Tag: Jim Harbaugh

Ohio State 30, Michigan 27

Please consider using the Amazon link/ad below to do some holiday (or regular) shopping. Thanks to those of you who do, and special thanks goes to whoever bought the $1,500 camera the other day, since the site earns a commission on sales! All contributions are appreciated.

Punched in the gut. I was nervous the whole game, but Michigan led most of the way. That was a heartbreaking way to lose, because just one play here or there could have sealed the game. I kept waiting for someone, anyone, to make a game-changing interception or forced fumble or catch-and-run or special teams play, and it just never came. The Wolverines were up 17-7 at one point, but they let that lead disappear. And in the fourth quarter and overtime, Ohio State had the right answers while Michigan flailed.

Obligatory comments about the refereeing. I’m of the school of thought that if teams want to win, they shouldn’t leave the game close enough to let the outcome be altered by referees. That being said, the refereeing was bad. Jim Harbaugh said he was “bitterly disappointed” with the officiating. It’s difficult for any team to go four quarters and two overtimes with only 2 penalties for 6 yards. The two penalties were a false start and an illegal hands to the face, the latter of which cost the Buckeyes only a yard due to the location on the field. Coming into Saturday, OSU was #57 in the country with an average of 6.5 penalties for 52.7 yards per game. They had at least 4 penalties in every game except Northwestern, when they had 2 penalties for 10 yards. A few of the egregious or noteworthy calls/non-calls:

• Ohio State CB Gareon Conley wrapped his right arm around WR Grant Perry for a pass breakup in the second overtime that should have been called.
• Ohio State CB Marshon Lattimore held WR Amara Darboh off the line of scrimmage and forced him to the ground in the first half. The ball was thrown to him and fell harmlessly to the turf, but no referee called defensive holding or pass interference. This came after a similar play on which Channing Stribling was called for P.I.
• Jim Harbaugh’s unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was questionable. I get that he shouldn’t have thrown his call sheet, and he probably said something that shouldn’t have been said. But he does something similar approximately once every week, and the referees let him do it. Now in the last week of the season, in The Game, they’re going to call it? Call that consistently, and he might tone it down. But when you let him get away with it for 11 weeks in a row, then you’ve basically condoned it.
• The Spot. On 4th-and-1 in the second overtime with Michigan up 27-24, Ohio State QB J.T. Barrett ran the ball. He was hit low by safety Delano Hill, his shoulder hit a blocker, and forward momentum that seemed bound to get him to the 15-yard line (which was the line to reach) was suddenly stopped when his body twirled in mid-air. Watching it initially, I thought the ball crossed the plane of the 15-yard line. (By the way, no measurement with the chains is necessary in that case, because the ball started on the 25-yard line, so you only have to cross the plane of the 15-yard line, kind of like scoring a touchdown. The 15-yard line is the measurement.) Upon replay, I wasn’t so sure. The ball was in Barrett’s right arm, which was trailing his left side. Ultimately, though, the referees needed irrefutable evidence that the ball didn’t get there, and no camera angles showed the ball. Either way, we’re talking about the difference of maybe 3 inches. It would take something very definitive to change the spot, and there was nothing. As a stand-alone play, I have no problem with this call. The frustrating or questionable thing is that it came at the end of a day when OSU seemed to be favored with numerous other advantages.

In case you’re wondering, Michigan was #25 in the country with 45.2 penalty yards per game on an average of 4.7 flags per game. On Saturday they had 7 for 59 yards. So Michigan had 2.3 more flags and 13.8 more penalty yards than average, while Ohio State had 4.5 fewer flags and 46.7 fewer penalty yards than average.

Michigan is mostly to blame, though, and a lot falls on the shoulders of Wilton Speight. Speight was Michigan’s best option (23/36, 219 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs). Even with a bum left shoulder, he was better than backup John O’Korn would have been. I commend Speight for playing just two weeks after what was reported as an A.C. separation. (I’ve had an A.C. separation, albeit in my throwing shoulder, and it’s not fun. Even if it had been in my non-throwing shoulder, playing football would have been tough.) Still, Speight’s the one who gave the Buckeyes most of their scoring opportunities. It started with a pick-six where De’Veon Smith missed a blitz pickup, but Speight compounded the problem by throwing in the middle of the field, where Malik Hooker – OSU’s most dangerous defensive back – was waiting. Then Speight fumbled on Ohio State’s 2-yard line when the Wolverines would have had a touchdown or at least an easy field goal. The last big mistake was an interception to sinking linebacker Jerome Baker, who may have been obscured by the umpire standing in front of him, but it gave Ohio State a short field to score. Toss in a couple errant throws that could have been first downs or touchdowns in the flat, and it was not a great day for Speight. He did make some plays, such as the 4th down touchdown throw to Darboh in the first overtime, but there weren’t enough. Take away the pick-six and the fumble, and conservatively, you’re looking at a two-score swing, even if you spot OSU a safety instead of the pick-six.

The play calling was poor, as well. I know there were some people who were upset with the play calling in the Iowa game – which I still have not finished watching – but this was a poorly called offensive game as well. I don’t understand running De’Veon Smith on power on 3rd-and-7 in overtime. I don’t understand having Jabrill Peppers run a zone read on 3rd-and-goal from the 7-yard line earlier in the game. I don’t understand running play action with your bum-shouldered QB where he’s repeatedly turning his back to the defense, even after the defense has figured out that you can’t run the ball. I don’t understand why Michigan wasn’t better at executing the run/play action from shotgun. Jehu Chesson touched the ball 4 times. Chris Evans got 6 carries. Eddie McDoom had 0 touches. Ty Isaac averages 5.6 yards/carry and 21 yards/catch, and he got 0 touches. Michigan went into a shell where it was Speight throwing to Jake Butt/Amara Darboh, De’Veon Smith running the ball, and a mostly uninspiring Jabrill Peppers package.

We are who we thought we were. Ultimately, even prior to the season, the downfall of Michigan’s team was what we expected it to be. Wilton Speight – shoulder notwithstanding – was a checkdown artist who didn’t take any downfield shots. Michigan’s offensive line was unable to create running lanes against a good defense. De’Veon Smith (21 carries, 60 yards, 2.9 yards/carry) is slow. Yes, those are all limitations on the offense, because the defense was pretty darn good and should have been good enough to win the game.

The defense was outstanding. Michigan allowed 330 yards of offense, which is the second lowest output for Ohio State this year (behind what they put up against Michigan State). Furthermore, if you take away the overtime production – which was approximately 45 yards – you’re talking about giving up about 285 yards to the Buckeyes in this game, which is 208 yards lower than their average this season. There were some busts by Michigan late in the game (the 15-yard game winner by Curtis Samuel, a handful of runs by J.T. Barrett), but overall, it was an excellent performance that included 13 tackles for loss and 8 sacks. There was talk that defensive coordinator Don Brown was hired because he’s a “spread killer,” and while Michigan definitely didn’t kill the spread, it was a pretty darn good performance. Speight handed Ohio State 10 points with his two interceptions, so we’re basically talking about a defense that gave up 7 points in regulation.

A few defensive kudos. A couple guys played what I thought was probably the best game of their career, and maybe there were even more than that. Taco Charlton, leg cramps and all, made 9 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, and 2.5 sacks. Backup nose tackle Bryan Mone made 3 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, and 1 pass breakup. Both of those guys had career best days, in my opinion. In last week’s awards post, I called out Mone as someone who had been underachieving, but he really showed up on Saturday. Hopefully he can carry that over into 2017 once Ryan Glasgow graduates. I also thought Glasgow (2 tackles, 1.5 TFLs, 1 sack), Ben Gedeon (10 tackles, 2 TFLs, 1 sack), and Mike McCray (9 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 sack, 1 PBU) played very well. I’ve been very critical of Channing Stribling’s tackling, but he was ready to play against OSU and finished with 4 tackles, 2 TFLs, 1 sack, and 1 very nice pass breakup.

A few defensive questions. The defense played extremely well, but as is bound to happen against Ohio State, there were some major goofs. I counted at least three times that Michigan played two defensive backs over the trips side, and all three plays resulted in completions for Barrett. The last was an inexplicably easy completion to Noah Brown in the fourth quarter, so it wasn’t something that happened early and got fixed. Michigan also had several communication issues, even when they weren’t getting beaten by tempo. A late long run by Barrett occurred when Michigan had no linebackers in the box except for Peppers, who was lazily spying about 7 yards off the ball. And on the final play, a blitz by Mike McCray seemed to open up a running lane for Curtis Samuel. I think McCray would have been in the hole to at least slow down Samuel if he hadn’t been blitzing, but no fewer than three (3!!!) defenders seemed to book it for outside contain, which made it a very easy cut for Samuel. When three guys overpursue and another guy takes himself out of the play by blitzing inside, you’ve got a pretty good shot at making something happen.

It was not the best day for Jabrill Peppers or his coaches. I expected and hoped for more from Peppers. He is probably headed for the NFL after this season, but it’s too soon for a career retrospective with a bowl game yet to be played. Statistically, he had a decent day on his two primary focuses, defense and special teams: 7 tackles, 1 interception returned for 11 yards, 1 punt return for 5 yards, and 1 kickoff return for 44 yards. But I couldn’t help feeling like he wasn’t quite all there on Saturday. His feet seemed to be stuck in mud at times. Ohio State TE Marcus Baugh had 2 catches against Peppers, and I would be okay with that if it was because he got outmuscled or outjumped, but on both plays, it was because Peppers was just slow to react. Peppers was also spying Barrett when the QB took off late in the game, and Peppers – a high school state champion sprinter – couldn’t make up ground on the 6’2″, 222 lb. QB who many describe as not being particularly fast, but instead shifty and tough with good vision. I don’t know if he was tired or nursing some sort of injury, but he wasn’t the ball of energy I’m used to seeing. As for his coaches, I thought his offensive usage was pretty horrendous. He had 4 carries for 4 yards, and that’s with his first carry going for 6 yards (hint: his next 3 carries went for -2 yards). The best play was using him in the backfield, faking a toss sweep to him, and then bootlegging Speight for a completion to Darboh. Michigan should have used him more as a decoy, they could have used him in the slot, they could have run a reverse or a jet sweep, they could have lined him up at QB and had him fake a zone read then throw the ball, etc. Instead, his entire offensive usage was, if I remember correctly: 3 quarterback powers, 2 zone reads (including 1 handoff to De’Veon Smith), and 1 snap as a decoy at RB. You’ve got one of the most dynamic players in the country, a potential Heisman candidate, and a future 1st round pick, and that’s all you can come up with for the biggest game of the year? Additionally, as mentioned earlier, the 3rd-and-goal zone read was a terrible play call, because the defense knows he’s not going to throw the ball and he’s going to try to keep it to score a TD.

I’m more disappointed than I thought I would be. Keep in mind that I picked Michigan to lose this game in the pre-season, and I called for a 21-17 loss in the game preview (if Speight played, which obviously he did). That was a pretty damn good prediction, considering OSU was on the brink of going up 21-17 in the final seconds of regulation. I have been expecting a similar outcome for months. But I can’t help thinking Michigan let this one slip through their fingers. The Buckeyes only led in this game for 3 minutes and 58 seconds of regulation. I didn’t expect the Iowa loss and picked an 11-1 season. Even a 10-2 season isn’t bad, but it could have been so much better. The Wolverines lost to Iowa by 1 point with no time left on the clock, and they were beating Ohio State by 3 points until there was 1 second left on the clock. The Wolverines lost two games by razor-thin margins, and instead of a potential Big Ten championship and playoff seed, they’ll be waiting to hear about a pretty good bowl bid.

Video: Jim Harbaugh and family star in a milk commercial

read more

Video: Bailey feat. Jim Harbaugh on “Who’s Got It Better Than Us?”

I generally think raps/songs about football teams are pretty lame. This isn’t much of an exception, but it’s not out of the norm for Jim Harbaugh, who doesn’t look totally out of place in the video like a lot of 50-year-old football coaches would. I guess that Saved by the Bell acting experience came in handy yet again.

Audio: Jim Harbaugh post-spring teleconference

Why the NCAA Needed to Rule on Satellite Camps

The first Google image result for the search query “satellite camps.” (image via Montgomery Advertiser)

Late last week the NCAA announced a rules change that prevents FBS programs from holding satellite camps. The idea of satellite camps popped up a couple years ago when Penn State’s James Franklin held one in Georgia, but the idea really took off in 2015 when Jim Harbaugh commenced a nationwide tour of camps from Pennsylvania to Alabama to Florida to Texas to California. Harbaugh became the Henry Ford of satellite camps: he didn’t invent the idea, but he honed it.

Many coaches around the country – particularly in the deep south – spouted off against the notion of holding those camps, just like they did against Michigan holding practices at IMG Academy. The criticisms were a bit varied, but ultimately, they were thinly veiled fears that the Wolverines would infringe on their recruiting territory.

Naturally, Michigan fans have taken offense to the NCAA’s ruling. Fans have a tendency to protect their own, and that has proven to be the case with the response. The general response I have seen is that the NCAA is bowing to the SEC’s wishes, since the SEC brings in a lot of money and has won eight of the last ten national championships.

First, let’s look at some of the pros and cons of unfettered satellite camps:

PROS

• Student-athletes have more opportunities to be seen and noticed by college coaches. In Michigan’s case, several under-the-radar prospects earned scholarship offers in 2015, including Kiante Enis, Antwaine Richardson, Victor Viramontes, and Rashad Weaver, all of whom committed to Michigan.
• Student-athletes have more opportunities to interact with role models. The average player who attends the camps does not sign with an FBS program and will rarely, if ever, get the chance to work with luminary coaches and former players like Jim Harbaugh, Tyrone Wheatley, etc. Like a book signing or autograph booth, this was a chance for Joe Schmoe to see how elite coaches/players approach the game and have a good story to tell someday to their friends/kids or around the water cooler.
• Competition breeds innovation. Like the capitalists we are, competition forces teams to think outside the box and improve their products in order to remain relevant. A boring/lame camp will mean nobody wants to come (the following year, at least), so teams would have to think of how to keep players interested and engaged.
• Football programs increase their reach for recruiting and branding. After some down years at Michigan, satellite camps gave a boost of energy and attention in parts of the country that were difficult to reach beforehand. Michigan has made some inroads in the states of Alabama and Florida, for example, that might have otherwise been more difficult to build.
• Players get to learn the great game of football. Jim Harbaugh has repeatedly talked about the importance of learning the game of football, teamwork, determination, etc., and how those lessons apply to the average person’s life.
• Camps bring coaches closer to the players. Rather than families/student-athletes paying to travel across the country or a couple states away, the cost of some of the travel is translated to programs with multi-million dollar budgets.

CONS

• The American Idol Effect. My problem with American Idol and shows like it has always been that if you were meant to be discovered and famous as a singer, someone probably would have discovered you and made you famous already. In the cases of the players mentioned in the first bullet point above, they signed with Indiana, Maryland, Cal, and Pitt, respectively. Those are okay programs, but they’re not Michigan, Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, USC, etc. Those players were ultimately set up for disappointment and negative attention when they didn’t sign with Michigan, and Michigan didn’t come out of it looking so hot, either. Perhaps Michigan gave them the juice to earn those other scholarships, or maybe Indiana, Maryland, Cal, and Pitt would have come calling, anyway. It’s hard to say.
• Unmitigated interactions with players/families leads to shady dealings. Michigan may not be a “dirty” program – though it’s probably naive to think that some Wolverine somewhere doesn’t cross the line – but bringing college teams and all their various personnel to random cities leads to all kinds of opportunities for inappropriate interactions. Parking lots, diners, under the bleachers, etc., there are oodles of places to meet for $500 handshakes and questionable contact. If a coach or a booster wants to give $500 to a player, he can make it happen on campus or elsewhere. But there are compliance officers, athletic department employees, and spying eyes everywhere when players come to campus. That’s not the case in, say, Prattville, Alabama. The NCAA can’t handle the investigations already in its queue, let alone the additional ones that would invariably pop up with 128 teams holding traveling circuses around the country.
• An overabundance of camps. As a high school coach, I see parents/student-athletes who frequently waste their time and money by traveling to and paying for camps around the country. There are players who aren’t even Division II talent who go to NFL players’ camps, National Underclassman Combines, Division III camps, FBS schools’ camps, etc. Parents take days off work, kids work summer jobs to blow money on their entrance fees, gas gets wasted. Meanwhile, if you’re not attending every camp that travels through town but the kid at your rival high school does, then you risk getting overlooked. Additionally, all these camps could potentially take place on school days or during times when students would previously have relaxed and enjoyed summers with their families. And while I realize this borders on the SEC’s take on spring break practice at IMG Academy (“The players need their spring breaks not to play football, but to go get drunk in Florida!”), there is a very real issue with high schoolers getting burned out with the various commitments necessary to play multiple sports, excel in the classroom, and participate in other extracurricular activities for college applications.
• Coaches have lives, too. Maybe this is lowest on the priority list of the cons, because nobody’s worried about the millionaires or hundred-thousandaires who are FBS coaches. But coaching is a high-profile job. Coaches are never off the clock, rarely take vacations, sleep very little, etc. You have to be passionate about the job if you want to keep the job, and the money doesn’t hurt. But even as a high school coach, I never stop working. Whether it’s reading about the game, watching film, recruiting future players, running workouts, going to clinics, keeping an eye on current players, working on fundraisers, etc., it’s not a job you leave at the office. When Michigan ran its satellite camp series last year, the coaches on staff were taken away from their wives and children for almost two weeks. It’s yet another task to add to the job that already consumes coaches 365 days a year. Jim Harbaugh has mentioned before that the only “vacation” he takes each year is to go on a mission trip to Peru each summer. To “keep up with Joneses” coaches would have to set up satellite camps in other parts of the country, taking them away from those families and adding to their work hours. Again, nobody’s going to feel sorry for a guy making a million dollars a year, but that doesn’t account for the guy’s wife and kids.
• They favor the big boys. Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, USC, etc., have the money to set up camps, travel the country, and do these types of things. I don’t know that San Jose State, Old Dominion, UTSA, and Middle Tennessee State, among others, have the budget to do so. If the NCAA is looking for any semblance of parity, allowing teams with big budgets to hold camps all over the country further separates the high-profile teams from the ones on the lower end of the spectrum.

As you can tell, I’m not a huge fan of satellite camps. That’s not to say that they’re evil or don’t have their advantages, but overall, I think the negatives of unfettered camps outweigh the positives. It’s an area that needs to be governed and regulated without the infrastructure to do so. Given the choice between a free-for-all and a complete ban, I lean toward banning the practice.

IMPROVING THE IDEA
There are ways to improve or restrict the idea, though. Perhaps the NCAA should allow schools to hold one satellite camp every year, which would mean a maximum of 128 camps spread across the country in any given calendar year. Maybe the NCAA could allow 64 camps, forcing FBS programs to combine their forces in order to maximize exposure for players and reduce the number of competing camps. Another way to address it would be to allow teams one satellite camp every other year, three camps in a five-year period, etc. An additional option would be to restrict camp dates to be held only between June 20-July 20, when most schools are out of session.

In the meantime, there are ways for players to gain exposure. In fact, it’s much easier to get recruited in 2016 than it was in 1986, 1996, or even 2006. I have seen parents carpet-bomb recruiting sites – including Touch the Banner – with links to their sons’ highlights. Hudl has taken off over the past several years, surpassing Youtube as a useful tool. Parents used to have to pay for certain sites to publish profiles and highlights, but now those things can be done for free. Social media tools and e-mail make it easier to contact coaches and get names out there. Satellite camps would have been more advantageous if Bo Schembechler were flying around the country in 1985, but technology has made the world smaller. Unless and until the NCAA members change their minds about satellite camps, parents and coaches of prospective FBS players should refine their skills with media, social media, and self-promotion.