He was at SDSU with Hoke the past couple of years and before that was the O-Coordinator at Auburn during the Cadillac Williams, Ronnie Brown, Jason Campbell Era. He runs a West Coast (or Gulf Coast) offense that should be interesting to see how Denard Robinson fares in it. My guess is that Denard is going to spend all of his off time throwing the ball and working on his accuracy. I am happy that Denard is sticking around because he seems like a good kid who loves the University. I would imagine that if he was hoping to play QB in the NFL then he is going to need to fine tune his passing ability and be a scrambling QB ala Michael Vick, Steve Young, Jeff Garcia etc. He is about the same size as all three of those guys. Hopefully Borges can work with him and use their trough of RB more often in the offense to make him less injury prone.
Greg Mattison
Another Greg, or as many UM's have said, Gurg. All of us AEPiers know a far more famous Gurg but that is beside the point . I think this is one of the more important UM hires, since he was taken from the much hated Baltimore Ravens. This guy was at UM from 1995-1996, coached under Jack Harbaugh at Western Michigan along with Hoke and the other Harbaughs. He left for Notre Dame, which caused a major rift at Michigan but supposedly he went there so that his kids could get a free education (it being a private school). I wouldn't blame him for leaving to coach at a school where your kids can get free schooling. He was the D-Coordinator at Florida during their National Championship, so he has beaten OSU more than any of the previous coaches. He went to coach the linebackers at Baltimore (who I hear are pretty good) and then became D Coordinator after Rex Ryan went to the Jets. My guess is he is going to bring in a very tough, don't put up with anything, knock the crap out of you style of play that Michigan has lacked for a while. He might actually coach the defense how to tackle. Not sure if he will bring in a 3-4 D, especially since UM doesn't have have strong linebackers.
I like both of these picks, especially Mattison. Both guys are in their early 60s and have been coordinators most of their life so they probably won't be flight risks to other schools for head coaching jobs. I have a feeling that they will stay with UM for their careers. I think that Mattison will help with recruiting, especially linebackers. He can say, I helped coach one of the best linebackers in the history of football (I cringe to say it, but it is true) and you can be the next Ray Lewis.
1 comment:
mattison has an impressive resume, no doubt. d-coordinator at florida and at baltimore, wow. and now he's at michigan. the fact that he used to coach with hoke was probably a major reason they were able to steal him. should be an interesting season next year for michigan, that is for usre.
Post a Comment