Marcus Ray on Football Problems on the Field.

 We can't block anyone. Good Lord Fix that problem and everything else will come together. The defense is good enough to win with. I was a Hoke supporter but if you can't identify and fix whats killing your team you can't be in charge anymore.

I really like Sam Webb, unfortunately he has to toe the company line if he wants the kind of access he has now. 

How can anyone think that Brady Hoke is a good coach?  This is such a fucking joke.  I can see it now...Hoke staying on for at least another year, and if he gets fired the backlash from the former players will damn the next coach before he even sits in for his first presser.  Now I can finally see why people outside of Michigan say it isn't even a top 20 job anymore.  They are correct in my opinion. 

This goes to show that the most popular man in town is the second string QB.  A week ago, people were clamoring for Shane Morris to start.  Now they are clamoring for the last game's second string QB, Devin Gardner to start.  Hope it's not the same for the Penn State game.

I once had a boss who I liked a lot.  He let us play video games at lunch, slack off, and go home early.     He was fired for not performing.   

The authority figures you "like/love" to perform for are not necessarily top performers.

i thought gardner wouldve beat minnesota easily. I wpnt bash Morris but i think Speight might be better and has a higher ceiling the morris.

Malzone seems like a higher quality prospect than Morris. Speight too. Both had that "just gets it done" factor in HS that Morris never did. 

We need more Marcus Ray comments. I like him doing broadcasts of football games. 

Hoke gave into fan pressure against Minny by starting Morris over Gardner, instead of thinking logically about what gave this team the best chance to win. Gardner's ability to escape the rush is just too big of a difference between the two quarterbacks to ignore given the o-line problems. Also despite what has happened this year, Gardner has shown the ability to have big games.

To be honest , I can't blame either quarterback for what has happened this year. The pass blocking has been a huge issue, neither guy has had time to consistently make throws. No QB is going to play to their potential when they are constantly under pressure.  Even if Morris was ready, I don't think it would have mattered behind that pass blocking. Hoke was asking for Morris to take a beating given those circumstances.

 

is comparing OSU's offense and UM's.  OSU lost something like 4/5's of their starting oline and their stud running back after last year and then lose Miller during fall camp.  They struggled against VaTech but other then that their offense seems to be coming together just fine.  On top of that Barrett looks better prepared than Morris and Barrett redshirted last year.  With Guiton as OSU's back up last year, Barrett probably didn't get any snaps with the 1st or 2nd string until spring.  Morris though was 2nd string last year and had all of the bowl game practices with the first string and he looks like he still has serious work to do before he's ready to be a starter.

Who else started reading "Questions DB coaching..." and initially thought "I agree that he needs to back off from sitting in on film sessions."

...and Gardner gets hurt, I'm going to Speight if the game is still up for grabs.

Is a moron.

Like others I am annoyed by the shut up and blindly support the coach mentality some of the former players seem to have. Brady Hoke is not Michigan, I can still support the players and team, and at the same time be calling for Hoke's head. To try and suggest that this means that people are not loyal to Michigan is idiotic. It  has been 10 years since a Big Ten championship, and despite that people have continued to supprt this team. Asking for a coach that is capable of putting a quality product on the field doesn't change that.

You would think a guy who was on national championship team would understand better than anybody, the expectations that come with being the head coach at Michigan from a level of play standpoint.

All the Morris incident has done is take the heat off Hoke regarding the piss poor performance of the team Saturday. Michigan was a joke Saturday and let an average Big Ten Minnesota team walk ALL OVER then without even putting up a fight.

Where is the big, tough, badass teams Hoke promised us? These guys are getting sand kicked in their face, and just sitting their taking it like 98 lb. weaklings. Jesus man, where is the FIGHT in this team?

When I was at the game I spent most of my time watching the coverage, so here's my take on some of the things.

Morris I think was going through his reads appropriately and for the most part on time (a few are a little late because he still isn't anticipating well enough, especially on digs), but he's too conservative. He had some open receivers in single coverage that he worked off because they were "covered". Minnesota plays a lot of man, receivers will be covered, you have to anticipate and respect leverage and throw open, which is where Morris struggled. FWIW, Morris kind of stared down his receiver (believe Funchess) on his INT, but Braden has to do better to keep the DEs hands down.

Most of the DB breakdowns were from the safeties, namely, Clark and Thomas. One was a miscommunication on a high/low call where both took the low and left the corner open. But the safeties got caught too often with eyes in the backfield and they allowed the TEs to cross their bodies so that they had to turn and then run with them, leaving them behind the play and easy pitch and catches. I thought the CBs for the most part played really well, both Lewis, Taylor, and Countess outside a play here or there where they may have gotten beat a little, but nothing outlandish. It was the PA boot the a sideline high/low that killed Michigan's SS.

As for contain on Cobb, Cobb's a good back. Michigan lost some gap discipline (once really bad by Bolden, who was in the gap and then jumped out of it) on some of the runs or just didn't finish the play a few times, but most of Cobb's production game through the air, and Ryan struggled there. This put Ryan in space and he was late diagnosing it (and the DL didn't do a great job forcing the throws to go higher or take longer by retracing, allowing Ryan to come down on the RB). Ryan needs to do a better job understanding how to come up and attack this. You come hard if you can get to the RB immediately, but if he can make a move you have to come down under control because he can two-way you in the middle of the field. That's where Ryan struggled.

got beyond the high school level in coaching in more than a decade. He is about as good an evaluator of coaching as some random dude on the street. He likes to pretend it is very much otherwise though when he is on radio. 

The team is poorly coached at about every position...that's he problem. It has taken some of our linemen 3 years to learn how to block and we still struggle there. MSU has ran the same blitzes on us for 5 years straight and probably will again, yet we will probably look like we haven't prepared for it again this season.

Would he help coach if offered?