I'm REALLY Scared About Our Offense!
Having listened to the press conference, and having looked up and read info on Al Borges, I have to say that I am REALLY scared about our offense next year. Overlooking the elephant in the room question about whether Denard will be here or not - how do we know that he will be used properly if he does stay? I really wish we had gotten a new offensive coordinator, or at least some reassurance from Brady Hoke about his ability to change his offensive schemes to fit the personnel he has. All he said was that he likes to change the players to fit the system which is the opposite of what I was hoping to hear. My gut feeling is that Denard is going to stay, but will he be used properly?... Dear God I hope so.
January 12th, 2011 at 4:38 PM ^
Spiders. Spiders on the field.
January 12th, 2011 at 4:31 PM ^
the DEFENSIVE improvements? We have tons of returners on D and we are bringing in a coach that ran the same system, and he KNOWS how to (unlike GERG)!
I'm not saying we will turn onto a D powerhouse and carry the team right away, but this "OMG OMG Denard can't get a hiesman and we will be terrible on offense" is not the entire story. We had the worst D in Michigan history in 2010, I'm at least excited that under Hoke we will not see that again. I'll take that along with a less potent offense next year.
January 12th, 2011 at 6:20 PM ^
We aren't bringing in a coach that ran the same system. Hoke's DC ran the same system - in fact some credit him as being the creator of that system. Before he joined Hoke's staff Hoke ran a 4-3 pretty exclusively.
January 12th, 2011 at 7:46 PM ^
Yes, exactly. Expect the defense to be better and the offenses to be worse. But with a better defense and a ball control pro style offense games will be lower scoring. Just don't expect lot's of long runs. Think of one of Carr's 8-4 teams (or worse depending upon the QB situation) and that is what i expect.
January 12th, 2011 at 4:32 PM ^
I just finished reading, "The Hot Zone". It's the scariest thing I have ever read.
As far as Michigan goes, I am more afraid of the future of recruiting. Can Hoke recruit? Like the offense however, we will not know until we actually see what happens.
January 12th, 2011 at 7:42 PM ^
January 12th, 2011 at 9:07 PM ^
Hoke has yet to recruit at Michigan as a HC. He has not had to go head to head with Tressel, Dantonio or Saban. When he was an assistant he had Lloyd to close the deal. He might be great at getting a 3 star to commit to Ball State, but can he get a 5 star to turn away from Tressel? Any mention of that in those 87000 articles you have read?
January 12th, 2011 at 11:30 PM ^
A 3-star recruit is probably pretty solid for Ball State...
January 12th, 2011 at 4:34 PM ^
skewed by big games on little opponents the 1st half of the season.
Last 5 games we averaged 14pt a game. Not too impressive.
Lets kill the "we had the best offensive ever and now it will be crap" meme because it is not true.
January 12th, 2011 at 4:52 PM ^
I'm concerned about a good offense losing its star player or shoehorning him into the wrong system. I have no desire to watch Denard Robinson to become Terrelle Pryor (in football terms). Our offense had the opportunity to become great with a returning QB star, a strong(?) group of wide receivers, and the emergence/healing of one of our running backs. Instead, we are tossing out the spread for no good reason; Hoke is not an offensive coach, and is supposed to be versatile.
If we finish 40th in offense, are we supposed to be excited because our defense is a lot better, or can we be irritated that we are squandering talent for no good reason?
January 12th, 2011 at 4:57 PM ^
You know their scoring offense was better than ours last year, right? Beyond that, our offense got worse as the season went on and was unable to produce against...eh...probably not worth it to continue debating the RR years...
Go Blue!
January 12th, 2011 at 7:46 PM ^
January 12th, 2011 at 4:35 PM ^
Hoke specifically says he sees DR leading this offense.
1:40 mark
http://www.annarbor.com/sports/um-football/brady-hoke-reunites-with-gar…
January 12th, 2011 at 4:55 PM ^
I'm worried about us having O-lineman trained and conditioned for zone blocking and we now have a coach who has openly announced his hatred of zone blocking. That can't be good. This new offense may well neutralize most of our previous offensive strengths.
January 12th, 2011 at 5:05 PM ^
Obviously a mobile QB has worked in a West Coast system similar to what Borges is bringing - it tore up the NFL for big chunks of this year.
Do you folks think Denard would work in that sort of a set-up? The zone read aspects didn't particularly seem to be his strongest points, moreso just the "running ridiculously fast" part, and the "moves smooth as an eel" part.
I know it's obvious, and as a non-coach I am lacking the language to describe parallels - I'm looking for opinions from people smarter than me here.
January 12th, 2011 at 5:12 PM ^
We will be fine.
Hoke is a smart coach. Knows more about the game than all of us.
Denard isnt going anywhere. And Devin Gardner can play in basically any system.
Some folks need to stop listening to sky is falling bloggers. E-pinion, no sugarcoat
January 12th, 2011 at 5:15 PM ^
Not everyone is as bad at using preexisting talent as RR. I actually think he's one of the worst because his system requires certain things. We'll see how Hoke and Borges do, but give the guy a god damn chance would you please? He's been coach for a day now.
January 12th, 2011 at 6:45 PM ^
I don't have a problem with how Rod transitioned- because he was a spread guy, so he needed to get the parts in place to run the spread. But Hoke's transition won't be Rod's. Borges is different - he can adapt his offense to the existing talent. There will be a drop off, but with the veterans we have and the fact that Borges has had success, it shouldn't be disastrous.
January 12th, 2011 at 7:49 PM ^
Can you show me an an example where Borges took over a spread team and did a transition to a pro style. I'd love to see it.
January 12th, 2011 at 8:46 PM ^
But I'm basing this off the fact that on the front page, Laces' high school coach says "Denard heard Borges can run the spread," and the fact that pro style is, by definition, a little bit of everything. If Borges truly is a "pro style" coordinator, he should use the spread concepts he knows to allow Denard to flourish. I hope.
January 12th, 2011 at 5:33 PM ^
January 12th, 2011 at 5:35 PM ^
January 12th, 2011 at 6:22 PM ^
Have some faith! Hoke understands Michigan...he will be just fine.
January 12th, 2011 at 5:37 PM ^
People make it sound like teams and coaches run/know one offensive set. Maybe when you're in pee wee, but I'm pretty sure these guys will know what they're doing. "Pro-style" doesn't mean I-formation and quick outs every play. It's a blanket term just like "spread" is. I wouldn't worry about it right now.
January 12th, 2011 at 6:39 PM ^
Is even more of a blanket term than spread is. Pro style is pro style because it's a little bit of everything - the criticism of using it in college is that the kids can't learn any system really well when they're learning every system, and the result is they won't be able to take advantage of a defense's constraints. This was a big criticism of Ohio State under Jim Tressel. The advantage is that it can be adapted to your personnel - whereas when Rod ran the spread here, he had less leeway to adapt it to players who weren't suited for it. But when he did have his players in it, they had the potential to be explosive. At least that's how the argument goes. Take it for what it's worth.
January 12th, 2011 at 5:44 PM ^
You watched last season's games and you are REALLY scared about the offense? I understand your concern is because of Hoke's OC but regardless of who got hired on as coach the offense has enough returning talent that fielding a respectable D is what's occupying my concerns. After the defense, being able to actually kick field goals is the second on the list. The offense next year will be fine.
January 12th, 2011 at 5:45 PM ^
spotty at best last year against top teams. Do you really think Hoke is going to come in and change it all (he will) and we are going to be BETTER?? Just not going to happen.
We had an offensive genius in RR and he struggled against better defenses. Hoke is in no way in RR's class when it comes to running an offense. Not even close.
We will struggle again from the simple fact that we are blowing it up and starting over.
Denard will not be nearly the threat he was this past season simply because we will not be running an offense taylored to him like we just did. He will be much more "vanilla" in this offense. Take my word for it.....this season will be a huge struggle.
January 12th, 2011 at 6:10 PM ^
Are you seriously saying that RR was an offensive genius? Maybe he was against BGSU, Delaware, Indiana, and Illinois but what happened against MSU, OSU, Wisconsin, Iowa, OSU and Miss. St? Not much. Against Iowa & Wisconsin his offense only put up points when the game was over.
You are right about Hoke he's not labelled as an offensive genius, he's the head coach and is accountable for the offense, defense, and special teams. The defense and special teams were awful under RR and he attempted to pass the blame. The team might actually display a tough attitude and may actually be feared again.
UM returns almost all the starters this year and will get Woolfolk back plus others from injuries on the defense. UM will be much more improved this upcoming year
January 12th, 2011 at 6:21 PM ^
I agree, he may have been an offensive genius in the Big East but def. not in the Big Ten
January 12th, 2011 at 8:02 PM ^
If you were to query college coaches he would be a considered a genius. He had a first year starter at QB. He sucked at a bunch of stuff but he is considered to be a great offensive mind. We were not the best at execution and sucked so bad at defense that impacted the offense. The pressure to score on every drive tends to put a lot of pressure on your offense.
Blame RR for lot's of stuff and errors but not his credibility as an offensive mind.
January 12th, 2011 at 8:41 PM ^
As mentioned elsewhere, he is an offensive genius. Everybody that talks about the spread run talks about how he is such an innovator in it. Yes, our offense was sloppy - with a sophomore QB - but there is no question in my mind we would've been Oregonesque next season.
He didn't get it done here because of defense. It made all of us sad. He'll learn and move on and kick butt somewhere. Hoke will kick butt here.
January 12th, 2011 at 6:20 PM ^
Our offense will be just fine. It will be a mix of our beloved big ten offense with a splash of the spread. Hoke is not an idiot he knows what Denard can do and he will use him properly and develop his passing skills to make him even more explosive.
January 12th, 2011 at 6:20 PM ^
All this paranoia in the fanbase stems from the horror of seeing Mallett light it up in the SEC. People are so afraid of seeing it happen again that they are placing way too much importance on scheme.
Michigan is coming off a unique situation because Carr and Rodriguez not only had diametrically opposed offensive philosophies, but they were also two of the most dogmatic coaches you will ever find about said philosophies. People need to realize this and chill out.
January 12th, 2011 at 6:22 PM ^