MaizeBlueA2

November 5th, 2022 at 6:12 PM ^

So I have a better perspective of Northwestern than most.

Fitz, excellent coach, incredible man.

Fitz however suffers from a little Kirk Ferentz, Paul Chryst, even early Jim Harbaugh. 

His staff minus a few ACs is TERRIBLE. But he's old school and you hire who you know and you go with what got you to the dance.

He needs to keep Lou (the RB coach), Kurt Anderson (Michigan man, excellent OL coach), and Marty Long (DL coach). Everyone else needs to go - especially his OC and DC.

Go out and hire the Northwestern version of Weiss, Hart, Bellamy, Clinkscale, etc.

People think Harbaugh hiring Hart was a Michigan thing...people outside of Michigan have no idea that Harbaugh and Hart weren't BFFs and that a (short) conversation took place before Hart came on board.

Harbaugh went and got the best coaches, ties to him be damned. And sure, some had ties to his brother, but they weren't "Jim Harbaugh guys" like Pep Hamilton and Tim Drevno. Or Zordich.

Fitz lives with a staff full of Drevno's and while it's probably nice that they know what you like and know your culture. They're not great football coaches. 

Kirk Ferentz and Paul Chryst suffer(ed) from the same thing.

Northwestern could be more than solid, consistently. Or they could've, who knows what their division will look like in a few years. But in the current B1G West, they should be better, but Fitz is loyal to a fault.

The team they had on the field today, there are MAYBE 5 guys who could suit up and play for the team on the other sideline...MAYBE.

Cam Porter, Peter Skoronski, Ade Adebawore...and uh, *shrug*.

Anderson does a tremendous job recruiting on the OL, their OL is fantastic, they were without both starting guards today. Lou is decent at recruiting RBs, but he's great at developing them. Long doesn't get stars at DL, but he develops defensive lineman as good or better than anyone in the country. 

After that? A lot of Brian Ferentz's.

Joined: 11/06/2018

MGoPoints: 49955

m9tt

November 6th, 2022 at 11:36 AM ^

4th down rate is a flawed metric to measure aggressiveness. Northwestern has attempted so many 4th downs because they are 1-8… if you’re losing more games, you have more 4th down attempts.

Take the game yesterday. NW is down in the 4th quarter and they are heading in the only direction that either team has had success throwing the ball. Fitz opens the drive by going with a wildcat run and taking his QB (who had completed several passes on the previous drive) off the field. It predictably gets stuffed. 2nd down, run for a mild gain. 3rd down and 4, run again... stuffed. 4th and 2 from his own 20 and he punts it back to Ohio State.

What’s the point of that? You’re going to lose the game regardless. On the drive in the 4th when they made it to the OSU 30ish before stalling out, he kept running on first downs and routinely putting his offense behind the chains. He did the same thing in Ireland against Nebraska, he was just fortunate enough to be coaching in a one score game against Scott Frost.
 

 

Joined: 06/16/2015

MGoPoints: 3699

1VaBlue1

November 5th, 2022 at 3:09 PM ^

Doesn't matter what they look like against Northwestern.  You really think they're giving eveything they have against a 1-7 team?  They'll be a completely different team against Michigan, regardless of weather.

And Michigan will still beat them.  Because Michigan is the better team.

Joined: 01/31/2016

MGoPoints: 127087

Midukman

November 5th, 2022 at 3:25 PM ^

I don’t disagree simply because we’re the tougher team. I’d rather man scape with tweezers than give Urban credit, but his teams were hard nosed. Days happy with big 12 “basketball on grass” BS and if there’s the slightest precipitation when we play things could get ugly and I hope they do!

Joined: 09/13/2018

MGoPoints: 15906

evenyoubrutus

November 5th, 2022 at 4:23 PM ^

I used to think this concept of "toughness" was overstated. It probably still is because sometimes people just throw that word around as a catch all. However, I've watched that last drive where our offensive line and HH steamrolled the OSU defense about a hundred times. That wasn't OSU having a bad coordinator. They were just worn out and worn down and more or less gave up.

Joined: 11/04/2008

MGoPoints: 178243

MaizeBlueA2

November 5th, 2022 at 6:15 PM ^

Michigan is their Super Bowl this year...just like OSU was Northwestern's Super Bowl today.

 

If Michigan thinks it's getting the same team, they'll lose by 3 scores. 

 

Now I think OSU is the same team. They showed that today. But they won't be on Nov. 26. On that one day the revenge and payback will be MASSIVE.  OSU talent with an MSU chip.  Our boys better know it's going to be a completely different level.

However, you beat that OSU team on that day...you win a national championship if you bring that level of performance 3 more times.

Joined: 11/06/2018

MGoPoints: 49955

clarkiefromcanada

November 5th, 2022 at 6:49 PM ^

"Our boys better know it's going to be a completely different level"

This projection that the players are somehow going to underestimate Ohio State strikes me as kind of peculiar given the build of this team and clear focus voiced by the staff over the past few years (team built on physicality, toughness, control of the game - basically Ravens lite to do everything to beat Ohio). 

It's hard to believe that Ohio State wouldn't have 100% of their attention (and this might be something a worry in the games preceding Ohio State but certainly not in the game). Michigan won't enter that game the favourite and it won't be hard for Harbaugh to motivate his team.

Joined: 11/20/2008

MGoPoints: 49257

MaizeBlueA2

November 5th, 2022 at 7:24 PM ^

I didn't say that at all.

Don't project. 

This is literally the Twitter meme:

Twitter is the only place where articulated sentences get misinterpreted.

You can say "I like pancakes" and somebody will say, "so you hate waffles?!"

NO, BITCH...THAT'S A WHOLE NEW SENTENCE, WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

 

I said what I said, I didn't say anything about them underestimating OSU or any of that other stuff you wrote.

I said our guys need to know OSU won't be the same this year. I'm sure they will know, that wasn't the point of my post, but it's the only part you responded to.

The point of the entire post was...OSU looked like shit today, but they won't look like that version Michigan and (*here*) is why I've formed this opinion. 

Joined: 11/06/2018

MGoPoints: 49955

jmblue

November 5th, 2022 at 3:10 PM ^

Can we retire this narrative that we beat them because of the weather last year?  They passed for 394 yards.  

We won because we dominated on the offensive and defensive lines.

Joined: 11/07/2008

MGoPoints: 102810

flashOverride

November 5th, 2022 at 3:12 PM ^

I had this thought earlier, but they've leaned on "weather" (i.e. a few flurries in reality, or a blizzard if you talk to anyone blinded by Michigan hate) as an excuse for last year too much as it is, I'd rather beat them in sunshine and shut them up.

It's lame attempt at gaslighting anyway, Stroud threw for almost 400 yards that day. But somehow this narrative that Michigan only won because OSU's offense was "grounded" by the weather persists, especially among (of course) MSU fans, as I hear it all the time living near East Lansing.

Joined: 08/04/2013

MGoPoints: 9070

brad

November 5th, 2022 at 3:15 PM ^

Michigan just had to show up and be ready to play to their max potential for all 60 minutes.  And put a safety over the top of Harrison.  That alone assures M will be in position to possibly win in the 4th quarter.  Perfect weather is not going to cause Ohio State to be able to dominate this particular Michigan team.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 15727

Z1ppz

November 5th, 2022 at 3:18 PM ^

Michigan concerns:

Pass rush, Downfield passing, red zone offense, Slow starts

 

OSU concerns:

Non existent run game

questionable OL

Soft D

Joined: 11/16/2013

MGoPoints: 2081