Was the OL horrendous tonight or merely not as good as the DL?
August 16th, 2014 at 10:44 PM ^
Good lord.
August 17th, 2014 at 1:38 AM ^
New avatar to keep Funk honest. Will change it if the O line is even remotely coherent vs. ND.
August 16th, 2014 at 10:44 PM ^
The DL looks legit.
OL looks marginally better than last year. But needs a lot of improvement.
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August 17th, 2014 at 1:08 AM ^
ROCK ON DARRELL FUNK! EARN THAT PAYGRADE!
August 17th, 2014 at 1:29 AM ^
August 16th, 2014 at 10:45 PM ^
Left offensive tackle while playing DE
at the same time.
August 16th, 2014 at 10:49 PM ^
After reading the tweets, I have to ask, are you SURE he didn't do this?
August 16th, 2014 at 10:47 PM ^
August 16th, 2014 at 11:53 PM ^
I didn't think the decision was bad at all. The throw wasn't great, but i though Funchess could have put more effort to get to the ball.
August 16th, 2014 at 10:47 PM ^
I am interested to see what others say. My family and I went. I don't want to overreact, but I am certainly concerned about the offensive line after what I saw.
It just seems like they have no . . . push. I don't know. I am hoping everyone else says our defensive line is just that good. . .
August 16th, 2014 at 10:48 PM ^
August 16th, 2014 at 10:49 PM ^
Another question -- Were there any individual o-linemen who looked particularly good or bad? I get that the line as a whole struggled, but I'm curious about the individuals.
August 16th, 2014 at 10:53 PM ^
August 16th, 2014 at 11:08 PM ^
August 17th, 2014 at 12:31 AM ^
That's good to hear about Miller, because I wasn't impressed with him last year. I didn't get to watch the scrimmage tonight, so I appreciate the insight.
August 17th, 2014 at 12:46 AM ^
Kugler did not look very good unfortunately, I thought he had a much better Spring Game. He got beat reapeatedly (althoughto be fair, the guys next to him were awful, so its hard to tell live) and curiously had some trouble snapping the ball.
Miller looked decent. He had a really impressive play where he chipped the NT with one arm and moved quickly out to the LB on one of the longer runs that really stood out. He's probably never going to be the guy that manhandles a 300+lb NT by himself, but it is what it is at this point. He was also solid in pass pro.
August 16th, 2014 at 10:55 PM ^
From twitter/open thread sounded like no push as a group.
August 16th, 2014 at 10:50 PM ^
August 17th, 2014 at 4:57 AM ^
if you ever thought this team was capable of 10 wins.
August 16th, 2014 at 10:51 PM ^
I left much more concerned about the OL than I was heading in.
However, we would also be freaking out if the OL was dominating the DL.
Notes from the presser: Hoke wants to have the starting lineup in pen by Wednesday/Thursday.
Derrick Green is also the #1 RB, De'Veon 1A. However, none stood out tonight.
August 16th, 2014 at 10:53 PM ^
August 16th, 2014 at 10:54 PM ^
Funk needs to be replaced, we have done great in recruiting the talent but it seems like he cannot develop the players..Borges went first and Funk is up next
August 16th, 2014 at 10:57 PM ^
Something needs to occur. They can either decide that Rivals/Scout was horrifically wrong on every guy brought in, or that there might be a problem within the organization. I don't think I've ever seen such a dramatic regression.
August 16th, 2014 at 11:06 PM ^
I was hoping Coach Nuss would help make up for whatever it is Coach Funk may be lacking. I really just feel like I don't see any aggression from the offensive line. Is that really something that can/needs to be taught?
August 16th, 2014 at 11:22 PM ^
August 16th, 2014 at 11:57 PM ^
There has to be more to the story than just lack of reps, though. Cole came in and moved to the top of the depth chart in the spring before his freshman year. UM recruited a bunch of OG/OT swing players and it looks like pretty much all of them (Kalis, Bosch, Samuelson, Fox, etc.) have zero potential at OT. Where are the young studs? Where are the 2nd year players who are ready to start kicking tail, like many OL from UM's past?
August 17th, 2014 at 12:10 AM ^
August 17th, 2014 at 9:48 AM ^
they have 3 seniors and 5 juniors. I don't how many of these, if any, are walk-ons, and which of them are just practice cannon fodder. Knowing Saban, I would guess he doesn't keep much of the latter around very long.
August 17th, 2014 at 2:59 AM ^
Many of the top rated recruits were not listed by anyone as being college ready, especially at the tackle position. Noboday was thinking LTT or others would be able to come in and dominate in year two. The only real exception to that was Kalis. So if you want cause for concern it would be Kalis.
August 17th, 2014 at 8:07 AM ^
and I've said this a long time, the biggest indictment of Funk is the performances of the players he hasn't coached. You look at the oline the first year. Most of those players were players that were developed under a different staff and was by far the best o-line we had since Hoke came. The unit as a whole has regressed since they came with the exception of a few individuals. Those individuals are players that, again, received most of their coaching/development prior to Funk arriving (Lewan and Schofield).
Fast forward to now and you see a new freshman who has been coached and developed by a high school coach leap to the starting position at left tackle. Meanwhile we have guys who have been in this system for three years now being coached by funk, watching him leap frog them and wondering what the hell is going on.
We've been hearing the excuse for the past 2 season that the guys are just too young (which I'm not discounting as not being legitimate to a degree) and yet Cole comes in and as a freshman is our #1 option at LT. I know there are always exceptions too, but this doesn't seem like that. It seems like our best chance at putting a decent o-line on the field is fielding anyone who hasn't been cursed by funky touch of Funk.
I said most of last year that I believed the problem wasn't just Borges, but Funk as well and we only got rid of half the problem. The o-line will continue to struggle until Funk gets his walking papers.
August 17th, 2014 at 9:34 AM ^
when no players step up and then bitch when someone does stand out in the first year because, dammit, a guy who was a high school player last year got such superior coaching that he can start for Michigan. The players who you don't feel developed enough in a year or two here prove failure by the players somewhat but mainly the coaching staff. The guys who were first and third round NFL picks were good enough to be first and third round picks four years ago and didn't develop or if they developed a little bit, it was on their own despite the terrible coaching.
These players are busting their asses out there to represent Michigan. We have people calling them failures when most OL don't play until their fourth or fifth year. They have a new coach and a new system to learn. The OC had to evaluate these guys to see who the right players are. We still don't know who the final unit is but we are fairly certain a couple didn't play much last night. They were playing against a defensive line that knows the plays and we know the coaches aren't going to show everything in a open scrimmage. The coaches will pick the final line this week and actually let them play together for a couple weeks so they can gel as a unit. Can we at least support them for a couple of weeks before we start throwing them under the bus?
I thought this scrimmage was a good idea but listening to some posters on here, I'm not so sure. No one would have expected this line to look good at all going into the scrimmage yet some start this huge uproar to fire Funk already. Maybe we should wait to see what the coaches actually put on the field for a game.
August 17th, 2014 at 9:53 AM ^
I agree that overall Funk has yet to produce a solid entire OL unit, but to assert that the success of Lewan and Schofield is entirely attributable to two years under Frey and had nothing to do with three years under Funk is illogical.
August 17th, 2014 at 11:26 AM ^
And Schofield never played a snap for anyone but Funk. We're reaching for straws here.
August 16th, 2014 at 11:24 PM ^
Whatever Nuss's impact will be won't be known until the season starts. Play calling during scrimmages, particularly public ones is going to be beyond vanilla.
August 16th, 2014 at 11:58 PM ^
Which then leads to uber aggressive defense.
The point made earlier in the thread is most relevant here...if the defense was getting pwned we'd be freaking out a lot more.
August 17th, 2014 at 12:49 AM ^
You thought the point of tonight was Mattison deciding "Oh, Nuss won't show much. Let's drown him like a fat two year old"?
August 17th, 2014 at 12:54 AM ^
Yes, that's why Hoke wanted an open scrimmage. The point was to make Nuss, Funk, and the OL look like shit.
August 17th, 2014 at 1:14 AM ^
Accomplished!
August 17th, 2014 at 1:26 AM ^
I know you're not serious, but I do think it was intentional to throw a ton of pressure at the offense to get them more reps and help them learn to deal with it. They'll have all this on film and there will be lots of teaching moments they can pull from this and hopefully get things corrected.
August 17th, 2014 at 9:53 PM ^
I agree
August 16th, 2014 at 11:17 PM ^
Let's see how this season plays out before we run the guy out of town. We had a bad OL last year and lost our two best guys on it, no less. Meanwhile our DL is supposed to be very good. Given all that, should we have expected a strong performance by the OL in the middle of August?
FWIW, I thought it got a little better as the scrimmage went on. Let's see where we go from here.
August 16th, 2014 at 11:38 PM ^
Heck, let's give him a decade. Playing football is so darn complicated that he should get to groom multiple generations before he takes any liability for the performance of his players.
August 16th, 2014 at 11:44 PM ^
I'm just curious here. Were you calling for him to be fired after last season, or did you think he deserved another season but now have jumped ship, based on a scrimmage in mid-August?
August 16th, 2014 at 11:52 PM ^
As well as Borges they both should have been gone
August 16th, 2014 at 11:54 PM ^
Funk? Yeah, last season. Wasn't even that big of a secret. Read HTTV if you need affirmation on why I felt that way.
August 16th, 2014 at 11:58 PM ^
If that was your take, OK, I can't say we saw anything tonight that would have changed your mind. But I also don't think it was fair to expect to see much different tonight.
August 17th, 2014 at 12:03 AM ^
When is it?
August 17th, 2014 at 12:14 AM ^
If the OL is still a mess at season's end, I think he can be shown the door.
I just don't think August is the best time to evaluate an OL.