Rebutal of picture pages, personal attacks, sarcastic remarks, and the such
Ok,
Im not a coach, i have never played football but i watch it all the time.
Would that statement make it easier for me to make my point. The past couple of weeks, while still trying to be a calming force around these parts, i have been critized for being a coach, who has lived football his entire life, who runs shafers schemes,and likes to help fellow michigan fans get a different perspective.I dont ever claim to be anything other than what i am. When someone asks me a football question i answer it, could there be another answer? sure, but as a football coach you know what you know, and you do what you do. There are 20 ways to skin a cat, and i just happend to be good a skinning it the way i do. Doesnt mean im smarter than anyone, doesnt mean i know more about michigan than anyone, but i would think at the very least, it would be at least feasable that i know a little about football.
There, have at it, give me the "anyone can see that" and "i dont have to be a coach to know_____" and "if you think _____ you must not be a very good coach" and all that crap.
The one thing i will admit, is that i will always give the benefit of doubt to a coach first, becasue thats what i do for a living, just like former baseball umpires dont yell at umps as bad, usually. Or former policeman are less crtical about the pigs. etc etc. So sure i may overly defend coaching sometimes, but that is what it is. If you dont like it dot read my stuff. I think im pretty open with everyone about who i am, what i do, and all that stuff. I could very easliy make stuff up to look more knowledgeable, or demand to know everyone elses exerience with college football, and post resumes to make my point. But i dont really care about that, i know i set myself up for people to be able to attack, but thats just kind of my personality, i dont really give a crap about anyone elses feelings about me.
Now about the coverage stuff. Shafer isnt a stack guy, but the stack was used this week, as a way of trying to stop what was assumed to be a fast qb, who problaby couldnt throw,and a farily good run game. It has been stated before, by numerous people, the 3-3 stack is a run stopping odd front. and for the most part it did its job. The 3-3 stack is a good defense against a spread formation, as it keeps 6 in the box, while still putting people on the perimeter for contain purposes. You are limited in coverage though when you run the stack,l which is why i dont like to run it very often. Obvioulsy this isnt the way shafer likes to attack spreads, he is a two safety guy. But MICHIGAN SAFETIES ARE NOT GOOD. and lb's are not good at coverage, and when michigan played press man a majority of the time the other week, they still lost. So shafer tries what RR and his staff wants him to try, why not try it now? why not try it against the one team that you might be able to win agaisnt and find a way to keep big plays from happening with a new scheme? them maybe you have found something that you can pull out agin against OSU, or at least give OSU something else to think about. I truely believe that shafer and RR both are feeling the pressure to show that they can try new things, and not be stagnit. Its almost impossible to get better fundametnally during the season, becasue of constantly having to put so much time into installation, and game prep for the upcomming team. When you hear a coach talk about "returning to basics" thats when they have basically given up trying to win, and instead are more interested in making the team better fundamentally, for the future. Im sure RR and his staff would like to do this, but as you can see, the michigan fan base, and the michgian family is not interested in seeing imporvement, they are interested in results. So i see Shafer and RR as being a product of the problem with an impatient fan base, and an impatient comunity that is demanding wins NOW. therefore they are trying to schematiclly overcome the obvious fundamental problems that michigan defesive football has had for the past several years.
Has he blitzed a ton? yes, has he playd a lot of press man? yes Has he played a lot fire zone coverage? yes.. has he taken away fades by playing an outsidee shade, only to see seams exploited time and time again for big plays, which created easier opportunites to score, than having to complete 20 short outs? yes.. has he tried to play inside shades, only for corners to be beaten time and time again on fade routes? yes...
the one guy on the field that throws int's is the qb. therefore eyes on qb if you are a corner playing zone coverage, sure trent is lined up on an inside shade a bit, to discourage a easy vertcal realease. Also the Qb at the snap of the ball sdoesnt knwo weather you are playing off man, or bail technique, of course knowing how BAD michigan corners are right now in playing man, i would assume he knows its cover three, but if its not, then that corner will be able to make a play on yoru out call, and it might be a pic six. but once the reciever goes vertcal he should be working to get "on top" and trying to squeeze him to the sideline... his main problem on that screen was opening the door, and not getting on top of the reciever, as far as "no way he can turn all the way around and make a play on that out" way of talking about the zone turn to the QB, corners every day work on zone turns, and t-step drives, its exactly what you are suppose to do, 1 guess as to who teaches the t-step drive step as good as anyone? The back foot is planted at a 90 degree angle directly back, then the outside foot serves as the "drive step" at the direction of the cut, We use terms like "get your foot in the biucket" and "drive off the T" to talk exactly about how we want it to be executed, its very easy for a corner with good fluid hips, but trent (like i have said a million times) does not have fluid hips. trent isnt very good, and isnt going to make a play on that. AND HE IS NOT USUING HTE TECHNIQUE THAT HE IS BEING TAUGHT, to try to make that play. BUt id rather it be like that, then to give up an an easy hit to a vertical seam. An out route, is a lot harder ball to throw for an unproven QB, than an easy slant or skinny post.... first throw a combine coach asks a young qb to throw, is an out accross the field.
The other issue is that trent has no safety help, therefore he cant be over agressive on the out, but that is the price you pay for running a 3 deep look... but its not designed to stop that throw its designed to stop the big play, which michigan has given up far too much this year. I know it doesnt explain everything, but i felt like i needed to defend a bit that i see a lot of bad techiniqe, and knowing how shafer teaches, i know its not what they are being taught to do. Is it mistrust? is it players not trying, or players not beleive in shafer? or is it just a bunch of guys who are feeling a lot of presure to succed, not being able to call on muslce memory to play the techniqes becAuse they have only been taught it for less then a year? i think its problaby more the latter.
You are also inthe picture pages, seeing the difference between a well exectued out route pass and catch, and a poorly run, poorly thrown hitch route... Trent would have been in much better position to play the hitch route, expicallly if he had threet throwing it at him.
Just keep doing what you do here... you're a part of the community here and obviously MgoBlog would be a different product without you. Personally I've enjoyed being able to ask you a question or two during the chats and get the immediate answer from someone who sees the field on an entirely different level.
Now, your taste in music...? hehe
"I will fight, 'til I'm dead, with a Winged Helmet on my Head"
So what should a fan who has a basic knowledge of football, but not of the details, read to be able to recognize some of what you're talking about, especially about the techniques required of players in specific schemes?
Thanks gsimms for all the knowledge, I've learned a ton from reading your posts and blog over the past year or so. Unfortunately, it is often the critics who are more likely to voice their opinion than those who agree with you. For everyone who gives you crap, there are probably at least 10 people who enjoy reading and learning from your posts.
Thanks gsimms! Don't worry about the random people typing away ...
Dude, our coaches make a ridiculous amount of money, and they've delivered an absolute dogshit product. Don't condemn people for being upset. I'm not saying things will never turn around or anything, but right now we're just a horrible team, far worse than anyone anticipated, so I think it's pretty natural to be frustrated. I paid a lot of money for season tickets to watch what may be the worst team in school history. That kind of sucks.
I think Gsimm's was referring to a couple comments on other posts that attacked him for supporting Schafer. Even though Gsimm's runs Schafer's schemes and knows how they are supposed to be run and taught, a couple people still think they know more about football.
I'm confused, are you a coach or not? I can't infer inflection and tone from reading a sentence.
Scheme wasn't the problem agains Purdue. How many times did first, second, and even third contact come well before the first down marker on defense, yet the Purdue player was still able to break "tackles" and make a first down. Our tackling technique is horrible. Too many players trying to shoulder down offensive players with "big hits" instead of wrapping them up and plowing through the player with the appropriate leverage.
Nobody is more devasted by the team performance this year than the coaches and players. But, to gsimmons point, you can't break down a player's bad habits and instill new ones during the season. You have to completely stop them from ever using their bad habits until they have adopted new ones. During a season there isn't enough time for this to happend inbetween games. Each game, they revert back to old habits. Threet is a perfect example. He has very bad throwing mechanics. Normally, you would spend two years teaching him better technique while an upper-classman played ahead of him.
I believe in this entire coaching staff. Unfortunately, I think it could be 2 more seasons (not until 2011) that we really see a team that executes well.
gsimms - i still think you suck balls. just kidding. but it didn't seem that many people were criticizing you directly but rather your support for Shahfer, who as we all know hasn't performed. here's an idea, lets see how much weight mgoblog pulls and see if we can get gsimms in the coaching staff. umm, that would be awesome to have one of us 'inside' the team. just remember to post constant updates.
i only respect other superfans
To piggyback on your point: maybe that's why Carr put such a big emphasis on ball control and time of possession? Was Carr trying to minimize the amount of time his defensive players were on the field, knowing they couldn't be out there a whole lot without buckling?
These are rhetorical questions.
Go Blue
"Improvement" and "results" are taken to be mutually exclusive in this sentence:
"Im sure RR and his staff would like to do this, but as you can see, the michigan fan base, and the michgian family is not interested in seeing imporvement, they are interested in results."
I would think that being interested in results would require improvement. Realistically, results are the only relevant entity in football. If a team had bad players that by sheer luck won every game, that team would be more successful than a team with good players that lost every game due to a lucky field goal or something like that.
I'm also perhaps misunderstanding this passage:
"So i see Shafer and RR as being a product of the problem with an impatient fan base, and an impatient comunity that is demanding wins NOW. therefore they are trying to schematiclly overcome the obvious fundamental problems that michigan defesive football has had for the past several years."
It seems to me that you cannot shift the blame from Shafer and RR so easily. It's not as if they HAVE to be affected by the fan base (assuming that they are). It's still their decisions during the games. Moreover, I have a hard time being overly sympathetic with them, especially Shafer. I do think it is unfair for a fanbase to expect a 7-8 win season in a transition year. However, I don't think it is unfair to be upset with a likely 2-10 year. RR and Shafer knew, or at least should have known, that a fanbase at a traditional football power would NOT be pleased with a two win season. I think Notre Dame's season last year should have clued them into that. So I don't think one can characterize them as victims when no rational person would have expected the fans to react other than negatively.
Further, why should it be the case that the fundamental problems Michigan has faced in the past are worsened by the scheming? And if that is the case, isn't that the coaches fault?
yes then it is the coaches fault, not for the scheme being the problem but for trying to scheme their way out of a problem defence, like english tried to do. They should instead focus on fixing whats wrong with the fundamental of the michigan players, but some things cant be fixed,and others we problaby wouldnt be able to see fixed during the season anyway, its really what the spring and summer are for.
Also fundamental fixes often come at a price. Reteaching a 14 year old to change the mechanics of his throwing motion, or pitching motion, or shooting motion, might make that kid not as good as he was for that year, but over the long run, he will be better off for it. But what if the adminstration says if you dont win x number of football games, or basketball games, or baseball games this year, or you are fired, would you still work onthe fundamental flaws of that indvidual player? or would you try to win with him now... and work on the fundamental flaws later?
Im not really sure why im even responding to you though. I saw your sarcastic jab at me in another post, but i didnt say anything, but dont ask me qeustions then, if its obvious you dont really care what my opinion on the matter is. Im sure your right, or at least im sure you could be right, and im sure i could be wrong, you seem to have it figured out.
www.gsimmons85.blogspot.com
I am giving you an e-hug right now. *Awh**
I'm not sure we in that great of a disagree (within the context of this post) here. You seem to agree that coaches have messed up, on your view, for trying to scheme their way out of a more serious underlying deficiency. I think I would respond the way you suppose I would to your hypothetical, i.e.
"if the adminstration says if you dont win x number of football games, or
basketball games, or baseball games this year, or you are fired, would
you still work onthe fundamental flaws of that indvidual player? or
would you try to win with him now... and work on the fundamental flaws
later?"
I would try to win now. But I don't see any evidence that RR, or even Shafer (despite my E-SOUL-CRUSHING criticism of him) are under the threat of being fired if they only win x games. Shit, if that were actually the case, I'm sure that x would be greater than 2 and hence they both would be looking around for different jobs. Moreover, if the coaches are "trying to win now" their doing a pretty damn bad job of it, so they still should take some criticism.
I think the one thing that Gsimms points out constantly that a lot of people seem to ignore is that Michigan has not been good fundamentally on defense for some time now. Nobody complained about it before because we had an offense that could score enough to win some games. So now we have a very young offense that doesn't score a lot of points, does not stay on the field, and turns the ball over a lot. This magnifies some of the faults of the defense and all of a sudden Michigan is 2-7. These coaches have a proven track record, and they didn't all of a sudden forget how to be successful. I personally hope that Schafer stays around because from what Gsimms has posted on his blog and this site, this defense will be outstanding with more experience and the right players running it.
I respect what you have to talk about gsimmons, don't get too flustered. Try not to take comments from anonymous people on the internet personally. In fact, don't take anything from the internet too seriously.
Always love your posts.
but RRod and Shafer are not making changes in order to show fans that they can change. They have obligations to the team and the players and to winning, but not to prove to us they can change and not be stagnit. That being said, I really appreciated the breakdown and get a lot out of it.
is very different from the fans... RR is feeling presure from the boosters, from the admin (thus the we have RR back comment form martin a few weeks ago) the boointg crowd, and talk radio, becasue all of that stuff effects recruiting.. its not that he is trying to impress me or you.
www.gsimmons85.blogspot.com
Always enjoy your analysis and appreciate your contributions on this site.
IMHE
Still love you simms.
One thing I see that I don't see as much with other teams is our DBs not protecting the sticks. Its maddening. What's your take on that?
Also, you are a hundred times more informative and level headed than those "coaches" on Go Blue Wolverine.
aaaand 1 nitpick: RR, by his own admission, is "the most impatient guy ever." So I hope all this tinkering is due to his OWN impatience and NOT his trying to assuade the fanbase. Because that would be stupid. As long as he knows what he's doing and how to get us there, fuck the fanbase.
Go Blue
that bother me as well, espcially since shafer obsessively talks about protecting the sticks in his 2 drop zone schemes
www.gsimmons85.blogspot.com
Gsimm I think you see why coaches try to stay away from message board and the media. Keep up the good work your views are very helpful and your piece on the State game was very informative. I get the impression you are relatively new to the internet degnerates. Read thru responses that you feel are worthwhile and discard the rest. You are getting more defensive than Marinelli at a press conference. I always thought that coaches upon being hired ask the media to an all day film session so they could explain some of their language and help the media most of which have never played why they do certain things and cut down on idiotic questions.
I like Schafer and will be very disappointed if they do something to placate the masses, but as I put up in my post just before you it is all very illogical. Trent may not be good, but he has to be better than some guy off the street at Toledo or State or whoever.
Do you think much like Rod's offense, Schafer's d is so dramatically differnt than English that he has been torn on implementing his schemes or playing to his players strengths cause Trent looked at least passable as a football player.
Gsimms you're still my favorite football coach.
oh btw tell the WLA guys i havent been able to post comments on halo scan for the last two posts, nor have i been able to see any of the comments at school. I was able to post taht one from home about the jv game, and the varsity game tonight, but havent seen if anyone responded or anything, i wonder if something is being blocked by my school server now?...
www.gsimmons85.blogspot.com
Dex broke Haloscan. I don't think it's you.
Kick their ass, blast Pantera.
That I have instructed you all to SHUT THEM OUT tonight.
gsimm you said you would love to talk football so I got a geeky type question. I played CB my whole football career which ended after HS when my 4.9 speed could no longer hold up. I was taught by a guy who believed inpressuring the receiver at all times. Regardless of zone or man to man we would be up as tight as possible on the WR's in pass situations so we could get outr hands on them and redirect them off their routes. This was very effective in disrupting timing routes, it was obviously a little harder to get into our drops in zone coverage, but the WR's were delayed (hopefully) as well. I used to see this from Miami when Randy Shannon was running the D, but see very few teams run this. As long as you have safety help over the top I don't see the why not to get your hands on the guy especially in college where you can hit the guy until it is thrown. The faster the guy the tighter I wanted to be as a nice chuck would slow a guy down more than anything and it was easier to cut while moving as opposed to giving a cushion and then trying to break or to turn an drun with a fast guy. Obviously I'm not the top D coordinator in the country so there must be a reason why. Bellichick's pretty good he got physical with the Rams and Colts and it worked. Against teams like Texas Tech I would be up in their face. I'm rambling a bit, but I guess my main question is why is there very little contact on WR's in college??
thats something that Shafer is very fond of as well. Both of his base zone defenses the 2 match and the 4 drop he likes to run out of either a shadow technique press or a bump see squeeze technique press, as i illistrated in the preseason. There is something that is keeping him from running this more, and my guess is that its the safety play...
www.gsimmons85.blogspot.com
Now that I know my techniques are sound I will put in my resume for the next dc position that opens up. :-) You got me excited again for the future, I hope RR has the faith for SS. In general why do you feel we don't see more contact around the country?? You mentioned safety play, but I don't feel that it is that more risky of a defense, I like it because it prevents the easy dinks, I'll watch a guy like Spielman go thru a replay and say he should have a got a jam here or he shouldn't allowed a free release, but I see it time and again. Why don't more teams demand players get a jam. Not sure if thisis reality, but it appears to me the teams that play this way are for the most part in the South , Auburn, LSU, SC, FSU and Miami and coincidentaly usually some of the best defenses.
what do you think??
I was serious gsimms. You provide a level of insight I'd have no chance of getting to on my own. I really do appreciate it, and I know the other WLA guys do as well.
shock, I wasnt being serious (internet sarcasim print is not my strong point)... i was just picking with ya...
www.gsimmons85.blogspot.com
Gsimmons, I haven't seen the negative comments about you, but maybe they're out there. Anyway, I agree with most of what you said here. And although it's good to see that Shafer and Rodriguez are open to making adjustments, I don't think Michigan would have lost the Purdue game if we had stuck with a base 4-3, some 4-2-5, and an occasional 3-front look. It's quite possible that Rodriguez originally wanted to move to the 3-3-5 but he was willing to go with a 4-front until Johnson, Taylor, and Jamison graduated so he could keep all those guys on the field at once. Maybe once that didn't turn out so hot and he realized we were going to have a losing season, he just decided to move up the 3-3-5 installation to mid-2008 instead of spring 2009. Or something like that.
Anyway, some of us still realize you know what you're talking about. As frustrating as it is, there are a lot of people - who comment frequently - that don't know much about football. They know stats and players and nothing about schemes.
www.touchthebanner.blogspot.com
"No duh" is a product of fear.
when people know what they're talking about
True......Thanks for the info GSimms.
Rule #1- Never talk about MGoPoints