Michigan Football, Team 139, 2018 Season

[WingsFan]

Drevno will be 'promoted' to Associate Head Coach and 'demoted' to OL coach. It will be spun as a promotion for Drevno, but really a 'management promotion' and a football demotion

Pep will lose WR coach and Passing Game Coordinator title and will be strictly QB Coach

Jay remains as RB Coach

Warinner will be next in line for coaching role if Pep or Drevno take a new job this offseason of next.

[WingsFan]

Well its all but official now. Question will McElwain's reputation as a recruiter help in SEC territory?

[Jeff Buchanan]

Well its all but official now. Question will McElwain's reputation as a recruiter help in SEC territory?

Don't care. It's hard to pull talent from the SE with all the understood reasons why that is so.

What Harbaugh needs to do is (1) lock down the state of MI. (2) Successfully expand his recruiting in the rest of mid-west. (3) Pursue talent nationally after that.

...... I'd argue that fundamentally, he has to reassess his current approach and insure he's developing lasting relationships with his targets. I think that's been a problem although there is only anecdotal evidence that supports that view.

[CGVT]

My kid goes to school in Alabama. One of the kids just got a hoodie and receiver gloves from Michigan. They all think it's cool, but the kid isn't going to seriously consider Michigan. He has SEC offers.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Not a great review of McElwain from a guy that has neat way of rating FBS coaches. Drevno got an F in his system which means it must be pretty good. McElwain graded out as a B. The author liked Enos more than McElwain when this was written a day ago.

https://www.landof10.com/michigan/michigan-football-jim-harbaugh-jim-mcelwain-florida-staff-2018

[hack]

Drevno will be 'promoted' to Associate Head Coach and 'demoted' to OL coach. It will be spun as a promotion for Drevno, but really a 'management promotion' and a football demotion

Pep will lose WR coach and Passing Game Coordinator title and will be strictly QB Coach

Jay remains as RB Coach

Warinner will be next in line for coaching role if Pep or Drevno take a new job this offseason of next.

What's this about Warriner? He's sitting around waiting on us? And we're still stuck with Drevno?

[Jeff Buchanan]

What's this about Warriner? He's sitting around waiting on us? And we're still stuck with Drevno?

The Warriner deal is strange. He's a successful OL coach and gets promoted to co-OC with tim beck at osu and then appears to get fired in 2016. I recall reading 11 warriors around that time and it seems no one really knew how Warriner's departure came about. osu fans didn't like his play calling when he moved up from OL coach to co-OC. After wilson is let go at IU, ufm hires him. At the that time NCAA rules allowed only 9 assistant coaches. So, it appears someone had to leave osu's coaching staff and it looks like warriner got the short straw. talent????

Then he gets picked up as OL coach at Minnesota by PJ Fleck. No one questions his capacity to coach the OL in fact he gets a lot of praise when he's in that role. I didn't pay any attention to comments about him when he was at Minny. There's nothing out there right now that indicates why he left Minnesota with an undefined job offer in hand from Harbaugh. His position on Harbaugh's staff, as far as we know, isn't a coaching position. Offensive Analyst is the job title that's floating around. So, that's weird.

Here's my guess: I think Harbaugh worked to get Drevno an NFL gig and there were then and are now no takers...... yet. During that process, warriner was offered a job probably with the understanding that he'd fill Drevno's role if and when Drevno left. It's a mystery to me why Drevno wasn't shown the door but, apparently he hasn't been and we can only guess that's not how JH does things and especially to a guy like Drevno who has been with him for a long, long time.

Next JH is reportedly interviewing well known but not too impressive coaches who are out of jobs. Jim McElwain gets hired with rumors that he's going to have sole control of the offense as OC. Drevno, from WingsFan's post, gets promoted to Assist HC and demoted from co-OC to OL coach. That could be very temporary if Drevno actually leaves.

Where does this leave Warriner if Drevno remains on staff? If he can evaluate and recruit for the OL, maybe that's his primary role for now with a path to a coaching position when Drevno does leave. I do think he's ultimately going to do that with timing uncertain. That JH has Warriner on staff now, thinking Drevno is out at some point, does make sense.

[hack]

So Warriner is formally employed by Michigan now? We have a guy widely praised as a great OL coach on the staff, and he won't be in charge of coaching the OL?

Sounds like last year. JH has got to get past this. Fuckssakes.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Let's talk about Jim McElwain and how he fits in to JH's plan for his coaches in 2018.

I'm wondering if the talk about McElwain as sole OC isn't just wishful thinking. I'd love that to be the case so, I've got a bias probably along with everyone else who's hanging on to this as the new reality.

How did he do at FL as their HC? Terrible actually. Reading around, it seems he had a bad relationship with the administration from the start there. His underwhelming teams in 2016 (he did win the SEC East but suffered blow out losses to every team in the West) and 17 along with the appearance that he lied to UF officials about getting death threats sealed his demise as UF's HC. He left in October of 2017.

From the article I posted above, McElwain's offenses at all his previous gigs mirrors exactly what JH has demonstrated in his 3 years at M what JH wants to run as a base offense. McElwain is fundamentally a power IZ/OZ practitioner with a good deal of pro-style gap blocking, FB and TE utilization and a ton of motion. He builds in set play changes into his calls, i.e., the QB or the sideline isn't making the play change like you'll see teams do now-a-days with the initial stance suspended, everyone stands up and looks to the sideline and a new play is called probably based on what the defense does. With McElwain, it's part of the play called.

M's play-book is probably not going to look a lot different than it did in 2017, but there are some clues that it might look hybridized to optimize Shea Patterson's skill set, assuming he plays. I did find evidence that McElwain is an RPO enthusiast. After an opening 2016 season drubbing of UMass, a reporter asked him why there was such an imbalance between run and pass. It was 22/45. McElwain answered that question on a subsequent radio call in show and said you have to understand RPO. A run play is called but the QB takes what the defense gives him. For example, if the Ss are up crowding the LOS, the QB already has the play to run in that case and it might be a quick pass to a receiver or back.

What is interesting is that McElwain, like most of the coaches in the SEC, did work to hybridize his fundamental power offense while at UF to react to what the great defenses were doing - taking the run game away. That is most evident in the QBs he recruited and started. Will Greir is a perfect example. He signed with Florida in 2014 as a 4* recruit and the 2nd best dual-threat QB in the nation. His offer list was impressive. He played sparingly as a Freshmen that season. He was the back-up to Treon Harris but came in at QB in the second game of the season and produced a 38-10 blow-out win over Ole Miss and I think Patterson was the QB in that game. The following week he tested positive for PEDs and got a one year suspension. He transferred to WVU after that.

McElwain also reeled in ND transfer Malik Zaier, another dual threat QB, but it seems he was sort-of a bust for 2017 and McElwain was under siege after the opening 2017 loss to Michigan. But it's clear he liked dual threat QBs and the RPO at FL as that sort of player and plays became the norm in most SEC systems. The only exception was his recruitment of Austin Appelby as a graduate transfer from Purdue. Appelby was more a pro-style QB than dual threat/RPO type but that distinction is getting less and less clear these days. He did play for McElwain as a back-up to Del Rio and played the rest of the 2016 season after Del Rio was injured but was not great.

So, after studying McElwain's offense a bit this morning, I can see him making M's offense interesting ..... a lot more interesting than 2017. It will be fun to watch Peters and Patterson work in to his offense and I'm hoping that Patterson does play. I don't think that it's going to be difficult for M's current players on offense to adapt to McElwain's offense with some RPO being thrown in.

I also think that changing the dual OC thing - the run and passing game coordinators - if that actually happens, is going to help immensely. The combination of Warriner and Drevno both with some yet to be defined role on the OL is going to change that unit for the better too.

Still proof's in the pudding. Right now, I'm not too excited about 2017. That could change I suppose but I'm into the show me mode before I'll ditch my disdain for how JH has done in his first three years at M.

[Hannibal]

If McElwain is really our guy, then I do like the hire, for the most part. Pretty good track record as an OC and there is a good chance that, having hit his ceiling pretty hard, he could be around for a long time if he is good.

[hack]

It is time for the reporters to do some reporting. Maybe there isn't clarity yet, but, when there is, I'd like them to tell us who is doing what.

[whodean]

He'll do a hood job.

Yeah, he handled Bama's O pretty well during his tenure. In his final three years at Bama, the O ranked in the top 25 in terms of points per game.

If I remember right, Saban still wanted a defense-oriented overall gameplan while Coach Mac was there. He was told to focus on ball control. This was before Saban allowed his offenses to open up more under Nussmeier and Kiffin.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Well, it looks to be almost a certainty that Harbuagh is not retooling how the offense is coordinated. After some rumors that Jim McElwain would be hired as the sole OC, that hasn't panned out. In a recent interview with ESPN and with some unofficial confirmation from M, McElwain will be the WR coach.

I suppose Harbaugh knows best but it sure seems likely that one of the underlying problems for M's shit-show of an offense was due to our perception that offensive coordinating based on what showed up on the field and in every stat-line was a significant problem.

Space Cyote, who occasionally posts his work at mgo, did an analysis of M's run game. Basically it demonstrated that the 2017 run game was decent and suffered only because the passing game didn't pose a significant threat allowing the typical response from defenses. OK, the analysis was good and done by what I consider to be a reasonable poster. However, there's other data out there that shows M's runners posted YPCs < 3 against good defenses. So, I remain unconvinced that M had a good run game in 2017 and that will improve in 2018.

Maybe a better coached OL - Drevno is rumored to be focusing more on this in 2018 and maybe Warinner will have some impact - although I can't figure how much when he is not a coach but rather an analyst ??? - combined with even marginally improved QB and WR play will produce a better than awful offense. That's the hopium anyway.

I don't see what McElwain brings to the table as a WR coach and that the coaching staff offense still appears to me to be a mess organizationally, I'm not anticipating a championship season in 2018. Anything less than that is going to cause problems for Warde Manuel regarding ticket sales and seat licenses.

[drok]

Jeff - do you know much about poster umbig11 on MGoBlog? He posted this...don't know what to make of it:

http://www.mgoblog.com/mgoboard/coaching-staff-complete

There will be no more departures. Despite how many of us feel about Pep & Drevno they are returning. Offensive coaching assignments remain unsettled to this day. They will be settled well before spring. Warriner will remain an Analyst. Warriner will be working one week ahead preparing the team for the following week. McElwain started yesterday. One area of his duties that are not getting enough attention yet is that he will be developing the weekly game plans. Yes, we know many contribute to the plans, scouting, analysts, OC etc., but McElwain will be counted on to deliver those each Saturday. So, when the position assignments are complete. I think we will see some sort of title next to WR Coach. There will be a streamlined effort when it comes to play-calling. More McElwain than chatter on the headsets.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I've seen this ....... umbig11 allegedly has someone inside Schembechler Hall that provides information. It's in the public domain that McElwain might have some role in offensive coordinating so, I don't consider this to be earth shattering, insider news.

The salient point that umbig11 makes is that ," offensive coaching assignments remain unsettled." To me, that's a big red-flag. In my experience, organizations where it is not clear who's doing what typically under-perform at best and fail at worst. I can't think of any rational reason why JH would be less than transparent about his coaching staff and what each member of it is assigned to do. Harbaugh is not rational at times. That hasn't worked out well for him.

I remain unenthusiastic about M football in 2018.