What is pride? A whizzing rocket that would emulate a star.
~ William Wordsworth
Toledo 13 Michigan 10
Congrats to the Toledo coaching staff. They did a great job getting the Rockets ready. If I ever hear Thom Brennaman again I don't know what I will do - first the Appy State game and now this. He should never be allowed inside Michigan Stadium ever again.
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16 comments:
So, I was trying to stay positive...hence my call of 42-10...I figured that one would see progression from week to week. Improvement even.
My bad.
Distain for a MAC school?
Hubris.
Faith that RR could coach these kids up? Gone. As whetstone alluded to on the game day thread...WE'VE BEEN KIDNAPPED BY KMART
I can't say more now as I am just sick sick sick.
Seriously--I've been watching TiVo'd Grey's Anatomy and Project Runway. Can't even stomach Sparty vs. NW or tUOS v. Purdue.
Thank goodness ND v. NC is blacked out here.
more later....
No, we really should have seen this coming. The sports pundits were calling for a 6-6 season at best because they saw what we're seeing now, an offense that maybe starting what is probably eight freshman (both true and red shirt), with two QB's that are MAC grade at best with no experience, and an offensive line with only one starter returning and the others with no real experience.
Then when you consider that the Spread Option offense is a read and react offensse that has to be played quickly and you need experience players in order to know what to do "Without thinking too much" then you can understand why Michigan is struggling this year. They will make progress this year and even more next year but they need time and the right QB in order to make it work.
Look for maybe two years of rebuilding this offense.
ok, hal. completely value your comments
but, can you 'splain me why the defense is so porous?
really.
cuz I can't understand this team at all.......
In this game alone, the defense only gave up 3-points. The reason for this is the turn-overs on the offensive side of the ball. When your defense stays on the field as much as this one does, it wears the defense down, and it is demoralizing as well. It's been that way all year.
Michigan's beat Wisconsin in part because the defense was on the field so much that the Wisconsin offense was tired. It was almost like the Ali-Foreman robe a dope.
The offense has got to do their part in carrying the game and not to keep your defense on the field so much. However, it's difficult because this offense is so young and inexperienced.
I would not get rid of RR, and I don't believe that Michigan would ever do that. It is going to take time to make this work. We've invested this year in RR and so we need to see it through. Even another coach at this time would face another rebuilding year.
That's the way I see it.
T9,
this is the same group of guys that couldn't tackle Dennis Dixon or App St's QB. those LB's are faster than last year, but that's still not very fast.
i disagree w/ the "it's a bad transition because of the scheme R2 runs" theme. this offensive line would be BAD blocking for anyone. can you see this crowd trying, to zone block a stretch to the left out of a power I formation? we struggled last year w/ arguably the best Left Tackle to come out of the Big Ten in a decade.
Brian has done a couple posts on the recruiting status of the player both on O line & LB. these guys, as a group(s), were not highly touted coming out of high school. they're not good players now.
my main rant is still at Lloyd (may Yost forgive me). he should have retired by 2005 (at the latest). what 2006 did is again mask the weakness growing in the program and ultimately led to last year's debacle of a season and 3 more Lloyd level recruiting classes. big slow guys who can't run.
we shall be a season or two recovering from this. not because of R2's scheme, but because a basic lack of talent necessary to play the game today.
I need data to help me understand things....
here's a link that I'm working thru right now
http://www.mgoblue.com/football/article.aspx?id=150870
butt ugly numbers
after 6 games our opponents have had 615 rushing yards against this D and a disgusting 1,450 passing yards (avg 241.7/game)
while true that you can't win without a QB, this D can't defend anyone in man, and can't tackle.
On the other side of the ball?
You have athletes that can't run a spread and are young as young can be....SO--do you flush this year down the drain as a coach and insist on installing your program, results be damned??? Or, do you work with what you have, recruit to fill your preferred scheme and work towards it?????
I'm not trying to argue with you at all hal, seriously!
I think that this is a multi-factorial folly and I'm just trying to work thru why.....
root cause???
may be a perfect storm rather than one simple answer
please Spawners, feel free to add your perspectives!!!
agreed SiC.
but really? Toledo????
ugh
can we win any game in the Big 10???
Have to seriously come to grips that this team may not win another game this season. Learn to enjoy losing.
Yes I booed today also! I think with Threet in they would have won that game. Why can't they do a Tebow thing and bring in Sheridan to run the ball and Threet to pass? Sure everyone will know it's going to happen but still maybe it's something. Maybe Threet was hurt but who knows? It was embarrassing and my flag will remain off the porch for the rest of the year.
Of course...you guys!!! I stand corrected!!!
hal! dude! I think you misunderstood our discussion. I was not disagreeing with you at all nor do I think anyone else was either. seriously, your input is welcome here. (but this is a tough crowd so ya gotta be ready for some back and forth..)
Hammm--
Threet hurt his elbow. Can't throw it at all.
I too was wondering why RR didn't platoon the QBs in the second half. It wasn't til after the game did Threet's injury become public knowledge.
T9-
No offense taken. My position is still the same. This may be a bad group of offensive lineman, however, they are in essence still inexperienced freshman no matter how many stars they were rated in high school. When you have such a large group of inexperienced underclassman starting on your offense, you have chaos and that's what we've got here.
Then...when you compound that with the type of system they are running it makes it more difficult. The Spread Option offense requires skill, speed, timing,and experience in order to run it well, there is no short cuts around it. Even "more" so than the Pro set offense. They may not be able to run a pro set offense either, however, Lloyd Carr recruited them to run "his" system and not for the Spread Option system.
So these guys are not only young trying to run this spread system, they are possibly the wrong fit for this system. S.I.C. "maybe" correct in saying that they may just be poor players, but still it unfair to write them off so soon. This will be the same core offensively that will be starting next year. We will see more clearly then.
Defensively, again I stand by what I said before. It doesn't matter how good your defense is...when they are on the field as long as this group has been, and defending a short field because of turn overs from your own offense, your stats will suffer and you will wear down. [Our opponets average more time of possessions than we do. That's not just defense, that's the offense not being able to stay on the field]
Only a few schools like Auburn and USF have played well against the spread offense but even the best defenses have been burned by a good spread attack. Michigan's linebacker's are not the only ones that have looked bad.
7there are NOT enough healing pictures for this season. Like you T9 I am just sick to my stomach.
Word Verification: ileak
found this mea culpa from Shafer re: the Illinois game.....
wonder what comes next after this loss??
http://www.freep.com/article/20081010/BLOG14/81010058/?imw=Y
Hal,
I disagree w/ you only in the margins. If all of the O linemen were 5 star recruits, they'd struggle w/ a new system like this zone spread.
And yes, 5 star LBs have trouble defending a good spread offense,
However, our O linemen aren't 5 star recruits. Schilling was a 4 star, the rest were 3 or less (& 1 was a D lineman until August).
Same mixed bag for our LBs.
Anyway, you are undoubtedly correct that the transition was gonna be difficult. That would explain an 8-4 team. That our talent pool is so low @ several key positions? That explains a possible 4-8 season.
4 wins means that we will win another 2 somewhere... at this point I don't know where those are coming from.
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