We have seen this in fairly recent history--Brady Hoke, Rich Rod--with bad teams and national embarrassment. This is as bad or worse. It is still better than the kind of embarrassment caused by Sherrone Moore.
The quote attributed to Michigan offensive coordinator Jason Beck in leaked text messages from tight end Zack Marshall is that Beck met with the tight ends and "told us none of us are valuable to this offense." [1]
With AI's help that is the quote I was looking for. But I want to go back a bit before that when I Googled something about players (and coaches) ability to speak up.
- Whittingham’s Tight Ship: Kyle Whittingham is notoriously protective of his program's internal operations. In many football programs, coordinators are only allowed to speak to the press once a week or during specific designated windows.
- The "Crisis" Silence: With the offense currently ranking 105th nationally and the unit facing intense criticism over Beck's horizontal scheme, the program has purposefully shielded Beck from the media firestorm. Instead of letting coordinators field combative questions, Whittingham has taken the heat at the podium himself, stating that the offensive execution is "unacceptable"
Stop right there. I'm not even going to look into the USC linebacker for strutting around after knocking out Oregon's Dante Moore. Or the horn for meeting times and those rules.The point is Kyle Whittingham is an autocrat but he is too wimpy to do it himself. It is phony, self-preserving discipline and it sure doesn't translate to the field or the team very well. We've all seen the camera shots of Coach on the sidelines wincing and shaking his head on the sidelines. He is powerless, and Hill and Beck are off somewhere else not with the team.
That is what we all thought--disciplined and stable. And now there is a significant problem because the team sucks and the season is over not quite halfway through. Indiana, Ohio State, and Oregon are not going to provide a turnaround.
The biggest What If about Whittingham was always what if these guys from Utah--coaches and players--cannot fit in with Big Ten Detroit style. This is the age of the athlete, labor if you will, and if they don't like it at Michigan they will go someplace else. Many pundits in the present tense are predicting a mass exodus.
The biggest recent development is the emergence of Jason Beck. I still have never heard him speak and I had to search to find a picture of him. Three million a year for three years, he is the highest paid assistant in college football. What do I know? Nothing of course, but he looks like an arrogant SOB. One year at New Mexcio and one at Utah is unimpressive and I am always skeptical of the new wiz kid.
At one point I thought Whittingham was or is an excellent manager and humble guy. And I assumed he is a stern, knowledgeable, excellent coach. I remember him saying less rhino for instance; he doesn't seem to have control over anything.
Right now the only real option is schadenfreude, i.e., watch them suffer because they deserve it. Anyone getting fired, that is not going to happen. We are in for long-term suffering. And remember, Michigan has no athletics director and management was all-in for retaining Manuel still and paying him a fortune.
Buckle up! It is going to be the KW show for a while.
| MLive.com
Then came Minnesota, the unit’s worst performance of the season: 180 total yards, seven points, and losing the time-of-possession battle by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.
“When you start tougher, harder, then there’s more adversity you’ve got to deal with along the way,” Beck said. “We’re kind of fighting our way through that, and we’ll just keep focusing on that, working hard and getting better.”
That friction in the locker room spilled into the public light last week during Michigan’s bye, when senior tight end Zack Marshall apologized publicly for private messages criticizing Beck, the offensive scheme and use of the tight ends were leaked on social media. Marshall, who had 16 catches for 199 yards and a touchdown last season, does not have catch on two targets through five games.
“We sit down, talk through a lot of things when you find yourself in this kind of position,” Beck said. “When things aren’t going great, the natural thing is to just blame, point the finger at the outside noise. You’re at a place like Michigan with a big spotlight, in a day and age with social media where you can only imagine what these kids are hearing. It’s not just their parents telling them something, it’s everybody.”
Beck admits that things need to be tweaked with the scheme, and he continues to do so, but “there’s also this other thing” weighing on Michigan’s 121st-ranked offense, which is averaging just 315.8 yards per game.
“The mental, the attitude, the mindset, the buy-in of the group that is going to affect that thing as much as anyone else,” Beck said. “There’s no magic wand that you’re just going to slap on this thing and make some special call that’s going to come to the rescue. It’s execution and it’s mindset and it’s buy-in from the group.”
Players have said frank conversations were had after the loss to Minnesota on Oct. 3, and there’s hope internally that things have turned a corner. But head coach Kyle Whittingham has suggested that his staff’s work has a long way to go, calling it “the biggest challenge I’ve had” in his nearly four-decade coaching career.
“You can anticipate with things not being great, there’s some more challenges there,” Beck said. “These kids are great kids. They’re smart kids. They work hard. When we have problems and we address them and talk about them, they improve and take it on. They want to.
“It’s not like they’re resisting at every turn. They want to have the results. They want to play well. But there’s always that scale of how that is. Obviously you’ve seen a little bit of that show up.”
- one team is 0-2 the other is 0-3.
- Penn State fans seem to like Matt Campbell. They appreciate the change and understand it may take a while.
- In terms of the line, it is 4.5 - 6.5 Michigan, a wide range. Most "experts" take Penn State with the points.
- I am tired of seeing a tired Kyle Willilngham.
- I hope Penn State wins.
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| Totally random screenshot. |
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