With their loss to Purdue, Michigan dropped to 2-7 on the season, and is eliminated from bowl contention for the first time in over 30 years. WHile I am hugely disappointed in the season I want to try and be a rational fan so please no snide remarks from non-Michigan fans (I am looking right at you Nublar)
Despite my attempts at optimism, I will honestly say I never had high hopes for the season. Our starting QB was either gonna be a kid that was a walk-on (Nick Sheridan) or a QB that transferred from Georgia Tech and wasn't even offered a scholarship by the Wolverines coming out of high school while being from the state of Michigan (Steven Threet). We also were replacing 4 starters on the OL, the only returning starter (Steve Schilling) was by far the worst starter on either side of the ball on last years team. I also knew coming into the season there would be struggles in pass defense as 3/4 of the starters were not very good (Warren is a very good player for a true sophomore, and Brandon Harrison did an ok job this year. Stevie Brown and Morgan Trent on the other hand are awful).
This season was a combination of a lack of experience (OL and WR), a lack of talent (QB), and a lack of coaching (defense).
I see a lot of highly respected posters on Michigan boards divided on where they stand on Rich Rodriguez. Some say he's been a failure and should be out after one year, others say he's the right guy and just needs his players. I'd like to think that the posters here at Finheaven respect me enough to know that I am going to give my highly unbiased opinion of current state of the Michigan football program. So here it is.
It is clear to me that for most of the season, the QB play was holding Michigan back. At first it was RichRod's love for giving Nick Sheridan playing time. Sheridan, in very limited minutes, played some of the worst football I have ever seen out of any college QB. I'd take Zach Mills,Anthony Morelli, John Navarre, or Justin Zwick over Sheridan (Big 10 fans will get those references). Steven Threet was clearly the better QB on the team, but that is not saying much. For every positive play he makes, he makes about 5 horrible plays. I honestly don't believe he will be the starting QB next year. I think he'll compete for the job, but we have 2 incoming freshmen in Tate Forcier and Shavodrick Beaver who are not only better runners than Threet, but better passers as well (I have never seen a QB miss so many open WRs as Threet as).
My biggest complaint early on in the season on Rich Rod and McGee's was their gameplanning. They would always run the stretch play with Sam McGuffie, the quick screen to him, and the WR screen to Montavious Odoms; none of them would work because that was all they would do. In the end, it became obvious that they were keeping the offense so limited because of the young and limited experience of the offense. As I mentioned, 4 new starters on the OL, and a new QB to go along with our two top returning RBs (Brandon Minor and Carlos Brown) hurt early in the year (Brown is still hurt), and a bunch of WRs playing that probably never thought they'd play a down this season outside of ST. Seriously, did any Michigan fan here even know who James Rodgers, Latyral Savoy, or Zion Babb were going into the year? The only reasons they've played this season are nagging injuries to Junior Hemmingway and Tony Clemons (as well as the ineffectiveness of Greg Mathews). On and our athletic TE Carson BUtler? so unimpressive he made the midseason switch to DE
To go along with the inexperience, we had to rely on an unbelievable amount of true freshmen. Montavious Odoms (who is so raw as a WR it isn't even funny) should be a return man at most, but is our leading WR. Darryl Stonum has started at WR. Kevin Koger is our TE, and Sam McGuffie and Michael Shaw (who was supposed to redshirt) have played a lot at RB. Because of all the youth, the playbook has been limited. Stonum's best attribute is his deep threat ability, but due to struggles building the offense, they only started going deep a couple weeks ago (today he did get his first TD of 56 yards).
To McGee and RichRod's credit, they worked around the inexperience, and have put together a respectable offense the last several weeks (Toledo game aside). I still think QB play holds the team back from it's full potential.
The defense on the other hand should not be as bad as it is. The tackling is horrible, and aside from Warren and true freshmen Bobucar Cissoko, the CBs have been drek, I will not even talk about the safeties; Michigan safety play has been so bad I want Chris Crocker and Traveras Tillman starting at FS and SS in Ann Arbor. TOny Gibson has been a drek coach has most WV fans warned Michigan fans, but he is far from the biggest problem. DC Scott Schaffer has been a failure. He inherited a team that was returning 8 starters from a top 10 defense last year, and almost all the players regressed. If not for the play of Brandon Graham, and the emegerence of true Freshmen Mike Martin (as well as RS Freshmen Ryan Van Bergan, and RS sophomores Jonas Mouton and Obi Ezeh) the strength of the defense (the front 7) has been horrible (we all knew the defense would struggle since our best CB has stone hands).
Schaffer's belief was that scheme was overrated and he pretty much used difference blitz packages (most of which didn't work since our two best LBs are still learning to play the position) and played 3 man fronts (which was stupid since we were at our best with 4 d-linemen) and would constantly give up long 3rd down plays and get burnt by screens. I will give RichRod a bit of a pass on this hiring as Schaffer was not his first choice. He wanted the WV DC Casteel to come with him, but he did not. Rod then wanted Jay Hopson, the Southern MIss DC, to be the DC in Ann Arbor. Hopson did join the staff, but a mixture of healthy problems and a bit of a reluctancy from boosters due to Hopson only having experience in C-USA caused Hopson to only be the LB coach (and with the relative rawness of the players there he's done an ok job). There were a couple other guys thrown around, but they chose Schaffer because A)He knew the state (coached at Western Michigan) and B)His secondaries always caused alot of turnovers. None of that has happened here, and his defense has gotten worse as the season has gone on.
With all the negatives, there are positives going into the future...
1.Brandon Minor has cut down on his fumbling problems and looks to be one of, if not the, best backs in the Big 10 during the 09 season. Having him on offense, will help the team dramatically. Adding the speed of Shaw, and the playmaking of McGuffie and you've got a nice 3 headed monster.
2.The Freshmen. Kevin Koger has made plays from the TE spot when they throw is way. Darryl Stonum and Montavious Odoms will be huge in the future on offense. I've already mentioed Shaw and McGuffie. Cissoko has looked better in 3 weeks than Morgan Trent has looked in 3 years. Mike Martin and Ryan VanBergan have shown a lot of hustle on the DL And next year you'll see LB JB Fitzgerald starting (stud on ST), and Brandon Smith at S (would've started this year but had to RS due to an appendectamy).
3.Recruiting. Michigan is looking at a top 10 recruiting class this year. I've mentioned the two QBs, but they've also got two highly touted DEs in Anthony LaLota and Craig Roh coming in. The top rusher in the state of Ohio Fitzgerald Touissant, one of the top S/CB prospects in JT Turner, and will likely add a top DT in William Campbell. Michigan also already locked up 2 top WRs in 2010 in Ricardo Miller and Jeremy Jackson, and are likely to land top S Marvin Robinson, and 2 top CBs in Dior Mathis and Lo Woods. A big reason for the recruiting is Jay Hopson whom all the defensive recruits love (reason enough to keep Hopson)
That being said changes will be made, most likely on the defensive staff. Schaffer is likely gone. This week he was forced to run the 3-3-5 by RichRod just because Rodriguez saw that nothing Schaffer did worked this year so he might as well try to run a defense that worked at WV. There are rumors floating around that Schaffer will resign this week. He seems like a nice guy, but he was in way over his head. Coaching at West Virginia and Stanford (neither of whom ever had great defenses, but did get alot of INTS) is a different world than Ann Arbor. A couple other assistants (namely Tony Gibson) might be forced out as well. RichRod might not want to make a lot of changes, but Michigan is not West Virginia and he will not get the rope he got there (especially after the year he had). In fact, RichRod will be forced to make a lot of personel decisions he probably thought he'd never have to make because 2-7 at Michigan is unacceptable. As much as I like RichRod, if he has a losing season next year, he'll probably be sent packing.
In short, there are a lot of things to be encouraged by if you are a Michigan fan, but the staff is in need of changes (namely picking a defensive scheme). Comments are welcome
Despite my attempts at optimism, I will honestly say I never had high hopes for the season. Our starting QB was either gonna be a kid that was a walk-on (Nick Sheridan) or a QB that transferred from Georgia Tech and wasn't even offered a scholarship by the Wolverines coming out of high school while being from the state of Michigan (Steven Threet). We also were replacing 4 starters on the OL, the only returning starter (Steve Schilling) was by far the worst starter on either side of the ball on last years team. I also knew coming into the season there would be struggles in pass defense as 3/4 of the starters were not very good (Warren is a very good player for a true sophomore, and Brandon Harrison did an ok job this year. Stevie Brown and Morgan Trent on the other hand are awful).
This season was a combination of a lack of experience (OL and WR), a lack of talent (QB), and a lack of coaching (defense).
I see a lot of highly respected posters on Michigan boards divided on where they stand on Rich Rodriguez. Some say he's been a failure and should be out after one year, others say he's the right guy and just needs his players. I'd like to think that the posters here at Finheaven respect me enough to know that I am going to give my highly unbiased opinion of current state of the Michigan football program. So here it is.
It is clear to me that for most of the season, the QB play was holding Michigan back. At first it was RichRod's love for giving Nick Sheridan playing time. Sheridan, in very limited minutes, played some of the worst football I have ever seen out of any college QB. I'd take Zach Mills,Anthony Morelli, John Navarre, or Justin Zwick over Sheridan (Big 10 fans will get those references). Steven Threet was clearly the better QB on the team, but that is not saying much. For every positive play he makes, he makes about 5 horrible plays. I honestly don't believe he will be the starting QB next year. I think he'll compete for the job, but we have 2 incoming freshmen in Tate Forcier and Shavodrick Beaver who are not only better runners than Threet, but better passers as well (I have never seen a QB miss so many open WRs as Threet as).
My biggest complaint early on in the season on Rich Rod and McGee's was their gameplanning. They would always run the stretch play with Sam McGuffie, the quick screen to him, and the WR screen to Montavious Odoms; none of them would work because that was all they would do. In the end, it became obvious that they were keeping the offense so limited because of the young and limited experience of the offense. As I mentioned, 4 new starters on the OL, and a new QB to go along with our two top returning RBs (Brandon Minor and Carlos Brown) hurt early in the year (Brown is still hurt), and a bunch of WRs playing that probably never thought they'd play a down this season outside of ST. Seriously, did any Michigan fan here even know who James Rodgers, Latyral Savoy, or Zion Babb were going into the year? The only reasons they've played this season are nagging injuries to Junior Hemmingway and Tony Clemons (as well as the ineffectiveness of Greg Mathews). On and our athletic TE Carson BUtler? so unimpressive he made the midseason switch to DE
To go along with the inexperience, we had to rely on an unbelievable amount of true freshmen. Montavious Odoms (who is so raw as a WR it isn't even funny) should be a return man at most, but is our leading WR. Darryl Stonum has started at WR. Kevin Koger is our TE, and Sam McGuffie and Michael Shaw (who was supposed to redshirt) have played a lot at RB. Because of all the youth, the playbook has been limited. Stonum's best attribute is his deep threat ability, but due to struggles building the offense, they only started going deep a couple weeks ago (today he did get his first TD of 56 yards).
To McGee and RichRod's credit, they worked around the inexperience, and have put together a respectable offense the last several weeks (Toledo game aside). I still think QB play holds the team back from it's full potential.
The defense on the other hand should not be as bad as it is. The tackling is horrible, and aside from Warren and true freshmen Bobucar Cissoko, the CBs have been drek, I will not even talk about the safeties; Michigan safety play has been so bad I want Chris Crocker and Traveras Tillman starting at FS and SS in Ann Arbor. TOny Gibson has been a drek coach has most WV fans warned Michigan fans, but he is far from the biggest problem. DC Scott Schaffer has been a failure. He inherited a team that was returning 8 starters from a top 10 defense last year, and almost all the players regressed. If not for the play of Brandon Graham, and the emegerence of true Freshmen Mike Martin (as well as RS Freshmen Ryan Van Bergan, and RS sophomores Jonas Mouton and Obi Ezeh) the strength of the defense (the front 7) has been horrible (we all knew the defense would struggle since our best CB has stone hands).
Schaffer's belief was that scheme was overrated and he pretty much used difference blitz packages (most of which didn't work since our two best LBs are still learning to play the position) and played 3 man fronts (which was stupid since we were at our best with 4 d-linemen) and would constantly give up long 3rd down plays and get burnt by screens. I will give RichRod a bit of a pass on this hiring as Schaffer was not his first choice. He wanted the WV DC Casteel to come with him, but he did not. Rod then wanted Jay Hopson, the Southern MIss DC, to be the DC in Ann Arbor. Hopson did join the staff, but a mixture of healthy problems and a bit of a reluctancy from boosters due to Hopson only having experience in C-USA caused Hopson to only be the LB coach (and with the relative rawness of the players there he's done an ok job). There were a couple other guys thrown around, but they chose Schaffer because A)He knew the state (coached at Western Michigan) and B)His secondaries always caused alot of turnovers. None of that has happened here, and his defense has gotten worse as the season has gone on.
With all the negatives, there are positives going into the future...
1.Brandon Minor has cut down on his fumbling problems and looks to be one of, if not the, best backs in the Big 10 during the 09 season. Having him on offense, will help the team dramatically. Adding the speed of Shaw, and the playmaking of McGuffie and you've got a nice 3 headed monster.
2.The Freshmen. Kevin Koger has made plays from the TE spot when they throw is way. Darryl Stonum and Montavious Odoms will be huge in the future on offense. I've already mentioed Shaw and McGuffie. Cissoko has looked better in 3 weeks than Morgan Trent has looked in 3 years. Mike Martin and Ryan VanBergan have shown a lot of hustle on the DL And next year you'll see LB JB Fitzgerald starting (stud on ST), and Brandon Smith at S (would've started this year but had to RS due to an appendectamy).
3.Recruiting. Michigan is looking at a top 10 recruiting class this year. I've mentioned the two QBs, but they've also got two highly touted DEs in Anthony LaLota and Craig Roh coming in. The top rusher in the state of Ohio Fitzgerald Touissant, one of the top S/CB prospects in JT Turner, and will likely add a top DT in William Campbell. Michigan also already locked up 2 top WRs in 2010 in Ricardo Miller and Jeremy Jackson, and are likely to land top S Marvin Robinson, and 2 top CBs in Dior Mathis and Lo Woods. A big reason for the recruiting is Jay Hopson whom all the defensive recruits love (reason enough to keep Hopson)
That being said changes will be made, most likely on the defensive staff. Schaffer is likely gone. This week he was forced to run the 3-3-5 by RichRod just because Rodriguez saw that nothing Schaffer did worked this year so he might as well try to run a defense that worked at WV. There are rumors floating around that Schaffer will resign this week. He seems like a nice guy, but he was in way over his head. Coaching at West Virginia and Stanford (neither of whom ever had great defenses, but did get alot of INTS) is a different world than Ann Arbor. A couple other assistants (namely Tony Gibson) might be forced out as well. RichRod might not want to make a lot of changes, but Michigan is not West Virginia and he will not get the rope he got there (especially after the year he had). In fact, RichRod will be forced to make a lot of personel decisions he probably thought he'd never have to make because 2-7 at Michigan is unacceptable. As much as I like RichRod, if he has a losing season next year, he'll probably be sent packing.
In short, there are a lot of things to be encouraged by if you are a Michigan fan, but the staff is in need of changes (namely picking a defensive scheme). Comments are welcome
