Symptom or problem?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

We all saw what we saw.

Did you have the same impression as I did, after Wisconsin marched the field on the first drive?  Going for 4th and 1 on your own side of the field in the first drive?  Very obvious they had no fear.

Michigan punched back though, broken play, finding Ronnie, More Cow, Bell for a long gain to inside the 5. Great, We have them on their heels, we can punch this in and call it even. Here comes Ben Mason. Ok we have failed miserably on short yardage, lets bring back the hammer. Wait everyone is standing there looking at each other, the clock is ticking down. Timeout. Long commercial ensues. Wisconsin gets to catch their breath, react to the personnel.  Fumble Game Over.

Not my words but straight from players on the team in the press conference. Reactions are everywhere, all bubbling up on Jimmy. That's how the world works, he knows it. He admitted it in the Press Conference. We got Outplayed, he said,  We got out coached, he said. Acknowledgement is the first step of recovery. Unfortunately the comments by several of the players showed no acknowledgement. Many of the comments tried to minimize the issue. These guys aren't even in our division, they played really god and we didn't, they said.  I found their reaction after the game more humiliating than their performance in the game. The comment of how great everyone played in the 4th Quarter from the Senior Safety should get you benched immediately

Guys, Wisconsin just stole your lunch money and de-pantsed you in the middle of the playground.

I see layers of issues here

Players
1) Can't hold the ball. That's on you. What's a coach need to do besides tell you, Hey Johnny, its really important that you don't drop the ball. This is how we lose games.

2) Do your assignments. Stay in your gap, If you go somewhere else, that area is not covered. Guess what, the other team has a bunch of guys with binoculars watching to see if you stay in your gap?

3) They other team on consecutive plays attempts to decapitate your QB. Honestly the first one was just football but the rules are the rules. The second one was a guy that has no respect for you and wants to see if you have any more lunch money that your mom sowed into your underwear. Dirty but that's the nature of the game.  Did you see one Michigan Player charge that Safety after that play? Did you see Jimmy storm onto the field?  Sure the ref's called the penalty and the kid was ejected. That's not the point!  Where is this teams Pride! If you have to coach it into them you are screwed. Players have to Play and Players have to have the Warrior mentality. Somebody in Blue needs to get ejected on that play and get some rabbit punches in first.

Coaches
In my opinion coaching comes down to a few simple principles

1) Identify your strengths and develop strategies to exploit them against your opponent. I'll help
Gattis since I know you're new here. You have dominant Wide Receivers. You have at least 3 on the field all the time plus a tight end. Your QB is better on the run. He is Brett Favre not Tom Brady. Roll him out and let the routes develop. If they don't he'll run and he's pretty good at that if he isn't hurt.

2) Identify your weaknesses and develop strategies to minimize their exposure. You have no Defensive lineman.

3) Be prepared for what the other team is good at. Guess what, Wisconsin is going to run the ball between the tackles until you stop them. Playing your safeties 20 yards off the ball isn't the answer

4) Demand Fundamental techniques. Physical and mental and be able to exploit pockets of chaos. Like having a play ready on the second play of the game after a big drive, Gattis.   Practice Quick Strike situations. Don't show that your just as surprised as everyone else in the Stadium that something worked. You must have a go to play that the team knows to call after any gain of more than 30 yards. It has a 1 word name and the QB is yelling the word running down the field. Run straight to the line of scrimmage, line up and go. Force the other team to burn a timeout.

Something is wrong here

Jimmy has lost his fire and enthusiasm, something has changed in him. Only he can solve that. I have faith in him. I hope the bunker mentality is setting in. You have seen enough to know who you can charge the hill with and who you can't. I know you can't fire everyone today but take charge, set some examples and make some toilet seats really warm in the coach's room and in the huddle.

I'd start with Gattis, Take away his play calling duties. 

I'd be drafting my list of candidates for the next DC too. The performance against the last 3 top ten teams was dismal and that shit about exploring the Temple Head Coaching job during the offseason smelled.Mattison is still a bitch for quitting but it had its roots in something

The TV catching him saying   "Fuck Me" after the illegal procedure penalty wiped out the team MVP Will, need at least one guy with some, Hart. pinning Wisconsin on the 3 yard line said a lot to me. Jimmy is not in a happy place right now. He knows it, I think he has known it for awhile and took a bit too much advice from those around him. Jimmy, Channel Bo, Not his play calling but his discipline, self confidence and passion

Where will the new leadership come from in the locker room?  There seems to be a dearth here but we may have a couple of candidates.  Jon Runyan and Aiden Hutchinson. I'm betting that John Sr. and Chris will have some blunt father/son discussions and impress on them what it means to be a Leader.

Moving on.

Rutgers may seem like good medicine but be wary.  Its not clear we have a QB for this game. If we are starting Joe Milton and our 4th string running back things will be ugly. Defense will have to win the game. I expect a win, bet the farm on Rutgers and the spread though.

We'll be at the Corner this weekend, happily pontificating about how we'd solve everything. Stop by and Share with us!

Anybody Remember the Band     THE THE?  My New Old Favorite Band!!!

Is there a Silver Lining in that Cloud?

I sure hope so.  I tend to be a very optimistic person.  I try to see the best in the situation.  Find ways to see the bright side.  However, based upon what I witnessed on Saturday, the Glass was only 1/4 Full.  My text to some family members near the end of regulation was “Beautiful Day.  Offense sucks.  Defense sucks.  Coaching sucks”

And on Sunday, I started reading the recaps.  This gave me some optimism that the Glass is more than Half Full.

Army

Army is a good team.  I know, they are not a Top 20 Team.  But, consider the following:

·         Army had won 10 straight games going back to 2018.

·         Army beat Houston in the Armed Forces Bowl 70-14.

·         In 2018, Army took Oklahoma to OT.  The Sooners prevailed 28-21.

·         While Army is One Dimensional on offense, they do it extremely well.  The Triple Option had not been seen by Michigan in a long time, and we will not see it again for quite a while.

UM Defense

As stated above, Army runs a precise (limited) offense to perfection.  Michigan held them to the following lows:

·         243 Total Yards (200 Rushing Yards) – lowest yardage since 2017.

·         3.7 Yards per Play (3.3 Yards per Rush) – lowest since 2015.

·         3 Turnovers – most since 2017.

And when it counted the most, Michigan’s D came up big.  Lavert Hill intercepted the pass when Army was on the 5 yard line.  The last turnover ended the game as we sacked the Army QB in OT forcing a fumble that we recovered.

Two of Army’s TDs came on short fields.  Their second TD came after we fumbled the ball on our 40 yard line.  Army also scored in OT starting at the 25 yard line.  We held them scoreless in the second half as well.

Special Teams

The Special Teams were solid on Saturday.  Moody made 3 PATs, and a clutch 43-yard FG in OT to win the game.  Our punter only punted once, but nailed it for 61 yards.  And the second team punt returners and kick returners did a decent job.  This should greatly improve when Donovan Peoples Jones

(DPJ) is cleared from the IR (hopefully against Wiscy)

Offense

I don’t have much to offer here, except for a gut feel.  Patterson is playing with an injury.  I believe this limited the play calling and affected his passing accuracy (No clue as to why we didn’t play McCaffrey more).  This will improve with the bye-week.

We have yet to see Speed-in-Space.  Not sure why we run it to the interior of the line 15 times in a row.  However, my gut tells me that Harbaugh is not going to show anything.  In years past he refused to tell the media who is the starting QB the day before the game.  We know he has his eccentricities.

Two of our best players have not played yet.  Runyon Jr. is our best offensive lineman.  When he returns at left tackle, the line will become noticeably better.

DPJ will add another huge weapon to the offense.  Black, Collins and Bell have been solid, and DPJ will only give opposing Defensives even more problems.  We have also gotten solid play from TE with Sean McKeon.  Charbonnet has proved a solid runner who can block as well.  He should do nothing but improve week after week.

Chris Knight (aka Special K, CK or KnightTrain)

Well, What did you expect?

I found myself asking this question to myself over and over all weekend. I found that I kept answering in what I hoped I'd see, not what a rational analysis would generate.

My emotional reaction is that the team did not look all that well prepared and the performance was generally underwhelming.  Yet looking at the stat line, We won a game, scoring 40 points, generating 453 yards of offense. Held the opponent to 67 Yards Rushing and 4-13 on 3rd down conversions. 

We started the game with the following

1)     2 Freshman Starting Tackles

2)     Freshman Starting Running Back

3)     By most accounts our best receiver and punt returner on the sideline

4)     A completely new offensive system

5)     An offensive Playcaller that has called fewer plays in his coaching career than the MMQ2

6)     Our highest potential DT out of the game on the first series with a hand injury

So I expected us to look unorganized and sloppy at times. I expected the inexperience at this positions would generate some mistakes. I expected some missed block, some offsides or holding calls. Not so much

What I didn't expect was 

1)  Our senior QB to fumble on the first play.

2)  Our Senior All Big Ten CB who flirted with the NFL to drop a walk-in Pick 6

The New Offense
Overall the temp is a little better, Stretching the field is a bigger priority and we probably didn't really show much.
My underlying fear in all of this is that Gattis has to much of an I'm to Cool for School Mentality. Young guy with some success and fortunate enough to operate in stable situations with exceptional talent.  Reminds me a bit of Matt Patricia with this I'm the smartest guy in the room personna.  This was most obvious with the 2 QB in the game stunt. Neither Shea or Dylan are better than at least the top 5 Receivers. So we create a 10 on 11 matchup. What's the point Smart Guy? Enlighten Us?  By the way, all the rules to protect the QB don't count when your QB is lined up as a receiver.  If I'm the DC on the other side, I am telling my biggest hot head to jack up the QB/Receiver and take the targeting call. If one of those guys gets hurt we're in BIG Trouble.

Observations
-Zack looked great, especially on Pass Protection
-Freshman Tackles were solid but I want Runyan back, healthy for Wisconsin
-Patterson was solid but his timing was off on the deep balls
- Bell,   Hands like feet
-Lots more deep pass routes that will stretch the defense
-Great to see Ambry Thomas back on the field AND Making Plays. VG looked serviceable as well
-Can we get Ma and Pa Glasgow a nice bottle of Wine and some sexy Lingerie and get busy getting us more Walkon's. Three sons that make the Starting Lineup in a Top 10 Program in the modern era is unfathomable. Jordan reminds me a lot of Jordan Kovacs.
-Freshman Class looks great. Lots of Solid Contributions and some of the biggest names are on the field yet (Hill, Hinton)
-How does Bryan,  the Human Parking Block,  Mone make an NFL Roster?
-DPJ not playing again, Always something with this guy.
-Nico Collins is the real Deal,  Reminds me of a combination of Deven Funchess and Jason Avant and the good parts of both.
-Stop the 2 QB Thing, It makes you look dumb. I like the idea of getting McCaffrey some meaning-full playing time as the QB. This has the feel of the Brady, Henson era. He's capable and the experience will only help for the future.  By the way Joe Milton shows me nothing. Big drop off there.
-Put Mason back in the backfield and give him the 4th and 1, 3rd and Short Hammer head.
-Great call on the Albrecht,  Somebody figured out quick that we would lose a challenge and Yards near the goal line. Looked dumb at first but Genius!

Up Next

Some   ARRRMMMY Training.  I love watching the Acadamies compete in Football. The personification of Discipline and Toughness. In the end I think dominant athletes win out as long as frustration doesn't set in. No Dumb Penalties and hang on to the Ball and we will be ok. Will not be an exciting game but a good character builder and we probably get a cool flyover or at least a parachute drop.


Reminder to All that this will be our Game to honor the MMQ at the Corner. Everyone is Welcome. Its an early game  so some food before and after the game are planned, No specific menu. These people will eat anything. See you Saturday!

Go Blue!

Hello Michigan Fans, 

We are on THE cusp of a new and surely exciting season!

It sure won't be THE same after big changes and some Big Losses!

Quick Evaluation of THE Losses

2)  Chase Winovich.   Heart and Soul of THE Defense, THE embodiment of THE College Athlete, Worked through THE whole Lineup Card to find a place in THE Starting Lineup and through grit and determination turned himself into a High Round Pick. Thanks for sticking with THE commitment and playing your heart out in THE Bowl Game.

3)  Devin Bush,  Speed, Speed, Speed, and Speed in THE right direction. Great Playmaker, will be missed

4)  David Long  Lock Down Corner that taught teams to pick on THE Nickel.

5)  Rashan Gary,  Meh

6) Karan Higdon, Meh

7) Zack Gentry, Thanks for opening up a Roster Spot to get another one of THE great receivers on THE Field

8) Al Washington  don't let THE door hit you in THE ass

9)  Greg Mattison,   Fuck You.  Can I say that here?

and

1)    THE MMQ.

With very mixed feelings and emotions, I cautiously step into THE breech living on THE inspiration of one of Bo's lasting Lessons regarding,  THE Next Man Up. On THE Battlefields of centuries past, it was THE unwritten rule that when THE kid carrying THE battleflag got shot, you dropped your gun and picked up THE flag and marched forward.   Always wondered how you got to be THE dumbass that got to carry a flag into a gunfight.  In THE end you don't replace a legend you just hope to honor THE tradition and be true to yourself and THE cause.

RUSS is missed by us all and will be missed even more THE 17 GameDays ahead of us as Michigan Fans.

As tradition goes a Bottle of Jack has been sacrificed and it is without shame or doubt that I make the Prediction that Michigan will win 17 games in a row.  (Ok I just copied that from last years blog)

For all MMQ Fans, Friends of Russ, and Tailgaters near and far, we have decided we will make THE U-M Army Game our tribute to the MMQ and Russ at THE Corner of Hoover and Greene. We hope to see a great crowd! We'll make it a Big Game and will even have a few remarks from our standing Sergeant at Arms   Major Dean Glossop.  Why do I have THE scene in my mind of Patton addressing the Ladies Auxiliary?

We are having difficulty resurrecting THE distribution of THE MMQ.  Please forward to any and all Michigan Fans and have them respond to my email if they want to be added or deleted from THE MMQ Distribution.   tomhall86@comcast.net

Go Blue!

Hello MMQ fans!

Obviously some difficult circumstances this year. We’re working on what the future of MMQ will be. but for the moment we will use it to communicate upcoming Tailgate Plans. We are planning a tribute to Russ at the Army Game, so it would be great to get as many of our friends out. More details to follow but we already have heard that Superfan, will be in attendance!

JH MHBBC - Feedback, E-mails, Texts and Tweets

So, everyone has an opinion one way or the other.  It was strange that as I was driving home I couldn’t fine one XM – Sirius station talking about this hire! 

After that mind-blowing search, I flipped it over to the local stations. 1050 AM (which I can barely get in my area) was praising the hire as one of the best college coaching “gets” in 25 years.  In fact they looked at and compared Juwan to the last 25 NCAA Hoops hires and in just about every head to head comp I heard, they would have taken Juwan.  That included Chris Beard at TTU based on the fact that before this season, would you have hired Chris Beard not knowing what he was capable of?  

THEN, I tuned into 97.1 and the local village idiot named Mike Valenti that wears the Green “S” on his chest that was pooh-poohing this hire last night.  HE claimed that Michigan NEVER EVER would have done this with their football program  - handing the reins to a “complete unknown” as far as his capabilities at the collegiate level.  “All Sizzle and No Steak” were his EXACT words.    I turned the radio off at that point.  It’s kind of like politics.  You’ll never change a conservative or liberals mind no matter how hard you try.  One is logical, the other is emotional.  It’s a rare person that can see the middle and the things that are “correct” for society.   That’s Michigan and Sparty in a nutshell.  Sparty’ll ALWAYS HAVE THE CHIP and Michigan will always be the Big Brother, superior in all ways.   

An Open Text to Michigan's Newest BB Coach:  

Dear Juwan:  Please make sweeping the LNU a number 1 priority for next season.  I don’t know how you’ll do it, I don’t really care what it takes.  Use dynamite if necessary but completely DESTROY those clowns when the time comes. 

Some other takes:

I don’t think you ever use the “JH” moniker for Harbaugh, so you’re probably ok.  But this is going to suck for the “JH” crowd.  Shared initials! 

Huh.  Yeah, I never really thought about it until just now.  I used JB a lot as I used to get tired of typing out Beilein’s name as it wasn’t a natural word or combination of letters.  But Harbaugh, Harbs, Jimmy, are what I use and I imagine I’ll use Howard in the future quite a bit.

Is the Howard hold-up because he wants an out clause if the NBA offers him a head coaching position without any pay-off clause?

This didn’t seem like any kind of issue to me.  Juwan Howard was the 5^th pick when he was drafted and was the FIRST PLAYER EVER to sign a contract for over $100M dollars.

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/06/sports/howard-2-deals-2-teams-200-million.html

  

I don’t believe Howard needs the money and I doubt the amount he was making was a driving factor.  HE was looking for the opportunity.  IF anything, my guess he was actually trying to figure out how he could get his assistants more money as he knows how the game works.  By taking $2M annually for 5 Seasons, that opens up a lot of room for salary for the assistants.

Would you sign someone as your head coach if he said that he might leave next year for another position?

Uh…Isn’t that a risk when you sign ANY COACH, regardless of the buyout?  People bail all the time.  Especially in hoops.   I mean, we just watched it happened!  And we just watched UCLA go through all that with several coaches that had hefty exit fees and we also saw that some of those are negotiated down and some actually keep the coach at their current school.  But here’s my take:  Do I WANT to keep a coach that looks at another offer and thinks he’s getting a better deal at a better institution or in the Association that what he’s got with me?  In the case or Juwan, $2M is peanuts.  IF he has any early success, you can bet that contract is renegotiated to get him to stay.   I know it’s a pain in the ass to go through in less than 5 years, but that’s the world today friends.  There are very few lifers.

Why didn’t one of the teams in the NBA hire Juwan?

I’ve been kind of scratching my head on that one also.  And I believe it’s a combination of things.  Juwan was coaching under one of the best NBA coaches out there.  He also coached under Pat Riley.  So while he probably learned a LOT, what could you say about his potential success as a head coach in the NBA (or college?).  Now, in Michigan’s case, he’s an alumni, former player, will probably be able to recruit and he may be successful.  Michigan was willing to take the gamble for $2M a year.  The NBA guys probably looked at it and said, “Not yet.”    I think the better question (that I can’t answer either) is if Juwan got an offer from any of those teams, did he turn them down? 

Just read your post of yesterday….EXCELLENT WORK!!!  I wholly concur. 

Well, Thanks!  I do appreciate that, even though there’s not much there that I believe anyone looking at the tea-leaves correctly couldn’t have concluded otherwise.  Now, if you want to put a bias on it, by all means, there’s about a THOUSAND different positions you could take on this one…But I do think it was Michigan’s best option, though it clearly wasn’t Warde’s first option (Cooley) which again, I’ll never understand other than Warde knows the guy…

This hire is a mistake.  Michigan just took the “one and done” mantra to the next level…

I really don’t know how you can classify it as a mistake yet.  If there’s anything we all should have learned by now is you don’t know who’s a good or bad hire until you know.  And then you’re either extremely happy or figure that you’ve just wasted the last 4 years or whatever with a bad decision.  Don’t get hung up on what is a mistake right now.  Let things play out.  I’m sure there were many people that thought Bo Schembechler was a mistake in 1969.  That one worked out ok.  The MMQ initially thought Lloyd Carr was a HUGE mistake.  But again, I worked with Moeller and knew him the best.  What does anyone really know? 

Hang in there MMQ, Juwan is not done yet, and Rick Pit is still in the wings. Boy that would sting, eh???

We shall never speak or mention the words “Michigan” and “Pitino” in the same sentence ever again.  Those who do will be banished from the Blog!