What Did We Learn? - Michigan

Waldo said:
Dana’s call on 2nd & 3 from the 7 (or whatever it was) on the opening drive was criminal. If you’re leaning towards going for it on 4th, that’s the last play I’d call.
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To make matters worse, it’s just not a throw Dylan is good at yet. He mostly airmails it out of reach and I would have used a different receiver.
 
Not a fan of Dowdell and do not miss him.

However, 205 lbs is tiny for a RB these days and the Huskers need a few 230lb backs with speed as a priority, moving forward. Even though they take hits, the defenses feel those hits as well. The Big Ten and SEC has so many big backs that 220-235 pounds is the norm. But I also give credit to EJ for all he gives on the field. And he's maybe 200 pounds or less.
 
admo said:
Not a fan of Dowdell and do not miss him.

However, 205 lbs is tiny for a RB these days and the Huskers need a few 230lb backs with speed as a priority, moving forward. Even though they take hits, the defenses feel those hits as well. The Big Ten and SEC has so many big backs that 220-235 pounds is the norm. But I also give credit to EJ for all he gives on the field. And he's maybe 200 pounds or less.
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I agree we need some bigger backs. Dowdell was a thumper in short yardage. Unsure how much KY paid and if we even countered. Ives is the biggest we have at 215 then Mozee at 210 (biggest who have gotten touches). EJ is listed as 200lbs. Some of the freshman appear to be bigger. Several times this year we have been denied points because of an inability to get those tough yards. I'm a run the damn ball guy. Number of attempts doesn't necessarily mean "committed" to the run. I think after sacks we had 47 total yards....That's not going to cut it.
 
Mavric said:
When it was all just NIL money, we could spread money around to everyone. Basically everyone was on "scholarship." But the rev share cap changed that philosophy. Now just the Top 53 (or so, according to Rhule) will be the main ones getting significant payments. That how we attracted some of the extra recruits. And we had one of the largest rosters in CFB.

I assume - like @krc1995 said - that we don't necessarily want to yank money away from guys we've already committed to. So we're kind of stuck in an odd spot in the middle until we can get that resolved.
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To use a poker term, we’re “pot committed” on a few guys like Teddy P. and Carter Nelson. I think we’re in a transition period of attrition right now. And I support that. Better linemen would have won this game for us, but I think we have enough wins left on this schedule that we’ll put together a nice year.
 
Mavric said:
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:sick: Looked even worse from that aerial view......Only positive is this is on film and a "teachable and correctable moment".

Our tackles getting mauled at the LOS is pretty much what it is. Unsure how you can look at film and point to a technique or blown assignment. Saw one where their DE hit Gottula and and Husker (unsure who), but dude just put a hand on each dudes chest blew both of them off the LOS. Maybe need to look at different S&C programming. Not coach per say, but look at what other schools are doing.

Just sucks man. 0-29 against ranked teams....5-22 under Frost and now 3-10 in 1 score games under Rhule. 8-32 smh.....Maybe hire Saban as a consultant to review every facet of our operation....Examine everything.
 
Decked said:
Also can we can the stupid Matt Rhule podcast and him going on other ones now? Coach the damn team.
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This is going to become a "big deal" if they lose a few more games.

Coaches can't tell us how they spend 967 hours a week "working" and how they "sleep in their office" and how they "don't see their family" and then also be doing 48 podcasts and appearances each week.

I personally don't care if he does podcasts but just don't also try to tell me how you spend 69083 hours a week working on football.
 
Undone said:
The game wasn't actually as close as the final score suggested. The hail mary made the game closer than it probably should have been. Nevertheless, Rhule tends to bring better luck with this kind of stuff, so we'll take it.

The scouting report was clear: they were most likely going to steamroll us in the run, and that's what happened.

We ran 72 plays, they ran 54.

We needed to get a stop on defense late in the 4th but we couldn't tackle, couldn't take good angles, and all in all just had a pretty low level of intensity on defense much of the game.

We look like a team that could win 9 games if we had any semblance of a run defense. There is so much to tighten up on defense before Aidan Chiles comes in to town.
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Game wasn't as close if you take out a 75 yard and 35 yard run. Is this how that works?
 
krc1995 said:
I’m responding to the statement that a lot of money is being tied up in the bottom half of the roster.
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Right, and I assume, based upon snap count, #57 is bottom half. Either way, he seems to hurt us more than the kids that aren't playing. He's a negative. He cannot help but false starting.
 
lo country said:
:sick: Looked even worse from that aerial view......Only positive is this is on film and a "teachable and correctable moment".

Our tackles getting mauled at the LOS is pretty much what it is. Unsure how you can look at film and point to a technique or blown assignment. Saw one where their DE hit Gottula and and Husker (unsure who), but dude just put a hand on each dudes chest blew both of them off the LOS. Maybe need to look at different S&C programming. Not coach per say, but look at what other schools are doing.

Just sucks man. 0-29 against ranked teams....5-22 under Frost and now 3-10 in 1 score games under Rhule. 8-32 smh.....Maybe hire Saban as a consultant to review every facet of our operation....Examine everything.
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I can't escape the fact that, for ~14 years, we have an average offense practicing against an average defense. The Spring, Summer, and Fall practices against non elite NFL talent does not get our team ready to play elite teams. Do we look good in the offseason? Sure, sometimes, because we're scrimmaging and practicing against free agent type NFL talent for 8% of the roster. How can we sustainably play teams in the top 4 of the B1G, top 20 in the country, when we aren't seeing this level of comp until gameday when we play those teams?

The level of talent, per player, AND development isn't there. You can see Butler's scheme pretty clearly yesterday. We had to stop the run. We had to play man defense. We knew they could not pass well. And, they ran for just sub of 300 yards. On the other side, they were getting to Dylan rushing 3 people. 3?!?

Did the Spring or Fall camps prepare us to see that speed and size? No, it didn't. It prepared us to maul Akron. It prepared us to coin flip against Cincinnati.

If you don't have size and speed in the interior, you have to be elite in scheme. You have to development extraordinarily. You have to compliment your skill position players. We don't have anything elite other than a marketing department, a hungry fan base, and a motivational CEO.
 
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my main takeaway is that our talent is in the 20-40 range and michigan's is 1-20 range.

we just aren't there yet, and i'm not exactly sure how we get there unless we simply pay the top talent more to be here.

the only position where it felt like we had a bigger advantage was QB and it wasn't by much.
 
BoSolich said:
my main takeaway is that our talent is in the 20-40 range and michigan's is 1-20 range.

we just aren't there yet, and i'm not exactly sure how we get there unless we simply pay the top talent more to be here.

the only position where it felt like we had a bigger advantage was QB and it wasn't by much.
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Our receivers are a little better, as is our punter. We need the front 7 on D, and the O Line, to be much better.

Another issue - where is the accountability for decisions over the last few years? Examples - Jeff Sims is an elite QB. Satterfield is a fantastic OC. Elijah Pritchett is a definitive $1 million dollar guy. Again, just a few, but how are we so bad at some of these decisions? Critical roles. Big misses.
 
MyBloodIsRed16 said:
Game wasn't as close if you take out a 75 yard and 35 yard run. Is this how that works?
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It wasn’t close. We can play this game all day long. They missed on two touchdowns and could have scored another in the 4th if they had to. They settled on 3. 1/3 of our points were from a Hail Mary that probably shouldn’t have happened.

They were better. I understand this is a message board but I’m struggling to understand how people thought it was close.

I’m glad we didn’t get blown out. I guess that’s progress.
 
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