Iowa Snowflakes: The Coaching

I watched JH dominate Pete Carroll's great USC team. This was that team. I KNEW his style of football could beat a great offensive team because I saw it.

It was baffling to me that it took so long, but boy, is it worth the wait. 

This team is so damn much fun to watch! The growth and improvement has been outstanding.

So, let's take a moment to note the coaching kudos:

- Recruiting. Check. Brought together a team of tremendous athletes who play together. A team with no real holes and some absolute superstars.

- Player development. Check Check Check! Just take a moment to ponder how much our receivers improved during the course of this season. Ponder the spectacular growth of our TE's, from a weakness to a tremendous strength. Remember with joy the foreboding at season's start toward our DTs. Relish the incredible improvement of our DBs. David Fucking Ojabo, from "project" to absolute baller. Player development, indeed.

- Team chemistry. How many checks do you want? This team was so driven, so together - and had so damn much fun! 

- Program development. Check!!! Tremendous coaching staff top to bottom. Quality depth, great mix of experience and youth. Future looks so bright!

- Program quality. Clean program. Great kids. No drama or embarrassments. Michigan quality.

- Game planning/play calling. Check! Today the team seemed a bit flat coming out - but some absolutely brilliant play calls seized momentum and brought so much juice to the entire team. Great mix of run, pass, inside, outside. Used all our weapons. Gorgeous, beautiful football.

- Quality of play. Michigan excelled at all phases all year. Very, very few penalties. Amazingly few turnovers. Lights out ST play. Smart, sound football. Beat the spread in every game but one, I believe. My goodness.

Friends, that's an A+.

Go Blue! B1G Fucking Champs!

Well now.

We blasted Jim last year.  And he deserved it.  

He needed to beat Ohio.  And he did

He needed to win the B1G.  And he did  

So yeah, he fucking delivered.  Let’s praise the man and his staff.  Totally fucking brilliant.  All hats off and glasses raised.

Milk and steak tonight.   Will attack Sunday tomorrow.

Both Harbaugh and Mike Hart will be getting new rings. Perhaps it’s the large amount of bourbon I’ve consumed, but this thought pleases me more than I can express at this moment. 

SEX FOR EVERYBODY

What a great collection of talented coaches they assembled this year! Every one of them deserves credit. It turns out Harbaugh IS the coach we were hoping for — it just took longer than expected. 

It's impossible to express the exact feeling that I have about this coaching staff and how they breathed energy back into the program, prepped for this season, and prepped for this game. But, let me list a few things that are top of mind...

1-The designed Cade run up the middle on 3rd and long. Just a great design when word was out that Cade cannot run the ball at all. Ever. In fact, give him the cyan for that, why don't you? I wouldn't mind seeing that again, motion-out/QB draw, with spreading them out in man coverage and the O Line delivering Cade a cool 10-15 yards downfield.

2-Playing for style points late. Some might call that unsportsmanlike, when UM was up 35-3 and driving *gasp* while passing the ball! I call that smart as fuck, because whether UM earns #1 or #2 seed could be the difference in winning it all or not. I think Coach Ferentz has been around the block enough times to know when "style points" are necessary in CFB. And, I think smashing it down a team's face is a breath of fresh air after the faux tough guy stuff we saw under Brady Hoke's regime.

3-Our guys just flat out playing their hearts out. It would have been EASY to coast after smashing the World Famous Buckeyes, and the fanbase would've shrugged it off no doubt...eventually. BUT, the team did anything but that. You have the starting WR (who probably wishes he had more targets/catches/yards this season) in Corn Jo laying out and blocking a punt. You've got a not-quite 100% Blake Corum busting his ass down there on the punt coverage team and harassing a very dangerous, but not-quite-Tim-Dwight Iowa return man. This team is a true team one-thousandfold.

4-Lastly, the myth that Harbaugh is super awkward and not a player's coach can go fuck a goat! Anyone with eyes saw exactly how much he loves his players and how much they love him. Yeah, it's easy to be happy when things are going well, and Harbaugh might not be the best public orator of all time, but the team's chemistry is off the charts. Kids are really enjoying themselves, getting a world class education, having success, and learning work ethic and mental toughness like very few places in NCAAF right now. Harbaugh truly gives a shit about his players, and you can tell they are not just a means to a next 10 year $95 million dollar contract.

The only bittersweet thing about this is the coaching staff did SO good of a job that I would expect at least a couple of them to get poached quickly for promotions.

Harbaugh put together a great staff and they are all young. Please stay together for a while!

Also, coach donating his bonuses to the staffers is a pure class move. Thank you coach Harbaugh!

Go Blue!

I don't think I can remember a Michigan staff I trusted more to make halftime adjustments.  They can win any game if they get to halftime within a score

Friends, Michiganders, Wolverines…

We gather not to bury Harbaugh, and Gattis, and McDonald…and Moore…and Jaybaugh…and Hart…

BUT TO PRAISE THEM.

LET’S. GO. BLUE!!!

That was *not* a letdown in any way.

They were motivated, well-coached and throughly prepared.

The largely-all-new-coaching-staff, which entered the season with question marks at QB, OL, DT and CB, has coached up the team to a nearly unprecedented level.  They now look like a team with no weak spots and some serious threats, which can adjust and adapt to feature its strengths as needed.

They may lose in the playoffs, may even get outcoached or blown out, but it will take our opponent's A+ game, because we're bringing our A-game each and every week now.

I mean wow, it was just fucking perfect

Great adjustment at half on both sides of the ball. 
 

Thank-you coach Harbaugh

1) Jim Harbaugh has delivered a Big-10 Championship and now also a playoff berth. (So what that it took 7 years)

2) Play calling has gone to another level.

3) Mac Donald's staff constantly adjusting.

4) They earned it! Not to mention all the hard work each day and coaching up these players.

5) WHO'S GOT IT BETTER THAN US?

Gatorade bath! 

Credit the staff all season, and again last night, for using all its weapons.  Three good RBs?  Use them all.  Two good QBs?  Ditto.  No star WR—we can use each of them in some way or other.  Same thing on the DL, seemed as if a bunch of guys got snaps.  

How about Shaun Nua? Amazing job this year with Mazi! DT play really improved over last few years. At first watch Mazi held his own against the best center in college football. 

These next few weeks of practice are crucial for next year's team.  Bradan McGregor needs to elevate his game.  Nobody can replicate what Aidan did but with a year of hard work he can get stronger and ready to make his name.  Freshman trio of JJ, Andrel, and Edwards going to be nasty next year.  

This team has so much to play for this year and looks to be in great shape moving forward.  

It's great to be a Michigan Wolverine!

Aidan Hutchinson is one of our best "coaches" - he makes everyone around him better.  A true leader.

Let's bury the whining about Harbaugh's quarterbacks "regressing" during their stay in the program.

I will admit that I let BPONE and the lack of success these last few years get to me. 

I am proudly admitting my error. Incredible job by this staff this season.

So, my only really concern with keeping Harbaugh last year was from a recruiting momentum standpoint. IE, I didn't think we had any better candidtate immediately lined up, but I was worried that if we put up disappointing records, it would get harder and harder to bring in the guys we need to beat the elite teams.

Thankfully, this regime has righted that wrong. I'm hoping this shows to recruits we know what we're doing and can actually win big games and develop guys.

This is now two consecutive games against two solid defenses (along with many other examples during the season) in which Michigan coaches come out with incredible adjustments after halftime. I’m so impressed at their ability to make in game adjustments. When our D starts slow as happened last night, I have total confidence McDonald will adjust and analyzes the game in real time with phenomenal accuracy. 

Talk about hitting homeruns on new hires AND coaching moves to new roles! Weiss, Moore to OL, Hart, Jay to ST, and the GattisBaugh fusion, whatever that is. Macdonald on D, retaining Nua, adding Bellamy, having no "Zoom" coaches. And, not to forget, a re-energized Harbaugh running the show.

It all worked and Michigan began crushing it. The culture revolutionized in one season.

Also, amazing student leadership surely played a huge role -- Cade, Hassan, Ronnie Bell, Aidan, Josh, Dax, Brad....all coaches on the field.

What a special, special team....full of leadership, guts, and aggressiveness. Steel in the spine for sure.  

My theory is that building a consistent, winning football team after a dismal period with Hoke and Rodriguez was going to be very difficult. Yes, Harbaugh had some good seasons, but there wasn't the big-win culture in the players that showed the younger players what they needed to do.

And the previous assistants were merely good, not great.

The most important thing Harbaugh can do is what he's doing now - building a winning culture, a team and a staff that knows how to win the big games.

Sometimes that takes quite a while longer than hoped. I think it's happening now. Next year, without some of the stars, will be even more difficult. But a foundation has been laid. It's time to build on it, and I think JH will do it.