Michigan vs Hawaii Post-Game Discussion

[UMStan White]

My condolences to you and your family Dan. My mother passed away two hours short of her 91st birthday in March, Although expected it never is easy,

[lineygoblue]

Evans is the future. Higdon didn't look too bad. More stout than I remember. Deveon Smith who? Ty Isaac what?

This is why you play those talented freshmen. When you find the ones that are willing to step up and challenge the veterans, that tells you where their thinking is. They want to play. They didn't look at the depth chart and decide to transfer. They stayed, and made an impression. That creates competition, which makes your team better.

Red shirts aren't that important as long as Harbaugh can continue to recruit at a high level.

[Rocky Bleier]

Watched the replay of the game. Mone's last play was Hill's TD interception. He ran downfield and into the end zone, then he trotted off the field with maybe a slight limp.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Thought it might be interesting to look at some of the things Harbaugh mentioned in his post game presser. Obviously, the things he sees and how he interprets them are a whole lot more valuable and accurate than things we might say about the game or how we might have seen things from a fan perspective.

"I wanted to see how he (Speight) would do on his second series (after the INT) and starting from his own 2."

Nice drive for sure. His first two throws were tentative arm punts. Then he hit Chesson on a slant and after that his throwing motion improved. Couple of nice touch passes and some solid quick throws. In subsequent comments, JH said that he converted 7/7 3rd down conversions overall. Even against Hawaii's less than stellar D, you still have to make those throws and Speight did.

"People will say if you have three QBs, you don't have any good ones."

If you watched the game live or on TV, you can't help but be impressed with all three QBs notwithstanding that you saw Speight a lot more than O'Korn, Morris or Malzone. Only Harbaugh knows why Speight was better than O'Korn or Morris, both of whom managed impressive TD drives. I liked O'Korn for the more up-tempo offense he ran and for getting the ball out quicker than Speight. Morris has a freaking cannon for an arm (we know this) but we didn't know he could actually hit his receivers. He was 6/6 on his TD drive and had some great throws.

"Don Brown has a saying - correct mistakes with aggression."

This is exactly what happened when Woolsey beat Stribbling on several consecutive throws into his area of coverage, subsequently getting two INTs (one didn't count) by being more aggressive, confidently trusting who was behind him and playing the ball instead of the receiver.

"The defense was great. Great alignment, great stance. You saw it from the start. No mental mistakes........ I'd like to comment on the coverage. It was great. Nobody got open."

JH saw things I didn't see of the LBs. I thought they didn't drop into the middle zone on a couple of pass plays leaving that open at times. I'll wait till the UFR to see.

"Peppers can do a lot on the football field, great athlete.........."

I like him a lot at LB and I like how Brown deploys him. On a first down run play from scrimmage he recognized the play coming, hit the gap where the RB headed and tackled him for a 2 yard loss in the back field. He's just instinctive.

"LB play was good, they overcame a lot.......very athletic, protect the edge, play the field from boundary to boundary very well"

JH answered this way when he was asked about Mike McCray. This is a big deal because M's D was critical if not fatally vulnerable to the zone stretch in 2015. Not withstanding Hawaii, they did have a good back who could get to the edge and later, the second QB who was a true read option guy. There were zero big plays there until M got to its three deep late. Peppers lined up either in the box or when he played nickel, outside the box and about 7-10 yards off the ball. He anticipates the play so well that when it did go outside, no matter where he was he either made the tackle or was in on it if the play went to his side and sometimes even when it didn't.

Getting back to McCray, he was the guy running to and sealing the edge when the play went to his side of the field. This is a totally different approach for the LBs who are going to the ball at the snap and being right about where it's going more times than not. My sense is that this comes from film study with the coaches and Brown's defensive philosophy of playing aggressively at the snap not reading and reacting. While Durkin was aggressive schematically playing press man coverage and using his LBs that way, Brown seems to have individual guys coached to be more instinctive in their play which, when the rubber hits the road, produces a much more aggressive appearing style of play than Durkin ever put on the field.

There was some but not a lot of blitzing. Clearly didn't need it. Think we'll see more of it against Colorado as, having watched their game against Colorado State, the Buffaloes have a pretty good run game out of a really up tempo, spready offense. It will be interesting to see how Brown deals with this. I can see going both ways either with a lot of pressure in the middle to mess up the timing of this sort of offense or playing more like M played against Hawaii. Thinking of IU, I'd like to see the former.

I think we'll get a lot out of Brian's UFRs so I'm looking forward to it, esp. On D.

[klondike]

Nice win. It looks like UM will be September warriors. Can't wait until the real season starts though. I just hope this preseason goes well without major injuries. Wisky game will be a knock down affair.

[jaadam4]

Nice win. It looks like UM will be September warriors. Can't wait until the real season starts though. I just hope this preseason goes well without major injuries. Wisky game will be a knock down affair.

yup

[Hannibal]

Speight's statistics looked good, but I didn't see a guy that is going to pick apart good defenses. His arm strength is lacking and he doesn't zip the ball in. That's going to kill us when those receivers aren't wide open like they were yesterday.

[The Oracle]

Douches be douching.

[Da Geezer]

Speight's statistics looked good, but I didn't see a guy that is going to pick apart good defenses. His arm strength is lacking and he doesn't zip the ball in. That's going to kill us when those receivers aren't wide open like they were yesterday.

Amen to that.

I actually thought Marris looked the best of the three QBs, admittedly having a small sample of plays. I thought the quick pass to McDoom on a little slant was almost indefensible. That ball was perfectly placed and really zipped. Any news on the injury front from the MRI(s)?

[iam416]

Sorry, Oracle. Candid assessments get deleted. I assume rainbows and unicorns will not.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I like your candid assessments, although there really isn't much to talk about in this game.
M did what it should of done. The one thing of note for me is how well they did it.

Keep in mind, it's been a long time since M has actually dominated an opening game opponent like all the stats and all the favorable match-ups this game provided said they would dominate.

[iam416]

I don't think there's a whole lot to take away from beating Hawaii. I'll leave it at that.

[Jeff Buchanan]

TBH, I feel pretty much the same way except Jeebus, that was a a fun game to watch if you're an M fan used to watching the team struggle against teams like UMASS.

[lineygoblue]

Exactly.

[iam416]

Very fun. No doubt. Had the same thing in Columbus. Feel the same way about beating BG.