One of the things that they've added to the Michigan Stadium experience this year is the hype video before the players come out onto the field. While every team has these type of videos, and many are rather run of the mill, or cringe-worthy, I think some of the videos they've used this year have been ok. The one they used at the start of the IU game was particularly good. It used perhaps the most famous Bo speech, which I have previously advocated for.
With the Big Ten Media Days starting this afternoon, it's time to awake the blog from its off-season hibernation and start to gear up for the impending football season. In the next few days / weeks leading up to the season, we have a while you were away post summarizing off-season doings, some discussion of adjustments I'm going to make to my version of the Golden rankings, overview-type previews of assorted teams on Michigan's schedule, along with some general thoughts about the outlook for different BCS conferences, some random musings on future schedules, and perhaps another installment of The List.
For now, a hype video made from our spring game, which made the rounds at some point this summer and features the new hope for the offense, 18-year old Tate Forcier. (HT: The Wolverine Blog)
Terrance Robinson, Klein, Texas A short but sweet video highlighting a sick spin move. Klein was player of the year in the Houston area in '07
Marcus Witherspoon, Atlantic City, NJ More grainy video from the land of Springsteen and the Sopranos. The video lists Witherspoon as a DE, but at 6-2, 225, he's likely to end up as a LB
Sam McGuffie, Cypress, Texas Last but certainly not least, the internet wunderkind, faster than a speeding linebacker, more powerful than a pulling guard, and able to leap small defenders in a single bound, I give you McGuffie's Mixtape (as if you haven't already seen this)
Michael Shaw, Trotwood, Ohio Originally comitted to Penn State, changed his mind late in the game
Justin Feagin, Deerfield, Fla Seen mostly as insurance in case a certain #1 QB recruit from Pennsylvania makes the wrong decision, Justin Feagin is a burner from South Florida. I love the use of AI's infamous quote in this video
Mike Martin, Detroit Catholic Central A prodigious video collection of highlights from the impressive looking DT
Brandon Smith, New Brunswick, NJ One of several players we got from the state of New Jersey, Brandon Smith was listed as a Safety by most services, but did play QB in HS and might be more Pryor insurance. Video quality is not great, but it does showcase his "skillz"
Ok, so this is a few days late, but I decided to put together some videos of our most recent additions to the Michigan Football program.
Numerous HTs: MGoBLog, Varsity Blue Boubacar Cissoko, Detroit Cass Tech Super quick CB from Detroit who was the first commit in the class. Interesting background story about him here.
Brandon Moore, Trotwood, Ohio
Kevin Koger, Toledo, Ohio
Roy Roundtree, Trotwood, Ohio This is the recruit that prompted Joe Tiller to go off on Rich Rodriguez, for violating some sort of "gentleman's" agreement not to recruit players verbally comitted elsewhere. Of course the fact that virtually every coach in the Big Ten has done something similar is lost on Tiller.
I don't understand why everyone seems to think the SEC is all that great. Every time we play them we win (13-4-1 all time now, including 7-3 in bowl games) Don't know why the Buckeyes seem to have so much trouble;-)
All kidding aside, what a great win against a very dangerous offensive team. The coaching staff gets all the credit in the world for coming out swinging, and not letting up on the offense all game. While fans around the country might think this was something radically different for Michigan, this is actually something that Michigan fans recognize. For a long time Michigan fans have lamented Lloyd Carr's "two offenses" philosophy. Carr has admitted in the past that the offense has two purposes, one is to score, the other is to possess the ball to keep it away from the other team. This philosophy manifests itself most of the time in a conservative, run or die trying offense that is the dinosaur that most fans associate with Michigan. But sometimes when Michigan gets down big, or needs to score late in a game, they will come out in four or five wide and will throw the ball all over the field. The difference in this game is that they played the entire game as if they were down 14 midway through the fourth quarter. -They also added a number of trick plays, or variations of things that they normally don't run. The attempted a pass to tackle Jake Long. They ran a number of WR sweeps to Manningham. They ran a throw back pass where Manningham threw it back to Henne who threw it down field. They ran a beautiful throw back screen to TE Carson Butler that went for big yards. Basically they left no stone unturned, and tried everything but the kitchen sink. It was a thing of beauty, and something Michigan fans have been clamoring for for a long time. I wonder if Rich Rod offered any help with the game plan. -Henne and Arrington probably made themselves a bunch of money today. There will be other QBs taken ahead of Henne, but he could be a real steal for some team. His performance today was the best by a Michigan QB since Tom Brady's 3-TD, 369 yard game against Alabama in the 2000 Orange bowl. Hopefully Arrington will be back next year, but he looked like the next great Michigan receiver. It would be a huge plus for us if Rich Rod can convince him and Super Mario to return. -I think today's game, and the preparation leading up to demonstrate why Scott Loeffler and Erik Campbell should be rehired. -If anyone tries to tell you that this was a win for midwest muscle over southern speed, tell them to go back and check the tape. Michigan was the faster team. Yes, Harvin is very fast, but Michigan's receivers ran circles around the Florida DBs. The Michigan Dline dominated the Florida offensive line by stunting and blitzing them to death. -So what does this win mean in the grand scheme of things? They broke their bowl losing streak, showed an exciting, dynamic offense, and beat one of college football's "golden boys" in Urban Meyer. It means that we aren't as stuck in the stone ages as had been talked about. The transition to Rich Rod might not be as painful as we thought. The Michigan personnel isn't as incompatible with the spread as some in the media suggested. The next month or so should be very interesting, with new coaches, and new recruiting news almost every day. -Finally, this win just feels right because of Lloyd's departure. He's a real mensch who always cared about developing men as much as developing players. It just wouldn't have been right for him to leave with a three game losing streak.
Other Stuff: -Memo to the *uckeye fans who were congratulating Michigan fans on the win Thanks, but don't go thinking that our win tells us anything about your game with LSU. The team that played today was totally different than the one you beat in November: focused, healthy, and loose. If they played against you the way they did today, you'd have lost to Florida today, while we would have been subjected to another loss to USC in the Rose Bowl. And of course, LSU doesn't the same weaknesses Florida does on defense. -Too bad the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl couldn't have switched opponents to create USC-Georgia and Illinois-Hawaii match-ups. Those would have been a lot more compelling. I like that the lower conferences have a shot at the BCS now (albeit a slim one). Hawaii deserved a BCS bid, just like the champion of the Atlantic Sun deserves a spot in the Big Dance. The fact that they were blown out doesn't change that. Illinois, on the other hand, didn't belong in the Rose Bowl. Certainly not when Missouri was available. I wouldn't be surprised if they a big disappointment next year and miss a bowl game. -As an outsider, I like the Neuheisel hire by UCLA. Despite his past transgressions, he will bring a an excitement to the program, and might be just the guy to match Pete Carroll's youthful exuberance. If he gets Norm Chow as his OC, things could get real exciting in the City of Angels.
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.
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!)
Being an old fuddy-duddy (in a college town, that's anyone who remembers having to get up to change the channel), I'm not as quick to jump on all the wonderful toys available on the world wide web. As such, i've only recently discovered the amazing space-time continum bending propeties of YouTube and endless supply of clips of all shapes and sizes. So, I'd like to share some of the college football related videos I've stumbled upon recently.
Today's clips feature a couple of Michigan students who traveled to every home and away game the last two years and made short little videos about each one set to various classic (or at least old) rock tunes. Each one starts with some set-up, some pictures of them leaving home for the game, some video and pictures around campus before the game, some in-game crowd shots, and ends with the Michigan Daily headline.
We start with last year's game of the year, at Ohio State
Next, the trip to Penn State in late October
The F'in Beat Down in south Bend
Finally a shorter clip from the 2005 PSU game that features a great crowd shot after Manningham scores the winner.
The thing I like about these videos is that they capture some of the experiences of college football that aren't visible on a TV. For me, gameday is a total experience that starts the moment you leave home. Some of my most vivid memories of games when I was a kid revolve around the reaction in the crowd to the game, or of the pre-game hype and pagentry that envelopes the campus. This is especially true when you travel to an away game. Long before game time, usually when the most of the fans are still asleep, you don the battle gear and apply the war paint to begin the long trek to the game. The whole way there you are thinking about the game. By the time kickoff arrives, you have reached a feaver pitch. Usually you are significantly outnumbered, so you have to be at your loudest to be heard. Away college football games, especially against a rival, are the most intense sporting events out there.
