Kinda Interesting Jedd Fisch Discussion

Submitted by George Pickett on

I realize there is no real reason for you to believe this, but I’m going to post it anyway because it’s true and somewhat interesting.

I was speaking with a good family friend of Jedd Fisch tonight.  According to him, Fisch was in line to be the next OC at Michigan and had already been in negotiations with Harbaugh at the end of last year.  He said they were both expecting Drevno to move back to California (I don’t know why).  When that didn’t happen, Harbaugh obviously couldn’t fire Drevno so Fisch left for UCLA.  Fisch desperately wants to be a head coach, and apparently he hates Jim Mora.  He’s privately hoping Mora is fired and the offense is good enough for him to be named the HC.

Take it for what it’s worth. 

 

Ghost of Fritz…

October 9th, 2017 at 11:44 AM ^

Jake Butt was awsome and we miss him now.

As for the all-big ten guys, just two first teamers. 

Plenty of talented guys.  Lots of guys with many starts and experience.  But no real game changers.  Not an offense chock full or dangermen. 

JH got pretty good production out of a good but not spectacular crew last year.

Michigan had the no 1 scoring offense in the Big Ten last year.  And they did that without an elite QB, a good but not great o-line, not elite receivers or RBs.  Butt was elite. 

Main point:  The JH style offense can work well without a heisman finalist QB and/or a top 10 o-line, etc.

SeattleWolverine

October 9th, 2017 at 9:08 AM ^

The offense was not "very good" last year. They murdered bad teams and struggled against the solid teams they played. Of course, everyone does worse against good defenses but even considering that the production was lacking. We were 40th in S&P+ on offense. 

 

On the other hand, 40th is better than 69th like this year obviously.

SeattleWolverine

October 9th, 2017 at 1:04 PM ^

We scored 78 on Rutgers, 59 on Maryland, 63 on Hawaii, 51 on Central Florida, 41 on Illinois etc. We did put up 49 on PSU so there was that, when they had like no LBers healthy. That's your B1G scoring "leaders" right there. 

 

We also scored 14 on Wisconsin, 17 in regulation against OSU, and 13 on Iowa. 

 

Indiana was weather. Think we had basically 21 on FSU and 31 on CO? Excluding ST and D touchdowns. Plus the FGs after TO where we did nothing to move the ball. Overall, not a bad offense like this one, but definitely skewed by our performances against terrible teams. The 13-14-17 agianst the WI/OSU/IA type teams needs to be more like 21 to 24 or something to be considered very good. They had basically 1 good game out of 5 against solid defenses. 

 

 

Ghost of Fritz…

October 9th, 2017 at 1:15 PM ^

what 'very good' offenses do.   They are efficient and run up big numbers against inferior teams (which M is NOT doing this year).

Elite offenses score a lot on very good Ds.  Never said M offense in 2016 was elite. 

For comparison, OSU was a close second to Michigan in scoring in 2016.  Just like Michigan, then rang those numbers up by runnning up huge numbers against inferior teams. 

Yet their offense certainly did not look elite against the better D's in the conference.  OSU's 2016 O sputtered against Michigan, Penn State, and even MSU. 

MotownGoBlue

October 9th, 2017 at 12:03 AM ^

I don’t know about that. Saban (granted he gets some of the best player talent at every position) has his fingers in everything Alabama does and finally decided a true dual threat QB was the way he wanted to go. Had we landed DTR the offense would look fairly different. True, Alabama still has a dominant-traditional run game (also what Harbaugh is gearing towards) but the dual threat option changes things up quite a bit.

Ghost of Fritz…

October 9th, 2017 at 8:06 AM ^

JH would evolve his basic offensive concepts and add new things with a different OC.

But he would not completely change to a different style.  He is not going to hire some one to completely revamp the offensive philosophy.

People posting that JH's offense is a liability and/or is too hard to master without a Heisman finalist QB and/or top 10 o-line are wrong.  All offenses require the right personnel, experience (practice and game reps), and the right game plans/play selection to work well.

Plenty of teams with "simpler" offenses are not very good either, due to the above factors.

Right now M has problems on all three factors--lack of experince/reps, terrible game plans/play selection by JH/Drevno/Pep, and too much youth and/or personnel issues at certain postions.

The youth, lack of reps, etc.  is inherent in having a very young team. 

But the terrible game plans/play selection has no excuse.  JH needs to fix that starting today.   

Amaznbluedoc

October 9th, 2017 at 12:16 AM ^

What is the JH style offense? What we saw at Stanford? What we witnessed out in SF or what we”vey been seeing here? I really don’t know and it’s been all over the place like the erratic play calling on Saturday. Saban coaches what he has, so does Meyer, Dantonio, and others. I’m not sure if M can recruit the kids necessary to run an NFL style offense or if it could be implemented. To date JH’s style hasn’t translated into beating sParty or ohio. He’s loaded up the o with NFL guys who havennt delivered while the collegiate master, Brown has been a total stud with his schemes.

Hail Harbo

October 9th, 2017 at 7:41 AM ^

You are what your record says you are.  There are only two columns, Wins and Loses.  There used to be three but the third was for tie games, not "what if" games.  You also failed to point out that the two humiliating losses to Sparty were home games, so in a sense you are correct, Dantonio and the Sparties didn't take Harbaugh and his Wolverines to the woodshed, he whipped them right there in their own living room.

TomJ

October 9th, 2017 at 10:18 AM ^

Because the players on offense aren't all that young. Your QB, LT, C, and FB all are seniors or RS-juniors. There are younger players sprinkled among the line, but that is the reality of modern college football: freshmen and sophomores play early. Michigan is no younger on offense than many teams, and with their supposed talent advantage and coaching pedigree that should no longer be an excuse.

Now on defense, they're true kids, but their success only makes the lack of competency on offense more glaring.

Youngharbaugh4

October 8th, 2017 at 11:59 PM ^

When you have pro Hamilton already in the wings waiting. He’s more than capable of being the OC. All that needs to happen this season is for them to fire Drevno and promote pep. Frey will take the line back and maybe even Scott turner (offensive analyst) will be another coach on the offense. And at the end of the season you mix the staff up a little by hiring a WR coach or a RB coach so then jay can move back to TE and the RB and WR have their own coach finally

Maizen

October 8th, 2017 at 11:44 PM ^

Drevno deserves a lot of blame, but they aren't paying Pep Hamilton $1 million dollars to coach WR's. What we're seeing is basically his offense.

Harbaugh should look at what Kansas City is doing in the NFL and hire someone who runs a similar scheme.

fksljj

October 9th, 2017 at 12:31 AM ^

"Hopefully Drevno moves back to California after this season."

 

Shit, I hope his worthless ass is packing his bags now! Where's the pink slip at, Harbaugh? Here's to a morning Monday presser!

HollywoodHokeHogan

October 9th, 2017 at 1:11 AM ^

Regarding OCs, I think a college background is preferable to a former pro coach. I think one of the problems with the offense is that it's supposed to be a pro style offense which depends upon high level execution by all (or almost) 11 players. It's not adapted to a young team, because there really isn't such a thing at the NFL level. I'm not a football coach by any means. When I watch college football, I feel like I can understand maybe 30% of what teams are trying to do via formations, shifts, etc. When I watch pro football, I don't even try. They are two very different types of football, and I think sometimes pro experience isn't that helpful.

RainbowSprings

October 9th, 2017 at 5:51 AM ^

will happen. Unless you're talking about just shifting roles among current staff. I doubt anyone currently employed would leave their team mid-season, nor would we probably want someone who would do that. Plus, bringing in an outsider would bring about a change in terminology, the last thing our confused young offense needs at this point of the season. A change in OC is best made off-season, but well before Spring Practice.

JTrain

October 9th, 2017 at 6:06 AM ^

It would make sense as to why Harbaugh hires Frey...thinking Drevno was about to leave.
I liked Fisch’s (sp?) playcaling but not sure he can grow big smart blocking offense linemen out of his ass. Hate to think we are still in “start over” mode with o line. This has been going on for 15 years.

I Hate Buckeyes

October 9th, 2017 at 7:27 AM ^

Greg Roman please. He took a job with John at Baltimore coaching TEs for now. We need that last 2 years he was at Stanford look. 3 Te sets with a punishing FB. When Harbaugh and Roman were together at San Francisco they played absolute smash mouth football.

andidklein

October 9th, 2017 at 8:02 AM ^

can't figure why Drevno is still here, I think we are hurt more by Wheatley not being here. Just look at how successful Fournette has been at Jax

BlueinLansing

October 9th, 2017 at 8:43 AM ^

Nov 27  San Jose State fires head coach.

Nov 27  UCLA fires OC Kennedy Palomalu

Dec 7 San Jose State hires Brent Brennan as HC

Jan 2  UCLA hires Jedd Fisch as OC

 

If Drevno was "on his way" to SJSt it was most likely the kind of inner office talk like "they'd be crazy not to hire him".  If Drevno was the top candidate, most likely he asked for too much money.  Brennan is making a little over $500,000

 

I can find nothing public that says Drevno was a candidate or was interviewed at SJ St.

 

Most likely the lag in Jed Fisch being hired by UCLA was something in his contract with Michigan that didn't allow him to leave until after the bowl game.

 

MDwolverine

October 9th, 2017 at 9:11 AM ^

I said it in a thread yesterday and I'll say it again...there are too many cooks in the kitchen with the offensive gameplan. It seems like JH, drevno, and pep all have a say and you're left with some inconsistent hodge podge of an gameplan that is highlighting the weaknesses on O (youth/inexperience) rather than masking it.

KC Wolve

October 9th, 2017 at 10:28 AM ^

I asked this in a different thread and can’t find it. Do we know the flow of play calling? Does Drevno call the play and send it down to Harbaugh? Who sends it in to JOK? Where does Pep fall in there? I’m just curious. I wonder how often Harbaugh calls them or changes whatever he gets from the staff.