WTKA Roundtable 7/28/2022: The Michigan State Drill
Things discussed:
- Zayden High: on campus right now and blowing up. Isaiah Livers but Tall? YES PLEASE!
- Big Ten Media Days: Kevin Warren is talking about how exciting it is that our teams will be playing at 11pm. We didn't get to talk about Jim Harbaugh's annual "You didn't check with us, did you?" comment about the Big Ten itself signing an NIL deal with its players.
- Harbaugh's defense optimism with the No Names. He's talking about the Ravens Amoeba stuff that they didn't have to do last year because why have Ojabo or Hutchinson drop into coverage when you can just rush them? They should be able to get more varied in the secondary however because they don't have the slow guys they have to protect in zone. Play Cover Zero and you can make up some nasty blitzes.
- Don't underrate how good Mike-Mo is going to be, also don't underrate how good Hutch was.
- What is with this fanbase and forgetting Roman Wilson? Brian: He's kind of the Steve Breaston in all of this.
- Cade vs JJ: Cade is a better QB than people credit him. Improvement there is hitting digs instead of checking down. Washington got to him—next time that happens McCarthy takes the wheel, because his running ability brings so much to the run game.
- Craig: Do we have too many guys? Seth: No that's called a Team.
- OL: If Sherrone gets improvement from the team that won the Joe Moore they should rename it the Sherrone Moore. Could they? Vastardis was great at getting them organized. Trente Jones is tracking towards being a good one.
- Tuck Comin'? More worried that he's a Duffy than than a Dantonio. MSU is on the cutting edge of recruiting from other teams' rosters, pay to play, and Michigan is on the other end.
You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream.
Segment Two is here. You can watch the video here:
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I hear what you're saying Craig but I'm also telling Mike Morris you just called him James Whitley.
Hearing that Sparty is on the cutting edge of anything (other than recipes for marinating hot dogs in Keystone Light) makes me ill.
They are just more willing to plow ahead and make things up as they go along, rather than wait until they have all of their i's dotted and their t's crossed. It's a strategy, albeit not one I would recommend. They may make some early gains, but it is not like they will stumble into some magical NIL program that will make them a leader for years to come.
They have less to lose if it blows up in their face. Not that there's much risk the NCAA will actually hand out penalties for NIL violations, but the academic side of the university at Michigan would go ape shit over a NCAA scandal. Plus it would be a national story for weeks if Michigan had NCAA violations, MSU would be a blip on ESPN for a day.
Tucker seems like a perfectly competent coach who got really, REALLY lucky with Walker III last year in the portal; few of their other big pickups from the transfer portal really panned out and they lost a lot of guys via the portal. I'm not feeling like Berger or Broussard are going to break out as RBs and nobody else on the defense really screams marked improvement. He's not going to be late-year Dantonio but I also think this 2-0 record against UM makes people think he's a bit better as a coach than he is.
I think Berger is pretty okay (unfortunately).
He's a good rb but no Kenneth Walker.
I think he'll be a competent Big 10 back but Walker made up for a lot of blocking issues MSU had on the line and Berger doesn't strike me as a player who'll do the same. To say nothing of the fact that he was booted from Wisconsin after losing his job, which wasn't the same situation with Walker (WF absolutely wanted him to stay). Broussard feels like a guy with higher upside because he's actually had two pretty decent seasons for Colorado, though again that's in a weaker conference.
I do think MSU's running game will be solid this year but the difference between "pretty good" and "Doak Walker winner" is pretty significant.
We need an entire thread on “invent your Michigan State drill.” On the show, they jokingly said practice your opponents getting offended at everything you say.
My suggestion would be sprinting the 3.9 miles from the Washtenaw County Jail to the Big House on a Saturday afternoon.
My concern with McNamara is that while, yes, he's excellent at pre-snap reads, that doesn't actually allow his receivers to excel -- or for defenses to screw up. Surely part of what makes an excellent receiver is the ability to make quick moves, find slots, and create opportunities where they didn't exist before. I think of the famous "receiver running open downfield waving his hands while the QB is throwing the ball away the other direction" play.
It always seems to me that if McNamara sees an opportunity pre-snap he can make the throw, but he really doesn't give his receivers the ability to get open. Maybe that's his lack of mobility, forcing him to make quicker decisions with the ball.
But when I watch the great Michigan quarterbacks -- Brady, sure, but also Henne, Henson, Grbac, etc. -- there's an ability to fall back into the pocket, scan the field, and find the open receiver. I just don't think I've seen McNamara do that much.
Happily, that *does* seem to be a skill McCarthy has (perhaps, yes, because of his increased mobility and ability to avoid pressure), and I feel like he's more of the classic quarterback in that sense. I look forward to watching him not only recognize the opportunities that present themselves pre-snap, but also see those that may develop after.
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