Players: We didn't coming out ready to play. Angelique: That's on the coaches
The thing that was most distressing Saturday was not play calling, right or wrong decisions made, whether it's Harbaugh or Gattis calling plays, or Don Brown's defense getting Brown'd again. It was the way we lost -- meekly. It was the lack of any emotion or fire. It was how according to Eubanks we pretty much gave up at 14-0. The lack of mental discipline. And finally the destruction--I would have been disappointed in losing 28-20 but it would be understandable. The way we lost is not. More player quotes about not being ready to play in Angelique's column today:
“We didn’t come out ready to play,” safety Josh Metellus said on Inside Michigan Football. “I feel as a whole team we weren’t ready to match their energy or have even more energy than they did. We came out flat and they took advantage.”
His statement was telling but three words stand out — “we weren’t ready.”
That falls on coaching.
Safety Brad Hawkins said on the show he couldn’t tell why the team was flat.
“We definitely came out sluggish,” he said. “And definitely came out slow.”
If all true, it's very hard to defend the coaching staff and Harbaugh. At bottom, the assumption with him was that we'd have a mentally tough team. We have the opposite.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/20…
September 23rd, 2019 at 12:36 PM ^
Well Metellus is the quintessential UM football player. All talk before the game, and then "Didn't come out ready to play".
What a joke. I can't believe people bought into the #speedinspace nonsense.
September 23rd, 2019 at 12:53 PM ^
This is still redeemable... let the season progress.
That is on the coaches.
September 23rd, 2019 at 1:02 PM ^
I - like the players - have given up on Harbaugh. He is a terrible game manager, abysmal game planner, and clearly a shitty game day motivator. Prepare yourselves, as this is going to get uglier before it gets better.
September 23rd, 2019 at 1:03 PM ^
Shea said we'd make a statement and we ended up laying a huge egg. What does that say about how the players perceive Shea as a leader?
September 23rd, 2019 at 1:21 PM ^
I truly don't know... but I don't believe it's a reflection on Shea's leadership, unless his entire life trajectory has been suddenly changed, which wouldn't make sense. He's been known to exhibit leadership and unify teams, at every stop. Even when he was leaving OM to come here, there were 4 players who would have come with him (and at least one, if I recall, at a position of need), the only reason they didn't was their credits not transferring. I think Shea is getting banged up repeatedly, not losing his leadership skills.
September 23rd, 2019 at 1:22 PM ^
It’s crazy that this happened after a bye week and in arguably the third toughest game of the season (Wisc, ND, OSU). I thought they would have come out frothing at the mouth.
September 23rd, 2019 at 2:56 PM ^
I won't be so irresponsible as to name names. But I saw a starter borderline falling down drunk out in AA sat night. Shocking, as he must've showered and hit the bars almost immediately after getting off the plane.
There's a major, major cultural problem.
September 23rd, 2019 at 3:35 PM ^
Wow its bad when angie isn't shilling.
September 23rd, 2019 at 4:20 PM ^
How in the world do we look so confused on the 2nd play of the game and have to call a timeout. That to me is totally unacceptable. We had 2 weeks to prepare. Makes it even moredisturbing.
September 24th, 2019 at 1:52 AM ^
Totally dominated at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The Army game was the warning sign. I don't think either line is very good at football.
A quick fix for the offense would be to play faster. Patterson may make a few mistakes but I think it would lead to bigger plays and could hide some of the O-line issues. That was the plan in the off season, but it seems the play clock is getting under 10 on each play. Hard to run an effective spread that way.
Not sure what to do about the D-Line outside of get the freshman ready.