Dead Coach Walking?

It's not possible to overstate just how incredibly bad the Michigan defense played the night before Halloween. A team that was averaging 109 yards rushing per game got 109 in the first half. A team that had been averaging 344 yards of total offense got 435. A team that had been out gained by 80 yards by the hapless Minnesota Golden Gophers out gained the vaunted Michigan offense. A team that had been averaging 20 points per game, scored 41 and ended the game by taking a knee inside the Michigan five-yard line. And they did this with a third-string walk-on QB and a patchwork offensive line, and without the aid of any turnovers.
This offensive explosion from a team that has one of the worst offenses in the league, when healthy, came on the heels of a series of position moves during the bye week that were eerily similar to the changes in the defense made before the Purdue game in 2008, when Michigan played a 3-3-5 for the first time all year and a backup running back turned QB torched Michigan for a bazillion yards and more points than Purdue had scored all year. Just like that game, the Michigan defenders looked lost, and constantly out of position. It was a coaching failure of the highest order. It has become clear the Rich Rod knows only slightly more about defense than I do, and doesn't have the faintest clue how to go about teaching it to young players. Which is really a shame, considering he knows more about the spread offense than anyone coaching today. We have the worst defense in the league, and the best offense.

So was this game the tipping point for Rich Rod? Depends on who you ask. Some were ready to get rid of him when he quoted the Lion King at his opening press conference. For some it was the loss to Toledo. For the first time, I think, more than 50% of the fanbase think its time for a change. For me it was the MSU loss this year, although it took until this game for me to accept it. Although I recognize the beauty of his offense and know that if he stays we will have an Oregon like offense if not next year than the year after it, I can't get past the lack of any defensive fundamentals, the poor personnel decisions (Marell Evans anyone?), and the complete tailspin they've gone in for three straight years. There is still time to turn this season around, but we've seen no evidence that Rich Rod's teams are capable of that.

Other random thoughts:
-Mark Dantonio showed his true stripes (win-at-all-costs), I'm glad the mainstream media is finally picking up on that. Hey Mark, if you want to be a father figure to these kids (your words, not mine), try acting like a father. If you tell a kid the consequences of bad behavior is a certain punishment, and then you don't follow through with the punishment when they do that bad behavior, they learn not to listen to you, or believe you when you tell them there will be dire consequences if they mess up.
-How the hell did Texas beat Nebraska?
-All of a sudden, West Virginia has fallen off the map. I wonder if they might be willing to take Rich Rod back? Maybe we could work out a sign and trade.
-That Iowa collapse against Wisconsin last week is looking like it might be the pivotal game in the Big Ten race this year. Iowa looked very good against MSU and has a decent chance of beating OSU in two weeks. But even if they run the table, if Wisconsin also runs the table, they are out of luck for the Rose Bowl.
-Tulsa? Seriously, Tulsa?!? Is this why you decided to stay an independent?
-The story about the Notre Dame student killed while filming football practice is tragic, and his tweets were especially haunting. This accident is gonna cost the university a ton of money, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of heat comes on Brian Kelly because of it.
-The Cal scoring streak continued, blows out teams at home, gets blown out on the road - they lost at Oregon State 35-7. They travel to Washington State, so a continuation of the trend would be quite shocking. They close the season with home games against Oregon, Stanford, and Washington.

Going through the motions

You'll have to excuse the lackluster blogging effort this week (i.e. late) after a lackluster game on Saturday. Ugh. What a stinker.

The offense was out of sync. Robinson forced his first pass of the day resulting in an INT. He fumbled several snaps and seemed to read a couple of zone read plays wrong. The O-line missed a few assignments, and there were a few missed cuts by the RBs. Still they racked up 550 some odd yards on 56 snaps. Even when out of sorts, this is a potent offense. Offense is not the problem.

Defense is. More specifically, linebackers are. Even my untrained eye saw Ezeh and Mouton make bad read after bad read. Give Umass credit, they ran a lot of misdirection , roll outs and short passes that put the onus on the LBs to make the right read. Time and again they didn't. What is scary is that there are several Big Ten teams that play exactly this style of offense.

That being said, I'm not sure this meager effort changes the big picture. Even with the defense of death, the offense appears to be good enough to win four of the remaining nine games. If the defense improves (i.e. they discover some new linebackers), we might see more wins.

This and That:
-A lot of fans will make a big deal out of a close game with an FCS team, but this really isn't any different than a basketball win over a mid-major. UMass, Villanova, James Madison, App State, these are the football equivalents of the Butler team that came within a few points of winning the Big Dance this year. Now Umass probably isn't as good as Butler was this year, but they were chalked full of seniors. had plenty of experience, and probably won't be the worst team we play this year.
-The thing that disappointed me the most in our game is that we didn't see any backups. Obviously some new prospects on defense might provide some hope, but I was also hoping to see the backup RBs. Still not convinced Shaw and Smith are the answer.
-What a call by Dantonio in the MSU/ND game. The amazing thing was that it wasn't open when the punter first stood up. He had to wait for his receiver to come open. I found it funny that Kelly, who is know for his gambling nature passed on a fourth and one in overtime, and Dantonio, who is considered conservative took the risk.
-Hope Dantonio recovers in time for the Michigan game. We should have known that something was wrong when he smiled in the post game interview.
-Not to look to far ahead, but the State game looks like it will be a barn burner. Two potent offenses, two poor defenses. I think this game is huge for Rich Rod. If he loses that game, I don't think he comes back next year.
-Only watched a little bit of the Iowa-Arizona game before I fell asleep, but man is Mike Stoops crazy on the sidelines. If you had told me Sunday morning that a college coach had a heart attack the night before, I would have guessed Stoops.
-Bo Pelini looks to have Nebraska rounding in form just in time for their move to the Big Ten. I would love to see them win the Big 12 this year.
-I wonder if the Pac 10 is having second thoughts about Colorado. First California routs CU 52-7, then the bears get blown out by Nevada 52-31. They've added a few teams and still can't beat the Mountain West.
-A new set of Golden Rankings coming in a day or so.

Warp speed ahead!

Photo - Michigan Daily

As I watched the end of the Boise State - Virginia Tech game on Labor Day night it occurred to me that the difference between the two minute offenses of Boise State and Virginia Tech embodies the struggles that many long-time Michigan fans are having in accepting the new Michigan offense. For the longest time, we had prototypical pro-style quarterbacks who like Boise's Kellen Moore could surgically take apart any defense with his passing even when everyone knew they had to pass. Now with a system that emphasizes a quarterback's running skills and athleticism more than his passing skills, I think many Michigan fans fear that we will be unable to run an effective two minute offense, just as Virginia Tech's Tyrod Taylor was unable to do at the end of the Labor Day game.

Among the multitude of amazing things Denard Robinson did on Saturday perhaps the most significant thing was to show those Michigan fans still uncomfortable with the new offense that just because he is not 6-4 with feet of clay doesn't mean he can't deliver in crunch time when everyone knows he needs to pass the ball. With the game on the line and 75 yards away from pay dirt, he went 5-6 for 55 yards and added 17 yards rushing with a fourth and one conversion and a touchdown rushing. Any doubting that he can be a complete quarterback is either not paying attention or is looking for reasons to complain.

The offense still has things to work on: the running backs have not been productive, the down field passing is inconsistent, and the propensity for bad penalties is gonna cost them at some point. Although last year taught us not to get to far ahead of ourselves, I think it is safe to say that baring some key injuries, this offense will be fairly productive.

The Defense? We won. Can't say too much more than that. They did appear to limit the ND rushing attack a little bit, but didn't get much pressure on the ND QBs and had some significant lapses in coverage. Cam Gordon took a couple of bad angles that led to two long ND touchdowns. Missed tackles were numerous, and the two inside LBs are about 50/50 to make the right read. We don't really know how good the ND offense is, but it's probably safe to say that the defense still has a long way to go to get to adequate. We won't discuss the special teams.

So big picture, where are we? One game closer to the seven wins we need to go bowling. I'd like to say this is better than a 7-5 team, but after last year, we know things can go south really quickly when the team has serious depth issues. Looking at the schedule, based on games played so far, there appears to be four teams that we would seem to be better than: UMass, Purdue, Bowling Green, & Illinois, five teams we don't have enough evidence to judge yet based on over matched opponents: Iowa, MSU, Indiana, Wisconsin, & Penn State (a loss @ Alabama doesn't prove anything major), and one team, Ohio State that appears clearly better than us. If I had to guess now, based on last year, Iowa and Wisconsin will join OSU in that last group, and Indiana will join the first group.

Some other thoughts:
-I'm sure you'll hear from negative nancies in the media and opposing fans how Denard won't survive the season carrying the ball 30 times a game and Michigan's offense will suffer if he goes down. While there is some truth in that, it's no more true for us than it is for any other team. Where would OSU be if Pryor went down? How's Florida doing so far without Tebow? Is a QB that carries the ball more likely to get injured than a RB who carries that much? I think that part of the negative reaction towards the amount of carries Denard gets has to do with that uncomfortableness with the offense we discussed above.
-I'm sure he got approval of the team doctors, but I wonder if Brian Kelly's decision to put Dayne Crist back in the game was a sound one. Crist's vision problems would seem to suggest a potentially serious concussion or head injury that would keep him out of the whole game. I'd hate to think that the decision to put him in was motivated by the horrible play of his backups, and you just hope that there are no lingering issues for Crist.
-Didn't see much of any of the other big ten games to draw many conclusions, other than the large white stripe on the MSU helmets looked bad and I wished we played Minnesota this year. What the heck Gophers? At least when we lost to an FCS team, we lost to the three time defending champs, not a .500 team that's only been playing Division one for four years.
-Bad day for the MAC. They went 2-5 in non conference play with two losses to FCS teams (Akron to Gardner Webb, Ball State to Liberty). The conference should really consider an en masse move to FCS.
-Almost equally bad day for the ACC, with losses to an FCS team (see below), a poor Kansas team, and big losses in marquee games by Miami and Florida State. They look to be a one bid league in terms of the BCS, yet again.
-USC looked fairly average. Pac Ten will be decided Oct 2 when Stanford visits Oregon. The amount of empty seats in Neyland Stadium midway through the fourth quarter was quite impressive.
-Biggest loser this week? Probably Boise State, whose "big" win over Virginia Tech became virtually worthless when the Hokies fell to FCS "power" James Madison. I can see another 12-0 season ending in a random BCS bowl game (but not "the" game) against TCU.
-The news on Friday that FCS power Villanova has been asked to join the Big East in football confirms what many have said for years -- the Big East doesn't deserve a BCS bid. Villanova currently plays in a 12,000 seat stadium, probably draws less per game than two other Philly area teams (Penn and Temple), and probably falls about ten spots down in the sports consciousness of the typical Philly fan. I know that UConn made a similar jump a decade ago, but they weren't really competing with anything else other than Husky basketball.
-On a final note, one of the all time greatest Wolverines, Ron Kramer, passed away on Saturday. I'd like to think he spent the afternoon watching the game with Bo, Yost, & Bob Ufer. Godspeed, # 87.

To Hell with Notre Dame!

On the eve of the Notre Dame game, some random memories from the series:

I saw my first Michigan - Notre Dame series in person in 1979, a year after the series returned from a 36 year hiatus. My only memory of that game is Notre Dame lineman Bob Crable standing on the back of a Michigan offensive lineman to block what would have been the game winning kick. I'm sure the fact that this was blatantly illegal at the time didn't matter one bit to the Notre Dame team or fans, who probably feel that only God's rules are worthy of following.

Since that time I have witnessed 8 Michigan wins and 7 losses. Four of those loses came when I was an undergrad, with two trips to South Bend which may qualify as two of the most heart wrenching losses I ever seen. In 1988, I was standing on the field, behind the back of the endzone, waiting to run onto the field as Mike Gillette lined up to kick the game winning 42 yard field goal. We watched the kick to see if it had enough distance and raced into the back of the endzone heading for the Michigan team. We were at the goal line before we realized he had missed wide to the other side of the goal post. In 1990, we were walking through the parking lot after a come from ahead loss in Gary Moeller's first game as head coach when a particularly clever Notre Dame fan shouted to all the Michigan fans who were within earshot, "See you later Miss Again!" After four straight losses to Lou Holtz's teams, that one was particularly painful.

So of course, the 1991 game, with the famous catch pictured above came as a huge relief. Despite Desmond's Heisman launching catch, the game itself was quite mundane. We simply squeezed the life out of Notre Dame, possessing the ball for almost 45 minutes. This was just one of a number of games where Michigan has just outclassed Notre Dame. 1981 and 1985 were pretty comfortable wins, and the 2003 and 2007 matching 38-0 wins were two of the more delightful days I've spent at the corner of Stadium and Main. That 2007 Notre Dame team was probably the worst rivalry team I've ever seen Michigan play, and that's saying a lot since I witnesses the Bobby Williams and Muddy Waters coaching eras up in East Lansing. In fact it seems like in this rivalry, Michigan wins more of the lopsided games, whereas Notre Dame wins the close ones.

Of course there are exceptions to the that rule, and those games are my favorite Notre Dame- Michigan memories. The three straight defensive stops in 1997, the frantic closing minutes of the 1999 game, with time running out on the Irish just 40 yards away from the endzone, and Tate Forcier's heroics last year are all-time classics that I never pass up a chance to watch when they show up on BTN or ESPN Classic.

A Win is a Win

My son had a soccer game on Saturday, so I didn't get to the game until there was about 2 minutes left (just missed the winning TD). My impressions are from watching the replay.

-This game reminded me, in some ways, of the basketball team's come from behind win at IU in January. A young, rebuilding team playing a lower level conference squad they are supposed to beat. The young team gets pushed around, but somehow finds a way to win. In both cases, a loss could have really hurt Michigan's resurgence, and there are few positives to take from the win, other than the fact that it is a win. Given how last season went, maybe that's enough. With four wins, a bowl bid, and at least a three game improvement on last season seems to be there for the taking. How much more than that, we'll have to wait and see. Anyone who had visions of Roses after the first two games probably has fallen back to earth with the last two games.
-I don't know if there is one area of the defense I trust 100% right now. The D line was supposed to be a strength, but they are getting very little pressure right now. Teams are clearly attacking the side of the line that Brandon Graham is not on with regularity. We should move him around more. I also think getting some of the backups with more size (Sgasse, Banks, Campbell) in for more plays would help offset some of the rush defense issues.
-Upon first glance, the LBs didn't look as out of place this week as they did last week, but tackling still seems to be an issue. I saw a couple of occasions where a ball carrier was met at the line of scrimmage, but still gained five or six yards because the LBs didn't get proper leverage on their tackle and the RB fell forward instead of going back.
-Boubacar Cissako just looks lost out there at times. After a rough start, I thought Floyd actually did better. I am disappointed that five-star freshman Justin Turner isn't ready to play.
-The offense looked out of sync. Perhaps it was the new center, David Mooseman. Or perhaps it was injuries to Tate Forcier, but they didn't really seem to get on track. Still, it's a testament to the design of this offense that they can still score 36 points when they look bad.
-I was happy to see Denard Robinson get to run some different plays, although it still looks like the package of plays they have for him is quite small. If Tate is out for next week, they'll need to expand that package at least a little.
-I think it was only fitting that one of the top HS punters in the nation for 2009 committed to us on a day when Zoltan Mesko was out best defensive player. All hail the new Space Emperor!
-On the game-sealing interception that some people have complained about, there was no good view on TV of who originally caught the ball. The first time we see the ball is when the players hit the ground and the ball is in Donavan Warren's arms. I understand why Bill Lynch was upset, his team played a great game, and with the game on the line, his team ends up on the wrong side of a close call. But the announcer's indignation was totally uncalled for. This wasn't a "travesty of justice", Indiana didn't get screwed. There's no way to tell from the replay if Warren caught the ball cleanly or if the IU player had possession before they fell to the ground.
-Interesting similarities between this game and the famous 1979 game: Both games were homecoming, Michigan was a double digit favorite in both, IU outgained Michigan in both games, IU coach went balistic about calls late in both games, and freshman stars made big plays to win both games.

Elsewhere:
-Good job Jim Delany, your suspension of one of Purdue's starting OL for what should have been a 15 yard penalty probably cost them the game against Notre Dame.
-Nobody circles the wagons like the Virginia Tech Hokies. Is there a better homefield advantage in football than Blacksburg?
-Perhaps in Oregon. Can we once and for all put away any discussion of California ever being an elite team. It seems like over the last 5-10 years or so, every time they win a few games, and look like they are ready to make the jump to being a top 10 program, they pull out a stinker like this. I understand losing a road game in a tough venue like Oregon, but 42-3? 42-3?!? Have some pride and come to play. There was a time when I wanted Jeff Tedford to be the coach here after Carr retired. Boy am I glad that never came to pass.
-Great win by Iowa, who seems to have Penn State's number. Our game in Iowa City in two weeks could get ugly. I don't think they will win the league, however. They have to go to Columbus, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them lose to either Minnesota or Wisconsin.
-Golden Rankings coming soon, with a look at the battle for the Paul Bunyan trophy coming later this week.

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?

Lose Yourself

There are points during the long off-season where you find yourself daydreaming about the upcoming season, and how great it could be. There are times during the two week prelude to the season when you hear message board reports about how some young phenom is tearing it up in practice and is poised for a breakout year. But you stop yourself from daydreaming too much because you don't want to get your expectations too high. And you remind yourself that those reports have often been wrong in the past.

So when Tate Forcier missed a wide open Kevin Koger streaking down the western sideline on third down with just over 3 minutes to go I saw the young quarterback bend down with his hands on his helmet and thought, if only briefly, that they gave it a good go, and perhaps two wins in the first two games was too much to expect after the trainwreck that was last season. I half expected my friend of 20 years who sits next to me at games to remark, "Well, at least they'll probably be 3-1 when the head to East Lansing"

But thanks to some curious playcalling from Jabba the Weis, the great improvisational skills of our young quarterback, and some nifty receiving from our senior possession receiver and a career backup, what had been a good game turned into an all-time classic. In the process, the afternoon exceeded anything I had dared to imagine back when all anyone wanted to talk about was the arrest of an ex-quarterback or the number of practice hours the team spent in a week. As I rewatch the game (in HD, no less), the painful memories of last year are already starting to fade. If we have too many more of games like today or last week, I think I'll forget about last year altogether.

When the season started, I think most people had Michigan pegged between 5-7 and 7-5. I think those predictions might need to be revised. With the two toughest teams remaining on the schedule (OSU and PSU) coming into AA, and road trips to MSU, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin not looking as tough as they did at the start of the season, an 8 or 9 win season doesn't look out of the question, and there is a chance, a small chance, that this season could really be a special one.

Bullet Points:
-Tate Forcier is one of the three best QBs in the Big Ten, and might even be better. We haven't had a QB that could just make shit up like that since Jim Harbaugh. We've had big strong guys who could throw it thru a brick wall, but no one that you would want to see outside of the pocket.
-Hello Daryl Stonum. He had kinda a tough year last year, getting into some trouble off the field, and not showing much on the field. There were reports in camp that he was dropping a lot of balls. With top wideout Junior Hemingway out this week, we really needed Stonum to step up, and boy did he ever. His kickoff return was a thing of beauty, and he did a great job running his routes, even when he didn't get the ball. I look forward to seeing him grow this year.
-Brandon Minor is clearly our #1 tailback. His bruising style is a perfect counterpart to the quickness of our other skill positions.
-This team still has a lot of holes in it. Obviously we need more depth in the defensive secondary, we played a 5-10, 190 pound walkon redshirt freshman at safety for most of the second half. We need some size in the DL and LB, we got pushed around a little up front. Our offensive line still has improving to do. But you can really begin to see how this team is going to look when it is ready to compete with the best teams in the conference and the country. The gap between us and the 2 teams at the top of the conference doesn't look as big as it did 2 weeks ago.
- The piped in music is growing on me. I thought it was much more effectively used this week. The White Strips tune is great for sporting events (as any good European soccer fan already knows), and I like the Eminem tune as well. I like the fact that there are local connections with both artists. Besides, with the new acoustics, we can't hear the band at all anyway, so they might as well play something.
-The Notre Dame team is improved from last year. They have a lot of offensive fire power, and they do a fairly good job of using it. Their defense needs a lot of work, but I don't know if there are a lot of teams on their schedule, outside of USC, that can slow them down or take advantage of their defense.
-Michael Floyd is the best receiver we'll play all year. I hope his family starts looking for an agent, so he can get ready for the NFL draft in the spring.
-Jimmy Clausen has a big arm, but no poise. Four different times in the game he called timeout in the middle of a quarter, for no reason other than he didn't like what the defense looked like. I don't think he could improvise if his life depended on it.
-Still I can't help but think that there is a limit on how successful they can be with Mr. Schematic Advantage there. He's a great recruiter, but he couldn't teach his way out of a paper bag, and there are stories after stories of him pissing off former players with his arrogance and rudeness. He can't afford to lose too many more games this year.
-In other games, I think Jim Tressel is wasting Terrell Pryor's considerable talents by trying to make him a pro style QB. Put him in our system, or Florida's, or Texas', or anyplace where they'd let him use his speed and his running ability on a more regular basis, and people would be calling him the new Tebow. USC was ripe for the picking Saturday evening, and OSU let them off the hook because they couldn't take advantage of a young, albeit very talented, USC defense in a hostile environment. They were just too conservative on offense until it was too late.
-As I was watching that game, I couldn't help thinking as I saw them in a Two TE, one receiver set, "Why don't they spread them out, so that they can get more running lanes" Rich Rod's offense has gotten to me.
-After all the crap we heard over the summer in the local media about how MSU had passed Michigan and was taking over the state in recruiting, I couldn't help but feel a little schadenfreude in the Spartans' loss to Central Michigan. Mark Dantonio has taken every opportunity to take cheap shots at us in the media the last two years, so I didn't feel too much sympathy for him as I saw him in a post game interview looking like someone had just run over his dog. Although I think he is better than John L Smith, his record is now only three games better than Smith at the same point in his tenure, and State has four very losable games coming up, @ ND, @ Wisc, Michigan, and @ Illinois. Things could get real ugly in a hurry for Lt. Dan.

Not this time

With about 7 minutes left in the 4th quarter and Notre Dame trailing Michigan State by nine facing a 3rd and 17 around their own 30, Irish QB JimmyClausen threw a quick out to Golden Tate, who was hit immediately by two MSU defenders. But the Spartans failed to wrap Tate up, and he got away for about a twenty yard gain. Two plays later a questionable 15 yard pass interference put ND inside the MSU 30. From my home in Ann Arbor, I could hear my spartan grad best friend in Chicago yelling at the TV. Visions of a deflected pass in 1990, a third string QB throwing a winning TD, and trying to run the spread in Hurricane Katrina must of been running through his head and the heads of spartan fans everywhere. Once again, it appeared for a brief moment, that MSU was in danger of losing a game to ND that they had basically controlled throughout, and that the Irish had no business winning. But luckily for State, this is not Ty Willingham's Irish team, and the Irish weren't able to take the game that MSU was trying to hand them.
-This game reinforced my thought that if we played the Irish ten times, we'd win six or seven of them.
-MSU needs to expand the playbook a little, or Javon Ringer won't last the season. As we learned last year with Hart, if you ride one player two much you run the risk of not having him.
-ND might make a bowl game, but without a real running game they won't be winning that game. Throwing it deep on every other play won't work against good teams.

Other thoughts:
-Thinking about the continued implosion of Pac-Ten teams not coach by Pete Carroll, I believe it illustrates the problems that are inherent to West Coast football, and why despite occasional flashes, they will have problems maintaining the level of football throughout the conference that is played in the SEC, Big 12, or even the Big Ten. Yes the Pac-Ten schools have a large population from which to draw players. But they have a lot of competition from which to draw fans. They traditionally do a very poor job of drawing fans. The Rose Bowl was barely half full for the UCLA- Arizona game yesterday. Despite their enormous success, USC was only 18th in average attendance last year, and are the only Pac Ten team in the top twenty in attendance in the each of the last five years. The SEC has had at least seven teams in the top 20 each year, the Big 12 and Big Ten 10 four each. This is why Pac ten teams play more big road games than any other power conference. When you don't draw much more than 60,000 fans to every home game, you aren't sacrificing as much giving up a home game. Compare that to Auburn, OSU and others, which clear more than $1 million in profit every home game. That's why three out of the four losses to Mountain West teams were road games for the Pac Ten. Additionally, they also don't have as much close-by out of conference competition as the other power conferences have. Thus you have long cross-country road trips that lead to sleepwalking type performances like the one we saw out of Cal at Maryland.
-Bill Stewart of West Virginia turned on of the worst coaching performances you'll ever want to see in their game with Colorado on Thursday night. First the team came out somewhat flat and allowed Colorado two early scores. On a number of occasions, the 'Neers punted on fourth and short inside the Colorado 40 instead of going for it. When they finally did go for it with about 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, they chose to run a QB sneak that was stuffed for a one-yard loss, instead of running the zone read with Noel Devine and Pat White that gained them over 300 yards rushing. The game was tied with about 6 minutes left when WVU got the ball on their own 20. With two timeouts left, they ran the zone read with Devine and White over and over and moved the ball right down the field. With a minute and a half left, they were at the fifty and still had two timeouts. Still plenty of time to get into range for a game winning FG. They ran a quick out to Devine who didn't get out of bounds, ran a dive play that was stuffed, and didn't make any effort to stop the clock. When they finally used a timeout, there were only four seconds left, and they were on the Colorado 48. They ended regulation with a failed hail mary and one timeout left. In OT, they passed up a 4th and 1 and missed a chip shot FG and lost 17-14. Yes, this is the reason why they gave Stewart a five year extension. We can see why Rich Rod wanted out of there
-What the heck has happened to Rutgers? They lost to a very poor Navy team, and are starting to look more and more like Rutgers of old. Glad we dodged that bullet. If Schiano is not careful, he won't get that interview at Penn State when Paterno finally kicks the bucket.

"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how'd you like the play?"

Trying hard to stay positive here:
-Sam McGuffie looked like a man among boys out there. Just like Mike Hart, three games into his freshman season, and we can already tell that a lot of people missed the boat on him (He was listed a three star / four star recruit, depending on who you listen to). I'm guessing that starting job is his for the next four years.
-Steven Threet all of a sudden looked like an actual Big Ten QB. They still didn't throw a lot down field or anything over the middle, but you could see where they could actually have an offense that is semi-consistent. The gap between him and Nick Sheridan is growing larger by the minute. Hard to believe Sheridan started the opener.
-The O line looked better in spots. Perry Dorrestein filled in very admirably. With some players possibly coming back for Wisconsin in two weeks (Huyge and Ortmann), the line could round into some sort of shape.
-Overall you could start to see how this offense could come together. They have a set of about half a dozen or so core plays, and a number of things that all work off them. Given some time, they could be quasi-decent.
-The Zoltan Mesko roll-out play is very nice, provided you have a punter who can make the right call and can kick it well on the run. If there is an opening, you get a first down. If not, you've at least held up some defenders close to the line and given your gunners time to get down the field.

However:
-A loss is still a loss. And a loss to Notre Dame is worse. For the umpteenth time in my lifetime, we flat out gave away a game to a Notre Dame team that probably isn't very good, and might not be any better than us when all is said and done.
-The defense was very disappointing. We failed both times in the quick change scenario to stop them, couldn't defend a two-receivers pattern that resulted in a long ND TD, and couldn't tackle on another long ND run that killed some of our momentum before halftime. I don't think they cost us the game, but they didn't do much to help us win it either. I think before the season we felt this defense could be great. So far, I think it has been good, but nowhere close to great.
-The safety play has just been awful. Stevie Brown, in particular, is a 75 yard pass play waiting to happen. Bad angles, bad tackles, and just playing out of position..
-I didn't notice an egregious errors on the part of the LBs, but then again, I don't think ND did much to try and exploit them. Actually I don't think the Irish tried to do anything other than run out the clock once they got up by 21, and especially after the rains came.
-Of course that's what made the fumbles and missed opportunities. 21 ND points directly off unforced errors (three dropped balls without anyone touching them) and two drives stalled within the Irish 20. With the TOs, we win (or at least come much closer)

So where to from here? This doesn't look like an outstanding ND team (although part of that could be them dialing down after the big lead and due to the monsoon), and I would guess there are 4-5 teams better than them on our schedule, including the next two, Wisconsin and Illinois. It will be a real struggle to get to six or seven wins and keep the bowl streak going. As I've said many times in the past, my favorite trait of Carr's Michigan teams was their innate ability to come back from the dead (from a season perspective). It seemed like just about every year they would suffer one these losses, and everybody would write them off, and they would respond with a revitalizing win. As Bob Ufer once said. "Champions are never beaten." From OSU 95 to Illinois 07 and every one in between, you could never kill the spirit of Carr's teams. It now remains to be seen if Rich Rod's teams have that same quality

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.

Sound and Fury

With apologies to William Faulkner, thoughts about the this weekend's games.

-I found the Georgia reaction to their first touchdowns to be one of the most classless things I've seen this year. I generally think that people make too much of a big deal over post game celebrations. Who cares who planted what flag where? But to orchestrate an in-game celebration is ridiculous. I found it especially surprising given Mark Richt's reaction to his team's post-game celebrationagainst Vanderbilt. Considering how crazy people went over TO's Sharpee or the Joe Horn cell phone, I'm surprised more people haven't called out Richt for this. The Bulldogs are lucky they weren't playing in the Orange Bowl, or they might not have made it of the game alive.
-Speaking of the SEC East, this is starting to look like the year that the entire division goes 4-4. Tennessee is the only team that controls it's own destiny, but would anyone be surprised if they lost 2 out of their final three to Arkansas, Vandy, and Kentucky. I'm not sure I'd pick the Vols to beat any of the other SEC East teams on a neutral field, with the possible exception of Vandy.
-Not much to take from our game against perhaps the worst BCS conference team in the country with our backup QB and backup running backs, other than the fact that watching Mallet play a couple of games makes me appreciate Chad Henne even more.
-I get the feeling that with all the injuries, we really haven't seen a complete game from our offense. I hope we get one or two in the next three games.
-One of the downsides to the zone rushing attack is that we don't run as many screen plays as we used to. I think that a screen or swing pass to get Brown or Minor on the edge could be really effective.
-Ohio State looked scary good, especially on offense. Granted that Penn State isn't a top ten team, but they looked like they could name their score. The good news is that the OSU defense looked like it could be run on a little.
-All other considerations aside, I would love to see an Oregon - West Virginia championship game. That's the type of game that could be 55-50 at the half. If you thought the Boise / OU Fiesta bowl last year was fun, you ain't seen nothing yet.
-The reason why Hawaii shouldn't be in the BCS? They are 8-0 right now. Their 8 opponents to date have a grand total of 17 wins this year. This is after they beat 4-4 New Mexico State this week. Kansas and Ohio State, who have both been accused of having played no one this year have opponents with 30 and 37 wins respectively. Hawaii closes the year with 5-3 Fresno State, 4-4 Nevada, 2-6 Washington, and 7-1 Boise State, so the schedule gets a little tougher, but do they deserve a shot over an at-large BCS team?
-Bad news for Notre Dame haters, they streak over Navy just might continue. Sure this is an historically bad Irish team, but Navy just lost at home to Delaware 59-52. Of course, if a I-AA team scores 59 on Navy, Notre Dame should score a ton right? Now, if Notre Dame loses, not only do they lose to Navy for the first time since the Johnson administration, they lose their second game of the year to a team that lost at home to a I-AA (sorry FCS) team.
-New rankings are posted: South Florida stays near the top despite their second straight loss. USC drops off the table down to #73. Top riser and top faller among the top50 are both from the ACC, Clemson who beat Maryland on the road to jump to #27, and Virginia who lost to NC State and fell to #37. Big match up this week is #8 Arizona State at #6 Oregon.
-Would someone please tell the CUSA to stop with the Sunday night games. I've gotten used to the Thursday and Friday games, and have actually gotten to the point where I enjoy the chance to see the atmosphere at a place that normally doesn't get the limelight. But Sunday? The CFB weekend should end the moment the NFL starts.

"Sir, there are two men in white coats here to see you"

I was going to talk about the Penn State game, but then I saw a link to this unbelievable post made at The Rock Report. And by unbelievable I mean so divorced from reality as to be bordering on parody. But of course, it isn't parody, it's the mindset of much of Notre Dame's internet fan base.

The basic underlying premise of his post is the idea that the media is, or has been, waging some sort of campaign to keep Notre Dame from succeeding:

Little news flash to the media talking heads and scribes: The PR battle's over and ND won.

The media doesn't hate Notre Dame. The media doesn't love Notre Dame. Sure there are individual writers or broadcasters who have their own bias (hello Lou Holtz), but the media as a whole doesn't care about any one school or another. Multi-billion dollar conglomerates like ESPN, FOX and the AP care about one thing, Money. And ratings, advertisers, sales, i.e. anything that leads to money. As soon as something more interesting or compelling comes up, the "talking heads" will move on to something else. Suggesting that there is a media conspiracy against Notre Dame also ignores the key role that the media has played in the history of the Irish. From Grantland Rice to NBC, Notre Dame has gotten more coverage than any other program in college football history. This a paranoid delusion along the lines of those 9/11 conspiracy theories.

But the article doesn't stop there. He goes on to claim that Notre Dame has somehow turned a corner.

Thankfully, the media war is one [sic] we don't have to fight anymore. It DID matter, because our recruiting depended on it, but Mark May Inc. already lost… the critical program changes – the only things they can affect ND's future performance -- have already happened.

Supposedly the critical program changes that have occurred include:

• The hiring of Charlie Weis, who cares about the program, unlike its previous two coaches. The author spends a fair amount of the article savaging Davie and Willingham, claiming they betrayed the program because they held a passive-aggressive contempt for Notre Dame. His main evidence for this is that Willingham spoke to Washington about their coaching job before he was fired at Notre Dame. Of course, the fact that Notre Dame had already begun courting Urban Meyer when Willingham talked to Washington is not mentioned.
• The arrival of Corwin Brown, which is proof that Notre Dame is returning to glory:

Notre Dame doesn't get a talent like Corwin Brown if the coaching world thinks ND won't rise again.

Hmm, maybe Notre Dame got Corwin Brown because they were willing to pay him more as a defensive coordinator than the New York Jets were as a defensive backs coach.

• Jimmy Clausen, whose sterling 4.58 yards per attempt, 0 TD, 2 Int, and -104 yards rushing has convinced the author that "Clausen is special, and a fighter." I suppose it takes a fighter to get up after being sacked 15,000 times in three games. A brave man to line up behind the center when there is a better than 50% chance you will end the play running from a mean 300lb man determined to rip your head off.
• The outstanding recruiting classes that Weis has already put together, including the upcoming 2008 class:

I'd be more worried if we didn't' have the best incoming defensive line class (maybe in modern history) fantastic linebackers and defensive backs who already play like college juniors.

Hopefully for this guy, those defenders don't play like Notre Dame juniors, who have all the toughness of four-month-old Twinkies.

There is no mention of the possibility that Notre Dame's recent woes have more to due with the current coach than the ones that left three and six years ago. No comparison of the record of the current coach vs. his predecessors. No acknowledgement that the truly offensive output of a team coached by super-genius Weis E. Coyote might hinder future recruiting efforts.

They say that one of the definitions of insanity is watching the same thing happen again and again and expecting a different outcome. This goes beyond that. It's watching the same thing happen again and again and believing that it's not actually happening. They better be careful in South Bend on Saturday, the last time they got this many crazy people together in one place, they had to call in the ATF.

Piling On

I didn't really set out this blog to be a link fest, I've always figured that most of what I might link you could find on your own. But what the heck, there's nothing like the sweet elixir of a beat down of Notre Dame to help salvage what was quickly becoming a lost season.

First Hoover Street Rag presents what is soon to become the new Notre Dame fight song: Yakety Sax (or in this case, Yakety Sacks)


-Next comes an article from the South Bend Tribune suggests that this mess of a season is directly related to Weis' arrogance and his inability to see what is obvious to everyone else.
-A Chicago sport fan's blog, Foul Balls takes Charlie to task and lets loose with a number of zingers.

I can hear Weis' defenders: "But he's had to replace all the key offensive positions."
So what? He's been at Notre Dame for three years. Three years to recruit and train in anticipation of this very season. Three years to create a team in his own image and he puts together an offensive line a Pop Warner team could pick apart?
Oh my God, maybe he has created a team in his own image.

-Of course, MGoBlog eviscerates the Irish and Weis in particular, recalling a quote from one of Weis' first press conferences:

"They're going to have to learn about us, OK? Let them try to stop a pro-style offense, which has multiple personnel groups and multiple formations. Let's see how they are going to do. They've had their advantage because I've come into recruiting late. Well, now it's Xs and Os time. Let's see who has the advantage now."

Weis is so consumed with his own playcalling brillance, that he ignores the things that will actually make his players better. MGoBlog also points out that ND's starting O-line has as much experience and similar recruiting rankings as Michigan's. It's not Willingham's recruiting that's killing the Irish, it's Weis' unwillingness or inability to teach the most basic fundamentals of the game.
-Irish blog Blue-Gray Sky notes that Weis used 9 different offensive line combinations in Notre Dame's 13 possessions, and only one lineman dressed for the game and didn't play. While you could argue that the coaching staff was looking for a combination that worked, perhaps a little more patience would help.
-According to the blog, Rumors and Rants, the moderators over at the rivals.com site, Irish Illustrated feel that Charlie Weis has already lost this year's team and runs the risk of losing the team permanantly. (HT:Mgoblog)
-Even the loonies at NDNation are starting to doubt the myth of Charlie Weis, super genius.
-Perhaps the biggest statement on the state of ND's demise was the quiet after the game. There was little of the jubilation of last year, less of the chants mocking Notre Dame than there were in 2003. Part of it was a sense of relief for Michigan fans who had to endure a lifetime of jokes the last two weeks. But, I think part of it was Michigan fans feeling sorry for Notre Dame fans. Pity for Irish fans?!? What's next, Irish fans booing the team? If things don't improve, it will come soon.

Waking up the Echos...

of Gerry Faust that is!

Saturday was a extremely delightful day at the Big House. From the very first play of the game, just about everything that could go wrong of Notre Dame did, and just about anything that could go right for Michigan did.

A few observations on the Michigan performance:
-The defensive play calling was excellent. It was blitz heavy, they disguised their coverages, and it didn't feature any instances of Johnny Sears one-on-one on a much faster receiver.
-Although Slocum, and Mouton didn't play, Brandon Graham did and was outstanding with 3 1/2 sacks. His presence allowed Shawn Crable to move back to his natural LB position, and was also excellent with 4 TFLs.
-The tackling was one thousand times better. There was probably fewer missed tackles in this game than there was in about six or seven individual plays in the Oregon debacle.
-A lot of my hopes for the offense revolved around mixing up the play calling, keeping the defense honest. They didn't do much of that, because they didn't need to. What's the point of play action pass when they can't stop the run even when we telegraph the play.
-I was pleased with Mallet's performance, and I hope they give him a few more opportunities to throw next week, as I anticipate the Penn State to be a little tougher to run on.
-What can you say about Mike Hart. I heard one of the talking heads on Gameday refer to McFadden of Arkansas as the best pound for pound player in the country. He's not. He'd have to be one and a half times better to beat our Hart. He is a vision, power, and a refusal to be tackled. He must have broken 50 tackles in 35 carries yesterday. He moved into third on the all time rushing list at Michigan, he'll be number one before the season is over. The most unfortunate thing about our season opening losses is that he won't be in the Heisman hunt, and he's easily the most valuable player in the country.

I'm not sure how much the performance means for next week or the rest of the season, because the team they beat is quite possibly the worst team I've seen in Michigan Stadium in 25+ years of games. Their offensive and defensive lines have the consistency of jello. There were a number of times when every single O-lineman was beat by the man they were blocking. The d-lineman knew Hart was running left behind Long on four out of every five plays and still couldn't stop them. Their WRs have little to no speed. Their DBs were burned deep a couple of times, but chose to shove the Michigan WRs for the PI. Jimmy Clausen looked unimpressive, but its hard to tell how much was his fault. He definitely has a cannon, but it seems to me a couple of times he held onto the ball too long trying to make a big play. I don't think they have one player on their team that would start for Michigan. I was kinda shocked at just how bad they are. Considering that Notre Dame fired Ty Willingham after three seasons, despite him exceeding expectations off the field, and Weis' recent struggles. he should be feeling some heat if things don't improve soon. With USC, UCLA, BC, MSU, Purdue, MSU still to come, the likelihood of them making a bowl is slim to none. Heck they might have trouble wining even four game.

Some other observations from yesterday's games:
-Yikes, the big ten is putrid. Iowa lost to Iowa State who had shown nothing in losses to Kent State and Northern Iowa. Kirk Ferentz is officially off my wish list.
-How much does Minnesota miss Glen Mason? OT games against Bowling Green (loss), Miami (win) and a not as close as it looked loss to Florida Atlantic show that maybe Tim Brewster, who had never been a head coach or coordinator of anything wasn't ready for the job. Seriously, the Florida Atlantic might be the only FBS non conference win the Sun Belt gets this year. Too bad they can't play Syracuse.
-Northwestern's loss to Duke might be the worst of all the losses. Duke has lost 22 straight games. The last time they beat an FBS team it was still known as I-A and the president's approval rating was above 40%.
-You could hear the cursing from the Plains all the way up here when Alabama pulled out the win over Arkansas. The tide (pun intended) has already turned in that rivalry and we're not even out of September.
-The Florida/ LSU is starting to look like a a national semi-final game, unless Alabama, South Carolina or Georgia can throw a wrench into it. The other spot looks like USC's to lose.
-Florida State has lost almost all of the mojo, sex appeal, pizazz, whatever you want to call it, that they used to have in their 14 year run of top 5 finishes. Their game against CU in Boulder was an absolute snooze-fest.

Golden cites another article from a New Orleans paper talking about Miles to Michigan. This one includes a quote from Jim Carty of the AA News talking about Miles' desire to come back to Michigan. That quote from Carty is a little out of date, and Golden might want to check out a recent blog entry from Carty chastising the NO papers for the Miles to Michigan thing.
Golden has also published his conference standings from the Golden rankings for the first time this year. I will post the standings from my modified Golden rankings (including all Division One teams) later in the week, along with a brief explanation of the differences between our two rankings.

What we hope to see at saturday's Pillow fight

Some things we'd like to see:

-More play action from the M offense, and not just with the waggle. Given the way ND has struggled against the run, I would guess we will see a lot of 8 man fronts. Some play action to the Carson Butler or quick outs to Arrington or Manningham will help loosen that defense and will give Hart more room to run.

-No Greg Mathews. Mathews' kick of an Oregon player was inexcusable. He should be suspended for at least one game.

-Backup RBs who can hold on to the ball. Hart can't run the ball on every play. It would be nice to have someone else who can run with some authority.

-A focused Mario. No breaking off routes, no giving up on balls, and hold onto things that hit your hands.

-Mallet in the shotgun in obvious passing downs. He spent his entire HS career in the shotgun, he's comfortable with it, and it will give him more time to wait for those crossing routes to develop.

-No FB shuffle. Whenever we put the FB in motion, we always run that way, it's a dead giveaway. Of course you always go against that and run a play the opposite way. Maybe you could run the shuffle one way, fake the pitch to Hart going that way and give to the FB on a little counter going back the other way.

-Better tackling! - A good portion of our defensive woes will be alleviated if the first five people to reach a ball carrier didn't bounce off him like flies off a Sherman tank.

-Marques Slocum, Brandon Graham, and Jonas Mouton. These three guys who all figured to be starting or primary backups prior to the season will give the DL and LBs much needed depth. Brandon Graham is a true sophomore who might be the best DE on the team. If he plays, it will allow Shawn Crable to return to his more natural OLB position. Slocum, who waited two years to qualify for Michigan and then got suspended right before the first game after an MIP, will spell Terrance Taylor and Will Johnson at DT if he plays. Mouton is a redshirt freshman LB who might get some of Chris Graham's minutes.

-Some (at least thinly) disguised coverages. If we are going to run zone, make sure WR is covered so the zone isn't so obvious pre-snap. Rotate safeties at the last minute. Bring a corner blitz every now and then. In general don't let the emu get comfortable.

More of this:

And less of this:

Youtube presents, "Return to Glory"

Can't get enough of these youtube gems


Hopefully this scene will be repeated on Saturday, although I think that it will be more relief than excitement if we win. (Woo! We're not the worst big name college team out there!)

How soon till Hockey season starts?

Well, it's official, the App game was no fluke, and the Schembechler era is over.

Just about anything that could go wrong, went wrong. The offense moved the ball but couldn't put any points on the board (four red zone trip in the first four possessions resulted in one TD). The defense got beat every possible way. The tackling was horrible. The D line got no pass rush. The linebackers were constantly out of position. The defensive backs got torched repeatedly. Oregon scored 39, and probably left 20 points on the field. Michigan's three stars on offense, Mike Hart, Jake Long and Chad Henne all were injured. Henne didn't play the entire second half, left the locker room on crutches, and is doubtful for next week's game against the Fighting Leprechauns. His replacement, super freshman Ryan Mallet had his moments, but also looked very much like a freshman at other points.

So the high hopes of the season are gone, and a reassessment of priorities for the team and the coaching staff is in order:
-Priority number one is getting six wins and keeping the nation's longest bowl streak intact, even if it's a trip to the Insight or Motor City bowl. Where those wins are going to come from is any body's guess. If yesterday is any indication, a Ryan Mallet led offense will be extremely limited, especially if the opponent can limit the effectiveness of the running game. The defense is not likely to be good enough to win games on its own, even though there aren't any spread teams left on the schedule as dangerous as Oregon.
-Priority number two is a win this saturday. The last thing you want to do is be the one that gets Notre Dame healthy. Much has been said about the historically bad levels of these two teams. It is the ultimate pillow fight, the offense that couldn't move across the street, against a matador defense that would do any Spaniard proud. But no matter who the coach is next year, they will have to recruit against the little tuna, and a win in this game will help keep his bluster to a minimum. In a sense this might be priority number one, because I don't see how they will get to a bowl if they don't beat the Irish.
-Priority number three is a win up at East Lansing. While they might be able to get to six wins without a win there, a win by the State will be marketed by the Sparties as proof that the balance of power is switching in the state
-Priority number four is a win over Ohio State. Normally this would be the top priority, but as it seems highly unlikely, and Tressel's record against Carr will be irrelevant with a new coach coming in, I put it down the list. If a bowl game is secure by this point, this game will be all about sending Carr out on a high note, and helping the heal the psyche of the fan base. If I'm Carr, I'm thinking of announcing my retirement the Monday before the game, and turning all the negative energy that's pointed my way right now into positive, gratitude type vibe. If they get to six wins, and Carr announces before that game, he will get a huge standing ovation before the game. For as much as he is being reviled right now, there is still a lot of love for one the classiest coaches in the land, who has represented the school and the team with the greatest honor in the last dozen years.

Meanwhile, the task at hand for Bill Martin and the AD's office is as follows:
-Say nothing about Coach Carr that is not positive until he makes his retirement announcement. Something similar to the quote you made about you and Amaker being joined at the hip.
-Prepare your list of candidates. I would suggest starting with Tedford, Rodriguez, Schiano and Ferentz. Each candidate should have head coaching experience at the BCS level, should be a good Xs and Os guy, and should understand that their job is as much media relations as it is football coach.
-Quietly send out feelers to each person on your list to see if they might be interested. Make sure that none of these feelers can be discovered. It is better to not contact someone than it is to risk them being put in the awkward positions of having to deny their interest, or you being put in a position where it looks like you are pushing Carr out the door.
-Once Carr announces, near or at the end of the season, begin your negotiations in earnest. Ideally you should be down to two or three candidates within a week after he announces. Remember that any coach who is going to play games in the media about the position is probably not worth hiring.
-Set a goal of announcing your new coach by the time the national championship game is over. This gives the new coach time to shore up the recruiting class.

If Carr handles the team with class and the team rededicates itself to improvement, I think they can get to six wins. If Martin handles the football search like he did the basketball search, we'll be in good shape.
But of course, what do I know, I thought they'd beat Appalachian State