The looping throws are signs of a shoulder issue but could be a recurring confidence concern. Game plan had all the signs of recognizing a serious QB deficiency, be it injury or confidence.
Pleas god...no Luke Fickell to UC. They were on the right path with Brian Kelly and Butch Jones. Out score your opponents. Fickell will continue the slide started by Tuberville.
They were a tire fire on offense as the scheme made no sense. They left a competent, senior QB in Gunnar Kiel on the bench to use a sophmore with a confusing mess of a scheme. It was painful to watch a team get worse as the year progressed.
Get PJ Fleck or equivalent as they have an upgraded stadium in Cincinnati. They aren't Power 5 but a decent jump for a rising coach. I remember the confusing mess that was Luke Fickell in the "Urban Meyer year in waiting" between Trestel and Meyer in Columbus
Reasons are always seated deeper. Hard to come .north for lots of reasons and a difficult school is intimidating. Scholastics is always afactor. Mis-spelled words are excuses. He will be fine. UM will be fine.
LB's are constantly too shallow and the safeties are constantly too deep on zone coverage. Corners give 15 yard cushion on 5 yards to go 3rd downs because the threat of a a deep route failure by the safeties. LB's are the kings of covering empty patches of grass. D-line has consistent containment rush that still allows the QB to sneak through for 10-15 yards gains with ease. Defense became an abject failure at the end of the season unfortunately.
It appears that no single part of the defense has trust in the ability of any other part to complete its job effectively. You end up with a passive display of ineptness,
Everyone says it is execution. There is too much video of every team and even the lower tier teams employ extensive video review to gain an eadvantage, e.g. Akron and Connecticut. It is pretty obvious that UM has massive tendencies that are taken advantage of by opponents. If I am an opponent and I hewar about these tendencies that is the focus of my prep. As bad as Akron is and they were able to consistently crush all rushing attempts. If I am on the O-Line and the D-Line knows what play is coming, I have to be exceptionally skilled to avoid a negative play. It was obvious then and we blamed it on the inexperienced line and that was PART of the problem. This can only be blamed on the arrogance/insanity of the staff as we all know the meaning of that.
The D-Line is a real problem we have not gotten any middle pressure since Mike Martin. Some of the youth on the ends have potential but still no middle pressure. That falls squarley on Hoke as he attempts to add his flavor there but it the results are most assuredly unacceptable. Watching David Harris play last weekend for the Jets makes me wonder if we have had a decent LB since he left. The current group is remarkably average but I place some of the blame on the lack of D-Line success. We continue to be unable to shed blocks and the pass coverage is pretty pedestrian. Not a horrible group but not above average. I believe the DB's are on the verge of very good but we need a consistant perfromance on critical plays. Seems to be a single breakdown on those critical plays, and the end of the Nebraska drive is a great example with the extremely poor play on the sideline pass.
The coaching on the O-Line appears to be a ,major issue. If it is not the coaching and we recruited the wrong players...well who did the GD recruiting? Same guy or guys. The players seem lost in any semblence of ccordinated action and this could be partially the fault of the lack of a real center. Thank god they didn't throw Kugler into this mess. Is he a potential center for 2014? I only see them getting better but what do we do about the Tackles next year with Schofield and Lewan gone? is it another built in excuse to really suck.
I give Gardner a partial pass because, in reality, he is 8 games into his college QB career. The absurd switch to WR last year set him back a full year so I hardly count the 5 games last year. Compund that with the terror of throwing another INT and a bum rush up the middle directly out of The Longest Yard and you get what you saw last Saturday.
Speaking of soft center...why do we make every O-Line look like they have 3 NFL prospects from guard to guard? If we had some push in this area the defense would be on the very of very good to great in the near future. This is where Hoke's coaching could be called into question and are we missing Mongomery that much? I think not but it certainly needs to be addressed as it is the fastest way to improve pressure is up the middle. I think we need McDowell more than Hand.
I think we will handle Nebraska at home but lets hope for a beeter road presence at NW.
It has been pretty opening discussed that MSU preps for UM all year. UM appears to downplay this as they contiinually get outcoached at a minimum and look outlandishly unprepared...even on a bye week. Maybe it is time to consider this game in the same light as OSU, for which we also appear unprepared though somewhat less so.
I won't get on the new coach bandwagon but I assume that Brandon won't stand for complacency from an offensive staff that includes a head coordinator making $750,000. I really believe the issue is in the middle of the line but the lack of adjustment to an obvious problem, 6 OL idiocy not included.
Seems to be a carbon copy of last year. Makes tackles downfield only and always has his back to QB in coverage, He is likely a "practice" warrier. He is never on the negative side of the line and always seems slow to react. Only a Soph but Ross seems like a much better option.
Being a UC grad born in AA to a UM grad gives me a bit of perspective on both places.
A year ago, UC was coming of a pretty depressing 1st season under Butch Jones. Things have changed dramatically in a year and they have a young base that will only improve.
UC has a great on campus setting for football and a modern urban campus that shows really well. On campus games certainly help. UC basketball was king forever and they are back in the national spotlight.
He is deep in the queue at UM and likely would not see the field for at least 2 years and even then likely as a back-up.
Reality likely struck home. He is a better fit at UC. Good luck
I can't fathom a quick slant on that last play. You have as much time as you need to open the field up...IT IS GOING TO BE THE LAST PLAY. If you are wasting it on a quick slant throw Gardner in there and le thim throw it from a high release. DR side arm sling is hard to pick up out of the mass at the LOS.
A slow roll to the wide side allows for a play to develop in front of him and a decent checne to win a race to the edge. I didn't get it.
Born in AA but went to UC.Zach Collaros, UC QB made a play that DR should emulate. Saw the edge blitz coming and ran right at, or as the results showed, by it.
I think that Denard should have been chucking it downfield in the 1st quarter. Maybe he can get a rhythm down to hit a few later. We needed more room to operate before 15 minutes left in the game and the passes did that but they were ALL really off target. Hard to believe that you can throw that many bad passes. Somehow we need a WR that can separate. I guess if we had one on the field the passes would be missed, case in point Roundtree. Haven't seen any underclassmen yet to see if there is potential anywhere. We do miss Stonum more than originally realized.
The constant running against 8 or 9 just doesn't make sense with this line but we persist in trying. Mayber I am missing something. The safeties are 10 yds downfield and we try to throw quick slants into a crowd.
Was it me or was this a really slow track. The grass looked long and damp. I would certainly water down the field when facing DR. I think that impacted the inability to get wide. The OL was beating DR to the edge.
Keeping my fingers crossed that this was an abberation but the trend persists, especially on the road. We need to avoid 3 and out on the opening drive! Can't we have a coherant plan that avoids that. The opening 2 drives looked to be drawn in the dirt...very conservative...do not turn the ball over.
I really think he has a great upside if he can be coerced into caring. The comments on lack of preparation and obvious simplistic approach are dead on. The opponents obviously had a read on our schemes and it showed, even UMASS could move the ball! BWC probably had better coaching in Detroit. Looking at the transfers in the last couple years is a telling sign, in retrospect, of the problems. Players that felt and knew they should be playing were relegated to the bench. I see BWC as a major player in the next 2 years. MM will be unstoppable next year and BWC will be the benefactor.
How could they have even a second to help before Feb 2nd? The worst defense in school history and they are recruiting in a condensed timeframe. See how things are after signing day. Banks is not in a hurry as he is not a candidate for the combine. He needs to be ready for senior day at UM some time in April.
Looking back on the history prior to WV should have been the focus of Martin when choosing RR. Hindsight certainly shows the defensive weakness. We would likely be talking about a successful 2010 season with Casteel at the DC helm.
If reports are correct that the asst coaches salaries were lower than standard for a contending program assume that thge buyouts were just as paltry. Drop in the bucket compared to the RR buyout.
No way they were that bad. If the scheme was correct even bad players could be in the right place once and a while. We always seemed out of position. A shift in the offense seemed to just create confusion never an adjustment in the defense. Case in point was that a bad UMASS team could move the ball. We don't have better players than UMASS?
The information certainly followed mty thinking over the last 6 weeks. I hadd trouble thinking of a "Michigan Man" of coaching significance and I attended games with my Dad in the mid-70's. I think Gary M broke the chain of coaching talent at UM with his debacle. I often wonder how the years would have turned out with him at the helm for a decent tenure.
Who lost 4 of those 6? I am not an LC hater but UM was in dire condition upon his departure and he knew it. Lets not think that the bottom fell out against OSU when RR showed up. Unfortunately UM has been chasing OSU for the entire Tressell era. I live with it every year in the Dayton OH area where I live.
You can sense it in each drive. I have never watched an offense under so much pressure. with thecataclysmically dismal state of the defense they know on the inside that absolutely every drive counts. They need to score on every drive. Compound that with a kicking game that could be outdone by a 12 year old punt pass and kick winner and you have an offense that needed to start every drive after receiing a kick-off, generally deep in their own territory.
A good statistic is to review the performance after receiving a kick-off. Compare team to team with this as a starting point. Never the momentum of a stop and a received punt. Always after another opponent TD.
Remember his lifelong dream of being a Doctor? I live in OH and remember his egocentric antics at OSU when he envisioned himself as the best ever. Is he doing housecalls between takes?
I swear at the time he did not miss a throw. I thought that this guy could put on a show in Columbus the following week when in actuality he was summarily decimated.
I guess the biggest facvtor is the almost complete lack unforseen pressure. He was able to sit back and assume there would be not stunts and it would be a classic U shaped pocket that would collapse slowly. The throws that looked great on TV were actually a form of pitch and catch to absurdly open receivers that he knew were going to be open because of the vanilla set of the defense.
It is almost hard to play this poorly...consistently. You would assume that someone would wander into the wrong place and turn it into a bonehead positive play.
The RR era can't end this year for a number of reasons. Agreed the season seemed to end at week 5 but the UM talk in the national media was relentless and that is always good. DR is key and a new coach kills next year, face it, and likely 2012 and an embarrasing Alabama opening in Texas. Name another spread coach that could take his place with this personnel? Who would replace the current system with a conventional Big10 offense with DR at the helm?
Defense changes? Better be but as always after the season. Can't kill the recruiting this late in the year.
It would be interesting to see a stat breakdown of the offensive performance after a punt vs after a kick-off return. There is the yardage issue which seems immense as the KO returns are inept at best (at least fewer fumbles). Does the offense operate looser after a returened punt? The pressure on the offense seems immense as they need to score every time they touch the ball.
I am a lifelong UM fan born in Ann Arbor but I attended University of Cincinnati. The trevails of UC B-ball are well documented and the UM situation parallels amazingly.
1)UC was left with a bare cubbard and it took 3 full years to recover.
2)The depth of the situation compares as there were no Bob Huggin's recruits left just 2 years after his departure. Academic and behavior issues dominated.
3)UC will have a full compliment of scholarships for the 1st time in 8 years (Huggins last 3 years were with reduced scholarship teams due to academic and behavior issues). You can't compete at the BCS level in either sport without had not put a full scholarship team on the floor.
Patience is wearing thing but UC will put a NCAA tourney capable team on the floor for the 1st time in 5 years.
As much pain as is causes, UM needs more time due to the depth of the issues that existed 2 years ago. I don't hate LC but he left this team in a mess. RR takes the blame for the defensive coaching issues that have decimated the team confidence, i.e. no lead is too large with this defense. Great programs with support will come back and UM will be back soon.
Recent Comments
Pleas god...no Luke Fickell to UC. They were on the right path with Brian Kelly and Butch Jones. Out score your opponents. Fickell will continue the slide started by Tuberville.
They were a tire fire on offense as the scheme made no sense. They left a competent, senior QB in Gunnar Kiel on the bench to use a sophmore with a confusing mess of a scheme. It was painful to watch a team get worse as the year progressed.
Get PJ Fleck or equivalent as they have an upgraded stadium in Cincinnati. They aren't Power 5 but a decent jump for a rising coach. I remember the confusing mess that was Luke Fickell in the "Urban Meyer year in waiting" between Trestel and Meyer in Columbus
Brian
Reasons are always seated deeper. Hard to come .north for lots of reasons and a difficult school is intimidating. Scholastics is always afactor. Mis-spelled words are excuses. He will be fine. UM will be fine.
UM cuts no slack on academics. UG welcomes with open arms.
I am currently in the fetal position due to cramps from laughing.
LB's are constantly too shallow and the safeties are constantly too deep on zone coverage. Corners give 15 yard cushion on 5 yards to go 3rd downs because the threat of a a deep route failure by the safeties. LB's are the kings of covering empty patches of grass. D-line has consistent containment rush that still allows the QB to sneak through for 10-15 yards gains with ease. Defense became an abject failure at the end of the season unfortunately.
It appears that no single part of the defense has trust in the ability of any other part to complete its job effectively. You end up with a passive display of ineptness,
When have we been able to surprise a team with an alignment? Are we saving it for the bowl game?
Everyone says it is execution. There is too much video of every team and even the lower tier teams employ extensive video review to gain an eadvantage, e.g. Akron and Connecticut. It is pretty obvious that UM has massive tendencies that are taken advantage of by opponents. If I am an opponent and I hewar about these tendencies that is the focus of my prep. As bad as Akron is and they were able to consistently crush all rushing attempts. If I am on the O-Line and the D-Line knows what play is coming, I have to be exceptionally skilled to avoid a negative play. It was obvious then and we blamed it on the inexperienced line and that was PART of the problem. This can only be blamed on the arrogance/insanity of the staff as we all know the meaning of that.
The D-Line is a real problem we have not gotten any middle pressure since Mike Martin. Some of the youth on the ends have potential but still no middle pressure. That falls squarley on Hoke as he attempts to add his flavor there but it the results are most assuredly unacceptable. Watching David Harris play last weekend for the Jets makes me wonder if we have had a decent LB since he left. The current group is remarkably average but I place some of the blame on the lack of D-Line success. We continue to be unable to shed blocks and the pass coverage is pretty pedestrian. Not a horrible group but not above average. I believe the DB's are on the verge of very good but we need a consistant perfromance on critical plays. Seems to be a single breakdown on those critical plays, and the end of the Nebraska drive is a great example with the extremely poor play on the sideline pass.
The coaching on the O-Line appears to be a ,major issue. If it is not the coaching and we recruited the wrong players...well who did the GD recruiting? Same guy or guys. The players seem lost in any semblence of ccordinated action and this could be partially the fault of the lack of a real center. Thank god they didn't throw Kugler into this mess. Is he a potential center for 2014? I only see them getting better but what do we do about the Tackles next year with Schofield and Lewan gone? is it another built in excuse to really suck.
I give Gardner a partial pass because, in reality, he is 8 games into his college QB career. The absurd switch to WR last year set him back a full year so I hardly count the 5 games last year. Compund that with the terror of throwing another INT and a bum rush up the middle directly out of The Longest Yard and you get what you saw last Saturday.
Speaking of soft center...why do we make every O-Line look like they have 3 NFL prospects from guard to guard? If we had some push in this area the defense would be on the very of very good to great in the near future. This is where Hoke's coaching could be called into question and are we missing Mongomery that much? I think not but it certainly needs to be addressed as it is the fastest way to improve pressure is up the middle. I think we need McDowell more than Hand.
I think we will handle Nebraska at home but lets hope for a beeter road presence at NW.
It has been pretty opening discussed that MSU preps for UM all year. UM appears to downplay this as they contiinually get outcoached at a minimum and look outlandishly unprepared...even on a bye week. Maybe it is time to consider this game in the same light as OSU, for which we also appear unprepared though somewhat less so.
I won't get on the new coach bandwagon but I assume that Brandon won't stand for complacency from an offensive staff that includes a head coordinator making $750,000. I really believe the issue is in the middle of the line but the lack of adjustment to an obvious problem, 6 OL idiocy not included.
Seems to be a carbon copy of last year. Makes tackles downfield only and always has his back to QB in coverage, He is likely a "practice" warrier. He is never on the negative side of the line and always seems slow to react. Only a Soph but Ross seems like a much better option.
Being a UC grad born in AA to a UM grad gives me a bit of perspective on both places.
Reality likely struck home. He is a better fit at UC. Good luck
BCK
No pressure to prevent the out. It was always there and the DB gets the blame for not being Deion Sanders on every out.
I can't fathom a quick slant on that last play. You have as much time as you need to open the field up...IT IS GOING TO BE THE LAST PLAY. If you are wasting it on a quick slant throw Gardner in there and le thim throw it from a high release. DR side arm sling is hard to pick up out of the mass at the LOS.
A slow roll to the wide side allows for a play to develop in front of him and a decent checne to win a race to the edge. I didn't get it.
I was sweating after I agreed with Spielman
Can you slow down a FieldTurf field by restricting draining?
Born in AA but went to UC.Zach Collaros, UC QB made a play that DR should emulate. Saw the edge blitz coming and ran right at, or as the results showed, by it.
I think that Denard should have been chucking it downfield in the 1st quarter. Maybe he can get a rhythm down to hit a few later. We needed more room to operate before 15 minutes left in the game and the passes did that but they were ALL really off target. Hard to believe that you can throw that many bad passes. Somehow we need a WR that can separate. I guess if we had one on the field the passes would be missed, case in point Roundtree. Haven't seen any underclassmen yet to see if there is potential anywhere. We do miss Stonum more than originally realized.
The constant running against 8 or 9 just doesn't make sense with this line but we persist in trying. Mayber I am missing something. The safeties are 10 yds downfield and we try to throw quick slants into a crowd.
Was it me or was this a really slow track. The grass looked long and damp. I would certainly water down the field when facing DR. I think that impacted the inability to get wide. The OL was beating DR to the edge.
Keeping my fingers crossed that this was an abberation but the trend persists, especially on the road. We need to avoid 3 and out on the opening drive! Can't we have a coherant plan that avoids that. The opening 2 drives looked to be drawn in the dirt...very conservative...do not turn the ball over.
I really think he has a great upside if he can be coerced into caring. The comments on lack of preparation and obvious simplistic approach are dead on. The opponents obviously had a read on our schemes and it showed, even UMASS could move the ball! BWC probably had better coaching in Detroit. Looking at the transfers in the last couple years is a telling sign, in retrospect, of the problems. Players that felt and knew they should be playing were relegated to the bench. I see BWC as a major player in the next 2 years. MM will be unstoppable next year and BWC will be the benefactor.
How could they have even a second to help before Feb 2nd? The worst defense in school history and they are recruiting in a condensed timeframe. See how things are after signing day. Banks is not in a hurry as he is not a candidate for the combine. He needs to be ready for senior day at UM some time in April.
Looking back on the history prior to WV should have been the focus of Martin when choosing RR. Hindsight certainly shows the defensive weakness. We would likely be talking about a successful 2010 season with Casteel at the DC helm.
If reports are correct that the asst coaches salaries were lower than standard for a contending program assume that thge buyouts were just as paltry. Drop in the bucket compared to the RR buyout.
No way they were that bad. If the scheme was correct even bad players could be in the right place once and a while. We always seemed out of position. A shift in the offense seemed to just create confusion never an adjustment in the defense. Case in point was that a bad UMASS team could move the ball. We don't have better players than UMASS?
The information certainly followed mty thinking over the last 6 weeks. I hadd trouble thinking of a "Michigan Man" of coaching significance and I attended games with my Dad in the mid-70's. I think Gary M broke the chain of coaching talent at UM with his debacle. I often wonder how the years would have turned out with him at the helm for a decent tenure.
Who lost 4 of those 6? I am not an LC hater but UM was in dire condition upon his departure and he knew it. Lets not think that the bottom fell out against OSU when RR showed up. Unfortunately UM has been chasing OSU for the entire Tressell era. I live with it every year in the Dayton OH area where I live.
You can sense it in each drive. I have never watched an offense under so much pressure. with thecataclysmically dismal state of the defense they know on the inside that absolutely every drive counts. They need to score on every drive. Compound that with a kicking game that could be outdone by a 12 year old punt pass and kick winner and you have an offense that needed to start every drive after receiing a kick-off, generally deep in their own territory.
A good statistic is to review the performance after receiving a kick-off. Compare team to team with this as a starting point. Never the momentum of a stop and a received punt. Always after another opponent TD.
It is very subtle but the ref was right on it.
#9 gave him a little shove to send him hard into the sidelines. Intentional as hell as it doesn't take much to go completely out of control.
Remember his lifelong dream of being a Doctor? I live in OH and remember his egocentric antics at OSU when he envisioned himself as the best ever. Is he doing housecalls between takes?
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1140635/4/in…
Unbelievably exciting.
With this offense and even an average defense we would cause chaos in the B10.
I swear at the time he did not miss a throw. I thought that this guy could put on a show in Columbus the following week when in actuality he was summarily decimated.
I guess the biggest facvtor is the almost complete lack unforseen pressure. He was able to sit back and assume there would be not stunts and it would be a classic U shaped pocket that would collapse slowly. The throws that looked great on TV were actually a form of pitch and catch to absurdly open receivers that he knew were going to be open because of the vanilla set of the defense.
It is almost hard to play this poorly...consistently. You would assume that someone would wander into the wrong place and turn it into a bonehead positive play.
The RR era can't end this year for a number of reasons. Agreed the season seemed to end at week 5 but the UM talk in the national media was relentless and that is always good. DR is key and a new coach kills next year, face it, and likely 2012 and an embarrasing Alabama opening in Texas. Name another spread coach that could take his place with this personnel? Who would replace the current system with a conventional Big10 offense with DR at the helm?
Defense changes? Better be but as always after the season. Can't kill the recruiting this late in the year.
It would be interesting to see a stat breakdown of the offensive performance after a punt vs after a kick-off return. There is the yardage issue which seems immense as the KO returns are inept at best (at least fewer fumbles). Does the offense operate looser after a returened punt? The pressure on the offense seems immense as they need to score every time they touch the ball.