It’s 2017 again
I can’t believe how similar this feels to 2 years ago. 2 years ago everyone wanted Speight out and Okorn was worse. We went to him out of necessity because of injury, but it’s still similar. Speight was fine the year before, just like Shea was fine last year. Both regressed. I guess I’m just hesitant to go with McCaffrey because things could get worse. But despite the offensive problems, we probably should have still beat MSU, and with a healthy Speight had a good shot to beat OSU at home. MSU looks really similar to 2017 also. Not great, but eeked out 10 wins.
I would start Shea at Illinois and if the offense looks stagnant after a half, go with McCaffrey and see what happens. Shea was the #2 rated passer in the conference last year so the ability is there somewhere. I don’t want McCaffrey starting his first game on the PSU stage with nothing but mop up time, so I would roll the dice with Shea for at least one more attempt. Agree or disagree?
October 7th, 2019 at 4:13 PM ^
The sad part is we clearly have more talent than that team, and are just as bad.
October 7th, 2019 at 4:47 PM ^
If McCaffrey or milton is as bad as O'Korn then the whole staff including JH needs fired
October 7th, 2019 at 4:49 PM ^
5 games is enough.
October 7th, 2019 at 5:05 PM ^
2017? Never happened....
October 7th, 2019 at 5:10 PM ^
I'm ready to give McCaffrey a shot, but unless he is given the start vs. Illinois, there's no point in talking about it until after PSU.
Giving McCaffrey his first start on the road, at PSU, in a white out game, at night, coming off an injury where he hasn't practiced in weeks would be a recipe for disaster.
October 7th, 2019 at 6:15 PM ^
October 7th, 2019 at 5:19 PM ^
Have a hard time with Harbaugh continually trying to convince everyone that it was more about a good Iowa defense than a bad offense. So if the Iowa defense is so sterling against the pass how was Iowa State able to throw for 337 yards with one receiver totaling 8 catches for 144 yards. Given Jim's explanation he must be saying that Iowa states receivers are a far better group than what is on this roster which is hard to comprehend.
October 7th, 2019 at 8:04 PM ^
Because Matt Campbell is a pretty good coach and runs a modern offense. He'll pass Iowa eventually.
October 8th, 2019 at 10:27 AM ^
I really don't understand your obsession with Matt Campbell. The guy is 0-4 against Kirk Ferentz, what makes you think he has a better chance than Harbaugh of beating OSU?
October 8th, 2019 at 4:20 AM ^
Iowa has Penn St at home this weekend. We'll see if Iowa has a good defense. Penn St has scored a lot of points this year, except against their rival Pitt. I don't think they're going to score a lot against Iowa either.
October 7th, 2019 at 5:37 PM ^
Hello!? Exactly!
October 7th, 2019 at 5:55 PM ^
So fucking tired of people who have little to no football intelligence screaming for the back up QB. The coaches see these kids every day in practice, they know who their best QB is.
October 7th, 2019 at 9:51 PM ^
Well when your coaches are average they can’t tell the difference anyway.
October 8th, 2019 at 10:28 AM ^
People said this about Peters and O'Korn, yet Peters was the obviously better QB. Not to mention the coaches themselves said the QB race was tight right up until the start of the season.
October 7th, 2019 at 6:24 PM ^
I worry that Shea will look great against Illinois and we'll waste the game on him despite the fact that it means the same as his excellent performance versus Rutgers (i.e., nothing).
Of course that conflicts with my other worry: that it can ALWAYS get worse. And sometimes you're best case scenario (Shea) is unacceptably bad but the alternatives (DMc/Milton) would hurt the team more. Worse yet, I have no confidence that Dylan will be healthy by Saturday; playing him could be literally dangerous.
So don't ask me. This is a very hard situation -- way past my pay grade.
October 7th, 2019 at 6:31 PM ^
I'll admit outright that I remain a Harbaugh supporter.
I still think the biggest mistake he made with Speight was that he didn't name him the starter after the '16 season entering 2017. If I'm a QB and I'm supposed to be a leader, I go out and prove definitively (based on O'Korn's play that season, especially the Indiana game) that I'm clearly the best QB on the roster, then I should be named the starter moving forward and given that chance to rally the troops.
I know a lot was made about Speight becoming a head case, and his dad being a whatever, and his mom thanking Coach Hoke with a button on Senior Day, and we'll never know if Speight's early season struggles stemmed from this or not... but I wonder if it was a mental regression with Speight who felt slighted by Harbaugh and his staff.
O'Korn was Houston's backup and transferred to Michigan and should/would have remained a backup. Pep & Co. put together a winning game plan against OSU and damn near idiot proofed it, but O'Korn couldn't execute. I'm not sure how much can be put on Harbaugh.
Patterson by some accounts wanted out more b/c he was feeling the pressure coming from the others in the QB room. Again, did UM accept someone else's backup QB and learn the hard way why they were a backup (or on the verge of being one?)
I'm not fully convinced McCaffrey started the 2nd half at Wisconsin due to Patterson's injury. I think the coaches were starting to pull the plug but the concussion threw it off. If McCaffrey doesn't play this week, forget them making the change. I don't see them giving him his first start at PSU in a night game (like they didn't do with Peters) or against a top 10 Notre Dame team. And after that it's at Maryland and home to MSU.
If no McCaffrey this week, they're pot committed with Patterson and need to figure out SOMETHING he can do to challenge upper echelon teams.
October 8th, 2019 at 1:44 AM ^
Ohio State accepted Georgia’s Back-Up. Seems to be working out okay for them.
October 7th, 2019 at 6:56 PM ^
While I see the parallels to 2017, I think everyone would agree that John O'Korn was just...terrible.
Shea is bettter than O'Korn was, but i agree that if you aren't playing lights out by the 1st half, then it's time to give reps to D-Mac.
October 8th, 2019 at 12:55 AM ^
Our definition of "lights out" seems different than Gattis' and Harbaugh's definition of it. A 10-3 Michigan lead and no turnovers at the half probably has the coaches skipping with glee to the locker room. Meanwhile the fans are rightfully pissed that we're not up 28-3.
October 7th, 2019 at 7:07 PM ^
We keep talking Dylan vs. Shea, and a worthy discussion. But, anyone with a pulse on the team know Dylan’s status? He even practicing yet? Until healthy none of this matters.
October 7th, 2019 at 7:30 PM ^
This is my concern. It's possible the coaches want to play him and think he'd be better than Patterson but can't due to his injury. What is it with this team and QB injuries? Every year (Rudock never missed an entire game) except '15 we've had major QB injuries.
October 7th, 2019 at 8:29 PM ^
What about Milton?
October 7th, 2019 at 7:18 PM ^
2017 and O’Korn was bad and that is definitely not this. This year is frustrating because there is lots of talent seeming to go to waste. But at the same time that “lots of talent” thing at least gives some hope that one week this thing is going to click. 2017 you just knew it was what it was.
October 8th, 2019 at 4:14 AM ^
I hope you're right. Maybe by the time they play Penn St they will be clicking. Illinois has a bad defense. Maybe they can start rolling against them. I am reserved in getting hopes up though.
October 7th, 2019 at 8:04 PM ^
D Mac plays like a dog.
Shea plays like a cat.
October 8th, 2019 at 12:58 AM ^
I'm not sure which is good and which is bad.
October 7th, 2019 at 8:12 PM ^
It's kind of weird how only one quarterback has actually improved considerably since arriving at Michigan, Jake Ruddock.
All of the others were all moderate to severe disappointments in performance year-on-year (Speight, O'Korn, Patterson).
Still surprising since so many believed Harbaugh was a freaking QB guru (Tavita Pritchard, Andrew Luck, Alex Smith, Colin Kaepernick). Maybe one explanation is that Harbaugh still is a great coach and QB guru, but his UM pupils were less coachable except for Ruddock?
October 8th, 2019 at 4:12 AM ^
Maybe one explanation is that Harbaugh still is a great coach and QB guru, but his UM pupils were less coachable except for Ruddock?
That is very likely the case. Ruddock continued to improve at Detroit. And he still in the pros at Miami.
October 7th, 2019 at 8:14 PM ^
Except Shea is better than both speight and okorn and we really don’t know what we have with Dylan yet but I’m sure it’s better than okorn and speight.
October 8th, 2019 at 1:30 AM ^
The closer this season got the more I felt like this could be 2017 all over again. Michigan was getting a ton of hype and everyone was ready to completely bury Staee. I thought Staee would get their every other season luck and pull 9 or 10 wins out of their ass. I think they are pretty similar to the 2017 team except that defense may be better. I admit I didn’t think they would lose to ASU at home. It will be very interesting to see how the Staee vs Wisconsin game will go on Saturday. Forecast in Madison is 15-25 mph winds and possibly rain. Perfect weather for Staee to sludge fart their way to a win. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them pull an upset. Dantini is getting his weather machine out just like 2017. Get ready for terrible weather and a long lightning delay in Madison on Saturday.
October 8th, 2019 at 4:08 AM ^
Wait, some people are really thinking Dylan McCaffrey could still be named starter of Shea Patterson?
October 12th, 2019 at 1:40 PM ^
One problem. Milton and McCaffrey are better than o korn