Out: Michigan State, Boise State, Baylor Idle: Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Kansas State, USC, Auburn, Mississippi State, probably some other teams that I'm forgetting about
GO U NORTHWESTERN. Okay, I'll spare you this week since I wrote a full post on Northwestern this past Saturday (!). However, Northwestern is undefeated. As far as Michigan's relevance to this goes, the collapse of NU's defense in the second half against the hapless Hoosiers should make Michigan fans feel a little bit better about this game.
Texas Tech...plays defense? This is without a doubt one of the strangest happenings of the 2012 season. The Red Raiders are playing defense, well. Per Hinton, TTU leads the national in total defense and pass defense at this point in time. I don't even have anything witty to say about this. I'm honestly shocked that Tuberville was able to fashion some semblance of a defense in Lubbock, but apparently he has. Of course, the Big 12 will offer many opportunities for that defense to get shredded, particularly through the air. We'll see if this center can hold.
One more "why couldn't we do that?" data point. Ole Miss held the Tide to 125 yards rushing at 3.7 yards per carry. In addition to Alabama's modest output against Western Kentucky, you have to wonder how Michigan was not able to contain Alabama's running game even a little bit. True, Alabama has one less bullet in the chamber given Jalston Fowler's season-ending injury, but still: how were Ole Miss and WKU, of all teams, able to do so much better than Michigan did? This is truly one of life's greatest mysteries.
A brief note on WVU-Baylor. 2010 Michigan-Illinois, last season's Washington-Baylor bowl game, this WVU-Baylor game...all these games are stupid and should not be celebrated. Yes, I know that I'm being the stereotypical BIG TEN MAN that Shutdown Fullback satirizes, but that type of football just isn't appealing. Say what you will about the relative quality of Ohio State and Michigan State, but I was actually engaged in that game, unlike this glorified arena derby.
Speaking of little defense...Texas and Georgia, teams occupying the "not Alabama but still ridiculously good" rung on the defensive hierarchy, both proved to be somewhat vulnerable this past week against Oklahoma Stateand Tennessee, respectively. I have to think that this was an outlier for both teams, but especially for Texas, who take on Oklahoma State 2.0 this Saturday (i.e. West Virginia). We shall find out if: a) Texas's defense is as good as previously thought and b) whether WVU's ridiculous offense works on the road, away from the scent of gunpowder and the Morgantown fog.
Your weekly reminder that the Big Ten is a festering stinkfest of stink. Need I say more? Iowa loses again, Michigan drops a Kafkaesque one in South Bend, Michigan State allows the might Fightin' Ron Englishes and the venerable PROCESS to hang around for far too long, Ohio State was only up 6 on the lowly Blazers of UAB at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Illinois lost to Louisian Tech by 28 at home, Wisconsin only beat UTEP by 11 and lost Ball early in the game to another head injury...it's bad. Michigan can win this thing, even in spite of its 2-2 start, but you and I both know that it doesn't mean much this year. Still, a conference title is a conference title, and given Michigan's current drought in that department, I will take it without complaint.
LSU Les Miles around, Oregon takes advantage. Like everyone else, I'm bumping Oregon up to #2 for now based on this week's games; the Ducks handled an Arizona team that has shown itself to be surprisingly competent--formidable, even--and LSU struggled with a downright bad Auburn team. Yes, we're only four weeks into the season, but if Alabama can just go ahead and knock off LSU in Baton Rouge and Oregon takes care of business, we might be getting another Oregon vs. the SEC national title game, which I think we can all agree would be approximately 942 times better than another LSU-Alabama rematch.
"I've made a huge mistake."--Missouri "GOB" Tigers. Missouri took on its second SEC foe and left with its second thumping at the hands of a ferocious South Carolina team. Quarterback play has always been the issue under Spurrier's tenure at USC East--which is still funny to type out or even think about given his reputation--so if Connor Shaw can continue to be the gritty runner and efficient passer that he was this past Saturday, the SEC East better look out.
Your other weekly reminder: NORTHWESTERN IS UNDEFEATED Y'ALL. Hit it, one more time:
Free fallin'. Arkansas...I mean, what is there to say? It's hard not to feel bad for John L. Smith, but at the same time everyone kind of knew that this was coming. Arkansas is 1-3 heading into the part of the schedule that is actually supposed to be difficult, and man, even getting to bowl eligibility looks like an uphill battle. Only in college football can a team like Arkansas be 1-3 while squads like Oregon State and Rutgers remain undefeated. If college football were a person, it would definitely be Maximus standing amid the fallen favorites yelling "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?" into perpetuity.
Hope For Pahokee Update: Martavious Odoms's "Hope For Pahokee" Kickstarteris getting closer to its goal but isn't quite there yet. So far, 759 backers have donated $30,917 of the $35k goal. If you haven't donated yet, do it! Let's not let this fail because of a short Internet attention span (or any other reason, really).
Yes, I'm talking about Northwestern again. If you haven't noticed by now, I'm a grad student at the venerable Northwestern University these days, and have thus followed the Wildcats' football program somewhat closely for the last eight or nine months. It has been somewhat of a breath of fresh air from the monumental expectations and resulting disappointment that comes with being a Michigan fan. Obviously, I am a Michigan fan first, and it's not even close, so don't worry (not that you were, person that isn't reading this, probably). Still, there's something inherently good about rooting for a program like Northwestern, one that does things The Right Way (if you are rolling your eyes, that's fine) and makes the most of what it has, usually without the major expectations and glowering spotlights of major college football programs...and I better stop there before I literally transform into one of those NCAA PSAs about athletes going into something other than sports.
Say what you will about the quality of Northwestern's wins thus far, but 3-0 is 3-0. The strangest thing about is, other than the shootout that was the Syracuse game, the Wildcats have done it largely with defense and a strong running game, powered by Kain Colter, Venric Mark, and Mike Trumpy. Make no mistake about it, Michigan's matchup against the Wildcats will not be an easy one. All my kidding about being warrior poets and whatnot aside, the Wildcats play a decidedly grit-astic brand of football that belies their reputation as a spread team with little defensive speed and/or talent to speak of.
Wow. That’s a pretty good feeling to wake up to this morning. Rewind for a second. If someone had told you that after week three, NU would be 3-0, one of only three teams in the B1G undefeated and, the facilities plan would be announced, you may have pulled out your checkbook.
I will conclude this Northwestern section that is probably annoying you by saying this: I don't think that we, as Michigan fans, say "wow" enough.
Meanwhile, back to the supposed focus of this blog...it's Notre Dame week. It was Notre Dame week even before the UMass game even ended, if we're being honest with ourselves. Brady Hoke said some things about Notre Dame:
I really don't know how to feel about this game. I'll have a preview up later this week, but, needless to say, this might be the biggest Notre Dame game since the 2006 contest. I know that we've won in South Bend in two of our last three trips down there, but there's still that residual anxiety enduring from our winless streak there stretching from the Remy Hamilton game winner in 1994 up until the "oh wide open" game in 2006. Michigan has won the last three seasons on the back of some pretty serious offensive sorcery the past three years, but I'm getting the feeling that the same cannot happen this time around if Michigan is going to win.
Wondering about whether or not Notre Dame is truly "back" is a useless endeavor better left to people interested in pointless narratives and STORYLINES, but this game will be won--WARNING, ENTIERING CLICHE LAND NOW--in the trenches. For that reason, I have a pretty disagreeable feeling about this game in the pit of my stomach right now, but maybe that will change between now and Saturday.
Hoke loves playing Notre Dame. But, if for some reason the Fighting Irish aren't on the Wolverines' schedule at some point down the road, Hoke won't exactly be heartbroken.
"They've got to do what they need to do for them," Hoke said Monday. "If (the Michigan-Notre Dame series) continues, it's great.
"If it doesn't, then we'll move forward."
As a person who has accepted Brady Hoke's "no chicken on pizza" as the law of the land since last week's radio show, you may take this with a grain of salt, but...I generally agree. I'm not necessarily one of those people that wants to see ND disappear from the schedule out of some sense of misplaced spite or whatever, but it would be nice to get some other teams on the schedule. I don't think that this is a novel or controversial opinion.
NO RESPECT. Matt Hinton reveals his Week 3 top 25, and it does not include Michigan. If Michigan sports talk radio had a PAWWWLLL equivalent, I would so be calling into it right now. Not really. Of course, Hinton explains his rationale as incisively as you'd expect:
September rankings are always a "Damned If You Do/Damned If You Don't" proposition. By mid-October or so, resumés are fleshed out, and everybody more or less agrees on what they're looking at and how to assess it. But what exactly are you assessing when a significant chunk of the country has yet to play a meaningful game? What is the criteria?
In the past, I've hewn to a strict resumé approach that might, for example, jump Louisiana-Monroe into the top ten for an early upset over a top-ten team, and let the deck sort itself out over the course of the season.
So, that's fair. It feels weird to see teams like Rutgers, Iowa State, and Oregon State in there and not Michigan, but the Wolverines have not had the opportunity to do anything of note outside of the Alabama, a game Michigan was probably not going to win even if it pulled out the greatest game it has ever played. I would imagine that a win in South Bend would propel the Wolverines into his top 25, if not his top 15.
I'm sure he would agree, but when you really get down to the business of attempting to construct a top 25, you really begin to realize how byzantine and completely arbitrary college football really is. That is part of its charm, I guess, and I wouldn't trade college football for anything in the world. Still, college football comes with the underlying notion that attempting to place teams on a relativistic spectrum of quality is like trying to decide whether Beethoven or The Beatles were more influential than the other. In a few words: it is impossible. As long as you accept that, you'll be doin' just fine.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Not Russell Wilson. For a team that was a preseason favorite to win the Big Ten, this is not exactly news you want to hear heading into the fourth week of the season with a running game working about as well as the average person does in the morning before having their coffee:
Wondering if Danny O'Brien will be Wisconsin's starting quarterback when the Badgers take the field against UTEPon Saturday the answer is: Maybe.
While offensive coordinator Matt Canada intimated O'Brien would remain the team's starting quarterback, he wouldn't commit to it.
Like everybody, I just sort of assumed that Wisconsin would be able to withstand the exodus of offensive lineman to the NFL and assistant coaches to Pitt, but that has decidedly not been the case thus far. The Badgers take on a 1-2 UTEP team that should result in a fairly stress-free win before a trip to Lincoln the next week, a primetime derby against a Nebraska team looking to avenge last year's thumping in Madison.
This has not been the first time that people have questioned Bret Bielema's ability to be the primary braintrust of the Wisconsin program in spite of his sterling record. After winning 21 games in his first two seasons in Madison (12-1 in 2006, 9-4 in 2007), Bielema led the Badgers to a disappointing 7-6 season in 2008 (of course including what was probably the most embarrassing loss to Michigan that Wisconsin has ever taken), leading to the usual gripes about how his first two seasons were made possible on the backs of Alvarez recruits, yada yada yada.
In any case, this 2012 Wisconsin football team should continue to be an interesting case study in the importance of assistant coaches, those behind-the-scenes shadows that are more important than any of us can really ever know (whether in a good or a bad way). With uncertainty at the quarterback position and a running game that has been almost unnervingly bad, it's not difficult to imagine this season spiraling out of control for the Badgers if Nebraska is able to return the favor in Lincoln.
Another week of college football came and went, and although we are still stuck in the mostly barren wasteland that is non-conference play, there were more than a few upsets this week. Virginia Tech somehow fell to a horrific Pitt team, Michigan State fell at home to Notre Dame, USC took a loss in Palo Alto, Ohio State almost lost to a seemingly mediocre Cal squad, and Utah bounced back from their loss against Utah State to pick off BYU in the Holy War in what was a mostly nonsensical finish.
We're still approximately a week or two away from these rankings not being a completely formless sea of shifting tectonic plates, but for now this will have to do.
Rank
Team
1
Alabama
2
LSU
3
Oregon
4
West Virginia
5
Georgia
6
Florida State
7
Stanford
8
USC
9
Texas
10
South Carolina
11
Clemson
12
Oklahoma
13
Notre Dame
14
Ohio State
15
Florida
16
TCU
17
Michigan State
18
Kansas State
19
Michigan
20
UCLA
21
Louisville
22
Arizona
23
Northwestern
24
Missouri
25
Nebraska
Out: Virginia Tech, Tennessee Idle: Oklahoma, Oregon State, Colorado (JUST KIDDING they played, allegedly)
With a powerful running game (forced to dip into secondary options once the starter got dinged up) and a staunch defense and special teams, they completed their third victory in a row against BCS competition this season. Who is this defensive/running game juggernaut of which I speak? Alabama?LSU, maybe? Of course, I am talking about none other than the Northwestern University FIGHTIN' FITZGERALDS. The Wildcats have been a shining light amid a sea of darkness for the Big Ten thus far this season; with games against South Dakota and Indiana coming up, a 5-0 start is all but assured for the warrior poets from Evanston. The Wildcats have gone with the Brady/Henson arrangement at QB with Kain Colter and Trevor Siemian, and there's a good chance that Siemian will eventually be "the guy." Anyway, bask in the warm glow of the Warrior Poets' battle hymn:
Elsewhere in the Big Ten. Ohio State, following the "hey let's make the quarterback do everything" style of play that Michigan has perfected the past three seasons, required a 72-yard strike from Miller to Devin Smith in the late stages to finally put away a Cal team with a loss to Nevada to its name. Wisconsin continues to be Bizarro Wisconsin, with nary a running game to be found; they required a missed field goal to beat the Aggies of Utah State in the final seconds. That's not a good look. Indiana did what Indiana does, and by that I mean lose to Ball State. Michigan State could not do much of anything against an Irish team that might actually be rounding into a legitimate team that could do some real damage if not for a brutal schedule the rest of the way. Otherwise, everything else went okay: Penn State got its first win, Minnesota is now 3-0, a Burkhead-less Nebraska team dealt with Gus Malzahn's Arkansas State squad, Purdue decidedly did not respect The Process en route to a thumping of EMU, and Iowa lost another tailback in an ugly win against their buddies from Cedar Falls. WOO, FEEL THE EXCITEMENT OF BIG TEN FOOTBALL.
Hey Alabama: maybe chill out a bit, okay. This is all just for fun. I did not watch this game, but this is pretty much the definition of the game that you can consume via osmosis. "Oh, did you hear about Arkansas?" *exchange of uncomfortable looks* "Yeah..." Sure, Arkansas was without Tyler Wilson, but if the relevant picture in this SMQB "Agony and Ecstasy" post is any indication, Wilson probably dodged a bullet by not participating in this one anyway.
"I'll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I recognize Missourah!"Actually, not really. I like Missouri and think they should be just fine in the SECE, last week's game against UGA notwithstanding (which was a ballgame until the curious fake punt call by Pinkel). James Franklin (not the Vandy HC) was out, leaving the door open for backup Corbin "Most Likely Name For a Birkenstock Enthusiast" Birkstresser, who did alright against an Arizona State defense that inceptioned many nightmares into the brains of Illinois' backup quarterbacks. He only went 21-41 with a YPA of 4.8 and 1 INT, but he did pitch in a TD on the ground. Who knows if ASU is any good at all, but Mizzou held serve at CoMo and that's all that matters. Having a +3 turnover margin and holding your opponent to 2-12 on third down is a pretty easy path to a W.
Thomas Jefferson ain't walkin' through that door. Another team/coach that I was a fan of coming into the season: UVA and Mike London. Unfortunately, that mostly irrational liking has taken a bit of hit thus far this season. The Cavs were fairly lucky to beat Penn State, and this past Saturday's 56-20 loss at Georgia Tech...is not a good luck. I bought into the Mike London hype train and decided to mostly ignore the fact that UVA would have to replace quite a few starters, but oh well. You're going to completely misread at least a few teams each season, and UVA definitely falls under this category for me. Still, they're 2-1, so all is not lost.
Once again, it must be stated: after the first tier or two, the remaining terrain in the top 25 is largely unclaimed and largely untenable, which is why teams drop in and out with a Kramer-esque frequency. We know very little about most teams. That is, other than the fact that teams like Florida State can beat horrible teams by many points and that Michigan is not as good as Alabama. This is really the only downside to the first month of college football. Still, football that isn't competitive is better than no football at all.
After all, without college football, we probably wouldn't get things like this:
Out: Wisconsin, Nebraska, Utah, Oklahoma State, Missouri, Arkansas Idle: Baylor, West Virginia
Déjà vu. Hey, Alabama and LSU at the top two spots! There's no way we get a second matchup in the MNC game after Alabama wins by 3 in Baton Rouge, right? RIGHT? The scary thing is, I wouldn't be surprised if that happened. I really wouldn't. As for Washington, I don't think anybody expects them to go into Death Valley and win, but this is year 4 of the Sarkisian era, and I think this might be the last season that Sark can rely on the fact that Washington football was completely atrocious before he got there (not that he's "relying" on this, per se, but you know what I mean). On the bright side, Stanford is looking very vulnerable, so second place in the Pac 12 North is a solid goal for the Huskies this season. No matter what happened against LSU's defense, Keith Price is still good in my book (and probably books other than mine).
GO U NORTHWESTERN.Take it in...oh yeah. That is the battle hymn of undefeated football and championships. My future second alma mater, The Fighting Warrior Poets of Northwestern University, executed a smashing victory against the dastardly Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday. Much harumphing was done throughout this affair, and many comments were cast into the Evanston night regarding the authenticity of the student-athletes competing in a dignified and respectful battle of sport in a stadium filled with tens of people. The battle was won before the game had even started, joked every Northwestern fan to every single Vanderbilt fan in attendance. Indeed.
In the end, a game was in fact played, and the Warrior Poets--the ones in purple and black--emerged victorious with a little bit of luck and a lot of Venric Mark, which has been the winning formula thus far this season in two victories against BCS teams (Syracuse and Vanderbilt). Northwestern's wins aren't anything to write home about, but they do merit a lower end top 25 ranking (of course, this means so much). Kyle Prater still hasn't done a whole lot and 4-star recruit/true freshman defensive end Ifeadi Odenigbo made his debut but didn't seem to do much either. If either of them get going, this team becomes even more spoilerific than it already is. The Wildcats' secondary played much better against Vandy's Jordan Rodgers than they did Syracuse's Ryan Nassib, but they will need to be even better with a pass-happy BC team coming to town next week.
DERP. There was quite a bit of derping around done on this second football Saturday, although most of it was not that surprising when you really think about history and precedent and stuff. Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Illinois all playing Pac 12 teams out west in September? Boom, auto-loss. After seeing Michigan suffer abominable losses at UCLA, Washington, and Oregon in the early 2000s, why is any of this surprising? Detroit makes cars, the Big Ten loses out west in September. THIS IS WHAT WE DO.
Speaking of out Californee way. The Pac 12 South is pretty much the complete opposite of what I envisioned it would be. UCLA and Arizona looking...good? Arizona State beating Illinois probably doesn't mean much, but they really beat them. I figured Utah to be the #2 team in this division, albeit with a vast gulf separating them and USC. However, after their loss at Utah State, it's looking like they'll be fighting to avoid having the pleasure of sitting next to the moldy unconsumable thing that is Colorado football. College football is fairly unpredictable, in case you hadn't noticed.
Something something fluids not being hot enough something something. So, Arkansas. Let's talk. I know how you feel. So does Nick Saban AHAHAH /looks at Alabama-Michigan box score /sobs internally. I will say this though: I never understood all the Arkansas love, so they are only dropping down from #16 spot in my completely meaningless top 25. There was no reason for Arkansas to lose that game even without Tyler Wilson for most of it, but the Razorbacks are still a top 25 team if Wilson plays. Still, I can't even give them the ol' "I'm putting you at 25 out of pity" designation. With Alabama coming this Saturday, things don't exactly get much easier.
THEY CAN'T HANG PAWWLLL. I started to convince myself that Florida and Georgia might go a combined 0-2 against their new SEC foes this past Saturday. Simply put: NOPE. I don't know that these games mean anything in the grand scheme of things (i.e. TAMU and Mizzou's ability to compete in the SEC), but it sure would've been nice for TAMU to shake the "can't finish" label against a Florida team that is still very much in transition from the Meyer era to Muschamp's brand of ball. Mizzou, on the other hand, had a chance to take out a team missing several key defenders (Alec Ogletree, Sanders Commings, Bacarri Rambo), and failed to cash in after hanging in there for three quarters. Things might have ended differently if not for an odd fake punt call by Gary Pinkel early in the fourth quarter, but a 21-point loss is, in the end, a 21-point loss.
In retrospect, Mizzou actually would've been a pretty good addition to the Big Ten (not that Nebraska hasn't been one), and I think the Tigers will be probably be okay, although I just looked at their schedule again and it is pretty darn tough. Except for Kentucky, there probably isn't a single slam dunk game the rest of the way. As for Georgia, this is their first 2-0 start since the 2008 season, when they were preseason #1.
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).
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