Where were you when Brian finally lost it on MGoRoundtable?

I don't understand the reasoning behind Sam's sure they started having success when they started calling the same running plays as last year but that's actually Alabama's offense not old Michigan. 

Why does it have to be exclusively about Gattis? Collaborating with a staff to fix a thing is a good reflection on an OC!

The funny thing is when the offense was trash early there was a vocal group saying the offense was bad because of Harbaugh not letting control. The run game was plainly nonsense and looked nothing like a Harbaughffense. 

I think Borges was a horrendous OC.

I also think he knows a shit-ton of football and have found his analysis on the Michigan Insider this season to be spot on.

Knowing your football and being a good coordinator/play-caller are vastly different things.  You can have an encyclopedic knowledge of offensive formations and plays, but putting them together in a good system, and then using that system strategically to be successful against a defense is another matter entirely.

It was an RPO. Webb confirmed, Borges confirmed...Gattis confirmed.

Webb > Cook

Brian is right though.  Sam being connected to the program is why he keeps saying what he does. All Brian is saying is, if you're running stuff from last year, whether Alabama does that same stuff or not (in ref. to Gattis coming from Alabama), it's coming from Harbaugh. Whether that means Harbaugh told him or suggested who knows.

In the end, it's nothing that matters at all. We are where we are offensively and that's a good thing.

I'm so close to hitting Dear Leader bingo.

I turned it off and just skipped the rest of the roundtable. 5-10 minutes were spent arguing about who is right on a pretty menial topic. Nothing about that is worth listening too, and Brian came off as someone who yells and screams anytime someone tells him they disagree with him.

Brian isn’t going to win against Sam.

Also, Brian’s point was, what?  It’s not like Michigan is the only team in the country to run what they did for the run game last year.

I believe even Warinner himself said nothing has really changed from the start of the season to now, just players are executing a whole lot better, which would be the transition cost.

i will agree with Brian on the point that Borges should never be forgiven for putting Denard in a box essentially by putting him primarily under center in 2012.

My personal impression is Harbaugh gave the keys to Gattis, after Army game or maybe even later but before Penn State Gattis asked for help from Harbaugh and our new speed in space Harbaugh hybrid offense was conceived through trial and error.

Also Borges might have been great at 90's football but the game and its speed passed him by completely.

I heard this. It was amazing. The round tables are hotter than ever lately.

 I felt Brian and Sam were talking past each other at some points, perhaps responding to each other based on subtext or off air conversations. Peacemaker Ed was right when he said they were both right. It seemed like they were arguing without contradicting each other.

Sam never said Gattis wasn’t being collaborative with other coaches but Brian kept acting like that’s what Sam said. But Sam never directly objected. He did always seem to sound exasperated at that snipe from Brian though.

Al Borges knows a shit-ton more about the tactics and strategies of football than the vast majority of average Joes. Brian Cook knows more about the tactics and strategies of football than the vast majority of average Joes.

Al Borges had Denard under center.

Brian Cook argued that Bob Stitt should receive consideration as Michigan's HC.

Neither are infallible.

The idea that a blogger -- any blogger -- knows more about football/playcalling/schemes than a person who was a D1 offensive coordinator for decades is a staggeringly act of second-handed hubris, am I'm stunned how many of you believe that.

I was entertained until Brian continued. It was over and he just wanted to keep drilling it that he was right (which maybe he is, but I think it’s a bit of a mix) and that’s where he lost me. There was no reason to keep belaboring the point because at the end of the day, does it matter? The reasoning isn’t important. At the end It came off to me like Brian insisting they recognize him being correct and Borges being an idiot. 

I'll take a Borges take on offense over anything Brian says. Sorry but Borges knows more than Brian ever will. Plus if you go back and look at older Mgoblog preseason magazines,  they don't hold up well with what actually happened. 

Sam will never criticize anyone connected to UM football or WTKA. Never.

This should be expected.

Mgoblog is a good set of amateurs but it’s also a set of amateurs. I will never take Brian’s analysis over an actual former d1 coordinator.

Stuff like that is why it is also so dumb to just expect zero transition costs on offense this year 

I mean, Brian isn't wrong and he's not saying anything controversial. I find it really odd that people seem to care so much about the "Gattis gameplan" stuff which Brian doesn't contend and he's exactly right that it would be worrisome if he wasn't looking for some help in the run game when it was working. 

There's a reason I almost never listen to the roundtable... and when I occasionally do I regret it.  Sam.  

I appreciate what he does, I like to read him, but listening to him... he's just... I dunno... I find myself wishing he would stop talking.  He gets a bit inane.  His observations and comments rarely rise above "dedicated fan" level.  I know he's plugged in, and I do appreciate that, but he's a much better reporter than an analyst.  

I don't mind that he relies on Al Borgess; the man clearly has a lot of football experience and is a great resource, but as Brian has pointed out, Al's input only carries so much weight.  

This conversation felt a lot like what people often accuse Sam of: being a company man who gets his access in exchange for pushing the narrative the company wants pushed.  To assert that the IZ and P&P and AR the offense is running this year should be more properly characterized as "Alabama 2018" instead of "Michigan 2018" and therefore is proof of Gattis emerging rather than a decision to go back to some things that these players have proven they can execute... it's a nonsense argument.  Michigan ran this stuff with success last year.  PERIOD.  The offense struggled to start the year and they went back to it.  PERIOD.  

The fact that Gattis has managed to incorporate what Michigan did last year AND initiate his speed in space concepts is still a testament to him.  I find that MORE impressive than this narrative that Sam is pushing; that this is largely 'Bama from last year and always has been, and the early year disjointedness and ineptness was simply "the plan" taking longer to implement than anticipated.  

I'm with Brian.  I'd rather hear that when the offense was sputtering, the staff (including Gattis), looked inward and figured out a way to merge old and new to get the kids successful as quickly as possible rather than they just plowed ahead in the hopes that everyone would eventually get it.

I listened fully expecting to be annoyed by Brian's hubris, but I honestly didn't think this was that bad...

The issue I have with Borges is that he so misused two super talented quarterbacks that I'm not willing to say that he knows more than Brian or any of us do about offense.   

How can you reconcile supposedly understanding offense with putting Denard under center and using Gardner so poorly?

 I'm in agreement Brian and it aggravates me that Sam (who I like) is working with the person who is mostly responsible for destroying Devin Gardner.  I'll never have any respect for Borges due to this.

If Borges knows so much about offense, wouldn't he have an OC job at a D1 school rather than making pennies for doing a call show with Sam.

When you talk about evaluating an OC, I think you need to focus more on the macro rather than the micro.  Every time a play doesn't work, it's easy to say a different play should have been called.  With Gorgeous Al, the scheme was bad on the macro level.  That is much easier to pick apart.  Sometimes Gattis' call drive me nuts, but the overall scheme is very good, and continues to improve.  Al's schemes weren't that creative and often didn't work.

I do think Al has value in dissecting plays, because he understands how offenses work, even though he was never great at calling one.  Any one can break down someone else's work, but it requires a different skill set to create a coherent game plan on your own.

I didn't particularly think it was a fight or anything. And I'm sure Sam/Brian are as good of friends today as they were Wednesday. Differing opinions make for good radio. Sam's hands are a bit tied with his company line for the program, and his company line for his segment with coach Borges. Brian can say whatever he wants. 

I get what Sam is saying though. Gattis knows how to run the Alabama offense, and he wanted to run that here. It took him time to learn how to incorporate and get the right rhythm with what Michigan was successful at last year. 

I listened to the same episode, I took it as just passionate discourse.