It Was Good While It Lasted

Nick Sheridan must be like The Lions.  Awesome in practice.

i think the entire bar yeslled out "NOOOOO" when sheridan came in.  or maybe it was just me really really loud

Suddenly I was no longer at the bar watching the game, but I was at a bank right before a crane crashed through the ceiling and onto me.

/can't believe he admitted he watches "Eli Stone"

As soon as I saw #8 putting his helmet on and heading on to the field, I turned to my roomate and said...

 "This is the point in the game where we do not get another first down and Penn State covers the spread"

 I would have been right about both until Minor got a garbage time 1st down on our last drive. Any game that Sheridan starts we have no chance of winning.

we could not beat most D2 schools. He's that bad. He's an NAIA QB at best. He's a walk-on who I imagine must be a practice hero to even be allowed to play at all.  And I disagree with those who assume Feagin is worse than him. I don't assume that anybody they put out there can POSSIBLY be worse than Seheridan until proven otherwise.  And when you're getting killed be 22 points in the 4th quarter, fuck it, prove me wrong.

Wait.  We lost?  I left at halftime.

why we are a poorly coached team? i mean, there's an obvious dichotomy here... RR & staff seem to be good coaches and now they are coaching a poorly coached football team. pls to 'splain....

...if Threet hadn't transferred???? Any Jucos out there, maybe?

The first half brought hope. 

Sheridan brought despair.  *The safety was just terrible; a microcosm of how he has played the whole year...let's just give the other team points!

St. McGuffie FUMBLED!!!  I couldn't believe my eyes.

When Sheridan came into the game he was in the opposite corner of the stadium, down near the goal line in the South endzone of Beaver.  So it wasn't entirely obvious when #8 took to the turf all the way back in our visitor's section.  But when it did, sighs and groans and guffaws just belched out all over the place all around me-- Michigan Men started to voice their disapproval aka fear at the knowledge that Threet was out.  And I remember noticing all the nearby Nittany Lion fans looking over at us, as if to say, "What are they all groaning about??"

Two plays later, probably less than a minute, Sheridan gets smoked in the endzone and 110,000 PSU fans are secure with the knowledge that their dream season is safe.  It was OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVER.

I drove out to the game and scalped tickets, and ended up sitting directly in front of several relatives of the coaching staff, including the QB coaches cousin and Mike Bawis's brother and his family. From where we were sitting, it was easy to see the commotion on the Michigan sideline as Threet removed his helmet and jogged off the field for a couple minutes, and Sheridan began to warm up. This was, I believe before Penn State kicked the field goal to tie it up. At this point, BEFORE the safety, BEFORE we got the ball, Bawis got his family together and left the game. Rod Smith's cousin stuck it out, but started telling us how good Beaver aparently will be. Sheridan's entrance into the game, not only had those in the know give up on the game, but it seems to completly deflate the team. As was visible to the field, everyone just seemed to take the pedal off, like they knew things were just going to go downhill from there. Penn State was obviously a better team, but we were playing well enough to beat them because we believed we could do it. Threet's exit and possibly more to the point Sheridan's entrance took that belief away from everyone. I feel bad for the kid because I am sure he had no belief he would ever be here, but I honestly think that Feagan be given the #2 spot, if only to leave the team the belief or the hope that ANYTHING positive might happen, right now, hell, when the coaching staff family who drove all the way up from WV LEAVE before anything bad has actually happened, that is about as telling as you can get.

It is hard to argue that this team is well coached when you look at the box scores.  And after the Toledo game I boycotted all Michigan information for a week.  But then I went to the PSU game, and while I did leave in the 4th quarter before the final blood-letting was finished I had a slightly different perspective.

On offense I think the coaching is solid.  Michigan came out and punched PSU in the mouth and dominated in the first half.  If not for Criswell's penalty they were likely going to be up 17-10 at the half at worst.  It wasn't until Threet got hurt that the team fell apart and I think that says more about Sheridan than coaching. 

I think the problems with special teams are primarily due to young players that really aren't ready to see the field yet....but we have no choice.  Avery Horn stupidly running out of the endzone after bobbling the kick-off?  That's not coaching, that's an individual mistake.  Criswell shoving a guy with the ball rolling dead?  That's not coaching, that's our 5th string TE making a bone-head play.  Sheridan taking a sack in the endzone?  Stonum dropping a ball that hits him in the chest?  Any play that Stevie Brown makes?  Those seem to be mental mistakes by players who wouldn't normally be playing if our upper-classes had any depth or talent. 

On defense I feel differently now.  I think the coaches are contributing to the failure of the D.  The scheme that puts them in any sort of 3-3-5 or 3-4-4 defense plays to the weakness of the players (LB, S) and keeps the best players off the field (DL).  As a result, you see two outcomes in this situaitons, which are all too frequent - either the QB has all day to find someone open or they find a hole in the zone where a LB or S has failed to make the correct read.  Tackling to some extent is the result of coaching too.  Right now Shafer should realize that what talent he has lies in the DL and CB and needs to play to that strength. 

Coaching has been a disappointment compared to expectations, but a large part of that is due to the lack of talent and depth on this team.  Guys like Thompson, Brown, Stewart, and most of the OL have proven that they're not B10 quality performers....yet they're all we have.  At the skill positions we have talent, but it is all young.  In most years guys like Odoms, McGuffie, Stonum, Shaw, and Koger would be played sparingly while the veterans get most of the minutes.  Who are those veterans??

brian, with regards to Sheridan being a huge mistake by RR. Most observers who watched the team in spring ball and over the summer thought Sheridan was the better of the two 'legitimate' QB's we had. Apparently Sheridan is a practice squad hero b/c he did enough to impress most more than Threet did. threet is a gamer in every half sorta sense of the word.

but on a side note, threet is only a freshmen QB. he's not doing that bad with what he has to work with in his 1st season as a collegiate QB. and yes, we would've been totally screwed had he not transferred here.

I went to the game and as soon as I saw Threet run to the locker room and not immediately come back out I knew we were toast.  PSU had just tied the game and now Sheridan was in the game......time to head for the exits.

I believe he is likely the worst QB to start a game in the B10.  Certainly for Michigan, but I doubt there is one worse in the last ten years.  Maybe one of those UCLA 4th stringers was worse.  But that's the comparison you're looking at.

Besides his obvious lack of talent, Sheridan has another problem.  The D has no respect for him or the offense when he comes into the game.  They abandon any real plan and just send the house at him.  EIther they stuff a running play or force him to rush a throw that likely wasn't going to be accurate or strong-armed even if he had time to set his feet.  He literally has no chance back there. (Though his best pass hit Stonum in the numbers for a first down and was dropped.)

Normally you try to protect your back-up QB with safe calls.  But that doesn't work with Sheridan because Michigan doesn't have the talent around him to do that.  Even with max-protect his WR can't get open wide or quickly enough to give him much of a chance.  On top of that, he neither has the time or the arm to try to take advantage of man coverage deep....and I'm not sure which WR is capable of running a good deep route anyway! 

I don't understand why Feagin is on the bench.  At least they could use running plays with him!  Who cares if you burn his redshirt - he'll never play QB after this year anyway!  Are they worried that playing him at QB will delay his progress toward becoming our 5th string safety??  Hell, even Cone has to be as good as Sheridan.....okay, maybe not.

I think the real loss for this team was Jason Forcier transferring.  Bass was a freak accident.  Mallet was a tool that probably would have left anyway.  But Forcier is the perfect QB for a transition year like this.  He's not great, he's slightly mobile, he knows the players and program, and he can hold down the fort.  On top of that, it isn't like transferring was going to help him get to the NFL anyway.  Having him as #1, Threet as #2, and whoever else at #3 would have been perfect.  Oh well.....

"Nick Sheridan has terrific pad level for a quarterback."

Sincerely,

Rod Marinelli

it has been proven that sheridan cannot do anything productive - if threet can't go why not give feagin a shot -

sparty struggled with pryor running around - maybe feagin can give this team a lift.

After the Toledo game I was bitching about rushing 3 guys and was told it was because we were being spread out. I argued that dropping 8 makes sense if you are going to take away the quick hitch, which we didnt. Saturday we were not being spread out all of the time and still CHOSE to rush 3. Our biggest, and only strength on defense is our DL and take one of those guys out of the mix so that Trent can let Norwood run an 11 yard turn around route on 3rd and 10 over and over again makes no sense. We have the softest, timid corners in the league. I would rather rush 5 or six and at least get beat being aggressive. The result is the same, so at least give our guys a shot to get to the QB. Unless RRod is making the call, I dont understand what Shafer is doing. it was said all of last week, but I will say it again - give Cissoko a shot. He is aggressive, he will hit, and he will cover. For every nice shot Thompson dealt on Saturday, he missed 3 tackles. When was the last time we had a sack?

 I can deal with Off being as bad as they are due to circumstances, but our defense is absolutely horrible. Threet could have played the whole game, and we still lose by 3 scores. Our defense showed no signs of stopping PSU. OL was serviceable, and Minor was a beast.

Saw that Butler was moved to DE, and also heard Holtz lost it on the set. Keep the faith, and keep the rage.