Coach D v. harbs

It doesn’t often come down to one player making one mistake to change the entire direction of a game. It’s not usual that one player can make a mistake so devastating that it reverses the entire emotional mindset of a fan base. From jubilation to devastation in an instant.

Yet it has happened twice in the state of Michigan in the last four years… once by Michigan State in December 2011 and once by Michigan last weekend. Taking a look at the way in which the coaches handled the situations is intriguing. Here we go:

Code_Warrior wrote:Rich Rod did the same thing to Mesko on the botched fake punt play, threw him under the bus in the press conference. I thought Rich Rod was a complete asshole for doing that and I think Harbaugh is an asshole too. If Harbaugh had any character he would've taken the heat. Hell, look at the Rutgers interim coach's news conference after his QB spiked the ball on 4th down, that coach flat out said "I told him to do it, it's on me". I give Dantonio and the Rutgers coach a lot of credit because their players will now run through a brick wall for them, and in MSU's case it's paying dividends now. Harbaugh's players will remain nervous because they know that if they make a mistake, Harbaugh will throw them under the bus, and that will bite SCum's ass when crunch time comes again in the future.

The_Dude wrote:Whats the exact quote of Harbaugh throwing his player under the bus?

“Snap was low. Just below the knees and he, he didn’t field it cleanly. Looked like then he bobbled it again, kinda kicked it again a little bit. Looked like he was trying to kick it when he was in traffic. I mean, you saw it, is that about the way you saw it? Very unfortunate.

Yup, talked to (O’Neill). He said after he bobbled it, he still thought he could get the ball kicked. It was a mistake. Mistake was made. Mistakes were made, mistakes were made in not fielding it cleanly. And then once he bobbled it a few times, he should have just fell on it. So, mistakes were made. Very unfortunate.

The options were to go for it. If you go for it, you leave them a Hail Mary opportunity. You could protect up and throw a long pass and probably still though would eat up seven seconds and still they would have the Hail Mary opportunity. So, yeah, ran through those scenarios and felt like the best decision was to punt it. And told him to catch it and punt it. They didn’t have anybody back. When they lined up to the punt and they didn’t have any returners, it’s just a matter of catching it and punting it and we messed it up.”

Herbie Green wrote:Seems like a stretch but he does have a point. That punter didn't do much wrong except being thrown into a difficult split second situation which was largely caused by coaching failure.

The_Dude wrote:Whats the exact quote of Harbaugh throwing his player under the bus?

Blanch32 wrote:

The_Dude wrote:Whats the exact quote of Harbaugh throwing his player under the bus?

Defending uofm, shocking!