Big Ten Coaches Anonymously Preview Michigan vs. Alabama

"They kicked all our asses even when we tried to fuck with their head coach during the season. What's else you want me to say? All of us are horseshit football coaches except for the Wolverines. We've all sent bama all our notes on Michigan, so hopefully they can get some kind of competitive advantage because bama's going to need it. We've got a lot of collective B1G pride wrapped up in the SEC right now."

Anonymous sources are the best sources. No one can be wrong. Can't imagine paying for this content. Brian and Seth give you so much more.

This is an obvious hit piece from a usual suspect, and a list of people who got murdered by Michigan.  If I remove my maize and blue glasses, I'm sorry, but some things I don't disagree with.

Saying we don't have any superstars is ridiculous, of course we do.  But I won't sit here and say that I don't agree with, "They're not moving you off the ball like you'd think."  We use our run game effectively to control games, but it's for sure been clunky compared to last year. 

I want this win against Bama so bad to shove it up everyone's ass nationally.  Plus I think ohio state fans will resort to cannibalism.

Another reason to never read the Atlantic.  Or the Athletic. Whatever. 

Some of the quotes in here genuinely sound like Twitter comments, which is scary considering they're coming from actual CFB coaches

When comparing the two teams I just marvel at the fact that Alabama had 18 5-star recruits on their roster; Michigan has 2.  

Michigan wins the game by at least 10 points.

Can we please officially add Bruce Feldman to the shit list?
 

I know he is always seen as some pinnacle of organic and honest college football insider knowledge and a “real journalist”, but he’s another hack IMO. Heard him on the Solid Verbal show and he offered absolutely nothing of substance on any subject. Just sounded like he reads twitter commentary and then gives his spin on it. 

Also, screw these coaches taking their hidden jabs at Michigan, especially the one claiming UM knew every single blitz. This conference has the sorriest bunch of head coaches in the country, or maybe they are all this petty since Jim isnt part of their club. 

You know, you'd think being a coach of a P5 team means you were smart about football. And yet...

"They're different now."

Really? It wasn't that our best three opponents were the final 3 games, and that we had our HC absent for those games (unexpectedly so, in the case of PSU and Maryland), and that this scandal has been hanging over the program's head the whole time, and then we had to fire our LB coach? And that our QB actually got injured during the PSU game, and Michigan won by multiple scores anyway? Then went on to beat an elite OSU team despite no HC, a recovering but not still 100% QB, an injured elite corner, and our leader on OL getting his leg snapped? 

No no no, you guys, it was THE STOLEN SIGNS. 

Nevermind that Michigan played two full games after the sign stealing shit came to light and blew the doors off of both MSU and Purdue. Because those games don't count for...reasons, I guess. 

While I don't doubt that these opposing coaches have forgotten more about football then all of us combined will ever know, their bitchbaby sniping makes me feel even more confident in just how much better our coaching braintrust is than them on their best day.

This is why I'm not, and haven't been for ~20 years, "Pro Big Ten." They all root against us every chance they get save for a rare few. I hope Michigan wins the only two Big Ten bowls games this season and every season. That said, kudos to Coach Fleck for his comments at the end.

“ Michigan hasn’t been the same team since the investigation” 

49-0 MSU

41-13 Purdue 

Beat top 10 PSU on the road

 hangover/look ahead game against Maryland on the road

 Beat #2 OSU 

Was this coach expecting blowouts in every game ?? 

What a bunch of cry baby ass bitches coaching football in this conference. 

Some context here matters. We had our offensive line coach, offensive coordinator, and head coach all rolled into one for our three toughest games of the season. That’s going to impact performance and the plan. I think our full complement of coaches can work better together to come up with a coherent strategy to maximize our offense’s talents to put out a good showing that will support our dominant defense. Sherrone is going to continue to shine especially when he has a more manageable role then having to do just about everything on game day.

I'll never understand why Michigan sticks around in a conference where everyone hates them and wants to see them fail. 

“That O-line looks pretty. They’re like three deep of pretty guys, but you watch the film and Indiana stuffed them,” one of the [Indiana]* defensive analysts said. “They’re not moving you off the ball like you’d think.”

*FIFY Bruce

Wrong info

Hey B1G coaches... Hold this L and DIE MAD.

Michigan is the only thing keeping Feldman relevant.  

Ok. 

Yeah and this will be impact the game how ? 

TL; DR version:

"That team isn't good enough to win!" -Coach who wasn't good enough to beat "That team" 

I read the article and call BS.  It's just one more opportunity for the coaches to take a shot at the sign stealing stuff.  The one thing I will give the SEC is if you did this same interview with them they would not shit on their champion like the Big Ten does. 

"That O-line looks pretty. They’re like three deep of pretty guys, but you watch the film and Indiana stuffed them,” one of the defensive analysts said.

Hi, Tom Allen!

I’m guessing the “anonymous” sources are Feldman just making shit up!

They can talk about the scandal and all that but I've been reading "Anonymous Big Ten coaches" talking about Michigan for 20 years, and you could always tell they can't stand Michigan. Like you'd think they don't like Ohio State, but I think a lot of these guys just think of Ohio State as better but essentially cut from the same cloth, Michigan hits different for these guys and always has.

That being said, based on history it's never a bad idea to bet against Michigan in post-season play. The way to shut them up is to win two more games.

The salt within all these coach’s tears is palpable  

I pretty much agree with all their analysis, actually. I, too, think Alabama has a damned good chance of beating us, I, too, think Michigan didn't look as good after the Signgate story broke as we did before it (though I don't believe there's a direct correlation), I, too, worry about Harbaugh's record in bowls, and I, too, don't quite understand our use of McCarthy at the end of the season. (People act like we somehow dominated Penn State in that game, but we scored one touchdown in the second half — and that only when we were given an extremely short field after a turnover. Our running game was not particularly effective in that game -- but it gave us just enough, and our defense was dominant).

Doesn't actually seem that controversial to me. I know anytime anybody mentions the Stalions story everybody here goes into meltdown mode, but putting that aside, all the analysis seems pretty reasonable to me.

But who cares? Thank God the result won't be determined based on what I or anybody else thinks/fears might happen, but by what happens on that Pasadena field on January 1st. Damn it would be satisfying to beat Bama.