So who do we want to replace Borges?

Submitted by CookieMonster on

Assuming you want Al Borges to be fired at the end of the year........ Does anyone have someone specific  that they would like to see take over? Obviously its hard to say who will be available at years end, but what are some names that are out there for possible candidates? I think a name that should be explored is Robert Prince from Boise State. Hes not that old, in his late 40's I believe, has NFL experience and has produced top 10-15 level offenses as Boise States OC the last few years. An obvious name is Cam Cameron, but lets be real hes not leaving LSU. This is my first post btw. Be easy..

xcrunner1617

November 11th, 2013 at 1:48 PM ^

Just because he is a Michigan man?  If he had no Michigan ties, he wouldn't even be on the list.  Michigan needs to go after the best person out there, not the best person they can with Michigan ties.  I know if will be harder to hire such a person, but throwing enough money at the person usually solves that issue. 

LSAClassOf2000

November 11th, 2013 at 1:52 PM ^

Virginia Tech's preformance this year so far:

VTEC Offense Value (rank)
Points/Game 21.8 (#96)
Yards/Game 357.8 (#95)
Points/Play 0.298 (#94)
Yards/Play 4.9 (#99)
3D Conversion % 33.33% (#100)
4D Conversion % 60.00% (#32)
RZ Scoring % 64.00% (#120)
Rush Play % 51.67% (#73)
Yards/Rush 2.9 (#116)
Rushes/Game 37.8 (#72)
Rush Yards/Game 110.9 (#109)
Pass Play % 48.33% (#53)
Completion % 58.33% (#69)
Yards/Pass 7.4 (#55)
Passes/Game 33.3 (#56)
Pass Yards/Game 246.9 (#53)
Int Thrown % 3.33% (#81)
QB Sacked % 5.66% (#67)

 

CLord

November 11th, 2013 at 10:32 PM ^

Yeah dude seriously.  If anything, this is the ONLY relevant thread associated with the Michigan football program, because until Hoke replaces Al - The Worst Coordinator in Michigan History (TM) - Borges, hundreds of thousands of fans will join Brian, myself and others in the land of "Don't give a shit any more."

JimBobTressel

November 11th, 2013 at 1:06 PM ^

Borges is getting a little too much of the grief right now. it's football, the issues go deeper than just "argh bad playcalling."

It's execution. It's on Darrell Funk too. And Gardner might have to be benched at this rate.

ShadowStorm33

November 11th, 2013 at 1:22 PM ^

At least Debord developed talent he could then squander...

I've gone back and forth on Borges. In some of our poor performances I actually liked the playcalling (ND 2012, PSU this year until late), we just didn't execute. But what really gets me is that in year three, I don't know if I can think of a single offensive player outside of Gallon that's improved since Borges got here (Devin's just about regressed to where he started).

Hannibal.

November 11th, 2013 at 1:32 PM ^

I have gone back and forth on Borges too.  In the end, I think that he is a mediocre coordinator that won't squander great football players, but won't get more than they are worth either.  I loved his game against ND, but he has had some mega turds too.

CLord

November 11th, 2013 at 10:37 PM ^

That's like saying if a four year old was armed with an AK 47, he could probably win a fight with Floyd Mayweather.  And frankly, I couldn't disagree more.  It's not like the Alabama players show up all shiny and perfect for the coaches to ride out like Ferraris.  The coaches at Alabama, starting with Saban, actually DEVELOP those players to be as good as they are.

Borges is not only a dinosaur in his schemes and play calls, but he can't develop his players at all, and doesn't even have a QB coach... 

Borges = The Worst Coordinator in Michigan History (TM) on the heels of the second worst  in GERG, and third worst in Ron English.

KBLOW

November 11th, 2013 at 2:30 PM ^

You really don't feel that he's squandering the talent that we have?  I agree that especially with O-line that might take more time to tell, but with how he used Denard, the seeming regression of our RB's, the unwillingness to spread it out for Gardener, all seem like squandering after 3 years of his coaching.  

reshp1

November 11th, 2013 at 2:33 PM ^

To be fair, we've had a lot of seniors come through and graduate, and replaced by freshmen and RS freshman. There' isn't the orderly Senior gets replaced by Junior development you see in mature, stable programs. With the exception of the OL, most of the 2012 and 2013 class are at or above where you would expect them to be at this stage in development. Chesson, Funchess, Norfleet, Butt all are contributing, you could probably throw in Johnson and Darboh too if they weren't injured. You have some guys that haven't made an impact yet, but that happens and it's still early. That said, with as much focus as we've given on OL recruiting the last few years, it's pretty glaring we haven't had more production out of those guys.

 

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

November 11th, 2013 at 2:02 PM ^

I was thinking about posting in the snowflake thread about how bad the O-line is.  Then I realized - that's not a snowflake, it's a raindrop.

But - following two teams at once is useful for comparison purposes....and my 2-8 going on 2-10 Hoos have a wretched offensive line that looks better than Michigan's because the OC has a system that hides their weaknesses as best as possible.  I blame Borges for not figuring out how to do the same and I blame Funk for how piss-poor they are in pass-protection.

smwilliams

November 11th, 2013 at 6:37 PM ^

Thank you so much for pointing this out! There's still a small subset (including Hoke) that believe talent and execution are the problems. Which, to an extent, they are. But good coaches figure out a way to minimize the impact of weak areas of the team (see Mattison, Greg). Bad coaches go "let's run power even though none of our linemen can block it".

If you have a QB that can glide like a damn horse, a mismatch on the level of Funchess, then maybe you know, run plays that cater to those strengths.

Den-blue

November 11th, 2013 at 2:19 PM ^

" His players suck at football"

I have to keep calling BS on this. His players don't suck at football, they suck at doing what he is asking them to do. His number one job is to take the talent he has, identify their strengths and put them in position to succeed. I think they have some serious (undeveloped) talent on the offensive side of the ball. He asks the wrong things of them.

 

Al seems like a nice guy but, he sucks at his job.

jmblue

November 11th, 2013 at 3:30 PM ^

I'm concerned that Borges the QB coach may be undermining Borges the OC.  Gardner has gone from being a turnover machine to being way too indecisive and holding on to the ball too long.  Previous Borges QBs have gone through similar difficulties.  Even some of his better QBs had pretty bad INT totals.

 

O Fo Sho

November 11th, 2013 at 1:13 PM ^

to be benched is crazy IMO.  Yea, he's missing some plays out there.  However, WTF is he supposed to do.  He's getting killed out there, no time, his team can't run the ball.  Do you think Shane Morris would step in and do any better?  Hell no is the answer.  And it is MUCH to do with play calling.  I agree FUNK is awful.  And don't forget Al Borgess is DG's QB coach.  So the blame for DG can fall on Borges' dumass as well.

MGoBlue96

November 11th, 2013 at 8:22 PM ^

It would make  no sense taking snaps away from his development either at this point.

The people calling for Gardner to benched are out of their minds. Some people excuse the o-line troubles based on youth, but yet fail to realize that Gardner hasn't even started two full years at QB yet. He is still in the beginning stages of his career as a QB.

He has shown flashes of greatness throughout the season, he just needs to become more consistent. He has  accounted for 20+ tds this year.  Having an actual running game to help out would go a long way as well.

I just wonder who in their right mind would believe any QB would excel consistently given the current state of the offense. There is a real chance that a less mobile QB like  Morris would end up getting seriously hurt, behind this awful o-line.

JimBobTressel

November 11th, 2013 at 1:17 PM ^

"WTF is he supposed to do"

  • not duck at the 1st sight of a defender coming close to the pocket
  • not hold on to the ball too long
  • actually make reads faster
  • fire to the quick slants and hot reads that Borges is desparately dialing up
  • again....not hold on the ball for so long

then again, with no running game and no OL...how much can I blame him?

#1 problem with this team, this season, and everything else is the damned OL. Funk needs to go now.

reshp1

November 11th, 2013 at 2:44 PM ^

There were several occasions where the defense (State and Neb) were jumping the hot routes. They were basically playing coverage under the assumption no long routes would have time to develop, which was a pretty safe assumption. I agree with the poster above, everything comes back to the OL. We can't run to slow down the blitzs. We've dumbed down protection schemes making Fitz's job all but impossible. We have blocking TEs or extra linemen in to max protect, resulting in only 2 man routes into bracket coverage. Gardner is understandably a mess mentally and physically from all the contact he takes.

AFMich

November 11th, 2013 at 4:30 PM ^

Still, DG locks onto receivers and hold the ball far too long. At times, he actually had decent pass protection Saturday. He would stare holes through his 1st read and be sacked by the time he thought of making his progression. 

I don't say this to dog on DG. In my view, I don't expect much out of QB that has as few starts as he does. With a bit more experience and just a slight uptick in performance from the O-line, I think we'd all like the product/performance Borges/DG can put together. He has a great knack for the deep ball (which Borges loves) and can punish teams that overplay pass protection.

I'm not a huge fan or hater of Borges, but I think his real worth will only be evident after next year.

STW P. Brabbs

November 12th, 2013 at 5:59 AM ^

Is what can happen when you run two-man routes and max protect.  Sometimes, it takes a while for two bracketed receivers to get open. 

Also, I think the sense that they've essentially cowed Gardner by emphasizing turnovers over everything else -- as Brian said, I think Gardner the gunslingin' turnover machine is actually better than Gardner the tackling dummy (somewhere in between would be extra rad, of course).

Space Coyote

November 11th, 2013 at 1:36 PM ^

Was a hot route. There are certain rules installed in the system for when a hot route is to be run. That doesn't help the fact that Michigan can't pick up protections they should be able to pick up, but it's a fairly common trait for any team that has hot routes installed within their offense.

Space Coyote

November 11th, 2013 at 4:46 PM ^

Most of the hot routes will happen immediately before you get too deep in the drop. Depending on how Borges runs his hot routes, they could be an immediate change (change 7-step to 3-step) or it could change the type of drop (quick-7 compared to full-7). On PA passes you just need to know where the guy is and know you're getting hit. It's a tough position to be in, especially when your team can't run block (so the D doesn't respect the run) and can't block (so the D is coming rather unmolested).

I would like some more quick drops. I would actually like a lot of the simple pass plays Michigan ran with DG last year. Not because I think they would be successful (I don't think DBs respect the deep pass enough for that, because they know pressure will get home or they'll have way more DBs than routes as Michigan tries to protect), but just because it changes the pass rush angle, the speed at which they have to do things, and gives another thing to defend.

Space Coyote

November 11th, 2013 at 1:38 PM ^

He was calling for quick routes more than anything. I think there were some points where receivers didn't get into their hot routes though, because Nebraska did overload some blitzes on occassion I believe. Borges has always had hot routes on 7+ man blitzes, so I find it hard to believe he totally went away from it (and it may be one of the reasons Hoke said in the presser that it's not just the OL, but all 11 on the field contributing to the sacks).

marmot

November 11th, 2013 at 1:53 PM ^

Alright SC.  I just have to know - and don't think I'm chastising you in any way because I'm just genuinely curious.  What do you think of the coordinating and the line coaching now?

This team's offense has easily surpassed the ineptitude of RR's defenses (last in TFL's, -48 yards rushing, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum).  We look absolutely awful.  I feel horrible for the seniors on this team.