Sometimes, the answers are rather easy. Let's come back to the simple proposition that football is won in the trenches. Our offensive line looked good once, against Minnesota, with Mayfield playing. Minnesota also has a terrible defense. We decisively lost the battle up front to MSU (not a good defense), Indiana, and Wisconsin.
Our defensive line also played reasonably well against Minnesota, though our run defense in that game was rather porous. We then went what, 15 quarters without a turnover or a sack? Wasn't that the stat? That's truly unreal.
I was listening to the Rams game on the radio the other day as I was driving around running errands, and DeMarco Farr said: "Football is a physical game, and it's about imposing your will on the other team." This is nothing earth-shattering, but it's true. It doesn't matter what kind of offense you want to run, or who your quarterback or skill players are, if you consistently get beat up front you're going to have problems.
We saw that in our first few games last year - Army defended us with relative ease, Iowa held us to 10 points (fortunately we held them to 7), and Wisconsin crushed us like they did on Saturday. In the second half of the PSU game, the offense clicked, and then it continued to click for the rest of the year until the second half of OSU, where they clearly made some adjustments to our passing game success and we did not counter. Even so, at 42-28 (or whatever the score was), if Haskins makes the right read on a 4th and one play, we cut the lead to one score and maybe it's a game.
I don't know if the light will ever go on this year. I still believe in Warriner, who has improved our offensive line play immensely since he took over. But maybe these guys are just never going to find it. I do think that improved QB play will help. Milton has hit some big throws, but he's been unable to sustain drives with multiple third down completions. I liked what I saw from McNamara - I would at least give him a chance to show what he can do against Rutgers.
Defensively, I have no idea. It doesn't seem like Nua can coach. I've watched Hinton closely the past few games, and it feels a lot like watching Will Campbell playing defense. He just gets shoved backward 4-5 yards on every play, and usually winds up on the ground. He needs to play lower, and he seems like he's got no leverage out there. I've always watched Vilain, since he was a big recruit and I had high hopes for him. He's been getting stoned regularly on pass rushes. It does not seem like he's got any moves. Upshaw has been decent.
The linebackers? McGrone has really regressed. I hope he's smart enough to realize his draft stock has plummeted and he should return next year. Ross? Just a guy. He's not a bad player but he's not an impact player, either. If he's made a tackle for loss in his career, I don't remember it. Barrett seems like a solid player, even though he hasn't done a lot since the Minnesota game. He's fast and seems to have contact courage, so those are positives.
There's nothing new to be said about the corner play. It's atrocious. And I'm beginning to question Zordich a little because our guys just hold way too much. They must be getting coached to do that, and it isn't helping. The refs are all over that now, as we've earned that reputation. Worse, there are times when our guys are in really good position (like Turner this past weekend) and still unnecessarily hold.
The crazy thing is, in the midst of this utter disaster of a season, the recruiting might be the best of Harbaugh's career - guys like McCarthy, Worthy, Edwards (if we're lucky enough), Colson, Jennings, Hansen, Ceyair Wright (I feel like the early playing time will win him over) etc. - all seem like they could be high impact players. And then the 2022 kids we're chasing - Thompson (seems like he'll commit December 4th), Brown, Morris, Jackson, Johnson, Gould, Little - that could be an incredible class.
If Jim is not going to stay beyond this year, we need to make a great hire, we need to act quickly, and the new coach needs to be really up-to-speed on who to immediately start recruiting for 2022. We can't drop the ball with these talented guys who have strong interest.
One final observation: It does look like there are serious issues with the coaching (duh), and Jim does not seem like the same guy. Agreed. But I will say this - bad years do happen. They do. To the best coaches. Urban Meyer didn't have one at OSU, but at Florida he went 8-5 in his final year and it was ugly - a 31-6 loss to Bama, a loss to Mississippi State, a 36-14 loss to South Carolina, a 31-7 loss to FSU. That was not a good team. Bo went 6-6 in 1984 - yes, he lost Harbaugh and then the backup QB, but that team had issues beyond that. Lloyd Carr went 7-5 in 2005, after winning the Big Ten the year before. John Beilein had a bad year in 2009/10 and again in 2014/15 (yes, there were significant injuries - just like there are this year for the football team). Brian Kelly went 4-8 just four years ago. Mark Dantonio went 3-9 that year. Dabo Swinney went 6-7 in 2010 after going 9-5 the year before. Jimbo Fisher went 5-6 at FSU in 2017, after winning it all just four years earlier in 2013 and making the playoffs for the second year in a row in 2014. He now seems to have things rolling at Texas A&M. Dan Mullen had years of 5-7, 8-5, 7-6, 7-6, and 6-7 at Mississippi State, and is now rolling at Florida. Hugh Freeze went 5-7 in his final year at Ole Miss and left amidst a huge scandal - he's now 8-0 in his second year at Liberty. David Shaw went 8-5 in 2014, then rebounded to 12-2. He went 4-8 last year, as is now 0-2 this year - let's see if this is a permanent decline or not.
I'm not suggesting Harbaugh will be able to turn this around if he stays. I do think the guy is a very good football coach (which he proved at three stops before here, where's he "only" gone 48-20) but of course there are serious questions about burnout, about whether he's reaching his players, and about whether he really wants to be here anymore. James Franklin, by the way, has had a bad year himself, and so has PJ Fleck, but I imagine both of those guys are still good coaches who will turn things around in the future. Same with Ed Oregeron - no one is talking about how LSU (the defending national champion) is 2-3 coming off a 48-11 blowout loss to Auburn (a good program, but come on, not a great one), and has given up 44 to Mississippi State (who, as it turns out, has a horrible offense), 45 to Missouri (same), and 48 to Auburn, and only has wins over two awful teams (Vandy and South Carolina). Yes, LSU lost a ton from last year and is really young - the same applies to Michigan.
The point is, with any of the coaches above who did turn things around, I highly doubt most of the fan bases were saying at the time, "It will be fine, we're just having a bad year." Fans tend to overreact in a big way. You just really don't know. I would for sure favor getting rid of Don Brown. It's Jim Hermann all over again with him. I have serious doubts about JH, but if we do make a change, we need to do it right. I'm not sure I'm confident about Warde, but we'll see.
Our defensive line also played reasonably well against Minnesota, though our run defense in that game was rather porous. We then went what, 15 quarters without a turnover or a sack? Wasn't that the stat? That's truly unreal.
I was listening to the Rams game on the radio the other day as I was driving around running errands, and DeMarco Farr said: "Football is a physical game, and it's about imposing your will on the other team." This is nothing earth-shattering, but it's true. It doesn't matter what kind of offense you want to run, or who your quarterback or skill players are, if you consistently get beat up front you're going to have problems.
We saw that in our first few games last year - Army defended us with relative ease, Iowa held us to 10 points (fortunately we held them to 7), and Wisconsin crushed us like they did on Saturday. In the second half of the PSU game, the offense clicked, and then it continued to click for the rest of the year until the second half of OSU, where they clearly made some adjustments to our passing game success and we did not counter. Even so, at 42-28 (or whatever the score was), if Haskins makes the right read on a 4th and one play, we cut the lead to one score and maybe it's a game.
I don't know if the light will ever go on this year. I still believe in Warriner, who has improved our offensive line play immensely since he took over. But maybe these guys are just never going to find it. I do think that improved QB play will help. Milton has hit some big throws, but he's been unable to sustain drives with multiple third down completions. I liked what I saw from McNamara - I would at least give him a chance to show what he can do against Rutgers.
Defensively, I have no idea. It doesn't seem like Nua can coach. I've watched Hinton closely the past few games, and it feels a lot like watching Will Campbell playing defense. He just gets shoved backward 4-5 yards on every play, and usually winds up on the ground. He needs to play lower, and he seems like he's got no leverage out there. I've always watched Vilain, since he was a big recruit and I had high hopes for him. He's been getting stoned regularly on pass rushes. It does not seem like he's got any moves. Upshaw has been decent.
The linebackers? McGrone has really regressed. I hope he's smart enough to realize his draft stock has plummeted and he should return next year. Ross? Just a guy. He's not a bad player but he's not an impact player, either. If he's made a tackle for loss in his career, I don't remember it. Barrett seems like a solid player, even though he hasn't done a lot since the Minnesota game. He's fast and seems to have contact courage, so those are positives.
There's nothing new to be said about the corner play. It's atrocious. And I'm beginning to question Zordich a little because our guys just hold way too much. They must be getting coached to do that, and it isn't helping. The refs are all over that now, as we've earned that reputation. Worse, there are times when our guys are in really good position (like Turner this past weekend) and still unnecessarily hold.
The crazy thing is, in the midst of this utter disaster of a season, the recruiting might be the best of Harbaugh's career - guys like McCarthy, Worthy, Edwards (if we're lucky enough), Colson, Jennings, Hansen, Ceyair Wright (I feel like the early playing time will win him over) etc. - all seem like they could be high impact players. And then the 2022 kids we're chasing - Thompson (seems like he'll commit December 4th), Brown, Morris, Jackson, Johnson, Gould, Little - that could be an incredible class.
If Jim is not going to stay beyond this year, we need to make a great hire, we need to act quickly, and the new coach needs to be really up-to-speed on who to immediately start recruiting for 2022. We can't drop the ball with these talented guys who have strong interest.
One final observation: It does look like there are serious issues with the coaching (duh), and Jim does not seem like the same guy. Agreed. But I will say this - bad years do happen. They do. To the best coaches. Urban Meyer didn't have one at OSU, but at Florida he went 8-5 in his final year and it was ugly - a 31-6 loss to Bama, a loss to Mississippi State, a 36-14 loss to South Carolina, a 31-7 loss to FSU. That was not a good team. Bo went 6-6 in 1984 - yes, he lost Harbaugh and then the backup QB, but that team had issues beyond that. Lloyd Carr went 7-5 in 2005, after winning the Big Ten the year before. John Beilein had a bad year in 2009/10 and again in 2014/15 (yes, there were significant injuries - just like there are this year for the football team). Brian Kelly went 4-8 just four years ago. Mark Dantonio went 3-9 that year. Dabo Swinney went 6-7 in 2010 after going 9-5 the year before. Jimbo Fisher went 5-6 at FSU in 2017, after winning it all just four years earlier in 2013 and making the playoffs for the second year in a row in 2014. He now seems to have things rolling at Texas A&M. Dan Mullen had years of 5-7, 8-5, 7-6, 7-6, and 6-7 at Mississippi State, and is now rolling at Florida. Hugh Freeze went 5-7 in his final year at Ole Miss and left amidst a huge scandal - he's now 8-0 in his second year at Liberty. David Shaw went 8-5 in 2014, then rebounded to 12-2. He went 4-8 last year, as is now 0-2 this year - let's see if this is a permanent decline or not.
I'm not suggesting Harbaugh will be able to turn this around if he stays. I do think the guy is a very good football coach (which he proved at three stops before here, where's he "only" gone 48-20) but of course there are serious questions about burnout, about whether he's reaching his players, and about whether he really wants to be here anymore. James Franklin, by the way, has had a bad year himself, and so has PJ Fleck, but I imagine both of those guys are still good coaches who will turn things around in the future. Same with Ed Oregeron - no one is talking about how LSU (the defending national champion) is 2-3 coming off a 48-11 blowout loss to Auburn (a good program, but come on, not a great one), and has given up 44 to Mississippi State (who, as it turns out, has a horrible offense), 45 to Missouri (same), and 48 to Auburn, and only has wins over two awful teams (Vandy and South Carolina). Yes, LSU lost a ton from last year and is really young - the same applies to Michigan.
The point is, with any of the coaches above who did turn things around, I highly doubt most of the fan bases were saying at the time, "It will be fine, we're just having a bad year." Fans tend to overreact in a big way. You just really don't know. I would for sure favor getting rid of Don Brown. It's Jim Hermann all over again with him. I have serious doubts about JH, but if we do make a change, we need to do it right. I'm not sure I'm confident about Warde, but we'll see.
