Johns Hopkins 2021

[FMUBart]

______________ ___________, Head Coach, Johns Hopkins Blue Jays Men's Lacrosse has a great ring to it, until you find out you have to deal with (1) unreasonably high alumni expectations in a sport that has expanded so much the last few decades that no program can be a dynasty like the JHU teams of long ago, (2) alumni most of whom insist that the head coach be a JHU alumnus, and you're not one, and (3) dozens upon dozens of bloggers who have already laid down 1,600 posts in the categories JHU 2021 and JHU Coach Search, before Memorial Day 2020, and will magnify to the extreme any perceived error in recruiting or coaching. This being said, Coach Milliman did a great job at Cornell and I wish him success with the Blue Jays, except should he cross paths with the Big Red. On this point, Coach Pietramala never once agreed to schedule Cornell in his 20 years as JHU Head Coach, even though Cornell gave him his coaching start. Hopefully Coach Milliman will schedule the Big Red soon.

Yes, but Hopkins often scrimmaged Cornell when Tambroni was HC, at least. Not a lot of open dates available in the Spring for Hopkins, especially given the later start for the Ivies..

[Typical Lax Dad]

Another hope - maybe the turmoil will clear out the dead wood including the guy who decided the reserved section needed assigned seating.

+1. Dead wood includes the guy who climbed into the stands and ordered me to turn off my camera at the alumni scrimmage.

I hope Coach Milliman takes on the “Joey Epstein Approach” to filming, namely:

I have practiced the same moves countless times since the 8th grade. You know what I will do. It doesn’t matter. You can’t stop me.

Open up practices. Let them film. Wear your actual jersey numbers in scrimmages. Let the entire world know what you’re going to do. Then dare them to stop you.

No well-coached team depends on secrecy or gimmicks to win.

DocBarrister

Who was Petro's hooded best friend and coaching mentor from the NFL?

Who relied very heavily on secrecy and gimmicks....

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/patr ... story.html

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015 ... story.html

That’s the thing ... the Patriots really did not depend on their tricks and mischief to win. Tom Brady would have been great whether or not he had those footballs deflated. New England under Belichick was the last team that needed secrecy and gimmicks to win. They could have put their entire playbook online and they would have still won. That’s what made the cheating so petty and sad.

DocBarrister

That may have been true for the first 10 years of Brady's career. But have you watched the Patriots at all during the past 8 years? Specifically in the palyoffs? They have most certainly been running trick plays to specifically gain an advantage momentum-wise and due to the weakening of Brady's arm and the loss of big play makers (Hernandez, Gronk etc.) in the receiving corps.

Now in which of those last 8 years Tommy’s arm become weak?

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... adTo00.htm

Point it out for us.....8 years ago, 7, 6 or something else.

Gladly.

Of course his stats are consistent...he's a smart QB and because BB has always surrounded him with YAC guys. Have NexGen stats on YAC yards? Patriots have always been in the top 10 of YAC. Almost every year. There's a reason. Tom's arm has never been strong. He's always been on rhythm and accurate. But if you've watched the actual Patriots games the past 8 years you have seen the strength degradation.

8 years ago it became more noticeable. And it's when BB started using gimmick plays. Because he couldn't get the ball deep behind the defense. Slot receivers passing the ball. Halfback passes. Flea flickers. Tom could throw it deep, but not accurately and he couldn't consistently get it past the safeties. Only if he made the defense bite on a short or intermediate fake.

He hasn't been able to make a big play without breaking something underneath for a few years now. Wonder why BB and the Patriots always run trick plays when trailing? Wonder why the Patriots originally went to and featured a "unique" 2 receiving TE set 10 years ago? Wonder why they always have a strong slot guy? Wonder why they haven't had a deep threat since Moss?

Because Brady can't throw deep. He's all about short and intermediate routes.

You are misreading it. If you were to say the past 2 years Maybe? Peyton Manning was a guy that lost velocity as did Curt Warner. Nerve problems. The Pats are a take what you give me team and they adapted to personnel. With no deep threats or with teams taking it away it was dink and dunk football. Tommy have any problems finding Antonio Brown deep? 8 years of a weak arm is an exaggeration but we all tend to do that in sports.

Tom is an aging quarterback. He really fell off this past season. I thought trading Garappolo was a mistake...more so than arm strength, his down the field accuracy was poor. He made a ton of bad throws last season.

I am going to split the different and say the last 3-4 years. And it isn't the deep ball but Brady's inability to drive the ball on deep outs/flag routes from the opposite hash of the field that has shown his arm is weakening. It isn't that he isn't a very good player but his arm strength has gone down. There is a very good reason in the year before playoffs (not this year) that the Pats went to a very run heavy team. Brady couldn't pass the ball effectively in the winter wind conditions. It is not surprising in the least the Brady picked Tampa to play this year. He won't have to deal with the elements as much as he did in NE.

I also don't necessarily agree with trick plays. Sure, the Pats do some of that but most of the time their trick plays were using formations and motion to put Edelman or Gronk in one on one coverage that allowed them to beat their man. But, they might do 1 trick play a game. Though last year, the number of "trick" plays went up, especially toward the end of the year. Some of that was on Brady's weaknesses but some of it was because their offensive weapons weren't good.

The line was awful last year. You could see it in preseason. Brady’s best days are behind him as were Manning’s but he still delivered a super bowl championship. Brady has more in the tank than Manning had at Denver. I am a Bronco and Patriot (last 20 years) fan. My son was born at the end of December. We were at a Pats / Giants game a week before. My wife took the risk of going into labor at the game because she is a Pats fan. My HS teammate played on the Bledsoe Super Bowl team.

[jhu06]

-I'm over all the search nonsense. Congrats to the guy, lets go get players who can get #firedesko trending on social media after hop/cuse games.
- College crosse did a pod on milliman and read into his comments at the press conference thinking he might seek an assistant w/hopkins ties to add some familiarity. I think you find the best person for the job and then go from there and if he's an alum all the better. There was a lot written when petro left about his role as a mentor and it sounds like he's had a lot of ex players quickly establish themselves around the game giving PM options if he wants to go that route. I think the strength/conditioning coach is really important especially if things are shut down this summer. It's been an issue for a long time.
-Team follows 308 recruits/alums. Only show of support for milliman I've seen here is casey mcdermotts lacrosse team.
-I don't know this guy well enough or the recruits/his ex players to know who we have that won't fit, who hasn't played that will, which outsiders might work well and what kind of numbers the admissions office is going to allow especially in this environment. There have to be some kids on the current roster he recruited at cornell who've been buried on the depth chart but might flourish now.

When I was posting this I saw the Preston piece this morning which mostly reads like a rehash of this forum. He's been around as long as I've read the sun and sounds like he spoke to many of Petro's old friends for the column. I'm not going back into the ad/petro war but this is the second time after quint's comments that I've seen an analyst criticize the b1g move in recent weeks. I don't know what the long term status is there and if the alternative which quint suggested, restoring the uva game, adding some ivies is a better fit for the program. Quints comments on the espn relationship suggest that one is not going anywhere for awhile.

[jrn19]

-I'm over all the search nonsense. Congrats to the guy, lets go get players who can get #firedesko trending on social media after hop/cuse games.
- College crosse did a pod on milliman and read into his comments at the press conference thinking he might seek an assistant w/hopkins ties to add some familiarity. I think you find the best person for the job and then go from there and if he's an alum all the better. There was a lot written when petro left about his role as a mentor and it sounds like he's had a lot of ex players quickly establish themselves around the game giving PM options if he wants to go that route. I think the strength/conditioning coach is really important especially if things are shut down this summer. It's been an issue for a long time.
-Team follows 308 recruits/alums. Only show of support for milliman I've seen here is casey mcdermotts lacrosse team.
-I don't know this guy well enough or the recruits/his ex players to know who we have that won't fit, who hasn't played that will, which outsiders might work well and what kind of numbers the admissions office is going to allow especially in this environment. There have to be some kids on the current roster he recruited at cornell who've been buried on the depth chart but might flourish now.

When I was posting this I saw the Preston piece this morning which mostly reads like a rehash of this forum. He's been around as long as I've read the sun and sounds like he spoke to many of Petro's old friends for the column. I'm not going back into the ad/petro war but this is the second time after quint's comments that I've seen an analyst criticize the b1g move in recent weeks. I don't know what the long term status is there and if the alternative which quint suggested, restoring the uva game, adding some ivies is a better fit for the program. Quints comments on the espn relationship suggest that one is not going anywhere for awhile.

When Hopkins missed the tournament in '13 and then won the B1G AQ in '15 to get in the dance and make the Final Four, the B1G move was seen as not only good but the necessary move. Now that the team isn't as good, it's bad. Seems like it's used as just a crutch for whatever narrative people want to push at the time.

Ultimately I don't see any evidence that the B1G move is "bad" for the program. It's not like they're recruiting against any more teams than they were before, they're still primarily recruiting against Maryland and the ACC schools. Guess you could say they're recruiting against Penn State more, but Hopkins classes the next two years are better. Any recruiting dip was probably more due to ER than the B1G and well, that's over.

As for the schedule...the team still routinely has one of the highest SOS's every single year both in conference and out, and SOS is basically why they got in the tournament last year. So any complaints there feel more just down to personal grievances or anger. When Hopkins dropped Navy to maintain the UVA game people were upset about no one paying any attention to tradition and the loss of tradition. Now Navy's in and UVA's out and that's an issue. They already play Princeton, plus Syracuse, UNC, Loyola every year. No point in adding Harvard/Dartmouth, so I guess he wants Cornell, Yale, or Penn? They'd be good games, but again, they already play good teams.

the team just wasn't good the last few years. There doesn't have to be some grand reasons and changes made for that, often it just pretty simple: they weren't good. And they made the biggest change you can make to fixing that: a new coach. See if that works before leaving the Big Ten or whatever.

[HopFan16]

Casey McDermott goes to Brighton High in Rochester, where Milliman went too. Have to assume that means the kid is pretty familiar with the new coach. From what I've heard, I would not expect a mass exodus of incoming recruits. It's probably inevitable that a couple of them who were super duper excited to play for Petro and only Petro jump ship but I think the majority will realize Hopkins is bigger than any one coach. In fact you had one of the dads pretty much say as much on here. It also sounds like Joey and several other players were forming relationships with the incoming guys even before Milliman was hired.

Off the top of my head I don't know which of our guys were recruited by Cornell but my guess is the upstate NY/MA/CT guys are also familiar with Milliman. Mabbett is from nearby Victor so perhaps Milliman will finally give the Mabbett Truthers their big chance.

One benefit of hiring Stanwick is he gives you a pipeline to the MIAA. Milliman has recruited extremely well from New York, Canada, and New England, but not as much from Maryland/DC/Virginia area, as expected, given Cornell's location. Not that he needs to inundate the roster with players from there but he needs to start forming those connections. I know there are some of you who think the team needed to shy away from Baltimore area kids even before the coaching change, but you can't just flat out ignore it, either. Still so much local talent.

[primitiveskills]

When I was posting this I saw the Preston piece this morning which mostly reads like a rehash of this forum. He's been around as long as I've read the sun and sounds like he spoke to many of Petro's old friends for the column. I'm not going back into the ad/petro war but this is the second time after quint's comments that I've seen an analyst criticize the b1g move in recent weeks. I don't know what the long term status is there and if the alternative which quint suggested, restoring the uva game, adding some ivies is a better fit for the program. Quints comments on the espn relationship suggest that one is not going anywhere for awhile.

Preston is no longer a sportswriter (assuming you ever thought he was one). His MO is to write ill-informed "provocative" pieces intended only to annoy fans and generate clicks. He should be treated like a message board troll.

[primitiveskills]

Anxiously awaiting next post from HopDad2024

[NOVALax2015]

Anxiously awaiting next post from HopDad2024

While I would certainly like to know what his son is hearing, I'd encourage him to stay off this board for the sake of his sanity. He and his son will enjoy the Hopkins experience far more without this forum.

[nrthcrosslax]

What’s Milliman’s sideline demeanor like?

[Sagittarius A*]

What’s Milliman’s sideline demeanor like?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... =emb_title

[Typical Lax Dad]

Anxiously awaiting next post from HopDad2024

While I would certainly like to know what his son is hearing, I'd encourage him to stay off this board for the sake of his sanity. He and his son will enjoy the Hopkins experience far more without this forum.

+1000

[Homer]

When Hopkins missed the tournament in '13 and then won the B1G AQ in '15 to get in the dance and make the Final Four, the B1G move was seen as not only good but the necessary move. Now that the team isn't as good, it's bad. Seems like it's used as just a crutch for whatever narrative people want to push at the time.

Ultimately I don't see any evidence that the B1G move is "bad" for the program. It's not like they're recruiting against any more teams than they were before, they're still primarily recruiting against Maryland and the ACC schools. Guess you could say they're recruiting against Penn State more, but Hopkins classes the next two years are better. Any recruiting dip was probably more due to ER than the B1G and well, that's over.

The whole "blame the Big Ten" thing makes no sense to me at all. IMO it's a bit of hand-wavy revisionism being pushed by the ol' gang that wants to deflect attention from Petro's actual missteps and from anything that might reflect more critically on the larger culture of the program.

Preston just repeats the line without explanation as if it were settled fact: "The Blue Jays made a mistake by going into the Big Ten Conference in 2015." Oh, really? How? What exactly was the mistake?

My thinking is, OK, let's say some kids are going to want to go to Ohio State because the facilities are OMG! and on their visit they, like, met Joey Bosa or something; if that's the experience you want, Hopkins (duh) can't compete with that. Sure, that sounds like a real thing. But what difference does it make if Hop is in OSU's conference or not? Hop isn't magically somehow going to get the kid who wants the full Big Ten experience just by not being in the Big Ten themselves. Is the theory that there's some *other* kid out there who would otherwise come to Hopkins, but chooses not to just because they specifically *don't* want a "Big Ten" school?

Maybe I'm just missing it and somebody else can spell out the reasoning to me more clearly.

[wgdsr]

When Hopkins missed the tournament in '13 and then won the B1G AQ in '15 to get in the dance and make the Final Four, the B1G move was seen as not only good but the necessary move. Now that the team isn't as good, it's bad. Seems like it's used as just a crutch for whatever narrative people want to push at the time.

Ultimately I don't see any evidence that the B1G move is "bad" for the program. It's not like they're recruiting against any more teams than they were before, they're still primarily recruiting against Maryland and the ACC schools. Guess you could say they're recruiting against Penn State more, but Hopkins classes the next two years are better. Any recruiting dip was probably more due to ER than the B1G and well, that's over.

The whole "blame the Big Ten" thing makes no sense to me at all. IMO it's a bit of hand-wavy revisionism being pushed by the ol' gang that wants to deflect attention from Petro's actual missteps and from anything that might reflect more critically on the larger culture of the program.

Preston just repeats the line without explanation as if it were settled fact: "The Blue Jays made a mistake by going into the Big Ten Conference in 2015." Oh, really? How? What exactly was the mistake?

My thinking is, OK, let's say some kids are going to want to go to Ohio State because the facilities are OMG! and on their visit they, like, met Joey Bosa or something; if that's the experience you want, Hopkins (duh) can't compete with that. Sure, that sounds like a real thing. But what difference does it make if Hop is in OSU's conference or not? Hop isn't magically somehow going to get the kid who wants the full Big Ten experience just by not being in the Big Ten themselves. Is the theory that there's some *other* kid out there who would otherwise come to Hopkins, but chooses not to just because they specifically *don't* want a "Big Ten" school?

Maybe I'm just missing it and somebody else can spell out the reasoning to me more clearly.

it's the independent kids. the ones who want their freedom. it isn't so much about not wanting to be in the b1g conference, they just want nothing to do with conferences at all.
hopkins hasn't gotten any of those guys since they joined. fact.

[HopFan16]

They're all off having the times of their lives at Cleveland State

[Homer]

it's the independent kids. the ones who want their freedom. it isn't so much about not wanting to be in the b1g conference, they just want nothing to do with conferences at all.
hopkins hasn't gotten any of those guys since they joined. fact.

Truly, who can set a price on liberty?

[nrthcrosslax]

What’s Milliman’s sideline demeanor like?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... =emb_title

His locker room speeches don't seem out of the ordinary. I'm curious, does he ride the refs, provide "instruction" to players when they screw up? My guess is that he leans more towards the restrained side of the spectrum?

[CU77]

Restrained. If "instruction" is code for screaming, then definitely not.

And what's this about the B1G not being a good idea? I knew old-time Hop fans were passionate, but I hadn't thought that they were as delusional as old-time Navy fans …

[FMUBart]

What’s Milliman’s sideline demeanor like?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... =emb_title

His locker room speeches don't seem out of the ordinary. I'm curious, does he ride the refs, provide "instruction" to players when they screw up? My guess is that he leans more towards the restrained side of the spectrum?

Peter was hard on the refs as an assistant; as HC he is not at all.

[Ruffled_Feathers]

Restrained. If "instruction" is code for screaming, then definitely not.

And what's this about the B1G not being a good idea? I knew old-time Hop fans were passionate, but I hadn't thought that they were as delusional as old-time Navy fans …

Yeah the B1G isn't helping or hurting these days.

The B1G partnership might have looked suspect at the outset of the undertaking years ago. Count me amongst those who were against it originally. Penn State, Ohio State, and even Rutgers are way better most years than at the B1G Lacrosse conference origin when you were potentially talking about cutting out some Top-10 opponents to fit a bunch of potentially bubble Top-20 teams onto the schedule. These are now some Top-10 or Top-20 teams, not having the freedom to schedule *a recent perennial contender team like Duke or something* isn't the end of the world anymore.

And given that Hopkins is doing its best to be the sub Top-20 team its beyond irrelevant what conference Hopkins does or doesn't belong to.

[Matnum PI]

I'm curious, does he ride the refs, provide "instruction" to players when they screw up? My guess is that he leans more towards the restrained side of the spectrum?

Bobby Knight retired in 2008. And the only reason people accepted his rage even 12 plus years ago was that he was grandfathered in as an old-timer. Rage, physical violence, and fear are bad teaching methodologies. Decades ago we didn't know better. Today, we do. For the next generation, this rage-based coaching style will be all but gone. Most ADs recognize this and hire accordingly. Milliman being one example.