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O-Line Youth

I understand and my goal is not to say that youth is not a major part of the problem. We all know that it is. It's just frustrating to see other teams in similar situations having much more success. UCLA has two true freshmen starting on the line and their starting RB averages 6 ypc. Their freshman RB averages 4.4 ypc. Auburn is really young and they have three RBs over 450 yards. One has almost hit the 1000 yard mark. He's at 921.

I'm frustrated and I want to see some improvement through the last games of the season.

fitz is not the back he was before his injury, that is clear. He dances way to much. He has to hit the hole hard before he starts acting shifty. Dancing behind the LOS is a recipe for disaster, as we have seen.

At least 50% of the problems fall on the coaching staff and not youth.
 
fitz is not the back he was before his injury, that is clear. He dances way to much. He has to hit the hole hard before he starts acting shifty. Dancing behind the LOS is a recipe for disaster, as we have seen.

At least 50% of the problems fall on the coaching staff and not youth.

Fitz wasn't any good before he got injured last year. He was just an average back.
 
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Just frustrating the lack of improvement ..That is all on coaching not the players.. I am very fearful that we have really inferior coaches then other teams.. Hope I am wrong.

This is what it boils down to. That was the first game where I really thought that we had inferior coaches. In the end, we did pull basically our entire offensive coaching staff from a non-BCS school. There's a reason some of these guys where coaching at SDSU and not Alabama after being in coaching for a while and still at a non-BCS school. When OSU got Tressel from Youngstown State - I don't believe they poached their entire coaching staff. In the end, there's a reason some guys are coaching at Youngstown state and not Ohio State.

For example, Derrell Funk. This is literally his first experience coaching at a major program. He was a grad assistant for Illinois in the 80's and has since been at some pretty god awful programs. Maybe Funk is just meant to coach at a MAC school and isn't meant to coach at Michigan.

I still feel like defensively we have great coaching. They've taken some kids and really developed them on that side of the ball throughout the 3 years. They've put them in the best place to succeed. Do they succeed every time? No, but they are certainly a very capable unit.

Offensively, I just haven't seen it. All three years it's seemed as though the coaching staff just doesn't know what to do with the players we have on that side of the ball. They've made huge errors that have cost us games. The biggest one I can think of is moving Devin to WR and thinking Bellomy was a viable backup. How can you put those two players next to each other in practice and think the Bellomy gives you the same chance to win as Gardner? That's just bad coaching.

Either way, we can't do anything other than to just let this play out. It's frustrating but I guess we can all hope that Hoke makes some difficult calls in the next few months and solves the problems on that side of the ball. I don't really know who is to blame, since none of us are really "in" the program, but it's clear at this point that there is a serious coaching issue on offense.
 
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Fitz wasn't any good before he got injured last year. He was just an average back.

yeah, I don't think Fitz was ever really that good. And I think the only reason he's playing now over green is because of his pass blocking abilities. Since the line can't block anyone, we need that RB position to be able to block an extra defender. If our line was able to block, just as an average Michigan line would block, I think we'd see a lot more Green in on plays.

What's really kind of scary is to think what our line will be like next year without Lewan and Schofield.
 
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yeah, I don't think Fitz was ever really that good. And I think the only reason he's playing now over green is because of his pass blocking abilities. Since the line can't block anyone, we need that RB position to be able to block an extra defender. If our line was able to block, just as an average Michigan line would block, I think we'd see a lot more Green in on plays.

What's really kind of scary is to think what our line will be like next year without Lewan and Schofield.

We have to hope that the young guys on the interior drastically improve. If they don't, we are going to be looking at very rough season.
 
yeah, I don't think Fitz was ever really that good. And I think the only reason he's playing now over green is because of his pass blocking abilities. Since the line can't block anyone, we need that RB position to be able to block an extra defender. If our line was able to block, just as an average Michigan line would block, I think we'd see a lot more Green in on plays.

What's really kind of scary is to think what our line will be like next year without Lewan and Schofield.

You think Toussaint can pass block?
 
Hah!
That is what i was going to say byco.
Fitz pass blocks like he's sneaking out for a screen pass every play.


We have to hope that the young guys on the interior drastically improve. If they don't, we are going to be looking at very rough season.

Looking at next years schedule, atleast it's not overly difficult.
I'm glad I don't have season tix, home schedule is a snoozer.

2014

Aug. 30 vs Appalachian State
Sept. 6 at Notre Dame
Sept. 13 vs Miami (Ohio)
Sept. 20 vs Utah
Sept. 27 vs Minnesota
Oct. 4 at Rutgers
Oct. 11 vs Penn State
Oct. 18 Bye
Oct. 25 at Michigan State
Nov. 1 vs Indiana
Nov. 8 at Northwestern
Nov. 15 Bye
Nov. 22 vs Maryland
Nov. 29 at ohio (Columbus) {fixed}
Dec. 6 Big Ten Championship Game


What's the best home game? PSU or Maryland's B1G Bighouse debut?
(fuckin' Appy State. :no::nuts::hmm::bs: )
 
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Hah!
That is what i was going to say byco.
Fitz pass blocks like he's sneaking out for a screen pass every play.




Looking at next years schedule, atleast it's not overly difficult.
I'm glad I don't have season tix, home schedule is a snoozer.

2014

Aug. 30 vs Appalachian State
Sept. 6 at Notre Dame
Sept. 13 vs Miami (Ohio)
Sept. 20 vs Utah
Sept. 27 vs Minnesota
Oct. 4 at Rutgers
Oct. 11 vs Penn State
Oct. 18 Bye
Oct. 25 at Michigan State
Nov. 1 vs Indiana
Nov. 8 at Northwestern
Nov. 15 Bye
Nov. 22 vs Maryland
Nov. 29 at ohio (Columbus) {fixed}
Dec. 6 Big Ten Championship Game


What's the best home game? PSU or Maryland's B1G Bighouse debut?
(fuckin' Appy State. :no::nuts::hmm::bs: )

That Appy State game is going to be dreadful; especially if we can't get our act together. Can you imagine if they come in and pull off a second upset? Jesus man, what a terrible game to schedule.

There does seem to be a lot of wins on the schedule though, which is good. Our hardest games are ND, MSU, PSU and OSU.
 
Hah!
That is what i was going to say byco.
Fitz pass blocks like he's sneaking out for a screen pass every play.




Looking at next years schedule, atleast it's not overly difficult.
I'm glad I don't have season tix, home schedule is a snoozer.

2014

Aug. 30 vs Appalachian State
Sept. 6 at Notre Dame
Sept. 13 vs Miami (Ohio)
Sept. 20 vs Utah
Sept. 27 vs Minnesota
Oct. 4 at Rutgers
Oct. 11 vs Penn State
Oct. 18 Bye
Oct. 25 at Michigan State
Nov. 1 vs Indiana
Nov. 8 at Northwestern
Nov. 15 Bye
Nov. 22 vs Maryland
Nov. 29 at ohio (Columbus) {fixed}
Dec. 6 Big Ten Championship Game


What's the best home game? PSU or Maryland's B1G Bighouse debut?
(fuckin' Appy State. :no::nuts::hmm::bs: )

Home schedule being easy is actually part of the problem. I'm not going to count beating a bunch of chumps at home as a good season.

All the toughest games are on the road and we've seen how well this staff and team performs on the road. Thanks to the Big 10's infinite wisdom, we have to go back to MSU for the second year in a row and have OSU and ND on the road. Yay.
 
part of the reason I bought season tickets for this year but don't have "season tickets"
 
It's @ MSU next year? How can that be right?

this has already been discussed on the board.

at least we get another bye week to prepare, though that didn't help Borges much.

Hopefully Mr. New Offensive Coordinator For 2014 will use it wisely.
 
Well, he can't. He's awful at it.

They've resorted to it on the o-line (line by committee). I dont know the problem with doing it for running back. Chipping is not the same as blocking. It still gets the qb killed. A problem could be that there are better blocking rb's, but they have a problem picking up who they are supposed to block. Fitz actually chips the right one.
 
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