Michigan Football, Team 140, 2019 Season

[Jeff Buchanan]

He stayed in Atlanta and went to the Aquarium with his family on the 30th. He was also spotted at the Coca Cola museum. His brother in law, Tom Crean, is the HC of the UGA basketball team. Crean is married to Jim's sister, Joani. Probably spent some time with him. Nothing to see here.

[hack]

Too bad Crean got a job -- he's fantastic in the booth, if you can get over the awkward moments.

[Rocky Bleier]

Zach Gentry going to the NFL. Great size and athleticism, but he can't block and drops a lot of passes. 5th round?

[hack]

Would have been nice to have him for another year, but sounds like the team needs to move on without its disgruntled faction.

[drok]

Hoping that means more WRs on the field.

[Jeff Buchanan]

If anything, Harbaugh has plenty of depth at TE. Pretty sure Gentry is getting his degree too. He'll need it. Best of luck to him.

[hack]

Hoping that means more WRs on the field.

Indeed.

[WM Wolverine]

Could make great catches but would drop easy ones too, plus wasn't a reliable blocker. He'll be missed as a weapon yet it shouldn't be a big step down to McKeon and Eubanks.

[froot loops]

He's going to be a good tight end in the NFL.

[hack]

Both are true, IMO. Michigan's offense can suck with him or without him, but given the right atmosphere in the NFL I could see him thriving.

Just read Winovich's press-conference transcript on mgoblog. That was nice. Winovich gave his all.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Here's some interesting stuff .......

A discussion popped up about Harbaugh's QB recruiting at mgobaord and, of course, some sideline discussions emerged. A point that I thought was valid was that Patterson underwent a significant change in scheme when he transferred from Ol' Miss to Michigan. I don't think I've seen anything posted anywhere that looking back on 2018 that he was not the best QB on the roster when he was named the starter. His performance in 2018 was very good. per his stats.

Two things about Patterson pointed out by this particular poster is that (1) the coaches may not have been comfortable with him throwing out of 11 personnel packages (3 wides, 1 TE and 1 RB) because of OT limitations and (2) for all intent and purpose in 2018 he's something close to a 2nd year QB - new system and new reads, one season as a starter in a completely different system with different reads. This circumstance led to a probably correct decision to practice and run predominantly out of 22 and 23 personnel formations.

I recall some use of "Ace" formations (also known as 12 personnel - or 1 RB, 2 TEs and 2 WRs). Same with "Trips" (also known as 02 personnel or 0 RBs, 2 TEs and 3 WRs) but by far the most used formation was the run heavy 22 and 23 personnel formations. We got PA out of these and the long developing deep routes that are getting a lot of criticism.

Patterson did run the RO play but in a very limited way. If there were RPOs - something we thought we'd see a lot of in August and before the start of the season becasue of Patterson's skill set - I don't remember them. RPOs are designed to be run out of run heavy formations with the QB in the shotgun. The reason for that is you want the defense to think run to get the backers or a S to step up. The QB makes this read and tries to advantage the offense by throwing a quick pass into areas vacated by these guys. If the these guys don't step up on the run fake or drop, the ball gets handed off. How and where receivers run their routes is also key to RPO success. It's not an easy play to inject into your game plan. It requires a lot of practice.

I read some comments by Pep Hamilton that were made, I think, before the Peach but were incorporated into a post Peach article at MLive. Pep said that he depends on Patterson to get the offense into the right call. What? If I saw a check down by Patterson into a different play during the entire season, I might have seen it a half dozen times. IOW, I don't think he did a lot of that and again this comes to the trust issue on the sidelines.

This all leads me to hope that the OTs are going to be sounder in 2019 - the experience and Warriner factor are players here. That may lead to more passing. Patterson has a full season of Harbaguh's offense and reads and Harbaugh may inject more passing concepts such as the RPO into his scheme. I don't think were going to see spread concepts, i.e., 4 and 5 WRs out of the numbered formations that you will see them in with the OL spread out between the hashes. I think practice time limits how many formations you can confidently put into your play-book. We don't pay enough attention to this limiting factor. If you are committed to one football philosophy like Harbaugh is, we're being unrealistic to think or demand that he will suddenly become Kevin Wilson like. With Harbaugh, a run heavy guy by identity everywhere he's been, I'm starting to think M's offense taking on the characteristics of, say, Mullen's UF that we saw in the Peach is wishful thinking held by too many fans. Not going to happen.

That doesn't mean we're not going to see improvements on offense that involve more passing but If I were going to bet on it, I'd bet we'll see changes that trend toward more RPOs out of typically run heavy formations with Patterson being very good at it. The long ball out of the PA, as we know it in Harbaugh's offense will remain a staple. I also think this clamoring for a replacement for Pep Hamilton is being over-played by fans for two reasons. (1) If he does move on, Harbaugh is not going to bring in Kliff Kingsbury, spread concept types. (2) Harbaugh is the OC. What Hamilton does is a reflection of what Harbaugh wants him to do.

I'm, as an M fan, starting to come to grips with this reality. As much as I'd love to see 5 wide receivers out there and 350 yards per game passing to those guys I don't think that suits Harbaugh or Patterson. I like Patterson as an RPO technician and with a better OL and another year of experience under his belt, I think that is M's strong suit on offense. I will be disappointed if M's offense doesn't move in that direction but I have a hard time thinking Harbaugh won't. The offense, as limited as it is right now and was proven to be in 2018, isn't going to win a lot of games that need to be won if Michigan football wants to move forward from 2018.

[hack]

If you are committed to one football philosophy like Harbaugh is, we're being unrealistic to think or demand that he will suddenly become Kevin Wilson like.

1. Well, it isn't football but you can look 100 feet to the east at John Beilein's program and see quite clearly the rewards of avoiding being committed to one philosophy, so to speak. Beilein's program went from something at one extreme end of the offense/defense spectrum to the other end of it.

2. That said I'm not convinced Harbaugh is committed to a specific philosophy. He was an early adapter of dual-threat QBs in the NFL. He seems, within the confines of pro-style football, to embrace quite a few ideas and concepts. Seems to be pretty open to grafting a few things on, whether they fit or not. If anything the offense at times looks far too much like an Al Borges offense -- jack of all, master of none; no real identity or bread/butter or cohesion. But, above all, it seems like they want to win their way, and want to do it so badly they're going to leave some easy stuff on the table. Borges hated bubble screens when it was obvious to so many observers that they would work. This year RPOs seemed to get that treatment.

In the current mgoblog podcast there's talk of Warinner being behind the Patterson keeps this year, and that Harbaugh and Pep didn't realize the importance of them. Dunno.

[WM Wolverine]

David Long to NFL, that hurts but not unexpected.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Hack, good points.

I'd like to think you "can graft a few things on whether they fit or not." My take is that practice time might only allow so much grafting. For example, the RPO fits well with the formations Harbaugh seems to like (22 and 23 personnel). So is the RO. I also think Chris Evans is an idea player for throws to him off an RPO play and M is already set up for quick throws to the slot or X receivers as the pass part of the RPO. Throws to the TE's who might chip block and then go short for a pass is another easy thing to do in Harbaugh's current scheme.

OTH, plays run out of the 11, 12 and 02 personnel formations are entirely different animal as I understand it and I'm not a coach so, I could be wrong about this. The reads for the QB are different and the OL blocking techniques are different. Is there enough time to practice these things? I don't know.

Unlike the Hokeorges offenses, I think Harbaugh's offense has an identity to it. I'm not particularly fond of it because it was inefficient, esp. inside the red zone. I thought it was a pretty good offense until it wasn't and that happened when DCs figured out they could make it one-dimensional by applying outside-in pressure versus M's weak OTs while mixing in some A-Gap blitzes on 3rd and long. Harbaugh's offense was highly, and I mean really highly, dependent on staying ahead of the chains - that means 4 ypc at least on first and second down so that third down's are manageable.

The offense was not completely bereft of first down throws to get 4-5 yards. We saw plenty of that. But defenses that put a priority on keeping M behind the chains on first and second down were problematic. I don't think Harbaugh, or whoever was thinking about this problem, did a very good job of solving it. The RO was one thing but it was run infrequently and I think that had a lot to do with wanting to protect Patterson. The RPO would have been a particularly nice thing to incorporate but I think that is harder to implement than we think it is.

To me there is a lot of synergy between offense and defense as it relates to Harbaugh's approach. When Brown was lighting it up on D, the minimalist approach Harbaugh took on offense worked fine. When he was getting gashed, it didn't and there was no back-up plan that I could detect. Things went to shit in a hand basket. As has been noted by others, play calling under those circumstances looked non-sensical with players reportedly getting frustrated and often confused about it as it departed farther and farther from what was practiced.

Re Don Brown's D collapsing v. osu and UF. I think Chase put it best in his very detailed post game interview that appeared at mgo (the one you noted). The best line was that our defense was no where close to what it was versus PSU when we played osu and the guys missing from our roster (when Paye and Gil went out) when we played Florida was a shadow of itself mid-season. So, this take of Winovich's resonates with me not as an excuse but as a realistic evaluation from an insider who is known to speak openly. He also made the point without making it that there was hangover from the osu loss that affected practices (not the Peach Bowl game itself) and that there were players who did play that weren't into it (not quitting but not making plays they usually make when focused). So, I may be a bit more willing to adjust my harsh criticism of that game and Don Brown's defense than I have been.

[Rocky Bleier]

David Long to NFL, that hurts but not unexpected.

That does hurt. His name was rarely uttered during a game.