Locksley v Gattis
Would like to hear from the bloggers last week who opined that Maryland had hired the real offensive genius from Alabama in getting Locksley, and Michigan got conned into hiring a dreg loser by bringing Gattis aboard. Two games into each coach's first season in their new jobs proved it.
Ummm - are those same bloggers going to mention that Temple debacle yesterday? That loss is strictly on the poor offense of Maryland. Late in Q4 and Temple up 20-15 - Temple punts, and Maryland punt returner brings ball back to Temple's 4 yard line. Four runs, all four by Anthony MacFarland, and Maryland gives it up on downs. The force Temple to punt from their own end zone - and the Temple punter shanks a 7 yard punt - yes, 7 yards, and Maryland sets up 1st and goal on Temple 10. Again - 1st and goal, 4 plays, no points. Temple runs out the clock. Absolutely pathetic offensive performance.
Truth is - Locksley very likely isn't the genius everyone thought after the first two games, and is probably not a complete zero either despite the bad loss to Temple in Game 3. Just as likely - Gattis is probably not the horrible and stupid hire being represented after last week's game. He has a bye week to get some things straightened out - let's give him some time to show what he's got. From what I am hearing from Alabama fans down here in the South - we got one hell of a good coach.
And at least we are trying something new - how do Sparty fans feel today after watching the coaching musical chairs following no new hires up in East Lansing? You talk about SOS...
Michigan fans should chill and give Gattis a chance. Go Blue!
September 15th, 2019 at 12:24 PM ^
Agreed - lots of emotional cowards around here fail to own their nonsense comments.
September 15th, 2019 at 12:49 PM ^
Michigan is 2-0 and people around here are throwing in the towel on the season. Once Shea heals up and we open up the playbook I think there will be a lot of crow eaten on this blog.
September 15th, 2019 at 12:53 PM ^
I mean, ESPN put them in the struggling teams bracket during gameday. The narrative at this point around Michigan is insane to me.
September 15th, 2019 at 4:37 PM ^
I hope you’re right, but I just don’t see it. This is a 9 win team
September 15th, 2019 at 1:00 PM ^
Why are you making it sound like majority of people want Gattis fired? Talk about a fucking straw man
I think most people are just perplexed as to what happened to the playcalling from the MTSU game. Hence why people think Harbaugh took over....
We all know Gattis is an A1 hire. His resume speaks volumes.
September 15th, 2019 at 1:37 PM ^
He never said majority. Speaking of a strawman....
September 15th, 2019 at 3:13 PM ^
I'm on board with Gattis, but I don't know that he is an A1 hire or that his resume speaks volumes. He has never had the position he has with us. He has zero years of experience doing what we hired him to do (coordinate the offense, call plays).
September 15th, 2019 at 7:07 PM ^
I’ll own that I’ve made some emotionally charged comments/declarations but will hold my judgement for how stupid I look for a few more data sets.
September 15th, 2019 at 12:24 PM ^
Gattis. Is. Not. The. Problem. The Michigan version of John Cooper is.
September 15th, 2019 at 12:37 PM ^
Troll.
Go look up how many times Cooper was favored and/or the higher ranked team. Has Harbaugh underperformed? Sure. But he isn't close to Cooper.
Saban, Meyer, and Belichick aren't beating OSU with John O'Korn and that pre-Warriner awful OL.
September 15th, 2019 at 12:47 PM ^
Troll? Really? Shut the fuck up. It’s his job to win the big games.
September 15th, 2019 at 1:03 PM ^
The reality is somewhere in between. Why were the o-line and QB so terrible in Jim’s 3rd year? Is that somebody else’s fault? Jim has lost 4 times to OSU but is not 1-10-1 like Cooper yet.
September 15th, 2019 at 1:03 PM ^
I don't know whether you're a troll, but when you post comments like this:
"Nico and Tarik had to of tag teamed Gattis’ wife during the off-season. Why the fuck else would not get them atleast 15 targets combined a game??"
it's clear you're an ass.
September 15th, 2019 at 1:07 PM ^
I doubt that you're a troll, but you are the king of the hot take.
September 15th, 2019 at 2:46 PM ^
The majority of people here aren’t ready for this at this time. Think of this as akin to early 2013 where some are grumpy but most are still “trust the coaches.”
September 15th, 2019 at 3:42 PM ^
You're really going to compare Harbaugh, a guy half the NFL would love to hire, with Brady Hoke? Come on man.
September 15th, 2019 at 9:26 PM ^
you apparently can’t read or otherwise understand context. Read my comment again, I am talking about comparative points in time, not people
September 15th, 2019 at 9:38 PM ^
It's every coach's job to win but the nature of the sport dictates that there will be an equal number of wins as losses. Texas, Florida State, Miami, Auburn, USC—just to name a few—are all programs just as big as ours with just as much history and all their fans have the same complaints. "We're a big program with history, we should be competing for national championships every year!" Yeah, well, the nature of the sport dictates that can't always happen.
I would love for us to win every game. But being able to win most our games is a good start. Look how quickly Florida State crashed and burned after recently winning a championship. A coaching change can be hugely disruptive. After RR and Hoke, I'm surprised there are parts of this fan base that aren't grateful for what we have. Winning the majority of our games isn't a guarantee, let alone championships and rivalry wins. So when you have a guy who wins a large majority of the games, you root for him to do better. Expecting better is just being delusional.
September 15th, 2019 at 1:28 PM ^
Stop it, no good points allowed in this forum. You are 100% spot on...Harbaugh inherited a dumpster fire. Yes, we all thought there would be at least 1 victory over OSU. That said if not this year maybe never. There is enough talent on offense to run with OSU.
September 15th, 2019 at 11:25 PM ^
seriously? you think this team with Shea at the helm are talented enough to keep with ohio? if they give the ball to ZC 33 times and plays 65 he won't be healthy enough to play ohio. sorry, but I think last year was a more talented team
September 15th, 2019 at 12:44 PM ^
Michigan has beaten OSU three times since Brady left.
The issue is with the program, not Harbaugh.
September 15th, 2019 at 12:56 PM ^
If we are being realistic, OSU SHOULD be favored to win most games against us in any season there is. And a .500 record against them is a good performance to hope for. Barring any flat out mediocre coach, OSU has a much, much better recruiting situation than we do, they own their whole state, which is a far better talent producing state, and we share ours with a team that occasionally beats us for a good in-state recruit. Then there is the other reasons they recruit so well year in and year out. I don't think our program is the issue, I think we start out with disadvantages that are real, not excuses.
September 15th, 2019 at 2:18 PM ^
Yes. Agree, especially about the paid players. We're not playing on an even playing field. Not quite sure why so many don't get this.
September 15th, 2019 at 4:01 PM ^
Because it doesn't fit the narrative that UM is a national title level program that is somehow just one lightnin' boy coach who eschews all things conservative (and there are so many out there) away from hitting the college football scene like the way the Mongols hit Russia in the 13th century.
We are a good team. We have the recruiting reach to build a program, over time, that can beat OSU and be realistic to make the playoffs. But only if we stay the course, stay consistent, and work at it. To do that, we have to have some patience and be a little humble. We can't lose our $hit every time we suffer a setback. We can't compare ourselves to teams that pay their players to attend. We can't compare ourselves to teams that have lower academic standards.
We're closer to Stanford than we are to LSU or even OSU.
We are back, roughly, to what we were in the 90's. The big difference is that the B1G is harder at the top. OSU is better. Alot better.
Goodness. Let's just have some fun.
September 16th, 2019 at 5:22 PM ^
wish i could gold star your post, I say that all the time, we also have the dumb luck of two damn good coaches at osu in succession, and a slew of damn good qbs come through their ranks. how many coaches could beat urban on a consistent basis, two 10 win seasons and people forget when we were begging for 9 wins or over 7 wins yall are unrealistic with these hot takes. both of them are good coordinators, but you are only as good as your qb, line, wrs and if they can function within your scheme, and this is not a video game there is a humanistic aspect that has to be factored in
September 15th, 2019 at 8:55 PM ^
I understand your premise....but not sure that I agree. Bo had a winning record against OSU (including against Woody). Mo had a winning record against OSU. Carr had a winning record against OSU for the first 11 years of his tenure (I think). That's 30+ years of football where OSU had the same advantages but Michigan still won games.
Michigan has always had a history of pulling players from CA and FL.....in addition to pulling blue chippers from Ohio (Howard, Woodson, Grbac.....and more recently Gedeon, Butt and Wormley). Coaching has been the downfall more than anything else for the past (almost) 20 years. Michigan could have won in 2002, 2005, 2006, 2013, 2016 and 2017 (well....O'Korn). When the game is on the line, OSU has just pulled it out more effectively than Michigan.
September 15th, 2019 at 12:58 PM ^
Jim Harbaugh: $7.5 million
Josh Gattis, offensive coordinator: $1.1 million, plus possible $400,000 bonus
Ed Warinner, offensive line coach: $550,000
Jay Harbaugh, running backs coach: $300,000
Sherrone Moore, tight ends coach: $250,000
Don Brown, defensive coordinator: $1 million, plus possible $400,000 bonus
Shaun Nua, defensive line coach: N/A (requested by Crain's via FOIA)
Chris Partridge, safeties/special teams coach: $500,000
Mike Zordich, cornerbacks coach: $400,000
Anthony Campanile, defensive assistant: $415,000
How many more losses in big games will it take before the angry mob starts forming? My guess is it happens this year.
Nothing I'm saying here gives me any joy. I want Harbaugh to succeed, win some important games, and coach here until he totally retires from football at any level. I'm just calling it like I see it.
September 15th, 2019 at 2:05 PM ^
I'm just saying, even if we hired a dude off the street they would be making $5mil a year. It's the market, the AD has a shit ton of money. The head football coach at Michigan will always be top 10 paid in the country. If he has even a little bit of pedigree he'll be top 3-5
September 15th, 2019 at 2:36 PM ^
I agree. To add to your point, when you have the ability to pay and the inclination toward top performance, you make a move when it becomes clear you won't be getting top performance out of your coaching staff. One of the criteria in judging performance is a time period of at least 4-5 years. Here we are.
I'm not saying we're at the point where we need to move on from Harbaugh. I'm saying that it appears that this is a real possibility.
September 15th, 2019 at 3:25 PM ^
And his performance for 4 years has been fine, the only real negative is not beating OSU. It sucks but it is in no way a fireable offence
September 15th, 2019 at 4:18 PM ^
Listing salary is 100% irrelevant to anything
September 15th, 2019 at 5:14 PM ^
Stop saying “win important games” like he hasn’t.
Just day beat Ohio State because that’s what you actually mean.
2015: Destroying BYU and Northwestern were considered “important games”.
2016: Beating a top 10 Wisconsin, destroying Penn State, beating Michigan State for the first time since 2012
2018: Beating those three again, back to back to back, wasn’t important?
Get over yourself. If you try and keep saying “hE HaSnT wOn ImPoRtAnT gAmEs” then you’re just a true blue liar.
September 15th, 2019 at 5:32 PM ^
Yeah, there is alot of goal post moving. If he loses those games he's a schmuck. When he won those games but the teams didn't finish as strong they don't matter.
September 15th, 2019 at 12:52 PM ^
More concerning about Gattis/H is not kicking the field goal last week.
Having said that, Coach H inherited a mess. Yes, it has taken longer than we want but....
As for Cooper, Cooper had better players than M. Ohio has had consistently better players up till now.
Go Blue
September 15th, 2019 at 12:56 PM ^
They still have better players when you get past the 1's. Our depth, or lack thereof, is a serious issue at multiple positions.
September 15th, 2019 at 1:35 PM ^
Cooper had better players? Better than Desmond? Better than Woodson? Better than Brady? Better than Hutchinson? Michigan regularly put players into the NFL (at high levels) while Cooper was at OSU.
September 15th, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
OSU had the top recruiting class almost yearly in those days. Look back at their rosters, outside of QB they had stars and NFL players at every position. Don't forget Tressel won his only national championship with Cooper's players
September 15th, 2019 at 2:08 PM ^
If you look closely at the Cooper era, you could make a pretty good case that Cooper did have better players for most of the period from about 1993 to 1998.
In Cooper's early years Michigan was clearly better. Michigan was in the Rose Bowl four out of five years from 1998 to 1992; in the same period Ohio State had one losing season, three lower tier bowl games and a Citrus Bowl berth in 1992 (when they tied Michigan after Elvis Grbac was knocked out of the game).
From 1993 to 1998, though, Cooper went into the game undefeated three times (10-0-1 in 1993 and 11-0 in 1995 and 1996). They lost each time to Michigan teams that finished with four losses. Only in 1997 was Michigan clearly the better team (and Ohio State might have won the game that year if not for the efforts of arguably the best player in Michigan history).
Cooper had a big drop-off at 6-6 in 1999, and when they went 8-3 with another loss to Michigan in the regular season he was fired. I don't remember if he coached the bowl loss or not.
September 15th, 2019 at 2:35 PM ^
Yeah but.....1993 - 1998 only covered six of the 12 years during the Cooper era. I'll admit that OSU had a ton of good players over the Cooper years (George, Boston...)......but it does a disservice to Michigan to concede the quality of players to Cooper. Particularly when Michigan was churning out Heisman Trophy winners and (soon to be) NFL Hall Of Famers.
In addition, Michigan probably had a better QB than OSU EVERY year during the Cooper regime. I mean, Kirk Herbstreit started for Cooper at one point.
September 15th, 2019 at 1:36 PM ^
Harbaugh won 10 games in year 1. It's now year 5 and you're still blaming Hoke?
September 15th, 2019 at 1:40 PM ^
Nah, the decisions to go for it on 4th down were sound, the play calls on 4th down were trash.
September 15th, 2019 at 2:01 PM ^
Harbaugh is losing to 11/12 win OSU teams with 9/10 win Michigan teams as the underdog. Cooper had 10/11 win teams ranked top 5 that would lose to 8/9 win Michigan teams.
September 15th, 2019 at 3:08 PM ^
I'm with you on this to a point, but isn't part of that because teams played one less game back then?
September 18th, 2019 at 6:35 PM ^
Yeah, but the point was Cooper choked vs Michigan, Harbaugh hasn't choked vs OSU so much as just lost to the better team
September 15th, 2019 at 4:11 PM ^
When you have 3rd and 2 and CB's are playing 10 yards off your receivers and you don't take the free yards and first down, that is on the OC. This is the problem we have right now. We do not make things easy for ourselves. That goes right to Gattis.
September 16th, 2019 at 9:48 AM ^
That would be every coach since Tressell made the speech.
September 15th, 2019 at 12:25 PM ^
I actually agree with your take on Gattis and Locksley but the last thing that is going to go well around here is trying to tell the MGoCommunity what to do and how to think. It never works.
September 15th, 2019 at 12:25 PM ^
I suspect almost every assistant coach looks like a genius after coaching under Saban. I'll reserve judgment because of the nussmeier hire. Too small of a sample size for locksley or gattis yet.
September 15th, 2019 at 2:41 PM ^
The best part of Gattis' resume is working under Joe Moorhead at PSU. That's why Saban hired him and I think it's the main reason Harbaugh did too.
September 15th, 2019 at 12:26 PM ^
If Gattis's offense is 95% reads and the QB misses 25% of the reads, leaves any pocket immediately that isn't picture perfect, and misses wide open TD throws, I don't see how the OC is to blame for offensive struggles.