October 14th, 2017 at 9:31 PM ^
Our games are starting to feel like NFL Thursday Night Football.
October 14th, 2017 at 9:03 PM ^
Haven't seen someone run that hard since Brandon Minor.
Wow, even more impressive on the second watch.
October 14th, 2017 at 9:06 PM ^
I recall him sitting on the sideline injured more than he ever ran hard.
October 14th, 2017 at 9:51 PM ^
October 15th, 2017 at 11:15 AM ^
October 15th, 2017 at 1:40 PM ^
Karan ran with amazing effort giving everything he had. Looking at these over and over today the impressive thing is he looks like the fastest guy on the field, especially on the long TD run.
October 14th, 2017 at 9:08 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 9:20 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 9:40 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 9:41 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 10:13 PM ^
Unfortunately Harbaugh's QB sample size is so small at UM. We won't know until Peters, McCaffrey, and Milton get their shots. Some guys don't show up until the lights are on so to speak. I trust in the coaches. Peters isn't playing for a reason. But, we won't know for sure until he gets some game experience. My hunch is Peters will get a shot against Rutgers, Maryland, or Minnesota.
The tackle nightmare is because of a freak injury to Newsome and LTT getting kicked off the team. O-lineman can contribute in year one or two, if they are surrounded by upperclassman. In this case, it's 3 underclassman, one first year starter (senior), and one experienced senior is not a recipe for young new starters. The o-line situation is really a Hoke issue that Harbaugh inherited. He needs another year to work this out. I suspect if Newsome and LTT were our tackles, Cole was our center, and Bredeson and Onwenu were our guards, it wouldn't seem so bad.
October 14th, 2017 at 10:38 PM ^
October 15th, 2017 at 2:20 AM ^
October 15th, 2017 at 9:42 AM ^
Most expected a rebuilding year. Many of Harbaugh's young recruits are playing (DPJ, Evans, Onwenu, Black, Gentry, Bredeson, Hill, Long, Bush, Metellus, etc.). We lost a ton of seniors to graduation and the NFL. I know we thought the QB, WR, and o-line would be better, but anyone that didn't think this would be a rebuilding year with some bumps along the way was living in a fantasy.
October 15th, 2017 at 12:48 AM ^
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.
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.
The ship will be righted, and that is quite the achievement given 2008-2014. Let's understand that there are no easy fixes, but continue deferring to a coach who has literally turned chicken shit into chicken salad EVERYWHERE he has gone.
October 15th, 2017 at 2:29 AM ^
October 15th, 2017 at 3:00 AM ^
I'm definitely not suggesting we concede games, but I am managing my expectations a bit more than I did at the beginning of the year. We just gotta hope that O'Korn can marginally improve to wear he's reading 2 routes per pass play instead of 1. That alone will probably markedly improve the pass offense.
October 15th, 2017 at 3:32 AM ^
October 15th, 2017 at 9:20 AM ^
October 15th, 2017 at 10:05 AM ^
enough with "other schools have young QBs playing great!" line. It's a simplistic observation that offers no context or analysis.OK, so basically you're saying you can't be successful in a pro style system in your first 2 years unless you're surrounded by NFL talent? There's a couple of problems that I see with analyzing this. First is, there just aren't many pro style teams that are any good. Most of the ranked teams are not running pro style offenses. What teams with a pulse play a pro style? Washington (Browning), Wisconsin (Hornibrook), Miami (Rosier), USC (Darnold), Stanford (Chryst)? I'm probably missing some. Auburn has balance and requires QB reads, but I wouldn't call them pro style. So, if most schools aren't running this system and are opting for mobile QBs with less reads, doesn't it make sense to follow suit at least initially until you have this highly ranked upperclassman QB, who apparently is incredibly hard to find? Second, although there may not be a lot of examples of underclassman QBs in pro style systems without NFL talent around them, Peters is still ranked higher than almost every other QB ranked in the top 15 with the exception of Stidham. He was ranked ahead of all these other QBs, so he should be better than them if we are saying recruiting stars are relevant to success. Finally, does your argument mean next year (his 3rd) we can expect Peters to be successful? Do you expect him to go from 3rd on the depth chart to successful starting QB in one year?
October 14th, 2017 at 9:25 PM ^
Higdon is going to kill someone in the secondary this year.
October 14th, 2017 at 9:40 PM ^
October 14th, 2017 at 9:50 PM ^
October 15th, 2017 at 2:27 AM ^
This!!! I was peak annoyed after the Walker run. Seemingly, to the naked eye, he had great burst and took a broken play to a first down...and trucked a dude at the end of it! Then he exits the game, and I don't see him. Instead, the running back platoon begins, before Higdon finally gets the bulk of the carries in the second half. I totally didn't get it.
October 15th, 2017 at 3:26 AM ^
October 15th, 2017 at 12:42 PM ^
Fair point...After I rewatched the play, I was wrong to call it "broken." Good call...