Let's hear it for Coach Rod

Submitted by Dan Man on
I'll make this short but sweet.  In the chorus of opinions on the Michigan/Notre Dame fiasco, I haven't read much if anything about what a great gameplan we had in this game.  We all know Rodriguez does not have the type of QB he covets and has about as bad and inexperienced offensive line as one could imagine at Michigan.  But our offensive game plan was, in my opinion, awesome.  He put the players in a position to win the game, and they gave it away time after time.  This loss was not Rodriguez's fault, and watching our offensive and defensive schemes only bolstered my confidence that Coach Rod is going to put this program back on top.  What do you think?
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Rich Rodriguez

mjv

September 15th, 2008 at 12:41 AM ^

We put up a lot of yards, had receivers open all over the place, got McG in open space, Threet made a lot of good decisions.  The O is movng in the right direction. 

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 3656

MGoMike

September 15th, 2008 at 12:46 AM ^

Rich Rod has been taking a lot of heat and its only getting hotter. Its starting to show in his relations with the press. I have been impressed with his ability to deal with it, and I think he will be a great Michigan coach once he has time for his coaching to take effect.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 83

mjv

September 15th, 2008 at 12:59 AM ^

With a green offense (only 2 returning starters), a new system, and a freshman QB, we put up 388 yards, with at least half of the game in a monsoon.  And did this on the road.  There is some hope, assuming ND was not a god awful defense.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 3656

Thrillhouse

September 15th, 2008 at 1:27 AM ^

Overall, I'd say I took more positives away from this game than negatives. McGuffie had his breakout game, and I'm surprised nobody has said anything yet about that douche Mitch Albom even writing an entire column on Sam's performance.

The only major negative for me was our DL's seeming lack of ability to put pressure on Clausen. I'm looking forward to the UFR for this game to help explain why this was or if I was just seeing things.

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 1121

mjv

September 15th, 2008 at 1:45 AM ^

OS, I stopped reading Album a while back.  His style is irritating.  He picks out some little catch phrase and repeat it several times in the course of the article.  HE got busted for writing a story about the former Spartan basketball players being at an NCAA Tournament game, that they actually didn't attend. 

Regarding the DL.  ND seemed to go max protect when they threw downfield and the rest of their passes came out quick, minimizing our pass rush.  A generally well conceived passing game plan.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 3656

West Texas Blue

September 15th, 2008 at 1:45 AM ^

Offensive game plan was very good for this game, IMO.  No team can survive 6 fumbles and 2 INTs, but chalk it up to first road game/bad weather/alot of true freshmen. Rich Rod is getting alot of heat, but he is at Michigan, so no surprise there. Patience is required, but great things are coming.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 1845

sca1zi

September 15th, 2008 at 8:37 AM ^

... except for the score part. Truthfully, if I was an ND fan, I could see that. ND had one drive. That's all they actually "earned"(as the announcers put it).

O line looked good, McGuffie is a gumby-like stud, and besides a safety who's name I won't say, the secondary looked serviceable.

I have the ultimate faith in RR and crew.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 156

MichiganManFro…

September 17th, 2008 at 4:09 PM ^

Just because Sam ran on the ND defense don't think he is going to be great. I think we should be using minor and grady more and have Mcguffie as a change of pace back. I think mcguffie would be even better if he line up as a wide out.

Joined: 08/13/2008

MGoPoints: 14

Onas

September 15th, 2008 at 8:59 AM ^

ND was up by 14 in the blink of an eye.  They didn't have to endanger Clausen to keep up.  Hot reads, max protect, and hand-offs.  That played a large part in the surprisingly low sack count.  Still, Clausen finished with pretty pedestrian numbers: 10-21 (48%) for 147 with 2 TDs to 2 INTs.  I think that we were getting ghost pressure on him.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 1331

Tim Waymen

September 15th, 2008 at 12:17 PM ^

as long as the other team has just about as many.

It really sucks.  We lost to a bad ND team when we outplayed them.  3 fumbles led to ND TDs!!  And 1 fumble and 1 INT were within the ND 10.  388 yards!  The numbers are encouraging, but unfortunately we have to keep in mind that this was against a very bad ND team that got really lucky.  For example, on Guff's 40 yd TD reception, the ND defense was pathetic.  Nevertheless, he did a great job of reading blocks IMO, Threet was great minus the fumbling, and this game definitely showed much progress on offense. Coverage on defense possibly needs to improve and I am worried about defending those outside runs, but they'll do better hopefully. We needed to win this one though. In this year of transition, Michigan cannot afford to lose the easy ones at all.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 1973

GoBlue00

September 15th, 2008 at 2:54 PM ^

Thought this was going to be a sarcastic post. But, i totally agree, hes gonna put us back in the promise land. Game plans in every game so far were right on, its the players whove been lacking. Once the players start showing up and threet makin good throws, we will dominate. Good play calling. In Rod We Trust.

Joined: 09/10/2008

MGoPoints: 115

gmbblue

September 15th, 2008 at 6:10 PM ^

agree, I bet the UFR confirms how outschemed we had ND on almost every stinking play. 

The best thing I hope that comes out of this game is that Threet has the confidence that he can throw it down the field, becuse I had none going in.

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 6

Hannibal.

September 16th, 2008 at 4:30 PM ^

I agree, and I think this also applies for most of the Miami game.  I'm impressed with how well the offense has picked up the spread, although the "O" line and quarterback lack the talent to execute it consistently.  With Miami, the problem was inaccurate passing.  With Notre Shame, it was fumbles.  But even when it's not working that well, it has looked in sync to me.  And it seems like our skill players are all they are cracked up to be. 

Joined: 09/09/2008

MGoPoints: 9051

Desert Blue

September 16th, 2008 at 5:06 PM ^

What's funny is this game has sent a lot of false confidence Notre Dame's way, which is fine. They are still a team who nearly blew all those gifts and, IMHO, looked like it was going to lose until Threet's fumble scoop and score. I have never felt that way after a Michigan game - I was almost, dare I say, happy that the offense looked competent and I just chalked it up to horrible luck that won't happen every game. Years gone, I'd barely get out of bed after a loss, any loss. I hope other fans to keep their patience, too.

Joined: 07/14/2008

MGoPoints: 2

gmbblue

September 16th, 2008 at 10:34 PM ^

Honestly I watch this scheme and I dont know how its stopped, I guess with great linebacker and safety play, maybe great man to man defense.  Watching the video that Brian provided from the Miami game,

 first play in a 3 wide base, first option is a hand to mcguffie which is there but the linebacker-Nichol back crashes hard to the whole, leaving odoms, hemmingway blocking and a safety 18 yards away, cant stop that with a good pass.

later in the quarter, four wide two backs, shaw takes it up the middle on a triple option, this time the linebacker goes up the field and Threet hands it off for one on one with the safety, good luck with that against shaw.

We got derailed in the Miami game with some poorly executed first or second down plays and because we could not throw it very well never could over come it, this happened in quarters 2 and 3.  At ND even in poor down and distance we were completing passes, in this offense if you do that you will score alot of points, minus 7 fumbles of course.

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 6

mjv

September 17th, 2008 at 6:39 PM ^

MichMan -- Unfortunately, Grady can't be trusted with the ball, and Minor is entering the same realm in terms of fumbles. 

Having someone with the ability to get wide, such as McGuffie will be important with our poor guard and center play on this o-line.  We have shown ability to create some running room outside, but the middle has generally been clogged.  Thinking that we can count in the less swift Minor and Grady to get outside of the tackles is a bit of a stretch.  And this is ignoring the fumbling issue.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 3656