Thoughts after watching Michigan’s loss to Wisconsin for a second time …
First off, it’s fun listening to Kirk Herbstreit pretend he wants Michigan to be good again because “it’s good for college football.” As much as Ohio State fans have irked him over the past several years — I think they even made him move out of Columbus — his blood runs scarlet and gray.
I give him credit for pretending and doing his best to be professional on air, but he lived through the 13 years of Michigan dominance in the John Cooper era, and was even part of it, getting knocked out of the 1991 shellacking. Don’t think for a minute he or any other Buckeye wants Michigan to be “good” again.
But we do agree with him on one thing:
That Wisconsin brand of football looks pretty damn good right now. That’s a program with an identity, guys slobberknocking people all over the field and playing for pride in the uniform. Guys like Doug Skene and Jon Jansen are jealous, and while there’s still a faction for which that brand of football is outdated and/or not exciting enough … well, which side would you rather have been on Saturday night?
We’re betting Wisconsin fans were pretty happy with the results.
No, we’re not advocating for “three yards and a cloud of dust,” or “two tight ends and a balanced line,” wishbone or I-formation. But this U-M program has no identity right now. We went on a radio show with Mack Brown’s brother the other day (former Texas coach, current UNC head man) and he asked what I thought … that’s what I shared, and he said he was going to say the exact same thing.
Outsiders don’t recognize Michigan football anymore and don’t understand how they’re not playing for pride in the uniform. But they also don't know what they're trying to accomplish on offense.
We’ll say this — as dead as they were coming out of the tunnel, they did play hard on the first series on defense. Wisconsin was simply better up front, especially without Kwity Paye and Aidan Hutchinson in the lineup, and manhandled the Michigan defensive line. Redshirt junior Donovan Jeter … we’ve heard for two years how “the light has gone one,” but he was getting pushed back at the snap on so many plays. We’re talking three or four yards.
The same was true for former five-star Chris Hinton, who battles but plays too high. Fifth-year senior Carlo Kemp fights, but he’s overmatched against teams like these. They had him playing defensive end in four-man fronts a lot to add some beef inside, so it wasn’t Luiji Vilain and Taylor Upshaw on the edges together all that often — but nothing they did worked.
Wisconsin didn’t have to turn to page two of its playbook for the second straight year because of that advantage.
For the folks who were asking, ‘where were all the changes?’ We saw a lot of Gabe Newburg at defensive end, Mazi Smith in the middle. Smith got pushed around quite a bit, sometimes five yards down field. Newburg battled and had some good moments. All of them, though, fell victim to the Badgers’ devastating combo blocks up front.
It is a beautiful sight to behold, a line that is so in tune in its system that it can impose its will … except, of course, when it’s happening to your team.
Wisconsin’s big guys are in lockstep with each other each year because this is what they do, every day, every practice, year after year. That obviously hasn’t been the case at Michigan. Again, it comes back to the identity and change to “speed in space,” whatever — this looks like a combination RichRod/Al Borges offense, and part of it, of course, is the young guys up front. You’ve got linemen at new positions across the board with two tackles out, and that’s going to be tough against anyone (as we’ve seen).
The Badgers, though, were all over every play. They were on top of the rollouts, not fooled by misdirection and play action.
This is a well-coached football team. And Michigan ... well, wasn't fooling anyone.
The body language completely changed after the first quarter. They were defeated, and the effort waned on both sides. They let Jalen Berger (or whichever back it was – didn’t’ need to be a great one) waltz in without effort on the touchdown that made it 28-0. It almost looked like one of those plays where a team was trying to let the other score with a minute and change remaining so they could get the ball back.
But they did come out fighting in the second half for a spell. They never made a game of it, but they had some chances to make it more respectable, and at least they were playing hard. The first drive of the second half they had guys firing off the ball and moving the pile, etc. … but again, that’s something we should see on every play, all the time.
Also, it’s mind blowing how U-M continues to get the short end of the stick on key penalities. Sophomore Erick All was grabbed by the collar on a sideline route, right in front of the official. Sophomore Cornelius’ Johnson could have drawn a flag in the end zone, and that flag has been thrown against U-M defensive backs all year … and senior safety Brad Hawkins’ “late hit” that kept a drive alive was a joke.”
But going after the punter when you’ve got momentum and your second string quarterback (Cade McNamara) has breathed some life into the sideline and you’re about to get the ball back — when sophomore return man Giles Jackson has already had a couple impressive returns — that’s dumb football.
So is running Hassan Haskins (7.9 yards per carry coming in) once all game. We have no idea what’s going on with the running back rotation at this point.
They talk about “situational awareness” with Joe Milton at quarterback, and yeah, it’s lacking (like throwing deep on a third and seven play to Sainristil). They also need to look in the mirror from time to time.
Finally, McNamara looked good, but let’s slow the roll. No, it wasn’t garbage time, but we’ve seen great, first performances from John O’Korn (at Purdue), Dylan McCaffrey (at Notre Dame). McNamara looked confident and threw a beautiful ball, but we need to see more of him before we get excited.
He threw a ball on the run while scrambling to the right that came up short. For all the people who questioned Shea Patterson, that’s a throw he would have made. It was raining, sure, but once again, it seems like you’d need to combine the traits from two or three guys in the room to have a Michigan-caliber quarterback that can compete for titles.
One last note ... redshirt sophomore Vincent Gray bounced back from some bad performances with a solid game. He's a great kid, by all accounts, so we're happy for him.
We’ll have more on the QBs in Friday’s ITF. For now, though .. onward.
First off, it’s fun listening to Kirk Herbstreit pretend he wants Michigan to be good again because “it’s good for college football.” As much as Ohio State fans have irked him over the past several years — I think they even made him move out of Columbus — his blood runs scarlet and gray.
I give him credit for pretending and doing his best to be professional on air, but he lived through the 13 years of Michigan dominance in the John Cooper era, and was even part of it, getting knocked out of the 1991 shellacking. Don’t think for a minute he or any other Buckeye wants Michigan to be “good” again.
But we do agree with him on one thing:
That Wisconsin brand of football looks pretty damn good right now. That’s a program with an identity, guys slobberknocking people all over the field and playing for pride in the uniform. Guys like Doug Skene and Jon Jansen are jealous, and while there’s still a faction for which that brand of football is outdated and/or not exciting enough … well, which side would you rather have been on Saturday night?
We’re betting Wisconsin fans were pretty happy with the results.
No, we’re not advocating for “three yards and a cloud of dust,” or “two tight ends and a balanced line,” wishbone or I-formation. But this U-M program has no identity right now. We went on a radio show with Mack Brown’s brother the other day (former Texas coach, current UNC head man) and he asked what I thought … that’s what I shared, and he said he was going to say the exact same thing.
Outsiders don’t recognize Michigan football anymore and don’t understand how they’re not playing for pride in the uniform. But they also don't know what they're trying to accomplish on offense.
We’ll say this — as dead as they were coming out of the tunnel, they did play hard on the first series on defense. Wisconsin was simply better up front, especially without Kwity Paye and Aidan Hutchinson in the lineup, and manhandled the Michigan defensive line. Redshirt junior Donovan Jeter … we’ve heard for two years how “the light has gone one,” but he was getting pushed back at the snap on so many plays. We’re talking three or four yards.
The same was true for former five-star Chris Hinton, who battles but plays too high. Fifth-year senior Carlo Kemp fights, but he’s overmatched against teams like these. They had him playing defensive end in four-man fronts a lot to add some beef inside, so it wasn’t Luiji Vilain and Taylor Upshaw on the edges together all that often — but nothing they did worked.
Wisconsin didn’t have to turn to page two of its playbook for the second straight year because of that advantage.
For the folks who were asking, ‘where were all the changes?’ We saw a lot of Gabe Newburg at defensive end, Mazi Smith in the middle. Smith got pushed around quite a bit, sometimes five yards down field. Newburg battled and had some good moments. All of them, though, fell victim to the Badgers’ devastating combo blocks up front.
It is a beautiful sight to behold, a line that is so in tune in its system that it can impose its will … except, of course, when it’s happening to your team.
Wisconsin’s big guys are in lockstep with each other each year because this is what they do, every day, every practice, year after year. That obviously hasn’t been the case at Michigan. Again, it comes back to the identity and change to “speed in space,” whatever — this looks like a combination RichRod/Al Borges offense, and part of it, of course, is the young guys up front. You’ve got linemen at new positions across the board with two tackles out, and that’s going to be tough against anyone (as we’ve seen).
The Badgers, though, were all over every play. They were on top of the rollouts, not fooled by misdirection and play action.
This is a well-coached football team. And Michigan ... well, wasn't fooling anyone.
The body language completely changed after the first quarter. They were defeated, and the effort waned on both sides. They let Jalen Berger (or whichever back it was – didn’t’ need to be a great one) waltz in without effort on the touchdown that made it 28-0. It almost looked like one of those plays where a team was trying to let the other score with a minute and change remaining so they could get the ball back.
But they did come out fighting in the second half for a spell. They never made a game of it, but they had some chances to make it more respectable, and at least they were playing hard. The first drive of the second half they had guys firing off the ball and moving the pile, etc. … but again, that’s something we should see on every play, all the time.
Also, it’s mind blowing how U-M continues to get the short end of the stick on key penalities. Sophomore Erick All was grabbed by the collar on a sideline route, right in front of the official. Sophomore Cornelius’ Johnson could have drawn a flag in the end zone, and that flag has been thrown against U-M defensive backs all year … and senior safety Brad Hawkins’ “late hit” that kept a drive alive was a joke.”
But going after the punter when you’ve got momentum and your second string quarterback (Cade McNamara) has breathed some life into the sideline and you’re about to get the ball back — when sophomore return man Giles Jackson has already had a couple impressive returns — that’s dumb football.
So is running Hassan Haskins (7.9 yards per carry coming in) once all game. We have no idea what’s going on with the running back rotation at this point.
They talk about “situational awareness” with Joe Milton at quarterback, and yeah, it’s lacking (like throwing deep on a third and seven play to Sainristil). They also need to look in the mirror from time to time.
Finally, McNamara looked good, but let’s slow the roll. No, it wasn’t garbage time, but we’ve seen great, first performances from John O’Korn (at Purdue), Dylan McCaffrey (at Notre Dame). McNamara looked confident and threw a beautiful ball, but we need to see more of him before we get excited.
He threw a ball on the run while scrambling to the right that came up short. For all the people who questioned Shea Patterson, that’s a throw he would have made. It was raining, sure, but once again, it seems like you’d need to combine the traits from two or three guys in the room to have a Michigan-caliber quarterback that can compete for titles.
One last note ... redshirt sophomore Vincent Gray bounced back from some bad performances with a solid game. He's a great kid, by all accounts, so we're happy for him.
We’ll have more on the QBs in Friday’s ITF. For now, though .. onward.
