Who needs defense?

Lon Horwedl / annarbor.com


One of the reasons I enjoy having football season tickets is that even in the midst of disappointing seasons you get these moments and games that are pure magic. In the middle of our first rose bowl less season in four years, 1979, we got Wangler to Carter, the greatest play in the first 100 years of Michigan football. In the middle of the Year of Infinite Pain, 2005, we got Manningham's dagger in the heart of Penn State. Even the awful 3-9 2008 campaign produced a comeback for the ages against Wisconsin.
That's what saturday's game was. Put aside all the disappointment from the last three games, all the concerns about the defense, all the speculation of will he stay? or will he go? and just enjoy an entertaining game. It was interesting that we heard little if any booing during the game. Sure there were no shortage of sarcastic comments or cheers, including a hearty round of "Save your job, Save your job" during the first overtime, but there wasn't the booing or "We want Harbaugh" chants we heard at the iowa game. Maybe the first play TD strike to Roundtree placated the fans a little. Or maybe we've just moved past the anger and depression stages of grieving for our defense and moved on to acceptance. Illinois just scored on a 60 yard run. So what? We know our defense sucks, when's the offense coming back out on the field?
Long ago, when I was much younger and was particularly down that my plans in life didn't seem to be working out, a good friend told me, "If you can't figure out a plan for life, just figure out a plan for today." So we take this approach going forward - the big picture will take care of itself, we will focus on each game, trying to get as much enjoyment out of the four(!) remaining Michigan football games as we can and worry about the big picture items later.
Other thoughts:
-Any doubts the last three games might have created about this offense were emphatically erased by this game. The Illini were the #15 defense in the country and hadn't given up more than 26 points in any game this year, despite playing three top ten teams, Missouri, OSU, and MSU. We got that in a half. The hadn't given up more than 390 yards in any one game this year, we got 386 in the first half. There is no doubt that as long as Rich Rod stays here, we will have one of the best offenses in the country.
-Despite the massive numbers, I acutally thought there were signs of progress on defense. Craig Roh is much better as a Dlineman than a LB. Courtney Avery palyed well, and made a good open field tackle on a player that was very similar to the one against Iowa that he missed and allowed them to get their last field goal. Finally, I think Cam Gordon is a better fit at the Spur position than at safety because of his size.
-I loved the reverse on the kickoff but don't understand why Jeremy Gallon is allowed to continue to return kicks after he fumbles one. I also think that we should be onside kicking every once an a while. With our defense, the opposition can (and will) score from almost anywhere. Why not take a chance on getting the ball back? If they are going to bring in new defensive coaches, they should consider finding one or two who have experience coaching special teams.
-I hope Tate Forcier realizes how important a good backup QB is in this offense. At the start of the year, all the buzz was about Denard and how he was a one man offense. In this game (and to a lesser extent the Iowa game), Tate showed that this offense is lethal no matter who is pulling the trigger. If he comes back next year, we will have the best QB situation in the country.
-Nice to see Michael Shaw back at something approaching 100%. Vincent Smith ran a lot better because he didn't have to shoulder all (or most) of the load.
-The receivers had a very nice game (obviously). We don't have that one dominant reciever that we had in the past with Braylon or Manningham, but we might have as much depth there as we've had in a long long time.
-Hurry back Carl Grapentine. The substitute PA guy was awful.
-I think it's safe to cross Arizona off the list of teams that could possibly beat Oregon. They were dominated by Stanford and have to travel to Eugene in three weeks. After a game at Cal, who just won their first road game of the year at Washington State, this weekend, they get a bye, Arizona at home, and then must travel to Corvallis to play Oregon State. Interestingly enough, the Beavers have already played (and lost to) TCU and Boise State. The season ending tilt against the Nike Ducks might be the last chance those two teams have to reach the championship game.
-Another classic game in Baton Rouge. it's too bad they won't get a chance to play in the SEC championship game, because I think they might be the best team in the league.

Bye Week This and That

In no particular order:
-Raise your hand if you wrote down Missouri, Oregon, Auburn and Michigan State at the start of the year as the last remaining unbeatens from the BCS conference. Liar.
-If there are any Rich Rod critics out there who still believe that his offense "won't work on a big stage", please note that three of those four teams run versions of his offense. That and the fact that Northwestern has run the offense successfully for ten years with less talent than just about anyone in the league. His problem ain't offense, it's everything else.
-I didn't see any of the MSU/Northwestern game, and only heard a few minutes of it on the radio as we were running errands, but it seems to me that road wins against winning conference teams where you come back from a 17-0 deficit are one of the requirements for a championship season.
-MSU can almost print their tickets for Pasadena. With Iowa's loss to Wisconsin, the spartans can afford to lose one of their remaining four games and still win the league title. Even if they lose to the Hawkeyes next week, they can still win the title if OSU beats Iowa, or if MSU, Iowa, & Wisconsin all finish with one loss. Even if you throw OSU in there and make it a four way tie, MSU still gets the Rose Bowl bid. All the Spartans have to do is beat Purdue and Minnesota at home and Penn State on the road and they get their first Rose Bowl in 23 years. It would take an epic collapse to miss out on a BCS bowl. While "epic collapse" and "Michigan State" have gone together like the Captain and Tenile for the better part of the last 40 years, that trend has reversed itself the last three years, as they have found a way to win important games down the stretch in each of Dantonio's first three years.
-Of course, if they win in Iowa City on saturday, they may miss the Rose Bowl by getting invited to the BCS championship game. They may get to play Boise State sooner than they planned.
-It seems that the best LSU QB changes from week to week, depending on who's starting, with the best player always being the guy who comes off the bench.
-What the hell has happened to Texas? I understand them having an off year (they've won ten or more since 2001, and haven't won fewer than 9 since 97), but losing to Iowa State? At home? Maybe Mack Brown has checked out, but you'd figure they have enough talent to overcome whatever is ailing them against Iowa State in Austin. They might be an underdog this week at home against Baylor. I'm pretty sure that's one of the signs of the apocalypse.
-The SEC East is starting to look like a typical year in the ACC, where all teams finish between 5-3 and 3-5 in conference. I wonder if Urban Meyer is regretting his decision to come back. Can they fire Mark Richt if he wins the SEC East at 5-3? I think Derek Dooley had more wins over SEC teams when he was at La Tech then he does at Tennessee.
-Like offense? Try watching the Cal Golden Bears. So far this year they've scored 52 against UC Davis, 52 on Colorado, given up 52 to Nevada, scored 35 on UCLA, given up 48 to USC, and just this week scored 50 on Arizona State. They're scoring 35 points per game and haven't played the two worst scoring defenses in the Pac Ten, Washington State and Oregon State. They haven't played the top two offenses, Oregon and Stanford, either.
-This weekend was about as bad as possible for us on a bye week. All five of the teams we've beaten this year were beaten this week, some in blowout fashion - IU by 30 to Illinois, Notre Dame by 18 to Navy, UConn shutout at Louisville, 26-0, BGSU losing by 24 to Kent State. Strength of schedule really doesn't matter too much to a team nowhere near the BCS, but the fact that Umass was beaten 39-13 by a 5-3 New Hampshire team really doesn't me a lot of confidence about the season going forward.

Defense?!? We don't need no stinkin' defense!

I was lucky on Saturday in that I didn't watch most of our game in Bloomington live. Due to my son's soccer game starting at 3:45, I got a few updates during the first half, saw a little bit of the start of the second half at home, and then watched the final drive at a Pizza Hut surrounded by a bunch of hungry eight year-olds. Of course I recorded the game and was able to watch it later on in the evening. I could fast forward through much of the game when we were on defense. The funny thing is that it took me longer to fast forward through the Hoosiers 98 offensive plays than it did to watch Michigan's offensive plays twice.

The most interesting thing about the game, was that I think both coaching staffs came into the game thinking they couldn't stop the other team on offense. Indiana decided that they were going to be aggressive on defense, hoping to get some big negative plays and or turnovers. They slanted their d-line a lot, had their linebackers key on Denard, and occasionally bringing a safety up to the line. That resulted in a lot of single coverage on wide receivers, and no deep run support, which led to a lot of long plays on Michigan's part. The Michigan coaches, on the other hand, decided to play soft coverage (for the most part), hoping that by forcing the Hoosiers to dink and dunk their way down the field, they would eventually make a mistake. For the most part, Indiana did not make mistakes and held the ball for an impossibly long time. In the end, neither defense did anything to suggest that they will be anything other than putrid this year.

In that sense, I think this game probably reinforced most people's ideas of what Michigan's team will be this year. Those that were convinced that this year is just like last year will point to the 500 yards passing allowed against a traditional doormat of the league and proclaim that the tougher teams in the league will run up the score. Those that see this as a new year point to a second straight road win and the continual video-game like stats of Denard Robinson as proof that even when our defense is the dregs, we can still outscore anyone. I think that both viewpoints are valid. This is probably the worst defense in the big ten, and despite its youth, I'm not sure it will make any quantum leaps this year. At the same time there's a real chance that this is the best offense in the league. Everyone talks about Denard's obvious abilities, but the offensive line is monster, the TEs are good blockers, and the receiving corps might be the best in the league, both in receiving and in blocking. What this all means is that we are likely to see more shootout, last team with the ball wins type games.

Other random thoughts:
-One thing that will help our defense is the inherent conservatism in a lot of coaches in the league--Tressel, Ferentz, Paterno, and to a lesser extent Lt. Dan and the Madison Meathead are all "run or die trying" coaches. Our run defense is not stellar by any stretch of the imagination, but our pass defense is so porus that any time spent trying to establish the run is a wasted opportunity to beat our corners deep, or catch one of our linebackers trying to cover a TE. One or two wasted opportunities might be all our offense needs to win a game.
-I don't think the all-out blitzing, throw the kitchen sink at them approach will work with this defense, but I would like to see us disguise our coverages or vary things up a little bit. Playing 20 yards off the receivers every play seems like its asking to get picked apart. Throw in an occasional four man line, or a safety blitz. I noticed they played Mike Martin at DE a little against Indiana. Maybe moving him around some more, or bringing in other big bodies (Patterson, Will Campbell) on run downs will help against the caveman offenses.
-Having Brandon Herron back this week will help the pass rush, because it will allow us to move Craig Roh to his more natural position, DE on passing downs. It will also be good to get Carvin Johnson back, because I think he may be a little more physical than Thomas Gordon, although Gordan hasn't played that badly
- I don't know why LSU fans are complaining about Les Miles. They all want to go back to the days when they had a handsome, well dressed coach who always seemed to be in full control. But who's to say that if they got rid of Miles they wouldn't end up with another coach like the guy who came before the guy they're all pinning for. Maybe the norm for LSU coaches is not Nick Saban, but rather Gerry Dinardo. At least Les keeps the games interesting, and his press conferences are certainly more entertaining that anything Dinardo does on the Big Ten network.
-Lane Kiffin is an idiot. Up two with Washington driving, already in FG range with two minutes left, he decides not to use any of his three timeouts to give his offense time to respond, instead choosing to use two of them to ice the Washington kicker Eric Folk (who beat SC last year with a late FG) before his 32 yard attempt. Rats are gonna start jumping off that ship soon, if they haven't already.
-Gambler's Lament-Another exhibit why gambling on college sports is bad for your health was the Northwestern/Minnesota game. In our weekly College Pick'em pool (no money, just bragging rights), I had the Wildcats -5.5 @ Minnesota. Late in the game, with Minnesota leading 28-20, i flipped over to another game, figuring I was gonna lose this one. I flipped back a few minutes later to find that not only had Northwestern scored a TD, they'd missed the two point conversion, gotten the ball back and kicked a field goal. Now they were leading 29-28 and Minnesota had the ball with under a minute left. This game was toast for me, NU wasn't going to cover. But with just over 30 seconds left, with no timeouts left, Minnesota's QB threw it right to a Northwestern LB in the flat who broke into the clear and headed toward a pick six. Just about the time I jumped out of my seat, excited that I might actually get this pick right, the Wildcat linebacker realized where he was, realized that they didn't need to score and slide to the ground at about the 30. Good thing I didn't have any money on the game, or I might have been really pissed.
-More Golden rankings stuff later this week, and maybe if I find the time a post about the upcoming game with little brother.

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.

Can't Win Them All

For 55 minutes on Saturday, it looked we had gone back to last year: receivers dropping balls, lineman and running blocks missing blocks, defense giving up big plays on third down, players looking like they didn't know their assignments, and the team generally sleepwalking through a game.
And then Tate Forcier reminded us why it isn't last year. The coaches basically gave up trying to run the ball, MSU abandoned what had been working on offense, and Forcier led not one by two long drives down the field in a driving rain without using so much as a timeout to tie the game. A scramble one way, a scramble another way, a pass to a receiver just past the first down line, a bullet on a slant catching safeties flat-footed. All of this while quite visibly in pain, wincing with every hit and every glancing blow. It was quite a sight to behold, and you could almost here spartans across the state cursing to themselves, "Oh No, we can't lose like this again"
But for once, the bounces didn't go our way in overtime, and we lost for the second time in a row in this rivalry for the first time in our lifetime. Forcier tried to make one pass too many, Troy Woolfolk missed one last tackle, and Larry Caper scampered into the end zone bringing joy to most of Spartan Stadium.
This loss hurts because this was probably our most winnable road game, with the probable exception of Illinois. And State was trying real hard for a while to give us this game: personal foul penalties (although the last one they got was a bad call), bad turnovers, trying to much to run the ball when they could've just passed us into oblivion, etc. And we just couldn't, or wouldn't take it.
But in the big picture, this is not a horrible loss. An overtime loss on the road in a rivalry game, while painful, is not something that will torpedo the season. Despite the good start, anyone who told you they expected us to win the Big Ten this year is either lying, or 12 years old. This is probably a 7-5, maybe 8-4 team. Not sure this loss changes that.

Bullets:
-For the second straight year I think Dantonio out coached Rich Rod. I thought they looked like they made a decision to kick away from Stonum on kickoffs, and they ran a little toss sweep off the three receiver set that was quite effective. Obviously the fake punt call, whether it was the coaches' call or Mesko's read was horrible. And I would have liked to have seen Robinson in earlier, but as a slot or a RB, in with Forcier. There were rumors this week they were working on 2 QB sets in practice, but we didn't see any of that.
-One thing that Dantonio did screw up, IMO, is putting Keith Nichols in. Perhaps Cousins was hurt, but if he wasn't, there was no good reason to bring Nichols in. Unlike Robinson for us, Nichols doesn't really provide any new look that Cousins doesn't.
-The receivers really did not help Forcier much at all during the game. Koger dropped a couple, as did Kelvin Grady.
-We miss David Molk something fierce. Hope he's back for Penn State.
-Considering the day didn't appear to have many great match ups when it started, there were some great finishes. our course our game went to overtime, Notre Dame beat Washington in OT, and LSU and Georgia played a classic where they scored 13 points in the first 57 minutes of the game, and 20 in the last three. LSU has enough talent to make that Florida game interesting, if they can find a way to be more consistent on offense. You can bet that Tebow will take more than a coupld of hits. I wouldn't try and run him too much, I wouldn't want to give one of those LSU safeties a chance for a kill shot on the Savior.
-In that game there were a pair of celebration penalties that were just ridiculous. It seems like every five years or so, the NCAA decides to try and legislate out the emotion of the game, and we get these stupid calls deciding games.

A Day in Death Valley

So our dear friend in New Orleans invited me down for a weekend to visit the Big Easy and attend the Alabama/LSU game in Baton Rouge. It seems that he discovered that members of the Louisiana state high school coaches' association can get complimentary tickets to any LSU game, provided you get there early enough.

So we left New Orleans around 9:30 for a 2:30 game. Traffic there was pretty light until we got about two exits from the campus. We parked just north of campus, in what appeared to be a typical student "ghetto". Along the walk to campus, there was plenty of "talent", all appropriately dressed for a warm, late-fall day. We stopped in a convenience store that was packed with young adults from both LSU and Alabama looking to buy beer. First time I've ever seen a security guard in a gas station. After a brief stop to visit an old colleague, we made our way over to the stadium. Because we wanted to make sure to get there early, we didn't get to sample the famous Tiger tailgating scene, other than just to walk through it.

We got to the stadium about an hour and a quarter before game time. Most of the student section was already full. The marching band was already in their seats, as was the Alabama band. Our seats were in the upper deck along the eastern sideline. Because there are no basements in Louisiana, the stadium is not built into the ground at all. It appears to be a Huey Long-era, all-concrete project that has been added to and updated numerous times. The upper deck starts about six stories above the ground. It is also quite steep. Unlike Michigan Stadium, where the seats in front of you are at your ankles, the seats in front of you are below your feet. I could have put my feet up on the shoulders of the people in front of us, without too much problem. From our seats we could see downtown Baton Rouge, the state capital and the mighty Mississippi. The combination of the height and the angle was just enough to kick start my fear of heights and make me slightly uncomfortable, at least until the game started.

Shortly before the game started, the band left the stands and came onto the field for a pre-game show. No dramatic entrance like the high steppin' MMB, but still some nice numbers with nice formations and good audience participation. The entrance of the team was a big production with smoke, fireworks, and piped in music. The piped in music continued throughout the game, but the crowd really didn't react to it as much as they did to the marching band. According to our friend the piped in music is new this year, so maybe people haven't gotten used to it. Hopefully they'll reconsider and get rid of it. The sound system was pretty bad. As far as I could tell, there were no speakers in the upper deck. The video screens were also quite small, nothing like Texas' monster video board.

When the game started, the fans were very engaged. The fans near us stood to start the game, and remained standing for the entire first series. I was quite impressed, and wondered if they would actually stand for the entire game. Eventually, as the teams settled into the game, the fans did as well, sitting down for most of the action, but still standing at appropriate times. The noise level in the stadium was good, you can really tell how much the steepness of the stadium affects the noise level. It was curious that a lot of people who were sitting near us left early, starting in the 2nd quarter. To be fair, there didn't appear to be anyone checking tickets in each section, so it's possible they moved to lower seats. It was also clear that the fans were much more engaged in the second half. At the start of the fourth quarter, the PA announced, "The sun has now found it's home in the western sky. Night has come to Death Valley" With that the band played a number of tunes that got the fans fired up, and the team came alive. You could really tell that there is something special about night games there, and the fans and team knows that.

Interactions between Alabama and LSU fans around us was limited, but there were a few odd occurrences. At one point an old guy sitting near us stood up and started shouting at a few young Alabama fans about ten rows behind us. He threatened them, called them faggots, and told them he'd kick their asses if they were man enough to come down to his seats. The weird part is that there hadn't been any interaction between the guy and the Tide fans before his outburst. The whole thing had a "get off my lawn" type feel.

Only a few people said anything to me about my Michigan jersey. One guy told me that Michigan was losing to Minnesota (I found out later that there weren't) but not to worry, because Rich Rod would get it turned around in three years. Another kid informed me that Michigan was 3000 miles to the north. If I had thought quicker, I would have told him, "We're 2-7 and that's the best you could come up with?" I got a few other weird looks, and met one guy after the game who was from Michigan and was doing the same thing I was. "Had to see some good football this year," he said.

The game itself was a classic. The blocked field goal at the end of the game was unbelievable, the atmosphere was absolutely electric. I think they are both solid teams, with few weaknesses, save one glaring exception. LSU has a real issue at Quarterback. Like Michigan, they were hurt when the expected starter this year (Ryan Perriloux) left the team in the off season. His replacement, Jarret Lee, threw four interceptions, which is about his average for the season. I think their defense played well, and for the most part their lines got the best of Alabama. Alabama has few if any weaknesses, but they don't have many difference makers, other than freshman WR, Julio Jones. They remind me a little of the 2002 OSU team that upset Miami. I do think they will get trounced by Florida in the SEC championship game.

All in all, it was a great experience, and I hope I'll get a chance to get down there again.

Meet the new coaches

Our new strength and conditioning coach is a little crazy. Not notre dame internet fan base crazy, more like Matthew Lesko after twenty cups of coffee.
New Michigan Strength Coach Mike Barwis


Couple of things I love about this video:
-No misunderstanding this guy's message. Players will know exactly where they stand
-"Coach, I'm 310 pounds. Well son, if you can't handle this, you're too fat, and we're gonna change this."
-They are going to take a whole body approach to conditioning. That is, they will monitor a player's diet and his offseason training regiment. This isn't just a weightlifting coach, he is like a personal trainer for all 85 members of the team.
-He mentioned something about them making him the highest paid S&C coach in the country. I like that we are finally taking this aspect seriously.
-He clearly is very loyal to Rich Rod. This can only help team and staff unity. Of course, if Rodriguez ever leaves, we'll lose this guy also.
-Finally, I love the shot of Drew Sharpe eating towards the end of the video. All the other journalists are getting quotes, asking questions, while Evil Drew is just stuffing his face. That's the sort of journalistic integrity we come to expect out of you, Drew.

- I'm not the only one impressed by Barwis, check out this article from the Times West Virginian, where they suggest that Barwis, and not Rodriguez is the coach the 'Neers will miss the most.

Other Observations and Notes:
-Can we once and for all stop with the ridiculous Peyton Manning / Tom Brady comparisons? Manning is a great QB, probably a Hall of Famer. But Brady is one of the five best of all time. Manning, for the first time sunday, had to try and win a playoff game without Marvin Harrison, and he couldn't get it done. Brady's game on saturday was his first with any receiver the caliber of Harrison, and he is 13-2 with a 62.5% completion percentage, 23 TDs and 9 Ints. If the Pats had resigned Deion Branch prior to last last year, they would have beaten the Colts, and Peyton would still have that huge monkey on his back.
-The Packers / Seahawks game was a thing of beauty. Football was meant to be played in the snow. That's why southern football will always be inherently inferior to northern football (just kidding...sorta ;-)
-TO is just a little emotional sometimes:

I think he just acts like a jilted lover when it comes to his relationships with his teammates. First he called Jeff Garcia gay after he left San Francisco. Then he got into a war of words with Ray Lewis, who was almost a teammate. When he was in Philly, his relationship with Donovan McNabb had more ups and downs than the Coney Island Cyclone. Finally, he sounded like a jealous teenager making jokes about Romo's girlfriend, Jessica Simpson. When are teams going to learn that this guy is a cancer and will eventually torpedo your team.
-Looking back on it, I find it highly ironic that the BCS championship game was the most boring LSU game of the year. No trick plays, no last minute drama, no double overtimes. It was very disappointing.
-This is just too funny. That's higher education for you. Reminds me of an old joke:
"Question: What do you get if you combine an Ohio State student and a third grader?
Answer: A dumber third grader"

Geaux Tigers!!

Lots of talk today on sports radio about who Michigan fans should root for in tonights game.
The reasons why I am rooting for LSU tonight
1)Les Miles is a Michigan man, I will always root for him, regardless of whatever Lloyd Carr might think of him.
2)I have more friends in Louisiana than I do in Ohio.
3)I love Gary Crowton's offensive innovation
4)I am hoping for some sort of Les Miles trick play like this beautiful fake field goal from earlier this year.
5)Jim Tressel and Ohio State is the focus of evil in the modern world. For the sake of truth, justice, and common decency, I can't root for them.

It's gonna git ya...

Ain't karma a bitch? All around college football this weekend, we saw it work it's little magic.
-In Lawrence Kansas, the Jayhawks scored as many points in one game against Nebraska (76) as the did in the entire decade of the 1970s (60) or the 1980s (76). In fact, until two years ago, Kansas hadn't scored more than 30 points against the Huskers since 1960, and now they done it three years in a row. It could have been a lot worse. The Jayhawks had 76 points with 10 minutes left to go in the game. They could have scored 100 if they were so inclined, and given their history with NU, no one would have faulted them. They scored Tds on 10 straight drives! Looks like the Big 12 north will come down to a season ending KU / Mizzou clash at Arrowhead in KC.
-In South Bend, Navy ended the longest continual losing streak in CFB history, beating the Irish for the first time since the Johnson administration. The most incredible thing about the game was that Notre Dame lost because of some amazingly stupid decisions on the part of Charlie Weis. On the first possession of the game, Notre Dame marched right down and scored. Navy promptly fumbled, giving ND great field position. After their drive stalled because of penalties, Charlie Weis called a fake FG on a 4th and 15 at the Navy 25. Of course it failed, and Navy went down the field to tie it up. Given that Navy is not a very good passing team, a 10-0 lead with all the momentum on the Irish side would have made it very hard on Navy. That call, while strange, was nothing compared with the doozy that was to follow. With the game tied with under two minutes to go on the Navy 25, Weis decided to go for it on 4th and 9 instead of kicking a go-ahead FG that would have forced the triple-option offense of the Midshipmen to go the length of the field (or most of it) with a little over a minute left to go. Instead Evan Sharpley got sacked, the game went to overtime, and the rest is history. The karma really comes in when you consider that when he was hired, Charlie Weis proclaimed his genius to all who would listen, and now they are losing games because of him not in spite of him. True to form, after the game they asked Weis why he didn't go for the late field goal, and he responded, "Why, so we can miss it?" He makes an absolutely indefensible decision and when questioned, he throws his players under the bus. It amazes me that none of the Notre Dame bloggers or media is calling for this guy's head, especially when so many of them wanted Bob Davie and Ty Willingham gone at the same point in their respective tenures, when they had almost exactly the same results. One blogger, let out a rather emotional tirade aimed at Weis, but took it down a few hours later. At any other place, this guy would be run out of town. Heck, in many places in the SEC, he'd have to have an armed guard with him at all times to keep the crazies away.
-I don't know if it was karma that led LSU over Team $aban, but I do like the fact that LSU's never say die attitude looks very much like a Michigan team. I've seen a lot of LSU games this year, and I am really starting to see Les Miles' Michigan roots.
-Finally, in East Lansing, a double dose of karma. For the MSU fans who had printed up their Appalachian State shirts, an inexplicable loss on the hardwood to division two Grand Valley State. And for Coach Dantonio and his "moment of silence" (after M's loss to Appalchian State, he joking asked for a moment of silence to open his post game comments), he got introduced to the rivalry with a come-from-ahead loss. That's not to say that Dantonio didn't do a great job, he did, I think he out coached Carr in many ways. He just learned that one of the constants of being a part of Spartan football is soul-crushing losses to arch-rivals.
-That being said, I think that State fans have a lot that they can be pleased about this game, despite the final outcome. For the most part they outplayed Michigan, and did a lot of things that bode well for the future. Of course, we've said that before, and I'm sure Spartan fans are not interested in moral victories when it comes to Michigan.
-I know they were just trying to protect their injured stars, but I really think that Carr and Debord blew it in the second quarter, but not opening up the offense a little more and trying to put the Spartans away early. I felt if they had gone ahead and scored to make it 21-3 before half, it might have killed all the fight in State.
-The Spartans will not be sad to see either Chad Henne or Mike Hart leave. In four games against MSU, Hart has 676 yards on 106 carries and 2TDs, Henne is 79-120, 880 yards and 14(!!) TDs. It is not a stretch to say they could be the most successful pair of opponents in MSU history.
-The big ten bowl situation is a mess, but I still think that if MSU wins one of their last two, at Purdue and hosting Penn State, there is no way the Motor City bowl will pass them up.

The Mad Monks

One of, if not the best, characteristics of Lloyd Carr coached teams over the years was on full display Saturday night in Champaign-Urbana. His teams have always shown incredible resiliency. Like Rasputin, the infamous Russian advisor to the last Tsar, they just won't die:
-Pump them with enough cyanide to kill five normal college football programs (the twin horrors of App State and Oregon)
-Shoot them in the back several times (lose your best player, and the only player who has shown up for every game this year)
-Beat them senseless with a club (night game against a spread option attack with speed at key positions, the exact type of offense they have struggled with in the recent past)
-Throw them in a frozen river (A senior quarterback with injuries so bad that he went the locker room twice during the game, and left the stadium with his right arm in a sling)
Poison them, stab them, throw them in the river, they keep coming back for more. it wasn't pretty, and they still have a long way to go, but they are bowl eligible and have another Big Ten championship in their line of vision. Proof positive that you never count out a Lloyd Carr coached team.
-The receiver pass from Arrington to Manningham was a thing of beauty and almost completely out of character for Mike Debord. A poster on one my favorite Michigan message boards jokingly suggested that QB coach Scott Loeffler made the play call while Debord was in the powder room. All kidding aside, I think it was a fairly well-called game by the coaches, given the limitations of the team's injuries. I do wonder why the abandoned the run when Henne came back in the game.
-Carlos Brown had a great game. He's not going to get you the guaranteed 4 or 5 every carry like Hart, but he does have more big play ability.
-QB-Center exchange, QB-Center exchange, QB-Center exchange, QB-Center exchange...(just keep practicing it)
-Henne and Hart should both rest this week if they are not 100%. Minnesota is absolutely awful.
Other games:
-What a play to end the LSU-Auburn game. More proof that this is a charmed season for Les Miles and the Bayou Bengals. I don't think the coaches expected Matt Flynn to take 10 seconds to snap the ball on that last play, and it could have ended up a disaster if he had gotten sacked or had to scramble.
-Right before the penultimate play of the Cal-UCLA game, I thought to myself, UCLA is going to be sitting at the first down line. If they throw, throw it a little deep. For the second straight week the fighting Tedfords are undone by a QB mistake at the end of the game that costs them a chance to kick a last second field goal. Longshore stared down his receiver and tried to force a throw to a receiver that was covered.
-I turned on the USC game and saw that they were playing the Edmonton Eskimos.
-Not to be outdone, the masters of the ugly jerseys unveiled a high school type all-white ensemble that had countless viewers in the northwest calling their local cable company and asking why the broadcast was in black and white.
-Sparty put up a good fight in C-Bus, but i wonder how much of that was OSU letting their guard down after breaking out to a methodical 24-0 lead in which the Spartans offered little resistance. Kudos to MSU for not packing it in, if they show the same sort of defense in their last four games, they's get the one or two wins they need to be bowl eligible.

The Return of Mr. Manningham

Two TDs and 8 catches for a buck forty-seven. There was one of his patented double-move, fly routes, some quick outs, a couple of crossing routes, and a few grabs in traffic. The one week suspension and the tongue lashing he publicly received from his QB certainly lit a fire under his behind. Combined with 10 grabs from Adrian Arrington, a good performance from Chad Henne (21-28, 265, 2 TDS), and some halfway decent play calling, we finally saw the type of offense that everyone expected before the season started. If they can keep this up, we could be tough to stop the rest of the way. Of course, by "they" I really mean Mike Debord and Lloyd Carr. Apart from a serious injury to one of the major players, play calling is the one thing that could really hamper this offense. Mix up the first down pass and run plays, throw in some play-action, and don't tip off the plays by doing things like only bringing in freshman receivers for running plays, or shuffling the FB to the direction of the run before the snap.
-I doubt that Hart's injury will keep him out of the game next week. If he can walk, he'll be out there. Actually if he is hurt, it might come down to who wins the argument between him and the coaches. If they win, he sits, if he wins, he plays. A couple of times against Penn State, the coaches brought him out to rest him, and he ran back out on the field, telling his backup to go sit back down.
-As expected, the defense looked very solid against Purdue's non-running spread. Purdue's offense may have been state of the art when Tiller first arrived in '97, but it has become very passe'. Without a running QB, it is really quite one dimensional. Without the threat of the run, our DL just pinned their ears back and let loose on Curtis Painter. The Purdue receivers obliged with their usual plethora of dropped balls. I'm not sure that this performance means anything for this week's game at Illinois. The Illini run exactly the kind of run-first spread option that has given us trouble.
-Speaking of the Illini, so much for the Rose Bowl express. Hopefully, we will take a look at the Iowa film and copy some of the stuff they did.
-I wasn't watching the LSU/Kentucky game very intently, but it seemed to me like LSU had a lot of penalties called on them at very inopportune times. Did the Wildcats get a little home cookin'?
-To everyone jumping on the Buckeye bandwagon, keep this in mind: everyone of their remaining opponents, MSU, @ PSU, Ill, Wisc, @ Michigan, is better than each of the teams they have played so far, with the possible exception of the Spartans and Washington. They probably deserve to be #1 right now, although South Florida has a good argument, but I don't think they will go through the season unscathed.
-Not a good weekend for future Michigan coaches: Les Miles finally misses on a fourth down and short when it counts; Jeff Tedford forgets to tell his freshman QB to not get tackled in-bounds; Greg Schiano struggles early with Syracuse before pulling it out; and Brian Kelly loses his undefeated season to an unranked opponent.
-The weirdness of this season has been hammered home over and over by the worldwide leader, but it's worth mentioning again that midway through October, the following teams control their own destiny to get to the BCS: Boston College, South Carolina, Kansas, Arizona State, and Connecticut. Somewhere in the upper floors of the Fox Sports headquarters there is an executive banging his head into the wall with every crazy upset.
-Golden ranking are done, I will post later tonight or tomorrow.

On lost teams, first games, and cajones of steel

-I couldn't help wondering as we left the game if we are going to get the two more wins we need to be bowl eligible. We looked sloppy and unfocused for a second straight game. Special teams breakdowns, missed tackles on defense, missed blocking assignments, fumbled snaps. This might be as undisciplined a team as Lloyd Carr has had. I really wonder if Lloyd Carr and the coaching staff has lost this team. That would certainly would explain the uninspired play and the numerous discipline problems (Manningham and Minor suspended for this game, Sears kicked off the team, the Fulmer Cup standings). On some level, the players may know that Carr is nearing the end of his career, and with the goal of getting back to last year's mountaintop gone, they have begun to drift a little in practice and during games. One can only hope that the combination of some senior leadership, the return of some injured starters and a string of challenging games ahead (minus Minnesota) can get them back on track.
-Stanford?!
-I felt a little better about our game next week when I watched some of the OSU-Purdue game. OSU is the best team in the league, but I expected they'd put up a little more of a fight. Purdue showed little if any running game, and Curtis Painter didn't show much mobility. Purdue runs a spread, but it's not the kind of spread that has hurt us. We have struggled against the spread option attack and in particular the zone read, where the QB and RB come together at the snap and the QB reads the defense and decided to either keep the ball or leave it in the RB's hands. I'm not saying Purdue won't move the ball on us, but I'm not as worried about an Oregon like beat-down.
-Wow, what a game down in Baton Rouge. Les Miles has cajones of steel. 5 for 5 on fourth down calls. He totally out coached the boy genius Urban Meyer. LSU, who had half an offense without any receivers who could catch the ball (Early can't return to soon), and who had real trouble slowing down the Florida offense early in the game, won the game on guts and the iron will of Mr. Miles. "What the mind can conceive..." and all that. The more I see of Les, the more I begin to like the idea that he might be our next coach.
-In fact how's this for a dream scenario: Lloyd announces his retirement right before the OSU game. The team goes out and knocks off the #2 Buckeyes and costs them a return trip to the National Championship, setting up a championship game between the top two candidates for the M job, Tedford and Miles.
-Seriously, Trojans.
-Florida at #14?!? Did any of these coaches watch the game in Baton Rouge? The Gators put up more of a fight than either South Carolina or Virginia Tech, both of whom are ranked ahead of them. Couple that with the fact that Tennessee, who they beat by three dozen earlier in the year just clobbered a ranked opponent by 21, and the Gators should be no lower than 10th. In fact, switching USC and UF might be just about right. I wonder if the Blogpoll will get it right.
-Notre Dame finally won a game, and nobody noticed.
-I bet there are SEC fans everywhere laughing their behinds off at the idea that Ron Zook could win a Big Ten championship. With games left against Minnesota, Northwestern, Iowa, and Ball State, they are looking at a potential 9 or 10 game season. Of course, given Mr. Zook's history, every surprising win is followed by an equally surprising loss and a couple of embarrassing off-campus incidents.
-Thanks to the BTN (F you Comcast), I have seen all of five minutes of MSU football this year (normally I see bits of pieces of just about every game), so I couldn't give you any elaborate thoughts on their loss to Northwestern, but everything I read after the fact makes it look like the more things change the more they stay the same in EL. Look for one more shocking win (please let it be in Columbus), and at least one more heart-wrenching loss.
-There were two good things about our game. The first was Mike Hart setting the record for most rushing yards by a Michigan back, and the almost two minute standing ovation he got when they announced it. As I've said before, highlights alone do not give you a full measure of what he has meant to this program in his four years. Without him, they easily could be under .500 in the last three years. We will miss him something fierce next year.
-This was the other good thing:

My five year old son attended his first game at Michigan Stadium. Yes he was more interested in the ice cream he got, playing with the binoculars, and making paper airplanes than the game, but he sang the fight song, gave us a hug and a high five when Michigan scored, and was constantly looking for "Mike" in every play (he heard us cheering for Mike Hart). All in all, a good first game. I look forward to many more.

We own... Penn State

As I was leaving the game Saturday, I saw a young Penn State fan, maybe 11 or 12, sitting with his dad on a brick wall outside the guys bathroom. The kid just looked crushed, like he was on the verge of tears. It was obvious that this was his first road game cheering on Penn State. I felt like saying something to the kid, telling him that everything would be ok, there would be other games, etc. Of course I didn't, because anything a guy wearing a Michigan jersey and baseball cap said at that moment would be taken as rubbing it in. I realized that this kid could now call himself a true Penn State fan. Watching Penn State lose a heart breaker in Ann Arbor has become a rite of passage for Nittany Lion fans.

This game had to look familiar to Penn State fans. Same sorta woulda, coulda, shoulda as the last two. The had plenty of opportunities (5 red zone trips resulting in 9 points), but were done in by turnovers, conservative play calling, poor quarterback play, and an inability to block Michigan's defensive line. The couldn't run the ball consistently, except for some draws in the second half. They didn't do a very good job getting the ball to their play makers, Derrick Williams and Jordan Norwood (3 catches each) in space, where they could take advantage of the poor tackling of the Michigan secondary. The didn't look for TE Andrew Quarless in the middle of the field, and didn't really challenge Michigan deep. It seemed to me that they don't trust QB Anthony Morelli or his arm, because they didn't give him many complicated reads.

The Michigan offense was only slightly better. They too missed a couple of scoring opportunities. At one point during the game, I commented like I felt that Michigan was dodging bullets. My friend who was with me pointed out that Michigan had missed a number of opportunities and it was more like both teams were dodging blanks. I thought given the circumstances (freshman QB, third string right guard), the play calling was acceptable. The offensive line was incredible. Mallet made a few more mistakes than the previous week, but also made a couple of great plays while scrambling that give us just a glimpse of what the future will be like (ah, that's what pocket presence looks like).

Hart was, well, magnificent. Let me set the scene for you. Penn State has just kicked a field goal to cut it 14-9. There is six minutes left in the game. We have the ball around our 40. The student section is chanting "Mike Hart, Mike Hart". Penn State has nine in the box. Everyone in the stadium knows where it's going, right behind #77 All-American left tackle Jake Long. Mallet might as well be shouting it out at the line of scrimmage: "Left 20. 77 Off-tackle. Hut hut." Hart gets the ball, avoids a D lineman at the line of scrimmage, jukes past a couple of linebackers four yards down field and then plows through the safety and a couple of other tacklers out to the first down. Later in the drive, he is injured on a second down carry. As he limps off the field, a murmur runs through the crowd. Penn State calls thier last time out. Hart limps back out on the field. The crowd goes crazy. His block of the blitzing linebacker gives Mallet just enough time to hit a receiver just beyond the first down marker. Given the way the season started, I know that Hart will likely not be in the Heisman race. But he deserves to be. Before the season is over, he will be the best running back in the history of Michigan in just about every statistical category, and he is certainly the best I've ever seen.

Thoughts on other games
This was cool:

I'm still not convinced that Les Miles will be offered the job here, but if he does end up here, I hope he brings Gary Crowton with him.
-The UCLA / Washington game was something else, one of those typical Pac 10 wide open affairs. At one point, in the span of 5 minutes, Washington scored a TD, UCLA lost their second string QB (who was playing in place of the injured Ben Olson) and had to sub in a walk on freshman, UCLA busted an 80 yard run, Washington hit a 70 yard pass to a slot receiver, and then UCLA returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown. Can't they find a way to put those games on earlier, so more of us can see them?
-I wonder how long after the cheering subsided for Notre Dame's first offensive TD of the year, did people in the stadium realize, "We're still going to lose this game and go 0-4"?
-How in the world did Louisville lose to Syracuse?!? Syracuse is awful, they've only scored over 20 points against a BCS opponent once in Greg Robinson's tenure there. Steve Kragthorpe might have a pretty short stay there if he's not careful.

Full Golden Rankings coming up later this week.

What stage are you in?

It's not quite what Elisabeth Kubler-Ross had in mind, but i've gone through
Denial(at the game - "this can't be happening"), Depression (the next day or two), Bargaining ("Maybe if we run the table, this will all be washed away") and am currently working on Anger (thanks to MGoBlog's UFR) I'll get to Acceptance sometime later, hopefully after a win or two.

Some other observations that got missed in the fallout from the "Upset of the Century"
-I would love to see the LSU/Va Tech game in person this week. Defense, defense, defense, with a modicum of special teams thrown in. After watching most of the LSU game, I'm not convinced that Matt Flynn will be able to handle the pressure of the Hokie pass rush. He looked like he got rattled against Mississippi State. Of course, with their defense, he won't need to do much to win. First team to ten wins.
-If Michigan had done what they were supposed to have done, I would have really enjoyed all the press jumping all over Weis E. Coyote, super offensive genius. He played all these games with his QB selection all summer, making a story where there really was none, and then they come out and look absolutely putrid (122 yards total offense in 63 plays). Defense wasn't much better. It will be interesting to see what contortions ND fans go through to blame this season on Ty Willingham.
-The worst performance by a top ten team this week? It might have been Texas, who had to hold on for dear life against another ASU, Arkansas State, who is projected to finished in the middle of the Sun Belt. Especially troubling is the paltry 117 yards rushing against a team that was 77th in the nation against the run. With a TCU team coming up this week that is 4-0 in their last four against Big 12 teams, they could be in trouble.
-I loved the tribute USC gave to their former kicker (HT: Various AOL Fanhouse bloggers). I think it shows why Pete Carroll is the best coach in the game today. He's like that younger teacher at your high school who had a good sense of humor, was friendly, and knew just enough popular culture to relate to kids. It's no wonder that all the top HS kids want to play for him.
-I know it's not wise to question the guys in Vegas too much, but there are a few lines this week I don't get. A couple of games we've already talked about as being tight games, UT-TCU and VaTech-LSU. Is Oklahoma really 11 points better than Miami? And the Michigan-Oregon line just seems off. The Ducks are getting 8? Can Michigan really score enough to win by 8 or more?

-One final thing, since everyone is talking about the next Michigan coach, I'll throw in my 2 cents. My top candidates at this point:
1) Jeff Tedford - good Xs and Os guy, some pro experience, head coaching experience in a BCS conference, Cal is a very similar school to Michigan. He's been frustrated with Cal's inability to get a stadium expansion done, Michigan's recent announced plans might be a draw.
2) Rich Rodiguez - Very innovative, the fact he listened to Bama last year shows he's available for the right price
3) Kirk Ferentz - Very good at teaching the fundamentals. Knows the UofM president, Mary Sue Coleman due to her time at Iowa, and has (or had) a daughter at UofM. Would he be willing to move in conference?
4) Greg Schiano - Great recruiter, good pedigree

I don't think that Les Miles will ever be offered the job. He desperately wants the job, anyone who pays attention to LSU football can tell you that. But there have long been rumors about character issues (he's referred to as "Loose Morals" by Michigan insiders), and I don't think that Bill Martin would take a chance with that. Especially since he's not really known as a great strategist, and his buyout at LSU (reportedly $2.1 million if he leaves to go to Michigan) might be cost prohibitive.