Harbaugh said he’s handing the keys over to Gattis
January 15th, 2019 at 7:25 AM ^
Nice! If I was Josh, I would make sure he included this car also....
January 15th, 2019 at 9:18 AM ^
WHOOOOOOOSE CALLING OFFENSIVE PLAYS?! JOOOOOSH GATTIIIIS!!!
January 15th, 2019 at 7:26 AM ^
#speedinspace. sounds good to me. great to see Harbaugh evolving his coaching approach. can't wait to see the product on the field. in the meantime, basketball team is rockin!
January 15th, 2019 at 8:45 AM ^
Coach Harbaugh: "I agree with speed in space. There is space between the guards and tackles. Get our fast guys there every first down. And most second downs."
January 15th, 2019 at 9:22 AM ^
Underrated!
January 15th, 2019 at 10:35 AM ^
I mean, if there is space there, and you have a good RB, why not do that?
January 15th, 2019 at 7:35 AM ^
To be honest, he did not really say that. I think his brain wanted him to say that but his heart would not let him.
January 15th, 2019 at 8:05 AM ^
Also, calling plays is a very small part of determining the offensive identity. The stuff that goes in the playbook in the off-season, the weekly game planning and prep, and just general offensive philosophy have a lot more to do with what am offense lools like than which play gets called when. I'm a little skeptical Harbaugh is ready to relinquish all of that stuff, but I do think he recognizes a change is needed.
January 15th, 2019 at 8:24 AM ^
I don’t think he should, or needs to. There’s nothing wrong with running power and killing clock. The problem is when that’s all you can do.
January 15th, 2019 at 8:44 AM ^
I don't think that approach is beating OSU
January 15th, 2019 at 9:47 AM ^
Yes. Clearly offense was the issue against OSU .
January 15th, 2019 at 9:50 AM ^
It was part of the problem. Don't be fooled by the 39 points. When we needed to keep pace in the 3rd quarter, we couldn't.
We were gifted a TD before halftime with a dumbass OSU special teams mistake.
And OSU wasn't really fully engaged when Joe Milton was playing.
January 15th, 2019 at 4:32 PM ^
17-0 in the 3rd qtr.
0 scored in the 3rd by Michigan is very telling of what happened that day.
January 15th, 2019 at 10:19 AM ^
39 points sounds pretty, but that game was ugly from and offensive and defensive standpoint
January 15th, 2019 at 9:11 AM ^
If you consistently get 3-4 yards on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd down, you can probably win most of the time, but If you fail to get your yards on any of those downs and that's the only tool in the toolbox, you're punting on 4th down.
Such a strategy can't keep up with opposing offenses willing to (and adept at) chucking it 10, 20, or 50 yards down the field.
An offense looking for the homerun ball has more margin for error than a road-grader these days. Stuffed on 1st and 2nd down? Well, we've still got a dozen pass plays we like from 3rd and 10.
January 15th, 2019 at 1:29 PM ^
It was the predictability of the play-calling - the constant sequence of run-run-pass - that drove me the craziest. I could watch a game and correctly guess what play was coming more than half the time. (And that's no comment on my football expertise, because I don't have any.)
But when a middle-aged man sitting on his couch could guess UM's plays, it must have been considerably easier for a B1G defensive coordinator - and thus, easier to stop.
Here's hoping that Gattis makes it harder to guess.
January 15th, 2019 at 2:45 PM ^
This is exactly like what it felt like to me. That in our offense EVERYTHING had to work perfectly to get a good result. It seems like any 1 person not doing a perfect job blew up any play we ran, and we needed 3 plays to get a first down.
I have absolutely no data... just feels.
January 15th, 2019 at 9:28 AM ^
It would be foolish to disregard everything Harbaugh has learned offensively over his career. I would expect him to be a great mentor to Gattis.
Hopefully Gattis can help create matchup problems, be unpredictable, and use tempo when it’s needed.
He has never called plays game day but damn he is walking into a sweet situation with a good possibly great line back and experience and talent at the skill positions.
January 15th, 2019 at 9:40 AM ^
I'm fan of the team and think the OL definitely made progress under Warriner and all... but I think they've got a LONG way to go until they're great. Not to disparage the guys who stuck out all the shitty coaching and development from Drevno and then the Drevno/Frey disaster, but they're just starting to get better. It's going to take a new set of guys who have the ability and coaching from day 1 to have a great line. Not a few upper classmen who finally get good coaching in year 4.
January 15th, 2019 at 9:46 AM ^
It seems we rely on a lot on tight end blocking in our scheme. It also seems that tight ends are not particularly good blockers.
January 15th, 2019 at 10:18 AM ^
Agreed!. IMO the design of those TE pull/cross blocks looks awesome on paper and the angles are advantageous, but Mkeon and Gentry more often than not got destroyed by the crashing DE.
January 15th, 2019 at 12:57 PM ^
Ever since Jay Harbaugh stopped coaching the TEs.
January 15th, 2019 at 11:32 AM ^
This is an underrated factor in the offense's grind this past year.
Our offense was kind of a moneyball concept--with defenses designed around the spread, force mismatches by loading up on beefy blocky/catchy types and pound them. New England just eviscerated San Diego doing EXACTLY that on Sunday.
The thing is, they succeeded because they executed well.
Michigan's TEs weren't dominant blockers. Mckeon was ok--he blocked well when he identified and engaged the right guy, but he very often failed to do so--but he was a non-factor in the passing game. Gentry was a factor in the passing game, but not nearly as much as he should have been, and he wasn't a real blocking threat. Eubanks was less featured, though seems to be a capable receiver.
Running 2 TE sets works if you can clobber smaller defenders in the run or if you can dominate lumbering LBs on pass routes; Michigan's TEs did not do those things, and so they wound up just taking snaps and passes away from guys like DPJ and Perry and Collins and Black.
I liked the concept in theory. In practice we were giving yards and points away.
January 15th, 2019 at 1:48 PM ^
The concepts really are similar with NE/ i definitely noticed that as well. NE just has the luxury of Gronk who is just as enthusiastic (and dominant) of a blocker as a receiver. The one play that stood out to me yesterday was a Play action WHAM where Gronk just buried the 3 Tech, and Brady hit Edelman who was wide open over the middle, its well crafted and beautiful when you have the horses to do it.
January 15th, 2019 at 9:50 PM ^
We will never know how much we missed Devin Asiasi but I think that was a significant loss.
Dude can block like a tackle and run and catch like a skill back.
January 15th, 2019 at 9:48 AM ^
The truly great lines will be when the outside talent catches up to and passes the inside talent.
Every starter earned an All Big Ten award this year. That’s pretty amazing when you think about where they were.
We have four starters back with another year together under Warinner. I would expect whoever wins JBBs spot, Mayfield or Stueber likely, to have a higher upside.
It all starts with the line.
January 15th, 2019 at 10:43 AM ^
It’s amazing that UM is the only team that has to replace lineman and is never ready to run a modern offense. It seems like a quick strike offense would be better for UM than a slow ass developing play action pro style offense that relies on an offensive line that can block.
January 15th, 2019 at 11:50 AM ^
Drevno couldnt recruit in the midwest.... that is the real knock on him... not the rest, whereby everyone here burns him on way out. He is a fine coach that couldn't cut it here, recruiting-wise...
January 15th, 2019 at 5:55 PM ^
I never liked him.
January 15th, 2019 at 9:34 PM ^
His recruiting was abysmal, but his coaching sucked as well.
Most of us didn't just dump on him at the end-we realized the line sucked and wasn't improving well before that. Good revisionist history.
January 15th, 2019 at 8:42 AM ^
From what we've heard, it sounds like there was a lot more "open the offense up" looks (as we saw from some of the RPOs and the Grant Perry and DPJ trick play passes) in the playbook at the ready, we just seemed to abandon the gameplan and JH would revert back to his shell and call inside runs into stacked boxes
January 15th, 2019 at 9:32 AM ^
Trick plays....I will be forever bothered Harbaugh could not come up with a Gentry pass out of his HB/TE position.
January 15th, 2019 at 10:23 AM ^
Actually Double D I’m not sure if you recall this but I’m almost positive that the trick plays include McCaffery but that went out the window in week 10. I do think in some kinda way he would’ve been involved in the OSU game but his collarbone wouldn’t allow it.
January 15th, 2019 at 9:09 AM ^
Kind of like the scene from “The Jerk” where Steve Martin is the carnival barker and shows the two inch area of prizes someone can win out of an entire wall of prizes.
January 15th, 2019 at 6:07 PM ^
I disagree. I think orchestrating the things you've spent a ton of time prepping for is very difficult. You can have a deep playbook, but being able to read what a defense is doing and being in touch with what your team can do in real time is extremely challenging. This is why the no huddle spread approach has blown up, regardless of flavor. It puts all the pressure on the defense. Ohio State only has to tweak their base offense, if that. When you're spread out and don't have time to gather your thoughts, you get exposed.
January 15th, 2019 at 7:38 AM ^
Firmly in the "will believe it when I see it" camp on this one
January 15th, 2019 at 7:42 AM ^
It's hard not to agree with this. Through the words of recruits, it sounded like Harbaugh was going to air it out, especially with the considerable number of weapons at the program's disposal.
But one counterpoint is that the OL wasn't in a place to make that happen. It may well have been his intention to execute this kind of offense, but it was too early in Warinner's tenure to get the OL in a place to deliver on that desire.
January 15th, 2019 at 7:47 AM ^
Good point.
January 15th, 2019 at 7:48 AM ^
Because all the teams that throw it a lot/have creative offenses have elite offensive lines.
Oh wait--almost none of them do.
January 15th, 2019 at 8:02 AM ^
The ones who do it consistently and win most of their games do.
This year our line was better at run blocking and we had a good running back. We saw how trying to air it out went at Notre Dame--our tackles were turnstiles at that point.
January 15th, 2019 at 8:40 AM ^
You shouldn’t need to be an elite pass pro unit to run slants, quick hitters, screens, mesh and such. The problem was quite the opposite: We struggled at pass pro but ran long, slow-developing route trees. Of course, a better OL will undoubtedly help any offense...but I think our complaint was the lack of creativity in the first three seconds post-snap. So, sure....shore up the front. But let’s have a little fun with the Xs and Os as well. #speedinspace and all that.
January 15th, 2019 at 9:19 AM ^
You shouldn’t need to be an elite pass pro unit to run slants, quick hitters, screens, mesh and such. The problem was quite the opposite: We struggled at pass pro but ran long, slow-developing route tree
You're totally right. Our offense this year was probably the scheme which was MOST dependent on a good OL. We had long developing pass plays combined with a rushing attack lead by a good but not amazing RB.
January 15th, 2019 at 9:56 AM ^
It also seemed to me that we had a lot of that in our playbook, but that the times in which particular plays were called were really odd. A few plays stand out to illustrate this.
A couple times in the Northwestern game, we called WR screens to Black on 3rd and medium/long. The "Braylon-screen" so to speak. The play would predicably get about 6 yards. That is an ideal outcome.... on first down, not 3rd and 9.
Next, play #2 from the line of scrimmage against OSU. Higdon got 8 yards on first down and it looked like our offensive line was mashing. For a team that clearly valued ball control and establishing its identity, you would think picking up that first down, if only that first down on that only possession, would have been paramount and that running Higdon again (not the same play) was certainly the move. You would be wrong. Slow developing two man route play-action sack. Wha....?
Lastly, 3rd and 11 against OSU down 5 first drive of the second half. Against straight zone coverage. Dump off to Higdon v. two DBs with 12 yards to go. I mean... the fu??? This particular play, to steal a phrase from Brian, was "malpractice-y."
That is why, to me, "play-calling" isn't this overly vague cop-out that some people are treating it as when it is brought up. I liked a lot of our plays. I was often left dumbfounded at when said plays were called.
January 15th, 2019 at 10:05 AM ^
Good point. There were a few failed third and long conversions, that looked like well-designed plays, that resulted in one yard less than necessary.
Everyone blamed the WR (DPJ was the most frequent target on these) running a short route, or Shea not throwing him open but it happened too regularly.
January 15th, 2019 at 12:14 PM ^
Yep. (cuz I can't upvote yet)
January 15th, 2019 at 9:07 AM ^
OSU's OL was mediocre to bad for most of the year until the end.
January 15th, 2019 at 8:05 AM ^
There's a bit of room between elite and 'got 3 QBs killed just last year' don't you think? Not many teams had worse Oline pass blocking than UM. So baby steps to help the Oline build some confidence and semi-reliable depth.
Plus the new QB...the 5 star guy, learning a new offense..also missed significant time in his two prior seasons because of injury
January 15th, 2019 at 8:06 AM ^
I think the problem was that the passing offense Harbaugh/Pep (mostly Pep) designed required a good OL because it did not make use of a lot of quicker hitting stuff. Instead, most of the routes took a while to play out. Also, most of them required the WR's and QB's to see the same thing and expect the same options, and some routes also required that from the TE's and RB's as well. We saw some quick hitters, some wheels, some slants, some RPOs. But not a lot of them - certainly not enough to think the offense was built on them. We did see, however, a crapload of mid-range and long-range stuff that expected Shea to stand still for 3-5 seconds. If the OL can't be expected to hold up consistently, that's a non-starter. That type of route tree needs a very different OL than other types of route trees (ie: OSU's all-slant-all-the-time and Leach's Air Raid).
Harbaugh and Pep have run this system for two years now, and it was better this season than last year for obvious reasons. I do think the OL improved, but now I'm not sure it improved enough. I admit to having been deceived by a seemingly potent offense in the middle of the year that gave way to good pass rush teams late. It's pretty clear, after OSU and UF, that the OL wasn't as good at pass pro as we thought it was against UW and PSU...
January 15th, 2019 at 9:10 AM ^
Ahh, have fun with your creative offense when your starting QB is injured for the season by the midpoint of the season
January 15th, 2019 at 9:11 AM ^
This is a good point, it's not like our OL is in the bottom half of all college football teams, if anything I'd say we have a top 20ish OL, but obviously we want it to be elite. There are teams with far worse offensive lines and guess what, when things break down the QB can make plays with his legs, and so can ours.