Penn State Snowflakes: The Coaching
November 13th, 2021 at 7:47 PM ^
Harbaugh goes on the road, and BEATS a AP top 25 team, to put the team in position of possibly making the playoff.
Same thing, huh? Idiot.
November 13th, 2021 at 9:16 PM ^
Indeed. Harbaugh has done a great job this year. Totally revamped the team and coaching staff and created a team that is outstanding. Any fair assessment has to conclude that the team maximizes its talent, is well organized, makes very few mistakes, and performs well in the clutch.
November 13th, 2021 at 3:38 PM ^
That play call to scheme All open was brilliant. Also, Harbaugh ecstatic at the end of the game there with All warms my heart.
November 13th, 2021 at 4:00 PM ^
The crazy thing about the media bashing Harbaugh all the time is that he’s a really good person. He’s one of the last people Finebaum should attack personally.
November 13th, 2021 at 4:18 PM ^
Pawwl Finebaum is the tooliest of tools.
November 13th, 2021 at 4:31 PM ^
Pete can kiss my ass.
November 14th, 2021 at 12:14 AM ^
Just be careful what you ask for in life....
November 13th, 2021 at 4:33 PM ^
Don’t forget the Franklin is a lock for USC while Harbaugh can’t get it done narrative. Both teams were awful last year. One continues to disappoint despite being a veteran squad. The media loves talking shit about Harbaugh although it was great to hear Sean McDonagh remind everyone of Harbaugh’s fantastic resume.
November 13th, 2021 at 4:38 PM ^
It was also McDonough who wondered if USC would be interested in a 6-4 coach.
November 13th, 2021 at 5:20 PM ^
Why don't we scheme receivers open and run rub routes more often
November 13th, 2021 at 7:05 PM ^
He had every reason to be both ecstatic and grateful. His life/career was flashing in front of his eyes in those last minutes. If Michigan loses that game in the fashion that it was playing out-OH MY!!!
November 14th, 2021 at 3:09 AM ^
Coach Harbaugh.
November 13th, 2021 at 3:38 PM ^
What a great win!
November 13th, 2021 at 4:34 PM ^
Absolutely. Basically guarantees 10 wins this season, gives us 2 ranked/underdog (depending on whether you go by ranked at the time, in the AP, or ranking later in the season) on the road, and sets up for another shot at everything vs Ohio State (at home this time!)
Maybe this catapults us into Harbaugh's first 11 win season here (either via bowl game or simply beating Ohio State)? That would be astounding considering our expectations when the season started.
November 13th, 2021 at 3:39 PM ^
Good coaching. Good execution.
Good win. REALLY good win.
Go Blue!
November 13th, 2021 at 3:39 PM ^
Idc if we won, fire all of them. Garbage
November 13th, 2021 at 3:45 PM ^
Great take dude…
November 13th, 2021 at 4:08 PM ^
You are so edgy and cool.
The team you supposedly root for won a big and important game. Go be happy.
If you wanna be miserable and not give any useful discourse just go do something else.
November 13th, 2021 at 4:48 PM ^
Every single one of them?
What did the equipment manager do wrong?
I challenge you to give me a valid reason why Mike Hart deserves to be canned.
Stop drinking your white claws ya baby.
November 13th, 2021 at 4:50 PM ^
It's going to take major surgery to dislodge whatever is stuck up your anus.
November 13th, 2021 at 5:04 PM ^
Huge, comeback win on the road and this is your take.
Maybe the problem is you, bud.
November 13th, 2021 at 7:06 PM ^
I'm so glad Ohio got Toledo and Michigan got the Upper Peninsula
Even Mike Hart?
November 13th, 2021 at 8:41 PM ^
You sound mad that M won. Are you sure you don't root for the other guys down south.
November 13th, 2021 at 3:39 PM ^
Didn't like our 4th and 2 call or the fact we gave up the punt fake coming out of a timeout. The rest of that game was fine.
November 13th, 2021 at 3:39 PM ^
Hassan Haskins saves this coaching staff yet again featuring Erick All.
November 13th, 2021 at 4:03 PM ^
And the fact that this staff recruited him and gave him a chance at tailback (when most were calling him a linebacker) totally doesn’t matter, of course.
November 13th, 2021 at 4:04 PM ^
You beat me to this post,great minds think alike
November 13th, 2021 at 4:07 PM ^
The punt fake after a timeout. I forgot to be mad about that.
November 13th, 2021 at 4:20 PM ^
Wrong thread, coaching, for giving up that punt fake. They put that kid in exactly the right place and there he was to stop that fake, and he flubbed it. Young. Wouldn’t be too hard on the kid either, but coaches did everything right on that fake punt — players didn’t execute.
There were several instances like that in first quarter where we just about made a huge play and instead Clifford did. (Credit to that kid. He was getting slaughtered, and still played that well.)
November 14th, 2021 at 7:27 AM ^
UM offense also broke out another new short yardage formation and play that worked, twice iirc, on other occasions. And play action pass TD to Wilson from goal line was also new. (What a catch of laser throw over last-second ducking umpire!) So, yeah, our 4th and 2 call wasn’t great, and execution was horrendous on the O line and maybe Haskins plunging into the mess, but otherwise: UM outcoached a PSU team whose players nearly did overcome their lousy in-game coaching through great guts and effort.
November 13th, 2021 at 4:26 PM ^
Fine? Really? I'm ecstatic we won but man Gattis play calling was atrocious. D was OK but still tons of miscommunication caused by tempo and giving up three 4th down conversions + a 2 pt on the game tying drive was brutal. Might want to double Dotson at some point on that drive Mike!
November 13th, 2021 at 5:32 PM ^
I always have trouble with unspecific criticisms of the "play-calling." If those plays worked would they be atrocious? Or are they atrocious because they didn't work? Did all those runs up the middle on first down in the first half set up that first touchdown pass, because it caught the defense by surprise -- and wear the Penn State defense down in the second half?
Should we ... not run up the middle? Haskins got over 150 yards! What ... what would people do differently, regardless of whether it worked or not!
I mean ... we stopped Penn State a lot in this game too -- they had one touchdown all game! Does that mean they had terrible play-calling too?
It's just stupid. By definition, the plays Gattis and Harbaugh call that don't work are stupid, and the plays that do work (the crossing route to All, for instance) are brilliant, and they obviously should have been doing that all game, right?
Give me a break.
November 14th, 2021 at 1:22 PM ^
I am going to be the devil's advocate, even though I am certainly not in that group shitting on a win today. I am very much the opposite. They might be talking about the offense stalling with chances to step on PSU's throat. The 14-6 period of time in the game is an example. I was hoping the offense could assemble a drive to make it 21-6 in the second half and thereby put the game mostly out of reach. But that did not happen and we ended up losing the lead and having to fight back to get a win. Losing the lead felt very wrong with how Michigan was dominating after the first quarter.
The PSU defense was good but it did feel like Michigan's offense lost a handful of opportunities to salt the game away earlier on.
Again, I am not shitting on the team one bit. It was a gutsy win and a win that needs to be celebrated. Just explaining my own thoughts as the game progressed.
November 14th, 2021 at 2:03 PM ^
I'm with you on this.
Much of it, I believe, is that we, as fans, bring so many different levels of understand to the game of football.
I for the life of me, have never been able to get my head completely around offensive line blocking schemes. So unless it's obvious like a running back ignoring a blitzing LB, I often don't know what the hell happened until I watch it 5 times--just slow that way i guess.
That is the beauty and the curse: you can just cheer or bitch. Every good play is the play you would have called, every bad one is obviously a stupid-ass decision by some dumb-ass that should have known better and should be fired and replaced with your grandmother, who can call a better game and she's dead.
Doesn't take any effort to do that.
Just wish people would chill a bit and grasp the big picture of the game before crucifying coaches and players. It isn't a video game. It is a dynamic, fluid situations that involves multiple reads by multiple players and coaches. Personal decisions are huge: your players get caught on the field, but your other players get to rest, is it worth it? Will you need those timeouts? How tired are their guys? Run the ball to set-up play action & keep their players home, or just air it out ala Mike Leach?
Add in the QB & center reading the defense while 100,000 deranged fans are screaming, matching your guys up with their dangerman(men), and getting the crap pounded out of you. All this and you have people making mistakes and making plays. That is awesome.
This team is a well-coached, competative, focused team that has far exceeded expectations and is 9-1.
Enjoy the ride!
Go Blue!
November 13th, 2021 at 11:57 PM ^
What a garbage take. Dotson and his /checks notes, 60 some odd yards with a long of 17 on the day really galled you huh? Go ahead and point out some specific examples of Gattis's atrocious playcalling for us, I'd love to hear your specific analysis. I was highly critical of the call on 4th and 2, but otherwise he schemed up two beautiful drives when it absolutely mattered and overall put his guys in a position to win and attack the PSU defense; I can't tell you how many teams would've gone away from Haskins after falling behind 14-17, but we didn't and it ultimately set up the game winning play. The redzone play calling was a thing of beauty this week.
Feel free to cite the last time Michigan was able to get the ball back needing a first down to ice the game and actually picked up said first down as well.
Gattis has had a tremendous season, and what our defense and defensive staff have accomplished after the prior two seasons is nothing short of a revelation. "Brutal" to describe a 17 point effort on defense with a single TD?
November 13th, 2021 at 5:05 PM ^
The fake punt was covered. Quinten Johnson just mistimed it
November 13th, 2021 at 5:49 PM ^
Geez, didn't ANYBODY like that call?
November 13th, 2021 at 7:09 PM ^
I’m confused as to why using your best players to win football games is a bad move by the coaching staff
November 13th, 2021 at 9:49 PM ^
So the guys that coached recruited, developed and designed and called the plays to put them into position to make the plays needed to win are some mindless twits that are only responsible for the imperfect plays and not anything else. Ever.
Got it.
November 13th, 2021 at 10:07 PM ^
And Roman Wilson I guess.
And Cade for that matter. And Hutch & Ojabo.
Actually, a lot of guys made one or two plays that in hindsight facilitated the win. You're just missing a lot because that game looked like it was going bad before Michigan dug down and mined out a tough win. Be happy! This game is why we're here in the first place.
November 14th, 2021 at 5:27 PM ^
i think he had the correct defense for the fake but players messed up
November 13th, 2021 at 3:39 PM ^
fire harbaugh!! his teams never come back on the road!!
/s for the downhearted. i think he did a fine job and the team showed great backbone.
November 13th, 2021 at 3:39 PM ^
When Franklin and Harbaugh go head to head i always get a 27 for 27 vibe. Glad ours prevailed! Go blue!
November 13th, 2021 at 3:40 PM ^
They both love to bash their head into the wall over and over so yeah.
November 13th, 2021 at 4:26 PM ^
try it.
November 14th, 2021 at 10:52 AM ^
And then keep trying it.
November 13th, 2021 at 3:39 PM ^
I’m strangely glad for Harbaugh and the coaching staff. This is an odd feeling - pulling out a close game and being genuinely glad for the staff to shake that bad juju
November 13th, 2021 at 4:12 PM ^
I'd like to believe the best case scenario for any Michigan fan is for Harbaugh to pull it together and live up to the expectations there when he came in.
November 13th, 2021 at 3:40 PM ^
Just here to say I think this was a well coached game. Execution was suspect due to the qb checkdowns and wr plays