Harbaugh breaks down his thoughts on each position group - Inside Michigan Radio
Not sure if this was already posted.
https://michigan.rivals.com/news/jim-harbaugh-talks-joe-milton-jalen-mayfield-emerging-leaders-more
Nothing super revealing, a good amount of coach talk but definitely some good insights. He did mention that Mayfield has been the only player to send in the waiver to opt back in. I'm excited to see how the depth chart shakes out in the next week or so. He mentioned that it'll take two weeks or so for the starting offensive line unit to gel and another 2-3 weeks of in game play for them to hit their stride.
September 29th, 2020 at 4:06 PM ^
Dan Villari ‘bout to be Shea Patterson 2.0!!!
September 29th, 2020 at 4:21 PM ^
Threet but with speed
September 29th, 2020 at 4:42 PM ^
Oh yeah? What about this? BLAZING I tell you!!
September 29th, 2020 at 5:05 PM ^
Damn, I forgot about that play! Fantastic come back too!
September 29th, 2020 at 7:54 PM ^
Worth it for the Sam McGuffie highlights alone!
September 30th, 2020 at 6:26 AM ^
Totally agree - my lasting image of him (unfairly) is the KO return against OSU where he just got annihilated. Nice to be reminded there was some happy moments too.
September 29th, 2020 at 8:13 PM ^
Goodness, that was so embarrassing.
September 29th, 2020 at 5:10 PM ^
Come on, this site has a tag for "Dual Threet" for a reason.
September 29th, 2020 at 5:33 PM ^
Tate but with humility
September 29th, 2020 at 10:47 PM ^
and a grade point average
September 29th, 2020 at 4:21 PM ^
Let's hope during those 2-3 weeks, the other portions of the offense and defense can make up for that, really only concern there would be Minnesota week one (Indiana will be a stupid stupid game), hopefully they play their week one like last year vs SDSU
September 29th, 2020 at 4:45 PM ^
I was thinking the same thing about the 2-3 game needing to gel or hit stride observation.
A lot of rah rah talk here, but what encouraging that stood out are the loaded and ready backs.
September 29th, 2020 at 6:38 PM ^
Am I the only one not really sweating Minnesota?
No crowd, their defense wasn’t even great last year and they lost a ton on that side of the ball.
Im more confident our defense can stop their offense more than their defense can stop our offense.
September 29th, 2020 at 7:49 PM ^
September 30th, 2020 at 12:56 AM ^
Minnesota returns the 2nd best QB in the conference and the best WR in the conference(and a potential 1st round pick). If there's a game where you don't want to see a retooled secondary for the 1st game beside OSU, it's this one. PSU defense was just as good as Michigan last year and got torched by Minnesota.
Daniel Faalele is being looked at as a potential draft pick. I've heard 2nd/3rd round is his projection range.
Michigan pretty much lost everyone sans the RBs, Bell and Mayfield on offense so it's almost a wash. I'm not buying Milton hype until I see the result on the field and so far, he pretty much is similar to Josh Allen when he was at Wyoming which isn't a compliment.
September 30th, 2020 at 9:01 AM ^
Maybe he's developed into Josh Allen 2020?
October 1st, 2020 at 12:22 AM ^
Even Josh Allen 2020 is an adventure. He'll make great throws but make bonehead decisions. Bonehead decisions can cost Michigan a win
September 30th, 2020 at 9:40 AM ^
Spot on. Don’t know why people neg realistic takes. Minnesota returns key pieces that can really attack Michigan’s weakness. What Michigan has to do to keep up with and outpace Minnesota has to be executed by a large group of players who are making their first starts and are unproven. There’s plenty to be concerned about going into this game.
Obviously we’d all like to think Michigan handles this with ease, but there’s really nothing that realistically instills that level of confidence.
September 30th, 2020 at 11:27 AM ^
Michigan will win.
September 30th, 2020 at 9:36 AM ^
Their defense wasn’t great but what is our offense? Milton is unknown, he’s throwing to one proven receiver and he’s standing behind four new offensive line starters. Our backs are good but, again, four new OL starters. The potential is there to score, the hype is there too. But that’s all it is at this point. There’s really nothing to have a baseline confidence level on.
As for our defense, Minnesota returns their QB, top WR, and their whole OL. Who exactly do we have that can cover Bateman? Let alone the corner spot in general being a major concern so the receivers opposite Bateman could have a field day as well.
Add in the fact that it’s on the road, it’s early season, and Minnesota is a quality team (maybe not 11 win quality, but they’re no slouch either) and there’s plenty for Michigan fan to sweat about going into this one. I think if it were 3-4 weeks into the season, there’d be a lot less concern. But this IS a tough matchup in Game 1 for a brand new QB behind what is essentially an entirely new OL and a defense that has to stop a solid QB and one of the best WRs in the country.
September 29th, 2020 at 4:40 PM ^
At this point, I am ok with hearing nothing about the team and hoping to be pleasantly surprised with the on field results 3.5 weeks from now. I can’t recall the last preseason buzz that turned out to be accurate. I do recall stumbling out of the gates with an experienced QB last year to MTSU and Army.
September 29th, 2020 at 4:42 PM ^
The Army game certainly did suck.
September 29th, 2020 at 4:59 PM ^
While this focuses on just the offense, I'm still worried about the CBs. While I do have a certain amount of trust built in the coaching ability of Zordich (the last time I was this worried before the season was 2017, then Long and Hill were a top 5 national unit), the talent/physical traits we've gotten used to recently just don't seem to be there.
September 29th, 2020 at 5:17 PM ^
Why even worry about it? OSU roasted us with those corners. They'll probably roast us with whoever is back there. I'm not trolling, I'm just saying that the success of the team will be all about Milton.
September 29th, 2020 at 6:25 PM ^
Kind of fair, but I’d say OSU roasted Watson and not the other 2. Defense was decent in 2017 but Watson couldn’t keep up in 18. Would be nice to have a UFR to refer to lol
September 30th, 2020 at 12:56 AM ^
I would love to see a UFR for the past few years but Brian refuse to look at it.
September 30th, 2020 at 9:41 AM ^
Would you like to volunteer to review that bloodbath? I for one wouldn’t want to watch it in-depth and write an analysis. Seeing it live once was enough for me
September 29th, 2020 at 6:11 PM ^
WOTS (per Sam Webb's afternoon dish) is that there may be some shuffling in the back end of the defense to help shore up the CB position.... Could be situational; could be a temporary thing til the other guys are ready ?♂️
September 29th, 2020 at 6:23 PM ^
Do we have the depth to shuffle around? Even situationally I have a hard time figuring out what would work.
I mean Hill is probably athletic enough to play corner, but who is his replacement at safety? Hawkins probably COULD play corner, (decent athleticism and should have good ball skills as a former WR) but I don’t feel like he’d be the second or third best option there.
September 29th, 2020 at 6:46 PM ^
Think of another 6'2" CB/S type who's been a 'dude' a few times this preseason... He'd be replacing the player moving to CB
September 29th, 2020 at 6:50 PM ^
Dax to CB
Paige and Hawkins at Safety
Okudah was a S coming out of high school and moving to CB worked great for him
September 29th, 2020 at 7:43 PM ^
Faustin, not Paige
September 30th, 2020 at 9:43 AM ^
Okudah was the #1 corner coming out of high school though...
https://247sports.com/Player/Jeff-Okudah-40722/high-school-67168/
I also don’t see putting a true freshman at safety to be a good thing. Dax was, by all accounts, a phenomenal prospect out of high school at safety and took him a good chunk of the season to even SEE the field due to it being a tough position to learn, but we’re to believe a mid 4* is in position to start from day 1? I would think Faustin would be next in line at safety, especially early in the season if Dax at corner is in play.
September 29th, 2020 at 6:51 PM ^
Dax Hill at corner.
September 30th, 2020 at 7:28 AM ^
Agreed. He’s got the speed to keep up with just about anyone, on top of being an incredible athlete. Unless his hips are that of a robot I could see this working.
September 29th, 2020 at 6:13 PM ^
How does he feel about CB & DT???
September 29th, 2020 at 7:55 PM ^
September 29th, 2020 at 8:55 PM ^
This point of view should have more support.
September 29th, 2020 at 11:36 PM ^
We should never play press cover against OSU. Give it up.
September 30th, 2020 at 8:23 AM ^
Bingo. Everyone pointed to Watson’s coverage issues but it repeated without him in 2019. Watson is playing in the NFL - he is a quality player.
The lack of pass rush was a problem both years.
September 30th, 2020 at 9:47 AM ^
He’s a quality player, but not one you can put out on an island against superior athletic receivers. He’s a good zone corner who we asked to play man against OSU’s gazelles.
September 30th, 2020 at 4:30 PM ^
Agree on Watson.
We can say the same for Lavert Hill who was torched by ND, Bama and OSU receivers. Long and Lewis are the only CBs to run consistently with top WRs the last few years once a QB gets 3+ seconds. Teams with 3-4 top WRs can get the matchup and persistently run flat crossing routes to pick 1:1 coverage.
Heck, no one on the Ravens could stick with 5 different Chiefs on Monday in 1:1 because Mahomes just buys enough time for a receiver to always get open. Best D shredded thru the air by short, intermediate and long routes.
Pass rush and/or complex hybrid coverages are the only solutions.
September 30th, 2020 at 9:46 AM ^
You also can’t play press cover when you’re outmatched athletically and the opponent is running mesh, specifically designed to create space against press.
September 30th, 2020 at 11:12 AM ^
Everyone picks on the corners against OSU, I think the real issue was zero pass rush for the past two years in the game.
I agree the pass rush was a problem. It certainly didn't help that in '18 both Gary and Winovich were banged up. Uche also disappeared in last year's game and everyone seems to recognize his pass rush ability, even Bama. In 2016 and 2017 UM gave OSU QBs enough problems to keep the score down (Day got to OSU in '17). But there's more to it than that for the last two years.
UM's pass defense is not any worse than the rest of the B1G, in fact it's better. But, they gave up more points to OSU than anyone else in 2018, even Rutgers, and the second most points to anyone in 2019 only trailing Maryland. So, why can poor old Rutgers hold OSU to fewer points than UM?
Does OSU plan for UM all year long and not the others? Do they save stuff in their playbook just for us? Does Day have inside knowledge of Brown's defense from their time together at BC? Does Brown's press coverage not work against elite QBs or elite talent? These are all legitimate questions with no real answers. But, they point to a fundamental larger issue and something more complex than simply a pass rush or CB coverage.
September 30th, 2020 at 1:22 PM ^
Part of it is that OSU is going to play the UofM game with more intensity every year than any other game. They’re playing Michigan a lot tougher than they play Rutgers so comparing the scores of the two is futile. There are a lot of factors that go into how you do against specific teams. Was Army better than Notre Dame last year? Or did we simply play a better game against one of our biggest rivals than we did a non conference game against a mid major?
September 30th, 2020 at 9:08 PM ^
Part of it is that OSU is going to play the UofM game with more intensity every year than any other game
Doesn't that go both ways? UM's defense should be doing the same which should bring down their offensive output. Unless you're saying they care more than UM, which would point back to a larger issue than pass rush/coverage as I'm suggesting.
There are a lot of factors that go into how you do against specific teams. Was Army better than Notre Dame last year?
If the same team continues to blow you out each year doesn't that indicate a larger, more complex problem than the pass rush/CBs?
October 1st, 2020 at 11:22 PM ^
It does go both ways. But that’s also where the talent gap gets exposed. If both teams are giving their all, and one team is more talented, then the talent is going to prevail.
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. But Michigan will always go up against an OSU team that is going to work their asses off to beat Michigan. And unless Michigan has the talent to matchup with that, then OSU will win.
Michigan doesn’t have the pieces to stop OSU. Period. If JK Dobbins wants to run up the gut, who do we have to stop him? If Fields wants to throw to any of his top receivers, who do we have to keep up with them? Nobody. Point blank, when you go up against a motivated team that is ALSO more talented than you, theres not much in your power that you can do to stop them.
September 30th, 2020 at 9:07 AM ^
I'm not as concerned about DT as other people for this season. Hinton showed last year he could play with the big boys as a true freshman. I fully expect him to be one of our best players this year on defense. Carlo Kemp has been with the program forever and should be a steady force inside. And then there are wild cards in Jeter and Smith, both who came in super talented. The pass rush should be good with Paye, Hutch and Vilain playing the Uche role.
Outlook after this and next season is looking bleak once Hinton moves on unless we can get Rooks and Benny. CB I feel like has a lot more question marks and inexperience. I do think that if the guy next to Gray struggles in the first few games they will test out Dax at CB.
September 30th, 2020 at 9:49 AM ^
Yeah DT is more of a recruiting concern than it is current roster concern. Last year was an issue because Smith and Hinton were true freshmen.
September 30th, 2020 at 11:20 AM ^
The pass rush should be good with Paye, Hutch and Vilain playing the Uche role.
I think there's reason to believe Paye & Hutch will be above average/good. But, I also don't see anything to suggest either of them are at Charleton, Winovich, or Uche levels in their pass rush ability. Unfortunately that means it won't be good enough against OSU. And, there is nothing proven behind them. It would be great if Vilain could finally live up to his recruiting potential. McGregor is a highly rated guy coming in, but is a true freshman. I think the starters should be solid all around, but not spectacular. The question is if someone gets hurt, who is there behind them?