Counted eight freshman playing defense tonight
I sat in a bar with some PSU fans, and spent the first half listening to a young, drunk UM fan bitching about RR, how great Lloyd was, and how the defense sucked ... blah, blah, blah, blah.
I finally told him to shut up; it was more important to me to get away for a few hours, hoist a few micros, and watch the game. Yes, this is my alma mater who always put a respectable (if not damn good) team on the field. I'm disappointed with this loss, and I'm worried about being bowl eligible, but shit. I can't blame RR for missed tackles, or Gallon punting the ball out at the 2-yard-line.
Most of the mistakes I see are made by freshman or redshirts. And it's the little things. Guys trying to strip the ball on a fourth down, rather that making a sure tackle so we get the ball back anyhow. Missed assignments. The defense being worked on every screen pass because they can't stay home. These errors will be fixed with experience.
The question is: will the drunk guy in the bar -- along with all the other people calling for RR's head -- be patient for one more year?
October 31st, 2010 at 9:26 AM ^
a decent number of 4th year JR's, Sr's and 5th Yr Sr's we wouldn't have to play so many Fr, RS Fr etc. etc.
October 31st, 2010 at 10:09 AM ^
what chitownblue was saying. And I agree with jamiemac, at some point some of the responsibility for the massive amount of attrition/misses in the defensive secondary has to fall on RR and the coaching staff.
October 31st, 2010 at 8:42 AM ^
I really don't care if we have a ton of freshman out there or not, there has been 0 progress on the defensive side of the ball..
Same mistakes over every wk, and now it is getting worse against worse teams..
The 10th ranked offense in the big ten just scored 41 on us and we didn't turn it over.. What a fucking joke..
October 31st, 2010 at 10:06 AM ^
That is what is so stunning to me. UM didn't turn the ball over and set the PSU offense up with great field position, and PSU's pathetic offense still shredded us.
October 31st, 2010 at 9:02 AM ^
Has to contain the most, hate to say it, "busts" of any defense in the country. Michigan will always be able to recruit and either everyone outside of a select defensive players has not lived up to their potential. Maybe its not their fault and but that means its the coaches. I absolutely love this offense but this defense has pushed me over the edge of sensibility.
October 31st, 2010 at 9:48 AM ^
October 31st, 2010 at 10:20 AM ^
We had Warren and Graham last year and lost the last 6 games. How much better would Warren have made us this year?
Teams would have just stayed away from him.
October 31st, 2010 at 10:49 AM ^
Teams wouldn't have had to stay away from Warren because he'd be playing 10 yds off the los.
October 31st, 2010 at 10:16 AM ^
Yes we're playing a ridiculous amount of freshmen. As Chitown said that in itself is partially an indictment of the staff. But even if it weren't, what the hell is going on with our more experienced players? It's not like they've been improving. Let's hope that last night was the nadir.
October 31st, 2010 at 12:22 PM ^
if we had an FBS average defense, along with our #4 ranked offense and #1 ranked rusher as our quarterback, imagine what our record and future would look like...
we will again someday field an average defense, and along with that average defense we will have the best offense in the country with upperclassmen running the show.
it will happen; just not as quickly as we'd like...
October 31st, 2010 at 1:00 PM ^
Does you seeing 8 freshman play on defense explain why I only saw 2 defensive stops in the whole game? Or maybe I was too drunk to count accurately.
October 31st, 2010 at 1:00 PM ^
Does you seeing 8 freshman play on defense explain why I only saw 2 defensive stops in the whole game? Or maybe I was too drunk to count accurately.