Quick thought on Funk
When it comes to Darrell Funk and the offensive line fusion cusine, I have no interest in arguing how bad the line is right now or exactly whose fault it is. That argument is older than the average age of the starting interior linemen at OSU.
My question is this: why did Patrick Kugler, whose Dad was the Steelers OL coach and is now the head coach at UTEP, come to Michigan to play football? I can't imagine his Dad and he didn't watch Funk coach during practices before deciding he was the guy they wanted to be Patrick's position coach. If Funk is Kugler and Son approved, where does this evidence play into the overall conversation in the "fire Funk" vs. "young line, not all Funk's fault" discussion?
November 19th, 2013 at 5:19 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 4:38 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 4:46 PM ^
Monocle,
I asked this below, but in case you didn't see it. How do you quatify Lewan and Schfield looking worse? Couldn't it be that they look worse this year, and looked better last year, because of the other OL in the unit?
Also, as to your expectations. You said you "expected mediocrity but not disaster." Taking a page from the Enlightened One's book, maybe your expectations are the issue. Maybe, and this is what I suspect, if you had asked Hoke, Borges, and Funk candidly they would have said not to expect much because of the OL personnel. Outwardly, they were optimistic, but I'll bet inwardly they knew that things were going to be pretty rough this season.
So again, maybe if you stopped expecting so much you would be so upset about the way things have played out. I, for one, expected very little from this OL, and that made watching the running game come to life a bit versus NW such a joy.
Just a thought.
November 19th, 2013 at 11:25 AM ^
in the past few years. They were not good. Under Frey, the OL looked good.
November 19th, 2013 at 11:55 AM ^
Do you if your avatar on Team Brown Bear? If so I may rethink my position somewhat.
November 19th, 2013 at 12:13 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 3:15 PM ^
Count me in! Go Brown Bears Go!
November 19th, 2013 at 12:06 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 1:34 PM ^
I agree on giving Funk more time, but I think the offensive line as a whole will be slightly worst next year. So I'm not sure if one year is reasonable enough for Funk to have the line moving in the right direction.
November 19th, 2013 at 3:43 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 10:55 AM ^
2. See above.
November 19th, 2013 at 1:11 PM ^
That is it entirely. I think he wants to set his son up and knows that a Michigan degree will do just that.
Jack Del Rio told his son to turn down offers and just walk on at Alabama because he saw that being the best move for his son (and he didn't need the money). An Alabama degree doesn't have the same power as a Michigan degree but Alabama is not a bad way to get into the draft which Jack clearly thinks his son is going.
If you don't think that will matter (not going to be an early draft and not going to get a payday up front) then going to a school like Michigan is clearly the better choice.
November 19th, 2013 at 11:44 AM ^
LAst year we couldn't run block at all. Remember lol it cant possibly get any worse. Last year tho we had a RB who could pick up blitzes so our pass blocking looked better. This year we're rolling our QB INTO pressure... I still dont get that. How many times this year has Devin Rolled to his right into an unblocked DE or LB? In the NW game they actually started rolling him to his left.
The point i'm trying to make is it's not just the O line. It's a 4 part problem. Fitz cant block, which makes pressure look worse. Devin makes some bad decisions at the line when he does audible and after the snap. Borges calls a few just bonehead plays and the O line is inexperienced. In the NW game, the NW defense shows blitz and devin checks off into a run play it looks like it supposed to go to the outside where the blitz is showing. The defenders are playing off the WR's and instead of a quick throw or a run play away from the blitz we run right at it. I've already mentioned the QB rollouts right into an unblocked end or LBer. If the play calls for a rollout to whatever side shouldn't you make a point to block the end?
November 19th, 2013 at 12:03 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 1:48 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 4:18 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 12:12 PM ^
we are overthinking it.
we have no idea if Funk is good or not.
in a few years, we will know.
I say we should always wait 5 or 6 years.
Sometimes, it will be painful.
But at the end, you will know what you have on your hands.
November 19th, 2013 at 12:19 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 2:25 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 2:52 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 3:32 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 12:34 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 12:59 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 1:23 PM ^
How it plays, is that these clowns calling for Funks job think they are smarter than an X-NFL coach and current NCAA coach and said coach has no idea what a good coach looks like or how to prepare a center, worse than that, this center is his son. So clearly Funk gets a giant vote of confidence from coach Kugler...
November 19th, 2013 at 3:08 PM ^
We throw infinity dollars at Alex Gibbs to sprinkle some of his magic offensive line dust over our guards.
Please note that this is as good of a solution as I can come up with, as even though I will criticize the staff for failing to put together a coherent offensive gameplan, I have no idea how to address the various root causes for it or even really what percentage each of the obvious causes contributes to the various offensive woes. As far as I know, the entire reason we're terrible is because Funk does not possess the magical Alex Gibbs pixie dust.
Magic
November 19th, 2013 at 3:25 PM ^
I can't speak for anyone else who has uttered the words "Funk should be fired", but for me I think the people against that idea are missing (at least in my instance) the fact that I don't WANT anyone to be fired. In all honesty, I hope you're right and Funk is the best o-line coach in the country, but the evidence (to me at least) suggests otherwise.
I think people in the "fire no one" camp believe that the people who want some heads to roll, want it just for the sake of firiing someone. That honestly isn't the case, for me at least. I just want the best person for the job, someone who can develop this stable of young, talented olinemen into the beast we all know they can be.
November 19th, 2013 at 3:28 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 4:36 PM ^
I think the OP's question is an intriguing one.
PK could have gone anywhere he wanted. With his father's expert guidence I am sure they went over the OL coaches recruiting him with a fine toothed comb, and they chose to play for Michigan and Coach Funk. If Funk is as bad as many of the posters (who lack any semblence of expertise on the subject), why would PK's dad send him to play for him?
People sit here and talk about "regression" of Lewan and Schofield, and I have to wonder how those making that assertion qauntify and justify it. I saw Schofield whiff on a sack versus NW, it looked pretty bad, but I have no idea whether that was common or not. I think part of the problem is that the OL is a unit, and Lewan might look worse this season because of the overall weakness of the unit as a whole.
I think eveyone is going to eat their words in re: Funk.
November 19th, 2013 at 4:44 PM ^
November 19th, 2013 at 4:52 PM ^
not only that Swazi, but it could very possibly make the very good LT look WORSE than he is as he is trying to do too much to compensate for the mistakes of the other, less experienced, guys.
Is there some sort of prize or something that I win?
November 19th, 2013 at 5:57 PM ^
November 20th, 2013 at 1:03 AM ^