Miscellaneous Minutiae, 8/27/2012

Just wrapping up some loose ends here before the college football season starts...ON THURSDAY. I can hardly believe it either. 

Goodbye, offseason.

Captains. They are, as expected, Denard Robinson and Jordan Kovacs. As Michigan's most prominent senior warrior football poets, you can expect a lot about them in this space throughout the coming months.

Also, this goes without saying but I'll say it anyway: Jordan Kovacs is Rudy...if Rudy was actually good and had an NFL future. Seriously. The guy didn't make the team in 2008 due to a knee injury and then turned around and started in '09. The rest, as they say, is history. Competence is good. /Henne'd

Deciding time. This is just about the time when schools are announcing who their starter at QB will be going into the coming season. Some guys won by default, some after a long and arduous battle throughout the spring, summer, and fall.

The notable winners: Kiehl Frazier (Auburn), Josh Nunes (Stanford), Everret Golson (Notre Dame), David Ash (Texas), and Joe Southwick (Boise State), Marcus Mariota (Oregon). So, there you go. Arm yourselves with this arsenal of useless information (which I guess basically defines sports fandom as a whole, but whatever). Nunes and Southwick have the unenviable task of replacing Andrew Luck and Kellen Moore*, whereas the other three guys are trying to be better (Ash, Frazier) or better than the guy that started last year (Golson).

*Mariota has to replace a productive, successful college QB in Darron Thomas, but, as I mentioned in the Pac 12 preview, he's just the next cog in the Oregon offensive machine. At this point, I'm convinced that Chip Kelly could coach an orange with pencils for appendages to run for 100+ and pass for 250+ against your team.

Speaking of Golson. You've probably heard this already, but ND has suspended tailback Cierre Wood for a minimum of two games...that's not a good thing if your name is Everett Golson. The Irish start the season in Dublin (not the one in Ohio) against Navy. I'm not quite ready to sound the upset alert siren here, but a young QB without his top tailback, no Michael Floyd (plus, Theo Riddick is now a running back), doesn't sound like a promising thing for the ND offense. Whereas Rees managed to move the ball last season only to eventually turn it over, ND might find it difficult to move the ball at all with Golson.

Basically, you can expect approximately 842 passes thrown in Tyler Eifert's direction against Navy.

Meanwhile, in Knoxville. Also on the suspension front, Tennessee had suspended star wideout Da'Rick Rogers (he has since transferred to Tennessee Tech), which significantly puts a dent in my increasingly positive (for some reason) feelings about the Vols' 2012 team. This is a tough blow for Tennessee, especially after getting their other star receiver Justin Hunter back from injury (he missed most of the 2011 season).

From where I stand, Tennessee looks like a team with a solid but not spectacular defense that is moving to the 3-4 and an offense with a gunslinger of a QB and a not very established running game. Unless Bray is ultra-efficient--which is unlikely given that's he's going to be throwing it as if UT  had somehow relocated to the Pacific coast--then seven wins might be as far as UT can go in Dooley's third season. Is that enough? I'm honestly not sure.

Ah, there's the beef. So things had been progressing fairly normally this fall; that is, until some things about the defensive line started to leak out of fall camp. By this I am mostly referring to #76 Quinton Washington, former O-lineman, starting on the DL next to BWC.

If the Black-QW-BWC-Roh lineup is the one that gets rolled out to start, that pretty much confirms the sneaking suspicion that the coaches aren't that comfortable with Black's ability to hold up on the inside, even with the weight he's added (up to 276 from 260, as of this post). Either that, or they're attempting to compensate for Clark's suspension by slotting Black back at his original position (WDE), hopefully precluding the need to play Ojemudia at all against Alabama, which I think would mostly end in disaster. Washington is pretty big, and if there was a game to roll with QW and Campbell in the middle, it's against Alabama. Now, being big doesn't mean that you can hold up (see: "Will Campbell's first three seasons at Michigan"), but the coaching staff is in a bit of a bind. Sadly, these sorts of moves when you're about to face an offensive line like Alabama's is kind of like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Also. Devin Gardner: is the transformation to wideout complete? It certainly seems that way based on recent rumblings. Two things:

• Whatever arcane magical rituals you've been performing in order to keep Denard healthy, DOUBLE DOWN on them right now and all the way through early January. No offense to Russell Bellomy, but if he is the QB2 in earnest, then 
• At this point, however, I've come to terms with the fact that wide receiver might end up being Devin Gardner's calling. For whatever reason, his mechanics and overall QB "it having-ness" hasn't progressed as expected, and that's unfortunate but far from presages the end of the world or DG's career. We all know he can be an exceptional talent [insert that camp highlight tape where he does his best Marquise Walker impression here], but it's one thing to be a guy running out there for the occasional snap and being a starting guy. Either way, the coaches have done a great job generally keeping DG's role under wraps..I can guarantee that Saban is thinking about this. 

See, look: interesting football things to talk about. Football must be near. *Checks calendar* WOOOO!

More? Florida's 2012 QB situation is going to mirror 1998/99 Michigan's...if Brady and Henson were both not very good. Check the "ETC" section...Spencer with a zinger regarding UofM research and Greg Robinson. 

Lake The Post agrees with me, putting Michigan at #11 to start. 

People In America Excited About A Book, 10/25/2011

I'd like to do some more generic daily news/links type posts from this point forward--like I did occasionally over the summer--but I never had a uniform name for them, like MGoBlog's Unverified Voracity or EDSBS's Curious Index...eventually I'll think of a somewhat witty name for this thing that nobody will read (the old school Conan-esque self-deprecation is strong here, y'all). I haven't really been able to keep up with the schedule I outlined before the season started but the weekly game recap, rankings opinions, and Friday feature are still there, so I'm looking to fill out the middle part of the week with something. So, here goes.

Three and Out: As everybody is aware, John Bacon's "Three and Out" is officially out there for the hoi polloi, and AnnArbor.com states the obvious in noting that Bacon probably isn't winning him some friends with this one:

John Bacon didn't make any new friends and might've lost some old ones with his book, "Three and Out," that looks at the Rich Rodriguez era in Michigan football.

"The main figures have made their displeasure with the book and author clear," Bacon said.

I won't be getting my copy until probably early next week, but coverage of the book thus far has already been pretty extensive, a fact that should lessen the brunt of some of the book's more surprising revelations. I'm looking forward to reading it (and not looking forward to it at the same time), but once I get through it I plan on posting a general review here (as will everybody else, I'm sure). As a general preface, I will say that anybody who plans on reading it should stray away from making ridiculous black and white assertions about any of the key figures described in the book, but that should be common sense. People are often more complex figures than anyone can imagine, and I'm sure this book will be a testament to that. 

At the same time, as a 22 year-old who grew up with Michigan football under Lloyd Carr (and as a freshman at Michigan in 2007 who saw Lloyd's final season unfold), it will be hard not to come away a little bit disillusioned...but, you probably already know that if you're reading this. 

Even Spencer Hall of EDSBS fame is weighing in on the book that is raining cash on Bacon like Seth Poege passes over Oklahoma's hapless secondary:

The other prevailing impressions from the book thus far: Bill Stewart keeping Casteel was disastrous and like the most Bill Stewart thing to do ever, the coach at West Virginia faces some of the weirdest political currents ever, and Denard Robinson fucking rules.

The New Guys: Going back to the same source, Kyle Meinke talks about the bye week with respect to several freshmen expected to see increased roles going forward, namely Frank Clark, Brennen Beyer, Thomas Rawls, Blake Countess, and Raymon Taylor. We've already seen all five of them to some extent, with Countess obviously receiving the most playing time, often looking like Michigan's best corner as a freshman. 

Perhaps most newsworthy is the fact that Jake Ryan has officially supplanted Cam Gordon as the starter on the strong side. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this, but it is what it is. Gordon got in on special teams against State but didn't do anything else, so maybe Hoke and Mattison believe that it's just too late to expect him to jump back in and be the guy he was supposed to be. It's unfortunate, really...as much as I've lamented the disappearance of Martavious Odoms after his offseason injury issues, Cam's demotion is equally sad. 


Either way, I hope that Gordon will get some time going forward. While Ryan has been pretty good for a freshman, he's been an outright liability at times; that is to be expected, of course, but that doesn't mean that Cam can't potentially work his way back in in time. As the coaches seem to understand, this is the perfect time to work some of these guys in, as these week should hopefully serve as a sort of tryout for a lot of these guys. 

Other than that, Taylor is a guy who intrigues me athletically. He saw some time as the nickel earlier on in the season, and while I don't think he should get tons of time, his above average speed leads me to believe that he could be useful as a Brandon Harrison-type blitz monger. As for Rawls...shoot, it can't hurt to try him? Either way, we can't run the ball as few times as we did against State and expect Toussaint and Smith to get going. I expect us to come out and run the ball a lot in this game...if we can't do it successfully then we are in major trouble. How the line accounts for Kawann Short will be a major factor in getting this done. 

Optimism Abounds: WolverineNation collects the opinions of the various Michigan folks on why "this time it's different." So, that's nice. Former MGoBlog recruting guru TomVH says that Michigan is "doing very well in California," which hopefully means that a Payton commitment is forthcoming. I'm not a recruiting expert by any means so I don't really know what to make of the delay in his announcement after visiting South Bend this past weekend, but for now it seems that our chances are just as good as anybody else's. Either way, Michigan going back to the old recruiting formula of recruiting Michigan and Ohio (and Pennsylvania), and pulling skill guys from California is hard to argue against, as exciting as the brief Florida connection was. 

Redemption Song: Yeah yeah we only talk about guys that play for Michigan (is that still something we say?), but it's nice to see former recruit Demar Dorsey hopefully getting back to Division I ball. It's easy to be a cynic these days, and while he will never play for Michigan I hope that he continues to turn his life around. You can say that his academics weren't up to par and that he shouldn't have been recruited in the first place (that's a different issue entirely), but you can't fault him for trying when so many others like him have entered the somewhat ignominious structure of JUCO-level ball only to never resurface. 

Submitted Without Comment:

More? Big 12 "voices desire" for Mizzou to stay put, also translated to "PLEASE DON'T GO." Some not good news for OSU tailback Jaamal Berry...probably won't have much of an on-the-field impact but there it is. Ramzy of ElevenWarriors touches on the upcoming "Oversigning Bowl"...as great as the game will be, it's a  shame that this undercurrent has to exist.Can't wait for the game against NFC South contender Alabama next year! Oregon looking like it will continue without the services of Cliff Harris...somehow I think they'll be alright. Also, this is a thing.