Monday, September 23, 2019

Michigan Monday: Why?

I started my post game article with a picture of Captain Obvious.  The reason I did that is because everyone can see the issues Michigan has.  Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst was rumored to have said, "this is the worst defensive line you will see all year".   Wisconsin just got done running up the score on USF and CMU.  

The media also took the bait and decided to write a ton of articles on what is wrong with the Wolverines.  Many of these folks are fine journalists, but that isn't the story, the story is why?

Harbaugh coached with energy and passion at Stanford, 49'ers, and the first couple years at Michigan.  Then something happened and he became a robot coach.   Is he like that in staff meetings?Is he like that at practice? Because he sure is a Robo Coach on the sidelines. 

Why?

If your ill a good doctor doesn't just treat your symptoms, he or she treats the person and what is causing the symptoms.   As Michigan fans, everyone and their brother can see the symptoms very clearly, what we don't know is what is causing them.  

This is why Jimmy makes the big bucks, everything starts and stops at his desk.   Has he lost this team?   The buzz coming out of the 49'ers locker room is that they were done with Jimmy's antics and had tuned him out.  That organization couldn't divorce themselves from Jimmy fast enough.  Is there something going on at home?  I don't know.  

I do know Don Brown is not helping.

Michigan under Jimmy has always had a good to great defense.  Tape is out how to beat Don's defense and everyone has it.  I like Don and he would be great to have a beer with, but he is an old dog without any new tricks.   I don't know who the hell should run the defense the rest of the year, but it shouldn't be him.   I'm guessing this is why he has had so many jobs.  Damn it Temple, Don could be your head coach right now. 

This isn't a surprise

It's been coming for nearly a year.  Michigan hasn't played well on the road in 10 years and its been nearly a year since they put "good play on tape".   The Peach scrimmage was foreshadowing for this years team, which spent the entire off season and fall camp not getting better.   

Can Michigan get better?

Sure they can and they can take Penn State a few years back as an example. Penn State got "boat raced" in Ann Arbor and ended up winning the Big Ten.  Michigan is a long ways from that but they do have the talent to get better with some better coaching and schemes.   Time to George Costanza Schembechler Hall.  With QB injuries we could see Joe Milton start on Saturday anyways. 


16 comments:

Goose said...

🔥Harbaugh today.

Docholliday said...

I just don't see the talent on the line on both sides of the ball to truly have a turn around. People know they can convert 4th and short, 3rd and short on us with the run. We get pushed back on both sides of the ball. Shea looked like he was guessing at the end of the game yesterday and was getting bailed out with some nice catches on jump balls. I agree Harbaugh looks completely different out there. My brother (who isnt a Michigan fan or college football fan) always tells me how much he hates Harbaugh because of his animated antics on the sidelines during games. I tell him all the time, you should see him now, he doesn't do anything like that in the past few years, and that I wish he would. He shows no emotion and there's no fire. I honestly wonder if he had a heart attack or stroke and a doctor told him to take it easy. Assumptions, of course. Since we're talking about possible coaches for next year, I wonder if Les Miles would take a call from Michigan. He once called it his "dream job".

Tim said...

Agreed with the above. I'm frustrated and discouraged. I agree, Donnie needs to go. I would have been fine with him leaving after the OSU game last year.


I know Jim wants to win more than I want him to win...but why doesn't he act like it? You post was spot on. Why is it so bad. Why are adjustments not being made? Why does our offense look like an 8th grade football team?

Then I think, who could fix this? Let's be real. Lincoln Riley is not coming to MI. Neither is Meyer. That is crazy to even think that. We went out of the box and got RR and it went south - fast. Then we got a Michigan man in Hoke and it was worse. Then another Michigan man in Harbaugh, who by the way, everyone lauded and praised and we all thought a perfect hire...until it wasn't.

If MI fires him this year he is owed (I think) $15 million. With the buckets of cash he brings to MI combined with the buyout I don't see him getting his walking papers this year unless it gets really bad (and it might?). Just my opinion.

Tough time to be a Wolverine fan and I don't see it getting better. I am stunned we are still in top 25 and we are favored by 4 TD's this Saturday. Not sure we could be a nursing home by 4 TD's.

Docholliday said...

Shea looked lost not yesterday, but Saturday.***

Cmfgoblue said...

If we dont fire him today than we are not serious about winning....

szanreno said...

The comments about harbaugh are puzzling. I didn't watch the game on Saturday as I had other obligations. Probably won't watch the reply either. This sounds like in business if a guy is retiring at the end of the year he usually checks out two or three months early. Wonder if there's something like that going down. I always thought from all the stories I read that he was very competitive when it all cost fiery coach. It will be interesting if not disheartening to see how this all plays out.

Goose said...

I have been a Harbaugh advocate for the last 4 years but Saturday changed my opinion. Maybe jim is short timing maybe he has lost the respect of his players maybe there is disunity at shembechler hall maybe it's all the above I dont know but Watching the game Saturday its undeniable that there is something seriously wrong in AA. Combine that with Jim's lack of success against top opponents & rivals in years past & that is why I now believe jim must go.

SecondChance said...

I expected a 8-4 season, now it could even be 7-5. The coaches are outmatched almost every game. When was the last time that the opposing team said Michigan was well prepared and had a great game plan ?

SecondChance said...

That South Africa trip tho .......

Goose said...

Maybe the problem is we are recruiting tourists instead of athletes.

Cmfgoblue said...

How do we have time for trips when we play that bad... watch the espn 150 years of college football and see how osu players react in practice... listen to the way Urban coached... its was intense...we have no chance anytime soon...something is going on in practice... what are they practicing?

Voice of Reason said...

I remember during the preseason when the talking head "experts" were saying that Michigan would be the next B1G champions and selected to the playoffs. What I thought at that time was with Josh Gattis being the new OC with a new system and having never called a game before, I figured it was premature since it usually takes an offense some time to work through the bugs and timing and therefore, I figured this would be a transition year but I would have been happy to be wrong.

Then our DC was justifying his defense being a sieve the last two games of 2018 saying that outside of about 19 minutes his defense was okay and that he was busy recruiting during the fall break instead of coaching his players. He never agreed that the book was out on his defense and that he would need to reinvent it for this year. Even in the NFL all of the OC/DC's know that they have to try to stay ahead of the curve even during the season. But what do I know?

Our Special teams last year never showed me anything that would make me believe that they were a championship caliber unit so I didn't know what they saw that I missed. So even though I didn't see it, if the experts said Michigan was a championship team then I am happy to be wrong.

When you look back at Wisconsin's 2018 8-5 season and read the tweets of their fans not knowing it was Wisconsin, you would swear that you were reading this year's Michigan fan tweets of panic. They are exactly the same. Wisconsin was blown out by Michigan and friggen Minnesota. They were ready to cut their wrists after the Minnesota game. This year, Wisconsin returned a very high percentage of their offensive and defensive production. Their defense wasn't much to write home about last year and this year they beat up on two weak teams and a Michigan team that didn't know which was was up, so the jury is out on their defense.

Michigan still has a lot of talent but very young and limited in experienced depth. Our returning production is not as high as Wisconsin's but we still should have played better. We have four out of five O-Line players that played and "beat the pants off of Wisconsin" last year, and when I see these same O-Line players play like a revolving door this year that tells me that the problem is not just on the players. The problem is between the ears of the players and the coaches, and I believe that the OC the O-line coach (sh-t the entire Offense) need to have a difficult conversation.

Don Brown needs to have an "intervention" and get some feedback from some other experts about what they are seeing. I also saw too many players that appeared to be out of position or missing assignments, so whose fault is that? He has a good defense (they held Wisconsin to one TD the second half) so he did make some limited adjustments so I think this defense can still be salvaged.

Harbaugh doesn't need to go, this is an opportunity to get his team back on the right track. I personally remember the 1984 year when Bo's team finished 6-6 and his team started out losing five out six games (that John U. Bacon spoke of). The adjustment that Bo made was all between the ears, it had nothing to do with schemes. He finished the year with a fearsome team and the next year Michigan went 10-1-1. I think this is potentially a defining year for Harbaugh, like Paul Chryst of Wisconsin was last year. They hung in there and we saw it with their teams. IMHO!!!

MichiganMan said...

Dude you wrote a book and you have no idea what you're talking about you are a typical delusional Michigan fan...
. I've been saying for two years Michigan is only at 9 to 10 win team... also been saying to fire Harbor but all I got was back lashes... Michigan will never ever win a championship I guarantee you that they just cannot recruit top athletes because of academic standards

dude1984 said...

Watched the game 3 times (once live and twice on film)…man the QB’s are doing an awful job of reading the defense….something close to what it should be:
-How many are on the line…5+ pass…4 or less next criteria;
-How many are in the box…8+ pass…7 or less next criteria;
-Where are the safeties…is there a safety pinching down at or below 11 yards from the LOS if yes pass, if no continue to next criteria;
-Where are the CBs i.e. press or soft coverage…if press run, if not target the receiver (or receivers) with soft coverage;

To me it looks like pass and to whom is decided before the ball is even snapped. Pass was usually the right call, but instead of forcing in a low percentage pass to a receiver that was double or triple covered they should have dump it off to “safety guy” on the short route and go from there.

There was at least half a dozen times where if the QB would have thrown to the guy running the shallow crossing route or RB running the flat they would have picked up at least 4 yards instead of forcing a ball into a dangerous and low percentage area for an incomplete pass. They need to start taking what the defense is giving.

Anyways, they can’t be holding on to the ball for more than 3 seconds…read from near to far (in order of completion percentage from high to low) and then run or throw it away if there is no pass available.

This offense won't fly until the QBs get it together. They're the point guard. It goes as they go (for the most part).

As for the D, they were over aggressive. Pretty much every play Wisconsin would go in motion, the man assigned the motion man would rush in after the ball was snapped even though the motion man didn’t run a route, so there was a void and a big gain because they’d run right to where that guy just was. Unless the motion man is running a route, they need to hold their spot. Also very sloppy tackling.

szanreno said...

"Voice of Reason" (Dudes) post had at least some substance, other than the usual fire Harbaugh we suck montra. Over and over again.

Unknown said...

Totally agree with the 9-26 blog regarding the defense. Seems like 99% of writers questions and comments are about the offense. M scored 39 at Ohio last season and left a couple of extra points on the field. IT'S NOT THE OFFENSE (if they stop fumbling) - IT'S THE DEFENSE !! In my 50+ years of watching this program I have NEVER seen a weaker LB crew. When has anyone seen a MLB make 0! tackles in a half of football (Army 2nd half) ? Wisconsin, Iowa, and MSU all recruit high school RB's and safeties and coach them into killer LB's. They recruit high school QB's and convert then into killer safeties. IMHO Michigan depends on too many football camp cone drill times. Recruit more FOOTBALL PLAYERS !
Mike M
Farmington Hills