Coaching staff is complete
February 19th, 2018 at 6:45 PM ^
February 20th, 2018 at 8:45 AM ^
with slight changes.....Do you believe that McElwain was brought in under the same conditions as Enos with a nice raise if named OC along with WR coach?
February 19th, 2018 at 7:21 PM ^
This board does realize that Urban Meyer uses the same "approach by committee" philosophy at OSU, right? They just promoted Ryan Day from Co-Offensive Coordinator to Offensive Coordinator. That is in addition to having Kevin Wilson listed as an Offensive Coordinator, along with Urban Meyer, who is an Offensive Coordinator.
Last year's downfalls had nothing to do with the philosophy, it had to do with who was actually calling plays and making the game plans. Harbaugh clearly was not happy with the performance of those aspects of the staff, so he hired someone new to take charge of it. McElwain has done very well in this role before, hopefully he can have that same success here.
February 19th, 2018 at 7:36 PM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 9:43 PM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 9:50 PM ^
February 20th, 2018 at 12:07 AM ^
gets the piss knocked out of them too, bowl game, (not this year obs) regular season games, and with all that 5 star talent and with all their wonderful coaches. If you want to hate on us and love them, at least keep it in perspective.
February 19th, 2018 at 7:41 PM ^
No, the board does not realize this, and it's not just Urban. I would venture to guess that 90% of coaching staffs, High School, College, and Pro, use a collaborative play calling system with multiple offensive coaches having a say. It's far more common than not, but people want to yell.
February 19th, 2018 at 7:57 PM ^
Modern era football has more input and real-time info. Team effort for calling plays.
February 19th, 2018 at 9:48 PM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 8:05 PM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 8:51 PM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 10:09 PM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 9:24 PM ^
I am proposing that the way Michigan's current coaching staff looks to you is irrelevant. My guess is that Harbaugh knows more about coaching, and coaching staffs, than you. That Michigan is not addressing what you call "glaring problems" seems highly unlikely, and your take seems to smell more of self-loathing than logic.
February 19th, 2018 at 10:27 PM ^
They don't seem to make sense to you because you you don't know very about football.
February 20th, 2018 at 9:36 AM ^
February 20th, 2018 at 10:30 AM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 8:03 PM ^
Given the changes being made, I assume Harbaugh perceives that there were problems last year.
Yet, I cannot help but feel that the problems were less philosophy and play calling mechanics, and more to do with fundamental blocking pass offense execution.
Too often, our QB play was substandard. We had young receivers who need to run better routes and get greater separation. The OL was inconsistent at best. Given these deficiencies, I question who could have functioned as an offensive coordinator and been consistently successful.
I expect our wideouts to be better this year. Also, we now have a dedicated WR coach. Harbaugh recruited Patterson. Enough said. Even if he's not eligible this year, Peters should be better given his experience. I hope our OL shows incremental improvement too, but the former changes should help even if this is not as much as hoped for.
We were close against some good teams playing with a less than stellar offense. While not satisfied, I just don't feel the sense of dread and doom that many on this board seem to experience.
February 19th, 2018 at 9:50 PM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 10:58 PM ^
fyi, the backup qb is always the best qb on the roster.
February 19th, 2018 at 11:49 PM ^
a huge percentage of this board wanted the backup QB to start playing and the reason the backup QB got to play was because the oline was awful at pass blocking.
February 20th, 2018 at 12:10 AM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 7:55 PM ^
As Sam Webb mentioned, this has always been Harbaugh's system even when he's had success at Stanford and SF and back to San Diego. This isn't some new thing he started at Michigan.
February 19th, 2018 at 6:45 PM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 6:48 PM ^
I'm on board, already looking forward to the season and crushing disappointment that will most assuredly come with it.
Unfortunately, this is the toughest schedule M has had since...the last 20 years? ever?
February 19th, 2018 at 7:25 PM ^
U-M lost both but wound up Rose Bowl champs and ranked #4. Hard schedules are by no means the end of the world; they can actually be a positive, since it forces the team to focus. Saban always schedules a big-name opponent in Week 1 for that very reason.
February 19th, 2018 at 9:36 PM ^
What sucks is that we had late 4th quarter leads in both of those games. We could have easily won them.
February 20th, 2018 at 1:17 PM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 7:43 PM ^
No. Since 2016. We had 4 S&P Top 25 teams that year, we'll have 4 again this year. We should've gone 12-0 that year with a mediocre QB, bad OL, and amazing D. Now we will have a better QB, better OL, and amazing D. The schedule won't be the reason we don't reach our goals, it is entirely doable.
February 19th, 2018 at 7:56 PM ^
the 4 top 25 teams in 2016 you're referencing were Colorado, Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State, right? 3 of those were at home. Michigan hasn't won a big road game in a looooong time.
As you know, road games this year are ND, MSU, OSU with Penn State and Wisconsin at home. NW won 10 games last year and we travel to their "stadium" for an "away" game.
On paper, that looks tougher to me. But you're a better doctor than me so I will defer.
February 19th, 2018 at 8:56 PM ^
In the country.
But hey like many here say this will only go to prove just how mean and tough and nasty and rough and fiesty and something we are when we run the table. Ignoring unfortunately that our away record, like most teams, is not great when we play good teams in their stadium.
I blame Brandon for allowing the B1G to put MSU & OSU on the same home/away rotation. It's insane.
I blame Warde for not saying to "no" to Jimmy when he wanted ND back on the schedule and ND put our balls back in a vice (again) by not agreeing to start the series back up on AA where it belonged.
I think we're going to have a much better team next year with the same basic record we had this year unfortunately because of the damn schedule.
February 19th, 2018 at 10:14 PM ^
Northwestern is pretty much a home game, if you've ever gone to one of those games. Usually just as many Michigan alumni from Chicago in the stands as NW.
February 20th, 2018 at 8:01 AM ^
Yeah, I think 2018 ND and 2016 Colorado are going to be similar teams, and I don't hold ND in very high regards in terms of hostile environments for visiting teams. I think 2016 Colorado might actually be better than 2018 ND. Notre Dame's defense will be top-15 ish, but I think their offense will take a rather significant step back with all that they've lost.
I will never consider a NW game an extraordinarily difficult one, whether it's in Evanston or Ann Arbor.
Ultimately, this year comes down to 4 games (because I think we are winning @ND and NW and the other 6 games as well) for me: MSU, UW, PSU, OSU. Half at home, half on the road. We will beat PSU and UW at home in similar fashion to 2016. I think Jim wants to hurt PSU and I think we take care of UW like we did in 2016, something like 21-10. I also think it's incredibly likely that we beat MSU in EL. I know that they have a solid team coming back, but Jim isn't losing that one. I think the season comes to down to the game in Columbus, but that we go into that game either 10-1 or 11-0. I'm on the optimistic side of the fan base, I know.
February 20th, 2018 at 9:05 AM ^
But I damn sure HOPE you are right!
February 20th, 2018 at 9:47 AM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 7:57 PM ^
February 20th, 2018 at 7:16 PM ^
Preseason. I don't think they'll all be in the top 25 of S&P at the end of the year. I think at least one of MSU, ND, or PSU will not be.
February 19th, 2018 at 8:08 PM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 8:59 PM ^
February 20th, 2018 at 12:02 AM ^
was in concussion protocol... for quite some time before being cleared, prior to the Bowl game. I wasn't looking for miracles from him, were you?
February 20th, 2018 at 10:09 AM ^
No but miracles were not needed to win that game. Just like miracles were not needed to beat OSU. Damn we need a QB.
February 19th, 2018 at 8:27 PM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 7:14 PM ^
other choice do we have, you ask?
Here are the other two choices: realistic and pessimistic.
February 19th, 2018 at 9:53 PM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 6:47 PM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 6:50 PM ^
February 19th, 2018 at 6:52 PM ^
So toss in Harbaugh and we now have 4 offensive coordinators? Great. Great.