Nick Saban says old school football (great defense, ball control offense) is NOT enough to win in CFB

I agree with everything you said.  I am of the opinion Michigan has everything they need to compete at the highest level in terms of the actual program (coaching, talent, recruits, etc).  Unfortunatley, it seemed like for decades Michigan had no idea what to do against good teams with a mobile QB.  Once Don Brown figured that out (and kudos, he did) we are right back to where we were at with teams that use tempo, can pass block and throw the ball, which because of rule changes has become easier and easier.

It is just so frustrating to see the same thing over and over again and have coaching that refuses to embrace this offensive philosophy or implement defensive strategies that are designed to contain this type of offense (because you aren't going to stop it).  Maybe one day a coconut will fall on the right persons' head and we will see some real changes.  

Saban is wrong and you are wrong.  We just haven't tried Harbaugh's offense long enough.  Besides, all trends always come back.  So, if we just stay the course, we should be fine in another 15 years.

Agreed and nicely done Frank Chuck. 

Harbaugh when he figures this out:

In his defense, I think he kind of figured it out two years ago, he just hired an OC that wasn't capable of running an elite offense and has failed to recruit a QB able to lead one.  Knowing is one thing, executing is another.

I don't think we'll ever see rules changes that would effectively even up the current disparity towards offense.  High scoring games sell more.  No advertiser wants to throw money at a game everyone knows will end 14-12 - whether that's from really good defense, or poor offense.

HARD disagree. There's far more talent and elite athleticism on display than even a decade ago. Its good and better football. 

Unfortunately, this is a metaphor for what is wrong in the state of Michigan, not just the football program.  Change is frowned upon. New ideas are summarily rejected or passively/aggressively impaired.  Old guard leaders and their followers live in and want to recreate the past.  The unwillingness to try new things causes open minded people to seek greener pastures.  The cycle becomes self-sustaining and reinforcing until irrelevancy looms.  

My thoughts exactly. 

99% of the teams in college football can't get anywhere close to the kind of athletes he brings in every year.  Whatever "philosophy" it takes to win will be shockingly easy for him because he'll always have the endless loads of 5 stars to do it.  The rest of us don't have that luxury. 

Is he trying to give the rest of college football advice because he's so bored coaching a team who wins a national championship game 52-24?  Rich people problems. 

I support Harbaugh as well because he's the coach and I want the team to be successful. However, I don't expect him to "fix this". I'm fully expecting to be frustrated with the team's performance against upper tier programs this season just like I have been for most of Harbaugh's tenure. What makes you think Harbaugh can fix this in light of his track record at Michigan, particularly since the end of the 2016 season? 

Well despite the lofty recruiting rankings associated with those two QBs, let’s look closer at their actual games. Recruiting rankings don’t tell the whole story. 
 

Shea was a good QB. But he couldn’t hit the deep ball to save his (or the team’s) life and he flat out refused (although possibly due to injury) to keep the ball on arc-reads. Two glaring issues in his game that undoubtedly would have taken this team and offense to a new level and put him in conversation as an elite QB. 
 

McCaffrey was/is young so it’s hard to judge how his career would have/will turn out. But he didn’t show an awful lot with his arm in his short playing time and he came in and left as a tall/skinny QB that got hurt when he got hit a few times. We never really got to see McCaffrey leading the offense so there’s an incomplete grade there in my opinion.
 

Now when Shea arrived, we installed quite a bit of RPO concepts and the arc-read concepts into our offense. So I’d disagree that we haven’t implemented some of that modern spread that people are talking about. Maintaining some of Harbaugh’s concepts has been an issue and could be creating a cohesion issue as well, but to say neither QB has been used for modern spread schemes is just inaccurate. 
 

Now the “Elite QB statement,” comes from the fact that all of our QBs have had a glaring issue in their game that has hindered the offense. If Shea could hit a deep ball and had kept on the read a few times, that’s an elite QB. If McCaffrey could have stayed healthy, he would have been a huge asset on offense. If Milton was more consistent and accurate,  you’re looking at a potential all-American. But alas, those issues existed and limited the offense. 

RB's as pass catching terrorists

Agree with what you said, but I just had to say that I really loved this phrase. Excellent work! 

But I'll be watching, and I'll have a fairly quick trigger finger if I don't see the required changes to bring Michigan football into modern offensive times. 

This will be the year I promise. Or the next year. Gattis just needs a 5 star qb with a year in the program. Well actually the year after that, I dont think our WR will be what we were hoping, but for sure the next year. Well maybe not, the oline will need time to gel so Im thinking it comes together the next... never mind we all just died of old age.

This, above all, is why I roll my eyes at all of the comments on this board begging for former Michigan players to come back and coach. Some are good options but above all this program needs new blood in the way Yost and Chrisler and Bo were new blood. In particular, replacing Bump Elliott. Whom this board would hire in a heartbeat, had it existed then, because as a player he won championships. 

if I recall correctly, the team that beat Meyer and Tebow was not the same team that played the regular season. Oh, to see the offense that played that day all the time in Carr's day...

Harbaugh has Gattis, who came from Alabama, but seemingly doesn't have the keys to the car to drive this offense where it needs to go

This is so hard for fans to assess.  Is the problem that JH is middling with the play calling or that the QBs simply can't do what the coaches want so they have to alter the play calling?  I honestly have no idea and can see what seems like both happening.  But, I feel like if hypothetically we ever found a QB that can read the defense, find open WRs, deliver accurate throws to them, and be able to effectively run an effective RPO then the offense would really take off.  It seems like neither Patterson nor Milton were able to do that every consistently under Gattis, which forced alterations to the scheme.  Was that Gattis' call or JH's?  Your guess is as good as mine, but wtf are you gonna do when the QB can't run the offense?