Ohio State Snowflakes: The Coaching

Monkey off back. 

This team showed composure, grit and resilience unlike any of the previous teams - at least from my non insider POV. When OSU score in the 2nd half, the offense answered repeatedly. When OSU tried to bully the UM players, they stood their ground and kept their cool … and then played lights out football.

Congrats to JH and the whole staff. Great program win.

Great game plan from Gattis today. The reverse to Henning on the first TD was a work of art. They put the Edwards wheel route on film last week and then came back the other way today. Beautiful. 

Great job from Macdonald as well. Not just today but all season. Guys like Mazi and Gray looked lost at times last season but played like stars today. 

Our coaching staff just outcoached one of the best coaches in CFB so thoroughly that we dominated an athletically superior  team in the biggest game of the year and biggest game of the harbaugh era. Not much more to say than that. Legendary coaching performance!

Masterpiece on both sides of the ball. Ive been critical of Harbaugh and Gattis but today, and this season has been outstanding. 
 

Harbaugh has to be coach of the year 

We used the pass to set up the run game. When we needed it to seal the deal, Haskins blasted them. Bizarro Michigan.

Glad Harbaugh didn’t have to die trying.  Me too!

This is the first time in a long time that the players and coaches had each other back.  The coaches made the correct calls and the players made the play.   They didn't make any dumb penalties on offense or defense.  Theymade the plays.  They won the game.  

Mike Hart- the all time great Michigan running back who (almost) never fumbled is coaching a group that does not fumble. That is not a coincidence. I remember when he played it wasn't just "take care of the ball" but he had something about 5 points of contact with the ball and was scientific about it. Love Mike!

Was wrong about extending Harbaugh and couldn’t be happier to admit it. Go blue! If I could capture This feeling in a bottle…

It was great. Things all came together for Harbaugh, Gattis, and Macdonald. The Wolverines were just better and executed better. Totally outcoached Ryan Day's staff, beat a more talented team, and took away their dominant hand. You have to wonder if the younger coaching staff might just be helping the team "get hype" for big games this year, as opposed to sleepy 50/60-year-olds. 

On offense, we saw some legit "speed in space" married to the ground-and-pound Harbaughffense. 9.5 YPA passing (vs 8.0 YPA for OSU) and 7.2 YPC rushing (vs 2.1 YPC for OSU). Execution was fantastic (2 PENALTIES!!!), so clean. Play calling and timeout usage both on point.

Incredibly, I thought UM even had the usual "bad turnover luck," (Stroud recovered some fumbled exchanges, Moten dropped a sure INT that gave OSU a FG, McNamara's throw into coverage), but Michigan played so damn clean that it just didn't matter.

I hope that Harbaugh soaks this one up because the man deserves it so bad after getting shit on about big games for years. He proved that he can win the big game and earned this one with an emphatic beat down of OSU.

Now let those sweet, sweet contract incentives kick in.

Masterpiece of a coaching performance.  In the second half you could really see it was a season long effort for them this time.  It showed everywhere.  There was no one huge moment, but a large pile of good on top of good on top of good.  It was just masterful.

Jim Harbaugh is your Coach of the Year, with Brady Hoke runner-up.

Re-read that sentence and tell me you would've predicted this time last year that these two would be standing here today 22-2.

I am over the moon after this victory!

Give Jim his $2M bonuses for reaching B10 Title and winning the B10 East. High probability of reaching CFP. 
 

love the game plan on both offense and defense. Creative, intelligent. Always a step ahead of OSU 

Tonight we ride!! Go blue!! 

As God is my witness, I haven’t a clue what to do.  I mean, I’m just so damn happy.  I’ll just have to watch football and drink beer. 

It was good!

I wonder what percentage of commenters praising Harbaugh today wanted him fired last year? He’s still the same guy and the same coach, and he’s always been a good coach. His record proves that. 
 

Reality is that this year there were great players like Haskins and Hutchinson who refused to lose. Fans tend to focus solely on the Head Coach, but he doesn’t take any snaps. In the lead up, great game plans from years past were brought up, but try to think of individual players from Harbaugh’s past OSU games who truly rose to the occasion. There haven’t been many, but that changed today. Coaches are supposed to help players win games, but in the end it’s the players who actually win or lose. They sure won today.

Our coaches SUCKED DICK and Ryan Day and Kevin Wilson should be ashamed of what they tried to do today. Yours did enough to win against a (probably) more talented team today. Can’t do anything but give kudos to your coaching staff.

Perfect!!  I loved the playcalling and the defense managed to limit the Buckeyes' big plays.

Finally. After 6 years, what we thought we were getting in 2015 or what we would see in 2018 has materialized with Harbaugh, the staff and the team. I've been about as hard as any on Jim, and in my view its been well deserved. He had gained the old "Clemsoning" reputation. Now he has finally put that to bed and I won't disparage anything that came this year. Many of the questions this team had early in the year have been answered, speed in space has finally begun to appear and team toughness is greatly evident. Not the perfect team, but I can't complain about them as they have achieved more than I expected by a wide margin.

Congrats Coach Harbaugh, coaching staff and players. This was a well coached and executed game. I celebrate today with you!

It’s very obvious Ryan Ray had Don Browns number from their years together. Macdonald was a much needed change. 

I'm sure someone else has said the following in the posts below, but Josh Gattis just called his best, most complete game as UM's Offensive Coordinator. He kept the foot on the gas and exploited areas that the osu defense struggled against. I've been a skeptic, but he earned his keep today.

Macdonald did a phenomenal job as well. The defense bent, but didn't break today. Never saw the huge plays osu has destroyed us with in recent years. Secondary had great coverage all game, and it took phenomenal play by the osu wideouts to get theirs. 

At the end of the day, from a coaching standpoint, it falls on the shoulders of the head man. Congrats Coach Harbaugh. You earned this one.

Turns out the exhaust port on this death star was just being the better fucking football team.

All year this team, when punched in the mouth, just gets up and punches back. You could see OSU getting rattled from the first series or two in the second half.

Credit all of the coaching changes. But also, credit guys like Hutch that came back with a mission. This team fucking rocks. On to Indy!

Build Jim a statue; right next to Lloyd's.  Tear down Bo's

The team was prepared, physically and mentally. And the coaches called an excellent game.

Hats off to the entire coaching staff!

Credit to Harbaugh - coaching changes bore fruit.

It was very nice to watch this game and realize, slowly but surely, that Michigan was outcoaching OSU across the board.

And it's not like OSU didn't adjust - it's that we had counters prepped and drilled for their adjustments!

Michigan had 2 penalties, OSU had 10.

Harbaugh and Gattis have come in for a lot of flack over the years.  Today answers for all of it:

10 plays, 75 yds, TD
2 plays, 24 yards, INT
8 plays, 30 yards, PUNT
3 plays, 3 yards, PUNT
13 plays, 82 yards, TD
3 plays, 81 yards, TD
5 plays, 78 yards, TD
9 plays, 66 yards, TD
5 plays, 63 yards, TD

That is a flat out dominant performance.  No setting for FG, and a complete and total paving in the 2nd half by the OL.

All of the previews said the same things:
- win the turnover battle (one each plus a turnover-on-downs for OSU, but they punted 3 times to our two)
- limit big plays on D (check)
- pressure on Stroud (check)
- grind out drives to limit their offensive touches (check)
- put pressure on OSU LBs on offense (check)

Absolute coaching masterclass all around.

The game plan was wonderful. This staff seems to be on top of things. Each game they have a different scheme to attack weaknesses. Something we haven’t seen in a while. Future looking good. Recruits need to see this and start signing up. 

This wan't a win, it was a BUTT WHOOPIN.  Just read the 11w threads. Our offense and D lines had their way with OSU all game!  That is coaching. Harbaugh brought coaches in that put it together. So many were writing this team of after 2020. These guys are in a great possition. We were a few bad calls away from 12-0 so far. That is amzing!   

Now we get ready for Iowa!   LETS GO BLUE!!!

I gave up on them after the MSU game. I was wrong. So so wrong. I've never been happier to be wrong in my life.

60 minutes of dominance. I never saw it coming. To all those who urged optimism: I bow to your superior attitude. Wow.

Time outs and tempo - why the hell didn't they call a  timeout before that last OSU touchdown?  OSU scouted our inability to play fast and took advantage of it.  The timeout was there to be used.

We all knew the OSU's defense was overrated but it was nice to see Harbaugh and Haskins and a long list of contributors proving it.

It as nice to see such an outstanding level of play.  Um, for those that thought OSU's tackles were good enough to (not too young) to handle TWO all-star DEs, well, now you know.

The play call to get Henning wide open on the first TD, the flea flicker, JJ play action pass down the sideline, the play action on 3rd and short..they opened up the offensive playbook big time. And the thing is, we didn't even really need to since Haskins could not be stopped!

I'm not going to read all the post here, but I'm sure this has been mentioned many many times. But I'm so hyped I just have to get it out.

Harbaugh took a HUGE pay cut to come back, with a team that was not expected to do well, and had his best coaching season at UM and one of his best of all time. This is the season that Harbaugh will be remembered for - we have three more games.

We put Ohio into a position where their best strategy was to stop trying and let us score. Yes, we outcoached and outplayed them today. So satisfying. 

Great defensive effort - gave up yardage in the air but not the big play. Clamped down the running game.

Best offensive effort - Gattis didn't give up on the running game - and the OL showed the OSU defense isn't as advertised - ran in and around the OSU defense. Amazing that the defensive coordinator was a last moment hire!

This team reminds me of the team I watched as a grad student in the 1980s (when Harbaugh was the QB).  Tough, disciplined, and talented.

Go Blue!

The monkey is finally dead.