Mailbag: On Michigan QBs, transfers and coaching

Answering all your Michigan football questions about how the Wolverines get past the Buckeyes, if U-M will pursue JT Daniels and the QBs.

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While we reserve the mailbag primarily for the Locked On Wolverines Podcast, it’s been a long while since we answered your questions in writing.

With both a lot going on in recruiting with next to nothing happening otherwise, it felt like a good time to dig in and see what’s on Michigan fans’ minds.

Without further ado…

I don’t know that there’s an obvious answer here, but it’s certainly possible. It’s become something of the norm that quarterbacks in college football transfer if they aren’t getting the opportunity they want with their first choice.

And it makes sense. There’s only one position with several suitors. Certainly that’s why Brandon Peters left. The writing was on the wall once Shea Patterson won the job, and then with his injury and Dylan McCaffrey’s emergence, he wasn’t going to have the opportunity he looked to have before Patterson’s arrival.

That said, there’s plenty of examples where that can be a beneficial situation — but also not as great of one. Alabama contended for a national title — but lost to Clemson — with Jalen Hurts on the bench as Tua Tagovailoa led the charge. Likewise, Clemson lost Kelly Bryant because Trevor Lawrence proved to be elite, even as a college football freshman. While that still helped the Tigers the following year get to the national championship game, Alabama wasn’t so fortunate. Without Tagovailoa, and already having one loss on the books, though Mac Jones put up some pretty significant numbers, it wasn’t able to get past rival Auburn.

But still — of the four programs in the College Football Playoff last year, three had transfers leading the charge — LSU, Ohio State and Oklahoma. It’s easy to see where there’s success for quarterbacks seeking a different situation. Just because it doesn’t work out in one place doesn’t mean they can’t thrive in another.

Now, naturally, it wouldn’t be ideal for Michigan to lose he who doesn’t win the quarterback job in 2020. However, the room continues to be deep, with Cade McNamara also waiting in the wings. People are excited about J.J. McCarthy, but with another four-star — who’s no slouch himself — waiting in the wings, it’s something we’d call a quality problem.

Speaking of quarterbacks…

Now, I just explained why a team would take a high-end transfer, but would Michigan do it again? After all, under Jim Harbaugh, it took Jake Rudock, John O’Korn and then Shea Patterson. Why not another?

Yes, Michigan has three capable quarterbacks on the roster right now, but if Daniels could live up to his five-star hype, and considering that he already has experience, wouldn’t you be willing to disrupt that? If he’s the answer, then the answer is an astounding yes.

However, I’m not too sure that will happen. After speaking to one person familiar with Michigan’s side of things, I don’t believe that the Wolverines have made any strong consideration of bringing Daniels into the fold. There’s a belief that he’ll end up down south for a team looking for a quarterback. That’s probably a better situation for him, even though Michigan did finish second to USC for his services.

The way I see it, the ship has sailed on that matter, and the Wolverines are in a better situation than they were back in 2017 when they were in high pursuit for him — also keeping in mind that he was a 2019 guy at the time, but re-classified to 2018.

Taking these one at a time, naturally.

The fact that Shea Patterson continued to play actually makes a ton of sense. It was a brand new system, and one where he finished atop the depth chart. And, the depth chart went Patterson, McCaffrey, then Milton at the time — so it would have made more sense that McCaffrey got the nod, no?

And while Shea wasn’t exactly lights out in the opening month-plus of the season, he wasn’t exactly a slouch, either. Michigan’s offensive issues had less to do with his injury and more to do with the constant fumbles. Yes, some of that is also on Shea, but the pass protection — especially with Runyan out of the lineup — wasn’t as good as it was the previous year or as it was as the season went on. In a case like that, where the quarterback is injured, but can still play, it’s the right call to have the more experienced guy, who you trust more to run your new system, than someone who might not quite be there yet. There’s a lot more to the quarterback position than simply dropping back and winging it. No, Shea wasn’t a magician, per se, in his read progression, but he deserves more credit there than he gets, as well. And there were plenty of times — just look at the season opener against MTSU — where his receivers did him no favors, dropping passes.

Ultimately, it was all a mess. You also had two new running backs leading the charge. Having someone you can trust under center that did a solid job of leading the team under a different offense, and one not particularly in his wheelhouse I might add, is sometimes a great stabilizing force.

As for your second question, I’m not much of a sports memorabilia guy anymore, ever since my baseball cards were ruined in a basement flood — a couple thousand of them.

For Michigan merchandise, I don’t have anything too wild. The pair of Jordans that the brand sent me shortly after the basketball team uniform reveal. Though they got a little scuffed up in a minor motorcycling accident…

It’s entirely possible, but I have no idea if or what Harbaugh would do with Brown with yet another drubbing at the hands of the Buckeyes.

I’ve been on record on the podcast that it’s been more of an execution issue than a talent issue in The Game, and I know that’s the mindset inside Schembechler Hall. However, Shoop has overseen some great defenses, including the No. 1 defense in 2018 to Brown’s No. 2. He comes from the Brown philosophy per his own admission, having spent time with him at multiple stops.

However, what I’m looking for more so is how Shoop informs what Michigan does. If there’s a fatal flaw that the Wolverines have had schematically against Ohio State that Shoop can diagnose, giving fresh eyes to the situation. Brown was solid his first two years coaching against the Buckeyes, but certainly that hasn’t been the case in either 2018-19.

I know Harbaugh is quite loyal to Brown, saying he’s the finest coach he’s ever been around. If he were to depart — or as Brown says, ‘go up to the Cape Cod’ — there would be a few options. Shoop would already be on staff. Chris Partridge just left for a co-defensive coordinator position at Ole Miss, but certainly could be in the running were that to happen.

But, I wouldn’t count on that. Harbaugh kept Brown around after two drubbings, I’m not entirely sure that a third would make a difference. Keep in mind, Brown’s defenses have been, at worst, in the top eleven of college football. You can say that it’s beating up on bad teams, but Penn State and OSU and MSU have all had to face similar competition. The Buckeyes have outpaced the Wolverines just once since Brown has been in Ann Arbor — last season.

If anything, I think it would be more likely to see a resurgence back into the top five with Shoop on board. And if the season plays out well, save for the Ohio State game? It might have to do with more issues than just the defense.

I would fully expect that, yes.

From what was said earlier this offseason, Ross will be moving back to WILL now that Jordan Glasgow is gone and since McGrone has entrenched himself at MIKE.

I don’t have much more of an answer than that, but yes, that should be the situation Michigan finds itself in, with either Anthony Solomon or Michael Barrett at the VIPER position. I mention Barrett last because he could also play SAM linebacker, not because that’s the pecking order.

Michigan should be in a good spot when it comes to its linebacker rotation as there is plenty of unproven talent who has been waiting in the wings for some time — as unfortunate as it might be that both Jordan Anthony and Drew Singleton chose to pursue opportunities elsewhere.

My biggest takeaway is that there’s more parity in the Big Ten than maybe he perhaps thought.

Ten wins is a solid benchmark, and one that Michigan had plenty of opportunities to get to this past season. Despite being flat-footed against Wisconsin and Ohio State, it almost got the comeback at Penn State and Alabama was the toughest possible draw not named LSU this past offseason, in my opinion.

Additionally, I hold to that rebuilding Michigan — and yes, it was in need of a rebuild — was tougher than envisioned. I know that the Wolverines managed 10 wins in both 2015-16, Harbaugh’s first two years, but 2015 felt like more of a mirage. And it wasn’t like Brady Hoke was getting that type of production out of the same players. For the first time in years, the Wolverines were humming, and that carried them into 2016 — a year where they would have been College Football Playoff contenders if it weren’t for Wilton Speight’s broken collarbone. Call that unfortunate timing.

Also, Michigan could have gotten to 11 wins three times in Harbaugh’s tenure, but failed in the bowl game. I chalk that up twice to the maize and blue feeling like it was in something of a consolation prize situation. Michigan did not want to be in the Capital One Orange Bowl playing Florida State nor the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl playing Florida for the umpteenth time. Both years, it had higher aspirations it failed to achieve, thanks to Ohio State.

Ultimately, what Michigan has is an Ohio State problem. I don’t think the narrative would change much if Harbaugh had it going 12-1 every year if that loss was to the Buckeyes. And it’s not like we’ve seen many 1-2 loss teams in Ann Arbor in the modern era. You have to go all the way back to 1971-74 in the beginning of the Bo Schembechler era to find a time when Michigan was regularly losing just 1-2 games a year. Actually, the Wolverines have achieved seasons with more than 10 wins just five times…ever. Now, yes, there are more games, and the Big Ten didn’t send more than one team to bowl games for years. So, to look at it differently, when Michigan has played in 13 games, it’s lost two games or less just twice. In the 12 game era, it finished with 10 or more wins 11 times going back to 1969. In 11 game seasons (no bowl game) going back to 1969, it had 10 wins just three more times.

Under Harbaugh, Michigan has been very good, but not yet elite. Perfect just once since the 1940s. And now, it’s quite rare for a team to be perfect anyway. It’s not an indictment on Harbaugh that Michigan hasn’t gotten over the hump it’s been in since, well, well before he arrived. If anything, he got the team out of the doldrums and back to a Carr-era level. The hardest part is still ahead: getting Michigan past that and into the realm of the truly great teams in college football. And with Ohio State on the schedule every year, a team that hasn’t had any significant lulls save for 1-3 bad-to-mediocre seasons in the past, well, since FDR was president, it’s a bigger hill to climb than I think most people thought.

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