It’s so frustrating to see teams with limited corners put together competent defenses meanwhile we have exactly one bad corner and all of a sudden we’re outside the top 50 in sp+. Such an indictment of the staff
Count me in on the McLaurin to WDE/SAM hype train. I think he’s going to be a pass rusher. I disagree with Seth I liked his explosion a lot. Also agree with TTB, he plays with a narrow base I don’t know if he can be a mlb.
I think best case for this year would be as follows:
Carlo Kemp continues to be basically playable/a small plus against most competition and a little bit less of a liability against elite OLs.
Hinton breaks out into a legitimately good tackle poised for a monster junior year and an NFL decision.
Smith is playable but inconsistent. Can’t expect much from someone who hasn’t seen the field yet but if he could be playable and trend upwards towards being legit his junior year that would be a positive.
One of Speight/Jeter becomes viable. I don’t expect either of these players to be draftable impact players at any point in their career based on their trajectory but if one of them could just become Carlo Kemp as a junior/senior that would be at least a depth piece.
You get a playable but inconsistent player out of the pile of SDEs. Basically one of the projects you took the past two years looks promising on track to be an impact player next year.
For 2020 this is kind of a low ceiling that is going to require really strong play out of our DEs, but hopefully you get enough out of Smith/Hinton/insert SDE here to expect multiple playmakers in 2021.
Thanks for the article Mr. Coyote. I really think a lot of MSU fans are underestimating how bare the cupboard is right now. I thought they ran a relatively modern offense last year but just did not have any kind of horses especially up front. And looking at it this year, who is a potentially draftable player on offense? Collins is promising but I don’t think he’s a game breaker.
This is going to be a year to get the scheme down and figure out what you’ve got in the young guys. For the near rearm you might hope for a guy with more of a schematic advantage to try and manufacture more offense but in the long term it may be good to just get the execution down.
Its good they gave him such an expensive contract because now they can’t afford to fire him and he’s gonna need that time.
Good jump ball skills and tough runner after the catch. Pretty slow. Definitely a pure outside guy. Getting on the field is going to depend on how well he can beat press and get a step early. Not going to outrun anybody at the college level.
You never know with these things who he wasn’t getting along with or if he wanted to move back south or whatever. We tend to view these guys as just coaches making pure career moves but in reality they’re just guys doing a job.
Bob Shoops is overqualified to be a position coach and will definitely bring good insight to the coaches room. I think it’s a clearly better hire than McElwain even though I would still prefer a young recruiter with a track record.
Jean-Mary is definitely a good hire. Probably a step down from Partridge who was an absolute ace but the fact that he has been recruiting coordinator at several places is invaluable considering how disorganized it seems like our recruiting has been. Not the same track record as a coach but there’s enough X’s and O’s Guys On this staff.
Overall, pretty good. Hope Tank stays around as the staff clearly sees him as an up and comer I just hope he’s not pissed at his promotion being pulled out from under him a bit.
Absolutely. He fits the profile of a guy who could be a very good recruiter. I think the main frustration from Brian and others on this board is that Michigan is a program that should be picking out proven young recruiters rather than hoping a guy on the S&C staff can turn into one.
Any hire can either work or blow up in your face no matter what. You try to look for indicators one way or another. I personally don't blame anyone for saying that these hires have less than the desired amount of positive indicators.
However, I will say that I agree with others on this board who have said that if Brian is going to allude to things like "lowballing" potential coaches or "refusing to give frippery titles", he should either tell us what he's talking about or what he heard or stick to the facts of what we know otherwise it comes across as editorializing.
I have a very good friend on a very successful staff in the Big 12 who has told me that being a “good recruiter” is a lot about just how much you’re willing to constantly be texting 18 year olds and how far you’re willing to bend over backwards to relate to them.
If I was harbaugh, every position coach besides OL, QB, and DL maybe? would be young guys who are maybe a little short in experience but are willing to recruit 24/7.
This is yet another example of the general program disorganization. Shoop and Tank will be fine, they’re not going to kill the program. But they’re not getting us any closer to the ultimate goal.
I think the only thing that really speaks to a culture issue here is the part about Shea. Clearly not well liked by his teammates and I had heard the same things around campus while he was here.
As far as coaches leaving, nfl draft declaring, transfers, I think that’s just kind of the game now. At a certain level I think that it speaks to general program disfunction which I’m sure there is.
Take for example the DPJ bullet, he talks about how the staff didn’t utilize Jabrill Peppers and Rashan Gary appropriately. Peppers had an entire shitty wildcat package and was drafted in the first round. Gary was a defensive end I’m not sure what the staff could’ve done to “showcase” him. He was drafted sixth overall.
As far as coaches leaving and not playing in bowls that just comes down to money and I’ll never blame anyone for that.
Overall the program is certainly disorganized but I don’t think it’s in a death spiral by any stretch. Teams in a death spiral don’t sign top ten classes or shit stomp Notre Dame or start figuring out their offense after a heartbreaking loss.
Harbaugh needs to reprioritize within his program and decide if he wants to play with the big boys. He’s been good but not good enough. I just think this article does a lot of editorializing and piling on.
I think a general critique of the Harbaugh era can be categorized as "disorganized". Now, mind you that even with this disorganization he's probably a top 20 college coach in the country (low bar). A couple of points to back this up:
Offseason preparation. This is the third straight year that M to varying degrees changed their offense midseason. 17 - move to power run after the MSU game, 18 - move to qb run game after the non-con schedule, 19 - finally start running speed in space at penn state. Now, at least Harbaugh HAS the ability to adapt, which is more than you can say for a lot of coaches who will stick with a dogshit offense because "thats just our system" *cough* Dantonio *cough*. It would be great if M came into 2020 with a cohesive plan but one thing you can say for Harbaugh is he will not sit back and accept mediocrity.
Clock management. Harbaugh teams consistently feel like they do not know what they want to do in late game/end of half situations. This sometimes works out and sometimes doesn't but when I compare how they operate to my favorite NFL team the Eagles, who have a very forward thinking and aggressive head coach in Doug Pederson, it is night and day.
Roster management/recruiting. OT, DT, CB, etc. It always feels like Michigan is just missing an entire position group because they forgot to recruit it. This is Michigan. There is at least serviceable hs player at every position in every class that would kill to play here. The idea that you would just skip recruiting that position for a year and risk huge roster gaps is unthinkable. If they're not good enough, then the guy you recruit next year will pass them and you don't have to worry about it. But you need SOMEBODY to put out there that can at least look the part and do the basics. Nolan Ulizio cannot be your answer. I also think it is fair to say that M is not recruiting to its full potential. I don't think we've seen their hat in the ring for as many top 100 type guys as we should. i mean a lot of these guys are going to schools that shouldn't hold a stick to Michigan, you can't tell me they're all unatainalbe. Now the upside is that Harbaugh has made pretty good use of the transfer portal when he's had the opportunity.
Bread and butter might be overstating it but go back and look at (especially early when the offense was struggling) how often they went to that as shea’s First read.
Stature - he looks every bit of 6’4” and stands tall in the pocket to take advantage of it. I would even have him stand up straighter but he gets away with a wider stance because he’s playing New York high school football and most kids on the field can’t see the top of his head.
Mechanics - he looks clean in the pocket and steps into his throws (because he has to). He doesn’t face any pressure in his highlights but it’s a positive sign that he’s not an arm thrower. He seems accurate when he’s in a clean pocket
Vision - he makes really good cuts in the open field and in the tackle box and uses his blockers really well. He’s a good and willing runner which would be killer if he was just a bit faster. Hopefully it translates to pocket presence which he is going to absolutely need to make up for some of his shortcomings.
Throwing on the run. It was said in the main post but he made some nice throws on the run and kept his eyes downfield which is especially nice to see because the way he runs may lead a HS QB to rely on his legs more which he won’t be able to do in college with his speed.
Weaknesses:
Arm strength - he clearly has to step heavily into the harder throws he makes. He will never be able to hit those long outs that were the bread and butter of Michigan’s offense this year unless he knows he’s going there pre snap. Shea’s arm was wildly under appreciated this year. There’s a reason he was a 5 star.
Athleticism - he has great vision and is a willing runner but he’s stiff and only has average speed. He’s not going to make people miss in the open field consistently but hopefully he can fall forward to convert a couple critical 3rd and 6’s.
Speed - 5.0 is pretty slow and he doesn’t look faster than that in the tape.
Player comp: he kind of reminds me of Brian Lewerke? Prototypical height. Pop gun arm. Slow but effective and willing runner. The main difference will be if he can maintain those mechanics. Lewerke got shell shocked out of his good habits and didn’t have the raw talent to make up for it. By the end of his career he was throwing fair catches to Ambry Thomas. But M fans who went to the game in 2017 remember a QB who was annoying to track down in the pocket and made enough plays to win on the road despite a god awful O Line getting man handled by Rashan, Mo Hurst, and Winovich in the rain.
Seth, SP+ as this as the 35th (!) ranked defense, which seems real bad. It feels like this style of defense should be able to stomp out bad opponents and inflate that efficiency rating like ours does (not saying our D isn’t good but it does get boosts by holding Rutgers to lol total yards). Any theory on the discrepancy between your scouting and based god Bill Connelly’s nerd math?
The answer to “why is Michigan the #14 team in the country” is as simple as it always is. It’s college football. Nobody is actually good besides like 8 teams.
I think he’s been a little harsh on Michigan this year which is only notable because he’s usually very fair. That said, this space has also been a bit harsh in my opinion.
I really think the last decade has broken this fanbase. Everything is constantly tinged by this psychotic need to compare ourselves to OSU. I don’t blame anyone considering the horrendous run we’ve had but it does get tiresome.
At a certain point you need to appreciate that Michigan is a disappointing but still pretty good team that has a legit shot at going 2-1 vs rivals and hell who knows maybe they pull something out of their ass against OSU.
Is Michigan at or going to get to OSU’s current level under Harbaugh? Almost certainly not. But no amount of bitching online can change that so you really just have to roll with it and enjoy the good moments when they come along.
Sometimes you don’t get everything you want in life and that’s ok.
The defense is obviously good. SP+ has them as the #2 overall defense. They have at least 6 players that will make an NFL roster. They got curb stomped by an offense that was a really bad matchup (and also just curb stomped a good defense that was a much better matchup) while they were still figuring things out. Will they get lit up by OSU? Possibly! OSU is real good! But it’s absolutely a good defense and has far outperformed reasonable expectations for the year.
I could see a dumb win where we get a bunch of good bounces. Just by pure chance they’ve gotta win one of these tough road games one day. It will be the best defense they’ve played by some distance but ultimately I’ll trust this team on the road when they win one and not a second before. 28-17 PSU
You can criticize all you want! It’s a sport with winners and losers. Totally fair game. I’m just trying to say that we should all take a step back once in a while and understand that these are college kids who care more about winning than any of us could ever possibly imagine. Not to mention they’re grossly under compensated which is a whole other thing.
It’s good to remember that these are just kids doing their best. We get to watch Michigan football every year. This is Shea’s only senior season. Nobody feels worse about how he’s played than him. Enjoy every Saturday and support the team. Go blue!
There is going to be a third and long against MSU where the zone busts and everyone is going to bitch and moan online and I need you all to remember that this is the downside. There is no magic impenetrable defense and you all begged for this after OSU. Just a preemptive shut up to everyone on this board.
By this math we will be ten point dogs in two weeks. Take away home field, vegas thinks we’re 1 point better than iowa and PSU is 7 points better. Add three points for penn state home field. However that doesn’t take into account that iowa looks worse after last week than they did before so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
McCaffrey will absolutely not be a fix-all for this offense but at the very least he’ll be aggressive in the qb run game and maybe just throw the fucking ball. At this point I would take a pick more a game if it meant having a little bit of courage throwing into zones
I think this team may just be Wisconsin lite but i remain optimistic for the simple reason that we’re playing at home.
I hate to be a dumb guy and do the whole “Michigan is just a different team at home” thing but honestly I don’t think I can deny it anymore. This team just looks far more confident in every game at the big House beyond even the standard +3 points Vegas usually gives for home field advantage.
You either think the kids who put their bodies on the line for your enjoyment every Saturday should be fairly compensated or you’re an asshole it’s pretty simple.
This may shock people but I don’t think that the coaches are actively trying to lose games. They probably know that Ben Mason is bad. They’ve done literally everything they can to keep him off the field. If you want to criticize the coaches on something it should be their mind boggling recruiting decisions two years ago and their solution which was to walk down Jordan Glasgow in the a gap.
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.
Tulsa is not going to win this game because their offense will not move the ball consistently, but this sparty Oline is straight up bad. no push and their tackles and even guards are getting beat
In the second part of that quote it is extremely obvious he’s referring to Hudson to literally anyone who follows the program.
Also, it is an extremely generous assumption that Harbaugh made an inappropriate off collar comment too... raise awareness of mental health? As opposed to just being an advocate of some kind?
It’s more likely he said something he regrets and should just apologize.
He shouldn’t have said it. At the very least it was entirely inappropriate to single out Hudson this way.
Regardless of how Hudson handled his transfer situation, he’s a 20 year old kid, Jim is the coach and has a responsibility to be the bigger man and facilitate the transfer. That’s what comes with a position of power and a multi million salary.
If harbaugh is actively blocking the transfer that is truly indefensible. If this was OSU or MSU we’d be all over it.
So here's the thing, in terms of like, Madden Rating, I would say that there are absolutely 20 players in the B1G better than Shea Patterson. There are a ton of great defensive and offensive linemen, WRs, DBs, etc that would be rated in the mid to high 90s if you were to see them on a Madden roster. She is probably an 89-91.
Hell, just on Michigan's team I would say that Lavert, Nico, maybe DPJ, and probably Bredeson, are all "better" at their jobs than Shea is at his.
However, this is where the nuance comes in: Shea's job is much harder than any of theirs. QB is the hardest position in football, and as such should be weighed as more important when you compare players from different position groups.
Take Tom Brady for example. Does anyone think Tom is better at his job than Deion Sanders was at his? Deion Sanders was nearly perfect at the CB position, it's basically impossible to say that. However, because we understand that QB is incredibly hard and Brady has done it at such a high level for so long, most people agree that Brady is the greatest football player of all time.
So although I think there are certainly better players in the B1G, I think that QB is the most important position on the field by far, and because Shea is probably the best QB in the B1G, I think he is underrated on this list and should probably be top 10.
At 6’ feels like he could potentially play outside? Personally I think the difference between an outside guy and a slot is negligible when it really comes down to it. More about how you play the ball in the air then it is about height/speed. If a slot can do that well enough I think they can play both. Think it’s harder for an outside guy to move inside than the other way around unless the slot is REALLY small.
Michigan can win the B1G with the level of talent they are recruiting. Just look at anyone who’s won it not named OSU in the title game era.
I agree there’s a gap between M and the truly elite of CFB recruiting but that jump (if it ever happens, which if may not) will happen if/when M gets over the hump against OSU and competes in the playoff.
I get there aren’t any super top end guys but when you’re still a top ten class even on a per recruit basis Idk I tend to think the talent level is still pretty good.
As far as CB and DT, I agree I’m not thrilled they don’t have any top players but I do tend to trust this staff who have consistently put guys in the NFL from those spots.
The head scratchers as far as recruiting goes have been the Oline the first couple years (drevno’s fault, fixed) and 2018 when we took like 300 lanky DBs (could work I guess but feels like at least a couple will be processed, maybe an overreaction to slot fades). 2018 could also probably be explained away by that weird period where we didn’t have a recruiting coordinator.
Feels like we’re going to be taking big classes most years and letting the cream rise to the top. The advantage is a higher level of talent because you get more lottery tickets, but the downside is you may have years with less senior experience. Overall, I’ll take this over a situation like MSU where the talent is consistently below the competition. I think with an improved offensive system, that’s the recipe for being in contention for B1G titles year in and year out.
Recent Comments
This guy is faster than 4.6. There’s just no way. I know it’s relative to competition but he’s high 4.4 at WORST
It’s so frustrating to see teams with limited corners put together competent defenses meanwhile we have exactly one bad corner and all of a sudden we’re outside the top 50 in sp+. Such an indictment of the staff
shut up
i starte this thread to highlight the cool new gear in the m den
this post took me several weeks to edit
im not lying. check the mod action sticky thread
Ok but let’s circle back on banning capitalism
Count me in on the McLaurin to WDE/SAM hype train. I think he’s going to be a pass rusher. I disagree with Seth I liked his explosion a lot. Also agree with TTB, he plays with a narrow base I don’t know if he can be a mlb.
I think best case for this year would be as follows:
Carlo Kemp continues to be basically playable/a small plus against most competition and a little bit less of a liability against elite OLs.
Hinton breaks out into a legitimately good tackle poised for a monster junior year and an NFL decision.
Smith is playable but inconsistent. Can’t expect much from someone who hasn’t seen the field yet but if he could be playable and trend upwards towards being legit his junior year that would be a positive.
One of Speight/Jeter becomes viable. I don’t expect either of these players to be draftable impact players at any point in their career based on their trajectory but if one of them could just become Carlo Kemp as a junior/senior that would be at least a depth piece.
You get a playable but inconsistent player out of the pile of SDEs. Basically one of the projects you took the past two years looks promising on track to be an impact player next year.
For 2020 this is kind of a low ceiling that is going to require really strong play out of our DEs, but hopefully you get enough out of Smith/Hinton/insert SDE here to expect multiple playmakers in 2021.
Thanks for the article Mr. Coyote. I really think a lot of MSU fans are underestimating how bare the cupboard is right now. I thought they ran a relatively modern offense last year but just did not have any kind of horses especially up front. And looking at it this year, who is a potentially draftable player on offense? Collins is promising but I don’t think he’s a game breaker.
This is going to be a year to get the scheme down and figure out what you’ve got in the young guys. For the near rearm you might hope for a guy with more of a schematic advantage to try and manufacture more offense but in the long term it may be good to just get the execution down.
Its good they gave him such an expensive contract because now they can’t afford to fire him and he’s gonna need that time.
Good jump ball skills and tough runner after the catch. Pretty slow. Definitely a pure outside guy. Getting on the field is going to depend on how well he can beat press and get a step early. Not going to outrun anybody at the college level.
He was the 2nd beast recruiter at UGA in 16. My mistake.
You never know with these things who he wasn’t getting along with or if he wanted to move back south or whatever. We tend to view these guys as just coaches making pure career moves but in reality they’re just guys doing a job.
Bob Shoops is overqualified to be a position coach and will definitely bring good insight to the coaches room. I think it’s a clearly better hire than McElwain even though I would still prefer a young recruiter with a track record.
Jean-Mary is definitely a good hire. Probably a step down from Partridge who was an absolute ace but the fact that he has been recruiting coordinator at several places is invaluable considering how disorganized it seems like our recruiting has been. Not the same track record as a coach but there’s enough X’s and O’s Guys On this staff.
Overall, pretty good. Hope Tank stays around as the staff clearly sees him as an up and comer I just hope he’s not pissed at his promotion being pulled out from under him a bit.
Absolutely. He fits the profile of a guy who could be a very good recruiter. I think the main frustration from Brian and others on this board is that Michigan is a program that should be picking out proven young recruiters rather than hoping a guy on the S&C staff can turn into one.
Any hire can either work or blow up in your face no matter what. You try to look for indicators one way or another. I personally don't blame anyone for saying that these hires have less than the desired amount of positive indicators.
However, I will say that I agree with others on this board who have said that if Brian is going to allude to things like "lowballing" potential coaches or "refusing to give frippery titles", he should either tell us what he's talking about or what he heard or stick to the facts of what we know otherwise it comes across as editorializing.
I have a very good friend on a very successful staff in the Big 12 who has told me that being a “good recruiter” is a lot about just how much you’re willing to constantly be texting 18 year olds and how far you’re willing to bend over backwards to relate to them.
If I was harbaugh, every position coach besides OL, QB, and DL maybe? would be young guys who are maybe a little short in experience but are willing to recruit 24/7.
This is yet another example of the general program disorganization. Shoop and Tank will be fine, they’re not going to kill the program. But they’re not getting us any closer to the ultimate goal.
I think the only thing that really speaks to a culture issue here is the part about Shea. Clearly not well liked by his teammates and I had heard the same things around campus while he was here.
As far as coaches leaving, nfl draft declaring, transfers, I think that’s just kind of the game now. At a certain level I think that it speaks to general program disfunction which I’m sure there is.
Take for example the DPJ bullet, he talks about how the staff didn’t utilize Jabrill Peppers and Rashan Gary appropriately. Peppers had an entire shitty wildcat package and was drafted in the first round. Gary was a defensive end I’m not sure what the staff could’ve done to “showcase” him. He was drafted sixth overall.
As far as coaches leaving and not playing in bowls that just comes down to money and I’ll never blame anyone for that.
Overall the program is certainly disorganized but I don’t think it’s in a death spiral by any stretch. Teams in a death spiral don’t sign top ten classes or shit stomp Notre Dame or start figuring out their offense after a heartbreaking loss.
Harbaugh needs to reprioritize within his program and decide if he wants to play with the big boys. He’s been good but not good enough. I just think this article does a lot of editorializing and piling on.
I think a general critique of the Harbaugh era can be categorized as "disorganized". Now, mind you that even with this disorganization he's probably a top 20 college coach in the country (low bar). A couple of points to back this up:
Offseason preparation. This is the third straight year that M to varying degrees changed their offense midseason. 17 - move to power run after the MSU game, 18 - move to qb run game after the non-con schedule, 19 - finally start running speed in space at penn state. Now, at least Harbaugh HAS the ability to adapt, which is more than you can say for a lot of coaches who will stick with a dogshit offense because "thats just our system" *cough* Dantonio *cough*. It would be great if M came into 2020 with a cohesive plan but one thing you can say for Harbaugh is he will not sit back and accept mediocrity.
Clock management. Harbaugh teams consistently feel like they do not know what they want to do in late game/end of half situations. This sometimes works out and sometimes doesn't but when I compare how they operate to my favorite NFL team the Eagles, who have a very forward thinking and aggressive head coach in Doug Pederson, it is night and day.
Roster management/recruiting. OT, DT, CB, etc. It always feels like Michigan is just missing an entire position group because they forgot to recruit it. This is Michigan. There is at least serviceable hs player at every position in every class that would kill to play here. The idea that you would just skip recruiting that position for a year and risk huge roster gaps is unthinkable. If they're not good enough, then the guy you recruit next year will pass them and you don't have to worry about it. But you need SOMEBODY to put out there that can at least look the part and do the basics. Nolan Ulizio cannot be your answer. I also think it is fair to say that M is not recruiting to its full potential. I don't think we've seen their hat in the ring for as many top 100 type guys as we should. i mean a lot of these guys are going to schools that shouldn't hold a stick to Michigan, you can't tell me they're all unatainalbe. Now the upside is that Harbaugh has made pretty good use of the transfer portal when he's had the opportunity.
Sorry for the long post.
Look at his film vs mccarthy’s or milton’s. I’m not saying it’s a bad arm but you can see a difference.
Bread and butter might be overstating it but go back and look at (especially early when the offense was struggling) how often they went to that as shea’s First read.
…
My amateur scouting report:
strengths:
Stature - he looks every bit of 6’4” and stands tall in the pocket to take advantage of it. I would even have him stand up straighter but he gets away with a wider stance because he’s playing New York high school football and most kids on the field can’t see the top of his head.
Mechanics - he looks clean in the pocket and steps into his throws (because he has to). He doesn’t face any pressure in his highlights but it’s a positive sign that he’s not an arm thrower. He seems accurate when he’s in a clean pocket
Vision - he makes really good cuts in the open field and in the tackle box and uses his blockers really well. He’s a good and willing runner which would be killer if he was just a bit faster. Hopefully it translates to pocket presence which he is going to absolutely need to make up for some of his shortcomings.
Throwing on the run. It was said in the main post but he made some nice throws on the run and kept his eyes downfield which is especially nice to see because the way he runs may lead a HS QB to rely on his legs more which he won’t be able to do in college with his speed.
Weaknesses:
Arm strength - he clearly has to step heavily into the harder throws he makes. He will never be able to hit those long outs that were the bread and butter of Michigan’s offense this year unless he knows he’s going there pre snap. Shea’s arm was wildly under appreciated this year. There’s a reason he was a 5 star.
Athleticism - he has great vision and is a willing runner but he’s stiff and only has average speed. He’s not going to make people miss in the open field consistently but hopefully he can fall forward to convert a couple critical 3rd and 6’s.
Speed - 5.0 is pretty slow and he doesn’t look faster than that in the tape.
Player comp: he kind of reminds me of Brian Lewerke? Prototypical height. Pop gun arm. Slow but effective and willing runner. The main difference will be if he can maintain those mechanics. Lewerke got shell shocked out of his good habits and didn’t have the raw talent to make up for it. By the end of his career he was throwing fair catches to Ambry Thomas. But M fans who went to the game in 2017 remember a QB who was annoying to track down in the pocket and made enough plays to win on the road despite a god awful O Line getting man handled by Rashan, Mo Hurst, and Winovich in the rain.
This is such an embarrassing article
Seth, SP+ as this as the 35th (!) ranked defense, which seems real bad. It feels like this style of defense should be able to stomp out bad opponents and inflate that efficiency rating like ours does (not saying our D isn’t good but it does get boosts by holding Rutgers to lol total yards). Any theory on the discrepancy between your scouting and based god Bill Connelly’s nerd math?
The answer to “why is Michigan the #14 team in the country” is as simple as it always is. It’s college football. Nobody is actually good besides like 8 teams.
I mean if harbaugh said what I said I wouldn’t be happy but I have literally no affect on the program so it’s probably fine lol
I think he’s been a little harsh on Michigan this year which is only notable because he’s usually very fair. That said, this space has also been a bit harsh in my opinion.
I really think the last decade has broken this fanbase. Everything is constantly tinged by this psychotic need to compare ourselves to OSU. I don’t blame anyone considering the horrendous run we’ve had but it does get tiresome.
At a certain point you need to appreciate that Michigan is a disappointing but still pretty good team that has a legit shot at going 2-1 vs rivals and hell who knows maybe they pull something out of their ass against OSU.
Is Michigan at or going to get to OSU’s current level under Harbaugh? Almost certainly not. But no amount of bitching online can change that so you really just have to roll with it and enjoy the good moments when they come along.
Sometimes you don’t get everything you want in life and that’s ok.
Hell yeah baby let’s cheat our asses off I want bags everywhere
The defense is obviously good. SP+ has them as the #2 overall defense. They have at least 6 players that will make an NFL roster. They got curb stomped by an offense that was a really bad matchup (and also just curb stomped a good defense that was a much better matchup) while they were still figuring things out. Will they get lit up by OSU? Possibly! OSU is real good! But it’s absolutely a good defense and has far outperformed reasonable expectations for the year.
I could see a dumb win where we get a bunch of good bounces. Just by pure chance they’ve gotta win one of these tough road games one day. It will be the best defense they’ve played by some distance but ultimately I’ll trust this team on the road when they win one and not a second before. 28-17 PSU
You can criticize all you want! It’s a sport with winners and losers. Totally fair game. I’m just trying to say that we should all take a step back once in a while and understand that these are college kids who care more about winning than any of us could ever possibly imagine. Not to mention they’re grossly under compensated which is a whole other thing.
It’s good to remember that these are just kids doing their best. We get to watch Michigan football every year. This is Shea’s only senior season. Nobody feels worse about how he’s played than him. Enjoy every Saturday and support the team. Go blue!
MSUs offense is SIGNIFICANTLY better than ours. So insanely sad.
There is going to be a third and long against MSU where the zone busts and everyone is going to bitch and moan online and I need you all to remember that this is the downside. There is no magic impenetrable defense and you all begged for this after OSU. Just a preemptive shut up to everyone on this board.
By this math we will be ten point dogs in two weeks. Take away home field, vegas thinks we’re 1 point better than iowa and PSU is 7 points better. Add three points for penn state home field. However that doesn’t take into account that iowa looks worse after last week than they did before so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
McCaffrey will absolutely not be a fix-all for this offense but at the very least he’ll be aggressive in the qb run game and maybe just throw the fucking ball. At this point I would take a pick more a game if it meant having a little bit of courage throwing into zones
I think this team may just be Wisconsin lite but i remain optimistic for the simple reason that we’re playing at home.
I hate to be a dumb guy and do the whole “Michigan is just a different team at home” thing but honestly I don’t think I can deny it anymore. This team just looks far more confident in every game at the big House beyond even the standard +3 points Vegas usually gives for home field advantage.
You either think the kids who put their bodies on the line for your enjoyment every Saturday should be fairly compensated or you’re an asshole it’s pretty simple.
This may shock people but I don’t think that the coaches are actively trying to lose games. They probably know that Ben Mason is bad. They’ve done literally everything they can to keep him off the field. If you want to criticize the coaches on something it should be their mind boggling recruiting decisions two years ago and their solution which was to walk down Jordan Glasgow in the a gap.
99.9% of ADs are just empty suits there to suck up the excess value created by their unpaid labor. Warde is no different
Oh my god Sam is so incredibly embarrassing
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.
I think it's pretty fucked up that harbaugh kept calling the fumble play. he shouldn't do that anymore
Tulsa is not going to win this game because their offense will not move the ball consistently, but this sparty Oline is straight up bad. no push and their tackles and even guards are getting beat
In the second part of that quote it is extremely obvious he’s referring to Hudson to literally anyone who follows the program.
Also, it is an extremely generous assumption that Harbaugh made an inappropriate off collar comment too... raise awareness of mental health? As opposed to just being an advocate of some kind?
It’s more likely he said something he regrets and should just apologize.
He shouldn’t have said it. At the very least it was entirely inappropriate to single out Hudson this way.
Regardless of how Hudson handled his transfer situation, he’s a 20 year old kid, Jim is the coach and has a responsibility to be the bigger man and facilitate the transfer. That’s what comes with a position of power and a multi million salary.
If harbaugh is actively blocking the transfer that is truly indefensible. If this was OSU or MSU we’d be all over it.
shea if you have an mgoblog burner account show yourself coward
So here's the thing, in terms of like, Madden Rating, I would say that there are absolutely 20 players in the B1G better than Shea Patterson. There are a ton of great defensive and offensive linemen, WRs, DBs, etc that would be rated in the mid to high 90s if you were to see them on a Madden roster. She is probably an 89-91.
Hell, just on Michigan's team I would say that Lavert, Nico, maybe DPJ, and probably Bredeson, are all "better" at their jobs than Shea is at his.
However, this is where the nuance comes in: Shea's job is much harder than any of theirs. QB is the hardest position in football, and as such should be weighed as more important when you compare players from different position groups.
Take Tom Brady for example. Does anyone think Tom is better at his job than Deion Sanders was at his? Deion Sanders was nearly perfect at the CB position, it's basically impossible to say that. However, because we understand that QB is incredibly hard and Brady has done it at such a high level for so long, most people agree that Brady is the greatest football player of all time.
So although I think there are certainly better players in the B1G, I think that QB is the most important position on the field by far, and because Shea is probably the best QB in the B1G, I think he is underrated on this list and should probably be top 10.
At 6’ feels like he could potentially play outside? Personally I think the difference between an outside guy and a slot is negligible when it really comes down to it. More about how you play the ball in the air then it is about height/speed. If a slot can do that well enough I think they can play both. Think it’s harder for an outside guy to move inside than the other way around unless the slot is REALLY small.
Rice definitely seems like he’ll play outside.
Michigan can win the B1G with the level of talent they are recruiting. Just look at anyone who’s won it not named OSU in the title game era.
I agree there’s a gap between M and the truly elite of CFB recruiting but that jump (if it ever happens, which if may not) will happen if/when M gets over the hump against OSU and competes in the playoff.
I get there aren’t any super top end guys but when you’re still a top ten class even on a per recruit basis Idk I tend to think the talent level is still pretty good.
As far as CB and DT, I agree I’m not thrilled they don’t have any top players but I do tend to trust this staff who have consistently put guys in the NFL from those spots.
The head scratchers as far as recruiting goes have been the Oline the first couple years (drevno’s fault, fixed) and 2018 when we took like 300 lanky DBs (could work I guess but feels like at least a couple will be processed, maybe an overreaction to slot fades). 2018 could also probably be explained away by that weird period where we didn’t have a recruiting coordinator.
Feels like we’re going to be taking big classes most years and letting the cream rise to the top. The advantage is a higher level of talent because you get more lottery tickets, but the downside is you may have years with less senior experience. Overall, I’ll take this over a situation like MSU where the talent is consistently below the competition. I think with an improved offensive system, that’s the recipe for being in contention for B1G titles year in and year out.
Also what is JJ and the 400 absolute units?