Orange Bowl Snowflakes: The Coaching

in our biggest games left a little to be desired in key situations.  It looked to me like we shot our wad of a playbook about 6 games too early and went into the last half of the season with everything we can do on film.

But a lot of it comes back to a shakey offensive line which looked weaker and weaker the more our opponents ramped up in difficulty. 

Rebuilding our oline into Harbaugh's image is paramount to any success next year.

I just arrived in Ajijic and I stayed at a hotel while my apartment is being readied. The picture was so full of snow it was extremely difficult to follow the action. I picked up on the fact we were having problems with the run game and Speight was under a great deal or pressure throughout the game. However, I saw us inside the five yard line on numerous occasions and figured we did something right to get there. I asked my son just what was the problem and he alluded to what you were saying; very shaky line play. From what I could see, I saw a wide open receiver in the end zone that Speight overshot by quite a distance. I attributed that to his being hurried. I mean he was more than "just a bit off." 

As to the play calling, I think right now a lot of it is a matter of trust rather than going with the young and  developing talent, and I think you, like I,  will have to get use to it. Hell, FSU is a talented club with the type of speed we are acquiring. These same plays will look much different when the qb has the time needed, the rbs have that extra half step and elusivenuss that Evans gave us a glimpse of on the go ahead TD. After watching this OL for five years, it is obvious, despite their ratings, the gurus messed up a bit with this group. They all pledged to the good guys so I am not going to drop names or call them out. They had good coaching for two seasons and we saw drastic improvement. I disgree a bit with the analysts that say "we peaked too early." I think the coaching was such they got their best from Game one and when hit with a few injuries along the O line, qb et. al., performance was likely to and did falter. I don't think "we shot our wad" and had nothing new to show them. I believe we went with what served us best, based on the entire season and we were bested by a more talented team and a program that is among the top five in the nation. 

I understand being disappointed in realizing we could have won the three games we lost. However, I'm going to look at it as "Damn, we've come a long way in year two of the rebirth of a program." We went head-to-head with two programs that actually do reload with the same amount of talent annually. We have only caught periodic glimpses of our future and it looks damn promising. I mean these guys have turned it around fast and we're on track. 

Reading as much as I could before my eyes started to bleed, I could see the rage over the playcalling. There were some head-scratchers. However, I offer an explanation: Harbaugh cannot (and/or will not) gimmick his way to yards and points a la Meyer or Peterson or with any of the other middle school, QB running with hair-on-fire playcalling that dominates CFB.

Harbaugh can be a great coach and still call draws or screens for Deveon—they are not mutually exclusive, because dominant football in his mind is not about scheme, but about a blend of a certain type of talent, system, preparation, and intensity. He has the system, preparation, and intensity, but not the talent to run it on offense. When he does not have the proper talent, his system—pro-style—can be defended by althletes too easily. In paricular, QB and OL. Without an OL and RB that can move the ball and a QB who can punish defenses with play action, his system will frustrate. When Stanford was 12-1, he had these things. If he had Stanford's offense on this team, it would be a co-favorite to win the playoff.

Some might argue he should adjust. Perhaps (he's not without faults), but coaches cling to their systems, and it's not like he didn't have success this season, a few more than five points short of undefeated. Harbaugh is a complete coach, and a brilliant one. He just needs an OL and QB for his Death Star to be fully operational.

Then look the fuck out.

is listening to Michigan fans go crazy about every loss as though the program's entitled to win every game.  I'm as disappointed that we didn't get 11 wins this year as any other Michigan fan (mostly that win 11 didn't come against Ohio State), but some of the comments on postgame boards are ridiculous.  This team had some tough losses this year, but was still very good - two of their losses were on the road to top 10 teams by a grand total of four points, the other was a one point loss on the final play of a road night game against a ranked team.  They could have won all of those games, and probably should have won two of them.  They beat everybody else convincingly (including two top ten teams and a good Colorado team).  Nobody wins them all every year, even when they are loaded with talent.  Alabama didn't win every game last year, and neither did Ohio State - even though both of them were significantly more talented than every team they played.  Michigan was not significantly more talented than every team they played this year - they won ten games because they have Harbaugh running the program.  We had more than our fair share of bad bounces this year.  I'm grasping at straws to remember and significantly favorable bounces in any of the big games, but yet we were still on the cusp of an 11 or 12 win season.  It could have gone better, but anyone who suggests that Michigan isn't a program on the rise under this coaching staff is delusional, and anyone who thinks we were entitled to be on top this year (despite some obvious deficiencies in certain position groups) is even more delusional.

In the Orange Bowl I thought Harbaugh should've used a timeout on FSU's final scoring drive to conserve some time.

Other than that, the failure to develop the OL this season to compete on even ground against a very good DL is the biggest issue with the coaching.  We cannot be a successful manball power running team with a statue QB with anything but a dominant OL.  We would've been better this season with a Denard or Devin type running QB.

Beyond all that, I would not be surprised in the least if Brandon Peters or McCaffrey took over the starting job next season.  Speight is a good game manager and is a smart QB but he's not a guy that's going to take a game over with his arm.  Last night we needed him to connect on a few throws to sustain drives or score TDs, and he made a valiant effort but he just doesn't have enough physical tools.