College Football 2021: Week 10 Recap and Week 11 Preview

Comment by Ken

Ken — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 13:59:01 +0000

Yeah, sorry one of our teams had to lose. I've come to appreciate Penn State as a classy and sympathetic football team. I think Michigan and Penn State share a lot of characteristics.

Mike Hart has definitely brought a lot to the Michigan running game; most notably, the backs play with patience and wait for the holes to develop. That's been missing in previous years.

As for Penn State, yes, injuries have been a problem and I feel like Clifford has not been 100% for these past couple of weeks. But the offense line is a serious issue, mostly on target identification, and maybe that falls on OL coach Phil Trautwein? And definitely, I feel like Franklin dials up gimmickry way more than he should. If I were a Penn State fan, I'd have been fuming about that fake field goal attempt. Michigan was on its heels; a run up the gut would have been more likely to work there.

I think the issue with Ta'Quan Roberson's readiness is that his style is a lot different from Clifford's, and the first team offense doesn't get much chance to practice the sort of zone-read run-heavy game that would fit his talents. He got thrown into the Iowa game with very few first-team snaps and a very limited playbook, I think. You have to have an identity as an offense (as Michigan finally seems to be figuring out) and you have to recruit to that identity, if you want to maintain continuity.

Anyway, I do appreciate you being a reader and offering up your comments. I'll still be covering Penn State (and rooting for them to beat MSU). And we'll see if Franklin ends up going to LSU or USC or something. Penn State is still a prestige job but coaching transitions are always difficult. Joe Moorhead might be a leading candidate if there's a change.

Comment by Dan (Guest)

Dan (Guest) — Sun, 14 Nov 2021 16:52:15 +0000

Hey Ken, congratulations on the win yesterday! Some really odd choices by our coaching staff in that one, but at the end of the day, Michigan was clearly the better team and it showed. I blame it on Mike Hart. We could never stop that guy when he played. Now he's finally back at UM and he obviously whispered his Lion-killing secrets into Haskins' ear.

By the way, your preview on this one was incredibly accurate. You hit all the keys to the game and the reasons why Michigan would probably win. You even pretty much nailed the score! Ever think of doing this for a living?

Ahh well... I think this is the end of my season for the most part. It's been one of the most disappointing PSU seasons in my lifetime. Don't get me wrong, we've had worse seasons and plenty of worse teams, but those all came with lower expectations. This one had so much promise and potential, and the early success to go with it, only for us to watch it all go down the toilet in stunningly painful fashion.

Some can be blamed on the injuries. Clifford of course, and the season ending injury to PJ Mustipher in the Iowa game gets overlooked - he was the keystone of our defensive success. But from where I sit in my armchair, I feel like the failures of this season rest on the shoulders of James Franklin and his staff. They came into the season with a decent plan that worked for a few weeks. But when adversity came along, they didn't or couldn't adjust. And I mean that from both the perspective of in-game adjustments, and from the bigger picture of season long strategy issues which stemmed from lack of foresight and preparation. For example, our backup QB was the #9 dual-threat prospect in the nation coming out of high school and has been with the program for 3 years! How is it possible that he is STILL not ready for game action? After 3 years, you either coach that kid up and have him ready to go, or you need to recognize that he doesn't have it and make sure you find a viable alternative from the transfer portal. Either way, it's inexcusable.

And it isn't new. We've seen similar patterns for years. I was grumbling about Franklin's in-game adjustments during his first season, but I naturally assumed he would get better. Now we are in year 8, and still no evidence that lessons are being learned. So, while I've never been in the "Franklin must go" crowd and still am not, I can now say that I have reached the point where I no longer care if he stays.

Best of luck to you and the Wolverines going forward! I'm ready to see anyone other than anOSU win the BIG 10. As usual, I very much appreciate the blog and getting to read your perspective every week. I probably won't pay much attention to the games from here out, but I'll still be here as a reader. Keep up the great work!

College Football 2021: Week 10 Recap and Week 11 Preview

Ken — Sat, 13 Nov 2021 02:30:53 +0000

All the good guys win in pedestrian fashion; showdown between Michigan and Penn State up next. This will be an abbreviated article because I�E*m traveling this week.