Michigan Football, Team 140, 2019 Season

[iam416]

Good deal

[Jeff Buchanan]

The hole that Mattison left was quickly filled by Shaun Nua from ASU. He's a west coast recruiter. I'm impressed with Harbaugh's youth movement and apparent diversity in recruiting regions of the new hires.

Only unanswered question is where is Pep Hamilton going to land?

Also, the Mattison/Washington move to osu in the aftermath of the Harrison comitt looks fishy to me. Not that it's wrong, that kind of thing happens, but it seems to me, principals at M knew what was coming down possibly prior to the osu game. It may have affected players and coaches negatively and compounded the negative impact of the news of Aubrey Soloman transfer and Gary departure. Seems to me the collapse of Brown's defense at the end of the season may have had an underlying cause, at least in part, involving this stuff.

[hack]

Before The Game? Are you sure? I thought the Webb/Ross/Cook WTKA roundtable was an excellent discussion of that, and left me with the conclusion that it looks worse than it is.

[WingsFan]

Shaping up extremely well! Evidence that Brown can be flexible too, Nua has played and coached almost exclusively three man lines. Don't see the personnel to have the nose two-gap, but I think the ends are about to be more interchangeable and play more 6 and 4i

Harbaugh is starting to figure out he coaches college ball and not in the NFL anymore

All three new hires are young, energetic, career college guys who have recruiting chops. Nice to see Harbaugh go after someone who isn't a NFL cast off (Pep) or a guy looking to leverage us into something better right away (McElwain)

Good addition IMO

[WM Wolverine]

I've really liked what I've heard from Gattis in his limited interviews and really looking forward to hearing more about his offensive philosophy. He understands M's current issues on offense and what elite offenses do successfully. The issue is he's extremely limited in previous OC responsibilities and there is potential for him to not quite be ready to do what was hired to do: evolve M's offense to be as successful as it is talented. I like this hire a lot but it comes up short of a home run.. Really like the change of heart that Harbaugh has had in regards to handing over the offense to one offensive coordinator where just last off-season he preferred an offense by committee approach, it shows Harbaugh isn't the stubborn to change as some, even I feared. When you have too many people trying to put in their 2 cents, it's hard to get everyone on the same page...

re: Pep... He likely jumps back to the NFL if/when they have openings pop up, if the NFL doesn't take him he'll be M's very expensive QB coach as McDaniels hasn't officially been announced the WR coach... Pep won't go to another college, not with how much M is paying him...

Nua and Campanile both should be strong additions to the defensive staff, but they were much needed as M lost two awfully good position coaches and recruiters in Mattison & Washington to their biggest rival. Nua will be DL coach, Campanile should coach safeties while Partridge should move back to OLB/Viper where he previously coached...

Far more youthful coaches, Gattis, Nua and Campanile are all under 40 and have reputations as excellent position coaches and recruiters. Nua previously has only coached a 3-man front, I expect WAY more made about this than it deserves. Even if M does move to a 3-man front as it's base, it's hardly the dramatic change lots of fans like to make it out to be. M's personnel for '19 might actually even fit a 3-man front better than a 4-man front with DT being thin in both talent and numbers.

[hack]

Easy to have a positive outlook in January, but I agree that Harbaugh has had an excellent January. The notion of a 3-man front is clearly a good one given depth issues. Is the LB depth there? Uche becomes one in that configuation, then Ross, Gill, Jordan Anthony, Cameron McGrone. Those last two were prized recruits; I'd hope they're going to be beating out Gil.

[WM Wolverine]

Two major early entries and a big transfer at DT hurt M's personnel in the front seven. Hoping McGrone or Anthony can beat out Gil at WLB as the opposition knew to target Gil when he was in.

[iam416]

Seems to me the collapse of Brown's defense at the end of the season may have had an underlying cause, at least in part, involving this stuff.

This is the single best part of Washington and Mattison coming to Ohio State. Yet ANOTHER excuse for a loss to Ohio State. I thought the 62-39 game would be tough to excuse away, but I knew it could be done because 2015 was. As soon as those two came aboard the path was clear.

2015: DJ Durkin had one foot out the door
2016: OFFICIALZZZ!!!!
2017: Great Gameplan, Outplayed OSU at 21 of 22 positions -- O'Korn!!!
2018: SABOTAGE!

[WM Wolverine]

You read way too much Mgoblog.

[iam416]

Well, that's true. Those sentiments have been echoed here, though. Not unanimously or even by a majority. But, still, CRAZY.

Anyway, the far more interesting discussion point is how the current roster fits what Gattis wants to do and how much change do you expect? It seems like the roster is in a good spot to transition with good skill WRs and a natural spread QB. There are players who will go from having some value to no value, though, if the changes are sweeping. I really have a hard time seeing M going too far adrift of where they were in 2018. But, I think you could make some modest changes that would be transformative without necessarily brooming some of the formational shit HARBAUGH!!! likes.

[WingsFan]

Way to many times Michigan has been very predictable whether by personnel, down/distance/, or simply formation. People do what they feel comfortable with when they feel pressured. Hopefully we will see a more aggressive offensive approach along with being able to take advantage of what the defense gives them, attack weaknesses, get the ball to play-makers quickly, and create spacing. Also when the time comes does Harbaugh allow Gattis to make the tough calls?

Now I am not saying he can't voice his opinion because he is the head coach and will be the one that people go after when bad play-calling happens, but for me it is the little things of him being more of a CEO type of coach than a control freak where he has to have input at every single thing. Your hiring these guys along with paying them top dollar so allow them to do their job and feel like they can do their job without second guessing them at every call.

[WingsFan]

The notion of a 3-man front is clearly a good one given depth issues.

Brown used a lot of 3-3-5/3-2-6 at BC we haven't it here, but he has gone after a ton of hybrid linemen with the ability to play the front


Though Its getting to the point that fronts, even or odd are becoming archaic. Clinics any more seldom mention fronts, they are 100% fundamentals. gap responsibility, pursuit angles, tackling, and coverages. Regardless of base all top defenses have the ability to stem to different front and then play a different look. More important to able to disguise and move than it is where you start.

[hack]

I don't recall a lot of three-man fronts this year, but Brown used them more in 17 IIRC.

[Jeff Buchanan]

IMG's Jon Jansen had Josh Gattis on his show "In the Trenches" late last week. His show is a Podcast. I try to wait for the transcript of such things. 247 Sports, The Michigan Insider, published a story yesterday containing most of the key points. There appears to be nothing startling and talk is a lot different than what actually shows up on the field but, there are some clues in his interview with Jansen - who I like a lot - about what he's bringing to Michigan's offense.

I think there is potential for Jim Harbaugh, with respect to his comments about turning over the keys of the offense to Gattis, that he is doing nothing other than saying what the fans and his critics want to hear from him. That would be classic San Francisco Harbaugh. I believe that what we see in the 2019 season will still be very much JH's offense built around 2X personnel, heavy use of blocking TEs and FBs in the run game and a 60/40 run/pass mix - maybe 55/45.

Gattis is going to bring to M's offense integration of whatever passing game evolves this fall that looks a lot like Saban's Alabama offense with Tua. In his year working with Saban, Gattis helped Alabama jump from 77th to third nationally in passing yards. In his career stretching across 4 years, he's had 17 pass-catchers with 700-yard seasons. By comparison, Michigan has had just three such players in four years. Gattis mentions the use of 1X personnel, spread concepts and the RPO. I think there is a pretty good chance you are going to see a more heavily used Shea Patterson - already a very efficient passer who wasn't used enough in a passing attack - in M's game plans. I think we'll see 1X personnel (which implies 4 wides or variations of four or more receivers deployed in spread concepts) more often in 2019.

The stuff we've been concerned with here - run less, pass more - is going to happen in the context of Harbaugh's well understood football philosophy of designing an offense around over-powering your opponent. I think what we'll see, though, what will change, is timely and adroit integration of pass plays out of 1X formations to move the chains. Too often, M found itself in unfavorable 3rd down to go situations. It couldn't over-power opponents in those situations to gain a first down and keep the chains moving or it stalled in the red zone resulting in a FG try. It's deflating to an offense and invigorating to an opponent. Just the reverse of what Harbaugh hopes to do in a game. With repeated 3 and outs the defense gets tired too. That's another thing Harbaugh wants to do - play offense to a strong defense. That clearly didn't happen v. ND, osu and UF and troubling trends emerged v. IU and others.

I think we'll see less unfavorable 3rd down situations because, if Gattis is actually calling the plays, if a first down play, run or pass, doesn't get 4-5 yards, Patterson and his receivers are much more likely to be called on to get the first down on the 2nd down play. Keep ahead of the chains, not behind them. I know I was frustrated by the lack of pass plays in situations just like this during the 2018 season. First down play gets stuffed, did we see a good route run by more than 2 receivers that led to a throw and catch for a first down? Nope. We saw a pass called sometimes, but, if I went back and looked at formations, it tipped the defense off, defenders dropped and the play was made much more difficult for the QB to complete the pass for a first down. We saw lots of outlet passes, both quick throws and drop backs, thrown for completions short of a first down. WTF was that, was our typical response. We also saw too many of these low percentage deep throws into defenses that were prepared for them. I think Gattis is going to change that if he's actually calling the plays. If Harbaugh is calling them, let's hope he's listening to Gattis.

https://247sports.com/college/michigan/Article/Michigan-offensive-coordinator-Josh-Gattis-unpacks-vision-for-Wolverines-footballs-offense-128003413/

[WM Wolverine]

Sam Webb seems to think Pep is staying. Fans won't like it but M's offensive issues predate Pep and are the same issues M has had since Harbaugh was hired. Harbaugh was the OC and Gattis should be the OC.