Debord is back as an analyst
Debord is back! or Debord is back? Anyhow, we got him one more time as an analyst.
https://www.mlive.com/wolverines/2020/03/mike-debord-back-at-michigan-as-an-analyst.html
So long as he stays in the booth he can have some valid input. I do not wish to see him helping Gattis with play calls, though... Or with play design... But having an experience OC breaking down opponent film isn't a bad thing.
My main issue with hiring DeBord as an analyst is that you can find someone younger, cheaper, hungrier, more up to date, and less of a codger.
This is like using a vintage car for Uber. It'll work, but you are getting 7mpg.
I'm not sure someone younger and supposedly up to date makes a better analyst. Older coaches have seen more defenses and more situations. They will be better at pattern recognition. They might not make as good of a coordinator because they might want to revert to running what they know, which rarely works as well as it did when they learned it. But scouting and analysis? You need pattern recognition skills more than ideas.
Debord beat Ohio State.
Debord can help Jim.
Debord can help Gattis.
So what's the problem?
People didn't like him as OC and he got ridiculed for boring predictable offenses.
He wasn't a spread guy obviously. But he was OC in '97. So he isn't wretched. And he has a ton of experience in college football offenses.
Whatever his philosophy he can help as an analyst. This is still Gattis offense. He just helps give him good data.
Yeah, this is the guy everyone bitched about for his offensive schemes but he actually did a really good job.
Not recently.
There’s not really a limit on these positions is there? You could hire the young go getter and as well.
He's an analyst. He will be watching film and and taking notes. He will not be coaching players or creating play designs.
He was watching film and taking notes as Michigan's OC back in the day, too. Look at how well that worked out for all of us.
You serious Clark?
As much as you can say Michigan's success was despite Debord and not caused by Debord, his tenure as OC coincided with the most successful stretch (and only NC) in modern UM history
Not the same. He had to do some coaching back then. He doesn't get to coach now. But he is the last OC at UM to win the B1G.
Then we should bring back Jim Herman. He was a great DC too
Now you're just being contrarian. Which makes you look like an idiot that cannot process cogent thoughts.
He's always been here, Debord was Murderwolf this whole time
He doesn't seem like a guy whose offensive philosophy is compatible with Gattis's.
That said, if his role is to research and provide insight on opposing teams and even some self-scouting, that makes some sense. And I hope that's his role. He's incredibly experienced and has had some success. I just don't want him to have much of a voice when it comes to constructing our offense.
I thought he ran a "speed in space" like spread system at Indiana. I don't think he's an anti-modern offense guy like Borges.
Did they? In his two years at Indiana their offense was 113th and 86th in average yards per play. That ain't explosive.
Nor were we this year. My recollection could be incorrect, but I thought they still ran the spread, read option, bubble screens, etc, under DeBord.
I like DeBord and he is a really fine teacher. I know, because I was/am a really slow student when Lloyd made him try to teach me something about OL play.
Contrary to what many think, he isn't some stick in the mud retro guy.
He brought a complete zone offense to UM when he thought that suited Mike Hart and he convinced Lloyd to hire Alex Gibbs to teach the UM staff, at a time when such offenses weren't ordinary. It worked pretty well, IMO.
But he can go with the flow, as he did at Indiana and last year as a sort of unpaid informal advisor at BGSU.
He won't be defining UM's offense. Not at all. But he will be an asset to the program.
Cool insight from inside the old fort.
That change is not talked about as much as it could. The zone blocking was a big change and fit Hart very well.
I think my major complaint about the offenses were that they never tended to open up until OSU or the bowl game. Or unless the team was way behind (aka Brady throwing for 200 + yards in a loss to MSU).
Not sure how much of the not running teams out of the stadium offense was Debord or Carr.
But Brian was bored by his offense at Michigan and that is what matters most.
He figured out how to get production enough to win MNC with a below typical Michigan offensive unit by using the star cornerback.
If the defense had maybe tried making a stop in 06 in Cbus we go back to the natty.
Oh and the team had reportedly worked significantly on an Antonio Bass playbook that was scrapped when his injury happened. But he wasnt creative they say because we didnt run QB iso 20 times a game like some other offensive geniuses do.
I'll take substance over style if that substance means wins, and regardless of how he has been at other stops DeBo's Michigan teams won a lot more than non DeBo Michigan teams have in the last 25 years.
The game has changed. It's always changing and DeBord hasn't been a part of anything even mildly successful in ages. And, anyhow, Michigan's offenses were ranked 44th, 46th, 48th, 26th and 64th in the years corresponding to 1997-1999 and 2006-2007, his offensive coordinator years. Lets not pretend like Michigan had overpowering offenses. In those days you could be a national power by just being very strong on one side of the ball and mediocre on the other.
This. I would argue that his offenses under-performed their talent. I do think that was 85 percent Lloyd, who once he won the NC continued to approach offense (attempted ball control, don't turn it over), as though he had the 1997 defense every year and basically you didn't want the offense to screw things up. Perhaps the single most infuriating game (though it was great fun to watch), was his last game against Florida, when he was a lame duck coach, a 10 point underdog, and had nothing to lose. It took that to show what the offense might have been.
Thanks for contributing your experience.
He used a spread, but that's just a formation. RPOs, play designs, and basic philosophy of a focus on skill players have never been DeBord's calling cards. He's focused on line play, zone concepts, play action. He's going to design and run an offense built around core plays that he believes can out-execute his opponents.
Gattis has a match-up approach where "the defense dictates where the ball goes" using highly flexible play design and a focus on personnel. Gattis has a more diverse, flexible approach that is not based on being able to execute regardless of opponent; rather its core tenant is taking what the defense is giving.
At this point, everyone but Dan Enos is using the spread. That doesn't mean they're all following the same philosophy.
I'm a little skeptical, but it really depends on his role.
OC in waiting once Gattis leaves for a HC gig.
Great, thanks for the nightmares. Won't sleep for a week now.
Gattis ain't leaving Michigan for his HC gig IMO...
Buckeye game film every...damn...day
If we don't already have someone doing this, then wtf are we even doing?
Totally agree. A made up “analyst” spot being given to a coach riding into the sunset instead of taking a chance on a promising grad assistant or the chance for Harbaugh to establish a coaching tree? It’s a head scratcher.
Name a "promising grad assistant" that would be willing to be an analyst instead of working with the players. Analysts cannot coach on the field. A "promising grad assistant" can. These jobs are for experienced coaches that are currently out of work. Analyst jobs are not stepping stone jobs for a grad assitant. In fact, I think it would hurt a grad assistant. They need the on field coaching and sideline work to improve their coaching skill.
Ok so why does Harbaugh need Debord of all people to fill this void? He certainly didn’t do a good enough job at Indiana and it’s not like we need his knowledge of the IU offense to beat them.
He doesn't. I just think everyone is over reacting to one analyst.
Perhaps true. I guess I just get leery with Harbaugh’s self proclaimed loyalty to the ways of Bo and the old guard. The hiring of Debord is just a concern that he continues to look back in UM’s history to try to find success for the future. I’ll have no problem eating crow if we win the BIG and beat OSU this year though!!
Maybe he can study his own offensive 2007 gameplan against OSU on how not to gameplan against them.
Not exactly fair. I was no fan of his game plans but both Henne and Hart could barely walk in that game.
I don't think that's an excuse for 3 total points and less than 100 total yards.
Always nice to bring a guy back home after failing his way around the football world for 20 years, right?
Blows my mind how this guy's nickname was DeBoring in 2004 (!) before spread offenses were even really a widespread thing
Out routes, baby!
Middle-deep routes were a serious infraction in Mike's reading of the footballing rulebook.
"Plays in space" = get the ball to a guy coming back to the QB or running toward the sidelines, requiring him to stop/spin, 'put on the moves' and then hope he can accelerate. Yikes.
...But why though?
I mean, not to sound like an asshole here, but...
Why not?
Because he has nothing on his resume to warrant being hired besides his connections to Michigan from decades ago. Friends and family get jobs first here, I guess.
That’s the concern. Maybe Harbaugh should have asked Dantonio how hiring the entire multi-generational Bullough or Tressel family worked out.
Is this a joke? He was the OC when we won the national title. He was Carr's heir apparent and got rebuffed. And look at the utter shit show that followed. He was a fine asset for the program and am glad to have him back, if nothing, for aura...