247: College Football's Best Assistants (you WON'T BELIEVE #2 CLICK HERE NOTE THESE ARE NOT IN RANKED ORDER)
"Michigan’s defense is a constant. Every year since his arrival at Michigan, the Wolverines have been a top 10 unit. But Brown's success isn’t exclusive to Michigan. He turned a bad Boston College defense into the No. 1 group in the country. Before that he turned Connecticut into a top 10 defense in 2012 and he had Maryland in the Top 15 before that in 2010. He’s 64 with all kinds of energy and has been one of the top assistants in college football for a decade."
February 27th, 2020 at 1:17 PM ^
BUT WE HAVEN'T WON SEVEN NATTYS IN HIS FIRST FOUR YEARS SO BULLSHIT
February 27th, 2020 at 2:14 PM ^
+1 use of "NATTY"
February 27th, 2020 at 3:21 PM ^
This must be the off season, 247 needs clicks.
February 27th, 2020 at 4:18 PM ^
I don't think this is where the issue stems from but sure
February 27th, 2020 at 1:18 PM ^
I have no issue with that.
The guy is generally very good at his job. Sometimes, however, you get got in that job. Unfortunately this has happened vs our most hated of opponents. That said, he’s shown some amenability to change re zone etc.
Michigan could do (and has done) far worse.
February 27th, 2020 at 1:24 PM ^
He owns, in my mind, the 2018 OSU loss almost completely. The offense had no chance from the jump. This year was brutal as well. Wisconsin this year and PSU in 2017.
But this is another post to rail against the seemingly non-stop negativity on this board. There are many in the national view who believe Michigan has a lot great pieces. Haven't put it all together yet, of course not. Need to do that, of course. But when your Harbaugh dragging Michigan out of the worst period of Michigan football in modern times (ever?), and you're facing an OSU that's been through X years of Tressel, then got Urban Meyer'd and is as good or better than it's ever been, it's a tough ask. And he nearly got it done in 2016 and again in 2017.
It's been outstanding improvement since he arrived. I believe the elite teams are coming.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:51 PM ^
My feeling is that in the modern era of college football, you kind of are what you are by year five. There are outliers of course (like Dabo at Clemson) but generally, your track record in years one through four dictate the quality of your recruiting classes, which in turn dictates your on-field performance. It's a tough cycle to break out of, and when you have a behemoth like OSU sitting squarely in your path (which Dabo didn't face at Clemson), it's damn near impossible.
While it's correct that Harbaugh extinguished the Hoke dumpster fire that was raging when he arrived and brought the program back to respectability, the hype that accompanied his hiring was on the level of Urban Meyer at OSU or Nick Saban at Alabama. Simply dismissing the failure to win a B1G Championship or beat OSU even once in five years by pointing to how good OSU is ignores the fact that Harbaugh was hired to build the type of juggernaut that Tressel/Meyer built at OSU (and he's paid accordingly). Shrugging your shoulders and saying "well, OSU is too good" is not a satisfactory answer, because we were led to believe in December 2014 that we had hired the best coach in football.
Having said that, suggesting that Harbaugh should be fired is silly. You simply can't fire a guy who wins 70% of his games, runs a clean program, and hasn't done anything to embarrass the school or generate the wrong kind of headlines. The only answer here is to lower our expectations to the level of an Iowa or a Wisconsin, dispense with all faith or hope that we'll ever beat OSU or win the B1G under Harbaugh, and hope that we get it right with the next coaching change (however and whenever that might happen).
It sucks, but it is what it is. In the meantime... Basketball, anyone?
February 27th, 2020 at 5:22 PM ^
Schools like Alabama, OSU, Clemson, Auburn have very substantial inherent recruiting advantages over Michigan. It is likely that no one would produce a better product than Harbaugh unless that disadvantage is eliminated. And very likely that someone else would do worse.
February 27th, 2020 at 6:24 PM ^
For Michigan to get past OSU, they need to get Ohio kids. MSU beat OSU with Ohio kids (Leveon Bell, Connor Cook, LJ Scott and even Tyler O'Connor). You better believe they're going to hit Ohio hard. We need to do the same.
February 28th, 2020 at 12:00 AM ^
I feel good about the coaching changes. Going to zone more seemed to open up way more possibilities to blitz and get tricky. So I like the hires of 2 established guys who are all about zone blitzing. Gotta figure he's collaborating their expertise with his man background.
February 27th, 2020 at 1:22 PM ^
I still believe!
February 27th, 2020 at 1:30 PM ^
GIF vs comment.... confused
February 27th, 2020 at 2:05 PM ^
What the hell is that gif from anyhow?
February 27th, 2020 at 2:12 PM ^
It's a scene from The Lost Boys. A movie from the late 80's about vampires in SoCal. The dude is signing " I still believe!" in that scene. You guys just don't know Damone.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:14 PM ^
Gotta be some sort of WWF/WWE thing.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:10 PM ^
Maybe the GIF is a selfie
February 27th, 2020 at 2:50 PM ^
Nope, unless the Mike Damone is really Tim Capello.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:13 PM ^
How none of you understand this gif is as awful as a Don Brown defense against a top tier offense.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:50 PM ^
Good choice. That's Tim Capello. He was in Tina Turner's band in the late 90s.
February 27th, 2020 at 7:42 PM ^
Yup.
Had sax solos on many of Tina's 80s and 90s singles like, "We Don't Need Another Hero," and, "One of the Living," both from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
I always wondered if Tim managed to hook up with Tina during their run together.
February 28th, 2020 at 9:26 AM ^
We saw her in concert in 1997. Best concert I've ever been to. Tim was great too. Maybe he and Tina did hook up.
February 27th, 2020 at 1:25 PM ^
I had no idea Larry Johnson at OSU was that old (68)
February 27th, 2020 at 1:41 PM ^
Don Brown's cfbstats line at UM ... Nat'l Rank in Total Defense / Scoring Defense:
- 2019 = #11 / #25
- 2018 = #2 / #16
- 2017 = #3 / #13
- 2016 = tie #1 / #2
High variance, aggressive defense. Tends to limit total yards per game on an elite level but gives up more big plays than others, hence, the lower ranking in scoring defense. Improvement needs to come in giving up too many big plays against elite offenses, such that the two ranking metrics are more in alignment like they were in 2016.
February 27th, 2020 at 1:46 PM ^
So, he should have the absolute best defense every year?
February 27th, 2020 at 2:32 PM ^
In what universe does “better than #16 is scoring D” equate to absolutely the best?
Yards per game doesn’t matter. Points per game do, and #13, #16, and #25 isn’t elite.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:05 PM ^
It’s 2020 and you are lifting total defense and scoring defense as the body meaningful stats? Goodbye.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:10 PM ^
Marcus Freeman, DC/LBs, CINCINNATI
A good way to sniff out a good assistant coach is to look at who wants to hire him away. If we use that as a guide this offseason, Marcus Freeman is held in high esteem. First Mike Vrabel tried to hire him away from Cincinnati to come work for the Tennessee Titans. Then Mel Tucker and his $6 million salary pool at Michigan State turned to Freeman for the defensive coordinator job. Freeman declined both and opted to continue at Cincinnati where he’s produced consecutive top 25 defenses by just about any metric and where he and Luke Fickell welcome back 19 returning starters.
Lol what non-OSU homer has tried to hire him? I'd like to see if anyone outside of the OSU coaching tree is interested. Guaranteed he'll never leave OH. He's holding out for an OSU position.
February 27th, 2020 at 8:08 PM ^
I don't think it's a big secret that Freeman is headed back to Columbus eventually. It's just a matter of time. His name keeps popping up on the OSU boards every time an defensive position opens up
February 27th, 2020 at 3:13 PM ^
Hardly anyone is even talking about football right now. How many times are you going to post some other version of everything is fine in response to nothing before you realize even you don't really believe it?
February 27th, 2020 at 3:57 PM ^
Click bait headlines for threads (you WONT BELIEVE WHICH ONES I'M THINKING OF)
February 27th, 2020 at 9:46 PM ^
Agree to disagree