Michigan Football, Team 139, 2018 Season

[AlabamAlum]

Assistants are overrated with the right coach.

[Hannibal]

You are better off with the continuity, musical chairs with the assistants isn't the way to go.

LMAO If I was in your shoes I would be counseling "STAY THE COURSE" too.

This year we had the most poorly coached offense of any team that I watched. If heads do not roll over our million dollar men not being able to get basic functionality out of our offense then the guy on top is probably not long for the job. He either has a half a foot out the door for the NFL or he's going to be fired.

[Jeff Buchanan]

He's not going to get fired but I would not at all be surprised if he went back to the NFL if his team flails around in 2018.

It just boggles my mind that M looked like it did on offense in the OB Bowl. To me, not only did it look like some of the offensive assistant coaches might have checked out but also the kids weren't buying in to whatever scheme and techniques they were being coached up to execute.

So, yeah, I'm all for holding Harbaugh 100% accountable. If he believes that Dreno and Hamilton can put together a winning offense with the talent on the roster, then M's 2018 performance better be 100% better than it was in in 2017. If it's not, I'm done with season tickets and seat licenses and you can be sure I'm not alone.

I said this right after the shit show that was the OB Bowl. Warde Manuel should be concerned about this kind of thinking.

[Hannibal]

I agree that he's not going to get fired. But if Harbaugh ends up 7-6 he will start getting offended by the complaining fan base and he will move on to an NFL job where he feels more appreciated (until he wears out his welcome there).

[drok]

Anyone heard any talk of that Amazon Prime doc on the 2017 team? Should be a pretty interesting watch.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[Jeff Buchanan]

Welp .... I've heard of it. No release date can be found. Wonder if they cancelled it.

[froot loops]

LMAO If I was in your shoes I would be counseling "STAY THE COURSE" too.

This year we had the most poorly coached offense of any team that I watched. If heads do not roll over our million dollar men not being able to get basic functionality out of our offense then the guy on top is probably not long for the job. He either has a half a foot out the door for the NFL or he's going to be fired.

No, that wasn't a stay the course post. I think they may need to simplify what they are doing, but I don't believe in the constant shuffling of star assistants. I personally wouldn't have advocated hiring Pep Hamilton but he's here, bringing in Greg Roman wouldn't be the miracle cure.

You have what you have in Harbaugh, he is going to sink or swim by what he does and what he directs his assistants to do.

[Jeff Buchanan]

No, that wasn't a stay the course post. I think they may need to simplify what they are doing, but I don't believe in the constant shuffling of star assistants. I personally wouldn't have advocated hiring Pep Hamilton but he's here, bringing in Greg Roman wouldn't be the miracle cure.

You have what you have in Harbaugh, he is going to sink or swim by what he does and what he directs his assistants to do.

Agree with this ...... I'm all for assistant coach stability esp. as it applies to recruiting. But you can't explain away the 111th ranked passing offense to poor QB and OL play alone. It's a factor but I've gone from a 60/40 players/coaches assessment of that problem to a 90/10 coaches/players problem after the OB Bowl.

So, what to do? Do you fire the two co-offensive coordinators (Drevno - who coached the OL and Hamilton who coached the QBs)? I think there is a basis to do that on performance alone. Will Muschamp did it when his OC shit the bed, reportedly had a grad student as OC for the OB Bowl and, on the whole, looked a lot better on offense than M did. Maybe signing these two guys to million dollar, multi-year contracts has something to do with hamstringing what JH thinks he should do and can actually do.

But, I don't think that is going to happen unless Harbaugh has "unofficially" offered an assistant coach currently on the coaching staff of one of the remaining NFL play-off teams. It's stupid hopium feeding that kind of thinking.

Thus, M is stuck, it appears, with trusting Harbaugh to sort all this out. Based on what I've seen from him so far, I'm loosing confidence that he CAN sort it out.

Why?

He hired Pep Hamilton after Fisch went to UCLA. Hamilton failed to develop a decent passing game from players who have a lot of talent. Bad hire from what looks like a hire that came from a good ol' boys network of friends.

If JH was involved with developing Peters, from the looks of it, he's screwed that up. Slow release was a major problem for him. He's got a nice throwing motion from what I can tell but a slow release in the college or NFL game is not going to cut it. Peters clearly could not execute a multi-pattern, multi-read passing game out of a pro-set (under-center) or pistol offense. While it's not fair to compare Tom Brady to Peters, nevertheless you can see what he can do with a multi-read WCO out of the pistol v. what it looks like JH/Hamilton might be trying to get Peters to do. It's not happening. You can't slow things down and expect your QB to remain upright.

JH's addition of O'Korn to the roster was a massive fail or it is reflective of really bad coaching of a guy who probably had some talent. O'Korn's resume points to a guy who could run an offense from the pistol as long as somebody wans't trying to force him to make multiple-reads. I think somebody was and it produced the catastrophe that was O'Korn at QB.

Is that going to happen to Patterson (assuming he's eligible) or is somebody going to scheme the offense for his skill set? Does anyone with a brain think Hamilton or Drevno are going to do this based on their performance regarding scheme and play-calling in 2017? Is Harbaugh going to change his stripes? For a while, I thought he might based on the stuff he did in SF. Now, not feeling so good about that.

The OL has talent - I don't care if it is young - it under-performed in every facet of the game.

Putting Jay Harbaugh as the RBs coach produced RBs that couldn't block. That's on JH.

Put shitty OL play and RBs that couldn't block together and you have one QB (Speight) knocked out for the season with a broken neck and another (Peters) who was hit so many times that he was, one, severely concussed, probably more than once and (2) may be done from a mental stand-point because of that. I'd add another question. Why did Wilton Speight leave? I think he's better than Peters based on what we saw of both of them in 2017. Did he dislike what the coaches he worked with were feeding him? No trust that the OL would improve based on what he saw? I'd say there's a good chance now that it appears M will have the same shitty offense, the same shitty OL play it had in 2017.

So, no, right now I don't think Harbaugh has demonstrated in his 3y that he can produce championship football at Michigan. He lucked out with Ruddock and Ruddock had Fisch. I'm pretty much done hoping he can get things done on offense. If it doesn't happen in 2018, I will be completely done.

[Detroit Dan]

Jeff-- I think you're getting overly concerned about a single season. Harbaugh's got a great track record as a head coach, and with QBs in particular. It would have been nice to go 11-2 instead of 8-5, and not impossible given the talent, but for whatever reason the QBs weren't good. Surprising. The running game was pretty good, and the defensive has been great for all 3 years of Harbaugh's regime, doing that with almost complete turnover in year 3. Also, the Patterson pick up would seem to more than compensate for the Speight departure.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Some weird happenings reported by the guy in the link below. I don't follow him. I picked this up on mgoboards.

Essentially the piece is on Harbaugh and he reportedly told a CA recruit he visited this week that he's changing .... "I'm a different person coming in to this season," he is quoted as saying to this recruit. Right away you can see this is coming 3rd or 4th person ..... who knows if he actually said anything like this.

In the story, the writer also reports that he heard second hand that Drevno called all his OL together and apologized to them for his coaching. Again, if true, WTF; shades of both Hoke and RR. The writer goes on to surmise that Harbaugh knows something is wrong and wants to change. Change what? His schemes, his coaches, how plays are called? All of the above?

Comments that followed from posters that I believe have a clue at mgo speculated that because Gruden announced the hiring of 13 Assistants at Oakland today and Pep isn't listed, means Drevno and Hamilton are both staying. Well, maybe ..... if nothing goes down on this after the SB/NSD then I think we can safely say Drevno and Hamilton stay.

I don't like it but if that's what JH thinks is best for Michigan then so be it ..... but, the fucking OL better get much better and the passing game better find some success.

Anyway, the link is below. I'm just letting those who don't have to time to find this shit what is being said.

http://thewolverinelounge.com/2018/01/jim-harbaugh-different-michigan/

[Jeff Buchanan]

Jeff-- I think you're getting overly concerned about a single season........

No.

While I think M will be fine, this does not include fine if 8-5/9-4, not beating your rivals and finishing 4th in the conference becomes the norm.

Championships is the norm and I'm sticking by my position. I'm done with season tickets and seat licenses if this "norm" is the outcome in 2018 .... and Warde Manuel can kiss my ass because he very well might just put up with this for NONE of the right reasons...... or he might just be forced to put up with it because of the $10m or so he's got tied up in the contracts of three guys.

[Jeff Buchanan]

So far .....

2018 Staff

Head coach: Jim Harbaugh
Defensive Coordinator: Don Brown
Offensive Coordinator / interior offensive line: Tim Drevno
Assistant HC / passing game coordinator / quarterbacks / wide receivers: Pep Hamilton
Running backs / co-special teams coordinator: Jay Harbaugh
Tight ends: Sherrone Moore
Defensive Line: Greg Mattison
Linebackers / special teams coordinator: Chris Partridge
Secondary / special teams coach: Michael Zordich
Defensive assistant: Al Washington
10th Assistant (“offensive assistant” for the time being): Dan Enos

2018 Key Off the Field Personnel

Director of strength and conditioning: Ben Herbert
Director of operations and performance: Fergus Connolly
Director of player personnel and administration: Sean Magee
Director of recruiting: Matt Dudek

...... and now (and talent will LOL) 24/7 is reporting Harbaugh has offered current Gopher OL coach Ed Warriner. After the 2016 season, he was let go by osu and replaced by Kevin Wilson. Warriner was NOT a popular OC during his stint at OSU. He headed to Minnesota. The guy has been around. Is he any good? Ask talent.

This could mean somebody currently on the on-field staff, as I listed it above, is on the way out. Obviously that would be Pep or Drevno. I could also see Jay Harbaugh heading somewhere else and not leaving on bad terms but getting a promotion. Same for Zordich. In his case, he'd be going to an NFL team most likely. I'd consider his move to be a net loss.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Reading around a bit ...... I forgot, it was Bollman that got most of the credit for osu's shit offense after Tom Herman left. But, I'll let talent sort this out for us.

Warriner has been offered an Analyst position per 24/7. Maybe he just doesn't like PJ Fleck (shocking) or PJ doesn't like him.

If the offer is real and he accepts that offer, reportedly his job would be breaking down film, scouting opponents and helping draw-up game plans as well as recruit on campus. Think of him more as the guy that delivers the food than a cook. As an Analyst, he probably wouldn't have input on game day play-calling.

The offer is a little puzzling given the current assistant coaching staff numbers and disposition. Some think talk of Warriner coming to M is BS.

[iam416]

Warriner is a great OL coach. Great. He and Beck weren’t that good as OCs, but they weren’t all that much worse than this year. Insiders would say Warriner’s bigger problems were that he didn’t mesh well with UFM’s demanding nature and style, and he was an average recruiter.

My take on him is that he can coach OL out the ass and he’s probably an ok coordinator, but that’s what he really wants to do. Recruiting is more of a necessary evil.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Thanks. Good stuff.

Given the probably legit complaints about how JH has organized his offensive staff since he arrived and the current unsettled nature of the coaching staff on that side of the ball, questions about Drevno, Hamiliton and now the rumor of Warriner being thrown in the mix of offensive guys isn't giving me any sense of confidence that JH is going to sort all this out and turn the offense around in 2018.

OTH, as fans, we can't know what's going on in his mind, how he sees the 2017 offense and what sorts of organizational things he intends to do, if any, that will make the offense more efficient and productive. There's talent as far as the players go and coaches with a ton of experience on the coaching staff. It just isn't coming together ..... at all.

It's frustrating.