An optimistic hunch
So I was listening to 97.1 on my way to UM hospital to visit my mother, who is battling NHL courageously.
One of the gravelly-voiced radio commentators (Dan Leach or Dennis Fithian, love them both, but I confuse them with each other) took a call from a guy who raised a valid point about Mark Dantonio and Sparty never showing their hand before the Michigan game and then BOOM. Against us, they always seem to rattle off a few scripted drives that are both brilliant and creative.
It had me thinking....
Could Jim be doing the same thing? It SUCKS losing to Notre Dame. They ARE a rival, but not to the level of MSU or OSU. Perhaps Jim is developing and saving all of the good stuff for 2 games on the calender? This strategy always seems to work for Mork....
If Jim consistently churns out 8, 9, and 10 win seasons but beats our 2 main rivals on a consistent basis (think Bo) due to operating with a reduced playbook all season, would we all be happy with that? It would most likely mean no undefeated 1997-esque seasons with national championships, but I think I would be willing to sacrifice that.
Humorous side story: Nurse came in to take my mom’s blood pressure during the game last night and mentioned it was a little higher than usual. My mom remarked: “Well no shit! Are you not watching this game!?”
September 3rd, 2018 at 8:57 AM ^
But what about the Train™️ formation! /s
September 3rd, 2018 at 12:21 AM ^
The most obvious answer is that we are bad on offense again. It is infuriating after hearing all offseason how great Runyan has been playing. We have done absolutely nothing through 4 years to address the OL other than hoping people play well that shouldn't be starting. We could be recruiting better tackles.
September 3rd, 2018 at 1:19 AM ^
I don’t understand the OL recruiting. The line sucked last season and all Harbaugh recruited last year was a TE out of Traverse City and a lineman from GRCC who excelled on defense in high school. Now the only hope is Obi-Wan and a d-lineman converted to OT, and I’m sure that’s going to go well.
September 3rd, 2018 at 3:59 AM ^
I fianaly get where you got your screen name.
September 3rd, 2018 at 12:36 AM ^
No. Every year people start rumors that UofM is holding onto something, saving it for OSU or MSU. Those goes back to the Lloyd Carr days.
Except for Carrs final game vs. Florida, none of these conspiracy theories have ever come to fruition.
We are not "saving" anything. We assuredly are not losing games over the possibility of saving a play or two against MSU. That is ludicrous. Dont get your hopes up.
September 3rd, 2018 at 1:46 AM ^
Well, the offensive game plan for OSU last year was definitely something that hadn't been seen before.
September 3rd, 2018 at 9:56 AM ^
Henne was injured all season and for Carr's last game he was first able to make all the basic plays so as to open things up for more complex (trick} plays. Something as basic as a reverse doesn't work if the base run play isn't working. Special plays almost always work because the other team is getting sloppy or over compensating. Florida ran into a team that was finally physically able to run the plays in the playbook.
September 3rd, 2018 at 12:55 AM ^
Beat Western
September 3rd, 2018 at 1:11 AM ^
I don’t think Jimmy gets paid $7 mil a year to lose a game so as to hide the good stuff.
September 3rd, 2018 at 2:00 AM ^
Best wishes to your mum, buddy. Tough sledding, but I like how you're keeping that chin up.
I think this is a great idea, but here's why I doubt it: ND is separated on the schedule from a team with a pulse (Northwestern) by at least several weeks. Assuming the bag of tricks is deep enough, they could've pulled out all the bells and whistles and used the next several weeks to add more.
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:28 AM ^
Thank you sir.
September 3rd, 2018 at 2:02 AM ^
people make it seem like there's 5 plays in the playbook that are kryptonite and must stay in the vault until they play OSU/MSU.
Reality is that there are hundreds of plays that happen over the course of a season and that any one of them could work against rivals, so long as they are against type...
Michigan is 1-5 versus MSU/OSU so this idea that Michigan is somehow holding back super top secret plays only to spring them versus OSU/MSU seems like fans grasping at straws.
September 3rd, 2018 at 2:10 AM ^
No, just no. We lost because our OL was not good and our offensive game plan did nothing to help them out.
We need to spend the next two weeks finding an identity on offense and help our defense out. Our defense did not lose this game. If our offense was competent for four quarters, we win.
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:04 AM ^
I am pretty sure we would have won the game if the defense had held ND to 16 points. It’s a team game. The team lost.
I think it would have helped the offense immensely if the defense could have stopped ND in the first half.
September 3rd, 2018 at 6:25 AM ^
Not sure JH is capable of putting together "brilliant" offensive gameplans.
It seems to me one of the bigger problems is that UM looked like an unprepared and under motivated team. ND jumped on them and knocked them out early. Coaching is responsible for these areas.
September 3rd, 2018 at 7:34 AM ^
Love your story about your mom. Sounds like a fiery one...nurses love those types. ;)
I have to disagree with any hopeful hunch that Jim has some mastermind plan up his sleeve. 3 seasons of hoping for that plan to unfold in the most important games has left me a little jaded. He usually has a solid game plan for those rivalries, but it just hasn’t been a brilliant, creative discovery that we all continue to hope for each season. MSU on the other hand seems to come out with a brilliant and masterful plan against us. We should assume they will run roughshod over us for at least a few drives, hope our offense can move the ball, pray our team doesn’t play like a bunch of scared children, which they seem to do against MSU every year, and let Shea run the offense
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:47 AM ^
You write a very kind, respectful post here to the OP- as did so did many others who replied. It would have been possible for a poster to go the low road and ridicule the OP (I have seen this often on the internet) but the posters on this thread really showed the class and kindness that should be the norm everywhere
September 3rd, 2018 at 7:37 AM ^
I learned after the Pepcat bullshit that harbaugh doesn't tend to hide things. He has his way and he sticks to it. Sometimes it works and sometimes the rest of the league figures it out and shuts it down.
September 3rd, 2018 at 8:06 AM ^
Could Jim be doing the same thing? It SUCKS losing to Notre Dame. They ARE a rival, but not to the level of MSU or OSU. Perhaps Jim is developing and saving all of the good stuff for 2 games on the calender? This strategy always seems to work for Mork....
I don't think that this is a matter of going with an ultra-vanilla game plan just to give future opponent nothing meaningful to study, or if that somehow factors into it, it is far, far from the central point.
The simplest explanation is that, based on a game of data and certainly among other things, we're going to have to find a way to work around offensive line issues barring a brilliant solution appearing before conference play, and on defense, they really do miss Hurst, but in the second half, they did settle down quite a bit, giving up only about 70 yards. That's not comprehensive, of course.
For what you're proposing to be even plausible, you have to be able to execute even your most base stuff consistently. If we did that for four quarters, we win, but we couldn't and didn't.
September 3rd, 2018 at 8:20 AM ^
Staff looks as clueless as when Hoke was here. The bowl game collapse was a huge red flag that people wanted to ignore. Michigan could easily lose to any team on the schedule this season. Getting to 8-4 is going to be an uphill battle. Strap in because it is only going to keep getting worse.
September 3rd, 2018 at 8:26 AM ^
Only difference is Hoke could score a lot faster. This is like a calm cluelessness.
September 3rd, 2018 at 8:25 AM ^
Holding back a scripted drive or two vs a ranked opponent on a road? I don't think that is the case. You don't pay 7 million per year to have a coach that has to hold back a scripted drive or two. I am quite sure they can script drives without having to make concessions for waiting for a game in the middle of the season. Why can't we just say they got beat and a big problem was the playing calling was poor and their offensive line got owned.
September 3rd, 2018 at 8:29 AM ^
The calls [referee] went against us in this game , but if we take one game at a time and win one game at a time , we can be still in the top 4 teams at the end of the year
September 3rd, 2018 at 8:37 AM ^
I agree the calls were terrible, but we cannot blame the refs. Make some plays. You're on the road in a night game. Cannot count on calls.
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^
The calls went against us because our guys played really undisciplined ball....late hits, especially ones that keep scoring drives alive, are the WORST possible penalties and our guys hand them out during all the big games.
September 3rd, 2018 at 8:31 AM ^
If your hunch is correct, then Harbaugh shouldn't have told the AD to drop Arkansas at home and add Notre Dame in South Bend...if he wanted to be so bland and not show his hand.
However, I doubt our Oline struggles had anything to do with not showing our hand.
September 3rd, 2018 at 8:38 AM ^
Hard to be optimistic about the first 4 game losing streak since the Rich Rod era. It stings, but it is true. The trend seems downward right now.
September 3rd, 2018 at 8:45 AM ^
So far He has shown ZERO ability to get that done
September 3rd, 2018 at 9:43 AM ^
Flawed hunch
September 3rd, 2018 at 10:53 AM ^
Nah. I remember a lot of people on the board had the same hope last year to explain the struggles against Cinci and Air Force. Fact is that's not a thing, I wouldn't expect anything drastic for MSU, although based off 2 of past 3 years under Harbaugh it's fair to assume some variation for OSU.
September 3rd, 2018 at 11:27 AM ^
Thanks mate.
September 3rd, 2018 at 12:11 PM ^
Didn’t we say this last year? I wish I could agree with you but no this is not the case. If it was the case Harbaugh is an even bigger idiot. We needed a win yesterday to build some momentum and confidence in the players.