Thanksgiving weekend games

-If I had a Heisman vote, it would go to Colt McCoy after his performance against A&M. Although some of that sentiment is based on his whole career. I can see the arguments for Gerhardt from Stanford, Spiller from Clemson, and of course, Tebow. I wasn't that impressed by Ingram.
-Speaking of Tebow, I'll be more than happy to see him go. He's clearly a great player and as an impartial observer in most Florida games, he is exciting to watch. But the cult of personality that has grown around him is quite sickening, frankly, especially where religion is concerned. I've always believed that religion and sports shouldn't be mixed. God didn't help either team win, and players who believe that are either fools, or think we are foolish. The fact that Tebow goes on missions, or puts a bible quote on his eye black doesn't make him a better football player, or even a better person, it just makes him a more devout christian. Would he be any less of a football player if he knelt down, pointing towards Mecca and prayed to Allah four times a day? i wish him all the luck in the NFL (or CFL), but I'll be happy if I can watch a Florida game with out some announcer going on about St. Tebow the saviour of Gainsville.
-Nice bounce back win for LSU. Good to see that Miles will keep his job for another year Their loss at Mississippi was quite embarrassing, and it's good that it won't really impact their season too much. Golden had a pretty good breakdown of all the game management mistakes in that game. I just don't understand how coaches (and it's not just Miles) who make millions of dollars can't completely master something that a majority of the fans can figure out. Shouldn't you assign some graduate assistant to watch time and tell the head coach when it's time to call a time out?
-Sad to see Chuckles out at ND. He was always good for a laugh, and there was a certain comfort in knowing that no matter how well he recruited the likely hood of them being a really good team was slim.
-I don't have much sympathy for Bobby Bowden. I know people think he should have been allowed to pick his own exit, instead of being forced out. But Bowden created a culture at FSU that the only thing that mattered was winning football games. Nothing else, academic scandal, criminal charges, or loyalty to the university matters as much as winning. The fact that mercenary attitude came back to bit Dagummit in the ass shouldn't surprise anyone.
-If the reports of 10-15 MSU players being involved in the post football bust beat down of frat boys turn out to be true, Dantonio should turn down the bowl bid. When nearly 20% of your team decides to don ski masks and start a brawl moments after gathering with coaches, families and supporters of the team to celebrate the team's accomplishments, that's a sign of an overall problem with the program. Because if 15 team members went to the brawl, you know that there were many more that knew about it and didn't do enough to stop it. The fact that it happened right after the banquet show that these players have little respect for the coaches. The whole incident is a giant "fuck you" to Dantonio and his coaching staff. -- "Thanks for the great season coach, now we are going to go do something that will embarrass you and the program and goes against everything you've been trying to teach us this past year" Of course, one could argue that Dantonio's reinstating Geln Winston to the team fresh out of jail because he was worried about his depth at RB sent the message that winning on the field was the only thing that mattered. If Dantonio wants to change that message, he should cancel the bowl trip. His alma mater and Clemson did that a number of years ago after a particularly ugly post-game brawl.

Missed Opportunities

I must admit that when it happened, I was livid. How could you not put the golden child, Tate Forcier, back in the game? After all, hadn't he already led three fourth quarter drives to win or tie games this year? We only had 1:40 on the clock, no timeouts, and we had to go about 60 yards to get into reasonable field goal range. Surely this was the perfect setup for more heroics.
But no, Denard Robinson came back out on the field. Maybe Tate was injured, we had seen him shaking his hand like he had hit it on something earlier in the quarter. But we saw him start to run on the field, as if to say, "I'm ready to go" only to be told to sit down by Rich Rod. This was clearly a decision by Rich Rod to go with Robinson.

After the game, I stewed for a while, thinking about the missed opportunity to steal a game on the road against a top ten team when you commit five turnovers. As disappointed as I was that the game slipped away, I began to mellow a bit, thinking about how good the team had played in certain segments, and realizing that we were a nine point dog in this game and nearly won it.

As I poked around on various message boards, and saw discussions of the game, and of Rich Rod's decision to bench Forcier, I came across a comparison that seem particularly apt to me.
Late in the Big Ten basketball season, with the Michigan hoops fighting for their first NCAA bid in ten years, Michigan was playing on the road against a poor Iowa team. With tough games still to play against Purdue and Minnesota, most people felt this was a must win for our tournament chances. After blowing a large lead late, John Beilein benched his best player, Manny Harris for the overtime period, and we ended up loosing. At the time, many people were upset that the loss had cost us our chance at an NCAA bid. But Manny came out fired up a few days later and we beat Purdue, and then beat Minnesota, and he was the best player on the court in our big dance win against Clemson. In the end, Beilein's decision to bench Manny against Iowa probably cost us that game, but might have been the move that saved our season. We can only hope that Rich Rod's bizarre decision to bench Forcier will have the same consequences.

Bullets:
-Big picture, I'm very pleased with where we are. A year after finishing 3-9 (and being somewhat lucky to get one of those wins), we are 4-2 with two narrow losses, and most of our remaining tough games at home. 8-4 is a real possibility now, and that would be a huge one year improvement
-Boy did our line play look great. I think we beat Iowa on both sides of the ball, and they were supposed to have the best D-line in the league outside of Columbus.
-I love seeing Brandon Minor run downhill. We really need to get him more carries against the big boys. I would love to see him repeat the success he had in the first half against PSU last year against the Knitknees this year.
-I was very impressed with Denard Robinson in the next to the last drive. Everyone in the stadium knew he was going to run the ball, and they still couldn't stop him. I wish he had come in the game earlier. I hope he gets significant snaps in the scrimmage against Delaware State.
-Jordan Kovacs has turned into a serviceable safety. Now if we could only bring Mike Williams along, we might be ok (meaning average) in the secondary.
-Woolfolk also look good. I would guess he's our starting CB the rest of the year, regardless of what happens with Cissoko's suspension.
-Other than Zoltan, our special teams were quite poor. Why can't we find a decent punt returner. Isn't that something that slot ninjas are supposed to be good at?
-If I were the Illinois AD, I'd start raising money for Ron Zook's buyout and would get Brian Kelly on speed dial. The Illini look like they've quit on Zook.
-The Big Ten looks like OSU's to lose. Iowa is good, but not good enough to win in Columbus. While the Buckeyes might trip up once, I don't see them losing twice, and no one else in the league is good enough to run the table. I would put Iowa, PSU, and Wisconsin in the group behind OSU, with Michigan, MSU, and maybe Minnesota a step lower than them.
-Has anybody else in the country played as many exciting games as Washington? (Perhaps us)
-The post game interview with Bobby Bowden was painful to watch. They asked him what went wrong with the game, why they lost, and he couldn't offer much more than cliches. It's pretty clear that he doesn't have the slightest clue what's going on out there. I don't envy the FSU fans or decision makers. It's pretty hard to deal with the fact that the person that basically created your program is now like an anchor around its ankle.

Depth Charges

More than anything else, games like yesterday's game against Eastern are about depth - developing depth by giving backups and second and third stringers a chance to play, and using depth to avoid the inevitable letdown that comes when you play a team you're expected to beat handily.

It's clear that we have developed the depth we need to be a championship team in some areas, but are still sorely lacking in others. We have as much talent at the offensive skill positions (QB, RB, WR, TE) as anyone in the league. The depth certainly helped yesterday. Tate Forcier had his worst game of the year. He missed a number of passes. Not Threet or Sheridan missed, but turn a 20 yard gain into a 5 yard gain type misses. A number of times he passed up a sure couple of yards trying to make a big play. It seemed pretty clear that he had read some of his press clippings this week and wanted to show that he was the newest superstar. As a result, our passing game was not nearly as efficient yesterday as it was the previous two weeks. In it's place was a devastating rushing attack. From the first snap, it was clear that Carlos Brown was going to have a great game. Eastern had no answer for his speed. Michael Shaw looked almost as good.

On the other hand, it's equally clear that we are nowhere near a championship level defense, and we are amazing thin there. With the Big Ten suspending Jonas Mouton just a day before the game, we were left starting a walk-on, Kevin Leach at linebacker. What's worse, he appeared to be the better of our two inside linebackers. Obi Ezah just seems lost out there at times -- tentative, slow, and consistently out of position. EMU basically had success with two plays, a sort of counter that sucked the linebackers into the line, before the RB bounced the play around the end, and a play action waggled that got the linebacker open crossing in front of the moving QB. Both plays really took advantage of the decision making of our linebackers. Given that poor play, I was disappointed to not see more of the backups once we got up big late in the second half. If backups like Kenny Demens, Brandon Smith, and JB Fitzgerald can't get playing time against Eastern, the chance of them helping later in the year is slim to none.

Bullets:
-Eastern may have provided the game plan to beat us this year -- run, run, run, play action to the TE. Keep our D on the field.
-Denard clearly has a long way to go at QB. He made a couple of bad reads that led to our two turnovers. But he has good arm, decent mechanics, and of course could turn off the light and be in bed before it gets dark. The bar is not very high for his passing competency. He only needs to be adequate at passing to make him a quarterback capable of moving the ball against good defenses.
-I was hoping to see more of the OL backups - Omaneh, Barnum, Khoury, Mealer.
-I hope Andy Schmitt is ok. He's a good QB, and Eastern really has no chance of having any sort of season without him. I was watching him with the binoculars when he went down, it looked bad. He planted and his knee buckled.
-There were a couple of spreads this week that looked like fool's gold. Unfortunately this fool only recognized one of the three before the games were played. What's the old saying, "It's not the Xs and Os, it's the Jimmies and the Joes." In college football, most times, talent wins. That's why OSU wins 10 or 11 games every year with the world's dullest offense. There were three games where the talent gap between the two teams seemed to be at odds with the spread:
1) BYU was favored by a touchdown over Florida State. While everyone focused on BYU's win over Oklahoma and how they executed, the truth is, even as much as the 'Noles have slipped in recent years, they still have a lot more talent than BYU
2) Oklahoma was only favored over Tulsa by 18. Everyone wondered if OU could recover from the loss of Sam Bradford. But remember that a program as good as OU always has talent waiting in the wings. Given a couple of weeks, It should have been obvious that Landry Jones (the backup QB) would be just fine.
3) Florida was favored by 30 over Tennessee. With all the hype about Kiffin's comments and conjecture about how much Florida would run up the score, we lost sight of the fact that Tennessee's problem in recent years hasn't been their defense, and that they still have a fair amount of talent, with a very good defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin.
-Watching the Texas - Tex Tech game, it appeared to me that the new enclosed end of the stadium, which was only partially completed when we went there, makes a big difference in the noise level of the stadium. Perhaps I should attend another game there.
-I think that the end might be near for the USC "dynasty" They really looked quite mediocre against the Huskies and I wouldn't be surprised to see them lose to Cal, UCLA, or even, gasp, Notre Dame. I think Carroll should really think about opening up the offense a little, there appears to be little imagination in what they do.
-Is it just me, or did it seem like Tennessee wasn't really trying to win the game against Florida, so much as just keep the score down.
-I didn't really see much of the MSU/ND game, but it looked very similar to our game against ND a week earlier, except that the absence of Michael Floyd hurt the Irish in the stretch run. I was kinda surprised how much the announcers were commenting on every penalty the Irish got. I think that they've bought into what Weis was trying to convey last week - they only lost to us because of the officials.
-The Arkansas / Georgia game was absolutely bonkers. Ryan Mallet is going to make opposing defensive coaches in the SEC sweat for three years. Of course the Razorbacks don't have enough other talent to win a title, but their games will be fun to watch.
-Ditto for the Fresno / Boise game on Friday night. Boise may have a great rushing attack and some good skill players, but they will get carved up when they play a BCS conference team on New Year's if they don't improve their rush defense. A lot. And why did Fresno keep kicking the ball deep, after giving up two kickoff returns for TDs (one that counted) and two other 60 plus yard returns? Pat Hill is vastly overrated as a coach. Did you realized that he has never won a conference title?

Let's Go Hunt for Grandpa...

I know he's somewhere here

A bad week for college football's favorite senior citizens.

First come rumors of Joe Paterno being involved in a road rage (?!?) incident around the Penn State campus. The story stretches the bounds of credibility. Why would Joe Paterno drive somebody off the road and curse them out? Surely this must be a case of mistaken identity, or there must be some other explanation for it. But then Paterno himself confirmed the incident, although as you might expect, he tells a slightly different version. No matter which version you believe, this certainly has the feel of Woody and Clemson. When you consider some of the erratic behavior from Paterno in the recent past: the constant whining about the Big Ten referees, hanging a ref in effigy, the run to the locker room at Ohio Stadium, you have to think that we are watching Paterno slowly but surely disintegrate before our eyes. All of the recent off-the-field problems for PSU players is not surprising in light of the idea that the program is adrift without anyone at the wheel.

Meanwhile, down in Talahassee, JoePa's contemporary, Bobby Bowden just finished losing to a Wake Forest team that is the very definition of mediocre. After last year's 7-6 season, Bowden cleaned house and brought in a number of outstanding coaches, including Jimbo Fisher, Chuck Amato, and O line coach Rick Trickett from West Virginia. But with this loss, and tough games looming against Miami, and at BC, Virginia Tech, and Florida, 7-6 might be the best case scenario. The problems there go deeper than the coaching staff.

It is time for someone at each school to step up,realize that the emperor have no clothes, and tell them it's time to move on. The dangerous thing here is that neither of these programs have had much historical success that doesn't revolve around these two legends. FSU pre Bowden was 150-130, with a winning percentage comparable to known powerhouses Arkansas State and Akron. Paterno has been a coach of some sort for 649 of Penn State's 1,171 games played. There is the non-zero chance that both programs could return to a decent, but not nearly elite level once these coaches leave. About a year ago, Paterno gave an interview talking about Bear Bryant and how he died months after he retired. Bowden has often said that there is only one significant event left after you retire, and he's not ready for that. Both coaches fear that they would die without football. If they keep coaching, however, the programs that they built into two of the top programs in the last 30 plus years may die first.

Bonus points to anyone who can identify the artist above without looking at the link title (click here for answer)

What USC and Notre Dame deserve

June 19, 2008 Note: This is a post that originally appeared on Golden's Football Rankings and is reproduced here for posterity.

-Ok, I have no argument with anyone who wants to cite USC’s resume for being in the championship game over Michigan, but the post game coverage on ABC and ESPN was ridiculous. In post game commentary, Lee Corso, Bob Davie, and Kirk Herbstreit, who is danger of losing his title as the world’s smartest OSU graduate (although he might just retain it for lack of competition), all stated that they felt the game wasn’t as one-sided as the score indicated, and Notre Dame had “earned” a Rose Bowl bid with how well they played. At the same time, they felt that USC was “clearly” the best one-loss team based on the win over Notre Dame.
-First of all, USC’s win over the Irish was virtually the same as Michigan’s. Both teams dominated Notre Dame. Michigan’s defense was more dominating, USC’s offense was more explosive. Michigan won on the road, USC at home. If you want to say the Trojans deserve the trip to Glendale on the basis of their strong non-conference schedule, or because Michigan had their shot at OSU, fine. But they don’t get the nod because they were more impressive against their one common opponent, they weren’t.
-Notre Dame didn’t “earn” a Rose Bowl birth. If they get a Rose Bowl birth, it will because the Rose Bowl thinks they will be a good draw, not because they scored a few cosmetic TDs at USC. I doubt that will happen. If the message boards are any indication, neither the Notre Dame or Michigan fanbases want a rematch, especially when they play in Ann Arbor next September. This is not like the Miami/Fsu rematch a few years back, neither of these teams are local. It is unlikely that either team will sell out their allotment of tickets.
-Assuming USC and Florida wins next week, the BCS bowls appear to be:
Champ: USC vs OSU
Rose: Michigan vs LSU
Sugar: Florida vs Notre Dame
Orange: ACC vs Big East
Fiesta: Oklahoma vs Boise State
-However, if USC and Florida lose, it could get very interesting. Right now LSU is #5 and Louisville #6 in the BCS rankings. Moving up two spots would guarantee both teams an at large bid. Combined with a Rutgers win over West Virginia, all four at-large bids would be locked up. In that situation, Michigan, LSU, L’ville and Boise would get the four at-large bids, leaving Notre Dame and Florida (as well as top 12 Auburn and Wisconsin) on the outside looking in.
-I wonder how much the downward direction of the Miami and FSU programs have to do with the emergence of new programs in the state of Florida. When their respective dynasties started in the late 70s and early 80s, Central Florida, South Florida, and FIU and FAU didn’t have football programs. Now these teams probably don’t compete for elite recruits, but they have probably diverted some of the lesser kids, and some fans and media attention away from the traditional big three.
-What a great turnaround for the Rice program. In early October they were 1-5, with four double digit losses, two by more than 40 points. Six wins later, they are on their way to their first bowl since the Kennedy administration. 1st year coach Todd Graham deserves some Coach of the year consideration.

Chaos

June 19, 2008 Note: This is a post that originally appeared on Golden's Football Rankings and is reproduced here for posterity.

After an unbelievable weekend of college football, that’s what we are left in the BCS. From Rutgers’ program defining win to Auburn’s destruction at the hands of rival Georgia, to Cal’s choke job in the desert to the deconstruction of Colt McCoy and the defending champs, the college football world was left spinning on its axis.

-Rutgers’ win on Thursday was a genuinely exciting happening, even if you aren’t a Rutgers alum or a resident of greater New Jersey. It’s the type of moment you just don’t get in the NFL. A long suffering program, one that helped create the sport, but hasn’t tasted any success since Herbert Hoover was in office gets its moment in the spotlight. I hope that Greg Schiano resists the calls from Miami, Penn State, or other higher profile schools and stays at Rutgers. There is a lot of untapped possibility there. The lack of a legitimate college football program in the Eastern seaboard is one of the biggest vacuums in sports. If Schiano can keep the local talent at home, and cherry pick a few from other areas, they could be a real player on the national stage for a while.
-If Rutgers runs the table, they belong in the national title game. No, they aren’t the second best team in the country, but that’s not what the BCS is really about. If it were, the Michigan/OSU rematch would already be set.
-Ok, I know that Florida State is struggling on offense, is very young on defense and is having a horrible year. But Wake Forest?!? 34-0?!?! At home?! We are through the looking glass here folks. Black is white, and white is black.
-I was glad to see Auburn get their comeuppance against the Bulldogs. Tommy Tupperville’s complaining rubbed me the wrong way earlier in the year. Don’t worry about the polls; just take care of the teams on your schedule. I think he still feels that he got screwed in 2004, which is understandable, but wrong (Oklahoma and USC were both better and had better resumes than Auburn)
-I’m not a Florida fan, but there is something just wrong about Steve Spurrier on the visitor’s sideline at Florida Field. He belongs at Florida, like Bear Bryant at Alabama, or Bobby Bowden at FSU. Him at South Carolina would be like JoePa quitting at taking over at Indiana. Urban Meyer seems like a bright guy. I’m sure he must realize that he doesn’t belong there. No one other than Spurrier does. Spurrier is Gator football, their best player, their best coach, and the very personification of what they stand for – run and gun, in your face, somewhat arrogant, but always entertaining.
-I’ve read some rumors on message boards that the shooting of the Miami player was related to the FIU/Miami brawl earlier this year. No sure if there is any truth to those rumors, but if there is, Miami should consider a one year hiatus for their football program. No game or program is that important. Of course, given the administration’s actions after the brawl, I doubt they would ever entertain that idea.
-Seriously, Wake Forest?
-California’s loss could hurt the Rose Bowl big time. I think the people in Pasadena were looking forward to matching up the loser of the UM/OSU tilt and the loser of the Cal/USC game. With the Golden Bears loss to Arizona, a loss to the Trojans will take them out of BCS consideration. If USC makes the championship game, the Rose Bowl has to replace two teams. The 2nd Big Ten gets one bid, who gets the other? Notre Dame? That would make an OSU-ND rematch or a Michigan-ND rematch. Boise State? Texas for the third straight year? Florida? Rutgers?
-I know this match-up is unlikely given the way the BCS is structured this year, but I would love to see a Texas/ND game this year. Both have good offenses and suspect defenses. That could be a 55-52 type game. Come to think of it, West Virginia against either of those teams could be entertaining.
-I think only seven teams have realistic chances of being in Glendale, and two of those teams are blocked by other teams in the chase. In descending order (assuming each wins out):
1 & 2) Michigan and Ohio State, Ohio State and Michigan -- Obviously the winner is in, but I think the chance of a rematch if the game is close is greater than people realize. Think about it, who would have a better resume, a one-loss Florida, or one-loss Ohio State? A one-loss USC or one-loss Michigan?
3) USC – If they win out, they will have three wins over Top 15 teams (Arkansas, ND, & California), and a couple more over top 25 teams (Oregon & Nebraska)
4) Florida – The big debate will probably be Florida or USC. The Gator’s biggest problem is that they haven’t gained many style points in their big games. Yes they could have won at Auburn, but they were lucky to beat South Carolina, and narrowly beat Georgia and Tennessee.
5) Arkansas – The Razorbacks look like the best team in the SEC right now. But they are blocked by USC. The only way the Hogs can make it is if USC loses to someone other than ND.
6) Rutgers – The computers love them, and if the Trojans and Gators lose, and they win in Morgantown, they could jump to #2 easily.
7) Notre Dame – They are blocked by Michigan, and to a lesser extent, Ohio State. No one in their right mind would vote a one-loss Irish team ahead of a one-loss team that beat them by 26 in South Bend. Likewise, given the beat down the Irish received at the hands of the Buckeyes in the Fiesta Bowl, and the fact that they have few marquee wins, it seems unlikely they would jump to #2.

And that is the last I will speak on any teams other than the Buckeyes and the Wolverines until November 19. The game of the day, year, decade is upon us. Perhaps the biggest game in the history of the greatest rivalry in all of sports. I will post a different item each day this week leading up to Armageddon.

The Beginning

June 19, 2008 Note: This is a post that originally appeared on Golden's Football Rankings and is reproduced here for posterity.

Not everything here will be directly related to the University of Michigan, but as a lifelong resident of Ann Arbor, an alumnus of the University, and a 25-year season ticket holder, it is a subject near and dear to my heart.

-Saturday’s game against Northwestern was as dull as the score suggested. Lloyd Carr is not one who believes in wasting points. If he could guarantee the other team could only score 3 points a game, he would never try to score more than 4. This year’s defense is about as close as you get to a guarantee, so there wasn’t much in the way of fireworks. I think they decided they were going to work on the running game only, despite what defense the Mildcats were in. With their top receiver, two top tight ends, and starting right tackle out, and with weather that was inhospitable at best, they didn’t run more than half a dozen different plays.
-The defense, meanwhile was as nasty as the weather. Hint to opposing coaches: don’t show your quarterbacks the film, they may come down with a 24 hour flu. For the second straight week, the starting QB from the previous week’s opposition missed their next game after Michigan (Morelli of Penn State last week, Tate of Iowa this week). This defense is the most explosive we’ve had in the 25 years I been watching UofM football
-I think it is pretty obvious that an undefeated West Virginia or Louisville makes the national championship game over any number of one loss teams. But what if the undefeated team from the Big East is Rutgers? Would a one loss team from the SEC, even one that doesn’t make the championship game or play a ranked team on the road (hello, Auburn) beat out a Rutgers team that closes its season at West Virgnia?
-I don’t think USC is out of the championship race. If they run the table and the Big East has no undefeated teams, I could easily see them beating out any team from the SEC, especially if Arkansas wins the league title.
-John L. Smith is not done at MSU. At least not yet. Not until November 7. November 7?!? What does election day have to do with Spartan football? Plenty when you consider that former MSU player, coach, and AD George Perles is a Democratic candidate for the MSU Board of Trustees. If he gets elected, you can rest assure that he, along with allies that he still has on the board will give Smith his walking papers (and maybe AD Ron Mason as well) and will get one of their cronies, like Eagles asst coach Pat Shurmer, in place.
-Are Miami and FSU going to make bowl games this year? FSU is 4-4 with home games left against Wake, Virginia, Western Michigan, and Florida. The game with the Gators looks like a loss, Wake and Virginia both beat teams that the ‘Noles lost to, and even Western is probably better than Troy, which almost won in Doak Campbell. Miami, meanwhile is 5-3, but has a tougher schedule with Virginia Tech and BC in the Orange Bowl, and trips to Maryland and Virginia. -So the big news on Michigan message boards prior to the game was a report by a Fox affiliate out of Columbus that the Columbus police department was issuing an arrest warrant for Michigan linebacker Prescott Burgess. His crime? Theft of some CDs from a store that has since gone out of business when he was 14. The report turned out to be false, as the Columbus PD has no plans to arrest any members of the Michigan team. But the fact that TV station would report, and that many Michigan fans took it seriously, at least for a little while, should tell you something about the nature of this rivalry. Any Michigan fan who has been to the Snakepit knows that you take your life in your own hands when you go there wearing the maize and blue.