What's the Michigan sports-related hill you're willing to die on?
Worded differently: what's an unpopular view that you feel very strongly about for Michigan athletics? Gut-feelings are at home here, but bonus points are awarded (not actually awarded) for some evidence. Examples include stuff like, "Harbaugh is overrated," &c.
February 21st, 2018 at 7:42 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 8:24 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 10:55 PM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 9:53 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^
Tom Goss was a terrible AD but he really had nothing to do with the Halo. That decision got made by Joe Roberson and Lee Bollinger. Goss was just the guy in the head office when it got unveiled.
February 21st, 2018 at 7:49 AM ^
Kid should've been playing running back from the start. Before he moved to Viper he was a non factor on the defensive side of the ball and i think the Viper position did save him. I'll stick to my guns here and say the kid should have been playing offense from day 1
February 21st, 2018 at 7:55 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 7:58 AM ^
But he wasn't exactly the second coming of Charles Woodson like everyone said he would be.
February 21st, 2018 at 8:13 AM ^
Could/Should have been Reggie Bush 2.0......
Would have liked to see him get 20 touches a game on offense, and not from the Wildcat(maybe once in a blue moon).
February 21st, 2018 at 8:28 AM ^
To play Devil's advocate, Peppers was a first round draft pick, is playing in the NFL, and could have a long career with relatively little physical damage. There are a lot of defensive backs who play into their mid-30s with no problem.
Running backs, on the other hand...
February 21st, 2018 at 8:57 AM ^
I agree with his decision to play defense because of the shelf life of the two positions in the NFL. I also think that the reason he was drafted that high is because of his athetlic ability and upside.
The Browns have 0 clue what theyre doing with him like playing him 20 yards off the line of scrimmage. Which is why i think the Viper position really helped his defensive career at UM.
February 21st, 2018 at 9:40 AM ^
Its mostly just Gregg Williams (DC) who doesn't have any idea what to do with him...I think the Browns will draft a more prototypical player for that "angel" position Wiliams likes so much and Peppers will shift down more towards the line of scrimmage in the upcoming season. But then again, its the Browns - they'll probably fuck it up like they always do
February 21st, 2018 at 8:30 AM ^
I might agree with the part about how he should have been on offense, but I totally disagree about the idea that he was average on defense. He was only average if you just use counting stats to gauge his impact. When Peppers was in, teams basically had 1/3 to 1/2 less of the field to work with (especially in the run game) either because he would force wide runs inside, or destroy bubble screens or reverses to his side. Not to mention knifing in for the occasional Lewerke-destroying sack.
If you haven't already, take a look at Peppers's draft assessment video--I think it will change your mind. Incidentally, it will give a clue as to why it seems like he isn't all that in the NFL--because the Browns, unsurprisingly, have no fucking idea how to deploy him correctly.
February 21st, 2018 at 8:57 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 9:40 AM ^
You're taught in those situations to drive through the back (up field) hip of the runner because it limits the cutback. Peppers didn't do that. He went down field and let Samuel step back and cross the field.
February 21st, 2018 at 11:34 PM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 9:02 AM ^
That Video wont play but
When he was at Viper, yes. Before that, i disagree. Maybe I need to go back and watch the tape on Durkins defense to see how he was deployed but I dont remember him making that much of an impact there.
February 21st, 2018 at 10:01 AM ^
I think you have to watch it on the youtubes. Stupid NFL...
February 21st, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^
But he was an All-American, first round pick on defense. I can't rememeber any successful screens run against us in 2016. Teams just stopped trying.
February 21st, 2018 at 10:58 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 11:27 AM ^
that he is in any way average on defense.
His stats might not be A+, but if you look at the defense with him all season and then compare that to what it looked like in the bowl game without him, I think that provides ample evidence that he was responsible for a huge amount of field and scheme coverage that elevated the defense to another level.
February 21st, 2018 at 9:14 PM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 7:55 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 8:01 AM ^
Please clarify? The blueprint on how to beat UM is... Have our QBs be injured? Have the referees call no discretionary penalties against them? Or have our punter fumble a snap on a freak play?
Harbaugh has consistantly out game-planned our rivals. There have been other factors that lost us those games.
February 21st, 2018 at 8:25 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 9:00 AM ^
Really??? Do you remember the game? Or have you just been brainwashed from MSU fans and people bitching on here?
The Lewerke fumbled ball kicked forward, recovered and then luckily tackled on top of someone so that he rolled over him for a first down. You expect that play to go that way 100% of the time? You expect McDoom to drop a wide-open catch over the middle every time?
Was the game-plan shitty? Yes. Even with that, the game was about a coin-flip, which we happened to lose.
February 21st, 2018 at 9:18 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 9:25 AM ^
Back to trolling again? You were better for a few days but just can't help yourself.
February 21st, 2018 at 9:37 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 9:27 AM ^
"Lucky plays"... You said there is no way we win that game no matter who we have at QB. With the same QB, same gameplan, we could've still won that game if any of those "lucky plays" went the other way.
February 21st, 2018 at 9:42 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 10:52 AM ^
I'm not using luck as an excuse, I'm saying you're contradicting yourself by agreeing that a couple lucky plays could've changed the outcome. That means there wasn't no chance of us winning that game.
To say a team had no chance you have to at least win/lose by 14+ points in my mind, otherwise any one play could've changed the result.
February 21st, 2018 at 10:43 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 2:31 PM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 12:51 PM ^
The five turnovers weren't all a result of the gameplan. Two fumbles in MSU territory recovered by them combined with them recovering their two fumbles? Not part of the gameplan.
The gameplan definitely didn't help. An above-average QB could have overcome it.
February 21st, 2018 at 8:26 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 8:40 AM ^
Um, our QB has been injured often. Brian did a whole rundown of our QBs against Ohio State, and their health has been generally terrible going back to 2007, IIRC. Gardner's broken foot, Speight's bum shoulder, Speight's broken back, Denard's nerve damage, Peters's concussion, etc. This year Speight was hurt for both rivalry games.
You're missing the point with out-game-planning Ohio State. I don't think it's happened every time, but Michigan has game-planned better than OSU for the past two years. You have to keep in mind that Ohio State has more talent than Michigan, so a 1-score loss despite less talent and biased refereeing...pretty clearly equals a better coaching job by Harbaugh.
February 21st, 2018 at 8:46 AM ^
So if you lose, you were "out game planned" and if you win, you "out game planned". Got it.
February 21st, 2018 at 9:17 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 9:40 AM ^
Unless I am missing something, stating "how can you say Harbaugh has "consistently out game-planned ouir rivals when they keep finding ways to beats us", you are implying that a team losing means a team was out game planned.
I by no means would argue that wins and losses are completely unrelated to game plans, but there are many other factors that play into the outcome as well and its fairly common for a team with a good game plan to lose or a team with a bad game plan win.
February 21st, 2018 at 11:13 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 10:16 AM ^
He's calling you out on your overly simplistic argument that Jim Harbaugh is being outcoached by our rivals based upon wins and losses; and he's correct to do so.
February 21st, 2018 at 9:29 AM ^
The team with better coaching ("game-plan" / "blueprint") doesn't always win. Other shit happens.
MSU 2015: Outplayed a future CFP team with Hoke's players from a 5-7 team, lost on a freak fumbled punt.
MSU 2016: Won. IMO, out-coached Dantonio by letting him throw away any chance of coming back to win to try to make the score respectable.
MSU 2017: One case I'd agree with that Harbaugh was out game-planned, and I don't think he adjusted well for the rain.
OSU 2015: Durkin was already out the door. That OSU team was the most talented team they had in the past 15 years, Harbaugh had no business competing with that in year 1.
OSU 2016: Harbaugh game-planned around Speight not being able to throw more than 20 yards. OSU's only offense was 2 interceptions deep in our half of the field (1 pick 6). Unless you think those plays were predictable or Meyer made a change to a defense that Speight didn't know how to read, I find interceptions to be hard to blame on game-planning/coaching.
OSU 2017: Anyone gonna argue this one? 3rd string QB with no OL against borderline CFP team.
February 21st, 2018 at 1:22 PM ^
MSU 2017. How did Dantonio out game-plan Harbaugh in 2017? Because what I saw was MSU execute one sustained drive, Michigan gift them another touchdown with a turnover, and then MSU spent the remainder of the game running the ball into Michigan's defensive line and punting hoping Michigan wouldn't pull off a big play in the rain, which is a strategy any Pop Warner coach could come up with.
Don't get me wrong, MSU did themselves a bunch of favors by playing a fairly mistake-free game to pull this out, but I don't think Mark's master plan was Michigan turning the ball over 5 times in a monsoon. We don't turn the ball over, we win. Hell, we turn the ball over only 2 times, we probably win. We play the game at Noon or 3:30 (I hate night games), we win.
February 21st, 2018 at 2:18 PM ^
Don't know of anything great Dantonio did. I was more referring to UM trying to throw the ball in a monsoon with a back-up QB, when running the ball was working.
Okay game-plan > Bad game--plan
February 21st, 2018 at 8:26 AM ^
He's also consistantly lost 4th quarter leads. Not just against MSU (2015) and OSU (2016 and 2017).....but against Iowa, Florida State and South Carolina (and they were leading Wisky in 3Q). When you you a Top 5 defense, it seems like 4Q leads should be fairly safe. I don't know if it's conservative play calling, mental weakness, physical conditioning or something else....but this has to be fixed.
For the record, I still think that Harbaugh is the right (only?) coach for Michigan at this time.
February 21st, 2018 at 8:32 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 8:32 AM ^
February 21st, 2018 at 8:53 AM ^
This program has gone basically a decade without knowing "how to finish". There needs to be a culture shift, a mentality shift. They need to "learn to win." It's no secret why MSU constantly appears "lucky", it's because they have that built into their program now to find ways to win. Michigan needs to build that into their program, but it doesn't just happen over time.
February 21st, 2018 at 10:21 AM ^
The big difference I see between MSU and Michigan is that Dantonio's teams rarely beat themselves. They don't fumble a lot. They don't throw a lot of interceptions. That's the one thing under Harbaugh that has been consistently a problem and is almost exclusively the reason why Michigan's record isn't better under him.