WTKA Roundtable Thoughts on McElwain
Brian is pretty down on the McElwain hire, which goes against what many on the MGoBoard think in the thread below.
His points center around the fact that McElwain is another coordinator thrown into the pot rather than a specific skill position coach, awkward (shark thing and weird Florida press conferences) and poor Florida recruiting AT Florida (which is hard to do).
The roundtable is still collectively down on Drevno and baffled regarding Michigan's Oline issues for the past 3 years. They also hope that Warinner has a big influence on the line this upcoming year.
It feels like we're in the twilight zone when Brian is the most negative guy on the roundtable.
Craig with the bold prediction of Newsome starting tackle next season as well with Hudson on the other side.
Speight is looking at schools ranging from oSu to Texas Tech.
A caller brings up a question on whether Harbaugh's odd approach to offense is hindering Michigan from hiring a bonafide offensive coach.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:04 PM ^
...a Colin Kaepernick on this roster?
February 15th, 2018 at 12:34 PM ^
No. In fact, I don't see a Colin Kaepernick on any roster.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:05 PM ^
Everyone uses multiple inputs, Urban sure as hell does. Most high schools do. It's far and away the more common playcalling practice.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:13 PM ^
Urban probably does use them. Just ask a cheerleader.
My Caholic high school wasn't that exotic. But my ex was down with it given enough wine.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:32 PM ^
Means a lot coming from you Hatter.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:55 PM ^
February 15th, 2018 at 12:41 PM ^
I never followed the 49ers closely enough to know the inner workings of the offensive staff, but I do live in the SF Bay Area surrounded by 49ers fans. Towards the end of Harbaugh's tenure, pretty much every 49ers fan I knew was angry and baffled by Harbaugh's loyalty to Greg Roman. So our current predicament with Drevno sounds awfully familiar. Even though most 49ers fans didn't want to see Harbaugh go, "at least this means we get rid of Roman too" was what they drew upon as a silver lining.
February 15th, 2018 at 11:52 AM ^
Brian also puts too much stock in McElwain being upset about the shark. The guy's older, he has a different world view, the social media intenstity from that episode was something he probably didn't know how to grasp. He's not going to react like a guy who grew up listening to The Smiths and has a tech degree. Carve that out of Brian's negativity.
The death threats thing is on him. As is Nuss. Balance that with his other stops.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:09 PM ^
February 15th, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^
I agree. And now that he's on our side, doesn't sheer loyalty call for a shark joke moratorium on MGoBlog? It's one thing to bully another team's hapless coach. But we gain nothing by bullying a guy we are relying on.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:53 PM ^
It's not going away, so we (and he) might as well learn to embrace it. Maybe do a McElwain / Shark bobblehead give away or something.
Also, I think it's funny.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:57 PM ^
Even if McElwain had never set foot in Ann Arbor, it's long past time for a moratorium on the shark thing. It lost its flavor after two weeks but in typical MGoBlog fashion people are still frantically flogging that old carcass in hopes it will spring back to life and actually be funny again.
The average MGoBlogger—regardless of his/her actual chronological age—is like a senile old fart who tells the same fucking jokes to his family at each holiday meal and cracks himself up so much that his dentures fall into his mashed potatoes while everybody else around the table is rolling their eyes and wishing for the fatal stroke to get here already.
February 15th, 2018 at 1:23 PM ^
are right. I apologize for my role in this.
Plus, my wife agrees with you (re me).
She has had enough eye rolling for one lifetime.
February 15th, 2018 at 1:26 PM ^
I see 3-9 instances that support the notion of jokes going on way too long.
February 15th, 2018 at 3:49 PM ^
Oh good lord, those references were dated about a month after they happened. Also, Michigan went 3-9 not all that long ago, so it was weird to keep seeing people throw that stone while standing in their own glass house.
February 15th, 2018 at 4:27 PM ^
Post was intended to be ironic.
February 15th, 2018 at 4:49 PM ^
No, I got that. I was agreeing with the sentiment that said joke has gone on WAY too long.
February 15th, 2018 at 6:40 PM ^
February 15th, 2018 at 1:53 PM ^
"rolling their eyes and wishing for the fatal stroke to get here already". Absolutely brutal but it gave me a chuckle. +1 to you sir.
February 15th, 2018 at 5:24 PM ^
Come on Don!!!! You're not trying to bring up the senile old fart joke up again are you? Cut it already. Let it go. Let it pass. Better out than in, I always say.
February 15th, 2018 at 3:45 PM ^
I think fans can do whatever they want, and there is vocal minority of this fanbase that will love to make fun of him for it forever (I fully expect the first bad offensive game to feature at least one snarky part by Brian about maybe spending less time with the sand sharks), but I do think people need to stop getting worked up over his response to it all. And the dime-store psychology by people (including Brian) about it is just lazy bullshit. Point out the guy's problems about the death threats, his bad offenses, his mediocre recruiting, etc. Those are real elements of his abilities as a coach. But not having a witty comeback to someone asking him how he feels about a beastiality reference isn't something I much care for.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:32 PM ^
February 15th, 2018 at 1:40 PM ^
I was going to say, the dude is from Montana. You know what people from Montana hate? People being in their personal business. "Leave me and my 50 acres the fuck alone". Just because he didn't like people insinuating that he humped a shark doesn't make him a bad person - people have handled non-stories worse.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:13 PM ^
as his UFL ship was going down. This is not a terribly bright or inspired human being. As with Hoke, some will wish for that hard enough to delude themselves. But I find it hard not to see this as a good ol' boy, last-minute hire.
With luck, it works out. With talent and practice and healthy players, I have no doubt that Harbaugh's system, like any system, can succeed. But its relative merits and demerits in a college setting are, increasingly, there for all to anatomize.
I think Harbaugh needs not one but two more seasons, at least, to put his system in place. But the clock is certainly ticking. And a whole lot of staff turnover necessarily implies a whole lot of new adjustments. Let's see how it all works out!
February 15th, 2018 at 12:31 PM ^
When the ship's going down, none of us look particularly bright or inspired. As I said, it's on him - fair to judge him on that. But a lot of people fail: Saban looked really bad at Miami in his exit (the guy chose Culpepper over Drew Brees for cripe's sake), as an example.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:51 PM ^
you are right. And he doesn't have to command the ship, but run the offense. I'll shut up after this, acknowledge that Jim Harbaugh knows what he needs and chosen McElwain. I wish him nothing but the best.
February 15th, 2018 at 1:12 PM ^
I'm a little perplexed by the shark thing being cited as a knock against hiring McElwain for an assistant job. At worst, McElwain reacted poorly to a crude joke. If he's not the public face of the program, then why does his inability to take a joke matter? Harbaugh, not McElwain, remains the captain of the ship.
Nuss was a bad hire and an epic train wreck, there's no doubt about that. So it's a good thing McElwain won't be in a position to hire assistants.
I'm honestly surprised that this has turned out to be such a polarizing hire. McElwain's track record as an assistant at 'Bama (and he was there in the early part of Saban's tenure and helped lay the foundation for their dynasty) and head coach at CSU is excellent. He was a bad fit at Florida, but college football is filled with excellent assistants and excellent coaches at non-Power 5 schools who aren't cut out to be head coaches on the big stage. McElwain's mandate is to fix the offense and that's pretty much it. He's proven himself more than capable of doing that. He's not being hired to serve as the CEO of a blueblood program.
February 15th, 2018 at 11:55 AM ^
Are we not good enough to find the best offensive coach/coaches and get them to UM?
We did this with D Brown and while he wasn't known so much outside the the east coast, he was highly regarded within all coaching circles. Why can we not do the same thing for our offense? I and, I assume a lot of other people expected a similar hiring situation this time around and was left questioning Harbaugh's decision making efforts for the first time since he's been here in regards to the coaching changes.
We'll see...
February 15th, 2018 at 12:00 PM ^
Your comparison of D and O don't hold up.
In the case of the Defense, Harbaugh is totally hand's off and lets Don Brown run it his way.
On the Offensive side, Harbaugh has a certain way it's going to be run, so bringing in "the best Offensive coach" and telling him he has to run it a certain way.....not exactly the best motivator.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:35 PM ^
There is also a GREG FUCKING MATTISON here, come on. DUDE simply makes NFL DL's, the very foundation of defences. Don Brown looked at the reality that he would have top tier DL as long as GMAT was here and came running.
Also why should Michigan just attract top OC's? like have you been in a coma for 20 years?
February 15th, 2018 at 12:05 PM ^
I don't get this take - why does anyone think that Jim Harbaugh wants to hand over his offense to some upstart that runs something totally different? At no coaching stop anywhere has he ever run anything but his offense. When he was hired here, we all wanted his offense. We all knew that he would be heavily invovled in running the offense, and we were all good with that. Now, after one poor season, everyone seems to expect that he'll run out and ask the hottest new girl at the dance. That is just simply not Jim Harbaugh.
Hiring the offensive equivalent to Don Brown will never happen, simply because Harbaugh will always be involved with the offense. He only cares that the defense works, he doesn't want to be part of it.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:15 PM ^
think that a big part of the issue now is that fans really don't know what his offense is. I am not trying to be overly dramatic or do the "concern troll" thing that you have ticketed me for in the past, I just really don't know what Harbaugh's idea of offense is right now. I think that is why a lot of people thought he would make an "offensive guru" kind of hire because I don't think most people even know what Harbuagh is going for right now.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:50 PM ^
Fair point, and I don't think I could nail down what his offense is, either. But I do know two elements it will have: tight ends and power running. Other than those constants, he has morphed into just about everything football offers. He's run straight up West Coast (UCSD, Stanford); he's implemented spread option stuff (with Kap); he's been old-time NFL with Luck at Stanford and Speight here. I think (we all thought) he wanted an NFL-like passing spread last year, but circumstances got in the way and it failed miserably.
With McElwain, I think he's going back to a more basic power run attack that can eat yards and clock up the middle. And with a QB (Patterson or McCaffrey) that can throw and run, that power run game will be opened up behind a mroe conservative NFL-like passing game than what was probably envisioned for last year. More like we saw in 2016...
I have nothing to back this up with, just my thoughts based on the coaching personalities involved.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:55 PM ^
that another thing that hurt us this year was the loss of Deveon smith. He wasn't a monster, but he was a gritty runner who could get a running game moving
February 15th, 2018 at 1:05 PM ^
I'd be fine with just getting offensive position coaches that don't have to apologize to their players after the season for their poor performance and preparation (Drevno). Or even coaches who enjoy the recruiting process (according to Brian, Pep does not).
February 15th, 2018 at 3:58 PM ^
Looked at his similar offensive philosophy (physical, run heavy, pro based sets) AFTER winning several national championships and decided it needed to modernized with more Spread / RPO concepts to improve his future chances for success. My hope for next year is that after the embarassment of the 2017 Michigan offense, Harbaugh makes the necessary and significant strategic changes needed to move our future offenses to consistently be top 15 rated nationally.
Sorry, I still remember the Hoke post game pressers after a loss saying how "We just need to execute better". Yeah, that is just not on the players. After the Hoke debacle, I believe that the coaches are the ones that need to be "executing" their planning, philosophies and strategies better for on field successs. Hope I am proved wrong. But I am with Brian on this one. I don't like this "good old boy" hire one bit.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:15 PM ^
No top flight OC has interest in coming in to be 2nd in command to Harbaugh I'm sure. I think that's why
February 15th, 2018 at 11:53 AM ^
Whatever, I'm tired of all the "expert journalists" weighing down this hire. The man was good as an OC at Bama and good as a HC at CSU. Maybe it's just Florida. Florida is the one school that managed to force Meyer to leave, which I am upset about.
February 15th, 2018 at 11:53 AM ^
watching Michigan football these days. A world of talent but increasingly poor results. Its coaching, coaching coaching. A long time SEC coach should be most welcomed and will have a positive affect on all other staff coaches.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:37 PM ^
February 15th, 2018 at 12:53 PM ^
Moeller years.
February 15th, 2018 at 1:44 PM ^
Bringthewood: What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when we went 7-5? Hell no!
Ace: [to Brian] 7-5?
Brian: Forget it, he's rolling.
Bringthewood: And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough...
[thinks hard of something to say]
Bringthewood: The tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go!
[Bringthewood runs out, alone; then returns]
Bringthewood: What the fuck happened to the Mgoblog I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? This could be the greatest year of our lives, but you're gonna let it be the worst. "Ooh, we're afraid to go with you Bringthewood, we might get in trouble." Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Myer, he's a dead man! Dantonio, dead! Saban...
Ace: Dead! Bringthewood’s right. Psychotic... but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons, but that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part!
Bringthewood: We're just the guys to do it.
The Mad Hatter: [stands up]
Brian: [stands up] Let's do it.
Bringthewood: [shouting] "Let's do it"!
[all of the Mgo posters stand up and run out with Bringthewood]
February 15th, 2018 at 2:21 PM ^
won a national championship with their backup QB. Georgian made it to the NC game this year with their QB who was second on the depth chart at the beginning of the season. Alabama put their back up QB in for the second half of the NC game and he sparked the team to the NC.
I do remember the 8-4 Carr years. I also remember they beat OSU both of those years
February 15th, 2018 at 11:54 AM ^
I am kind of hoping Warinner has a hand in the offensive line too. Actually, before there was anything in the way of title thrown out there (I had not seen the thread on it before I heard that he was on staff), that's what I assume - perhaps wrongly - that we were hiring him to be, the OL coach. Even our conference compatriots down in Columbus agree that this is a guy you want involved in your OL.
February 15th, 2018 at 11:59 AM ^
February 15th, 2018 at 12:51 PM ^
True, but others, such as UMbig11 have said that coaching assignments aren't final yet. Still time for some changes.
February 15th, 2018 at 4:26 PM ^
Mea Culpa
February 15th, 2018 at 3:07 PM ^
I'd like to see it.
February 15th, 2018 at 3:40 PM ^
He can coach during practices, though, right? He just can't be on the field for games.