Report: Mississippi State going after Pep
https://247sports.com/college/mississippi-state/Bolt/Michigan-Wolverine…
Granted yesterday it was Arizona State. With the large number of big name vacancies open, colleges are going to have to dig deeper into the assistant ranks to get what they want. Pep's NFL experience may give him a leg up over others.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:37 AM ^
There are passing routes that work better for teams with shit lines - Pep did not call them for a good portion of the year. Also, who decided to throw endzone fades to McDoom all year?
November 28th, 2017 at 1:37 AM ^
There are a lot of instances of our QBs this year not throwing checkdowns, especially O'Korn. Just because a QB threw a pass doesn't mean Pep was in his ear saying, "Throw a fade to McDoom no matter what."
November 27th, 2017 at 11:43 AM ^
Pep was hired on January 12, 2017. He hasn't been in Ann Arbor a year yet.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:57 AM ^
thatsthejoke.jpg
November 27th, 2017 at 11:26 AM ^
We all thought the Harbaugh magic would overcome the loss of 19 starters. It didn't. Michigan's problems were with personnel: not with coaching. The best of Hoke's recruits left for the NFL, etc, while most of Harbaugh's recruits were a year too young to make a difference yet.
Next year will be better, but 2019 will be the year when Michigan is fully loaded with a roster that will make them legitimate playoff contenders more often than not. A little bit of patience goes a long way during such a massive rebuilding job.
November 27th, 2017 at 12:16 PM ^
The only "blame" that is fair to lay at the feet of Harbaugh for this season is the minor disaster in the 2016 class with regards to the offensive line recruiting. The need in that class was for at least 5-6 linemen, two or more of which should have been tackle prospects, and instead all they got was 3 guards. It seems like they put all their eggs in a couple of big baskets and then got burned (Delance, Hamilton, etc) and had no other options to turn to. Granted, that could be chalked up to the fact that Harbaugh was still a little rusty as a recruiter, and it isn't like he was competing with other big time programs when he was at Stanford. It seems he learned from this mistake though.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:41 AM ^
We shouldn't be judging an entire offense when they've returned basically no starters and spend the entire season on 2nd/3rd string QBs.
November 27th, 2017 at 2:40 PM ^
I certainly think those two spots hurt us more than any coaching addition/subtration did and will continue to do so going forward if they aren't improved.
I actually think the coaches are quite good but have simply had a bit of an adjustment back to the college game.
It seems as though they got too complex too quick and young/inexperienced (and some who just weren't that good...) players struggled to deal with that.
I am by no means an expert but it would've seemed to have made more sense to build our identity around power, using that as our base offense that we excel at, while building out the crazy, NFL style option routes that we obviously are running currently over time instead.
November 27th, 2017 at 12:01 PM ^
I think it was quite evident that Harbaugh took over a lot of the play calling. Losing Hamilton may prove to be a plus. He is a non factor with Harbaugh there and he just takes up space as far as I am concerned.
Would like to see them employ someone who is a bigger player in recruiting Could care less if Hamilton leaves and i think it is being encouraged. We can do a lot better at OC than Drevno, but lets face it. The play calling got better as the season went on, but with Okorn at QB who can't hit wide open receivers or make the right decisions it really isn't going to make any of the staff look good. We are in good shape next year with a viable player at QB.
If Hamilton leaves so be it but bring in a good recruiter. Our offense is in good hands if we have a decent QB. Harbaugh will do some smart things this off season and Michigan will crush all the bullshit next year including the officiating in columbus.
November 27th, 2017 at 12:55 PM ^
THANK YOU
I don't get why more people don't get this. Yeah, the playcalling was suspect at times this year. You can look at literally any team and second-guess the playcalling at points. I think the clearer answer to our offensive woes was that the personnel simply weren't that good and too young, particularly with the injuries we sustained this year.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:03 AM ^
I hear John Gruden is in play.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:03 AM ^
...Pep made $1M this year...
I think we can put that money to better use
November 27th, 2017 at 11:10 AM ^
The offensive game plan was good against OSU. Receivers were wide open on a lot of plans, but were not hit by O'Korn. Continuity would be good for the offense, but it's tough to argue that we couldn't diversify the staff a little better with that $1 million. WR Coach? Dedicated special teams guru?
November 27th, 2017 at 11:23 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 11:45 AM ^
I agree that it's not all about the money. But at some point, doesn't the coaching staff have to live by some sort of budget? The program makes a lot of money for the atheltic department - but a $125-$155 face value for one game ticket is pretty high (which we had for 2 games this season). Particularly when the market is moving away from game attendance in many cases.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:27 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 12:04 PM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 11:06 AM ^
Don't get carried away. Mississippi State is almost certainly just kicking the tires on a lot of guys, the way Michigan kicked the tires on a few coaches when Harbaugh was the top target.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:25 AM ^
Well then is there an address to where we can send letters of recommendation?
November 27th, 2017 at 11:06 AM ^
hasta luego Pepo!
November 27th, 2017 at 11:06 AM ^
don't really know what he did this year except for confuse Speight so much that he regressed and transfered, so, I'm cool with this.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:34 AM ^
Yeah, because he coached the o line to miss blocks and get our QBs killed.
/s
November 27th, 2017 at 11:07 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 11:11 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 11:27 AM ^
He was worse against Iowa. Do people also forget we lost our top 3 receivers from last year and replaced them with freshmen and sophomores? And our running game this year when Speight was still our QB was worse than it was last year.
I think if Speight had stayed healthy this team would have been so much better. He was getting used to a new WR corps and they were getting used to him and even the college game as a whole. And things would have been totally different if the running game had been on track with him in there.
I think any blame for the offense really has to be on Harbaugh. Maybe he thought with the roster turning over so much it'd be a good idea to do more zone running and use a more wide-open passing game, but obviously that didn't work out well. It will be interesting to see if they keep pushing on to next year with the same plan. I don't have a problem with it because I expect young players to improve, but it seems like a lot of people here will be bitching all offseason if Drevno or Pep isn't fired by the time spring rolls around.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:39 AM ^
Aren't we kind of married to the idea of running zone as long as Frey is on the staff? That was the whole impetus for hiring him. If we aren't going to run zone, we don't really need Frey and Drevno, right?
November 27th, 2017 at 11:41 AM ^
I should add that I"m not advocating firing any of the coaches. I think we had enough personnel issues to warrant another year under these coaches. However, I really liked our offense with Jedd, and if there is a way he can come back, I would make that change in a heartbeat even if it meant firing or demoting someone else.
November 28th, 2017 at 1:34 AM ^
Probably. They're also recruiting to Frey's strengths with athletic guys who can be built up, at least for tackles. Like I said though, I don't really have a problem with it. I still believe Harbaugh will get us to be an elite program.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:13 AM ^
Speight seemed to regress. Peters was not prepared to step in earlier. O'Korn didn't improve over last year. From a development standpoint I don't think Pep did much. His Xs and Os seemed better by the end of the year. Maybe his concepts were more complex and took longer for the offense to grasp.
I'm not sure I feel strongly one way or the other, just that the passing game seemed to function better under Fish.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:28 AM ^
Part of Speight's problem may have been a lack of familiarity with the pass concepts, but he also seemed to bail on his read sooner and bug out sooner than he had in 2016. So I don't think it's fair to say it was all Pep.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:37 AM ^
Is it fair to say the QBs as a unit were not as prepared/developed as they should have been?
November 27th, 2017 at 11:41 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 12:19 PM ^
be a factor in that? Iowa was his second collarbone break (first was in HS) and there was visible evidence he was hurt before Iowa.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:43 AM ^
Pep or Harbaugh? I think there are a few things Jim doesn't relinguish to his staff; QB coaching or recruiting, design of the offense, playcalling during tight games.
I find it hard to believe that people legitimately know who to pin the blame on when our offense struggles. Pep just seems to be the scapegoat du jour.
November 27th, 2017 at 12:10 PM ^
Harbaugh put his stamp on the offense. Hamilton is gone. He is wasted space. Drevno and Harbaugh know how to run an offense. It starts at QB. If we have a good one our team will look like a national championship contender next year.
We started running more power, a Harbaugh staple. Hamilton is pretty much a non factor and him leaving means nothing.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:08 AM ^
IF he does leave, I'd love to see how the rest of the staff would shake out (Given Jedd doesnt come back)
November 27th, 2017 at 11:10 AM ^
Stay Pep.
Also, hire a WR coach, Jim.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:15 AM ^
Agree, although I think Jed Fisch is a better coach overall, the OSU Offensive gameplan made me feel warm and fuzzy about our coaches.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:18 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 11:20 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 12:07 PM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 11:47 AM ^
Pep Hamilton came in and we all heard the offseason rumblings of going 5-wide and spreading teams out and it was boner town around here.
Then, between Speight looking generally confused by the concepts, the offensive line being a sieve in pass protection, the loss of Black/struggles of Crawford, and ultimately the Speight injury and move to O'Korn, the balls-to-the-wall passing attack was shelved before it got off the ground. If Hamilton had a master passing plan in mind, he didn't even get 4 full games to implement it and we were already down to O'Korn against MSU in a monsoon.
After that debacle, we were in full reversion to manball. That was not the intent heading into the season (again, per always-reliable internet rumblings), and I challenge any coordinator, including the infallible Jedd Fisch, to seamlessly change between such polar-opposite approaches on the fly. 3 ugly weeks later, Hamilton and the offensive staff had a 3rd QB to design around and get up to speed.
By Wisconsin and Ohio State, the offense seemed to have an idea of who they were, both running and passing, only to be undermined by the extreme limitations of John O'Korn. Given all of the chaos within that unit over 12 games, that seems reasonable.
I'm not a Pep fan. I have my concerns. But there are 4 guys involved in this offensive attack and unless you spend all week in offensive meetings, I can't figure how anyone can determine which coach is solely to blame.
So where was that plan all year long? It didn't exist, because that style of OSU gameplan wasn't even a thought when this team took the field against Florida.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:21 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 11:26 AM ^
too late...
but ok, keep Pep unless Jedd is available, if so then jettison Pep
November 27th, 2017 at 12:08 PM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 11:14 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 11:50 AM ^
He seemed like he was out the door in the NFL and needed a landing spot. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it was a bad hire. But I think you're right. He will be looking for the next big thing, as was Jedd (also a guy who was out of the NFL).
November 27th, 2017 at 11:15 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 11:30 AM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 11:20 AM ^