Don

September 1st, 2021 at 3:49 PM ^

After the 2004 Rose Bowl:

"Tatupu said the Trojans ran five new blitzes on the Wolverines. Coach Pete Carroll refused to reveal what he saw that made him come so hard with the corners. Whatever he saw, corners Marcell Almond and Will Poole got the first two sacks, and on the opening drive. Poole sacked John Navarre again on the first play of the second quarter, running forever before he reached the quarterback.

"When [Michigan] said, 'We better take care of the corner pressure,' that really heated up the guys inside," Carroll said. "We really could have easily had 12 sacks."

The heads of the offensive linemen turned into Lazy Susans. The rest of them looked a little lazy and a little Susan, too. Michigan gave up 15 sacks all season, but nine on Thursday.

"It was a guessing game," Michigan offensive tackle Tony Pape said. "They usually rushed with their four down guys. This time they didn't. They had a lot of five- and six-man blitzes. It really wasn't the blitzing guy who made the tackles. It was the guys going one-on-one. You don't want to give up nine sacks. That's a terrible statistic."—

 

After the 2006 Rose Bowl:

"USC's center, Ryan Kalil, and its defensive end, Lawrence Jackson, both talked about the predictable nature of Michigan's strategy -- on both sides of the ball. Jackson called U-M's defense traditional and stale. Meanwhile, USC -- after mustering only three points in the first half Monday -- scrapped its plan and came out throwing.

Carr: "What we discussed at the half we are still in the game at 3-3 was going earlier to our two-minute offense [shotgun formation, more open plays]," he said. "But we wanted to protect our defense, so we decided to stay with the plan."

Cushing.... praised the Wolverines afterward because that is what players are taught to do and there is no percentage in not doing so. But he also admitted that he had been well-enough prepared to know what was coming with just about every Michigan trip to the line of scrimmage.

"Yup, pretty much so," he said. "I understand what they were trying to do," Cushing said. "It is the Big Ten mentality to try and overpower you."

 

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 148358

Don

September 1st, 2021 at 5:08 PM ^

I think Carr doesn't get enough credit for his overall career at U-M, but this was one of several notable situations where criticism was warranted.

Unfortunately, since Schembechler arrived our bowl record has far too many games like this, where both our players and our coaching staff simply didn't seem prepared.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 148358

JamieH

September 1st, 2021 at 8:53 PM ^

What made Carroll come hard with the corners?  We had a lamp post as a QB.  I know Navarre threw for a lot of yards, but let's face it--he was less mobile than Tom Brady and not nearly as accurate.  If you got pressure on him, bad things usually happened to Michigan.

Joined: 09/05/2009

MGoPoints: 28331

JMo

September 1st, 2021 at 8:58 PM ^

Honestly, there's no bigger Pete Carroll fan than Pete Carroll himself. That said, ask any Seahawks fan these days if Pete Carroll is the coachi.ng genius he proclaims himself to be. Beauty, as it were, rests in the eye of the beholder.

I do agree with your later point about Carr not getting enough credit for his coaching success at Michigan. I think we have an overall tendency to focus on things like that USC game, or the "Horror", etc. I watched an interview with Ryan Leaf this week where he lamented that the refs didn't allow him to clock the ball with :01 second left. Honestly, I forgot that game even ended like that. Ask me how the 06 OSU game ended and I can draw you a stick figure play by play. Human nature.

Joined: 12/14/2011

MGoPoints: 21008

The Baughz

September 1st, 2021 at 2:46 PM ^

Saw this on Twitter and as a former high school coach of 10 years, this made me cringe.

1. You should be ready to see both odd and even fronts.

2. While it may have been a surprise, it should have taken a conversation on the sideline with your offensive staff/players to make adjustments and not have to throw out 1/2 your game plan. 

Couldnt believe he said that.

Joined: 10/08/2010

MGoPoints: 31913

gremlin3

September 1st, 2021 at 9:59 PM ^

As someone with similar experience, I disagree. Of course you're prepared for both even and odd. But if your opponent has been 100% 40 defense then your PLAN better be 100% geared to go against that. If not, you're a dummy. Now, of course you know how to attack a 30 and have practiced it at some point so you can go to it (hello, Don Brown), but to criticize the plan is incorrect. I'm guessing that the half of their plan that was still good is designed to work against 30 or 40. 

Joined: 10/02/2015

MGoPoints: 8383

bluebrains98

September 1st, 2021 at 2:50 PM ^

"About half of our game plan was out the window when they lined up how they did." - Scott Frost

Not only is this total coaching ineptitude, the stupidity to say that publicly is astonishing. On top of that, it gives a road map to every other team on the schedule to just mix it up a bit against NEB.

Can't wait to bust out the Hassan Haskins wildcat against them! He'll never see it coming!

Joined: 01/14/2009

MGoPoints: 7068

mGrowOld

September 1st, 2021 at 3:19 PM ^

Pffff.  What would doing that prove?

Manliest manball dictates telegraphing your play then running exactly where the defense expects on the count the defense knows you're going to snap the ball on.  Gaining two yards that way surely demoralizes the defense because they realize just how manly you are.

Throwing the ball to Corum proves what exactly?  He'll have it but he'll be all alone with nobody to try and stop him from scoring.  That's sissyball my friend and we'll have none of that around here.

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 212943

Carpetbagger

September 1st, 2021 at 3:57 PM ^

Go* da** that always pissed me off. I've never seen anyone else but Michigan do it either. Perhaps the Lions? Not exactly a ringing endorsement there.

I'd get up mumbling all the way to the fridge or out to smoke or something after the obligatory 2 yard gain thinking there HAD to be a reason why we did that and NOONE else.

Joined: 12/31/2010

MGoPoints: 6563

1VaBlue1

September 1st, 2021 at 4:56 PM ^

Come on, man.  You know every bit as well as we all do that it doesn't matter where or how the defense lines up.  Just execute your blocks on each play with precision.  They can't stop that!  Executing your offense perfectly is the way to win.

And boy ohh boy do I wish Michigan's offense would have been executed a few times...

Joined: 01/31/2016

MGoPoints: 127087

Twitch

September 1st, 2021 at 2:51 PM ^

Not sure if this could have been predicted, but i saw some film gurus (coaches) on twitter talking about how on the first play of the game you could see how bielema had learned a bit from belichick.  Not trying to make excuses but learning from the master has to count for something.

Joined: 01/01/2019

MGoPoints: 3832

befuggled

September 1st, 2021 at 3:15 PM ^

The issue is not so much what Bielema did. 

The issue is that Frost is essentially saying he was unable to adjust his own game plan to what Bielema had done. Sure, sometimes you can't make effective adjustments against a superior opponent--but this was Illinois. Illinois hasn't had a winning record in a decade and hasn't won more than 7 games in a year since Lloyd retired.

That Frost admitted he couldn't make adjustments is just appalling. 

 

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 9955

CRISPed in the DIAG

September 1st, 2021 at 3:13 PM ^

Scott Frost looks like that kid in middle school/high school that wore all the great athletic gear, coaches loved him, parents helicoptered around his teams, played varsity as a soph, hon. mention all-conference, etc, but when you played against him in practice he never seemed as good as his reputation.

Joined: 11/08/2010

MGoPoints: 47451