Amazon All or Nothing Michigan discussion

Submitted by HAIL-YEA on

So I have been waiting for someone to post a discussion thread, and nothing has been posted yet unless I missed it. I know you all binge watched it, don't act like you didn't. So what did you  think, did you learn anything you didnt know?

I thought it was great. Very well done, as bad as things went last year I expected this thing to be a terrible watch, I was wrong.  

Some things I learned

1. Pep Hmilton was calling most of the plays? I figured he was more involved when Drevno came down from the booth but it seems like he was calling them.

2. Chase Winovich is friggin hilarious. He should be mic'd up every game

3.Wilton Speight did not come off great. Honestly I just don't think I would find him likable even if he was a good qb.

4. Don Brown is even more likable then I thought. The guys personality is awesome. Rare combo of being a really nice guy, funny, and the best D coordinator in the country. 

What do you guys think? I don't think they could have done a better job with this special, really a great watch.

VicTorious1

April 7th, 2018 at 11:10 PM ^

Chris Evans in the game vs OSU: "Work on that tackling... that's what you get paid for, cuz." Is he acknowledging O$U? Also loved when Chase told the Wisconsin tackle to protect his QB after a sack. Ha.

matty blue

April 10th, 2018 at 8:37 AM ^

sometimes, as a quarterback / manager of any kind, you have to bitch someone out.  you just do, and sometimes they don't respond unless you do it in front of everyone.

we also don't know if it was an ongoing issue.  gentry is still new to the position, too.  it wouldn't surprise me a bit to hear it's been a point of emphasis.

DrMantisToboggan

April 7th, 2018 at 7:13 PM ^

Both just come off cocky without a lot to back it up. Neither have great attitudes. There’s a kind of “productive cockiness” I see in athletes where they are full of confidence but it’s channeled into productive competition and pushing their teammates at the right times. Devin Gardner was that way, I suspect Shea is as well. Idk if JOK has this at all he just seemed to be confident but obviously couldn’t back it up with play and didn’t really know how to use it to motivate and lead properly. He comes across as...irksome.

tmzenn

April 7th, 2018 at 10:11 PM ^

I agree with this observation. I also would like to add that they both seemed to really be lacking confidence. Speight would complain about fans comments about him and then say it didn't really bother him. However, his nonverbal body language and play said the exact opposite. Okorn just seemed to think he was so much better than Speight, but when he started to make mistakes, things just continued to get worse. 

I did love watching Harbaugh and Brown. They both have that drive and killer instinct that made me want to play hard for them. I feel like that is what has been missing in a quarterback. Someone that has that confidence and killer instinct. Someone that can lead the team just like the coaches as well as a few of the defensive players. 

switch26

April 7th, 2018 at 10:47 PM ^

Serious question about the harbaugh comment you made because at no point in watching the entire show did harbaugh give a real speech that would have got me jacked up to play a game.. Don brown and harbaugh gave completely different pep talks during the show.. brown was crazy intense. Harbaugh just tells weird stories and acts goofy throughout.

justthinking

April 7th, 2018 at 11:37 PM ^

told a better, more inspirational story before the bowl game than Jim did in all of his combined all year. It didn’t look like Jim had inspired the team at any point during the series. Just came off as an odd duck. Didn’t expect that at all. Don Brown is a dude. I’d run through the proverbial brick wall for that guy.

NateVolk

April 8th, 2018 at 12:02 PM ^

He only has to connect with his audience to get the result needed. There are many many factors that go into this. People who don't coach a sport wouldn't understand this. 

The obvious come back is they didn't have a good year.

But coaching a sport  effectively has so little to do with creating Hoosier's pre game speech moments, it might as well not even be considered as even a scant part of the formula.

I don't think any of what is shown on the series says anything of value about Harbaugh's effectiveness as a football coach. 

DairyQueen

April 8th, 2018 at 2:46 PM ^

Yea, a lot of people don't realize that coaches at the top level, only get to the top level because they are lot more like a CEO within a company, than say a top-researcher, or top sale-person within a company.

CEO is a lot about branding, and steering the ship. Sure when you work your way up, there were certain departments/skillsets that you often did extremely well for the short/moderate time you were there before promotion, but, it's about the whole package. That is why good CEOs really are always in demand, it is much more intuition-driven and vision-driven, it's very rarely teachable.

Harbaugh knocked it out of the park with Don Brown, recruiting-wise with Wheatley and Partridge, etc. A lot of being a "successful head-coach" has much more to do with executing on that, than necessarily knowing the right plays to call. Knowing that you can't actually do everything in each department, but knowing enough about each department, in order to keenly hire those that can do it well.

I have always believed that's why head-coachs, CEOs, directors, etc. are always a little kooky. It's just a type of intuition and instinct that doesn't necessarily always have an explicitly clean logic to it.

If it did, everyone would be able to do it.

Yost Ghost

April 9th, 2018 at 1:15 PM ^

I don't know man, I got a little tingle from his Minnesota pre-game comments. But yeah I did notice from what they showed, he's not big on motivation/inspiration. His brother on the other hand was awesome. I got chills from John Harbaugh's talk. He would be a great game motivator like Coach Brown.

matty blue

April 12th, 2018 at 10:29 AM ^

so, SO many commenters are just complete experts on what makes a good coach, and they have no. freaking. idea of what a coach does on a daily basis.

people judged brady hoke as a coach in part based on press conferences, as if he somehow owed us a full and complete explanation and / or self-immolation of every mistake and every loss; his lack of "satisfactory" answers to the press were one more log on the fire of why he sucked. now those same idiots are judging jim harbaugh based on speeches he makes to the team on monday afternoon, or at the friday night walkthrough.  neither of those things are anywhere near the most important thing a coach does.

what a coach does is win or lose.  i submit to you - if we catch the hail mary against msu, if josh metellus catches that interception against ohio state, nobody is talking about whether harbaugh "tells weird stories" or not.  it's all bullshit.  don't buy into it.

JFW

April 9th, 2018 at 7:24 AM ^

In social situations. But on the field he had a different demeanor.

The most painful situation was when he was visiting Tarik and DPJ while Tarik was recovering.

But overall i think he relies alot on his staff. Which is fine.

The season took more of a toll on Sarah than i would have thought. “Games arent fun...”

GratefulBlue

April 8th, 2018 at 3:05 PM ^

I can't remember his exact words, but he was asking a lot of players if they felt afraid and telling everyone not to have fear. Seemed like a really weird motivational approach. Maybe some mgopsychologists can chime in, but that seemed more likely to plant seeds of doubt/fear than dispel them. I've only seen one eipisode, but so far I've been very surprised at Harbaugh's demeanor in general and his rapport (or lack of) with players. 

BigJohn

April 9th, 2018 at 6:37 AM ^

Agreed, I was expecting more from Jim Harbaugh. He never got my juices flowing and he seemed to have a disconnect between his him and his players. FWIW, I'm a big JH supporter. I want a fan of Pep, but I am now. I like how he interacts with the players and coaches.

BigJohn

April 9th, 2018 at 6:37 AM ^

Agreed, I was expecting more from Jim Harbaugh. He never got my juices flowing and he seemed to have a disconnect between his him and his players. FWIW, I'm a big JH supporter. I wasn't a fan of Pep, but I am now. I like how he interacts with the players and coaches.

SHub'68

April 8th, 2018 at 7:10 PM ^

Did you think Speight seemed kind of bored and distracted during meetings with Pep?  Like he wanted to be somewhere else and was kind of giving him the 'yeah, ok, yes sir' but wasn't really taking it in?  Thought he came across as someone who figured he knew the answers and didn't need other people telling him stuff.  Came off dismissive at dinner with his girlfriend, too.  I want to be fair - it can't have filmed every moment of their lives and was edited to be interesting - but he certainly didn't come off very well, not focused on recognizing his errors and improving himself or when folks were trying to help him.

reshp1

April 8th, 2018 at 5:58 PM ^

I think you're right, O'Korn over compensates at times, but he also never hung his head when benched (multiple times) and immediately became supportive of whoever replaced him. He genuinely cared about the team and wanted the best for the other guys in the QB room. His relationship with Larry Prout also is pretty special. On par, he came across pretty well to me, a couple cringey comments notwithstanding.

chrisu

April 9th, 2018 at 11:21 AM ^

I had to pause it when Chase had me laughing so hard, watching him say 'bearcat grrrr, grrrrr' to their oline. Funny stuff there from Chase. He will be pretty fun to watch again this season!

bluebyyou

April 7th, 2018 at 11:05 PM ^

That these players are young kids, some of whom have left home for the first time with the same vulnerabilities and uncertainties that go with being a teenager, is what struck me.

It can't be an easy transition to college level sports and the academic loads that these kids have to carry and this series brought that home.  I always respected Gary but even more so now that I watched the series.  Then there was the part about Black and his parents pre-surgery.  Scary stuff for a kid and his mother and father to face. 

Then there is Chase and his multiple personalities, all good in my book.  Really a terrific person, or Higdon with his daughter.

How about Harbaugh and his wife with the pope, or with their kids....loved it when his son says he had the "creeper" look.  Or Jack and John Harbaugh talking to the team.

How about Pep wearing his feelings on his sleeve?

Lots of up close and personal stuff that you rarely see.  Don Brown, Larry Prout and Grant Newsome...some heavy stuff.  Don Brown is THE man.

Does anyone know why Michigan was selected?

Fooball

April 7th, 2018 at 7:10 PM ^

The whole offense seemed to lack any sense of identiy and passion. The defense has this great camaraderie, Brown is on the sideline talking to the guys about what they are seeing, while Pep and Drevno are up in the press box patting themselves on the back.

Also neither quarterback seems to be any sort of leader.