WTKA Roundtable 2/8/2018: Disappointing Finishes
Super Bowl things discussed:
- Brady can’t play defense (or receiver).
- Matt Patricia to Lions: Ziggy is probably 40.
Signing Day things discussed:
- Brian: Needs to be better, don’t think it’s going to be better enough. Best recruit they got since the season started (so after Muhammad)? Something fell apart after the professional recruiting guys came in. Pep’s an NFL guy that doesn’t help. Drevno whiffs on every big-time OT he goes after. What does the recruiting operation inside look like? This and the OL seem like the same problem.
- Ed: Not worried, play football.
- Craig: Should get a four-star out of every two three-stars. Coaching staff leaning on evaluation. Doesn’t agree with a lot of four- and three-star evaluations. Shouldn’t have passed on Alaric Jackson, now gonna be an All-B1G guy for Iowa.
- Sam: The bad season was a problem.
- They couldn’t even get guys on campus in January—this looked like Rich Rod at the end of his career. That OL was completely terrible, probably used effectively against M’s recruiters.
- Mistake to pick fights with Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State when they don’t have the season to back it.
- Giving Partridge the recruiting coordinator job is not a mistake: overhaul of recruiting efforts expected.
- Lost their all-star recruiting staff from 2016-’17: Bam Richards, Gwen Bush, Tony Tuioti, et al. New people need to get up to speed on cultivating relationships.
- At one point does Drevno get put under the microscope? Sam: Brace yourself for no changes there. OT development will be on display this year—last year they didn’t have the guys to throw at it (Ulizio, JBB, Runyan << all the guys coming off redshirts and maybe getting Newsome back)
- Off to a very good start in 2019.
Basketball things discussed:
- Loss to Northwestern was a bad beat. Survived Minnesota, defense let them down in the second half, Michigan can’t get into their offense until late in the shot clock.
- Can’t fix the free throws.
- Matthews suffers because Michigan can’t get jumpshot spacing from the PG. Other guys can’t get their own shots.
- Craig: This team can’t shoot. Is a believer in hypnosis.
- Ira: Second-chance points against Minnesota disappeared vs Northwestern, and so did turnovers—need transition baskets to beat up on a good defensive team.
You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream on Audioboom.
Segment two is here. Segment three is here. Tiny hamsters eating burritos are still here.
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This looked like Rich Rod at the end of his career, this recruiting.
February 9th, 2018 at 5:35 PM ^
Unfortunately its created a situation where the program is teetering on failure.
This is what whiny immature hyperbolic melodrama looks like. The last three seasons (10-3, 10-3, 8-5) are three of the best four seasons Michigan's had over the last decade. The only better finish than Harbaugh's pair of 10-3's in that time was the Year Hoke had a Horseshoe in his Butt.
So while that's the kind of fact that gets the spoiled brats (spoiled by what, I don't know, since they're crapping on the best Michigan's had in a while) wailing about how the program has been mired in mediocrity for so long, and sure it has, there's no question that's a marked improvement. It's not where we want to be, and it's nice to have ambitions, but he's already taken the program to a place you'd have to go all the way back to Carr's days to top. And everyone knew this season was going to take a step back since it was one of the youngest teams in the country so I'm not sure what the calls to tear Schembechler Hall down brick by brick are coming from.
There are legit problems with the program. There are things that definitely need fixing. But by far the biggest problem with the program is that it brought back ten parts fan entitlement to one part success. If he's fired for coaching the best three-year run at Michigan since 2002-2004, NO ONE will want this shit gig.
February 9th, 2018 at 5:59 PM ^
February 9th, 2018 at 11:02 PM ^
February 10th, 2018 at 12:30 AM ^
February 9th, 2018 at 2:43 PM ^
Great point made by Brian about the lack of interest in this program from 4 star recruits once the season started. I never thought of our final '18 class that way, but no new 4-5 star players were brought up during the season and chose to commit to Michigan.
I don't think the fans are the only ones having a bad feeling about this program right now.
February 9th, 2018 at 3:19 PM ^
The exciting arrival of Harbaugh has worn off. Whatever isn't working needs to get there really soon.
February 9th, 2018 at 5:22 PM ^
More than anything else, elite recruits crave program stability.
We did not look like a stable program after September.
Georgia looks like a stable program now. Ohio State looks like a stable program, even when the lower-level coaches change. Even Penn State looks like a stable program now.
We are stable on defense, and we do recruit well there. Don Brown is a rock.
But on offense, we are a damn circus.
When those of us who obsessively follow the program every single day can't get a handle on what is going on, how is a recruit out of high school going to?
They can't, and they have other attractive options so they move on.
February 9th, 2018 at 3:33 PM ^
I was wondering why during the interminable dry spell in the second half vs NW, Beilein didn't shake up the lineup a bit. He was restricted with the loss of Livers but it seemed like he had the same guys in there for a brutally long stretch and it was abundantly clear they couldn't get anything done. Wagner was the only one playing well offensively as well so I think Beilein was hesitant to take him out, but I think some Teske minutes dring that time could've changed things.
Teske subtly changes the game when he comes in. He doesn't have the offensive polish of Wagner of course but he plays good defense and tends to grab offensive boards when he comes in. When they couldn't get a stop against NW and that dude MacIntosh was scoring at will and while Michigan was bricking every shot they put up, Teske could've made a significant difference. Especially because the Wagner-Robinson tandem sends the defensive stats to the hell when they're in together.
Let's pray that Livers comes back soon because that was ugly as hell.
(its totally possible Teske played during this stretch but I don't remember him in there)
February 9th, 2018 at 3:47 PM ^
Brian's position had some merit. It was also extreme. This coming year will tell whether there is a true inherent disease eating away at the football success aspect of the program.
The optimist will say it's too soon to judge considering the cratering of Hoke's last two classes (last year's upper classmen). The pessimist will say it's not and we should sound the alarm bell after last year.
The only thing that matters is what Harbaugh knows about where it's at and what he's doing with regard to the issues.
I am willing to bet this was a very young team, propping up a very weak and stripped down upper classes, playing without it's starting quarterback. With an unendiable factor of a coaching staff on the offensive side not handling those circumstances to the best of their ability. But a ceiling of 10 wins with the bowl no matter what the coaches did.
But I could be way off.
February 9th, 2018 at 7:58 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 1:08 AM ^
It is comical if anyone said anything negative about our recruiting class they were "insulting the recruits" and negged to hell but now that Brian shared his less than impressed opinion that group has gone silent.
February 10th, 2018 at 1:12 AM ^
We keep asking why Jim Harbaugh does not do the Don Brown thing on offense . . . go out and find the best OC he can, make him an offer he can't refuse, and bring him to Ann Arbor. Then get out of the way and let him do his thing.
But it's become clear that's not going to happen with Harbaugh, unfortunately.
Jim Harbaugh is an offense guy. He's been an offense guy his whole life, in high school, in college, in the Pros. He'd love nothing more than to strap on a helmet and get in there and play. He doesn't want to let it go.
He not going to just bring somebody in on offense and turn everything over to that guy and get out of the way.
He wants to be involved. He likes to fiddle. He wants an amorohous maleable staff with multiple levels of advisors and analysts surrounding him. He's not going to do the Don Brown thing on offense.
We may never know "who is the OC?", because there may never actually be one.
It can work if all the stars align, but man it seems to be the hard way to go in comparison to how well (and quickly) a Don Brown approach worked on defense, or a Joe Moorhead approach worked for Penn State on offense.
But that's where we are. Fingers crossed . . .
February 10th, 2018 at 1:10 PM ^
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