I still have faith in head coach Gary Gait and I have faith in this team. He is having an influence on the offense and the offense is actually really good. Only two other teams have reached 12 goals on this ND team and that is MD (12) and UVA (15) and that was with days a heck of a lot better than 30% at the faceoff X. They had the ball more than once in the last 10 minutes.
What happened to the talk of how we never share the ball and just take turns dodging with no movement? It went away because this years O shattered that stereotype. And it's beyond whats on the field. We know he has an influence in recruiting as well, not just March and Petro. Trey Deere cited his meeting with Gait as a reason for him coming here. Finn Thomson said the same in his interview for the IL AA rankings. Specifically the call with Gait is what made him change his mind about Michigan. The guy brings in talent, just like he did as the women's coach, and that talent is getting it done on O this year. You can see the vision. Indoor play style meets the outdoor game. We turn the ball over less than any team in the nation. It's paying dividends and its still early and with mostly young talent. There is a sense of identity. March of course is a big factor there as well and I think he is doing a good job this year.
It's not that he doesn't share the blame for other parts of the game. Head coach is a factor for every aspect. But if anyone is going to take primary blame for the massive goal totals every good team is putting on us it's Petro. Petro is also a primary factor in penalties and the clearing game (which has been overall good this year). Against good teams the offense has not slowed down much outside of Hopkins. Aside from that game, you cannot say the same for the D. I think he has some more talent/injury disadvantages than the offense to deal with, but his name is coming up a heck of a lot less than Gaits as a concern in this thread and it's surprising to me.
I think there is still plenty to criticize. I hate how we are finishing games this season on all sides of the ball. Part of that is how he chooses to play fatigued guys rather than less skilled but full energy bench players, timeouts, etc. But it simply is not all a disaster. We have only lost to top 10 teams this season. These aren't irrelevant teams we are losing to. Something is brewing and I stand by that. They don't play like a team that has given up or isn't bought in. They are close.
Lets win against Princeton. We can do it! Lets put it together and win the damn thing. We can still make the playoffs this season.
