Harbaugh - Spending every minute of practice on the field
"Under the previous coaching regime, a fair amount of the time allotted by the NCAA for practice work in the spring was spent in team meeting rooms.
Under Harbaugh, if Michigan's on a practice day, it spends its full four countable hours on the field -- non-stop."
The players seem to be impressed.
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2015/03/michigan_players_wow_by_jim_ha.html
...but it's been discussed at length in the John Harbaugh thread.
"they said that was the first time anyone had showed them something like that." Wow. Just wow. How can we NOT be better this year?
"No one ever taught Devin to call out the Mike before?! How can our offense NOT be better this year?!"
March 13th, 2015 at 10:47 AM ^
March 13th, 2015 at 12:37 PM ^
That revolutionary technique was never put on display, with the offense breaking the huddle around the :15 mark every snap for an entire year and whatnot.
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March 13th, 2015 at 10:18 AM ^
While that was interesting, does anybody know what Harbaugh was actually demonstrating? I never played football, so maybe there is something to what Harbaugh was doing, but I don't see how lying on the ground could help convey something new about snapping the ball to the QB.
March 13th, 2015 at 10:23 AM ^
That is one way to actually see what is going on.
March 13th, 2015 at 10:30 AM ^
Yeah...he's probably making sure that the quarterback's hands are place properly and that the ball is coming up properly. Hands can be too open or too closed, too far back, etc.
March 13th, 2015 at 10:34 AM ^
Yeah I read someplace else that they were looking at the hands of the center-QB exchange, particularly Shane working with the center since he's a lefty. I think shortly after that Harbaugh demanded that Shane take all snaps like a righty would so the center does not have to learn to deliver the ball differently based on the QB.
March 13th, 2015 at 11:09 AM ^
But where does the knuckle on the first finger go? I can never remember...
("Oh, you mean that time he was laying on the ground? No, I don't remember.")
Genius.
Not reported, but Harbaugh took the opportunity to call his punt team gunners over to demonstrate the proper technique for distracting the punt return team.
Notice how the Arkansas State player just gives up on the play and the Miami players pay him no mind. If memory serves, this led to a pick-six.
No, Harbaugh would demand that his player writhe and scream through the whistle.
FINISH WHEN YOU'RE DYING!
March 13th, 2015 at 11:13 AM ^
and more prepared! JH obviously prefers repitition over the meeting room. Harbaugh's relentless approach will pay dividends this year. If we are in a close game, we will pull it out. No more losses to Rutgers and Maryland. Those days are over!
just how hard the team actually practiced under the last staff. Since we were always told that.
March 13th, 2015 at 10:02 AM ^
They may not have prepped individually for almost every team, including MSU, but have to give them some credit for The Game each year. 26-21 and 42-41 against very, very good teams, and a dead heat last year through 3 quarters against the eventual national champion.
March 13th, 2015 at 10:33 AM ^
March 13th, 2015 at 10:19 AM ^
Lose the other games, put extra focus on The Game and then lose that one as well? Great idea.
No, they were just bad!
March 13th, 2015 at 10:23 AM ^
They didn't practice as hard.
I don't know about this. EVERYBODY who reported on a Michigan practice during Hoke's tenure talked about how hard they were practicing. The statement about Harbaugh using all the countable hours on the field makes me think that under Hoke, maybe it wasn't that they weren't practicing hard enough, but not long enough. Maybe they just didn't give themselves enough time to go through everything they needed to. As John Wooden is famous for saying, "Don't mistake activity with achievement." They could have been practicing hard, just not doing it right.
The new regime always practices harder than the last one. Trace these statements back to the Lloyd Carr era and they were apparently playing Madden on bean bag chairs back then. It's just useless noise.
March 13th, 2015 at 10:28 AM ^
If they didn't plan for teams individually, then how did they play Ohio State - who lost just three games in the past two years, IIRC - so closely?
March 13th, 2015 at 10:47 AM ^
and this is all speculation, is that the OSU game was the one game he truly prepared for each year. I'll bet he devoted more time to that game than any other.
Not a bad strategy for job preservation. Even in a mediocre year, a win against OSU will quiet the people calling for your head. Hell, if he was 3-1 against OSU instead of 1-3, he might still be coaching here.
March 13th, 2015 at 11:10 AM ^
Blame that on Ohio State, not Michigan. The Game is a big deal to them, and freaks them out a little bit.
Meyer plays Michigan very tight in the first half. We usually get a lead at some point, and then they play even tighter. At some point in the 4th quarter, they wake up and pull away.
If they played those games in the first half like they did in the second, they would never be all that close.
March 13th, 2015 at 11:18 AM ^
So we shouldn't give Brady Hoke any credit for the way his teams played against Ohio State? He won in 2011 because Fickel sucked as a coach, and he kept it close the last couple years because of Meyer's incompetence, even though he's won three national championships...
March 13th, 2015 at 12:44 PM ^
The Game totally freaks them out. That's why those Ohio State teams had such a hard time playing against Rich Rodriguez.
How do you know they didn't plan for teams individually? I find that hard to believe. So they didn't watch opponents game tape? There were definitely gameplans, whether they were effective is another question.
Kind of like the salesman that says "Trust me." ?
Your post is hilariously true - the IBD crowd around here has gotten out of control. "Sent via Rotary Phone" was the kicker.
March 13th, 2015 at 10:22 AM ^
The attitude you're mocking is half the reason I only post here once in a blue moon. It seems many users seek to shit on a post above all else, creating a haughty and cliquey atmosphere. Sometimes the IBDs, memes, etc. seem in good fun, but too often they come off spiteful. The mods are quick to delete threads that they deem redundant or duplicate, and no one is forced to click on them, so is there really any need to jump down these users' throats?
/rant
March 13th, 2015 at 11:11 AM ^
Was his name.
March 13th, 2015 at 11:15 AM ^
I hear you about some of the mocking stuff being out of bounds. But, I'd make two points about redundant posts (and some are more redundant than others).
1. It's not that hard to check if something has been posted. There's a site search button, among other things.
2. The real estate on MGoBoard does have some value that shouldn't be completely wasted. In particular, if you use Chrome, the go-backwards button at the bottom of the MGoBoard to check posts older than the last 15 doesn't work. At least it doesn't work for me.
March 13th, 2015 at 12:50 PM ^
I think people should take time to verify what they are posting isn't redundant. Even more so, they should take time considering the title of their post, so that it is clear, informative, and not clickbait-y. Constructive criticism is good. Ridicule is not. It feels like there is too much ridicule (and unless some Bolivia-worthy act has been committed, should there be any?) and it too often dominates the reasons I come here: great writing, informative up-to-the-minute Michigan news, and general fun with great Michigan fans.
I'm a decent college-educated writer with a growing knowledge of sports (largely due to Brian, Seth, and the gang) and would love to become more involved and add more informative content if I felt I wasn't going to get chewed out. I'd bet there are others who feel similarly.
I agree, and the ones who baffle me the most are those who claim to not care about a thread or topic or will deplore how stupid it is, who waste their time further by posting in that thread that it is stupid or that they don't care. I'm always perplexed by this. One's lack of interest in a topic or thread can be inferred from his or her disregard of it, thus leaving the discussion to those who do care. No need to tell us you don't care, because we don't care if you don't care. Er, something like that.
Seriously, there are some insufferable twits on this board who seem to embody the notion that Michigan fans are a bunch of inusfferable twits.
Yep. I have posted perhaps three or four times on this site. The one time I dared to post an opinion, the neg bombs flew and I was actually accused of treating my loved ones like crap. All because I had the temerity to have an opinion and the tenacity to try to refute people who were misrepresenting me. This place has great information, but it's a shark feeding tank.
March 13th, 2015 at 11:29 AM ^
If the practices weren't 4 hours under Hoke, how much of this was a factor in our conditioning and 4th quarter performance?
It seems really obvious to me, that if games are 4 hours, the practices better be 4 hours. Am I missing something?
as well. Last year the team often seemed to play pretty well for about 3 quarters. The Game being a pretty good example of a close game, that we could have won, had the team not run out of gas in the 4th.
Too bad I can't say that about the Utah game I attended.
March 13th, 2015 at 10:29 AM ^
we have the opportunity to avenge that loss this year.
and say the defense probably only practiced for the equivalent of the first 25 minutes of a half. They almost always seemed to run out of gas right before the first half ended and let the other team score.
March 13th, 2015 at 11:10 AM ^