Devastating article on UM football
"Never at any point in 2013 did Michigan look fully prepared to do all the little things necessary to win football games. Never at any point did Michigan appear to be fundamentally sound. Never at any point did the team's locker room leadership take charge of the club and put an end to a miserable 1-5 close to the year."
I hope powers to be are reading this.
Here is the link
December 30th, 2013 at 12:14 AM ^
and the coach is "not from here."
December 29th, 2013 at 9:56 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:05 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:00 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 11:47 AM ^
that they only scored 10 after the half, and 7 was after the long INT return (IIRC). Some might call that an adjustment. But don't let that interrupt your doomsaying.
December 29th, 2013 at 4:29 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 1:40 PM ^
I can't believe you are actually trying to defend Mattison this morning. Lockett dropped a sure fire TD in the second half. The adjustment would have been to double cover him after he burned us the first few times, not leave him alone on a deep ball yet again. KSU's walk-on kicker missed a makeable FG in the second half. What adjustment did Mattison make to force that miss? And, they fumbled inside Michigan's 40 yard line in the second half after gashing our defense on yet another run play up the middle. Not to mention that Snyder had clearly called off the dogs with a large lead and a classier attitude than most college coaches these days. Heck, they could have easily tacked on more points at the end of the half if they were so inclined.
Michigan forced exactly one punt the entire game. Don't talk to me about defensive adjustments.
December 30th, 2013 at 12:15 AM ^
What did they do after halftime?
December 29th, 2013 at 10:00 AM ^
I've never been a fan of Nick Baumgardner (for starters, my 10 year old spends more time on grammar) but that quote rings true to me. If I look back on all the games this year, there were only a few with confident, consistent football. Other than that, there was a lot of struggling. A lot of scrambling at the end of games. Why go on? We all saw the same games. We sat there last night, watching the game, and my husband would call K-State's plays ("they're going to throw to Lockett" was one he repeated many times) yet our secondary wasn't prepared. Why, my husband asked, do I know this and they don't? Why no adjustments? It's the same arguments from game 6 on, no need to repeat here. But I can't disagree with the gist of the article.
December 29th, 2013 at 10:41 AM ^
Even spilemen said, he noticed that the left tackle stands gives away the play whether run or pass, and I started looking at the left tackle and he was 100% correct. This is analyst on ESPN, but our highly paid staff couldn't pick up on this and inform our players to look at that as a key. I am amazed, that this staff doesn't even break down film. That should have been a point of emphasis.
December 29th, 2013 at 11:07 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 11:20 AM ^
Thank you for the enlightment, chris spilemen is an idiot then since he played linebacker in the NFL. You know better.
December 29th, 2013 at 11:36 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 7:07 PM ^
I think the point was, if he and everyone else knows, why doesn't our backfield know, and more importantly, why don't they know how to properly defend those very obvious plays?
December 29th, 2013 at 11:26 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:03 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:06 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:16 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:47 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 11:42 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 11:43 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 1:54 PM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:04 AM ^
didn't look like they had been coached at all. Cam Gordon blows contain on a 3rd down scramble. Frank Clark leaves an open gap. Desmond Morgan doesn't cover the FB and give up a huge play. Countess and Taylor are 2-yr starters and were juked badly by Lockett. These guys didn't come prepared. Mattison has proven himself in the past and last two years, so WTF happened with those guys last night?
On offense, the only cure is coaching changes.
Looking forward to 2014. It can't be worse than the plague we suffered this year.
December 29th, 2013 at 10:11 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:13 AM ^
Your optimism is contagious.
December 29th, 2013 at 10:14 AM ^
No spread transition players & OL will be awesome.
December 29th, 2013 at 10:05 AM ^
Honest question about Hoke.....been stated numerous times he is hands off with the offense.....fine whatever.
However, he has also stated numerous times he is a DL guy and he spends a lot of his time there and with that said my question is....Why has there been zero improvement from that group this year when the HC is a self professed DL guy himself.
If our HC can't get his preferred position group up to snuff why would anyone think he could bring a team together in that same breath?
December 29th, 2013 at 10:36 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:56 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 12:09 PM ^
Michigan averaged 5.5 tackles for loss per game. Michigan State averaged 6.2. Alabama averaged 5.2.
Michigan recorded 25 sacks on the season for an average of 1.9 per game. Michigan State recorded 31 sacks for an average of 2.3 per game. Alabama recorded 18 sacks for an average of 1.5 per game.
Also Michigan finished 28th on the season in Rush Defense for yards allowed. We can all probably agree that Alabama and Michigan State have elite defenses, no?
Where this defense got torched was in the pass game - #61 in YPG allowed and 12.28 YPC average is pretty bad. Scoring defense was also a dismal #64 giving up 26.5 PPG.
December 29th, 2013 at 1:20 PM ^
Death to feelingsball.
December 29th, 2013 at 1:39 PM ^
Rather than some cherry picked stats - these tell the tale of what we already knew from watching the season.
| RANK | ||
| 3RD DOWN CONV % | 71 | 0.394 |
| 4TH DOWN CONV % | 46 | 0.583 |
| COMP % | 58 | 0.597 |
| FEWEST PENALTIES PER GAME | 9 | 4.000 |
| FEWEST PENALTY YARDS | 10 | 34.1 |
| FIRST DOWN OFFENSE | 74 | 0.251 |
| PASS SACKS ALLOWED | 106 | 2.920 |
| PASSES INTERCEPTED | 63 | 12.0 |
| PASSING OFFENSE YPG | 43 | 252.1 |
| PASSING YARDS PER COMPLETION | 14 | 14.2 |
| RED ZONE OFFENSE | 49 | 0.849 |
| RUSHING OFFENSE | 100 | 130.8 |
| SCORING OFFENSE | 36 | 33.8 |
| TACKLES FOR LOSS ALLOWED | 123 | 9.1 |
| PASSING EFFICIENCY | 35 | 143.5 |
| TIME OF POSSESION | 28 | 31.0 |
| TOTAL OFFENSE | 83 | 382.800 |
December 29th, 2013 at 1:45 PM ^
| RANK | ||
| 3RD DOWN CONV % | 52 | 0.383 |
| 4TH DOWN CONV % | 24 | 0.400 |
| FIRST DOWN DEFENSE | 28 | 0.234 |
| PASSES INTERCEPTED | 17 | 17.0 |
| PASSING YARDS ALLOWED | 61 | 228.0 |
| RED ZONE DEFENSE | 88 | 0.854 |
| RUSHING DEFENSE | 28 | 139.4 |
| SCORING DEFENSE | 64 | 26.500 |
| PASS SACKS | 69 | 1.920 |
| PASSING EFFICIENCY | 33 | 119.170 |
| TACKLES FOR LOSS | 85 | 5.500 |
| TOTAL DEFENSE | 37 | 367.4 |
| TURNOVER MARGIN | 34 | 5.0 |
It turns out that my selection of Alabama and Michigan State for those two stats (TFL and Sacks) was a horrible choice. They are both equally bad at the two. So we aren't good by relation to those two programs. Stat fail....
December 29th, 2013 at 2:07 PM ^
|
OVERALL FEI |
29 | 0.122 |
| OFFENSIVE FEI | 35 | 0.241 |
| DEFENSIVE FEI | 27 | -0.308 |
| F/+ | 32 | 13.9% |
| OFFENSIVE F/+ | 35 | 6.8% |
| DEFENSIVE F/+ | 31 | 6.8% |
| S&P+ | 40 | 219.8 |
From the website -
The Fremeau Efficiency Index (FEI) considers each of the nearly 20,000 possessions every season in major college football. All drives are filtered to eliminate first-half clock-kills and end-of-game garbage drives and scores. A scoring rateanalysis of the remaining possessions then determines the baseline possession efficiency expectations against which each team is measured. A team is rewarded for playing well against good teams, win or lose, and is punished more severely for playing poorly against bad teams than it is rewarded for playing well against bad teams.
Offensive and Defensive S&P+; F/+ Rankings
Success Rate: A common Football Outsiders tool used to measure efficiency by determining whether every play of a given game was successful or not. The terms of success in college football: 50 percent of necessary yardage on first down, 70 percent on second down, and 100 percent on third and fourth down.
EqPts Per Play (PPP): An explosiveness measure derived from determining the point value of every yard line (based on the expected number of points an offense could expect to score from that yard line) and, therefore, every play of a given game.
Drive Efficiency: As of February 2013, S&P+ also includes a drive-based aspect based on the field position a team creates and its average success at scoring the points expected based on that field position.
Opponent adjustments: Success Rate and PPP combine to form S&P, an OPS-like measure for football. Then each team's S&P output for a given category (Rushing/Passing on either Standard Downs or Passing Downs) is compared to the expected output based upon their opponents and their opponents' opponents. This is a schedule-based adjustment designed to reward tougher schedules and punish weaker ones.
December 29th, 2013 at 11:33 AM ^
Here are the rushing numbers of our opponents this season -
| YDS | ATT | AVG | |
| CMU | 66 | 29 | 2.3 |
| ND | 96 | 19 | 5.1 |
| AKR | 107 | 30 | 3.6 |
| UCONN | 47 | 14 | 3.4 |
| MINN | 136 | 25 | 5.4 |
| PSU | 85 | 44 | 1.9 |
| IU | 162 | 33 | 4.9 |
| MSU | 142 | 39 | 3.6 |
| NEB | 128 | 43 | 3.0 |
| NW | 143 | 49 | 2.9 |
| IOWA | 168 | 44 | 3.8 |
| OSU | 393 | 46 | 8.5 |
| KSU | 149 | 36 | 4.1 |
| TOTAL | 1822 | 451 | 4.0 |
| AVG | 140 | 35 |
Ohio State is the #3 rushing offense in the country in YPG FWIW with an average YPC of 7.03
December 29th, 2013 at 1:12 PM ^
Can you elaborate? If you know what you're looking at, what's the improvement? Is the improvement something that can be supported by statistics, or is it something else? Just curious.
December 29th, 2013 at 10:07 AM ^
Let's face it, we are not elite. Everything Bo built back up (after Sparty was dominant in the 60s) has been or is being destroyed. If not for Beilein's run to the championship game last year would there be any reason for hope? Kids in junior high right now know Michigan more as a good basketball school and a mediocre football program.
And it doesn't look like this will end soon.
Certainly not under the current regime.
December 29th, 2013 at 10:49 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 11:42 AM ^
Remember when the Michigan fanbase was cool with losing? Me, too. I just have to read these forums and all the excuses made for it.
December 29th, 2013 at 11:57 AM ^
Under Carr, we won 75% of our games and never went worse than 5-3 in conference, so I wouldn't describe his tenure as a "losing" one.
December 29th, 2013 at 1:41 PM ^
I suppose that if you are okay with averaging three losses a year he was your guy. His teams had 3 or more losses in 10 of the 13 seasons he coached Michigan. These were not like Michigan teams from the RR and Hoke eras either. Go back and look at the rosters on his teams and they were littered with NFL talent, usually starting in the top 10, if not top 5 to start a season. Somehow though his teams still averaged three losses a season. That is what was so very frustrating about Carr.
December 30th, 2013 at 12:19 AM ^
it looked like Carr was losing his grip on the program? I sure do. The transistion from him to RichRod doesn't help his case any.
December 29th, 2013 at 10:49 AM ^
December 29th, 2013 at 10:12 AM ^
http://www.michigandaily.com/sports/zach-helfand-time-ticks-away-anothe…
December 29th, 2013 at 12:05 PM ^
way better article than the nick rant. Kansas state was a team not playing for their individual nfl stock to rise but a committed team playing a coherent philosophy. michigan...well...kinda seemed like gardner was tickled they were getting dominated as per his pep talk with morris. but really, that apathy seemed to be running through many players last night. wasn't about winning...seemed like some guys felt like it was devin's team moreso than the coaching staff's. just my feeling, though.
spielman gets troll of the year award with that performance. if anyone watched the whole game he kept a solid pace (despite his inevitable weird, barely containable passionate outbursts about fluid running) and absolutely trashed the team by the fourth quarter, particularly lewan.
December 29th, 2013 at 12:48 PM ^
from the team than it has showed. I have no issue with his criticism. Spielman played Michigan at it's peak. This Michigan program hasn't been at a peak since 2006.
This program is soft, undisciplined, and lazy. That is hard to say, but it is true. Marshmellow Michigan.
December 29th, 2013 at 1:24 PM ^
In 2005, 2006, 2007 how many threads did we have to sit through with titles like "Michigan needs a new Carr" etc. with the exact same sentiments about softness, lack of discipline, crapping on Lloyd etc.
Not sure what the answer is here but I don't see the cavalry coming in terms of some magic coaching hire vs. another year to see if Hoke/Mattison/some offensive coordinator and their recruits working it out.
December 29th, 2013 at 1:52 PM ^
Spielman takes little potshots at Michigan all the time, and then he'll say something like "Brady Hoke isn't going to stand for that." Then more potshots. He's an Ohio State Buckeye, and he broadcasts like one. I loved him as a Lion, but I would be happy if he never broadcasted another Michigan game.
December 30th, 2013 at 1:46 AM ^
I didn't have a problem with his commentary during this game. The "little potshots" he took at Michigan last night seemed warranted to me.
December 30th, 2013 at 9:34 AM ^
But I've heard Chris call a lot of games and he will be critical (what you are calling potshots) of teams when he thinks they are doing something wrong, but he will also give praise when it is deserved. And he will make the same kind of comments that he expects the staff to fix this kind of problem or he will be critical and say he can't figure out why they haven't done it. He has made those kind of comments this year about the OSU defense.
As someone else said, he expects more out of Michigan. He grew up in the era of the Big Two, Little Eight and like many of us that did, he wants Michigan to be good because beating Michigan means more. I know not all my Buckeye Brethren believe this and I know there are many on your side that would be happy if OSU never won another football game again, but there are many of us who would like to see two 11-0 teams meet in the last regular season game every year. And Chris Spielman is in that group.