I
Didn’t Even Have Him On The Hot Seat
In what’s
really unsurprising news, Oregon State Head Coach Gary Anderson is
out of a job.
I should have
had him on the Hot Seat, but figured if OSU didn’t can him last season, they
were going to ride out the contract or at least stick with him for another
year.
And I also
missed Texas El-Paso Coach Kugler who quit last week.
They’ve been
officially added to the “Gone List!”
Is
Michigan’s Offense Too Complicated? (yes)
Baumgardener
does a great job breaking down Michigan’s overly complicated offense. 40 formations in the 1st half alone
produced 3 points… If you want to read the entire article, here’s the link:
Key points:
Then, as has been the
case all season, U-M asked its quarterback to make an NFL throw to an
inexperienced passing target who isn't ready to make an NFL catch. The second
down call is a slow-developing out-and-up to a redshirt freshman tight end in
the corner of the end zone. The second is a fade to the opposite corner of the
end zone to a 6-foot sophomore receiver.
Nothing about either of
these calls are high percentage. Not the throw. Not the route. Not the concept.
They're low percentage plays and, typically, they only work if you have an
all-league quarterback and a stud receiver. John O'Korn is doing all he can,
but this was his second start. The Wolverines have freshmen and sophomores at
receiver who are trying, but they're just being asked to do too much.
See the
problem? KISS!! Harbaugh and staff need to figure this out.
Who’s
To Blame For This Mess? Harbaugh or Hoke?
I got a text on
Monday asking that question? Actually, the
question was “Who do we blame for this?” Meaning,
which coach on the current coaching staff (Harbaugh, Drevno, Frey, or Hamilton) is most
responsible. I’m taking a little
deeper look at it:
Michigan is still
suffering from one of the worst recruiting classes ever under the departing
Hoke. Everyone knew after going 8-5 in
2013 and then a miserable 5-7 in 2014, that Brady Hoke was a dead man walking.
And that really, REALLY hurts recruiting. There aren’t many starters from Brady’s last
class he recruited in 2014. That’s a
major gap. While Harbaugh knew that going in,
filling the offensive line gaps with B1G level size and talent is a very tall
order. I know Michigan lost a
couple of big O-Line recruits in late 2016/early 2017 as well. Not to mention last
season’s injury to Newsome.
So, I guess you
could say that it’s 40% Hoke – 60% Harbaugh.
Yes, Brady was F’d due to the fact everyone knew he was getting canned,
but Harbaugh/Drevno
have had 3 classes to try to get someone in there. With little success.
So, yeah, I’m
holding Harbaugh slightly more responsible than Hoke. And while Harbaugh has done a great job
(Peters/McCaffery) in recruiting QB’s, Speight is your Hoke holdover
and nobody else.
Is
1-4 Against Rivals THAT Big of a Deal?
Can we all take
one
step back from the ledge for 1 second?
Look, Harbaugh
should be 2-1 against Sparty and 1-1 against the Suckeyes. Two fluky games where Michigan had a 1-1000
shot happen and another game where Michigan repeatedly shot themselves in the
foot, got no help from the officials and out statted the sukeyes in
every category. But only the final score counts.
In short, the
program is in way better shape than when Harbaugh arrived 2.5 years ago. So the answer to that question is no, it’s
not that big of a deal.
To anyone except the fans.
Ask me again
after year 6 and if its still 1 win and whatever…Well, you will have probably
already heard from me by that point.
When
Do You Play Peters?
Why do people ask me
this? Have you been paying attention?
First, I wasn’t a fan of going to O’Korn when Speight was healthy. 2nd, the O-Line has turned O’Korn
into a gun-shy passer that, right now, can only find open guys on the other
team.
Do you want to
throw a promising prospect into that hot mess and see how HIS Psyche does after he gets
plastered by some 300 Pound linemen?
I don’t.
However, if the
Hot Mess continues (and O’Korn keeps
throwing to the other team), I guess there’s more upside to giving Peters some
experience and seeing if he’s more mobile and determining what he can
do.
Craziest
Game Ever?
I wanted to
mention Monday as I have someone now that Western Michigan Football sort of,
kind of means something to, but I didn’t get it in. So it goes in today.
Western beat Buffalo in a
7 Over Time Game – Yes, you read that
right. 7 OT’s. With the highest combined score in FBS history: 71-68 (hope you had the OVER). But it nearly ended for Western when the
sister of the game tying TD rushed onto the field to hug her brother! Ref throws the flag and Western had a little
further to kick, but made the point. And
the sister got tossed out of the game so she didn’t get to see the last 4
OT’s! Never the less, a quirky college
football game…
Two
Weeks Ago, It Was Oklahoma
Which seems like
forever ago. And now the state of Washington
takes center stage with two undefeated teams sitting at 6-0. Pretty impressive starts for both the Huskies
and the Cooooogs. And it’s fun having Coach Leach back in the
mix. The Pac 12 North will more than
likely come down to the Apple Cup and what a game it should
be with each team doing well defensively.
Expand
the Play-Off?
Coach Leach is
calling for a play-off expansion, which is inevitable, it’s just a
matter of who doesn’t get in at some point that will get the ball rolling. As soon as the B1G or the SEC is left out of
the party, you’ll see some change.
Money talks.
The Pac 12
however? Not so much, even though Leach
has a pretty valid if not standard argument.
Leach
has a different solution. Asked if he’s worried that the College Football
Playoff committee might be missing late Pac-12 games, too, Leach said the following:
“I have a lot of respect for some of the people that are on (the College Football Playoff committee) but you know, you could solve this whole thing if you had an extended playoff. All of the sudden if we had 16 teams or more, you wouldn’t have to worry about it very much. A little bit, but not nearly to the state you do now.”
Saturday morning on ESPN’s College Gameday, Kirk Herbstreit chastised Petersen for his comments.
“As an advocate on this show for the Pac-12 for the last 20 years, wanting to try to bring as much exposure to that conference as we can, you should be thanking ESPN for actually having a relationship thanks to Larry Scott with the Pac-12 because now your games are seen,” he said.
“I have a lot of respect for some of the people that are on (the College Football Playoff committee) but you know, you could solve this whole thing if you had an extended playoff. All of the sudden if we had 16 teams or more, you wouldn’t have to worry about it very much. A little bit, but not nearly to the state you do now.”
Saturday morning on ESPN’s College Gameday, Kirk Herbstreit chastised Petersen for his comments.
“As an advocate on this show for the Pac-12 for the last 20 years, wanting to try to bring as much exposure to that conference as we can, you should be thanking ESPN for actually having a relationship thanks to Larry Scott with the Pac-12 because now your games are seen,” he said.
Petersen was pissed about
the 7-7:30 kick-offs as its hard on fans and players alike.
Ain’t TV Great?
Was
I Serious About and Not Going To Another Night Game?
Well…Yeah. Especially if there’s a threat of weather.
Tailgating was great and I got to see and talk to a lot of people. But the ride home at 1:00 AM isn’t something
I’ll look forward to again any time soon.
Ann Arbor needs to do a better job about getting people out of town
after a night game. Shut down M-14 at
I-94 (East Bound) and force that traffic to go to US-23 north. Give everyone leaving town on Miller and Main
Street an easier entrance to the freeway.
But night games are only
good when I’m sitting home watching at night. The fact that Michigan has committed to 2 more
over the next two seasons sucks…
Polls
Don’t Matter
Forde kind of
hits the nail on the head here with respect to polls.
Michigan definitely felt
out of place in the top 10 (Let’s face it – we all know that offense is
dreadful) and now
Oklahoma has dropped precipitously with their annual double digit favorite
defeat. (7 seasons in a row Oklahoma has lost
as a double-digit favorite!)
So, is the poll
now reflective of where teams should be ranked?
I dunno’. Probably
not. But the great thing is, now that we
have a committee, they shouldn’t matter as much as they used to. I prefer Bill Connelly’s Power Rankings or
even (GAG) ESPN’s Power Ranking.
Much more reliable than human emotion.
Rat
Poison? In Satan’s World…
Satan chided
reporters during his post-game presser (What else is new) declaring that
everything good thing they write about his team is “Rat Poison” and he has
to deprogram his team from the stuff they read and keep them focused…
Saban thinks the glowing media coverage of his team led
to some complacency. He hates complacency.
“I’m trying to get our players to listen to me instead of
listening to you guys,” Saban said.“All
that stuff you write about how good we are. All that stuff they hear on ESPN.
It’s like poison.
“It’s like taking poison. Like rat poison.”
No
– I Mean – Please Stop
Oregon is to
blame for this and it just needs to stop.
When I first
saw this I thought there’d be a #FAKENEWS somewhere after it. Nope.
Florida is actually going to wear these thing….
Calipari
Chimes In
I’m sure he’s
slimy and the FBI will also be knocking on his door, but Kentucky Coach Calipari
chimes in on the solution for college athletics: Let the kids use their likeness to get
endorsements and even let them have agents while in school.
I’ve talked to
a lot of people and frankly, I’m surprised by the split. A lot of you think the players get enough in
scholarship and a chance to travel and play for a great university while others
of you agree that something has to change and if they’re getting money anyway,
make it legal. Even have being a
player’s “Agent” be a Business School Grad Course or something. Either way – something’s got to give.
FIVE
TOTALLY REAL AND IRRATIONAL MESSAGE BOARD THREADS
“Arkansas
is too clean a program to win in the SEC” - hogville.net
“Who’s
paying for the airplane and banner next home game?” - warchant.com (Florida
State)
“Did we
just enter the Gary Gibbs era?” - landthieves.com (Oklahoma)
“King of
3* recruiting” - netbuffs.com (Colorado)
“Glad we
spent half the game experimenting as an Air Raid team.” -
TheMichiganInsider.com
Etc.
Will the hapless
Giants have the potential and the will to go 0-16 to be added to the list with
the Lions and Tampa Bay (0-14)?
Everyone is injured and they don’t look very good…
It’s not enough. Why isn’t she getting canned? Because of black female privilege,
perhaps?
MMQ, Gopher Fan here....not piling on, but about the time the MMQ blog hit, Jim Rome hit with this blast. He too compared Harbaugh to "Hoke in khakis"
ReplyDeleteWe have plenty of issues here in Gopherland with what appears to be a leaky boat. Our first team oarsmen are either not that good or injured. Just hope we can Row the Boat past sparty in our home lake Saturday.
http://jimrome.com/2017/10/09/michigans-not-back/
Go Gophers! RTB!
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