Michigan Football: Tidbits from MaizeMan — Michigan Football

Posted at 12:00pm — 11/26/2013

Michigan Football: Tidbits from MaizeMan — Michigan Football

This is a small sample of MaizeMan’s post on the message board.

Couple of thoughts after watching the Iowa tape and allowing (at least this time)—24 hr rule.

1) As most know, I am the ultimate pessimist when it comes to UM football. Even is the days of Carr when we would win games like Iowa (closely I may add) I pointed out the problems with the program. For the past decade and I do think the regression of UM football started around 2003-2004, the main issues I had with the program were

recruiting, recruiting, recruiting
off-season programs
physical practices
overall physical play of the team.
beating any team that had any upgraded defense.

Nov 2, 2013; East Lansing, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines head coach Brady Hoke (left) and defensive coordinator Greg Mattison (right) during the first quarter against the Michigan State Spartans at Spartan Stadium. The Spartans beat the Wolverines 29-6. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY SportsOut of the concerns listed about, we are now down to the last two which even with the hiring of Hoke and Mattison is not where it needs to be.

But:

2) All of our top defensive players return next season. Clark was the best player on the field on Sat, on either team he finally played the way most of us projected in pre-season. Was that just a one game deal or has Clark finally arrived? I guess we find out more next Sat and then during the bowl season. Henry and Clark are future starters and Ryan will return next year completely healthy. I still maintain that the emergence of Taco during the off-season may determine whether this becomes a physically dominant defensive team.

January 1,2013; Tampa, FL, USA; Michigan Wolverines linebacker Joe Bolden (35) against the South Carolina Gamecocks during the first half of the 2013 Outback Bowl at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports3) While LB’s have been a concern, we return every LB, minus Gordon and with the improvement of Gedeon and another year of development of Ross and Bolden I think finally next year we have a strong LB crew.

I can remember when posters were calling for “Moellers head” when he was the OL coach at UM so this issue of being able to run the ball effectively especially against good teams have been around for a long time. In Carr’s later years, I use to report how UM had very few physical practices how Bo was always griping about our lack of ability to blow people off the ball under RR he just ran a finesse type of offense, but under Hoke he talked about how UM would practice very physical so I can come to no other conclusion that it is the scheme that is complicating our ability to block.

Nov 23, 2013; Iowa City, IA, USA; Michigan Wolverines quarterback Devin Gardner (98) loses the ball to Iowa Hawkeyes defender Anthony Hitchens (31) at Kinnick Stadium. Iowa beat Michigan 24-21. Mandatory Credit: Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports7) Hoke was around UM before he left to go to Ball State. What is starting to bother me is his constant trying to find the positives in games, like at Iowa when he says–“We did some things pretty well offensively” I keep reminding myself that during the Bo era we had a game against a pretty good Illinois team in which we in the 2nd half ran the ball for over 200 yards. The next week of practice Bo was livid because late in the 3rd quarter we had a 2nd and 2 and Illinois tackled our RB in the backfield. Instead of talking about the 200 yards gained Bo made the team practice that one play for 30 minutes all the time screaming at them that no team will ever tackle UM for a loss on that play again.

This is how I would like to see Hoke approach UM football, when things are unacceptable, say that and make sure the kids understand. Again, when you allow the same mistakes every week, I don’t think that message is getting through.

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Written by GBMWolverine Staff — MaizeMan

Go Blue — Wear Maize!