just what the Pistons need: a third string center. Joe Dumars was replaced by a mean ol' alien a few years back you guys.
Blue in Seattle
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| Date | Title | Body |
|---|---|---|
| 2 days 3 hours ago | Poor offensive line play |
who doesn't have a problem scheming around this? How different would 2009 have been if Molk had played the entire season? No one can adjust to a defense if your entire offensive team cannot execute enough plays to punish a cheating defense. As well as Gardner had performed as a QB last year, he still did not have the range of plays perfected as much as Denard had. A big point in the MGoBlog interview with Borges was his point that three and out doesn't give you any chance to show off even a narror range. And if the defense has figure out how to shutdown the successful part of a narrow range, there really isn't much you can call with success. I'm excited for this coming season to see what Borge's system can do, because until next season, he's been playing with other people's resources. I think it will also be a season of more pass plays than run plays, because the interior offensive line is young.
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| 4 weeks 7 hours ago | I will never understand it |
Unless you know the plays he's calling, and know exactly how well each of 11 players executed their assignment each time, there is now way you can make the statement "We all know that Al made some questionable decisions". You can't know that unless you are on the coaching staff. But the amazing part is how you use the awesome athleticism of the players take the blame for the "questionable decisions" by the coaches. The reason Coordinator salaries are on the rise is because they put in 20 hours a day planning for a game all week, and then get to read completely uninformed criticism of them afterwards, usually completely independent of the result of the game. I don't mind analyzing a play and figuring out how it should have worked, or how it didn't exploit the weakness of the defense that was called, etc. Afterall, there is still a bunch of coaches and players on the other side, who have worked just as hard at figuring out how to exploit weakness of their opponent. The reason I watch the game is because, after all of that almost equal preparation, the final outcome is a result of team effort and luck on each and every play. And that's why they play the game. |
| 7 weeks 6 days ago | thus the price increase |
Clearly the ticket price is too low if you think people will buy season tickets and then not show up at all because it's "GA". My freshman year (1985) I had season tickets. My roomate grew up in Ann Arbor and taught me the tradition at the time for the student section. It pretty much was "show up early because the students don't care what seat number they get, and the ushers will only enforce the sections, and really only for sections NOT in the end zone, which you Freshman are not in." Of course, in 1985 the tickets were separate, not in a book, and if you didn't want to go to a specific game you just had to sell your ticket to the guy in Mosher Jordan cafeteria who had the job of swiping your card for breakfast. He then went to the stadium early and sold the student tickets to fans who didn't care about sitting in the student section of the end zone and in general probably paid less than regular ticket price anyway. They also pretty much understood that they had scalped a student ticket and went along with whatever was happening. Although once, a guy had brought his 10-12 year old son with him, had bought scalped student tickets, and then attmepted to get the usher to kick out students who were in "his seats". Since the rule that was never followed on student tickets was that you had to bring your Student ID to the game to prove you could use the ticket, someone started shouting "Student ID" and pointing at the man trying to sit down. Quickly this built into over 200 people all pointing in the same direction and chanting "ID, ID, ID" until the usher shrugged his shoulders pointed to an open area of bench and then left. I also remember being taught "the wave", and over my time as a student fan, my observation of starting the wave was that success was much more likely if it started in the student corner, and then went clockwise through the visitor section. Going the other way usually was watching it die right at that spot near the 50 yard line where the old timers had been sitting for decades. They'd do it if they could see the opposite side of the stadium standup, but couldn't be bothered at anything coming from the students. Ahh the Bo Days.
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| 8 weeks 11 hours ago | I am confused. |
Sometimes Brian, I can't tell what you are for and what you are against. This is one of those times. Are you for or against these new, potentially unbalanced divisions? I thought you were against the previously balanced but geographically illogical ones. Now I just can't tell, the angst is at constanct saturation. Then after mocking everything done in football, you propose a way out there idea for basketball and conclude with, "hey let's just try it out". Odd when you were pretty intolerant to what they tried out in balancing the football divisions (my analysis of W/L records since PSU joined the Big Ten pretty much ended up with the Leaders and Legends divisions the "suits" selected). Overall team sports are spectator sports that are most enjoyed when you attend the games in person, with many other people dressed in the same colors and shouting the same things at the same time. It is a social and psychological effect that cannot be reproduced staring at streaming video on your computer. This means I want as many home games as is possible and fair for Michigan. Even when I'm not in attendance, I enjoy the game more watching while fans I envy are there cheering, despite staring at a screen. The regular season championship does have importance, but it does seem diluted when 4 out of 12 teams claim the same banner. Yes I would love to watch IU, MSU, OSU and Michigan fight it out at the end of the season for a champtionship. I thought that is what the tournament does? Gives me more games of the best teams. Why can't we find the top 7 or 8 teams by taking the top three to four from each division? How is that not fair? How is it even different from your complicated proposal that doesn't allow anyone to plan a league schedule, and doesn't entice me to buy season tickets since I don't know when the home games are, or mayne this is the year the "balance" sucks? Also thanks for the generic and prejudiced lawyer bashing, that was a nice additional seasoning to the entire opinionated tantrum.
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| 13 weeks 7 hours ago | That fits Hoke's MO |
Hoke always emphasizes experience, technique and seniority. He puts Leadership on all Seniors, and stresses that a senior's last season is special, and they take priority. So having the upper classman get a chance first fits in. Of course Hoke also demonstrates that when a starter isn't getting the job done, it's time to send in the next guy. It also seems like the spring practices have a lot more equal time assessment, and an emphasis of capturing things on film. From there it's on each player to review their film and work on things through the summer until fall camp begins. So Spring is a time for learning and setting benchmarks, not for final starting lineup decisions. Overall I'm more interested to hear about the players recovering from injuries and gauging their recovery progress than who's practicing with the ones and twos.
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| 13 weeks 3 days ago | To the "Glass Half Empty" crowd... |
...who think he's leaving anytime soon.
I think he coaches until he just physically can't do it anymore. Based on Demens comments that Mattison is "25 years old at heart", I think that could be quite a long time. |
| 13 weeks 4 days ago | Does everyone realize... |
That Debord was the OC for the 1997 National Championship season? When Debord came back, things got predictable and boring, but I think a lot of that was on Carr as well as Debord. Actually looking up the OC's during the Lloyd Carr tenure you have, Fred Jackson 1995-1996 Mike Debord 1997-1999 Stan Parrish 2000-2001 Terry Malone 2002-2005 Mike Debord 2006-2007 And through all of that was Lloyd Carr. I think too much blame goes on the OC when the offense fails. The OC does come up with the play sets, and sends calls in, but the Head Coach really dictates the overall plan and strategy (players recruited), and the OC has to work within that. I remember quotes from Hoke that he told Al Borges to simplify everything for the MSU game this past season. The offense was pretty boring that game, but certainly had fewer interceptions than the previous games Al had Denard winging it around. Incidentally, Greg Mattison started his DC stint in 1995-1996 in parallel with Fred. The offenses those two years weren't that consistant or exciting. Except when Biakabutuka went run crasy against Ohio in 1995, but what else could you expect from Fred? I think Greg and Al is a much more exciting combo than Greg and Fred as coordinators.
I dont' think Hoke is a boring coach overall. Many times he and Greg have said the job of the offense is to keep the defense off the field. Hoke, unlike Carr, takes a risk, and doesn't like to hold ground and hope the defense gets the ball back. And I'm pretty sure everyone thought it was pretty exciting watching Denard run the ball. So very confused on why no one wants Hoke to run the ball? |
| 13 weeks 4 days ago | Alabama is one dimensional? |
Hoke isn't saying Michigan will be one dimensional. He's saying Michigan will be run first, pass off play action. This is the first time we get to see his talent run what he has always planned to run. If you think about the Rich Rodriguez offense, it also was a run first offense. The only reason to throw a bubble screen was because the defense will eventually cheat in the safety or OLBs. Hoke's run first is in the complexity of blocking to gain the man to man advantage, not the decision of the QB to run or hand off. But both offenses want to run until the defense cheats people in, and then throw. There is less risk in running versus passing, so most teams adopt a run first mentality. The NFL is where run first has become the lesser tried approach, and when the pundits say "the spread won't work in the NFL" they should actually be saying "the read option run" because almost every NFL team that passes first also spreads the field. Considering the NFL is presently all about the mega god Tight End, and so is Michigan is what makes me excited about the offense next season. |
| 13 weeks 5 days ago | plus it is practice time |
The one thing I've noticed about Hoke, especially in the spring, is that everything is practice, nothing is performance. He puts players in odd/new positions to try things out. Also he seems really intent on getting stuff on film for later review by the players, so he cycles through a lot of formations in addition to the player swaps. I expect 2014 is the first year he could do a true scrimmage for the spring game. But that won't change the rest of the practice time being "all business". the only aspects he can't hide are which players are still injured too much to participate. And if one of your assistant coaches has a son on the team, I'm pretty sure he's going to get mentioned and it will be positive spin fluff. and it's like Russel Bellomy has left the team, at least in the fans minds. I think he is a key guy to watch in spring practice to at least see if he's shaken off his "shell shock" injury from Nebraska.
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| 14 weeks 5 days ago | damned if you do, |
damned if you don't. I enjoy this GIF content. When it loaded automatically before I didn't have a problem and kind of liked that eventually they all loaded and I just had to scroll up and down to watch each one, kind of like, "hey there's a little wait to get it going, but then it's all pretty cool". Since the "One Frame at a Time" let's you know it's a Gif a Palooza there was control as an end user. Reading a few of the comments about making them video clips doesn't make much sense to me, they are too short to really need sound, or be an adequate "sit back and watch the highlights" which of course are in multiple places also. Having them in the shadow boxes gives even more control, that I don't think was necessary, but does provide control so I understood that. Guess Haters gonna Hate. And also, I pronounce GIF with a hard G since using the soft J sounds makes it sound like I'm watching a crappy peanut butter. And yes I understand Bob Berry wanted people to pronounce it JIF, LINK Hard sounds are easier to hear, which is probably why it is J-Peg and not J-Pheg. Anyway, I guess I don't agree with Strong Bad either on this issue. lighten up people, it's a free digital newspaper fergodsakes! |
| 15 weeks 6 days ago | Endurance is the Walsh Key |
The Key ingredient for Walsh was endurance, or more specifically the ability to run at top speed through the entire route and for every route run during the game. For a receiver to be a threat on each and every play, they have to run their route at top speed for the entire length of the route, so for deep threats 20-30 yards worth each play. Jerry Rice had an insane work ethic, and even other NFL players who attempted to work out with him would admit defeat. So think about running 20 yard sprints 40-60 times during a full game and maintaining the same speed such that the timing of the QB is always on target. Woodson made most of his interceptions because he would allow the receivers to get open a little, and then had the instinct and athletic ability to close down that opening once the QB threw the ball. A receiver who runs fast in the first part of his route and then slows down creates that same kind of dangerous interception opportunity. He burns the guys he's covering, who then sprints as fast as possible to catch up, just when the receiver is slowing down because he thinks his job is over. My summation of what Hoke wants from every player on his team is effort and precision. Athletic ability is definitely something they want to select, but you can't coach god given talent, you can't coach height and speed. You can coach precision and technique, and given a player with slightly less talent, but a highly coachable attitude and elite work ethic, Hoke will pick the work ethic every time. I bet that Gallon has that Jerry Rice like work ethic, and the comments from Denard and Devin indicate that he is a go to guy because you can rely on him. While it's likely that Gallon will get the #21 jersey, I really think, at least for the short term, he is the only player who has the in air dexterity that reminds you of Anthony Carter, and he should be wearing the #1 jersey. But then again, I grew up on Michigan football with my dad screaming at the TV on 3rd down, "Throw it to Carter" so I'm pretty biased. So yeah, look for speed and height, cause duh, but those god given talents can't make up for lack of effort and precision. |
| 16 weeks 8 hours ago | Agree on LeVert |
without looking it up to be sure, it seemed like he played his most minutes in that game as well. I also like the short time of double point guards (Burke AND Albrecht) that was out there. My subjective impression of this game was that Beilein had the expected lineup in the beginning, but then began to put in players who must have showed something during the practices since PSU. Stauskas was particularly absent during the first half where Michigan came back to even the score. I think Stauskas has it tought because he's been targeted as an offensive threat and a defensive weakness in the opposing teams game planning. LeVert adds another hoop driving threat, |
| 19 weeks 6 days ago | Agree strongly |
I think the excellent play of McGary is not just his talent and growth to this point, but also his coach putting him in situations where he can succeed. Morgan has learned so much more of Beileins system, and basketball is so fluid, that I think it's likely we don't notice how the system is more limited with McGary. That said, it's clear game by game that the freshman are improving acroos the board. And the more teams shut down Burke, the more the rest of the team responds. I love that Brian/Ace are trying to keep himself from getting high expectations, but statistics are really better at predictions when things stay static. This team is growing rapidly because it is so young and because it is so well coached.
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| 20 weeks 5 days ago | Always been the differential |
With every game ever invented, the person who wins is the one who scores the most. Being more offensive always is what the final result is judged on. Saying "defense wins championships" is just the equal statement to the double negative "lack of offense loses championships". The cliche has been crap since the first time it was uttered. It gains momentum because sports writers have to write about something, and interest is generated by taking opposing view points whether they are justified or not. The most memorable anecdotal situation that demonstrates this in my memory is the Patriots versus Rams super bowl. This super bowl put a team with a stronger defense than offense (Tom Brady ended up the starter when Bledsoe was injured and out for the year) against a team with a stronger offense than defense. The game started out strong for the Patriots are they defense was able to blank the Rams offense, and even generate points (at least one pick six in my memory without googling it.) The Patriots always had a excellent field position in the beginning of the game, and the Patriots offense conservatively managed the ball, and put up more points. BUT, eventually the defense was wearing down, and the Rams offense got on a hot streak. The Patriots offense had now response, and with less than two minutes (maybe even less than one minute) left the Patriots got the ball with the game tied. John Madden made the cliche statement that every announcer makes when a team has the ball deep in their end. As he was saying, "the Patriots will clearly take a knee here and go into overtime" Brady drops back to pass, and through a series of quick short passes to the sidelines, he was able to get Vinatieri into range (which of course is like 55 yards even in snow) and the Patriots Offense won the game. Belichek knew that this was his best shot. Going to overtime was a 50/50 chance of getting the ball first in the exact same position. His defense was not going to hold up, because it hadn't held up for the remainder of the second half, and certainly not at all in the 4th quarter. Another anecdote very similar is of course the 2011 Michigan - ND game. And in that game the programmed announcer response was that "clearly the coach is going to take the safe play". And yet in a decision of offensive bravado, Hoke took his shot, and the rest is Denard to Roundtree history. Offensive game winning history. I think the analysis shows that Michigan is a young team with a lot of talent. That youth has a red flag on it's defensive skill, which is something that gets better with hard work and time together as a team. I don't think this article is pointing out anything John Beilein didn't already now when he recruited these players. But every game they play is another game they get better at Defense, and everyone except Trey Burke gets better at offense. ( I mean really, how much better can Burke get? Nebraska had to triple team him to take him out of the game, and OSU is the only team with the defensive skill to take him out with double teams). Yes statistics are great for predicting what is likely to happen to a population in general and with enough data points and over a long period of time. But each event is it's own unique probability. And that's why they play the game. |
| 21 weeks 5 days ago | Twitter as email/text |
While I have adopted new technology at a greater pace than my years would suggest, I still haven't found any value from Twitter. As a product manager for mobile software products it is interesting to me that the twenty somethings and below have picked it up as a replacement/parallel addition to texting and email. A typical not famous teen is basically only being followed by their "true" friends. So I don't think any of these kids entering college realize what can happen when they are a celebrity, and suddenly the entire world has access to them, and it is access they have freely given to the entire spectrum of public opinion. But I do love this quote from the article the most, especially since it's from a teammate,
emphasis mine. And think what a great thing it is to be a part of something that is, The Team. I really hope that college basketball players start to realize the value college as a place where they can take the time to learn and grow before the big responsbilities of the world hit them in the face, and they are all alone. Because once you are making millions of dollars a year, who really is your friend? |
| 22 weeks 6 days ago | Dampen the bi-polar response |
Ok acts had multiple talents that can be replaced from multiple players. His lack of speed is definitely being replaced. Ok acts biggest strength was his leadership of the defense. That doesn't need to be replaced by a young safety. Also the returning players will now be in the third year of Mattison's coaching, which mitigates the quick learning of Kovacs. I'm not saying Kovacs wasn't a wonderful player. What I'm saying is that he's not the only player in the universe. Clearly the coaches can coach, they extract amazing results from average talent (Floyd). It is true the secondary will be the least experienced of the three groups, but holy crap the DL is stacked, and the LB corp is competitive deep and talented, so even if youthful mistakes increase slightly, there is going to be an increase in other wow moments. But Brian wouldn't be Brian if he didn't hang on to gloom and doubt as long as possible. Plus something has to counteract the euphoria of the basketball season. |
| 23 weeks 4 days ago | Fred Jackson would have to retire |
Looking up the wikipedia on Erik Campbell, he has coached running backs, WR's, and punt returners. Looking at the present list, Michigan has the maximum allowed amount of Assistant coaches (9) with two graduate assistants. The coach most likely to move on I would guess is Fred. I did not remember that Lloyd Carr had named Erik Camppbell as the Assistant Head Coach. Maybe he was one of the guys potentially being groomed for HC, or is that a way to give a guy a raise? What is interesting now, since it seems he's leaving Iowa (whether on his own or not) is this article from the Daily Iowan, discussing not if he should stay or not, but whether he should become the OC or stay the WR coach. Point/counterpoint: Should Erik Campbell be named Iowa's offensive coordinator? Campbell was hired the same time as Hoke, by Moeller in 1995; Moeller adds Campbell, Hoke to Fill Vacancies on Football Staff From that Michigan Daily article, it's clear that the phrase Tremendous did not start with Hoke;
(emphasis mine)
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| 23 weeks 5 days ago | no he loses to Ojemudia |
Ojemudia was in the game, and had at least one good play, either a TFL or at least a short yargdage stop, can't remember if it was the QB scrambling or the RB. The other two sacks I think came from having Jibreel Black on the field. So the questions in spring are really, who replaces Roh, cause I'm not sure if he ever came out in rotation. Will Jibreel bulk up further to be the 3 tech 1st string replacing Will Campbell? I think 1-tech becomes a battle for starter between QWash and PeeWee, but they are the two deep there. Too many good freshmen around for upper classman to be making freshman mistakes.
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| 23 weeks 5 days ago | Add the Season Record |
Having the context of the Win-Loss totals would at least add contextual flavor, as well as jog the subjective memory of the reviewer/consumer of your data. Another interesting context, at least for increasing discussion would be to list the OC/DC for each season. Your data covers the Terry Malone, return of DeBord, then of course in the RR and Hoke Staff. Just from memory, it seems to me the best years as far as W-L record were years with the lowest average pts for Scoring Defense. Also in each of those years the Defense allowed half of what the Offense could generate, on average. A final point to make for me is that when you compare the average pts of Scoring Offense, the two years with Al Borges match the two years with Rich Rodriguez that cover the Denard Era. So just from the table of statistics you have provided, I would say that Hoke was able to maintain the Denard production equal to, (actually slightly better than) Rich Rodriguez, and of course has dramatically improved the defense. It boggles my mind when people take a myopic view of one game and conclude that one or more coaches, "need to go". From the player talent perspective, Hoke pretty much has been coaching Rich Rodriguez's players. In doing that he matched the Offensive production and improved the Defensive production. The reviews on talent indicate Hoke has improved there over previous years. I really don't understand what there is to doubt about this staff.
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| 28 weeks 6 days ago | 4 super conferences |
Means each super conference sends one team. 16 teams, and you get the possibility of 3 playoff games before the NC round even starts. Carve off a non-con game for the potential of the semi final conference championship, and each pod of 4 will send a team into the 4 conference playoffs. This greatly increases the number of times a national audience sees the teams they want to see (16 dominant teams) in post season play. It also eliminates the need to play Alabama the first game of the year for "votes". No more voting, a clear path to victory, and more games worthy of television. Now, if they can just put the conference playoffs at the home fields of the schools in the playoffs, we'll really have something worth going watching in person AND on TV. you might not even need 9 conference games, and could drop the regular season back down to 10 games total, with two snacky cakes in the beginning (hey look at all these Big East teams?) and shift the conference schedule forward to make room for exanded playoffs, so that all the students still get their studying done. Also, let everyone have post season practice time, and eliminate Bowls that don't support the NC playoffs. Or at least sell tickets in the modern era, i.e. online and don't make schools fund the bowls and they'll shrivel up and die on their own. But giving everyone extra practice without requiring a bowl game might do that on it's own.
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| 29 weeks 5 days ago | Interesting |
Because I see this as a reason to separate Michigan and Ohio. If you trim down to when PSU joined, then PSU and Wisconsin are the next most frequent winners of the title. I have never understood why people don't think these conference divisions are balanced. Nebraska clearly brings a challenge equal to what PSU bring. In fact look at the top two teams in each division. Ohio and PSU, and Michigan and Nebraska. And let's not forget that MSU and Wisconsin were in the first championship game. Yes, The Game is weakened by splitting Michigan and Ohio, but the championship game would have stayed weak unless you put Nebraska and PSU together, which is geographically weirder than what is happening to Wisconsin now. |
| 30 weeks 6 hours ago | Well... |
He can only say, "it's not about me it's about the players" so many times. I think the length of his pause on that one was to calm down before he opened his mouth. You can't write down a quote when all he does is shrug his shoulders.
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| 30 weeks 9 hours ago | maybe, just maybe |
they only have rights to the games they broadcast. And even if they asked ESPN the response would be, "pay us more than double what we think we can make and it's a deal". The Michigan 1997 Season pushed ESPN up another level, and overall made College Football broadcasting make a quantum leap toward National for most. I was living in Seattle starting 1994, and I only saw the 1995 and 1996 Michigan-OSU games because I flew back to Michigan. 1995 it was in Ann Arbor and saw it in person, 1996 got to watch it on TV. 1997 was when ESPN figured out there are Michigan alumni all over the place, and most are willing to watch a game at 9am, and no one else was broadcasting any games at all in that time slot. I watched almost every game in 1997 from my home in Seattle thanks to ESPN. I also have family who lived in Tennesee, and one of the key reasons they bitched about Woodson beating Payton for the Heisman was that ESPN never stopped showing highlights of Woodson doing remakable things, over and over to a national audience. You should probably switch to DirecTV.
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| 30 weeks 4 days ago | question |
what did you find boring in the Northwestern game? And a follow-on, Bo never had a heisman trophy winner, but both Moeller and Lloyd did. And I think every starting QB for Moeller ended up with an NFL paycheck, and quite a few of the WR's also. Lloyd did demonstrate what a risk averse offense was all about, even the National Championship team had fewer exciting games from an offensive aspect than even the Henson, Navarre years. But then again, Debord was the OC in 1997, he left for a while and then came back to guide Lloyd to retirement during the Henne era. But Moeller was breaking the Bo mold befor Bo even left. I remember several games where Moeller went for it on 4th down, one in a bowl game that Bo couldn't make it to for health reasons. Denard has been the most prolific runner since Wheatley. Wheatley was a Moeller recruit and player of the Moeller era. Moeller's teams were very exciting, but the pressure he was under to surpass Bo was what made him crack. And he had to surpass Bo during the scholarship reduction and before the Cream Puff scheduling became a necessity for getting to the National Championship. I think Moeller even won the Big Ten every year he coached, yes sometimes as co-champion, but still, better than Carr. Nope, we're not going to watch a dynamic sprinter running the QB slot, but that doesn't mean we won't see a 4WR set with a Tom Brady Laser cannon offense. At least that's what I expect we grow into, and if we have a few Garnder scamble machines mixed in with the Shane Morris Laser Cannons, I don't see how that isn't exciting. But if you only see the world as black and white, I can understand that this offense is not Read Option running. Cause it isn't. |
| 30 weeks 5 days ago | Woodson wasn't recruited as RB though |
Not sure if that was what you meant. When he was being recruited Woodson told the coaches he wanted to play cornerback. Even when Lloyd was making him practice on offense, any time they would ask Woodson to play as the RB, Woodson would come up with an excuse like, "my leg is feeling a little sore". He knew from high school that RB's get pounded on, and didn't want that at the next level and beyond. I don't think anyone was shocked that "Mr Ohio" was one of the most athletic players on the team. I think Mattison was just expecting Woodson wanted to be a WR when they were recruiting him, but you can go check out the Big Ten Icons video for the correct statement. |
| 30 weeks 5 days ago | then that reporter should ask Denard |
The thing I really enjoy about college sports is that the players are not payed according to their skill level, with the exception of walk-ons who for some reason participate with little chance to play and no tuition money. And they only get 4-5 years of time to participate in this unique bubble. Hoke completely embraces this position of near communism within the uniqueness of the college student athlete. And within that definition, all of the seniors are important on Senior day. What has Denard meant to this program and this team sport? He has meant as much as every other senior who shows up to practice and works hard and does what the coaches ask. So the reason Hoke doesn't give Denard any special privilege is because Denard is one of many student athletes. This is at the heart of Bo's message about the team the team the team. The message is not just that you are partipating as a team member, but also because you are not "playing for a contract". To Bo college provided the opportunity for the student athlete to play for the love of the game and the love of his teammates. When you bring money into that in a capitalistic way, and pay people according to talent, you destroy the entire incentive that The Team provides. It's the same belief that is behind the phrase, "the expectation for the position". While everyone wrings their hands about, "how will we replace Mike Martin", Hoke already knows how. By coaching up the next person in line. And every year there are about 20 new faces that need coaching up, and there are about 20 seniors who are trying to suck every last bit of enjoyment out of each day. These Seniors will "never play for a Team" again. Or as Bo put it in the middle of his speech;
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| 30 weeks 5 days ago | agree |
schematically this play is set to defend the option and make sure that option isn't Colter. The execution of Black defeating his double team alters the equation. I think the "baiting" part that Hoke refers to is that the QB is making his decision based on looking at the OL blocking and doesn't have the time to scan out to the LB's. Basically things look really rosy on the backside because it appears to be so open, exactly at the point the hand off decision needs to be made. And while I agree with the "the option was the better choice", even if Black just stalemates his double team, Roh is going to force the pitch pretty early, meaning that fullback is starting 5 yards behind the line of scrimage. so yes one on one with Kovacs, but still far enough from the LOS that there is at least a delay while the calvary comes up, and since there were only 3 DL on the LOS, there is plenty of calvary. All scheming aside, Demens executing the perfect tackle is what earns him the "Conan the Destroyer" moniker for this week. I think i can still hear the lamentation of their women. |
| 31 weeks 9 hours ago | Heiko thank you, |
This transcript was up pretty fast and the exchange between "Denard Face of Program" reporter and Hoke was awesome, that last "Day to Day" got me laughing for over a minute. The kind of laughing where you laugh because what you read was funny, then you laugh louder because you're not sure if Hoke really added that without a final question being asked or not, and then I just laughed for the last 30 seconds trying to picture the kind of smirk that Hoke had on his face when he closed it with, "Day to Day". I had some minor training in PR from my military days, and work with PR teams as part of my job. A key thing we were taught was to "go in with your three points, and answer all questions with one of the three points". It really is magical how much power that gives you, since we are all trained from an early age to answer questions directly and truthfully. But the way in which Hoke contructed that last exchange is to the point of watching a standup comedian with his ventriloquist dummy. So now I'm going to block quote it just so I can laugh for over a minute again, brilliant transcribing, thank you again.
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| 31 weeks 5 days ago | I agree |
The only difference on alignment is that Minnesota ran the play to Michigan's strong side, so instead of attacking the WLB and WDE they were attacking SDE and SAM, aka JMFR. also Thomas Gordon coming up to LOS seems like an advantage over Kovacs coming up late and getting blocked by the blocked pile of corner back. Against that formation, if the CB's shift to man coverage, then it's 9 on 9, but if Minnesota makes sure they run it to the weak side, then the Free Safety has to book it in from Deep Coverage town, instead of the creeping up strong safety who should be thinking, "only two WR, screw it, I'm flowing down to contain run. And Ryan was getting blocked by a RB or Slot receiver, so while he did lose his one to one batttle in that he was successfully cut blocked, he was still able to crush his enemies, see them flee before him, and then listen to the lamentation of the women. I would try to run that play against Michigan's weak side. Although Minnesota was on the left hash, and the wider side with more space happened to be Michigan's strong side. I think the first play had the ball spotted in the center of the field, thus giving a better choice to attack Michigan's weak side, with more room than typical for that alignment. I guess I don't see this as proof of misalignment, or correction. It's just one of those things where Minnesota had an advantage in the first play, and Michigan lost multiple one on one battles. Guess that's why they actually play this game on the field instead of just mailing in the plays to each other.
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| 31 weeks 6 days ago | need to take Brian with a grain of salt |
Brian has noticed something, and he's noticed a pattern of that something. But he hasn't played football at even the high school level to my knowledge, and the closest to coaching he's gotten was a few football clinics where his brain was very quickly filled to overflowing. But given that, I had a different understanding of what Brian was trying to form into a hypothesis than, "it was mental". One speculation went the route of the position coach not trying to teach that if you miss your guy move on to the next level and hope either it won't matter or it wasn't your guy. This is a pretty complex thing to prove without watching every practice and measuring how much the coach has to teach and reinforce that skill and how much the player is just never going to pick it up. On top of that, the overall reference is the OL of last year. And then as Hoke said, the other team has good players and coaches, so even Taylor, Denard, etc. are going to lose a one on one battle from time to time. I went back to Nebraska and in the first series there is a play where Mealer looks completely lost, has no one to block, and the MLB just blazes past him to tackle Fitz at the LOS. When I replayed it, the DL were both lined up slightly on the outside shoulder of the guards, and Mealer tries to do a brush block first to the left, then the right, but has no one to block, but he could have just run out onto the MLB and pushed him out of the hole, because he was the only guy in the hole at the second level, and then at best a safety has come up off of coverage and Fitz is one on one with a safety 5 yards down field. I'm not sure why Mealer didn't see that Nebraska was either misaligned, and thus he could have trusted both guards to wall off the DT's one on one, or if he just forgot who to block. All Brian or any fan can analyze was that the MLB was unblocked on that play. Now is it reasonable to expect that Borges drew up the play to leave a MLB unblocked? Or is it more reasonable that either Nebraska has noticed Mealer has a tought time getting to the second level, and thus tweaked their DL to try to prevent the guards from getting out to the LBs, and Omameh is the quintessential second level blocking star of Brian's UFRs. Maybe it was just luck that Nebraska made a mistake that ended up working out. It's likely Molk would have been licking his chops at that alignment and gone on to crush the MLB and then looked for the safety after that. There are so many variables that are within the game, and so many that change over time, that I don't think an armchair analysts can do more than just say, "Michigan did poorly on blocking MLBs and thus the run game suffered, too bad we don't have a strong passing attack to go to in that situation, or Denard". And remember in the beginning of the season where the Michigan LB's were "too hesitant" and getting blocked frequently? did anyone speculate, "hey the OL was just really good at blocking them?" Well yes, kind of, first it was the Alabama, "well duh" excuse, then the "hey Air Force is wierdly good" and then finally we started stopping the run. Although still not as good as Alabama, ND, or MSU. OL, DL, and the Receivers were always the weak points of this team. They still are, except maybe the DL. But I think that Mattison is still got it easy in that "most improved bowler" category. He inherited a defense with unsound fundamentals, poor tape review, and an every changing scheme and terminology soup du jour. I think he also has the early edge on fresh talent coming in as well. This is Borges's year to make it work with "spit, grit and a hole lot of duct tape" Hopefully he gets his Denard back, duct tape and all.
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