coaching changes
john baxter
chris partridge

On John Baxter's Exit Comment Count

Brian

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[Bryan Fuller]

John Baxter has returned to USC after one year as Michigan's special teams coach. This is not ideal. Despite some late hiccups, Baxter was a godsend for a special teams unit that was amongst the country's worst under Brady Hoke. Michigan went from 66th to 16th in special teams efficiency in a single year under Baxter. Since most of the hiccups were acts of God* rather than strategic or coaching errors he largely lived up to the hype even if Michigan didn't block a billion kicks.

In his absence, Michigan looks set to give Chris Partridge a full assistant job.

This is good for recruiting. What it means for special teams is unknown—Partridge is likely to come in as a linebackers coach. Jay Harbaugh will probably pick up some of the slack since TE/ST is a common combination, and then you might see Mike Zordich chip in since Michigan is splitting the secondary.

There will probably be a drop. Baxter is the best at what he does and there was a flood of fond goodbyes from Michigan players on twitter—he was well liked. As long as Michigan doesn't go back to NFL punting I'll be happy.

If Michigan does end up promoting Partridge they will need a new recruiting coordinator. Devin Bush Sr., who built Flanagan High into a power from very little, has been rumored to be a candidate for a job even if this hadn't happened. Now you might want to pencil him in. He's basically a Florida version of Partridge. Michigan will hope to make up for Baxter's loss with a crootin bump.

*[Dropped snaps, missed tackles, and ridiculously bad refereeing against MSU, Indiana, and Rutgers, respectively. Michigan got a punt blocked against Penn State that was due to bad tactics.]

Comments

schreibee

January 8th, 2016 at 2:32 PM ^

I grew up in Ann Arbor, but have lived in the Bay Area for 30 years now. Every year I come home for a game & a visit, and get nostalgic and fantasize about moving back.

Then, I realize that after awhile I'd just be nostalgic and homesick for the West Coast, so I don't make the move...

Now imgaine how John Baxter feels, who did NOT grow up in A2!

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schreibee

January 8th, 2016 at 2:52 PM ^

My observation about the punting "style" is it will likely (will likely ;) depend on who's punting.

Did we really only punt once in the Citrus? I only remember once, and Kenny Allen dropped straight back and boomed it what I'd call "old school" style...

Now if only we'd used that method for the final play vs msu!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joined: 11/02/2009

MGoPoints: 21184

Blau

January 8th, 2016 at 2:24 PM ^

If you're saying we should've had a safety man behind O'Neill or had a "fire" play call ready to go, then fine. We could do that for any mistake UM makes on the field. But Baxter did not cause O'Neill to muff that punt. That's like saying you're going to credit Baxter for Blake O'Neill's 80-yard punt earlier in the game that pinned MSU along their own goal line. Both transgressions go to the players, not the coach.

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MI Expat NY

January 8th, 2016 at 3:03 PM ^

On the other hand, when the other side is rushing 11, simply dropping the snap spells doom. I don't think there's anything that could have been done strategically that saves the play after the snap was dropped and he reverted back to an Australian and tried to pick it up and punt it.  

Joined: 07/24/2008

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Blau

January 8th, 2016 at 3:39 PM ^

Clean catch and punt = game over. Plan and simple. The gunner wouldn't have had enough time to get to O'Neill if he cleanly catches the ball and makes decent contact on the punt. It's a fluid process and the action of mishandling the snap is the culprit. There is no prep for that. BTW, that is my least favorite play of all time and dissecting it only opens old wounds.

Joined: 01/23/2014

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schreibee

January 8th, 2016 at 2:45 PM ^

O'Neill gets ALL the credit for dropping an 80-yd bomb on the goal line, but coaches HAVE to be accountable when a player makes a mental error due to lack of preparedness. That's just the lot of life of a coach.

Also, we got too many roughing the punter penalties, including one that looked huge vs osu at the time it occured. I wonder if we'll change up being so aggressive in that regard?

All that said, ST were absolutely a night & day improvement over the Hoke staff (especially kick coverage!) And I expect them to continue to be...

Joined: 11/02/2009

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Reader71

January 8th, 2016 at 3:08 PM ^

Not to mention that even if O'Neill catches it, gets the kick away successfully, and Michigan wins, it STILL doesn't change the fact that the play as run was suboptimal (charitable reading) or maybe outright stupid (we all do dumb shit sometimes, but). The gunners were useless, as was anyone releasing downfield. It might have worked anyways, but it would have been in spite of a terrible play call and a total lack of any situational coaching or adjustment. Baxter ran our normal punt in a situation that didn't call for it.

Joined: 08/30/2009

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Harlans Haze

January 8th, 2016 at 3:46 PM ^

the whole year, that the coaching staff failed to put the players in the proper position. Was O'neil ultimately the one who dropped the ball, yeah, but part of it might have been knowing the whole MSU team was ready to overwhelm him. If you recall, after 2nd and 3rd down, Harbaugh decided to let the clock wind down and took his last 2 time outs. This was a tactical mistake. If you're ahead, you should alwasy have that last time out, in your pocket. There's no reason to call 2 time outs to milk the clock. If you don't have enough trust in your QB to go to the line, and run down the clock, then you've failed in your preparation. Had he done that just one time, and had that last time out, they could have used it when MSU came out with all 11 men at the line, and and obvious overload on the left sideof UM's line. Now, watching games the previous 8 years (and often with Carr, as well), you could find any number of these situations every game. This was, honestly, the only time I felt like it happened the whole year. And, I imagine, Harbaugh, being an ex-QB realized that his own QB should have been able to shoulder that responsibility.

Joined: 11/26/2014

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FreddieMercuryHayes

January 8th, 2016 at 2:04 PM ^

Yeah, I'm disappointed. He was very good. However, a lot of teams have Bert good special teams without John Baxter or a dedicated special teams coach. I wonder how hard Harbaugh pushed to keep him or if he just wanted to go back West regardless of money. Guess we'll find out his impact next year.



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alum96

January 9th, 2016 at 12:06 PM ^

Trading a guy with 30 yrs experience focusing solely on ST for a part time coach who will be busy with TEs or LBs is a big step back IMO/.

I forgot who keeps the stats but nm diary section someone counts what % of plays per game are ST related and its 20%.  That's a huge amount and having a dedicated coach there is important.  I believe Durkin did it for Jim At Stanford.

While I did not like the breakdowns in coverage in the 2nd half of the year, the team had the best ST unit in the country thru the 1st 6 games.    This is a loss.

Joined: 04/28/2012

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TreyBurkeHeroMode

January 8th, 2016 at 2:05 PM ^

I know his Academic Gameplan was well-respected, any insight on whether some of that will stick around?

I wish Coach Baxter well -- USC is closer to Australia, he's just following his heart.

Joined: 11/04/2013

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sj

January 8th, 2016 at 2:13 PM ^

I think it's great that this is a part of what he does and encourages. That said, every school in the country has teams of academic support staff for students. I'm sure they've got it under control. I always wondered how they would deal with a football coach coming in with his own plan.

Joined: 05/31/2013

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jmblue

January 8th, 2016 at 3:12 PM ^

Being good at returns isn't just about putting a fast guy back there.  For kickoff returns, especially, a lot of it comes down to blocking, and we were very good in that regard this year - the best I can recall.  On Chesson's TD, he had a monster hole to run through.  

 

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jmdblue

January 8th, 2016 at 2:06 PM ^

Is there an advantage to not splitting ST coaching duties?  Seems to me each of the 6 special teams units are entities unto themselves and could each be coached by different guys with no disadvantage.  

Joined: 12/01/2010

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Hail Harbo

January 8th, 2016 at 3:20 PM ^

I believe it was the Utah game, check it out.  That was at least once.  Since Harbaugh definitely wasn't getting fired there was no reason to bang on about such a faux pas.  I'm guessing O'Neill's fake on 4th and 14 wrong side of the 50 falls into that category, along with his dropped snap and blocked punt.  Man, for such a highly rated ST they certainly suffered more than their fair share of "acts of god."

Joined: 06/18/2015

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blueblueblue

January 8th, 2016 at 2:13 PM ^

Respectfully disagree with the deus ex machina "acts of God." That's not an explanation, more of a biased rationalization. While special teams improved from the Hoke era, that's not saying much. At all. To have a dedicated STs coach, the several hiccups should have been diminished. 

Joined: 12/28/2008

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raleighwood

January 8th, 2016 at 2:32 PM ^

That was a pretty major tactical error that really changed the landscape of college football this year.  In fact, you could argue that it was the biggest play of the entire college football season (and it didn't go Michigan's way).  It's kind of hard to explain that one away.

In addition, there were a lot of long returns against Michigan this year (especially against Rutgers).  Indiana took a punt back for a TD.

Special Teams were better this year......but definitely not elite.

 

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LV Sports Bettor

January 9th, 2016 at 4:29 PM ^

they were ranked 16th overall in CFB at the only website that I know of that takes all of special teams play into account (Football Outsiders).

I'm sure if you were to watch any team special teams over the course of an entire season you'd feel there were quite a few breakdowns each year but when you take it all in the Michigan postives on ST play far outweighed their opponents ST against them.

Since they've been keeping this stat over at FO the past 9 seasons, the best Michigan ranked special teams play BEFORE this year was a 37th ranking back in 2009.

Most importantly proving how great of a job Baxter did this season, they improved from last year's 66th overall ranking to finish ranked 16th this year BUT also going from being ranked a very mediocre 7th best special teams in the Big Ten last year to being ranked #1 on special teams among Big Ten teams this year.
 

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