podcasts
quinn hughes
wtka roundtable
pep hamilton
jack hughes
all or nothing the amazon special
give me all the hughes

WTKA Roundtable 4/12/2018: You Can’t Squeeze a Baby Like You Squeeze a Football Comment Count

Seth

WTKA cover 2018-04-13

Things discussed:

  • The Amazon Special: Craig Ross is a star, Pep Hamilton is photogenic, Jim is pretty chill, Don Brown is our dude.
  • Best part of it is Chase Winovich: “You gonna protect your quarterback? Help me out bro run or pass? Why didn’t you block me?!?” Rashan’s mom: “Now go get some quarterback ass!”
  • Ed’s favorite part is Harbaugh using changing the baby as a metaphor for not fumbling and the entire team is like “What is he talking about?” except Karan Higdon like “Yup, yup, yup, with the toys on the floor…”
  • Hockey: Bad news is they were heavily reliant on their first line and that line all graduates/left early. Good news is they get Lockwood back, get one and maybe two Hughes brothers. People think Jack will stick it out with the NTDP but chance to play with your brother…
  • Hoops outlook: Expecting Moe to go the NBA but it’s not as sure as it was before. Next year they can be a really good defensive team with Teske at the 5 but that makes you wonder where the shooting comes from other than Poole.
  • The croots: Iggy is a shooter. Defense? Um. Passing? Not really. Buckets. Takes the Poole role. DeJulius the backup PG at least by end of last year, but only because Z is going to improve. Our slack chat is filled with drool over Castleton but might not get to use that until he’s had a thousand more trips through the buffet line.

----------------------------

You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream on Podbean.

Segment two is here. Segment three is here.

THE USUAL LINKS

I put the baby down gently, he doesn’t have brain damage. I didn’t throw him.

Comments

Michwolve21

April 13th, 2018 at 8:57 AM ^

Pep Hamilton is a fraud. Of course he throws himself in front of the camera at every chance. His playcalling last year was incompetent. Get him out of the program

Joined: 08/14/2016

MGoPoints: 2932

Seth

April 13th, 2018 at 9:13 AM ^

Man you REALLY hate Pep. I think the dude had nothing to do with how much the cameras focused on him--I bet you a year of Amazon Prime that they shot him equally with Drevno and then had to recut everything when Drevno was going to be cut loose. Notice how there wasn't much about the OL, which was the story of last season? Nothing about the Ulizio/JBB/Runyan battle. Nothing about Ruiz emerging as a true freshman except dinner at the Drevnos. Nothing about Mason Cole, a four-year starter who moved back to LT despite his future being at center.

Joined: 10/14/2008

MGoPoints: 149219

1VaBlue1

April 13th, 2018 at 9:34 AM ^

Why was it complicated?  Did you not understand everything the QB's were calling?  I mean, all year long we saw that the offense was getting simpler and simpler, but still the QB's were missing everything.  Likely a combination of bad route running and poor QB play, and probably some poor play calls in certain situations, too.  But you can't realistically place blame on one person for all of that.  Unless you just don't like the guy, in which you'll never give him a fair shake...

Joined: 01/31/2016

MGoPoints: 127087

Kevin13

April 13th, 2018 at 9:54 AM ^

complicated? They have a play book and QB's who have all been in the system for more then a year. Actually many of their pass plays were pretty easy reads, but if your OL is not protecting and WR's are not running proper routes and getting seperation and QB's are not hitting open receivers. That does not mean it's complicated play calling, it's lack of execution.

Lot's of things go into whether a play is successful or not and the offense needs all 11 guys to improve their play and execute the offense.

Joined: 01/26/2016

MGoPoints: 16040

SlickNick

April 13th, 2018 at 10:09 AM ^

Yes, because I'm sure in the heat of in game competition Pep was like "Oh theres that Amazon camera...better get some facetime!" 

Do you have proof of other big time football programs having simpler play calls, or did you just watch the show and decide this was going to be the next log you threw on your Pep Hamilton fire?

I was not happy with the playcalling last year either, but it does appear he knows his stuff, there is a collaborative process, and Jim Harbaugh trusts the guy. It's obvious our QB and Oline situations were terrible last season as well, so you can't blame it all on the playcalling. 

No reason to believe that with a more seasoned QB, hopefully improved Oline,  more development from our WRs paired with our coaches making improvements in playcalling situations that we won't see some impoved results from the offense this season. 

Joined: 09/28/2015

MGoPoints: 6037

Willstud99

April 13th, 2018 at 11:08 AM ^

Playcalling was too complicated? Man go back and watch some games. The schemes got simpler and simpler until it was literally just checkdowns and out routes to TE's. This roster was KILLED by injuries in every positiion group besides RB, and it showed. Blame the coaches all you want, I'll stick by the (correct) theory that last year was an anomaly and better things are ahead. 

Joined: 11/22/2016

MGoPoints: 1265

bronxblue

April 13th, 2018 at 11:11 AM ^

I'd love to see evidence that his playcalling was too complicated and the struggles offensively were caused by that versus, I don't know, issues in pass protection and going through 3 QBs in a year. But I've also given up expecting there to be positive discussion about the football team around here.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 171742

Seth

April 13th, 2018 at 12:49 PM ^

I think there is very legit criticism about Pep, especially the design of his passing game. I think it makes it hard to level that criticism fairly when you are saying he doesn't deserve to be employed. Specifically I don't like how his routes bring too many players together. He does that to simplify reads and create a one-on-one matchup in a lot of space for somebody. Last year that one guy often could not get open and then the whole passing game goes to shit because everybody's running into the same area packed with defenders. Also it takes a lot of crisp routes to make that functional and he was throwing out mostly freshman into receiving patterns. The big question is what could you do differently and given what he had last year there are not a lot of good answers. The play that lost the Ohio State game and caused pep to start pounding the table going no John no John that I clipped for the cover of this episode was emblematic of the passing game problems. They had to outsmart the defense to get a guy open, and that meant putting an option read on an inconsistent quarterback and a true sophomore receiver. It is not highly complicated but it is not Elementary level. It is the kind of thing you have to do if you are going to beat Ohio State with the players that Michigan had. Pep called the correct play, got exactly the response from Ohio State they had hoped for, and got that sophomore receiver to read the coverage correctly and get to the space he needed to get to. I have no problem with any of that. There was nobody else they can put out there at that moment. Sometimes you have to trust your quarterback to do the things you taught him to do which half the quarterbacks in the country at this level are expected to do many times a game. Maybe if they knew O'Korn was going to be QB1 all year they could have designed an offense that used his legs more, but when you are down to Ohio state with time running out a Ohio State like running game isn't going to do much for you. Going into a shell and giving the quarterback just one read isn't going to do much for you. If you want to win big college football games you have to play some football. The coaches put those players in a position to succeed. They didn't. Them's the breaks.

Joined: 10/14/2008

MGoPoints: 149219

Michwolve21

April 13th, 2018 at 5:13 PM ^

That play call was idiotic. Sure it had to something more than a single read, but you have to know your personnel, okorn couldnt make that throw even if made the right read. Just an all around awful play call with the personnel we had and it cost us a shot to win the game. Sure, give me the outcome bias argument. We had some success underneath 5-10 yards from LOS throughout the game and didn’t need a home run ball

Joined: 08/14/2016

MGoPoints: 2932

1VaBlue1

April 13th, 2018 at 9:31 AM ^

Stoopid take is stoopid.

When the camera is bolted to the table directly in front of him, how is it that "throws himself" in front of it?  Every coach, and a lot of the players, had cameras on them the entire season, to say Pep hogged it at Drevno's expense is a trash opinion.  You don't like Pep, so good for you.  But at least be realistic about editing, as it was abundantly clear that all Drevno/Frey cuts were edited out.

Joined: 01/31/2016

MGoPoints: 127087

likerice

April 13th, 2018 at 12:57 PM ^

After watching most of the doc, my issue with Pep is that he doesn't seem to give the QBs much instruction to correct their mistakes. Maybe Amazon is editing the technical stuff out, but most of his communication with the QBs seems to be generic motivational things like "get them next time" after they fumble or throw an INT. 

 

So Craig Ross, I disagree with you that Pep "comes out well" in the doc, though he does seem like a nice guy. 

 

 

 

Joined: 12/29/2014

MGoPoints: 171

CR

April 13th, 2018 at 7:30 PM ^

I should have said he came across as genuine and likeable. I didn't intend to imply anyhting beyond that. He may be a great coach. Or not. I don't know. My guess is he is at least cmpetent.

Joined: 10/23/2009

MGoPoints: 2368