Big Ten Coaches Talk Anonymously About Conference Foes for 2017

Submitted by RoseInBlue on

Athlon Sports just put out their annual anonymous comments from coaches article.  

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/big-ten-coaches-talk-anonymously-about-conference-foes-2017

Some interesting things including my personal favorite:

"They want to outwork you. That was the whole satellite camp thing last offseason. He wanted to send a message to the SEC and other schools that he will outwork you to make up for any advantage you might have over Michigan.

MGoViso

August 1st, 2017 at 12:06 PM ^

This is just weird...

"Mike DeBord runs something that’s as appealing as Wilson’s offense when it comes to recruits. DeBord is so efficient as a coordinator. His offenses show so much confidence and great timing on film. It was a great hire for Allen."

stephenrjking

August 1st, 2017 at 12:54 PM ^

To play the other side of this, I suppose that it's possible that Debord is good at getting teams to execute the plays he designs and calls, but poor at selecting which plays to design. Kind of an inversion of Al Borges, whose occasional use of good concepts were undermined by his inability to train his players to execute those concepts at all (and who also didn't feel like changing a play after OSU called a time out specifically to counter it).

OTOH it might just be deliberate false-flag garbage. No way the offense is appealing to recruits.

newtopos

August 1st, 2017 at 3:31 PM ^

I just spent a couple minutes looking up stats (S&P+, FEI) for the Tennessee and Indiana offenses last year.  To his credit, it looks like DeBord's offense was decent last year.  Again, this was not a deep dive, but I was very surprised by the numbers.  As someone who has long been critical of certain old-school coaches, I have to give him credit.  

Reader71

August 1st, 2017 at 4:38 PM ^

Yeah, DeBord is a decent coordinator. He's not a genius or anything, but he's been around a long time and has picked up a few things.

And he's not going to coach Tennessee or Indiana like he coached at Michigan. He had the talent to be very bland at Michigan, and so he probably erred too much on the side of caution for most of our tastes. But he won a lot of games at Michigan, too, and a National Championship to boot.

Piling on the guy is very funny, but he's had some success, so give the devil his due.

Reader71

August 2nd, 2017 at 9:57 AM ^

Possible. I believe Lloyd was pretty hands-off with his coordinators, but I also believe he gave broad principles that were to be followed. He was huge on winning the turnover battle, for instance, so I could see where a coordinator would limit his taking of chances based on that.

I also think DeBord, as a sane person, wouldn't build that type of offense around just any QB. Henne had been hurt and Mallet was a rookie.

1464

August 1st, 2017 at 12:08 PM ^

"They’re scouting opponents better than anyone in our league. They’re at Alabama’s level of prep and analysis, and as they’ve started to fit talent you’re seeing the effects. It’s hard to surprise them." That's my favorite.

JHumich

August 2nd, 2017 at 1:07 AM ^

upon how confident he felt about the anonymity. It's the kind of thing he'd tell himself to rationalize how close we came last year.

Wonder what he'll tell himself when we blow them out this year.

Seriously though, why are so many selling us so short? I just don't see us losing anything but @PSU, and if OSU beats them, we could go to the B1G, CFP, and win it all.

FauxMo

August 1st, 2017 at 12:10 PM ^

They left one out... "Mike D'Antonion is kind of a boring asshat. I had dinner with the guy and seriously considered slashing my wrists. What's with that douche canoe?" ~Unnamed B1G Heach Coach

Esterhaus

August 1st, 2017 at 12:13 PM ^

"Michigan will win the national championship this season and forever more. All of Harbaugh's players will be drafted by the NFL and eventually win Nobel Prizes too. Wolverines will command the cosmos and touch the face of god."

- Anonymous

I have to protect my source.

Blue Know It

August 1st, 2017 at 12:29 PM ^

HAHA, regarding MSU...

 

"Jim Harbaugh’s success will directly impact how MSU recovers and maneuvers from here on out. This is a different league than the one Dantonio started in.”

 

Got to love that.

Yabadabablue

August 1st, 2017 at 12:36 PM ^

“The Spartans are a team to watch for rival coaches. Maybe the team to watch. We all want to see what they’re going to do, how Mark Dantonio and his staff can come back after that season."

 

-Mark Dantonio

Mr. Elbel

August 1st, 2017 at 12:43 PM ^

"Everything Jim Harbaugh does is for a reason. The media falls for his stuff, but every time he’s out there in public he’s communicating to his team or to recruits, and maybe sometimes he’s sending a message to other coaches."

Sounds like he's in someone's head.