5 thoughts after digesting the season...

Submitted by jmdblue on

It was, in my opinion, the most exciting and interesting football season since '97, but now there has been some time to consider what we've watched.  Five thoughts to ponder, neg, or discuss:

1) The brain injury/CTE issues aren't going away and aren't going to be fixed with rules or equipment innovation.  What's to be done?  Fix what can be fixed (football doesn't need the Taylor-Stephenson hit to be great) and allow what can't be fixed to stand as testimony to honor and bravery.  As Brian posited earlier this year... it's worth it.

2) Harbaugh will be predictable as hell within a couple years.  Given what we've seen, I'm pretty sure if Jim Minick had his brush with the law several years in the future there would be very little discussion as to whether he'd be fired.  Right or wrong Harbaugh has his guy's back - predictable....Similarly, lose an assistant?  No problem, he'll get as good or better.  And we'll know who it is when we know, not before - predictable (Bo-like).  

3) Our recruiting in the South (including Texas) and California is Harbaugh playing a long and sophisticated game in ensuring we will have the necessary talent going forward.    The B1G neighborhood has become more crowded in the past 10 years with Sparty and Wisconsin establishing themselves while PSU failed to disappear and ND isn't going anywhere.  If we want to dominate (or share domination with OSU) we need more than just our fair share from our traditional talent base.  We need 8-12 high level recruits from non-traditional sources and getting that started involved recruiting lesser known kids from talent-rich neighborhoods.  I'm pretty sure we will.

4)  College basketball isn't nearly as good or as fun as it was prior to the current era of almost all kids leaving for the NBA just as soon as possible.  We can argue all we want about exploitation or right to work or the true value of a scholarship, but the fact is the game itself has suffered.  College football will similarly degrade as players garner more rights and (if market forces between schools are allowed to flourish) better compensation.

5) As cable TV's stranglehold on both content and customers is decreased, pro and big time sports are going to change in unpredictable ways.  I have yet to hear a really convincing narrative.

 

 

Comments

ThadMattasagoblin

December 22nd, 2015 at 3:14 PM ^

Fix what you can with the cte issues but don't ban it in high schools or other nonsense. Football has always been dangerous and it has been that way since people died in the pre Helmet days. Those who have embarked in careers in the nfl and college have always known that it is bad for your body.

Wolverine In Iowa 68

December 22nd, 2015 at 3:26 PM ^

This year, for the first time in awhile, I was excited for each and every game.  I felt we had a real chance to win in every game we played regardless of the opponent, and for the most part, I saw intensity that had been lacking.

Harbaugh has brought the "fun" back to being a Michigan fan, and I'm excited to see where it all leads.

canzior

December 22nd, 2015 at 4:09 PM ^

was pretty exciting as well..

Do you mean Harbaugh predictable with playcalling?

Saban is pretty predictable.

 

College basketballl hasn't been good for years, but no one here will care because M football will be better.  

jmdblue

December 22nd, 2015 at 4:15 PM ^

How are players disciplined?  How are coaching searches performed?  How does he react to an upset win or loss?  I just think the predictability of his actions will be in stark contrast to his unpredictable public persona (media interviews etc).

wahooverine

December 31st, 2015 at 1:10 PM ^

I dont really understand point #2.  First of all what does matter if he's predictable?  Second, I reject the premise entirely.  He's had to replace one coordinator so far in Durkin.  He's had one incident with Jim Minnick.  One data point in each case.  Can you predict anything from ONE data point?  Furthermore brushes with the law are each unique cases that any rational coach would consider on it's own merits. How he handled this years incident is no predictor of how he's handle a future brush with the law.

Tuebor

December 22nd, 2015 at 4:07 PM ^

Starting out exciting. Even after the MSU loss I was still pumped.  IU showed some flaws, PSU was a solid victory, and OSU was painful. 

 

Harbaugh has a long way to go to catch up to MSU and OSU but at least we are on the right path.

Chitown Kev

December 23rd, 2015 at 12:05 AM ^

with MSU...there was not really a talent differential but a coaching differential there...From what I remember of Saban's first year at 'Bama, it takes about a year to get the poison of the previous regime out of the system...thanks to Hoke's recruiting, JimH has a little more to work with than even Saban did.

Wolfman

December 23rd, 2015 at 4:56 AM ^

I still hold those two games as positives for us because both games magnified what we had been hiding most of the season until DLmen started falling; MAC level lbing unit. Durkin, imo, did a masterful job of hiding, or at least minimizing the effect this inferior unit could ultimately cost and even with the massive offensive production of IU the defense, i.e., Peppers came up huge when it mattered and we got out of that with a W.  Then after Urb called possibly his worst game ever, OSU took us to the woodshed. Not forgotten, however, were 3 consecutive shutouts, and that shit just doesn't happen nowdays.

Why do I feel these are positives, even though we barely escaped from one and the other was total domination by our biggest rival? Solely due to the fact that JH was on the sideline and as his mentor did some 30 years prior, recognizes that college football is an ongoing experiment in how best to acquire and nurture a given number of weapons to be able to almost always have a significant strategical advantage over 9/10th of your schedule. That other 10 percent, in most seasons will have an equally gifted chess master on the opposite sideline. Bo, resistant to change initially realized he had to get the Jim Smiths, Anthony Carters, John Kolesars, et. al. to keep pace and a qb capable to put the ball in their hands. A 3 yard and a cloud of dust coach brought in Harbaughs, Grbacs and Howards prior to stepping down. Mere suggestion of same would have caused him to spasm in 1969. The game has evolved so dramatically since those days and JH has been right in the middle of all the changes. Hell, anyone posting on this site realizes the importance of acquiring defenders capable of stopping both smash mouth offenses and spread attacks that tax the hell out of the staff and players. Bo's challenge was to minimize the effectiveness of full out aerial assaults but still having athletes big and strong enough to withstand the punishing ground games of that era. Enter Bernie Kolesar and Miami with speed merchants on the outside and big backs not unlike those in the Big 10. Result? 5 interceptions and Miami retreats to the south. Someone on site claimed JH an offensive genius and was quickly rebutted. Well he is, but the genius lies in his core belief that a viable rushing attack coupled with the same through the air will result in extremely difficult matchups for the opposition. We saw, each and every week, how he was able to make minor adjustments with his inherited and limited arsenal and through cleverly designed manipulation give opposing DCs and players a totally new look that allowed him to maximize offensive efficiency. By season's end Rudock was able to stand back and throw to, at times, completely uncovered receivers that at season's beginning were often bracketed and would have taken today's Tom Brady to have a chance for a reception. It was masterful and big fun to watch. Our offense is almost revolutionary in the fact it is based on the principles that led us to victory after victory 45 years ago but possesses the ability to morph into what is actually a new scheme each and every week through simple changes in design and execution that almost always results in a break down on the defensive side. Now flash forward two to three years where we trot out skill position players recruited by all the top programs and we have something not too many others have. The same holds true on the other side of the ball. He has witnessed what he has to stop. He reaches out to a Super Bowl winning coach that doubles as his brother, begs the ear of another who just happens to be the most successful coach the NFL has ever seen and based on their input and his own assessment, hires a man he believes fully capable of doing with the defense what he does with the offense. And we've all watched the recruiting wars. That defense is going to be stocked with talent as good at limiting offensive production as our offense will be at maximizing it. Does not matter how you wish to file away our weakest defensive performances of the year. It was, when all is said and done, a combination of not having the necessary talent on that side of the ball, and it always takes a full 11, and possibly witnessing some things for the first time and not capable of best utilizing those that we did have available. But in JH's world that does not happen twice. Next season the gap will close and as the talent equalizes the gap will become non-existent and then it will come down to "Beat me if you can." And in that scenario I think we can all agree on who we want calling the shots.

Ali G Bomaye

December 23rd, 2015 at 12:50 PM ^

OSU, maybe.  They have a level of talent and depth that will take us a few years of stellar recruiting to match, but it looks like we're on our way.

MSU, I think we're there.  We played them evenly this year - arguably more than evenly, since MSU's close victory depended on two huge plays and a significant bout of refereeing incompetence.  Let's see how we match up when MSU doesn't have a senior All-American QB and WR.

The Geek

December 23rd, 2015 at 12:50 PM ^

could be as simple as reducing the amount of equipment/protection the players wear.  

If I were King for a day, I'd get rid of all protective gear (save the cup) and go back to leather helmets.

Those SportsCenter human-missile hits would begin to disappear. It drives me nuts when players don't wrap-up when they tackle...

JTGoBlue

December 23rd, 2015 at 9:22 PM ^

Regarding Sparty and Wisconsin and recruiting...their success in recent years is due in large part to Michigan dropping the ball and the PSU and OSU scandals. Now the ND, Michigan, and PSU are righting the ship, Sparty won't be eating at the big boy table anymore.




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beef supreme

December 25th, 2015 at 10:14 AM ^

Those scandals and ball dropping did help msu, but they are currently a stand alone program if you haven't noticed. We will overcome them, but I doubt that they will recede because we are once again a superior team. In fact, this will probably only fuel their intense hatred, keeping them strong, like a sith lord.

YoungGeezy

December 29th, 2015 at 12:16 PM ^

After seeing the movie Concussion, it will be harder and harder for me to justify seeing these guys knock the crap out of each other. Seeing an astronomical percentage of football players suffering from some form of CTE is hard to look away from. No wonder NFL players don't want their own kids to play football.

MayOhioEatTurds

December 30th, 2015 at 2:44 AM ^

Simply watching a movie with Will Smith can turn fans off. 

The attack is organized, and the public relation arm is sophisticated. 

You are going to hear more and more of these sorts of comments from friends and family as the years go by.  Most people will get their information from movies like Concussion, and the film's conflation of concussion and CTE will go unchallenged.  Those who challenge the conflation on medical grounds will be laughed out of the room. 

Give it a few years, and being a football fan will no longer be a popular pastime. 

I hope I'm wrong.  But I've watched a few organized media attacks through the years.  This movie is where the attack goes public, and starts reaching people who have no interest in football.