End of Half Coaching Tactics: Hoke vs. Harbaugh
After watching football all weekend, the contrast between the end-of-half tactics used by Brady Hoke and Jim Harbaugh is incredible.
As we know, against Maryland Hoke refused to even put the ball in the air in the two-minute drill until we were at Maryland's 35, at which point there was time for one pass before a field goal attempt.
Meanwhile, in the 49ers game on Sunday, Harbaugh did something very interesting at the end of the half. The 49ers had a 4th-and-2 at the Washington 48 with 35 seconds left and the clock running. Harbaugh let the clock tick down to 11 seconds before calling timeout, at which point he called a pass play: Kaepernick threw a 25-yard pass to Crabtree on 4th down, the 49ers called timeout, and then kicked a field goal. Basically, Harbaugh let the clock tick down to the exact amount of time where he could take a free shot at getting into field goal range. If the 4th down play worked, the 49ers would have time to kick a field goal, and if it didn't, Washington would only have time to try a Hail Mary.
Harbaugh's mastery of the clock and situational aggressiveness got his team a free shot at three points (I think virtually every other coach would have punted in that situation). Keep in mind that Harbaugh's QB is the wildly inconsistent Kaepernick, not someone like Manning or Brady. After watching Michigan play scared despite a 5th-year-senior QB and one of the best jump-ball receivers in the country, this blew my mind.
(Hat tip to Andrew Healy of Football Outsiders for noticing the Harbaugh strategy.)
November 24th, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^
The running two minute drill was one of the saddest things I've ever seen.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:09 PM ^
in total disbelief. But I guess that is on me for both being in the stands and not expecting them to be totally gutless in thier playcalling.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:53 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 1:05 PM ^
Hoke ran out the clock when Gardner was eating them alive and we needed the possessions. This is not a rare or new occurrence. Hoke runs out the clock before the half either intentionally or through massive incompetence on timeout useage and always has.
November 24th, 2014 at 1:22 PM ^
I realize that, but it's still inexcusable not to try to score at the end of the half (barring an unlikely event like Drake Johnson getting 49 yards on 5 consecutive carries).
By running out the half, you're basically saying that, when you have the ball, it's more likely that the opponent will score than you will. It's less than zero confidence in your offense. This is what I mean by "coaching scared" - Hoke is entirely focused on the downside, while completely ignoring the upside of trying to score. Sure, we could turn the ball over, but we could also score, which is the whole point of offense. In college football two minutes is long enough for time to be basically irrelevant if we're trying to hurry up; we just don't seem to care.
November 25th, 2014 at 10:36 AM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 1:43 PM ^
I don't buy that. While Gardner has been turnover prone, playing in a slow, predictable offence only makes his issues worse. You don't win consistently in football without adapting and taking some risks.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:03 PM ^
Hoke's two-minute drill is almost always "run on every down and maybe get lucky."
It's not that we won't go high-tempo that bothers me. It's the fact that we can't.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:05 PM ^
Funchess is not one of the best jump-ball receivers in the country. He showed potential earlier in his career, but he hasn't caught any jump balls lately.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:15 PM ^
Maybe the OP wasn't talking about Funchess. He might have just forgot Gallon wasn't on the team anymore.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:20 PM ^
Agree completely. The fact that he can't consistently win 50/50 balls makes me wonder about him being ready for the NFL. If he can't do that at this level, I don't see him being a 1st round pick.
November 24th, 2014 at 1:18 PM ^
He hasn't caught any jump balls lately, but when was the last time you saw a catchable jump ball thrown to him? That TD bomb in the Penn State game sure looked pretty.
November 24th, 2014 at 1:44 PM ^
He's hardly gotten any semi-decent toss ups in weeks.
There have been multiple games this year where we'd never even try a deep ball to him and people were baffled as to why, then we'd finally throw one and he'd either run right by a defender or go up and make a really nice catch and immediate sentiment was, "SEE?!! DO THIS MORE" but we'd immediately go back to plod plod plod
November 24th, 2014 at 12:06 PM ^
Are you implying Harbaugh may just be a better coach than Hoke? I'm not sure how that idea will be accepted around here.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:06 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 12:10 PM ^
Bang on Brutus. What scares me are all the "obviously Hoke is fired" posts that assume something has happened that actually hasnt occurred yet. And with the number of players, ex-players and other folks inside the AD department all seemingly in Hoke's corner I fear that Hackett might actually decide to give Hoke another year.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:31 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 5:37 PM ^
why you may be wrong.
Hoke's body of work is so clear that anyone that has minimal knowledge of football we see the program is in a free fall. Yet. Hackett in his press conference stated that Hoke's body of work isn't complete AND TO DATE HOKE HAS DONE AN EXTRAORDINARY JOB UNDER VERY ADVERSE CONDITIONS.
Now why would the interim AD say that if they planned to can him? Is he saying if Hoke beats OSU or plays them close that saves his job? The adverse conditions were created by Hoke's incompetence. Also, how is it that Hackett can say he has done an extraordinary job when it is likely MIchigan will not amke a bowl game this year.
The answer is simple. Schlissel and Hackett covet graduation rate above everything else related to the football team. Wins and losses are not as important as the mighty rate of graduation.
If my assumption is correct then Beilein is in trouble.
November 24th, 2014 at 1:09 PM ^
First of all, I think Hoke will coach his last game for Michigan on Saturday, and that he SHOULD be coaching his last game for Michigan on Saturday.
IF they were to bring him back, it's almost universally accepted practice to give a coach on the last year of his contract an extension, for many reasons. (Recruiting, stability, etc.)
Imagine the reaction of our fanbase if he is not only kept, but extended. (The Internet just broke, Bad Gateway error, torches and pitchforks, etc.) While we don't know Jim Hackett very well yet and nobody has ever gone broke underestimating the stupidity of other humans, it seems beyond belief that he could make such a catastrophic error in judgement.
Brady will not be our coach one week from today, IMO.
November 24th, 2014 at 2:27 PM ^
It seems impossible to me that if our leadership were to do something so blitheringly stupid as to bring Brady Hoke back for a 5th season, that they would exhibit the type of experienced foresight of granting Hoke an additional year extension to give the illusion of support.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:08 PM ^
For me, Hoke's biggest issue as coach is that he seems to have handicapped his OCs. It's not just when time is getting short. His philosophy seems to be run the ball and win the time of possession. He seems more concerned with preventing the other team from scoring than having his offense score. There are times when this philosophy does make sense, but not all game, every game. We've not seen the offense turned loose this year at all, like we did last year in two games, against Indiana and OSU.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:26 PM ^
Which, when you consider (1) how many picks the qbs have thrown and (2) how the oline has started creating holes & the run game is starting to work seems like a smart risk management strategy
November 24th, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 1:08 PM ^
It is possible to run the ball effectively without spreading the field. We just have neither the coaches nor the skills to do it. If we could block effectively and the RBs could find the holes, we could move the ball. If the QB could pass and the WRs didn't drop the ball, defenses couldn't overplay the run. We just do not have any of the parts to make this offense work. You don't even have to look at Alabama to see it can work. Look at Wisconsin. Or look at MSU. Those last two teams never recruit at Michigan's level, yet they are far more adept at what Hoke wants to do. How do you explain that?
November 24th, 2014 at 1:24 PM ^
This joke has long since jumped the shark. Maybe some of the geezers were uncomfortable with Rich Rod's full-time spread, but you can't find anyone in real life who prioritizes running up the middle over operating an effective offense.
November 24th, 2014 at 1:32 PM ^
Well, I did see an option play in the game, but let's be real, nobody was calling for Michigan to run anything similar to what Bo did in the 60s and 70s. What some wanted, was something more like an updated version of what was run with QBs like Jim Harbaugh, Elvis Grbac, Brian Griese, Tom Brady, and John Navarre, but somewhere along the line with Hoke's teams the passing game has atrophied to where opposing defenses didn't really need to worry so much about that part of Michigan's offense.
November 24th, 2014 at 11:51 PM ^
Michigan's o-line has not transitioned well. That leads to poor QB play. Buss has not been an improvemYes. Thank youent. Yet too many on this boardseem to credit others with past Hoke teams success on offense (or ignore it) but put full blame on Hoke when our OC you we can now be sure of was forced out at Alabama fails miserably to call an effective game week after week.
Those who frequent mgoblog are getting what they wanted post-Borges. Good luck post-Hoke. We've become as bad as the fans of our rivals.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:08 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 12:09 PM ^
looks like an administrative two minute drill. Hoke has to go asap after his last game.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:09 PM ^
I was on the fence, but after reading this I'm now thinking that maybe Michigan should get rid of Hoke this year and see if they can maybe get this Harbaugh to replace him. Anyone have thoughts on this?
November 24th, 2014 at 12:18 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 12:21 PM ^
Chris Webber?
November 24th, 2014 at 12:28 PM ^
Bill Frieder.
November 24th, 2014 at 1:11 PM ^
Tanned, rested, and ready.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:16 PM ^
It's the difference between a coach who understands what's happening at every moment and can make creative decisions immediately in-game, and a coach who thinks that stuff isn't as important as the fundamentals taught during the week and the execution of the gameplan. Hoke doesn't understand that pissers of excellence can do both.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:18 PM ^
I hear the Niners are interested in bringing Hoke's unique brand of clapping to their sidelines next season.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:20 PM ^
It makes a solid point, contrasting "our" two coaches (current and oh-god-please-future).
The only flaw was referring to funchess as a great jump-ball receiver and failing to note that Nussmeir is more interested in inflating rushing statistics in passing situations than scoring.
Everyone is killing Hoke for the offense - and he deserves a lot of blame - but Nussmeir is the guy calling the plays. We saw Borges take his shots, but Nussmeir is totally different.
November 24th, 2014 at 12:24 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 12:24 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
November 24th, 2014 at 1:13 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 12:28 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 12:33 PM ^
Passers: Devin Gardner vs. Colin Kaepernick
November 24th, 2014 at 1:27 PM ^
What's your point? Gardner is fairly broken, but Kapernick isn't great in obvious passing situations either.
November 24th, 2014 at 1:58 PM ^
Can Gardner throw the ball 35-40 yards with some level of accuracy? I doubt it. I think you're coaching point holds some weight. I just think there is a total lack of trust in Gardner from the coaching staff. Right or wrong. They wanted to try to kick a field goal in a game of field goals to that point. Like Brian said, "Whatever." Little stuff like this just doesn't matter anymore.
November 24th, 2014 at 2:20 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 2:12 PM ^
You were right about one thing in this post- Taco Pants is indeed one of the best jump ball receivers in the country.
November 24th, 2014 at 2:49 PM ^
November 24th, 2014 at 4:30 PM ^
Harbaugh gets an A. I got what JH was doing and thought it was briliant at the time.
Some coaches would instead have gone with the B- answer, which is to let the clock wind down to 2 seconds, call time out and then chuck a Hail Mary. It's more conservative, but at least you get a little value out of it.
Fail is to agree with your opponent to not run a play.
If Hoke were on the other side of the field against someone other than JH, then he would have called time out with 2 seconds to go to force a punt, which of course would not have happened.
November 24th, 2014 at 5:29 PM ^
To compare Hoke to Harbaugh? Come on. No comparison. Harbaugh is a brilliant coach.
November 24th, 2014 at 9:01 PM ^
Gardner had just thrown an interception and has been pretty horrible all year. If we run a standard 2 minute drill it's either 3 passes and punt or an interception. The running 2 minute drill was absolutely the right call....however there was one point where a time out would have saved 20-30 secondsa fter we had gotten a couple first downs where he screwed the pooch. Anybody thinking we should have been passing there hasn't been paying any attention at all to our QB and receiver play.