So, what DO you think the issue is?

every time Michigan has a bad offensive game people just jump to the message board to bemoan "playcalling" and can't make any actual specific complaints. Michigan fumbled away three drives and had a touchdown taken away. if one of those three doesn't happen they win in regulation against a team in a way that we all expected preseason given the incredibly annoying style of opponent. If they're going to fumble three times a game and shea is going to be hurt all season, yeah, that'll be a problem. if not, they'll be fine. people need to calm the fuck down. they're 2-0 which is better than we could say last year for a team that was objectively the best in the B1G for 11 games. 

Bad decisions....the whole program seems to be suffering from bad decisions. 

I think the issue is you shouldn't have started this topic. It's been beaten to death.

But anyway, my answer is that the problems are mostly on the coaches.

In recruiting, we have settled for too many fair-to-middling guys. Not sure if it's the constraints or academic requirements at Michigan or coaches not putting in the work or just not being great recruiters. We have too many "just guys" on this team.

In practice, the coaches have made every QB in the system worse. The coaches don't do enough to fix the mental errors. We have heard a lot about "putting steel in the spine", but the team shows the opposite - they are not mentally tough, and it shows.

In games, the coaches are also mentally fragile, making bad decisions in EOH and other situations and going back to an overly conservative gameplan that has cost us games in the past. When you only win a small fraction of your "big" games, that is clear evidence of fragility.

I'm ready to say that I hate this coaching staff. I suppose Gattis deserves some time, but everyone else has made Michigan football one of the most unenjoyable, unwatchable things out there for me. I'd be fine if Harbaugh left.

Michigan football is cursed. Plain and simple. We have talented athletes, and a talented coach who has proven himself at both college and the NFL levels.

Only logical explanation here is Michigan football is cursed, I blame climate change. 

Shea spent too much time on the golf course this summer and not enough time with Gattis watching film and studying the playbook. Josh Gattis thinks this is the issue as well or he wouldn't have said so in his first fall presser. 

Turnovers and the challenge of changing to a an entirely new offense is what your seeing.  Don’t over think it.  Hopefully they can get the offense dialed in quickly!

I think I remember Meyer (or someone) on Fox saying how fast they can move to a spread offense (and do it well) will define how the season goes.  Hate to say it but It seems he is correct so far.

Maybe the kids are under too much pressure. Need to play relaxed and have some fun.  Fanbase needs to relax too.

So many bitches on this site. Army is good. Look at OU last year. They’ll probably win out. A bad coach doesn’t adapt. He’s adapted every year. 2 live games integrating a system is not enough time. Especially when one game limits you to half the normal possessions and zero rhythm. Fumbles accounted for the majority of the stalls and are completely random. That will normalize. Harbaugh is by far the best coach we could have gotten and could currently have. For the love of god, STFU with constant whining because we’re not Clemson and Alabama yet. Before him this program was trash. 

All of our fumbles this year have turned into short field scores for the other team. Don’t turn the damn ball over.  That is the biggest thing.  

Defense is tight, coordinated, playing their asses off. Offense is sloppy as hell...and someone said it in another thread, if shea keeps playing like he was on a golf course all offseason, then make the hard call Coach and give the ball to Dylan.  

I think not letting Shea keep it on run plays is really hurting us.  Either let him keep it when it's wide open, or if we're that concerned about his health, just play McCaffrey and let Shea rest.  Oh and fumbles.  Fumbles are really hurting us.

Given the consistent level of ineptitude with different players on offense, it starts with the coaching and since this is Harbaugh's side of the ball - it falls on him. 

Defensively - the gap in the middle of the defensive line is a major concern. Outside of the last drive of the game where Hutchinson made that big play, we did not have one defensive tackle blow up the option all game. That will kill the team against run heavy teams in the big ten. We need to have some Freshman step up in the two deep this year at that position. 

Globally - I think the issue is culture. Harbaugh is way too positive in my opinion and the team is soft with limited enforced accountability. I was at the game and it seems like the players just go through the motions pregame, whereas the Army team was practicing with a high level of intensity and togetherness. Motivation is half the battle in college sports and if the team doesn't practice with a high level of intensity and want to, then mistakes are magnified on game day. It seems like the team has been this way for awhile. 

I feel like the offense is based on a strong QB running threat. Saturday it seemed like Shea was told to not pull it due to injury concerns even though the reads were there. We've seen him make those reads over and over previously.

In this case I'm surprised we didn't have an answer to a hurt QB with more creative runs instead of HB draw.  In the passing game seemed as if we always had a crossing route open and we had quite a few drops/close throws.

Run it up the middle for 10 straight times (under 3 yards a carry average) to finish regulation.  Just piss poor turtling play calling.

They are lucky not to be 1-1 right now...& my optimism for the season went down the shitter yesterday. 

We go out against Osu in second half with a chance to take lead, gain momentum & who knows.?  Same run it up the middle turtling Bullshit as yesterday.

We won...but sure feels like a loss. Top notch coaching is a must to compete for championships. We're not seeing it right now - not even close.

Harbaugh is making millions of dollars, living in the city that he loves, and has more entitlement than the mayor. His fire has burned out and he is just riding a wave until his ass is fired. His teams are soft and not disciplined.....end of story.

Maybe it’s Harbaugh. We keep changing o.c. And other assistant coaches. But the one constant is Harbaugh. It is the same old crap every year.

Harbaugh just isn’t that good of a coach.  He rode Luck and luck to a few aberrational seasons.  Otherwise he is just okay and not at all what Michigan fans expected.  

After logging every offensive play of that game I think the 1st half  calls were good. 18 throws and 16 runs. Second half became run heavy with 13 throws 22 runs. The reason for keeping the ball on the ground is time of possession. IMO, the coaches wanted the defense to not have to go right back and defend. Turnovers put he D on the field for more of the 1st half than they would have liked. Three turnovers meant three short drives in the 1st half with only 1 full drive for the offense The first drive of  3rd quarter the D looked fatigued. That would be enough reason to eat clock with the run. Though 6 runs went for little or no gains. they were spread out over the second half. The other 16 runs earned about 65 or so yards. I see an unusually different strategy applied to a very unusual team. The miscues were terrible but I don't fault the scheme. Some calls were missed but in the end, the D won  under the gun.

I said something over the summer about this.  Everyone on here was so convinced the defense wouldn't miss a beat and the offense would become a freaking rocket because of Gattis.  I simply said the concerns for you guys should be #1 how do you replace the defensive guys you lost last year (coaches included) and #2 how do you assume a guy who has never had control over an offense to come in and change the entire system, with players from an old system, and it's going to be magical?

I was labeled as a troll...but I was dead serious.  Just assuming that a glorified WR coach is going to revolutionize a 30 year old offense and there won't be issues was a bad idea.

BUT, it was Army...you won.  I'd say (for your own sake), just take that and move forward.  You are 2-0.  That's all that matters.  As a OSU fan I can describe a couple of seasons in the past two decades where it looked like we were going to get blown out in the Taxslayer.com bowl after a couple of regular season games and there are NC banners now hanging.  You guys need to not beat your chests so hard every year in the summer to then just turn on the team completely once you face a little adversity.

Gravity man...gravity