It's Meltdown Time! Michigan Ag front and center
Typically, the MSU comments are colorless and uninspired, but like cold pizza you enjoy it anyway.
Was struck by this comment from Miami fans: "I hope Gattis changes this running up to the line only to stop and look to the sidelines until there’s 6-8 seconds left then rush and try and get a play off…shit is stupid." Well, well, well...
September 21st, 2022 at 10:12 AM ^
I hope Gattis is successful, but I will always wonder if his WR recruiting success is what kept him here. "Speed in Space" was retired with "Michigan Man" when he left and our offense looks better than anything I've seen since the Moeller teams.
September 21st, 2022 at 10:18 AM ^
I think our offense is so explosive, in part, because we are getting it to our speedy guys...wait for it...with space to make something happen. We have seen some great successes with our short passing game turning into big plays, especially from Roman Wilson. Maybe Gattis wasn't the greatest at executing his concepts, or maybe he was limited by personnel, but the concept of speed in space is one that all offensive coordinators should dream about.
Personally, I think this is where JJ has impressed me most in his first two starts. He is hitting guys in a spot that gives them a chance to turn up field. This is especially true and important on throws to the flat and drag routes. Anything close to the line of scrimmage needs an accurate throw so that 4 air yards can turn into an 8 or 10 yard gain (or more).
September 21st, 2022 at 10:27 AM ^
hitting a receiver in stride is like paying your bills on time.... you don't get credit for that, that's what you're supposed to do. pay your bills!
Devin Gardner
September 21st, 2022 at 10:47 AM ^
You are 100% correct. I just wish I was able to witness it more frequently these past few years from our quarterbacks.
September 21st, 2022 at 11:51 AM ^
What's past is past. Enjoy what the offense presents now and what is potentially to come! I know I am.
September 21st, 2022 at 12:13 PM ^
I don't think DG understands how credit scores work, but the idea is correct
September 21st, 2022 at 6:08 PM ^
Lots of past-due bills in the Michigan QB spot the last few years.
September 21st, 2022 at 11:44 AM ^
Youre right, I said this all of last year, but if we had a QB who could hit a WR in stride (or lead one) we would have a dominant offense.
JJ is the reason we have looked good so far. Cade, thanks, but he was usually behind or slowed a WR.
September 21st, 2022 at 12:39 PM ^
I actually agree with you re Cade, at least with deep passes, but ... the way you express it sounds a bit dismissive of him. In fact, we had a damned good offense last year (second in the Big Ten in offense, and second in fewest turnovers per game, each time behind only Ohio State), and he did a lot of things well. Limiting turnovers while leading a team to victory is not to be dismissed.
I'm on Team JJ, no doubt, but Cade did a hell of a job last year.
September 21st, 2022 at 2:49 PM ^
On the other side of that argument, the best OL in the nation, a great run game, good skill players, and a great defense can make a game manager seem like a long-term option. Michigan should never settle for a game manager at QB, especially with Harbaugh as HC.
September 22nd, 2022 at 4:42 AM ^
UM didn't "settle" for a game manager. Truly elite talent QBs don't grow on trees.
Cade was the right QB for last years team.
September 21st, 2022 at 3:00 PM ^
I hate that I came off that way, as I was team Cade 100% last year and up until game 1 of this year. He's a dude, and I appreciate what he did.
September 21st, 2022 at 12:34 PM ^
Gettis didn't invent or own the concept of speed in space, his job was to implement it. I give him credit for recruiting the WRs but the scheme was never realized when he was here.
September 21st, 2022 at 3:19 PM ^
I thought it was Locksley’s scheme.
September 21st, 2022 at 4:33 PM ^
Being able to put more velocity on the ball to get it there quicker also helps.
September 21st, 2022 at 10:18 AM ^
I think if he stayed one more year at Michigan, he could have parlayed his success into a head coaching job. This move could be a career limiting move if Miami struggles.
September 21st, 2022 at 11:08 AM ^
Dumbass career move. Going from a team that went to the Playoffs and was absolutely loaded on offense to the third school in Florida where nobody has cared about U football since 2001. Whose last 5 coaches were Cristobol, Manny Diaz, semi-retired Mark Richt, Al Golden and Randy Shannon.
I'm beginning to think that Gattis got the firm handshake and Harbaugh wasn't the least bit surprised when Gattis departed.
September 21st, 2022 at 11:37 AM ^
I don't really think we can evaluate the move without knowing what Harbaugh had told him regarding his plan. True, Miami as OC is not the best spot, but there are like 6 legit(ish) college football programs in Florida if you include Central and South Florida that cycle through coaches almost annually. If he just needed a spot to land because he believed changes were coming to Michigan it is not the worst he could have done. Somebody down there is bound to offer him a shot just because they need a dude.
September 21st, 2022 at 1:06 PM ^
I don’t know if the old ‘firm handshake’ was involved, but it’s pretty clear that Gattis read his press clippings and felt disrespected that he (apparently) wasn’t a shoo-in for the job if Harbaugh left. Given how slim the results were during his tenure here, maybe he could have been more circumspect in his reaction. Seeing the same problems with Miami’s offense this year isn’t a good look for him.
September 21st, 2022 at 1:35 PM ^
I don't think it was a firm handshake, unless there was something to those seedy recruiting rumors. Football-wise, there wasn't a reason to let him go. I think it was just understood from the time he was hired that he was probably only going to be here a few years, so Harbaugh was ready to move on if it happened.
September 21st, 2022 at 2:00 PM ^
Did Gattis decide to leave before Harbaugh interviewed with the Vikings? If not, maybe he thought he would be out of a job.
By the way, the Vikings and Kork Coupons could have used Jim Harbaugh on Monday Night. They looked awful.
September 21st, 2022 at 10:20 AM ^
Gattis did recruit some excellent receivers but last year's offense in particular was a Jim Harbaugh offense. Gattis could not have imagined such a sophisticated running attack. And they basically wasted Nico Collins when he did have him.
September 21st, 2022 at 10:33 AM ^
Lets not list "wasted" talent. We don't have that kind of time... Nico was awesome. Sad we never had a great QB to use him, and that we insisted on running into the line 900 times a game (often unsuccessfully) instead of tossing it up to him.
We have an abundance of WR talent right now. Anthony, who is a pretty dynamic player.. doesnt get a whiff. The freshman probably will shrink back now, without much plan.
Bell, All, Schoooon, Wilson (who I like the most), are the primary targets. But this offense doesn't put up gaudy numbers even when we score 59 pts, somehow. So, in terms of wasting, I don't think that's what we're doing, but we aren't quite developing that elite skill position talent. We are putting guys in a system that has and hopefully continues to be successful at the college level.
September 21st, 2022 at 10:49 AM ^
We didn't put up gaudy numbers scoring 59 points because in the "competitive" portion of the game, we had:
- A fumble recovered on opponent 18 yard line (only got FG, but still only 18 yards available)
- A punt return touchdown (zero offensive yards)
- A blocked punt returned to opponent 18 yard line
- On top of the above, UConn couldn't move the ball so half of our other scoring possessions started with short fields
Then Davis Warren was in before the 4th quarter. Bell and Schoonmaker also got tacked at the 1 yard line so TD receptions could have easily been 2 instead of zero.
That being said, I partially agree with your overall sentiment - preseason predictions that this would be some crazy high functioning spread passing attack were a bit too optimistic given who the coaching staff is (an too pessimistic about the defense). Still hard to draw many conclusions though when you've done just about all that is possible beating up 3 tomato cans.
September 21st, 2022 at 11:40 AM ^
I trust what the coaches are doing but I would love to see more Anthony. He was a player I was really looking forward to developing. He reminded me of young Braylon.
September 21st, 2022 at 4:47 PM ^
I also wonder if the way Michigan has conducted the passing game under Harbaugh, at least to this point, affects the way receiver recruits look at Michigan. The most yards any receiver has gained in a season since Harbaugh arrived is still the 862 Darboh had in 2015. Chesson’s 9 TDS the same year were also the most in the Harbaugh era. Michigan has thrown less than other top schools and spreads the catches around. I’m wondering if that will change at all over the next two years with McCarthy at QB.
The other side of it is the players themselves. Who’s the best skill position player Michigan has had since Harbaugh arrived? I think it might’ve been 2021 Haskins, but I believe it’s fair to say that while they’ve had some very good players on offense, I don’t think they’ve had a single great player. But I also think that’s about to change.
September 21st, 2022 at 10:53 AM ^
Have to agree. I will add that Harbaugh made a great move by bringing in an analyst who he happened to move to Co-OC this year. And suddenly, the offense has been humming and you saw the signs last year. So, Gattis probably had some hand in it, but I think Harbaugh and analyst made things happen as well last year. This year is a different level.
September 21st, 2022 at 12:52 PM ^
Everyone knows why Gattis left, it's hard to win an award for coordinator of the year when the head coach was running the offense
September 21st, 2022 at 3:49 PM ^
Not even the best coordinator on his own team. Fuck Gattis.
September 21st, 2022 at 12:49 PM ^
My read of Gattis is that he's an idea man. He's personable, relatable, has great ideas, and knows how to sell them. Unfortunately, I don't think he knows how to implement them well. If he were in the business world, he'd be the Tech Bro that effortlessly gets millions in venture capital with a captivating vision, but is never able to get the business off the ground. In football, he's a great recruiter with good ideas that never quite come together into a coherent offense. These kinds of people can succeed, but only if they recognize they need help in implementation. Based on the comments we've seen from Gattis, I'm not optimistic he has that level of self-awareness and humility.
September 21st, 2022 at 2:03 PM ^
Maybe his ideas were really more like Shelbyville ideas.
September 21st, 2022 at 3:39 PM ^
Well played.
September 21st, 2022 at 4:30 PM ^
A QB with McCarthy’s talents makes everyone else look better.
September 21st, 2022 at 4:58 PM ^
To be fair to Gattis, he never had a QB anywhere near as good as JJ, he's been hamstrung the whole time.
September 21st, 2022 at 10:14 AM ^
Speed in space.
September 21st, 2022 at 10:16 AM ^
Yet another example of looking at the state of Michigan football with a big smile on my face
September 21st, 2022 at 10:17 AM ^
I think MSU is still a bit dangerous and should not be overlooked, but man their defensive backfield is a shit show. They're certainly better against the run but watching the W game the run D didn't look that great, either. They fought back after getting down early and Thorne is a pretty decent QB... they still have a pulse but we need to destroy them this year.
September 21st, 2022 at 10:28 AM ^
Watching the game the other night, yes, their pass d is atrocious. But they have bought into the whole relentless thing.
UDub was up by 4 scores then all of a sudden the 4th quarter, if MSU had some breaks go there way, they really could have made it a tight game toward the end.
September 21st, 2022 at 11:28 AM ^
MSU made a game of it by going for it on 4th down throughout the 2nd half. Kudos to Tucker for doing that.
September 21st, 2022 at 12:25 PM ^
True, but it was some horseshoe-up-their-ass BS. The aggression is good coaching (MSU never gave up, and that is absolutely a credit to Tucker), but putting yourself in several low-percentage situations is a recipe for disaster.
September 21st, 2022 at 12:48 PM ^
if they would have punted on 4th down deep in their territory early in the 4th Q, they likely would have been down only one score late in the game. they gave UW free points there.
September 21st, 2022 at 3:22 PM ^
Yeah, "always going for it" sounds great when you're playing Madden but in terms of game theory trying to convert on 4th down on your own 24 with about a quarter to go is a bad idea and cost them in this game. And some of their 4th-down conversions in this game were dumb as well; they scored 2 TDs on 4th down plays, one after a botched snap turned into a fumble but was overturned because they illegally snapped the ball to start off. This was a game where a ton of breaks went MSU's way and they still lost by double digits.
Tucker seems to have more Hoke in him than MSU wants to admit, and it shows with some boneheaded playcalls that look "ballsy" when they work and dumb when they don't. He's a good coach and is better than late-stage Dantonio but if he sticks around at MSU for the length of his contract I think he's going to turn into a .500 coach and fail to really build anything of substance.
September 21st, 2022 at 3:59 PM ^
They also bizarrely went for two on one of their tds when an extra point would have made it a 14 point game.
September 21st, 2022 at 2:55 PM ^
Are you saying they were....Defeated with Dignity?
September 21st, 2022 at 3:28 PM ^
no, more like to beat them, you can never take your foot off the gas.
September 21st, 2022 at 10:28 AM ^
If they can't generate any pass rush without blitzing, they can easily come into our game at 2-5 or 3-4. OSU is a sure 'L', and they could easily lose to MN, WI or @MD.
If I'm MSU, I run the rock with my transfer RBs and kill clock so I can keep my defense off the field.
September 21st, 2022 at 11:29 AM ^
Maybe it was the travel but those transfer RBs/OL looked like complete trash against UW. They kept trying and putting themselves in 2nd/3rd and long.
They also did not look good stopping the run most of the game. They were missing maybe their best defensive player in Jacob Slade (X. Henderson was also out)
September 21st, 2022 at 12:01 PM ^
Maybe it was the travel but those transfer RBs/OL looked like complete trash against UW.
I feel like I recalled the broadcast saying that MSU arrived later than is typical for a cross-country trip. Is that correct or am I completely misremembering?
September 21st, 2022 at 12:11 PM ^
Unlike KWIII, I Broussard and Berger need a competent OL to open holes for them. UWash has two of the top LBs for next year's draft, and their D was never the problem. That was a bad matchup in the trenches for MSU.
September 21st, 2022 at 11:41 AM ^
They could not run the ball at all. To the contrary, it is their receivers that looked good and I think if they win games they are going to have to do it in shootouts.