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PolarBear wrote:I have the utmost respect for coaches that inherit great players and make them excellent...and this is exactly what Harbaugh does. This also makes me question Dantonio as a coach, since they are only a couple years removed from a league title and they aren't even in a bowl this winter. He should have had his pick of the litter, recruiting-wise.
upfootball wrote:PolarBear wrote:I have the utmost respect for coaches that inherit great players and make them excellent...and this is exactly what Harbaugh does. This also makes me question Dantonio as a coach, since they are only a couple years removed from a league title and they aren't even in a bowl this winter. He should have had his pick of the litter, recruiting-wise.
What I look for in a coach is does your team get better from game 1 to game 13? Can you take just about any talent and adapt the team to be the best it can be? Are your players developing into better players. Can your teams step it up against great competition or do you just look good kicking the snot out of patsies?
With Hoke and RichRod the answers to all of those questions were the opposite of what I think a good coach can bring. Now I think Hoke is a stand up guy, he just isn't a good head coach. HIs players and his teams never got better. Harbaugh without question has answered these questions. The man is a football coach. A great one. Michigan absolutely needed him. Since RichRod that program was sinking faster than the Titanic.
Dantonio is another really interesting topic. I said this to some people years ago. I told them I thought Narduzzi was the key to that programs success. The offense for State will spit and sputter no matter what kind of talent they have on it. It's always been that lockdown defense that has made them great. When the team has needed a play over the years it has been that defense that has done it 99% of the time. A trick play filled in the other 1%. I think Dantonio is a decent coach, not a great coach. The knock I have on him is he is predictable. If you are playing him on national television at night... he is going to run a trick play on special teams. I guarantee it. Jet sweep to the WR? About 10 times a game. Another knock is he cannot make a decision. He has co-defensive coordinators, co-offensive coordinators and his QB changes from quarter to quarter. Even if you look back to Connor Cook. It took him quite a while to stick with him. He rotated guys in there and actually started QB's that had no business playing. Bottom line... I don't see the talent recognition with him. He praises guys like Malik McDowell. I'm sorry but McDowell is the most overrated player in college football. The guy literally does nothing on the football field except get dumb penalties and make excuses as to why he is invisible. He may "drop" in the draft like Cook did. Yeah the staff at MSU is going to call him a 1st rounder and the expert analysis will agree because that's what they do. But the NFL scouts need to be right to keep their job. They will actually look at him and what he has done.
Next year will be a very telling year. MSU will not be able to claim youth. They will have to produce. Michigan will actually be young. I expect Harbaugh to have them in the top 10 anyway.
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