Looking ahead to the future
We knew going ino the season that we were going to have a problem on defense. 3-0 is a great way to start the season and as long as we're able to show up and execute we should have no problem starting this season 5-0 heading into the MSU game. However while watching our team during the first three weeks of this season I keep finding myself thinking about the future. Our offense is still very young and yet we are a national power ranking in the top 10 nationally. Once our defense comes around and the depth and compitition reach that of our offense this team is going to be pushing for national championships every year. Right now we're 3-0 with an offense ranked 10th and a defense ranked 100th. Just imagine when things come together and we're in the top 25 defensively with our elite offense. The results will speak for themselves. I know there are people out there skeptical of the Gerg, I am one of them, but lets give this guys a chance to get his system in place and let our depth and compition catch up to our offense and we will have created the perfect storm. 3-0 Keep the faith, GO BLUE!!
September 19th, 2010 at 8:35 PM ^
When a poster named the Oracle posts something about the future, well you better damn well read it.
Tough to say one way or another on Gerg's ability as a D-coordinator. Obviously we are young and still at least one more recruiting class away from having depth at all positions. So far he is running a very vanilla game plan to shelter his young secondary. The future is certainly looking bright at Michigan and I will be up this week end to see for myself. Can't wait.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:01 PM ^
Does the Oracle provide The Knowledge with The Knowledge?
September 19th, 2010 at 8:36 PM ^
Well said, good sir.
September 19th, 2010 at 8:39 PM ^
One can only look ahead to the future, right?
September 19th, 2010 at 8:50 PM ^
Yes. The future is bright my fellow Wolverines. Very bright.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:17 PM ^
September 19th, 2010 at 8:39 PM ^
When is a good question. The defense is bad this year; it will likely be mediocre next year. When do you expect this defense to be good? 2012?
September 19th, 2010 at 8:41 PM ^
You assume that our defense will have continuous improvement. ..." Once our defense comes around..". My concern is the quality of the tackling, lack of fundamentals at basically every position, and lack of experience should have gotten better from last year... it just "feels" like we have taken a step back.
To say that we WILL improve over the course of the season may not be a logical conclusion.. given the demonstrated evidence so far.. and the fact that teams of better quality start hitting the schedule. GERG will be the Man to me... if our D does improve from this point forward... if it does not... his seat will be hotter than Rich Rods.
September 19th, 2010 at 8:56 PM ^
I was thinking of being articulate in pointing out how you're factually incorrect, but this is almost troll levels of stupid so this is all you get.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:24 PM ^
#100 nationally ranked defense,the situation of lack of experience, the statistically poor YPG given up.... how this is NOT factually correct?
The fact that the power rankings of our opponents LEFT on the schedule exponentially increases. And given this, if GERG does get our D to improve.. this speaks wonders for his coaching ability. However, one has to think that without progress, so too does the question of whether or not he IS or CAN get it done.
NEDVED.. me thinks you are the troll in this exchange.
September 19th, 2010 at 11:07 PM ^
Exponentially? Well, unless its an inverse function, I love our chances.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:04 PM ^
...wait until the Big 10 season before deciding if he is on some sort of "Hot Seat"
September 19th, 2010 at 8:42 PM ^
He only ran the Texas defense that contained us in 2004, and won 2 superbowls in the late '90's. I agree, give him more slack.
September 19th, 2010 at 8:49 PM ^
Didn't we put up 30+ in that game? Wasn't he also a co-DC?
September 19th, 2010 at 8:59 PM ^
remind me, who won? Not that i was happy with the results. He did his job, that's my point.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:04 PM ^
Texas stopped us just like we stopped Florida in the Capital One bowl...derp. Offenses won both of those games, and just because you score more than the other team doesn't mean the defense wasn't ass.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:38 PM ^
can you please form complete thoughts? thank you.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:45 PM ^
What part confused you? I can break it down Barney style if you would like: Winning games does not mean you have a good defense.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:52 PM ^
You seem to be looking past the point of my post. It wasn't about what side of the team wins games. It was that Greg Robinson knows how to coach, and to cut the man some slack.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:55 PM ^
He is a defensive coordinator, so what side wins the game is kind of a valid point to bring up... Your example, the 2004 Rose bowl, was a terrible piece of evidence to demonstrate your argument.
September 19th, 2010 at 10:01 PM ^
Actually he listed his two superbowl wins with the Bronco's in 97-98. You chose to key off on the Rose bowl example only.
September 19th, 2010 at 8:51 PM ^
September 19th, 2010 at 8:42 PM ^
Back to the Future, but that's just me.
September 19th, 2010 at 8:45 PM ^
I like to watch Oregon and where Chip Kelly has that thing on the hand off from Coach Belotti to see a fully rounded program in the likeness of where Rich is taking this.
Devastating spread option offense with great speed and athletes everywhere, and disruptive experienced speed guys on defense. They lose the quarterback who is all Pac 10 and considered irreplaceable and they look just as good.
They have been doing it longer than us. That sums up the biggest difference in one sentence.
Anyone who doubts they would go undefeated or 1 loss in the Big Ten this season hasn't seen them.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:51 PM ^
I saw them get manhandled by OSU in the Rose Bowl. They've played two absolutely terrible teams this year (New Mexico and Portland St.) and beat a crappy Tennessee team that held them in check for a half.
If Mr. Wolf visited the Oregon locker room I think he'd say: "Let's not start sucking each other's dicks just yet."
September 19th, 2010 at 10:06 PM ^
Oregon is good first and foremost because of the pipeline of Nike money running directly from Phil Knight's office to Autzen stadium. I would hope we would aspire to being more than the Oregon (ahem- got beat by OSU, which we don't like) of the east. If Rodriguez gets a few more years and we actually see what it's like to have upperclassmen DBs, the Michigan program will dwarf Oregon. They're middle of the pack trying to get big. Michigan is a sleeping giant. I think a better comparison is Florida- the major difference is, Zook left the cupboard stocked for Meyer to come in with the spread. I want to see that level of success in a couple years- not a couple up seasons where you hope you can wrest USC's stranglehold on your conference.
September 19th, 2010 at 10:14 PM ^
Oregon has won one major bowl game in the last 90+ years (2002 Fiesta Bowl). WVU did more when they had this innovative coach running the show there a couple years back. We should set our sights higher.
September 19th, 2010 at 8:49 PM ^
I agree. The O is looking good. For awhile I wasn't sure if RR was going to be able to pull it off. I stand corrected.
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<br>The D is looking not so good especially the secondary. But no surprise there, everyone knew that to start the season. Throw in a injury or two and it gets weaker still.
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<br>I think the talent is there. I think the coaching is there. (fingers crossed)
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<br>If we can play just a little bit better on D than we can get to 10 wins this season.
September 19th, 2010 at 8:55 PM ^
I so wish you were right.
I also wish I were naive enough to agree....
September 19th, 2010 at 9:06 PM ^
Which part don't you agree with? The whole post or just the 10 win part?
September 19th, 2010 at 9:03 PM ^
The talent is there? How many of our guys on D could start for OSU, Penn St., Iowa, MSU, etc? That's where we are severely lacking: the talent level on D. There is only so much a D coordinator could do with the talent we have. The coaches desperately need to recruit some solid talent on D and retain the talent that they bring in. Losing over 30% of RR's recruits on the D is disturbing. How do you develop a defense with any resemblence of depth with that occuring? The recruiting focus had appeared to be lopsided towards the offense in the first two years RR was here and a few years prior as well. It's biting us in the ass now. It's great to be 3-0 but there is no way the defense isn't going to lose at least a few games for us if they continue to play like they did against UMass.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:16 PM ^
I do suppose I'm a bit of an optimist.
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<br>I honestly can't tell you where our recruiting class ranks with other schools. But Michigan doesn't recruit junk.
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<br>I agree that our last few recruiting classes seemed to lean heavily in favor of the offense.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:24 PM ^
This team can win 10 games. It can also win 5. But that is a young team for you. Rich probably went after the offense more aggressively at first because that takes longer to develop in his system.
The attrition on defense has to be even more extreme than he could have foreseen. But this offense is already a monster and will continue to be for as long as he runs this program. So for now we hang our hat on that. Not like it is any small thing.
Outside of Ohio State on defense, name me one team left on our schedule that plays dominant in one of the three phases like we do on offense?
The kind of unit that makes the opposing coaches doo doo themselves during the film and prep stage during the week. We have that.
Embrace that advantage and maybe it will guide us through to some wins while the defense catches up.
September 19th, 2010 at 10:08 PM ^
They also have been pretty bad. If they keep this up, they will cost us a game or two. If they can get it together, they could help the offense cover for a developing defense.
September 19th, 2010 at 11:00 PM ^
Good points. The field position battle has been lopsided in the opponents favor this year as well. How many times have we pinned the opposition inside their 10 yd line to start a drive and how many times have we started a drive inside our 10?
September 19th, 2010 at 9:08 PM ^
...if we can get to 8 wins I think the recruiting has to get better on defense...
September 19th, 2010 at 9:27 PM ^
Defensively we have a good start to the class. If we're able to lock down Zettel, alongside some more solid linebackers then we will have the depth needed to compete. Woolfolk will be back next season ready to go, Floyd will man the other corner, Josh Furman will be ready to rock. RVB, Mike Martin, and Will Campbell will all be another year better, not too mention Marvin Robinson, Carvin Johnson, Kovacs, and other that are all going to have another year under their belt. We have a verbal from Kellen Jones who is a monster LB, couple that with the rest of a solid class that adds Delonte Hollowell, Greg Brown, and Brennen Beyer and I think it's a realistic expectation that we should improve vastly. Kenny Wilkins is going to be a beast as well. We have a lot of talent on the roster and some incoming so It's going to be a year to a year and a half at most before I feel this team is ready to rock and roll.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:39 PM ^
I saw him live the other night in Bay City. He was very impressive. They played him at Linebacker for the last 3 quarters and he was on a 20 solo tackle pace for a 4 quarter game. Big and quick and all out hustle.
At left offensive tackle, he was even better. No one got by him and he often blocked pass rushers with one hand while he looked around for guys to pin down with the other.
Man among boys would be to condemn him with faint praise. The other thing that stood out is he would get up after being blocked and run down the field 25 yards and try to catch a back or receiver when the play was run away from him. He did this until the final whistle even though his team was not going to catch up.
I hear he is also a very good student and brutal worker in practice.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:29 PM ^
we would start 3-0 I'm sure that everyone on this board would take it and there would be no complaining.
September 19th, 2010 at 10:29 PM ^
...half the board was posting about how UConn was a "must win" and how they would come to Ann Arbor and dominate etc. etc. Remember when BK at Notre Dame was still a genius?
You remember the whole thing...I agree with you completely.
September 20th, 2010 at 10:34 AM ^
... I disagree. I think we'd find something to complain about. I love this board, but it seems like we always have something to complain about.
Kickers anyone?
September 19th, 2010 at 9:30 PM ^
"Just imagine when things come together and we're in the top 25 defensively with our elite offense." Key word: "imagine." We've got a few promising young defensive players, but nowhere near enough. I defy anyone to say, straight-faced, that next season's defense will be much better than this year's.
September 19th, 2010 at 9:35 PM ^
go ahead and give yourself a few more +1's
September 19th, 2010 at 9:46 PM ^
Once our defense comes around and the depth and compitition reach that of our offense this team is going to be pushing for national championships every year
Umm...RR has lost over 30% of his defensive recruits since arriving in A2. Until someone figures out why that is happening, we may continue to have a huge problem with defensive depth.
September 19th, 2010 at 10:35 PM ^
we should have no problem starting this season 5-0 heading into the MSU game.
...why taunt the Angry Michigan Hating God?!?!? After UMASS and many unpleasant flashbacks to "The Horror" I'll take all my expectations down a notch (for America, a la Jon Stewart). One game at a time, please...
September 19th, 2010 at 11:53 PM ^
September 20th, 2010 at 4:02 AM ^
September 20th, 2010 at 8:44 AM ^
this Saturday against Bowling Green.