Snowflakes Thread: Coaching

Did everyone notice how WELL EXECUTED our bubble screens were?  How our receivers were dropping back a step or two and then Gardner was putting the ball just a step or so in front of them so that they could catch the ball with forward momentum and just take off down the field?

 

THAT is good coaching.  I don't think I had seen Michigan execute a bubble screen that well in a long time.  Which of course makes sense given that Borges hated them.  But the detail on the execution was evident.  They weren't just running a bubble screen.  They were running it with precision.

Add that to our ability to finally RUN the f***ing football and I'm estatic.  Who cares that it was just App St.  We haven't been able to run the football against ANYONE lately.

 

Also, what a concept, we have a 6' 5" guy who can catch, so let's THROW HIM THE BALL IN THE RED ZONE.  Amazing--we are actually doing things that make sense, rather than running the smallest guy on our roster up the middle for no gain repeatedly. 

 

Obvioulsy I will temper all expectations until I see us play against a real team next weekend, but I don't see how I could be any more pleased with the early returns.

Nuss on sideline I think is very important for this very young offense.  Maybe in other years he prefers the box but this year I think its important to be on the sideline.  Like his energy.

First team defense did well.  Bad opponent obviously.  I think Mattison purposely did not get exotic in the 2nd half with the defense because he wanted to evaluate players not schemes.  Just watching how guys do 1 v 1.

I might be wrong about this, but wasn't the first play of the game a bubble screen to Funchess? 

If so, that was some epic trolling by Nussmeier. 

it finally dawned on me Nussmeier looks like Novac Djokovic

that is all.

Nussmeier on the sidelines. I don't give a shit. Whatever works. But if we have a bad game or two, this could turn into a "no headset" meme.

to see the ball spread around a little more. Of course, that has a lot to do with Gardner and not Coach Nuss. Loved sticking with the runs and getting the OL rolling. No more Clark on the inside in the 3-4, OLB and rush him. I was surprised (pleasantly) that Bolden was pulled so quickly when he wasn't in the right gap. There really is competition!

Square Peg in Square Hole, Round Peg in Round Hole.  Too bad Borges never thought of that.

Nuss is a huge upgrade.  No questionable play calls I can recall.  Being on the sideline and engaged with Devin feels 110% better than last year.  Mattison stayed pretty vanilla after we had a lead, but early on he seemed to call an aggressive game.  Special teams A+ just because block + TD.

What's up with Nuss's face? Does he have a birthmark or something on his face, or did he get carpet burn on his face? I never noticed anything before today, but he definitely had some marks over his cheek.

until I see how the team grows from week to week.  The biggest indicator of poor coaching last year was stagnation/regression, especially at O-line and running back.

I like Nuss's play calling better than Borges's, but that's a pretty low bar.

I liked Mattison's aggressiveness and the long runs didn't bother me too much, because I think those kinks can get worked out with time and practice.

I wouldn't want to challenge that if time outs were important.  Maybe Hoke just wanted to make a statement that he's still involved and defending his players.  I don't know.  For what it's worth, I though you could see the ball between the legs of the A-State lineman and it seemed to me a good call.  Recall a few years ago, when someone on MgoBlog did a scientific study of angles and whether Fitz scored a TD, and his conclusin was no.  I think we're talking about a similar angle.

I didn't like running DG late, but whatever.

I'm fine with Shane playing.  He needs the practice.

I wish we had a second-team o-line that we could feel comfortable wouldn't be unfair to the second-string QB.  Those guys got one play.

II have a half-cocked eyebrow towards the special teams.  Coverage wasn't great, and the offsides kick didn't work because of anything we did.

I was surprised Hollowell got so much run vs. Stribbling.  I'm not at practice, so I'm not complaining, just observing.

Kick off coverage is still weak, and we were caught completely off guard by the on side kick.

Punt coverage seemed better (though still using the old outdated style)

The waggle came out a little too much, but he showed a willingness to use the bubble screen and quick pass. Good job!

Nuss looks like a big upgrade over Borges, but we won't really know until we play solid opponents and see if we can get week to week improvement. Under Borges we seemingly regressed each week. But I've got faith in Nuss until he proves me otherwise.

Last year Borges strategically gave Ohio little positive offensive play for film study thereby creating the element of surprise when we burst onto the field in our final regular season game. This gave us an opportunity to almost best them. Sure he lost us a few game we should have won and nearly got DG killed. This was a small price to pay for competitiveness in The Game!

Nuss's offense had more effective plays in the first game than Al's offense had all last season. Now our future opponents, including Ohio, can prepare to play a good team. This can't bode well! Fire Nuss!!

Coaching was good. I thought overall it was a good gameplan on both sides of the ball. The only call i wasn't crazy about was the draw play on 3rd and forever but thats about it. I liked that the offense was vanilla don't want to show to much and they didn't have to against this inferior opponent.

why are our special teams so lousy? Seriously. it seems since practicegate we've been simply terrible on our own returns and defending the kick return

Hoke wasn't wearing his Beats by Dre audio receivers.

thought it was good overall!