Was the OL horrendous tonight or merely not as good as the DL?

Submitted by Erik_in_Dayton on
Like many mgbloggers, I was not able to attend the scrimmage tonight. I was able to follow it on Twitter thanks to Ace and Sam Webb. It seems safe to say that the DL outplayed the OL by a wide margin (with Kalis not playing and Glasgow not playing much - or at all?)...................................... Question for those who were there: Did the OL seem competent at a basic level but unable to compete with a very good DL? Were they a disaster? Did they seem like a young but talented group that will just need time to find their way? Were they horrible? Terrible? Nausea-inducing? Were they driven from their villages and forced to surrender their women to Caesar and renounce their gods?......................................... Any insight from those in attendance will be appreciated. [EDIT: I can't create paragraphs for some reason.]
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Texagander

August 16th, 2014 at 10:44 PM ^

OL was bad. Especially at the beginning. Got better as scrimmage went on. OL ones looked hood against DL twos. DL ones destroyed OL twos. Mone got a lot of push on Bosch.

The DL looks legit.

OL looks marginally better than last year. But needs a lot of improvement.

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RandomWolverine

August 16th, 2014 at 10:47 PM ^

The twitter feed was scary. The pick by Gardner sounded similar to the linebackers video from the Countdown Day 14 series... A little pressure and a bad decision. On the other hand, this is a blip and I am going to (at least temporarily) stay positive about this year. I still expect to be in a good spot come November with a chance down the stretch.

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ilah17

August 16th, 2014 at 10:47 PM ^

I am interested to see what others say. My family and I went. I don't want to overreact, but I am certainly concerned about the offensive line after what I saw. 

It just seems like they have no . . . push. I don't know. I am hoping everyone else says our defensive line is just that good. . .

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turd ferguson

August 16th, 2014 at 10:49 PM ^

Another question -- Were there any individual o-linemen who looked particularly good or bad?  I get that the line as a whole struggled, but I'm curious about the individuals.

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reshp1

August 17th, 2014 at 12:46 AM ^

Kugler did not look very good unfortunately, I thought he had a much better Spring Game. He got beat reapeatedly (althoughto be fair, the guys next to him were awful, so its hard to tell live) and curiously had some trouble snapping the ball. 

Miller looked decent. He had a really impressive play where he chipped the NT with one arm and moved quickly out to the LB on one of the longer runs that really stood out. He's probably never going to be the guy that manhandles a 300+lb NT by himself, but it is what it is at this point. He was also solid in pass pro. 

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Wolverine Devotee

August 16th, 2014 at 10:51 PM ^

I left much more concerned about the OL than I was heading in.

However, we would also be freaking out if the OL was dominating the DL. 

Notes from the presser: Hoke wants to have the starting lineup in pen by Wednesday/Thursday.

Derrick Green is also the #1 RB, De'Veon 1A. However, none stood out tonight.

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umfan323

August 16th, 2014 at 10:54 PM ^

Funk needs to be replaced,  we have done great in recruiting the talent but it seems like he cannot develop the players..Borges went first and Funk is up next

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NOLA Wolverine

August 16th, 2014 at 10:57 PM ^

Something needs to occur. They can either decide that Rivals/Scout was horrifically wrong on every guy brought in, or that there might be a problem within the organization. I don't think I've ever seen such a dramatic regression. 

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Reader71

August 16th, 2014 at 11:22 PM ^

This isn't an excuse, but a fact of life and the reason young OL usually aren't very good: it is hard to be aggressive when you aren't comfortable with your assignment or ability. If you aren't 100% sure of what to do and how to do it and how you expect the defense to react, you go out there and catch the defender instead of hitting him. And if you don't feel you are fast enough or strong enough or good enough to beat the man across you, you just try to get in his way. Only reps can fix this. This is what is meant when people say, "it clicks".

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Painter Smurf

August 16th, 2014 at 11:57 PM ^

There has to be more to the story than just lack of reps, though.  Cole came in and moved to the top of the depth chart in the spring before his freshman year.  UM recruited a bunch of OG/OT swing players and it looks like pretty much all of them (Kalis, Bosch, Samuelson, Fox, etc.) have zero potential at OT.  Where are the young studs?  Where are the 2nd year players who are ready to start kicking tail, like many OL from UM's past?

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Reader71

August 17th, 2014 at 12:10 AM ^

Like I said, I'm not making excuses. The kids aren't ready yet. I'm just sharing a little of the psychology that goes with being a collegiate offensive lineman. What I will say is that none of these kids as they are today would have started for most Michigan teams, but most Michigan teams wouldn't have to rely on more than 1 of them. We do, because we have 0 Sr and 2 Jr, one a former walk-on.

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vablue

August 17th, 2014 at 2:59 AM ^

Many of the top rated recruits were not listed by anyone as being college ready, especially at the tackle position.  Noboday was thinking LTT or others would be able to come in and dominate in year two.  The only real exception to that was Kalis.  So if you want cause for concern it would be Kalis.

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Blue in Yarmouth

August 17th, 2014 at 8:07 AM ^

and I've said this a long time, the biggest indictment of Funk is the performances of the players he hasn't coached. You look at the oline the first year. Most of those players were players that were developed under a different staff and was by far the best o-line we had since Hoke came. The unit as a whole has regressed since they came with the exception of a few individuals. Those individuals are players that, again, received most of their coaching/development prior to Funk arriving (Lewan and Schofield).

Fast forward to now and you see a new freshman who has been coached and developed by a high school coach leap to the starting position at left tackle. Meanwhile we have guys who have been in this system for three years now being coached by funk, watching him leap frog them and wondering what the hell is going on.

We've been hearing the excuse for the past 2 season that the guys are just too young (which I'm not discounting as not being legitimate to a degree) and yet Cole comes in and as a freshman is our #1 option at LT. I know there are always exceptions too, but this doesn't seem like that. It seems like our best chance at putting a decent o-line on the field is fielding anyone who hasn't been cursed by funky touch of Funk.

I said most of last year that I believed the problem wasn't just Borges, but Funk as well and we only got rid of half the problem. The o-line will continue to struggle until Funk gets his walking papers.

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BlueCube

August 17th, 2014 at 9:34 AM ^

when no players step up and then bitch when someone does stand out in the first year because, dammit, a guy who was a high school player last year got such superior coaching that he can start for Michigan. The players who you don't feel developed enough in a year or two here prove failure by the players somewhat but mainly the coaching staff. The guys who were first and third round NFL picks were good enough to be first and third round picks four years ago and didn't develop or if they developed a little bit, it was on their own despite the terrible coaching.

These players are busting their asses out there to represent Michigan. We have people calling them failures when most OL don't play until their fourth or fifth year. They have a new coach and a new system to learn. The OC had to evaluate these guys to see who the right players are. We still don't know who the final unit is but we are fairly certain a couple didn't play much last night. They were playing against a defensive line that knows the plays and we know the coaches aren't going to show everything in a open scrimmage. The coaches will pick the final line this week and actually let them play together for a couple weeks so they can gel as a unit. Can we at least support them for a couple of weeks before we start throwing them under the bus?

I thought this scrimmage was a good idea but listening to some posters on here, I'm not so sure. No one would have expected this line to look good at all going into the scrimmage yet some start this huge uproar to fire Funk already. Maybe we should wait to see what the coaches actually put on the field for a game.

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Don

August 17th, 2014 at 9:53 AM ^

I agree that overall Funk has yet to produce a solid entire OL unit, but to assert that the success of Lewan and Schofield is entirely attributable to two years under Frey and had nothing to do with three years under Funk is illogical.

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reshp1

August 17th, 2014 at 1:26 AM ^

I know you're not serious, but I do think it was intentional to throw a ton of pressure at the offense to get them more reps and help them learn to deal with it. They'll have all this on film and there will be lots of teaching moments they can pull from this and hopefully get things corrected.  

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snarling wolverine

August 16th, 2014 at 11:17 PM ^

Let's see how this season plays out before we run the guy out of town.  We had a bad OL last year and lost our two best guys on it, no less.  Meanwhile our DL is supposed to be very good.  Given all that, should we have expected a strong performance by the OL in the middle of August?

FWIW, I thought it got a little better as the scrimmage went on.  Let's see where we go from here.

 

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