Reports: Drevno is Out Comment Count

Seth

image

Message boards had it last night, Brandon Justice reported it earlier this morning, Sam was talking about it, and now Bruce Feldman has SOURCES:

…so there’s enough smoke that we should probably report the fire. Michigan’s embattled offensive coordinator Tim Drevno, by hook or by crook, appears to be leaving the program.

We had high hopes for Harbaugh’s longtime sidekick due to the regular asskickings Drevno’s wards handed out at Stanford, and there was a brief moment last year when it looked like the OL was growing into a similarly ferocious meat grinder.

Alas, nobody’s pass protection has significantly improved in three seasons, and a lot of Michigan’s problems last year and today go back to offensive tackle recruiting, which also goes back to Drevno. He was looking increasingly superfluous last year when Michigan brought in another offensive coordinator type in Pep Hamilton and another offensive line coach type in Greg Frey. With Harbaugh calling the plays, Pep still around, yet another OC type Jim McElwain joining the staff, and OL development guru Ed Warinner with the team in some capacity, “What precisely do you do here?” was slated to remain a valid question.

Comments

schreibee

February 23rd, 2018 at 1:55 PM ^

None of the twitter experts have replied to my question "Why today?"

Weeks past 2nd signing day, months past the 1st one. My theory, unfortunately, is Drev was kept around to seal the deal with the Rice OT - and we're not getting him?!

So... buh-bye?

Anyway, OL experts - what's Warriner bring?

pkatz

February 23rd, 2018 at 2:21 PM ^

Minnesota 2017 - 2018 Offensive Line Coach
Ohio State 2016 - 2017 Tight Ends Coach
Ohio State 2015 - 2017 Offensive Coordinator
Ohio State 2012 - 2016 Offensive Line Coach
Notre Dame 2010 - 2011 Offensive Line Coach
Kansas 2007 - 2009 Offensive Coordinator
Illinois 2005 - 2006 Offensive Line Coach
Kansas 2003 - 2004 Offensive Line Coach
Air Force 2000 - 2002 Offensive Line Coach
Army 1998 - 1999 Offensive Coordinator
Army 1991 - 1999 Offensive Coordinator
Army 1987 - 1990 Assistant Coach
Michigan State 1985 - 1986 Linebackers Coach
Akron 1984 - 1984 Running Backs Coach

Big House Blog does a nice job of covering Warinner's experience: www.bighouseblog.com

 

funkifyfl

February 24th, 2018 at 2:52 AM ^

Is a big plus. On a recent podcast, the guys were talking about how the national approach to recruiting wasn't going so well, and the staff may be refocusing on the midwest. Hopefully Ed has something to add here.

Quailman

February 23rd, 2018 at 6:22 PM ^

Not a twitter expert, but piecing everything together from various threads and comments:

-JH not happy with Drevno and his performance in multiple areas (OC and recruiting for sure)

-JH doesnt want to outrigh fire Drevno to save face for his friend to get another job

-JH doesnt fire Drev and gives him a chance to take another job, but he doesnt/its not there

-JH sees the time has come to make moves one way or the other, even if it upsets his friend. Thus, he hires McElwaine after adding Warinner and demotes Pep and Drev.

-Drevno is unhappy about losing responsibility and having to recruit more

-Drevno's son commits to Vandy, which gives him a reason to look elsewhere

-Drevno finally decides he doesnt want to deal with the demotion and resigns.

This whole time JH had set it up to let Drevno move on w/o getting fired and built in a contingency plan for him leaving. Drevno didnt take the bait, so JH demoted him and Drevno didnt like it, so he's moving on and Ed Warinner is stepping up. 

Mr. Owl

February 24th, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^

I was curious to how he did with Minnesota's line last year.  Found this article.



http://www.1500espn.com/gophers-2/2017/10/gophers-offensive-line-quietl…

 

It's been a while since we have heard things like this about a Michigan OL



"(L)eft tackle Donnell Greene is developing into a formidable NFL prospect as he receives more instruction. Prior to this season, Greene was playing off raw talent. He has tightened up his footwork and displayed a more noticeable attention to detail. He isn’t just showing up as a pass protector, but he is sealing the edge as a run blocker and developing improved vision to find defenders in the second level."

FrankMurphy

February 23rd, 2018 at 12:05 PM ^

So...

Jim McElwain as OC/WR coach

Ed Warinner as OL coach

Sherrone Moore as TE coach

Now that's what I call an offensive staff makeover. Faith in Harbaugh: restored. BOOM.

rc15

February 23rd, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^

I'm willing to give Pep another year to prove whether or not he can be a good passing game coach. He was put into an awful position this year with young WRs, going through 3 QBs, and no pass-protection. A lot of that is hard to coach around, especially when you don't even have control of calling plays...

Drevno on the other hand has had 3 years, and the OL has shown no improvement. He needed to go.

rc15

February 23rd, 2018 at 12:38 PM ^

Also, probably a good way for Drevno to save face for the remainder of his career. He wasn't going to be able to find an OC job at another top tier school. Now he gets to say he quit to go coach his son at Vandy (if thats what ends up happening) and doesn't have to explain being fired or demoted.

bronxblue

February 23rd, 2018 at 6:13 PM ^

I see people keep saying Drevno won't find another big OC job despite being fired. Of the top of my head, I can think of guys like Nussmeier, Sarkisian, Weiss, McElwain, etc. who failed at various levels of running competent offenses and all got more shots.

Drevno is a good coach. I obviously hope that Michigan comes out better with the shake up, but his absence will be felt.

funkywolve

February 23rd, 2018 at 2:27 PM ^

Perry was a junior he had seen time the previous two years and was one of the more reliable receivers when the ball was thrown his way as a sophomore.

Crawford and McDoom were both sophomores who saw time as freshmen.  

Receiver isn't usually a position where you need to wait until a guy is in his 4th or 5th year of the program to see them bloom.

BlueWon

February 23rd, 2018 at 2:36 PM ^

McDoom is a short. sweep specialist and Crawford just doesn't look comfortable catching the ball (good blocker, though). 

Outside of Perry (who was a lst minute toos in to one of Hoke's classes) our talented guys were all frosh who are notoriously bad at WR.

Fezzik

February 24th, 2018 at 10:22 PM ^

Is this specualtion or fact?

Cause you are telling me we installed a 4 wide WR spread passing attack pre-season with almost all underclass WRs and we intentionally only had a grad assistant coaching them? That is completely setting ourself up for failure if true. 

I don't know how truthful it is but I know for a fact BTN (during the spring game I believe) listed Pep's roles as "assistant head coach/Pass game coord/QB and WR coach."

wahooverine

February 23rd, 2018 at 2:55 PM ^

Agree people were hard on him, but is a plan really great if the team can't execute it?   As football Patton would say: Give me an good gameplan, violently executed, than a perfect gameplan poorly executed. 

More concretely, in some games in seemed like either the OL, QB or WR's (or a combination thereof) couldn't execute what was asked of them consistently.  The TE's were also underutilized, but who knows if that was intentional.

evenyoubrutus

February 23rd, 2018 at 3:08 PM ^

Don't get me wrong, I agree completely and it really grinds my gears when people use execution as an excuse for a head coach. Clearly shuffling needed to be made, and the OC's job is to have a gameplan his players are capable of executing, but his hands MAY have been tied by circumstances out of his control.

Fezzik

February 23rd, 2018 at 7:27 PM ^

Pep is unable to adapt to the talent he has around him. You scheme to what your players are capable of. His gameplans were great...if we had all-american WR, QB, and OL. When O'Korn is your QB you immediately need to know your limitations and game plan around them. I have yet to see Pep able to do this.

If we are willing to use WR youth as an excuse then we must also ask why the hell did we try becoming a 5 wide receiver spread offense all off-season? Doesn't it seem foolish to intentionally put all that youth on the field at once when your TE group is much better? Why all the slow developing pass plays when our pass blocking is a known weakness? Why was Peters ever behind O'Korn on the depth chart? Why did Speight severly regress? There is no one exact answer but Pep is the common demoninator to all these questions.

mitchewr

February 23rd, 2018 at 3:45 PM ^

Considering we couldn't even muster "potentially competent" in all of 2017 on offense, I'll happily settle for it in 2018 if we can combine it with a top-10 defense. 

 

An offense with basic competence would have won most if not all of those losses last year. 

 

The defense is there....just need the offense to get it in gear. 

JFW

February 23rd, 2018 at 1:00 PM ^

I'm not worried. Ultimately I can't see Harbaugh letting the QB's just fail. It's his passion. 

If the coaching looks like:

HC: Harbaugh - works with QB's too. Makes final decision on playcalling. 

QB: Pep - Works with Harbaugh, has QB experience, also has OC input. 

WR: McElwain - he's done well here, also has OC input. 

OL: Warinner

RB: Jay Harbaugh

TE: (?)

 

I'm pretty happy about this team. They have experience coming back. Warrinner is supposed to be very very good per Sam Webb at OL. McElwain has some really good history as a position coach/OC. Pep is the biggest question, but if he's joined at the hip to Harbaugh, I'm okay. 

If we get good, (not great) but good run and Pass pro from the O line; and McElwain can work some magic with the WR's; and Harbaugh taking an interest in the QB so we see a Rudock progression, we'll be in very good shape by the end of the year. 

StraightDave

February 23rd, 2018 at 1:53 PM ^

Now we just went from a complicated offense to an even more complicated offense.   Can't Harbaugh just run what the Washington St. guy does on one index card?

In reply to by StraightDave

MgoWood

February 23rd, 2018 at 3:14 PM ^

Isn't RPO a single read a lot of times for passing progressions? would seem to me that it would make things easier for our Q's. I'll take that for 500 Alex.