Indiana Snowflakes: The Coaching
October 14th, 2017 at 4:34 PM ^
Well, Harbaugh wanted to make it a point to Braylon that the #1 Jersey doesn't mean anything anymore; mission accomplished.
October 14th, 2017 at 4:35 PM ^
Bring back maize pants
October 14th, 2017 at 4:36 PM ^
Our quarterback whisperer has laryngitis.
October 14th, 2017 at 4:52 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 4:40 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 4:45 PM ^
The DOG killed the great inside shovel pass play that would probably have lead to a field goal before half. Harbaugh was rightfully irate at O'Korn, but shouldn't Harbaugh have been watching the clock and called a TO ?? So so many sloppy things.
October 14th, 2017 at 6:19 PM ^
Clock management seems to be a weakness with Harbaugh...I have no definitive proof to offer but I've noticed the same many times in the past.
October 14th, 2017 at 4:44 PM ^
I'll give Drevno a small bit of credit for the running game success today. Seemed like a lot fewer inside zone blocking schemes and a lot more iso and power.
However, the shotgun inside zone draw he called on UM's last play in regulation on 3rd and 10 was a glorious relapse.
October 14th, 2017 at 4:49 PM ^
JOK needs to be better or it’s time for Peters.
October 14th, 2017 at 4:53 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 5:43 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 4:56 PM ^
Some of y'all are crazy
Indiana has a pretty good defense.
We just tore them up for 6.2 yards per carry on 44 carries! WITH a QB that can't do shit downfield!
That was a good gameplan and good coaching, offensively. Of course the play calling was conservative. I've hated the playcalling at times this year, but when your backup QB sucks and you have the lead and a great D and you are moving the ball on the ground, YOU KEEP IT ON THE GROUND
O'Korn sucks. He got benched at Houston for a reason, and was basically a desperation ploy in conjunction with Rudock to salvage a terrible QB room when Harbaugh and Co got hired. Speight beat him out for a reason, too. He bails on plays too early, can't make a 2nd or 3rd read to save his life, and then tries to force plays that aren't there, resulting in some amazing plays and some terrible INTs
Chill the hell out about Peters. He's a Rs Freshman who's been 3rd on the depth chart behind a RS JR and a RS SR. Those 3rd string QB guys don't get a ton of snaps with the starters, and they also take time to develop
Him and/or McCaffery will turn out good. But it's going to take at least another year, probably 2.
October 14th, 2017 at 5:21 PM ^
You're right about everything....except that BS at the end about chilling on calling for Peters. RS Freshman in their 2nd year are thriving in a lot of places this year so we're just not buying that anymore. And 2 years? Fuck that. It shouldn't take until someone's 4th year to get snaps to see if they're good enough.
October 14th, 2017 at 4:56 PM ^
He got that OT TD all on his own. Our offense needs a complete revamp in the off-season. Starting with the OC. We're into about our tenth year of having teams just stack the box in run prevent, daring us to throw. And for the vast majority of that time, we can't throw. Drevno's had enough time. We need a change.
October 14th, 2017 at 5:11 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 5:18 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 4:57 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 5:17 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 5:20 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 7:26 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 9:07 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 5:22 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 5:38 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 6:25 PM ^
I would argue that JOK doesn't have the grasp of the checks either. I'm certainly no football genius but damn how many wide open guys has he glossed over the past few games in favor of the double covered guys?
October 14th, 2017 at 5:29 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 5:55 PM ^
And I agree: he has. Because he's smart
October 15th, 2017 at 4:01 AM ^
Exactly. +3 if I could.
October 14th, 2017 at 5:39 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 6:15 PM ^
There are teams that are younger than ours that manage a MUCH better O-line and offense in general. It's the only thing keeping us from being elite and it's Harbaugh's specialty. Whatever is going on with the Offense, it's all on JH. It needs to be better.
Both QBs exhibit the same maddening issues:
1. Never check down evern when screamingly open.
2. Always forcing tough throws to small WRs eschewing the open giant TEs.
It's not a one game or one player isse - it's been a consistent problem all season with both QBs. That tells me it's a coaching issue, not a player problem.
October 14th, 2017 at 9:10 PM ^
"There are teams that are younger than ours that manage a MUCH better O-line and offense in general".
I would LOVE for you to back up that bullshit with an example (I'll wait; just FYI we are the YOUNGEST team in the nation this year).
The O-line recruiting woes have been highlighted, documented, and, frankly, beaten to death already. Tl;dr: It was a mess when JH got here and it takes time and patience to fix.
And are you actually suggesting that JH, a Pro Bowl NFL QB and an elite QB coach, is NOT telling and coaching these guys to go through progressions and get to checkdowns?! The fact that it isn't happening tells me the players just don't have the mental makeup to get it done. And, unfortunately, there are no viable alternatives.
Finally, enough with "other schools have young QBs playing great!" line. It's a simplistic observation that offers no context or analysis. "Josh Jackson is GREAT!" the dude plays in a simplistic read-option offense where he looks at the sideline every fucking play to get the call and he only has 1-2 reads and just takes off. It looks great against the overmatched and gets waxed by anyone with a pulse.
"Sam Darnold!!" Sam Darnold had a stud WR (Juju Smith), a stud RB (Ronald Jones) and a veteran O-Line last year. This year, he got Jones back, but the other pieces left and now he has been STRUGGLING all year (4:3 TD:Int Ratio).
"Jacob Fromm!!" I love this one! This guy has two elite, bellcow running backs and only throws ~20 passes a game for 100 - 150 ypg.
In conclusion: When a young QB gets the start and plays well, there are usually elite RBs, WRs, and O-lines (or at least 2/3). Michigan does not have any of these things (though Higdon and the O-line were VERY good today).
Michigan runs a complex, pro-style offense with multiple formations, reads, checks, and so forth. The reason they do this is because when this offense is executed properly, it is an absolute nightmare for college defenses to stop. But the drawback is that, yes, it takes a long time to install and learn. And JH clearly has made the decision to not simplify things any more than he already has. This is similar to Don Brown saying that he isn't just going to lay down and be in Quarters coverage because it's easy to learn; he'd rather die. And I agree with this sentiment. Crafting an overly simplified scheme that goes against what the coaches want is simply bolstering up short term gains that don't mean much (do you really think that approach is going to get us to the B1G Championship and National Title?) by sacrificing long term offensive development and stability. You want this young team to keep increasing their capabilities within Jim's offensive system. And that means yes, 2017 may in fact be a developmental year rather than a contending year. But this developmental year is setting up better years to come, and it will still be better than ANY Rich Rod year and better than 3/4 Hoke years.
Seriously, this blog has turned into a fucking cesspool the last week with all these know-nothing, arm chair coaches acting like they're Bill Belichick. If you idiots want to live through 2008-2014 again, by all means, demand changes willy-nilly with no thought and a rudimentary understanding of the facts. Us sane people will understand that there are no easy fixes, and will continue deferring to a coach who has literally turned chicken shit into chicken salad EVERYWHERE he has gone.
October 14th, 2017 at 9:33 PM ^
Terrific. Thank you for writing that. Simply terrific.
October 16th, 2017 at 2:44 PM ^
Give me a minute....another poster put the OL of other teams (inlucuding Clemson last year) that had younger Olines than ours.
October 14th, 2017 at 8:31 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 5:52 PM ^
Harbaugh deserves more blame, and more credit.
In year three, the QB play should be better.
However, Michigan has struggled their way to a 5-1 season after turning over the entire roster. Had we lost to Florida in week one, we'd all be content with 8-9 wins in a rebuilding year.
I hate Penn State.
October 14th, 2017 at 7:01 PM ^
I'm going to use this as my snowflake space for the officiating:
Given how involved the officials felt they needed to be in this game, how did Indiana not get any intentional grounding calls? Indiana grounded it like 6 times each of which could have been easily called.
October 14th, 2017 at 7:15 PM ^
My bad, I didn't realize their was a thread for my discontent already.
October 14th, 2017 at 7:05 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 8:03 PM ^
The Drevno run game lit up a very good Indiana defense. All that Frey IZ shit was worthless and wasted time that could have been spent on pass pro. Shit they could have spent the IZ practice time eating cookies and they'd be better off.
October 14th, 2017 at 9:31 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 10:03 PM ^
October 15th, 2017 at 4:26 AM ^
So do arrested coaches not count as being fired orrrrr?
October 14th, 2017 at 10:54 PM ^
That was a sweet grab by Coach Harbaugh on the sideline on the first drive of the 2nd half.
Coach Tacopants?
October 15th, 2017 at 4:08 AM ^
As for an update on the thread I started last week, which ended up sparking a pretty giant conversation: I am pleased to see enthusiasm out of our head coach today! It was awesome to see him going down the bench encouraging each player, hockey-style. Still definately not the Harbaugh we have seen in the past, but what I saw was the encouragement that I needed: he still has a soul!
I think that his simple and conservative play calling is exactly what this offense needs, no need to get complicated unless necessary,
Don Brown should defy logic by being the first non-head coach to win Coach of The Year. Love that man!
This was a big week for the coaches, and they stepped up and won a game. Now, they face an even bigger challenge, here's to them finding a way this week!