The Tim Davis hire is all good

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husker70

husker70

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First it sends a clear message to Coach Dunbar. His days maybe numbered. Or we may return to the two headed offense of Coach Mason.

Second it sends a clear message to Lewan, Henderson and maybe recruits in the Florida, Alabama, Georgia, maybe even California. You will get the best offensive line coaching right here.

Third a message has probably been sent to Coach Hill, this is what I want from the O linemen. Squat minimum 500, anyone close to 700 has my attention. Hang/Clean 400 would be a good number.

Campion, Michel, and Olson have to be thrilled.

This could be where the spread meets smash mouth.
 

I agree 100% Husker.

Dunbar has probably forgotten more about football in the last five minutes than I could learn in 50 years, but this team is extremely weak at the point-of-attack in the running game. Part of that is lack of size, part of it is injuries, and part of it is lack of experience. All three can be corrected and Davis looks like a guy who can put a strong line together. He obviously can't do anything about health (maybe we should hire Benny Hinn as Assistant Coach in Charge of Faith Healing), but I think he probably can assemble a line where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. A lot of that is technique and a lot of that is attitude.

I don't particularly like the spread because I think it can be overwhelmed quite easily, as Iowa showed. Regardless of how many "basketball on grass" programs crop up, football is still basically about knocking people over and if you can't do that with some measure of consistency, you are going to be in trouble.
 

Brewster basically called out Coach Hill and the OL on the Sunday morning Sid show. The notice has been given. The focus is weight training this week. Nothing else. Get bigger, get stronger and acquire greater endurance B4 KO 2009. Brewster knows he has a ton of work to do to put the product he wants on the field.

He also said he is studying game film to see who dogged it the second half and who left it all on the field. It will be interesting to see who get the most PT in the bowl game.

As I have posted, Coach Davis and Brewster are from the same mold; peas in a pod. Tough, agressive, take no prisoners football. Throw in Roof and get out of the way. I am still surprised Brewster embraced the spread considering his philosophy on offensive football.

Brewster is fed up with a whimpy running game and is taking action. He is not satisfied with 7-5 and this is a solid indication he is focused on meeting his goals while at the UM.

We may be able to pound the rock once agains Husker. Line em up and go at it! I am excited to get a glimpse of something else watching the bowl game other than Sara Spread.
 

There seems to be a lot of giddyness over the hiring of an offensive line coach. Except for the few folks here who follow college football as a whole (more than just the Gophers) religiously, who had even heard of Tim Davis before Brew hired him?

"You will get the best offensive line coaching right here."

Really? We've already determined that a couple days after he was hired?
 

Why do people think the spread is going away? It is just about mixing it up a bit. How do people forget that two of the last three national champions ran the spread?

I think what Brewsteris acknowledging is that personnel will determine the system. He will continue to recruit for the spread, but it looks like he is going to try and adjust more to his personnel. Time will tell.
 


Who knows SS.
But I'll tell you what. This hire sends a very clear message to the players and to recruits. We will do what it takes in order to run the ball effectively at Minnesota. It all starts with a philosophy, a plan and an attitude.

When Brewster was hired he stated that we would run the ball with the spread. It failed for two years under Dunbar and Sara Spread for various reasons. Brewster will not sit pat and has taken steps to fix what most ails his team.
 

SelectionSunday said:
There seems to be a lot of giddyness over the hiring of an offensive line coach. Except for the few folks here who follow college football as a whole (more than just the Gophers) religiously, who had even heard of Tim Davis before Brew hired him?
Click to expand...

Who ever hears of offensive line coach? All you can do is take a look at a resume and make an assumption that he has been a part of the successes at his previous stops.

Who on this board has ever heard of Milt Tenopir? He was an offensive line coach that produced 25 All Americans and won 13 rushing titles.
 

"Who on this board has ever heard of Milt Tenopir?"

I know I haven't. Hopefully Davis follows Milt's career path & gets the same production out of his linemen. That would be much more preferable than becoming the next assistant coach to become a scapegoat when something goes wrong.
 

I don't think the spread is going away, but I do think we are going to see a number of different looks. Dunbar's system in ints purest form can put too much pressure on the offensive line, especially when running an empty backfield. It was poison to an injured and inexperienced line this past season, which culminated in Iowa's total defensive dominance.

You can't have five guys blocking seven. Sure, that leaves someone open somewhere, but if the D-backs jump the inside patterns and clog everything up and Weber doesn't have time to look downfield, you get what you got Saturday night. As I said above, Dunbar could run circles around me with his football knowledge, but you have to find ways to effectively and consistently run the football and I don't know if Dunbar's system (again, in its purest form) is geared for that.

Changes need to be made and whatever anyone thinks of Brewster, he appears to be a take-charge guy and wants to fix things.
 



the reason for the spread is that is what recruits like

Tiller talked how it was hard to recruit at purdue being surrounded by the big boys........he said by coming up with a fun and unique offense that kids like.....they had a shot
 

In most cases the defense had 5 people in the box the last couple of weeks, b/c they knew how to stunt, and pressure our weak spots. We didn't have to defend against 7.
 

Five in the box? Try eight.

Teams were pulling their safeties up because they knew we couldn't go deep. That clogs up all the underneath crossing routes. Going empty only exacerbates that problem.

They were, as you say, stunting the crap out of us, but everyone seemed to be getting clear runs at Weber. Some of that is stunting and some of it was having extra guys close to the line of scrimmage.
 

Maybe we have a different definition of box. I consider the box 5 yards from the line of scrimmage and from tackle to tackle. They would flatten and spread their defense and dare us to go deep or run in the middle. But still only 5 in the box.
 



The front line and the linebackers usually is what is referred to as the "box." If you have eight in the box, you are bringing up a safety.

Regardless of our definitions, I think we are in agreement. Opposing d-backs were jumping Weber's first reads and he didn't have time to either go deep or check-down. A lot of that had to do with the lack of a consistent running game to require the defense to at least think about reading. Instead, all they had to do was pin their ears back and have ten-yard dash practice with Weber serving as the finish line.

Even with all the formations, I have always found the spread to be fairly predictable. It is an offense that requires a lot of precision and you can't have precision without time.
 

I am not a person that wants a particular offense. I really enjoy the different variations of different offenses, and have learned to appreciate that each offense has its strengths and its weaknesses.

I lean toward option football, so I like the spread with zone read, speed, and other variations of option.

If I have a disappointment in the spread is that you have WR's or pass-first TE's trying to block on running plays.
 

For what it's worth, I asked around on a PAC-10 board about him. Here's what one fan said about him:
"I've met Tim at an alum function, and you just hired an outstanding coach. His reputation as a coach and person is very, very high.

Congratulations on a great hire. Your program is really going in the right direction now."
 

Some of you are pretty hard on Dunbar! When Decker got injured to the point where it affected his play, there was just not a lot of weapons left for him to use effectively. The OL is young and a little smallish according to the big ten standards.

Personally, I knew trouble was coming for the running game a few years ago when Maroney left early and Russell had the problems he had.

I am thrilled and amazed at the hire, and I suspect the hire is going to eventually lead to Dunbar finishing up his time at MN, but in two years the offense has made some progress. Another WR is starting to emerge as a playmaker besides Decker and Carpenter on the way! Some depth and players will be coming next year for the OL so that will help the running game.

I suspect the hire will be sending a message to him, and his pride will not handle it to well. Kinda hard to blame him for it, but at the same time, his spread without the QB under center has been lacking. I suspect the philosophical differences between Brew and Dunbar concerning this have affected the relatonship to the point if someone comes and tries to pull Dunbar away after this year, Brew will not try to hold on to tightly, though I doubt anyone will at this point.

Overall, though, given what Dunbar was working with (youth, injuries, ect.), he has done all right.
 

I have no problem with Dunbar per se, I just think the spread is not an offense you can just come in and implement and expect great things immediately and I do sense it's kind of a "flavor of the decade" to some extent. Like I've said in other threads, I'm old and still subscribe to the school that football is largely blocking and tackling. If you can't win the physical end of the game, you're probably not going to be a top-tier team. Hopefully Davis will help us with that. Regardless of what formation you run, you have to win the game at the line of scrimmage.

And we cannot forget the Duane Bennett injury early in the season. It almost seems forgotten here. Eskridge and Saloman both had their moments, but it is difficult for a true freshman to come into a system this complex and succeed while trying to adjust to the differences in athletic ability from high school to college.
 

Milt Tenopir.... I'm fairly sure he was at Nebraska under the Osborne regime but I could be wrong?
 

You're absolutely correct, sir!

A lot of the problem was the FR RB's and WR's. Blocking assignment recognition and adjsutment has to be one of the hardest things to pick up "right away"
 

Is it just me or would you have Tim Davis flying out to Arizona to sit down with Lewan before he makes his final decision? I realize he has a lot on his plate to learn the personnel he has to start coaching on Monday--not to mention moving his family to Minneapolis--but he should be enjoying the Arizona heat on a Saturday in December.

I read somewhere that Lewan is visiting Michigan on Dec. 6. He has a teammate that has verbally committed to play DE at Michigan.
 

Yes, one of Lewan's teammates is a Michigan commit.
 

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