No matter how old we get, and how hard we try to convince ourselves that sports are just a game, it just isn't so.
I've spent the last few years disassociating myself from things like recruiting coverage, at first because I found myself increasingly irked by the nature of it all; after all, I'm now older than the oldest Michigan football player on the roster. But, on a more practical level, grad school this past year has cut into my time by a significant amount, so that I almost didn't have a choice to pay attention or not.
With school and the job hunt occupying my mind (and the Chicago Blackhawks' run to another Stanley Cup), this was an oddly detached offseason for me. In years past, an injury to a player like Jake Ryan would have sent me into a frenzy of panic. This time around, not so much. Maybe the "he'll be ready by October" prognosis lessened the blow, but I think a growing acceptance of entropy has more to do with it.
Other than using the occasional one-sentence paragraph (I know, I know), the best thing Medill has taught me over the past year is this: Get to the point.
I haven't been very good at that over the years. For anyone that has read this blog, I have a tendency to, shall we say, expound a bit too much. I mean, this is just football, right? Should I really be writing 2,000 words or more about people I've never met?
I don't know anymore. Maybe that's okay, maybe it isn't. In any case, it's something I think about now that I didn't think about before. I don't know if it can be described as a creeping cynicism about the state of things--the issue of pay-for-play, the NCAA's nonsensical defense of a student-athlete model that is for the most part a serious oddity, the increasingly inescapable sleeper hold of money--but things aren't as they once were in many respects. This is not a bad thing; it is always good to question things. Say what you will about the journalism industry today, but if there is one trait we can all agree upon as the foundation of good journalism (or even good thinking, generally), it is the existential need to question anything and everything.
For the first time in a while, this offseason came and went without much consternation from me. The month of August, as always, is a time warp in and of itself, with days becoming weeks and weeks becoming years...but everything before that
I guess I'm not doing a very good job of getting to the point. Perhaps that is because I don't know what the point really is. I've sat around looking at the schedule, calculating satisfying scenarios in my head: 10-2 would be great, but what if both losses came to Michigan State and Ohio State? What about 9-3, with wins against the aforementioned foes and losses against, say, Notre Dame, Penn State and Northwestern (or Nebraska)? Would that be any better?
I don't know, but thinking about this sort of thing inevitably boomerangs back to one basic thought, one that I've expressed in some form here countless times: college football (and any sport, really), are about people and moments. Years from now, Michigan's 8-5 season will be but a vague memory, a historical footnote. But, Roy Roundtree's catch against Northwestern, Devin Gardner's pyrotechnics against Minnesota and Iowa, Denard Robinson's touchdown run at the Horseshoe...these are moments that will forever live on.
As a 24-year-old pseudo-adult, that's really all I find worth grabbing hold of in this game. The outcome is beyond our control, of course, but the curation of those outcomes is not.
Will Fitzgerald Toussaint bounce back to his 2011 form? I don't know, but I'll enjoy watching him try.
Will Devin Gardner live up to the offseason hype and build upon his 2012 run as the starter? I don't know, but I'll enjoy watching him try.
Will Brady Hoke keep Michigan undefeated at home as Notre Dame, Nebraska and Ohio State roll into Ann Arbor this year? I don't know, but I'll enjoy watching him try, pointing left and right at anything and anyone willing to be pointed in the right direction.
A mere 88 hours remains until the Wolverines run out onto the field again, the 134th iteration of Michigan football. This one will be different than the last, and the next one will not be this one, for better or worse. We have one opportunity to experience this team in its current form. With the constant roster flux of incoming recruits and saddening departures, it's often difficult to separate the macro from the micro.
If you take a step back, the big picture becomes clear, imperfections and all. A clean slate beckons, calling for eyes and ears. Once the old season is over, the slate is cast among the rest, a dusty pile of slowly disintegrating memories.
It's always freshest at the beginning; when the banner is touched on Saturday, so begins a race against time.
You've probably seen this already, but oh well. It's a fairly boilerplate set of questions and answers, but this part was of interest (other than the sexual orientation question, which he answered just about exactly as you'd expect him to):
Q. Your nickname is Shoelace because you play with your laces untied. Will you be superstitious or feel uncomfortable if the team that drafts you makes you tie your laces?
A. I am a little bit superstitious. But you know what? I can’t afford the fine. I’m not well off. So I will be tying my shoelaces if they want me to tie them.
In the end, this is trivial --except for people like me and you-- but it is also somewhat saddening. NFL, why do you potentially (i.e. probably will) have to ruin everything that is fun and good?
It's the Senior Day edition of Shameless Self-Promotion. I cannot believe that we have only one regular season game left. Where has the time gone?
As usual, I wrote about the smashing victory against the Iowa Hawkeyes over at Maize n Brew. After Iowa had some offensive success early on, the Wolverines simply outran the Hawkeyes, literally and figuratively, all afternoon. And so, here we are, sitting at 8-3 with a trip to Columbus against an undefeated Ohio State team coming up on Saturday. With that sentence, I think I might have just unknowingly transported myself to the world of college football circa 1993-96. How about that American Online, eh? Pretty nifty if I do say so myself. In any case, all this frivolous chatter translates into one short, penetrating phrase: Beat Ohio.
Denard Robinson went down in the second quarter against Nebraska. We all held our breath, this time under far different circumstances.
Minnesota week went along, with the general expectation that Denard would likely play. He didn't, and the next week leading up to the Northwestern game was marked by conjecture and worry. Denard once again dressed but didn't take the field.
And so here we stand. With Michigan's last home game on Saturday, the last of Denard Robinson's career, conjecture with a tinge of hope has devolved into resignation and a sense of loss. Of all the times for Denard to miss a start, two starts, his last home game as a Wolverine, of course it had to be now.
After the Minnesota game, I expressed the concern that maybe we had seen the last of Denard Robinson during this regular season. After the Northwestern game, that concern grew roots and entrenched itself in the fertile soils of Michigan fan pessimism.
Denard is day-to-day, says Brady Hoke (aren't we all?). However, deep down, I am preparing for a Senior Day in which Denard Robinson does not take the field, that same field that he had taken many times before. The same field that he used to burn his aura onto our collective consciouness during the 2009 Western Michigan game; The Broken Play was only the beginning:
Michigan took the field in the shotgun formation. Denard Robinson's first play--the preface, the rising action, the climax, and the denouement--was one moment of aesthetic and philosophical achievement. In retrospect, its consideration invokes the past perfect, a recollection of a singular action at a singular junction in history: hemos visto el futuro.
---
Of course, all is not quite lost. Michigan still has a trip to Columbus to go, as well as a bowl game, by which Denard should be ready to take the field again. This is not the final word, nor should it be.
I've said this many times before (almost to the point that even having to include this disclamatory preface makes me sit and wonder if its worth mentioning over and over again), but this sport exists beyond the plane of the field itself. Above it, around it, and deep below the turf itself, exists a mode of remembrance. Things do not simply happen and disappear into the cold, airless vacuum of the past. They linger.
Try and recall a spectacular run or one of many downfield heaves to Junior Hemingway, Roy Roundtree, and others. You can even seek the help of video if your memory is failing, and you seek a tighter verisimilitude.
You can even turn to one of many moments off the field: the speech at the Big Ten Media Day, his post-Under the Lights interview with Chris Fowler, general do-gooding, the shots of him behaving like one of us at Michigan basketball games, and so on.
Take those memories, the product of the literal mental reconstruction of those events, and cast them aside. You build a table and throw away the instructions, because you don't need them anymore.
Especially in a case like this, it is emotional memory that counts. I sit here, thinking of the times I got to watch Denard as a student--in 2009 and 2010--and thereafter, and the memory of the events themselves are good yet somewhat lacking in certain respects.
Denard went out and set the world on fire in 2010 after a transitional 2009 season as a backup. I remember the "shoelaces flopping in the wind"--Beckmann's call, that is--and the fact that it was an enormous play in an important game. Denard scored, six went up on the board
But it was far more than that. It exists in its own bubble, carefully archived like old, grainy film strips, coated in dust and threatening dissolution; emotional memory, manifested.
As I've grown older, more capable of deciding for myself what is what, a single overarching premise has come to dominate my fandom: it is people, not numbers, that matter. Of course, I will remember everything that Denard did on the field. I will remember the thrilling touchdown runs, each standing further in defiance of the laws of space and time than the last. I will remember the statistical milestones, the records broken, the wins accumulated and everything else that can be neatly written on a page like a curriculum vitae.
I will remember the way I felt when I watched him do something, I will remember where I was when I saw these things, I will remember how Denard changed the face of Michigan football for a short time, streaking across the sky like a magnificent comet, ineffably talented yet grounded, decidedly mortal, unceasingly likable.
Denard has given many such as myself ample material to write interesting --I hope-- about Michigan football. Most writers will tell you that a narrative cannot exist without conflict, without flaws, without tribulation. While it is beyond me to say that Denard's career has escaped all of those thing, I would say that Denard, the person, bucks the trend of the traditionally interesting written character. There is a reason for this: he is a man, a football player and an idea, all at once.
Our memory is made up
of a lot of little moments that have stood the test of time. Things that
through the years grow larger and take on added importance as layers of context
and circumstance are laid down to amplify things previously overlooked, as narratives
are assembled from those moments and they take on meaning and significance not
just because of how this or that led to something else, but more importantly
how the whole thing makes us feel as we look back on it.
This is why, when Michigan kicks off at noon Saturday, I won't worry about the fact that, at some point that morning, an inevitable bit of news will come down and mar the day for a short time, kind of like if FDR added a "p.s. I would also like to add spiders to the list of things to fear" to his "the only things we have to fear" 1933 inauguration speech. All of us wish the circumstances were otherwise, but if you begin to wonder how things should be, you risk forgetting how they have been and how they are.
Michigan's 23 seniors will take the field to be honored on Saturday. Denard would likely tell you that he is no more important to Michigan than his fellow seniors.
When Denard takes the field to be honored, a tinge of sadness will wash over hundreds of thousands of people, in the Big House and elsewhere. Fortunately, we have not yet reached the end. I suspect that we never will. A light burns, forever, its fuel inexhaustible.
The sadness will subside, giving way to the ultimate tribute: everyone will smile.
Generic file photo (pre-MSU game)...insert "the student section is turrible cut it by a million percent and then revoke their scholarships and take their Blue Bucks" rabble here
Things and stuff. Stuff and things. Michigan played a thing on Saturday and something happened. Spoiler alert: that thing was pretty, pretty, pretty good. Read below to find out more:
As usual, I talk about the game over at Maize n Brew. Once again, Michigan plunged into the great-generally-unknown-but-kind-of-known world of attempting to do offense without Denard Robinson. It went well for the most part save for a pick late in the game that at the time seemed like ultimate doom. Oh, also that thing called "the running game" is not even a thing so much as an abstract idea beyond our ken. Unfortunately, it was the defense that turned in its first disappointing performance of the season, (excluding the Alabama and Air Force games). No matter, as a win is a win. Can somebody please assuage my concern that we might not see Denard play again until bowl season? Please? Anyone?
Sorry for the recent stream of Bulls talk, which probably made no sense if you decided to make your way to this tumbleweed-filled corner of the Internet at any point in the last few days. Sorry about that, I'm just trying to diversify my skill set around here. Plus, writing about the Bulls is the best way to get me mentally invested in a Rose-less Bulls for several months. Anywho, here's where I link to something I wrote elsewhere:
Michigan jumped to 6-3 (4-1) after following a truly macabre first quarter with three quarters of tremendous play in Minneapolis. Most importantly, Michigan very clearly has a capable backup option in case Denard's boo boo lingers, and I have the unfortunate sneaking suspicion that it just might. Of course, we probably won't know if Denard is going to play against Northwestern right up until kickoff because everything Brady Hoke says is artfully crafted trolling (of you, me, the media, fans, and basically everyone in his general vicinity). Michigan should be able to take Northwestern without Denard, but hopefully it does not come to that.
This is not about Michigan. The person above does not play for Michigan. This is only tangentially related to Michigan. This post is not about Michigan football or basketball. Okay.
The Chicago Bulls will take the United Center floor tonight to take on the Sacramento Kings. The lights will go down, the bulls will run, and Tommy Edwards will announce the starting lineup. From a lonely corner in the United Center or from a couch at home, Derrick Rose will look on, hearing Kirk Hinrich's (or Nate Robinson's) name called instead of his own. Perhaps he will watch as he works, sweat dotting the floor of a fluorescently lit workout room, little archipelagos revealing a constantly changing map of resurrection.
On April 28, Rose went down clutching his knee near the end of Game 1 during the Bulls' first round series against Philadelpha. It was a movement and a response that sports fans have seen many times before. An unseen ligament tears, an unheard pop sounds, revealing itself only to the ear-space of the player in question, and a hush reigns. If the eyes are the window to the soul, the athlete's knee is that soul's infrastructural binding. Lacking structural integrity, the rest falls apart in a pile of rubble and a cloud of dust. Fellows in hard hats and stethoscopes poke and prod and survey: what went wrong here? We thought this was sound, and our faith is shaken, for how could anything be sound after this?
When Denard Robinson went down Saturday, it was a familiar feeling; he had gone down and gotten up before. When it became clear that he would not return to the field, even while Michigan flailed away on offense for the rest of the game, I felt comfortable knowing that he would likely be back next week or the week after. All was lost Saturday, but it seemed--seems--a self-contained event on a microscopic event. Denard has taken the intermittent slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and stood back up each time, eventually.
When Rose went down, there was no such feeling of assurance, no hopeful reasoning, no sense of immediate return.
With the Bulls up 12 with a little over a minute to go, Rose held the ball at the top of the key, the point on the floor where all things are possible. He jabbed left and executed his exaggerated jump stop into the lane, seemingly covering the distance between Chicago and Springfield in one thrilling maneuver.
"Holding on to his knee, holding on to his knee and down."
Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah ran to the place of the fallen. Rose had gone up after the jump stop, perhaps ready to knock in yet another one of his patented tear drop shots. Upon reaching the highest point of his ascent, the realization hit: no. He dished the ball to out to Boozer. He didn't take the shot.
At that point, it was clear what had happened. The season was over. A low frequency white noise lorded over this spot of the floor, contained within the United Center in a sort of greenhouse effect. The fumes of that hush are trapped by the United Center ceiling, bouncing off of rafters and banners in hopes of escape, only to slowly return to the locus of its origin. This reactant noise has nowhere to go, and so it suffocates everything in sight.
The players, coaches and fans looked on, breathing in the fumes of the end.
---
With the end comes a beginning. The Bulls begin the 2012 campaign back at home Wednesday, with the starting lineup returning mostly unchanged. Boozer, Noah, and Luol Deng return at their respective spots. Richard Hamilton returns as well, looking to acquit himself much better than he did last year during his debut season in Chicago.
Even one of the Bulls' "new" faces, Kirk Hinrich, is a familiar player, having played for the Bulls for seven seasons after being drafted out of Kansas in 2003. The Bulls also signed 5-foot-9-inch Nate Robinson, who, despite enjoying a surprisingly successful preseason, has had a career that doesn't necessarily scream reliability.
On the other hand, the Bulls' so called "Bench Mob" was gutted. With players like the sharp-shooting Kyle Korver, the towering Turkish defensive stalwart Omer Asik, reliable utility guy Ronnie Brewer, and backup point guards C.J. Watson and John Lucas III all moving on for various reasons* --contractual or otherwise--the Bulls are left with an increasingly precarious imbalance, one that existed even when Rose was healthy.
Most importantly, all signs point toward Rose's absence continuing well into the new season, if not throughout its entirety. Many assume that Rose will return at some point this season, giving the Bulls the push they need to either acquire a respectable seed in a weak Eastern Conference or, more pessimistically, to propel the Bulls into the playoffs, period.
These iterations of the Chicago Bulls and the Wolverine football team are not so dissimilar. Both subsist on grinding defense, a Gradgrindian execution that stems from a monomaniacal obsession at the top with that side of the ball. Tom Thibodeau paces the sidelines, always on the precipice of losing his voice as he barks his orders like a commander at Helm's Deep attempting to fend off the malevolent hordes of Evil. Greg Mattison paces, chewing gum like someone who has done this thing many times before and gesticulating when necessary, all the while thinking that this is not good enough, no matter how good this is.
Offensively, both are a paradoxical solution of modesty and pyrotechnics. These teams are the guy that goes to work at his modest, ordinary office every week in a suit and tie and then goes to rock concerts on the weekends in war paint. Whether out of necessity or a subdued internal raison d'etre that occasionally escapes its cage, these teams rely on one man to make it all happen; they are the marshmallows in your Lucky Charms.
These are modest offenses that do rational things like running plays or sets while also knowing, deep down, that these attempts at an imposition of order are as ephemeral as a sand castle built dangerously close to shore.
You call a play and the pocket falls apart, and so he goes. You run a set, and the clock is at 7. You swing it back around and say go. Don't worry about the particulars, you'll say, for you know them better than I ever could.
These teams, in a sense, are a case study in the different shades of loss, both heartbreaking, simultaneously continuous and continual. You forget about the loss, but it's always there. With Denard, it is a latent sort of dread. It happens, and then it's okay. But it could happen again.
With Rose, the Fates decided to snip the string in one motion rather than opting for a gradual defraying of the line. Even more discouragingly, the end of the journey, if there is one, does not even promise a return to the same place at which Rose started. After all, even when Odysseus returned home, things were no longer the same. Things were very different.
How the season unfolds for this Bulls team is anybody's guess. Preseason predictions have exhibited a range of opinion bridged by a roiling chasm of Unknown, where potential outcomes pop up and disappear like little volcanic pockets of inflamed earth.
The Bulls have enough to hang on; after all, they were 18-9 last season without Rose, albeit with a much different roster and a superior bench. However, one thing stands undisputed: the Bulls are not going anywhere near a title without a healthy Rose. Likewise, the Wolverines will not reach the conference championship game or the Rose Bowl without the compliance of the network of nerves within Denard Robinson's arm.
Gain and loss, loss and gain. These are the components of life, and, to a less meaningful extent, sport. As the Bulls season begins and Team 133 forges on, these elements, always linked no matter how disparate they may seem, will form the chassis of the future.
Of course, something sits in between these two elements, a derivative sub-element that connects and binds. There is a third element: reaction. Everything in life is a response to gain and loss in some way, and nowhere in the world of sports is that more true than in Chicago and Ann Arbor, right now.
Three thousand completely painful words about whatever it is that happened on Saturday in Lincoln (over at Maize n Brew, as usual). Was a game played? Did we win? I don't even know, so no spoilers please. Should I say more in this blurb? Should I say things of substance instead of asking pointless questions in order to avoid saying things about the game? Should I stop doing this? Okay that's probably enough.
As you can see, I did not rush the field. Clearly, this means I am a better human being and MICHIGAN MAN than all of those people (that was a joke).
This week (!):
Some thoughts on this past Saturday's throwback BIG TEN FOOTBALL GAME over at Maize n Brew. Did you know that it was a Big Ten football game? Because it was a Big Ten football game, and it was also Big Ten football at its finest (apparently). Petty snark aside, that was a great game to go to and I'm glad I went. Aside from that, if you're still in the trance of the RR era's siren song, beating a Big Ten rival 12-10 with Michigan's kickers going 4-4 on the day should just about snap you out of it. This defense and not-heart-attack-inducing special teams thing is kind of fun. In any case, Michigan is 5-2; not playing Alabama again surely helps, but the improvement in this team since that September 1st contest in Dallas has in fact been something to write home about. Barring a November collapse, Michigan can pretty much lock up the Legends division with a win in Lincoln this Saturday. That's a fairly crazy reality after Michigan's non-conference performance.
I talked about the Illinois game over at Maize n Brew. Notes: Denard is awesome, Jake Ryan is awesome, the notion of "having a good defense" is awesome. Everything is about as awesome as it can be for a Michigan team currently sitting at 4-2. The B1G competition thus far hasn't exactly been fierce, and Michigan State doesn't appear to be quite as formidable as many expected them to be. Still, there are demons to be exorcised on Saturday; as such, I'm sure this will be the longest week ever.
I talked about the Purdue game over at Maize n Brew. There's not a whole lot to say, really. Purdue is probably not very good, but Michigan took care of business and Borges pretty much called the perfect game. Will we be able to run 51 times and pass only 16 times against, say, Michigan State or Ohio State? I'm not sure, but it was the perfect porridge for this game. On a basic level, watching Michigan just destroy a Big Ten opponent on the road was kind of cathartic, not to mention a pretty enormous relief. Hopefully, Saturday was the beginning of a nice run for the Wolverines (goodness knows the schedule sets up nicely for one).
Due to a somewhat nebulous snafu, I scheduled a post for this morning over at Maize n Brew that only emerged from the concealed and winding tubes of the Internet in the last hour or so. Anyway:
I talked about the 2012 season to date and the so called Big Picture vis-a-vis the 2007 season. It's by no means a perfect comparison, I admit, but there are some similarities worth pondering in these final coming days before the return of football, in all its glory and terror. I made sure to cater to your sensibilities by not directly referring to 2007's particular brand of catastrophe, but it is mentioned in an oblique way, so be prepared (I hope you read that with Scar's voice from The Lion King in your head). There's also some quality nostalgia-ing in there, which I'm known to do from time to time. Anyway, read it, because it's Tuesday and you just have to have exhausted all potential forms of Al Borges critique by now...right?
With the upcoming bye week, it is a good time to take a timeout on the season in order to reassess some things, to maybe: talk to your family, go "outside", read a book, watch The Program and secretly wish that Tim Waymen was currently on Michigan's roster (then smack yourself in the face for thinking this), etc. (HT: Mike DeSimone)
Michigan is 2-2, and man this season has not been that much fun so far. In any case, here's this week's helping of self-promotion:
Over at Maize n Brew I talked about Saturday's game/thing/whatever-you-even-want-to-call-that against Notre Dame. I think the bye week will be good for all of us, players, coaches, and fans alike. It isn't all doom and gloom. Michigan might not be "playing Michigan football" on offense, as Hoke will say whenever Michigan doesn't play well, but the defense was pretty good, and that is not something that should be discounted after several straight seasons of bumbling defensive incompetence. Unfortunately, with Michigan starting 2-2, the seemingly unanimous preseason prediction of 9-3, give or take a game, is looking like it will fall on the lower end (i.e. 8-4). Michigan has next week off, which is good for guys like Brennen Beyer and Stephen Hopkins, and will give Devin Gardner a chance to heal after his run in with that metal photographer's stand (that is, assuming that his injury is of the short-ish term variety, which it very well might not be if Internet rumblings are to be believed).
This is something that may or may not become a regular Sunday thing. Who knows. In any case, I'll recap each B1G game, with specificity depending upon whether or not: a) I actually have the game on my TV lookity box and b) I have time to watch games other than the Michigan game in a given week.
Anyway, if you aren't already plugging your nose, you should probably go ahead and do that. Ready? Here we go.
Michigan 31, Air Force 25.I will talk about this at length during my recap post at Maize 'n Brew on Monday, but for now I'll just say these things.
These first two games are games that I'm not sure should be data points from much extrapolation should be done. The Alabama game was one against a team with significantly more talent than any other team on Michigan's schedule. The Air Force game pitted Michigan against an offensive attack that they won't see again. We cannot really be sure how good or bad Michigan is at this point in the season.
The youth movement is a cause for excitement, sure, but in the short term is like being served several dollops of uncut consternation. If Michigan is rolling with two freshmen at the inside linebacker positions (Ross and Bolden) in place of a sophomore and a FIFTH YEAR SENIOR in Demens, Michigan's run defense--which was already not something to write home about last season--will take several steps backwards. Unless Demens and Morgan reassert themselves (which seems unlikely given the second half), odds are Wood, Atkinson, and Riddick have a field day against this front seven in two weeks.
In the end, a win's a win. Also, Denard is just the man, period...but you knew that.
Northwestern 23, Vanderbilt 13.A week after prevailing in the so called "Prose Bowl" against Syracuse in the Carrier Dome, the mighty warrior poets of Evanston took on the Vanderbilt Commodores in a dignified football derby at the venerable Ryan Field in Evanston. After getting torched by Ryan Nassib last week, Northwestern fans were anxious to see how the secondary would look this week; Vanderbilt's first drive did not do much to assuage those fears. However, the NU defense settled down after that point. The Wildcats gave up a touchdown on Vandy's first drive, but only allowed two field goals the rest of the way, an encouraging performance for a D that gave up 41 last week and was mostly terrible all of last season.
The 'Cats once again used both Kain Colter and Trevor Siemian at quarterback, with Siemian being the more effective of the two through the air. This sort of thing is always an awkward arrangement, but it has worked thus far. Siemian was 10/16 for 91 yards, with Kolter going 7/15 for 42 yards. However, Kolter also pitched in on the ground with 41 yards and a touchdown run to seal the win with just under two minutes to go in the game.
Wildcat running back Venric Mark continues to be the "Big Ten dude that most people probably don't know about but probably should." He carried the ball 23 times for 128 yards and a touchdown in what was another tremendous effort for the lilliputian tailback. Northwestern has not had much of a running attack since the days of Tyrell Sutton, so if Mark can continue this pace into the B1G schedule, Northwestern could be a very dangerous team in a capacity greater than the humble "spoiler" role.
Michigan State 41, Central Michigan 7.After leaning heavily on Le'Veon Bell to grit through a not aesthetically pleasing win against a revamped Boise State team, the Spartans blew the doors off the hapless Chippewas, a game played in Mount Pleasant (for some reason). The Spartans held CMU to 245 total yards and a meager 3.3 YPC. Andrew Maxwell bounced back after a less than ideal performance against BSU, going 20/31 for 275 yards and 2 touchdowns. Bell was actually somewhat held in check (18 carries, 70 yards, 2 TDs), but the Spartans got a boost from its receiving corps, which looked fairly underwhelming last Friday night. Dion Sims continues to look like a formidable weapon (3 rec, 48 yards., 1 TD) and Bennie Fowler left his mark as undoubtedly the most effective MSU receiver on Saturday (8 rec., 99 yards, 1 TD). Overall, this was one of only a few B1G no doubters on what was a rough weekend for the conference.
Ohio State 31, Central Florida 16.Once again, Braxton Miller was the story of the day for the Buckeyes. Miller ran the ball a whopping 27 times for 141 yards and three touchdowns, a stat line that reminds me of Michigan's usage of Denard in September last year against EMU and SDSU. You can't argue with the results, however. Miller had an efficient day through the air, going 18/24 for 155 yards and a touchdown (plus an interception). After an interception by Etienne Sabino led to a short field and a TD for the Buckeyes, it was 31-10 about halfway through the third quarter, and the game seemed to be over. UCF had a little fight left in them, as the ensuing 14-play TD drive would show. The Knights then picked off Miller on OSU's side of the field but ended that drive by throwing a pick of their own. There would be no more scoring on the day, as OSU seemed to be content with just bleeding out the clock on the ground. Miller's pick was not a good one, but he is looking more and more like a player that will give Michigan serious problems once again at the end of the season.
On an injury note, Carlos Hyde, OSU's starting tailback, was carted off the field with a large bag of ice on his knee. Zach Boren had the most carries of anybody not named Miller or Hyde, coming in with 7 for 16 yards. True freshman Bri'onte Dunn did pitch in 5 carries for 29 yards; if Hyde misses any games, which seems likely, it looks like the freshman will be the feature back.
Iowa State 9, Iowa 6.This has been one of the more mercurial and underrated rivalry games around. After gritting out a win against Northern Illinois last week, the Hawkeyes looked to avenge last year's loss in Ames with a win at home against its in-state rival. Unfortunately, a dismal offensive performance stood in the way, as the Hawkeyes couldn't get find the end zone all day. Neither could ISU, however, which makes the loss even worse. Iowa managed only 68 yards rushing (2.8 YPC) and Vandenberg was not Henne-esque at all, going 20/42 en route to a bleak 5.6 YPA and 2 interceptions. Other than Keenan Davis and tight end CJ Fiedorowicz, Iowa doesn't appear to have many perimeter players worth mentioning. This was Iowa's first loss at home against the Cyclones since the odd 2002 loss by that Brad Banks-led Big Ten co-champion team.
Without any running game to speak of, odds are it's going to be a long season marked by hordes of Iowans screaming about OC Greg Davis going sideways and whatnot.
Minnesota 44, New Hampshire 7.I'll be completely honest: whenever I notice that Minnesota is winning, I react as if I had just watched a Youtube video featuring corgis doing corgi things. YES YOU WON THAT GAME YES YOU DID YOU DID. I don't even mean this in a bad way.
Anyway, the Gophers rolled over 1-AA (FCS, whatever) New Hampshire, which wouldn't be anything to brag about if Minnesota had not notched losses to North Dakota St. and South Dakota in recent years. Marqueis Gray continues to look like a guy who should probably be playing for Paul Johnson: he went 6/8 for 100 yards and a pair of TDs through the air. Also, with a 78-yard gallop comprising most of the total, he added 109 yards and two TDs on the ground. Minnesota is now 2-0, and while I don't know how many wins I'd mark them down for, bowl eligibility is not a laughable notion to entertain.
Penn State 16, UVA 17.I've been very high on UVA since Mike London's successful debut season in 2011, but I think that Saturday proved that maybe I'm overvaluing them just a little bit. A PSU team missing tailback Bill Belton, that also had to insert backup QB Steven Bench (the most hilarious name for a backup QB ever, by the way) for a while due to a Matt McGloin injury, gave UVA all it wanted, which probably says more about UVA than it does Penn State. PSU receiver Allen Robinson--a sophomore from Southfield, MI--was the only Nittany Lion skill position player who did much of anything on Saturday (10 rec., 89 yards, 1 TD). Otherwise, McGloin had an anemic 5.6 YPA and the Lions could not take advantage of a +4 turnover margin.
Of course, the story of the game was PSU's field goal kicking, which reminded me of the 2002 Michigan-Washington game up until PSU kicker Sam Ficken missed the last one, unlike our own Phillip Brabbs. UVA converting on two big third and longs against the PSU defense during a 12-play, 6+ minute drive in the 4th quarter, a touchdown drive that left PSU with 1:28 on the clock. Starting on his own 27, McGloin did an admirable job in getting the Lions into field goal position, although one has to wonder about his final kneel down, in which he attempted to center the ball but lost 3 or 4 yards in the process. Ficken then hooked a 42-yard field goal wide left.
The life of a field goal kicker is a thankless, tortured one. Baseball closers nod, knowingly.
Indiana 45, Massachusetts 6.See above re: Minnesota, but this is another one of those wins that you like to see as a B1G fan. With that said, that is two teams that have spanked Massachusetts thus far (UConn last week). If Michigan doesn't absolutely destroy this team in the Big House next week, it will officially be time to panic.
Another unfortunate injury note: IU quarterback Tre Roberson went down in the second quarter with an ugly injury. Watch this at your own peril. Roberson was having a great game up until that point, on the ground and through the air (264 total yards, 3 TDs), so it's a shame to see something like this. Cameron Coffman, brother of former Mizzour tight end Chase Coffman, will take over in Roberson's absence, which I imagine will be pretty lengthy.
Wisconsin 7, Oregon State 10.Last year's Big Ten champion and the B1G's Rose Bowl representative for the last two years traveled to Corvallis and lost to what is probably a not very good Oregon State team. Any hope that Danny O'Brien could replicate Russell Wilson's 2011 success in any way have been dashed very quickly. O'Brien went 20/38 for 172 yards (4.5 YPA). Somehow, Montee Ball only carried the ball 15 times for 61 yards. I didn't have the game on TV, but that seems a little bit odd. Losing all of those assistants and even those three departing offensive linemen has clearly had a far greater effect than expected. The defense did its part, giving up only 10 points and 2.6 YPC, but that probably makes the idea of this loss even less palatable for the Badgers.
To make matters worse, leading receiver Jared Abbrederis went down with an injury in the first half that saw him carted off the field. To say that the Leaders division is an absolute tirefire right now would be a serious affront to tire fires everywhere.
Purdue 17, Notre Dame 20.This is one of the games that I was flipping to during Michigan's commercial breaks, so I mostly have to rely on the box score and anecdotal accounts. On a basic level, Purdue was at least competitive, tying the game at 17 with about two minutes to go. After an Everett Golson fumble was recovered by Purdue, the Boilers squandered their first three downs with the ball, leaving them with a 4th and 10 from the ND 15. Naturally, Caleb "Joe Montana" TerBush found Antavian Edison up the middle of the field for a touchdown.
To a mini-chorus of boos, Brian Kelly inserted Tommy Rees after Golson had to leave with an injury (sustained, I'm assuming, during the aforementioned fumble). Although he was only 3/8, Rees completed enough passes to drive the Irish into field position, primarily on the back of a 21-yard strike to Robby Toma to get ND down to the Purdue 20. PK Kyle Brindza converted a 27-yarder, leaving Purdue with 7 seconds, enough time for TerBush to toss a duck of a Hail Mary well short of the endzone. It is still too early in the season to derive much meaning from a game like this, but if I had to make a conjecture, I think neither of these teams is particularly exceptional. Nebraska 30, UCLA 36. This is Nebraska's second year in the land of "old man football", but if this game at the Rose Bowl proved anything, it's that Nebraska still has some Big 12 in 'em. Well, in the first half, that is...in the second half, things started to unravel offensively, and the defense continued to be a complete and utter sieve.
A wild first half sent the two teams into the break tied at 24, with Martinez actually making some plays with his arm, continuing from where he left off last week against Southern Miss. He even managed a 92-yard TD run, which of course inspired someone on ESPN (Robert Smith?) to say "you know, he's just as fast as Denard Robinson and might be even faster." Sure.
Either way, Martinez was completely ineffective in the second half, looking mostly like that retro 1970s quarterback that we've seen from him in the past. T-Magic went 4/14 in the second half, with an interception (and one other flailing toss that would've been an interception if he had not afterwards been called down before releasing it). UCLA is an actual football team, apparently, but this is a game that the Huskers should have won, even in spite not having Rex Burkhead. Nebraska fans: welcome to the honored Big Ten tradition of losing on the West Coast in September non-conference games (and at the Rose Bowl in general).
Illinois 14, Arizona State 45.Why did I watch this game past the first quarter? There are many questions in life for which I simply don't have an answer. With Nathan Scheelhaase unavailable after an injury sustained against Western Michigan last week, it was arm punt city for the Illini in Tempe. The junior Miles Osei took over for Riley O'Toole at the end of the first quarter, but the switch made little difference. Osei went 4/7 for 47 yards and two interceptions. Riley O'Toole started the second half, but immediately got to arm puntin', tossing a horrific interception on the second play of the drive.
It's hard to tell if Scheelhaase would've made this game close, but the defense's performance against a team breaking in a new quarterback was pretty disappointing (although the INTs didn't help the D out). All in all, this game was the cherry on top of the cake made of dirt and shaving cream that was the B1G's performance yesterday.
The Exposition
I spent the offseason searching the Internet for information on this year's Alabama team in preparation for last Saturday's game. I even took the time to break down each Crimson Tide position group, and cited Alabama-centric links in a significant number of posts here throughout the summer. When Alabama's DeAndrew White reeled in a touchdown pass after Courtney Avery slipped, I'm pretty sure I'm the only Michigan fan that thought, "Hey, that's the guy that scored two touchdowns against Vandy last season! Wait, this is terrible." Various Alabama fans even commented that I wrote the most comprehensive preview of 2012 Alabama football by anyone on the Internet.
I only mention this to say that this was clearly an enormous waste of time, since, deep down, we all knew that what happened was inevitable. Like the coaching staff, I will now have to shift gears from thinking about Alabama all summer in order to give to our other non-conference opponents some thought before we hit the familiar territory that is the Big Ten schedule.
The greatest things about this week are: a) We are playing Air Force and b) Air Force is not Alabama. Nobody is Alabama.
Air Force is just the sort of team that, when played right after a game like the one we just played, gives legs to tired sports platitudes about "trap games" and "hangovers." Air Force is not a particularly talented or athletic team, but they are the type of team that can be incredibly annoying, kind of like that one hitter in the lineup that always forces your ace to throw 10 pitches before launching a duck snort (that's a Hawk Harrelson-ism) into right field. The Falcons are that hitter in the context of Michigan's season. Why did the cleanup hitter (Alabama) bat first? I don't know, maybe you should ask DAVE BRANDON AHAHHKKSIH. Okay, enough about baseball and faux DB rage. Let's wring our hands about the offensive line and talk about ASSIGNMENT FOOTBALL and chop blocking and stuff.
Michigan Offense vs. Air Force Defense Per Paul Myerberg, Air Force returns a mere two starters; however, one of those two, safety Anthony Wooding, is no longer on the team. Also, keep in mind that this sort of turnover is not uncommon for the service academies, as they are effectively exempt from the NCAA's 85 scholarship cap. This doesn't mean that they'll be good or that all is well, but extreme turnover is a fact of life for the academies.
As Ace detailed on Wednesday, the Falcons play the increasingly popular 3-4. Does that matter? Honestly, probably not except insofar as it's not something that Michigan sees in the Big Ten. On the bright side, the team we just played runs the 3-4, which was good tactical practice for this week. However, going up against Saban's 3-4 before facing Air Force's iteration of the same defense is like wearing ankle weights all day only to shed them and then challenge a toddler to a foot race.
If you're into that sort of thing, Air Force was 78th in defensive FEI last season, right between Ole Miss and Purdue in the rankings. Against the tougher teams on the schedule--ND, San Diego State, Boise State, and TCU--they gave up an average of 43 points per game. This is not a good defense, and the fact that they gave up 21 to Idaho State underscores that fact. The Bengals (that's Idaho State) managed to pass for a whopping 365 yards in the process (6.9 YPA). ISU quarterback Kevin Yost went a ridiculous 41/52, throwing two touchdowns to zero interceptions. This is kind of weird, as the Pre-Snap Read preview of Air Force notes that the Falcons have only given up 300+ passing in a game 8 times in the Calhoun era (i.e. 2007-present). The fact that they did just that against Idaho State might signal that something is up with this Air Force defense.
Air Force did a good job of stopping ISU's attack in the first half, but the second half did not start as well. Yost led three 75-yard touchdown drives in a row to start the second half. Needless to say, Michigan will probably be able to pick up a few more explosive plays than ISU did (especially with Fitz's return in mind), but will definitely be able to engage in a couple old school 8-minute, 10-play drives. This is confirmed by the pictures from last year's ND game that Ace included in this week's FFFF post. Welcome to Bend-but-don't-breaks-ville, USA. Population: the Air Force defense. This week will be the complete opposite of last week in terms of press coverage from the corners. I'd put the odds of this happening to Roy Roundtree this week...
Roy Roundtree's just takin' a little nap, no worries
...at approximately -1,842%. Roundtree will have all the time in the world to think of that hilarious joke he's going to tell after the game, right before running that quick slant for a guaranteed 8+ yards. Jeremy Gallon will have a field day in the YAC department against this defense. I look forward to seeing him turn that throwback screen into GOLD, JERRY, GOLD on multiple occasions.
The gameplan this week is fairly simple and not nearly as laced with fatalism as last week's was. Air Force got torn up through the air by Idaho State, and I think that this will end up serving as a nice confidence booster for Denard in the passing game. Denard will have gargantuan windows to hit and the pass rush should be practically non-existent.
Fortunately, Borges is not forced to come out throwing this time around. Assuming that Toussaint starts, Michigan will try to give him some looks early on. Vincent Smith should be able to make some hay in the pass-catching game; with the AF defense backed up like the offense has cooties, Smith will finger gunz his way to many an open look in the flats.
To make matters worse for AF, two of their top defensive players, linebacker Jamil Cooks and safety Anthony Wooding, will not be participating. To make a long story short, AF is too unathletic and too small to pose any sort of danger to Michigan's offense. The only way that Michigan runs into trouble is if: a) Denard et al turn the ball over, which is pretty much what AF is banking on you to do or b) all those open spaces and endless possibilities lead to an offensive gameplan that's a little too cute.
Michigan Defense vs. Air Force Offense
While the Falcons' defense is somewhat of a disaster, the offense is something worth consideration, especially for a Michigan team that is [CLICHES REDACTED]. You know this by now, but Air Force runs the triple option, an arcane relic of a simpler time (a simpler time which still exists in certain places, e.g. Atlanta, GA).
As for this offense, it will help to have three experienced contributors in the backfield. One is senior Connor Dietz, who steps in at quarterback after spending the last three years backing up Tim Jefferson. Dietz has earned extensive action since 2009, even going toe-to-toe with Jefferson that fall for the starting role; while Jefferson won the competition, starting in each of the next three years, Dietz is no neophyte – he knows this offense as well as any player on this roster.
Last week against Idaho State, Ditez had the sort of ultra-efficient day that option coaches dream about in between updating their operating systems and oiling their metallic hinges (yeah, I'm talking about you Paul Johnson). He went 8/11 for 142 yards, good for a hilarious 12.9 YPA. That's what happens when you rush for 484 yards on 8.3 YPC. That is also what happens when you play Idaho State.
Still, Dietz is a senior and has been around, biding his time until being handed the keys to the old Model T that is the triple option offense. In 2011, the Falcons were a very respectable 32nd in OFEI, sandwiched between pass-happy Texas Tech and run-happy Nebraska in the rankings. As you would expect, Air Force ranks very highly in the "methodical drive" metric as well, coming in at 5th in the country. Naturally, fellow option schools Navy and Georgia Tech come in at #1 and #2, respectively. This category measures the percentage of drives that go for 10+ plays...fairly straightforward.
In a nutshell, as long as something completely ridiculous doesn't happen, like Courtney Avery falling down on one of Dietz's 10 passing attempts, the Falcons are not going to be lighting Michigan up with explosive plays. This is pretty much the sort of game that a guy like Jordan Kovacs lives for.
This will simply be a test of discipline and the ability to avoid [SPORTS CLICHES REDACTED]. There's a reason almost no programs with any sort of big name cachet run the option anymore: teams that don't aren't very talented. It's an offense predicated on precision and unyielding dedication to a system, which of course makes the triple option a natural fit for the service academies.
Obviously, this is not Alabama's OL we're talking about here. Air Force's linemen could probably be tight ends at Michigan, but that doesn't matter if Michigan's much larger defenders are being cut to the ground. When you're cut to the ground, you're useless. If, say, Craig Roh gets cut, it doesn't matter how big he is or how much weight he's added in the offseason: if you're on the ground, you're about as useful to the defensive effort as a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, just chilling there on the field where a defender should be.
As far as personnel goes, Air Force will of course pass infrequently and distribute its many carries quite liberally. Last week, the Falcons split 58 carries between 11 players. That many players won't carry it this week for the simple fact that AF is not going to be in blowout run-out-the-clock mode against Michigan like they were against Idaho State last week*, but Michigan still needs to be vigilant. Dietz carried it 7 times last week, and minuscule tailback Cody Getz led the way with 17. Fullback Mike DeWitt pitched in 11 carries of his own. Look at how triple option-y that triple option is!
As someone who played fullback in high school for a little bit, I have to agree with Ace: option coaches love giving it to the fullback like Al Borges loves not answering questions about bubble screens. You don't need to be a coach to understand why that is the case. The fullback has the easiest path to positive yardage, and a successful give read almost guarantees at least three or four yards (if you have a fullback worth anything). DeWitt didn't seem to have a great day last week, but I'm guessing that Coach Calhoun is aware of Michigan's issues on the interior. AF might be looking to feed DeWitt early on until Campbell and whoever else is hanging out on the inside can prove that they can stop it.
Clean up the tackling, por favor. Last week, we all stared on with our mouths agape as even Jordan Kovacs missed tackles. Well, the thing is...even normally sound tacklers miss them when players like T.J. Yeldon, Jalston Fowler, and Eddie Lacy are carrying the ball behind a quasi-NFL offensive line. That won't be the case this week, obviously. AF is in the methodical drive school of offense, like all option teams. Don't give them any big plays, because Air Force does not have the athletes to create them on their own.
Paging the Ministry of the Interior. Hello Will Campbell, Quinton Washington, Richard Ash, Ondre Pipkins, and, according to last week's starting lineup, Craig Roh (?). This is your chance to throw people around like you're in high school again. Of course, AF knows this and will be trying to avoid this outcome via the ignominious maneuver known as the cut block.
On offense:
No freebies, Denard. There is really no reason for Denard to throw a pick like the one he did to C.J. Mosley last week. AF will give him time, simply because they do not have the talent in the back to do any pressing or much blitzing. Still, Denard did throw a pick against EMU last year, so anything is possible. Air Force cannot hang unless Michigan makes mistakes.
The Michael Scott School of Management. KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). It's tempting to get all crazy in the head against a team like this, one whose corners back away from receivers like the stretch of land between them is actually lava. It might not be pretty--again, think 2011 EMU game--but Michigan will grind out two or three longer drives and a couple shorter fields via defense/special teams. That should be enough. Let Fitz carry most of the load in the running game and let Denard dink and dunk on screens and wide open slants. Michigan would have to be incredibly unlucky or stupid to not score 35 points this week.
Those guys are not Alabama so please block them better than you did last week. Pretty self-explanatory. Schofield got burnt to a crisp, Lewan was 2010 Lewan, and the interior was bullied back as expected. If Michigan doesn't move that line with ease this week, that almost universal 9-3 preseason prediction will be looking mighty optimistic. No penalties from Lewan, a bounceback performance from Schofield, a couple crushing pulling blocks from Barnum, and competence from Mealer and Omameh...that's all I ask.
Predictions of Negligible Worth After last Saturday, I can't even begin to tell you how nice it will be to see Michigan run out and touch the banner. As Borges noted in his presser earlier in the week, Oregon recovered nicely after getting Rick James smacked in the face to start the season. Michigan is not last year's Oregon team, but they can still go on a pretty nice run the rest of the way. I still think that Michigan is a good if very flawed team, and the Alabama game's result has a way of distorting our understanding of this team's potential. This game could be a very good or a very bad thing for this team. The potential is there for a lethargic, frustrating effort, kind of like a higher scoring version of the 2002 Utah game. At the same time, there is not much to this team Air Force team. A strong collective defensive effort and a crisply executed offensive gameplan that doesn't reveal too much could serve as a galvanizing force, a pick-me-up of sorts as the team tries to distance itself from the memory of the Cowboys Classic. I will once again draw the comparison to last year's EMU game. EMU QB Alex Gillett passed five times all day, but the Eagles had some pretty substantial success on the ground early on. Michigan will likely take a quarter or so to gain its bearing vis-a-vis the triple option, and if Toussaint doesn't start (I'm writing this on Wednesday, but I'm assuming that he will) then who knows what we'll get from the non-Denard ball carriers. I get the feeling that AF will have a decent amount of success on the ground in the first half. The Falcons score a touchdown on a long drive in the first quarter but are kept out of the endzone the rest of the way. They do get close enough to kick a convert a couple field goal attempts. EMU ran for 207 yards at 4.5 YPC on a defensive line featuring Mike Martin and Ryan Van Bergen, so Air Force probably ends up in that neighborhood of run game production against Team 133's defense. In the end, however, AF simply doesn't have the athletes to hang with Gallon, Toussaint, and Denard (although I doubt that Borges will want to run him like he did against EMU last year). I am also looking forward to at least one impressive instance of raw wide receiving talent from Devin Gardner. Score: Michigan 35, Air Force 13
Al: "I'll wait for you to turn into Cade McNown. I'll wait for you!"
Al Borges has had a pretty bad time in general these last few days. The Alabama game went just about as expected, although the final score did reach the worst case scenario as opposed to the in retrospect laughable hope that we could keep it "close" (i.e. cover the spread). Yet, people are still upset at Al. Why didn't he do this or that? Why, Al, Why?
Admittedly, attempting to mine useful football talk from fans in the middle of a game is useless, like asking a teenager for parenting tips. Even I, with my personal stake in the game (as a former resident of the Yellowhammer state), was going USE DENARD BLARGHHH like everyone else. After the requisite 24-hour moping period came and went, it became fairly clear that Borges did the only thing he could do, that being exactly what he did.
When Borges said they "weren't going to let you do that", with a matter-of-factness verging on grim nihilism, he truly meant it. Alabama really is not in the business of letting anybody run the ball on them. Remember, they're pretty good, and have been so throughout the entire Saban era for a reason (save for his debut season in 2007). Think of all the great backs and quarterbacks that the Tide go up against in the SEC: how many of them had any sort of success on the ground? I'm willing to bet that you could them on one hand.
I love Denard as much as the next guy and it will be a sad day when he plays his list game as a Wolverine (I would think that that would be clear to anyone that has read this blog), but even Cam Newton, Heisman winner, couldn't do much of anything against Alabama. Newton amassed a mere 39 yards on 22 carries. Newton, the man who spent 2010 trucking everything in sight and then speeding past LSU corner Patrick Peterson could not do a thing against the Tide. Auburn's memorable comeback began how, you ask? First, a 36-yard TD strike to Emory Blake and then a 71-yard TD pass to Terrel Zachery. We all knew that this would be the only way that we would be able to attack the Alabama defense, simply because Saban can afford to sell out on the run game with the athletes he has in the back 7/8.
Last season, Cam's rookie year in the NFL, he threw for just over 4,000 yards and ran for 706 at 5.6 YPC, scoring a total of 35 touchdowns. Newton made NFL defenses look absolutely silly all season as a rookie, and yet he couldn't do anything at all on the ground against Alabama for an eventual national championship-winning Auburn team.
Denard is not Cam Newton (in case you didn't know that already). The thing that most people still do not seem to be grasping in the aftermath is that sometimes there is no adjustment. If that makes you feel helpless as a fan, imagine how that makes Borges feel. I mean, did you watch the video above?
Give Denard a few more carries against Alabama if you must. It wouldn't have mattered, as Nick Saban's record as a defensive mastermind has shown. The only response to this would be that "hey, we were out of options and Denard is our best player so we have to use him!" My response? 1) Again, it wouldn't have worked. 2) 5-10 more carries makes an injury in what is pretty much an exhibition game as far as anybody important (i.e. Hoke) is concerned. 3) Alabama defensive players spent basically all of July and August talking about stopping Denard Robinson. As it turned out, one way of doing this was the conscientious decision to force him to give the ball to far less dangerous runners. If he kept, they would be right there to stop it because, remember, they'd been talking about it. They were ready for it.
What they couldn't have accounted for as much is Denard completing passes at the intermediate level and deep downfield. He completed a couple (2/10, per Borges), but they came too late and were too infrequent. Denard had some opportunities throughout the game and just missed, although it should also be noted that Michigan's receivers (and Alabama's fast, aggressive, and impeccably coached secondary) were also part of the problem. Once Denard proved unequal to the task of passing his way into opening up some sort of running room, it was over.
---
Anyway, I don't want to ramble on about the Alabama game any more than I have to. However, it should be clear: Michigan's offensive gameplan was probably 124th on the list of reasons why Michigan lost this game, fitting between "the existence of Nickelback, period" and "having to wait until next summer for the conclusion to Breaking Bad." Some are complaining of Borges's inflexibility, which I find to be a little bit odd and unforgiving, especially after the catastrophic start to the RR era, with Threet and Sheridan attempting to run the spread, a memory which was an indefinite--to use an Alabama-ism--"bless their hearts" situation.
What we currently have is a frustrating situation without a tidy solution. We have a senior quarterback, transcendent in some areas and still very much developing in others, united with an offensive coordinator known for coaching pro-style quarterbacks. This is pretty much the 2008 offense redux, albeit under much less dire circumstances. Last year's 11-2 mark and Michigan's success against Nebraska and OSU to end the season concealed this notion somewhat, but this offense is cognitive dissonance in action, and there's nothing we can do about it for now.
One final point. As someone who likes to talk about sports and things on the Internet, there comes a certain point where people--fans, blog proprietors, miscellaneous college football media folks, etc.--will want to lay claim to some sort of authority with respect to football parlance, strategy, and general commentary. This is natural, the urge to know more and then to parlay that knowledge into something bigger. The problem with all of this, a problem lacking a solution (not unlike the Denard-Borges mismatch conundrum) is that none of us here, tapping away at our keyboards on the Internet, know a single thing that Borges doesn't know.
In his 27th season as a college offensive coordinator, Borges has without a doubt seen every possible defensive philosophy, blitz package, opponent collective talent level, and specific in-game situations. It is natural to want to criticize the coaches when they and/or the team fails, because, if we didn't, then we'd simply be passive consumer detached from the results in a way that makes the whole process seem pointless.
In this case, however, failure was inevitable, as unsatisfying of a conclusion at which to arrive. It is a difficult thing to accept, especially as a fan of a program like Michigan, but it is the truth. Alabama was better at every position. Michigan did not have a single matchup advantage. Michigan's primary offensive strength matched up against Alabama's defensive strength and a core tenet of its defensive philosophy. Fin.
There's a lot of football left to be played, and I don't need to tell you that Saturday was probably as bad as it will get this season (and maybe even for a long, long time). I don't know that Michigan is as good as 2011 Oregon--the comparison Borges uses to say that we'll be alright--but Michigan is certainly not as bad as it showed on Saturday. Borges calling the plays for an offense quarterbacked by Denard will continue to be intermittently awkward, but Borges has already proven that he can make this offense function at a high level more often than not.
That was not fun, but I've already used up all my reserves of frustration. It's over and we'll be fine moving forward...I'm pretty sure of that. But, for now, I wrote some words on what took place Saturday night.
On the bright side, things can only go up from here. These next two weeks will be huge for Michigan's confidence, the healing of boo boos, and getting those freshman some more game experience. I can't imagine what being thrown into the fire against a team like that in your first college game was like. Probably like this:
Hello, Internet. I am Fouad Egbaria, a Michigan grad ('11) and recent graduate of the MSJ program at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. This is a blog that attempts to analyze the highs and lows of Michigan football and basketball; I'm just trying to capture the spirit of the thing. I will also write about general Big Ten news, as well as Chicago professional sports (from time to time).
Posts
