Holes, And The Digging Out Of Them
11/26/2016 – Michigan 32, Florida State 33 – 10-3, 6-2 Big Ten, season over
[Joseph Dressler]
I can feel the hot take brigade trying to get through the door already: tweets about how much of this gets put on Drevno, the near certainty I'm going to hear something that sets my teeth on edge on WTKA this Thursday. Michigan's epic season ended with a wet fart, yes. In the aftermath I don't care to complain about it. I don't care to argue about what Michigan should or should not have done, or just... whatever.
Jim Harbaugh is an elite coach. The man has a track record. He is going to be here for a long time. His teams will be very good and often great, and sometimes they will meet other very good or great football teams, whereupon they will play a close, exciting game that will turn on one or two plays that are made or are not made. I hope they win these games. If they don't, they don't. Michigan's done all they can do and now it's time to sit back and see what happens.
That could be an extremely long period of being very good and not breaking through to satisfy the moist goatee brigade. The annals of sports are littered with excellent teams that met other excellent teams and didn't win. The difference there is razor thin and largely determined by luck.
Michigan isn't that juggernaut just yet. They were about 85% of one. The remaining 15% was why a one-point game felt lopsided for 58 minutes: the offensive line.
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FSU's defensive gameplan was simple, and weird: move one of the best defensive ends in the country to DT. The guy you saw running into the backfield virtually untouched all game was, yes, DeMarcus Walker. Michigan's inability to handle him was total. He racked up a +9.7 in PFF's grading, which is a single-game season high for Michigan or its opponents. That's a good season total for many players. Walker had ten pressure events in 45 pass rush snaps and crushed some runs besides. A quick review of the game confirms that Walker killed everything, with an assist from Derrick Nnadi on the other guard.
The two guys with tire treads on their jerseys in the aftermath are at very different points in their career, but the reason they were put in that spot is the same. Ben Bredeson is a freshman who should not be playing yet. Kyle Kalis is a senior who's played too much. Both had to be on the field because there was almost literally nobody else available.
David Dawson's apparently so far from the field that he decided to transfer before taking his shot at a starting job this spring; Juwann Bushell-Beatty's brief cameo after the Newsome injury was the impetus for inserting Bredeson in the first place. Everyone else is either Patrick Kugler, a low-rated redshirt freshman, or a true freshman. If Kugler's a miss, and it appears that way, you have no choice but to die in a fire.
That goes back to Michigan's inability to evaluate, recruit, or develop offensive linemen under Brady Hoke. Hoke could find an All Big Ten DT under a rock; he and his staff had no idea what a good player on offense looked like, and this was most true on the offensive line. Michigan's six-man 2013 OL class is down to Kugler. None of the five departures was particularly close to breaking through.
The next year Michigan took just two OL, which is always a terrible idea. One of them, Bushell-Beatty, was the guy replaced when Bredeson stepped into the starting lineup. Hoke's final class had just one guy who signed, three-star legacy Jon Runyan Jr. Newsome committed in the interregnum; Michigan added Nolan Ulizio in the late scramble.
None of these guys started getting coached well until Harbaugh arrived, and the damage could only be mitigated, not undone. Sometimes OL don't work out, and sometimes you have to keep playing the ones that don't because you don't have anyone else, and sometimes this results in an elite defensive line digesting your quarterback.
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I don't know, man. I started this season's coverage off by proclaiming this to be The Year, and it more or less was. Michigan spent most of the season in the top five of the human polls and #1 in fancystats. They're about to send a dozen guys to the NFL draft. They played like an elite team for most of the season, and if you think losing in double OT in the Horseshoe with an injured quarterback and a rain of terrible calls is some sort of stain on your honor, well... I cannot help you.
The difference between an epic season and a merely good one was razor thin and largely due to the vagaries of fate. Michigan had two spots at which they absolutely could not afford any injuries. They got it in the face at both spots. Grant Newsome went out for the season, paving the way for a true freshman to start. Wilton Speight missed the Indiana game; it's unknown how much of his late slide was due to that collarbone/shoulder injury. Survey says: enough to make a difference, probably.
So they did not win all the things. That sucks. They were very good at all the things it was reasonable to be very good at, though, and that should offer some more confidence going forward. If that's a disappointment I'm with you; if it's an outrage the door is that way.
AWARDS
Known Friends And Trusted Agents Of The Week
you're the man now, dog
#1 Kenny Allen did the impossible: he graded out positively in all three kicking facets per PFF. His eight punts for 47 yards each, 44 yard net, nine return yards ceded, and lone touchback was worth a whopping +0.5 to Pro Football Focus Punter Batman. He hit three chip shot field goals and only had one of his kickoffs end up returnable—alas, that.
Also he terrified the FSU punt returner into a terrible muff that set Michigan up at the one.
#2 Taco Charlton kicked off his day by delivering the kind of hit to Deondre Francois that triggers the Deondre Francois Gets Obliterated Repeatedly montage that follows the poor kid around wherever he goes. He wasn't blocked on that one. On a bunch of other plays he was, usually by Roderick Johnson. Johnson, an All-ACC player who was the best player on the FSU line, ended up –2.2 to PFF and Charlton had a sack to go with four QB hits. Good luck in the NFL, sir.
#3 Ryan Glasgow had a similar day against worse competition, forcing a bunch of pressure up the middle and helping shut off Dalvin Cook, with a couple of Dalvin Cook exceptions.
Honorable mention: Maurice Hurst had another extremely productive day in limited snaps. Chris Evans had that touchdown that momentarily staked Michigan to the lead.
KFaTAotW Standings.
12: Taco Charlton(three-way T1, PSU, same vs Rutgers, #3 Maryland, #2 Iowa, #2 Indiana, #1 OSU, #2 FSU).
10: Wilton Speight (#1 UCF, #1 Illinois, #3 MSU, #1 Maryland),
9: Jabrill Peppers(T2, Hawaii; #3 UCF, #1 Colorado, #2 Rutgers, #2 MSU)
6: Ryan Glasgow(#2 UCF, #1 UW, #3 FSU)
5: Chris Wormley (three-way T1, PSU, same vs Rutgers, #1 Iowa).
4: Jourdan Lewis (#3 UW, #2 Maryland, #3 Indiana), Mike McCray(#1 Hawaii, T2 OSU), Ben Gedeon(#3 Colorado, #3 PSU, three-way T1 Rutgers, T2 OSU), Kenny Allen (#3 OSU, #1 FSU).
3.5: De'Veon Smith (four-way T2, PSU, #1 Indiana).
3: Amara Darboh(#1 MSU).
2.5: Karan Higdon(four-way T2, PSU, #2 Illinois).
2: Jake Butt(#2 Colorado), Kyle Kalis (#2 UW)
1: Delano Hill (T2, Hawaii), Chris Evans (T3, Hawaii, four-way T2, PSU), Maurice Hurst (three-way T1, PSU), Devin Asiasi(#3 Rutgers), Ben Braden (#3 Illinois), Channing Stribling (#3 Iowa).
0.5: Mason Cole(T3, Hawaii), Ty Isaac (four-way T2, PSU).
Who's Got It Better Than Us Of The Week
This week's best thing ever.
[Dressler]
We have a lead! I bet this lead lasts a long time and—aww, hamburgers.
Honorable mention: Mike McCray pick-sixes Francois. Kenny Allen uses Zoltan Mesko punt lasers to force a muff.
WGIBTUs Past.
Hawaii: Laughter-inducing Peppers punt return.
UCF: Speight opens his Rex Grossman account.
Colorado: Peppers cashes it in.
PSU: Wormley's sack establishes a theme.
UW: Darboh puts Michigan ahead for good.
Rutgers: Peppers presses "on".
Illinois: TRAIN 2.0.
MSU: lol, two points.
Maryland: very complicated bomb.
Iowa: The touchdown.
Indiana: Smith woodchips Michigan a lead.
OSU: Goat. Duck costume. Yeah.
MARCUS HALL EPIC DOUBLE BIRD OF THE WEEK.
This week's worst thing ever.
Jabrill Peppers is warming up... and Jabrill Peppers is obviously not playing. Goodnight, sweet prince.
Honorable mention: all plays on which OL were asked to block Walker. The kickoff return. The 92-yard touchdown. The Cook items.
PREVIOUS EPIC DOUBLE BIRDs
Hawaii: Not Mone again.
UCF: Uh, Dymonte, you may want to either tackle or at least lightly brush that guy.
Colorado: Speight blindsided.
PSU: Clark's noncontact ACL injury.
UW: Newsome joins the ranks of the injured.
Rutgers: you can't call back the Mona Lisa of punt returns, man.
Illinois: They scored a what now? On Michigan? A touchdown?
Michigan State: a terrifying first drive momentarily makes you think you're in the mirror universe.
Maryland: Edge defense is a confirmed issue.
Iowa: Kalis hands Iowa a safety.
Indiana: A legitimate drive.
OSU: The Spot.
[After THE JUMP: let's have a real good time. An okay time?]
OFFENSE
[Eric Upchurch]
The inverted quarterback. Wilton Speight did a lot of difficult things brilliantly and a lot of easy ones terribly. When set upon by barely-blocked hellhounds, Speight did his thing where he finds a guy you didn't even know was in a route for a first down. When given a reasonable amount of time, Speight missed throws that weren't necessarily easy but were much easier than his completions.
It's tough to render judgment when Speight was getting pressure up the middle on a majority of snaps. We've seen it all year with Hurst and Glasgow: edge rush is one thing but when a 300 pound man is running directly at your face, all your options are bad. While you probably don't want to hear me say anything about Speight's shoulder/collarbone, I did hear that it was the kind of thing that would linger for a month or two even if he was healthy enough to play. That further complicates any extrapolation from this game to next year.
A season-long view doesn't offer much more clarity. Speight was lethal, and terrible, and seemed to have little in between. He was very good for ten throws against Iowa and then fell off a cliff, and that was a microcosm of his play and the season.
The stats reflect that up and down performance, averaging it out into the #40 QB in yards per attempt and #42 in passer rating. S&P+ was far kinder, asserting that Michigan had the #14 pass offense in the country prior to the bowl game. It'll drop but not to 40th.
[Dressler]
Not quite. Another game, another opportunity for Amara Darboh to do something hard that he doesn't quite manage. Speight left a touchdown low and behind him, but still catchable; he couldn't bring it in. He had a deep completion down the sideline; he landed on his back barely out of bounds. He's been good but something short of great, as in all three losses one more tough-ish catch from Darboh ends up changing, and probably winning, the game.
At least that's over. The great De'Veon Smith debate now ends inconclusively, because there's only so much you can do when you are getting hurled backwards by a bear. Smith was never as bad as his detractors suggested and never had the luxury of running behind a truly good offensive line when he is the kind of guy who needs a head of steam to show off his best talents.
The one thing that did disappoint this year was his pass blocking. Smith was impregnable a year ago; too many times this year he got in the way but did not actually slow down his opposite mark much. He went from a major asset in pass protection to meh. There is no explanation I can figure out, just one of those things.
Next year's running back pecking order. Seems obvious that Chris Evans is at the top right now with Higdon and Isaac trailing and vulnerable to falling out of the rotation if Kareem Walker makes good on some bowl practice hype and/or Michigan manages to flip Najee Harris. Evans isn't going to be a bell-cow feature back at his size, so there will be another committee next year.
Wide receiver pecking order. Ask again later.
DEFENSE
[Patrick Barron]
Maybe Jabrill Peppers is good. Dalvin Cook lined up wide and Mike McCray split out over him and you could cut to any Michigan fan in the world and found the same thing: someone desperately looking for an abort button that was not there. Michigan did not abort, and Cook had a footrace against McCray. It went poorly.
Meanwhile, Cook had the single-biggest flip play of the game when he turned third and 22 into a 70 yard run and eventually a Florida State touchdown that felt like game over at the time. It was not game over, but it did set up FSU with sufficient points to make their comeback. On that play Metellus was backside help trying to flow over and limit the damage. Cook beat him to the corner and blew downfield past him. Very hard to watch that when you know damn well Peppers is getting there and setting up fourth and three or so.
Three huge plays and the rest of it was pretty much as expected. The two Dalvin Cook plays above and the 92-yard touchdown on which it looks like Dymonte Thomas busted were more than half of FSU's yards. On the rest of their snaps they totaled 171 yards; Francois completed 9 of 27 passes; Cook averaged 3.7 yards an attempt on plays other than the 71 yarder. This is why the preview was focused on keeping FSU's explosive plays to 20 yards instead of 70; Michigan did not do this.
Sigh. FSU's winning TD coming on a fade route against Jourdan Lewis is quite the twist ending. I literally cannot remember a successful fade route against Lewis in the last two years. If some odd twist of fate had given me the opportunity to call FSU's play on that down, I would have chosen "throw a fade at Lewis," because I have types "lol try that again" dozens of times on Twitter in the aftermath of teams doing just that for some damn reason.
I guess it had to happen sometime. Then was not ideal.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Aforementioned Allen performance. I've never given a specialist #1, I don't think. Quite a finish for his career. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up on a practice squad next year.
Deadly kickoff return. Michigan's demise in this game started with the only kickoff return FSU managed, and it was a bizarre one: the returner stopped and was about to put his knee down before coming out of the endzone. Everyone anticipated the dude getting out to the 10 and then getting blasted. That did not so much happen. Jordan Glasgow missed a tackle, nobody else was there to help, and FSU started the last drive in field position.
I have no take here. That was bad and I rather wished something other than that happened.
MISCELLANEOUS
Don't even with the supposed offsides. First, that movement is just about simultaneous with the snap and is probably legal. Second, Michigan isn't winning that game anyway.
HERE
Worst: A Terrible, Exciting Game
Man, that was a weird game. It was a “classic” in the sense it ended with a bunch of exciting, game-changing plays in the final couple of minutes, but for about 3 quarters it was pretty ugly. FSU’s defensive line dominated UM’s offensive unit, while UM largely bottled up FSU’s offense save for a couple nice plays by Cook and a 92-yard TD throw on busted coverage by Francois. UM had 23 yards rushing on 15 carries and 83 yards passing on 19 attempts in the first half. FSU was a bit better, but without that 92-yard bomb they had 85 yards passing on 6/14 passing and 78 yards rushing on 19 attempts despite Cook picking up 12 and 28 yards on successive carries on that first drive. The teams were a combined 3 for 15 on third down before halftime, and while for the game FSU only had 4 sacks and UM 2, both QBs were getting knocked around on a significant portion of their attempts. Speight was nearly beheaded a couple of times by Walker and Sweat, while Charlton probably moved a couple of Francois’s organs on a crunching sack in the 1st quarter.
Boy it would be nice to have a great running back again:
First, for context - here are all of UM's all time leaders by YPA at 5.0+ and at least 2500 yds - Tim and Ty at the top and by large margin. The only similar era was Butch and Jaime back ending the 80s; the time this boy fell in love with UM football.
Ave Total Ty Wheatley 6.1 4,178 Tim Biakabutuka 6.1 2,810 Rob Lytle 5.9 3,307 Gordon Bell 5.4 2,902 Butch Woolfolk 5.4 3,850 Jamie Morris 5.4 4,392 Harlan Huckleby 5.2 2,624 Lawrence Ricks 5.1 2,651 Mike Hart 5.0 5,040
This list is missing Michigan's all-time best YPC rusher—Denard Robinson at 6.2—but does reveal that Michigan hasn't been able to run the ball like they're "supposed to" since the mid-90s. Getting the run game up to those levels, the Stanford levels, is priority 1 for Harbaugh.
ELSEWHERE
I have not read my feed reader, I confess. For a UV.
January 2nd, 2017 at 1:23 PM ^
January 2nd, 2017 at 1:32 PM ^
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January 2nd, 2017 at 1:26 PM ^
Maybe you can ask Warde if you can coach the team next year.
Some poster's raison d'être is to look for opportunities to blame.
January 2nd, 2017 at 1:54 PM ^
We have 1 National Title since 1948. One year when we were "the Bride." I'm all for expecting more out of the team. Hoping we can turn into the power we always thought they were. But dammit. We are 2 years removed from the worst era of Michigan Football since Bo came to town. Can't you just enjoy the rebuilding of the empire?
January 2nd, 2017 at 3:12 PM ^
shut the fuck up with your concern-trolling hot-takes
January 2nd, 2017 at 1:34 PM ^
At one point or another this season most of this fanbase has seriously overrated how good this offense was capable of being. For many of us the data points by midseason suggested that there was a hard ceiling, but other continued their unreasonable optimism right up to the point that they were sure the only thing holding the team back was some idiot in the coaching staff or something.
The offense is well-coached and has good players, and that combination allowed us to hang serious points on lesser opponents. Just like the Carr years, when the talent was overwhelming the result was academic.
But against the best teams this team has had serious weaknesses.
At Quarterback: a redshirt sophomore (cf 2001 John Navarre) who was a middling recruit, a guy who understands the offense and can make some good throws, but also misses throws periodically and isn't a serious downfield running threat. He's ok, not great.
At RB: A committee of competence, good players who make the occasional impressive play (Deveon against Indiana, Evans with the go-ahead TD Friday) but nothing that terrifies opponents.
At WR: A solid possession guy in Darboh who can catch some balls deep. A speed guy who doesn't have the lateral agility to run burner routes this season. A couple of young slot guys who are nice but not spectacular. Nobody to whom an average QB can throw the ball and have them just go up and get it in the style of Braylon or Marquise Walker.
At TE: An All-American. Note that Butt was the only guy in the FFFF posts that had the whole gamut of symbols around him. A stark contrast from our defense.
At OL: A patchwork, seriously dinged by injury, with a center who consistently struggled against very good DTs, a freshman at LG, and Just a Guy types everywhere else. An OL that would be asked to open space for a committee of good-not-elite RBs, to protect a good-not-elite QB.
What's impressive here? Compare this talent to the talent Michigan fielded in 2006, with better players at every position except TE. Compare it to most of the Carr era, for that matter: No David Terrell or Marquise Walker or Braylon Edwards or Mario Manningham. No Mike Hart or Anthony Thomas. No Jake Long. A QB the same age as John Navarre when Navarre couldn't hit the side of a barn in 2001.
Jake Butt was the only elite component of the offense, such as it was. Teams can overcome weaknesses in certain areas of their offense if they have something to hang their hat on. An elite QB or a receiver that can catch anything or an OL that can grind a defense to pieces on run after run after run.
Michigan had none of that this year. Our defense gave up 13 points at Iowa and lost. It locked down OSU for almost the entire game. It lost its best athlete before the game and still ransacked a talented FSU team for most of the Orange Bowl.
But the offense was not up to the challenge.
I'm not sunshine-and-rainbows about everything, because the recruiting classes OSU and Bama are putting together are terrifying, but one thing I am very optimistic about longer-term is Harbaugh's ability to field better playmakers on offense in the near future. The OL may take a bit longer, but with guys like DPJ already on board and other players in the pipeline, Michigan should be able to field much more robust offenses very soon.
January 2nd, 2017 at 1:45 PM ^
I am disappointed with how the season ended. But this is not panic time. We are still working our way back. We might be back! Two straight 10 win seasons. First time since 2003. Only the 9th and 10th 10+ win season since Bo retired.
I posted this in another thread. But our expectations are too high, imo. There is nothing wrong with saying or believing "This is THE Year" and "15-0 National Champs!" But falling short of that isn't a failure so deep we need to fire everyone. We want to compare ourselves to Alabama, a team on run that cannot be matched in the history of college football (6th National Championship Game in 8 seasons). We want to compare ourselves to an Ohio State program that Rivals the Miami Hurricanes of the Late 80s thru early 2000s...
We can't compare yet because our program decided it would be a good time to take 10 years off at the height of college footballs exposure and popularity. It takes more than 2 years to build somethat amazing. It took Harbaugh 4 at Stanford to be where we were after 1. Saban needed 3 for his first championship. And his road was much easier. He filled a coaching power vaccuum left vacant by Urban, Pete Carrol, Mack Brown, Bowden, Paterno, etc. Who could challenge him? Les Miles? The way his program has fallen, we saw how much he was propped up on talent alone. No Michigan, Florida Schools, Texas, USC to fight against. Ohio States best teams from 2008-2012 were held back by sanctions, and only now are able to put up a fight. Dabo has taken the better part of 8 seasons to get his team on a level playing field.
So we have a way to go. But I'd say we are ahead of schedule. Sucks we lost 3 of 4 by 5 points. But we did lose them. And that speaks to something that is incomplete. That isn't on Harbaugh.
January 2nd, 2017 at 2:06 PM ^
We lost the 2 games by 2 points - with a poor offensive line (thanks Brady Hoke).
We lose quite a bit of talent so we may see one year drop off but I see bright future
January 2nd, 2017 at 1:48 PM ^
January 2nd, 2017 at 2:30 PM ^
because of a missed OL assignment.
January 2nd, 2017 at 1:50 PM ^
January 2nd, 2017 at 1:58 PM ^
January 2nd, 2017 at 2:01 PM ^
Whether it's related to Speight doing easy things poorly or a better career move, Fisch is headed to UCLA to be OC.
I'm a long lurker, first time poster.
January 2nd, 2017 at 2:13 PM ^
If Fisch ends up at UCLA to be OC, it has zero to do with Speight doing the easy things poorly. It's because he has aspirations of being a head coach again. I mean, Harbaugh is coaching Speight. Position coach title be damned. You want to blame Fisch for the lack of high end talent in the recieving group? Because I think we got a couple damn good classes in 2016/2017. If anything, Jedd probably got us the TD when we put the Hammer Panda out at WR. Knew the personel would cause that side of the field to relax.
January 2nd, 2017 at 3:41 PM ^
January 2nd, 2017 at 2:20 PM ^
No idea whether this has any accuracy at all, though the "analysis" suggesting a possible connection with Speight's performance is absurd.
It's absurd, first, because it is a surprise that an experienced NFL-level coordinator would continue in an analyst position as long as he did. I'm glad we got him.
It's absurd, second, because the idea that Speight is somehow a disappointment or an underachiever is comical. The guy is a 3-star recruit that was added by the previous regime for depth. And he was a redshirt sophomore behind a porous OL.
If and when Fisch goes (and his leaving would not surprise me at all) it is not because he does not have a place at Michigan anymore.
January 2nd, 2017 at 2:06 PM ^
I thought Harbaugh's game plans were very imaginative all of last year and most of the beginning of this year. The jet sweeps at the beginning of this year in particular were terrific, reaching the apex with the Eddie McDoom fake that turned into a pass. Then the creativity (and the jet sweeps) stopped, and we went super vanilla. Harbaugh (and Drevno) took a lot of heat for that, with some grousing about Harbaugh's overly conservative game plans. But, based on the past creativity of other game plans and the overall football IQ of the coaching staff, there must have been some reason for the change. This can't be sheer stubborness a la Carr/DeBord (or, as stated before, cluelessness like Hoke/Borges/Nuss). Something must have happened that caused an extremely rational actor like Harbaugh to change his approach. Was it the loss of Newsome, the injury to Speight, or a loss of confidence by Speight that caused them to shut down the offense somewhat? That was sort of my take following Iowa -- Speight couldn't convert the aggressive calls that were made, repeatedly missing the deep (and otherwise beautifully executed) shots, then he got hurt, so those plays got shut down. It would be great to get the take from Brian, Magnus, or one of the other folks who have much more football accumen than I do on this issue. Regardless of the explanation, I don't know that I'll ever understand why the jet sweeps went away . . . .
Perhaps relatedly, Brian's description of inverted QB kind of sounds like Braylon Edwards as a WR to me: great at making the circus catches, often choked on the routine stuff. Some people are just better when they're not allowed to overthink things.
January 2nd, 2017 at 2:16 PM ^
You know, Bo's first Rose Bowl that he spent in the hospital. What team's new head coach has a heart attack the night before his first bowl game? Michigan, that's who.
No team in the country in the last half century has had as much ridiculous, crazy, improbable bad luck and shitty breaks in bowl games as Michigan. Not even close.
January 2nd, 2017 at 2:38 PM ^
1990 - "Was Bo coaching a Rose Bowl, automatic loss"-Football Gods.
1992 - Lost to a better team
1995 - Just a loss to A&M (Lloyd Ball)
1997 - Just a loss to Alabama (Lloyd Ball)
2002 - Lost to a better team (Lloyd Ball)
2004 - Lost to a better team (Lloyd Ball) + Braylon Drops
2005 Rose - Vince. Young.
2005 Alamo - Pitch the danged ball. Refs.
2007 - Lost to a better team (Lloyd Ball)
2011 - Lost to a better team (PooRR Coaching)
2013 Outback - Just a loss to South Carolina + Might want to block Clowney + Poor Coaching that walked all the way from SDSU
2013 BWW - Lost to a better team (Poor Coaching that walked all the way from SDSU)
2016 - Just a loss to Florida State (No Peppers/Mediocre Offense/Kick the ball deeper)
January 2nd, 2017 at 3:01 PM ^
2005 also Lloyd Ball. Settled for FG.
January 2nd, 2017 at 3:04 PM ^
There goes my new year's resolution.
January 2nd, 2017 at 3:43 PM ^
We win against Bama in the 96 season (Jan 1, 1997) if Griese doesn't throw the pick 6 jump pass at the Bama goal line and takes the FG to go up 9-3 instead of down 10-6. We outgained Bama ~360-180 that day, but that play was a killer.
Turnovers killed the 96 team, and I think Lloyd's reflections upon that season caused him to go conservative the rest of his career.
January 2nd, 2017 at 5:15 PM ^
Eh, I'd say Lloyd was always pretty conservative - not unusual for a former defensive coordinator.
January 2nd, 2017 at 2:29 PM ^
The video game era seems to have magnified the myth that play calling can overcome any deficiency. And so whenever an offense looks stagnant, the OC and often the HC get piled on by the uneducated masses. Likewise, when an offense explodes it is often credited to coaching.
Harbaugh and his staff were clearly out coached in the first half of the orange bowl. And they decisively out coached their FSU counterparts in the 2nd. But Jimbo Fisher is a top five college coach (with Sabah, Meyer, Swinney, and Harbaugh) and has the staff to go with his own brilliance. No one is going to win a game against Fisher purely by our coaching him.
As Brian so eloquently elucidated, Michigan lacked elite talent on offense at every position but one (TE), and that may be the most difficult position on offense from which to dominate a game. Darboh worked and was coached into being a very good player. Chesson is fast and tries really hard. Speight is still learning how to maximize his limited gifts and forget some of the bad coaching he received. Smith was always limited by suboptimal quickness and speed. The offensive line suffered years of bad coaching, then improved exponentially just to get to average or slightly better.
Despite all of these challenges, Michigan was still--by almost any metric--an elite offense for much of the season. That is nothing short of amazing and borderline miraculous, and should be attributed largely to Harbaugh and his staff.
Fisher had one of the best college RBs of the last half decade. He had a QB with better physical tools than any Michigan has had since at least Henne, but probably Henson. He had a bevy of WRs with more athletic talent than Michigan's best WR. And, he had elite talent on his defensive line.
This season did not come down to coaching. Were there bad play calls? Yes. Were there poor or slow adjustments? Of course. But the hard truth is that Michigan's talent on the offensive side of the ball was extremely limited. To go undefeated and threaten Alabama for an MNC would have required the stars to align: Chesson playing a full season like he did in last year's bowl game, Smith doing the same, Speight developing precision and consistency despite his lack of experience, and, above all, the OL having a best case scenario season. None of those happened, and yet this team was just whiskers from the playoffs.
Ponder this for a moment: if you were an opposing coach, which player on our offense would you fear? If any, the answer is definitely Jake Butt. And yet without our only elite weapon we dismantled the FSU defense in the second half. And fans want to blame the coaches?
If you watched the OSU-Clemson game, you saw what happens when a great coach is limited by a subpar OL--annihilation. You can't coach your way out of an OL that can't block its opponent.
There is good news: Michigan has recruited a number of players that will scare the pants off of their enemies, and we got a glimpse of the future with Chris Evans' TD run. Evans, McDoom, Crawford, Asiasi, and Wheatley could all become terrors, especially when matched with a QB like Peters or McCaffrey. Unfortunately, I don't know if our OL is getting the same quality, but look at what Cook did with an okay OL.
Our coaching is elite and we are adding talent. It's only a matter of time before the stars align into that glorious season we all hoped for in 2016.
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January 2nd, 2017 at 2:56 PM ^
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January 2nd, 2017 at 3:18 PM ^
I agree wholeheartedly with you and Brian, which is why I'm so hopeful for the future. We went toe to toe with the best in the country with an average OL and QB, which speaks volumes to our coaching. We're just getting started. JH will soon have an OL that can grind out wins and a QB who can win a big game on his own.
Also, I can't stand the fire Drevno rhetoric. I think it's asinine. He turned hamburger into filet . . . skirt steak (one can only do so much). It reminds me of the dumb Fire Leyland talk in his last couple years with the Tigers. As Brian said, good teams go against good teams and sometimes it doesn't go our way. Doesn't mean Drevno et al aren't good coaches.
January 2nd, 2017 at 3:51 PM ^
is highly overrated versus the weight placed upon the development that got the team to within 5 points of an undefeated season.
Did Harbaugh develop and prepare his players in such a way so as to give them a chance to win each and every game? Yes.
January 2nd, 2017 at 5:24 PM ^
I agree with almost all of this, although it seems odd that you say this...
The video game era seems to have magnified the myth that play calling can overcome any deficiency. And so whenever an offense looks stagnant, the OC and often the HC get piled on by the uneducated masses. Likewise, when an offense explodes it is often credited to coaching.
...and then immediately follow it up with this:
Harbaugh and his staff were clearly out coached in the first half of the orange bowl. And they decisively out coached their FSU counterparts in the 2nd.
Or was that intended to be tongue-in-cheek?
January 2nd, 2017 at 6:52 PM ^
1) Scheme and play calling are important, but unlike a video game, there are no magical plays that overcome talent deficiencies. It's not as simple as hiring the smartest OC.
2) Even the best coaches get out coached sometimes, but that is rarely the only reason for a loss. And with Harbaugh, the likelihood of us getting out coached for a complete game is close to zero. With a better team, we may not have appeared to be out coached.
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January 2nd, 2017 at 8:55 PM ^
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January 2nd, 2017 at 10:15 PM ^
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January 3rd, 2017 at 12:37 AM ^
How do you think Fisher "clearly" outcoached Harbaugh in the first half? That's what I'm asking. I agree with your other point.
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:43 PM ^
"Despite all of these challenges, Michigan was still--by almost any metric--an elite offense for much of the season. That is nothing short of amazing and borderline miraculous, and should be attributed largely to Harbaugh and his staff. "
This quote is the perfect example of "coach worship". When the offense was bad it was the players fault- and when the offense was good it was because of the coaches.
I would hate to be an o-lineman for this fanbase
January 2nd, 2017 at 8:54 PM ^
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January 2nd, 2017 at 10:19 PM ^
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January 2nd, 2017 at 2:38 PM ^
Mis-reply DP
January 2nd, 2017 at 2:56 PM ^
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January 2nd, 2017 at 3:01 PM ^
for displaying common sense. The hell with the naysayers.
January 2nd, 2017 at 3:53 PM ^
Could that be a double entendre?
January 2nd, 2017 at 3:02 PM ^
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January 2nd, 2017 at 3:10 PM ^
The difference between this game being a W and an L was exactly like you said. If we limit FSU's big plays to 20, 30 or 40 instead of 70, 80, or 90, this is a win and everyone is talking about how bright the future is.
I gotta wonder if Peppers absence was the difference here. It wouldn't have taken much to flip this story where Michigan gritted out a win and has the bright future while FSU is wondering what happened and their fanbase fires off various hot takes about Jimbo
January 2nd, 2017 at 3:31 PM ^
So many of those thoughts ran through my mind, as the game was unfolding. Along with one "fantasy" thought. Can we start a petition to convince Ty Jr. to move to OL? Every time he's lined up in-line, next to the rest of the line, dwarfing either tackle, I can't help but dream about him as the next great tackle. I know his preference is TE, and his athletic ability predisposes him to that position, but, he sure could, possibly, make a big difference at OL.
January 2nd, 2017 at 3:34 PM ^
January 2nd, 2017 at 3:59 PM ^
Newsome committed to Michigan well before Harbaugh arrived, pledging in July 2014, and never waivered. Even before Hoke was fired in December 2014, Newsome told Rivals.com, "I committed to the University of Michigan, not the University of Brady Hoke."
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2015/11/grant_newsome.html
January 2nd, 2017 at 4:04 PM ^
That was an excellent review Brian.
There are far toooooo many M fanatics that expect all things easy and good. Well, that is not the way of the world. If Harbaugh teams continue to reflect and honor Bo's legacy of integrity, loyalty, character, and undeniable effort, I for one will be proud of the team we put on the field even thru heartbreaking loses.
Be like Zeke the dog. Make each day a masterpiece. and geeze Make some plays.
For all the chronic complainers, the door is that way. BYE
January 2nd, 2017 at 4:35 PM ^
January 3rd, 2017 at 11:13 AM ^
January 2nd, 2017 at 5:08 PM ^
January 2nd, 2017 at 7:18 PM ^
January 2nd, 2017 at 8:48 PM ^
That being said, too bad Kenny didn't get to do the PAT instead of us going for two, and what if he had booted that last kickoff deep, unreturnable like all of his previous kickoffs!
Here's to those going our way next year!
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