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BoatRacer said:
TM probably can beat Usain Bolt for sprint. You never know if he is not given a chance to try. Or do we know?
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Morgan is probably faster than people give him credit for. He doesn't look comfortable as a runner though. Perhaps from lack of tries over the years as the staff seems to tell him not to run. Leidner wasn't fast but was a very effective runner.
 

Word said:
Morgan is probably faster than people give him credit for. He doesn't look comfortable as a runner though. Perhaps from lack of tries over the years as the staff seems to tell him not to run. Leidner wasn't fast but was a very effective runner.
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Exactly. You don't abruptly change what these athletes do decade into their careers. We have an OC who genuinely think is a good idea.
 

BoatRacer said:
Exactly. You don't abruptly change what these athletes do decade into their careers. We have an OC who genuinely think is a good idea.
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I'm ok with having him run but the coach better be willing to put the backup in when the inevitable injuries come. There's a reason running QBs don't last in the NFL.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Yeah, I think you’re right. Another thing that stuck out during the press conference was PJF reiterating that failure is essential to success. Given what we’ve seen historically it could almost be construed he wants to try to win ugly early in the season to create difficult, stressful game situations. If they lose it’s a learning experience, if they win same. Doesn’t affect Big Ten record. I could be very wrong.
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Can't say you're wrong. In fact it fits what we know about PJ's stubborness. But it's a strange way to run a railroad. Coaches almost universally agree you want to win big whenever you can to build confidence early in the year.
 


MplsGopher said:
I don't trust Potts to hold up. Nothing against him, nothing against how hard he works in the weight room or how he takes care of himself, and nothing against our S&C or training staffs.

He's human.

RB is a brutal position in the Big Ten.
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Remember Job 1 for a RB -- don't fumble. Suspect Bucky and Ky will be brought along slowly to instill that rule. Same with pass protection.
 

Taji34 said:
You never know if you don't have him try.
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You do know. Morgan is neither quick, fast, or athletic. If the game plan calls for a running QB threat we have one in Kramer.
 

Dakota2 said:
Can't say you're wrong. In fact it fits what we know about PJ's stubborness. But it's a strange way to run a railroad. Coaches almost universally agree you want to win big whenever you can to build confidence early in the year.
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PJF marches to a different drummer. He has a lot of idiosyncrasies, which mostly seem to work out for him.

I fully expect we’ll see a better effort all around in the Big Ten season.
 

Listened to first half of the radio show yesterday. They lobbed him questions, per usual, but basically gave him the opportunity to blame "the whole offense" for the issues. Which I don't think is wrong.

But didn't ask him one peep about if play-calling or gameplan was also a factor. And he didn't go anywhere near that.


Quite obvious he thinks there wasn't a single thing wrong with the play-calling or gameplan.


Sanford won't be fired this season. Bank it.
 



Not sure how solid my information is, but I was told that Sanford called all the plays for the entire Bowling Green game and that won't happen again this year. I don't think Sanford will be fired at this time, but it wouldn't surprise me if Fleck or Simon takes over play calling duties for a stretch or at least take larger roles in that department.
 

gophernut1 said:
Not sure how solid my information is, but I was told that Sanford called all the plays for the entire Bowling Green game and that won't happen again this year. I don't think Sanford will be fired at this time, but it wouldn't surprise me if Fleck or Simon takes over play calling duties for a stretch or at least take larger roles in that department.
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We can only hope that some kind of internal arrangement has been created, involving Fleck and/or Simon. Change something.

Granted, don't count on the writers at the press conferences to ever ask about play-calling 🤦‍♂️
 

gophernut1 said:
Not sure how solid my information is, but I was told that Sanford called all the plays for the entire Bowling Green game and that won't happen again this year. I don't think Sanford will be fired at this time, but it wouldn't surprise me if Fleck or Simon takes over play calling duties for a stretch or at least take larger roles in that department.
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I really don’t understand PJ and his loyalty to his coordinators who suck. Including the special teams coach.

I’d love to know what his personal threshold is for “okay, that’s enough, time to let you go”

Does he not understand this could have been/could be a very special season. We are loaded this year.
 

gophernut1 said:
Not sure how solid my information is, but I was told that Sanford called all the plays for the entire Bowling Green game and that won't happen again this year. I don't think Sanford will be fired at this time, but it wouldn't surprise me if Fleck or Simon takes over play calling duties for a stretch or at least take larger roles in that department.
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That’s very interesting, and wouldn’t break my heart at all. Can I ask for a general idea of how close your source is to the program? I’m always interested because I’m convinced I’m the only person who doesn’t have a source.
 



SanDiegoGopherFan said:
I really don’t understand PJ and his loyalty to his coordinators who suck. Including the special teams coach.

I’d love to know what his personal threshold is for “okay, that’s enough, time to let you go”

Does he not understand this could have been/could be a very special season. We are loaded this year.
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He did get rid of Robb Smith mid-year and that saved the season and possibly even his career as a Big Ten head coach because there was no way that could continue. He will do the same thing with Sanford, but it will have to get worse.

You can't keep going with an offense this bad especially considering the talent that is there. Our offense just might be the most vanilla and predictable offensive unit in college football. You have got to see this - and you better make changes because you will see that same defense you saw vs. Bowling Green every game the rest of the year until you can show that you can beat it.
 

MplsGopher said:
Listened to first half of the radio show yesterday. They lobbed him questions, per usual, but basically gave him the opportunity to blame "the whole offense" for the issues. Which I don't think is wrong.

But didn't ask him one peep about if play-calling or gameplan was also a factor. And he didn't go anywhere near that.


Quite obvious he thinks there wasn't a single thing wrong with the play-calling or gameplan.


Sanford won't be fired this season. Bank it.
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I don't think so either. He will retain Sanford unless there are 4 more meltdowns. In doing so PJ will be burning a lot of good will he was able to earn during 2019 season. We have pretty bleak prospect next year as tons will be graduating this year. This year was supposed to be competitive. He is still taking about winning division. I am not sure he is putting brave face or just don’t see how atrocious his offense is. For us it is just an entertainment end of the day. It is the career for him. We wrote things here out of boredom or anger. He is the one need to decide what kind of career he wants by surrounding himself with competent crew.
 

BoatRacer said:
I don't think so either. He will retain Sanford unless there are 4 more meltdowns. In doing so PJ will be burning a lot of good will he was able to earn during 2019 season. We have pretty bleak prospect next year as tons will be graduating this year. This year was supposed to be competitive. He is still taking about winning division. I am not sure he is putting brave face or just don’t see how atrocious his offense is. For us it is just an entertainment end of the day. It is the career for him. We wrote things here out of boredom or anger. He is the one need to decide what kind of career he wants by surrounding himself with competent crew.
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2017 = 2020
2018 = 2021

We had a ton of talent on defense from the empire class. Sure, we didn't have AWjr for most of those years, and it wouldn't surprise me (don't recall off the top of my head) if Fleck partly blamed that for the failures of the defense. Just as now, he's trying to blame missing Mo and CrAB for the failures of the offense.

At the end of the day ... the exact same players on defense suddenly came to life under Rossi in 2018, once Fleck finally was forced to fire Robb Smith.

The story of 2021 is yet to be finalized .......
 

Gold Rush said:
He did get rid of Robb Smith mid-year and that saved the season and possibly even his career as a Big Ten head coach because there was no way that could continue. He will do the same thing with Sanford, but it will have to get worse.
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I remember thinking at the time, and commenting here I believe, that going away from Robb Smith told me a lot about Fleck and him understanding that sometimes you make hard decisions. He's capable of moving on when he thinks it necessary, I don't have much doubt about that. Not easy to do, letting someone go you may think highly of, while at the same time admitting you might have been wrong.
 

Fewest Pass Attempts per Game in 2021:

130. Army
129. Air Force
128. Navy
127. Michigan
125. Minnesota
125. San Diego State

great-not-great.gif
 

Taji34 said:
I mean, to be fair, TM would have had like a 20 yard run if he hadn't fumbled....
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And if you ask your QB to run sometimes, it means defenses can't immediately collapse on the RB. I am OK with a QB running some in our scheme. An outside lane is always open for the QB if the contain guy(s) on D is cheating to stop the RB. I suspect, however, that Tanner isn't the best runner among our QBs. But he might be a better passer than our good QB runners. It's complicated.
 


MplsGopher said:
2017 = 2020
2018 = 2021

We had a ton of talent on defense from the empire class. Sure, we didn't have AWjr for most of those years, and it wouldn't surprise me (don't recall off the top of my head) if Fleck partly blamed that for the failures of the defense. Just as now, he's trying to blame missing Mo and CrAB for the failures of the offense.

At the end of the day ... the exact same players on defense suddenly came to life under Rossi in 2018, once Fleck finally was forced to fire Robb Smith.

The story of 2021 is yet to be finalized .......
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There is a lot of talent on offense, but it isn't being utilized. Even with CAB out, Jackson is good, damn good. Wright is good, but you need to put him in a position where his physical dominance can exploit a defense. Brady Boyd? I'll bet he could help. We have a lot of guys. We just ignored them for the most part. There are many ways to beat BG's jailbreak blitzes. But we just ignored them. Whoever called the BG game is too brittle and uncreative to call plays when we are behind ... or if we want to blow out an inferior opponent. Maybe BG would have beaten us if we pulled out all the stops, used all our weapons, even used trick plays. But at least it would have looked like we went down trying.
 

Urbandale said:
That’s very interesting, and wouldn’t break my heart at all. Can I ask for a general idea of how close your source is to the program? I’m always interested because I’m convinced I’m the only person who doesn’t have a source.
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Do you want to be each other’s source?

I’ll start: I’m really not sure how solid my information is, but I read that Sanford called all the plays for the entire Bowling Green game and that won't happen again this year.
 

matt said:
Do you want to be each other’s source?

I’ll start: I’m really not sure how solid my information is, but I read that Sanford called all the plays for the entire Bowling Green game and that won't happen again this year.
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I have a brand new source who is confirming all of the information you just let out of the bag.
 


Whomever said Sanford is Offensive Bob Diaco was spot on. Get Notre Dame on the resume early, run a mid-major into the ground to get that all-important HC experience, and ride that around the coaching carousel for decades without accomplishing much. Never more than 2 years in a major job.

Purdue had Diaco for DC in 2020 but had the good sense to get away from him before Year 2 took them further into the abyss. It might be the difference in the game Saturday.
 
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fmlizard said:
Whomever said Sanford is Offensive Bob Diaco was spot on. Get Notre Dame on the resume early, run a mid-major into the ground to get that all-important HC experience, and ride that around the coaching carousel for decades without accomplishing much. Never more than 2 years in a major job.

Purdue had Diaco for DC in 2020 but had the good sense to get away from him before Year 2 took them further into the abyss. It might be the difference in the game Saturday.
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Boom.

So ... what does that say about Fleck??

I'm still curious what the connection is there. They didn't overlap anywhere. I was thinking, maybe Sanford was at a 49ers camp when Fleck was playing with them in the mid 2000's? But I don't think so.

Until disproven, I'm going with that their wives were friends and they became buds that way. Wild guess
 



the BG game plan was low key and the players didn’t make the plays to win. Quit blaming the coaches for not calling a different game plan.
 

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