Borges Conference Video Up
If you can watch this without yelling and screaming at the screen the entire time, you are a better man than I.
http://www.mgoblue.com/allaccess/?media=411577
What is amazing is that he talks about how you need to go away from the power game when it is not working. THEN WHY THE HECK DID YOU KEEP RUNNING IT IN OT!!!????
October 16th, 2013 at 12:01 AM ^
and hire GERG?
umm... NO THANKS.
October 16th, 2013 at 8:54 AM ^
Why would anyone want to listen to this moron. I saw everything I needed to see last Saturday from row 79 at Beaver Stadium (and by the way Penn State - spend a little money and paint that erector set and get some real restrooms ... place is a dumpster).
If Borges is clueless doing HIS JOB, why the fuck would I want to listen to him. I was really hoping no one would show up to his press conference ... that would have been a "statement".
October 16th, 2013 at 3:37 PM ^
I doubt that Hoke would actually fire Borges, even though it is the obvious option. I'm in favor of firing him right now and giving Hecklinski and Jackson a chance as co offensive-coordinators for the final 6 regular season games. I think it's time Dave Brandon steps in and tells Hoke that Borges has to go.
October 15th, 2013 at 10:32 PM ^
economics? weather? poetry?
October 15th, 2013 at 10:38 PM ^
This thread will not end well.
Edit: Very odd. After watching the video, what is Borges doing with his hand and the middle of his chest? Does he have a 3rd nipple he's rubbing and pinching?
October 16th, 2013 at 12:25 AM ^
loosening the noose that is tightening around his job.
October 16th, 2013 at 1:44 AM ^
He's clearly nervous. Subconciously he knows he's in total denial. Really frustrating to see the defensiveness and a total lack of accountability on his part. Not good traits in any coach/athlete/employee/person.
October 16th, 2013 at 8:39 AM ^
He is picking at or rubbing something during every interview. Usually it is on his face. It is incredibly distracting and a bit disturbing.
I offer no accompagning psychoanalysis with this observation, but there is plenty to speculate about (smile).
October 15th, 2013 at 10:37 PM ^
The sad part is that the team is so talented, that even with the highest turnover rate in the nation and absolutely no running game, we could still beat almost every team on the schedule. Excising all the running plays from the 3rd quarter of this recent horror, our offense was pretty efficient and Gardner was on target with most of his passes. We even ran a play-action pop pass at one point which was an easy 10 yards.
Then all of a sudden it went away.
It's clear that if we just put a 00 set out there every play, our offense would be humming.
October 15th, 2013 at 10:37 PM ^
Nothing makes me happier than running into 10 man boxes. More!
October 15th, 2013 at 11:32 PM ^
October 16th, 2013 at 1:39 AM ^
Conversly, all of those runs aren't going to work if they don't have to defend the pass. I don't tihnk any sane people are suggesting abandoning the run game, but I think it's pretty clear that the talent on this team is best suited to pass to set up the run instead of the other way around.
October 16th, 2013 at 2:15 AM ^
When Devin is throwing interceptions like it's his job (as he has been prone to do at times this season), it's hard to throw to set up the run.
As a coordinator you have to go into damage mitigation mode at that point.
There is not a lot you can do if your QB can't throw and your offenseive line can't generate the requisite amount of room for the running game to be effective.
October 16th, 2013 at 8:34 AM ^
Short passes. Short passes. Short passes. Short passes. DG get's into trouble because he arm-punts the fucking ball into 2 or 3 deep coverage all the damn time. It's a travesty that Drew Dileo has been this under utilized when he has shown the ability to be exactly what this teams needs (find a hole in the D and sit in it).
October 16th, 2013 at 9:06 AM ^
Devin has also thrown interceptions and been incredibly inaccurate on short passes and timing routes. It's not like he's only throwing picks on balls 15+ yards down field.
October 16th, 2013 at 1:28 PM ^
Your brother Al is just an incredibly bad offensive coordinator. I'm sure he is a nice guy.
October 16th, 2013 at 8:21 PM ^
Cool.
October 16th, 2013 at 2:12 PM ^
Both of his INTs in the PSU game were short passes. One was to a D-lineman!
October 16th, 2013 at 8:37 AM ^
"When Devin is throwing interceptions like it's his job (as he has been prone to do at times this season), it's hard to throw to set up the run."
Gardner regrouped rather well in the second half and was playing at a much higher level. The coaches should have used his momentum to 1) win the game and 2) build his confidence for the rest of the season. Gardner could have won that game. He was/is the best/only option at this point.
October 16th, 2013 at 9:12 AM ^
The offense put the team in position to win the game on multiple occasions. You can certainly argue the play calling should have been more aggressive, but the bottom line is two easily makeable field goals were botched, and our defense gave up an 80 yard TD drive with 47 seconds left on the clock and PSU sans timeouts.
That's not on the offensive play calling at all what so ever. You can try to pin those things on Borges, but that doesn't make it true.
October 16th, 2013 at 3:12 AM ^
Hi, Al. How's it going?
27 carries for 27 yards but fuck it, at least we weren't one-dimensional!!!
October 15th, 2013 at 10:39 PM ^
Feels like there's absolutely nowhere for Funk to hide. Everybody, all of the bodies, are talking about the o-line issues and I don't buy the comment "something, something, youth, something." Indiana has a young line also and they've suffered injuries to boot. We have the requisite talent to do better than we've been doing.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:17 AM ^
Lester just found the bodies in the vacants. Knows Chris (Borges) and Snoop (Funk) are to blame. Let's just hope McNulty (Brandon) can help put them away.
October 15th, 2013 at 10:40 PM ^
October 15th, 2013 at 10:44 PM ^
Patience. It will come soon. Hoke might go down with him.
October 15th, 2013 at 10:51 PM ^
I'm not a genius and I've been wrong before which is why I like your comment about me tempering my distaste.
October 16th, 2013 at 4:11 AM ^
if hoke wants to go down with a complete incompetent OC, ok. he's done. borges is horrible. there is little or no evidence to suggest otherwise.
October 16th, 2013 at 8:14 AM ^
I get this feeling that Hoke will not let borges go, and will get fired in couple years for not being able to deliver what he said on day one; big ten championship. Brandon said it, his expectation every class should graduate with a big ten championship. However, right now I dont see Hoke winning anything at michigan. He is recruiting really well, but watching the games he coached so far doesn't give me any indication that he can out coach a more talented team than his. Every once in a while the opposite happens he cant even beat teams that have lower talent than his. I just dont see any strategic planning by michigan, like belichick. Not saying he should be belichick, but any resemblance of it, I will take it. Like saying this is not working try to do something else. Playing to your team's strength and not idology that you believe. on defense, taking the opposing team's best player out of the picture. I know these kids are in college and not proffesional, but try to have some strategy.
October 16th, 2013 at 1:15 AM ^
This is fucking ridiculous. The strategy was sound, with a lead you run the fucking ball to run clock. This is how football is played on any level. Up by 7 with 2 minutes to go you run the damn ball. In OT needing a FG to win in FG position, you run the damn ball. Borges is not wrong here, we just did not execute one of 4-5 chances that we had to win this game. Gardner screwed up by not calling a time out, our D couldn't keep them from scoring a td with a minute to go and no time outs, we had a field goal blocked, and we missed a field goal. Sometimes shit just doesn't go your way. I'm sick of all the bozos on here calling for the coaches heads. These are some of the same clowns who thought Rich Rod was going to win a championship, and were mad when Hoke was hired. You guys don't know jack, so stop pretending.
October 16th, 2013 at 1:26 AM ^
October 16th, 2013 at 2:05 AM ^
One problem with your scenario, this isn't Borges first year. It is his third year and his offense has gotten worse rather than better.
October 16th, 2013 at 2:13 AM ^
even if changes do need to happen, everyone here sounds like a fucking 10 year old who wants the fancy toys of one of their friends but has to settle for something perceived to be less.
people around here need to pull their shit together.
October 16th, 2013 at 2:17 AM ^
Exactly.
There are reasonable complaints and then there is whatever the hell has been going on here for the last few days.
It's totally ridiculous.
October 16th, 2013 at 2:36 AM ^
You are correct, those defending Borges are clearly not reasonable human beings. It would be like someone trying to defend Gerg's defenses under RR.
October 16th, 2013 at 2:38 AM ^
Those two comparisons are absurd and completely ignorant of context, making you the unreasonable one for even attempting to compare the two.
October 16th, 2013 at 8:43 AM ^
I think the O-line should go in a different direction (away from Funk) and not that Borges should be fired, but that start trying to win games using the strengths of his actual team rather than his imaginary team. The O-line is terrible. There is no reason we should be pushed around by every team we play (with the exception of Central). How can Akron come into the Big House and be a 3 yard catch away from a win? What other excuse besides poor coaching can their be?
October 16th, 2013 at 9:03 AM ^
How can we beat Notre Dame by 11, CMU by 50, and Minnesota by 29, and then turn around and beat Akron by only 4, UConn by only 3, and blow a game at PSU?
Maybe we're a team that is still rebuilding with an incredibly inconsistent quarterback?
Or maybe we have some of the worst coaches in college football who have somehow managed to "Mr. Magoo" their way into several excellent recruiting classes, a BCS bowl win, and a 75% winning percentage?
October 16th, 2013 at 9:32 AM ^
1. Denard was a better passer as a sophomore first year starting QB under RR than he was as a junior and senior under Borges. He did not imprive at all under Al. That is a fact that indicts Borges.
2. Borges is directly respnsible for losses at Iowa and MSU, arguably OSU last year. And culpable in a couple of others. This is an opinion, but very close to a fact I think.
3. This last game is not the first time that almost incomprehensible lapses in paycalling and offensive strategy have occured. Even to defenders such as yourself.
4. Devin has not improved in decision making or passing with a Spring and Fall for Borges to coach him. Granted, 11 starts in, we would expect some inconsistency, except that Devin has been here for 4 years--3 under Al. There are plenty of examples of first year junior or senior starters stepping in and playing better than Devin is right now (passing).
I think all of the above points, at minimum, to a problem. Whether it justifies outrage is another matter, but I think fair analysis would conclude that criticism of Borges--not just for last game-- is warranted.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:00 AM ^
1. Was he a better passer, or did he move from an offense that was specifically tailored for his skill set to one that was not specifically tailored for his skill set?
2. It is definitely an opinion, but I wont disagree with you that they play calling has been questionable to bad at times. However, give me the list of schools who absolutely love their offensive coordinator and I will guarantee you it's a very short list.
3. I'm not a "defender" and this isn't an either or thing. Just because I don't believe Borges is the worst coach in the world, who deserves to be at minimum fired at the end of the year, doesn't mean I'm his number one fan. Can we all try to be even a tad bit nuanced here, or are we going to continue to consistently ignore me saying time and time again how the play calling has been at times bad or problematic?
4. Devin has regressed, but saying that also ignores the fact that Borges took a guy who had been playing WR for a full off-season plus half of the regular season last year, and turned him into an extremely competent QB overnight. Perhaps Devin's regression has had something to do with the offensive line play coupled with an extremely inconsistent running game? There might be more to it than Borges somehow failing Devin or screwing him over with bad coaching.
Criticism is definitely warranted, but calling for his head on a pike or saying derogatory things of a personal nature are not.
October 16th, 2013 at 12:44 PM ^
I made a rational post pointing to serious problems with Al's coaching IMO, which are cause for serious evaluation at season's end. Personal comments are out of line I agree.
To #4, I think it's a bit much to say that Al tuned him into a good QB "overnight." Devin had plenty of practice experience playing QB for us before the move, and I don't think Al gets any special credit for his performcnce last year, any more than Mike Sherman got when Tanneyhill moved back to QB at A&M. And even if he did deserve credit, then the blame hammer should fall even harder for his coaching given this year's regression, which you acknowledge.
October 16th, 2013 at 2:31 PM ^
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/it-time-evaluate-capabilities-db-coaches
Don't count on getting any information to backup the claims of the OP. There are multiple posts on the espn michigan forums spouting this same garbage with absolutely no evidence to support the claim. In fact if anything the evidence would suggest that the D Coaches have done a good job considering the injuries/attrition they have experienced.
http://mgoblog.com/comment/reply/44887/682698
This is why I can't place the blame on any of the coaches yet. I look at it that Michigan is 5-0. Most reasonable people predicted Michigan to finish somewhere between 6-6 and 8-4. With the defense this young and inexpereience the team is in great position to hit the high end of those guesses if not better. If anything I would give the coaching staff including Gibson credit for holding the D together.
October 16th, 2013 at 2:06 AM ^
October 16th, 2013 at 2:44 AM ^
Evidently ridiculous is in the eye of the beholder. We couldn't run all game, but you say it was ridiculous to do anything but run to win the game.
Sound strategy is to hand Fitz the ball because that was clearly the strength of our game the previous 3.5 quarters?
Seriously?
Yes, you can blame Gardner for the delay of game, I won't argue that. But is he more culpable than Hoke who's coached and played more downs than days Gardner has walked this earth? Is Gardner more culpable than the coach who said that the fault was with the coach because it was teh coach's responsibility to watch the clock and call the timeout?
I like Hoke still, although not quite as much as a few days ago (he had always had balls until then), but Borges has got to go in this bozo's opinion. That is as plain and simple as your concept of strategy.
October 16th, 2013 at 8:17 AM ^
October 16th, 2013 at 8:18 AM ^
obviously you didnt watch the lions this last sunday, with the lead and in field goal position, they threw a td. No in overtime you dont just play to a FG, you try to get first downs and get as close as possible to the goal line as this increases your chances on getting the FG, not sit at the 25 and run some stupid shit. I still can't believe 3r down and less than a yard, he would not go for the first, to just kick the ball. get the damn first down and get new set of downs.
October 15th, 2013 at 10:42 PM ^
October 15th, 2013 at 10:44 PM ^
October 15th, 2013 at 10:59 PM ^
October 15th, 2013 at 11:23 PM ^
It's easier for people to just blame Borges rather than consider that our issues might be a bit more systemic and further reaching. There was a time when Schafer was the reason for our terrible defense and not something deeper...