Kliff Kingsbury to USC

Submitted by Diagonal Blue on December 4th, 2018 at 11:44 AM

Bummer. Would have been a dream for him to come in and modernize our offense.

BREAKING: Kliff Kingsbury has agreed to a deal with #USC, per source.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 4, 2018

The Victors

December 4th, 2018 at 12:35 PM ^

You mean besides this season when he changed from an under-center pro-style offense to a very shotgun/pistol, spread-heavy, multiple offense to adapt to what his starting QB was best at executing?

And you act like completely changing an offense is so easy to do in a year because it went so well in RichRod's first year when he changed the offense.

We all know how you feel about Michigan football and Jim Harbaugh, but making up stuff and repeating it over and over to try and prove you have a better opinion than everyone else doesn't make it true, and is annoying, tiresome, and stupid.

Joined: 02/01/2010

MGoPoints: 1867

Diagonal Blue

December 4th, 2018 at 1:00 PM ^

People hate when you bring facts into the discussion. Our biggest rival just had a QB throw for 47 TD's this season. Meanwhile the most TD passes a Michigan QB has ever thrown in a single season is 25 back in 1986. Amazing how offensive numbers are going up everywhere but here.

Joined: 09/02/2018

MGoPoints: 587

The Victors

December 4th, 2018 at 1:20 PM ^

Who cares how many TD's a Heisman-caliber QB threw for this season? If that same QB had 3 losses and ended up 3rd in their own division standings--which OSU was a few lucky plays away from doing so--would you rather have that season or the one Michigan just had?

I care about winning--I don't care how we get there philosophically. And if you can't clearly see that Michigan is better than they were last year or 5 years ago, you're blinded by your own opinion.

Georgia and Alabama offenses are not all that different philosophically from ours and they are 2 of the best teams in the country. I don't care about piling up big offensive stats.  Fact is, you need really good players who can execute whatever style you want to play and be balanced.

I applaud OSU for adapting their offense to its strengths, which is the best WR group in the country (experienced, deep, and talented). They weren't very good at running the ball and had a great QB, so what do they do? Pass. We had 2 really good WR, but they're not very experienced and we weren't deep enough to line-up 4 or 5-wide consistently. Our pass protection, though improved, wasn't great.  

Joined: 02/01/2010

MGoPoints: 1867

username03

December 4th, 2018 at 1:33 PM ^

Georgia's offense is similar to ours that's why they lost Saturday, they turtled up with the lead. Alabama's offense is not similar, they try to score TDs, sometimes quickly. In their worst game of the year (some credit to Georgia) against a vastly superior opponent to anyone Michigan has played, with their backup QB in for the fourth quarter they still put up 35. Seriously, watch the playoff games and tell me if you see anyone running the TOP offense, much less winning with it.

Joined: 02/12/2016

MGoPoints: 14528

The Victors

December 4th, 2018 at 1:08 PM ^

How many blowouts was Shea a part of at Ole Miss where they ran the ball and/or had the backup QB for most of or all of the 4th quarter?

Fact is, Ole Miss blew out exactly 1 team in 2017--that was Louisiana-Lafayette in game 9. Otherwise, they were in close games or were getting beat/blown-out themselves and passed frequently to try and catch up.

Joined: 02/01/2010

MGoPoints: 1867

DCGrad

December 4th, 2018 at 1:52 PM ^

I hate to jump into this particular fray, but I will.  UM was behind by 8 points in the third quarter when OSU blocked a punt and scored.  UM down 15.  Michigan threw the ball on the next series.  Gentry dropped a 25+ yard pass on second down.  Shea threw a pick on third down and OSU returned it to the 7.  OSU scored quickly.  UM down 22.  The wheels fell off the wagon in a hurry in that game.  UM threw the ball 38 times and rushed 40 times.  I would wager most of the running plays happened when the game was close.  People talk about the game like we got blown out early and never caught up.  We got blown out midway through the second half and did throw to try and catch up, we just were never able to.

Joined: 09/20/2014

MGoPoints: 9255

RockinLoud

December 4th, 2018 at 11:58 AM ^

I know I'm baiting the troll here, but what specifically needs modernized? Run game was as "modern" as you can get, downfield passing was scheme was fine and largely effective when used, short passing... I would agree we definitely need some work there. What else? Hurry up? No-huddle? I'm fine with no-huddle, have mixed feelings on hurry-up. If deployed at the right times, hurry up can be very useful, so having the flexibility would definitely be nice.

Joined: 10/12/2008

MGoPoints: 24455

tonyum187

December 4th, 2018 at 12:15 PM ^

I'm no offensive expert, but I think simply throwing the ball on 1st and 2nd down a little more often would benefit the offense greatly, see Ron Utah's diary for reference use. It's awesome to have the running game be the way it is, but it becomes way more dangerous when you don't know when it's coming, I think that's what makes some offenses like Alabama and Clemson so much more capable of getting big plays. Well, that and their QB's being let off the leash a little more than ours. Shea is accurate, let him throw it around, just my opinion.

Joined: 10/30/2010

MGoPoints: 105

Kevin13

December 4th, 2018 at 12:29 PM ^

People bitching about our offense don’t know what the hell they are talking about. Shea had a damn good season throwing the ball. Higdon had roughly 1200 yards. Many receivers with multiple catches in a balanced attack. We score 39 against OSU and without a few drops probably score more and people bitch we don’t have a good offense????  Problem against OSU was the non-existent defense 

Joined: 01/26/2016

MGoPoints: 16040

Diagonal Blue

December 4th, 2018 at 12:33 PM ^

vs Notre Dame: one offensive TD until there were two minutes left in the game.

vs OSU: 19 points (6 were gift wrapped) and 180 yards of offense going into the 4th quarter of a blowout.

vs MSU: 7 points going into the 4th quarter, squandered a million chances to put the game away earlier. 

That's what we did in the three biggest games of the year. This should not be celebrated, this should be appalling to people.

Joined: 09/02/2018

MGoPoints: 587

Soulfire21

December 4th, 2018 at 12:04 PM ^

Per S&P+ his offenses were 26th, 13th, 39th, 19th, 1st, 25th, and 25th. Ours is currently 24th this year.

I fully admit he could be a boon to certain deficient areas of our offense - like obvious passing downs and slow play progression - but I am skeptical that he's a panacea.

Joined: 03/18/2010

MGoPoints: 22716

Magnus

December 4th, 2018 at 12:11 PM ^

It wouldn't have been a dream. Harbaugh's style and Kingsbury's style do not mesh. If you want a Kingsbury offense, you might as well fire Harbaugh.

I don't know why people can't understand this.

Now that Paul Johnson is retired from Georgia Tech, I think Harbaugh should hire him to run Michigan's offense with all the fullbacks and tight ends!

Joined: 07/17/2008

MGoPoints: 166007

Diagonal Blue

December 4th, 2018 at 12:30 PM ^

I want Harbaugh to evolve and adapt like John Beilein has. When John Beilein was hired at UM he ran a 1-3-1 on defense and a motion offense. After a few years of things not working how he wanted them to he fired all of his assistants and went to a high ball screen offense and a man to man defense. He's since hired someone to completely run the defense, he's started recruiting primarily top 100 guys, and the offense is now always among the nation's most efficient and best.

Harbaugh is stuck on doing things his way and when it doesn't work he has no answer for it. He can keep watching his offense disappear in big games against team with equal or better talent, or he can get with the times like Nick Saban did make it a strength of his program. 

Joined: 09/02/2018

MGoPoints: 587

The Victors

December 4th, 2018 at 12:47 PM ^

I find it hilarious that you're NOW a Beilein-lover.  Yes, he's winning a lot now, but he's still rarely recruiting 5-star types like you want football to only recruit.

So which is it? Would you rather have a 5-star recruit like Derrick Green or Ty Isaac with average or less production?  Or a productive 3-star recruit like Higdon?

Joined: 02/01/2010

MGoPoints: 1867

Diagonal Blue

December 4th, 2018 at 12:51 PM ^

Derrick Green wasn't a 5 star recruit according to the 247 composite.

But give me a 5 star recruit each and every day of the week over the 3 star and twice on Saturday. 

BTW, as good of a season as Higdon had here after watching Bama-UGA he's not seeing carries for either of those teams. 

Joined: 09/02/2018

MGoPoints: 587

The Victors

December 4th, 2018 at 2:54 PM ^

Yes, Green was a 5-star. https://247sports.com/Player/Derrick-Green-12364/

And if you're going to constantly compare and expect the recruiting classes to be at the level of Alabama every year, you're going to be disappointed 9 out of 10 years. What Saban and Alabama are doing is legendary and we really haven't seen since what? John Wooden at UCLA?

Joined: 02/01/2010

MGoPoints: 1867

Magnus

December 4th, 2018 at 3:33 PM ^

Nick Saban is defensive coach. He's involved with the defensive backs. Naturally, he's more inclined to hand over the reins of the offense to someone else.

Harbaugh is an offensive coach. He's not going to take his fullbacks and tight ends and hand them over to a dude who wants to run 5-man protections all the time and throw the ball 60 times.

Of course there are things he can improve, but I don't want him to be the coach of an Air Raid team, because then he's only operating at 80% capacity because he's not in his realm of expertise. If Warde Manuel wants an Air Raid offense, then he needs to go out and find the next Lincoln Riley or Mike Leach or Josh Heupel or whoever.

Joined: 07/17/2008

MGoPoints: 166007