Baumgardner: if this continues, more losses will follow, more than one
Nick Baumgardner take on last night's game. Pretty fair IMO. The most "negative" quote is below, he did acknowledge all the positives (coming back, the complete shutdown, etc)
"A team with a vanilla offense and a defense that, save for about 15 plays in critical situations, is lights out. A team that plays with familiar inconsistent mental focus early away from home. What's that going to mean for this group's final record at the end of the season?
Unless Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has better answers than he has shown, it'll mean more struggles — and more losses — against the Big Ten's best."
September 30th, 2018 at 9:57 AM ^
The Notre Dame team Michigan played also isnt the same team anymore. With a better QB playing and Dexter Williams back, they are a whole lot more dangerous than the watered down version Michigan lost too. Don’t think you can pull out too many moral victories from that one.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:46 AM ^
I think we match up better against Book. Wimbush killed us on the ground and had some perfectly accurate/lucky deep balls against us. He wad playing anomalously well.
September 30th, 2018 at 9:59 AM ^
Now that ND has the right QB they are a better team than the one we faced.
The way Hill & Long have regressed, I wouldn't want to face ND now.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:25 AM ^
And when do you project us making the playoff? 3 more years? 4? 5? How much more talent does Harbaugh need to do better than 9-3ish?
September 30th, 2018 at 10:49 AM ^
Seriously.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:50 AM ^
Maybe 2? I don't know, but we definitely don't have the same amount of talent as Bama, Georgia, Clemson, OSU, etc. It's trending better, we are landing high 4 and 5* recruits. We play in a brutal division, it's a more difficult path than what Washington and Clemson endure.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:54 AM ^
This is a joke right? You can't have it both ways, you can't defend every 3 star recruit the coaches take or the 21st ranked recruiting class like last year and say trust the coaches then in the next sentence admit we clearly don't have the talent to play with the big time programs in college football. The bottom line is that it's year 4 and Harbaugh is getting paid a lot of money to win games now. Enough with the excuses it's so old.
September 30th, 2018 at 11:09 AM ^
Have to turn the program around first before the high caliber players want to come here in droves. Bring in 3 and 4 star talent that can win 9/10 games, recruit better players, win the division/conference, recruit elite players, win championships.
Texas isn't winning natties 3/4 years after hiring Herman. UCLA won't be winning natties in less than 4/5 years with Kelly. Quit having unrealistic expectations, this is a process.
September 30th, 2018 at 11:19 AM ^
Being mentally prepared and focused has nothing to do with a process. Harbaugh is getting complacent and arrogant. Northwestern came to play, we didn’t, that’s on Harbaugh. If we loose to MSU and OSU this year we must move on.....end of story.
September 30th, 2018 at 4:38 PM ^
If we lose to both again then we need to bring in an elite OC. Harbaugh is our dude but he may need more help than we expected from an offensive coaching standpoint.
October 1st, 2018 at 1:00 AM ^
Sure I guess, but the talent is there. Two top 5 classes put together back to back are sophomores and juniors. There's talent on the roster.
This program was in bad shape when Harbaugh took over, but eventually in year 4 when 95% of the roster was recruited by him, you'd really like to see some tangible improvement from years 1 and 2. We're turning into Iowa with more stars and less wins.
September 30th, 2018 at 11:11 AM ^
You sound like a fucking idiot.
September 30th, 2018 at 11:31 AM ^
maizen’s gonna maizen
October 1st, 2018 at 7:16 AM ^
This is a joke right? You can't have it both ways, you can't defend every 3 star recruit the coaches take or the 21st ranked recruiting class like last year and say trust the coaches then in the next sentence admit we clearly don't have the talent to play with the big time programs in college football. The bottom line is that it's year 4 and Harbaugh is getting paid a lot of money to win games now. Enough with the excuses it's so old.
Oh gawd, the same, tired "Harbaugh is getting paid a lot of money to win games" trope. We can't have it both ways, fine; you don't get to come on this board and troll about Harbaugh underperforming and suggesting that it's time to change direction again without defining the alternative. Have we progressed as much as we hoped when Harbaugh took over in 2015? No. Are we better off now than we were under Hoke and Rodriguez? YES!
You want Harbaugh replaced? Fine, give us a better name or shut the fuck up.
September 30th, 2018 at 1:52 PM ^
Personally, I don’t think it’s happening, period. He’s still a great coach, but seems to be lacking the inventiveness on offense that makes teams elite in CFB these days. Can’t do it on defense only. Even Alabama has moved away from that. Need both to truly be elite.
September 30th, 2018 at 9:44 AM ^
Didn't we run an end around on the opening drive? In fact, I don't think it was until our 3rd possession that we actually ran a conventional run play. I fail to see how this offense is vanilla.
September 30th, 2018 at 9:56 AM ^
It's not . It just isn't very "explosive". People seem to just forget, or not care I guess, that this was Patterson's fifth game with our receivers. The receivers which are a primarily first and second year players. This board is just grossly overreacting IMO.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:01 AM ^
Well, you also have to consider that the coaches probably worried about Gaz getting to Shea. With our offensive line, I think they didn't want to run a lot of deep passes. I think the line actually did a decent job mitigating his impact but I'm sure that was part of their strategy.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:53 AM ^
Are you serious noob?
The only thing our coaches consider is A. How slow can we run this play and B. How predictable can we run this play.
If its slow and predictable enough, they run it. If its not, they don't. THAT'S WHY WE LOST THE GAME!
September 30th, 2018 at 11:23 AM ^
Did you just call me noob? I haven't been called that since I was 13 and played Starcraft on Bnet for 10 hours a day.
I appreciate the nostalgia though.
September 30th, 2018 at 11:49 AM ^
It was sarcasm, I'm in total agreement with what you said.
September 30th, 2018 at 12:32 PM ^
Lol. What's sad is it could have been q legitimate comment based on the stuff I've seen.
September 30th, 2018 at 4:41 PM ^
The fact that a basic end-around isn't considered vanilla in our playbook is all you need to hear to be concerned about our offensive creativity.
September 30th, 2018 at 4:49 PM ^
An end around is very basic, even our version lacks any blockers out in front. My sons 3-4 grade team runs an end around. I will say the option reads from the spread out formations late were much more modern than anything I’ve seen. The end around/jet sweep is useless and very vanilla, I can still picture that weekly when we had McDoom.
September 30th, 2018 at 9:47 AM ^
In years past, I'd say " Harbaugh is just keeping things vanilla bc he's going to break out the home run plays for MSU and OSU." However, after a few years of data, I'd have to say that Nick is correct. I am holding out a little hope that Harbaugh was limited in the past bc of QB talent. I think we saw last night, that Shea gives him more opportunities to get creative. It looks like he could be in the same realm as McSorely if Harbaugh wanted to roll out the "Kaepernick plays." Maybe you only save those play for emergencies to keep Patterson healthy (which I totally understand). I'd love to see Shea picking up first downs with his legs against the rivals though, after so many years of seeing them do that to us in critical situations with Barrett, Lewerke, etc
September 30th, 2018 at 10:00 AM ^
Dude.
Remember tOSU last fall? You know, the game which UM totally would've won had O'Korn been able to hit a couple receivers that Harbaugh & Co. had schemed WIDE FREAKING OPEN with some pretty killer play design?
Remember tOSU the year before that? You know, the game which UM totally would've won had an obviously injured Speight not gift-wrapped the Buckeyes 14 points with two absolutely brutal interceptions?
I'm curious as to what "few years of data" you're referring to.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:06 AM ^
Missed a couple of opportunities =/= obviously would have won. The plays they missed on were plays that would have kept drives going. No guarantee anything would’ve happened beyond that.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:23 AM ^
Fair. But to claim that UM came out sluggish, ill-prepared, vanilla, etc. is just flat-out wrong.
September 30th, 2018 at 11:22 AM ^
WTF are you smoking? Whatever it is I want a bag.
September 30th, 2018 at 1:08 PM ^
The OSU game plans for the past two years really have nothing to do with yesterday's performance nor the consistent dumpster fire that UM displays in big games in the first quarter (and half, occasionally). This has been an ongoing trend that Harbaugh's teams do look mentally unprepared at the start of the game. Without getting into specifics, I think we've all had some head-scratching moments watching the team against FSU, Iowa, MSU, ND, and others.
If you genuinely believe this team appeared fired up and ready to play at the start of the game yesterday, I think we just have fundamentally different opinions for how the team should look in the first quarter of games.
September 30th, 2018 at 1:42 PM ^
If you genuinely believe this team appeared fired up and ready to play at the start of the game yesterday...
Maybe this is where the disconnect comes from. As both a former collegiate athlete & as a current collegiate fan, I've always thought "fired up" is idiotic. I wanted to play with dudes who were calm, collected, and prepared. Stay focused. Do you job. Results will come.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:23 AM ^
Fair enough -- I did say he was limited by QB talent probably (and OL too). You didn't expect Harbaugh to have a more creative offense by the point in his Michigan tenure? After all the creativity he showed at SF and Stanford?
September 30th, 2018 at 10:50 AM ^
To an extent, yes. But I don't think the past 16-ish games are necessarily a good example. Between O'Korn last year and the tackle situation this year, there has to be a great deal of stuff the coaching staff simply cannot do based on personnel limitations.
Imagine what this offense would look like if Mason Cole had been afforded a redshirt in 2014 and if Grant Newsome had a functional knee.
September 30th, 2018 at 11:47 AM ^
Then Mason Cole doesn't return for his fifth year. What if Devin Gardner doesn't break his foot during the first half of the 2013 OSU game? Does Michigan and Brady Hoke enjoy their second victory over OSU? What if Doug Nussmeier didn't break the Michigan offense, are we now talking about Brady Hoke's team? We can play "what if" games all day long and in our dreams because in the end, "what if" is all about fantasy. Let's keep it real and let's acknowledge that Michigan isn't the only team that suffers inconvenient injuries, bad penalty calls, players that move on to the NFL and any other excuses you can think of.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:26 AM ^
He's paid $6 million dollars a year, and the staff is paid pretty well compared to their peers around the NCAA.
He needs to come up with more innovative stuff against MSU / Wisconsin / Penn State.
I can forgive a loss against Ohio State, for now, but there is zero reason we should lose to Wisconsin, Penn State, and Michigan State with this roster.
September 30th, 2018 at 11:54 AM ^
Harbaugh needs to change the discipline culture first and foremost. It doesn't matter how innovative the team if they're always shooting themselves in the foot with penalties.
September 30th, 2018 at 6:38 PM ^
It's year four and instilling the culture is still a thing? That's a year 1 or year 2 thing, not year 4.
September 30th, 2018 at 5:23 PM ^
Year 1 we scored 13 points against osu. Year 2 we scored 17 non-overtime points against osu. Year 3 we scored 20 against osu with a bad QB. The bare minimum points any non Bama team needs to beat osu is at least 21 points, and likely a little more than that still.
You NEED to put up big points to beat osu and in 3 years we are averaging 16.7 points/game against them, excluding OT. That is not near good enough.
Using poor play and turnovers as excuses for losing is bush league. Our offense must improve or history will continue to repeat itself.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:01 AM ^
Well, he was instructed to keep it on a couple plays in the RO run game ... Both would have been first downs and big gainers if it wasn’t for some suspect ref holding call BS.
I agree that Harbaugh is limiting the times he does this. Gotta keep the QB healthy. It is a good change of pace now and could be key for gashing better defenses down the road.
September 30th, 2018 at 9:48 AM ^
Patterson is not the answer. Patterson's had five games to prove he can follow his check-downs. Patterson has failed. Before the ball is hiked, Patterson has already decided whom he will throw to, Patterson doesnt follow his check-downs, the game is too fast for Patterson. Patterson panics. Time to give McCaffrey serious playing time with the first string unit vs Maryland. If McCaffrey plays better than Patterson, McCaffrey should be the starting QB.
Sorry Patterson fanatics. Its time for the UM coaching staff to give the ball to McCaffrey with the starting unit.
September 30th, 2018 at 9:51 AM ^
You’re alone in life and you’re going to die that way.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:48 AM ^
^^this guy. I like this guy
September 30th, 2018 at 9:51 AM ^
Speight sucks put in O'korn.
O'Korn sucks put in Peters.
Peters sucks put in McCaffrey.
September 30th, 2018 at 9:55 AM ^
They all did suck last year at different points.
However, Patterson definitely does not suck.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:02 AM ^
Every team’s favorite player is the second string QB.
The Hawt Take above has to be sarcasm right?!?!
September 30th, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^
Patterson isn’t much better ... Right now he just has WRs who are a year older, a O line who is blocking better and halfway decent play calling... awe would have the same record with Peters or Dylan starting...
September 30th, 2018 at 10:01 AM ^
I don't agree with this, however DMac would acquit himself quite well if this were to happen.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:03 AM ^
Hi Ed, how’s it going? I enjoyed watching you when you played for the Broncos.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:05 AM ^
So, say they do this and McCaffrey suffers similarly in your evaluation somewhere down the road (in reality, he would likely do fine, but that is hardly the point here). Would you say, "Peters it is" or "Put Shea back in there" ? I get that one of the most popular people on any football team is the 2nd string QB, but Shea has definitely not failed by any stretch.
I shouldn't say it as a mod, but they need a separate section of Michigan Stadium for fans who think like this. One that is deep under the field and in a sound-proofed room.
September 30th, 2018 at 12:13 PM ^
Better yet, have a detachable section that can be hauled off in the first quarter of each game to the nearest east landfill where they can then be invited to find a new team they can root for.