Spring Football Bits: 24/7 "5 things we're confident about post spring practice"
You can put me on record with this: Some part of the Michigan fanbase will be unhappy. There will be intra-fanbase bickering. Someone will lose their shit and be banned from the board.
We call that “Tuesday afternoon” around these parts.
Like every season in the history of sports, we don't know crap until they lace 'em up.
What we're seeing now is a distrust that we will win the big games, so updates are an annoyance instead of an excitement. That being said, cheering the team along the same way I always do and hoping to be pleasantly surprised.....
April 12th, 2021 at 10:51 PM ^
+1 to you good sir for the well positioned hockey reference.
I just want to know who I need to place all my unrealistic hopes and expectations on this season.
Are you talking about our Spring Practice Heisman? I believe that was Joe Milton last season. Spring Practice is such a great determination of who will star in the Fall.
Ummmm.....kinda hard to be the "Spring Practice Heisman", when there was no Spring Practice, last year.
Last year, it was FALL practice only, then they got thrown directly into conference games.
Milton was so unbelievably bad that it is hard to believe anything we hear out of practice anymore.
I mean he wasn't just average. He was terrible. He couldn't even complete passes against Rutgers.
Well he did have a broken finger on his throwing hand, didn't he?
Matt Campbell, maybe?
Agreed, The best 5 OL will play. That will likely be Zinter, Stueber, Barnhart, Hayes and Keegan.
"The best 5 OL will play"
And this is different from previous seasons in what way?
Hypothetical situation here - is it possible that a back up for the center or tackles is actually better overall than one of the starting guards? Therefore if "the best 5 OL will play," I think that just means they take the best 5 regardless of natural position and someone like a natural tackle might get shoehorned into a guard, which is not their best natural position on the line.
Who’s playing center?
Everything I’ve seen and read has Vastardis there.
Yeah latest from what I could tell was Vastardis with Zinter getting backup run at center.
I read somewhere Greg Crippen is making a run for back up OC but that could of been your annual freshmen fluff.
I remember when we got chuck.. I was so excited though we had a tackle for the future. What another letdown!
I don't even care if the "hype" (read: possible information) ends up unfulfilled. It just feels great to have some football content and for the season to inch closer and closer. I only want more normalcy in terms of some fans allowed in the stadium, a full slate of games, and improvement in the team.
Excited to see Corum at returner if they go that direction. That's the hole Jackson's departure really opens up, and Corum stepping in would be great.
Also excited to hear Colson is hitting the ground running; LBers are going to have more responsibility this year so if the young guys can step in early that's a good sign.
Corum looks like someone who can make people miss, whereas Gilles relies on his straightener speed
So he's CONFIDENT the offensive line COULD be a strength. Me too.
80% of the times he is correct 40% of the times.
Please just be in the conversation for a substantial bowl game going into the 3rd week of November. I'll take that as a win.
I hope to be wrong, but I really think this team and the fanbase will have serious regrets over running Don Brown out of town, and this season might serve as a prime example.
Other than a crazy COVID year we consistently had a top 5-10 defense nationally and one that put the team in a position to win 95% of its games. Yes, the amount of points we gave up against OSU is horrific, but not all of those points were on the defense and the entire nature of those games shifts dramatically if we had an offense that was putting as much pressure on the opponent as was being placed on our defense. Further - look at last year's playoffs, Clemson gave up 50 to OSU and OSU then OSU turns around and gives up 50 to Bama -- those are two of the best defenses in the country, but goes to show that when you play elite offenses, there's a good chance you look like garbage.
Certainly some things needed to change (DT, CB recruiting) but I would feel a lot better if we had this influx of new coaches / recruiting energy being managed by a coach that has proven he can put together a system that college players can understand and have success in. It will be unfortunate, if we finally realize our dreams of SPEED IN SPACE, only to have a defense that prevents us from being competitive
I think Browns act was figured out and we’ve seen diminishing returns.
That may be true, but I actually believe schematically he showed enough flexibility to adapt and reinvent an effective defense (e.g., adjusting to getting killed by slants or slot fades)
The inexcusable part of Brown's defense was the inability to adjust recruiting and talent strategy to account for clear deficiencies -- you need DTs that can stand up to B1G doubles and CBs that can run with track-star WRs -- you can excuse 1 or 2 mistakes, but systemic failure is unacceptable and probably what cost him his job. Again, not saying he is a perfect coordinator, I just wish we could have kept his energy and mind, while driving a different strategy in recruiting and talent with younger positional coaches.
The first line in your second paragraph was exactly the reason why his defense was good but not great and couldn’t hold up against really good teams. He was unwilling to adapt to different styles, schemes and recruiting different personnel. He was rumored to be hard to work with as well. I liken Don Brown to RR on offense, once had a dynamic scheme but people figured it out and he would rather walk than adapt.
Don Brown wasn't a good enough recruiter. Its really that simple. His schemes meant nothing because OSU also has good coaches and better athletes. Brown couldn't out scheme day with equal talent, let alone with inferior talent. The way to fix that is to bring in better talent, not with hoping Don Brown turns into a better coach
I think we're saying the same thing in a different way. I totally agree that the talent wasn't good enough, but aren't there ways to address that without a wholesale defensive revolution.
If we had (1) swapped out Schoop / Zordich for Bellamy / Mo, (2) Told DB to take a back-seat on D-Line recruiting and (3) retained DB to run and teach the scheme and fundamentals -- would you be feeling any better about the defense? For most, the answer is probably not, for me it's a definite yes
His scheme man to man and blitz. It worked early with Jourdan Lewis, lavert hill, David long. He was to stubborn to try ambry who was much faster than toast Watson. That's what cost him. If he recruited better he would still be here. No dt and corners are on him. Paye, hutch, and even Gary could have better numbers and make more plays if they didn't have to cover for lack of dt. Josh uche could have had more playing time if we recruited better at dt. Most teams that we play are overmatched talent wise. When brown came up against equal or more talent it did not go well.
This all falls on brown and Harbaugh for handing him the keys to defense.
And both Ohio State's defense and Clemsons defense are extremely similar to Don Browns. The reason that they've been more successful is because of the higher level of talent they bring in which Don Brown just can't.
Eh I’m not sure how much I’ll miss Don Brown. It’d be cool to score more than 21 points a game.
PAIN
I think it’s likely we will see McNamara start and JJ get some more-than-lip-service minutes throughout the season.
This season just has too many question marks to even reasonably predict anything. Offense needs a healthy and dominant o-line to emerge, one of the QBs to show out, and the play calling to make sense for a full season.
The D needs players to emerge at DT, CB and LB and to quickly download a whole new system without making tons of costly mistakes.
with new coaches and analysts in the mix and tons of new starters it’s just a crapshoot. Could it all come together for a decent season? Yeah. Is it the position you want to be in for year seven of a coaches tenure? Nope.
Realistic best case scenario? Probably that they look choppy but promising to start the season, show steady signs of progress, and look like a team that’s maybe only a few pieces away from being damn good by seasons end. Between the portal a and next years class you fill those gaps
The title of the article is about things they are "confident" in, but the body of the article is full of "could," "should," and "feels like."
"Five things we're confident about"
also...
uses "should" and "could" multiple times
Predicting the future won't be an exact science till we perfect time travel. Football will almost certainly be played is all you can really take away from these write-ups. The rest is entertainment.
Every fall we're told that the QBs are "neck and neck." But they're not. I for one am glad that Milton transferred, because it removes the temptation for Harbaugh to use him.
Lighting our defense on fire in practice last year turned out to NOT be a good criteria for who is actually good on offense.
If we were Alabama or OSU, all of these "potential breakout stars" would be super encouraging, because it would mean that they might be better than the super-talented NFL-bound starters. But for us, it feels like "we're looking for diamonds in the rough here." Year 7, people.
Coaching and reporting credibility is near zero for me. I hate to be skeptical when I truly believe that everyone is doing their best, but skepticism is wayyyy better than apathy, which is what I felt last year after watching our team bumblefuck their way through the season.
I always have hope. It won't take much for me to believe again. I feel like I have reasonable expectations - I don't expect victories every week even against super talented teams. Just some competence shown SOMEWHERE would be nice.
I feel if Milton was here harbaugh probably would start him because he has more experience crazy as that sounds therefore I'm glad he transferred also. Good move for all involved.
It's not crazy. Harbaugh has started the most "experienced" person at every turn. And for the life of me I can't recall any sort of stylistic change for any of them. Peters and O'Korn were asked to basically be Wilton Speight. Speight was asked to be Jake Rudock.
I don't believe for a second that Joe Milton "beat" Dylan McCaffrey in any competition except an arm strength comparison. But he technically had more snaps in 2019 (I think...because Harbaugh put Milton in at the end of blowouts more, for some reason...), and I feel like Harbaugh used that as an excuse to start him.
It took 3+ games of UTTER ineptitude for Harbaugh to bench Milton. Cade comes in for a valiant come from behind win against Rutgers (just threw up typing that...), and the next game it's back to the same POS offense that was losing us games the rest of the season.
I have no idea what Harbaugh and Gattis do on a week to week basis, but it seems to make out offense, and especially our QBs, WORSE.
If Milton was here, I'd bet money he'd start Week 1. And Week 2. And Week 3.
You're spot on. The fact that the coaches couldn't tell in practice how much better Mcnamara was throwing the ball is baffling to me. I mean did they fall in love with Milton's arm so much it made them blind to the fact he couldn't complete a pass further than 10 yards? The playcalling has boggled my mind for years...The only competent OC Harbaugh has had was his first year here(name is escaping me).
So far, no one has picked up joe Milton in the transfer portal. I could be wrong but think Bowman starts the year and JJ finishes
I'm sorry...I don't wqnt Bowman starting. I've watched him play a little bit and the coaches seemed hesitant to have him throw down the field(Hence his below average YPC). Or maybe i'm just tired of average transfer QBs starting. What do you gain by starting Bowman this year? A year in which most realistic fans don't see us making it to Indy. So you start Bowman....Then in 2022 Mcnamara and JJ have very little game experience. No thanks...Have those 2 battle it out and take their lumps this year, and Michigan will be much better at the position in 2022.
Coaching and reporting credibility is near zero for me. I hate to be skeptical
You're not skeptical.
You've just been burned by bullshit too many times.
I think the offense will be functional by Harbaugh standards, but I foresee a real inability to stop the run and thus losing a lot of close games.
I see something similar. A lot like 2019, but with a somewhat better offense and a worse defense. A grind to 8 wins or so, but blowout losses and close wins with a surprise or two thrown in.
The fanbase will be miserable.
to me #5 is the most important point. i hope they are correct and the OL is a solid unit this year.
Maybe after 7 years, we can finally figure out how to develop a QB without them inevitably regressing at some point. Having an elite, or hell, just a good/great QB would take so much pressure off the team. You can skate by with a lackluster defense and some younger players if your QB carries the load. I just have zero faith in that happening until it actually happens.