If you were Head Coach at Michigan...

Submitted by Craze for Maize on

I figured since there's not much going on, and it's the last week of OT, this might be kind of fun.

 

If you were Michigan's coach:

 

Would anyone on defense get #2?

Same goes for the #1 on offense?

Helmet stickers? Yes? No?

Alternate jerseys?

Helmet numbers?

What kind of offense would you run? 

To add on to that, who would be your coordinators?

 

Mods: If this is stupid delete it please.

adamsBlue

August 19th, 2012 at 10:12 AM ^

I love that someone asked this question...I think about it all the time...and it seems like it'd be "relatively " simple. 

First things first, all intangibles aside, bottom line, college football success really  is about 90% talent, i.e. recruiting.  There are a lot of great coaching staffs at the highest level, and these staffs more or less cancel eachother out IMO.  So recruiting is issue #1 to me.

...Put y ourself in the mind of an elite 5-star prospect.  What's y our #1 concern in picking a school?  Really , it's probably  getting to the next level, the NFL.  So, let's put together a program that has an advantage over all others in that regard.  IMO, in college football, there's no money  better spent than money  spent on assistant coaches.  The first thing I'm doing is stealing a top notch NFL strength and conditioning staff.  The second thing I'm doing is stealing a top notch NFL offensive and defensive coordinator.  The third thing I'm doing is filling out the rest of my  staff with NFL position coaches (and preferably  coaches with NFL play ing experience at those positions). 

...Put y ourself back in the mind of an elite 5-star prospect - or in that of his parent's - what's y our #2 concern in picking a school?  Really , it's probably  having a good job if football doesn't work out for y ou.  So, let's put together an unrivaled - borderline illegal - sy stem of cooperative, successful alumni.  Let's make sure these guy s are getting great jobs after football if football doesn't work out.  Instead of asking these ubber successful alumni to make multi-million dollar contributions to the program, let's simply  ask them to give some of these great men jobs after football.  In the end, it's probably  actually  a lot cheaper for the alums.

...So now what's our angle? Y our a 5-star QB prospect. Y ou're going to be trained by a top notch NFL strength and conditioning staff here. Y ou're going to be play ing in a top notch NFL offensive coordinator's sy stem. Y ou're going to be coached by a former NFL QB coach, who play ed QB in the NFL too. Is there another school that's going to give y ou a better chance of making it to the next level than that? And is there any thing more important to y ou?  And if football doesn't work out for y ou're going to be guaranteed a great job.  That's some pitch.  That's going to bring in some incredible talent.  And that's 90% of winning in this game.  That's how I'm setting up my  program. y 

re i   i

Nothing.But.10ve

August 18th, 2012 at 9:45 PM ^

"Mods: If this is stupid delete it please."

I don't understand this.  It's like explaining a joke to somebody.  If the joke isn't funny, it isn't funny.  If the mods want to delete your thread, they'll delete your thread.  

Caesar

August 18th, 2012 at 11:06 PM ^

I don't think the mods usually delete for sheer stupidity (though, you could argue that offensive/too OT/redundant threads are inherently stupid). I think that's usually policed by the community with negging. If he would've written, "Mods: if this is offensive delete it please," then I would agree. 

 

turd ferguson

August 19th, 2012 at 2:55 PM ^

I have a sort of similar pet peeve. It feels like half of all threads these days begin with "It's a slow day/weekend/whatever, so I figured this might be..." This isn't going to convince any of the potential thread bashers to stop, so just get to the point.

Related, it's kind of depressing that the community here is such that people feel the need to preemptively apologize whenever they post something for discussion.

jcouz

August 18th, 2012 at 9:50 PM ^

If I were Michigan's coach:

 

Nobody on this year's defense would wear #2.

Nobody on this year's offense would wear #1.

There would be no extra helmet stickers and/or numbers.

There would be no alternate uniforms but we would go back to Nike with the painted on numbers from the (1995-2004) era.

We would run Al Borges' offense with the exact same coaching staff we have right now.

Owl

August 18th, 2012 at 9:55 PM ^

1-2. For the first and second questions, do you mean ever or for this season? Ever, possibly. This season, I don’t think anyone’s proven they’re worthy of it yet.

3. No.

4. Don’t know how much of this the coach can control. If I could stop it, then never.

5. No.

6. Pistol offense that uses a bunch of option/zone reads.

7. Anyone I want?

OC: Chris Ault

DC: Greg Mattison

 

Farnn

August 18th, 2012 at 9:58 PM ^

If it were possible, I'd keep the entire defensive staff but get Rodriguez as the offensive coordinator. As much as I like Borges, the spread under Rodriguez was so much fun to watch and with the success of Denard and the Hoke recruiting pitch the players coming in would be tremendous. Mattison defense + RR offense would be awesome. Just imagine the scores we could put up with a quick scoring offense and lots of 3 and outs by the defense.

BILG

August 18th, 2012 at 10:27 PM ^

Not to be a dick, but this is dumb.  It's real football, not a video game.  Offenses and defenses are not two completely disjointed mutually exlusive entities.

They practice together.  There is a reason why you don't see Oregon with a bruising defense.  The style of play on the lines and the attitude and speed of the team will balance out due to practice reps and weight room culture.

Yes, in theory it would be great to score 50 points a game and give up just 10, but things don't work out like that in reality.  Any defense gets tired when playing with a quick score, spread offense.  There will be more possessions, and 3 and outs won't happen against a good ball control offense.

Any defense practicing against a spread offense week in and week out will not be able to stop a Wisconsin run game and would get pounded week in and week out in the Big 10. 

Farnn

August 18th, 2012 at 10:37 PM ^

The defense would definitely give up more points considering the offense can score so quickly(hence more possesions), but I don't think it would be disproportionate.

But I think that's BS saying a team practiciing against the spread wouldn't be able to stop the Wisconsin run game.  Does that mean in 2 years when Michigan is running more of a west coast offense they won't be able to stop a spread team?  So then the Michigan/OSU game would be two teams that can't stop each other because they practice against different types of offenses?

Owl

August 18th, 2012 at 10:39 PM ^

Urban Meyer's defense at Florida was pretty good if I remember correctly. Also, Greg Mattison was co-defensive coordinator under Meyer for a while, if that means anything. I think it has more to do with tempo then how you line up your offense. 

Owl

August 18th, 2012 at 10:59 PM ^

I covered that though: "I think it has more to do with tempo then how you line up your offense."

You said any offense running the spread would be unable to stop Wisconsin's run game. You didn't limit that statement to up tempo spread offenses.  

*Edit: Read your comment wrong the first time around. My apologies.

Louie C

August 19th, 2012 at 12:09 AM ^

"Yes, in theory it would be great to score 50 points a game and give up just 10, but things don't work out like that in reality."

 

Nebraska and FSU circa the 1990's would like to have a word with you. 

GoBlueInIowa

August 18th, 2012 at 10:02 PM ^

Would anyone on defense get #2? Not this year, would consider using it as a recruiting tool in that a hot shot five start DB recruiter would get it.

Same goes for the #1 on offense?  Same as #2

Helmet stickers? Yes? No? No, don't like them too high school

Alternate jerseys? Only away games, actually wouldn't mind maize on the road.

Helmet numbers? Probably not, but I did get used to them last year. If I had them, probably would want to make sure that the colors matched.

What kind of offense would you run? Pro/west coast

To add on to that, who would be your coordinators?  Same ones we have now.

TheTruth41

August 18th, 2012 at 10:09 PM ^

Call me crazy but Rodriguez would be a good one. Yes his defenses were horrible when he was HC but he could expose a defense and go after the weak spots on offense like we've never had before him.

Serth

August 18th, 2012 at 10:17 PM ^

1-5: No

6: Wishbone, Pro-set, Flex offense

7. Franklin Carl, and Tommy Landau, two fictitious dudes who I just made up who will be considered #1 at their job, and do it for the team, not the contract.  We win 10 consecutive national championships.

smitty1983

August 18th, 2012 at 10:18 PM ^

Would anyone on defense get #2? No

Same goes for the #1 on offense? No

Helmet stickers? Yes? No? No

Alternate jerseys? Maize would be cool

Helmet numbers? Only if players wanted them

What kind of offense would you run? pro style

To add on to that, who would be your coordinators? Oc: Borges, scot loeffler, hate to say it rr. Dc: Mattison or bring back Ron English

archangel2k12

August 18th, 2012 at 10:33 PM ^

Just my personal opinions...

1.  Yes  AVERY

2.  Not right now...I'm rooting for Darboh

3.  Yes.  For VERY special achievements.

4.  NEVER.  Don't F with the best JERSEYS in CFB

5.  I am not against them

6.  Superior talent and coordination to impose our will regardless of situation.  

6.  One Back or West Coast...something resembling PRO style

7.  Obviously GMATT and Borges...and I would have Scarlett Johansson coordinate office activities.

Doc Brown

August 18th, 2012 at 10:34 PM ^

1. NO

2. NO, I would ban that number. 

3. Nope, but I would bring back the helmet numbers

4. Depending, on the decision of a carefully selected committee of alumni, fans, fashion experts, former players, President Obama, and Neil Patrick Harris 

5. Yes

6. Super duper secret offense that nobody can figure out. We would score 150 pts per game

7. Mike Ditka and Bill Parcel 

turtleboy

August 18th, 2012 at 10:45 PM ^

Countess would get #2 if he earns it. He might soon...

Gardner would get #1 because I think he could end up becoming a better receiver than Braylon. He's more athletic, faster, and bigger. He could get draft consideration at WR if he breaks out this year.

No on the stickers. I used to be all about it, but now I like the helmets plain.

Definitely alternate jerseys, just not ugly ones.

Helmet numbers can come, or go. Year to year they can do what they want because the whole uniform has been changing slightly, yet constantly for 133 seasons.

Same offense we run now, or at least the offense they want to run. 

Only coordinator I would add would be Dick Bumpas. He's the man and has coached everything on defense, paying his dues for decades:

http://gofrogs.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/bumpas_dick00.html