Greg Jackson - We just knew to follow Jim, because we'll win
Just a quick reminder of how awesome the new coaching staff is.
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2015/03/new_michigan_staff_meshing_tog.html
In total, Michigan's staff has a combined 34 years of NFL experience as a head coach, assistant coach or team staffer. There's also the 49 years of combined NFL playing experience held by Harbaugh, Jackson, Zordich and Tyrone Wheatley.
I recall rumors that DJ Durkin was passing over other opportunities "in case" Harbaugh took the Michigan job because he wanted to work with him again. If this doesn't speak volumes about his ability as a leader/influence on his coaching peers...
March 31st, 2015 at 10:15 AM ^
In hindsight I think that should have been the biggest giveaway that Harbaugh was a done deal.
March 31st, 2015 at 10:58 AM ^
I believe Meyer also wanted to bring him to OSU previously and was turned down. Not this off season, and maybe not a DC position like he had at Florida but I believe he was offered a job.
I can't explain exactly why, but I feel they are going to beat Utah by double digits. However, they are going to be so jacked up to play that I wouldn't be suprised to see a couple of early mistakes in that game. But I think UM has more than Utah and if they can put it together, it's a win.
9 win floor is my expectation/prediction.
not sure where my optimism / delusion is coming from, but I keep thinking that if we beat Utah convincingly, we're going to The Game undefeated.
Realistically, we'll probably drop at least a game or two, but I really believe that we're going to beat both rivals this year. We'll end the season ranked and I wouldn't be surprised if the MSU game is a blow-out (those fuckers have it coming).
/world looks great through these maize colored glasses
Yeah, but it's going to be the first game and a road game at that. Isn't Utah supposed to be pretty good? They finished 29th in Football Outsiders combined metric and I thought I heard they should improve. Utah isn't Rutgers. I'm actually quite optimistic about this season's potential, but I'm not optimistic about that first game at all.
March 31st, 2015 at 10:02 AM ^
March 31st, 2015 at 10:09 AM ^
Scheduling the game at night works to our advantage too. Makes the jet lag less of a factor. Had that game started at noon, Utah would have a leg up.
March 31st, 2015 at 11:21 AM ^
Scheduling at night is a disadvantage but it likely will come out in the wash.
I have not seen when kick off is yet, but Salt Lake City is 2 hours behind us ... I imagine ESPN will make it an 8PM national broadcast, so it will only be 6:00 in Utah and therefore meaningless.
But, if Utah were able to push this any later than that, it becomes a disadvantage to Michigan.
March 31st, 2015 at 12:33 PM ^
That logic more applies to west coast teams coming east to play early games.
If the game were in Michigan Stadium, a noon start would feel like a 10am start to the Utah players and possibly mess with them. It doesn't really work for east coast teams flying west though.
March 31st, 2015 at 12:38 PM ^
had my time zones backwards.
Harbaugh is used to West coast -East coast travel
March 31st, 2015 at 10:20 AM ^
ESPN must be salivating. They get Harbaugh's first game at Michigan on a Thursday night to open the season.
Also, that means an extra two days we have to wait the following week for the next Michigan Football game. Probably going to be torture.
March 31st, 2015 at 10:31 AM ^
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March 31st, 2015 at 10:42 AM ^
Keith Jackson out of retirement for one more game would be great.
March 31st, 2015 at 10:40 AM ^
March 31st, 2015 at 10:44 AM ^
Your sister in law is getting married on a Thursday? She must be doing that just to screw with you.
Can't your wife go without you? Get your priorities straight, man.
Who schedules weddings on Thursday? I know some people do on Fridays and Sundays for venue discounts but Thursday? Geeeeez.
March 31st, 2015 at 10:06 AM ^
the last couple of tries so we need to purge that demon regardless of how good they are.
March 31st, 2015 at 10:11 AM ^
Lost both coordinators, rift between AD and coach...on the flip side, they return 16 starters. Should be a good, sturdy test.
March 31st, 2015 at 12:10 PM ^
Turmoil but no turmoil, unfortunately for us Michigan fans.
As a Michigan grad and superfan teaching at the University of Utah, I occassionally get a football player in one of my classes. This semester I have one of Utah's OGs in class. I have discussed the Utah situation with him at length, and on the offensive side of the ball not much has changed because the old OL coach was promoted to OC.
As a result, not only have the plays and concepts remained the same, but even the terminology remains identical. It looked like a shitstorm from the outside, but on the inside things are basically the same. On offense, anyway--I'm not sure about anything on defense.
Anyway, the Utah locker room has been salivating over this game for a long, long time. (This is what I'm told.) They've gotten accustomed to whipping Michigan and then getting a handsome bump in the polls.
I pray this is the year Michigan breaks the trend. It is not going to be an easy game. A win would pay morale dividends all season long. It would also be a wonderful way to start the Harbaugh era.
Go Harbaugh!
Go Blue!
March 31st, 2015 at 10:33 AM ^
I think it all comes down to Gentry. Still need a QB to win us a game.
March 31st, 2015 at 10:51 AM ^
March 31st, 2015 at 11:57 AM ^
It's very clear from every scouting report that he is a RAW talent that needs coaching and work. This is not Tate Forcier coming in prgrammed from birth to QB.
March 31st, 2015 at 10:53 AM ^
I really hope it doesn't come down to Gentry...
If he ends up being our best option at QB, thats fine, but our defense should be the difference maker early in the season, and with at least 3 other scholarship QBs it would be nice to have Gentry RS
March 31st, 2015 at 11:00 AM ^
Our defense was never really the problem though. Sure we made some mistakes and blew some coverage but when you're on the field as much as our D was its bound to happen. We need the offense to step up this year and I am not that optimistic in the 3 QBs we're working out right now.
March 31st, 2015 at 11:06 AM ^
Nova
March 31st, 2015 at 11:12 AM ^
I'm not really talking about last year though... and regardless, I'm saying that the defense should be a strength.
In other words, we might just need a QB who can manage the game rather than a dynamic hero-baller, and thats more likely to come from someone with experience - even if its just spring practice - than someone who just got on campus.
March 31st, 2015 at 12:06 PM ^
Michigan had the ball 31 minutes a game last year. As you stated, it has become a convenient excuse for the defense. Which was not horrid but not great - just about every advanced metric had them 6th to 9th in the Big 10. For a veteran squad that was expected to be top 3 that was bad. Good defenses dont let Minnesota destroy them at home - even if the offense sucked.
Where did you get the 5th fewest plays stat? As a stat whore I like info like that.
Also our offense played at a very slow speed so in real time it's even more rest for the defense. Our 3 and out took a lot longer then most team's 3 and outs.
Ok I see it but I cannot sort by column headers in Firefox. Is that a me thing or am I missing something?
http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/22
1 thing I'd caution on is we played 1 less game than most average to good teams since they went to bowls. So the data as of now is skewed a bit v what it would have looked like on Nov 30!
Lots of short fields though...
March 31st, 2015 at 10:56 AM ^
We have had decent defenses with some poor position coaches and injuries. offense was a disaster under hoke except for brokken play denard run to the endzone and the occaisonaly won jump ball. As much as I like our last 2 QBs they didn't sustain drives and created too many TOs. That will change in a new system and things will start to take shape. QB is really where we need focus.
Have you been watching highlights? Have you see Morris' arm? Do you really think that Jim Harbaugh can't turn Morris into the QB he was supposed to be all along? Do you think that Morris wants his performance the last two years to be his legacy at Michigan?
I think Harbaugh will help Morris realize the potential that made him a five star in the first place.
we beat the Buckeyes as opposed to beating Sparty.
Whatever happens, I'm certain I will enjoy this season. I can't wait.
March 31st, 2015 at 10:02 AM ^
March 31st, 2015 at 11:50 AM ^
I mean, I get the homer optimism, but...really? What makes you think MSU will be a tougher test than the defending national champs? I feel like we have a better shot of fixing our broken offense to beat MSU, than we do fixing both sides of the ball to stop Ohio State.
March 31st, 2015 at 11:57 AM ^
seem to play Ohio State harder and closer than we play MSU.
Maybe that was a Hoke thing. You dont remember the RR era vs OSU do you? Hoke seemed to put all his eggs in 1 basket at the expense of all others. If UM played with the spirit vs OSU against all other teams, even with the mediocre coaching he'd still be here.
March 31st, 2015 at 10:10 AM ^
March 31st, 2015 at 10:57 AM ^
That place is tough for anybody to win with the crowd / altitude, let alone with a QB getting his first start. I think that game (and this pre-conference schedule in general) would be tough as hell for even OSU / Alabama. If we can play even a close game at Utah, thatll show that we are already lightyears ahead of last year and good things are to come quickly. If we can win at Utah, then we might as well build the statue already, b/c damn.
I'm slightly embarassed that we have seasoned fans like The Mad Hatter saying "realistically, we'll probably drop at least a game or two." Do you all not remember the sludgefart awfulness of last season??? I think we'll certainly be better, but to think that we'll be blowing out Sparty and Utah is kind of laughable.
March 31st, 2015 at 11:07 AM ^
that my optimism and fandom embarrasses you.
Last season was a disaster caused primarily by crap coaching from the top down. With a little help from poor QB play and injuries. And even as bad as it was, that record could have easily been 7-5 / 8-4 if just a couple more things went our way.
This season we have an outstanding coaching staff and a team that seems to be motivated to win. The fact that you think we can't embarrasses me.
Everyone is entitled to their optimisim but even Nick Saban I believe was 7-5 his first year at Alabama, and Alabama was coming off a similar stretch to Michigan with mediocre coaching prior to him.
If this is like a typical offseason people are going to be EMO (about the offense) after this Saturday... then get optimistic if Rudock lands in May/June.... then once the August camp hits get uber positive again.
I do think some of you guys do overestimate the talent on the team - there is a lack of upperclassmen NFL 1st-4th round prospects. I see Butt, Henry, and Lewis. I struggle to find a 4th NFL talent right now (not talking about free agents or 7th round draft choices) in our upperclassmen. MSU has 3 projected first rounders alone in Cook, Calhoun, and Conklin. So talk of 11 point whipping seems a bit over the top. OSU has a bunch more. Doesnt mean you cannot beat more talented teams but I cannot believe the last coaching staff was so horrific it hid all these NFL players as ho hum college players. Yes I know about HS stars but Glasgow and Henry are our best 2 DTs and have a combined 3 stars among them - that's "talent" more than HS starz.
But again to each your own. What I expect is a team that for the first time in probably a decade plays better in November than September. But I expect a slow September start with this offense even with Rudock. Utah is no joke - they beat a Rose Bowl Stanford in 2013 at home and they have an excellent head coach. If this was 12 months from now I'd have a different viewpoint but as said in sentence 1, even Saban needed a season. This is not Urban Meyer taking over a 10-12 a year win program that fell down for 1 year with an interim coach. There are a lot more issues to be fixed, culturally and talent wise here.
We need to be patient with this team and staff. JH is only as good as his players. If he has the players he can coach them. If not, it doesn't matter how good of a coach he and is staff are.