Michigan Football, Team 138, 2017 Season.

[Hannibal]

Metellus was a flyer as a recruit and hopefully he can be replaced.

[WingsFan]

I watched the podcast last night, thought it was right on.

[WM Wolverine]

Metellus was okay, his struggles were my expectations for a true sophomore that wasn't a highly regarded recruit. He's plenty talented enough to play at B1G level.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Agree ..... he flashed. He just needs to do more of that and less of the other.

Most of the time, that's an experience thing. M's back end is getting excellent coaching. I think we're going to see a leap in 2018.

[hack]

Could be. They'll definitely both be better next year as returning starters. Good enough to ward off challenges? We'll see. Seems like Woods could challenge but maybe not others.

[The Oracle]

Nick bosa wins the equivalent of the Kirk ferentz coy award. Hilarious.

[iam416]

Nick Bosa sucks.

I see that they also continued their tradition of fucking up the defensive player of the year.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Sam Webb reports that Crawford is a transfer threat and suspect that the Van Jefferson transfer may be behind that.

Is this aggressive roster management? If it is, Harbaugh is going to be unapologetic about it when the critics pop up out of the woodwork and he should be. This is how the game is played these days.

Here's something else sort-of interesting. Anyone heard of Scott Turner? I'd forgotten about this but he was hired in February of this year as an analyst. Observers thought he was over-qualified for the job - Turner is young (34) but has an impressive resume. He's NFL coach Norv Turner's son. His coaching background is with the Vikings and Browns and lo and behold he was the Brown's WR coach.

Betting he slips into the new 10th coaching position as the WR coach for M. Definitely needed.

[hack]

Crawford is already behind three guys next year, arguably, in Black, DPJ and Perry. And there's also Oliver Martin. I guess I could see how adding Jefferson makes it crystal clear for him.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Some discussion is going on regarding the question: will Harbaugh change the offense to fit Shea Patterson's skill set?

I've mentioned this before but Patterson's QB'ing background, his built in wiring and muscle memory, is spread option and in particular RPO ball. Peters and McCaffrey on OTH (Ruddock, Speight) are pure drop back, PA, pro-style QBs, using a WCO passing tree.

I don't think there is any question that M under Harbaugh has been running a pro-style (?Spread) offense. The reason I parenthesized spread was because there's been a lot more emphasis at M on power runs than spread to pass and I suspect that was driven by QB and OL limitations (lots of 3 TE sets in pass pro).

Let's assume Patterson wins the starting job at QB. If that happens, I still think Harbaughffense will look like an NFL Pro-Style spread as opposed to pure spread - think Leach, smash-mouth spread - think ufm or read-option spread - think RR.

What Patterson brings to the table is the RPO (read-pass-option) game. What this does is combine a drop-back West Coast passing game (what Speight and Peters were being coached up to do) with JH's signature power run game.

I actually think this was JH's plan with O'Korn; that plan flamed out. He thinks Patterson can do it and from all the video of him we've seen there should be no question that he can.

In the link below, there are 4 offensive schemes discussed and I'm using the descriptions of these schemes to discuss how I think Harbaughffense will look with Patterson at QB - a pro-style offense with the read-pass-options (RPO).

At the link, in the description of the pro-style O, the points about TE limitations at the college level when trying to run a pro-style offense are particularly applicable to M and it's struggles in 2017. Adding the RPO diminishes the typical weakness of the TE at the collegiate level as compared to the TE at the pro level when running a pro-style offense.

So, do I think JH will change the offense to fit Patterson's skill set? No. What Patterson probably brings is the addition of a solid RPO capability that JH can incorporate into his signature power run, NFL Pro style offense.

https://www.footballstudyhall.com/2016/5/6/11606684/the-4-main-schools-of-spread-offense-smashmouth-option-air-raid-pro-style

[froot loops]

If Patterson comes there you don't have to assume he wins the job, Harbaugh has granted him the job as a condition of the transfer.

Aggressive roster management isn't new for Harbaugh, he has done it since he came. He can be unapologetic about it, but the excuses of waiting for his guys ring hollow if every year you are doing this. Not everyone does it and if you do, you better win big.

[Jeff Buchanan]

If Patterson comes there you don't have to assume he wins the job, Harbaugh has granted him the job as a condition of the transfer.

Aggressive roster management isn't new for Harbaugh, he has done it since he came. He can be unapologetic about it, but the excuses of waiting for his guys ring hollow if every year you are doing this. Not everyone does it and if you do, you better win big.

I seriously doubt JH has promised the starting job to Patterson.

I agree completely with your second point.

[whodean]

This is still a transition period. This won't happen (on this scale) in a few years when Coach's roots have fully sunk in.

[iam416]

If Patterson transfers, which seems very likely, then I'll bet anyone here that Patterson starts the 2018 season for M and give you the field at 3:1 (implied odds -- I think it's better than 75% chance Patterson starts). Sensible caveats apply -- injury, off-the-field stuff, etc.

[WM Wolverine]

He's not transferring to be a backup.