ESPN filler: Biggest question mark, Florida or Michigan?
We're 100 days out so this is filler, but it's brief. And what the hell else are we going to talk about? I'm posting primarily due to the comment made by Cunningham (who I remember being a pretty terrible announcer last year) re. the offense in 2013.
There seemed to be a disconnect on the offensive staff... what you watched on film was not what they thought was going on. So I thought that was a good change by Brady Hoke (Nuss hire).
With apologies to all for bringing the topic up again, this offhand statement seems a powerful indictment of the offensive staff. An announcer's opinion is worth whatever value you give it, but they do meet with the coordinators during game weeks to prep for the broadcast. Maybe it's hindsight, but it gives me the impression that they walked out of the film room thinking "these guys don't even know what they're seeing." If anywhere near true, the responsibility ultimately lies with Hoke, let's hope a reboot was all that was needed.
The bigger purpose of posting this is not to complain about 2013, but to induce hope for 2014. I think there has to be an expectation of improved offensive strategy, which should offset at least some of the offensive line concerns. If the defense takes another step and the lightbulb goes on for one or more of Kalis, Bosch, Magnuson, Dawson, Braden, Cole or other, this team should have every intention of competing for the B1G.
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:10963514
Kalis, Bosch, and Magnuson were all Freshman last year (Bosch a true Fr.). Magnuson was starting out of position and still did a good job. I expect all to start and all to take that talent leap from Fr. to Soph.
Last year's interior OL was a "C" at best... this year I expect it to be a "B" with Kalis-Glasgow-Bosch, and Magnuson getting a B+ at LT.
I also expect my hopes to become reality.
You give last year's interior OL a C at best? Doesn't C mean "average?" Doesn't C constitute a passing grade?
Is this one of those "When everyone is super, no one will be" grading scales? We all get nice grades to make us feel good about ourselves. There are no Ds or Fs. "Boom Goes the Dynamite" guy gets a C for his broadcast. Joe Dumars gets a C for salary cap management. The NCAA gives Cam Newton a C for compliance. Target gets a C for computer network security. The VA gets a C for bureaucratic efficiency and ethics.
If last year's interior OL doesn't merit a big, fat, red F at the top of the page, nobody does.
It's actually the other way around in schools today, largely. There's an old article called "A is for Average" where it talks about how students are now being shamed for getting Cs or even Bs because they're seen as failures.
But I do agree with your point.
anything below a C was a failing grade. That got inconvenient at times.
There are a shit-ton of millenials on this board. They like huggy grading scales and participation medals.
My first year of teaching, my principal basically encouraged me to inflate my grades a bit because "parents might get upset."
I shit you not.
And yet dipshits like CRISP up there would have you believe my generation turned out this way (well, at least the caricature in his head) DESPITE our parents' best efforts to push us the other way. Nope. Our parents' generation fucked up.
Read his post, son. You kinda missed the point.
What generation raised the millenials?
Boomers. This dipshit is an X'er. Our parents got divorced in the 70's and went to key parties. They were too hung over to helicopter for better grades and spots on the lacrosse team.
Your math doesn't make sense. How can Baby Boomers (born primarily in the 50's) have had kids that are just now coming of age and going off to school?
Were they all getting pregnant at 40+ years?
Milleneals are aged 18-33.
X'ers - 34-47
Boomers - 48-66
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2012/generations.aspx
I'm a 39 year old grown ass man! I'm [almost] 40!!!!
Anyway, I said "C at best." The point was about the exptected (hopeful) improvement that usually comes between a Fr. and Soph. year... not an official grading assessment of last year.
This board is getting overly-hyper-technical lately. It feels like that point in Revenge of the Nerds when the Lambda Lambda Lambda took over the Greek Games - you knew then that everything was going to be different.... StephenJrking is on his tricycle proving his intelectual dominance at every lap.
In some capacity, I agree. However, I do prefer technicalities to be correct.
given the choice between millennials and the greedy, narcissistic serpents who collected more wealth than any generation in any time and place in history EVER and paid for it (read: made us pay for it) by mortgaging the future.
don't you dare start talking shit about millennials. you greedy fucking bastards haven't got a leg to stand on.
I'm a Boomer and I totally agree with you. Especially as applies to college campuses. All those Boomer hippies are now running the place and getting high-paid cushy jobs on the backs of their children's student loan debt. I remember reading about some prof up at MSU last year who kicked up some controversy for getting caught brow-beating his students when somebody filmed his "lecture" on an iphone. This tenured "Creative writing" teacher was making $150 K for likely about ten hours of "work" a week, 6 months a year. His "punishment" was 4 months paid suspension to probably saunter down to Mexico for the winter term. And yes I'm pissed because I'm paying to put my own kid through college because I don't want her saddled with debt.
Milleneals and Boomers actually share prettty similar traits. Both were coddled. Both were the products of boom birth cycles. Both are generally considered narcissitic. And yes, Boomers have largely birthed and raised the milleneals. I realize that you're used to hearing kind words of encouragement, so I'll try to rephrase things to sound nicer in future posts.
gets an 'A' in my book
Basically the 2013 O line was a mash up of two NFL guys on the outside and whoever the coaches felt could perform that week in the middle. Probably the interior mess consisted of guys who weren’t ready.
Had the situation been reversed with a strong interior and weak tackles, I would estimate it would have been much better.
So, like you mention we have to hope that there is a performance jump from last year to this one. Maybe getting a lot of different guys playing time last year will be a benefit for this season.
I am optimistic, but I also kind of feel that it could be a fine line between the O line being serviceable and being another dumpster fire, because of the unknowns at this point.
That is just the best. It goes on way longer than I thought it did. How did they not realize for 5 seconds+ that the guy they were blocking was wearing the same color jersey?
I remember when that first appeared and all I could think about was poor Will Muschamp telling those guys as they came back to the sideline:
"Now, when I said 'Do it just like we practiced', I didn't actually mean literally as it was on the practice field this week....we'll work on comprehension and context later."
I love that gif... so much.
has anyone ever interview those two fellas to see what the hell was going on?
jdon
they were blocking some body. With our OL last year, they had diffculty knowing where to line up. Anyone that graded the OL a C could not have watched any games.
that even with two guys on your o-line blocking each other, that one play gained more yardage than we did in two entire games last year....Maybe they were onto something.
Agreed. And at least they blocked another human being (even if in the same uniform), something our interior failed at multiple times all year at. #RelativeVictories
Even in Pee Wee football kids are smart enough to figure out the other team are the bad guys.
Holy crap
You'll notice I said "At least we never did this" implying blocking each other...You can forget running for a first down, it would have been a -10 run if our own OL blocked each other
can't you cut me a break? It's hard damn work collecting my paycheck this offseason, and I don't need no young whippersnapper dancing on my professional grave!
/s
We're really not. O-line hell would be where we are, but with no discernable talent in the pipeline. We have a roster full of young guys who have a lot of ability. This should be the year that several of them are ready to step forward.
So O-Line Purgatory?
how many plenary indulgences can we all combine together?
jdon
Flagging all of you for religion!
He was still only one position. In my view, LT is the most over-rated, and Center the most under-rated, positions in football. Yes, when the LT misses a block and the QB gets clocked, everyone sees it. "Blind side." Got it. But when your offense can't move on the ground, and the QB can't step up in the pocket, it's slow death play after play after play. We all saw that last year. I would have gladly swapped out Lewan for even a B-grade Center last year. If the interior line takes a step up this year, I think we see a vast improvement.
Ever team has a weakness, it is up to the coaches to identify a gameplan that (in our case) doesn't involve 30 runs right into said weakness.
There was a guy on here who had "2013 is the year" as his signature for the two years preceding, and he wasn't alone in that sentiment. We're concerned because by this point we seem to be stuck in a hellish cycle.
"Lack of coherent offense," "criminal player misuse," I'll repeat: we're concerned because it seems like we're stuck in a cycle of hell.