Bowling Green Snowflakes: Coaching

44 plays in a game is ridiculous and I don’t know why our coaches are playing into it by playing at a snail’s pace. I don’t know what they’re doing with the passing offense, it looks so unsophisticated. Not impressed today.

Even with great QB’s you occasionally need to give them some easy pitch and catch stuff.   It’s inexplicable why we don’t screen to Donavan who also needs some plays to his strength.  

The dive play on first down is maddening.  See are way too predictable all around.  4 turnovers was terrible, and WRs seemed to have a hard time getting loose to help JJ (and coaches called nothing to help build him back up).

Also weird how much we take Graham out of the game on D.  still D was sick.  Controlled and won game for us. 

Jim Harbaugh was sorely missed and it caught up with us tonight. Will have to credit Loeffler at BGSU to get his guys to hang in there for a half.

Congrats to Coach Moore.  Harbaugh is now free.

Not a good look for Moore, for sure. Aside from Blake, the offense didn't seem sharp. Just a strange game on O. Will be good to get Jim back and start to establish some continuity for conference play. On D, let's get healthy and keep rolling.

Kirk Campbell has done the best job as OC this year by a long shot. 

Hot takes generally come out unfairly. 

It's hard to tell exactly what the effect is of the team having different voices on the sideline on gameday.

...but last year Mike Hart collapsed on the sideline during the Indiana game, and the team seemed rather disrupted by it. Maybe the attempts to write off the lackluster Indiana game as an artifact of a coach having a medical episode during a game were feelingsball, but it *felt* like something was disruptive when it happened, and the issues that occurred did not become a season-long problem, so there seems to be some grounds to think that Hart's episode was a real factor.

Well, if that was a factor, Michigan hasn't had its head coach on the sideline for any of the first three games. He's still running the team, still connected to the staff and players, still involved in developing the plans for the games. But he's not there.

And maybe we're seeing that a bit in these three games. I mean, this is the third entrant in a very sleepy non-conference schedule. The first game has happened, and the second game (notable, though, UNLV isn't terrible, they just beat Vanderbilt tonight), and now it's a third-straight body bag. Not hard to imagine that's tough to address.

My main coaching "concern" is more of an unanswered question. Sherrone Moore now has full OC duties, and that must necessarily take attention away from his OL coaching work. If Moore is a big factor in the great OL play we've had the last two years, is it possible that his OC duties are affecting the staff's ability to work through the OL issues at tackle?

Not a question we can know the answer to. And the results will be seen late in the season, not now. But it's a question I have. 

I'm optimistic that Harbaugh returning will make a big difference. We've all dealt with it at work when a top contributor goes on a 2+ week vacation.  The work still gets done and the rest of the department picks up the slack, but there is a noticeable cost to outputs until that person comes back. I think that's what we'll see next week.  

I don't know. We turned the ball over four times, and our defense gave up a total of six points? That seems pretty excellent, to me. 

And our offense seemed as potent as we could realistically want them to be, except for some strikingly uncharacteristic turnovers — which, truthfully, might help JJ avoid making those kinds of mistakes in more important circumstances.

I don't mean it was a good game, by any means, but ... I don't see that it's the cause for any real unhappiness either. Sometimes you turn the ball over four times in a game. Nice when you can do that and still win by 25 points.

Blecch, what a boring and uninteresting non-conference season. Now the real games start.

This kind of performance won’t work against Dantonio!!!!  LOL 

I think Michigan often plays up to better competition and down to worse competition.

So, good transfers:

Hausmann - but where was he? I don't think I saw him once?

Nugent - FIguring things out maybe. lets see against Rut how he does

Bad:

Hinton - Nice depth but inserted as a tackle is struggling badly

Henderson - where is this guy? I thought he was a possibly top 2 round pick and was here to learn and improve his stock?

Stewart - He looks like a LB. I don't see him having much impact - less than Okie last year. He came in, during garbage time it seemed

Unsure:

Barner - why is every throw to this guy off target? He's 9 feet tall. THROW IT UP HIGH. for god's sake. He should be a weapon in the end zone. We don't throw over the middle at all anymore (not talking deep, intermediate).

Tuttle - Hurt i assume? 

This to me seems like a they are missing Harbaugh on the sidelines. The longer they go, the further they drift. Glad he will be back next week and gets to ease in with Rutgers

Since this is a coaching part of the discussion, would like to note that Scot Loeffler's team did Michigan a huge favor:

1. Point out vulnerabilities on special teams - that shallow kick off has been used by others but here as a huge underdog good try. They kept showing possible on-side kicks as well. This gives the special team coaches something to work on getting ready for Rutgers.

2. They got their number 2 and 3 QBs ready to play. They were helped by several great individual plays but those only happen if the ball is there. Forces the DB and LB to realize they are very good but not invincible.

3. Their defense while ultimately overmatched showed that they weren't pylons and cones - and if there is a shot at an interception they can make the play. I hope this will rein in any overconfidence that after 2 games, it is all pitch-and-catch. The sack shows the OL and recognition of pressure will be worked on - especially with Rutgers coming.

4. Finally, for a game they were picked to lose badly, they didn't go for it on 4th down on the second FG chance.

I didn't see the game but unless I'm wrong, Minters D hasn't allowed a TD to the first and second string, so far.  Correct? If so, hat tip to the D.

I didn't see the game but unless I'm wrong, Minters D hasn't allowed a TD to the first and second string, so far.  Correct? If so, hat tip to the D.

Very disappointing. Harbaugh, it’s like he wasn’t even there. 
 

Here is a take that might be controversial: we should've just picked one acting head coach. I totally understand wanting to give all these guys an opportunity, but I also think that they are all mature enough to respect one of them just getting picked for three weeks. After the first pick in a normal week, JJ and Sherrone and Kirk Campbell would be on a call to reset everything. But Sherrone had to deal with game theory things and HC duties. Michigan only had its OC in a normal role for Week 2. Sherrone was out in week 1 and then was pulled in 1000 directions last night. I think just making one person the acting HC (just pick a name out of a hat for all I care) and then just letting everyone else do their normal coordinator roles might've led to a bit of a smoother three weeks in a number of ways. We saw mistakes in substitutions, weird backup QB cycles (I suspect QB2 is Tuttle), and random miscues. It seems to me that having different people in charge each week was more trouble than it was worth. I am excited for Harbaugh to be back on the sidelines next week.