A couple significant facts about the importance of quarterback play, in the context of more puff stuff about Milton
“In today’s college football, it’s very hard to succeed without a star quarterback. Eleven of the AP Poll’s postseason top 12 teams had a quarterback rank in the top 30 nationally in passer rating, and all four playoff teams had a quarterback in the top eight. Blocking and tackling will score you a few wins, but elite passing attacks stock the trophy cases.”
“Michigan’s last quarterback to be taken as a top-150 NFL Draft pick was Chad Henne, who was also the Wolverines’ last quarterback to win a Big Ten title.”
October 10th, 2020 at 9:27 AM ^
I'd love to see some more analysis of how many of those teams had great O-line play. Maybe it's out there and I've missed it. We had a string of QBs who were under constant pressure. Someone like Devin Gardner is capable of winning a B1G title if they don't spend half the game getting knocked on their ass.
I suppose that's part of what makes analyzing football and all other team sports so interesting, isolating the variables is such a tricky thing to do.
October 10th, 2020 at 9:47 AM ^
^^a strong offensive line also helped Wisconsin string together strong seasons with QBs who were decent, not great
October 10th, 2020 at 11:26 AM ^
Well, apparently the NFL thought we had a really good OL last year and that our 5 star QB was absolutely Not gonna be a “G in the League”.
Can’t wait to have a special QB, RB, WR and OL at the same time. Happened almost year end and year out under Carr...and a grease fire ever since.
October 10th, 2020 at 12:25 PM ^
You can trace nice long arcs at the QB and WR positions, but Michigan didn't always have a great RB and the OL was very spotty after about 2001.
I get your basic point. We haven't seen all the pieces at once on offense for a long time.
October 10th, 2020 at 12:36 PM ^
Heading into the '97 season was not very optimistic. I knew we had a good defense but I thought Brian was just an average QB and we had lost 3 or 4 OL starters to graduation/draft. I guess what I'm saying is that things can come together rather quickly when you least expect it. I sure wish we had a great defense this season.
October 10th, 2020 at 2:00 PM ^
Well, we’ve been waiting 15 years, I’m ready for that “least expect it” you’re talking about.
October 10th, 2020 at 6:42 PM ^
True, however, I don’t recall the Badgers being in the playoffs
October 10th, 2020 at 10:17 AM ^
I'd love to see that as well. I suspect that there is significant overlap for each position group's excellence and elite results.
11 of the top 12 teams having a top 30 passer was maybe a closer grouping of the correlation at the high end of those things than I had expected.
We've had excellent o-line play for the last two years and still not broken into that elite tier. What happened to Gardner was a crime. It's encouraging that it feels like a different era in terms of o-line play. Hope we can keep Warinner for a good long time.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:00 AM ^
Honestly? QB play had been a glaring weakness under Harbaugh. Nobody has developed into a high quality passer. The best was Rudddockkk? By a significant margin? It's been disappointing that nobody develops and stays to start multiple years. Maybe part of it early was OL play which was terrible and, I know this word in not liked, really, unacceptable. The solution was to fire his friend who was incompetent. Completely. OL had turned around, but no QB Harbaugh has recruited had started and done anything. Or even started, really. They've all been transfers. This year will be the first by default. There's nobody left.
I don't know what people think about this but I also partially blame his play calling/offensive philosophy. I will say this could also be the fact that everyone's been a bust that he's recruited. Today you have to have multiple quarterbacks that are ready to go. They need to score points and get the quarterbackS and receivers game time practice. And I don't mean just the first string quarterback. There have been a ton of vertical passing especially when Harbaugh wants the qbs to run and somebody invariably goes down with an injury. Then the back up comes in who has never played a meaningful snap in his college career because all the backup does is hands off the ball and he is expected to finish the game against some strong team that just knocked out the starter. And again the caveat that accuracy and decision making have been a problem his entire tenure. I don't like saying this but Ohio State wins a national championship with a third string quarterback and Michigan can't have a decent starter most years. I believe that if we had a competent starter and a competent backup it would be the first time under Harbaugh.
October 10th, 2020 at 12:06 PM ^
I think you're overall point here is that Harbaugh recruited QB's have underwhelmed, as has the rest of the offense. I won't disagree with that, but I do believe there have been some valid reasons for it - some good, some bad, some self-inflicted, some just crappy luck.
First, Drevno was a good OL coach - his troubles came only after being elevated to OC. I don't think his preferred OL schemes worked well with newer offensive schemes Harbaugh wanted to run after Fisch left, though. He was promoted out of his talent level.
As for the QBs, I don't think they've had a chance to grow into any particular offensive scheme, until now. Player talent level, coaches teaching ability, scheme... It all plays together and has to work. There's been a lot of flux on the offense the last few years as JH has tried to find something that works in today's game. Hopefully, he's found it with Gattis!
October 10th, 2020 at 1:02 PM ^
You may be right. Let's review.
Rudock: 0.5 seasons average, 0.5 seasons amazing
Speight: 0.5 seasons pretty good, 1.5ish seasons average (post-injury)
O'Korn: unmitigated disaster in roughly 0.5 seasons worth of play time
Peters: INC, not promising
Shea: I have no idea how to grade a QB who is both a sniper and completely unable to make reads.
McCaffrey: INC, promising
Milton: INC, promising
Hmm.
October 10th, 2020 at 2:32 PM ^
Patterson was not good last year. But his first season I think can be considered a success given he was a transfer and Pep's offense wasn't great. He played pretty well and only lost 2 regular season games -- his first start and of course osu. But I don't think that osu loss was on him. Patterson's play in 2018 was actually why there were high expectations last year. He failed to live up to them though.
I agree with others that some of the QB woes are understandable. Multiple OCs and schemes and youth on the line and at receiver hurt. This is Milton's first time having the same OC/scheme for 2 years. Last year is really the only true failure I think Harbaugh's had here. He needs to hit this year though.
October 10th, 2020 at 3:32 PM ^
Yeah, I'd tend to agree.
First of all, you can't get mad when we lose to OSU, unless it's egregious implosion on our part or refs blatantly fucking us. OSU is just plain better than we are.
Second of all, the Pep Hamilton "offense", and I use the term loosely, put a lot of people in a position to fail.
Third...as a coach you can only do so much. A QB who can't make reads...oof.
October 10th, 2020 at 9:53 AM ^
Yes, yes QB play is important to a football team's success.
October 10th, 2020 at 9:53 AM ^
I have this feeling Miltons going to blow up nationally, and it sounds like Cade went from being an afterthought to most fans but kept working and quietly passed Mcaffery. Would feel better if the Third QB. Was a 4 star recruit coming in rather than a last minute grab but that was a unique circumstance given the nature of the commits retirement.
October 10th, 2020 at 10:01 AM ^
How come when other people mention their dreams they're all 'normal' and such yet my dreams are always weird?!
/end-of-rant
October 10th, 2020 at 10:28 AM ^
Quite the revelation. It’s also easier to win a baseball game if your starting pitcher is better. Must be why really good QBs and SPs get paid so much.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:53 AM ^
It's hard to to be a top team in the modern game at the college and pro level without great QB play. For those who talk about needing a good offensive line, I've watched Russell Wilson for years operate without a good pass blocking line. No would argue he's not a top tier quarterback. I think play calling plays a big part too. You need to make calls that give you the best chance of success and especially plays that match your talent
October 10th, 2020 at 6:49 PM ^
Right now- As a college football program, Michigan is the 4th to 5th best program in the B10. Nationally they are a 15-30 rank each year. It is what it is folks and they have good players. Even Woodson, Meyer, etc on ESPN know that Michigan is not coached as well as they should be. They have good players. Urban has said that 100 times
October 11th, 2020 at 12:27 AM ^
I think QB in CFB is an evolving position much more and more rapidly than HS or NFL.
For example, the days of run first duel threat QBs is pretty much over I think we’d all agree. Defenses have evolved their make up physically and schematically to stop this. Will probably continue to show up at fringe majors and service academies but OSU won’t field another Braxton, JT etc. any time I can foresee.
Then the passing duel threat looked like the next evolution. Manziel, Shea etc. Trying to get the downfield passing game to counter the box adjustments made to stop the water bugs. The Viper style hybrid player was a perfect counter to this. The downfield game gets to erratic with these rollout slingers. Patterns designed as much for timing as space fall apart when they break contain. Then it’s playground football. You don’t win NCs with that.
Now it looks like the place to be is Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow, Justin Fields. Big strong armed guys who can stay in long enough to deliver the timed ropes that a great downfield passing game requires but also can tuck it, lean thru a gap to get 4 or 15 yds when the progression breaks down or things open up to scoot thru for easy gains.
Good thing is I feel like Milton is our first time since Carr we’ve had someone that fits the growing trend rather than a guy who fit the last one. Or Speight. Who fit Carr. Which makes sense if he was a Hoke recruit.