Two Notes from Bama-Clemson
Two glaring things stuck out during last night's CFP semi-final:
1. To be a non-Bama contender, you must have elite quarterback play. The difference between this year's game and last's year's Bama-Clemson shootout was Deshaun Watson. Kelly Bryant is pretty good, but not elite. So Bama could stuff the box and jam the receivers. . . game over. The number one priority for Michigan, then, is to get elite QB play and until this happens we will not really contend. Yes, this is more important than a better O-Line (which I think we can anticipate) -- QB play affects everything offensively. Clemson has an excellent O-Line, but with average QB play they could not score on Bama.
Fortunatey, we have lots of young talent and Harbaugh is not likely to whiff on them all. So whoever has the moxie, the arm, and the brain should start next year, whether it's Shea or Joe Milton or Dylan McCaffery. (As an aside, notice how many of the qb's who played last night started as freshmen. It's not about youth, but talent.) (As another aside, does anybody think Patterson would have slid short of the first down late in the fourth quarter? Our dudes will have noticed.)
2. Neither Saban nor Swinney seemed all that buddy-buddy with their coaching staffs, at least during the game. Here's to Jim cutting to the chase to pursue real excellence. (I think we can count on him to do this very thing.) A family environment really is great, but shaking things up has a tendency to clear peoples' minds.
Heads up, boys! Things are never as bad as they seem when you are down. This loss may be just the thing to drive us to a championship. In the meantime, we all suffer at work together today.
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:32 PM ^
UCF just convinvingly beat #7 Auburn, a team that beat both Alabama and Georgia, enroute to 13-0. Do you think they have ever come close to recruiting the #12 class in the nation (via 247 composite)?
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:47 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:34 PM ^
Got to start winning first. Harbaugh has given recruits no real reason as to why they should consider UM before considering the likes of OSU, PSU, Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, USC, or any of the other big-wigs out there.
If I'm a top recruit with aspirations of playing on Sunday (and especially if I play on the offensive side of the ball), and I hold no prior allegiances, I have no idea why I should even consider Michigan right now. All I see is a team with no offensive identity and an OL which looks like a turnstile and gets it's QBs killed.
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:03 PM ^
Michigan has recruited nationally for decades, decades and pulled great players out of every state to play for it. Michigan put how many guys in the NFL last year? The most in last year's draft of any school.
And Harbaugh just got a transfer from an SEC school who was a five star prospect in high school. And that is his third qb transfer in as many seasons to help deal with the shortfall in qb talent he has dealt with in qb rotation since his arrival.
Peters is his first qb recruit to start and he was basically thrust behind a makeshift line again because of recruitng issues that preceded Harbaugh's administration.
Harbaugh has done much as any coach nationally to raise the profile of the school and the academic strength and cultural values of a Michigan education, and that goes beyond "Signing of the Stars," recruit sleepovers. satellite camps and clinics.
He targets kids in the primary states where quality football players are now found: ih the Sunbelt. This criticism of giving kids no real reason to attend Michigan is just utter bullshit. If anything, he's made the program a pariah in the game based on his efforts doing just the opposite, hence the harsh criticism for not succeeding as quickly as others believe he ought to be.
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:00 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 10:13 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:22 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:36 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:47 PM ^
We're not.
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:53 PM ^
I'd take Lewerke and Felton Davis over any QB/WR tandem on our team in a heartbeat, and the only thing keeping me from including LJ Scott is that he's had problems fumbling.
For fuck's sake, Davis has 9 TD receptions all by himself, which equals the ENTIRE Michigan team production for receiving TDs.
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:23 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:27 PM ^
over Soph. DPJ and soph. Tarick Black. And I don't think you would either.
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:19 PM ^
you just witnessed where Michigan stands as a program in the game: perhaps the top draw with Notre Dame. It's not Alabama and Clemson. Those schools never put the same number of fannies in the seats that Michigan does or the eyeballs that regularly watch their games.
Michigan has risen quite dramaticaly in program value under Harbaugh. And if you don't get that, then you don't follow the game very well.
Michigan-Ohio State was Fox's all-time college football ratings broadcast. This year's game, And it had no bearing on anything except the rivalry itself. Michigan-Indiana led the weekend slate of college football rstings that October Saturday it was played in Bloomington. Michigan is the perennial leader in home attendance fpr decades. Npne of this has changed in spite of Michigan's record from year to year since the Schembechler period began in 1969.
Michigan and Notre Dame will be a ratings bonanza for NBC next September. No wonder, NBC will make it prime time.
Why do you think Michigan got a New Year's Day game instead of a lesser bowl with a four-loss season? Why did it play on New Year's Day instead of MSU which got shunted to the West Coast for the Holiday Bowl? Because the school is one of the most popular in college football and would draw a huge audience, far greater than any MSU would draw.
In the end, people are attached to the school's they root for regardless of their coach's record aganst them. And they follow that school regardless.
January 2nd, 2018 at 7:04 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:22 PM ^
I have to admit I got a really good chuckle out of you saying that our OL should be better going forward. I swear I heard that in this past offseason. And the one before that. And the one before that. In fact I think I've heard that every year since 2012.
What tangible evidence do you have to assume this OL will be any better against non-creampuffs next year? Without Cole coming back I wouldn't even be surprised if they got worse. And for those of you who say that it can't get any worse, trust me: it can ALWAYS get worse.
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:27 PM ^
We need a coherent offense system--and ONE offensive playcaller. The double-headed PepDrev monster must be put to rest. Get a real wide receiver coach. The gulf isn't that wide--happily it is coaching not a lack of talent. A quick turnaround is possible.
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:19 PM ^
Completely agree -- I wish we would talk more about this. I seem to recall from the end of Harbaugh's tenure at SF that the play calling between him and Roman was especially problematic and at times glacial (causing delay of game calls).
During last night's game, Oklahoma's head coach called the entire game and pushed Georgia's top-ranked defense to it's limits. It was apparent that the speed of play-calling was impacting Georgia's ability to line up/change personnel at times. Of course, having a 5th year senior (Mayfield) execute quickly is important, but sometimes we need a little bit of tempo.
I understand Harbaugh has almost always done his play-calling this way, but it really seems like it could lead to some choppy and non-sequitor drives. Hence, the first 4 games of the season in the red-zone.
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:29 PM ^
Yes. And the playcaller should be Jim Harbaugh. What we need is an OC who is a master at the kind of team we are built to be. Oh yeah -- that's our head coach! Enough with the team play calling.
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:27 PM ^
yesterday's OL was missing the starting LG and RT - from a line that wasn't all that great to begin with = then Kugler got injured
also missing Panda and our leading receiver Perry yesterday
and still, if Higdon doesn't fumble we probably win that game, but to be elite the QB play has to be better and the OL has to improve to help him
I feel a LG-C-RG trio of Bredeson, Ruiz and Onwenu can work - the big question of course will be the tackles
maybe Filiaga takes LG and Bredeson bumps out to RT
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:35 PM ^
WTH happened to Filiaga being a tackle? He was pimped as the most college ready tackle prospect the team would have, and there was significant hope for him being able to lock down the RT spot as a true freshman. Now he's a guard. WTH?
I mean, if he's no longer sized to be a tackle, or just isn't working out there, fine. I just thought he was a viable RT candidate...
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^
Why are you getting all worked up over a speculation?
January 2nd, 2018 at 5:45 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 10:19 PM ^
Not all worked up, sorry it sounded that way. He'll play on the line wherever he earns a spot. Just want to know...
January 2nd, 2018 at 8:34 PM ^
No he wasnt, this site was thinking Stueber was more likely to start as a freshman tackle than Filiaga, he has the most upside but he was considered a bit of a project.
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:48 PM ^
while true, from reading this and other sites there's some questions as to whether the RT will be asked back next year.
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:39 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:42 PM ^
Tarik Black was our best deep threat. It seemed like they weren't really running DPJ on deep routes too often.
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:52 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 12:51 PM ^
because he was gunshy from the Wiscy game when he: (1) dove headfirst near the goal line & coughed up a fumble that Wiscy recovered; and (2) was knocked out later in the game.
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:02 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:14 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 4:40 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:03 PM ^
"elite" is getting thrown around here a lot. On offense UM is a loooonnnngggg way from "elite." The D might be closer, or I thought so until I saw the semi final games...
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:05 PM ^
I don't think the QB comes ahead of the coaching. When a bad USC team admits after the game that they knew exactly where the plays were going and what routes the receivers were going to run, that tells me the biggest problem is the coaching. A better QB might have won yesterday's game because USC is terrible but against a good team, I don't care who the QB is - if a good team knows where your plays are going, it's over.
JH needs to check is ego and his loyalty and recognize that changes have to be made in his offensive staff. Don Brown was the best thing to happen to this team in a long time and it's time to find another Don Brown for the offensive side.
January 2nd, 2018 at 7:17 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 8:35 PM ^
Or it could mean that we couldn't call shit for plays because Brandon Peters is a headcase who got depressed when he was made 3rd string and hasn't learned the playbook for shit after two years. There's a reason he was behind Speight and worst-qb-in-america-okorn.
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:08 PM ^
gets the team trip to France this year. in fact just scrap the whole damn thing....enlightening the players on topics besides football might be a bad idea.
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:19 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 2:48 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:08 PM ^
then we are truly fucked.
It's been the single weakest spot since Harbaugh got here, and all we keep hearing is wait til he gets "his " guy. Good coaches don't just need "their guy" to run out something other than an offensive shit show.
The Offensive line have made minor improvements this year, yet 3 scholarship QBs, with Jim Harbaugh coaching them have been an embarassment.
Lets see the narratives thus far:
Morris: just a 2* masqurading as a 4-5*
Speight: inexplicably regressed because . . . reasons
Malzone: just couldn't cut it
Okorn: was Houston Mirage all along
Peters: was a recruiting mistake
Apparently only 5th year Iowa transfers have NFL talent.
Our recievers are young and the O-line is shaky. You need dercent play from all three PLUS coaching to have an effective passing game.
I'm not confident in the people in charge of any of the 3 position groups at this point.
January 2nd, 2018 at 8:38 PM ^
Speight was also a 3 star recruit by the worst qb recruiter of all time--al borges.
Good QBs arent available for transfer after two years so hope for okorn was minimal (o god shea is transferring after two years, i hope sanctions are the exception to the rule).
So this just means Harbaugh is 0/1 with Peters. Nobody is perfect at recruiting QBs, we just had the shit luck of having Harbaugh miss on the 1st attempt and not the 2nd or 3rd or 4th which would be fine because we'd have other bullets in the chamber.
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:18 PM ^
It will not be Joe Milton in 2018
January 2nd, 2018 at 2:52 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 1:44 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 2:04 PM ^
In the "dog house?" Enlighten us
January 2nd, 2018 at 8:42 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 3:07 PM ^
Jim no longer exhibits the competitive edge he had when he was younger. Thinking Michigan will change to become a contender is going to set many up for further disappointment. I'm not stating that Michigan will suck but that there isn't a culture at Michigan to dominate and I don't think there ever will be one.
January 2nd, 2018 at 3:41 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 3:22 PM ^
January 2nd, 2018 at 3:38 PM ^
you think Pac 12 > ACC?