The Beilein Difference

Submitted by Meeechigan Dan on

(Submitted from my phone, so forgive the format/spelling errors.)

I have a strange feeling. No, dex, not that kind of feeling.

In 30+ years of following Michigan football and basketball, I can honestly say that I have never had much confidence in our game-day coaching. This is undoubtedly heresy for many as I am obviously including Bo in this. Any confidence I had in our teams was almost always a function of overwhelming talent. We have had good coaches, certainly, but I trembled when we were forced to rely of the tactical proficiency of our leaders. When watching the '89 run, I remember getting excited when Billy Packer would point out a good coaching move by Fisher. Could this accountant-type guy be that master strategist I have always longed for? (No.) I remember being stunned when Lloyd outcoached Urban fourteen months ago.

For the first time, I have complete faith in our coach's gameplan for tomorrow and the coaching decisions he will make. Doesn't necessarily mean we'll win, of course, but what a feeling to know that other teams are worried about playing Beilein like I used to be worried about playing the General or Holtz or Tressel. They talk about the threat of Beilein as much as Harris or Sims. No one ever talked about the threat of playing against Amaker or Fisher or Carr.

I love that feeling of knowing our guy will outcoach your guy all things being equal.

Comments

the_white_tiger

March 18th, 2009 at 10:48 AM ^

I was slightly more surprised that UM outgunned the Gators despite Mike Hart fumbles (an oxymoron almost). Lloyd pulled out all the stops which should've been done against Ohio State. He coached tremendously but I was more stunned that a team scored 38 more points against a way faster, better, superior, more talented, terrific SEC Defense... opposed to the slow, old-fashioned Big Ten... my bad....

As for Beilein I agree, but feel similar to Rodriguez, the talent level is higher in basketball and Shafer helped ruin RR too.

JeremyB

March 18th, 2009 at 11:27 AM ^

You remember that Chad Henne only had one good shoulder for the 2007 OSU game, right? Now that we know what the team played like when they were healthy, to suggest that Carr was holding back in his last OSU game is willfully ignorant.

Ziff72

March 18th, 2009 at 12:27 PM ^

I agree the whole pull out the stops thing is silly. They wanted the OSU more than the Florida game Lloyd just was torn between letting a crippled senior try to gut it out or playing a frosh. It was a tough decision that didn't turn out well on the field. As for having 1 bad shoulder yes Henne did and kinda importantly it was the right one. :-)

Braylon 5 Hour…

March 18th, 2009 at 1:25 PM ^

Such a weird season for us. On one hand, we come out unprepared, lose to App. State and get destroyed by Oregon. After that though, we played some of the guttiest football that I've seen from our team. We really got through some irritating injuries throughout the season to Mikey and Henne. I really think if we are healthy we can beat Wisconsin and have a shot to take down OSU.

Carr definitely got aggressive against Florida to beat them. We had NEVER seen Henne in the shotgun for any extended period of time, and then suddenly we come out in the shotgun and carve up their supposedly faster defense. We really did have as good of weapons and skill position players as anyone in the country. The question is, will we get that again at all with Rich Rod? I hope so...

LJ

March 18th, 2009 at 11:43 AM ^

Obviously jimmie's and joe's are a huge part of the equation, but there's no question that X's & O's can help overcome your talent deficiencies. This is the entire basis of how RR turned WVU into a powerhouse--his system allowed slightly lesser athletes to keep up with the big boys of Georgia and Oklahoma

Gus_possessive…

March 18th, 2009 at 11:48 AM ^

I was ecstatic when we hired Beilein. I didn't know much about him at the time other than he had a proven track record of winning everywhere he coached. Hiring a winner was overdue.

As last season progressed, the joy in watching individual players improve almost surpassed the pain of defeat (although I think we were all pretty numb to losing by that point). We saw more basketball plays made, and less Amaker-fueled headless-chickening; an amazing feat especially considering how many players were out of position. By season's end, my faith in Beilein was sky-high and I boldly predicted we were only two more seasons away from the Big Dance. Leave it to good coaching to exceed fan's expectations...

Yet one thing continues to boggle my brain: our performance out of timeouts and dead balls. I hope I'm off the rocker, but I am willing to bet we have more TOs than FGs coming out of timeouts this season. Couple this with our habitual ineptitude early in second halves, and one is left to wonder if Coach Beilein is more a brilliant teacher (read: practice coach) or overall game tactician than he is an in-game X's and O's play-caller as Meeechigan Dan avers.

Tater

March 18th, 2009 at 12:48 PM ^

Lloyd Carr was waaay too predictable with his playcalling. The most damning "evidence" was USC players saying "we knew what they were gonna run before they ran it" after yet another embarrassing stomping of UM at the Rose Bowl.

To me, the game had long passed Carr by and he needed to leave. The game against Florida was a glorious fluke. For most of three hours, Carr went against everything on his tendency chart. For some reason, Urban Meyer kept consulting those tendency charts and never quite seemed to "get it" that Carr wasn't going to be predictable for his last game. For three hours, Lloyd Carr was a better coach than Urban Meyer.

I have mixed emotions about that game. If Carr had used that much imagination and daring as a coach the last four years of his tenure, part of me thinks he might still be employed at UM. The other part, though, thinks that teams would have found a way to stop him because of his antiquated offense and training program.

Also, no matter who they brought in at DC, the Wolverines could never quite figure out how to handle a fast QB or a spread offense on a regular basis, with the exception of beating Ron Zook's Illinois team, which had both.

Sadly, my most lasting memory of Lloyd Carr will be as the only coach who ever stopped Tom Brady.

chitownblue (not verified)

March 18th, 2009 at 1:08 PM ^

Quick - show me how many teams shut down Vince Young in 2004. Or McNabb in 1998. How many great defensive minds shut down Troy Smith in 2006? Dennis Dixon in 2007?

Second, when did Carr "stop" Brady? 1999 MSU, I will give you. Name a single other game in Brady's tenure where Carr "stopped" him.

For a Michigan fan you hate SO MUCH about Michigan (CJ Lee, Steven Threet, Lloyd Carr) it boggles the mind.

El Jeffe

March 18th, 2009 at 1:58 PM ^

It seems like the arguments against Lloyd basically fall into two camps:

1. He was too "conservative;" and, relatedly
2. The game "passed him by."

I personally think there is merit in these arguments, but I also think our place in the national pecking order is a factor. Here are the winning percentage rankings nationally for all UM coaches who coached at least 5 years (so we can include Moeller):

Yost (01-23): #2 (ND #1)
Kipke (29-37): #35 (why he never made the lore, I guess)
Crisler (38-47): #2 (ND #1, fuckers)
Oosterbaan (48-59): #21 (surprising to me...)
Elliott (59-68): #49 (why he's so reviled, I guess)
Schembechler (69-89): #3 (Nebraska #1, Oklahoma #2)
Moeller (90-94): #10
Carr (95-2007): #7

Overall (1901-2007): #1 (ND #2, but you knew that)

So by that figgerin', Lloyd is the fourth most successful UM coach (after Yost/Crisler and Schembechler). But, here is a list of all programs who were more successful in the Carr era, in descending order from 6 to 1:

FSU, Tennessee, Texas, VA Tech, Florida, and ...erm...

...Ohio State.

So, even though UM under Carr was more successful than 100+ IA schools, he was less successful than some of the big dogs, and especially that school down south.

dex

March 18th, 2009 at 1:01 PM ^

"Sadly, my most lasting memory of Lloyd Carr will be as the only coach who ever stopped Tom Brady."

Yeah, I mean, it's not like Carr won a National Title or anything.

Bocheezu

March 18th, 2009 at 1:43 PM ^

I'm no authority on basketball whatsoever, and I'm sure people will give evidence to the contrary, but I've been pretty impressed with the preparation for most of these games. I was really surprised how well U-M delt with the press against UConn in the first half of that game. They had a play where they broke the press and in 3 passes it was a dunk at the other end, which is probably the most effective counter to the press that I remember seeing.

You can compare that to the Kentucky game yesterday, where their PG got pressed, got no help whatsoever, and had to call a timeout in the backcourt. After the timeout, they inbound, and Meeks gets trapped in the frontcourt and once again no one is there to help. 5-second call. That sequence was amazing and I couldn't believe that they could screw that up twice like that. That is not something I could imagine seeing with this Michigan team.

I also really like how turnovers are down. Hopefully averaging 15+ turnovers a game is a thing of the past.

Meeechigan Dan

March 18th, 2009 at 2:19 PM ^

This was very well said. Vastly more refreshing than the routine rounds by the thought police (WLA). Lloyd was who he was: a predictable coach, a decent man, an excellent recruiter, a beloved father figure, and a predictable coach. Those things in a stew combined with the Michigan brand and we have his excellent resume as outlined by El Jeffe.

dex

March 18th, 2009 at 3:17 PM ^

Nowhere was I the "thought police". Nowhere did I say Lloyd was the greatest coach of all time.

I said that "remembering Lloyd as the coach who 'held back' Tom Brady" is kind of dumb considering he did win a National Title. Which is more than some Michigan coaches who receive a lot of Michigan Man fellatio.

Meeechigan Dan

March 18th, 2009 at 3:31 PM ^

Well, well. The perv is all in a huff. Face it, you and chi got a little shtick - sort of like good cop/bad cop but more of a windbag cop/silly cop variety. He peruses every word on this site to see what he can "correct" and you backfill with one-liners. Like Lloyd, you are who you are. Don't sweat it - you seem to be much beloved in mgoblogworld, and I am generally disliked, so you win.

Gus_possessive…

March 18th, 2009 at 3:57 PM ^

In the meantime, would anyway care to discuss my on-topic post re: Beilein's in-game coaching abilities? Meeechigan Dan? Anybody?

...

I was ecstatic when we hired Beilein. I didn't know much about him at the time other than he had a proven track record of winning everywhere he coached. Hiring a winner was overdue.

As last season progressed, the joy in watching individual players improve almost surpassed the pain of defeat (although I think we were all pretty numb to losing by that point). We saw more basketball plays made, and less Amaker-fueled headless-chickening; an amazing feat especially considering how many players were out of position. By season's end, my faith in Beilein was sky-high and I boldly predicted we were only two more seasons away from the Big Dance. Leave it to good coaching to exceed fan's expectations...

Yet one thing continues to boggle my brain: our performance out of timeouts and dead balls. I hope I'm off the rocker, but I am willing to bet we have more TOs than FGs coming out of timeouts this season. Couple this with our habitual ineptitude early in second halves, and one is left to wonder if Coach Beilein is more a brilliant teacher (read: practice coach) or overall game tactician than he is an in-game X's and O's play-caller as Meeechigan Dan avers.

Meeechigan Dan

March 18th, 2009 at 4:41 PM ^

Sorry!

I will have to pay more attention to their performance off of time outs. Can't say I noticed what you are describing, but that's probably me.

The only thing I would offer is this: during a rare hockey time out towards the end of the 3rd period (for my son's 11-12 year old hockey team), our head coach - who is brilliant and played in the CCHA in college - outlines these complicated strategies...that never happen. The kids skate out to the face off circle and a free for all ensues.

Perhaps - just speculating - perhaps Beilein's basketball brain operates at a level that cannot be absorbed easily in 60 seconds and execution doesn't follow. Just a thought.

Gus_possessive…

March 18th, 2009 at 5:24 PM ^

I think that's a reasonable suggestion, especially considering how keenly all the players seem to be looking at each other during these scripted plays. Their movements seem more mechanical than during the free flow of the rest of the game, as if waiting for the X's and O's to come alive.

Anybody else notice our ineptitude out of timeouts this season? Does Dylan at UMHoops have time to watch game films and verify my assertion that we have more TOs than FGs coming out of timeouts?

El Jeffe

March 18th, 2009 at 5:25 PM ^

I agree with this. I have been analyzing myself to understand why I was itching like a dope sick junkie to get rid of Lloyd and was so pumped when RR was hired. I guess the sense that LC lost something off his fastball (did he ever have it, though?) and the now-perennial ignominy of losing to OSU eventually got to me.

That said, I think most fans would take a national championship, a bunch of high-profile and satisfying bowl wins, and the 7th best winning percentage over 13 years.

Ain't life a kick in the Balzac?