Michigan will beat Uconn 51-3. trust me. Uconn has no talent and kids already quit on the staff knowing theya re going to be fired after this game or at the end of the season
That was probably the right call to go for it. That's not a 100% kick either is the thing to remember.twibnotes said:The decision to go for it on that 4th and 2 was duuumb. Faith in hoke plummeting
39 yarders are not sure things. It's not a binary like "would have hit it". That's like a 75% field goal from there, and Gardner is probably about 50% to pick up the 2 yards.twibnotes said:Gibbons would have hit that. Was like a 39 yarder, no?
Thing is, our o-line is not very good and Gardner can't take care of the ball. A short gain is not our forte
They were favored by 55 points combined over the last 2 weeks and won by 7. There's about 48 points of unexpected there...thehitcat said:4-0 and a bye week. The D played well 14 of the points were directly tied to turnovers. And Fitz ran effectively as the game wore on and the line started to get some push. 4 turnovers is unacceptable and will kill this team in the Big Ten season but this to me is still a building year and its a classic young team problem to get up for the big moments (Opening Day) and big teams (ND) and play down to competition they should walk over. I see nothing that is unexpected here.
I'm not a bettor so I don't follow lines. That said I agree that both games were much closer than I thought they would be mostly because of turnovers. Did I want them to win 77-7 like Miami? You bet I did but they could have been Arkansas this week or KState in week 1 but they got the W. I'll take it and hope they work on hanging onto the ball for the next game.bowiac said:They were favored by 55 points combined over the last 2 weeks and won by 7. There's about 48 points of unexpected there...
twibnotes said:I'm concerned. We have a QB who is extremely mistake-prone (10 turnovers!) and an offensive line that can't establish the line of scrimmage vs Akron or UConn.
I've been bullish on Hoke, especially given his strong recruiting, but there is a bad trend developing here. This team has gotten worse over the last couple years. Can Hoke and is staff keep the pace with Urban Meyer? That's the expectation, and I'm not feeling it right now.
twibnotes said:This is about where I am, but I'm probably a bit more pessimistic. I still want to see UM be a program that competes for National Championships, and that is a really tough level to reach if your coach is just good at recruiting, especially when the SEC generally benefits from lower academic standards and over-signing. It's really hard to see UM competing for championships without having a really excellent coach (Harbaugh of course would have been ideal) who can out-develop players and out-scheme the opposition. I'm not saying Hoke can't deliver on those fronts, but I'm a lot less optimistic today than a year ago.
bowiac said:
As for the QB situation, that's also not something where Hoke is blameless. There are schematic issues with what they're trying to do with the offensive. Brian at MGoBlog had a post about Michigan being on the wrong side of history with respect to their direction of the offense, and I think that looks to be the case. While they haven't abandoned the RichRod elements of the offense, a lot of their struggles have come from repeated efforts to move away from them. Whether that's because the talent isn't there to do so, or because the offense is so wildly predictable when they're not running an inverted veer, it's not a great sign about how Hoke/Borges think about things that we're in year 3 of them trying to do this and failing. This year less so, but that's a general concern I have with the direction of the program going forward.
I acknowledge we need to give Hoke more time, but overall I can't think of a sport where the coach has a bigger effect than college football. He recruits the players, selects the staff (and correspondingly the systems), sets strategy, influences player development, etc. A guy like Saban or Meyer could go to any major program and make it a contender.Why do people always assume that it is the head coach's fault?
There's actually two issues here. 1. You work with the talent you have. Other than the totally mystifying inability of Michigan to field punts, snap the ball cleanly, or kick field goals under RichRod, my #1 complaint with him was not the defense. It was his attempt to force square pegs into round holes. Devin Gardner is the quarterback Brady Hoke has. He's a 5 star redshirt junior - you should be able to make that work for you, regardless of the offense you "want" to run. That said, the UConn result was not so much a result of poor scheme with Gardner. That's an issue going forward, but it didn't cause what happened on Saturday.AgentOrange said:
Actually, I thought that mgoblog post was funny to read in light of the Uconn game. Maybe Michigan's effort was largely the result of trying to plug a spread-qb peg into a pro-style qb hole, or maybe it's what happens when your QB recruiting strategy is just to get the best affolete possible and put him back there. If I were a Michigan fan, I would really find it difficult to put too much blame on Hoke for the fact that Gardner makes horrible decisions and can't read a defense when Hoke didn't recruit him and doesn't even recruit QBs like him.
sachmoney said:Of what I remember of the UConn game, Funchess missed numerous blocks that had me calling for his head. That kid has so much promise as a receiver, but if he can't block, he's not going to see the field. Heck, our wide receivers can block better than him. It's terribly disappointing. Right now, I'm a Butt man as far as tight ends go.
That line is high.
I'm glad somebody enjoyed that.Zososoxfan said:
Fantastic.
Also, I agree that the line ABSURD - has no one been watching UM the last 2 weeks (lucky them!)????