Things About Doug Nussmeier
![0108_Doug-Nussmeier_inside[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/Things-People-Said-About-Doug-Nussmeier_1512E/0108_Doug-Nussmeier_inside1.jpg "0108_Doug-Nussmeier_inside[1]")
In the aftermath of Michigan's quick OC change, everyone who's met, heard of, or birthed Doug Nussmeier has been asked about what they think about him. ("Needs to shave more often." –Mom) This post collects those things and presents them to you, the reader.
1. HE GON' GET PAID. Michigan is convinced that paying people large amounts of money will make them better at what they do (see: Hoke contract, Borges's 300k raise after year one) and they are doubling down on that. According to Bruce Feldman, Nussmeier "will be among the five highest-paid coordinators in college football," which means he'll be at or around one million dollars. Insert usual rabbling about how untenable this situation is, ethics-wise.
2. HE DID NOT LIKE NICK SABAN'S UNHINGED IN-GAME RANTING. In an interesting post on the Alabama 247 site, one of their moderators—in fact I think the owner of the whole 247 enterprise—lays out some reasons Alabama and Nussmeier parted mutually($), and they mostly have to do with blood running out of Nussmeier's ears. A small excerpt:
However, multiple sources tell BOL that Nussmeier was a bad fit for Saban. It takes a special/unique person to be a coordinator for Saban. During the heat of a game, it is common that Saban will become extraordinarily heated, openly and repeatedly question calls. Its not a bad thing, its just him and has always been his style. It is generally something that is understood and not that big of a deal among his staff.
"The writing was on the wall" after the Auburn game, which sounds pretty irrational to me since Alabama would have won that game if their kickers had been anything other than incompetent and Nussmeier's offense racked up 495 yards. The bowl loss to OU featured 516 yards and five turnovers, three of which were lost fumbles that have little if anything to do with the OC.
If this friction is based on three redzone trips in the Iron Bowl, great. Or the bowl game. I mean:
The numbers, however impressive they might be, only serve as a faint silver outline of what turned out to be a disappointing ending, as Alabama's offense failed on the national stage against Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl. It turned out to be the final game of Nussmeier's tenure, as he's agreed to move north and take the same job at Michigan.
In the Sugar Bowl, the flaws of Nussmeier's scheme were put under a heavy spotlight: the protection broke down, McCarron faltered and three turnovers ultimately doomed the Tide.
Okay, bro. Has nothing to do with the fact that the vaunted Tide D gave up 45 points to a virtual nobody. And it's Nussmeier's fault that TJ Yeldon fumbled inside the ten.
3. HE IS A FLEXIBLE MAN. Rivals caught up with Bama T/G/C Barrett Jones($), and he gave the requisite heap of praise. The most interesting bit is the part about Nussmeier's flexibility. After three years of mobile quarterbacks, Nussmeier adapted to Alabama instead of the other way around:
"I think a lot of guys walk into a situation and try to implement their philosophy but he's not one of those stubborn coaches that only knows one way. He understood we were having success doing things a certain way and he kept the staples and then added some wrinkles."
At Alabama that meant sticking with the Tide's bread and butter, which is meticulously executed inside zone. Darrell Funk is an inside zone guy himself, so hopefully those two guys will mesh.
Meanwhile, a glimpse at Keith Price's 2011 season reveals a mix of shotgun and under center, with an emphasis on the gun:
Here's everything he did against Baylor in that year's Alamo Bowl. At this point Baylor's defense is still a tire fire, FWIW:
This game plan was passing-spread oriented. Chris Polk did get 30 attempts but Price was the main way to move the ball as he went 23 of 37 for 438 yards (11.8 YPA!) in a loss(!) against RGIII. Baylor 67, Washington 56 remains the highest scoring regulation bowl game ever.
Meanwhile, a ten-minute Chris Polk career retrospective is helpful since Polk's career just about exactly coincided* with Nussmeier's:
That is a mix of inside zone and power blocking with a lot of draws mixed in; power seems to be mostly a short yardage or goal line thing from under center but is prevalent on shotgun runs.
*[Polk played two games under Willingham before getting injured and went to the NFL draft right after Nussmeier was hired at Alabama.]
4. HE'S NOT A LIFER. SBNation's Washington blog checked in with their Alabama blog about Nussmeier in December when Nussmeier interviewed for the vacant Washington gig. At 43 with a major reclamation project in front of him, Nussmeier would be a Hot Candidate in the event that he turns Michigan's offense into a top 20 unit. This is good and bad: bad for program stability, good to have a potential candidate to replace Hoke.
5. HE'S GOOD WITH QUARTERBACKS. From that UW-Bama conversation:
The 2011 version of McCarron would have a difficult time throwing the ball down the deep middle of the field, but the 2012 and 2013 versions have thrived in this area. He still lacks elite arm strength, but his mechanics are much improved – along with ability to go through his progressions and deliver the football on time, even to his third or fourth option. Once again, it’s nothing more than a guessing game when it comes to trying to determining how much of his progression is due to Nussmeier. Some natural progression is to be expected, and, over the summer, McCarron has a quarterback coach.
Angelique Chengelis pinged former Nussmeier QB Drew Stanton and got this:
“Doug Nussmeier is everything as advertised and more,” Stanton said Wednesday night after news broke that Michigan hired Nussmeier. “He has an unbelievable approach to the game that demands a lot out of his players but also has a way of making every day fun.
“He represents what college football should be all about. He’s going to make a great head coach some day, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without him. I was literally in tears when he left my junior year at Michigan State.”
Price, meanwhile, was a throw-in in the Sarkisian/Willingham transition class that no one expected much from. They got a ton:
Doug Nussmeier was given a ton of credit for what Keith Price became. Price was a guy that they brought in in the initial recruiting class after Ty Willingham was fired, and quite frankly was mostly considered a depth guy. People expected Nick Montana to step in after Jake Locker and be the guy for the next three or four years, but all Price did was win the job and then go on to rewrite UW's passing records book. And though there were other factors at play, Nussmeier leaving for Alabama surely had something to do with Price having his worst season immediately thereafter.
6. HE WAS SHAPED BY JOHN L SMITH'S IDEAS. This is a good thing since we're talking about offense. Smith's career has been a series of explosive offenses and good records until things got unhinged at Michigan State, and even there he was setting fire to Michigan's secondary with That Goddamned Counter Draw until Drew Stanton went out and Braylonfest kicked in. Nussmeier was one of Smith's QBs at Idaho back when Idaho was a very good I-AA team instead of a terrible I-A team that should reclassify to I-AA; his first college job was under JLS as a QB coach at MSU.
His formative years were first as a QB in a wide open offense, then in a wide open version of fake football (the CFL), then as a guy in a spread-oriented system at MSU. Alabama fans' main complaint about him is that he got down to the six yard line in last year's A&M game and threw three times instead of running the dang ball, so if we have lizard brain complaints they'll probably be about throwing too much.
7. HE'S SUPPOSEDLY A REAL GOOD RECRUITER BUT I MEAN COME ON DO WE REALLY KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS DUDE WAS AT 'BAMA. Nussmeier was instrumental in getting touted 2015 QB Ricky Town to commit to Alabama but not instrumental enough to make Town reconsider his commitment after he moved. He was apparently the point man on a couple of other high profile recruitments and after Mike Vrabel's departure is now the highest-ranked dude in the Big Ten on 247's "best recruiter" rankings.
I give those little credence, but he'll have to be an upgrade on Borges, who rarely traveled and mostly just took guru Steve Clarkson's advice on who to recruit at QB.
January 10th, 2014 at 3:02 PM ^
January 10th, 2014 at 4:17 PM ^
Moeller had three terrible seasons at Illinois before coming back to Michigan for ten years before Bo retired. If Moeller had been successful at Illinois, I don't know if he'd have been hired to coach at Michigan.
January 10th, 2014 at 1:47 PM ^
January 10th, 2014 at 1:57 PM ^
That 11 away from 11-1 is a load of crap becasue Michigan was also 8 pts away from being 4-8.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:00 PM ^
January 10th, 2014 at 2:12 PM ^
If you consider what they could have been if they were slightly better, you should probably also consider the same if they were slightly worse. This team eascped tire-fire status through the benefit of a goaline stand against Akron, a timely interception against UConn, and a miraculous field goal against Northwestern.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:49 PM ^
I don't think that Nuss doesn't realize that, but when your goal is to bring the team forward, you're not going to bring up what could have happened if your team was worse.
If I'm a sales manager hired to take over a team that had $850,000 in sales, I might say something like "we're only $150,000 away from getting over than million dollar hump." I'm probably not going to talk about how going the same amount backwards gets us to 700k.
His point is true. Had this team been a little bit better, it could have had a very good looking record. We played right along with nearly every team we played (which are essentially the same teams we play next year). That's not always the case with 7 win teams, and it's a positive going forward.
January 10th, 2014 at 9:41 PM ^
and then I discovered MGoBlog, and realized I ain't shit when it comes to the elite-level deep, dark, stab-myself-in-the-neck pessimism continually on display here.
January 11th, 2014 at 3:06 AM ^
Here we go with the bahhumbug Wolverine fans. Do you always have to find the negative in something? Can't you just let the good vibe roll?
January 10th, 2014 at 2:24 PM ^
Yeah, how dare Nuss have a positive outlook!!!
January 10th, 2014 at 2:59 PM ^
January 10th, 2014 at 2:41 PM ^
January 10th, 2014 at 1:54 PM ^
First, to those who say this is either a step down or lateral move for Nussmeier, look again. He almost doubled his income, gets more autonomy in running the offense, and is working for a far easier person to work for.
Second, as excited as I am about Nussmeier's ability to improve our offense, I'm just as thrilled of how much of an upgrade he is for recruiting. Borges hardly every travelled to see recruits and seemed to be not involved enough in the process. Nussmeier will be out on the road a lot more (presumably) and based on what I saw at the news conference, will probably have a bigger impact with recruits. His confidence, past playing experience, background at Alabama, and knowledge of southern recruiting grounds will be a big boost to our national recruiting profile.
I'd be very surprised if Nussmeier is not the highly successful OC we've all been waiting for after all these disappointing years of DeBord, Magee, Borges, and others I've fortunately forgotten about.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:10 PM ^
Obligatory: Magee was a highly successful OC, assuming you believe he did more than shuffle papers for RR. Michigan was #3 in offensive FEI in 2010.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:19 PM ^
I have to ask how did Borges get away with not travelling to visit recruits? Isn't that like one of the most critical path excpectations for the position? Hey, I'm 54 and I hate being on the road as much as any guy my age who's done it for a while so I get where Al wouldn't want to travel but why did Hoke allow that? That would seem to be a major gap in our internal resource allocation and I would guess that would put an even greater travel burden on others in the organization.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:41 PM ^
Most staffs IIRC have one coach who does not travel to see recruits. That, or they make sure that one of the staff is always on campus. Travel plans change and the point is to always have someone from the coaching staff on campus to handle recruits who visit. The extreme example is if the whole staff is out recruiting and Random Mc.FiveStar decides he wants to visit Michigan this weekend. No one's around to receive him?
January 10th, 2014 at 2:52 PM ^
That, and not every good coach is a good recruiter. Maybe Al just wasn't the best salesman in person, so Hoke would rather have the rest of his staff, who presumably are, pick up his slack.
January 11th, 2014 at 1:59 PM ^
Both of you are right, if I remember correcty. Sam Webb has addressed this on the Michigan Insider a time or two over the course of the season. I think both aspects are correct. First, Michigan, much like other teams, essentially keeps one of the coaches home to hold the reins while the rest of the coaches may be out recruiting. Second, it wouldn't exactly be a stretch to think that Mr. Borges may not have been the greatest salesman. Finally, I seem to remember hearing Sam say something along the lines of "Often, this was the time Al spent really reviewing and assessing his play design, play calls and games in general."
January 10th, 2014 at 1:58 PM ^
I sorry but the Auburn and Oklahoma losses were not Nussmeier and the offense fault. It was the defenses fault. They couldn't even slow them down much less stop them.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:56 PM ^
But to be fair, when you have 5 turnovers, you're likely not going to win. Not saying that's Nuss's fault necessarily, but the offense shares blame.
But so does a defense that gives up 5 touchdowns off of those turnovers. Not every turnover was deep in the redzone. And one that was late in the 2nd quarter, ONE PLAY later OU scored (I am watching the replay right now on ESPNU). You'd think that vaunted Bama D could mitigate the potential damage of sudden change situations, not fold like they did.
EDIT: Also missed field goals. Because Bama's offense drove down with a minute left to get a chip shot field goal before halftime, which was promptly missed. TV announcers then mention as the 3rd quarter starts that Bama has only made one out of its last six attempts. That...not good.
January 10th, 2014 at 4:13 PM ^
I can't fault the OC for the QB turning the ball over. But yes some of the blame does go to the offense.
Missed FG have cost bama at least 2 game the last couple of years. Don't know why bama doesn't have a big time kicker.
January 10th, 2014 at 7:06 PM ^
Yeah - the OC is almost never to blame for turnovers. He's never to blame for fumbles - that's 100% on the players. And even INTs are very tough to pin on the OC, especially when you have a senior QB who has been extremely good at not turning the ball over.
Alabama's offense was incredible in that game outside of turnovers. 516 yards. 12.9 yards per pass. 50% on 3rd down. Very few offensive penalties. Those are the things the OC can control. Beyond that, they had 5 turnovers, one that was returned 43 yards and another that was returned for a TD. And before that last turnover, Bama had a legit shot to tie the game. Cannot put this one on the OC.
January 10th, 2014 at 9:47 PM ^
I'm going to preface this by saying I have no iidea whether you did or didn't but many people on this blog blamed Borges for many of DG's int's as well as Denard's int's using the reasoning Borges was asking them to do something they might not be good at/putting them in poor positions to succeed.
January 11th, 2014 at 10:51 AM ^
On the other hand, he didn't have a choice since we couldn't run the fucking ball. Let's hope Nuss can correct that aspect of the O.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:00 PM ^
to learn that the M offense was running something like 42 different formations. Worrisome given the limited practice time and time players have with the coaches. How many different blocking schemes was that? Then there were the questions by reporters to Hoke about "what is your identity."
I'm hoping that Nuss brings a laser like focus on what we need to do and who we are; and then just repetitions the hell out of it.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:02 PM ^
to learn that the M offense was running something like 42 different formations. Worrisome given the limited practice time and time players have with the coaches. How many different blocking schemes was that? Then there were the questions by reporters to Hoke about "what is your identity."
I'm hoping that Nuss brings a laser like focus on what we need to do and who we are; and then just repetitions the hell out of it.
EDIT: oops.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:04 PM ^
and said Nuss would be making less than Mattison.
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2014/01/dave_brandon_says_he_…
January 10th, 2014 at 8:36 PM ^
He said Nussmeier would not be making more than Mattison, not the same thing.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:07 PM ^
January 10th, 2014 at 2:09 PM ^
January 10th, 2014 at 2:16 PM ^
I do find it funny how Bama fans have convinced themselves that this guy was going to get fired no matter what. They just hate the fact that their really good OC is now at Michigan.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:47 PM ^
If it happened here, I am certain we would have better-sounding rationalizations when we did the same thing.
January 10th, 2014 at 9:50 PM ^
whether it's true or not was Saban pretty much used what Carr used some - nudged an assistnat out. Didn't come directly out and fire them but rather told them it'd probably be best if they look for a different job.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:18 PM ^
January 10th, 2014 at 2:35 PM ^
I'm a spread option groupie, but I really don't care if we run isos all day as long as we mess with tempo. The snail-pace bullshit was the single most infuriating thing of the past couple years on offense.
January 10th, 2014 at 5:09 PM ^
Maybe I'm onto something? If the offense can keep the D on its heels, other than personal viewing preferences, maybe it doesn't matter if it's read-option, passing spread, turbo power, etc?
January 10th, 2014 at 2:19 PM ^
But by God, it will be nice to see an infusion of "common sense" into the offense. No offense to Borges, but Doug sounds like a very open and adaptable guy. The fact that he has no problems opening it up with pass, or going run heavy, or going slow or up-tempo...I mean, shoot, that's all we wanted out of Borges and he tried but failed.
I can't fathom why Bama fans blame Nuss for those losses after well over 400 yards gained in each...but hey, I'm not a Bama fan so whatever. Borges may have been our scapegoat, ut there were real justifiable reasons to actually can him. Doug just seems like a scapegoat, period. The best reason they have to get rid of him is "personality clash", which only favors MIchigan because Hoke and Saban could not be further apart in terms of in-game coaching style.
January 10th, 2014 at 4:55 PM ^
We saw a campfire develop into a tire fire in a children's hospital over the past three years. The folks in Bama thought they saw the same thing when the reflection off Saban's statue wasn't quite as bright as they thought is should be.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:39 PM ^
"Michigan is convinced that paying people large amounts of money will make them better at what they do" <-- This is what you get when you have a corporate CEO running your athletic department... You throw money at the top becasue... well, you know... they must deserve it becasue they are at the top.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:49 PM ^
Your comment touches on the most commonly made logical fallacy: if p then q does not imply if q then p.
If you want to hire or retain the absolute best people, then you must pay them top dollar.
This does not, however, mean that the fact that you're paying people top dollar implies that they're the absolute best people.
That said, it seems that the Nussmeier hire involves paying top dollar because they believe he's a top guy. So I'm not necessarily concerned about his salary (other than in the more general ethics-of-college-football sense). Seems like they're paying him that much because they believe he's worth it, not because they think paying him that much will make him better at his job.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:56 PM ^
Agreed, seriously. If you have a guy you like and you want him to a) take the job, and b) not leave for another job, you pay him enough to accomplish that. Pure and simple. Michigan football rolls in money, so why wouldn't we use it to hire great personnel?
January 10th, 2014 at 2:44 PM ^
Doug Nussmeier QB #13 for Idaho Vandals vs. Boise State 1993.
@8:54: 4 wide with single back. The flanker bottom end of screen is like 3 yards from the boundary.
John L. Smith is HC.
January 10th, 2014 at 2:41 PM ^
January 10th, 2014 at 2:42 PM ^
I'm personally quite excited to see what comes of this new hire. I'm predicting he's here 2-3 years, before he moves on. Hopefully, we'll have a better understanding for where we're at as a team under his leadership in 2014!
January 10th, 2014 at 2:57 PM ^
January 10th, 2014 at 3:08 PM ^
Nussmeier is the first OC to have played QB since Don Nehlen.
Nehlen was Michigan's "passing game coordinator" and asst OC in 1977-1979.
Not a lot of people recognize this, but Nehlen was hired on to "modernize" Michigan's passing attack and was quite successful at the time, working with Rick Leach and John Wangler to align Michigan better with what was happening at the rest of the NCAA like: BYU, Washington, Washington St. and Stanford. Prior to this, Michigan was known for running a peerless, passless option offense. It helped to have some good receivers like TE Doug Marsh, WB Ralph Clayton and FLK Anthony Carter.
Nehlen was a QB at BGSU ('55-'57) for Doyt Perry.
Nussmeier a QB at Idaho under John L. Smith.
This is a big difference if you consider all the guys who coached OC at Michigan in recent times:
1999: Mike Debord (played OL at Manchest College)
2000: Stan Parrish (played DB at Heidelberg College, former OC at EMU, now retired?)
2001: Stan Parrish
2002: Terry Malone (did not play football at Holy Cross, previous OC at Boston College, previous UM OL coach, now TE coach for Saints)
2003: Terry Malone
2004: Terry Malone
2005: Terry Malone
2006: Mike Debord (at this point a former UM OL & OC coach, former CMU HC, previous UM ST coach)
2007: Mike Debord
2008: Calvin Magee (played TE at Southern U., former WVU OC)
2009: Calvin Magee
2010: Calvin Magee
2011: Al Borges (did he play college football?, former SDSU and Auburn OC)
2012: Al Borges
2013: Al Borges
2014: Doug Nussmeier (played QB at Idaho, former Alabama OC)
January 10th, 2014 at 3:08 PM ^
for a young coordinator who really wants to be a head coach but is willing to spread his wings a little longer buidling his resume at two of the most storied programs in college football before taking flight on his ulitmate career ambition.
It's ironic that Nussmeier would be tabbed by Hoke to come to Michigan after really getting his career started at Michigan State under John L Smith, then finding career enhancement under another former Sparty boss in Nick Saban who left the school because he couldn't compete as a recruiter with Lloyd Carr and who now makes Mark Dantonio seem like a choir boy when it comes to public demeanor and sideline behavior, even while Michigan looks to find somebody who disrupt the Dantonio-Narduzzi Karma in EL.
Today, at his press conference, Nussmeier gave a stellar performance in how you accept a position in public and pledge yourself to creating a new vision for a progam stifled by lackluster results in meeting one major expectation of its past success: running the football -- effectively. Nussmeier covered all the requisite bases, using collective pronouns like we, us, family and saying this hire isn't about him --not really, even if you're getting paid more than a million dollars to teach and develop. Nope, it's really about the kids.
Apparently, Nussmeier was ousted by Saban sometime after the RECENT Iron Bowl contest judging from the RECENT idea that he was apparenlty told that his services would no longer be needed going forward. This would apparently explain why Lane Kiffin was RECENTLY brought in as an offensive consultant and was reported yesterday as the apparent finalist to replace Nussmeirer.
Who knows why Saban no longer wanted Hoke's find, a guy whom he first met while coaching Ball State and who they both came to know each other through a mutual friend who represents Nuss. This would explain how they "recently" got together and discussed taking over the OC job here for Al Borges, a five-year assistant with Hoke, who the coach praised as a friend in absentia.
Now, it could be a clash of personalities with his former boss, and perhaps a conflict over ideas in offensive approach. Maybe Saban wants to take Bama's offense into the future with a different offensive mindset or maybe he just needs someone who is more thickskinned when questions arise about playcalling, scheme and exectuion. Saban is the ulitmate dark master of college football. He is an obsessive-compulsive planner, time management geek, who wants to rule college football as only a Dr. No-it-all could.
It's hard to argue with Alabama's offensive output and the performance of a quarterback who successfully ran its offense without major incident. A J McCarron is like Brian Griese, except with more career success over his time in Tuscaloosa.
The way I look at this is through the looking glass: Hoke originally hired Borges, a former Auburn OC to coach the remnants of a program formerly run by a coach who Alabama nearly hired to run its program before getting Saban who left MSU because he couldn't deal with Michigan recruiting. Then he succeeded at LSU only to be replaced by a former Michigan assistant coach, Les Miles, a Bo Schembechler protoge.
And Miles nearly returned to Ann Arbor to replace Lloyd Carr until that boat sailed and the winds of change briefly brought the spread era to the Big House under Rich Rodriguez whose holdover players forced Hoke and Borges to find a way to mesh Denard Robinson and Devin Gardner in a mixed-match manball-spread attack that was neither manball nor manually equipped to run last year. So Hoke got rid of the former Auburn OC and brought in a rival OC from Alabama whose former MSU boss couldn't get along with his OC because, apparently, they didn't end their final drive with a proper kick.
Since it's always about the kids, you have to blame someone when things go wrong and that means the coaching carousel turns.
For the rest of us on the outside looking in, we can only guess how the fortunes of the Big Ten and SEC spin on the perception of past performance, and what have you done for me lately. Just know this, the past is prologue. So, welcome back Mr. Nussmeier to Michigan and the Big Ten. Maybe we'll get to know ya before it's time to say CYAAAAAAAAAAA again.
January 11th, 2014 at 3:14 AM ^
Great read. This should be a diary post or something.
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