Space Coyote Appreciation Thread

Submitted by JimBobTressel on

Congrats you sniveling morons, you're on the verge of driving him off. I'd say 90% of you know way less football than you think you do and that's generous.

Space Coyote, as anyone who follows him on Twitter knows, literally breaks down the X's and O's of a game faster than anyone out there. Insanely intelligent.

My suggestion is to shut up and read. Literally the first time I've ever heard him driven to cursing.

This constant, idiotic, bull shit attitude where about a dozen people look at things Borges says and twist it, act like he's stupid and doesn't know shit, is really, really annoying. Someone the other day bitched about Hoke saying "most teams have 4 base runs and 4 base passes". "Haha, how stupid is that? How much are our coaches out of touch, eh?" Well guess what, most teams have about 4 base runs and 4 base passes.

People on this thread bitching about "we'll lock into some plays". Guess what, every coach at this level will lock into some plays. Why is it stupid for Borges to say, "alright, I don't want my college QB to get into a chess match with one of the best DCs in the country?" Why is it stupid to think Michigan's OC, that has tons of experience, might have a better idea of what's going on? Why is it, that if Borges calls a pass play that has a single high beater to one side and a two high beater to the other, that he needs to have DG have the ability to check out? 

People are bringing PSU nearly three weeks after it happened and still don't understand shit about what happened despite the attempts by some to explain "maybe it wasn't the greatest, but it was far from the worst. Very far from the worst." People keep bringing up "27 for 27" and don't even understand what half of it fucking means, don't understand the game situations that corresponded with it, don't understand that Borges in fact called 14 runs to RBs in the first 54 minutes, which if Michigan weren't trying to eat clock at the end, amounts to a very modest 17 runs in the game.

And then people use a bunch of BS logic. "How many QBs does Borges have in the NFL?" How many has Tressel had? Maybe Pryor? How many does Rich Rod have? Zero? How many does Meyer have? One from his Utah days? What the hell does this even have to do with successful college QBs? But let's bring up how a RS FR, for the first time ever, won the Heisman. Then lets disregard any actual knowledge of anything. Did he check into better plays? Did he run the offense against Alabama? Why are we comparing our QB to maybe the best QB in college football as if that is exactly what Michigan's QB should always be because it's the way it is in your NCAA football game.

But no, it's way too much credit to think an OC that's been in the game has even a functional knowledge of football. I think that the people that think this is his first time seeing a football game since he played Tecmo Bowl as a child are on to something. Oh God he's so fucking stupid that half the posters on here know he's an idiot and see things and understand things he has no idea about.

Honestly, this is getting beyond annoying. The posters here, at least a lot of the outspoken ones, are complete fucking morons that think because they are outspoken they are right. Maybe I should take a break from these boards, from these sites, and let it just degrade into idiocracy. Because I'm sick of every thread even tangentially about Borges turns into this "Hurrr duurrrr Borges dumb, he don't even know that you no can run out of formation not called spread". The wave of stupidity and ignorance mixed with unentitled arrogance that has washed over the board is overbearing. I don't mind debate, I don't mind different opinions, but opinions stated repeatedly time and again without even the effort to have any damn clue what your talking about, and then ignoring people that try to say "wait a second" time and again is exhausting.

Am I done here? Yeah, I think I'm done here.

TIMMMAAY

October 29th, 2013 at 10:54 PM ^

When a poster with a three day old account tries to be cute by telling a long standing and valuble contributor to this site to basically "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out"... yeah, he can go. But thanks.

Ty Butterfield

October 29th, 2013 at 10:36 PM ^

Seems like a knowledgable dude and I like his posts. That said a college football message board is never going to be a sane place.

maineandblue

October 30th, 2013 at 12:37 AM ^

Gotta agree. SC makes some fair points that have led me to question some of my initial Borges frustration. However, many of the "anti-Borges" folks (e.g., Brian) pose some strong and well-informed questions/complaints without getting personal, mean, or making idiotic claims like "Borges is stupid and doesn't understand football." 

Much of it is difference in philosophy of the game, and if the point system was still around I think we'd be able to have much more civil conversations. 

Cake Or Death

October 30th, 2013 at 12:55 AM ^

Yeah, I've got to think that 20%-30% of what we've seen over the past few weeks would have been greyed out by default in the past.  And unless you go looking for them, those idiotic posts just wouldn't be there.  I was amazed at what came out of the woodwork after PSU.

 

I appreciate you Space Coyote!

Wee-Bey Brice

October 29th, 2013 at 10:51 PM ^

"That said a college football message board is never going to be a sane place."

 

You're probably right but why is that? There aren't many, if any, 14 year olds here. Why can't adults behave like adults even on the "Innanet"? These same people will then turn around and  trash the SEC schools fan bases for doing the exact thing that they come here and do everyday. 

1464

October 29th, 2013 at 11:03 PM ^

Well, nobody is perfect.  Good is not an absolute.  So my theory is that the gray area that exists in everyone is kept in check in real life, but the dam breaks in places like this. 

I'm not going to call my boss a taint pustule because I am well versed in the "don't get fired" method of employment.  I'm not going to call my wife a cackling emo hen, because I enjoy the whole still getting some every once in a while thing. 

But the internet, well... that's still the wild west.  Don't like my theory on why we should run the A-11 offense?  You should go try to sodomize a male brown bear because you are stupid and I now hope your family gets sick with avian flu.

Now, I am a very agreeable person in real life.  I don’t really fit the mold of a guy who has a ton of points on an online message board (although I doubt that most do follow that mold).  On here, I try to stay tolerable, but I do also realize I can be much more abrasive.  Not as bad as some, but I’ve had my moments.

It’s just a more anonymous version of road rage.

Bando Calrissian

October 30th, 2013 at 1:28 AM ^

There are plenty of teenagers here. And I would argue that their ratio of Bolivianed-to-non-Bolivianed is higher than the rest of the board, and for good reason.

That being said, a lot of problems could be solved with the self-policing that existed under the negging system. I guess I've never understood why it's so technologically prohibitive to reinstate it.

uniqenam

October 29th, 2013 at 10:41 PM ^

Let's be honest, they're just taking their cues from Brian, who believes that his 10 years of armchair generaling equal a lifetime emersed in football, and that anyone who doesn't run the spread is dumb chickenshit and conservative and needs to GET WITH THE TIMEZ.

maizenbluenc

October 30th, 2013 at 8:21 AM ^

the guy who created this great forum that you merely comment on. I rarely completely agree with Brian and I think some of his views are sometimes caveling, and at times extreme. So I take Brian's and others' views and form my own opinion. If you so completely dislike Brian's point of view - then perhaps it is time to find another blog.

Frankly, I appreciated Space Coyote injecting a knowledgeable counter point into the panicked herd, but this is the internet ... you can't let it get to you ... Space Coyote has gone all Kevin Bacon with the predictable trampled result. ("All is well. Remain calm.")

The truth is in the middle, and probably something we'll never know because it had to do with strategy, and tactics based on personnel, injuries, mental state, etc.

There are things I disagreed with during the game (runs into futilely stacked boxes, and the punt rather than a Wile long FG attempt), but I also thought that Gibby would save us. It just wasn't his day.

I think Space Coyote should consider a breather, and then I hope for a return. AND the sooner we get up and down voting back, the better.

Mitch Cumstein

October 30th, 2013 at 6:14 AM ^

I think we all appreciate the work he puts in, but he did right an entire post (including pictures) of "the dumbest play ever" and didn't realize there were only 10 players on the field. I'm not saying he isn't knowledgeable, but it's almost like a political website.  He throws out a few talking points (typically about how RR's offense was amazing and he wants it back) and then it gets parroted by a bunch of posters that don't know shit for the next week.  

Reader71

October 30th, 2013 at 10:47 AM ^

Yes and no. Mostly no.

The RUNNING of the play made it really stupid. A timeout fixes that, and the lack of a timeout was stupid.

The play qua play was fine. And that's what Brian was taking issue with. Its a zone stretch to the strong side. Every team runs this. It wasn't even a bad play against the look we saw, as we had 1-1 on the playside due to PSU not aligning very well and the backside backer being frozen by Gardner's boot action.

uniqenam

October 29th, 2013 at 11:03 PM ^

I stopped after a conversation I had with my dad right after Hoke was hired. I was all "he's a bad coach, we settled, we're going to be worse than ND, he can't recruit, lloyd carr 2.0" etc etc, and then we happened to have the radio on on the way back from breakfast, and it was just filled with former M players talking about what a great coach he was and how he was the man for the job and I realized...man, they probably know a little more about this than Brian does.

 

That said, I love Brian's analysis etc, and I think he's a great ambassodor and evangelist for Michigan football; I just feel that some people don't understand that he makes his critiques from a standpoint of an amateur fan who has done a lot of studying, and that A) He works hard to make the right diagnosis and B) He still might not know as much as the pros. 

 

It's just annoying when we have people parrot what Brian says without contributing anything to the conversation other than "Yeah, FUCK BORGES"

triangle_M

October 29th, 2013 at 11:24 PM ^

I agree with your words.  I wasn't disparaging Brian, just making an observation.   Brian is the #1 UofM fan.  He's made it into his livelihood - I certainly can't compete.  I don't want to.  I have two kids and a wife that require my attention and if I'm off the deep end because of a loss then I'm not being a good father or husband, and that is far more important to me.

 I like to nerd out on football, this is a great place for it.  That said I'd like to keep it nerdy and lose the emotional side of it because its more annoying than anything else.  SC, like Brian, is a super football nerd.  Therefore, I love his posts. 

maineandblue

October 30th, 2013 at 12:44 AM ^

I don't always agree with Brian (though I usually do), but I would add that he A) openly admits that he doesn't know as much as the pros, B) admits when he's not sure about something, C) admits when someone brings up a good point that might contradict his viewpoint, and D) admits if he was wrong about something. 

Some people will always be ignorantly pro- or anti-Brian and will get polarized and simplify complex topics because this is the internet. And they'll be allowed to take over much of the feel of the blog because the point system is MIA. 

Reader71

October 30th, 2013 at 2:13 AM ^

Eh. I remember a post Brian did last season saying that Borges designed an Iso play with a free running LB in the hole. He was so insistent that he responded to my comment that no coordinator is that stupid. It really seems like he thinks a professional coach is that stupid.

A few weeks ago, he called a perfectly good play the worst he'd ever seen. Right away, I commented that the stupid play was hampered by the fact that we had 10 men on the field. He said he trusted his eyes more than the radio announcers. But we got photographic evidence that he was wrong. He has issued no correction. Not to mention that the play was still actually OK, with a 1-1 blocker/defender ratio to the playside. I'd like to have more blockers than defenders, but when its even, its hard to call something the stupidest play ever.

Brian is a great blogger. Great. But this skill has given him cache amongst a lot of readers, so he leads the charge. The entire Fire Borges thing has been, if not created, exacerbated by Brian. He actually fought to keep Coach Rod employed here, and he gave great arguments, not only debunking anti-spread crap, but creating a legion of spread admirers. Why can't he take a sane approach to the pro-style offense that we now run? He doesn't have to love it, but he can and should learn about its strengths as well as its weaknesses. Borges obviously doesn't prefer the spread, but he, like Brian, is not a fool. He uses it because it works for us.

wolverine1987

October 30th, 2013 at 11:00 AM ^

I've said this before, but while Brian is a spread guy, if we were running pro style all the time and were undefeated and showing the ability to run the ball from under center he would be quiet (mostly, IMO) about this. But, contrary to your statement, running from under center does not "work for us," it hasn't worked for us since Hoke came here, and that is a statistical fact.  IMO that is the reason his criticisms have legs. We run more effectively from the spread, another fact. So he is advocating what works for us, which to me give the criticism validity.

Reader71

October 30th, 2013 at 4:02 PM ^

Perhaps I wasn't clear. Borges has run the spread for 2.5 years to some degree or another because it works for us. He is not a spread guy, but he runs it because it gives us a chance.

And you are right about Brian. He was mostly quiet while we were winning. But after PSU, he told the mods "Now is the time for anarchy". This makes it seem like he was just waiting to pounce on a loss. And I don't think that's fair.

The larger picture is this: we wont be a spread team much longer. Brian may be right about the superiority of the spread, but it will soon be a moot point. To continue as a great blogger, hell have to learn about the things we do run. And he will. Just had a post on triangle concepts in the passing game. It got like 20 replies because it didn't pertain to the narrative that our OC is a buffoon.

jmblue

October 30th, 2013 at 11:22 AM ^

Agreed.  I like Brian; I like that he's a fan, not just a sportswriter.  But he struggles sometimes to balance his desire to objectively analyze things with his preconceived notions about what is good and bad coaching - and people reading the site should take that into account.  I've never heard Brian argue, for instance, that the 2010 OSU game was an offensive debacle, even though our highly-ranked offense was held to seven points (26 below its average) - a huge failure by any standard reckoning.  Whereas the 2012 OSU game, when we scored 21 points (eight below our average) - by objective measures, not a particularly subpar outing - is constantly brought up as an example of terrible offensive coaching.  In the former case it was simply too difficult for him to criticize an offensive staff that, in his view, ran the optimal scheme.  In the latter it was too easy.

 

 

TheLastHarbaugh

October 30th, 2013 at 11:33 AM ^

In my humble estimation, that's always been simultaneously one of the more endearing qualities of the blog, but also one of the more problemic ones as well.

Brian is part fan, part analyst.

A fanalst, if you will (allow me to steal a gag from Arrested Development).

Sometimes it can be confusing because the fandom parts creep into the analysis, and at times the paradigm shifts several times within a given post. 

And like you said, Brian has a number of biases that he makes fairly clear. He's also an extremely emotional guy and that emotion often times makes him a prisoner of the moment.

These are all things people need to keep in mind while reading his pieces.