Michael Spath gets analysis from former Michigan players on what's wrong
Some interesting insights from (anonymous) former Michigan football players on what's going on inside the locker room and on the field right now.
Some tidbits:
On Michigan's horrific road performances under Jim Harbaugh (this from a 2017 starter):
"There are a lot of things Coach Harbaugh is really good at it, but pre-game pep talks is not one of them.
There is a process and I don't think he's great at that process of getting his guys ready to go. I think for home games, the crowd, running out of the tunnel, hearing the fight song, the banner ... all of that gets you hyped. On the road, you need to manufacture all that stuff, and it's not something he really excels at."
On the Josh Gattis/Harbaugh dynamic and the offense overall:
Guys that know Coach Harbaugh and know who he is have been asking themselves, 'Does Coach really believe in this?'
"And the answer to that is a definitive no. How do I know that? Ben Mason. In Josh Gattis' offense there is absolutely no place for Ben Mason. That's why he switched to defensive tackle. That's why they didn't practice him on offense in the spring or August camp, or the first three weeks. Moving him there this week, that was desperation.
Full article:
September 24th, 2019 at 10:05 AM ^
The consensus seems to be, though, that the team is full of top-end talent, and if they can move past this adversity, figure out their identity, and begin to believe in themselves and each other, their ceiling is very high still.
September 24th, 2019 at 10:15 AM ^
Believing in themselves won't create a functional middle of the DLine.
September 24th, 2019 at 10:19 AM ^
To be honest, on the back breaking 70 yarder on Saturday, the interior had nothing to do with it. That run went outside the tackles. From what I have been able to watch, the middle of the line has been shockingly stout.
September 24th, 2019 at 10:32 AM ^
Exactly- Guys were out of position all day. Announcers were noticing that and saying it. Second level guys are lost. Leadership on the field is lacking. No direction.
September 24th, 2019 at 10:41 AM ^
They also exploited our man to man defense. They would motion the receiver to the other side to move our defender. Once Taylor bounced outside there was no defense because he followed the receiver.
September 24th, 2019 at 3:29 PM ^
Yes, the defense followed the receiver in motion. But it seemed it wasn't just one guy but two or three others. I'm sure that someone is responsible for the in motion guy but the rest of them should be staying home. I only played football a couple of years in H.S. but was always drilled "STAY HOME; DON'T FOLLOW THE FLOW UNLESS THAT IS YOUR JOB".
Someone points out Harbaugh doesn't give pep talks to the team before games. Can't believe that is too big a jump for coach to do that and if he wants to win tough away games he had better start!
September 24th, 2019 at 1:58 PM ^
The interior DL wasn’t necessarily getting pushed around but they often times didn’t do their jobs. Football 101 for a DT facing a power offense is to take on the guards when they pull and try to seal the seam because that’s where the ball’s going. Or if the guy lined up over you pulls you follow him down the line of scrimmage. Occasionally these are false keys but for a run heavy team like Wisconsin they’re often true.
I can think of at least 4 times off the top of my head where Kemp flew up field and essentially made it so he didn’t even have to be blocked.
Things like that separate a tackle in the back field, or a numbers mismatch that leads to long touchdown run. If things like that aren’t ingrained into a senior it’s hard not to be disappointed - though he has just been playing on the interior DL for a few years.
September 24th, 2019 at 3:21 PM ^
When you don't have to double a DT you can commit more bodies to blocking elsewhere. Having weak DT play doesn't just make you weak in the middle, it limits the entire defense. That's how our dline got destroyed by OSU despite having two guys who are getting playing time in the NFL this year.
September 24th, 2019 at 3:25 PM ^
Lavert Hill was almost where a MLB who be from getting sucked in
September 24th, 2019 at 6:58 PM ^
I don't think one play is making the D line look bad. But, for example, how does it look to you on goal line stands?
September 24th, 2019 at 10:36 AM ^
Or a competent O Line. Or a QB who doesn't airmail receivers and makes the proper reads. Or a coherent offensive scheme. Or RB's who hold on to the ball. Etc., etc.
September 24th, 2019 at 10:42 AM ^
I thought the interior DL was a problem but based on Brian's, and Space Coyote's and others' analysis, it would seem the interior DL has actually been decent and the linebackers have been getting lost some. Maybe trying to overcompensate for the losses at DL? I don't know. But hopefully it will improve as they settle in. I'm not throwing the towel in yet
September 24th, 2019 at 11:47 AM ^
The Wisconsin QB went 13-16 passing the ball, waltzed right through the d-line for a TD, and Wisconsin averaged 6.3 yards per rush but Brian is correct when he says the d-line is not a problem.
September 24th, 2019 at 7:44 PM ^
He also got the ball out quickly for short dunks and dunks most of the time. One of the "deep bombs" I remember was an absolute duck that should have been picked off. They gave our D-Line no time to get to the QB. If pass rush with our DT's is a major concern, it sure seemed like Kemp was almost elite at getting off the line and into the backfield - It was just unfortunate that they never ran right at him when that happened and almost entirely occurred against the run which created some gaps. Maybe this was by design kind of by Wisconsin, but it sure seems like run heavy offenses with excellent run blocking like Wisconsin and Iowa are going to give us a tougher task on Defense.
I still believe the Offense has a ton of potential. QB has been the main issue. Whenever you roll out a new offensive scheme, growing pains will happen. That in my opinion is why we are seeing uncharacteristically bad pass blocking. I expect that this will be a much different team come OSU.
September 24th, 2019 at 12:12 PM ^
I'm going to disagree with any sentiment that the DL is doing ok...Front 7 DL & LB both bad...
September 24th, 2019 at 12:37 PM ^
We are thin at DT but I echo others' comments that the interior line has been decent. Missed assignments in the back 7 killed us against Wisconsin. If those guys played the game they are capable of playing then I think Taylor still gets his yards but it's more like 100 to 125 yards and not 200+.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:21 AM ^
serious question: are we paying the price now (on defense) from the Aubrey Solomon debacle? Or are our problems way beyond that?
September 24th, 2019 at 12:07 PM ^
It's beyond just Solomon. The DT recruiting over the last few years has been rough:
2019: Chris Hinton and Mazi Smith
2018: Nothing
2017: Aubrey Solomon (transfer), James Hudson (transfer), Phillip Paea (Does he exist?), Donovan Jeter
2016: Rashan Gary (Played end. In NFL.), Carlo Kemp, Mike Dwumfour (injured forever)
September 24th, 2019 at 1:19 PM ^
And nothing in 2015. Which was not directly Harbaugh’s fault, but something he should have made some effort to remedy.
You need to sign two true DTs in pretty much every class, instead of signing an excess of DEs and crossing your fingers that some of them bulk up, or playing with undersized guys like Kemp.
September 24th, 2019 at 1:27 PM ^
You need to sign two true DTs in pretty much every class, instead of signing an excess of DEs and crossing your fingers that some of them bulk up, or playing with undersized guys like Kemp.
That's the inverse of our OL recruiting strategy: get interior guys and try to move them out to OTs.
It's stupid and easily avoidable. Instead of getting a developmental three star DT (the sort of dudes that Mork turns into a killer unit), we whiff on our elite targets and then take a flyer on some 750th ranked TE that no decent team in the country wanted, and have a huge roster hole.
People have been complaining about Harbaugh's odd recruiting (good class ranking, weird class composition) for a few years now, and it has finally become a huge problem.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:47 PM ^
I’ve been talking about recruiting for speed in space as soon as Gattis announced it, this quote below is from Chris Speilman, and it’s accurate IMO. He also made the comment that this is UM, the expectations are high and you don’t lower them just because someone isn’t meeting them. The nonsense about “who else could we get” is just that, nonsense. All that Harbaugh not getting it done mean is Harbaugh isn’t getting it done, Bama before Saban, Clemson before Dabo and the list gors on for historically good programs that had to search a few times for the coach who would lead them back to relevance. If UM lowers the standard the odds are the program becomes the next Minnesota, a powerhouse in the 30’s and 40’s who lost its way and has never found the way back. Pay the buyout, hire a coach who is a great recruiter and and even better judge of the coaches he hires Ride out the first two rebuilding years and then see the program return to relevance. There isn’t anything left to say that hasn’t been said on this board in the last week. If a nationwide search isn’t being conducted quietly as we speak, the AD is the problem
“Watched the whole Michigan game. I can’t recognize what I’m seeing on the field,” Spielman said. “It comes down to this, people can say what they want about Jim Harbaugh and maybe he’s lost it a little bit, I don’t know, as far as being in touch. It seems like he’s out of touch, that’s what they say, but it’s there’s such a discrepancy in talent when you compare Ohio State’s talent to Michigan’s talent. It’s not even close, and I have no idea how it got that way.
“Michigan should never be in a position for wanting for talent. (Defensive coordinator) Don Brown’s a good football coach, Ed Warinner’s a good offensive line coach. The other thing people weren’t talking about, if you want to run that offense, you have to recruit to that offense. They haven’t been recruiting to that offense. It’s a mess right now. It’s a big mess now. It’s one loss in the Big Ten so they certainly can turn it around, but I don’t see any signs of them turning it around. People are complaining about the offense? I mean, you look at it, (Wisconsin running back) Jonathan Taylor had to get IVs after the first quarter because he ran so much. I thought he was on the cross country team
September 24th, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
Agreed. I don't understand our DT strategy at all. Perhaps last year's class is a sign that we're changing it, but we seem way too confident in our ability to add mass to DEs. Teams with elite DLs like MSU, Ohio State, and Clemson recruit true DTs every year. When our DL was dominant at the start of Harbaugh's tenure it was filled with true DTs who were recruited by the previous staff. This is a fixable problem that they may have started to fix, but it's frustrating that it got this far.
September 24th, 2019 at 3:33 PM ^
Same for OT. I know we can't get a 5* NFL prototype OT recruit every year, or even every other year, but damn if all of us didn't know we had 2 OLs that were servicable when JH got here and it took until year 5 to get a decent amount of depth to withstand a year long injury.
RB has been an issues as well - not only in talent but depth.
WR was good for 1 amazing year and ??? the rest of the classes.
CB fell off a cliff the last 2 years.
Inner OL, LB, DE, QB, S, TE, FB have been strong points on the recruiting front. Tho his main two QB recruits, Peters and McCaffery, have not produced... yet anyway.
September 24th, 2019 at 4:13 PM ^
Tho his main two QB recruits, Peters and McCaffery, have not produced... yet anyway.
There's a general issue with getting young guys in position early. So many teams are rolling out a freshman lineman or QB who looks decent to good, yet our players "aren't ready" in year three? Either our recruits suck, our coaching sucks, or the coaches are simply averse to young guys taking reps for older established players. I don't know which it is.
September 24th, 2019 at 12:26 PM ^
Disagree. Wisconsin has no real d-line either except they dominated us. It's not necessarily belief, but it is will, desire, and toughness
September 24th, 2019 at 12:57 PM ^
So, and I know it's not this easy, but throw it deep over and over to the Big3 like we did in the 4th quarter. Hope that we score so much we make the other team somewhat appandon the run. IDK?
September 24th, 2019 at 1:24 PM ^
But putting the two freshman in can’t hurt at this point.
September 24th, 2019 at 4:30 PM ^
Everyone is blaming the D-Line, but from what I saw they were the least culpable on Saturday. Our back 7 save Metellus were AWFUL. Don Brown was doing too much to try to compensate. Sometimes he needs to be conservative but he's too busy trying to live up to AGGRESSION!!!
That defense on Saturday was Greg Robinson bad for most of the game. Being gap sound is on coaches IMO.
September 24th, 2019 at 10:57 AM ^
The front seven is not that talented, at least not compared to top Big Ten teams. The OL is not living up to the hype. The QB isn't that good in this system.
Talent is an issue this season. Also, if they're folding at 14-0, that's a systemic issue.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:04 AM ^
Both the O-Line and the QB have REGRESSED from where they were last year.
September 24th, 2019 at 11:29 AM ^
I imagine that *has* to be due to the new scheme. The o-line sucked at the beginning of last year, then became all-Big-10 level throughout the season. Now they are back to where they were against ND last year? These guys don't just forget how to block. They must be thinking too much, confused as to their assignments. With more reps in the new system I have to (and hope to) think it will improve.
September 24th, 2019 at 1:13 PM ^
Sure seems like a lot of IFs right about now...
September 24th, 2019 at 4:58 PM ^
I've been hearing a lot about Michigan's lack of an "identity" this week. Is this a meaningful concept or a platitude?
If it means playcalling patterns (e.g. a habit of run-run-pass), it sounds like it means the same thing as "predictability."
September 24th, 2019 at 10:06 AM ^
We've reached the stage where we are just passing off a random media tool's text conversation with Thomas Rawls during the game as analysis now.
September 24th, 2019 at 10:06 AM ^
Pep talks matter?
In any event, I agree that Jim is not so good at pep talks. I went to one of those satellite camps where he gave an utterly bland and cheesy speech. I get that it's a lame HS satellite camp, but John was at the same event. When John spoke, you could feel his energy.
September 24th, 2019 at 10:09 AM ^
Then let someone else do the pre game, fuck!
September 24th, 2019 at 10:13 AM ^
Good place for a comma. REALLY good.
September 24th, 2019 at 12:40 PM ^
How do I get in on that pre-game action?
September 24th, 2019 at 11:45 AM ^
It's most effective when it comes from your leader/alpha.
September 24th, 2019 at 1:31 PM ^
Get that Army head coach to do the pre-game
September 24th, 2019 at 4:21 PM ^
Exactly. Beilein was great at it too.
September 24th, 2019 at 4:40 PM ^
Yes Pat... I'd like to solve the puzzle... the word is "CLUSTER"
September 24th, 2019 at 10:10 AM ^
(sorry, this replied to the wrong comment -- deleted)
September 24th, 2019 at 10:11 AM ^
Years ago, I read that good college head coaches excel at motivating their players. In the NFL, all the rah-rah stuff doesn't have to come from the HC, presumably because the NFL is a job, where earning a paycheck is motivation enough.
Also, I remember Jim's speech at Crisler when he was introduced during the Illinois game. I was hoping for a countdown to OSU type of speech, like Tressel. It was more of "that was nice". Maybe Don Brown needs to give the pregame speech. That dude gets me fired up on Wednesday afternoons.
September 24th, 2019 at 10:16 AM ^
Does that dude understand to not leave gaping chasms at the goal line?
September 24th, 2019 at 10:24 AM ^
Jimmy just doesnt move the needle when it comes to that stuff. You are 100% correct, college and high school coaches have to do the rah rah crap.
Izzo and Mork get the buy in. Its not why they are successful, but it's part of the reason.
September 24th, 2019 at 10:48 AM ^
Well at least we can relax about his genius clock management. oops.
September 24th, 2019 at 10:48 AM ^
Yeah, college football coaches have to be 25% x's and o's, 25% politician, 25% motivational speaker, and 25% door to door salesman.
Pro coaches are 100% x's and o's.
September 24th, 2019 at 10:11 AM ^
Maybe, but I thought it actually took a different tone than the doom-and-gloom "Harbaugh's lost his edge" takes we've been passing around this week. I thought the quotes were actually pretty insightful from a "sort-of-inside" perspective, and that the players all felt like the problems are more psychological than technical, which is to say: surmountable.
September 24th, 2019 at 2:26 PM ^
Yeah, but you'd have to poll all of his former players. All players are different. Rawls wasn't his recruit.
Every player commits to their college for a myriad of individual, familial, personal, and professional reasons.
Managing all of that is his job, so it is on him, but one person's perspective is just that, one person's perspective.