Jim McElwain is the next CMU head coach
BREAKING: Jim McElwain will be the next head football coach for Central Michigan, per sources.
— Evan Petzold (@EvanPetzold) December 2, 2018
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^
Two biggest games?
OSU and ???
i feel like the offensive playcalling was largely improved this year outside of the OSU game. I think most of the improvement was from having a better OL and a competent QB. Sometimes it was a little conservative - but was called as expected for a team with a dominant defense.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:21 PM ^
Notre Dame.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^
Notre Dame was on the road, at night, first game of the year. ND clearly has a great defense and our QB was playing his first game in this system. It wasn't the best offensive game ever, but it's hard to hold that one against Pep.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:32 PM ^
Holy cow is this real life? Who gives a flying fuck if it was on the road at night? Is that supposed to be some excuse as to why it's ok they didn't show up at all. They barely cracked 300 yards of offense. They had 1 TD until there were 2 minutes left in the game. They gave up 7 sacks. It was a complete debacle.
December 2nd, 2018 at 2:03 PM ^
Ah, I see. Pep Hamilton should have called the "don't get sacked" play. Of course.
The offensive line was really, really bad at the start of the year. It got much, much better. If you want to blame Hamilton for the first part -- and you shouldn't -- then you have to credit him for the improvement also. You can't have it both ways.
No matter what some people choose to believe, Pep Hamilton is not the offensive coordinator. Jim Harbaugh is. Harbaugh isn't going to turn into an uptempo, spread-to-pass coach. This narrative that there's only one way to win is silly. Heck, OSU's inability to run the ball was seen as their major weakness going into the Michigan game. Michigan led the conference in both scoring offense and scoring defense going into the OSU game.
If Michigan were to get an Air Raid style coordinator, it'd be every bit as much a debacle as GERG was as RichRod's defensive coordinator, trying to run the 3-3-5.
December 2nd, 2018 at 2:41 PM ^
Harbaugh is not the primary one designing plays and not the sole one calling plays. It's Pep who comes up with the play and Harbaugh can overrule him if he wants, how's it gonna work if he's constantly overruling him? Come to think of it that's probably why it takes so long to get plays in all the time.
December 2nd, 2018 at 4:40 PM ^
Ok, so then why do they pay pep a million per year? Is he a consultant? If that is the case, then he can gtfo as well. You can defend pep all you want in regards to the play calling responsibility, but you can’t defend his salary.
December 2nd, 2018 at 2:45 PM ^
You're seriously either genuinely stupid, or just a massive troll. In either case I feel bad, but also loathe you.
It took a few weeks for the O-line to come together, as you probably know, or should. That's why we lost to ND, and the two easy TD's we gave up in the first quarter. But yeah, it's Pep's fault for sure. You really suck.
December 2nd, 2018 at 1:42 PM ^
I don't think the playcalling was any better at all...it was just as frustrating a lot of the time despite having a better QB, more experienced receivers, and a better offensive line.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:28 PM ^
Correct. Pep is a joke and I can't believe there are numbnuts defending him
December 2nd, 2018 at 1:02 PM ^
People will defend anything they have a personal attachment to.
December 2nd, 2018 at 1:12 PM ^
Why oh why oh why do people keep making shit up about play calling? Where do you get the idea Pep calls the plays???
It has been spelled out by Harbaugh and his coaches several times. Group discussion among coaches, pass play suggestion from PGC, run play suggestion from RGC, then HARBAUGH HARBAUGH HARBAUGH hizzown damn self signalling in the play to the qb with his very own hot little (but bigger than Drumph's) hands, choosing 1 of the suggestions or whatever fucking play HE wants to. He also has oversight on what all the coaches are coaching and coming up with.
Do you think Harbaugh wanted to go hurry up and play with a sense of urgency and the needed aggression and unpredictability once that was going to be the only way to come back to win The Game, but that Pep or any of the other 7 billion people on the planet overruled him???? Jesus H Fucking Christamundo!
December 2nd, 2018 at 1:39 PM ^
Pep is the freaking passing game coordinator...clearly he was hired to design passing plays and how much they pass. And despite having a lot of talent this year on offense at receiver we didn't pass nearly as much as we did with Ruduck or Speight when Fisch was here.
December 2nd, 2018 at 1:51 PM ^
I wish McElwain the best at CMU.
We didn't lose to OSU, because of Pep. 62 points.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:13 PM ^
It's like people don't know the OC is Harbaugh.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:18 PM ^
Wrong.
#Michigan's Jim Harbaugh says Pep Hamilton calls the majority of the offensive plays.
— Austin Fox (@AustinFox42) October 8, 2018
December 2nd, 2018 at 3:46 PM ^
Austin Fox contradicts everything Harbaugh has previously said and what has been reported. He offers no source.
Even if an accurate quote it probably means the plays he ends up choosing to send in came from Pep's suggestion that Harbaugh chose to use rather than those of other suggesters or a Harbaugh audible rather than that Pep is calling the plays on his own.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:23 PM ^
Harbaugh is the main guy behind the offense, but the play calls on passing plays looked very different in the Rudock/Chesson/Darboh offense than they did this year. Harbaugh is in charge and dictates the overall scheme for the most part, but he doesn't design all of the plays. IMO our overall scheme is fine. We run a shotgun power running scheme, which is fine. Oklahoma, Notre Dame, and Alabama have no problem running more than 50% of the time and using tight ends in their modern offenses. We need better passing plays, a shift closer to 50/50 in our run/pass distribution, and a faster tempo.
The better passing plays part will come with different people calling the passing plays. A combination of that and literally everyone who throws passes, catches passes, and blocks for the passing game (other than JBB) getting an extra year of experience could make us pretty damn good next year.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:27 PM ^
And if they do, they don’t want to accept it.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^
MgoBlog loves that clip of Harbaugh saying, "Good shit Jed" on a 2pt conversion. What was he congratulating Fisch about if Harbaugh designed that play? Harbaugh dictates the base scheme, but doesn't design the specific plays.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^
Ppl are irrational but the routes do seem to take forever and rarely do we get great athletes in space.
It just isn't a dynamic offense. Serviceable but far from dynamic.
Not sure anyone saw end of Georgia game but it was satisfying to see Isaiah Wilson get beat badly for a near game ending sack fumble.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:30 PM ^
I was thinking the same thing about the passing routes. Nothing seems to happen quickly and it all seems to be slow developing.
December 2nd, 2018 at 1:25 PM ^
Everything about the offense is slow. Tempo. Routes. You name it. It looks like a dinosaur compared to top teams
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:49 PM ^
I understand the comment, but I don't think an offense is serviceable if it doesn't show up in big games. Yes, I know we scored 39 against OSU, but there were tons of wasted plays and BS, and we could have done more in the passing game. As the game unfolded, it was obvious we needed to open it up, and we didn't.
Set aside for a second that this is the most boring and obvious offense in recent memory, Pep's work doesn't pass the eye test. It's all been said, so no need to rehash individual points, but it's pretty obvious the offense requires innovation.
December 2nd, 2018 at 1:30 PM ^
Not sure why one wishes to neg the young man. He was mostly very good...more than held his own against the ALABAMA defense.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:20 PM ^
Racism
/s
/sorta
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:31 PM ^
Stop it. People can want Harbaugh fired, Beilein fired, Berenson to retire, fire Drevno onto the sun, etc. and that's all fine. Just fans being fans. But any Hamilton criticism is racism?
December 2nd, 2018 at 4:31 PM ^
I think the "sorta sarcasm" racism comment was about negs being directed at erstwhile M OL target Isaiah Wilson?
Not about Pep? How I read it anyway...
But I will tell you one thing:
The more prone someone is to get outraged about perceived accusations of racism the more I always think the shoe probably fits. Just saying
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:21 PM ^
The passing game took a noticeable turn for the worse the minute he replaced fisch. Blame harbaugh all you want, but pep doesn’t just get paid to be a qb hype man
harbaugh may call the plays, but he’s calling the plays that pep is designing
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:31 PM ^
Pep’s offense was much better against OSU than Fisch’s offense.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:39 PM ^
I’d argue it was about the same, adjusting for the quality of osus defense. And pep was the only one who had a 5 star qb to work with
December 4th, 2018 at 1:51 AM ^
Ohio State’s defense was not good this year. They gave about a half dozen no-name running backs career days and the week before they let a back up QB from Maryland hang 51 on them.
Pep was dead weight back at Stanford and the buck stops with Harbaugh. He keeps hiring Pep.
The nightmare scenario: Pep and Ed calling the offense.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:21 PM ^
Look at the last 4 games of the season. Rutgers and Indiana were close games. With the offensive talent we have, those games should have been over by half. We settled for too many field goals. We have a great batch of receivers right now but I guarantee we will struggle to recruit high talent receivers until we start opening it up a bit.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:25 PM ^
Rutgers wasn’t a close game.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:28 PM ^
We beat Rutgers 42-7, and IU is a scrappy team that gives a lot of teams fits.
There are plenty of legitimate criticisms to make; let's stick to those and not invent new ones.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:22 PM ^
Offense was top 30 in S&P all year. Passing S&P finished at 10th. The people bitching about Pep are yelling out of their asses. The offense, especially the passing offense, was not the problem in either of our losses this year.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:37 PM ^
Top 30 is not good. No one is hoping Michigan football is a top 30 program.
Also, the offense is getting a pass because of how bad the defense was and getting credit for garbage time yards/points. With 6 off of the KO fumble, the offense effectivelyput up 13 against a shit buckeye defense through 40 minutes and by then the game was over with us behind by 22 points. Which, never mind the ridiculousness that we were calling plays like we could win the game with a ball control offense well after it became obvious that our only hope to win was a shootout with explosive plays involving the WRs which just so happened to be a weak point of the OSU D.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:41 PM ^
Spot on. Someone should remind him that Tarik was back from injury too. Any OC in the country would have done a better job integrating him back into the offense. But I guess the walk-on receiver is a better athlete.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:53 PM ^
Also, the offense is getting a pass
It is? It seems like 80-90% of the criticism since the game has been centered on the offense, even though the defense had a historically bad day.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:57 PM ^
We were still huddling at the end of both of our losses while trying to make comebacks...it was fucking asinine.
December 2nd, 2018 at 1:05 PM ^
Michigan had one offensive touchdown with 2 minutes left in the ND game. They had 19 points (6 were a gift) and 180 yards of offense heading into the 4th quarter against OSU. They had 7 points going into the 4th quarter against MSU. But hey, I guess that's good enough for some people.
December 2nd, 2018 at 2:40 PM ^
Don't conflate your poll ranking with our offense's advanced stats ranking. Alabama's offense was 23rd in S&P last year - exactly what ours is rated right now. Remind me where Alabama finished last year...
December 2nd, 2018 at 3:14 PM ^
There's no conflating the two-- advanced stat rankings and poll rankings are related as they're driven by the same factors. Offensive efficiency is certainly correlated with outcomes scoring points and winning games, which obviously results in high poll rankings. Of course it's not the only element since defense and special team and luck come into play, but it's a key aspect.
Alabama last year? They wouldn't have won had they stuck with their season long offense, pulling Hurts for Tua won that national championship, and they'd have finished as a 2 loss team if they'd stuck with the QB that drove that #23 ranking. The inability to move the ball against Auburn cost them that game and they had to rely on getting in w/o a conference championship which took luck and often won't work out. They also had the #1 defense.
That's the real point, sure, a team can still go to the CFP or win a NC with a meh offense, but it places a higher burden on the defense and special teams to be dominant. We saw the same thing ourselves in 2016 when the offense could only score 13 on Iowa, 14 on Wisconsin, and 17 in regulation on OSU. We still beat WI but we lost the other two because the defense couldn't lock it down completely and the offense forced them to do so because they weren't good enough. Why accept mediocrity on one side of the ball and force the bar to be even higher for the defense?
Note that Alabama this year is not as good on D, 23rd, but the offense is making up for it at #2 this year. Or Notre Dame made the CFP with the #26 offense and #4 D. One way to do it. But the other 3 teams are #1, #2, and #7 on offense. The broader point remains, a strong offense puts you in a much better position overall.
December 2nd, 2018 at 1:03 PM ^
Holy delusion.
December 2nd, 2018 at 1:11 PM ^
Scoring 17 points at Notre Dame wasn't a problem with the offense? Newsflash - two touchdowns is not a good offensive performance. Its foolish to think that scoring one touchdown each half should be enough offense to beat elite teams.
S&P offense in the Top 30? Is that supposed to be good? Are we really supposed to get into the Top 4 CFP with an offense ranked lower than Utah State and Toledo?
Our passing was in the top 10 but a big part of the problem is that we simply didnt throw the ball enough, despite this being the strength of the offense statistically. Simply leaning on the pass more would have done a lot to improve the overall offense (and probably would have helped the run game be more effective by forcing teams to defend the whole field).
Notre Dame is not an offensive powerhouse either, but they were able to beat us simply by being willing to throw the ball down field a few times.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:54 PM ^
The hate for Pep from me hasn't stopped since last year
December 2nd, 2018 at 1:43 PM ^
I am with you. Michigan ended up 22nd in nation in scoring. Not bad considering they played in tough division and had a tough schedule. If Don Brown didn't build so much good will, the pitchforks would be out for him. Got to be honest, the defense cost Michigan the OSU game. Why there is so much venom for Michigan's offense is beyond me. Why there is so much venom for Pep is beyond me.
Michigan was 50th in scoring in 2015 with Fisch and Rudock. 2018 was a huge improvement over 2017. Michigan's offense was very young in 2017. The offense is getting much closer to where we all expected it would be. I can tell you now, the offense will be much better next year with or without Pep. The simple fact is that the talented wide recievers will be maturing, the QB situation is now solidified. Michigan's offensive line will be vastly improved.
I get frustrated like many of you. The OSU game was heart breaking on so many levels. Last I checked, I didn't see Pep advising the defense that gave up 62 or miss any tackles. Yes, I am waiting for Michigan to beat OSU and get that monkey off all our backs. Until then, I will remind myself of the Rich Rod and Hoke years and be thankful Harbaugh is here and whoever he deems worthy of a coaching position I will support. Of course I will yell at the TV and b***h about the play calling and think how I know better in my cozy arm chair.
December 2nd, 2018 at 2:02 PM ^
Since you're comparing the 2015 offense with 2018, keep in minf that the 2018 OL was light years ahead of the 2015 OL in the run game. That makes everything easier. Also, Wisconsin and MSU had plenty of injuries on the defensive side of the ball.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:12 PM ^
By all accounts, he was a good WR coach. This means that awesome 2017 WR class will have three different position coaches in three years.
December 2nd, 2018 at 12:14 PM ^
I don't think that's nearly as big a deal as different OC.