Michael Spath source: coaches giving up on game plan

The lame "look at me talk about cancelling my season tickets" group has officially returned. Incredible.

Whether or not this is true, Michigan needs to have an offensive coordinator who makes the vast majority of calls. Democracy? head coach? sure, you've got a hunch or want to add input- do it, but game planning is where the vast majority of brainstorming/collective decision making should happen, not when everyone is stressed and the clock is ticking. 

I've been on a few high stress teams where during the actual event, time is of the essence and we spent days and weeks planning for stuff. (military) You need a director/team leader, there can't be any of this lets stop and talk about this. In fact, having two or more people split the calls has to result in disjointed strategy, it's inevitable. (I.E. play 1 and 2 designed to set up play 3 and then the head coach wants to call something else on play 3). The time for your alternate play caller is when the primary says "i got nothing" or when someone sees something he missed. Secondly, you need the head coach out of the playcalling because he needs to be stepped back and looking big picture. It seems like Michigan is missing that somewhat, sure, I get that from this tweets. 

All this would be caught if Michigan recorded their in-game conversations, replayed the whole game, talked about it afterwards (like an after action review), honestly. 

When they went spread with tempo and marched down the field in rhythm, they looked like the aggressor and dictating the game. the more time they have to think about the play, the slower they are and the defense had time to figure out what was coming. Yet they only used spread with tempo briefly, and not when you’d think it’d be best like within the last two minutes of the half. What are we non coaches missing? This seems clear to the naked eye. Is this a Mandelbaum thing where the coaches still believe in doing it the hard way, even if everyone in the stadium knows what’s coming?

"opportunity to shine. Not so on the offensive side of the ball. That has to change. The coaches know it needs to change. Some players are restless about it. So how does it change? Is the panic-mode tendency Pep or Harbaugh? There was some hope it would die with Drevno,"

The tweet is pretty telling. Harbaugh says all the time that buck stops with him yet the fan base like to blame is coordinators on the offensive side. Well if people thought it was gonna change once Drevno left, the only constant in the situation is Harbaugh. So this is another piece of evidence (first piece is from Harbaugh himself) that his philosophy is not changing and the coordinator doesnt matter. 

We had a game plan?

Again, there was never this kind of talk when Jedd Fisch was here. And my point is not bring Jed Fisch back. What I am saying is there has been something wrong with the passing game since Pep Hamilton has been here. I don't know why people keep putting this passing game problem onto Jim Harbaugh. Look how great the offense was 2 years ago---except for the Iowa game. If Michigan had won that game there is a real possibility they would have been in the top 4, even with the double overtime loss to Ohio St. Michigan has a better O Line coach now. A better core of WRs. A better receiving RB, and a better QB. The offense should be better now than in 2016, when Michigan lead the BIG10 in scoring.

What is on Harbaugh, however, is if he makes no change with the passing game coaching. 

Wouldn't it be cool if we start seeing 100 yard receiving games from the various players, including Chris Evans, who are capable of it? I'm sure Shea Patterson is a QB capable of doing it.

Maybe if Michigan can get someone like Kevin Wilson we will see it this year. 

This is no different than a golfer or free throw shooting.  You practice your stroke, you get it down, you think everything is good and when the pressure is on, you revert to bad habits.  This is why Harbaugh needs a "real" OC that has a proven record and play calling.  I have said all along I would give that job to Warinner.

Harbaugh's offensive game plan is very vanilla now. Not much play-by-play or audible adjustment. Their player motion (which is one of JH's signature in his offense when joining UM) is useless. It becomes more like a decoy more than for our QB to read the defense pre-snap and adjust.

This game plan is so uninspiring that I end up turning off my TV after two quarters into the bowl game. Adding the lack of effort of our OL pushing the pile and RB going no where. I am tired of this game plan stuff and knew they had no chance to come back. Every signle play they shuffle personnel, and the players sometimes lose rythme by those substituting. I was joking to my wife during the game that. The players probably were running more yardage when they are substituting than in game play. What Spath is pointing out is just obvious stuff for most fans, most of us foresee this coming, but was hoping the opposite and avoid talking about it. As much as players sitting out was the talking point before the bowl game, I was more worried about the coaching and game plan. We still have enough talent from the bench to fill a very good team without those three starters. However a coaching shuffle is obvious after the game, and how those coaches can focus on the game plan when they are looking for jobs.

to be honest, As much as I still support JH being the head coach. This is getting to a point that from a fan perspective very very worrisome. I did the same in RR and Hoke's last season, turning off the TV after one quarter. RR's defense is so obvious that they can stop nobody, and after seeing one quarter, you know they don't have a chance for many games. Same for Hoke's OLs and offense, you don't need to see beyond one quarter. JH's end of season and bowl game performance is approaching that level now. Similar to RR and Hoke's last year, the saddest part about JH's problem is the issue has been redefined before the season even started. And the coach show no ability to do adjustment during season in the past few years. This is all about coaching from HC to some assistants. I am very nervous about the direction of the program now. One issue can create a domino effect and affect our recruiting.

This is likely the last chance JH can make adjustment in assistants, it can go south quickly (or it can go north quickly as well similar to our basketball program). I also hope he can talk to John Beillein and get some ideas how to approach those new hires. His offense production is completely limited by himself and his out-of-date philosophy. whoever he hires, I hope he let the OC to have full control and hope he can hire from outside of his ring, most his buddy (and probably his son, don't tell me our RB coaching is fine, it's not. Get me a NCAA top-10 level RB coach, those players deserve better) doesn't do well any more. And look for young and rising star, even from a MAC, or DII program.

Makes zero sense.  If this were the case the offense should seem coherent early in the game and then foolish later on.  If anything, the problem is calling the game as if it’s still the first quarter when we to put up points quickly.  This is more of the “we have a secret good offense that we haven’t run” bullshit.  The offense sucked.  There wasn’t some secret better version Harbaugh has under wraps. This is the best he could do.  

What he’s saying actually makes sense, but did he just write an article through tweets?

I've been expecting a WR to transfer .I mean... And deservedly so .  And Spath alludes to it.  Watch it be Black. The playcalling is by someone who seems scared.  Take off those fucking glasses and wing it Jim. 

I don’t care what they do so long as we stopped getting smoked in big games. 

Not saying his source is right or the mechanics of what he's talking about happens the way it does, but the outcome is correct.

Best drive Michigan had? Throwing the ball to Collins and DPJ. Those 2 were match up problems and Florida had trouble covering them 1 on 1. Then all of a sudden they stopped using them. Smart thing happened against OSU but that got away from them defensively. DPJ was open often, Collins made multiple jump ball catches and instead then run out Eubanks and try to bury their nose for 3 yards on the ground.

The tendency to go back to 2 and 3 TE sets and stick with it even when t's not working and immediately abandon 2 and 3 WR sets when it fails once is annoying.

You have stud WRs. Use them. You have space players like Evans. Use him in space.

I really hope none of the WRs transfer, they're too good to lose. I pray that next year the targets are 80/20 WR/TE.

It totally makes sense that WRs will leave. Why would they stay to get under-utilized? I don't need insider info to know something is clearly fucked up, but this take does seem to confirm it.

I don't know....Pep is "passing game coordinator" and our passing game has looked broken since he's been here. So that -- plus the fact that he's washed out everywhere he's been -- is the easy, obvious answer. 

But JH is an intense personality, and it's pretty obvious he's over-the-top about turnover avoidance above all else. So that could be trickling down, making the offensive coaches question their own input on the play-calls. Hell, it's looks to me like it's made it down to all of our QB's, resulting in the tentativeness and ball-patting and late throws we are all seeing.

I mean at this point until we can stop a decent offense it won’t matter what we are doing to move the ball. 100 in two games is embarrassing

Watched the Michigan Podcast with Spath and Deace. They are spot on in their assessment. Harbaugh better make it right this season or recruits aren't coming here. The last three bowl games he got out coached. He wasn't supposed to get out coached by anyone except Pete Carroll.