Notre Dame Snowflakes: The Coaching

We need to start paying recruits. Seriously. We are at a distinct disadvantage because we don't.

I said it in the game thread - for me this was the game when the honeymoon ended for Harbaugh.  I am done with the trips to Rome, the “enthusiasm unkown to mankind” and the marketing hype that is Jim Harbaugh.  His team was unprepared, looked confused and - this is the worst part - seemed to lack the mental toughness to respond when punched in the mouth.  

The examples of what I’m on about are penltiful - a stupid targeting penalty by a starter at a position of need, an OL that hasn’t improved from “the worst unit in living memory” level of last year, a holder who takes his eyes of the ball, a QB sliding short of the sticks, a punt returner catching the ball on the five and then compounding his mistake by trying to juke two guys, and wasting time with that clapping thing on the second to last drive.  

BTW - Everyone in the world knows when the ball is gonna be snapped.  First the clapping, then the QB sticks his hand down, then one-Mississippi, two -Mississippi and then go!  If my dumb-ass can figure it out, you bet ND had it down.  So will everyone else.  You’re making it harder on your worst unit.

Finally, I am putting none of this on the players.  This isn’t one mistake, or one poor performance.  Systemic failures like this are the fault of the coaching staff.  

Honeymoon’s over guys.  You need to deliver or pack.

I’ve tried waiting patiently and giving this time to turn around, but I just don’t see it now. I see a worse offensive line and worse coaching. This game didn’t mean that much, but it also said a lot about what we should expect for conference outcomes. Not good!

Recruiting tackles comes back to Harbaugh in year 4. They had to know that the tackles wouldnt be good this year yet we couldnt recruit anyone last year to cover the gap.

Really hate to lose hope for a whole season after just one game- but I feel awful (probably worse) just like most of the games last season.

Very disheartening.

Harbaugh warmed his own seat tonight. Between the awful offense and the even worse clock management, he really managed to put the spotlight on himself as the main loser in this game. Today was the first time my faith in the Harbaugh plan was really shaken. If THIS team can’t move the ball then what does Harbaugh need? Other coaches do more with less

Harbaugh made the Michigan "brand" relevant.  Just not the actual football being played on the field...Painful.

Jesus people...I'm beginning to think this fanbase is ALMOST as bad as 11 Warriors.

I vowed to take a Gene Smith vacation from Mgoblog if we lost this game...looks like that is a good idea.

The sky isn't falling. We lost to a higher ranked opponent on the road, at night. 

Put away your pitchforks. It wasn't coaching, it wasn't Patterson...it was what we were concerned about all off season...O Line play.

I really believed I could handle a loss going into this game. I realize it is tough to win down there. But at some point it really is "how" you lose.  If Don Brown wasn't schooled like a grad assistant/intern in that first half then what was it I saw? If the player discipline breakdowns  such as CWin gifting ND touchdowns with a free set of downs with a blatantly late hit on a play the team had stopped instead of FG attempts wasn't a coaching reflection, then what is? Clock management, is that what that was we saw tonight?  Was that a team prepared to play?  What the hell is all those millions of dollars of coaching salaries supposed to buy you?

Horrible. Embarrassing, and the sad thing is, ND will likely turn out to be not very good this year.

This will be a 3-4 loss Notre Dame team too. It's not like we just got beat by a playoff contender.

OSU is licking their chops, especially after their new QB threw for 350 yards and 5 TDs today.

Fire Harbaugh. We're still a joke.

This was undoubtedly the poorest coaching job I’ve ever seen out of Harbaugh.  I don’t believe in him anymore and I really dislike him now.   I’m still a fan and desperately want them to win, but it’s just not going to happen. He’s a fraud.   We deserve every piece of trash talk that Sparty fan and Buckeye fans give us.

I credit Jim for bringing in new coaches and a strength coach, but it obviously didn’t change shit on the football field.  The oline is as trashy as last year and I didn’t think that was humanly possible.  

Everything we heard in the offseason about strength gains, improved, simplified oline play, is flat out bull shit.  All the money and resources that go into the program, and that’s the results?  I now know why so many highly ranked recruits ultimately don’t pick Michigan...it games like this. 

Team came out sluggish in the first half. Made dumb penalties and gave up big plays. Offense in the fourth quarter looked like they were walking through mud. Why the fuck are we running play action on second and goal from the two yard line? Give it to the fullback and muscle it in! 

Zero explosiveness from the offense despite having athletes all over. Where is the creativity? ND certainly had a lot of great plays called.

I simply don’t understand. Where is the fire that the 2015 and 2016 teams had?

The two-minute drill needs some work, eh? 

Harbs isn't the same guy who came here, not animated, not in command and most of all not at the top of his profession that he once was.  What a damn shame it had to happen here.

Harbaugh and co. was out coached again. They probably game plan for a run heavy offense and expected their Defense can hold on their ground. But shit happened, and the defense could not help themselves to draw flags, and that's not uncommon when you play road game in your rivalry. Then the running game plan was abandoned, and the pass blocking and passing game design was so bad that Harbaugh as a "fillter" OC cannot select any good plays from his crappy passing and running game coordinators. As usual, the red zone offense suck as last year. Waste so many tall WR and TE on red zone. No jump ball in the pass two years. Don't give me crap about Harbaugh is the OC. He's not. If he was, how can you explain to me that he can call so many good play and creative play 2 years ago and he highly praise Jeb Fisch, and now he cannot do his magic after Jeb Fisch is gone?

What a waste of talent that we have incometent offensive staff. This is on Harbaugh himself. He didn't make good decision on hiring his offensive coaching staff.

Like I said before, FUCK YOU warde. You're a shitty AD and a pussy cocksucker. Its clear as day that this team and program will never be what we wish it to be. Oh yea, and great coaching by Harbaugh and company today...

I'm going to just take a wild stab here and say that Jim Harbaugh is not a very good offensive coordinator.

I'm also musing about how good Don Brown would be as a HC/DC.

I thought the clock management at the end of the game was okay. Yeah they took their time on the touchdown drive, but they executed effectively and scored with around 2:30 left. Defense then did their job, and we moved the ball to around the 50 with a minute left. We had enough time to put ourselves into position to score with little to no time left, just didn’t execute.

we came out and got our asses kicked, glad I don't live in Indiana.  McCaffery looked pretty good though.  I was so excited for the season to start, then this...  ?

Fuck our trash coaches who coach a team that allows the play clock to get under 10 seconds twice with under 4 minutes down by two scores.

its a recurring theme and it’s trash coaching. Honestly the worst thing to come out of tonight. We knew our tackles were trash and our offense would be mediocre. But to fail at something so completely fundamental is a complete indictment on the coaching staff.

if you can’t recruit at an elite level, and you can’t gameplan at an elite level, and you can’t coach in game situations at an elite level why the fuck are you getting paid like an elite level coach?

Yay, we’re Texas with a less-recent National Title game and less-recent win over ND. I’m sure we’ll beat Maryland though! And Rutgers, and other awful teams, and lose to anyone with a pulse because oof, they all play football and we play whatever but with Honor and Dignity and gosh darn. I just hope we win 1 road game this year against anyone other than Rutgers.