Blame Rodriguez for Special Team Play
I am in the category of bloggers who give Rodriguez (and by extension, Greg Robinson) a pass for the play of the defense this year.
- We lost Woolfolk and Jones and Van Slyke to injury, Warren to the draft, Cissoko to sad stupidity, Turner to laziness and a following transfer, and Demar Dorsey to the NCAA clearinghouse. Add these players, and the defense looks very different.
- We went from the Carr regime to Scott Shafer to Greg Robinson as Defensive Coordinator in three consecutive years, a recipe for disaster.
- We had a disaster with Hopson as position coach with the linebackers.
- We have a lack of experience throughout the defense, witnessed by all the true freshmen getting playing time.
- We have a lack of depth in much of the defense.
All these things should be better next year. The freshmen and sophomores being baptized by fire will be seasoned vets next year. We have more defensive recruits coming on board. We will be in our third year under Gerg, with greater familiarity on schemes, and less thinking, more reacting instinctively. We also will see continued improvement in the linebacking corps.
I think Brian is exactly right in suggesting that 2011 is the critical year for evaluation of Rodriguez as Michigan's football coach.
My one complaint: I lay responsibility for special teams play this year on Rodriguez. To my way of thinking, this is a coaching issue, and less one of experience and depth. Our kicking game and return game and coverage on punts, field goals, and kickoffs all leave a lot to be desired. With Gerg working with linebackers, (and hence, no problem with NCAA coaching staff restrictions,) there is room on the staff for a coach dedicated to special teams play. While player stupidity occurs at every level from PeeWee to the NFL, I just don't see an adequate excuse for how special teams have performed in 2010. For this one area, I hope that Dave Brandon meddles and gets on Rodriguez to improve.
October 20th, 2010 at 10:36 AM ^
Those are all fair points. I just think it's funny that ardent RichRod supporters (not claiming that to be you), who feel that RR can't be judged due to this or that excuse, have no problem immediately dismissing Shafer or Robinson. Either all coaches gets the benefit of the excuse or none of them should.
October 19th, 2010 at 2:09 PM ^
I take the opposite view: Rodriguez deserves some of the blame for our defensive struggles (after all, he's the one who hired Shafer and Hopson), though I agree that most of it can be chalked up to bad luck and the natural consequences of regime change.
But our punter and kickers are all freshmen, and are making freshman mistakes that only experience can correct. I don't see how that's Rodriguez's fault.
October 19th, 2010 at 2:43 PM ^
"Fault always lies in the same place, my fine babies: with him weak enough to lay blame."- Cort
...You've forgotten the face of your father.
October 19th, 2010 at 2:43 PM ^
While I've been working, comments have piled up.
I fully agree with those who said there isn't a problem with Hagerup. He has improved greatly, and has seemingly gotten over his Freshman jitters.
I need to say clearly that I'm not qualified enough to make a good judgement on every aspect of special teams. However, I do think two things should be obvious enough.
- We're not good enough to overcome bad special teams play. The offense is doing a pretty good job, and the defense, while crummy, is apparently holding teams to their season average on points scored. But when special teams give our opponents great field position, and when we don't score points (field goals) or have them blocked, or fail to cover them, it digs us into a hole we can't get out of.
- Special teams can be coached to some degree. I have always understood that it isn't as critical to have juniors and seniors on special teams. They aren't exposed the same way as say, our secondary is. If our special teams aren't doing a good job, doesn't that fall on the coaches?
October 19th, 2010 at 3:37 PM ^
I think the area where the staff has the most culpability is on kickoffs. I don't understand why it's so difficult to find someone who can just blast the ball (and keep it inbounds). Placekicking is obviously also a problem but that can be harder to fix.
Beyond that, our ST units are generally okay. Fans tend to take coverage units for granted when they play well. We haven't given up any long returns on either punts or kickoffs. (By contrast, OSU and Wisconsin have given up two TDs on both.) Punt returns are finally getting it together. Kickoff returns aren't as good as last year, but part of that is Stonum's hamstring issue, which has caused him to temporarily be moved off that unit. Punting turned into a major strength once Hagerup got over his freshman jitters. So basically, we just need the kickers to come through.
October 19th, 2010 at 3:51 PM ^
OK. Any other directives?
October 19th, 2010 at 5:11 PM ^
correct me if I'm wrong but we seem to have very little trouble with PAT's. Those are generally chipshots from straight on so no surprise but PAT's dont seem to be an adventure in any way yet when we actually DO try a FG it is. seems to be partly mental. it seems like we have had several blocked also which I would guess comes from poor blocking but also a low trajectory of the kicks from further away. Is that a sign that our kicker doesn't have the kind of leg where the ball jumps of his foot? He is in fact a walk on right? Or is it perhaps his technique? it kinda reminds me of how Navarre used to get balls batted down at the LOS so often even though he was like 12 (6'6") ft tall...
October 19th, 2010 at 6:59 PM ^
if he was the kicker, but he's not! The young kid made some mistakes.
Christ, the Dallas kicker (David Buehler) booted one out of bounds against the Titans. Buehler was a 5th round draft pick (decent for a kicker).
October 19th, 2010 at 9:36 PM ^
to say rich hiring a special teams coord with some college level experience sounds great to me. Gibby needs to use all his time and focus on coaching up the Secondary!