October 25th, 2008 at 10:21 PM ^
October 25th, 2008 at 10:41 PM ^
Threet sucks. There is no way around it. But I can't really hate on the guy too much because he is in a shitty situation. When he transferred to Michigan he had no idea he would become the starter as a redshirt freshmen and run a completely new offense. He's in a bad spot, for sure. It could be worse though. Could you imagine if he never transferred here in the first place? Sheridan and Cone would be our QB's.
October 25th, 2008 at 10:46 PM ^
and I might not recall correctly cause i was vomitting up some bad lunch most of the 2nd half, Stonum dropped an accurate pass in the endzone with 2 minutes left.
Threet is wildly inconsistent, and it seems that whenever he does make an accurate throw, his receivers drop them.
Watching pregame warmups today, when they were doing passing drills, there was only one completion out of 10 throws, each one of those throws hit the receivers' hands. That one completion would have been knocked away or intercepted in game because the receiver bobbled it.
I doubt Forcier or Beaver would do any better in this situation. Hell, even if we had Pryor, he probably wouldn't have done well with this supporting cast.
October 26th, 2008 at 1:36 AM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 1:49 AM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 11:46 AM ^
October 25th, 2008 at 11:12 PM ^
The biggest problem that I noticed with Threet was that he picks out his receiver before the snap and watches them until he passes. That is why corners were able to jump the pass and safeties were able to find the target, which made it seem like he was always throwing into double coverage. He was constantly getting reemed by RR because he wasn't seeing the open receiver because he wasn't looking at all of his receivers.
This is the type of play that you might expect out of a Freshman. A sophomore looks at all of his options. A Junior/Senior will stop looking at his target so the safeties don't know where he is throwing and then look back when he is ready to throw. Tate might be able to thread the ball into a tight seam, but don't expect him to be much better at watching his receivers.
October 25th, 2008 at 11:18 PM ^
Threet is a redshirt freshman and has a banged up throwing elbow; cmon people, really, what are your expectations? Don't be too quick to assume that Beaver or Forcier will start next year; Threet will have an invaluable year of running this offense and is a gamer. He just doesn't have a Braylon or Marquise Walker to save him (Henne and Navarre respectively).
With that being said, Threet does seem to have mechanical issues in which some people claim has been around since his high school days and is a recurring problem. Hopefully this can get fixed.
October 26th, 2008 at 1:25 AM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 10:45 AM ^
The guy has had health problems and problems reading the defense in live games. The health could probably be fixed by giving the elbow time to heal and strengthening it up. Reading the defense is something you learn through experience. Same thing with staring down receivers. I just don't see how you can assume he won't be better next year.
Forcier and Beaver could have the exact same problems next year. They too will be inexperienced freshmen.
October 26th, 2008 at 12:16 AM ^
Ask yourself where we'd be without him? Cone or Sheridan. Threet's a damn hero at this point. Just saying
October 26th, 2008 at 12:31 AM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 12:51 AM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 1:24 AM ^
I would bet that Forcier and Beaver would both throw first, then run. Having a QB like Pat White limits the offense. If they can have a 4th option in the option read to have the receivers go down field, that will open up the other 3 options a lot more.
I don't think the QB coach is going to help with mechanics as much as he probably should. They are probably concentrating on teaching Threet on how to make the right play call and how to run more than how to pass at this point. I doubt we see much improvement in this area.
October 26th, 2008 at 12:56 AM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 1:26 AM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 1:34 AM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 2:09 AM ^
Threet has been dealt a terrible hand. There isn't a single thing that this offense can lean on when it gets into a spot.
We have never had an OL that is this inexperienced. Our best OL hasn't takn a snap this year due to injury (Zirbel). Our second best (Shilling) was the worst OL on a very bad OL last year (Jake was a god, but everyone else was not -- think that picture Brian posted after the OSU game where EVERY DL was in the backfield).
We are starting extremely green WRs and until PSU, our starting RB was a true freshman. And when Threet drops back to pass, he needs to be very aware of the pass rush because our OL can't sustain blocks well. Add to the mix that Threet is a freshman. When situations get tight he can't handoff to Hart an have him run behind Jake. He can't throw a jump ball to Braylon.
he is a green QB without a safety net. Any expectation of something more is folly. And the kid is nursing a banged up elbow that has appears to have taken some velocity off of his throws.
Passing judgement on his at this point is foolish at best. There are so many other things that need to get fixed before a fair analysis of his performance can be conducted.
October 26th, 2008 at 4:41 AM ^
Out of high school, Threet signed with GT only to have them change to a Triple Option system for which he was horribly ill-suited. So, the kid decided that he's going to come back to Michigan and take on one of the top quarterback rectuits in the country who everyone assume is going to be the heir apparent in Ryan Mallett. That takes gutes. Once he gets up here, already expecting an uphill battle, he finds out that once again, his school has hired a new coach and will, once again, implament an offense for which he is not ideal. Then, after learning that offense, he gets passed over by a walk on to start the season.
Threet, however, kept working hard, learned another offense, won the starting position, learned to make the reads, and has steadily been improving despite <i>two</i> bad elbows. Yeah, he has accuracy issues. Yeah, he stares down his intended target from the snap. Yeah, he has trouble stepping up into the pocket whie staying on his feet. But, not only has the kid not said a peep about the shit situation he was put into, he has responded by putting his shoulder down at the end of every run, improving his screens and swing passes, taking licks behind an awful o-line, and putting faith in his young recievers even after dozens of drops.
He is one of my favorite 2008 Wolverines.
October 26th, 2008 at 9:16 AM ^
Excellent post.
Quick correction, though - Paul Johnson and his triple-option didn't show up until this off-season, when Threet had already been up here for a redshirt year. When he left, GT was running a pro-style offense.
But yes - Threet is actually favorite player on the team as well. He has obvious issues at this point (accuracy, staring down receivers, etc.), but the kid has balls. He demonstrably plays hard, and plays injured. Most kids, with shit falling down all around him, as it has tended to do this year, would, at some point, let the frustration get the better of them - they'd start pointing fingers, however briefly, at a lineman for missing a block, or bitch out a receiver on the sideline for one of their frequent drops. Threet has kept his mouth shut, and has been nothing but a leader.
October 26th, 2008 at 9:41 AM ^
Does anyone really believe that if Threet is the QB next year, we will really be that much better? This is looking more and more like a longer rebuilding process than anyone hoped. And no matter what coach R says, this system needs a certain type of QB (like the OSU, Penn St., or Illinois QBs).
Thus, we can look forward to next year and Beaver or Forcier. The problem there is that both of those guys will be freshman. Thus, another bad year with Threet alternating with one of those guys. Maybe hope for a good offense in two years.
And the hope for a defense that saves us until the offense improves? That seems to have gone down the drain. Scott S. even admitted he was outcoached by Illinois and the Zook crew. If that isn't reason to be worried, what is?
I have really tried to be optimistic about this group, but reality intrudes.
Maybe someone can convince me I am being too negative?
And the thought of a smug Dantonio, man that is hard to swallow. That guy is a complete moron, and now we have let him be king for the year. The only good news: the win probably guarantees he will be around for a long time, and if we do get better, he will be a good punching bag.
October 26th, 2008 at 11:04 AM ^
but, my current line of thinking has to do more with the Smart Football post on RR's route calling. Like Brian, I also want to see if there is rhyme or reason to the particular routes we run on most passing plays. One would think there are check downs on every play, but not always is Threet looking at 2nd or 3rd options. Take the final 4th down play last night. You can't tell me on 4th & 6 (iirc) there wasnt some sort of shorter route for a first down instead of only a fly/fade/flag route in double coverage deep. Threet had some success checking down early in the season, but lately it appears he is trying too hard to be the game breaker himself.
Again, I put most of this on inexperience. Threet will watch plenty of tape over the next offseason and focus on quite a few of his flaws. And of course the supporting OL and WRs have done meh in times that Threet has needed their help. Most of that appears to be inexperience as well. Hopefully most of that gets worked out over the offseason.
Defense I can't figure out at all. Part of that has to do with the poor linebacking and secondary play. My uneducated view suggests the majority of our original starters (Trent, Brown, Harrison) are better in defending the run than the pass. I see all three of them constantly assisting in tackles near the LOS, but their coverage weakens due to their aggressive nature against the run. I have not lost so much confidence in Warren. I never really thought he was going to be OMG SHUTDOWN!, but he's played decently and is having to play much harder due to the weaknesses of the safeties. Th LBs on the other hand are total hit or miss... both figuratively and physically. Until they become more consistent, I don't know what to think.
I think next year should work out much better. I mean its not like it could get much worse. I refuse to start projecting for next year this early. It'd be pointless.
October 26th, 2008 at 12:00 PM ^
I actually believe that if Threet is QB next year, we will be that much better. Toward the end of the game, some one told the MSU DBs that if they watch Threet from the start of the play, he will tell them what is happening on that play. That will get fixed this off season. Threet will learn to check down. 1 is covered, 2 is covered, 3 is covered, run. Or 1 is covered, 2 is open, pass.
Shafer was taking credit for this players' mistakes. He cannot tackle Juice from the box when the LBs bite on the run up the gut or Benn when the DBs continuously leave him wide open. Give the coaching staff some time to get some players who can play their systems.
Dantonio is a mediocre coach at best. We should have fun with him in the future.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:35 PM ^
Having a flexible system is a benefit. It lets you put the offense on the field that maximizes your strengths and minimizes the weaknesses. So if the quarterback can't throw over 15 yards, you throw lots of screens, slants, that kind of stuff. Look at how well that silly QB veer works. If your receivers are stone hands, throw screens and outs to RBs out of the backfield.
As Juice so obviously pointed out to us, you don't have to use your talents, faking to them is enough. So fake a hand off and hit a slant, or fake a slant and hand off. Keep the defense guessing. You don't have to have dominate players at any position as long as you have decent skill at a variety of positions to keep them off balance.
Another year and Threet will be able to read defenses and decide what's the right thing to do. We'll have decent enough backs that defenses will need to respect that. If the O-line can give him a couple seconds to figure out who's open, he'll do much better.
October 26th, 2008 at 10:45 AM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 10:53 AM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 11:56 AM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 12:18 PM ^
October 27th, 2008 at 1:25 PM ^
You play behind that line, and tell me what read you're going to make.
Exactly.
October 26th, 2008 at 12:26 PM ^
Shafer was taking credit for this players' mistakes. He cannot tackle Juice from the box when the LBs bite on the run up the gut or Benn when the DBs continuously leave him wide open. Give the coaching staff some time to get some players who can play their systems.
So we have worse defensive personnel than Minnesota (which held Illinois to 20 points), Wisconsin (held Ill to 17 pts) or even Louisiana-Monroe (20 points)?
Purdue held PSU to 20 points. Do we have that much worse personnel than them?
Iowa held MSU to 16 points. Are we that much less-talented than them?
In six games against non-MAC opposition, we are giving up 35.2 points per game. It's one thing to say that our offense isn't capable of performing better than it is, but it's just ridiculous to say the same about the defense.
October 26th, 2008 at 3:22 PM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 12:43 PM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 1:04 PM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 3:53 PM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 1:14 PM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 1:14 PM ^