Michigan Football, Team 138, 2017 Season.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Surpised that there has been no mention or comment on this.

Hannibal posted on the M/FSU game thread an audio interview of a guy he likes and I too feel is a very sharp M football observer and analyst, Super Fan. Here are the salient points I took from this:

He has no love lost for Jim Harbaugh. Feels he's created, perhaps restored, a culture that is blind to innovations that have appeared across CFB offenses. Most of us know of the stultifying nature of M football during the late Carr/Debord years. This, we don't care if you know what play is coming we are going to out-execute you, stuff. The Cronyism where retaining staff out of loyalty was more important than demanding performance. Super Fan is concerned this has returned. I'll note that this kind of sentiment is the same as I've heard from other M football observers that I respect.

He is no fan of Drevno saying there is no way that the talent on the OL should have been making the kinds of mistakes that were repeatedly being made late in the season, probably starting with the Iowa loss, if Drevno is the coach he is being made out to be. He asks, "who's interviewing or making job offers to Drevno for a job?" He asks, why was his contract just extended? Loyalty or performance? Certainly not the later if the OL he has put on the field is a measure of that.

He says he wants to see M under Jim Harbaugh, consistently win games that "they are not supposed to win" before he is going to endorse him as a great M football hire. He recalls the '97 team ....... this team was an underdog in several games that season but, they went in, on the road and beat MSU (23-7), PSU (34-8) and Wisconsin (26-16) to spring board a 20-14 win that year over osu in AA and a win in the Rose over Washington State for the NC.

He'll be disappointed if Harbaugh doesn't show those kinds of wins in his third year. That is the cut point for all great coaches and he won't anoint him as such until that happens.

This is just one guy calling it like he sees it but Super Fan, at least when I've listened to him, tends to break through the maze and blue colored glasses bull-shit that so often hampers critical analysis.

I'm not endorsing what he is saying but it needs to be said.

[iam416]

Your boy earns his money next year, IMO.

[drok]

Which is why it seems a bit premature to extend the contract.

[Jeff Buchanan]

This probably has some legs:

Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson may be replacing associate head coach-offense Pep Hamilton this off-season as well.

Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reports that Hamilton has been in contact with Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh about the possibility of returning to the college level. Hamilton is said to be "weighing a departure" to join Harbaugh's staff, which has a passing game coordinator/wide receivers coach position open.

Cleveland reportedly wants him to stay but Hamilton "likes being a college coach."

The two previously coached together for one season at Stanford. Outside of a five year stint at Howard and a four year stint at Stanford, Hamilton's entire 19-year coaching career has been spent in the NFL.

Hamilton has not been calling plays this season under Jackson. However, he's an integral part of the weekly game-planning.

247 Sports

I don't know squat about pep Hamilton. I know the Brown's are terrible and Hue Jacson has an NFL HC lifespan of about two more games where the Browns get creamed.

He seems to be a good fit as a WR/QB coach which is what Fisch did but I get a little antsy about the "these guys have worked together" thing. You pick the best guy, not the guy who comes to your house and plays nicely with your kids.

Dunno, man. Seems to advantage Hamilton to bail on the Browns if he actually has an offer in hand from M. Sure, he was responsible, you could say, for Luck's development. No idea if he's a good college level recruiter. JH probably knows so, I'll go with that.

[WingsFan]

Hamilton was a wide receivers coach with Harbaugh at Stanford and eventually became the offensive coordinator there under David Shaw. He would leave for the NFL in 2013 when he jumped to the Colts as their offensive coordinator.

Hamilton's probably going to further his career more by helping engineer a good offense at Michigan than he is helping to engineer a bad offense with the Browns (regardless of what happens in the draft this year.

[Wellington_beefhouser]

Wheatley Sr's wiki page has him listed as WMU Head Football Coach. Lol.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Hasn't been officially announced but I'd say Pep Hamilton is in the bag as Jedd Fisch's replacement. What does this mean?

It means that on the offensive side of the ball, Harbaugh, Drevno and Hamilton have all worked together in the same sort of offense at different times and at both Stanford and SF. This is probably a good thing.

The link below talks about New England's offense and I use it because I think that is what JH is trying to do with M's offense. This isn't a West Coast offense; it's an evolution of that. But all these guys have run it at the places they've stopped off at.

You can see it play out in M's offense when it is working against middling competition but it falls apart against elite defenses or defenses where th DC has properly identified weaknesses (right now, it's the interior OL and to a lesser extent, M's OTs against decent DEs). With Hamilton, QB play will probably improve. I don't know about OL play. I guess we'll see.

https://www.quora.com/2014-NFL-Season-Why-can-no-one-seem-to-duplicate-New-Englands-offense

[WM Wolverine]

Grant Newsome was our best offensive lineman for the ~4-5 games he played.

[edindetroit]

Hasn't been officially announced but I'd say Pep Hamilton is in the bag as Jedd Fisch's replacement.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/sports...h-pep-hamilton

[froot loops]

The only thing I know about Hamilton is he was a scapegoat in Indy. But that may have been fan BS. He seems like a good fit for Harbaugb, is good with QBs.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Peppers is officially on his way to the NFL as of about 2 hours ago per SI.

http://www.si.com/college-football/2017/01/10/jabrill-peppers-michigan-nfl-draft-2017

[Rocky Bleier]

Hope he finds a position in the NFL. His career was strange. Came as a CB. Missed most of his freshman season. Played Safety and Linebacker, too. Only had one interception. Didn't play in a bowl. Didn't get a hell of a lot of experience at any position. He's smart and can adapt, but I think he'll definitely have a lot to learn.

[Hannibal]

Peppers is our football version of Mitch McGary. A can't miss 5* athlete who lived up to his billing, but thanks to a combination of injuries and other issues, we got the absolute bare minimum out of him that you can get out of a guy before he leaves early.

[hack]

We rode McGary to the Final Four, which is a pretty legit result. Not at all the bare minimum. As time passes that finals loss is going to be harder and harder to stomach. Shoulda been ours.

[hack]

Hope he finds a position in the NFL. His career was strange. Came as a CB. Missed most of his freshman season. Played Safety and Linebacker, too. Only had one interception. Didn't play in a bowl. Didn't get a hell of a lot of experience at any position. He's smart and can adapt, but I think he'll definitely have a lot to learn.

Strange is a good word for it. Odd combination of on the field and brilliant, yet never a transcendent moment or a play that just blew up the game for us. He needed that to cement his place in the lore, and it never came. The OSU game was his chance. Mostly I'm left wondering why they used him as they did on offense.