How confident are you that QB and RT will be fixed in 2018
Or does it depend on what if any changes happen to the coaching staff in the offseason. If the guys behind Ulizio and JBB can't beat them out now, why is it realistic to expect them to beat them out next year. Same question at QB, Speight hasn't had a good game since Maryland last year and Peters can't even beat out O'Korn right now. It's been a big disappointment watching guys who have been in the system for 3 years struggle so much and curious why I or anyone should expect it to get better for reasons other than "Harbaugh."
October 10th, 2017 at 4:38 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 4:40 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 4:53 PM ^
I don't know if you can blame that on DPJ. Our QBs throw almost every fade out of bounds.
October 10th, 2017 at 7:39 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 4:41 PM ^
Honest question, no sarcasm: What do you want to see from Harbaugh either during the year, or after the season? Drevno and/or Hamilton and/or Jay demoted/fired? Some other players given a shot? Different formations (simplified) or approach? Other than simply attaining success (which obviously would give anyone confidence that success is achievable), what, if any, steps could Harbaugh take over the next year that would give you any more confidence that success would come in the future?
October 10th, 2017 at 4:49 PM ^
The fact that we are 3 years in and other than the tail end of year one we have yet to see above average QB play does concern me. At some point we got Harbaugh just wait till next year and its all the offensive lines fault, starts ringing a little hollow.
October 10th, 2017 at 4:50 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 6:45 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 4:53 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 4:57 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 4:57 PM ^
uhhhhh how about LT... fuck.
October 10th, 2017 at 5:03 PM ^
I am very confident. This is the youngest team in the country. The right side of the line have started five fucking games together. Five. Our best WR is Perry, but there are reinforcments coming. Perry is a slot guy/situational guy, but now is the only guy really. Same with TE. The talent is showing, but still young players, who didn't get a ton of expierence because of Butt.
October 10th, 2017 at 5:06 PM ^
Your second sentence copied and pasted 50 times should be the new banner. We weren't going to be elite this year and we (should have) known that.
October 10th, 2017 at 5:03 PM ^
When did Paul Finebaum (or as I like to call him Ol' Jug Ears) start posting on here?
October 10th, 2017 at 5:04 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 8:14 PM ^
I hope coaching changes do happen. But Durkin left which allowed us to get Brown.
Will Harbaugh get rid of Drevno (life long buds), reassign Jaybaugh to a different responsibility (can't coach RBs for shit), get rid of Pep who is another friend and only one year in? Doubt it.
October 10th, 2017 at 9:20 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 5:04 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 5:13 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 8:10 PM ^
We know that Drevno has the ability to improve the OL? Pass the bottle. Must be good stuff!
We are now three years in and haven't had a good line. We failed to recruit enough linemen. And now we have multiple schemes, multiple OL coaches, and no offensive identity.
October 10th, 2017 at 5:17 PM ^
Why hasn't Bredeson been tried at OT? He was recruited as one. I am trying to understand why moving him outside and replacing him with Runyan (who has done well in limited snaps) isn't worth trying? Any non-armchair experts on OT play who can explain why Bredeson isn't an option to play OT?
October 10th, 2017 at 5:19 PM ^
probably 30-35% better.
Look, we're never going to be Alabama, probably never be OSU either. Michigan is not a hotbed of high school talent. Ohio, the South and Texas are. Southern kids prefer warm weather, hate snow and cold. Most Ohio kids prefer Ohio and probably OSU. It's an uphill climb and we're not even entering the $$ factor.
Hard to be dominant in this day and age when you follow the rules, honor scholarships as 4-year commitments, don't gray-shirt and don't entice recruits with the wrong things. And oh yeah, girls look better to 19-20 yr olds in tank tops and shorts than winter coats and boots.
October 10th, 2017 at 6:54 PM ^
never seem to develop football talent like OH and PA. OSU and PSU have their own instate hot beds to recruit from. We are trying to tap the east coast with success in NJ. But until we start winning the B1G and getting into the playoffs our national recruit profile will continue to suffer but Harbaugh and staff can still get a lot of under the radar talent that will result in a lot of wins.
October 10th, 2017 at 9:10 PM ^
Bullshit....Recruiting rankings.2019 Top o-lineman in the country in Michigan. 2019 Michigan could very easily have the number one class. Blows your theory out of the water. Man there are a lot of Florida kids on Michigan. D. Bush future all-american...south Florida. I am so confused. Solomon, Sims, Woods, Metullus, Reese. Cole. Should I go on. Collins, Eubanks, Gentry, all warm weather states. Talent level...I see some all-americans in there and easily all big ten. Watch the results of the 2019 class!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
October 10th, 2017 at 5:21 PM ^
why the hell do you care about 2018 already? maybe finish this season out first. there is no magic answer. but tell me something, after michigan beat psu 49-10 last year, and then they almost lost in ot to minny the next week. did you or any one else for that matter really believe penn state would go undeafeated, win the big ten championship and almost the rose bowl? no you didnt. so that coaching staff must be far superior to michigans, seeing how many people are already looking ahead to next year.
October 10th, 2017 at 5:22 PM ^
Michigan is highly unlikely to experience anything quite like this arrangement in 2018 along the OL. OL starts, practices and new recruits will fill up the depleted areas over time.
You probably forgot, but even Michigan's 2015 and 2016 tackle and center situation was a subpar patchwork creation of Tim Drevno that still somehow won 10 fucking games each. Since 2015 Michigan has had a lot of bad luck with flame outs, injuries and graduations of players that otherwise should have redshirted under Hoke. Not the least of which are the devastating injury to Grant Newsome and the flame out of senior OT Juwan Bushell-Beatty.
Things will get better. Michigan has Jalen Mayfield and Ryan Hayes committed and will land more quality OL recruits before February.
As for quarterback, Harbaugh has a proven track record college and pro. He inherited Speight, lost Morris and brought in O'Korn, who was explosive but also reckless down in Houston. Harbaugh probably believed O'Korn would respond and grow.
Harbaugh has two of his own recruited QBs - Peters and McCaffrey onboard. Highly likely we see Peters under center in 2017. Harbaugh then adds in big Joe Milton (4-star) in next year's class, plus probably one more. 2018's QB competition should be intense and offer a lot of possibilities, and that's a good thing for the offense.
October 10th, 2017 at 8:06 PM ^
Hmm, interesting. Sparty has had tons of players lost and injuries on their OLine, yet they've managed to be ok. They also gameplanned around our D Line and didn't give up a sack.
MOAR excuses!
October 10th, 2017 at 5:28 PM ^
We've all been expecting that the OL will get better "next year" for about ten years now. I just don't think we have the right architect to put together the offense JH wants to run. There seems to be too many fingers on the controls, unlike the defense where Brown is the clear-cut leader. Drevno needs to go. Ask Brown which OC he fears facing the most, and hire that guy. Wihtout drastic changes in the offensive coaching lkeadership, I'm not at all confident that we'll magically evolve into a good offense next year.
October 10th, 2017 at 6:05 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 5:38 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 5:41 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 8:02 PM ^
Give Pep another year? More like give Pep the boot! He wasn't good on the colts, and he's failing here. Plus his concepts are too complicated for college.
GET A REAL COLLEGE OC who can take advantage of free yards and mismatches that exist in the college game but not the NFL.
Drevno can go too.
October 10th, 2017 at 5:41 PM ^
each game of this year as the season wears on, barring any injuries (knock on wood).
How much improvement? 30% or 35% more productivity? Fact is, every single offensive lines in the Big Ten has huge flaws. I include Ohio State in that list too.
The best Big Ten OL right now is Minnesota's in terms of sacks allowed and rushing offense productivity.
October 10th, 2017 at 6:37 PM ^
I am a proponent of throwing Peters into the fire as soon as it becomes evident that this team will not play in the B10 conference championsip game. We are now one conference loss away from being in that position.
Harbaugh hand-picked Peters. So I have I have to think that If BP gets enough reps in 2017, the QB position will be straightened out and stable by next season. Having Speight on the roster is also nice insurance to have but He is obviously not a long term answer given He'd be a 5th year senior. I'd love for us to have 3 good years of Peters as the starter but that is wishiful thinking and there are too many variables (O-Line, PT in 2017, coaching, HS evaluation or mis-evaluation as the case may be) that come into play.
As for the O-Line, I am not at all confident that we can stratighten out the trenches in the immediate future. I'd be great if we could bring in a graduate transfer next year to help us transition. The OT's we've recruited in this 2018 class will need a year in the weight program at a minimum. Ekoyor is the only OL recruit who I think has a chance at playing but we are set at Guard. It's the tackles that is the problem and we are losing Mason Cole to graduation.
October 10th, 2017 at 5:44 PM ^
I think overall production of tackles will be better.
If Newsome comes back and is at least 80% of what he was before that's stablinzing the line. RT we have a few choices in Filigia and Stuber who are locked for RS's because freshman. One of those two I think will be the starter. The rest of the Oline is probably good with Bredeson, Ruiz, onwenu/runyan.
QB - I'm hoping by this point we will see one of Harbaugh's Qb's come in and play. Although Speight could finish out I would hope we move on at that point.
October 10th, 2017 at 6:15 PM ^
competition and I hope Peters gets some meaningful snaps this season, just to see what he can do in a game situation. The 2018 oline will feature a (hopefully) healthy Newsome
Newsome Bredeson Ruiz Onwenu Steuber/Filiaga/Ulizio
I think Ruiz hasn't looked that good this season because he is playing out of position, but I hope he can make line calls.
Newsome should be at least serviceable.
Bredeson will be good/great.
Onwenu should be better than he is this season.
RT??? Has to be better right? RIGHT?
October 10th, 2017 at 8:08 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 6:17 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 6:25 PM ^
Those who play will get better. Our offense hasn't looked this bad while Harbaugh's been here, so to me, this is clearly a youth, depth, and inexperience issue at key positions.
We don't need a guru, we have those, we need to have rationality.
October 10th, 2017 at 7:57 PM ^
I'm pretty sure the offense IS as bad as it looked Saturday. Have you been watching games this year?!
October 10th, 2017 at 8:04 PM ^
This means that this year is the anomaly. Harbaugh and the staff didn't forget how offense works. They are clearly missing some things and I think youth and inexperience got exposed. We just got bullied, that only happens with youth.
We will get better this year, but this online at best will be average next year, which would be a tremendous improvement.
October 10th, 2017 at 6:42 PM ^
may have the opportunity to grab the RT position next summer during camp? There will probably some improvement in the OL next season but we probably will not have a decent OL until 2019. QB will be fun to watch. I think McCaffrey will win over Peters and will be a good Henne like starter who will be able to throw accurate passes down field and have the escape ability in the pocket. Peters has good mechanics throwing but there are questions about his personality to become a good leader and he may need a better OL which we will not have until 2019. I really don't see Wilton in the mix. If he does come back he may become a good backup QB.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:03 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 6:44 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 6:56 PM ^
I don't think will be notably better. I thought that the coaching changes we had over the offseason were undewhelming and that has been reflected on the field.
October 10th, 2017 at 7:14 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 7:17 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 7:20 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 7:38 PM ^
RT not at all.
QB, cautiously optimistic, peters and mcaffrey can't be worse than what we have now.
October 10th, 2017 at 7:52 PM ^
Not very. Hopefully Mccaffrey turns out to be that the coaches make him sound like.