I'm writing this for all of the Fort members who just can't (or refuse to), accept the notion that Harbaugh is being routinely outcoached by Dantonio and Meyer, in most of their matchups.
Before this messenger is shot, let me state for the record, that I remain a steadfast Harbaugh supporter, and in fact, believe that he is a far superior coach to Dantonio, overall. By that, I mean that he is a better coach when it comes to running a program, recruiting, developing players, long range planning, etc.. However, Dantonio has established a clear advantage over JH when it comes to making in-game adjustments and putting his talent in position to exploit his opponent's weaknesses. Harbaugh and his staff, on the contrary, seem to come into a game with a pre-set game plan, usually predicated on simply over-powering an opponent into submission. This is great if you have vastly superior talent on the O-line than your opponent's D-line. But if you do not, then this is a recipe for disaster --- which is what we got last night (not to mention, last year vs. Iowa). Dantonio, on the other hand, is a master at both recognizing his own personnel's strengths, as well as being able to figure out how to exploit his opponent's specific weaknesses.
Herbstreit made an excellent point yesterday, when he talked about how the MSU linebackers were attacking the line due to UM's reluctance to throw the ball downfield. This eliminated running lanes and made life difficult for the O-line, RB's, and QB. That's not on the players; that should be on the coaches, for not recognizing this and more importantly, not making any adjustments. By not doing this, they effectively put their players in a difficult, sometimes impossible, position to succeed. But instead, Michigan fans will blame the players for their lack of overall performance. Well, maybe our "slow" running backs, wouldn't be so slow, if they actually had legitimate running lanes to run through. Maybe "the right side of the line" wouldn't be dominated so badly, if opposing defenses had to think about misdirection or different blocking schemes. Maybe our QB's wouldn't look so lost, if they had receivers running better designed routes that created openings for underneath crossing routes. All of that is coaching. And those are the type of things that MSU does so successfully against us whenever they spring these "upsets". That's the reason you see 2 & 3-star kids routinely make big plays in the biggest spots against us. Because Dantonio and his staff has analyzed tape, figured out our tendencies, and then designed plays to specially put those kids in position to make those plays. THAT's game day coaching. And if you're honest, you'll admit that you've seen very little of that on our side.
NJW
Before this messenger is shot, let me state for the record, that I remain a steadfast Harbaugh supporter, and in fact, believe that he is a far superior coach to Dantonio, overall. By that, I mean that he is a better coach when it comes to running a program, recruiting, developing players, long range planning, etc.. However, Dantonio has established a clear advantage over JH when it comes to making in-game adjustments and putting his talent in position to exploit his opponent's weaknesses. Harbaugh and his staff, on the contrary, seem to come into a game with a pre-set game plan, usually predicated on simply over-powering an opponent into submission. This is great if you have vastly superior talent on the O-line than your opponent's D-line. But if you do not, then this is a recipe for disaster --- which is what we got last night (not to mention, last year vs. Iowa). Dantonio, on the other hand, is a master at both recognizing his own personnel's strengths, as well as being able to figure out how to exploit his opponent's specific weaknesses.
Herbstreit made an excellent point yesterday, when he talked about how the MSU linebackers were attacking the line due to UM's reluctance to throw the ball downfield. This eliminated running lanes and made life difficult for the O-line, RB's, and QB. That's not on the players; that should be on the coaches, for not recognizing this and more importantly, not making any adjustments. By not doing this, they effectively put their players in a difficult, sometimes impossible, position to succeed. But instead, Michigan fans will blame the players for their lack of overall performance. Well, maybe our "slow" running backs, wouldn't be so slow, if they actually had legitimate running lanes to run through. Maybe "the right side of the line" wouldn't be dominated so badly, if opposing defenses had to think about misdirection or different blocking schemes. Maybe our QB's wouldn't look so lost, if they had receivers running better designed routes that created openings for underneath crossing routes. All of that is coaching. And those are the type of things that MSU does so successfully against us whenever they spring these "upsets". That's the reason you see 2 & 3-star kids routinely make big plays in the biggest spots against us. Because Dantonio and his staff has analyzed tape, figured out our tendencies, and then designed plays to specially put those kids in position to make those plays. THAT's game day coaching. And if you're honest, you'll admit that you've seen very little of that on our side.
NJW
