With six minutes and change left in a football game that the Michigan Wolverines had equally given away and forcibly taken from them, Denard Robinson and Company sat inches away from a 1st and goal and mere yards away from a tying score...  Momentum was draped in Maize and Blue; a simple Denard dive was all that separated Michigan from storming back to tie a game that had largely been dictated by Michigan State to that juncture.  The march towards the tying score was already casting a pall over the crowd in Spartan Stadium that had watched their team stake itself to a two touchdown lead with equal parts toughness and idiocy.   It was the defining moment of the football game...

Michigan had arrived at this point with a struggling offense that had seemingly decided to eschew any sort of adjustment to the constant up-the-middle pressure that State brought throughout the day.  This was coupled with a collection of misfires in downfield passing in the midst of a wind that would've been at home at St. Andrews.  The ratio of "TAKE OFF DENARD!!!" screams to snaps was far greater inn this game than any other this season, which usually is an ominous forecast of the result.  More on this later.  

Yet despite those struggles, there was Michigan yards away from a tying score and wrestling control of the football game away from the Spartans in a manner that would've made Mike Hart and Chad Henne proud.  In a time where the situation screamed THROW ROCK, Michigan threw out a pair of safety scissors.  Urban Meyer described the aftermath of Al Borges calling a slow-developing play action when Michigan hadn't politely given either of its running backs the ball the entire half as: "part of the game" and that it would've been a great call had the corner blitz not been on.  With all due respect to a great former coach and a coordinator who both clearly dwarf my football knowledge in an embarrassing way, it was the wrong call on the wrong place on the field at the wrong time.  That's three wrongs when even one should raise an eyebrow in the calculus of play-calling.  When your offense all day has been predicated on Denard, and everyone in the stadium knows that Denard will be the guy with the ball on the play of the game, running a play action where Denard turns his back to the play on 4th and inches, not 4th and goal, but 4th and inches, just doesn't make much sense.  All that was needed was a first down, this wasn't a score or go home situation, you have a quarterback who picks up five yards by simply catching the snap and you don't give him the ball with a chance to read the defense and make a play.  Didn't make sense at that time and it certainly doesn't make sense now.  Guh.

More after the jump...

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So for those that missed it, Gene Smith came on to the CBS post-game grinning ear to ear following his team's victory this afternoon over Michigan, but it didn't last long. For those that are not aware, Smith is not only the AD of Ohio State, but the chair of the selection committee for the tournament (stunner eh?). He showed up to be interviewed on the process... NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND!  

CBS's Seth Davis and crew started the questioning off about none other than JIM TRESSEL!  Stock footage and all. Smith not only was caught totally off-guard, but his visual response to the questioning of the penalty and why they didn't AT LEAST suspend him for two conference games was worth every penny. The smile and blood ran away from his face and all he could manage was  "Uhhhhhhhhhhh um, we have uh, an ongoing investigation....."  Two solid questions about Tressel, on basketball coverage no less, and the AD of the school has no response... it's only the beginning Buckeye fans.

The Wolverines attempt to get to .500 in the conference against the Illini at 8:30 pm on the BTN.  

GO BLUE!

Get me out of this.  

Warren Zevon certainly didn't write the song about Michigan football, but it's strikingly apropos right now:  

I'm the innocent bystander, somehow I got stuck, between a rock and hard place, and I'm down on my luck 

That line could apply to anyone from fans to Rich Rodriguez himself at this juncture.  It's impossible to feel that Michigan's football program is once again standing at a crossroads regarding its future.  I still don't know the answer to the Rich Rodriguez question.  I like the man, I don't doubt his prior coaching record, and I understand the obstacles he's had to face in Ann Arbor since his arrival.  I want him to succeed, but my confidence in his ability to succeed here has been shaken over the course of this past year, and this is despite the fact that the team finished almost exactly how many had predicted back in the summer.  It is also despite the fact that I've adamantly stated over and over again that he should get four years here almost regardless of what years one through three yield.  He has won more each year, he has turned an abysmal offense into one that is somewhere between decent and fantastic depending on how much you care about the ratio of yards to points, and he has Michigan back in a bowl game.  He also has managed to consistently field the worst defensive unit any of us has ever seen year after year.  We can't kick field goals, we can't hold on to the football, and we can't manage to do much more than swing uselessly at air an arm's length away from truly solid football teams yet.  There are no easy answers here, and I won't pretend to have a great battle plan, but here goes my best shot of how we got here and what it is we should do about it.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

I remember feeling nothing but trepidation in late November and early December of 2007.  It was really difficult to try to comprehend how we had arrived at that point, the slam dunk coaching candidate (at the time) somehow wasn't to be, we watched flight trackers in horror, and each day caused that pit in the stomach to become increasingly harder to ignore.  Time wore on and exponentially less exciting candidates appeared on the radar.  It sucked.  To think that but one short year prior we had spent 11 weeks at the pinnacle of the college football world was nearly inconceivable.  Bo, crushingly, was gone.  Sean Crable's helmet came somewhere approximately near Troy Smith's helmet and we had fallen again to Tressel with a national title on the line.  Then with the most loaded team of my lifetime returning, I numbly stood in the stands and watched App State knock the most storied program in college football off course in a matter of just 60 minutes.  One week later Oregon finished off what remained in brutal fashion.  Looking back, there are a lot of people that skip the next part of the story, which makes sense because we're Michigan fans and even successes must be met with an unrelenting pessimistic eye, rote-rehersal of what could've been done better, and a generalized airing of grievances against play-calling, strategy, and execution.  I'll never forget the fans after the Vandy game in '06 bitching about how we hadn't won big enough and how ND would absolutely pants us in South Bend.  I long for the days where we bitched and moaned about a win not being flashy enough.  I also long for the days where we crushed the number two team in the nation at their house. 

Soon what many had thought to be a mere formality of a coaching search was turning into a slow-motion car wreck, and the previous 40 years of stability, winning, and Michigan football seemed to hang in the balance.

via cdn1.sbnation.com

I don't know, it must have been the roses

My formative years of Michigan football for all intents and purposes consisted of one coach: Lloyd Carr.  I was youthfully aware of the teams that preceded his, but Lloyd was the first coach that I was truly there (as a fan) for from beginning to end.  From Dreisbach to Hayes all the way to Henne, Hart, and company running all over Florida.  Sure I had my gripes about losing to inferior teams and playing too conservatively, etc.  But I loved the guy regardless.  He was everything we could hope for in a coach for this particular program.  He smoked top 10 teams, he won bowls (early on at least), he brought in talent, and he ran the program the way we all wanted it to be run.  He had a doghouse and a book with pages that his players had best be on.  He turned Chris Perry into 51-Carry-Doak-Walker Chris Perry and Braylon Edwards into simply Braylon.  He owned Joe Paterno.  He thrashed Ohio State when they were at their pinnacle.  He provided one of the single greatest halftime question responses I've ever seen.  He was as far from Bret Bielema and Mark Dantonio as one could hope for, and that was a great thing.  Lloyd spent nearly 30 years in the Michigan program; he understood the intricacies of this ephemeral thing we refer to as the Michigan spirit, all of the traditions, the quirks, etc.  He got it.  He quoted Kipling and would often have something thoughtful to say about a player that would involve the word tremendous at least six times.  He fiercely defended his players, his team, and he took the blame even when he didn't have to.  

I've always abhorred hearing doubters and all-caps-unacceptable-ists droll on about how Rodriguez doesn't get things like The Game and other Michigan traditions, it still irks me.  I don't for a second think that he is unaware of the import of the traditions.  But now I'm forced to say that perhaps more than an just a simple understanding or knowledge is required.  Perhaps not at the Boise State's and TCU's and South Florida's and yes even West Virginia's of the world, but at places truly steeped in tradition it carries some weight, strike that, a lot of weight.  Ask Nebraska. 

Of course this is somewhat difficult to reconcile with the fact that at the end of 2007, I felt we needed a change in philosophy, a change in how we approached football games, an overall change in attitude.  The Horror and Oregon were symptoms of long dwelling problem at Michigan, and we all thought we could treat the disease without affecting all that we were still doing well.  At the time, I was truly excited at the prospect of bringing in someone who would never punt on 4^th and 3 from the 34 yardline when a first down brings a series of kneel-downs and another epic win against a much better Ohio State team...  I think a lot of outside fans miss out on was how simultaneously great and frustrating it was to watch that '07 squad go out and dominate Florida in the Capital One bowl.  It's all too easy to say that was the team and approach we should've had all year, but that's how it felt.  In fact, it was the way we should've played for years plural, and for Lloyd's swan song, he finally took off the blinders and let them fly.  With Rodriguez I thought we had found that guy that would do that every game. Now I wonder if we put the cart before the horse in our selection, if we focused too much on the change in philosophy and X's and O's and not enough on the general gestalt of a Michigan football coach.  If in our greed for offense and teams that would crush inferior opponents we forgot just what went into a program that hadn't had a losing season in 40 years.  I've followed the situation as closely as the rest of us who care about such things have over the past three years, I fully understand how Rodriguez inherited a dirth of talent to start his career here, I am acutely aware of the injuries and the defections that have torn the defense asunder.  I could understand 3-9, I even predicted 8-4 this year, but the problem is while I see 7-5 in the record books, what I see on the field has me more worried than ever before.

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(There probably won't be much analysis here, you've been forewarned)

I'm not ashamed to admit that I was at a loss for words for a good period of time yesterday, it may have even gotten a little bit dusty around the house when the single most maligned portion of a constantly maligned team tore into the Illinois backfield and with one much hoped and prayed for blitz brought an end to three years of agony.  Finally, finally a win.  You saw in the stadium what this one meant, you saw it on the coaches' and players' faces.

When Tate released that pass in the second OT and the camera panned over to reveal a situation that by all appearances spelled infinite doom (again), my breath instantly caught in my throat and the following thoughts crystalized in my mind:

1. @#%!@
2. Surely not again, we have literally thrown away enough games along this three year lesson in football humility and done so in ways previously not thought possible, the football gods can't do it to us again.
3. We're owed a win, goddammit, I don't care how it looks or how we arrive there, this team is owed a win.
4. Holy @#%@
5. !!!!!!!

This team was owed a win.  They were owed the type of ludicrously stupid break that our opponents have received countless times over the past three seasons.  You know the kind I'm talking about, the type of mistake that makes your stomach turn inside out and suck all the blood from your brain so that you can't even curse, and instead you are left mouth agape to wonder what cruel things you must have done in some heretofore previously unknown existence that deserved this kind of sadistic torturing of your soul.  Essentially the type of break that Iowa benefits from every week... I mean seriously, AGAIN against Indiana yesterday?  Again?  Anyways... when that certain pick bounced up into the air and into Junior Hemingway's waiting hands and Michigan kept its season and quite possibly its coaching regime alive, I'd like to think it was the football gods finally intervening.  Perhaps the ghosts of football held a meeting and said "you know what, this has gone on long enough".  We were owed that, and I don't give a toss how arrogant that sounds.  This team, Rich Rodriguez, and the Michigan fanbase were owed a break and for the first time since John Thompson followed a convoy of Michigan defenders into the endzone against Wisconsin two years ago, they got one.  

A standing ovation to this team, to the players who didn't give up at any point yesterday, to the coaches who have had to endure an onslaught of criticism at every turn, and especially to Rich Rodriguez who has to feel 15 years younger and about 800 lbs lighter this morning.  Finally.  No seriously, finally, some vindication.  The team finally won a game despite making a bevy of mistakes, they never let it slip away despite innumerable opportunities to do so.  Despite the nearly weekly text from Beauford informing me of the exact point where this contest, like so many others before, had been lost (the missed FG attempt in the fourth with a chance to go up two scores) they kept fighting.  Five turnovers and an additional one on downs and they still pressed on.  Not nearly enough has been made out of the fact that when Denard Robinson went out late in the game, Tate Forcier stepped in and the offense continued to do what they had done all day: slash through another Top 20 defense.   They did this despite another crushing turnover on Tate's first snap.  They did this despite having a 1st and goal from the two yardline called back for the single worst, and I do mean WORST, holding call in the annals of football history on Taylor Lewan.  A defense that has... well let's be frank its done nothing against anyone, finally came through in the biggest of moments with the season in the balance.   

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Were you aware the quarterback plays a large part in the success of an offense?

It would appear many of our conference foes were not aware of this, so I felt I'd help them out... if you look at the rankings of total offense in the nation, you have to go through a list of 80 names before you happen upon someone who plays a position other than quarterback, that'd be LaMichael James of Oregon at 178 yds/game.  How's it shake out in the conference?

1. Denard Robinson is accounting for 382.6 yds/game, which is 67.7% of Michigan's 565 yards/game 
2. Ben Chappell, 335.25 yds/game, 73.6% of Indiana's 455 yds/game
3. Dan Persa, 325.8 yds/game, 75.2% of Northwestern's 433.0 yds/game
4. Terrelle Pryor, 276.0 yds/game, 59.6% of Ohio State's 463.4 yds/game
5. Adam Weber, 249.8 yds/game, 61.3% of Minnesota's 407.4 yds/game
6. Ricky Stanzi, 243.2 yds/game, 57.0% of Iowa's 426.4 yds/game
7. Kirk Cousins, 222.2 yds/game, 48.2% of Michigan State's 460.6 yds/game
8. Robert Bolden, 211.8 yds/game, 59.6% of Penn State's 355.2 yds/game
9. Scott Tolzien, 192.8 yds/game, 43.2% of Wisconsin's 445.6 yds/game
10. Nathan Scheelhaase, 176.25 yds/game, 53.0% of Illinois' 332 yds/game
11. *Robert Marve, 136 yds/game, 36.3% of Purdue's of 374 yds/game

The offense is incontestably magnificent

Michigan's O ran a grand total of 45 plays (5 of which were punts) and score 42 points, with a fumble on Indiana's one yard line.  Conventional means of describing what the Michigan offense has been able to thus far this year continue to remain woefully inept.  Hey by the way, remember how our leading rusher had all of 500 yards total last year?  Yeah, me too.

And yet the offense can still improve

There were multiple opportunities on Saturday in the second half to push the lead to two scores,. and each time the O seemed to stub its proverbial toe.  Denard didn't misfire much on the field, but twice had guys running free behind everyone and just overthrew them.  I've heard some grumbling of going deep on 3rd down, but when those guys are that open, you have to throw the ball their way.  

The I-formation... stop it

So, with the game on the line, are we under center with Denard taking the snap?  Not a chance.  So why change it when you have a chance to go up 21-7 (and let's be honest, end the football game) in the 1st quarter?  There is no defensible reasoning here, the next time we line up in the I, I'm not even waiting for the snap before I act out in an immature and inappropriate way.

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They say that a win is a win, hard to argue with that really.  Honestly there's no stat more important than the number in the W column at the end of the year.  So, let's all take a deep breath, there are certainly worse things than starting 3-0 (ask anyone over at BHGP) and try to take a look at what caused Michigan to allow a game Massachusetts squad to come out and take control of the football game and then come back into it late to cause terror-induced flashbacks for anyone even remotely familiar with Michigan football.  

Perhaps this was a baby-step towards the team becoming "good enough to play badly and win".  Yes this was an FCS school, but this wasn't Delaware State.  I have difficulty coming up with anything other than alarm regarding the defensive effort yesterday.  The timing of the game certainly lends some weight to the idea that a young squad coming off one of its biggest wins in a while was not fully focused on the task at hand or the minutemen across the field.  Rodriguez echoed the sentiment after the game: 

"We didn't play well at all defensively. Special teams were awful, and on offense we made a few mistakes that killed us."  -  The Detroit News

Ugh.

Now then, on to the hot topic issue:  I-form on 3^rd and 1 where a first down effectively puts the game away.  Horrible call, indefensibly horrible call to use overarching hyperbole that seems to be just about right at the moment.  It also was a great play by the UMass LB who was unblocked and just popped Vincent Smith after the handoff.  But, you're telling me that on 3^rd and 1 in this area of the field, that doing anything other than running the spread formation is a good idea?  You've got the opportunity for Denard to make multiple reads and force UMass to back off the line just based on your formation and you come in tight I-form on 3^rd and 1?  For what reason?  Because that's what football textbooks say to do on 3^rd and 1?  WEAK sauce my friends, weak sauce.  I don't see this as a comparable situation to when Will Campbell and Quinton Washington were sent in on the goal line against Notre Dame.  Much more field to work with and the defense would have to at least account for the spread, giving Denard his pick of the hole as the play develops.  It's just baffling to me that in this situation, only up 12 with a chance to put away the game by holding on to the football and putting a final tally on the board we went with a play that just isn't this offense.  I know that there are a ton of elements that came into what can only be described as a mostly uninspired performance by Michigan on Saturday, but I always had the impression that Rodriguez wasn't a guy who would pedal the offense in a game like this.  Well in a situation where we needed not to, we let off the gas big time.  GUH..... 

Hats off to UMass for coming out and literally punching Michigan in the mouth from the outset, they played like this was a football game they deserved to be in and win, Michigan played significant portions of the football game as though they were supposed to win.  

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The man is the head coach at Michigan State University, but all our good natured jibes at the guy aside, we hate to hear that Mark Dantonio had to check in the hospital and undergo a heart catheterization last night.  This news comes mere hours after channeling his inner Les Miles to knock off Notre Dame in one of the most painful ways possible.  A hearty nod and hat tip to you coach, that play will rank up there with our begrudging respect of Joe Tiller's hook and lateral in 2008 as prominent members in the "what a call" hall of fame.  Tremendous win.  But it all pales in comparison to a person's health.  With that in mind, we certainly wish Coach Dantonio and his family the best at this time and hope for a speedy recovery.  Get well soon coach, hope to see you back on the sideline soon. 

The Big Ten Network website features this helpful "Game Finder" feature that can be found here.

It certainly didn't take a lot of imagination to know what NBC had to be saying as I grimly watched the overcast skies part, the sun peak out from behind the pressbox, and wonder of wonders a rainbow appeared beyond the opposite sideline.  I made a remark to those around me that I was certain at least 95% of the stadium would believe that this was indeed a sign of a preordained Irish victory... after rewatching the telecast, I was wrong, it was 100% of the ND fans in the stadium.  Frankly, that is all you need to know about ND fans.  Of course since the game was played in South Bend, the appearance of said rainbow now doubt played a large part in the Michigan secondary giving Kyle Rudolph the "ole!" on a soul-crushing 95-yard-Notre-Dame-lead-giving touchdown with a little under four minutes to play in the game.  Needless to say, at that point in the time, there wasn't a Michigan fan present or watching on TV who wanted to hear one more word about that stupid godd@#n rainbow.  Allow me to interject a little personal history here, I've made two previous trips to Notre Dame Stadium, neither has turned out well.  When that pass went into the air I have to admit I was cursing myself under my breath for having the unmitigated gall to think that somehow the third trip would be the charm...  Thankfully Denard Robinson and the rest of the Michigan Wolverines had a better idea for how the game should end; with one of the more clutch drives I've witnessed in a long long while.  Throw that last scoring march up on a split screen with Mr. Robinson's final possession at Iowa last year and just sit back and marvel that that is indeed the same kid with the tremendous smile and, yes, untied shoes...  

There was much elation in South Bend on Saturday evening from Maize and Blue clad fans, as well there should be.  A win in this rivalry game is all that matters at this point in the season.  I won't for one second get wrapped up in worrying about the defense, worrying about what this performance means for how we'll play six weeks from now, or anything else.  Not right now.  The important thing was to win.  Michigan is 2-0, they beat a favored Notre Dame team in South Bend for just the second time since 1994... they overcame adversity, they overcame horrifying officiating, they overcame their own mistakes, and they overcame everyone who sneered at the idea that this offense would do anything against a "real" team, that Denard could possibly come close to the first week's highlight reel.  Let's put some further perspective on this win...  this marks Rich Rodriguez's second road win at Michigan.  That's right, not since Nick Sheridan lead the Maize and Blue to a resounding victory at Minnesota to bring the Little Brown Jug home in 2008 had Michigan walked out of an opponents stadium with a W.  To do that in South Bend, in a rivalry game, with a patchwork defense, and a sophomore QB making his second ever start is cause for joy ladies and gentleman, it is cause for a rousing chorus of the Victors.  How many thought Michigan would be 2-0 to start the year?  Exactly.

Officiating

When you play Notre Dame in South Bend, you include "officiating" in your review.  To the ND fans nearby who took exception to my proclamation of "isn't it amazing how that only happens here!!!!" after several of those calls, feel free to skip this section.  This went exactly as expected, someone joked in one of the numerous game threads that NBC would go ahead and just run out the clock after that 95 yard TD...  except they weren't joking, when you play the Irish that's an actual possibility.  To recap: Theo Riddick in the process of going in for a certain touchdown drops the ball on the one, no review despite it being clear as day on every possible replay, which Tom Hammond then attempted to describe as "probably inconclusive".  Don't worry, there's more!  They actually called for a clip, yes a CLIP on Perry Dorrestein for a perfect cut block on a 9 yard gain on 1st and 10.  This took place on the line of scrimmage, which means it was literally impossible for Dorrestein to have made initial contact from behind, which of course, is the definition of clipping (initial contact from behind AND at or below the level of the waist).   For icing on the cake Michigan gets called for a "crackback block" on Kelvin Grady on a key drive in the second half who literally did not touch the Notre Dame defender on the play.  Both of those penalties were drive killers.  Both of them were ridiculous.  That is to say nothing of the holding the ND o-line did all day on Martin, Roh, et al.  Final tallies here?  Notre Dame was called for four penalties for 29 yards, Michigan on the other hand had eight flags for 99 yards.  This after having exactly one penalty the week prior.  Notre Dame gained three first downs by penalty, Michigan none.  This of course also leaves out the blatant helmet to helmet hit on Shaw on the final drive, and yes by law I am required to point out every legitimate helmet-to-helmet that is not called from here until the end of time.

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Permit me for a moment...  WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Poor quality cell phone pic still conveys something beautfiul, Go Blue!

And so following a three and out that was the best kind of medicine for a Maize and Blue soul, a beleaguered, battered, and kicked-when-down Michigan program limped out to its own four yardline, 96 yards away from a goal that for two seasons has largely eluded the Wolverines.  You could almost sense the crowd collectively thinking "again?" when Connecticut downed that punt on the four.  To say that we were anxious would be an understatement.   After all, Michigan faced a "more talented" squad on the other side of the field, and yet somehow, someway, yesterday was different.  The Wolverines took the opening drive and hammered it down the field with an emphasis that would've made all of the Michigan legends from yesteryear grin from ear to ear.  The new all-time record crowd of 113,090 sat with jaws agape as Denard Robinson did things that, until now, we've only watched opposing quarterbacks do to our defenses.  He tore Connecticut apart, and he did it with his arm AND his legs.  Eat your heart out haters... Rodriguez's offense, the much maligned, much criticized offense, came out of its cocoon today and for 60 minutes was the death butterfly that Brian had alluded to nearly 3 years ago.  The Michigan offense churned out long , time consuming, defense exhausting, gorgeous drives that, while out of the spread formation, harkened back to what many define as Meeeeeeeechigan football. 

The predictable, amusing, and never-ending routine that constantly faces Michigan fans will be no different this week: opponents will now switch stances as always.  After months and months of countless people predicting a certain UConn win, I cannot wait to hear them tell us that it was "only UConn" and that "a real defense won't miss tackles" and that "you can't ride Denard like that in the Big 10".  They'll pick and choose, masking their fear with snippets and jibes as they always do.  "Who cares" is the appropriate reply.  UConn wasn't Youngstown State, they weren't Marshall, they weren't Western Michigan, and they weren't UNLV.  It is indeed only one game, but this was a big first step.  Everyone predicted the Wolverines to be severely tested in their opener, many preseason breakdowns ranked Connecticut above this Michigan squad, nearly all the talking heads pointed to this game as an opportunity for an experienced Huskie squad to announce its 2010 candidacy as a Big East front-runner.  Those same people will now downplay all of that.  Which is fine, we're used to it, and quite frankly, we don't give a toss what they have to say.  Notre Dame looms, but for today, Michigan football has provided us a glimpse of what we've waited two years to seem, and for today, we will relish it.  Hail to the Victors valiant, hail to the conquering heroes!

Breakdowns after the jump...

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So with the official capacity (for the time being) at 109,901, it being the stadium re-dedication game and the season opener, I started to wonder what kind of attendance figure we'll be looking at this Saturday.  Personally I think there's a better than decent chance that the current stadium and NCAA record of 112,118 from the 2003 centennial edition of The Game will be in jeopardy Saturday.  Personally I think we see 112,000 eclipsed easily and clearing the 113,000 watermark as a possibility.  I'm sure there are those who disagree however, so why not take a quick pulse of the fanbase as we make the final stretch run towards the season opener, take a vote in the poll below and leave your official attendance figure prediction in the comments...  closest will win the respect and adulation of their peers.

So since it's so close to the season, we'll just deal with the reality that most in-depth analysis has begun to morph into platitudes, and offer our own:  I don't think it's particularly unreasonable to assert that this haphazard team with the worst defense OF ALL TIME (statistically) would've been no worse than 7-5 last season had they simply managed to do one thing: take care of the football.  Just how bad has it been the past two years?  Well let's compare them against the other 8 seasons of the past decade...

Yeesh those last three years...    How about 85 turnovers lost against 65 gained?  Down a cool twenty spot since that run in 2006... double arg.  So listen, I understand this isn't earth shattering, but in all of the worry and over-analysis regarding the depth chart and the secondary, one of the major problems this team has had over the past several seasons has faded to the background: turnovers.  If Michigan can right the ship in this category alone, then that alone would certainly go a long way towards getting this team over the hump record-wise.  So for everyone's sake, including inanimate objects everywhere, let's hope that they've really focused on holding on to the football.

I respectfully disagree with Dave's take on this one, there are some things that are indeed still sacred in this game that we all cherish so much, and Michigan vs Ohio State to end the regular season of college football for each team is one of them.  Not many of you need a lesson on the rivalry, but perhaps what is needed here is a refocusing on just why this rivalry is the be-all-end-all when it comes to clashes, not only in college football but in all of sport.  The gravity of this matchup was born not only from bad-blood and classic contests, from giants on the sideline and heroes earning accolades on the field, but even moreso for what the win or loss meant each team.  The finality of it all has played as large of a role in the ascension of the rivalry as any other factor I've seen mentioned since this whole mess of moving the game was brought up.

The Crowd in 1969 via bentley.umich.edu

The importance of Michigan vs Ohio State has been forged from more than just the bad-blood that exists between the two schools, or the characters and giants that have contributed to its lore from between the hashmarks or on the sidelines over the years, or even still from the classic contests that we still watch today decades after they were played.  No, you see part of what has made THE GAME worthy of all-caps, bold, and italics is that it has carried a weight and meaning that is quite frankly, hard to fathom.  You see in the 75 years since the Michigan Ohio State game was moved to the final week of the conference season (done in 1935) the game has literally been the Big 10 Championship game 22 times, or just under 30%.  Impressive in and of itself, but then you consider the impact that it has had on the Big 10 title...another 24 times the outcome has had a role in determining the Big 10 championship.  So, 46 times in 75 years, this ONE GAME at the end of the year has either determined outrightly or played a significant role in determining the conference title... that's 61.3%.  Big Two and little eight (nine) indeed.  Want the full rundown on each of these contests and how they affected the conference outcome?  Sure you do, look no further than the awesome Bentley Historical Library site.

Pretty ridiculous when you ponder those numbers for a bit.  Now then, let's ponder whether there would even be such a compilation of these kinds of numbers if these two teams met annually in October rather than wrapping up the season at the end of the year.  Ill-informed state that there's no difference, playing the game is playing the game.  They're wrong.  Playing the game knowing exactly what is at stake and what spoils go to the Victor and sorrows to the loser is entirely different.  Are Tai Streets and Shawn Springs inexorably linked if the slip and subsequent home run slant occurred in October rather than in November with an 11-0 team staring a Big 10 title and National Title in the face?  You tell me.  

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So, as Dave has already suggested, it appears for a second as though the initial galatic conference end game that would have resulted in the formation of several titan conferences with limitless wealth and power has fizzled for the time being.  With this brief pause in what has been a ridiculous news cycle for the past few weeks, it's probably time to sit back and evaluate where we stand.  Everyone has a take, and everyone's take pretty much falls into the following two categories:

1. Texas is the GREATEST SCHOOL OF ALL-TIME, ALL MUST BOW TO TEXAS!!!! (and whatever you do don't give Vince Young the horns down sign apparently)
2. /Cautiously surveying the landscape like a meerkat/   Hey, you know what? The Big 10 made out rather decently in this thing, all without destroying the fabric of a conference we know and love!  Huzzah!

I, as you probably already have guessed, fall into the second camp and look forward with great anticipation to the inaugural '97 Crystal Ball Trophy Game between Michigan and Nebraska, and if that's not the trophy then we clearly don't know how to create trophies any more... unless of course it's the Sun Belt Referee Effigy trophy which is the only acceptable substitute if you ask me.   Regardless, without writing an entire tome, the Big 10 pulled off a rather incredible coup by bagging the best available program, one that can match the depth of football tradition and success that resides within the conference, and one that isn't going to rock the boat with a prima donna attitude, and best of all they don't have a Matthew McConaughey problem, which is a bonus.

I WON!!!!!  Me!!!!!  via blog.kir.com

So, with all of this going down Texas took a look to the West and said "we don't want to share money with everyone and have to play games at 10 pm!"  Then they looked East and said "we don't want to play a tough schedule!"  Next they looked to the North and said "we don't want to play a tough schedule and share money with everyone!"  Lastly they looked in the mirror and reached the only logical conclusion one can arrive at after making those three statements: "we like tomato cans and money!".  Texas no longer has to play a conference title game, still gets to keep its neutral site "rivalry game", and can reduce its schedule from essentially one or two tough games a season to quite literally maybe one which opens the road for more wins, more BCS bowls, and more money.  Texas gets to achieve Notre Dame-like scheduling without losing a conference BCS bid in the process along with getting its own ND-like TV deal.  Pretty logical decision really.  Bill Snyder and Michael Bishop approve with hearty nods Texas, well done indeed, for you've taken the late 90's K-State model of OOC scheduling up a notch and applied the theory to an entire conference!  Obviously some of this is in jest, but after dialing back the sarcasm if you take a look at the Big 12 landscape right now, which team can hold a candle to the Longhorns?  Oklahoma?  Ehhhhh....  UT has taken 4 of the last 5, Texas Tech just lost their Pirate Coach, Oklahoma State will continue to be Oklahoma State (they have a contract with Texas in which they're spotted 28 points at the outset of each meeting, but nowhere in the contract does it say anything about winning), and frankly I don't know who else is really worth mentioning at this point.  Texas "wins" but does so in a way that makes the rest of us scowl.

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I suggest a campus wide ban of Free Press employees (via www.michigandaily.com)

This morning the University of Michigan released its response to the NCAA's notice of allegations, in the event you've missed it, the actual document can be found here.  Cliff's notes: reduction in practice hours over the next two years by a total of 130 hours, quality control staff reduced from five to three and banned from practices/meetings for remainder of 2010, no loss of scholarships, no loss of actual coaches.  From a Michigan fan perspective, this response is simultaneously fantastic and sad.  Sad because we find ourselves in this position in the first place, as the document itself states:

After more than 130 years, the University's football program is before the Committee on Infractions for the first time. The University admits the violations in fact occurred. The University is disappointed that its history of no major infractions cases in its football program has ended.

There will be icicles in Hades before USC can ever manage to type a sequence of letters and words that approximates those lines.  To even have the school and program mentioned in the same breath with another program that has so blatantly and recklessly violated NCAA rules repeatedly and on such a large magnitude has been infuriating and insulting over the past several months.  It's embarrassing, regardless of just how minor we feel all of this has been.  

The reason why it's fantastic is that while the response admits full responsibility for several of the alleged violations, it also takes the time to fully support, with evidence, just how borderline these violations actually were.  It throws no single individual under the bus and has spread the blame across both coaching staff and administration/compliance staff.  The University admits that this should not have happened and outlines the steps it will take to insure that it does not occur again.  Personally, I feel that the self-imposed sanctions were perfectly appropriate for the scope of violations that occurred.  The University and Dave Brandon have clearly taken a stance of support behind Coach Rodriguez on this issue, and they've done so in a more emphatic way than many outside of the Michigan sphere would've guessed leading up to this release.  It's exactly as Dave said in his article yesterday, if the school felt Rodriguez had been in the wrong and committed a major violation, he would not be here right now, that's how it works at Michigan.  They wouldn't have waited for any kind of action from the NCAA.  

Some highlights of the violations as outlined in the Michigan response (emphasis mine):

The football program exceeded the daily CARA limit by as much as one hour on eight occasions, and on just one of those occasions the daily overage caused the University to exceed the weekly limit... BY 20 MINUTES.  While the University takes the violations very seriously, the actual violations are a far cry from the initial claims in the media.

We're looking squarely at you hacks of the Detroit Free Press...   Later on in the response, there are more details regarding the overages of practice time:  The 2008 violations resulted due to time spent lifting weights on Sunday not being included in the CARA limit, thus causing them to exceed the daily maximum of four hours by as much as one hour, in turn the program exceeded the weekly CARA limit once in 2008, by 20 minutes.  In 2009, the football program exceeded the daily maximum on each Monday by 15 minutes, due to a failure to include warm-up and stretching time.  Had the students warmed up and stretched on their own, the football program would not have exceeded CARA limits.  Next:

[Regarding the Quality Control Staff violations] The violations at issue occurred not because the quality control staff acted as additional coaches in their every activity (this they clearly did not do), but because they crossed the line in specific situations and engaged in "coaching activities" as defined by the bylaws.  

The paper goes on to state that the University Compliance Services Office had questions about the quality control staff's duties and responsibilities in 2008.  Judy Van Horn, Associate Athletic Director, requested Scott Draper, Assistant Athletics Director for Football,  to produce written job descriptions for each quality control staff in the summer of 2008.  The footnotes in the document state that despite repeated requests for these written descriptions, they did not receive them until after the media investigation broke the story in 2009, and that these descriptions did not contain some of the activities were cited as violations.  This, in particular, sounds damning for one Scott Draper.  Interestingly, Scott Draper has been with the school for 19 years, and was promoted to Director of Football Operations in 2002, well before Rodriguez ever arrived on campus.  This is not someone Rodriguez brought in when he arrived in Ann Arbor.

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PDF can be found here for full perusal:

 http://www.vpcomm.umich.edu/pa/key/documents/SKMBT_60010052412420.pdf

I'll save the analysis for later, but two quotes will be sure to get roars from the Maize and Blue faithful:

While the University takes the violations very seriously, the actual violations are a far cry from the initial claims in the media.

And....

[...] the University is satisfied that the initial media reports were greatly exaggerated if not flatly incorrect.

Proposed self-imposed sanctions include:

1. The University has reduced Quality Control staff positions by 40% and prohibited them from attending practices, games, and coaches meetings for the remainder of 2010
2. Reductions in training and practice time on a 2:1 basis, resulting in a loss of approximately 130 hours over the next two years (for 65 hours of total violations)

Dave Brandon did a fantastic job with all of this, as predicted.  If there were any doubts about his hire I fail to see how they could remain after how he has dealt with this fiasco.  Also, bravo for the University blasting, and believe me in this type of document what they did was BLAST, the Freep and its hack staff.  Bravo indeed.

Much more to come on this later.

Some statistics in this wonderful game of ours probably get a little too much "play" in terms of how much of a role they play in success on the gridiron, for example time of possession, but there are others that do seem to carry some weight.  I'd argue that this is the case with Red Zone Offense, particularly when you're the University of Michigan Football team who managed to finish... wait for it....

116th in the nation in Red Zone Offense last year

The other statistics involved in that ranking are as infuriating as Michigan's inability to punch the ball in from the one yard line against Illinois last fall (where the season officially fell apart by the way).

• 66.7% conversion percentage inside the red zone, absolute worst in the nation was 61%
• 25 TDs (19 rushing, 6 passing) and 7 field goals in 48 possessions inside the 20... this means that every time Michigan went inside the 20, it had a slightly better chance than a coin-flip at scoring a TD (52%) 
• Teams the Wolverines were more effective than in the red zone?  Hawaii, Rice, Akron, and Kent State
  

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO via www.illinoisloyalty.com

This somehow makes Michigan's 41st ranked scoring offense seem a little more impressive than I would've originally given it credit for.  This also means that of the Maize and Blue's 48 touchdowns last season, a whopping 47.9% came from outside the 20 yard line.  Where the statistic of "red zone offense" somehow falls short is that it essentially treats any score in the red zone as equal, which of course they are not, 7 points tends to be more than 3 points, etc, etc.  So the statistic leaves out one of the old "truisms" of football where settling for field goals tends to be a recipe for disaster (see Michigan v Texas in the Rose Bowl or Michigan v ND in '04... arrrrrrrrrrrg), I mean who cares if you score 96% of the time you're inside the 20 if 80% of those scores are for 3 points?  So, what if we examined TD's only?  We'll call the stat RZTD% just for the heck of it, the number in parenthesis is the team's national rank in overall red zone offense, [EDIT: I failed to mention that  these numbers are gleamed from the NCAA statistics site, my apologies] :

1. Wisconsin (T3rd), 42 TDs in 56 trips: 75% RZTD
2. Purdue (T20th), 25 TDs in 34 trips: 73.5% RZTD
3. Illinois (T56th), 25 TDs in 38 trips: 65.7% RZTD
4. Penn State (T20th), 29 TDs in 49 trips: 59.1% RZTD
5. MSU (T27th), 25 TDs in 44 trips: 56.8% RZTD
6. Northwestern (T77th), 25 TDs in 45 trips: 55.5% RZTD
7. Iowa (T41st), 20 TDs in 37 trips: 54% RZTD
8. Ohio State (T84th), 25 TDs in 47 trips: 53.2% RZTD
9. Minnesota (T77th), 23 TDs in 44 trips: 52.3% RZTD
10. Michigan (T116th), 25 TDs in 48 trips: 52.1% RZTD 
11. Indiana (T93rd), 22 TDs in 43 trips: 51.2% RZTD

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It's May, Spring games have come and gone, and people (many, many people in fact) have reacted to said games.  What are they saying?  What does it mean?  What questions were answered, and which ones remain?  Let's find out with a jaunt around the Big Ten's pre-eminent sites and check the pulse of the fans.  We'll start off with a game that I actually was able to take in on ESPN2: Penn State's Blue and White contest, so without further ado...

An estimated 55,000 showed up on what turned out to be a mostly decent day for Spring football in State College, PA. Bill Kline of The Morning Call wrote that the attendance would've been higher had there not been a national broadcast associated with the game...

The crowd of 55,000 was no doubt hurt by the telecast on TV. Otherwise, the nice weather would have resulted in a 70,000-plus crowd.

Right, OK then, I'm sure the team and program would happily trade that national exposure for a bigger attendance figure in the Spring game.  Also, Penn State would've scored several more TD's were it not for the biased officials.  Good to see that the Nittany Lion rationalization machine is already in mid-season form!

Black Shoe Diaries has your authoritative wrap-ups here and here.

Best summary quote: Jay Paterno with Adam Rittenberg over on ESPN:

"It's a spring game ... there's not a whole lot of weight in that," Jay Paterno said. "We kept it pretty vanilla."

Video wrapup:  

QB's:  After taking in the contest on TV I was... well curious about what the faithful would have to say regarding the performance of their quarterbacks.  My take was that Penn State's QB situation can be summed up thusly:

Nick Sheridan and Steven Threet via blog.mlive.com

Kevin Newsome attempted a whole 11 passes last year, Matthew McGloin chucked two passes and neither of them found a receiver's hands.  The other guy, Paul Jones, is an early enrollee.  Mmhmm.

BSD offered this:

Obviously, the quarterback competition was the headliner, and as predicted, nothing was resolved.  Matt McGloin, supposedly the steady and accurate alternative to the more athletic and wild-throwing Kevin Newsome, did not make a favorable impression.  McGloin finished 10-for-23 with no touchdowns and two interceptions.  The interceptions were ugly -- a pair of passes into coverage that had absolutely no business being even contemplated, nevermind thrown.

For his part, Newsome was slightly better.  His stat line (5 for 12, 50 yards) doesn't reflect it and his quirky throwing motion (it's "quirky" until it causes a backbreaking interception during a real game, at which point it obviously becomes JayPa's fault) is rough on the eyes, but he seems to have a good enough command of the short passing game to stake his claim as the nominal starter until further notice.

"Good enough command of the short passing game" could also have been worded thusly: Newsome is only capable of throwing a ball accurately at a distance of five yards or less at this point.  His performance was underwhelming at best, and the fact that a 5 for 12 performance puts him in the nominal starter role obviously speaks volumes.  To play to Jay Pa's earlier quote, Penn State didn't do much in the way of getting Newsome out to the edges or showing much else of his highly-recruited talent from two years ago.  All in all Newsome looked rough and uncomfortable out there, misfiring on anything but the short screens, sometimes badly on the deep balls, but he also looked as though he was only going to get to run a certain amount of plays that would utilize his athleticism.  He was able to buy some time scrambling around the backfiled, but outside of that it seemed that PSU wasn't going to show much else of Mr. Newsome's legs.  The other factor weighing in here is that I would hazard a guess that most of what the Penn State D showed these QBs was pure vanilla straight up D.  Considering that alongside of the offense's struggles throughout the day doesn't exactly lend Penn State fans a lot of comfort at this point in time.  The wrinkle of course is that Paul Jones, a freshman, came in and tallied two TDs through the air which immediately puts him in the running for our coveted Carlos Brown Overly Inspiring Spring Performance award.  Need something else to temper that enthusiasm a tad?

Jones had an even more limited playbook than Newsome and McGloin, but threw against defenses consisting of true freshmen and career backups. [...]

Last spring, McGloin threw two touchdowns and went 9-13 for 111 yards and no interceptions.  Newsome also went 9-13 for 71 yards and a touchdown.  So let's not freak out over Paul Jones' performance, visually pleasant as it may have been.

There you go.  Mike with a nice summary there that lends a little perspective to Jones' 5 for 8 performance.  Want that enthusiasm back?  Well fear not, because here's Bill Kline again telling you that Paul Jones' deserves a "real chance".

I believe Jones has much more potential to develop into a legitimate passing threat, possibly even a great passer. So, if at first you are relying on the defense and run game, that in turn would give Jones time to develop. He could be a three- or four-year starter and a real force by, say, 2011.

The one thing lost amongst all of the analysis out there over these spring game QB performances is that regardless of who comes out ahead, they'll be toting a sum total of ZERO experience heading into an actual game situation, and take it from us, that's no fun.

So OK, what about the rest of the squad?

More after the jump...

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The biggest of hat-tips to Brian over at mgoblog for this gem, which ND paid to produce and got such luminaries as Mike Golic to join in and some other guy doing the rap-solo that I simply have to admit I don't recognize.  I'm sure Brian Kelly was thrilled about this from the outset, and hey, whaddya know, he gets to make a cameo too!!  On with the show:

You want funk?  Here's how it's done you doofuses:

And just for good measure, from who else but WolverineHistorian:

I'll get this out of the way at the outset: I disagreed with Donovan Warren's decision to leave early when he announced in December, it didn't make much sense then, and given the results of the draft it makes less sense now.  This is not so much an attempt to pile on as it is an attempt to emphasize what made it a poor decision in the first place.  Some will call it Monday Morning Quarterbacking, and you'd be right, but the analysis of decisions like this are the byproduct of making those decisions in the first place.  I hold no ill-will towards Warren and I begrudge him nothing, I hope he finds success in the NFL. When we profiled Donovan Warren's NFL Draft prospects back in March, we had hig hopes he would be drafted in a respectable position, though we knew there was a pretty good chance it wouldn't go that way.  I just wish he had taken the time to fully evaluate his options and stock before making the leap.

If you've paid attention at all after the most recent season of Michigan football ended, you're aware of the fact that one of the strongest/most talented players on the defense and certainly the secondary, Donovan Warren, decided to enter the NFL draft a year early.  It's probably fair to say that at no point in time was Donovan Warren considered a lock to be a first round draft pick, though there were evaluations that had him as a possible 2nd or 3rd rounder.  It's always tricky when a player declares early for the draft when his draft status is uncertain, and I won't pretend to know or be privy to all of the factors that weighed into Donovan's decision, but now that the results have come in, I think it's fair to classify the decision as unwise.  This of course was compounded by the fact that he signed an agent, eliminating any small chance he might have had to further evaluate his draft stock and make a decision at that point.  This is particularly tedious to Michigan fans because we have a very similar example to point to from the not-too-distant past, from the secondary no less.

We've seen this before... Photo via www.mikedesimone.com

This is not a knock on Warren's ability as a football player, not at all, but rather a commentary on a decision that nearly everyone else who looked at it said, "um... really?".  There were a number of issues playing into the lack of interest in Donovan as a early round pick.  Chief among them is that he has played dinged up for each of the last two seasons on a football team that, quite simply, hasn't been very good.  He's had relatively few chances to showcase his talent over the last two years.  When he declared for the draft back in December, he chose to do so without waiting for his draft evaluation to return.  Couple this with what can only be described as an underwhelming combine performance weighing into the equation, and things started looking grim.  How grim?  Here are the corners/safeties that were taken over Donovan in the 6th and 7th rounds of this year's NFL Draft:

6th Round:

1. Jamar Wall, Texas Tech
2. Jorrick Calvin, Troy
3. Jordan Pugh, Texas A&M
4. Myron Rolle, FSU

7th Round:

1. Marquis Johnson, Alabama
2. Jeremy Ware, Michigan State
3. RJ Stanford, Utah
4. Philip Adams, South Carolina State
5. Syd'quan Thompson, Cal
6. Kurt Coleman, Ohio State
7. Ray Fisher, Indiana
8. Robert McClain, UConn
9. Stevie Brown, Michigan

13 secondary guys taken in the last two rounds of the draft, you'll gaze through many of those names and go "wait, who??" quite a few times.  The guy who was the Big Ten Defensive Freshman of The Year, Second Team Freshman All-America, and 2009 All-Big Ten first team was not among them.  It's selfish, expected, and obvious for me to say that Donovan should have stayed.  There's no question it would've benefited the team (the team, the team), but I also think there's a better-than-good chance that it would've paid-off (literally and figuratively) for Donovan Warren.  He would've been the featured defensive back on this defense again, he would've been a senior leader on a team that is largely devoid of such leadership, particularly on the defense.  And he would've finally had a tiny amount of consistency in his defensive coaching staff for the first time in his career in Ann Arbor.  

Now then, a couple of caveats that I believe probably weighed in here:

1. At the time of his decision, much of the talk centered on the possibility that 2010 would be the last uncapped year in the NFL, which obviously would apply to the Rookie cap as well.  This certainly was a motivating factor for a number of players who thought they would have a chance to cash-in.  This strategy would make sense if you were certain you'd be an early pick... which even prior to the results of the draft, Warren was not thought to be.
2. The last two years in Ann Arbor have been brutal.  In his career, Donovan played under three different defensive coordinators in three different systems.  He has had to play dinged up, he has had to endure an atmosphere that has been hostile and constantly speculative regarding the program and its staff, and perhaps it all became too much for a young man who figured he had what it took to go to the NFL and make a great living.

"Ready to get there and prove everybody wrong" - Donovan Warren

I certainly hope he's able to do so.

40 degrees and cloudy prior to start of the flag football game Photo by Scott Childers

Despite temperatures around the Midwest that were in the 80's earlier in the week, it appears that the Football Gods felt it best for Michigan to have late October/Big Ten weather to practice in on Saturday for the annual Spring Game.  Perhaps that's fitting, welcome to Ann Arbor indeed recruits!  The weather not-withstanding, it was a fun day on Saturday and a chance to see an oasis of Michigan football in an otherwise unendingly long offseason was much appreciated.  It's always tricky trying to analyze much from one isolated practice, and more often than not certain things get way overblown or underplayed...  what follows will be an attempt to keep those to issues in check, I'll also throw in a photo gallery at the end (we'll see how well that works).  I'm going to break this into two parts, so today we'll talk about the offense, because if I'm honest, I spent a lot more time paying attention to that rather than trying to figure out what sort of formations and coverages the defense was using (sneak peak for tomorrow on the D: woo Roh, woo RVB, woo Demens, and yeek coverage on the deep seems)

Offense

Photo by Scott Childers

QBs - I'll admit to entering the day still somewhat skeptical of much of the spring hype surrounding Denard Robinson, and I left without a doubt that he is a legitimate contender for the starting QB spot if not the leader at this point in the spring.  The only caveat to his performance yesterday is that while Denard played with the first team, that group went against the second team D most of the time.  This was the reverse of Tate, who played against the first team D.  That said, things like "accuracy" and "throwing mechanics" which I would define as rather independent of defenders were, quite simply, leaps and bounds from where he was at any point in the season last year.  His 97 yard TD to Roundtree was quite simply a gorgeous throw that was dead on the money; think Henne to Manningham against ND in '06 and you have a pretty good idea of how well he threw that ball.  My only quibbles with Denard's performance were his accuracy on some of the short out throws.  He occasionally will aim the ball instead of simply firing it to the receiver.  Brian over at mgo called him a "running QB with rudimentary passing skills" which the prototype would have to be Pat White... I respectfully disagree, Robinson showcased a throwing ability that Pat White never had at WVU.  He's not Henne or Navarre obviously, but Robinson throws a solid ball with zip and at least on this particular Saturday, was more accurate than I would've imagined he could be after last season.  He looked like a QB yesterday, not just an athlete.

Photo by Scott Childers

On the topic of accuracy, during drills and in the scrimmage I'd say Forcier was the most accurate passer of the group.  Again keeping in mind that Tate played with the two's against the one's, I would say it was more difficult to judge just what he's improved on since last Fall.  I was really hoping to see both QBs run more of the zone-read just to see how their ability to make the read has progressed, but that was pretty limited yesterday.  Otherwise, Forcier's performance was pretty similar to what you'd expect.  Some great throws mixed in with a few plays that reminded us of the "scramble around holding the ball in one hand dangerously" stuff that cost us a few times last year.  He also made a few throws that were, um, unadvised.  He was nearly picked off on an intermediate throw that ended up somehow landing in the receiver's hands, and on several other occasions threw a ball into tight coverage.  Of course the flip-side to that is that he's the only QB on the team who can make the TD throw to the back of the endzone splitting two defenders like he did late in the scrimmage.  I would've liked to have seen Tate and Denard each get a few drives with the one's against the one's just for the sake of comparison.

I'll cut to the chase on Devin Gardner, it is apparent why he was so highly touted, but I think the young man needs to redshirt this season.  With both Tate and Denard as viable starting options, there's not a situation I can see outside of injury where it'd be a good idea to use a year of his eligibility.  In somewhat apropos fashion, his first snap within the confines of Michigan Stadium was a fumble followed by a yakety-sax amount of hustle to knock the ball out of bounds.  He did, however, showcase a throwing ability that Denard did not have last year... two in particular stood out to me: the first was a strike down the middle to one of the TE's (who made a great catch), the throw was in and of itself impressive, but I was caught more by the read and the speed of the delivery.  The second was a nice deep ball to a wide open Odoms, who unfortunately dropped it in a manner that would remind many of an IM game on any college campus. 

Photo by David Childers

More after the jump....

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It appears that we're no longer following the all-hallowed tradition of that when you're the first team to score in OT, you usually are rewarded with the W.  In a type of symmetry that does nothing but stoke the flames of rage of every Michigan Man, the blown call that took away Michigan's W in OT is also the sole reason the game went to OT in the first place, the non-whistle on Miami's second goal when Hunwick had the puck covered for an astonishing period of time is the antithesis of the inexcusable whistle in OT....  it's just so unbelievable as to be impossible to describe with any sort of rational thought right now.  So in that light, we present the Largest Middle Finger Of All Time to the referees of this regional final and to the Miami Clutch-and-Grabs [Ed - after some reflection, it's hard to blame Miami, they didn't blow (or not blow) the whistles]....  It's officially official, there is no God.  That is all.

via localrhythms.files.wordpress.com

Faceoff at 8:09 on ESPNU, don't have it?  We'll keep you updated here!  GO BLUE!!!!

Photo by Ariel Bond via www.michigandaily.com

"That’s a great hockey team we played tonight," Bemidji coach Tom Serratore said. "They have a lot of octane, and every time we had a breakdown, they took advantage of those opportunities. … Michigan’s the hottest team in the country, and it might be the best team in the country right now."  -- Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

When Bemidji State brought the game to a one goal margin on what was quite literally their one millionth power play of the evening, I'll admit that the tiniest amount of "oh no" crept into my head.   Despite the scoreboard reading 2-1 Michigan had largely dominated play throughout the evening, and given the universe's current predilection for inflicting pain in the most ingenious ways possible on the Maize and Blue, I was concerned.  Then something spectacular happened, this team stomped on the gas pedal and blew the Beavers quite literally back to their very northern homes.  Two minutes after the Beavers got on the board, Michigan answered, and then added two more tallies to put the game out of reach.  Final score 5-1, and the looks on the faces of the few Miami (Yes,That Miami...In Hockey) fans still in attendance reflected the type of performance they had just seen again from a team they will face this evening with a trip to Detroit and the Frozen Four on the line.

Since I was slightly disparaging of the Journal Gazette's blatant Notre Dame bias in my Fort Wayne preview, I think it's only fair to point out when they manage to say something that makes sense:

Credit, again, goes to goaltender Shawn Hunwick, a 5-foot-7, 163-pound mite who had played only 18 minutes before getting the start Feb. 25 against Notre Dame. Since then, he’s won 8 of 9 games, including the last seven.

Against Bemidji State, which reached the Frozen Four last year, he stopped 25 of 26 shots. His best came midway through the second period, when the Beavers’ Jordan George accepted a pass all alone in front of the net before Hunwick sprawled to stop him.

Hunwick played a whale of a game, with the lone goal coming on a ripped one-timer by Ian Lowe that was quite simply a gorgeous shot.  With my very limited ability to analyze hockey, it seemed like Hunwick did a much better job controlling rebounds this game and stepped up every time when called upon, including a spectacular sprawling stop midway through the 2nd period.

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Let me begin by simply stating that I, as a native son of Fort Wayne, feel a certain burden of responsibility to use this space on this occasion to spread esoteric facts about my former hometown.  I make no promises that they will be useful, but if nothing else you'll now have some things to discuss on your trek to the Memorial Coliseum this Saturday to watch your Michigan Wolverines take on the Bemidji State Beavers.

Where to begin?  Well you may be surprised to learn that Fort Wayne (aka the Summit City) is Indiana's second largest city, with a population estimated at just South of 250,000, this also earns it the title of 75th largest city in the US (take that Glendale, Arizona).

via americanrevwar.homestead.com

Fort Wayne (the city and actual fort) is named after General "Mad Anthony" Wayne (pictured above) who oversaw the building of said fort by the US Army at the convergence of three rivers: The St. Joesph, the St. Mary's, and the Maumee.  Prior to Wayne's fort, etc, the Miami Indians settled in the area and named it Kekionga, which served as the capital of the Miami tribe.  Anecdotally the city is also known as the City of Churches, and if you've spent any time there at all, you might as well tack on "and strip clubs" to the end of that moniker.  I have yet to drive through a metropolis that has such a wealthy supply of both strip clubs and churches, and if you think I'm kidding about this, you're dead wrong.  You could very easily walk right out of a church and into a strip club in Fort Wayne, or vice versa I suppose.  Other random fact?  The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo is rated as one of the Top 10 Zoos in the Country by Parents Magazine.  That's right, Parent's magazine top 10 zoo one sentence after strip clubs...

So what about the sports climate in Fort Wayne?  There's a large number of minor league teams that get some attention, but far and away the team/school you hear the most about is Notre Dame.  Some may protest this fact, but they're wrong and likely ND apologists.  Despite being situated a mere 20 or so miles from the Ohio border and only 50 miles from the Michigan border, Fort Wayne contains an unsightly plethora of Notre Dame fans that wait in hiding through spring and summer only to come roaring out of the shadows, logs, and other dark dingy places where ND fans hide until that football team manages to string two wins together.  The Fort Wayne newspapers make full page stories with headlines that are not too dissimilar from: "Notre Dame lineman ties shoe, ready to take on all comers".  One local columnist, Ben Smith, writes so many "Awe shucks, apple pie and Notre Dame" columns that you could create a fun mad-libs game with them all.  You may already have guessed that growing up in Ft. Wayne as a Michigan fan tends to nuture a decent (read: huge) amount of distaste for the Irish.  So much so that you take pictures of the paper on those occasions (which are as frequent as Halley's comet) where Michigan gets some positive pub.

Photo by...Me.

Yeah that's all well and good you might say, but what about the Fort's sports cred?  Well...

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Hey FSD, pull your heads out of your tails... highschool girls basketball trumping the CCHA title game?  

Here's the link to the stream... 

http://foxsportsarizona.com/pages/arizona_streaming

Photo by Lon Horwedel via www.annarbor.com

Not to overstate things too much here, but in a period of time in which Michigan fans have come to accept a Boston Red Sox pre-2004 attitude of expecting the worst to happen, this is a chance for a brief glimmer of much overdue success.  Your Michigan Wolverines take to the ice tonight against the #1 seeded Miami RedHawks this evening at 8 pm EST tonight on Big Ten Network (huzzah!!!) in glorious HD.  When these two teams met back in November... well it kind of followed the November theme of all Michigan sports... Miami won with a deceptively appearing 3-1 score the first night in a game that saw Michigan dominate for large chunks of time only to have several (ahem) horrible breaks go the RedHawks way.  The following evening Miami proceeded to house the Wolverines with a 5-1 performance.  So yeah, there's that.  Interestingly, in CCHA tournament history, Michigan has never lost to Miami (4-0 all time, 1-0 when meeting in the semifinals).  That's not to shortchange Miami who has pretty much barnstormed the CCHA this year, finishing in first place by a rather comfortable (ahem) 20 point margin (!!).  In Ann Arbor.com's preview of the matchup Miami's coach, Enrico Blasi, had this to say about the impending matchup:

"We're not putting much stock in what we saw before," Blasi said in a conference call with reporters. "We know they're playing with a lot more confidence. It's going to be a war."  

We can certainly hope so at least.  Much more thorough breakdowns of tonight's contest can be found over at Yost Built,  and at mgoblog.  Be here prior to 8 for the live thread and of course GO BLUE!

Two absolute BULLSHIT calls give Wisconsin two power-play goals in the last 6 minutes of the game to come back to win from a 2-1 deficit.  ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH.