The Snowflake Thread: Coaching

I started coming here more after the ESPN den closed down because I used to post over there occasionally. This game was that embarrassing. Like everyone, I'm pissed at the game, and I feel like venting is a somewhat constructive way to get around it, so pardon the long post, especially for a first one. 

I understand many people defending coaches by pointing out offensive line youth and that they're getting destroyed repeatedly as the reason the team struggles. While that is true, other teams do better with younger and less highly rated lineman. Lewan and Schofield are All Conference or better. Bosch and Kalis were top 100 level recruits. None of that is new; Purdue had 66 yards rushing against MSU, though. Our offensive line is more talented than Purdue's. Illinois had at least 25. Our offensive line is better than theirs. Even ignoring the bad snap we were -28 yards. How can that all be on the players? If they are making poor decisions or not executing, then Funk is failing them. Really bad teams do not look this bad, and if they do they fire someone. By my count, we had 71 yards lost on sacks and bad snaps, which resulted in about 23 yards on 19 actual run attempts. That's 27 for 27 ish; yeah the players have made mistakes, but it's a recurring theme which to me points to poor blocking and preparation.

To people pointing out that Michigan went spread heavy like many mgobloggers want. Also true; but Michigan rarely did the things that spread teams with bad offensive lines do to protect the players and limit mistakes. Borges is very smart, and I know what he wants to do should work in theory more than they do, I put most of the failures on the above. But at some point you have to throw your game plan out and go with what has a chance to work - that game plan btw, that he had an extra week to work on. MSU likes to blitz up the middle. They destroyed us with it 2 years ago and last year; they've messed up teams with it all year, and they crushed Gardner with A gap blitzes today. The offense seemed totally unprepared for it, and when they kind of were it called for the RBs to make a block that they failed miserably at. Fitz has ben around for a while; he should know how to pick up a blitz every now and then, see coaching. When Michigan did go with quick passes, even though it was too frequently the same damn pop pass play to Funchess (4 attempts?) they almost gave up on it after the drop, because I don't know. "Well crap he dropped that 6 yard completion. Can't run quick passes anymore." was the logic I guess. He even did a bubble screen, for 8 yards! Never even looked at it again. We tried one screen, a play that is designed to work against blitzes, and never tried again. I think when a play doesn't work repeatedly you should maybe go away from it, not when the first try doesn't work. Either way, when MSU is blitzing heavy, repeated long play-action calls that you know your O Line can't block isn't really the way to go. Granted, Borges isn't awful, I think just stubborn. There were many plays where Gardner missed open guys and threw to someone covered. That 3rd down PBU early on was a great example, I'm not sure of the play call, Z snag maybe, but Gallon basically ran an out and Jackson in the slot just did a hitch. The safety undercut Gallon and broke it up, Jackson was wiiiide open. Even Gallon was open if DG leads him. Good call, bad execution. Other plays like that abounded, there were a few where Funch or Chesson were very open in the middle but Gardner had already pulled it or had locked on a covered Gallon. 

There are many plays where it looks like Gardner doesn't really make his passing reads. He got hit a lot and didn't have time, but when he did, he often seemed to have his mind made up pre-snap. That isn't exactly new; Gallon being very good and Funchess making catches like he did early today mitigate it, but it's no surprise that he likes to throw to Gallon even when he's far from open. That's usually something for a QB coach to work on. Pretty sure Borges is our QB coach.. I know popular opinion here is otherwise, but this would have been a good game for Michigan to actually run power. They didn't even load the box a lot, going true I form power had potential for 3-4 yards a pop. That's better than 8 yard sacks repeatedly. Spread torched Indiana, but Indiana doesn't play defense. I'm no expert, but I feel like if your players can't do what you want to do, while you have to stay aggressive sometimes you still need put them in positions to succeed - or in this case not screw up as much. If you're going to spread it out, I think a quicker passing game, moving pockets that generally worked, and more decisive running plays keep your risk lower. Slow read options and play actions give their blitzing LBs more opportunities to get into your backfield. If the primary issue lies with the line blocking, then you have to question why these highly rated recruits and all american tackles can't do that and have hardly improved this year, let alone 3 years for the players that've been around. 

Anyway, the game was a depressing tirefire and I need more to drink.

Getting ready to watch a real football game in FSU v Miami...

How long has it been since jimbo fisher took over for bowden, and they are just now back to the top of the heap? 

Is the time table the same for this michigan program? Are we being unreasonable with these coaches? How much longer?

Incidentally, I saw Hoke wearing a headset at times today, so it turns out that that is not, in fact, the solution to our football team's woes.