Spring Preview: Harbaugh self reflects on 2017 coaching
March 15th, 2018 at 11:01 AM ^
is based on ignorance and conjecture, and fueled by anger and frutration. Very little of it is thoughtful or illuminating.
March 15th, 2018 at 11:01 AM ^
No coach is perfect, but if Saban does'nt change QB's Bama losses the national championship. I don't care what team it is, without a very good QB, your team is going to struggle no matter what.
Whether Harbaugh can improve on his coaching tecniques is up to him, but one thing I know for sure is If Michigan has a very good QB consistently week in and week out, they will be smashing the big ten week in and week out. In my opinion it really is that simple. Everybody saw it last year and this years defense will be better. I will say this, coaching techniques aside, if Shea Patterson is eligible, everybody that is a true blue die hard Michigan fan should get wood because this year is going to be special.
Shea Patterson and his new receiving corps will make things look simple that were just flat out a slow grinding mess last year. If Michigan's offense consistently moves the ball and scores points, no opposing team will want any part of Michigan's defense.
Harbaugh may not be perfect, but he knows talent when he see's it. He know's exactly what we know and that getting the offense going starts at QB. Do what you have to do Jimmy, but very good QB play means Michigan wins a lot of football games and several quite easy.
Especially so since we were depending on freshmen and sophomores to get most of the snaps at the position.
Why is it shocking? One look at the staff roster - that clearly had no dedicated WR coach - told you there was no dedicated WR coach, other than a grad assistant. That very same comment was made hundreds of times across dozens of posts throughout the year, in and out of season. I'm not sure why you would find it shocking that he agreed with his staff roster.
I remember BTN listing coaching responsibilities during the spring game and they listed Pep as being the WR coach, along with a few other duties. This is the impression I was under all year.
March 15th, 2018 at 10:28 AM ^
I remember that being the supposed case as well, although I believe - and I could be wrong here - that there were some subthreads in other discussions about bewildering WR play during the season that it was indeed someone else and not Pep doing the bulk if not all of the coaching at the position and those perhaps didn't get the attention that they should have.
March 15th, 2018 at 12:48 PM ^
We all love coach and it is great to see his honesty, but he is getting $7+ million to win games at Michigan. Not having a WR coach and not preparing the QBs for basic zone concepts is very frustrating. The last 2 years this team has had a BIG championship level defense and they have been wasted.
UNACCEPTABLE!!!!
but consider the kind of offense Harbaugh likes to run. I think the WR haul was a genuine surprise, like, "We're a pro-style MANBALL outfit trying to recruit TEs and now we got all these guys?" They took all of 'em, the obviously correct move, but it is very weird that a HC that likes to run 3-4 TEs and a fullback would wind up with the most epic WR haul in Michigan memory.
And we shouldn't assume he didn't look for a WR coach at all. It's natural to think, tried to look for one, couldn't find a good one, and well we don't run a lot of four-wide anyway, so we can survive a year without one. (I think Harbaugh's the type to do without if it's possible and the only alternative is mediocre.) I don't recall much talk about going 3- and 4-wide until after we started drowning in WR talent, at which point the grad assistant probably had a heart attack.
It's a mistake, no one's mincing words on that, nor should they, but did he even have an open coaching position around the time we started getting all these ridiculous WR commits? He may have realized he needs a WR coach during camp, but it would've been too late to do anything about it until after the season.
As for the QBs, I discussed that upthread.
He was recruiting DPJ, Nico, and TB the day he arrived in Ann Arbor. If he didn't ecpect to get some of those guys, why waste time recruiting them for years? Even if he didn't have all those WR, the team was still going to have WRs. It was a terrible call on his part. Jim Harbaugh knows more football than I could in multiple lifetimes. However, most of the fanbase could probably realize that not having a WR position coach is bad (just like the fanbase clearly saw the issues with recruiting and Drevno/Pep).
March 15th, 2018 at 12:28 PM ^
I'm pretty sure that Pep was hired to implement some form of NFL-like passing spread, similar to what Harbaugh ran in SF with Kapernick. Not sure what changed that, if anything (if it was even real), though... Maybe the OL's utter inability to pass protect? Maybe the QB's utter ability to suck the life out of the position? Maybe the WR's rawness contributing to poor route running and actual pass non-catching? Probably all of the above...
a three-headed monster of doom last year.
1. Bad o-line can't establish the proper run game, and can't give the QB much time in the pocket.
2. Young (if even healthy) WRs don't block effectively, lack polish on routes and often run a completely different route. With only a GA to coach them. Drops.
3. 3 different QB's of varying experice and talent levels, some injured, all trying to compete against each other and dealing with number 1 & 2 on this list.
Any 2 out of those 3 problems would have been somewhat manageable.
Hopefully coach Warinner and Patterson are the solutions. Two major weaknesses last year and already changes in place to fix them. Gotta give Jim Harbaugh props for that. A lot of head coaches don't make major changes unless their hand is forced from a hot seat year.
You are so anxious to get in to a fight that you're looking for ANY percieved slight to this coaching staff. And apparently, if you can't find one, you'll make one up!
Dude just said that Harbaugh made changes WITHOUT being on the hot seat lol. It's a compliment.
Your posting in this thread is analogous to a dog dragging it's ass across the carpet.
Athletes love the motivational notion of "Stay Humble, Stay Hungry" or so Rise and Grind Twitter would have you believe. But there is something to being humbled that forces a choice upon you, are you introspective and work to correct things or do you presume it was a fluke, bad luck, and keep on keeping on. There's no guarantee the former will produce new and better results, but I would much rather trust the person who commits to learning from mistakes than presuming things will get better without adjustment.
That said, there's a vast chasm between "committed to improvement" and "demonstrates improvement."
Sounds like refinements and improvements are going to be made in the offense from the top down, and the bottom up. Great stuff. Very encouraged about next year, even with the tough schedule. Great stuff. Thanks for posting.
was that, when Harbaugh realized his QBs hadn't seen zone coverage in practice, he said, "I couldn't look at myself in the mirror." That was probably the point at which this offseason was going to result in big changes.
Can't you just fix that in practice? I mean, spring ball doesn't seem like it's that long compared to an entire season.
The second best part is that his presence will bring Denard around A2 more.
In the bits that Sam posted yesterday I don't recall Harbaugh mentioning Kareem Walker when he spoke about the RB group. It's possible I missed it as I was listening to the Podcast while driving.
Cool. That's good. I really hope Walker can push Evans and Higdon.
One thing I liked hearing is that Harbaugh mentioned they have to get Evans out in space more. I've wanted to see them do this for a long time. I never thought Evans was a between the tackles runner and if they were more inventive with him, he would be very explosive. How great would Evans do with short dump off passes?!?!
Most of the things Harbaugh touched on mirror a lot of things us fans were clamoring about last season. I'm cautiously optimistic that 2018 can be a game changing season.
I loved the comment that, " we had way too many plays that we didn’t run enough over the course of the season." I saw the same plays (like that ad naseum running play with 1 WR on the field) run 10 or 15 times per game againstdamn near everyone we played. We magically saw a playbook against Wisconsin and OSU but why hadn't we run these plays all year? You can't hide every damn thing just waiting for OSU. Then you're not nearly prepared.
March 15th, 2018 at 10:26 AM ^
with Harbaugh. He takes decisive action (even if it was in the background, as I believe it was with Warriner and Drev) and slots everything into place.
When he said he was going to do some review of the offensive performance, I just took that as coach speak. But now I think he is really serious about that.
He has some really valuable qualities.
A) He's a good coach in and of himself.
B) He isn't too proud to take on other coaches, even if they have slammed him in the past (McElwain) or come from a rival (Warriner).
C) He isn't wedded to a scheme, it sounds like.
D) He's honest enough to self criticise, but self criticise in a way that's obvious he reflected on it. "We didn't give enough of the right looks to the offense...." vs "we have to improve".
March 15th, 2018 at 10:26 AM ^
with Harbaugh. He takes decisive action (even if it was in the background, as I believe it was with Warriner and Drev) and slots everything into place.
When he said he was going to do some review of the offensive performance, I just took that as coach speak. But now I think he is really serious about that.
He has some really valuable qualities.
A) He's a good coach in and of himself.
B) He isn't too proud to take on other coaches, even if they have slammed him in the past (McElwain) or come from a rival (Warriner).
C) He isn't wedded to a scheme, it sounds like.
D) He's honest enough to self criticise, but self criticise in a way that's obvious he reflected on it. "We didn't give enough of the right looks to the offense...." vs "we have to improve".
March 15th, 2018 at 10:53 AM ^
March 15th, 2018 at 11:13 AM ^
devoted to power football, but how he gets there is open; unlike RR here or Mooch with the Lions.
March 15th, 2018 at 10:55 AM ^
Whether the changes coming out of the self-scouting works or not remains to be seen, but it is hard to claim that the changes that have already been made, including getting rid of one his long time friends like Drevno that Harbaugh is just engaging in "coach speak. He made a serious upgrade in terms of track record at the biggest postiion of need - the OL - and obviously replacing a GA with McElwain (like him or not as a head coach) is a huge upgrade. The addition of 2 other coaches who have good recruiting reps is also an upgrade. I think it also shows that Pep may not have been as responsible for the downgrade in the passing game as he is being given "credit" for.
March 15th, 2018 at 11:16 AM ^
the tome of a play book, yeah, maybe. The QB play, absofreakinglutely
March 15th, 2018 at 11:43 AM ^
The dumb as rocks people on this board who think they know better than JH will take this as confirmation that they were right.
March 15th, 2018 at 11:48 AM ^
March 15th, 2018 at 11:57 AM ^
It would be nice if they could do that mid-season, though. If your system doesn't allow for in season growth, change the system. Hopefully they are doing that now.....or at least get the oline working.
Except that he did change (tweak) the offense in-season. At some point, they completely scraped the zone blocking schemes and went straight power blocking. And the run game took off - literally. That, in turn, opened up the play action pass game a little. That the run game stalled some against UW and OSU is unfortunate, but somewhat predictable given the horrendous pass pro and complete lack of downfield pass game. But I do think they made the most of the changes they could make in-season.
As mentioned just above me, changes did happen. Drevno was moved from the press box to the sideline, the blocking schemes were completely changed, and three quarterbacks started in games.
The idea that they didn't adapt during the season is simply fiction. It's also irrelevant to this, which is Harbaugh discussing the staff's self-evaluation process and his determination that there were specific things to show the players in camp that could be improved.
It's not like they can spend two days of practice in Air Force week working on quarters. They have to prep for the teams they are going to play. What Harbaugh's talking about is equipping them with more experience seeing these looks beforehand. So instead of saying, "MSU runs quarters, this is what it looks like," it's "we're playing MSU, so let's revisit what we know about quarters."
He also wants his QBs to be a bit more rounded in their fundamentals so that they don't develop flaws like consistently erring high.
March 16th, 2018 at 11:15 AM ^
"and three quarterbacks started in games."
Are you joking? That was not by choice....
This might have been a case of Harbaugh's love of competition- ones verus ones- actually hurt the time. While the offense can't dictate what the startiong defense runs, it (and especially the head coach) does have more of a say in how practice is run, and what the scout teams run, especially in spring and early fall camp.
This might have been a case where Harbaugh's intense love of competition- in the form of ones versus ones- actually works against him While the offense can't dictate what the startiong defense runs, it (and especially the head coach) does have more of a say in how practice is run (how much ones vs ones, versus ones versus scout, etc.), and what the scout teams run, especially in spring and early fall camp.
March 15th, 2018 at 12:35 PM ^
It's kind of wierd to think about the too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen situation they seemed to have last year with offensive play calling, and then read that they only had a grad assistant coaching the WR group. "Hey Pep, head over to the WR room for the rest of the season, OK?" And how do you recruit WRs effectively when they get to campus and the current WR crew tells them some no-name grad assistant is their main coach?
While I'm encouraged that Harbaugh has recognized some issues from last year and is correcting them, I feel like for every (+) he gets for the correction, there's a corresponding (-) for creating the issue last year. I guess I'm surprised as an experienced head coach he didn't avoid the issues in the first place.