Michigan Football, Team 139, 2018 Season

[Hannibal]

S&C appeared to me to be a strength of the Harbaugh years. Or at least the "S" part. Guys got bigger and usually put on good weight. Guys like Chase Winovich who had the force of guys who are usually 25 pounds heavier. I can't think of any games in the Harbaugh era where I thought that we lost because the other team was more athletic. That is a stark contrast to the previous eras where it seemed like teams were always faster or stronger than us. The one exception last year would be the OT spot. But that was predictable.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Did we really want an old Loyd Carr guy in Tolbert as coach?

Who really knows? S&C's impact on wins and losses is overstated..........

Not really. I think when JH moved Tolbert (Strength and Conditioning) out of the weight room he knew exactly where the problems were with his players. The science of sports training of elite athletes has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. There was a decent amount of knowledge before that about how to train for top performance but about at this 20 year point, training shifted to sports specific events and it's only gotten more specific in the last decade. For example, a diet and strength and conditioning program for a swimmer is different than that of a sprinter or football player. I think specific nutrition approaches by sport, in particular, have become more focused.

There's a careful balance between body fat content and lean muscle in an offensive lineman. Diet has to be correlated with S&C. Obviously to get that 310 pound perfect lineman body that allows quickness is a real challenge. Swimmers and track athletes, in comparison, are easier to manage in that regard. Here, the lower the body fat content, the better. This is particularly true in swimmers as body fat creates bouncy and increases friction in the water. I point this out because these are examples of how important nutrition and sports specific S&C routines are. You have to get it right to optimize performance in the pool, on the track or on the field. I don't think Tolbert was getting it done. BTW, he's still on the M athletics staff as a consultant.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I found this interesting. Patterson has signed a 2019 contract with the Texas Rangers. I think someone else posted in the forum somewhere that it's not unusual for MLB teams to go deep to fill out their draft rosters and a lot of times this means friends of friends and so forth.

I don't see it as anything terribly meaningful at this point. It would be stupid for Patterson to not have as many options as possible at the end of the 2018 season.

https://wolverineswire.com/2018/07/03/michigan-football-shea-patterson-signs-mlb-contract-2019-texas-rangers/

[WingsFan]

Dec0_E-U8AAK9jE.jpg

[Jeff Buchanan]

Sheesh ...... I hate July. Tantalizing close to decent news about M football as long as you ignore the mgoboard fall camp hype. Scanning my sources - nothing special just the usual sites - here's the news:

• The 2019 class will be "goodish" - Brian at mgoblog. The rush of commitments from the barbecue weekend helped. It's already been mentioned as high is #9 as low as #16. I think everyone realizes M is not going to win championships and build depth with recruiting until Harbaugh can produce consistent wins against top teams and get to the BTCCG on the regular.

• Cade McNamara is a good QB that will surpass Brandon Peters for the QB position in 2019 - M Podcast link from mgoboard that really didn't say anything new. My take is Peters will never take a meaningful snap at QB for M again.

• Shea Patterson - he'll start according to most sources I've read but my qualifier is that I think he's going to drive Harbaugh insane early with mistakes. Enough of them and he'll get pulled. At this point, the #2 is anyone's guess.

• The "more RPO" talk re M's 2018 offense is mostly uninformed talk. It's a kinda in vogue sort of thing to say. My take is that JH isn't going to change his fundamental approach to football and that's power. He's also going to do the same kinds of things intended to provide misdirection and counters to other plays - these types of plays characterizing JH's offenses. I really think it remains to be seen how innovative the play calling gets with Patterson at QB.

• Patterson can extend a play when things don't go as planned but Harbaugh would much rather have it go as planned. One thing I think is certain: on planned passing plays, the ball is going to get out of the hands of the QB faster than it did with the Drevno/Hamilton/Peters trio's 5 step drops or roll-out/waggle, wait another 3-5 seconds for the play to develop, throw the ball to the obvious target that is usually covered in hopes of a jump ball completion.

• To that take on the O add the receivers are going to be a lot better making Patterson's job easier as long as .......

• The OL might be OK. We really don't know if the addition of OL coach Ed Warinner is going to make that happen or not. Plenty of useless talk around that he's made things simpler for the players whatever that means. The interior OL seems credible but tackles, like it's been for all three years of JH's tenure, remain a question mark. That's kinda important. Sure, Patterson can extend plays but do you think JH really wants him to be doing that? I don't.

• Patterson's tape shows that when he extends a play against good defenses, he makes 5 terrible plays for every 1 fantastic play. That may sound harsh but I'm starting with that assumption until I actually see Patterson make plays consistently behind a good enough OL and against a pressure defense, what he will most assuredly face right of the bat in South Bend, whether he extends them or not.

• No need to talk about the defense. It's been great since Brown's arrival in Harbaugh's second season and recruits on defense showing up at the doorstep prove how important being good is. Credit to Mattison and others. This is a solid defensive coaching staff, maybe the best in CFB. Let's hope it lasts for a while longer and until the offense catches up.

[Rocky Bleier]

• No need to talk about the defense. It's been great since Brown's arrival in Harbaugh's second season and recruits on defense showing up at the doorstep prove how important being good is. Credit to Mattison and others. This is a solid defensive coaching staff, maybe the best in CFB. Let's hope it lasts for a while longer and until the offense catches up.

Am I the only one who thinks the defense has been good/not great? Penn State put up 42 last year. South Carolina scored 26. Wisconsin got 24. Even the 2016 defense gave up 33 to Florida State when faced with superior athletes. They couldn't hold a lead against osu either year. Great defense is Alabama. Michigan hasn't had enough studs in the back seven to be called great.

[Jeff Buchanan]

https://www.landof10.com/michigan/michigan-football-wolverines-secondary-don-brown-2018

[drok]

I think if the offense had a pulse, we wouldn't question that statement.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Sunday's Vegas odds of winning the Big Ten:

Ohio State 10/11
Wisconsin 5/2
Michigan 4/1
Penn State 5/1
Michigan State 12/1
Iowa, Nebraska 40/1
Northwestern, Purdue 80/1
Minnesota 100/1
Indiana, Maryland 300/1
Illinois, Rutgers 1,000/1

If things go as the odds predict, M and osu will be vying for the BT East Crown on November 24th in c-bus. Good times....... as usual just before reality smacks M fans in the face.

https://www.mlive.com/wolverines/ind...st_odds_1.html

[THE_WIZARD_]

shaddup

[Hannibal]

• No need to talk about the defense. It's been great since Brown's arrival in Harbaugh's second season and recruits on defense showing up at the doorstep prove how important being good is. Credit to Mattison and others. This is a solid defensive coaching staff, maybe the best in CFB. Let's hope it lasts for a while longer and until the offense catches up.

Am I the only one who thinks the defense has been good/not great? Penn State put up 42 last year. South Carolina scored 26. Wisconsin got 24. Even the 2016 defense gave up 33 to Florida State when faced with superior athletes. They couldn't hold a lead against osu either year. Great defense is Alabama. Michigan hasn't had enough studs in the back seven to be called great.

They were great until the fourth quarters of games usually. We got outscored 37-0 in the fourth quarters of our losses. MSU in '15 and OSU in '16 beat us in the fourth quarter too. Having a shit running game will do that to you I guess.

[iam416]

Yes, but if you just had competent QB play then the defense isn't on the field as long and Don Brown's demons continue to dominate.

Yeah, in the 2016 OSU game, OSU opened up with a nice drive then M dominated until the final 4 drives of the game where OSU pretty much moved the ball really well. Unfortunately, they missed a FG and stalled inside the 5 on the first 2 of those drives.

[THE_WIZARD_]

I heard HARBAUGH!!! has invented a new way to lift weights...no worries Blue Nation...

[hack]

The defense played in the fourth like it knew what was coming. I recognize that it was asked to do too much and the players were pretty gassed by the fourth, but this wasn't anything close to '97 in the big-play/right-time category. Last year's defense probably would have broke against ND in that '97 game.

[Hannibal]

Gassed maybe but they just flat out quit against OSU.