Cam Gordon (#4) front and center as Hoke addresses the TEAM (the TEAM! the TEAM!)

It is said that there are three phases of the game: offense, defense and special teams. If you watched any Michigan football last year, you'd know that that team only really had one, and come B1G season that phase wasn't even really that good. 

Here's a great stat for you to sum it up: last year the Wolverines' field goals made-FG attempted was 4-14, which is 29%. To give you a little context, Ohio State (best team in B1G last year) was 20-26 (77%) and Indiana (worst team in B1G) was 18-21 (86%). Attempts look a little low for Michigan? That's because our field goal squad was so inept that Michigan simply stopped attempting field goals, as they were equated to foot-based turnovers. The situation became so dire that a 4th and 3--heck even 4th and 10 or 4th and 15--anywhere within reasonable field goal range was not even a question: the Wolverines were going for it. Having gone to Michigan under Lloyd Carr which was about as conservative (read: defense, special teams wins games) as it comes in the B1G next to Tresselball, Meech special teams under Rodriguez was an unequivocal abomination. So what I'm trying to say is the answer last year on fourth down and ANYTHING inside the 50 at any time in the game was (shrug, sigh deeply) and GO FOR IT!! 

But that was then, and this is now.

Continue reading this post »

First year H.C Brady Hoke with Denard Robinson.

Michigan at a glance...

First Season: 1879
Head Coach: Brady Hoke (1st Year, 0-0)
All-Time Record: 884–308–36 (.735)*
2010 Record: 7-6 (3-5 Conference)

I'd prefer not to linger on last season. I'm about to head off to medical school in Ann Arbor in the fall, and after having graduated from undergrad at Meech in 2007, I conveniently skipped the entire Rich Rod era in Ann Arbor. I'm just going to pretend like it never happened. But for the purposes of this blog, I'll indulge my masochistic tendencies one more time. Early on, it looked like all the pieces were finally falling into place for Rich Rodriguez when his secret weapon was unveiled against season opener UConn: Denard Robinson. Morale was high amongst Michigan fans as the team beat a lackluster Notre Dame squad in thrilling fashion for the second year in a row. But one thing was apparent as the Wolverines lit up a bunch of cupcakes (UMass and Bowling Green) on their out of conference schedule: the cupcakes were lighting up our defense. So when the Wolverines actually began to play legit Big Ten defenses, all the early Heisman talk for Denard Robinson began to die out. After an early win over IU, the Wolverines were absolutely demolished at home by MSU (to make RR 0-3 against Little Brother, which thrilled them beating the worst three teams in Michigan history) and Iowa. After the Wolverines eked out a 67-65 3 OT win against a terrible Illinois team and beat Purdue on the road, the Wolverines got shellacked on the road at PSU against their walk-on QB. They finished the season nicely by the annual pummeling at the hands of Wisconsin and Ohio State. There appeared to be a silver lining when Meech made their first bowl game under Rodriguez only to get beaten severely by SEC doormat Mississippi State. RR was fired shortly thereafter, and Brady Hoke, who coached the defensive line under Lloyd Carr at Michigan from 1995-2002, was hired to be the 19th head coach of the Michigan football program.

*(Most all-time wins in college football history, highest winning percentage in college football history, friends)

Continue reading this post »

Michigan fans are freaking out. My favorite response is a tweet from a friend that goes "You don't fire Rich Rodriguez to hire Brady f-ing Hoke!" Who is this guy anyway? Did Michigan really hire a guy with a 47-50 career record to be their next head coach?

Dave Brandon now looks like he has led the biggest botched coaching search in America. However, I don't really think so. 

Continue reading this post »

Well, I guess we should have seen this coming. One last "worst" was the straw that broke the camel's back: following a 38-point shellacking by Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl (worst in school history, friends), Rich Rodriguez has been fired from Michigan.

The experiment is officially over. It failed. 

Looking back, it's fairly easy to say that this wasn't exactly a match made in heaven. From the very moment he was named head coach of the Wolverines (and the inauspicious WVU buyout fiasco), Rodriguez has been embattled. Maybe it's his aw-shucks country boy demeanor that rubbed the fanbase the wrong way (look, our helmets got wings!), maybe it was the cursing in practice, or perhaps it's his fondness for Josh Groban. Or maybe all three. But despite all the internal turmoil--the frivolous practicegate allegations, star recruits not qualifying, etc--the fact is that Rodriguez couldn't deliver on the field: 6-18 in the Big Ten, 2-11 against ranked teams. For the winningest program of all time, that doesn't cut it. 

And thus the "I told you so's" begin to pipe up, claiming that they knew the spread could never cut it in the Big Ten. But is that really the case? 

Continue reading this post »

Things to do for a Michigan fan on January 1st:

• Wake up (most likely hungover from New Years celebrations).
• Make sandwich.
• WATCH MICHIGAN IN A BOWL GAME?!?! HAS THE WORLD GONE MAD?!?

At last. At long last. Salvation! I can still remember the message boards three years ago saying: "I just hope Rich Rodriguez can keep our unprecedented bowl streak alive." Well, we all know how that went. Now after a two year drought, Michigan fans everywhere now no longer take a New Years Day bowl game thrashing by USC for granted. I know I won't. 

As the dust settles on this 2010 season, the fans are beginning to see what is taking shape at Michigan. At 7-5, Rich Rodriguez finished the season right where the majority of our staff at OTE predicted; not outstanding, but not terrible. When all is said and done, 3rd year head coach Rich Rodriguez started 9 freshmen on defense, put together an offense that finished 6th in the nation in total offense, and 3 of the 5 losses were to teams that finished in the top 10 nationally. 

But as Denard Robinson is racking up award after award as only a sophomore--Big Ten offensive player of the year (by both the coaches and the media), breaking not one but two NCAA records, the Tribune’s Silver Football award as the Big Ten’s MVP (as voted on by the conference coaches), finished 6^th in the Heisman voting, etc—the magnitude of what this football team accomplished offensively this season is becoming clear, and what this young team is capable of down the road is becoming very exciting.

Available for a limited time only? 

 In addition to a prolific offense, this season produced another enormous milestone for this Michigan program under Rich Rodriguez: the Wolverines finally qualified for a bowl game. As only current seniors on this team have been to a bowl game prior (besting a Tebow-led Florida in the 2008 Citrus Bowl), this is a tremendous achievement for the players and the coaches.

However, the remarkable offensive achievement this season is marred by a staggering regression of both defense and special teams. In terms of creating a successful football TEAM over his three years at the helm, Rich Rod has only done 1/3 of the job.

It’s like dating a fabulous-looking girl with whom you have incredible sex, but she’s a raging alcoholic with borderline personality disorder. Law of averages? C’mon!

 In a season marked by the extremes of success and failure, milestones and records (both for offensive achievement and defensive horrendousness), the question on everybody’s mind is: will Rich Rodriguez be retained?

Continue reading this post »

Let the discussion begin!

*For complete list (including honorable mention), you can check out the official Big Ten announcement here.

2010 All-Big Ten Conference Football Team

As selected by CONFERENCE COACHES

Continue reading this post »

Stop me if you've heard this one before: an electrifying win over an overrated Notre Dame team, struggling with non-conference patsies, eking out a win against Indiana, and then folding against our instate rivals. The deja vu is all-too-apparent for Michigan fans.

The risky formula for victory thus far in 2010 was flying by the seat our pants: 10th ranked offense in the nation and the 119th in pass defense in the nation (out of 120 teams, friends), nonexistant special teams. But when Michigan's sophomore quarterback (he's only had six starts, keep in mind) finally looked like a sophomore, and the Wolverines sustained a critical injury to the paper-thin secondary, the team imploded in disastrous fashion at home against our instate rivals with America watching. After dropping $200 on a flight to Ann Arbor and $100 on a student ticket to get a front row seat for this good old-fashioned beat down, I was not a happy camper.

Is Michigan really a better team than a year ago? Poor execution, lack of discipline and folding with the slightest change in momentum are eerily similar to the hallmark qualities of RR-coached Meech football in 2008 and 2009. How good are we? 

Continue reading this post »

Denard Robinson = incredible. With his 502 yards of total offense (by himself... that's a school record, friends) against Notre Dame, he becomes only the 9th QB in FBS history to gain 200 yards rushing and 200 yards passing in the same game. 

After watching that Meech game last Saturday, you might be saying to yourself "Holy hell, where did that offense come from? Denard Robinson can throw?!" I hate to say I told you so, but, well, I did. 

So what did we learn, and what would I like to see going forward? Here are my general impressions, offensively:

Denard Robinson is fast.

First and foremost, we are finally beginning to see the offense that made Rich Rodriguez so successful at West Virginia. In case you missed it, against UConn Denard Robinson rushed for 197 yards, the most in school history by a QB. And this is only the first game of the season. What impressed me the most about Denard, however, was his ability to make accurate passes. As Rich Rod stated, since we were running the ball well there was no need to throw, but still, Denard's statline throwing the ball was impressive: 19/22 for 186 yards, 1 TD. 

Continue reading this post »

At Michigan all hearts are true/All loyal to the Maize n' Blue.

I. Case History/Opening Statement

Now, I'm no lawyer. But being a Michigan fan for the past two years, I certainly know the definition of cruel and unusual. In the Rich Rodriguez era, the Wolverines have had the two worst seasons in the history of this proud program, overall having gone a woeful (8-16) with a conference record of (3-13). And things don't appear to be getting much better: the defense, after finishing 85th in the nation in scoring last season, returns this season having lost its four most productive players in DE Brandon Graham, DE Stevie Brown, CB Donovan Warren, and now, with a season-ending injury, CB Troy Woolfolk. With Woolfolk's injury, along with a bizarre twist of defections and non-qualifiers, there is literally nobody with non-garbage game experience (and, some may argue, talent) to play CB for the Wolverines this season. Ranked towards the bottom of the Big Ten in almost every national preseason poll, nobody is expecting the Wolverines to do much this season. 

Coach Rod, grumpy. 

It's clearly do-or-die for Rodriguez as he enters his third season with the Wolverines, and we certainly don't have the momentum. After winning the first four with true freshman Tate Forcier at the helm, including a riveting late game comeback against the once-again overrated Fighting Irish, Michigan began a precipitous slide in which we lost every game (I don't include Delaware State here), including an embarrassing 30-13 shellacking by the Zooker, who's seat is the only one hotter than Rodriguez's entering this year. It wasn't a restful off-season either, with the first NCAA investigation in school history, a solid recruiting class that was overshadowed by a top flight recruit with a checked legal past (who, along with two other recruits, ultimately did not qualify), and, most recently, the crippling blows to our secondary. The Wolverines have their work cut out for them this season.

 
More Closing Arguments:

Ohio State

Indiana

Michigan State

Minnesota
Northwestern

Wisconsin

Continue reading this post »

Paternoville.  Population 700.

This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

I guess this is really about preference.

Are you a simple tailgater? Do you just need a beer and the knowledge that football will be played in a couple of hours to make you happy?  Pop open a generic beer, you're easy to please.

Or do you go to the same place every year and eat the same food? Is your morning/afternoon tailgating routine a finely tuned machine? Do you get misty eyed thinking about the bridges, roads, and tennis courts you walk/stumble over to find your way to the stadium? Have you ever been arrested while tailgating? If this describes you a bit better, leave us your favorite traditions and stories from those magical hours spent ingesting brats and beers before the game begins....and after the game ends.

Continue reading this post »

David Molk: MVP? Let's hope so.

There were several possible candidates for the pre season MVP: So RB Vincent Smith, Jr DT Mike Martin, So DE Craig Roh and So QB Tate Forcier to name a few. But with the criterion as: the member of team that a) is most responsible and essential for the success of the team by his superb playing abilities; b) the best player on the team, c) exhibits outstanding leadership qualities, the answer was clear: RS Jr. C David Molk is the guy.

Offensive line is not the most glamorous of positions. Like all offensive linemen, what David Molk contributes to the team can't be measured statistically (literally, there are no statistics). However, when Molk went down last season on the third game of the season against Easter Michigan, the impact of his absence for the remainder of the season was very sorely felt. Our downward spiral seemed to remarkably coincide with Molk's absence: as soon as he became injured, we basically stopped winning. Coincidence? Hardly.

Continue reading this post »

Eeeee... I'm a little girl for Mike Barwis! 

Can you name the Director of Strength and Conditioning for your favorite college football team? No? Can you name any Director of Strength and Conditioning in the entire country? You've got to be kidding, right? That's an alternate universe of obscurity that's beyond the scope of even the most rabid super fan. But if you're at all familiar with the University of Michigan Wolverines football program under the leadership of Coach Rodriguez, you've probably heard the name that is synonymous with strength and conditioning at U of M: Mike Barwis. So what makes Mike Barwis the greatest contemporary cult figure in all of Michigan sports? A mixture of toughness, grit, passion, excellence, love, fear (of him, that is), with a little bit of intrigue sprinkled in for good measure.

Continue reading this post »

It goes without saying that the 2010 season is make-or-break for Rich Rodriguez and his zone-read spread-n-shred offense. Though good QB play is essential for any offense, the success of Rich Rodriguez's offense in particular requires a QB who can be a viable running threat in order to create the numbers mismatch that is the central concept of the option offense. Without a QB who can do that, well... see Michigan offense circa 2008.

What will make this spring a particularly intriguing one is the battle at the QB position between three young candidates. Will it be the incumbent Lindsay-Lohan body double sophomore Tate Forcier; the dynamic rocket-powered, human turnover (née Denard Robinson); or highly-touted prototype RR QB incoming freshman Devin Gardner? Here's the skinny on each:

Tate Forcier (sophomore):

Best thing about freshmen? They become sophomores. Having started at QB all of 2009 as a true freshman, Forcier enters the QB battle this spring as the player with the most game experience. Forcier is a very polished passer, having been schooled on the position since the womb by controversial QB coach Marv Marinovich. After starting last season 4-0, including leading a dynamic comeback win over then-ranked Notre Dame, Forcier was plagued by a nagging shoulder injury--how significantly limiting this injury actually was to Forcier is just now coming to light--accompanied by the perfect accoutrement of the inevitable slew of freshman QB mistakes (including not securing the ball, see above).

Continue reading this post »

SECOND IN A SERIES: THE MICHIGAN SPRING FIELD GUIDE

Offseason Cliff Notes:

Oh my, where to begin. The Wolverines have had what one might call an "eventful" offseason.

Coming off a 2009  season that began with promise (4-0) then ended in a face-first plummet (1-7 Big Ten, Overall 4.33-7: I'm counting Delaware State as a third of a team), Rich Rodriguez and Co entered this offseason having endured a  second consecutive losing season second, as well as second consecutive season without a bowl. For the winningest program of all time, there's certainly room for improvement. All we wanted to do was to limp into the offseason, lick our wounds, and just be free from all the stresses of an underachieving and disappointing Wolverines football program, if just for a few months. Unfortunately, the offseason was not without its fair share of distractions that would serve to further destabilize the team and put more heat on Rodriguez, about which I opined on The Rivalry a few weeks ago.

The controversy flared in February with the signing of a 27-man recruiting class that included blue-chip safety prospect Demar Dorsey out of Florida. Wolverine fans were up in arms due to Dorsey's legal history--which included 2 arrests for armed robbery as a teenager, for which both charges were dropped. Most recently, the Wolverines were in the news again for the long-awaited (though largely innocuous) NCAA allegations. Not exactly the quiet and relaxing offseason we had hoped for.

Continue reading this post »

Though not at all surprised. Via FanIQ:

In case you haven't turned on the TV or fired up the ole' interweb (which is impossible, since you're reading this esteemed blog), you may have missed that the news about my beloved University that is being splattered across the ESPN bottom line. The University faces 5 NCAA violations, and has 90 days to respond. A recap of these violations:

• Football players were required to participate in more than the maximum allowed practice hours by anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours a week.

• Graduate assistant coach Alex Herron provided "false and misleading information" to NCAA enforcement staff on whether he monitored summer workouts he was not allowed to attend.

• Head coach Rich Rodriguez "failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the football program and failed to adequately monitor the duties and activities" of his quality control staff.

• The athletic department "failed to adequately monitor its football program to assure" NCAA compliance.

Not that we didn't know this was coming. Back in August when the Detroit Free Press's own joke of a journalist Michael Rosenberg broke his leaky and woefully underresearched, unsubstantiated, hyperbole-laden shot at Rich Rodriguez (but of course, I'm not biased), we knew this day would come. Admittedly, the charges are worse than many, including myself, had assumed them to be. However, it appears that many of the violated guidelines in question delineated by the NCAA are vague, misunderstood, and are commonly believed to be violated by pretty much every other major NCAA team. In terms of the violation, there are only a handful of REALLY bad charges in here (the dishonest grad student is shameful, but that's why he's not a coach). The blame lands squarely on Rodriguez for poor record-keeping practices by his subordinates, as well as a misinterpretation of the grey-areas in the NCAA guidelines concerning allotted stretching time and the roles of our "quality control staff." There certainly was no malicious intent. With this in mind, Michigan should emerge fairly unscathed from this whole ordeal. [Edit: the skinny on what exactly the allegations mean and their likely consequences are put in layman's terms here].

Let's just hope this is the end of it, and no backlash incident occurs that would further destabilize the already-fragile program. What kind of incident, you ask? Well, let's just hope somebody doesn't think it's an excellent idea to poll disgruntled former players on the matter for a bias-free opinion, blowing this whole thing out of proportion. D'oh! Ladies and gentlemen, Morgan Trent:

Continue reading this post »

This continues our series recapping the last ten seasons in the Big Ten.

I. Overview

For the Wolverines of the University of Michigan, the previous decade was one that saw the excellence, majesty, power and rich winning tradition historically associated with the Wolverines' football program displayed as prominently as it ever had, and then subsequently turned on its head. The same decade in which records were broken for career achievement in every statistical category would also see 50-year records broken of disappointment and failure. The Wolverines, as strong a brand name as there is in college football, have seen their ship take on water the last couple years. How soon will Ann Arbor again smell the sweet scent of football success?

More of the Big Ten Decade in Review:

Purdue

Wisconsin

Indiana

Ohio State

Michigan State

Minnesota

Iowa

Continue reading this post »

This is National Signing Day. Christmas. The day for which we recruitniks have been pining. The day that marks the culmination of a year or more of obsessive daily blog-checking, commentary, frustration, disappointment and elation. Most of all, especially in the case of Michigan fans, this day signifies Hope. After having suffered through the 2008 and 2009 seasons, marred by inappropriate personnel, youth and underachievement, we can once again look towards the future of Michigan football. Signing day gives us the opportunity to watch firsthand how Rich Rodriguez intends to build the program by stocking it with "his" type of players. As ESPN recruiting analyst Tom Luginbill aptly put it: 

"You don’t take a program that for years and decades and decades was based up strength, size and power, and then all of a sudden, with a 180-degree turn, hire a coach that’s going to be about speed, quickness and agility and change an 85-man roster over night," he said. "I don’t think that’s reality. I think that takes some time. I don’t think you can wave a magic wand."

True dat. Now that the future of Michigan football has been inked, having signed 27 student athletes to letters of intent, we can discuss the general trends that have arisen--both from this year and the previous two years of recruiting--in what RR is trying to with the program by examining the personnel he's gathering.

Continue reading this post »

Hometown: Detroit, MI

Height: 6-2

Weight: 263

Strengths: Explosiveness and quick first step, pass rush, rush defense, motor

Weaknesses: not prototypical size for an NFL defensive end, thirst for blood of tyrants.

Comparisons: Dwight Freeney, Mahatma Ghandi

Continue reading this post »

It appears that in the time between beating Michigan and playing in the Rose Bowl, Terrelle Pryor somehow learned to throw the ball accurately. As a Michigan fan, this terrifies me. 

With the high accolades coming in (#1 recruit in the country, next coming of Christ, etc...) TP's illustrious Ohio State career has been what many, including myself before the Rose Bowl, would call a complete disappointment. Replete with subpar play, apparent inability to learn the offense even in his second year, lack of any semblance of progress in the passing games, and several Tressel-forehead-slapping public gaffes (including my personal favorite "everybody... kills people."), it looked like TP was better suited for the accolade of all-time biggest bust. And I was enjoying every savory minute of it. 

Continue reading this post »

The media has spoken, and they say that Donovan Warren, Brandon Graham and Zoltan Mesko (his royal punt-ness) are all Big Ten first team. 

It may come as a surprise to some that, for a team that finished 9th in the Big Ten in total D, two of the 11 best players in the Big Ten on D played for Meeechigan.

However, if you were a team that played against Meech this season, your chances are pretty good that your QB knows what Brandon Graham's breath smells like. Fear. With 25 tackles for loss, the senior defensive end led the Big Ten in that category, and generally pitched a tent in the opponents' backfield all season. He's a monster, as well as the very definition of a true Michigan Man for always playing his heart out during a nightmarish junior and senior season for Michigan football. With the requisite full Michigan bias, I also believe that Brandon Graham deserves to be an All American, and should be if all is well and right in the football universe. BG said in an interview that he cries after games, but then on Mondays went out and took care of business. He can wipe his tears with the enormous pile of money he's going to get as a first rounder's signing bonus.

Last season, D Warren had some "disagreements," with then D-coordinator Scott Shafer, a general whiny attitude along with fairly inconsistent play. This season he's really matured and has become a leader on the defense. He's finally playing at the level that was expected of him when he was ranked a unanimous 5-star prospect coming out of Long Beach, CA. D Warren's most telling influence this season can't really be quantified by a statistic, mostly because teams generally didn't throw at him. This was especially true when Boubacar Cissoko was playing (and a Michigan student, whoops!). Thank the sweet lord D Warren will most likely be back next season; our D needs the help. Well done, Donovan.

Continue reading this post »