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
I never never will say "it cannot get worse" after seeing what last year's OL did versus 2012's but in theory an offensive lineman should be viable his 3rd year in the program. You only get 5. This is not year 1 when you are there to get in college shape, bulk up, learn plays on paper. Or year 2 when you sit on the bench, only go in during emergencies. Year 3 a lot of offensive linemen are playing or are key backups who get 30%+ of the time.
Other than Bosch, all the projected starters are 3rd year in the program (with Glasgow 4). So if it is a complete clusterfuck it is all on the coaching this year - these are mostly 2012 HIGH END recruits that we are seeing doing fine at other schools who are in year 3 in the program. Magnuson, Braden, and Kalis must show their worth. Period. I don't expect them to excel until the 4th year (2015) but if they once again cannot do basics well the finger points upward in the program at the top.
Yeah we lose some very talented guys at tackle but last year for most of the season our experience in years was
- 5, 5, 3 (Glasgow), 2 (Kalis), 1 or2 (Bosch/Magnuson)
This year it will most likely be
- 4, 3, 3, 3, 2
Preferably you have all 4th and 5th year guys with maybe one 3rd year guy but again 3rd year if you are completely lost on the field your coaching staff should be gone.
I think I agree overall with your line of thought regarding 3rd year guys. But, I think that's more applicable to the traditional UM o-lineman, which tend to be high 4-star guys. That doesn't really describe UM's 3rd year players this year. Here's my take.
Braden is a 3-star with very little experience. I don't think that qualifies him as servicable. He still seems like a liability. Mags is a low 4-star with a little experience. He seems to be serviceable if healthy. Kalis is high 4-star guy and on paper appears to be ready to be a good player, but his play so far leaves some doubt...push. Bosch is a high 4-star guy, but only in his 2nd year and probably should have RS last year on a team with normal depth. So, he probably isn't quite ready. He's probably inbetween servicable and a liability depending on how well he knows the system so we can call him a push as well. With a new coordinator though that makes me nervous. Then Glasgow is the only 4th year guy, but he's a walk-on. He's still probably the best lineman on the team.
So you have a servicable tackle, a push at each guard spot, a good center, and a liability at the other tackle spot. That is not very encouraging to me. A good year would require 1-2 of the guards to be significantly better than expected and Mags to stay healthy. How likely is that?
"It can't get worse." It absolutely can get a hell of a lot worse from an OL perspective. We had to NFL Tackles last year and yeah the guards sucked but with Lewan, Scho and Glasgow we had 3 pretty darn good line men. If Mags doesn't get healthy and Kalis stays stagnant and no one else steps up then we will have ONE good lineman. You think 2013 was bad, wait until every defense we face looks like the '85 Bears because we can't block ANYBODY. We at least blocked at least 3 or 4 guys last year only to have Kalis or Miller or Bosch get his ass kicked and his man blow up the play, but there was at least SOME blocking going on. Imagine if we have injuries!! One thing we haven't had to deal with is a ton of major injuries. Yeah a couple ACL's have needed some work but we aren't exactly Florida here. If Mags or Braden goes down, we are starting Cole at tackle right now or moving Glasgow from center, if both go down we are all kinds of screwed. Things can get a hell of a lot worse.
It has to be UF just based on the fact they play in the SEC. The majority of the people on this board look at our schedule and assume we should beat the majority of the teams in the B1G just for the pure fact they are kinda shitty and don't recruit very well and don't go after big named coaches. UF fans would look at their schedule and probably not think that their team is inherently superior to Bama, LSU, Georgia, South Carolina, FSU. So even with the new OC and pretty good recruiting classes, its much harder to predict single outcomes for UF since the variance between UF and their opponenets is smaller.
Florida was banged up badly last year, but their schedule is brutal (@Alabama, LSU, rivalry with Georgia, at FSU).
I don't see Muschamp making it, even if their team looks a hell of a lot better.
This assumption of "a step forward" is a wish. People keep making predictions of next year's schedule assuming this big step forward is going to happen. I think until we see evidence of a step forward you have to assume very little improvement. These are still mostly 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year guys. A good offensive line is typically filled with 4th and 5th year guys with an occasional 1st, 2nd, or 3rd year guy mixed in. But when you go Mags (3 yr), Bosch (2 yr), Glasgow (4 yr), Kalis (3 yr), and Braden (3yr) and the one of those 3 years guys (Braden) doesn't have a single start you can't expect much. I'm sorry but this offensive line is going to struggle. They may suck less than last year, but they will not be physical, aggressive, or intimidating to anyone. And, this means the running game will again likely struggle which means it's going to be difficult to win on the road and the 3 most difficult games are on the road. I think we need to assume more of the same until proven otherwise. The talent is there ,but they are just too young, inexperienced, and generally not ready to be quality lineman yet as a unit. They are all still another year away IMO.
What are you disagreeing with and what are you basing it on?
"these guys don't even know what they're seeing."If they didn't know what they were doing, the coaches would be unemployed.
If anywhere near true, the responsibility ultimately lies with Hoke, let's hope a reboot was all that was neededI usually don't argue for coaching changes, but sometimes a different voice/way of thinking is needed in the program. I'm really excited about Nussmeier