Bye-Week Mailbag Part 2 Talks Coordinators, Ben Herbert, Fall Non-Revs, and Opponents (2025)

Earlier this week we answered a good chunk of the questions that I received in this month's call for mailbag questions. Today I will answer another batch of them, which again focus heavily on football as the fanbase tries to figure out what's been going on with the team this season:

How much of the coaching focus relative to the team's struggles is legit, and how much of it is just the natural reaction since you can't replace all the players (and the coaches are all new)?

The reality is that we had massive turnover on both sides of the ball and we knew going into the season that almost every replacement was going to be worse than the equivalent player from last year. We do not have a P4-level WR or QB on the roster. Our OL has maybe 2.5 decent players and a couple of sore spots. The LB are a little worse and Berry/Hill/QJo are significantly worse than Moore/Wallace/Saintistil. Why is some of this performance a surprise? Additionally, you have a lot of coaches in roles for the first time and building their program in a shorter off-season. (- AC1997)

I think it's quite possible that we underestimated the struggles that would pop up losing as many starters as Michigan did, especially on offense. I certainly think we underestimated the degree of coaching turnover that was experienced, which I touched on in part one of the mailbag when discussing the difference between the Harbaugh --> Sherrone Moore's transition vs. the Urban Meyer --> Ryan Day transition. A lot changed and maybe some fans weren't totally ready for the growing pains that come with that. All this said, I think some of the reaction has not been out of proportion given the sorts of mistakes/issues we have been seeing.

I think the discourse in Michigan circles would be very different if the team were playing pretty well but were simply not up to par from a talent-standpoint due to the drop-off. Based on my evaluation, many Michigan fans were prepared to stomach a 9-3 or possibly even 8-4 "down year" with the tough schedule and all the change that went on. But nearly every position with question marks is coming in below expectations and combined with the seeming lack of preparation, the glaring regression in tackling, some of the strange roster developments (Giudice winning the C job, the Link mystery, etc.), there's just a lot of odd stuff going on that doesn't reflect well on the coaching staff. Put more plainly, this doesn't look like a well-coached team and that's alarming after Michigan was usually one of CFB's best coached teams in the Harbaugh years.

Now, you can say that it was unreasonable to expect Harbaugh level coaching to continue (you would be correct). You can also say it was reasonable to expect some issues with a new head coach. I think that's true, but I think the level of issues rises beyond merely "new head coach" and it's more nerve-wracking when it's a coach without a proven head coaching track record elsewhere. If Sherrone Moore had been hired after having been awesome as a head coach at say, Cincinnati, we'd have a proof of concept that he's a good head coach and he just needs time. We don't have that right now and I think that has spooked some people. All that said, growing pains are called growing pains because, you know, there is growth. That's what will really make or break the fan reaction to the second half of the season: does this team improve? Do they work out some of the kinks on offense? Do they start executing better on defense? Does Jyaire Hill really make a leap and the OL start to gel? If the second half looks a fair bit better than the first, I think people will be much calmer and we can breathe a sigh of relief that maybe Sherrone is starting to get a hang of this.

[AFTER THE JUMP: more questions]

Bye-Week Mailbag Part 2 Talks Coordinators, Ben Herbert, Fall Non-Revs, and Opponents (1)

A lot has changed since we saw the Hoosiers last year [Fuller]

Halfway through the season, who in the B1G is better than their record? Worse? Are Indiana and Illinois real?

Related, how does the Big 18 fix the problem of schedule imbalance long term? Seems hard to avoid a situation where somebody can get to the championship game without ever playing the top 3 or so teams. (- gbdub)

Always love to get an opponents-related question. Washington is now probably in line with their 4-2 record but you can credibly make the case they should be 6-0 on a down-to-down basis. That's a real football team. I think Nebraska is probably worse than their 5-1 record based on what I've seen, with their B1G wins coming over a dreadful Purdue team and home against Rutgers (by one touchdown). But they should still win at least 7 games which I think at the end of the day will be a big step forward for the program and if they do finish 7-5, that'll be fairly reflective of their performance.

No other teams really stand out as having performance obviously disconnected from their record at this time. Except maybe Indiana and Illinois, who we can talk about now. Don't hold me to this take because I haven't scouted them well but Indiana seems to be a legit good team. Probably not 6-0 good, but their offense raised some eyebrows from me after torching Northwestern for 529 yards. Their defense is a bit concerning but they look legit on offense and because of the schedule could be 9-0 when they play Michigan and will have earned it.

Illinois I'm less sure about that. They beat Kansas but that looks far from an achievement at this point. They have an OT win over Nebraska and easy wins in buy games besides that. Illinois lost by 14 to Penn State in a game they battled hard but ultimately weren't that competitive in (yardage was 374-228 PSU). I'm not sure they're top 25 material but their offense (Luke Altmyer in particular) has really surprised me in its competency. Bert deserves credit for having this team ahead of where I thought they'd be and they have a gimme game this weekend at home against Purdue. A bowl game should be in their future and Michigan can't expect to waltz into Champaign, even if they may not be as good as their 4-1 (soon to be 5-1) record suggests.

On the topic of scheduling, the best solution is what Brian has talked about: divisions. The only way to get a fair and accurate handle of who the two championship game teams ought to be is to create two groupings of teams and see who does the best from each of those two groups. But the divisions can't stay the same each year, because that would be incredibly stale and would mean that teams from opposite divisions never play unless the schedule dramatically expands. So each year you should select two groups of nine teams that will all play each other in that given year, with the leading team from each division playing in Indy. And then next year? Scramble them! Two new groups of nine teams, so you never go too many years without seeing any other team in the conference. Think of it like groups in the group stage of the World Cup or an Olympic team sport competition, very useful for that year's tournament but scrambled in each successive tournament.

Bye-Week Mailbag Part 2 Talks Coordinators, Ben Herbert, Fall Non-Revs, and Opponents (2)

[Paul Sherman]

We have now all heard about David Portnoy claiming to save Michigan football by buying a QB every year. Is this something that is realistic for Michigan? Obviously the QB is the most important position on the field, but the rest of the team?

I would imagine that a few other factors will affect our options as well. Such as offensive/defensive schemes, coaches and play calling, current depth charts, etc. How should, and how will Michigan deal with this moving forward? (- Ceal)

Let's ignore the Portnoy tie-in because a healthy bit of the Barstool brand is empty bluster, but the premise of "buying" QBs is something we should explore. Michigan will almost certainly be portal hunting for a QB in the offseason and in this modern world, it will require some degree of a "transactional" payment if they want it to be anyone worth a damn. We know Michigan has had some issues with admissions and the portal (mostly in basketball, but still), though I don't anticipate this being a major problem. Especially because I think Michigan is likely to be targeting a grad transfer QB, someone older and experienced but who doesn't close the door on Jadyn Davis eventually starting.

I think getting a portal QB is quite realistic for Michigan, but I don't think they will be doing it every year as Portnoy proposed, nor is it something you want to do every year. Notre Dame has gone the portal QB route a couple seasons in a row with Sam Hartman and then Riley Leonard and it's unclear that has really paid off for them. Ideally you'd like to always have an internal QB option who is groomed for the job and ready to go. Michigan is in this position because their recruiting failed them, not taking a viable QB in 2020, 2022, or 2023 and that's not the ideal plan. Michigan should aim to take one top 250 QB each year and the hope is that in any given year, one of the four in the program is good enough to be the starter.

Of course, there may be an instance where the guys you recruit don't really pan out and you have to go to the portal out of necessity. That's natural, but it shouldn't be the plan yearly because the portal is awfully volatile. Sometimes you go to the portal and get Kenneth Walker III and other times you go the portal and get Jalen Berger. Banking on the portal to produce an NFL QB every offseason is not a good strategy even if you had all the Barstool $$$ in the world. As for the other factors you mention, not being the most pass-heavy scheme has certainly impacted Michigan QB recruiting a bit, though I do like the next two recruits they have lined up, both of whom committed with no scheme assurances. Putting JJ McCarthy high in the NFL Draft will go a long way and as long as Michigan is willing to pay some amount, I have no doubt they'll be able to get one of the better transfer QBs on the market this offseason. Just don't make it a crutch.

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[Erin Kirkland/UM Photography]

Any non-rev sports to get excited about this year? Appreciate your work! (- CFC_Wolverine)

Always appreciated, CFC_Wolverine! I liked this question because non-revenue sports deserve some recognition, especially in the fall when they get overshadowed by football. We can acknowledge the field hockey team, who are having a nice season (as always) under Marcia Pankratz. They picked up a big 1-0 shutout win over a very good Ohio State team this weekend and are ranked 5th in the national polls (6th in RPI), 8-1 on the season thus far. Their lone loss is to UNC, which is the #1 team in RPI so nothing to be ashamed of there. The B1G slate is just getting going so if you're late to the party, there's still plenty of season to go as the team chases postseason hardware. B1G play wraps up for Michigan on November 1 in Iowa City against the Hawkeyes, followed by the BTT Nov. 7-10 in College Park and then the NCAA Tournament thereafter. I should point out that the Final Four is being hosted in Ann Arbor the weekend before Thanksgiving this year, so it would rock if Michigan could make it that far!

Another sport that's currently underway that we should shout out is the volleyball team, which is in the midst of a remarkable turnaround. Last year's inaugural season for head coach Erin Virtue did not go well, as the Wolverines bombed to a woeful 7-22 (5-15 in conference play) but this year have already nearly doubled that win total, with a lot of season to go. Michigan is 13-2 on the year, their only two losses coming to a nationally ranked USC team on the road (a five set defeat) and a UNC team that isn't ranked but is 19 in RPI, also on the road (also a five set defeat). It's a pretty surprising turn of events and it's rocketed Michigan up to 37th in RPI after finishing outside the top 100 last season. Kudos to everyone who has made that happen and if you want to support the volleyball team this weekend, they are playing host to Illinois tonight at Crisler at 7:00 PM.

whats your level of concern with Sherrone being the right hire? What would you need to see to change that (either to alleviate concern or make you become concerned)

— Ben Heath (@BenjaminHeath96) October 7, 2024

Right now I'd say that I am a 7.5 on the Panic-O-Meter with regards to Sherrone. I want to believe in him, but our level of concern has to be naturally higher with a coach who has no past head coaching experience. My biggest worry with Sherrone at the moment is the fact that the team does not looked well coached (as I mentioned in a different response earlier in this piece). This is something I do all the time in FFFF, evaluating whether the team I'm watching seems organized. Do they seem to know what's going on? Is the gameplan thought out? Do the players look aware of their responsibility on each play? Do the players tackle well and execute the fundamentals? You can be a firmly mediocre team because your talent is middling, but still be well coached. Right now Michigan has some very talented players (especially on defense) but they just don't seem very well coached. Tackling has gone downhill (which is a very bearish indicator for me) and the players on defense shuffling around and trying to figure out what's going on pre-snap is not great either. Then you factor in the personnel mysteries on the OL and the lack of a plan for Mullings/Edwards combo snaps and... it's not a great picture!!

So that's all very worrying. I would probably guess that if you asked him in private that Sherrone would say that the job is kicking his ass right now. Being a head coach is really hard and he's learning on the job. We can have a good debate whether the job of Head Football Coach at the University of Michigan is an entry level head coaching job (I would argue it is not and should not be), but in hiring Sherrone, we made it one. We have to be prepared to face the fact that the guy you hire might not know what he's doing for the first year or two before he gets a hang of it. No matter what, this season will make Sherrone a better head coach in the long run, the question (ominously) is whether that's a better head coach for Michigan... or for Arizona or Oklahoma or [insert team here] a la Lane Kiffin/Steve Sarkisian.

Not everyone aces it at the start. Nick Saban was first a head coach at Toledo and then MSU before going to the biggest stages. Urban Meyer had Bowling Green and then Mountain West-era Utah. Going through the first time head coach lumps on one of the biggest stages in CFB is a difficult proposition and from that lens, I have some sympathy for Sherrone Moore. I do think Moore becomes a decent college head coach at some point, I just don't know if he'll figure it out in time to be a good head coach at Michigan (*gulp*). In terms of what I want to see moving forward, I'd like to see the team look crisper. They're still going to have talent problems at QB/WR but better game plans and more importantly, better execution and preparation. Less mistake-filled games. Less weird timeout usage or weird 4th down decisions. Being sharper and better drilled will go a long way towards calming my nerves and then ideally he will sit down in the offseason and make some changes on his coaching staff because there are coaches who are making life harder on a first time head coach than it needs to be (hello, Mr. Martindale).

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[Bryan Fuller]

Now with the benefit of hindsight, how would you assess the role HS recruiting played the past 2-3 years with the situation we find ourselves in now? (- AC1997)

Recruiting has definitely played a role, something that was foreseeable a few years back if you were reading my recruiting coverage. Everyone points to QB and yeah, that is the big one. Taking a lighter class the year after JJ (Denegal/Orji) wasn't great but perhaps explicable, but they could not afford to whiff on 2023 and that's exactly what happened. They put all their eggs in the Dante Moore basket, a QB who more or less demanded to start immediately at the school he committed to (why he flipped to UCLA after Oregon got Bo Nix), which was never going to be Michigan. And after that fell through, Michigan punted on the cycle and never seriously attempted to flip anyone. That disastrous decision looms large over the current situation and not being proactive in finding a younger portal QB who could perhaps sit for a few years to fill a gap in the depth chart (like they did with Hausmann at LB) during the 2022-23 winter post-Dante fiasco was another error.

That recruiting failure is on Matt Weiss' shoulders, and on Harbaugh's for letting Weiss handle QB recruiting when Weiss was (by all accounts) a dreadful recruiter. That faux pas has damaged the current team, while the WR recruiting issues are something I discussed in the last mailbag piece but are certainly a factor. They also have a development problem and the recruiting is partially due to the offensive scheme, but they have not gotten the sort of talent at WR that a program of Michigan's caliber ought to be getting. You can possibly chalk up some OL struggles to recruiting, as it would be nice to have had a couple top 100 studs being in contention, but I don't think they recruited poorly per se. That issue seems more development/coaching related.

On defense I think it would help to have another body besides Jyaire Hill at corner perhaps, but otherwise I think they recruited fine. The issue on defense right now isn't talent (for the most part), because they have oodles of it. Zeke Berry and Hill are scuffling to some degree and both were very highly rated recruits. Michigan recruited the LB position pretty poorly but covered it up through a good showing in the portal. The talent isn't necessarily there at several key positions on offense and that is due to recruiting, but I would largely say that the talent on defense is there. They just need to coach and develop it better.

Bye-Week Mailbag Part 2 Talks Coordinators, Ben Herbert, Fall Non-Revs, and Opponents (5)

[Paul Sherman]

If Campbell and/or Martindale were fired, who would you replace with? (- Wolverine Incognito)

I also got a version of this question on Twitter asking me if I would replace Campbell/Martindale so let's do them together. At the moment I would replace them both, with the caveat being that we have to be careful about jeopardizing QB recruiting. I think there's a chance Campbell could be a good QBs coach and I do like the recruiting, but his track record pre-Michigan did not suggest that he is a good OC. One of the bigger problems hamstringing this team in my eyes is you have a head coach trying to learn how to be a head coach and he can't lean on either of his coordinators for stability, as Campbell was fired from Old Dominion and Martindale does not seem like a good match for coordinating a collegiate defense. Neither guy is a proven Dude as a college coordinator and I think that would be very helpful for giving Sherrone a chance to succeed in 2025 and beyond.

Unless either guy shows material improvement indicating that they can become an above average coordinator in college football very soon, I would move on from both guys, contract notwithstanding (not commenting on that because I'm talking only about what the right football decision is). For defense, I still really believe in D'Anton Lynn and his Ravens ties are pretty appetizing, but it would be hard to poach him in-conference now that he's at USC. I'd also encourage Sherrone to look outside the box from just the "Ravens tree" because some day soon the whole Ravens thing will be outdated as football strategy continues to evolve. Every year there are new names that pop up who have great seasons coordinating defenses and so it's a bit hard to predict who those will be. A year ago at this point, Lynn was an under the radar name but by the end of the season he had coordinated the best defense in the PAC-12 at UCLA and was a hot commodity.

Be open minded is all I'm saying! For example, if Dave Aranda is let go by Baylor as head coach, Michigan should be interested in bringing him in as defensive coordinator. Likewise on offense, I know they want to have a pro style offense and there is nothing wrong with that, but you can lose sight of smart coaches narrowing your vision. I don't have any offensive names on the tip of my tongue but will certainly be tracking it as the year goes along and perhaps we can discuss his question again when the offseason gets underway.

Bye-Week Mailbag Part 2 Talks Coordinators, Ben Herbert, Fall Non-Revs, and Opponents (6)

[Patrick Barron]

Any thoughts on how much the football team misses Coach Herb? Perhaps not just as S&C coach, but as AHC? (- MichiganiaMan)

I got quite a few Herbert questions so I had to include one here. It's both quite likely to me that losing Herbert is indeed a significant factor in this team's performance and also something that is very difficult to nail down in fine print. As in, it's nearly impossible to point to any specific development and say "this is solely because Ben Herbert is now a San Diego Charger". What is more likely is he had an impact on a lot of different facets of the team and that has totaled up in his absence.

What we know about Ben Herbert is people think the world of him. There's a reason Jim Harbaugh fought so vigorously to keep Herbert as he moved to the NFL and there's a reason the Chargers paid an exorbitant amount for NFL S&C coach standards to hire him. Moreover, I was listening to the St. Brown brothers' podcast a few weeks back and they had Lions center Frank Ragnow on and asked him (as they do to all their guests) which coach made the biggest impact in his career. Ragnow named Ben Herbert, who was the S&C coach at Arkansas back when Ragnow played for the Hogs. That caught me off-guard, but if an All-Pro NFL lineman is saying you were the biggest impact in his career, nearly a decade after you worked with him, probably says you're doing something right.

Those anecdotes speak to a larger than life role that Herbert may play for the teams he coaches. Add in how Herbert appeared to have fixed DJ Turner II's hamstring problems and allowing him to shave significant time off his 40 yard dash and you get the sense that this guy was a miracle worker. Not just wonderfully effective as a S&C coach but as a man and a force in the locker room and the program. We'll never really know what aspects of the current team could've been different with Herbert still around unless we were inside the program, but it probably extends beyond just the physical training regimen for some players. If Michigan wants to be "Development U", it's hard not to think that Herbert played a role as the guy who was physically developing players in the weight room and that could certainly be a factor in various stalled developments. Herbert was a pivotal part of this team and it's hard not to wonder how different this season could look if Sherrone Moore got to coach with Jesse Minter as DC and Herbert around as S&C + AHC. Would've been nice!!

This is more a meta college football question, but relevant to us now: how much can you build a team through the portal, and how quickly can that turn a team around? FSU has been very successful building through the portal but are catering this year, Colorado was ass but are now-

— MICHIGAN 2023 GALACTIC CHAMPS (@Leftistlieuten) October 7, 2024

Let's finish things off with this question. As a general statement, I don't think "building through the portal" is a viable team-building strategy in college football. You have to build through your recruiting classes and accent your talent through the portal. That's how Georgia does it, Ohio State, and yes, Michigan of last year did it. Building through the portal entirely is a bad strategy because even if you do hit it big one year (as FSU did last season), you could totally strike out the next year. Rather than developing and creating your own good football players, you're leaving it up to chance and banking that enough good players will be in the portal each offseason. In other words, rather than cooking dinner for yourself, you're sifting through other teams' leftovers.

It's unreliable and is likely going to lead to wild swings up and down year to year. You want to lay the foundation and get most of your core pieces through recruiting and then go to the portal to find plug-and-play impact guys to help your roster get over the top, as well as to find younger players who you can have a chance to develop who fill a gap in your recruiting class (Oregon snagging Dante Moore for future years, Michigan with Hausmann and arguably Josaiah Stewart, etc.). Dabo at Clemson has shown us that abstaining from the portal is a reckless strategy but you also shouldn't punt on recruiting for the portal either. They both have their places. If Michigan is hoping to build next year's team entirely through the portal, that's not going to be successful, but if they go into it looking for let's say a starting QB, a WR or two, and some plug-and-play defensive help or maybe one guy on the OL, that could pay dividends and certainly could work out. Just need to nail your evals and get a little luck that portal entrants are fruitful in that given offseason.

Bye-Week Mailbag Part 2 Talks Coordinators, Ben Herbert, Fall Non-Revs, and Opponents (2025)
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