WTKA Roundtable 8/12/2021: Hashtag Buckeye Problems
Things discussed:
- AUGUST!!! I mean August 21sxt
- Breakout players. We go right past QB (and Blake Corum) to…
- Craig: Most important on defense is Mazi Smith. Thinks we’ll see some Junior Colson.
- Seth: Zak Zinter and can he make it work at center, because that is the key to the whole thing they want to run.
- What do they mean by “We’ve got to run the ball more?” Seth: They spent half of their downs last year either in comeback mode or behind the chains, where they had to throw the ball downfield because a six-yard gain can’t help them.
- Defense: Third and Grantham. They’re going to take gambles, dangle big yards for the offense to get them to fall into traps. High-risk, high-reward.
- During the break Sam talks about Walter Nolan’s recruitment. They’re coming up for at least two games. If you like clean recruitments this isn’t the one for you.
- Skip (filling in for Ira) goes on blast for his Spartandom.
- Where does Michigan finish in the East? Third. Even when we finish first we’re third. Look around the East: they’re down. Indiana looks good.
- Seth: The QBs of the Big Ten suck this year, except Penix. I don’t like Mertz at all. Clifford is the third straight three-year starter Penn State broke.
- Adrian Martinez can ball, but has nobody around him.
- Ewers is at Ohio State because the State of Texas wouldn’t let him make any money, not because he thought he can compete.
[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]
You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream.
Segment two is available here. You can also watch the video here:
The Usual Links:
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link (right-click/save as)
- What's with the theme music?
The fourth guy can come here and we’ve got a nice Lulu Lemon contract.
August 12th, 2021 at 10:51 AM ^
Hail to the Victors is not only available, it's terrific!
August 12th, 2021 at 11:14 AM ^
I admit I didn’t listen to the podcast, but hearing the defense is going to continue to have the philosophy of high risk - high reward is troubling to me. I’ll be in wait and see mode before I jump off the roof but that makes me nervous.
August 12th, 2021 at 11:20 AM ^
Ill take it instead of the 'bend dont break' crap we used to see. Dax could set some INT records if we truly are more 'baiting' and 'risky'.
August 12th, 2021 at 11:29 AM ^
I'm no expert on this stuff, but I've read enough to know that the key is the interior defensive line. If it gets pushed around by the opposing offensive lines, then any decent offense is going to be able to get plays off before the guys coming from further away get there. Don Brown would still be here and hailed as a hero if he had a couple of Mo Hursts on the interior.
August 12th, 2021 at 11:35 AM ^
This is the same philosophy that all high-end defenses are using now because of how explosive offenses have gotten. You have to be able to generate extra possessions for your team by creating negative plays or turnovers. Limiting the other team to 3 yards doesn't mean anything when any given play can go for 20+. If your team has the talent to create enough negative plays, you can win a lot of ballgames.
August 12th, 2021 at 12:30 PM ^
THIS!!! Old school defenses where you hold a team to 10 points just doesn't exist anymore. Almost all college teams can score 24-30 points every game. Getting turnovers/sacks/negative plays is how you change the game and/or get off the field.
August 12th, 2021 at 11:22 AM ^
All off-season I think I was one of the more moderately positive types here, so far as expecting more from the coaching staff and a better performance from the team this season. But as we get closer, I find it harder to engage the hype and get excited. I still have high hopes for competent wins and competitive losses, but it's all tempered by the thought of continuation from previous years. I hope they earn the hype they're getting, and I hope the are able to bring me back into that gleeful stage of belief. I'm just finding that belief to be a hard equation right now...
I hate this feeling.
August 12th, 2021 at 3:54 PM ^
I think they are getting optimism because some changes were made, people hope 2020 COVID was an aberration of a season, and we all love the tradition of M football in the fall.
I see no empiric evidence for optimism otherwise so I don’t think you should feel bad. You’ve been beaten down year after year, it’s only logical to set expectations low. Now that will be $300 please.
August 12th, 2021 at 5:36 PM ^
"Now that will be $300 please."
LOL!! Your username seems wrong. Should be HeaddocLSA2004...
August 12th, 2021 at 11:35 AM ^
"Ewers is at Ohio State because the State of Texas wouldn’t let him make any money, not because he thought he can compete."
And let us all pray that focus on over the table money becomes the distraction that causes the OSU death star to explode. Lord know nothing else has slowed them down.
August 12th, 2021 at 12:04 PM ^
Seth is great on these roundtables.
August 12th, 2021 at 12:35 PM ^
Did Penn State really break Trace McSorley? He definitely fell off in his senior year, but I felt that Penn State as a whole fell off after 2017. I mean, they had the talent to make the playoffs that year; even a mediocre game day coach would have likely won one or both of the two games they lost (particularly the big lead they lost against Ohio State).
August 12th, 2021 at 12:37 PM ^
I know this keeps being brought up a couple of times but the discussion about Chris Evans (I think) highlights one of the issues we saw with the offense last year when Milton was in vs. McNamara. I think Milton had a ton of potential and the coaches tried to maximize it to the detriment of perhaps the "optimal" offensive flow. Like, in the ~1-ish games that McNamara played Chris Evans had something like 6 catches and another 5-6 runs, plus he was targeted 4-5 more times. Erick All and Nick Eubanks caught about half of their passes for the whole year over that same span. I think the offense last year was so janky, especially once the tackles got hurt and Milton injured his thumb, that it's hard to extrapolate patterns too much, but I get a sense that even thought McNamara may not have the higher ceiling compared to Milton his floor, especially in this offense with this philosophy, is much higher.
August 12th, 2021 at 1:32 PM ^
Is Coach wearing Lululemon khakis in that picture?
August 12th, 2021 at 2:39 PM ^
Breakout players on offense: Mike Sainristil, AJ Henning, Eric All. Reason? They should get a lot of the RPO targets.
Who needs to step up on offense? Hassan Haskins. Reason? Our starting RB needs to take the pressure off Cade.
Who needs to step up on defense? Dax. Reason? They're gonna get him as involved as possible and put him everywhere. He could be Peppers 2.0.
Breakout player on defense? Whoever wins the #2 CB job. Reason? They're going to get a ton of targets, so the opportunity for PBUs and INTs will be there.
Re: The Defense
This defense is about disguising coverages and pressures. In today's pre-snap "check with me" world, when an offensive knows what you're in, they can check into the perfect play to beat it. This year's defense will make life much harder on opposing QBs and OL. They might give up some yards, but I'll bet they get significantly more INTs this year.
August 13th, 2021 at 12:17 AM ^
I don't believe we will use Dax in his best way possible. Unfortunately our FS happens to be our best cover corner. This means Dax will likely be forced to play nickel CB to keep 4.7 forty Vincent Gray on the bench rather than watch him get burnt repeatedly by slot ninjas. Dax is a playmaking safety who can be a downhill missile or ball hawk over the top, and this is how I wish we could play him all year long. But our CBs are bad enough we have to take him out of that playmaking role to play damage control on crossing routes and get a few break ups on slot fades.
August 12th, 2021 at 3:37 PM ^
The idea that we can't judge the offense on 2020 because they were behind the sticks and on the scoreboard so often isn't really logical since it was the offense that got itself behind the sticks and by failing to score behind on the scoreboard. If the coaching staff really thinks 10 points at halftime is going to cut it... well it isn't. It also doesn't follow that you can be counted on to get 4 yards on 3rd down (if it is 3rd and 4) if you clearly can't do it on 1st or 2nd down. But I get that we are trying to be optimistic. It is also true, particularly in college football, that when shit doesn't work everything can look stupid only to have shit work the following season and have everyone look brilliant.
But. If your offense is actually based on high efficiency--which as noted is not what comes to mind with the marketing line speed in space but whatever--if that truly is the case how much sense does it make to pick the QB with a giant arm but serious accuracy issues? If you need to stay on schedule why do you pick the QB who biffs easy throws with the same frequency that he makes impossible throws?
I'll answer that one for you. It makes zero sense to do that.
Particularly if the giant armed QB can't hit passes over the top. But... we're trying to be optimistic.
August 12th, 2021 at 7:32 PM ^
The point I was trying to make wasn't that you can't judge the offense on that; it's that there was a VERY GOOD REASON they couldn't run their offense last year. You can say "We want to run the ball and be smash mouth" and that can be true, and you could even be good at it, but what does it matter if a 6-yard gain is not going to help you if it doesn't get out of bounds too.
Also the defense did a ton of that. And turnovers, which are kind of random. You can assign blame to the offense for falling into a four-score hole against Wisconsin and having to dig themselves out of a near loss to Rutgers, but the defense played a HUGE role in putting them in that position as well.
August 13th, 2021 at 3:05 PM ^
Just for the sake of debate. Not to be an asshole. But let's look at some half time scores.
I won't indicate who had what score because Michigan was losing every one of these games at half time.
MSU 17-7
Indiana 24-7
Wisconsin 28-0
Rutgers 17-7
PSU 17-7
From that it looks to me like the Michigan offense was failing before the score bent the play calling out of shape. Even in the Wisconsin game, it was only 14-0 after the first quarter. Had Michigan scored at all things wouldn't have been so grim.
On the season Michigan averaged 10.5 points in the first half. Which sound pretty bad until you realize substantially more than half of their first half points came against Minnesota. Without those 35 points Michigan averaged 5.6 points in the first half. Which is. Well. Terrible.
The defense sure was bad but, IMO, that doesn't bail the offense out as much as you might have it.
August 12th, 2021 at 9:08 PM ^
If there is really talk about we've got to run the ball more we're fucked.
August 13th, 2021 at 2:15 PM ^
I don't have an inherent problem with running the ball, assuming it works. But it's common knowledge that Michigan wants to focus on the run, and so teams load up the box. So fine, run the ball, but do it intelligently -- i.e. set it up with an effective downfield passing game that causes teams to re-balance their defense. That's the real key for offensive improvement.
If the offensive staff is mostly focusing on improving the run game without improving the pass game, that's a problem.
August 14th, 2021 at 11:27 AM ^
Other than select circumstances the only goal on offense should be to score points. Any other goal detracts from that one.
August 14th, 2021 at 2:52 PM ^
Absolutely. All this bullshit about "body blows" and "controlling the game" is 1970s-1980s thinking. You know how you control the game? By scoring and getting a lead. Then you're almost immediately putting constraints on the other team, and they have to react to you. Instead, we put ourselves behind the 8 ball against the better teams and keep the lesser teams in the game. 2019 Army is the archetype here. Literally all we had to do was scheme to throw the ball and we likely would have been up by 2-3 touchdowns quickly. Against that team, the game is over. But instead, we kept them in it and had to rely on a missed FG to win. Oh, and we broke our freshman phenom RB doing it.
The stupidity by people paid a shit-ton of money for their football acumen boggles the mind.
August 13th, 2021 at 1:07 PM ^
Worth it just to see Sam groove
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