Coach Nussmeier ... Offensive Perspective
Like a huge number of Michigan fans accross the world, the announcement of Doug Nussmeier gave me true confidence that our offense would never again ever wear a "27 for 27" tag. And while we haven't sunk to that level (as of today), I think we are collectively at a loss why the offense hasn't shown really any spark in 2014.
When it was announced that Coach Nuss would be on the sidelines during the games, I initially thought that was odd, but agreed with the notion that this would give him direct contact with whoever he needed to talk with to straighten out those "occasional" miscues. We are 1 game shy of the first half of the regular season, and in my mind I am seriously questioning Coach Nuss remaining on the sidelines.
Anyone ever sat in the first 10 rows at Michigan Stadium? Awesome experience, you can "feel" the game ... as long as the game is right in front of you. When the play is at either end - you typically watch the snap, then gaze up at the jumbo-tron to actually see the play - which sucks because the real advatage of being in the stadium is that you see the entire field, not just what the TV director shows America.
Again, maybe it's just me - but I believe its time for Coach Nuss to go upstairs into the booth. It's a totally different perspective. There is no way he can see how the opposing secondary is responding to our shifts, man in motion, or even passing route coverages from the sideline. How about blitz packages? There is a reason the vast majority of OC's are doing their job from the pressbox. Something needs to change ... and perhaps Coach Nussmeier's move upstairs will give him a new view of what needs to change.
Go Blue!
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:22 PM ^
We don't know how good or bad Mussmeier is. David Brandon dictates the style of play. As long as Brandon meddles, it doesn't matter what Nussmeier does or where he coaches from. The on-field product is going to look the same.
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:48 PM ^
You really think Brandon is dictating the style of football Hoke plays? Isn't that a little bit tinfoil hat, even for this board? I think Hoke dictating the style that Nuss has to call is likely, but what evidence do you possibly have that Brandon is telling Hoke what type of offense to run? Sitting in on film sessions so he can pretend he's in the club does not equate to calling plays.
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:34 PM ^
or after we learned that Brandon sits in on coordinator film sessions?
Jeez, what I wouldn't give to know what Nussmeier really thinks. We may learn as soon as January 1.
October 2nd, 2014 at 7:38 PM ^
And it's hard to see him not having any influence even if he or the coaches don't mean him to. I doubt he just sits in the corner in silence. Why is he even there in the first place? Has any rationale been given?
October 2nd, 2014 at 7:48 PM ^
It was before. But even if I was willing to accept a single hearsay statement from one tweet as true, there are lots of reasons Hoke might not have been there. Maybe the coordinators always break down film separately without Hoke on Sundays. Who knows?
The confirmation bias with regard to Brandon conspiracy theories has gotten out of control here. I want the guy fired too, but we're willing to interpret ANYTHING around here as evidence that Brandon is undermining the very foundation of the University and pissing in our mothers' gasoline tanks. Everyone needs to chill out for a second and realize that not EVERYTHING Brandon does is the very essence of evil itself.
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:52 PM ^
I put a post up earlier where I charted some statistics of teams coached by Nussmeier and Borges--things like yards-per-completion and run/pass ratio that are determined more by playcalling than by performance.
Nussmeier's chart didn't show much, but Borges's chart showed a clear break...not when he hooked up with Hoke, but when they came together to Michigan. He ran much more here than he had with Hoke at SDSU. They were running the ball more last year with no running game at all than they did pre-Brandon when they had Ronnie Hillman cranking out 1500 yards.
That seems pretty clear evidence that it's not Hoke. Maybe Brandon exercises influence indirectly through Hoke, maybe he does it directly. But it's all consistent with the effort to re-brand Michigan football as smashmouth.
October 2nd, 2014 at 4:25 PM ^
That is far from clear evidence that it's not Hoke. It very well could be Hoke saying to Borges, and now Nuss:
"This is the Big Ten where you find stout defenses and stout manball running games, and that's always been Michigan's formula for success, and I believe that to prepare a defense for the Big Ten, it must face a manbaw offense in practice, so let's do manbaw."
October 2nd, 2014 at 7:43 PM ^
Seriously. Neoman, if your best explanation as to why a coach and his OC changed their offensive scheme when they changed teams, conferences, and personnel is that the AD nefariously required them to run something they don't want to run, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe they ran the ball more when they got here because they had Denard fucking Robinson followed by Devin Gardner and didn't trust their line to pass block or their QBs to throw. But nah, I think the nefarious AD explanation is the more reasonable one.
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:11 PM ^
I'd like to see your evidence that Brandon dictates the style of play. If he did, don't you think he'd have changed something by now, to you know, stop the losing?
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:35 PM ^
not making sense.
October 2nd, 2014 at 7:39 PM ^
Huh? Don't you think whoever is in charge, whether that's Hoke or Brandon or Nuss, would have changed sometihng by now to stop losing?
One good change would be getting Brandon out of there. At the very least, it wouldn't hurt.
October 2nd, 2014 at 5:17 PM ^
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:23 PM ^
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:31 PM ^
Or he could buy two Coca-Cola products.
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:53 PM ^
Then he could bring Borges.
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:25 PM ^
To elaborate, here is my "solution" for the rest of the year.
1. Fire David Brandon.
2. Interim AD calls Hoke, Brandon and Mattison into the office and says, "Coach the team however you want the rest of the year. It's going to be your audition. Let's see what you can do with no interference from this office."
3. Re-evaluate at end of year.
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:29 PM ^
Fire Brandon and then have him coach the team with Hoke? That's a bold strategy.
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:45 PM ^
He's promoting himself to special coordinator. It's an AD thing, probably.
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:57 PM ^
I want Brandon gone as much as the rest, but please name one example of "interference" from the AD that directly relates to how Hoke can coach the team.
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:28 PM ^
He has coaches in the booth relaying information to him about those things. He's on the field so he can talk to Gardner/Morris/the Oline/running backs directly instead of having to have them pick up that phone. He does it so he can see them, see how they are doing, engage with them more directly and TEACH them better. Pleny of coaches call plays from the sideline, and plenty do it from the booth it doesnt make a freaking difference.
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:34 PM ^
but HE is our OC. No one has yet to address why all other OC's are in the pressbox?
Go Blue!
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:05 PM ^
Think no further back than the last Michigan coaching staff. Rich Rod was calling the plays. Magee was in the box, but he was just relaying information to RR and then RR would call the play. That's exactly what is happending with Nussmeier on the sideline and Hecklinski in the box.
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:17 PM ^
Though, there's probably a little more comfort factor with Rodriguez and Magee than with Nussmeier and Hecklinski (or whoever else is relaying information). Nuss has been with his offensive staff for 5 games now. I'm not sure the staff is sufficiently on the same page to relay infomation in a way that is as helpful to Nuss as if he was up in the booth seeing things for himself.
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:17 PM ^
double post
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:36 PM ^
Any time you see a close up of a coach on the sidelines covering his mouth with a playsheet, that's because hes calling the plays. Just watch a full saturday and sunday of football and you will see numerous examples of coaches calling plays from the sidelines.
Mike McCarthy, Joe Lombardi, Chip Kelly are all NFL coaches calling plays from the sidelines and those are just the ones I can list off the top of my head.
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:59 PM ^
...........why, why must we explore and critique every orifice possible of what is done by seasoned coaches?
Bill Belichek has been fired, Pete Carrol, Nick Saban sucked in NFL - there are a lot of variables to success and failure... Lou Holtz, Bobby Petrino, RR, Mike Holmgren
C'mon..
October 2nd, 2014 at 4:41 PM ^
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:30 PM ^
1. As much as we hate to admit it this is a young team and they need a little more seasoning. Our great recruiting classes are in their junior year. We need a little more time for guys to mature and address the recruiting misses.
2. While our recruiting classes have been pretty strong, we haven't really gotten any big time stars. There are no Denard Robinson game changers on this team. Very little threat for a big time play.
3. I think our QB play has been atrocious. Devin's a great guy but for whatever reason has not reached his potential. He'd be a lot better off playing in a different system, but that's not what we have.
I'm sure some people will think I'm letting Hoke off the hook. But that's not the case. I think everyone of these issues is on him. He is responsible for building and developing these recruiting classes. He decided not to recruit a QB the year before Shane. It's all on him. I just don't think it comes down to headsets and coaching booths.
I'm sure I missed a few points. Would love to hear what you guys think.
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:59 PM ^
If we keep adding seasoning it's going to be inedible or give us high blood pressure.
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:00 PM ^
There are other teams with Olines as young or younger that don't suck as bad as we do. How come RRs 2008 O (the least talent O I can remember in my lifetime) could move the ball despite having one player who had seen any time as a starter, Schilling, and Threet/Sheridan at QB?
Nobody fears Hoke because they know all he is going to do is stand on the sidelines and clap like a cheerleader. He is a sad excuse for a HC at this level and a lot of us suspected that when he was hired.
If Jabrill is healthy they need to install some wildcat plays so maybe there would be a little excitement in the stadium once in a while. I know that is putting a lot on the young man, but as Desmond said he is the only one in practice trying to be great and I'm afraid this staff is holding him back.
October 2nd, 2014 at 5:06 PM ^
My point is that there are things that are impacting the offensive performance that are more important than where the offensive coordinator is standing. I specifically said in my post that all three points are on Hoke. I think he should be fired. But I think he should be fired because his team stinks. Not because his offensive coordinator stands on the sideline.
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:07 PM ^
Other teams are getting it done without #2... which is pretty embarassing.
Seriously... Lippett? Langford? Cook? They are all a bunch of 3 star recruits.
So is the problem player development? Rectuiting services/talent evaluation? Scheme?
I think the talent is there.
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:39 PM ^
Maybe if he -- you know, as the guy under the pressure and responsible for the offense -- thought it would help, he would be taking this step already? Obviously, he feels otherwise.
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:41 PM ^
I dont know what to think..Im still shellshocked
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:42 PM ^
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:44 PM ^
A lot of OCs (or HCs that call the offensive plays) call them from the sideline. I have no problem with that.
I think that there is three years of crap that needs to be cleared away due to Borges, and we basically have OL that are all rookies in terms of technique and understanding the offensive philosophy. Funk may be a major contributor to this as well. But Brady would never fire one of his guys.
Bros before wins... (or something like that)
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:59 PM ^
anybody know where Nuss was when he was Alabama's OC? If was on the sideline, then OK. If he was in the booth, then I would still like to see him upstairs.
Go Blue!
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:41 PM ^
he has done it both ways. He figured it would better the first year to be on the sidelines so he could be with the QBs and see their response not just hear it.
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:45 PM ^
The offensive line is continually bad. Funk must be sacrificed. If they aren't going to fire Hoke until the end of the season then at least Funk should go now, but that's my opinion.
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:45 PM ^
is the performance of our offensive line coach.
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:59 PM ^
Yup, that's been kind of lost during this whole Brandon/Hoke/Concussion thing.
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:05 PM ^
If our offensive linemen played like 500 lb gorillas, Nussmeier's offense would be fine. The problem is that our linemen are playing like 5 lb capuchin monkeys.
October 2nd, 2014 at 4:16 PM ^
October 2nd, 2014 at 4:25 PM ^
I forget, who did we play in our first game?
October 2nd, 2014 at 5:16 PM ^
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:19 PM ^
Maybe he's just in a Funk.
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:05 PM ^
RBs miss holes and go down too easy
OLine makes too many mental mistakes
WRs don't get separation
QBs make too many mistakes/turnovers
The entire offense is a clusterfuck. Maybe it was too much for Nuss to fix in one off season.
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:13 PM ^
Nuss has looked less competent than Borges so far, and that's really saying something.
October 2nd, 2014 at 3:23 PM ^
not bringing his own people to UM. He should have fired the entire offensive staff. I am sure part of the problem is the coaches are not on the same page and perhaps some of them were hoping to get Nuss's job.