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you realize michigan…

you realize michigan currently has an SP+ top 10 offense in the country at the moment and threw for over 300 yards yesterday, right?

no.

no.

Also Brian's observation…

Also Brian's observation that pistol tips run is still very true. You saw Indiana's linebackers attacking downhill whenever we went pistol. Need to run some PA off of it, even if it's just to put it on film. 

JJ played really well. OLine…

JJ played really well. OLine had near perfect pass pro. RBs got what they could, and Corum still had 100+ yards and a tuddy on a slog of a day.

Our passing scheme was super underwhelming against one of the worst pass defenses in the country. If Nebraska can scheme guys wide open all day, we should be able to get more than a couple of yards of separation once in a while.

Sometimes I wonder if Matt Weiss has too much respect for college defenses. It's quite easy to make them bust -- especially at Indiana's level -- if you mess with their keys, rather than simply try to beat guys straight up. 

Wut? 

He's said that people…

Wut? 

He's said that people shouldn't panic but Gattis was a loss and that last year's offense was the most autonomy Gattis has had since he got here. He's also said that Harbaugh was going to endorse him for HC if he went to the vikings. And also that the text he sent to players burned bridges with Michigan... 

All these things can be true.

highly doubt they have bama…

highly doubt they have bama play georgia again.

Wonder if Donte Williams…

Wonder if Donte Williams will be a candidate for HC at Fresno...

if we lose to OSU and…

if we lose to OSU and Wisconsin beats them next week, Wisconsin or OSU would go to the Rose Bowl. 

To be clear, I’m not asking…

To be clear, I’m not asking about his mental health or how he’s taking the loss. 
 

I’m wondering if he’s, like, alive. 

I'd argue that our win on…

I'd argue that our win on the road vs Wisconsin is better than any of their wins. Also, we didn't almost lose to Rutgers. Rutgers had a middling chance to tie the game. MSU needed a miracle to beat Nebraska and were outgained by 200 yards.

This is part of the reason the fancy data likes us better than State, although I don't think the resumes are radically different.

why is the color for 50% the…

why is the color for 50% the same as 0%

You're far too easy on the…

You're far too easy on the receivers. On all three of Sainristil's deep routes, he inexplicably mistimes the ball.

If you ask the coaches, CJ and Schoonmaker should come down with those balls where they have position on the defender and both hands on the rock. They're not circus catches.

Regardless of who the QB is,…

Regardless of who the QB is, I think our receivers are kinda bad, and it doesn't get talked about much. 

I watched a lot of top 25 teams this weekend. WRs around the country regularly make better plays on imperfect throws.

We probably shouldn’t have…

We probably shouldn’t have starters and backups on the depth chart because it creates big winners and big losers. 

I don't think it's out of…

I don't think it's out of malice or whatever, but I think you're still ascribing some limitations to Cade that are actually on the play design or receivers. 

For example, the potential RPO you highlight... CJ is never running a route. He never looks inside after the snap, and is immediately looking for someone to block. Same with Mike. I really don't think there's any "P" in that call for whatever reason. Compare how the receivers get off the line with the RPO throw that JJ made.

With the under thrown ball to CJ, purposefully not looking back isn't something that's taught to receivers. He lost the flight path. If he pivots and fights for the ball, at minimum that's going to be a PI. The DB runs into him, but nothing is called because CJ isn't trying to make a catch.

Brian has been weirdly salty…

Brian has been weirdly salty about Cade ever since he took the job from Milton. As if Milton not working out was some personal defeat for him, after the promising start in the Minnesota game last year. He similarly made Shea out to be some kind of Michigan Football supervillain. 

It's fair to call out Cade's limitations. They've been called out here plenty. Noted. But the relentless negativity about a kid who is 6-0 -- winning games that the authors of this site assumed we would almost certainly lose -- is pretty grating. It's not his fault that the coaches think he gives us the best chance to win. And just so happens that's all he's done this year...win.

Not OP but Croatia is not a…

Not OP but Croatia is not a Russian state. 
Are you thinking of Crimea?

good thread.

good thread.

Total Yardage

PSU 297 --…

Total Yardage

PSU 297 -- Wisconsin 365

ND 248 -- Wisconsin 318

Michigan 364 -- Wisconsin 210 (including 50 yards versus the 3rd team defense)

In 2019 after the Army game,…

In 2019 after the Army game, Michigan threw the ball 42 times against Wisconsin and the running backs had 8 total carries. 
 

The first 11/15 plays were passes. 
 

That was a Gattis/Harbaugh offense. Not sure why everyone assumes we’re going to be super run heavy tomorrow. 

Seems like a shocker to the…

Seems like a shocker to the authors of this site who repeatedly asserted Dylan would rather do nothing at all than play for Harbaugh. 
 

His plan was to play this spring for Northern Colorado, so he could not have remained on Michigan’s roster. 

who

who

Its Jay. 

Its Jay. 

Hiring a thirty-something…

Hiring a thirty-something NFL assistant to bring a 3-4 base D here, and two more thirty-somethings replacing Shoop and Zordich, is pretty much the opposite of reshuffling the deck chairs. 

Yep. Clay Helton was on a…

Yep. Clay Helton was on a much hotter seat and landed a great staff (and great recruiting class). 

If Harbaugh wanted a Leavitt or a Lance Anderson type, I'm sure he could have gotten them. 

I'm glad he's going for youth and fresh ideas rather than re-treads. 

Enos was made official and…

Enos was made official and then went to a different school. 
 

This is not an Enos situation if he just stays where he already is because Florida offered to match or beat Michigan’s offer. That happens all the time. 

His coaches and teammates…

His coaches and teammates have singled Eli Brooks out as their best defender 

“Honestly, Eli’s probably one of the best on-ball defenders that I’ve been around,” said Michigan assistant Howard Eisley, who played and coached in the NBA and also coached fan-favorite super defender Zavier Simpson last season. “The fact that he’s able to get into the ball and very rarely does he ever get screened. He does an excellent job on that end of the floor.”

We only gave up 27 points to…

We only gave up 27 points to each of those teams. Defense was bad but offense was the problem. 

Yes, and the places where…

Yes, and the places where that happened  -- a bunch of new young starters on defense and opt outs -- looked incredibly, outlier-level bad (PSU and MINN for instance).

 

Jesus, the gatekeeping on…

Jesus, the gatekeeping on this message board is out of control. There's nothing wrong with this post. 

What have you contributed?  "You must change?" Sure, and OP doesn't preclude that. The interesting question posed is what exactly do we change to.

A HC at a smaller program? A coordinator? An NFL guy? An internal hire? What qualities make for a successful coach at a top ten program?

Of the teams with more than one playoff appearance, the head coaches have either been an internal hire (Ryan Day, Lincoln Riley, Dabo Swinney) or had already won national championships at other big schools (Nick Saban, Urban Meyer). 

Other successful recent coaches were coordinators at top programs (Ed O, Kirby Smart). 

 

The graveyard is full of…

The graveyard is full of people LIKE Matt Campbell. Matt Campbell is not in the graveyard. 

This is an M-Live comment…

This is an M-Live comment impersonating something intelligent. 
 

Michigan still has more talented CBs and DTs on their roster than 90% of the B1G10.
 

Of course coaching matters. 

Weird Fact:

Don Brown held…

Weird Fact:

Don Brown held Alabama to their lowest point total in two seasons. The last time they scored less than 35 points was the 2018 championship game versus Clemson. 

Yes, giving Rich Rod a 4th…

Yes, giving Rich Rod a 4th year would have solved all the problems. 

imagine thinking that…

imagine thinking that turning off football in favor of MICHIGAN MESSAGE BOARDS DURING A LOSS is a cool tradeoff. 

says more about OP than michigan football tbh

great academics, great…

great academics, great campus, some of the best facilities in the country, huge fanbase and exposure, the defense sends almost all starters to the NFL, many in the first couple of rounds — including 5 star types (gary, peppers) and developing more unheralded recruits (bush, uche, winovich, paye).

same goes for offensive line. 

while it may be hard to win championships here, it's not that hard to recruit here. 

 

This blog had a similar tone…

This blog had a similar tone regarding Shea after the MSU and Indiana games last year, where he played insanely well and the entire offense started clicking. 

Were we good enough to beat OSU and Alabama last year? No. This year? Definitely no. 

But a Michigan backup coming in, performing almost flawlessly, and leading a 17 point comeback is pretty damn fun -- and I think the reason that's not reflected above is because it would mean Brian admitting that his pre-game take of "changing the quarterbacks won't change the offense" was incorrect.

 

that's charitable.

he was…

that's charitable.

he was live tweeting the game and practically implying people were idiots for suggesting Milton was holding the offense back, even after Cade went in.

not sure if he still believes that. it's tough to come off a strongly held opinion, i get it i guess.  

not sure why. they ran more …

not sure why. they ran more  power runs ("wham," a harbaugh staple) more short man beaters and more play action pass. very few true RPOs. 

i don't think harbaugh literally took over the play calling but maybe they think cade is better at west coast concepts. certainly this wasn't the offense suddenly becoming "more gattis." less, if anything.

While I don't think Milton…

While I don't think Milton was the only culprit on offense, Ace and others seem to think the offensive struggles had nothing to do with Milton. Seems like a very odd take. 

 

We suck now and obviously…

We suck now and obviously the coaches should be fired, etc etc. I won't argue that. 

But it's weird to just ignore Rudock's trajectory, to ignore how well an undefeated Speight played in 2016 before his injury, and even Shea's improvement (he was setting Michigan passing records at the end of last year).

Has it been good enough? Or course not. Not even close.

But the idea that somehow Milton and Cade were operating completely different game plans (the good one run by Gattis and the bad one by Harbuagh) is super weak analysis. They were running the same plays. Cade was simply running them better and making the easy throws. 

I suppose Shea vs MSU and Indiana last year was Gattis? But versus Army? Harbaugh. Versus Alabama? Harbaugh. MTSU? Harbaugh. Maryland and Rutgers? Gattis. 

It's weird that Harbaugh just takes the reins in seemingly arbitrary games and then the offense shits the bed. And Gattis doesn't quit and everyone keeps it a secret.

2016? All Jedd Fisch. Except Iowa and Wisconsin ... Harbaugh? OSU? Fisch, except for the interceptions which were Harbaugh. 

I've been saying this every…

I've been saying this every week but Milton has been outright bad since the Minnesota game (he's certainly not the only aspect of the team that's been rough of course). 

Brian has been grading him on a curve in the UFR because it confirms his priors. Only need to look at the balls that he deemed catchable this year versus last year. 

True about offensive line…

True about offensive line. Not sure a good defense correlates with quarterback play. 

BUT ... he had AJ Brown, DK Metcalf and Van Jefferson at Ole Miss lol. 

The personnel splits are…

The personnel splits are nearly identical to what he ran at Alabama. Michigan is like 10% more 12 personnel. 

Ben Mason doesn't play full back in this offense, he plays H-Back — which Alabama used often. And Mason hasn't gotten significant offensive snaps with the exception of Minnesota (which happens to be our only solid performance this year). 

The offense this year simply is not rooted in 1990's play action. No idea where that's coming from. 

Do you think a classic Harbaugh offense would have called a power QB run OUT OF SHOTGUN from the half-inch line on 4th and 1?

It's also been reported that Gattis was the one pushing strongest to move forward with Milton, while Harbaugh wanted to give both Dylan and Joe reps in the first game (which sounds like a very Harbaugh thing to do).

Bad offense does not automatically equal Harbaugh offense.

Gattis has the potential to be good (see: the second half of 2019, beginning with ND when Shea was breaking Michigan records and we started to blow out teams). 

The problem is Milton is nowhere near the caliber of quarterback right now that Tua, Hurts, Mcsorley or even Shea were. And this is the least experienced O-Line and receiver group of any of those offenses. 

Gattis needed to adjust to these factors more quickly, but this is 100% a Gattis offense. 

It seems like most people…

It seems like most people haven't taken this into account: Where's the the Jim Harbaugh who throws his headset and rips his clothing off to play touch football. Where's the guy who climbs into treehouses with recruits and sleeps in their yard? His fire was extinguished after visiting Italy. Italy is famous for pizza, and is where Kobe Bryant grew up. 

Who was Kobe supposed to be the heir apparent to? Michael Jordan. Anyone else notice when we signed with Jordan Brand we got better at basketball and worse at football? Coincidence? Let's go deeper. 

Our men's basketball coach is Juwan Howard. He is tall. You know who else is tall, compared to the average American male? Jim Harbaugh. Tom Izzo is short. I couldn't find Ryan Day's height on the internet, but he also seems to be fairly short.

Who else is short? Most of our wide receivers. Who's tall? Most of our corners. Now we're getting somewhere. If Jim Harbaugh was truly running a meritocracy, he'd play the best players regardless of height. Tall receivers and short corners? If they're the best, you play them. Instead, he seems to have a preference for handsy corners. 

You know who else is handsy? Jim Harbaugh, in terms of meddling in Josh Gattis' playcalling. We run up the middle? That's Harbaugh. We go under center? That's Harbaugh. We have a quarterback run from shotgun? That's Gattis. We sneak it from shotgun on 4th down at the half yard line?  Well, if you're catching my drift so far, you probably know the answer... 

Don Brown. What does Don Brown have on his face? A mustache. 

Who else has a mustache? Mariners pitcher Randy "The Unit" Johnson. 

Who else? Blake Bortles.

Where's he FROM? You guessed it, Italy. Actually, Florida. 

Who coached at Florida when Aaron Hernandez played? 

URBAN MEYER. 

And what did Urban Meyer eat after losing the BIG TEN championship game to Michigan State (also, where Tom Izzo coaches) in 2013. 

Yep... 

People said the same thing…

People said the same thing about Jordan Glasgow playing. "He's just an effort guy, not as good as Ross!" Turns out he was pretty damn good.

They said the same about Mettellus and Brandon Watson and John Runyan. All four on NFL rosters.

We're seeing their backups now. Not so good. 

People complained about playing Ronnie Bell over Tarik Black.

 Fans thought when John O'Korn came in and won the game versus Purdue, the coaches were idiots for not playing him over Speight sooner. 

Do the coaches get it wrong sometime? Sure. But if it was up to who the fans thought was the "best player," our roster would be half true freshman and half 5 star guys like Kareem Walker and Aubrey Solomon ... and Josh Ross over Jordan Glasgow. 

 

we did the right thing by…

we did the right thing by moving away from i-form 22 personnel football. we've been just about as good as wisconsin for 5 years and to harbaugh's credit his aspirations were to be better.

every team worth a damn runs a spread.

it's the right thing to do. the results have been a disaster. 

edit: meant to reply to post above. 

but yes, also bench Milton. seems like a good kid but he's in over his head.

that's right

that's right

who is evan?

who is evan?

If Joe Brady wanted to be a…

If Joe Brady wanted to be a college football head coach long term he would have stayed in college football. He could have been a HC at a number of pretty-good programs after last year. 

He moved to the NFL for the same job title.