Michigan Football, Team 138, 2017 Season.

[whodean]

Where is Devin Gardner quarterbacking these days?

[WingsFan]

Nojima Sagamihara Rise of the X-League Japan

[whodean]

3-6 record, but he was rookie of the year!

[drok]

Re: criticism of the players.

It comes down to pros vs amateurs. Criticize and boo the pros all you like but until the cfb players are paid, I draw the line there.


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[CGVT]

Yep. People tend to forget they are kids

[hack]

Criticize is cool. But within ? pretty clear set of limits.

[Rocky Bleier]

True. The key word is clear. Discussions make little sense if terms are not defined. What is "calling out a player?" What is "criticism?" Define "taking a crap on."

[Rocky Bleier]

Alot, so you're really sensitive to the sensitivity.

I find it humorous.

[hack]

Dunno. We probably all know it when we see it though.

[The Oracle]

Crawford is fine. Cramps.

[drok]

Has anyone been listening to the weekly Attack Each Day podcast with Jack and Jim Harbaugh? They will be on episode 5 this week. Not much to learn about Michigan but it's pretty charming to hear all of Jack's old stories and especially when Jim and Jack disagree on how a story went.

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[WingsFan]

Crawford is fine. Cramps.

Great news!

[Detroit Dan]

Crawford hasn't really shown much this year, from my observation. For example, yesterday he had 2 catches for 13 yards, 7th most yards amongst our receivers, despite being the starting wide-out, (He did have more yards than DPJ, the other starting wideout(?), but DPJ had a big one called back.) McDoom had no receptions.

I'd like to see more Schoenle and some of the other 2 freshmen.

Nevertheless, good news on Crawford. I hope he breaks out soon.

[Jeff Buchanan]

For the next two weeks, we’re going to have to suffer through ad nauseum discussions of who should be M’s starting QB. So, I’ll take first dibbs on the chalk board.

First things first. If Speight is not able to play due to his injury, the question is moot. Let’s talk about that. The mechanism of injury was hyperflexion (chin forced downward on the chest) of the cervical spine. He was moving his upper extremities after the injury and you could see the staff checking this. He most likely had an XR but not an MRI on Saturday. He probably had one on Sunday. We have good information that his cervical vertebrae are in tact; JH said as much in his post game interview. Good chance that the staff knows the extent of Speight’s soft tissue injuries now and knows how they will proceed with him. We won’t know, so, let’s speculate:



Take a look; the muscles of the neck and upper back are complex. The issue is going to be is there a strain or a tear (partial or complete) on MRI? If there is a partial tear in any of these muscles, Speight is not going to play v. MSU and may be out for a good while. 6-8 weeks for healing; the season if surgery is required to repair a complete tear tear. If the injury is a simple strain, whirlpool and physical therapy could have Speight back – I’d give it 60/40 he won’t play Saturday under these circumstances (a simple strain).

One other possibility for injury that would not be seen on an XR of the C-Spine: A herniated disk. 90% of these fix themselves (of course, depending on severity) but Speight is not going to play for a good while (again 4-6w) if this occurred and only if it is mild herniation. More serious herniation and those refractory to self-healing require surgical repair.

Next, I’ll talk about who plays if both QBs are able (assumes Speight suffered no debilitating injury to his neck).

[Jeff Buchanan]

Who plays if both QBs are able? If you’re Harbaugh, when asked, you’ll say it depends on who competes the next two weeks and looks the best in practice. Coach speak. The truth is there will be a lot that goes into the decision of who will play v. MSU.

First, and I’m going to give credit to BronxBlue that writes the Best and Worse articles at mgoblog for my thoughts here, is the coaches looking carefully at what kind of play-calls are going to be made and how is the offense going to be run?

There was, undeniably, a change in play-calling when O’Korn came in. Instead of a focus on the power running game and long ball, O’Korn was dealing short passes to slot receivers and TEs running crossing routes. The WRs were targeted once deep (Crawford). The ball was under-thrown and well defended. The long ball was not called again.

With the shift in play-calling the offense started clicking. Note that there were 3 possessions QB’ed by O’Korn that went three and out after M scored it’s first TD in the 3rd period. Interspersed with those were two long scoring drives that netted 14 points. The final scoring drive, with the Purdue D absolutely gassed and showing the white flag, got the score to 28-13. The point is that in evaluating O’Korn v. Speight keep in mind O’Korn wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot.

One has to ask the question, if Speight had not gone out with an injury and had been given these short crossing routes, would he have run the offense as good as or better than O’Korn? Maybe. Speight, one could argue, has been victimized by play-calling that emphasizes the run game and requires him to make much more difficult deep throws. Moreover, the throws are going to inexperienced WRs who, for the most part, are not getting separation from defenders in man coverage. I can see this. No question JH can be stubborn and, I’m told, all the plays go through him and he can change what comes down from the press box (Hamilton and Drevno). Clearly, in the first 3.5 games, M appears to be working on trying to make the run game work.

Another question that has to be dealt with is this: Which QB fits in best with the offense that M SHOULD be running given the inconsistencies in blocking from the inexperienced OL? I’m not entirely convinced the coaches, most likely JH, are going to reconfigure the offensive game plan and go in planning v. MSU to go 60/40 or even 70/30 quick pass-run. Based on the Purdue game, it would seem to make sense to reconfigure but, then again, that’s not what Harbaughffense is all about and Jim can be stubborn.

Do you make the QB conform to the system or do you let the skill set of the QB define it? The answer seems obvious but for the first 3.5 games it looked pretty much like the offensive minds wanted Speight to conform to the style of play Harbaugh was emphasizing – the run and long ball threat. I also think, based on what I’m hearing and is then public domain, that Speight was better doing what JH wanted done in practice than O’korn.

After the UF game, Harbaughffense was on tape. It was replicated again v. Cincy and AF. Defenses adjusted. They brought guys up, loaded the box and disrespected Speight’s long ball. Clearly, the O struggled. It appears that M was forced into changing the offensive approach with O’Korn at QB. He doesn’t do the long ball well but he’s good at the short game – at least v. Purdue.

Another thing. The OL is bad. No sugar coating it. Four games in, they are still collectively bad. Purdue had ONE sack in their first three games; 3 TFLs. Versus M, they had 5 sacks and 8 TFLs. Purdue!!! Didn’t just suddenly become a great D. What actually happened is that they faced a porous OL that can’t run or pass block well. Is that a good fit for a QB who needs to have time for deep plays to develop or that has to rely on a run game that is pretty much non-existent at worst and inconsistent at best?

I’ll answer that …… NOOOOOOOO

My hope is that we’ll see a change in offensive play calling that emphasizes the short passing game. Is Speight good at that? I don't know because that is not Harbauffense. JOK looks like he is good at it ...... but it's one game. TBF, it is not as easy a choice between QBs that it seems in the euphoria of a JOK led road win.

Unless Speight is out for a good while due to injury, we're not going to know who the QB will be and maybe not even then. Harbaugh will make sure Dantonio has to prepare for both QBs. That’s good. If O’korn is in there, you can bet MSU, who has a good if not great D, will aggressively defend a short passing game. They'll make him beat their D with long throws. That will make it harder for JOK who, if reports are correct, has a tendency to make more bad decisions than Speight does.

Whoever starts at QB for M, the OL is not going to get better in 2 weeks and they'll face immense pressure; the run game won't take the pressure off because it's not a threat either. O'Korn looked good v. Purdue's pressure. Better than Speight but JOK was, it appeared, dealt a different set of plays. I don't think it is as easy a call, assuming both QBs can play, that it appears to be this particular Monday morning.

Who do you think should start v. MSU and why.