Coaching staff is complete

Submitted by umbig11 on
There will be no more departures. Despite how many of us feel about Pep & Drevno they are returning. Offensive coaching assignments remain unsettled to this day. They will be settled well before spring. Warriner will remain an Analyst. Warriner will be working one week ahead preparing the team for the following week. McElwain started yesterday. One area of his duties that are not getting enough attention yet is that he will be developing the weekly game plans. Yes, we know many contribute to the plans, scouting, analysts, OC etc., but McElwain will be counted on to deliver those each Saturday. So, when the position assignments are complete. I think we will see some sort of title next to WR Coach. There will be a streamlined effort when it comes to play-calling. More McElwain than chatter on the headsets.
MGoBoard
Football

mgob-rad

February 19th, 2018 at 7:21 PM ^

This board does realize that Urban Meyer uses the same "approach by committee" philosophy at OSU, right? They just promoted Ryan Day from Co-Offensive Coordinator to Offensive Coordinator. That is in addition to having Kevin Wilson listed as an Offensive Coordinator, along with Urban Meyer, who is an Offensive Coordinator.

Last year's downfalls had nothing to do with the philosophy, it had to do with who was actually calling plays and making the game plans. Harbaugh clearly was not happy with the performance of those aspects of the staff, so he hired someone new to take charge of it. McElwain has done very well in this role before, hopefully he can have that same success here. 

 

 

Joined: 09/18/2014

MGoPoints: 2068

Lakeyale13

February 19th, 2018 at 7:36 PM ^

Mgo-rab, and the board does realize that Urban's committee beats the piss out of us every year and wins bowl games, while our committee gets kicked in he balls by OSU and looked completely ill prepared for a lower tier SEC team in SC. Don't compare our coaches to OSU. Makes you look ignorant to blatantly objective facts and results.

Joined: 11/16/2014

MGoPoints: 27224

mgob-rad

February 19th, 2018 at 9:50 PM ^

I didn’t compare our coaches to OSU’s, I gave an example that the collaborative play calling approach can have success. I also said that our coaches haven’t been good enough on the offensive side of the ball and that hopefully new roles and new coaches will improve things. Makes you look ignorant when you don’t even read.

Joined: 09/18/2014

MGoPoints: 2068

You Only Live Twice

February 20th, 2018 at 12:07 AM ^

gets the piss knocked out of them too, bowl game, (not this year obs) regular season games, and with all that 5 star talent and with all their wonderful coaches.  If you want to hate on us and love them, at least keep it in perspective.  

Joined: 09/14/2013

MGoPoints: 9615

DrMantisToboggan

February 19th, 2018 at 7:41 PM ^

No, the board does not realize this, and it's not just Urban. I would venture to guess that 90% of coaching staffs, High School, College, and Pro, use a collaborative play calling system with multiple offensive coaches having a say. It's far more common than not, but people want to yell.

Joined: 11/26/2014

MGoPoints: 74183

tasnyder01

February 19th, 2018 at 9:48 PM ^

We had a bad offense, and we just recently became aware of this thing this year. Therefore its bad. Nevermind that we did it the year that we had a record setting offense. We just want to use this as a scapegoat. It has nothing to do with relative experience and qb injuries. Look at how good one freshman did elsewhere! And Jumbo did an amazing job when Francios got injured. And Jedd totally didn't share in the co-OC thing! (Spoiler: he did). People just want a thing to be mad at.

Joined: 10/11/2010

MGoPoints: 4112

grumbler

February 19th, 2018 at 9:24 PM ^

I am proposing that the way Michigan's current coaching staff looks to you is irrelevant.  My guess is that Harbaugh knows more about coaching, and coaching staffs, than you.  That Michigan is not addressing what you call "glaring problems" seems highly unlikely, and your take seems to smell more of self-loathing than logic.

Joined: 08/17/2011

MGoPoints: 14112

PaulWall

February 20th, 2018 at 9:36 AM ^

issues: oline play sucks, enter drevno. full time o line. wr play sucks, enter mcE AND roundtree. qb play sucks, pep full time. play calling sucks, mcE. in state recruiting (in a meh kind of year....) and Ohio recruiting sucks, enter Washington and Moore. "need to get stronger", enter whole new weight staff. what other issues were there? looks to me like harbaugh has done a damn good job trying to fix them. he demoted his most loyal assistant to try and fix this and fired another. I'd say he's addressing the issues.

Joined: 12/19/2017

MGoPoints: 2652

growler4

February 19th, 2018 at 8:03 PM ^

Given the changes being made, I assume Harbaugh perceives that there were problems last year.

Yet, I cannot help but feel that the problems were less philosophy and play calling mechanics, and more to do with fundamental blocking pass offense execution.

Too often, our QB play was substandard. We had young receivers who need to run better routes and get greater separation. The OL was inconsistent at best. Given these deficiencies, I question who could have functioned as an offensive coordinator and been consistently successful.

I expect our wideouts to be better this year. Also, we now have a dedicated WR coach. Harbaugh recruited Patterson. Enough said. Even if he's not eligible this year, Peters should be better given his experience. I hope our OL shows incremental improvement too, but the former changes should help even if this is not as much as hoped for.

We were close against some good teams playing with a less than stellar offense. While not satisfied, I just don't feel the sense of dread and doom that many on this board seem to experience.

 

Joined: 11/24/2014

MGoPoints: 1700

Richard75

February 19th, 2018 at 7:25 PM ^

Michigan's first two games: at ND (the eventual national champ) and home against Miami (the defending national champ). Tough to top that.

U-M lost both but wound up Rose Bowl champs and ranked #4. Hard schedules are by no means the end of the world; they can actually be a positive, since it forces the team to focus. Saban always schedules a big-name opponent in Week 1 for that very reason.

Joined: 09/23/2008

MGoPoints: 5290

The Fugitive

February 19th, 2018 at 7:56 PM ^

the 4 top 25 teams in 2016 you're referencing were Colorado, Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State, right? 3 of those were at home.  Michigan hasn't won a big road game in a looooong time.

As you know, road games this year are ND, MSU, OSU with Penn State and Wisconsin at home. NW won 10 games last year and we travel to their "stadium" for an "away" game.

On paper, that looks tougher to me. But you're a better doctor than me so I will defer.

Joined: 01/26/2016

MGoPoints: 77472

mGrowOld

February 19th, 2018 at 8:56 PM ^

In the country.

But hey like many here say this will only go to prove just how mean and tough and nasty and rough and fiesty and something we are when we run the table.  Ignoring unfortunately that our away record, like most teams, is not great when we play good teams in their stadium.

I blame Brandon for allowing the B1G to put MSU & OSU on the same home/away rotation.  It's insane. 

I blame Warde for not saying to "no" to Jimmy when he wanted ND back on the schedule and ND put our balls back in a vice (again) by not agreeing to start the series back up on AA where it belonged.  

I think we're going to have a much better team next year with the same basic record we had this year unfortunately because of the damn schedule.

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 212949

DrMantisToboggan

February 20th, 2018 at 8:01 AM ^

Yeah, I think 2018 ND and 2016 Colorado are going to be similar teams, and I don't hold ND in very high regards in terms of hostile environments for visiting teams. I think 2016 Colorado might actually be better than 2018 ND. Notre Dame's defense will be top-15 ish, but I think their offense will take a rather significant step back with all that they've lost. 

 

I will never consider a NW game an extraordinarily difficult one, whether it's in Evanston or Ann Arbor. 

 

Ultimately, this year comes down to 4 games (because I think we are winning @ND and NW and the other 6 games as well) for me: MSU, UW, PSU, OSU. Half at home, half on the road. We will beat PSU and UW at home in similar fashion to 2016. I think Jim wants to hurt PSU and I think we take care of UW like we did in 2016, something like 21-10. I also think it's incredibly likely that we beat MSU in EL. I know that they have a solid team coming back, but Jim isn't losing that one. I think the season comes to down to the game in Columbus, but that we go into that game either 10-1 or 11-0. I'm on the optimistic side of the fan base, I know.

Joined: 11/26/2014

MGoPoints: 74183