A few bubbles from the submarine

Submitted by mGrowOld on

Nothing terribly earth shattering but tonight I worked out with the high school head coach of one of our current players and he shared a few nuggets from a conversation they had over the weekend so I thought I'd share:

1. With Hoke they had a catered chef who basically cooked to order whatever the players wanted and they had as much as they liked.  He said it was like eating at a 5 star restaurant every day and it was fantastic.  With Harbaugh there are basically no meal choices and if you don't like it - that's too bad

2. The past two years the players stayed in nice, new, air-conditioned rooms where they had a lot of space and personal freedom.  With Harbaugh they are crammed into an old, dirty, non-air-conditioned room that's hot as hell.  Note: where are they exactly?  Sounds like my old dorm room.

3. Under Hoke this player had no clue why he'd play, get pulled, start or be benched.  He said there was little communication and he was very confused on what got him playing time or what got him pulled from the game.  With Harbaugh he knows exactly where he stands on the depth chart every single day (he said it's updated every day) and he knows exactly what the coaches want to see in him to improve his standing.

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CompleteLunacy

August 19th, 2015 at 8:19 AM ^

The first two sound a bit like the "country club" atmosphere...and to be clear, it's not that I think players don't deserve that nice stuff, but it's easy to become complacent when afforded every luxury. And Harbaugh is changing that up, real quick.

The third is a bit more eye-opening. I mean...wtf. Is that an old school thing? Because it just doesn't work anymore. How can a team get better if players have no idea why they get benched? I mean, obvious example was Gardner vs Minnesota. His body language was crap on the sidelines, and if he was never told directly why he was being benched, then that explains a lot. How can you coach and develop talent if you're not actually relating to them important information like that?

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Its me Dave

August 19th, 2015 at 1:09 PM ^

The third bit is, to me, the most remarkable contrast too.  Harbaugh is basically assigning a staffer to update and post the TPS report every night, which I suppose means the staff is meeting to re-evaluate each player every night, which I suppose also means that they're updating all 80-or-so players on performance criteria regularly.  Oh and he has (Fisch's?) study time management system in place and Mama Gwen seeing to the practical, sundry day to day living stuff.  I think a lot of what we've seen from Harbaugh's hires and departmental organization points to managing the details.

Attention to detail unknown to mankind.  Elite management. 

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Philmypockets

August 19th, 2015 at 8:40 AM ^

Many on here will dislike Jim Harbaugh. He doesn't give a fuck about the alumni, what is said politically correct, and will not follow the so called bullshit "we've always done it this way." He votes for the same party Bo did, and will voice that. Bo didn't have to deal with the internet, offending people, or anything political, other than when Kathy told him to shut up in a Michigan political science class. Jim will get wins, and we need to have his back. He is tough like football is meant to be. He wants America to be tough with hard workers. I hope the men and women in Ann Arbor will be truthful and back him, and not some crazy campaign voicing displeasure that will come up from time to time.

Joined: 03/18/2015

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Philmypockets

August 19th, 2015 at 6:36 PM ^

Sorry you couldn't decipher a simple message, just was saying soft people will not get it. They need to let him win and support him. Thank you. Remember soft people won't get it, but you'll see. Just like a few years ago when I said Hoke was soft I would get slammed here. Now everyone says that, because it's appropriate.

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RGard

August 19th, 2015 at 9:25 AM ^

Harbaugh stuffed one of the torpedo tubes with debris and one dead body then flushed the tube just to make the enemy think the submarine was destroyed.

The body was probably a MMB member who died during 'Stride Drill'.

Joined: 10/20/2014

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WolverBean

August 19th, 2015 at 12:22 PM ^

We have a winner. Everyone is so focused on the culture change explanation that they miss the more likely one: Harbaugh is famous for attention to detail, right? And famous for going 100%, with full enthusiasm, at whatever he's doing, right? You can bet that if he actually had access to a submarine, then the players would literally be eating and sleeping onboard. Since he does not, he's patterning meals and sleeping arrangements as closely to those on a sub as he is able. The lack of fancy chefs, etc probably means nothing more than that.

Joined: 06/30/2008

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ElBictors

August 19th, 2015 at 9:40 AM ^

The team had its own cafeteria and chef when I was a frosh in SQ. I think the hearsay remarks of a former HS coach might being taken too far by the board. Maybe the food selection is more limited but it's still healthy food for the team. And maybe the players never knew why they were or weren't playing because Dave Brandon was the one making that decision at times ....? Like insisting Green start at RB because, you know

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Victor Valiant

August 19th, 2015 at 9:42 AM ^

I think Harbaugh is doing this to drive out guys who aren't truly committed to the program and will improve conditions each year as the team improves. Things might never get back to Hoke-level country club-ness (allegedly), but these conditions strike me as special given it's his first camp and he wants to show the players there is a new sheriff in town.

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ElBictors

August 19th, 2015 at 9:50 AM ^

Agreed I think it's ...Camp. Even at the NFL level there are different styles with how coaching staffs run things and there were 49ers who complained that things weren't Country Club enough under Harbaugh It's about building a team identity as well. I heard Marcus Luttrell speak last month about Navy Seal training and how his class at 200+ boiled down to something like 8 guys but they were 8 guys you'd give your life for. I think the players will be tighter having 'survived together' and is less about no more Country Club and more about 'We Did This Together and Can Do Anything Together'

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RGard

August 19th, 2015 at 9:53 AM ^

who may not be truly committed.  He's doing this because that's what Bo did and that's what JH did (at least I haven't read he ran a country club at Stanford) in his previous college jobs.  It worked for Bo.  It worked for JH and JH is going to make it work at Michigan.

 

Joined: 10/20/2014

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Perkis-Size Me

August 19th, 2015 at 10:27 AM ^

I doubt there are "no" meal choices. A lot of those guys have specific diets and weight levels they have to try and meet, particularly if they're a freshman. I doubt that every day is rice and beans and if they don't like it, tough shit.

What they might mean is that the coaches and trainers lay out specific diets for each player, and they're to not deviate from that in terms of fat intake, calorie count, etc. But that diet can mean a wide variety of things when it comes to what they eat every day. I'm sure they have options to choose from.

But this is an outsider's opinion, so what do I know?



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