Best thing you saw: Week 9

Submitted by mi93 on

What an incredible day of college football.  This week, cutting to the chase(ish)…

Non-M: The number of great catches today was astounding – and that’s just in the games I saw. PSU, ND, NC St, Utah and TT all had great plays.  A Wiscy OL gets a TD on a long hand-off.  Barkley did THAT on the opening kick (and the game was an all-timer despite the participants).  ISU knocked off another top 5.  MD-IN and NE-Purdon’t both went to the wire.  All that, and I haven’t even mentioned the Wildcats of NW (or of AZ who are beating WSU at the moment).  Brohm ran a play I’ve been waiting to see for countless years – have the punter throw a long pass rather than kick and have a gunner catch it or get a DPI (Purdue drew the DPI).  Hard to choose this week.  I think I’m going to pick Dabo Swinney.  Something I saw when he coached up a young player after a fumble in the monsoon in Clemson.  He didn’t yell, didn’t yank the kid’s jersey – he coached, mentored.  Did what good leaders do.  Hard to believe he’s been at Clemson 10 years now (and didn’t become truly relevant until year 7).  And I see why he gets recruits.  Feeling like these kids get molded into responsible men makes me like the game more.

M: Harbaugh will be questioned as to why it didn’t happen sooner, right or wrong.  Regardless, he played the position, and has coached it far longer than I ever will.  I trust he knows better than I when a player is ready to take the field in that position.  That said, and channeling my inner Mad Hatter, the best thing I saw was…THE INSERTION OF PETERS!  Who’s with me?!

What you got?

Yessir

October 28th, 2017 at 11:29 PM ^

The fanz in the stanz clapping when Peters came in.  Even the defense said they felt inspired or some shit like that. Awesome!

 

snarling wolverine

October 28th, 2017 at 11:43 PM ^

 

M: Harbaugh will be questioned as to why it didn’t happen sooner, right or wrong.

Well, putting aside the question of whether or not Peters was ready to go earlier...

O'Korn looked very good against Purdue, so he was the obvious choice to start against MSU.

He did not look good against Sparty, but half the game was played in a rainstorm, so whether that was sufficient cause for him to lose his job is debatable.  Usually a starting QB gets another shot to redeem himself.

He again looked poor against IU.  At this point, you'd probably think of benching him . . . except that the next game was at PSU.  Do you throw Peters to the wolves there?

Rutgers was the most logical time.

M-Dog

October 29th, 2017 at 12:37 AM ^

I think O"Korn looked good against Purdue because he came off the bench with no warning and had no time to overthink it.  It was all muscle memory.

But then when he knew he was the starter, he got the yips.  It's a mental issue.

If he knew a week in advance that he was going to be the starter at Purdue, I think he would have looked like he did against MSU / IU, / PSU / Rutgers.

At least with Peters, he knew he was going to play today.  So it was not a surprise.  We won't see a completely different Peters next week.

 

1VaBlue1

October 29th, 2017 at 8:26 AM ^

I can't disagree that the skill positions need some experience in coaching - the WRs are point #1 for me, not so much the RBs.  But the OC...  You won't see some OC like Moorehead come waltzing in here to take over everything.  That won't happen because Harbaugh.  The HC is the defacto OC - its his offense, and it'll be run the way he wants it run.  That's just the way he runs his program, has been at every stop.  (Think Rich Rod's OC, ...  uh, whatever his name was - Tony something. Gibson?  Tony Gibson?)

I think Drevno has that title as a means to the paycheck he's earned throughout his career.  JH believes in setting up plays and runs a complicated pro set offense.  He needs someone like Drevno, who's been in the pros and with JH forever, to bounce ideas off.  Drevno knows him inside and out, and they get along well.  He's a good fit for what JH needs right now, with a very young team - experienced help that knows what he wants without description.

I know its not the sexy answer, but I hope nobody was expecting an exotic, college type offense that looks like a combo of Meyer, Moorehead, and Rich Rod.

Wolfman

October 28th, 2017 at 11:36 PM ^

was the best thing I saw today. Saw parts of a great game in Columbus with two heavyweights taking it right down to the wire. But, and a large part of it is the fan base is once again excited and positive; at least temporarily as a result of Peters and I think it'll energize the team for the remainder of the season. 

ST3

October 28th, 2017 at 11:45 PM ^

I was at the Elks Club this morning. I had never been there before so I looked around a little. They had photos of the past "Exalted Rulers" on the walls. The ruler in 1922 was C.J. Funk. With a name like that, you know that guy was the life of the party.
The Hall had 4 massive elks, one on each wall.
And Onwenu blowing open massive holes was pretty cool too. Sometimes he didn't even have to block anyone because those DBs and LBs didn't want any part of him. I don't blame them. A man that big moving that fast is scary. KE=1/2 m * v^2. That's a lot of mass and a fair amount of velocity. Backs did a great job following him.

BlueMk1690

October 28th, 2017 at 11:43 PM ^

Up to this point I did not believe such a thing existed. Sure, the elders talked about it, told wild stories of Michigan throwing for 300 yards and multiple touchdowns a game. But we dismissed it as old wives' tales, as the kind of stories you tell little kids. Today I saw it with my own eyes.

MGlobules

October 28th, 2017 at 11:46 PM ^

and for free: because they didn't think he was ready. Speight emerged as the best QB. O'Korn was erratic but had practice moments when he shone as a gunner. Peters demo'd promise but was shy and being nurtured along. 

Speight went down and O'Korn did great against Purdue--he had earned the MSU start. The MSU slopfest never offered the possibility. Meanwhile, Peters is getting more and more confident and the coaches are saying, "We need to find the moment to insert him." Indiana--maybe he should have obtained PT, but all these games are dicey enough that the first order of business is to WIN them. Getting Peters killed against PSU might have meant PTSD for the kid, set him back weeks months whatever.

This isn't a conspiracy against Peters, friends; this is Occam's Razor, slicing its way along. Today O'Korn was clearly mucking things up, poor guy, and we were going to beat Rutgers anyway. Voila. 

Another thing I'll betcha--O'Korn was pretty okay in practice. I'm sure coaches were consternated he just played so tentative come game time. 

We are back

October 28th, 2017 at 11:50 PM ^

I believe that to be partially true, but also remember when JOk got some snaps early and they said Harbaugh promised to play him after he lost the qb battle? I think they thought he’d play better and when he didn’t they were loyal to him, then PSU White was coming up and that’s not a good spot for a young player

BlueKoj

October 29th, 2017 at 12:05 PM ^

I think loyalty to JOK had little to nothing to do with it. Performance evaluation and projections for both JOK and BP determined this. There was no time or need for loyalty to factor in to the decision. Loyalty to the meritocracy is more beneficial to The Team, than loyalty to any individual.

ST3

October 28th, 2017 at 11:56 PM ^

I know the plan was to play Peters, but the second fumbled snap forced Harbaugh's hand. What was particularly egregious about it was O'Korn's falling down to avoid contact after he recovered the ball. That was just not a football play a competitive player makes. As a former QB, that must have turned his stomach.