Michigan Football, the 2020 Abbreviated COVID Season

[lineygoblue]

Meyer is going to USC. When he gets there he will basically lock down west coast recruiting. He'll be there for about 4-5 years, and 'retire' again for personal reasons.

Michigan will hire a Bo/Carr retread, and wallow in the mire for another decade.... and stuff ...

[THE_WIZARD_]

You are paying for the mistreatment of Brady Hoke...

[iam416]

Quality content from Talent. Thanks.

Wait, what? That doesn't sound like me.

Also, to be clear, as I stated when posting most of those thoughts separately, some are more out on the limb than others. Hack and Hannibal (and others) have done a good job of articulating contra views where appropriate. They haven't changed my mind, but I'm not fool enough to think I've got it all solved.

[AlabamAlum]

[WM Wolverine]

Bottom line; Harbaugh isn't quite the level of coach we hoped or expected. He's not the genius, QB whisperer/offensive guru, or an elite recruiter. The result is M is a very good (top 10) but not elite football program that is clearly a step behind the Buckeyes...

I think very highly of Ryan Day (and did as an OC), but he walked into a near perfect situation taking over for Urban who left him with massive amounts of talent & resources. We'll see how he handles big games, losing games, his defensive staff, and head coaching responsibilities.

[WM Wolverine]

Pac 12 football during Harbaugh's time there wasn't too good outside of Oregon, but building up that program for where it was imo was very impressive.

[iam416]

Bottom line; Harbaugh isn't quite the level of coach we hoped or expected. He's not the genius, QB whisperer/offensive guru, or an elite recruiter. The result is M is a very good (top 10) but not elite football program that is clearly a step behind the Buckeyes...

Concur.

I think very highly of Ryan Day (and did as an OC), but he walked into a near perfect situation taking over for Urban who left him with massive amounts of talent & resources. We'll see how he handles big games, losing games, his defensive staff, and head coaching responsibilities.

Concur. I'm increasingly bullish on Day for a host of reasons unrelated to the results YTD. But, it's a 2-3 year process before we really know what we have. I absolutely take issue, however, with MGo's presumption that this was a bad or desperate hire or that it's all a crapshoot. UFM saw Ryan Day for 2 years. UFM is, IMO, very much invested in seeing Ohio State carry on as he left it (I think he probably bristles at bit at Croc fans who blame HIM for Muschamp's asshattery). UFM recommended Day to Gene Smith without qualification. Gene Smith knows Ryan Day. He was thrilled to hire him. I think Ohio State made an informed hire on the belief that Day is more than capable and also had the ancillary benefit of some continuity.

[Jeff Buchanan]

But, hey, we haven't answered the question of whether or not Harbaugh is medicated or burned out or something is medically wrong with him .......

I noticed you assiduously disregarded that shit. Good on you talent.

[hack]

His U of SD QB has bounced around the fringes of the NFL for more than a decade. So I take your point about the level of competition, but that surely says something about his ability to develop QBs. Even if you want to give him just a little credit for Luck -- and that may be fair -- you still have that on his record for QB development, as well as turning journeyman Alex Smith into a Pro Bowler, and crafting an elite offense around Kaep. Finally you can make the point that Iowa had benched Rudock, and he's in the NFL now after one season under Harbaugh in which the guy improved notably from September to November.

These are all data points that suggest that Harbaugh may be no QB whisperer, but that the problem isn't with his QB development. I bet that Shea and McCaffrey have the tools and if you could drop a competent coordinator in there tomorrow they'll live up to their promise immediately. I think the problem is that his offense, for whatever reason, can no longer put players in a position to succeed. He's most likely going to waste all of DPJ's career, and probably Nico Collins's as well. After all that talk about Chris Evans as a speed-in-space guy, Harbaugh ran him between the tackles mostly for the duration of his time here. It's clear that Shea thrives when using his feet, and is indecisive when not moving. Peppers never did anything on offense other than Pepcat. It's a great counterfactual to imagine moving him over from D to O in '15. He was the best RB on the roster the entire time he was here. The offense was never great the entire time he was here, and for good chunks of it there was no running game at all. The '16 defense I bet wouldn't have missed a beat, and the '16 offense would have been transformed.

[hack]

Wait, what? That doesn't sound like me.

Agreed but at the moment there are more pressing issues to investigate.

[AlabamAlum]

. So I take your point about the level of competition, but that surely says something about his ability to develop QBs. Even if you want to give him just a little credit for Luck -- and that may be fair -...

I think he is a good coach. But developing QBs is a small part of what a major college head coach does. To be a great head coach in CFB, you need to (1) Be a recruiting master. It needs to take precedence over virtually everything. Not so much in small ball. After recruiting, you go with (2) Surround yourself with competent staff and hold them accountable.

(1) and (2) are way more important than what comes after that: (3) personally develop talent and (4) X's and O's. In fact, taking care of (1) and (2) takes care of (3) and (4).

[WM Wolverine]

Don Brown's 3-3-5 was essentially a 4-2-5 in running situations with a LB plugging the middle. What I saw in first viewing was when M couldn't get to Taylor; the safeties, linebackers (Glasgow, Hawkins, & Hudson) would get caught up in the mess (biting too hard, over pursuing) and Taylor was bouncing outside for big gains. Defensive tackles (Jeter, Kemp) were getting pushed back making the linebackers/safeties jobs more difficult. The Dwumfour I saw last season should help in getting pressure but he wouldn't have helped in run support vs Wisconsin. Dwumfour should be healthy for Rutgers.

Really impressed with Wisconsin, first extended look at Coan and he was way better than I expected. Badgers are a really good team (top 10) who matched up very well vs Michigan. Haven't heard mentioned that M wasn't a threat to run the ball without a healthy Charbonnet, who was M's best blocking running back too. Patterson didn't look good and hasn't looked good all season when he did have time to throw but he still needs to make quicker decision on getting rid of the ball... Gattis is using a 2 TE set as his base offense, which doesn't fit his 'speed in space' motto. Don't you want to spread the field laterally with a 3rd WR, to make more gaps for your running back?

While this was a very ugly loss, it's a quality loss unlike say losing to Purdue.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I think he is a good coach. But developing QBs is a small part of what a major college head coach does. To be a great head coach in CFB, you need to (1) Be a recruiting master. It needs to take precedence over virtually everything. Not so much in small ball. After recruiting, you go with (2) Surround yourself with competent staff and hold them accountable.

(1) and (2) are way more important than what comes after that: (3) personally develop talent and (4) X's and O's. In fact, taking care of (1) and (2) takes care of (3) and (4).

...... I'd replace your (2) with poses exceptional organizational skills and make (3) Surround yourself with competent staff, hold them accountable.

[hack]

Agree that being QB Whisperer is not near the top of the list. I'm saying that I think that that part of him is probably still there, but in effect matters very little because of the things he's bad at, which, yes, are more important. I think my position here is evolving but coalescing around your (2) being the primary problem with Harbaugh. I think he's recruited fine. Not well enough to be a truly elite program, but, as discussed, he should be able to consistently deliver classes in the top 5-8 or so, and I'm OK with that. But I do think he's failed to find competent assistants and hold them accountable. I would add that in addition to those two things they also need to have an approach somewhat aligned with your own, and to be able to work well together. He brought Greg Frey on staff and reportedly Drevno sabotaged Frey that whole year. He's now got Gattis, and it's hard to say that he trusts him or should. Drevno and Hamilton stuck around and were paid a lot to deliver very mediocre performance. Finally, you've got to be able to retain them, or at least not lose them to lateral moves, as he did with Jedd Fisch. If Harbaugh continues, maybe the right offseason move is to double Fisch's current salary with the Rams. At least give it a try. He was the last one to properly utilize Michigan WRs.

[Hannibal]

Weren't there some rumblings a while back that Harbaugh was arm-twisted by Manuel into hiring Gattis?