Coaching Aspects That Worry Me
"Hurry, Hurry" Offense: No excuse for that. None. This is something that is supposed to be practiced all through out Spring and Fall camp. It is supposed to be practiced every Thursday during game week. This is how practice is supposed to end. 1's vs 1's. "Hurry, Hurry" is what we called it. 2 minute situational football. There should be signals, audible calls or plays on the wristband to get everyone on the same page.
Offensive Line Stunt Pickups: I'm pretty tired of hearing excuses for our coaches and players. ND ran pretty basic stunts. Yet we still have Ruiz chasing the guy lined over him as if it's his man. As an offensive lineman, when the guy in front of you leaves, trust and believe someone else is wrapping around and coming. Runyan looked surprised when his man left and another defender came around the edge. I tell you, this made me so upset because they did this against Wisconsin last year too. I'm nowhere near qualified as our staff but I know the basics from playing the game. Personally, I used to hate running stunts like this against average lines because they rarely worked. Yet somehow our lineman can't recognize this and are always chasing. This has nothing to do with Ruynan's talent as a player, good coaching eliminates mistakes like this. Getting beat one on one is not the same as this. This happened more than once. First game or not this shouldn't be happening, still. As my coach used to say, "You're either coaching it, or allowing it".
Playcalling/Play Action: As some have said (and their wives), our offense if predictable and boring. It is. This reminds me of when I use to play against teams with no creativity. Myself and two other lb's would literally be calling out the play before the offense ran it. If I remember correctly, an opponent said this about Michigan last year. The best OC's keep the defense guessing and honest regardless of talent. Our offense has no flow or rhythm. Michigan did zero favors for our OT's running every play on the same snap count. DE's are going to feast on that.
I hate our playaction. For one our fakes are terrible. A good fake will cause those lb's to step up and honor the run even if the run game is failing. Little things like this bother me. This is going back to last year too. Nothing like seeing a beautiful play action called and everyone bites on the fake.
As others have pointed out, 2nd and 14 PA is pointless in my opinion. Doesn't matter what level of football you're playing at but especially at this level players are taught to know the situation. The down, the distance, the time etc. It's like our OC doesn't care about the down and distance and is running the play regardless.
I know the rebuttals to this post will be "give it time, we'll figure it out". Or the "if the defense hadn't done this or that". I've given it time, look at my post history. This team still continues to do "this or that".
Like the rest of you, I'm a Michigan fan for life and will always support this team.
September 4th, 2018 at 5:36 AM ^
MSU WON
Penn St WON
OSU WON
Mich LOST
September 4th, 2018 at 7:17 AM ^
There's a part of the post that you may have missed. The #'s he put there are rankings of the teams. These rankings indicate relative quality of the opponent. Lower numbers indicate better opponents, which isn't intuitive I know, but that's the way they set it up.
Welcome to football!
September 4th, 2018 at 10:12 AM ^
I see the point but the only stat that matters is winning.
September 4th, 2018 at 11:32 AM ^
Come on.
If you were MSU or PSU and are happier this Tuesday than Michigan fans, IMO that's delusional. M certainly wins against their opponents and much more easily, based on relative performances. Conversely MSU and PSU would have lost in South Bend worse than Michigan (and reminder that MSU lost by 20 AT HOME to ND last year, and it was only that close because Dantonio tacked on a make-the-score-look-better TD with like 2 minutes left).
The much better comment is below this one, or why can't we win big games on the road. The answer last year was the QB. The answer this year, so far, is the tackles. Last year was unfortunate. This year is a failure in recruiting and coaching, no doubt.
But it's possible things improve. We are 1 game in. And the rest of the team still looks very good to me.
September 4th, 2018 at 8:07 AM ^
And, had we played those teams, we would have won too.
the point is that we have a fine team for sniping on the teams that don't have our resources. The question is why we have an offense that has gotten worse over four years of recruiting, and shows inexplicable decisions on player management and play calling.
How much of this is Pep? How much of it is whiffing on the tackles?
I suppose in the end knowing might just help me know whether to jump off the ledge or sit with some bit of hope, and not change one thing about the team, but I'd still like to know.
September 4th, 2018 at 5:50 PM ^
JFW, by all means sit and hope. Without hope, nothing is possible. With hope, all is possible meaning I'll see your water melon and raise you an apple. GO MAIZE
September 4th, 2018 at 11:36 AM ^
If Michigan played any of the team's you listed opponents we would have had an easy victory. The only one who could beat ND in SB would probably be OSU.
September 4th, 2018 at 12:53 PM ^
The good news is that it sounds like UM is somehow better than PSU, MSU, and OSU based on telepathy of the members here, so should be an easy cruise to an undefeated conference season, big ten championship, and national championship.
September 4th, 2018 at 5:35 AM ^
SF made the Super Bowl despite of, not because of, Jim Harbaugh.
September 4th, 2018 at 6:19 AM ^
Sparty trolls gonna troll
September 4th, 2018 at 7:49 AM ^
Yep. They made the super bowl the last year he was there and years after. Because it is the team and not Harbaugh.
September 4th, 2018 at 8:27 AM ^
"SF made the Super Bowl despite of, not because of, Jim Harbaugh." —joined Sept. 1, 2018
Please troll better.
September 4th, 2018 at 2:00 PM ^
As usual, you expose the smoke throwers, thanks Don you Skelator wanabe LOL.
September 4th, 2018 at 9:36 AM ^
Ha “despite of.” Riiiight.
September 4th, 2018 at 6:01 AM ^
The play series where we ran the ball wide to the left and lost 4 yards and then came back and run up the left/middle on 2nd and 14. Unreal.
The overall lack of discipline and penalties.
We come out in the 2nd half and hit a deep ball with Nico and then don't come back to it again.
The Red Zone offense - Still bad.
September 4th, 2018 at 2:23 PM ^
5 blockers for 5 defenders in the box (the half defender bails for the screen RPO). If JBB cuts off his man, which is his only job, then the T/E stunt takes Tackle out of the equation and it's at least 6 yards when the safety gets to the RB, and we are looking at 3rd and manageable because the defense was playing pass and we had run numbers.
Sometimes just because it's 2nd and long, doesn't mean it is a bad call to call a run. And sometimes guys just need to do their job in order for anything to be successful. I don't know what pass game you saw Saturday that made you think: "2nd and 14, let's run an intermediate pass concept that gets us back half because we trust the pass pro to give us time to read that coverage."
September 4th, 2018 at 6:53 AM ^
I think a huge theme this season is going to be how Harbaugh has failed to really set an offensive identity and people are going to be saying it was a huge mistake not to hire an OC
September 4th, 2018 at 7:02 AM ^
They looked like a team who thought they would be given the win. The D got blitzed and it was over by the end of the 1st quarter.
September 4th, 2018 at 10:05 AM ^
See I didn't get that impression. If anything, I thought they were too jacked up and made costly mental mistakes because of it. I saw a lack of a lot of things on Saturday, but I did not see a lack of effort.
September 4th, 2018 at 10:19 AM ^
I guess I can see that too. Overall, they didn't seem as prepared for the moment as ND did.
September 4th, 2018 at 7:18 AM ^
2 words.... Pep Hamilton. Since Pep's arrival the offense has went into the tank, there's a reason he was fired from the Colts and it was because the offense sucked like Michigan's. I was never excited about his hiring and he has lived up to my expectations. Until Jim can get past the loyalty to friends we're going to sputter through a predictable, complicated line blocking, bad route tree offense. I'm forever and always Go Blue but against good opponents it's downright unwatchable.
September 4th, 2018 at 9:25 AM ^
No fan really knows to what extent it's Pep Hamilton. You're just looking for a scapegoat to make you feel better about your rage.
Until Jim can get past loyalty to his friends? I can't recall. Was Tim Drevno in the booth or on the sidelines in South Bend on Saturday night?
September 4th, 2018 at 7:27 AM ^
The thing that worries me most is I only remember harbaugh being out coached twice in his first two years. Once vs Meyer and once vs Ferentz(bleh). But since then it seems like we’re being outcoached on a game to game basis. Whether that be vs good opponents or bad. It really does lend to the theory Harbaugh is either losing it or becoming disinterested.
September 4th, 2018 at 8:11 AM ^
I do worry about that. Is he just burned out? in a rut? Hell, if it was just "I have a bunch of young kids at home and they have to be #1" I'd honestly be okay with that, because kids grow up and I know he'd change his priorities back.
But the last two years don't seem to be the same as the first two. Pep is a correlation, is he the cause? or something else?
September 4th, 2018 at 7:40 AM ^
We played like shit and only lost by 7, AWAY, AT NIGHT. The salt is real on this board.
September 4th, 2018 at 11:33 AM ^
You can stop after the first four words and that will maybe help you understand why we are upset....
September 4th, 2018 at 2:23 PM ^
Roger this. 2 evenly matched teams, at night , on the road, rivalry game, we lose our best safety due to a mistake on his part, our best wide-out is sitting due to injury, we have a QB who despite being a stud is new and it's a 7 point loss. This indicates a serious coaching problem? RELAX and light a candle for coach JH. Just hope he, the staff and the players don't read our thoughts. On Western.
September 4th, 2018 at 7:54 AM ^
What boggles me is that the first couple years we were known for offensive creativity. Harbaugh was known for it at Stanford, and at San Francisco.
Why can't we have nice things? Why do coaches somehow come here and revert to the mean? I trust Harbaugh and Warinner. They are smart guys with gobs of football experience. It might help if there was some more explanation though so that things fans see can have a background to them.
The press conferences don't help because they don't illuminate anything and give us the impression that the coaches think all is good.
Maybe part of the reason they don't do this is that they are protecting players. Saying 'We tried inserting Hudson but he sucked ass' doesn't do much for Hudson or improve the team. But at least having a real practice might show people that when they insert Hudson he isn't moving well, or whatever it is that lost him the job.
I'll not be watching next week. Sure, we should beat Western, and we might look okay. But until we start somehow breaking out of the 'OMG We're vanilla and stale' mode I just can't invest the emotion in it.
September 4th, 2018 at 2:27 PM ^
Because the OTs are struggling big time. I know people bagged on the Michigan OL in 15 and 16 but they really weren't that bad. They weren't great, by any stretch, but they were above average. They were solid in pass pro, and they were solid in run. Just because they weren't like Michigan lines of old where they could dominate on their own, doesn't mean they were bad.
Now Michigan really had a pass pro issue and it snow balls to everything. I tried to tell nay-sayers that "going spread" doesn't eliminate these issues by any measure, and would argue the more spread Michigan got against ND the more the tackle issues showed. But when safeties don't fear getting beat over the top because you can't protect the passer long enough for that to happen, then it adds defenders to the box, confuses looks, and limits creativity. Simple plays usually exist because they are the easiest to execute against a wide variety of looks, and until you can get the defense honest, those are going to be the types of plays you typically see.
September 4th, 2018 at 8:21 AM ^
I'm pretty much done giving the coaches a benefit of a doubt anymore. It's time to start winning and playing like Michigan used to. You can't beat a good team on the road unless you're well-prepared. And this team continues to look ill-prepared against good teams.
September 4th, 2018 at 8:28 AM ^
Oh Lord, now we have posters acting like they can coach better than Don Brown ...
September 4th, 2018 at 8:32 AM ^
One Coach gives me a headache. Pep Hamilton.
September 4th, 2018 at 8:45 AM ^
Trust me the play action on the play you described isn't exclusive to just UM. Most OC's do the same thing. But for a different reason maybe. The OC may be trying to see if the defense is immediately dropping into coversge possibly setting up a slip screen or draw play. Possibly.
September 4th, 2018 at 8:50 AM ^
I've never coached football.
I identify as a professional spectator, here's my question.
When the oline can't stop a pass rush and you have 6'8" TE.... can't you expect him to be reasonably open on a short cross, since he's got about 6" height and substantial reach on the defender who would be picking him up?
Wouldn't it make sense to hit a few slants from the slot? Short WR routes, giving the QB enough time to set and throw without trying to scramble for his life?
Just my thoughts.
September 4th, 2018 at 10:19 AM ^
I was expecting lots of seam routes by our large TEs against their safeties, since their cornerbacks are thought to be very good. Didn't see any of them. And yet... despite what we will almost certainly look back on as just a poor performance, we could very well have won this game on the road. Let's hope we get some identity rolling against the easier part of our schedule that is coming up. Wisconsin at home will tell us everything.
September 4th, 2018 at 2:30 PM ^
A big part of the issue for Michigan was that they couldn't move the safeties back. Safeties were capping routes and playing flat footed, meaning they could easily break on anything underneath. This means they can cut a lot of the underneath stuff, and that underneath stuff is more "in the wash".
ND also wasn't blitzing a ton. They would show blitz and back off, typically bringing 4. So if your pass pro isn't holding up, and safeties aren't playing back, then you have a read in front of you if the play call doesn't perfectly attack voids. And if you have a read without pass pro, boom, your dead.
I'd still like to see it tried, because I think UM needs to try to open up defenses a little more, even if it results in some negative plays. But we also saw how that worked in 2013 when Borges attempted to do just that (generate some big plays at the expense of negative ones). There's a balance, but it's always difficult when your pass pro leaves you feeling pretty helpless.
September 4th, 2018 at 4:31 PM ^
GOOD THOUGHTS, translation I agree.
September 4th, 2018 at 8:50 AM ^
I'm surprised no one mentioned going for it on 4th and 7 from near mid field with 7+ minutes left.. It didn't come back to burn us, but that was a terrible call, the D was playing better, pin them deep and we would have improved our chances to win.
September 4th, 2018 at 10:07 AM ^
I liked that call. I didn't like the result, but I liked the call.
September 4th, 2018 at 8:57 AM ^
Good coaching will put players in a spot to make a play. Michigan players were in those spots but failed to come up with the play (3 potential INTs). The time management was not a problem despite the announcers using it as their narrative. Michigan had their TOs when they needed them and had the ball near midfield with a minute left with a chance to tie. Play action lead to the teams biggest offensive play of the night to Nico. Michigan simply lost a tough opening game against a quality ND team.
September 4th, 2018 at 9:20 AM ^
How many snaps did Patterson miss in the 4th quarter?
How many "hurry hurry snaps you think McCaffrey took, since as you've stated it's 1s on 1s?
September 4th, 2018 at 9:50 AM ^
About offensive coaching philosophy: most trained observers (not counting myself among that crowd) agreed that last year's OSU offensive game plan was brilliant. Even moderate execution would have enabled us to win that game. So what happened in South Bend? Lots of bad things. Among them, a quick 14-0 deficit that either rendered our original offensive game plan moot OR we didn't appreciably alter our offensive strategy and hoped for good things to happen. Coaches need to adjust situationally, and we didn't seem to be up to the task. My point? I'm not sure. But I know offensive game planning brilliance, despite sub-par OL play, is possible from this coaching staff. It definitely didn't appear last weekend.
September 4th, 2018 at 11:11 AM ^
I have to admit, I'm a little pissed at the defense. They're supposed to be one of the top units in the country, and yet they put us in a big damn hole right out of the gate. Reminded me of the Colorado game a couple years ago.
Until our offense gets their shit together, the D need to play lights out, all the time, if we're going to have a shot at winning games.
September 4th, 2018 at 11:26 AM ^
I second that notion. Defense put us in a bind early, and it changed the entire complexion of the game. Our defense needs to set the tone *early* in games for this team to be successful. It's reality until the offense can find its groove.
September 4th, 2018 at 11:34 AM ^
I think that if ND goes three and out (preferably via sack) instead of a TD on their opening drive, the whole tenor of the game would be different.
September 4th, 2018 at 11:44 AM ^
It doesn't even half to be a 3 and out, how about just a field goal. It is insanity to go all pressure all the time against a high level team playing at home on the opening drive. You can't win the game on defense on the opening drive but you can pretty much lose it in a hostile environment. We lost the Penn State game on the second play of the game last year.
September 4th, 2018 at 11:51 AM ^
Agreed. Bend but not break has its time and place to be used. That time and place is at night, on the road, against a top 10 team that also happens to be one of your oldest rivals.
I love Don Brown and his entire approach to coaching D. But maybe dial it back just a little when the situation warrants a different approach.
September 4th, 2018 at 9:52 AM ^
If we can't run the ball, it doesn't matter how good our play action is. Nobody will respect our run game. Also, it's easy to predict what we're going to do when it's 2nd and 8 or 3rd and 6.
September 4th, 2018 at 10:28 AM ^
Line up in the god damn pro I and run Higdon downhill. They can't run out of shotgun. Like, at all. When they were in the I he had good 4+ yard runs because he got a full head of steam and ran over guys.
Also, stop with the stupid pitch plays.They haven't worked in 4 years. The only time I've seen it work is when Higdon broke 3 tackles to gain 7 or 8 yards. The RBs can't get out of the backfield without getting hit on those plays.
Their snap count is just plain stupid. Ruiz looks around to read the defense while Shea is clapping to get his attention, he looks down and sees Shea's hand motion, looks up, and snaps. That 1. takes forever. And 2. the defense can get a running start because they know it's a 1 count from the time Shea's hand goes down to the time the ball is snapped.
Defensively, yes spy for christ's sake. At least on JT's run @OSU in 2016, Peppers was basically spying him (starting 15 yards away though). He had to take on a free running center to try and make the tackle in open space, but at least he was there. And I'm not talking specifically about Wimbush's 3rd down run because they had Bush sitting in the middle of the field, but you can't have 1 LB staring down a 300 lbs. OL with Wimbush having 2 directions to run. The DEs will always go 100mph for a sack on those plays. They lack rush lane integrity and unless your DT pushes the OGs into the QB's face, you're letting 1-2 OL get a running start at the LBs.
Also, I know it was addressed, but Furbush on a passing down... Just, just don't. Or if you're going to have him out there for some reason, put your space backer guy on the WR. Bush and Hudson run better. And we all know what's coming when those formations get set. The safeties have to know that fade is coming and need to get over the top of it. Or, better yet go with 4 CBs!!!
And if you're going to go 5 wide with an OL that has trouble pass blocking, you better have a quick route to throw. You can't run from that formation and not have a quick read throw if the defense is sending 6 guys. Your OL can't block 5, let alone 6.
Also, Patterson needs to get rid of the ball inside the 10 yard line. The PA fake they ran in the 3rd quarter from the 5ish was fine, but you can't take a sack there and need to throw the ball out of the back on the endzone. Getting pushed back made 3rd down a passing play and ND didn't have to worry about anything else. But moreover, inside the 5 (circling back) line up in the god damn I and run it.
September 4th, 2018 at 10:43 AM ^
Concerning the snap count: Weren't Patterson and Ruiz on the same team in HS? Obviously there's been a break in the action for them but they should feel pretty comfortable with each other. It looks somewhat similar to RR's offenses in that there's pre-snap cadence that seems to take 4-5 seconds from when Shea makes the call for the ball and when Ruiz finally snaps.