needs to get moving and score nearly every possession.
As far as the OP, not sure I care which offensive style is used, I'd really like to see Harbaugh hire a good OC that's solely responsible for playcalling and maximizes the talent on the team.
January 3rd, 2019 at 11:08 AM ^
Yeah but either was Alabama. For every score OU put up Alabama did too. Defense is still going to be a a major part. For me I think the offense we more realistically have a shot at emulating is Georgias, I don't see Harbaugh adopting a Big 12 or even a O state offense. If we could have a QB (not Shea) that can throw with at least a 65% accuracy rate and a couple of strong running backs ( not saying we HAVE to have two 1000 yard rushers) we could be a real threat to any team. On defense I'd like to see us recruit more speed at DB/LB position to stay with these rockets we see now on the Offensive side of the ball. Speed is where it is. Give me one strong DT and moderately quick edge rushers coupled with speed at the DB/LB positions and I think we could adjust quicker to quicker offensive teams
January 3rd, 2019 at 12:21 PM ^
....and how did georgia do against Texas??? We are screwed in that case.
January 3rd, 2019 at 1:46 PM ^
Georgia lost because they came in and slept on Texas. I warned every Georgia fan I know not to assume they would roll Texas. I live in Texas and my youngest brother went to UT. I have been to a few games this year and they are inconsistent but when they get it together they are liable to punch anyone in the mouth. Let's not forget they beat OU in their rivalry game and was beating OU the first half and OU had to rally to win. People act like OU walked over them in the Big 12 championship game but I watched the whole thing and Texas was in control for a large portion of that game. Georgia has a solid offense, one that I think we could find and put the pieces together to emulate. This idea that we can all of a sudden have an OU or Ostate offense is comical. Harbaugh I don't think is "loose" enough to run that style so instead of just hoping and wishing I like to look at what offense is working and can work that with our coach is ACTUALLY achievable. That would be Georgia, or hell, Texas even. They have two future NFL WR's in Johnson and Humphrey, Sam is a tough as nails QB who knows how to make smart plays. Our current offense, to be successful, relies too much on recruits and players we don't have or have not recruited to be successful. Shea is not an Elite QB, he makes too many mistakes and forces things. Higdon was good, not great or elite, why he sat out will forever make me scratch my head. We have GREAT starting WR's, all future NFL guys, but no depth. Tight ends that can't catch. Our team looks like an NFL team in rebuild mode right now to me. I sincerely hope Harbaugh opens up the QB position to competition next year and in we can utilize the new WR's. I am in serious self (team) reflection mode right now and taking an honest look at what needs to change for us to be back near the top and to stay there. Success breeds success and all we need is one year where we win the B1G championship to get the dominoes to fall, so in my mind what can we do to get there? We need to start with a blank sheet of paper and look at EVERY current player on the roster and have an honest thought process to see who is the best 11 on either side of the ball to start.