MGoPodcast 5.18: Weird Guys Overcome
Take a bow, JMo. [Bryan Fuller]
MICHIGAN STATE
I repeat "PLAYIN' A LOT OF WEIRD GUYS" about 60 times in a three minute span. Stauskas goes off, LeVert goes off, no respect for Jordan Morgan. Foot blisters.
FOOTBALL NEWS
Man, I don't feel good about this. Moving around all the assistants, trying Jake Ryan at MLB… smacks of desperation. Which I guess, yeah, they might want to be desperate now but these moves do not inspire confidence.
MUSIC
"Across 110th Street."
"People Got A Lot Of Nerve," Neko Case
The usual links:
February 24th, 2014 at 4:49 PM ^
has two years. This is it. Beilein, in his own way, puts pressure on Hoke. Starting with simple competence.
February 24th, 2014 at 4:58 PM ^
doubt "this is it" especially getting a new O-coordinator.. Beilein had to re-arrange his staff to save his job too..
February 24th, 2014 at 5:44 PM ^
February 24th, 2014 at 6:33 PM ^
But Brian also has a point. The SAM position Ryan has been playing, and is very good at, is very different from the MIKE position in terms of responsibility and how he must play. And replacing Morgan is weird because he may have been the best LB on the team last year, and a lot of the 'poor' LB play last year can be put on the DL for not keeping them clean. The decision to add another DB coach can be a good one considering UM is in nickel a ton these days, but the massive switches to positions coaches don't have nearly as much experience coaching seems...well desperate. Not that this is always a bad thing. Belein broomed his whole staff after year three in a desperate attempt to improve performance. And that worked quite well. Honestly, if Hoke/Mattison wasn't pleased with the position coaches, I would have prefered they just replaced them.
February 24th, 2014 at 9:37 PM ^
February 25th, 2014 at 8:21 AM ^
Fanbase was screaming for changes in November and now it is "desperate". Apparently there's a fine line between the amount of changes that were needed??
February 24th, 2014 at 6:25 PM ^
Brian's assessment of the football program right now: whomp, whomp....
I think I kind of agree
February 24th, 2014 at 7:02 PM ^
I'm not feeling great about it either, but it's not like last year's defense was tearing it up. If Hoke/Mattison think this was needed in order to improve, then let's all hope it's better than the status quo.
February 24th, 2014 at 7:28 PM ^
If they made no changes then everybody would be whoofing that they aren't doing anything. Have we forgotten the Borges we didn't execute-do the same thing a million times approach. Things were out of sync last year but they still managed to stumble to 7 wins. I don't think Hoke is on the hot seat at all for this next season and if they manage 9-10 wins and beat one rival then there won't be any reason to even think he won't be around. Obviously a repeat of this year, well lets not even talk about that....
February 24th, 2014 at 10:45 PM ^
I run a cult... awesome.
February 24th, 2014 at 10:56 PM ^
Let me try to reverse jinx this. This is the same Illinois team that just won at Minnesota so they have ability to upset people. Yeah Minnesota is not amazing this year but this was on their home court. Our team should take @Illinois but no road game is easy especially to a team that considers themselves your rival or something like that.
February 25th, 2014 at 12:09 AM ^
If I went 7-6 after promising B1G championships, I would be changing shit up as well. It is desperation time, since he doesn't want to be on the hot seat in 2015. Though, I think he will be. I will be surprised if this team wins more than 8 games. But you never know with Nuss in charge of the offense!
February 25th, 2014 at 4:25 AM ^
Fire Rich Rod. That will fix everything.
February 25th, 2014 at 9:58 AM ^
"Man, I don't feel good about this. Not moving around some assistants, not trying some position switches after a mediocre defensive season… smacks of naive cluelessness. Which I guess, yeah, that's what clueless people do, but the lack of changes do not inspire confidence."
February 25th, 2014 at 10:45 AM ^
This would be somewhat applicable if the team was some indistinguishable blob of incompetence, but it isn't. SAM and MIKE were two spots where the team wasn't broken, but that is what they are addressing with the personnel moves.
IMO, they are taking their strongest personnel away from the position where his skill is most productive, and putting him where he makes the defense possibly more sound, even though it takes away a good bit of the schematic advantage his superior talent provided.
Sounds to me like the defensive equivalent of the tackle-over formation.
February 25th, 2014 at 6:21 PM ^
2 years ago Everybody thought Michigan had the best coaching staff in the Big ten and now they are clueless. I start each season with the same blind devotion as the last. I assume the coaching staff and the players will make the adjustments they need to. I've been wrong every year since 08 besides 2011 but, i'm still going to do it because this is Michigan...
February 25th, 2014 at 4:51 PM ^
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