At this point, at least one of the following is true:
1. Warde woefully mismanaged succession planning with Harbaugh/Sherrone over the last couple of years. Knowing that Jim was going to continue listen to NFL offers (at best) or actively pursue them each year, the program looks embarrasingly unprepared.
2. Warde is so hamstrung by regents, et al, with respect to NIL, staff hires, spending authority, etc. that his lack of agency ensures the department continues to look embarrasingly behind a growing pile of mid-tier P5 universities.
I don't blame Warde for Jim's departure; Jim was always going to chase a Lombardi.
I do blame Warde for contributing to the continued embarrasment that the self-styled "Leaders and Best" are covering themselves in. He is either incompetent, unwilling/unable to expand his agency to effectively advocate for his department, or both.
Leaked by the Athletic Department (Warde) to save face or to speed Jim’s decision making process up, or leaked by Jim’s camp to speed up LA or other NFL teams with interest?
If Harbaugh actually leaves, I think you send several Brinks trucks to DeBoer's driveway. If he turns them away (as I suspect he would), Sherrone should be the next conversation.
It is hard to describe just how broken the UW program was under Jimmy Lake. I expected the DeBoer hire to right the ship, but nowhere near as quickly as year 1, and few expected he would have the Huskies at this year's ceiling in year 2.
He's a midwest guy, and an expert culture builder. He'd be a home run hire.
I am a lifelong Wolverine fan and have been rooting for them for 40+ years.
My 3 sons completed undergrad at UW, and I have been a Washington season ticket holder going on 5 years now. What DeBoer has done with this team is incredible, rescuing it from the trash fire Jimmy Lake made out of Peterson's work.
I am watching this game alone tonight due to work obligations, but I have no conflict. GO BLUE!
Neuheisel doesn’t like Harbaugh because Jim allegedly punked him while shaking hands after Stanford beat one of his teams. Something like an over aggressive handshake/slap on the back with a “How’d you like THAT, Ricky?”
The co-host, Chris Childers, is a clownshow prone to faux outrage and overreaction.
UM’s use of dirt needs to be coordinated and leaked to multiple outlets- NOT the NCAA or B1G. The regulatory bodies don’t give a shit. The targeted PR campaign-enabled hit job that has played out over the past several weeks was a masterclass in political opponent nullification. Follow that blueprint— or STFU and take your beatdown every time in the court of public opinion.
This is where I am. Petitti is largely irrelevant, and the root of it all is how the conference--to include some of its member institutions--has operated. I hope the discussions that have been reported on lately are more substantive than pre-hearing bluster. UM should be exploring all options aggressively, irrespective of what actions the B1G takes from here.
Petitti is simply an avatar. The breach of trust is not repaired by his exit.
The root of the issue is that any conference who would treat ANY of its member institutions as poorly as the B1G has treated UM lately is not worthy of a continued relationship. The fact that UM has been a "good soldier", flagship, and one of the two biggest brands in the conference for time immemorial was not enough to get simple due process or a modicum of fairness out of the conference. I don't think that changes with a simple change in commissioner.
I hope the rumored discussions with other conferences have been substantive, and that UM is at the very least exploring an exit strategy, rather than just posturing.
This is the guy that spent a years-long crying jag over the Patriots “deflategate” exposed his lack of understanding basic pressure/temperature linkages. He even went so far as to blame angry Patriots fanz for knifing his tires.
He is a grade-A shitheel and doesn't deserve a press credential, much less a Heisman vote.
It is obviously taught/coached by Lanning and his staff, and they do it often, going back to last year. I hate it for the team because they've got many super-talented, physically imposing and tough kids that don't need that embarrassing jackassery by their coach.
Two obvious dives in this game: their best corner (#5 K. Jackson) in the first half, and the egregious Ferguson dive late. The fact that Ferguson couldn't decide on which leg to grab was funny. Watching him unable to put much weight at all on it as the trainers helped him to the field, then jog, limpless to the exit after their kicker missed and the UW students mobbed the field a few seconds later was even more amusing.
This team seems like they did not learn a single lesson about overconfidence and execution from that TCU loss. All summer and fall they’ve been listening to all the outside hype about all the returning talent, “unfinished business”, etc.
This ends up a 2- or 3-loss team unless they get a significant diet of humble pie from the staff quickly.
I think this team misses Biff more than people realize, culturally and operationally.
The staff upheaval during the suspension has certainly created operational problems and communication challenges on game day, but JIm’s influence and presence has been there during the entire week of practice.
This week they did not look like the #2 team…in the B1G East.
I’m hopeful this performance serves as the wake-up call that everyone is praying it is.
Tangentially: OSU's SID sure seems to be working hard to get signees to claim that they turned down significantly more money [Keinholz (made this claim about Washington of all places), and 5-star WR Inniss more recently] in the wake of Day's earlier comments about needing "about $13M" to keep their roster intact. All this comes quite recently, and amid other rumblings that their NIL isn't up to the standards of other places. Surely this is coincidental, no?
In a profession where too many guys are focused on hipster facial hair, performative faux drill sergeant ranting for any camera they can find, and shmedium golf shirts, UM is so fortunate to have Ben Herbert, who does nothing but develop young men into athletic freaks. Abigail deserves a massive amount of credit for running an elite fueling program in that Freak Factory as well.
Chris Simms has some strange disorder where he regularly acts on his need to trash successful people. His taeks on Brady and Belichick, for example are…interesting. I don’t necessarily think this is Florio poisoning, as Chris’ spectacular ability to flame out of two careers where his dad succeeded has to weigh heavily on a guy.
1. If a team is successfully using tempo on you, SUB WHEN THEY SUB. Failing that, you’d better have something else in your kitbag to manage it. Failure to adapt to this is embarrassing after having this exposed a few times in earlier games.
2. Run fits. Could’ve lived w/ taking my chances with Thorne pulling from time to time. He’s not running for 200/5. Walker should have met a crasher in the backfield on every single run read.
I am not advocating to replace #12 as the starter.
That said, I’d like to see QB play that includes at least the threat of a successful RPO read, pull, and a throw on a line (without a hump on it) to a receiver on a slant or otherwise breaking into space in the middle. There seems to be a vast difference between what we typically see out of Cade and what we see from QB play on multiple broadcasts on Saturdays.
Certainly, some of this is scheme/play calling, but often times the ball out of Cade’s hand doesn’t look very much like the ball out of many of these other top 25 teams’ QBs’ hands. Perhaps Gattis has seen an inability to snap off an RPO throw like that in practice, so we get what we get.
UW season ticket holder here, and you’re spot on. Jackson is largely only seeing KR reps, and some WR run with the 2s/3s. He was pressed into some PR duties last week due to injury, UW’s receiver corps was short handed the first couple of games, but since then he isn’t seeing many offensive snaps when it matters.
1. Clock management/operations in 2min. While somewhat improved this year, the team seemingly can’t get the playcall in and get lined up efficiently on a consistent basis. Some of this is on Gattis’ inexperience/indecision as a play caller, but Harbaugh has always struggled with it. Since one can’t swing a dead cat in the facility without hitting 9 analysts, make one of those analysts the Hurry Up Situational Football Grand Poobah/ Game Clock Czar.
2. Analyze/determine if Cade has the requisite make-up to deal with heightened adversity, particularly after taking a big hit or making an awful throw. He has been OK in relief or when provided a “clean inning”, but as a starter, we’ve seen twice this year and a time or two last year where he has been put into a spiral that he hasn’t recovered from.
3. In-game adjustments: Offense:staff needs to demonstrate greater awareness and ability to counter the opponent’s adjustments. The defense spent enough time on the field to afford Gattis the opportunity to stabilize things; that, uh, didn’t happen.
1. Coherent game plans for all 3 phases for every game; no unit looks unprepared, ever.
2. Clock and TO management: the routine burning of 20+ seconds of play clock while behind and late, use of TOs immediately after change of possession/start of the quarter, and general lack of urgency & organization is unforgivable.
3. Juice. The team needs to be equally motivated at home and on the road, whether favorite or underdog, rain/shine, night/day, situation immaterial.
4. Mental toughness. No more turtle act when the team gets hit in the mouth.
Bottom line: be well coached and competitive, show fight until the final gun.
The first time the banner looks too high as the team runs beneath it; or the disorganized mess on both sides of the ball so prevalent last year shows up; or the team taps out under duress, he needs to be left in the parking lot.
I’d love to hear Mr. Persi’s take on who he believes is responsible for clock management, particularly when a team is behind late in the half/4Q. What handcuffs have been imposed on JH (and by whom) that have caused his team to routinely butcher end of half /end of game scenarios every year?
Would also love to hear what handcuffs have been put on JH (and by whom) that have impeded his team’s ability to develop and maintain a culture where it’s not OK to routinely come out flat/unmotivated, particularly on the road.
What restrictions are in place that prohibit JH from ensuring that his team doesn’t often appear unprepared against significantly lesser-talented opponents?
At some point, folks need to realize that as a leader, you’re responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen on your watch. There are a few imperatives for a HC: culture, trust, accountability, preparedness, clock management. There isn’t always some larger conspiracy when the HC can’t get those right (or at least trending positively) after several years.
That 4-8 Kelly team was competitive in all but one of their games, continued to fight, and hadn’t checked out on their coach. That team was quite different than the disorganized, take 6 minutes to run a 2 minute drill, unmotivated, confused mess we saw after the opener this fall.
While the B1G is a clownshow, I’d love to watch them take IU’s allocation of conference revenue from the postseason and give it to the rest of the members. Between this, their routine catering to OSU, and Nebraska’s antics around Covid-related season cancellation, how much longer do you think the B1G remains publicly unresponsive to members punking them?
This is the long pole In the tent for me. Zero energy, a complete lack of anything resembling a sense of urgency—both at the macro- (coming out of the tunnel, you’d swear the banner is set up too high this year) and micro-level (have you ever seen a team that doesn’t huddle waste more clock when down two scores and late?). That’s 100% on the head coach, whether it be not setting the right tone/culture or not recruiting enough of the right personalities to help build that culture from within the locker room.
Inexperienced teams that start many underclassmen can indeed struggle. It takes time to learn complex, nuanced systems and to adjust to the speed of the game at the college level; all of which are excusable to a point.
Routinely coming out flat/unmotivated, failing to make appropriate in-game adjustments, and—in every late-game scenario when down a score or two—struggling to get the play call sorted out and ball snapped until the play clock is inside 10 seconds on every single play has absolutely nothing to do with youth and everything to do with culture and organization—both of which lie solely at the feet of the head coach.
Harbaugh’s teams have nearly always butchered 2 minute drills whether senior-laden or very young, regardless of the system. Have you ever seen a team that never huddles burn more time than this one? His teams—whether full of seniors or very young— have nearly always come out flat, particularly on the road. More often than not they have folded at the first hint of adversity.
Go back and re-watch the team running out of the tunnel the last couple of games— devoid of energy to the point where one would think the banner is up higher this year for some reason.
This isn’t a youth problem; it’s a leadership problem.
Pros: within 2 hours, I can be in the mountains, the Pacific coast, major metropolitan areas, a rain forest, or high desert-ish steppes. The economy is doing well. No state income tax. Tons of outdoors to enjoy. Public education has been great. The weather is not as bad as advertised and UM plays here in 2020
Cons: no state income tax means property and sales taxes continue to rise to keep up with state budget demands. Increasing animosity driven by political tribalism: generally the affluent liberal elitist hypocrite tree huggers from the Bellingham-Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia I-5 corridor vs. the redneck out of touch racist hayseeds everywhere else. Significant drug and homelessness problems in the Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia area.
Forget individual player talent level/effort or who was missing for this game for a moment.
1. Consistently snapping the ball with 5 seconds left on the play clock while you’re down 3 scores.
2. Delay of game penalties coming out of a timeout.
3. Lack of a sense of urgency during critical moments.
4. Failure to make adjustments or adapt schemes/play calls. Series to series and game to game
5. Conditioning lapses. Frequent cramping/fatigue issues seemed to show up in the 1st, 12th and 13th games for some reason
All of the above are squarely on the head coach.
JH is either cognitively/intellectually overmatched or his offensive system is too complex to be effective. His clock management and the inability of the offensive system to “go fast” is direct evidence supporting this.
Dudek and the staff have collected some fantastic groceries and we get spam salad week to week.
As for Don Brown: the last two games (three, really) have exposed an inability to account for the fatal flaws in his system. There is plenty of talent, speed, and aggressiveness on the field, but when faced with like (or superior) talent, speed, and aggression— the system has fallen apart rather spectacularly.
The fix? (Short of blowing it up, which would be colossally dumb)
A. Hire an innovative OC and give him complete unfettered control of the offense. JH needs to become CEO and stay out of the play calling. Hire an intern clock management whisperer to help the new CEO not make Andy Reid-level stupid decisions in clock management.
B. Don Brown gets consultant “help” in the back end, with an eye toward getting away from the one-trick trap coverage on occasions when he’s getting short crossered to death. We can’t rely solely on CB talent in man coverage any more.
C. Take a look at the overall conditioning program, including the physicality of some practices. The team seemed sluggish and beat up at the end of the season. Maybe some adjustment keeps them fresher. Truthfully, when games got tough in the losses, there seemed to be a ton of guys getting cramps or otherwise limping off; I’m not sure if that is a conditioning staff/approach fix or an overall philosophy/mental toughness issue (which would be on JH).
Recent Comments
Someone ask Underwood if that was indeed nothing they haven’t seen in the B1G.
Cyan Day: bought one chip to save his job. Time will tell if the check clears for the second one.
At this point, at least one of the following is true:
1. Warde woefully mismanaged succession planning with Harbaugh/Sherrone over the last couple of years. Knowing that Jim was going to continue listen to NFL offers (at best) or actively pursue them each year, the program looks embarrasingly unprepared.
2. Warde is so hamstrung by regents, et al, with respect to NIL, staff hires, spending authority, etc. that his lack of agency ensures the department continues to look embarrasingly behind a growing pile of mid-tier P5 universities.
I don't blame Warde for Jim's departure; Jim was always going to chase a Lombardi.
I do blame Warde for contributing to the continued embarrasment that the self-styled "Leaders and Best" are covering themselves in. He is either incompetent, unwilling/unable to expand his agency to effectively advocate for his department, or both.
It's time.
Leaked by the Athletic Department (Warde) to save face or to speed Jim’s decision making process up, or leaked by Jim’s camp to speed up LA or other NFL teams with interest?
If Harbaugh actually leaves, I think you send several Brinks trucks to DeBoer's driveway. If he turns them away (as I suspect he would), Sherrone should be the next conversation.
It is hard to describe just how broken the UW program was under Jimmy Lake. I expected the DeBoer hire to right the ship, but nowhere near as quickly as year 1, and few expected he would have the Huskies at this year's ceiling in year 2.
He's a midwest guy, and an expert culture builder. He'd be a home run hire.
I am a lifelong Wolverine fan and have been rooting for them for 40+ years.
My 3 sons completed undergrad at UW, and I have been a Washington season ticket holder going on 5 years now. What DeBoer has done with this team is incredible, rescuing it from the trash fire Jimmy Lake made out of Peterson's work.
I am watching this game alone tonight due to work obligations, but I have no conflict. GO BLUE!
Neuheisel doesn’t like Harbaugh because Jim allegedly punked him while shaking hands after Stanford beat one of his teams. Something like an over aggressive handshake/slap on the back with a “How’d you like THAT, Ricky?”
The co-host, Chris Childers, is a clownshow prone to faux outrage and overreaction.
I think there is a high profile inbound transfer, for sure. Whether Ward, Dante Moore, Manning is anyone's guess.
Why would "Air" Noland feel the need to confirm his commitment to OSU shortly after McCord's portal announcement?
https://x.com/AirNoland_/status/1731708803719061674?s=20
UM’s use of dirt needs to be coordinated and leaked to multiple outlets- NOT the NCAA or B1G. The regulatory bodies don’t give a shit. The targeted PR campaign-enabled hit job that has played out over the past several weeks was a masterclass in political opponent nullification. Follow that blueprint— or STFU and take your beatdown every time in the court of public opinion.
This is where I am. Petitti is largely irrelevant, and the root of it all is how the conference--to include some of its member institutions--has operated. I hope the discussions that have been reported on lately are more substantive than pre-hearing bluster. UM should be exploring all options aggressively, irrespective of what actions the B1G takes from here.
No. Wreck everyone and leave.
Petitti is simply an avatar. The breach of trust is not repaired by his exit.
The root of the issue is that any conference who would treat ANY of its member institutions as poorly as the B1G has treated UM lately is not worthy of a continued relationship. The fact that UM has been a "good soldier", flagship, and one of the two biggest brands in the conference for time immemorial was not enough to get simple due process or a modicum of fairness out of the conference. I don't think that changes with a simple change in commissioner.
I hope the rumored discussions with other conferences have been substantive, and that UM is at the very least exploring an exit strategy, rather than just posturing.
This is the guy that spent a years-long crying jag over the Patriots “deflategate” exposed his lack of understanding basic pressure/temperature linkages. He even went so far as to blame angry Patriots fanz for knifing his tires.
He is a grade-A shitheel and doesn't deserve a press credential, much less a Heisman vote.
It is obviously taught/coached by Lanning and his staff, and they do it often, going back to last year. I hate it for the team because they've got many super-talented, physically imposing and tough kids that don't need that embarrassing jackassery by their coach.
Two obvious dives in this game: their best corner (#5 K. Jackson) in the first half, and the egregious Ferguson dive late. The fact that Ferguson couldn't decide on which leg to grab was funny. Watching him unable to put much weight at all on it as the trainers helped him to the field, then jog, limpless to the exit after their kicker missed and the UW students mobbed the field a few seconds later was even more amusing.
Headed to join ol' Parker in his van down by the river, apparently.
This team seems like they did not learn a single lesson about overconfidence and execution from that TCU loss. All summer and fall they’ve been listening to all the outside hype about all the returning talent, “unfinished business”, etc.
This ends up a 2- or 3-loss team unless they get a significant diet of humble pie from the staff quickly.
All that talk all month about “preseason”, and “they just miss their coach”.
All this returning talent and they look like the third best team in their division.
Jim is back, conference opener at home. Time to live up to all the hype.
My kingdom for someone…anyone who will field a punt in the fucking air.
I think this team misses Biff more than people realize, culturally and operationally.
The staff upheaval during the suspension has certainly created operational problems and communication challenges on game day, but JIm’s influence and presence has been there during the entire week of practice.
This week they did not look like the #2 team…in the B1G East.
I’m hopeful this performance serves as the wake-up call that everyone is praying it is.
I suspect that the initial surge of NIL money is starting to dry up.
20th Maine. Joshua Chamberlain is a fascinating story of leadership.
https://247sports.com/college/michigan/Article/Michigan-football-Jim-Harbaugh-quarterback-coaching-search-Brian-Griese-Tee-Martin-203720517/
Sam apparently spoke directly to Harbaugh, who refutes the report of him speaking to Griese and Martin.
Tangentially: OSU's SID sure seems to be working hard to get signees to claim that they turned down significantly more money [Keinholz (made this claim about Washington of all places), and 5-star WR Inniss more recently] in the wake of Day's earlier comments about needing "about $13M" to keep their roster intact. All this comes quite recently, and amid other rumblings that their NIL isn't up to the standards of other places. Surely this is coincidental, no?
/s
Then we will fight in the shade.
When reached in Lawrence Phillips’ girlfriend’s closet, Frost declined to comment.
In a profession where too many guys are focused on hipster facial hair, performative faux drill sergeant ranting for any camera they can find, and shmedium golf shirts, UM is so fortunate to have Ben Herbert, who does nothing but develop young men into athletic freaks. Abigail deserves a massive amount of credit for running an elite fueling program in that Freak Factory as well.
Chris Simms has some strange disorder where he regularly acts on his need to trash successful people. His taeks on Brady and Belichick, for example are…interesting. I don’t necessarily think this is Florio poisoning, as Chris’ spectacular ability to flame out of two careers where his dad succeeded has to weigh heavily on a guy.
Note the absence of the bystander’s “Stop, Des, that man has a family!”
Having watched Jackson in person 7 times this year, I’d say UM is better off without him on the roster.
He was not impressive by any stretch as a KR and gave UW next to nothing as a #5 or 6 receiver—even when adjusting for Donovanian factors.
1. If a team is…
2 flakes:
1. If a team is successfully using tempo on you, SUB WHEN THEY SUB. Failing that, you’d better have something else in your kitbag to manage it. Failure to adapt to this is embarrassing after having this exposed a few times in earlier games.
2. Run fits. Could’ve lived w/ taking my chances with Thorne pulling from time to time. He’s not running for 200/5. Walker should have met a crasher in the backfield on every single run read.
I am not advocating to replace #12 as the starter.
That said, I’d like to see QB play that includes at least the threat of a successful RPO read, pull, and a throw on a line (without a hump on it) to a receiver on a slant or otherwise breaking into space in the middle. There seems to be a vast difference between what we typically see out of Cade and what we see from QB play on multiple broadcasts on Saturdays.
Certainly, some of this is scheme/play calling, but often times the ball out of Cade’s hand doesn’t look very much like the ball out of many of these other top 25 teams’ QBs’ hands. Perhaps Gattis has seen an inability to snap off an RPO throw like that in practice, so we get what we get.
It would appear Mike Locksley will need to wait another year for Full Membership status.
UW season ticket holder here, and you’re spot on. Jackson is largely only seeing KR reps, and some WR run with the 2s/3s. He was pressed into some PR duties last week due to injury, UW’s receiver corps was short handed the first couple of games, but since then he isn’t seeing many offensive snaps when it matters.
1. Clock management/operations in 2min. While somewhat improved this year, the team seemingly can’t get the playcall in and get lined up efficiently on a consistent basis. Some of this is on Gattis’ inexperience/indecision as a play caller, but Harbaugh has always struggled with it. Since one can’t swing a dead cat in the facility without hitting 9 analysts, make one of those analysts the Hurry Up Situational Football Grand Poobah/ Game Clock Czar.
2. Analyze/determine if Cade has the requisite make-up to deal with heightened adversity, particularly after taking a big hit or making an awful throw. He has been OK in relief or when provided a “clean inning”, but as a starter, we’ve seen twice this year and a time or two last year where he has been put into a spiral that he hasn’t recovered from.
3. In-game adjustments: Offense:staff needs to demonstrate greater awareness and ability to counter the opponent’s adjustments. The defense spent enough time on the field to afford Gattis the opportunity to stabilize things; that, uh, didn’t happen.
1. Coherent game plans for all 3 phases for every game; no unit looks unprepared, ever.
2. Clock and TO management: the routine burning of 20+ seconds of play clock while behind and late, use of TOs immediately after change of possession/start of the quarter, and general lack of urgency & organization is unforgivable.
3. Juice. The team needs to be equally motivated at home and on the road, whether favorite or underdog, rain/shine, night/day, situation immaterial.
4. Mental toughness. No more turtle act when the team gets hit in the mouth.
Bottom line: be well coached and competitive, show fight until the final gun.
The first time the banner looks too high as the team runs beneath it; or the disorganized mess on both sides of the ball so prevalent last year shows up; or the team taps out under duress, he needs to be left in the parking lot.
Doyle will remain in Jax’s employment until slightly before Urban’s health problems return.
I understand Mason and St Juste were on the field during the actual game. Not so much Ambry and Nico- what gives?
I’d love to hear Mr. Persi’s take on who he believes is responsible for clock management, particularly when a team is behind late in the half/4Q. What handcuffs have been imposed on JH (and by whom) that have caused his team to routinely butcher end of half /end of game scenarios every year?
Would also love to hear what handcuffs have been put on JH (and by whom) that have impeded his team’s ability to develop and maintain a culture where it’s not OK to routinely come out flat/unmotivated, particularly on the road.
What restrictions are in place that prohibit JH from ensuring that his team doesn’t often appear unprepared against significantly lesser-talented opponents?
At some point, folks need to realize that as a leader, you’re responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen on your watch. There are a few imperatives for a HC: culture, trust, accountability, preparedness, clock management. There isn’t always some larger conspiracy when the HC can’t get those right (or at least trending positively) after several years.
That 4-8 Kelly team was competitive in all but one of their games, continued to fight, and hadn’t checked out on their coach. That team was quite different than the disorganized, take 6 minutes to run a 2 minute drill, unmotivated, confused mess we saw after the opener this fall.
While the B1G is a clownshow, I’d love to watch them take IU’s allocation of conference revenue from the postseason and give it to the rest of the members. Between this, their routine catering to OSU, and Nebraska’s antics around Covid-related season cancellation, how much longer do you think the B1G remains publicly unresponsive to members punking them?
He did not. Apparently he says he remains solid to MSU, but is waiting until February to sign.
This is the long pole In the tent for me. Zero energy, a complete lack of anything resembling a sense of urgency—both at the macro- (coming out of the tunnel, you’d swear the banner is set up too high this year) and micro-level (have you ever seen a team that doesn’t huddle waste more clock when down two scores and late?). That’s 100% on the head coach, whether it be not setting the right tone/culture or not recruiting enough of the right personalities to help build that culture from within the locker room.
Inexperienced teams that start many underclassmen can indeed struggle. It takes time to learn complex, nuanced systems and to adjust to the speed of the game at the college level; all of which are excusable to a point.
Routinely coming out flat/unmotivated, failing to make appropriate in-game adjustments, and—in every late-game scenario when down a score or two—struggling to get the play call sorted out and ball snapped until the play clock is inside 10 seconds on every single play has absolutely nothing to do with youth and everything to do with culture and organization—both of which lie solely at the feet of the head coach.
Harbaugh’s teams have nearly always butchered 2 minute drills whether senior-laden or very young, regardless of the system. Have you ever seen a team that never huddles burn more time than this one? His teams—whether full of seniors or very young— have nearly always come out flat, particularly on the road. More often than not they have folded at the first hint of adversity.
Go back and re-watch the team running out of the tunnel the last couple of games— devoid of energy to the point where one would think the banner is up higher this year for some reason.
This isn’t a youth problem; it’s a leadership problem.
I have a pithy and important comment to post, but I’m going to wait until there are <7 seconds on the play clock to post it.
I’d love to comment, but I’m going to wait until there are <7 seconds on the play clock before I do anything.
Pros: within 2…
Olympia, WA
Pros: within 2 hours, I can be in the mountains, the Pacific coast, major metropolitan areas, a rain forest, or high desert-ish steppes. The economy is doing well. No state income tax. Tons of outdoors to enjoy. Public education has been great. The weather is not as bad as advertised and UM plays here in 2020
Cons: no state income tax means property and sales taxes continue to rise to keep up with state budget demands. Increasing animosity driven by political tribalism: generally the affluent liberal elitist hypocrite tree huggers from the Bellingham-Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia I-5 corridor vs. the redneck out of touch racist hayseeds everywhere else. Significant drug and homelessness problems in the Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia area.
Foskey?
Tom Herman named his sons TD and Maverick.
Forget individual player talent level/effort or who was missing for this game for a moment.
1. Consistently snapping the ball with 5 seconds left on the play clock while you’re down 3 scores.
2. Delay of game penalties coming out of a timeout.
3. Lack of a sense of urgency during critical moments.
4. Failure to make adjustments or adapt schemes/play calls. Series to series and game to game
5. Conditioning lapses. Frequent cramping/fatigue issues seemed to show up in the 1st, 12th and 13th games for some reason
All of the above are squarely on the head coach.
JH is either cognitively/intellectually overmatched or his offensive system is too complex to be effective. His clock management and the inability of the offensive system to “go fast” is direct evidence supporting this.
Dudek and the staff have collected some fantastic groceries and we get spam salad week to week.
As for Don Brown: the last two games (three, really) have exposed an inability to account for the fatal flaws in his system. There is plenty of talent, speed, and aggressiveness on the field, but when faced with like (or superior) talent, speed, and aggression— the system has fallen apart rather spectacularly.
The fix? (Short of blowing it up, which would be colossally dumb)
A. Hire an innovative OC and give him complete unfettered control of the offense. JH needs to become CEO and stay out of the play calling. Hire an intern clock management whisperer to help the new CEO not make Andy Reid-level stupid decisions in clock management.
B. Don Brown gets consultant “help” in the back end, with an eye toward getting away from the one-trick trap coverage on occasions when he’s getting short crossered to death. We can’t rely solely on CB talent in man coverage any more.
C. Take a look at the overall conditioning program, including the physicality of some practices. The team seemed sluggish and beat up at the end of the season. Maybe some adjustment keeps them fresher. Truthfully, when games got tough in the losses, there seemed to be a ton of guys getting cramps or otherwise limping off; I’m not sure if that is a conditioning staff/approach fix or an overall philosophy/mental toughness issue (which would be on JH).
Amazed by a couple of things in this thread:
1. The sheer number of Jethros
2. That they would get off their sisters long enough to come to a message board and gloat about a team that has been dogshit for the last decade.