Looking at anecdotal history is the only way that I can make the clues fit, so:
2015: Under Fisch/Drevno- Fullbacks featured (Houma had 43 carries and 5 TDs), inside running with De'Veon Smith, 2 TEs, and odd lineups at odd times (remember the Rudock split out at WR plays?). Lots of underneath passes early in the season (and poor performances early by Rudock), until the reigns came off and Rudock went (or was allowed to go) deep later in the season. The last 5 games of Rudock's Michigan career were scorching.
Time management and clock issues were a problem. (MSU definitely comes to mind)
2016: Under Drevno- Fullbacks, Power RBs, Possession WRs and TE's featured almost exclusively in the red zone (Khalid Hill had 13 TDs, Deveon Smith 10 TDs, Darboh 7, Butt 4, Higdon 6). Multiple RBs (4- Smith, Higdon, Evans, and Isaac had more than 70 carries each). Weird 3rd down packages with the advent of Peppers in the Wildcat. Nothing much vertically all year, but some big runs on gadget plays and reverses by McDoom and Chesson. Poor OL play, especially in pass pro, and with a veteran OL.
It really says something about an offense when the longest offensive play from scrimmage is from a primarily defensive player- Peppers 63-yard run was the longest play from scrimmage, not a bomb, or a RB run. Speight got hurt but improved.
Time management and clock issues were a problem.
2017: Under Pep Hamilton/Drevno - General disaster, mostly due to holes in the roster (QB/WR/OL). 3 RBs (Higdon, Evans, Isaac) with 88 carries or more. A ton of 2 TE sets, even though McKeon and Gentry were underwhelming. The emergence of Big Ben Mason at FB. Porous OL that got 3 QBs injured to different extents. Speight, pre-injury, seemed to have taken a step back (4 INTS in the first 3 games). The longest passes completed were two 48 yard passes, one to DPJ and the other to Eubanks, who only had 2 receptions for the year.
Time management and clock issues remained a problem.
2018: Under Hamilton, who finally got a highly-rated QB to work with (5 star Patterson), and an OL coach (Warinner) who finally could field and develop a decent OL. The highly-touted 2017 recruits at WR had a year under their collective belts. Drevno, who was the scapegoat for holding the past offenses back, was gone.
Still we saw- a lack of deep passing, multiple RBs (Higdon, Evans, Wilson), and odd substitutions at odd times (McCaffrey or Shea at WR, taking out Shea for a series here or there, even if he was on a roll). Our fullback, Ben Mason became a fan favorite this season (33 carries 7 TDs). 3 TE's rotating for significant snaps (McKeon, Gentry, and Eubanks).
Still having issues with the long ball, due to "WRs not being able to separate". Only three pass plays over 50 yards, and one over 60. The longest play from scrimmage? An 81-yard Shea Patterson run.
Time management and clock issues remained a problem.
2019: Under Gattis- Shea (the former #1 QB recruit in the 2016 class) finally was going to be put into the offense that fit him. Still we saw some of the same stuff as before, under previous OCs- WRs (no matter how highly-ranked they were) not able to get separation. The numbers were better ( 2 70+-yard TDs from the WRs) and the TEs, while around, were less emphasized.
But there were still the strange substitutions: McCaffrey being put in for one drive, even when it seemed like Shea was warming up to the new offense, thus destroying in-game momentum. The ridiculous Ben Mason to DT experiment, was as if Gattis was trying to "hide" Mason from Harbaugh, so he wouldn't try to insert him into the offense on some plays. But guess what, there was that weird point, early in the season, when someone (didn't seem like a Gattis-type offensive fit) kept putting FB Ben VanSumeren in the game for key carries (one of which was a fumble in a key situation).
It seems as if, in the late season, Gattis relented and Mason returned as FB (in a "Speed in Space" Offense!) with less-than-thrilling results. Due to the early-season injury to Tru Wilson, the RB rotation was primarily 2 players: Charbonnet and Haskins. Shea, as Speight had before him, seemed to lose confidence and effectiveness late in the season (in the most important games).
A little bit of promise, but still some of the same concerning issues popping up from 2015.
Time management and clock issues remained a problem.
So here we are in in 2020, with Gattis, supposedly being "handed the reins for complete control of the offense".
What did we see in game one? The re-introduction of Ben Mason at FB, and multiple TEs on the field. Four RBs in the rotation.
When it worked vs Minnesota (when we all thought that Minnesota would be some type of test), people were thrilled with the merging of Harbaugh's "power football" philosophy, with Gattis' speed in space. But yesterday's game showed that it just a disorienting and disorganized mess of an offense that doesn't really know exactly what it want to do.
Those trying to blame our QB, who, in his second start did the best he could with that mess of an O are far off-base. Gattis, Hamilton, Fisch, and even Drevno are not blameless, but the same things keep creeping into all of these OC's game plans, and we need to start looking at the common denominator.
We keep seeing a FB, whatever type of O the new coordinator wants to run. We keep seeing TE's (as well as recruiting a bunch), "speed and space" be darned. We keep seeing strange substitutions, and over substitution of the RBs. We keep seeing people lined up under QB that aren't QB's in the red-zone. We keep seeing an aversion to "opening up" and throwing deep, and keep attempting a ton of runs up the middle. Watching yesterday, time management and clock issues are still a problem.
Jim Harbaugh's fingerprints are all over this, as they have been every single season here. I respect the guy, and love him as a Michigan Man, but his stubbornness will not allow this team to move forward into the modern era of football.
I've been his defender in the past...but yesterday made the pattern clear and complete, to where even an eternal optimist such as myself can't deny that this is not working.
2015: Under Fisch/Drevno- Fullbacks featured (Houma had 43 carries and 5 TDs), inside running with De'Veon Smith, 2 TEs, and odd lineups at odd times (remember the Rudock split out at WR plays?). Lots of underneath passes early in the season (and poor performances early by Rudock), until the reigns came off and Rudock went (or was allowed to go) deep later in the season. The last 5 games of Rudock's Michigan career were scorching.
Time management and clock issues were a problem. (MSU definitely comes to mind)
2016: Under Drevno- Fullbacks, Power RBs, Possession WRs and TE's featured almost exclusively in the red zone (Khalid Hill had 13 TDs, Deveon Smith 10 TDs, Darboh 7, Butt 4, Higdon 6). Multiple RBs (4- Smith, Higdon, Evans, and Isaac had more than 70 carries each). Weird 3rd down packages with the advent of Peppers in the Wildcat. Nothing much vertically all year, but some big runs on gadget plays and reverses by McDoom and Chesson. Poor OL play, especially in pass pro, and with a veteran OL.
It really says something about an offense when the longest offensive play from scrimmage is from a primarily defensive player- Peppers 63-yard run was the longest play from scrimmage, not a bomb, or a RB run. Speight got hurt but improved.
Time management and clock issues were a problem.
2017: Under Pep Hamilton/Drevno - General disaster, mostly due to holes in the roster (QB/WR/OL). 3 RBs (Higdon, Evans, Isaac) with 88 carries or more. A ton of 2 TE sets, even though McKeon and Gentry were underwhelming. The emergence of Big Ben Mason at FB. Porous OL that got 3 QBs injured to different extents. Speight, pre-injury, seemed to have taken a step back (4 INTS in the first 3 games). The longest passes completed were two 48 yard passes, one to DPJ and the other to Eubanks, who only had 2 receptions for the year.
Time management and clock issues remained a problem.
2018: Under Hamilton, who finally got a highly-rated QB to work with (5 star Patterson), and an OL coach (Warinner) who finally could field and develop a decent OL. The highly-touted 2017 recruits at WR had a year under their collective belts. Drevno, who was the scapegoat for holding the past offenses back, was gone.
Still we saw- a lack of deep passing, multiple RBs (Higdon, Evans, Wilson), and odd substitutions at odd times (McCaffrey or Shea at WR, taking out Shea for a series here or there, even if he was on a roll). Our fullback, Ben Mason became a fan favorite this season (33 carries 7 TDs). 3 TE's rotating for significant snaps (McKeon, Gentry, and Eubanks).
Still having issues with the long ball, due to "WRs not being able to separate". Only three pass plays over 50 yards, and one over 60. The longest play from scrimmage? An 81-yard Shea Patterson run.
Time management and clock issues remained a problem.
2019: Under Gattis- Shea (the former #1 QB recruit in the 2016 class) finally was going to be put into the offense that fit him. Still we saw some of the same stuff as before, under previous OCs- WRs (no matter how highly-ranked they were) not able to get separation. The numbers were better ( 2 70+-yard TDs from the WRs) and the TEs, while around, were less emphasized.
But there were still the strange substitutions: McCaffrey being put in for one drive, even when it seemed like Shea was warming up to the new offense, thus destroying in-game momentum. The ridiculous Ben Mason to DT experiment, was as if Gattis was trying to "hide" Mason from Harbaugh, so he wouldn't try to insert him into the offense on some plays. But guess what, there was that weird point, early in the season, when someone (didn't seem like a Gattis-type offensive fit) kept putting FB Ben VanSumeren in the game for key carries (one of which was a fumble in a key situation).
It seems as if, in the late season, Gattis relented and Mason returned as FB (in a "Speed in Space" Offense!) with less-than-thrilling results. Due to the early-season injury to Tru Wilson, the RB rotation was primarily 2 players: Charbonnet and Haskins. Shea, as Speight had before him, seemed to lose confidence and effectiveness late in the season (in the most important games).
A little bit of promise, but still some of the same concerning issues popping up from 2015.
Time management and clock issues remained a problem.
So here we are in in 2020, with Gattis, supposedly being "handed the reins for complete control of the offense".
What did we see in game one? The re-introduction of Ben Mason at FB, and multiple TEs on the field. Four RBs in the rotation.
When it worked vs Minnesota (when we all thought that Minnesota would be some type of test), people were thrilled with the merging of Harbaugh's "power football" philosophy, with Gattis' speed in space. But yesterday's game showed that it just a disorienting and disorganized mess of an offense that doesn't really know exactly what it want to do.
Those trying to blame our QB, who, in his second start did the best he could with that mess of an O are far off-base. Gattis, Hamilton, Fisch, and even Drevno are not blameless, but the same things keep creeping into all of these OC's game plans, and we need to start looking at the common denominator.
We keep seeing a FB, whatever type of O the new coordinator wants to run. We keep seeing TE's (as well as recruiting a bunch), "speed and space" be darned. We keep seeing strange substitutions, and over substitution of the RBs. We keep seeing people lined up under QB that aren't QB's in the red-zone. We keep seeing an aversion to "opening up" and throwing deep, and keep attempting a ton of runs up the middle. Watching yesterday, time management and clock issues are still a problem.
Jim Harbaugh's fingerprints are all over this, as they have been every single season here. I respect the guy, and love him as a Michigan Man, but his stubbornness will not allow this team to move forward into the modern era of football.
I've been his defender in the past...but yesterday made the pattern clear and complete, to where even an eternal optimist such as myself can't deny that this is not working.
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