How To Have A Football Team Without Tackles
[Bryan Fuller]
Site note: due to an extensive and very frustrating search to replace the media file conversion program step in the UFR process things are going to be delayed a day. Finding a non-scammy FFMPEG wrapper is the hardest thing to do in the world, except recruit tackles, I guess.
You may ask yourself "how does a bonafide P5 team of some repute enter a season with no functional tackles?" Well, here's how. Bolded players are recruits who are not on the roster whether via decommit or other reason.
2014
Michigan enters the season with—surprise—an insufficient number of tackles due to poor recruiting. The late RichRod era's recruiting collapse saw literally zero junior or senior tackles make it to the 2014 roster. Erik Magnuson, an early Hoke pickup, flips out from guard to start a fairly good three-year career at right tackle. None of the other recruits are ready; most will never be ready.
The most ready of the unready: Mason Cole, a true freshman. He starts at left tackle. He is a very good freshman offensive lineman, which means he's barely surviving. Michigan has to play him; a stable program with guys in the pipeline gets a redshirt on him, and likely makes him available this year.
The dissolution of the Hoke era is in full swing at this juncture; Michigan only picks up one other OL in this recruiting class. That's Juwann Bushell-Beatty, who gave up seven pressures on Saturday.
[After THE JUMP: more of this post]
2015
The Hoke era implodes spectacularly, taking Michigan's recruiting with it. Hoke does manage to leave Harbaugh one parting gift: Grant Newsome. Newsome looks to be on his way towards a productive career when a Wisconsin defensive back submarines him on an edge run, leading to a 40-day hospital stay and eventually Newsome's medical retirement.
The only other OL in the class are Jon Runyan Jr, who just gave up eight pressures on Saturday, and Nolan Ulizio, who had a brief and rather disastrous starting tenure at the beginning of last year. Runyan is a legacy recruit Hoke acquired. Ulizio is the first OL recruit of the Harbaugh era, a wild swing in the dark at a Kentucky commit. Michigan does pick up Ty Wheatley Jr, a tight end who Michigan wants to move to tackle for basically his whole career because he keeps showing up near 300 pounds. He refuses and eventually transfers.
2016
Harbaugh's first full class has no tackles in it. Michigan does pick up Ben Bredeson, who's listed as an OT by recruiting sites but after an offseason battle with Newsome for the LT job as a true freshman gets moved to guard and is apparently never again a consideration to play outside.
Hamilton (right) is the most painful decommit in a minute
Devery Hamilton decommits late in the cycle, which blindsides Michigan despite the fact that Hamilton's high school coach has a kid on the team. Hamilton sees significant LT snaps for Stanford as a redshirt freshman and is now starting at guard for them. Erik Swenson is booted from the class in December when Michigan had to know many months before that they didn't want him. Michigan replaces him with Stephen Spanellis, who looks like he'll be a good player but who has also gotten no consideration at tackle.
2017
Michigan airballs on a ton of guys who they seemed in play for at one point: Aaron Banks, Alex Leatherwood, Isaiah Wilson, Jedrick Wills, Kai-Leon Herbert (a decommit), and Mekhi Becton all head elsewhere. A number of those are the sort of guy who can play immediately. Some do not because they're at Alabama or Georgia or Notre Dame; Becton immediately walks into Louisville's starting lineup.
Michigan takes Chuck Filiaga,—another guy who is permanently a guard—Andrew Stueber, and Joel Honigford. They move James Hudson over from defense in fall camp. All redshirt, so hooray for that. None were able to push through the starting tackles. So boo to that.
2018
These are true freshmen who should not be expected to play. Michigan may have gotten lucky on Jalen Mayfield, a man growing by the day, and could end up inserting him so he can be Mason Cole. Ryan Hayes is about 30 pounds too light to play.
So...
There is a world where Michigan has Newsome and Cole at tackle, but we are clearly not on the good timeline. Even so, the number of bolded names here is too low to point the finger at the general bloody-mindedness of the universe, and three of those are bad decisions or recruiting by the Michigan coaching staff: trusting the commitment of a kid who visited Stanford, not pulling the trigger on Swenson fast enough to find a real replacement, and taking and then losing Herbert.
The rest of it is a litany of recruiting misses by Drevno. Some of those are understandable and a natural cost of going and getting a sitting NFL coach. When Harbaugh and Drevno hit the ground in 2015 they'd been out of the recruiting game for four years and had three weeks to do anything. Missing there is understandable.
The bomb that just went off is most traceable back to the 2016 class, which should have had four tackles in it and had zero. Michigan swung and missed at a lot of top-end guys in 2017, a class that did almost have four tackles in it. It's a much harder ask to go up against Alabama and Georgia's cash than it is to find a solid prospect who will be ready by year three; once Drevno failed in his second year the goose was more or less cooked. Greg Frey's recruiting style is excellent in the long term but does not usually produce year-one starters.
September 5th, 2018 at 2:12 PM ^
Hey didn't UofM just win 10 games .........TWICE! with the same issues?
The year they only won 8 under Harbaugh they had QB depth issues AND WR youthssues AND Tacklessues.
Like I say to my wife .... "That's A LOT of ssues ."
September 5th, 2018 at 12:51 PM ^
Isn't the answer redshirting and stability?
They don't have to throw guys out there all the time before their ready. When they do, you get seasons like 2016 when they go 3-9.
Not changing coaches every 3-4 years helps keep recruits on board even if they aren't elite.
Plus, let's be real. Dantonio is one of the luckiest coaches alive. His team has scraped more wins out of nowhere than anyone.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:14 PM ^
I'm not saying he's just lucky. I'm saying he's one of the luckiest coaches to ever coach on top of being a good coach.
Its like he trades in a really bad season (2012, 2016) for sustained horseshoe seasons in between. It's like if Brady Hoke's 2011 season had translated into the next 10 years.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:39 PM ^
When a coach and a team consistently do well and find ways to win games over and over and over...it ain’t luck.
September 5th, 2018 at 3:02 PM ^
In the abstract you would think so, but when you actually look at his games and see what really happened, yes more lucky and undeserved wins then any team or coach I've ever seen.
In 2015 alone they were outplayed and clearly should have lost almost EVERY SINGLE GAME! Even to the division 2 team!!! They were perpetually given unbelievable gifts that they didn't create, force or earn, from the refs, from opposing coaches and players and from lucky bounces not of their making in any way, shape or form.
Additionally they constantly cheat with intentional and obvious pass interference the same way Bobby Knight's Indiana teams would slap, claw, trip, bash, bump and bruise on every defensive play and somehow have the refs treat it as just their style and let them get away with it while NOT letting the opponents get away with anything! That's just the DB's!
The rest of the D not only commits egregious personal fouls and roughings during & after plays on a regular basis, including all 3 games against us, but just like Purdue against us last year, much of what they do goes so far beyond just dirty play that criminal assault charges should be filed on players and the on the coaches that indisputably coach them to play that way!
One of what seemed like one of the coaches, but at least a staff member of some sort, actually committed a felonious assault & battery themselves way after the whistle and way out of bounds, yanking Wilt down to the ground VIOLENTLY by the BACK of his jersey with a defenseless Speight's arms tied up by the late hit from a player in such a way that not only could've easily paralysed or killed ANYONE if they landed wrong, but did it to a guy they KNEW already had a fucking broken neck!
It's disgusting there was no arrest, no penalty, no response from the league, our coaches or our players!
Whoever the fuck that criminal coward was should have ended up in the hospital AT THE LEAST!!! We just sit and take it, meekly and silently. Sickening!
September 5th, 2018 at 1:15 PM ^
There is nothing I want less than to be MSU under Dantonio.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:49 PM ^
You said "results, above all else" is their philosophy. I agree, it is, and I want no part of that.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:49 PM ^
Yeah who wants all that crap when you can lose to your rivals and go 8-5?
September 5th, 2018 at 1:59 PM ^
Here is another idea - maybe you guys should stopping licking MSU's ball sack. Huh? What do you say?
September 5th, 2018 at 2:01 PM ^
Since JH has been in Ann Arbor, we've had Tim Drevno, Greg Frey, and now Ed Warinner as OL coaches. Those are three of the best in the business. They all have extensive track records of proven success at other programs. If they can't get OL to perform, then I think it's reasonable to conclude the problem is a lack of talent--not some inscrutable deficiency with the coaching.
Jim Tressel supposedly said Mark Dantonio is the best talent evaluator he ever worked with. I tend to think that is why MD has had such good luck with 2-star and 3-star recruits. It's not that his staff is taking guys with no talent and somehow transforming them into high performers; it's that they find guys who are better than their rankings. Hoke seemed to have a tendency to recruit offensive players who were worse than their rankings.
JBB is a case in point: he was a four-star recruit and Under Armour all-American. I think it's pretty clear in retrospect that he was badly overrated. It's misguided to suggest that MD's staff would turn a guy like JBB into an effective OT, or to suggest that Harbaugh is somehow underperforming because his own staff can't do so. MD's staff wouldn't have taken him, no matter how many stars he had--and JH's staff likely wouldn't have taken him either (as the Swenson example suggests). He's just not that good of a player.
If the guys JH has recruited fail to develop then I think it will be fair to criticize that aspect of the coaching once that becomes apparent. But for now, I think the focus is rightly on the recruiting failures, because that's why the coaches haven't had the quality OT prospects to work with.
September 5th, 2018 at 12:22 PM ^
Aren't there any good grad transfers available?
September 5th, 2018 at 12:48 PM ^
If they were “good” they would be starting for their current team and not transferring. It does happen, but teams normally don’t let go of OT for the very reason UM is struggling.
September 5th, 2018 at 12:24 PM ^
yet another reason why harbaughs odd dedication to drevno proved to be one of his bigger failures so far
September 5th, 2018 at 3:13 PM ^
now is playing out with dedication to pep "fireball" hamilton
September 5th, 2018 at 12:25 PM ^
So basically, we're fucked.
September 5th, 2018 at 12:30 PM ^
So, to summarize.
The coaching staff took the approach to tackle recruiting that the star gazers here are always screaming for - 4 and 5 stars or bust.
Now we are seeing in real time what happens when you insist on 4 or 5 star kids and strike out.
What wouldn't we give for a handful of 3 star tackles the last couple years, right?
September 5th, 2018 at 12:47 PM ^
Terrible summary.
5 star or 3 star, we need(ed) many more in general. The total number of actual tackles recruited since Harbaugh has arrived should have been doubled, or maybe even more than that. We year in and year out are playing interior linemen at tackle which needs to get fixed.
September 5th, 2018 at 2:19 PM ^
I suggest you read my comment again.
You said it was terrible and then repeated my commentary.
September 5th, 2018 at 12:31 PM ^
Site note: due to an extensive and very frustrating search to replace the media file conversion program step in the UFR process things are going to be delayed a day. Finding a non-scammy FFMPEG wrapper is the hardest thing to do in the world, except recruit tackles, I guess.
I like WinFF for a freeware, do-it-all media conversion program, it's based on FFmpeg.
September 5th, 2018 at 12:37 PM ^
I mean, this is only one fan's view, but I can't wrap my head around the fact that lower tiered (and talent?) schools can field a competitive offense and UM can't (see State, Utah and Appalachian for most recent examples). There is something wrong when we shrug and say "tackles" for our offensive woes. I dont really care to breakdown the source, UM has a $10M+ coaches payroll for that, and its reasonable to expect that they figure out a way to produce on the field.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:42 PM ^
I didn’t come here for cold hard truth, facts, and honesty. I came here for unwarranted, groundless hype and fluff pieces!
September 5th, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^
agree. Go back and look at the lack of experience and star ratings of MSU's OL last year when they handled us up front. There are many examples of programs doing far more with less.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:05 PM ^
I agree -- like, why isn't Andrew Steuber playing? He was a 4-star tackle recruit; he has the size. There are plenty of RS Freshmen who come in and do anywhere from "not bad" to "OK" --- why don't we at least have THAT.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:53 PM ^
More to the current situation, it’s beyond reasonable to expect them to field a competitive, fully functional team after four years of work. This isn’t year one where Harbaugh is trying to figure out what he has to work with and install his system. Everything should be in place by now and yet so far it would look like a return to year one results is best possible scenario. smh
When are we going to see the culmination of four years of coaching and development??
September 5th, 2018 at 2:43 PM ^
We are seeing the culmination of four years of coaching and development. You just don't like the results.
September 5th, 2018 at 12:38 PM ^
also kicked Kyle Bosch of the team in 2015. Lost Jarrett Patterson to ND when it looked like we had him in the bag.
Staff has done a lousy job of managing the roster. It doesn't stop with OL. Asking David Harris to play FB rather than LB was idiotic, as was asking AJ Dillon to switch from RB - guy is only top 3 RB in CFB. One cluster f%&* after another.
September 5th, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^
How much of this shortcoming could be overcame with some steroids and PCP?
September 5th, 2018 at 12:43 PM ^
So what exactly is the recruiting plan we're following in regards to our O-line anyways? Back in the early 90s when I was involved Michigan had a pretty detailed and structured approach to recruiting under Bob Chmiel that I see no evidence of today.
I was working northern Ohio for Michigan and we had lists of potential recruits they wanted us to follow locally. They were broken down into three categories:
A. Top tier talent but a difficult Michigan pull
B. Middle tier talent - will be dogfight with OSU and other schools but could get
C. Lower tier talent - would take immediate offer from M
Basically they identified somebody from the C group early they might take and while they didnt offer they let it be known they had interest so if late in the cycle they needed them they could flip them. They spent most of their time in the B category (probably 3 stars if we had star ratings back then) trying to see who was the best player they thought they could get and they spent the least amount of time with the A's here in Ohio UNLESS there was something going on relative to OSU that made them think they were vulnerable. My job was to learn as much as I could about the kid, his friends and coaches on the A's and report back if I thought we had a shot. If so (like in the case of Scott Loeffler) the coaching staff took over.
And in Michigan it was the exact opposite as it related to the A's and B's. We spent most of our time securing the A talent in Michigan and completely shut OSU and MSU off. And this worked pretty damn well.
Does anybody see a plan today cause I'm missing it if there is one.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:38 PM ^
Pretty sure the answer is:
After the 14 debacle no Ohio recruit from A, B or C had interest in coming to UofM. Harbaugh still was able to pry loose a 1200th ranked player in 15.
In 16 still no love from A and B but a few from C.
17 had a lot more interest from C and even a little from B but still low overall, pulled Hudson and Honingford.
18 had some interest from all tiers but was undermined on all fronts by the negativity of the petulant fans.
But, this year, the Danny Clark situation finally caught up with OSU and the recruiting staff seems to be taking good advantage of it.
And as far as the OT situation they offered 109 tackles in the last 4 years, more than any other position by far!
September 5th, 2018 at 12:50 PM ^
I’m hoping Harbaugh is keeping his cards close to his chest and is planning to make some changes. I’m wondering if he didn’t want to toss Mayfield and/or Hudson into the fire at South Bend and hopefully now that we have two cupcakes, we’ll see some changes.
Then again, that’s probably wishful thinking and we’re probably just screwed
September 5th, 2018 at 12:53 PM ^
Well .....when Habaugh dipped the team in awesomeness, he had to hold it somewhere!
Plus, it's still more rewarding to see 1000+ recruits performing like 800+ recruits than top 250 recruits performing like 750+ recruits.
September 5th, 2018 at 12:55 PM ^
not a coach, but seems like the best move would be to kick bredeson out to tackle, insert spanellis as guard and then play the most serviceable of jbb/runyan/ mayfield at the other tackle.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:02 PM ^
3 head coaches have failed on the exact same item, how does that happen?
RichRod and Hoke failed on multiple items, so there's a good possibility they overlap. But failing to bring in the volume of tackles needed seems like such an odd, specific mistake for all 3 to make.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:03 PM ^
Why haven't we pursued graduate transfers at tackle the way we pursue transfer eligible QB's? Just asking for a friend
September 5th, 2018 at 1:07 PM ^
In this depressing post, I found this part kind of funny:
"Devery Hamilton decommits late in the cycle...Hamilton sees significant LT snaps for Stanford as a redshirt freshman and is now starting at guard for them."
So even Hamilton, who we expected to get and missed on, is really a guard, not a tackle?
Can we identify *ANY* actual tackles out there?
September 5th, 2018 at 2:05 PM ^
Sure we can! Did you see the Mekhi Becton discussion up there. We offered, he visited, seemed like he was going to commit. Then he fell off, and Seth puts that on Drevno. We tried to salvage, but guess what too late!
He'd be in his second year of starting here. But we identified him!
September 5th, 2018 at 1:09 PM ^
Painful to look back and see how many of those guys we whiffed on. Even picking up a couple of them probably puts this OL up to at least average at this point, which would be more than enough to win 10+ games a year given the strengths of the rest of the team.
Of course you want the OL to be better, but when you have as many whiffs at the position as you've had over an extended period of time, and when you go entire recruiting classes without getting any tackles whatsoever, that's why we're hurting now as much as we are.
I hope there is a BIG emphasis on picking up some tackles in this year's and next year's classes. I just took a look and while we've got 4-5 guys we've recruited on the OL for 2019, I think only one of them is classified as an offensive tackle. Karsen Barnhart. And you can't realistically expect those guys to be able to help you out until the 2020 season at the earliest. So unless Hudson and/or Mayfield pan out at the tackle spot, we may be in for a few more rough years at the position.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:16 PM ^
You are forgetting Trente Jones (though, apparently, like Bredenson he is a "swing man" who can play either. But at least has height, long arms, etc so tackle is a real possibility).
September 5th, 2018 at 1:38 PM ^
in summary, we have let the pursuit of the great OT prospect be the enemy of the good OT prospect?
what is the typical distribution of 5*, 4*, and 3* OT in a given recruiting year? (is there such a thing as a 5* OT?) are we typically only pursuing the highest level OT prospects at the expense of getting solid OT prospects? should the coaches focus more on getting decent 3* when it seems like 4* are not likely? during the golden age of UM offensive lines, what type of ratings were the guys like the Runyan (the dad), Backus, et al getting? Were we just getting the big 3* boys like Wisconsin does and coaching them up? I am not asking for someone to provide all of the answers here, I just wonder if their approach to recruiting OT needs to change.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:39 PM ^
Wisconsin LBs are going to LIVE in the backfield on Oct. 13
September 5th, 2018 at 2:16 PM ^
Sweet! Offside every play!
September 5th, 2018 at 3:57 PM ^
Can they catch passes too? I heard that some of the receivers might have issues trying to catch passes from the state pen.
Oops, just one felonious receiver and the other guy who enabled him. Stay classy, Madison!
September 5th, 2018 at 4:12 PM ^
LOL!
Michigan fan trying to insult a Wisconsin fan about 'class?'
Perry is a felon and he's still on the team. Let that sink in.
It was one guy. Quintez Cephus.
The other guy, Danny Davis (who rekt you last year and will reck you again) just took 2 photos of it. He will be back for our game.
Besides, we don't even need to pass it against you guys. We've proven Taylor can just run it down your throats.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:42 PM ^
I know the ideal tackle for UM is the bulked up TE, not the blocky immovable mountain, but how is it possible that there is nobody else on the roster capable of competing there? Are Spanellis, Honigford, and Filiaga only practicing at guard because they are not athletic enough to play tackle? It seems like a lot of former tackles were guards and 6'5" OTs are more the norm than the exception.
Also, I think Runyan and to a lesser extent JBB deserve some time to show improvement but should they not improve, at what point to you go with the younger, higher upside guys?
September 5th, 2018 at 1:52 PM ^
Question:
Would it be possible to run a Full House T offense - 2 fullbacks and one tailback, and just run off guard (34 belly, 36 belly) all game long - effectively run-run-run-punting our way into the BIG10 championship game?
Yes, you'd face off against 11 in the box and probably loaded, stacked middle, but that opens up opportunities outside, amirite?
September 5th, 2018 at 1:58 PM ^
On the topic of media conversion/video encoding/ffmpeg, have you tried Handbrake? It's pretty easy to use, super powerful, and 0% scammy.
September 5th, 2018 at 1:59 PM ^
I've had my fill of Michigan lore. We've stunk for a generation and we don't matter much anymore. This was consensus at the Telluride gathering over the weekend with alumns going back to the 60's.
I'll nearly always say 'GO BLUE!' to you on the street. But the love affair dating from childhood is kaput. With exception of the AI lab on North Campus, I see no reason to support the institution itself let alone the athletics department.
We have been living off the past for well too long. No thanks.
September 5th, 2018 at 2:20 PM ^
It's never going to be perfect.
September 5th, 2018 at 2:33 PM ^
So what was Stueber's injury that limited his time in fall camp? I hear he is now fully back and actually played against ND - must have been in special teams?
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