ThadMattasagoblin

January 7th, 2015 at 11:38 PM ^

I feel like Borges and Nuss were good coaches with bad players. There's not much you can do when you're trying to teach freshmen OL to block against Big Ten defenses and all of your qbs are interception machines. You can teach them mechanics and decision making but the qbs are still the ones making the throws.

Joined: 08/24/2011

MGoPoints: 64068

EGD

January 7th, 2015 at 11:50 PM ^

San Jose State is like Bizarro Michigan. They have GERG and Borges, and their colors are blue and yellow but their nickname is the Spartans.

Joined: 09/16/2009

MGoPoints: 35199

duffman355

January 7th, 2015 at 11:59 PM ^

I didn't dislike Gorgeous Borges, but as a lay person who doesn't know too much about the finer art of offensive playcalling, I often time found myself scratching my head as to why he called certain/many of the plays he did.  I wonder how much outside pressure he had upon him to run a certain style of offense.

Joined: 05/11/2012

MGoPoints: 372

CoverZero

January 7th, 2015 at 11:58 PM ^

Good for Al.  He is from the Bay area so its great for him to be home.

This past season showed that Al is not a bad OC at all, and was far more effective than a "National Championship" OC from Alabama who bombed.

Joined: 08/30/2014

MGoPoints: 14571

westwardwolverine

January 8th, 2015 at 12:08 AM ^

If Al had to play with DG after his PTSD season (caused in part by Borges), no Gallon, no Dileo, no Lewan, no Schofield and an injured Butt/Funchess, I assure you he would have put up similar numbers. 

Joined: 11/26/2013

MGoPoints: 9007

BornInA2

January 8th, 2015 at 1:12 AM ^

Fire Al Borges!

Oh wait, knee jerk reaction.

Al's problem was that he was an awful, AWFUL QB coach. I don't honestly know how a man who cannot look down and see his feet can coach an 18 year old kid on footwork.

I think Hoke would still be here if he'd hired a QB coach from the get-go. Borges wrecked Robinson and Gardner; they both ended up as erratically passing turnover machines that were injury-prone. Had Gardner lived up to even 80% of his hype he'd be a first-round QB instead of a mid to late round receiver. And we'd have won a bunch more games along the way.

Joined: 02/15/2014

MGoPoints: 12802

chatster

January 8th, 2015 at 4:30 AM ^

If Gerg could coach only at the University Texas, he might be a semi-competent defensive coordinator, but “Gergian” defenses in the NFL ranked 24th with the Denver Broncos in 2000, and then, with the Kansas City Chiefs, 23rd in 2001, 32nd in 2002 and 29th in 2003 when he last coached in the NFL.
 
As co-defensive coordinator at Texas (2004), the Longhorns were ranked 23rd in total defense; but before he got there, they were ranked 25th in total defense in 2003, and after he left, in 2005, they were ranked 22nd.
 
Before 2014, his most-recent college defenses were ranked 57th (using Paul Pasqualoni’s players) in 2005, 107th in 2006, 111th in 2007 and 101st in 2008 at Syracuse; and 82nd in 2009 and 108th in 2010 at Michigan.
 
In those ten seasons outside of his one year at Texas in 2004, six of his defenses finished in the bottom 20% of all FBS teams. The one “good” season out of those ten (2005) saw his defense ranked just barely in the top half of all NCAA FBS teams.
 
He was in such great demand after leaving Michigan that in 2012 he was helping to coach long snappers and defense for a high school team in California.  After joining Mack Brown’s Texas staff in 2013 as a video room analyst and then as defensive coordinator, he performed better than anticipated, helping Texas to recover after a bad start and finish with the 68th ranked FBS total defense (after Texas was ranked 67th in FBS total defense in 2012.)
 
Although San Jose State’s 2014 defense was ranked 32nd in the nation, thanks to giving up fewer passing yards than any other FBS team in the country, no teams needed to pass against them because they were ranked 116th in rushing defense, 83rd in scoring defense, 109th in 3rd down conversion defense and tied for 91st in 4th down conversion defense.

Joined: 09/14/2010

MGoPoints: 26926

chatster

January 8th, 2015 at 9:42 AM ^

After Scott Shafer was hired to be Doug Marrone’s Defensive Coordinator at Syracuse, there had been some talk (not sure if any of it ever was substantiated) on one of the Syracuse football message boards in or around early 2009 that:
  • (a) Gerg’s wife had become friendly with Rita Rodriguez at the Big East coaches’ meetings when Gerg was at Syracuse and Rich Rodriguez was at West Virginia, and both schools were in the Big East;
  • (b) Gerg was desperate to find work after he’d been fired at Syracuse, following his reign as head coach during the worst four-year period in the school’s football history (where he had the only two double-digit loss seasons ever for Syracuse football);
  • (c) because Gerg was going to be paid $1,000,000 in 2009 to NOT be Syracuse’s head football coach, money would be no object for him in working for Rich Rodriguez at Michigan; and
  • (d) the Gerg and Rodriguez wives essentially brokered the Shafer-for-Gerg trade between Michigan and Syracuse.

By most accounts, Gerg is a decent man, but when you're looking for one of the worst trades in sports history, the Shafer-for-Gerg trade might be among them. And we'll never know what might have been had Gerg never coached at Michigan.

For those who missed it, here's Gerg at Syracuse after he'd been fired.

Joined: 09/14/2010

MGoPoints: 26926

Yeoman

January 8th, 2015 at 10:07 AM ^

Was this supposed to have happened before or after Shafer was effectively deposed in the run-up to Purdue? It was already clear at that point that Shafer was done at Michigan, and nothing about the way it went down, then or at the end of the season, makes it seem like any sort of amicable separation.

Joined: 06/08/2011

MGoPoints: 21390

xtramelanin

January 8th, 2015 at 12:24 PM ^

at a very close and low-scoring syracuse vs. WVU game.   at the post game handshake RR of course said 'great job', but then added words to the effect of  'how the heck did you keep us to 15 points (my memory, it was something like that) when you have nobody on defense?'  i have never been schemed like that before'.

greg showed up to any empty cupboard at syracuse - pasqueloni (sp?) had fallen off tremendsouly by that time and the carrier dome is a piece of crud older than most of you folks on this blog.  notably greg was loved by his players and went out on a very high note in his last game, beating ND in south bend.   lastly, the guys he recruited did fairly well after greg left, winning 8 games at their peak.  i think they won 3 this year. 

and greg is alot more than a decent guy, he's a great guy from a great family.

Joined: 12/09/2014

MGoPoints: 15439

chatster

January 8th, 2015 at 6:22 PM ^

Like I said, the rumors about why Gerg was picked to run Michigan’s defense in 2009 never were substantiated.  But it’s hard to imagine that Rich Rodriguez couldn’t have found any better qualified defensive coordinator than Gerg to replace Scott Shafer -- even if his decision was based solely on a single game played in early September 2005, so that he’d ignored Gerg’s four-season, 10-37 record (3-25 in the Big East) at Syracuse.
 
True, Paul Pasqualoni’s recruiting suffered in his later years at Syracuse, as he failed to land a good quarterback after Donovan McNabb graduated.  It’s hard to recruit top-level football talent to a city with a dying economy and some of the nation’s highest annual snowfall totals, especially with so few top-rated high school football players in the region.  In 2003, the year before Pasqualoni’s last season, Miami and Boston College were planning to jump to the ACC and Virginia Tech eventually got the ACC spot that Syracuse had expected to land.
 
Top-rated basketball players and lacrosse players go to Syracuse; top-rated football players don’t. There wasn’t much top-level talent at Syracuse when Gerg arrived to great expectations in 2005; but before that season began, there were  no expectations that the players who were there would have finished with a 1-10 record. From 1991 through 2004, Pasqualoni's Syracuse teams were 107-59-1 (73-34 in the Big East and 6-3 in bowl games.)
 
Also true that Gerg’s debut at Syracuse, the 15-7 loss to West Virginia in the sauna-like Carrier Dome on September 4, 2005, proved to be one of the “highlights” (along with the 24-23 upset win on national TV at Notre Dame on November 22, 2008, after it was announced that he’d be fired following the season) of his four year reign as the worst head football coach in Syracuse history.  The Orange forced five turnovers by a West Virginia team starting two freshman quarterbacks.  Adam Bednarik got most of the playing time for the Mountaineers that day before Rich Rodriguez discovered that Pat White might be his better option at QB.
 
The next year in Morgantown, West Virginia beat Syracuse 41-17. Pat White ran 15 times for 247 yards and four touchdowns. Steve Slaton ran for only 163 yards that day.
 
Rich Rodriguez got his 100th career win in 2007 when West Virginia beat Syracuse 55-14, as the Orange “limited” West Virginia to 25 first downs and 486 total yards of offense.
 
In 2008 in Morgantown, with Pat White and Steve Slaton gone from West Virginia, Syracuse again kept it close until a late 92-yard touchdown run by Noel Devine iced the 17-6 win for the Mountaineers.
 
In 2009, Scott Shafer helped to develop two of Gerg’s running back recruits, Derrell Smith and Doug Hogue, into pretty good linebackers, and, along with future NFL defensive linemen, brothers Arthur and Chandler Jones, turned Gerg’s 101st ranked FBS total defense in 2008 into the 37th ranked FBS total defense in 2009.
 
Like Gerg, Scott Shafer might not be well suited to be a head coach, and he might not last much longer than next season at Syracuse, but in his two seasons at Syracuse, he already has as many wins (ten) as Gerg and more bowl wins (one) than Gerg had in four seasons there. His Syracuse teams would have to lose 22 straight games over the next two seasons for him to match Gerg's record there.
 
What might be described as the "Gergian Error at Syracuse" may have set the school's football program back for at least a decade; but, I don’t think that there ever was much doubt that he was well liked by his Syracuse players. May he live long and prosper.

Joined: 09/14/2010

MGoPoints: 26926

Rusty Knuckles

January 8th, 2015 at 5:32 AM ^

With good coaching and unrealstically good recruiting, SJSU could be national champs in 3 years.  According to my NCAA '02 franchise I played 10 years ago.  Go Spartans(NTS)!!!!

Joined: 12/18/2010

MGoPoints: 340

AnklePick

January 8th, 2015 at 7:34 AM ^

They had a stud RB in 02 didnt they? A 5 star? They were my sleeper team and I loved tgeir unis so much that I ALSO started a dynasty with them. Gorgeous Gerg! Watch out!

Joined: 12/02/2014

MGoPoints: -134

UMgradMSUdad

January 8th, 2015 at 5:56 AM ^

The problem with Gerg on defense was Rich Rodriguez and with Borges on offense was Brady Hoke. Both coaches handicapped their coordinators on one side of the ball.

 

Joined: 07/02/2011

MGoPoints: 13185

UMgradMSUdad

January 8th, 2015 at 5:56 AM ^

The problem with Gerg on defense was Rich Rodriguez and with Borges on offense was Brady Hoke. Both coaches handicapped their coordinators on one side of the ball.

 

Joined: 07/02/2011

MGoPoints: 13185

LSAClassOf2000

January 8th, 2015 at 6:50 AM ^

Considering that he's more or less going home (he's from that part of California, I believe), the move makes quite a bit of sense for Al Borges, I would imagine. Borges never seemed as comfortable with recruiting as other coaches, so I sometimes wonder what would be different if he had walked into a situation where he had a QB more suited to his system, but then I also realize that it is not particularly useful speculation at this point. In any case, a staff with Borges and Greg Robinson on it has the potential to be....interesting, if nothing else. 

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130627

WolverineLake

January 8th, 2015 at 8:28 AM ^

  I'd love to get inside the AD's head on why he made the decision to Borgify and GERG his football team.  That's awesome.

  I have an idea on how this is going to work out for everyone...

Joined: 07/10/2011

MGoPoints: 2878

Cold War

January 9th, 2015 at 3:42 PM ^

Nuss was a disappointment and we'd have had a better season with Borges. In fact, we may beaten Ohio.

The offense showed an ability to roll up points at times in 2013. We didn't in 2014.

Joined: 01/15/2012

MGoPoints: -3144