Mailbag question: On our Coaching Staff

Hey fellas,

It is well known that players have the most contact with and are closest to their position coaches, the next tier being their coordinator, and the next tier being the head coach. Coach Rod and Shafer took a lot of heat last year for the poor play all around, but I would think to what degree are the position coaches accountable for the poor play last year?

In your breakdown of what you think of our coach's competency and character from the clinic, it seems as though there might be some weakness at some of the positional coaching positions. Specifically I recall you being very impressed with Coaches Frey and Barwis, above averagely impressed with Coach Dews and Tall, and lukewarm on coaches Gibson and Hopson. To my memory, you reserved comment on Coach Magee and Coach Smith, but both being involved with that very specific type of offense I am sure they are fine. In addition, Coach Jackson has been around forever, and the only carryover from the Carr-era staff, so I assume he is very good at what he does.

My question to you is do YOU think that Coach Rod's loyalties to his staff from WVU has hindered our team's progress, especially defensively. Do you think there will be reshuffling of personnel pending another disappointing season? I have heard rumors that Hopson is a flight risk, is there any credence to that.

Thanks guys,

I check your blog multiple times daily. Keep it up.

GregGoBlue

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Thanks for the question and comments.

In our opinion, it is too early to tell on some of the assistant coaches right now.

Most were handicapped by not having players who fit the system that the coaches put in last year. Rod Smith (QB) is one of those coaches. Coach Tall (DL) is coaching an area that he has not before, so it's hard to judge last year, especially with the players he had and the attitudes that they brought. Coach Frey (OL), we believe, did the most with not much to work with, especially last spring with only seven scholarship players.

As many know, we have been high on Coach Barwis the minute Coach Rod was signed and believe no matter what happens or what assistant coach ever comes to Michigan under Coach Rod that Coach Barwis was the best thing for this program.

Coach Magee is the tight end / slot receiver coach, but when we watched practices in most cases, it was the graduate assistant that was working with the groups--with Coach Magee floating around to all areas of the offense to see what they were doing. The defensive coordinator (Coach Robinson) does not have that luxury.

Coach Jackson is a good teacher and he needed to learn a new system and how the running backs are suppose to run and hit the hole in this system.

This spring Coach Hopson was handicapped by a lack of players. He had six bodies, only three were scholarship players. Mouton, perhaps our best returning linebacker, was out with injury. Moving Brandon Smith to linebacker will help with the depth chart and with having players that can contribute or at least compete for playing time.

We have been high on Coach Hopson. We think he is a good coach and good recruiter. He was stuck recruiting an area that has not been beneficial to Michigan for a long time. The fact is--Michigan gave up on some kids, and made it look like kids de-committed when what realy happened was Michigan quit calling many of those kids so they would look elsewhere.

Coach Gibson was handicapped by a lack of players as well for the most part with three cornerbacks and four safeties on scholarship and practicing.

Our problem was we just did not see the improvement in play of linebackers and safeties last season. We do not expect assistant coaches to perform miracles, but we do expect to see improved play.

We are hoping that the players understand what they need to get done in the off-season and also the assistant coaches understand their position group a little better this year, and know what to work on.

Last year we thought the wide receiver group (Coach Dews group) was, quite frankly, terrible. Some will blame the quarterback for most of it, but we saw a group that did not run good crisp routes, did not block very well (if they even did) and did not run hard on routes when they thought they were not getting the ball thrown to them. We hope that the kids understand their roles better, and that Coach Dews gets the players needed to play the split end position at Michigan.

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