JW0 just doesn’t look like a Safety
Blades has never played Safety until this year and clearly doesn’t know the position
Kam has looked a ton better since his two game stretch of 5 big plays he gave up
AW15 just looks lost and hasn’t been working hard enough to LEARN
Washington- not Miami talent level
MWilliams - has been hurt and is skinny
Harrell- no idea
Balom- hurt
Meh, as usual you are putting your interpretation on things. We don’t know what it means yet.
What’s a little alarming to me…Is that if Gattis is THIS bad…How did he con CMC so easily? Is he this bad at hires? He’s just a sucker for someone saying “we will be physical”?
FYI, multiple talking heads that watched the interview also got the sense from Mario that I did
LOL…Come on man…No one cares about “multiple heads”
And the fact is that Michigan offense was excellent than last year and although some of you are more air read types (no idea on you, specifically) I would kill for that offense at UM right now. The question and elephant in the room obviously is HOW MUCH OF IT HAD TO DO WITH JOSH GATTIS?
A few factors:
- Mario missed on his preferred hires which caused the process to drag on!
- Two of his hires left for UGA and Bama.
- Not everyone wants to work as hard as Mario, Saban, Kirby…
- The players were not required to work at the same level as they are now. Combined with the current players clearly aren’t as good as Michigan’s/Bama’s and UGA’s… can’t speak to WV. It sure is a ton easier to coach kids that want to work hard AND have already been winning.
Mario is very likely going to push out any coach that isn’t willing to GRIND and work long hours. He also won’t put up with how Gattis approaches others not to mention the results.
My concern: whoever he brings in as OC needs at least 3-4 guys to come in with him to help teach. At DB, wouldn’t shock me to see DVD back on-field after landing McClain but I’m not a fan of that move as we need a coach that can develop and recruit.
I’m good with multiple head! LOL
My point exactly Atx…We shall see, Atx…
What OC leaves a top 10 offense and brings 0 assistant coaches, 0 staff, 0 GAs? Gattis! This speaks to the person! This also is why we have struggled to get everyone on the same page as the coaches that Mario hired on O don’t know the offense so they are also learning.
On D, I’m very confident that Strong, Steele, Rod, and Taylor can all teach his D. Which gets us back to Addae likely not knowing Steele’s D causing massive issues on the back-end.
Can’t argue with these points. All fair questions. He didn’t bring anyone from Mich at all? I could have sworn he did. And he does seem a little abrasive which doesn’t help with a new staff/players.
Word is Gattis and Ponce are having issues; apparently QBs have been getting contradictory teaching (throw to back shoulder here, don’t throw to back shoulder here was an example used). That combined with Gattis personality / frustration does help explain why guys like Garcia have looked like head cases (there seems to be a disconnect on what they’re being asked to do on game day versus their day by day, learnings and practice - be careful with the football). Apparently Gattis and X also got into it (X being best friends with TVD…) and Fields and Skinner got into it. Just sounds like a lot of staff to staff conflict and player to staff conflicts going on which isn’t surprising considering the results.
On defense, I don’t have a problem with steel but clearly some changes need to happen there. Adai makes sense. I heard pretty terrible things about DVD the coach so although he can clearly recruit giving him that position is concerning. Also, I believe steel is the one coaching the safeties so it’s shocking that they would be the group that seems the most schematically unprepared. I wonder if it’s a situation where Steeles stretched too thin, trying to coach the entire defense that the position itself is struggling.
overall, sounds like there’s gonna be a fair amount of staff shake up this off-season. Some of which won’t even be fired by Cristobal, but are just gonna leave as it’s not a good fit. It sounds like Cristobal has his hand caught in the cookie jar with Gattis at 1.8 million on a three-year contract, that’s a hell of a problem to fire let alone hire an expensive coordinator behind taking that financial hit, I don’t know what the hell he could do though because this offense is going to cause Crystobal entire rebuild to fail imo. He simply does not have the time to get the offensive line recruited and developed to the level that Gattis needs to make this offense work (in my estimation that would probably mean two more bad seasons on top of this one - with this fan base that’s death to a coach and the recruiting). Too many bad seasons happen, the recruiting wheels and the NIL funding dry up and the wheels fall off the rebuild. You have to go get yourself an offensive coordinator that can create points with less offensive line talent. The fact that Cristobal entered this program hiring an offensive coordinator that’s entire system relies on elite offensive line talent is mind blowing to be honest.
Also, what’s really weird is Gattis seems to want to go the direction of Jacory Brown at quarterback, that’s an entirely different direction than Jaden coming in who is not a runner at all and an elite passer. So it would’ve made a lot more sense to cater the offense around TVD and Jake (which he clearly didn’t do) with the fact that you’re going to have another pocket passer coming in. The entire long-term strategy of QB talent in the program AND ON THE WAY versus the offensive strategy does not make sense to me. Mario needed to go get himself a coach that likes to create space with spread but also runs such as the Briles disciple tree.
By the way, anybody else find this hilarious in hindsight? Especially the 5:30 mark. Did not age well….
-JWill is hot and cold for me…I’m not giving up on him, but I did acknowledge in our recruiting talks on this board that he’s risky. What’s alarming to me is that the tackling and penalties isn’t getting any better. Like A.Will, he doesn’t seem coachable. The thing about him is he’s built like a Dime LB/Do it all type, but I actually think his best position is FS…He has ball skills and can cover ALOT of ground with his range, speed, and ball skills. Missed tackles is always gonna be a problem for him because it’s tough for 6’5 lanky guys in space, but again…It’s like he is ALWAYS out of control, which also leads to the face masks, horse collars, etc…And he is VERY emotional. That has to be harnessed
-Kinchens can be a legit starting safety. A star, I’m not sure. At times he’s our best tackler, at others he’s as sloppy as everyone else. Again, it’s unrealistic for players to never miss a tackle, but he has to get clean it up, learning time is over. Overall I’m a fan, but I just don’t if he will be pretty good or great
-AW…I wasn’t as high as everyone else. I acknowledge he is capable of missing plays, but. he’s the same player as JW without the length. Likes to hit and ball skills, but too many mistakes. I expect he’ll transfer
-Blades. Man, fuck this dude. In his defense, I’m not sure why he was put in at safety…He has no clue what he’s doing. And outside of one PBU vs. VA, bad things have happened on ST and defense every time he’s been in the game. I’m assuming the first FSU td was him? Because he played that play and was benched.
-Ivey…IF IF IF that Td wasn’t his fault, he is having his best year after the MTSU torch job. He still is not good and should be a 4th or 5th corner. It sucks we’ve had to sit through this kid for so long and honestly I don’t understand why he played over Blades at corner this year? Blades was better (not great, but clearly better) his whole career than Ivey? Wish him well bc I believe he wants to be good, but he just isn’t. He’s soft and slow, and only looks good against weak WR
I thought Balom could have been a player here, and I hope MWill will be. Harrell should have transferred already, and Washington shouldn’t be at UM.
Thx for breakdown. I honestly think Gattis is a moot point. He has such a poor resume this year he can’t be retained as it would lead to an exodus of players/recruits. It’s a nonstarter. The 3.6M handcuff is going to impact Mario more…whether he eats some salary as a mea culpa or it takes financial decisions out of his hands for the future.
I’m okay with no wholesale changes on the defense. Actually a little impressed you’ve got Strong and Steele in the same room and no issues. For the life of me I can’t understand two DL coaches and JT as a QC but to be so weak on the DB side. I know ER is there but I don’t recall seeing much involvement outside of “culture”…which ahem
If this source is good, this explains a lot…
I always never understood why we hired a separate QB coach…Basically NO ONE in CFB is doing that nowadays. Almost all OC are QB coaches or you have run game/pass game coordinator with QB coach and either OL coach (most common) or RB coach, etc.
On defense, I don’t have a problem with steel but clearly some changes need to happen there. Adai makes sense. I heard pretty terrible things about DVD the coach so although he can clearly recruit giving him that position is concerning. Also, I believe steel is the one coaching the safeties so it’s
shocking that they would be the group that seems the most schematically unprepared. I wonder if it’s a situation where Steeles stretched too thin, trying to coach the entire defense that the position itself is struggling.
First I’ve heard on Steele coaching safeties…I mean I figured his hands were on everything. But I thought Addae was. At this point, if he brings in Cormani Mclain…Just hire DVD as CB coach, and then hire a veteran safeties coach that is charge of the whole secondary with DVD helping with corners and being your ace recruiter. Then your QB coach is your OC (like everywhere else in the world). Overall I thought Steele was a good hire…But his performance is so so this season, and honestly I hope he rebounds next year or you are looking at “old man coach syndrome”. I honestly think it will take a second offseason to work out some of these tackling woes…Diaz’s psu defense has some strengths this season and they are a terrible tackling team, so I think we can make an argument that carried over.
We need LB so bad…It’s glaring, we are TERRIBLE there.
overall, sounds like there’s gonna be a fair amount of staff shake up this off-season. Some of which won’t even be fired by Cristobal, but are just gonna leave as it’s not a good fit. It sounds like Cristobal has his hand caught in the cookie jar with Gattis at 1.8 million on a three-year contract, that’s a hell of a problem to fire let alone hire an expensive coordinator behind taking that financial hit, I don’t know what the hell he could do though because this offense is going to cause Crystobal entire rebuild to fail imo. He simply does not have the time to get the offensive line recruited and developed to the level that Gattis needs to make this offense work (in my estimation that would probably mean two more bad seasons on top of this one - with this fan base that’s death to a coach and the recruiting). Too many bad seasons happen, the recruiting wheels and the NIL funding dry up and the wheels fall off the rebuild. You have to go get yourself an offensive coordinator that can create points with less offensive line talent. The fact that Cristobal entered this program hiring an offensive coordinator that’s entire system relies on elite offensive line talent is mind blowing to be honest.
Also, what’s really weird is Gattis seems to want to go the direction of Jacory Brown at quarterback, that’s an entirely different direction than Jaden coming in who is not a runner at all and an elite passer. So it would’ve made a lot more sense to cater the offense around TVD and Jake (which he clearly didn’t do) with the fact that you’re going to have another pocket passer coming in. The entire long-term strategy of QB talent in the program AND ON THE WAY versus the offensive strategy does not make sense to me. e.
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One thing I liked about the Cristobal hire was it brought an air of professionalism and his rolodex, as everything under Diaz seemed like an “experiment” for lack of better words. So it is puzzling to me that he was conned so easily by Gattis…And then Ponce was a buddy system hire…And now they are clashing? Very disappointing.
I think CMC and Gattis (and again your assertion that Gattis isn’t doing Garcia any favors is noted…) they went with Brown to try to shorten the game and keep it close. I believe they’ve given up on Garcia and between not being able to gain an inch against mid-pack VA (when they stripped it vanilla and put a leash on him, e yards a fucking play or thereabouts??? vs UVA???) and the disgusting 4th quarter performance vs. Duke when the leash was off, and then throwing a ball right to an FSU defender, accompanied by what they see in practice, they just saw more turnovers coming…The kid plays QB like he doesn’t realize there are defenders on the field. They thought let’s try to get some 1st downs and stay within 14-17 and see what happens. Then we started punting balls 20 yards, and going 20 yards backwards at the 1 yard line and 21-24 became 38, and as seems like the case this year, we unraveled (sounds cliche, but we are flat out unraveling when we fall behind, and I think a lot of that is a disconnect between staff and coaches…Diaz and CMD are polar opposite personalities, approaches, etc)
Mario needed to go get himself a coach that likes to create space with spread but also runs
I believe this is what I believed Gattis Does. That’s his supposed MO…Blake Corum was in space ALL of last year running wild, to a lesser extent guys like WR Roman Wilson were as well…While Haskins was pounding teams inside. It was a successrul power spread without the tempo (and we actually are top 40-50 in pace this year)…It’s just alarming that Mario didn’t see something wrong with the concepts, x and o, etc…of it)
QB management has been atrocious. I kinda want Gattis out and Ponce to lead things for the rest of the season to tease out if it’s all Gattis or if they both suck.
I’m still dumbfounded…At your own 2, you trot out the true frosh QB for two plays. Then on a 3rd and long inside the 5 you swap him for Garcia on a must complete passing play. PICK A QB and stick with it!
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Gattis system asks a lot of Oline. It might be space/spread design but its mechanics are very dependent and demanding on a highly effective OL to create running plays (the blocking schemes are quite demanding). Compare that to a Briles system that uses more misdirection/space/tempo and has a better passing threat… one is MUCH more Oline friendly. People wanted to kill Kendal briles when he was at FSU but if you actually look at the stats he DRASTICALLY improved that teams offense despite a putrid oline.
I’m not saying he has to go with a Briles tree, I’m just using that as an example of a system that creates a lot of opportunities for players, often lessening the need to have elite athletes, while still providing a running game which clearly is a requirement for Cristobal.
Overall, in hindsight, it seems like Cristobal chose his coaches more at a surface level than actually putting together a staff that is competent FOR WHAT HE WAS GIVEN which is deeply concerning. Moreover, Saban chooses all star staffers all the time and manages that somehow, also concerning is that Cristobal seems to have lost control of the house which is also surprising/concerning.
Gattis is obvious. Ponce is concerning as there’s a relationship there with Cristobal. As always (god damn I’m tired of this) we have ourselves a situation where our HC is going to have a hard time making good decisions due to relationships.
No one expected Saban, the goat.
[quote]Gattis is obvious. Ponce is concerning as there’s a relationship there with Cristobal. As always (god damn I’m tired of this) we have ourselves a situation where our HC is going to have a hard time making good decisions due to relationships.
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Agree…Or at least I’m starting to drift towards it and fearing it as well He has another offseason to prove you wrong.
He will have many offseasons to prove us wrong. So long as Mario keeps landing talent, the admin/BOT/Ruiz will give him time to find the magic combination on the staff to win.