Genuinely Sarcastic

Learning to Fly

2011-12-02T10:04:00.001-05:00

	Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Learning To Fly .mp3

	Found at bee mp3 search engine

In early 1942, as the Japanese flexed their military muscles and ran roughshod over southeast Asia, their barrage left General Douglas MacArthur and his contigent of men isolated in the tiny Bataan province of the Philippines. The situation was hopeless, with only two possible outcomes: either fight and die (or worse, be subjected to the brutality of being prisoners of war under Japanese control), or surrender, something most military personnel would choose death over.

MacArthur was ordered to withdraw and relocate to Australia. He did so, but he also gave a speech in which he made a promise to the people of the Philippines, vowing that he would return one day to liberate them from Japan's looming oppression. Only a few short months later, Bataan was under Japanese control. While the Japanese consolidated their power in southeast Asia, the Allies regrouped and reconfigured their strategy. This led to the Battle of the Coral Sea off the northeast coast of Australia in May 1942, which stretched the Japanese too thin, which led to the Americans crushing them at Midway in June, which put Japan on their heels for the remainder of the war. Following Midway, the grueling Guadalcanal Campaign from August 1942 to February 1943 finally tipped the scales in the Allies' favor. From there, the Allies slowly tightened the noose on the Japanese, hopping from the Solomon Islands to the Marshall Islands, to Saipan, and the Philippine Sea, and Guam, and numerous others...until finally, in October of 1944, MacArthur fulfilled the promise he made, iconically wading through the water onto the shore of Leyte, returning to the Philippines.

Ten years ago, the sinner masquarading as a saint put Michigan on the defensive, dealing a shocking blow in November of 2001 at Michigan Stadium. The tide that was stemmed two years later was only temporary, as another ambush was released on us the next year, when a mediocre Ohio State team throttled Big Ten Champion Michigan in Columbus. If it wasn't obvious in the aftermath of that game, it should've been: Ohio State had seized control of the rivalry. Michigan had a precious few number of opportunities to stop them in their tracks:

Leading 21-12 in the 4th quarter in 2005, only to humiliatingly hand the game to the Buckeyes with a gameplan that can generously be described as cowardly and accurately described as pussy-like.
Chad Henne overthrowing a w i d e open Mario Manningham in the first quarter of a 7-7 tie in 2006, squandering a chance to recapture momentum in the game.
Mike Hart slipping on Ohio State's ice rink of a field making a cut on 3rd down early in the third quarter. If he stays up, he runs untouched into the endzone and ties the game at 28. Instead Michigan has to settle for a field goal, and continues to play from behind.

From the moment that game in 2006 ended, nothing was remotely close between the two teams. Ohio State held Michigan at arm's length in victories in Ann Arbor in 2007 and 2009, and polished their brass knuckles before punching Michigan's skull in in Columbus in 2008 and 2010 against crippled, flailing UM teams that were bringing knives to gunfights.

Headed into this season, with the names largely the same as the previous one, it was assumed that UM would once again bring the knife. Even with Ohio State's (self-inflicted) mess, most people figured they'd still bring the firepower, if only to a lesser degree than recent years.

Imagine the surprise, then, as the season unfolded and showed that Ohio State was in possession of little more than a BB gun, and Michigan's knife was actually a bayonet attached to a rifle; a microcosm of life, where fortunes turn on a dime, with almost no warning. What was dull and desolate one day can suddenly be bright and shiny the next. A 37-7 farce of a game one year can turn into a landmark 40-34 insurrection the next.

Saturday rekindled feelings we had long forgotten, but had always lusted for. The feeling of Michigan's running game imposing its will on Ohio State, instead of feeling like a two yard gain was a success like in recent years, or the abomination that was 2007. The resolve that this team had the talent and fortitude to respond when OSU threw a haymaker, as opposed to the last four years, when it was plain as day that we were done after an OSU score. The schadenfreude that comes with petulant little shits (I cleaned it up for the kids) like Zach Boren crying about Michigan celebrating.

If the last eight years are to represent the general status quo of life - full of a harrowing combination of hope, fear, and ultimately, disappointment and bitterness - then days like Saturday are the moments that justify all the haste and drudgery of the world around us. The unfortunate few among us that are stricken with the compulsion to overanalyze things to the point of stripping them of all meaning often twist, warp, and distort things in our lives until some of them blend together, with the lines of separation becoming too blurry to distinguish. Sometimes this is acceptable, and even desirable, as combining two things we enjoy often produces an entirely new level of enjoyment greater than the parts that compose it. Other times, though, when one of our pleasures is tainted or destroyed, the entire well ends up poisoned, because we find ourselves unable to separate them anymore; they've become linked, and as one goes down in flames, it takes the other with it. When that happens, only a transcendent event can overcome the ghost in the machine.

For me, Michigan football no longer brought me joy, because I made the mistake of associating it with other aspects of my life, and they became too intertwined. So when those "other aspects" swirled the drain, it dragged with it the one thing I had been able to keep clean for years. The result was this season almost being seen from a distance. When Roy Roundtree jumped over Gary Gray to send Brian Kelly's head the way of Hiroshima, I registered maybe a five on the excitement scale. When Sam the Eagle's Traveling Band of Righteousness dealt Michigan its first defeat, what should've been overwhelming frustration and anger was only general annoyance from the realization that I would once again have to tolerate sophomoric trash talk from the most ignorant of fanbases. When Junior Hemingway's touchdown against Iowa was called back due to the traditional incompetence that is frequently exhibited by the trained apes wearing zebra shirts in the Big Ten, my agitation that would usually result in something in the house being broken faded within an hour. When Michigan began to drag the blade across Nebraska's throat, my enjoyment was muted at best.

On Saturday, to quote a vaguely familiar movie, I had what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity.

The 2007 class arrived with the quarterback from Texas with a thermonuclear missile attached to his right shoulder and the star cornerback we pulled over the wire of Pete Carroll's SoCal fence in some sort of bastardized hostage exchange because USC came to our backyard and turned Ronald Johnson and his family into mercenaries. Also much-hyped in the 2007 class was Toney Clemons, whose legacy in the eyes of Michigan fans is that of a rat; a snitch who couldn't keep his mouth shut, choosing to spew lies to spite the coach he didn't sign on for. After one season, Ryan Mallett flew the coop, hated by his teammates and shrouded in mystery by the fanbase. Donovan Warren cut short his serviceable Michigan career because he was no longer willing to destroy his future under Tony Gibson's so-called coaching. So Warren's time in a winged helmet came and went without merit, lost in the inferno that settled over Ann Arbor during his tenure.

But from that inferno came battle-worn, weary, loyal soldiers: Junior Hemingway. David Molk. Ryan Van Bergen. Brandon Herron. Troy Woolfolk. Mark Huyge. Individuals who pledged their allegiance to Carr, saw everything that had appealed to them about Michigan came under siege under Rodriguez, only to make it through to the other side under Hoke.

During one of the endless waterboardings we took in 2008, I vividly remember someone saying, "Molk is going to have to go." Condemning the redshirt freshman center, calling for his expulsion, his excommunication, his exile.

At their sides, the remnants of the 2008 class, the ones who endured the death by a thousand knives more than any of us. The class that saw the local star defensive back flame out in a horrifying reminder of what can happen when young men lose their way in life. The class that brought a quartet of four-star linebackers to Ann Arbor, only to see one of them never make it to campus, another leave after the first fall practice, and yet another fail to realize his potential and spend his career as a backup, his development chopped at the knees by a staff guilty of criminal negligence on defense. It was the class that brought Justin Feagin, Dann O'Neill, Brandon Smith and Kurt Wermers. It gave us Sam McGuffie, the YouTube sensation who never got the chance to fly. And Michael Shaw, who scored the first touchdown of the Rodriguez era on a playaction pass into the flat from Nick Sheridan, back when the world was our oyster, and the uncertainty of the frontier that lay ahead didn't frighten us, but excited us.

That class brought us not just Elliott Mealer, but the Mealer family as a whole, and their story that was too heartbreaking for words and illustrated all that was unfair about the world we take for granted - and the perseverance that reminded us of the power of the human spirit.

The journey is over for much of the 2008 class. Mike Martin, the high school wrestling champion who very nearly flipped to Notre Dame after Lloyd Carr retired, only to honor his word, fight his way through the fog and go out on Senior Day with a lion's roar, avoiding the tragic martyrdom that Brandon Graham had to endure two years earlier. And Kevin Koger, the Ohioan who dared to defy the Empire in favor of Michigan, at a time when Tressel's hold on the state was at its zenith. On Saturday, the tight end from Toledo got the last laugh.

Never to be forgotten is Martavious Odoms, one of the most unsung heroes I can ever recall wearing the maize and blue. Undersized, not especially fast, nothing about him stood out. Our earliest vivid memory of Odoms, aside from the random punt return touchdown against Purdue, was how he seemed to disintegrate in November of that first year, as the temperatures fell and the precipitation increased. The pint sized receiver from Pahokee seemed to wilt under the conditions of Big Ten football. But for the next three years, no one would surpass Martavious Odoms when it came to effort and sheer will to win. Countless touchdowns and big runs over the last three years came as a result of Odoms throwing a block downfield; the type of contribution too easily passed over.

The 2008 class's final chapter will be written next season. One more season for Kenny Demens, and Ricky Barnum, and JT Floyd, and Patrick Omameh. One more year for Roy Roundtree. One more year for Darryl Stonum to find some kind of salvation.

Earlier this year, I compared Michigan's explosion on the recruiting scene this cycle to the Arab Spring, an allusion to UofM rising up and challenging MSU's reign as recruiting king in the state. In my mind, the "Arab Spring" of Michigan recruiting began on March 24th when Ben Braden picked UofM over State, and ended on August 8th when Saginaw native Ondre Pipkins also picked the Wolverines, capping a four and a half month stretch that saw Michigan land 22 commitments. But as it turns out, I was wrong. The Wolverine Revolution didn't end with the pause in recruiting. It simply shifted into the seasonal phase, where the team no one expected anything out of fired back at the status quo. The defenders tossed aside as slow, small, weak and clueless in 2010 rose up in 2011 to oppress their oppressors. The same tortured souls that endured some level of Dante's Inferno against Northwestern in 2008, and saw the 2009 season slip away in one surreal sequence at Illinois on Halloween, and felt the weight of the world finally come crashing through in 2010 as Michigan State, Iowa, Penn State, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Mississippi State sealed the fate of their coach in ruthless and draconian fashion...they found a measure of vengeance last Saturday.

They made it through the storm. And against the ghost in their machine, their most corrupt and deceitful of adversaries, they learned to fly on dreadlocks of gold.

Jenny, You're Barely Alive

2011-08-29T12:47:00.001-04:00

	Rilo Kiley - Jenny, You're Bar - Rilo Kiley - Jenny .mp3

	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Sports are funny. If you ever have the ability to step back and look at this thing called fandom and athletics, you may see how illogical and bizarre and insane the whole thing is. People investing so much energy and time and emotion in events they cannot control orchestrated by people they will never meet. When you look at it in that light, it comes across as lunacy. If you look at life as one big struggle for control, an endless series of events and encounters that people are hell-bent on grasping and controlling for themselves, then the concept of being a sports fan makes no sense whatsoever. Putting so much into something you have no sway over - in the real world, people get locked away in padded rooms for such nonsense.

But it is in that distinction that fandom makes sense. Because no matter how hard we try, no matter how hard we fight, we will always be confronted with things in life that are not only out of our control, but are outside our realm of understanding. Life is full of tragedies in that sense; the most gut wrenching and most painful things you can imagine often come down on the shoulders of those who don't deserve them, because life isn't about what you deserve. It should be, but it isn't. It's about what you get, regardless of what you do before then. The randomness of the universe is something I've never been able to cope with. Genuine, warm, loving, affectionate people shouldn't find themselves staring down the barrel of a disease that will eventually rob them of their ability to function. People who go about things the right way, who treat others with courtesy and respect, who embrace those around them and fit every possible definition of being a "good person" shouldn't have it all taken away in the blink of an eye because someone got distracted while driving and barreled through a red light and took a life because of their carelessness. But it happens. Amazing people are cut down in the prime of life. Reckless, clumsy fools walk away clean. People who fall in love and finally try to embrace it are tossed aside without a second thought, leaving them shattered and ruined and questioning how they could have been so stupid.

Being a sports fan often provides us with an escape from all of the above. We all spend our lives, whether we realize it or not, trying to reduce the misery. We seek out things that make us smile; things that occupy our time and make us feel good. That's what something like football brings. Every Saturday in the fall, we are provided with a little three-hour window that allows us to shed the shackles of life. We don't have to worry ourselves with things like bills, or working, or school. We don't have to dwell on the drama that comes with relationships, romantic or otherwise. We don't have to toss and turn at night, replaying the past in our heads to the point where we feel a perverse combination of sadness, insanity, and rage. For that one little sliver of time on Saturdays, the only thing that matters is what takes place on that field. And whether it's a conscious decision or not, many of us realize that this is our reprieve from the madness. So we throw ourselves headfirst into it. We pour every ounce of emotion we have into it. We shiver when we hear the fight song. We get goose bumps when we run across Schembechler sound bytes on the internet. We see winged helmets shining under the waning summer sun, and then under the looming grayness of autumn, and we feel content. We feel a sense of belonging. We feel like the 110,000 strangers around us are our family for those three hours. Because they know the words to the same song that we do. Because they get the same goose bumps that we do when Bo's gravelly voice echoes over the speakers. Because we all look at this grinning 20-year old from somewhere in Florida with dreadlocks pouring out the back of his helmet, and we see hope.

I've been miserable for a very long time now. Long enough that I can't recall a time when I felt differently. Anyone who has browsed this space of the internet for longer than 10 minutes isn't exceptionally surprised by this. I made the decision many years ago that life was wretched, that people were inherently evil and selfish, and the easiest way to deal with all of it was to never trust anyone, never let anyone get close, destroy any real meaning associated with anything, and to never place any expectations on anyone or anything, because without expectations, there can be no disappointment. A little over a year ago, something entered my life that delivered a wrecking ball to the wall I had erected between myself and the outside world. It brought destruction to the darkness, shook the foundations of everything I had programmed myself to believe, and shined some light in through the wreckage, opening my eyes to the possibility that there was more out there than I perceived. It presented me with the chance for happiness outside of those Saturdays in the fall. For the longest time, I fought it. I lashed out at it and spewed venom at it in an attempt to drive it away. But I wasn't able to. It seeped in through the cracks, because all along as I built the wall, some latent undercurrent of hope was busy chiseling away, leaving the door cracked for the future. And once that began, the wall crumbled. Three years ago, something similar happened in Ann Arbor, as the Schembechler-reinforced bubble around Michigan football was popped by Rich Rodriguez, who promised to lead us to greatness, while simultaneously exposing us to horrors we had never encountered before; horrors that had been unable to get through previously.

And just like the Rodriguez era turned out to be smoke and mirrors and ultimately hollow and without the greatness it portrayed, this intrusion into my life turned out to be corrosive and toxic. It tore through the wall, but with its potential it brought all the atrocities associated with life that I had spent years excising. And when that potential went up in an unceremonious puff of smoke, all that was left was the coldness of the outside world, once again permeating everything and making up for all that time it had been away. And so I saw my world crumble. The world I had established was empty, uninteresting, and colorless. The world I have now is the opposite - it's full, interesting, and colorful; full in the sense that it's full of pain, and hatred, and retroactive self-loathing. Interesting in the sense that it's full of unpredictability, like whether or not I'll have the strength to get out of bed, or whether or not I'll have any interest in living the next day. And it's colorful in the sense that there is an awful lot of red now; the type of metaphorical red that you see when you're infuriated and frustrated to the point of violence, and the type of literal red that comes with blood.

It's around this time that sports, while always being there as a crutch, as a pause, finds itself firmly put in perspective. The misery that always overcame me when Michigan would lose pales in comparison to the misery I feel now. The pain I felt when Michigan lost the Rose Bowl to Texas, or the 2006 Ohio State game, or pretty much anything from the last three years is nothing compared to the pain I'm in every second of every minute of every hour of every day now. The cold sense of dread we all began to experience at some point or another over the last three years, that one that told us that this was destined to fail, doesn't hold a candle to the chilling realization that I have almost every day that maybe I'm just not supposed to find happiness. Maybe I'm supposed to be alone and misanthropic and bitter and whatever else you want to use to describe it. Just as Rich Rodriguez's fate was out of all of our hands, maybe my own fate is out of mine. Perhaps in the ultimate battle for control in a life full of battles for control, I have none, and while things are bad now, fighting that would only make them worse.

On Saturday, Brady Hoke will lead the Wolverines into battle for the first time. The anticipation of a new season is amplified by the arrival of a new coach, and the fan base is abuzz as usual. Except for me. I feel nothing. Because I've allowed the one thing I truly loved, the one thing I thought was above all the chaos, Michigan football, to be tainted and poisoned by the spectacular tragedy that I've allowed to unfold over the last year. I don't anxiously await kickoff on Saturday. I dread it. Because I'm no longer watching a game. I'm watching a nonstop reminder of what has hollowed me out and left nothing but a shell. I'm not escaping from my own personal hell, I'm sinking deeper into it. Michigan was able to escape their hell. They put Rodriguez on the slow boat to China. But just as the metaphor perpetuates itself, things are never as simple in real life as they are on Saturdays in the fall.

I've received a lot of praise over the last few years for some of my work here, and while I don't think much of my writing in general, I appreciate all the compliments I've gotten for some of the things I've posted here. Being my own worst enemy, even this blog reminds me of things I'd much rather erase from my memory forever. But it is what it is. I've never particularly enjoyed my own writing because from my perspective, I write my best work when I'm feeling the worst. If you're a longtime reader, go back and read any of the pieces that you enjoyed. You won't find a single one that conveys optimism. They're all whimsical, or tragically nostalgic, or sometimes downright depressing. From that angle, I suppose this is my best writing of all.

Anyway, I'm glad that my work here has been able to move some of you in some way. I can't predict when the next post will appear here; I can't predict where I'll be in a day, or an hour. Planning for the future creates expectations, and I'm not about to create any, for me or for you.

So...I'll see you when I see you.

--TOB

Dotting the Lie

2011-05-27T23:16:00.007-04:00

1986: Youngstown State, trying to boost morale to the economically devastated region of northeast Ohio, hires Ohio State offensive assistant Jim Tressel as head coach.

November 17, 1987: Ohio State fires head coach Earle Bruce after three straight losses. Four days later, Bruce's final game as head coach is a win in Ann Arbor over Michigan.

December 31, 1987: Arizona State head coach John Cooper is hired by Ohio State to replace Bruce. Conventional wisdom says Cooper became the most appealing candidate to Ohio State because of his victory over Michigan in the Rose Bowl 364 days earlier.

Spring, 1988: Quarterback and Youngstown native Ray Issac arrives at Youngstown State. Around this time, Tressel introduces Issac to Michael Monus, chairman of the Board of Trustees at Youngstown State and CEO of the drug store chain Phar-Mor. During their first meeting, Monus gives Issac 150 dollars, the first of what will become a habitual series of payments that will total roughly $10,000.

December 21, 1991: Isaac quarterbacks Youngstown State to a 25-17 win over Marshall in the I-AA National Championship Game.

July, 1992: Youngstown State chairman Michael Monus is indicted on fraud and embezzlement charges related to cooking the books at his drug store chain, Phar-Mor. The case would become known as one of the largest cases of corporate fraud in U.S. history. During the course of the investigation, Monus's relationship with Ray Isaac is brought to light. Tressel says he has no knowledge of Monus's payments to Isaac.

January, 1994: The NCAA delivers a notice of allegations to Youngstown State. Tressel, along with Youngstown State Athletic Director Joe Malsimur and Youngstown State President Leslie Cochran assure the NCAA that they will conduct a thorough internal investigation into the matter. This turns out to be a sham, as Malsimur never contacts Monus, and Tressel never speaks to Isaac. In December 2003, Tressel would claim that he can't recall whether or not he talked to Isaac about the allegations. Isaac says he never spoke to anyone.

December 18, 1995: Michael Monus is convicted of one count of conspiracy, two counts of bank fraud, five counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud, two counts of filing false income tax returns, 96 counts of interstate transportation of stolen goods, and one count of obstruction of justice. He is sentenced to 19 and a half years in prison. Shortly before this, Monus and Isaac are both implicated in the bribing of a juror in Monus's first trial, which resulted in a hung jury. During this time, Isaac reaches out to Tressel for help, but Tressel distances himself, saying he doesn't want to know anything and Isaac should simply cooperate with authorities.

November 23, 1996: #21 Michigan, losers of their previous two games, beats 2nd-ranked and undefeated Ohio State 13-9 in Columbus, making this the third time in four years that Michigan has ruined an undefeated season for the Buckeyes. It is at this particular game in 1996 that Ohio State fans openly rebel against John Cooper, hurling insults and obscenities at him as he leaves the field.

March 4, 1998: During the course of Michael Monus's trial for jury tampering, more rules violations are exposed at Youngstown State. The NCAA accuses Youngstown State with lack of institutional control, one of the most serious violations in the NCAA. The NCAA determines that Youngstown State's internal investigation in 1994 was not thorough or in-depth.

February 28, 2000: The NCAA concludes its investigation, accepting Youngstown State's self-imposed penalties, which include a reduction of two scholarships in 2000-2001, 2001-2002, and 2002-2003. Because the NCAA's statute of limitations expired in 1996, they cannot take away Youngstown State's 1991 National Championship. The NCAA also chooses not to sanction Tressel.

January 2, 2001: John Cooper is fired by Ohio State the day after losing to South Carolina in the Outback Bowl. Cooper finishes his career at Ohio State with a 3-8 bowl record and a 2-10-1 record against Michigan.

January 17, 2001: Ohio State hires Jim Tressel away from Youngstown State to replace John Cooper as head coach. The next day, during halftime of the Michigan-Ohio State basketball game, Tressel delivers his famous line that has become Ohio State lore: "I can assure you that you will be proud of our young people in the classroom, in the community and most especially in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan."

January 20, 2001: Youngstown native Maurice Clarett, the star rusher for Harding High School in Warren (14 miles northwest of Youngstown) and the #1 running back recruit in the country, commits to play for Jim Tressel at Ohio State.

March 21, 2001: Ohio State cornerback Derek Ross is arrested on charges of driving without a license and providing false information to police. He is sentenced to 30 days in jail and suspended for the spring, but returns for the season and leads the Big Ten in interceptions.

November 15, 2001: Ohio State quarterback Steve Bellisari is arrested for driving drunk two days before OSU's game against Illinois. Tressel suspends him, only to reinstate him and allow him to play in the team's bowl game.

November 24, 2001: Tressel makes good on the promise he made 10 months earlier as Ohio State beats Michigan 26-20 in Ann Arbor. During the game, Maurice Clarett takes an official visit to Michigan on UM's dime, and spends the game on the Ohio State sideline cheering for the Buckeyes.

March 2, 2002: Ohio State tight end Redgie Arden is arrested for drunk driving. He spends three days in jail and is suspended from spring practices. Tressel reinstates him before the season and he plays in 11 games in 2002.

April 27, 2002: Ohio State linebacker Marco Cooper is arrested for felony drug abuse and carrying a concealed weapon. In November, he pleads out and is put on probation.

July 26, 2002: Ohio State fullback Branden Joe is discovered asleep in his car on a highway ramp near Ohio State's campus. He refuses a breathalyzer test, and is suspended for three weeks of preseason camp, along with the first game of the 2002 season.

July 29, 2002: Ohio State wide receiver Angelo Chattams is suspected of being involved in a theft, but prosecutors allow him to enter a program for first-time offenders and avoid a criminal charge. He is excused from the team, but never suspended.

August 17, 2002: Ohio State defensive tackle Quinn Pitcock is arrested for underage drinking. He is suspended for three weeks of offseason workouts, but is not suspended for any games.

August 24, 2002: Ohio State wide receiver Chris Vance is arrested for underage drinking. He is held out of the first two games, and goes on to be Ohio State's 4th leading receiver in the 2002 season.

October 13, 2002: Ohio State linebacker Fred Pagac, Jr. is arrested for persistant disorderly conduct. Arrested at 3:45 AM, police say he was intoxicated and had a role in a fight involving two women, and did not stop fighting when ordered by police. He is suspended for one game, and is allowed to play in the National Championship Game against Miami in January.

October 30, 2002: Ohio State long snapper Kurt Wilhelm is arrested for felonious assault. He is held out of Ohio State's game against Penn State.

April, 2003: Maurice Clarett files a report stating that a car he borrowed from a local dealership was broken into and thousands of dollars in cash, CDs, stereo equipment, and clothing was stolen. Clarett calls the police from a phone in Jim Tressel's office. He is later charged with lying about the value of the items and falsification of a police report. He pleads guilty, is ordered to pay a fine, and does no jail time.

May, 2003: Ohio State cornerback/receiver Chris Gamble and nine other players are ruled ineligible for signing autographs at a convention, during which they took an hourly salary.

June, 2003: Ohio State tight end Redgie Arden pleads innocent to his second drunk driving charge in 15 months.

Fall, 2003: The NCAA begins an investigation at Ohio State amid allegations of academic fraud and ineligibility. The investigation revolves around Maurice Clarett, and a teacher admits that Clarett received preferential treatment. The teacher is fired, and Clarett is found to be in violation of 14 conduct bylaws, two violations of receiving extra benefits because he is an athlete. The investigation also discovers that the Monte Carlo Clarett is driving was a loaner from a used-car lot. To make things worse, and forcing Ohio State's hand, is the fact that Clarett was regularly receiving benefits from Youngstown acquaintance Bobby Dellimuti. Dellimuti provided Clarett with 500 dollars in cash, and paid for thousands of dollars worth in cell phone bills for Clarett. Ohio State suspends him for the entire 2003 season. It is later revealed that Jim Tressel knew Dellimuti and knew who he was before Clarett's freshman season in 2002.

October 27, 2003: Ohio State tight end Louis Irizarry is arrested on three counts of first-degree misdemeanor assault. He is suspended two days later, and is found guilty of one count of assault, one count of negligent assault, and one count of disorderly conduct. He is put on probation, and is listed as second on the depth chart at tight end on Ohio State's spring 2004 roster.

November 16, 2003: Ohio State wide receiver Santonio Holmes and quarterback Troy Smith are arrested six days before the Michigan game on charges of misdemeanor disorderly conduct after a fight on campus in the early morning hours following Ohio State's win over Purdue. Holmes is held out of the starting lineup against Michigan, but plays the majority of the game and catches two touchdowns.

April, 2004: Ohio State fullback Branden Joe is cited for a misdemeanor open container violation, his second alcohol-related offense.

May 1, 2004: Ohio State tight end Louis Irizarry and cornerback Ira Guilford are arrested and charged with robbery after a student is assaulted and his wallet is stolen at 3 AM. They both plead innocent, and Guilford is released on bond, while Irizarry is held until the determination can be made whether or not he violated his probation from his October 2003 conviction.

May 5, 2004: Ohio State punter A.J. Trapasso is charged with underage drinking.

May 17, 2004: Ohio State punter A.J. Trapasso is arrested for underage drinking for the second time in 12 days.

June 7, 2004: Ohio State tight end Louis Irizarry is arrested for criminal trespassing after police pull him over and discover he has been banned from the campus of Ohio State.

October 23, 2004: Ohio State running back Lydell Ross is arrested for attempting to pass fake money to a woman at a gentlemen's club.

November 9, 2004: Maurice Clarett blows the whistle on Ohio State, attempting to expose all of the alleged corruption going on at his former school. He claims he "took the fall" during the 2003 investigation into his academics at Ohio State, and is now trying to clear his name. Clarett says that Jim Tressel arranged for Clarett to have access to several loaner vehicles, and that Tressel's brother Dick set up lucrative jobs that Clarett did not have to show up to. He also says that members of Tressel's staff introduced Clarett to boosters who provided him with cash benefits based on his performance on the field. Clarett says he would have been ineligible for the 2002 season, but that the Ohio State coaching staff set him up with an academic advisor whose only goal was to keep him eligible. He claims the academic advisor put him in Independent Study courses with hand-picked teachers who would pass him regardless of attendance. His allegations are corroborated by former Ohio State linebacker Marco Cooper. Cooper, who was kicked off the team because of multiple drug-related arrests, says he too was set up with fraudulent jobs and was provided with cars in exchange for signed memorabilia. Clarett says he is blowing the whistle on Ohio State because he feels they "blackballed" him from the university after suspending him for the 2003 season.

October 12, 2004: Louis Irizarry is sentenced to three years in prison.

December 20, 2004: Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith is suspended for the Alamo Bowl and the 2005 season opener for accepting $500 from a booster.

December 21, 2004: Ohio State wide receiver Albert Dukes is arrested on two felony counts of second-degree lewd and lascivious conduct involving a 12 year old girl. Tressel allows Dukes to travel with the team to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, and the charges are later dropped when the parents refuse to let their daughter testify in court.

February 16, 2005: The NCAA reprimands Ohio State offensive line coach Jim Bollman for trying to set up a recruit with a car, a loan, and a tutor. Jim Tressel is also reprimanded because Bollman is his subordinate.

May 11, 2005: Ohio State kicker Jonathan Skeete is arrested for drug trafficking. He is suspended.

May 19, 2005: Ohio State running back Erik Haw is cited by university police for smoking marijuana outside a dorm.

May 21, 2005: Ohio State lineman Tim Schafer is charged with disorderly conduct after police had to break up two fights between Schafer and another man. Both men were bloody and smelled of alcohol.

July 20, 2005: Ohio State athletic officials investigate a possible second NCAA rules violation by quarterback Troy Smith. Smith attended a quarterbacks camp run by Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair, but because Ohio State runs on quarters instead of semesters, Smith may have missed class to attend, which would be an NCAA violation. Jim Tressel declines comment, saying the university's compliance department has not finished its inquiry.

December 6, 2005: Police say that Ohio State linebacker A.J. Hawk and center Nick Mangold reported a burglary at their apartment following their win over Michigan. According to the police report, the robbery took place sometime between 6:00 PM on November 22 and 8:00 PM on November 23rd. Hawk and Mangold tell police that $3000 in cash, $1425 in movies, two laptop computers, a $500 Gucci watch, and $750 worth of PlayStation and X-Box equipment was stolen. Police were not told about the crime until November 28.

December 22, 2005: Ohio State offensive lineman Andree Tyree is suspended from the Fiesta Bowl for a violation of team rules. It is later revealed that Tyree failed his third drug test.

March 7, 2006: Former Ohio State kicker Jonathan Skeete returns to the team as a walk-on following his arrest on drug trafficking charges in May 2005. He was convicted in October 2005, and despite his status as a convicted felon, he is readmitted to the university and reinstated to the football team.

April 2, 2006: Ohio State offensive lineman Alex Boone is arrested after driving under the influence and being involved in a two-vehicle crash. Jim Tressel says that Boone will not be suspended for any practices or games.

August 9, 2006: Ohio State tight end Marcel Frost is suspended for the 2006 season for violating team rules. Although the athletic department refuses to comment on the nature of the violation, spokesman Dan Wallenberg says Frost will remain on scholarship and be eligible to return in 2007.

September 18, 2007: Ohio State wide receiver Ray Small is arrested for driving with a suspended license.

September 24, 2007: Ohio State quarterback Antonio Henton is arrested for soliciting a prostitute.

December 12, 2007: Jeannette, Pennsylvania businessman Ted Sarniak is cleared of allegations of bribery as a result of police opting not to arrest Sarniak in October 2006 when he crashed his car into a utility pole following the Jeannette-Catholic Central football game. Sarniak smelled of alcohol, but was not taken into custody. Though cleared of the bribery accusations, Sarniak has a documented history of providing Pittsburgh Steelers football tickets and other gifts to police officers in Jeannette.

December 20, 2007: Ohio State cornerback Eugene Clifford is suspended for violating team rules.

January 17, 2008: The night before heralded Jeannette quarterback Terrelle Pryor takes an official visit to Michigan, Ohio State coaches have dinner with Jeannette businessman Ted Sarniak, who is a friend and mentor to Pryor.

March 19, 2008: Terrelle Pryor signs with Ohio State.

April 11, 2008: Ohio State defensive backs Eugene Clifford, Jamario O'Neal, and Donald Washington are held out of practice but not officially suspended. It is rumored that all three players failed drug tests.

July 7, 2008: Ohio State defensive back Eugene Clifford's career at OSU ends, as he is arrested again, this time for assault after allegedly punching two men in the face. He transfers to Tennessee State later in the month.

July 26, 2008: Ohio State defensive tackle Doug Worthington is arrested and charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated. He misses no game action in the 2008 season.

December 11, 2008: Ohio State defensive end Nathan Williams is arrested for shoplifting. He receives no punishment other than "internal" from the coaches.

February 2, 2009: Ohio State offensive lineman Alex Boone is arrested after being belligerant and uncooperative with police while he jumps on car hoods in a drunken tirade. Boone flees from police, who find him under a patio and have to taze him to subdue him.

June 11, 2009: Ohio State running back recruit Jaamal Berry is arrested for felony possession of marijuana in Miami. He pleas down and agrees to take a six-month drug program online in exchange for having the charges dropped. He is allowed to enroll at Ohio State and join the football team without issue.

September 9, 2009: It is discovered that violations were committed during Ohio State's recruitment of quarterback Terrelle Pryor. Pryor's official visit to Ohio State for the game against Wisconsin in 2007 came with a discounted hotel rate. The other violation involves former Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith working at an Ohio State football camp in the summer of 2007, during which time Smith encourages Pryor to pick Ohio State. As a result of the hotel violation, Pryor is quietly ruled ineligible in August 2009 until he repays $158. Ohio State files a request to the NCAA to reinstate Pryor on August 21, and he regains his eligibility in time for the season opener on August 30.

April 2, 2010, 2:32 PM: Jim Tressel receives an email from Chris Cicero, a Columbus attorney. Cicero informs Tressel that several players have been selling signed items to tattoo parlor owner Edward Rife, who is under heavy investigation from the authorities on suspicion of drug trafficking. Rife informs Tressel of all of this, and details Rife's criminal history.

April 2, 2010, 6:32 PM: Tressel responds to Cicero's email, telling him he will "get on it ASAP."

April 16, 2010, 9:43 AM: Cicero emails Tressel again, giving details of cleats, jerseys, Big Ten championship rings and a national championship ring being sold.

April 16, 2010, 11:20 AM: Tressel responds to Cicero once more: "I hear you!! It is unbelievable!! Thanks for your help keep me posted as to what I need to do if anything. I will keep pounding these kids hoping they grow up. jt"

April 16, 2010, 2:26 PM: Cicero recommends that Tressel ban his players from going to the tattoo parlor and having any contact with Rife. He asks that Tressel keep their email communication private.

June 1, 2010, 7:33 AM: Tressel emails Cicero, informing him that the team will be receiving their 2009 Big Ten Championship rings, and asks if there are anymore names that Cicero can give him.

June 1, 2010, 4:09 PM: Cicero tells Tressel he has no new names, but that the names he gave him previously "are still good."

June 6, 2010, 9:15 PM: Five days later, Tressel thanks Cicero in what is their last known communication.

September 13, 2010: Jim Tressel signs an NCAA certificate of compliance, which indicates that he has reported any knowledge of any violations.

December 7, 2010: Authorities contact Ohio State, notifying them that they have raided Rife's tattoo parlor, and discovered several Ohio State items. The authorities, obviously unaware of any NCAA implications, are simply inquiring as to whether or not the items may have been stolen. The Ohio State athletic department is notified of this the next day.

December 9, 2010: Jim Tressel is informed that federal officials know about the items. Tressel still does not inform his superiors of his email exchanges with Chris Cicero. During the next week, Ohio State plans an internal investigation into the matter.

December 16, 2010: Ohio State interviews the six players implicated: quarterback Terrelle Pryor, running back Daniel Herron, wide receiver DeVier Posey, offensive tackle Mike Adams, defensive end Solomon Thomas, and linebacker Jordan Whiting.

December 17, 2010: Ohio State informs the Big Ten and the NCAA that they are preparing to self-report violations.

December 19, 2010: Ohio State releases its report, and declares the six players ineligible.

December 21, 2010: The NCAA contacts the six players, asking for additional information. Ohio State provides this information the next day.

December 22, 2010: The NCAA notifies Ohio State of its decision: 5-game suspensions for Pryor, Herron, Posey, Adams, and Thomas, and one game for Whiting. Incredulously, all six players are allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl on January 4.

December 23, 2010: Jim Tressel and Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith hold a press conference, announcing the findings and sanctions.

January 13, 2011: Ohio State's office of legal affairs stumble upon Tressel's email correspondence with Chris Cicero. They conduct a search of the email accounts of all members of the football staff, and discover that no one else knew of the players' contact with Edward Rife before December 2010.

January 16, 2011: Jim Tressel is questioned by Ohio State officials, and he acknowledges his contact with Chris Cicero.

February 2, 2011: Ohio State offensive lineman recruit Chris Carter is arrested the day before Signing Day on a charge of sexual imposition. He is accused of fondling up to eight girls at his high school under the pretense of measuring them for ROTC uniforms. Despite having a confession from Carter, authorities drop the charges five days later, and Carter is allowed to sign with Ohio State.

February 8, 2011: During an interview with NCAA and Ohio State officials, Jim Tressel admits that he knew violations were committed when he did not report what Cicero told him.

March 7, 2011: Yahoo! Sports reports that a source has told them that Jim Tressel knew of the violations in April 2010 and did not tell anyone else. Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith accelerates the process of the completion of the university's self-report.

March 8, 2011: Ohio State releases its report, disclosing Tressel's violation and announcing a two-game suspension and $250,000 fine for the head coach.

March 17, 2011: Ohio State and Jim Tressel announce that the two-game suspension will be increased to five.

March 25, 2011: It is revealed that Jim Tressel in fact didn't keep the email correspondence with Chris Cicero all to himself. He forwarded the emails to Ted Sarniak, the Jeannette businessman with an affinity for giving gifts to police officers, and friend and mentor of Terrelle Pryor from Pryor's days as the #1 recruit in the nation at Jeannette High School.

April 25, 2011: The NCAA delivers a notice of allegations to Ohio State and Tressel, accusing Tressel of failing to "deport himself in accordance with the honesty and integrity normally associated with the conduct and administration of intercollegiate athletics as required by NCAA legislation and violated ethical-conduct legislation when he failed to report information concerning violations of NCAA legislation and permitted football student-athletes to participate in intercollegiate athletics competition while ineligible."

May 1, 2011: Ohio State linebacker Dorian Bell is suspended for the entire 2011 season for an unspecified violation of team rules, with all rumors pointing to a persistant marijuana issue. Bell immediately leaves school with the intent to transfer; his hometown Pitt Panthers turn him away.

May 7, 2011: The Columbus Dispatch reports that Ohio State will investigate used-car purchases by dozens of Ohio State athletes at two Columbus car dealerships. The Dispatch discovers that at least eight athletes and 11 athletes' relatives bought used cars from two specific dealerships during the past five years.

May 23, 2011: Former Ohio State basketball player Mark Titus posts a lengthy blog post detailing his eyewitness accounts of "an unusually high volume of brand new Dodge Chargers driving around on campus, and just about all of them had tinted windows and rims on the outside with Ohio State football players behind the wheel on the inside."

May 25, 2011: Former Ohio State receiver Ray Small tells the Ohio State student newspaper that he sold items for cash during his time at Ohio State, and he also mentions that "the best deals came from the car dealerships." After facing blistering criticism from former and current Ohio State players, in addition to Ohio State fans, Small backtracks on his story, saying the newspaper twisted his words.

May 27, 2011: Ohio State announces that it will not disclose the correspondence between Jim Tressel and the Jeannette businessman, Ted Sarniak.

May 30, 2011: Jim Tressel interrupts his vacation in Florida to return to Columbus and deliver his letter of resignation to Athletic Director Gene Smith and university President E. Gordon Gee. The resignation comes on the eve of what is believed to be a very destructive Sports Illustrated article that is rumored to put Tressel and Ohio State even deeper in the hole.

=================================================================

Nothing Ohio State has accomplished in the last ten years is valid anymore. From Clarett, to Smith, to Pryor, and all the others in between, with the cars and the cash and the discounts and the cutting of corners, Ohio State is essentially an SEC school operating in the Midwest. Tressel is a proven, documented cheater, and if the NCAA has any balls at all, they will slap him with a show-cause order, blackballing him from ever coaching again. He has successfully manipulated his public perception so he comes across as a righteous, homely, ethically pure gentleman, when the reality is he's basically a gangster, willing to do whatever it takes to win, and turning a blind eye toward the corruption that he himself endorses. He distanced himself from Ray Isaac at Youngstown when the NCAA came calling. He distanced himself from Maurice Clarett while simultaneously shredding Clarett's credibility when he tried to destroy Ohio State. If some injustice is committed and he somehow survives this latest storm, he will distance himself from Terrelle Pryor and his friends, too.

Tressel entered into a perfect marriage with Ohio State back in the winter of 2001. A native son with enormous success at a lower level, but more than ready to take the next step. And a school so desperate to reverse their fortunes in that final game in late November, so eager to erase the sour taste of 2-10-1 from their mouths, willing to sell their souls at all costs if it means claiming dominance over "That School Up North." That is the culture of Ohio State football. The means don't matter whatsoever. As long as the end is a victory over Michigan, they will tolerate anything that comes their way. And now they deserve the darkest of fates. They knew what they were getting in Tressel: a faux-superior thug, who shares the win at all costs mentality of his followers. They are essentially a hostile regime, with Tressel leading the masses in "Death to Michigan" chants. And any dissenters, anyone who dares speak out against the regime - Kirk Herbstreit, Bruce Hooley, Mark Titus, Ray Small - is thrown to the wolves, their credibility and character put through the meat grinder by the bloodthirsty masses. The brainwashed followers, from the dusty streets of Youngstown to the outskirts of Cincinnati, from the shores of Lake Erie and Glenville High School to the backwoods of Westerville, and Centerville, and the epicenter in Columbus, they all march in lockstep as Senator Tressel commands them. And eventually, he will lead them off the cliff, and they will follow him without question, even it means their own destruction.

Sources:

Souls of the departed haunt Youngstown
Former Phar-Mor COO sentenced
Infractions case: Youngstown State University
Michigan Against the World: Buckeye Milestone
Clarett claims cash, cars among benefits
Oversight vs. privacy at OSU
Who is Ted Sarniak?
DA clears businessman, police
When it comes to OSU and USC stars, the spotlight often includes scrutiny
Tressel timeline is tricky
Ohio State receives NCAA allegations, faces Aug. 12 hearing
Notice of Allegations
Ohio State football: Tressel's emails were forwarded
Ohio State to probe car purchases by athletes and relatives to see if they meet NCAA rules
Less Than A Week Away (Mark Titus's blog)
Ray Small tells all: Ex-Buckeye says he sold memorabilia, some players don't 'think about' rules
Ohio State ex-receiver Ray Small changes story, says school paper twisted words on car deals, memorabilia sales
Ohio State Buckeyes decline to give info on Terrelle Pryor, mentor Ted Sarniak

The Battle of Michigan: The Arab Spring

2011-05-11T20:48:00.001-04:00

Welcome to Part 5. Part 1: The Numbers. Part 2: The War of Perception. Part 3: The PSL. Part 4: 2011 and 2012.

There's a Latin saying I like to use a lot, mainly because it makes me look much more cultured than I actually am, partially because Kiefer Sutherland used it in Desert Saints, and also because it's pretty damn true.

De gestibus non est disputandum.

Literally translated, it means, "there is no disputing about tastes." Its meaning, in case it's not obvious, is that when it comes to matters of opinion, debate is pointless. If you're trying to engage someone in an argument about something they have strong belief in, you're never going to win. You can't talk people out of their beliefs, whether it be religion, politics, music, or...football.

For the past three years, many (most?) Michigan fans did everything they could to excuse Rich Rodriguez. The list of deflections and excuses is extensive, ranging from everything between the red wristbands he wore to the actual play on the field. Only when faced with an excessively overwhelming heap of evidence did the vast majority of Michigan fans finally agree that he simply wasn't going to get it done, and that the future no longer held any promise of improvement under his guidance. But until the evidence was mountain-high - increasingly laughable losses to Michigan State, Iowa, Penn State, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and finally Mississippi State - did the diehards (myself included) finally abandon ship. The breaking point was different for everyone - for me the MSU game put one foot out the door, and the PSU game put the other one out and slammed the door shut - but until we each reached that point, we stood strong in our beliefs and convictions, no matter what anyone else said.

That is why Michigan fans won't win the fight against Michigan State fans, and vice versa. It's like Muslims vs. Jews at this point. Neither side can convince the other out of the belief that the other side is destined to lose the endless struggle. There's always some sort of excuse, and that applies to both sides. For three years, we've heard MSU fans (and recruits) jabbering about Michigan disrespecting the state by not pursuing many of the in-state players, and how Michigan State was "turning the state green" and that "Michigan State is THE university of Michigan", and other superlative, hyperbolic nonsense. During this time, Michigan fans had some good reasons and some bad reasons for this. A good reason was the blatant and obvious influences of certain people on the recruitments of certain star prospects now residing in East Lansing and Columbus. There was nothing Rich Rodriguez could've done to change these situations, because they began to fester under Carr. A bad reason was the "Michigan doesn't have enough talent, we'll recruit nationally anyway" schtick. Yes, Michigan is down the totem pole in terms of sheer numbers when it comes to high school talent in football. But if you toss it by the wayside, the stars you miss on will almost always come back to bite you, and that's as painful as not having them on your team. We got lucky in the Epic Fail 2007 Class when Ronald Johnson, Dionte Allen, Joseph Barksdale, and others left entirely, instead of picking local rivals of UofM. Not so lucky in recent years; regardless of how they got there, William Gholston and Lawrence Thomas at Michigan State are problems. Johnathan Hankins at Ohio State is a problem. When the neighbors set up shop in your kitchen and start cherry picking your groceries, it's not as simple as going back to the market to get more.

So now, present day. Three years of submitting to our East Lansing Overlords has given way to an uprising and demanding an end to the Dantonio regime, and our new leader dares to tread on the dictator's territory. And once he does, and has, a different line of rhetoric begins, one that is inherently laughable: that Michigan State is evolving into a national recruiting power and can afford to miss out on the state's best players, because they'll get equal or better ones from elsewhere - sounds eeriely like the comments from Michigan fans the last three years that MSU fans heartily laughed at while hanging their "Mission Accomplished" banner over the mitten.

Another excuse is "All the kids Michigan is landing were scUM leans anyway." Oh, so you're implying the playing field wasn't fair? And you feel comfortable stating this while Gholston, Fred Smith and Ed Davis put on MSU jerseys while their high school coach spends his days fetching Dantonio's coffee and bran muffin each morning? You're okay with that position while Lawrence Thomas and Mylan Hicks suit up for the Spartans, knowing that their coach from Renaissance famously threw UofM under the bus while bouncing Dantonio's balls off his chin? Things considerably soured for Michigan at OLSM during the latter years of Carr and Rodriguez's three years, and yet when Hoke comes in and immediately lands James Ross (the best player in the state), you get one of two excuses. One follows the mindset summed up by the title of a post on a Michigan State message board: "(OLSM coach George) Porritt showing his true Blue colors again", the comical notion that Porritt favors Michigan despite sending Kalin Lucas, Jon Misch and Dion Sims to East Lansing in recent years. The other is "Ross is too small anyway." He's the same size Greg Jones was in high school. I think he worked out pretty well for MSU. Ross was also a high priority for both Ohio State and Penn State, two schools that I'm pretty sure know a thing or two about linebacking.

And then when presented with the cases of Mario Ojemudia and Devin Funchess, students at a notoriously pro-MSU school in Farmington Hills Harrison (Agim Shabaj, Drew Stanton, Mark Dell), a school still heavily influenced by former Spartan Mill Coleman, MSU fans play the "playing time" card. Lifelong Michigan State fan Ojemudia was obviously scared away by depth chart at MSU and was sold on a dream by Hoke and Mattison. So basically, Hoke's taking the same approach Dantonio took when he arrived at Michigan State, but it's a shallow and flimsy pitch this time. At Cass Tech, MSU fans were all excited to be in the top two for Dior Mathis, and got their hopes up when MSU offered Royce Jenkins-Stone and Terry Richardson before Michigan did. And then when Dior was clearly ticketed for Oregon, and Richardson seems bound for Ann Arbor, they're both far too small and too Cissoko-like to ever be impact players. Never mind that Oregon is developing a pretty impressive track record with defensive backs, or the fact that Richardson has offers from Alabama, USC, Ohio State, Penn State, and other elite programs. If Nick Saban offers you as a defensive back, chances are you're pretty good at football. But by all means, pigeon-hole the kid because his size resembles that of another player who had already graduated from Cass by the time Terry got there. If Richardson went to Renaissance, MSU fans would be comparing him to Mylan Hicks. But because he goes to Cass Tech, he's Cissoko part two. Comparing players because they go to the same high school is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

If Richardson was too small, Dantonio wouldn't have offered him. If Ross was too small, Dantonio wouldn't have offered him. If Ojemudia was too small, Dantonio wouldn't have offered him. You don't offer recruits a year before they sign if they aren't at the top of your board. I'm pretty sure James Ross was the first recruit either school offered for this class. He isn't "ideal" linebacker size, and isn't a physically imposing specimen like Gholston or Thomas. But he's also much, much more advanced as a football player than either of those two. That's not to say Gholston or LT won't be great. They absolutely can be. But so can Ross. His instincts are unmatched, and MSU fans trying to dismiss his commitment to Michigan as "he's too small" or "UM has more playing time" or "he was always a Michigan lean" are chewing on some exceptionally sour grapes.

Stop trying to spin what is plainly obvious: your "in-state dominance" was more a result of Michigan being thrown in the tank for three years. "Lifelong Michigan fans" still went elsewhere during Rodriguez's tenure. Whatever infrastructure Dantonio built in the state has already been surpassed by Hoke. If you think a bumpy first year will suddenly open the eyes of the recruits who have committed, and there will be some mass defection, you are sorely, sorely mistaken. Even Rodriguez never lost a single in-state recruit he got a verbal commitment from. The only in-state kid Michigan lost in recent memory (who was publically committed) was Jake Fisher, and that was because of the coaching change. Michigan State is coming off a (shared) Big Ten Championship, and an 11-win season, and now they can't even convince kids who grew up cheering for MSU and go to an MSU-friendly high school to commit to them. MSU may be able to salvage Aaron Burbridge - but it's unbelievable that Hoke has already pulled Michigan even. This is a kid that should've been committed to State months ago, and now Michigan has a real shot of stealing him away. Hoke has beaten Dantonio heads up in every single recruiting battle to date, and the future looks bleak too.

As for those who say Hoke is a terrible coach and was Michigan's Plan D or E or whatever (and even cite other Michigan people who wanted nothing to do with him): don't pretend to know how Michigan's coaching search went down. Even the vast majority of Michigan fans aren't sure what exactly happened. The general consensus is that Dave Brandon had a wink and nod agreement with Jim Harbaugh, and that it fell apart at the last minute when Harbaugh's NFL stock went nuclear. After that, no one knows for sure. There's a line of thinking that Les Miles was genuinely pursued, and politely declined, and then Michigan moved on to Hoke (making him a Plan C at the worst). There's another that says Miles was "pursued" only to placate the Miles faction that spent the last three years pouting and raving that they were ignored in 2007. This line of thinking points back to Brandon allegedly saying he would never hire Miles (everyone knows about the skeletons in his closet), and that he never offered Miles the job and was focused in on Hoke immediately after the Harbaugh agreement fell through. If that's the case, then that's not a bad Plan B. Brian at MGoBlog was famously opposed to Hoke's candidacy in 2007, and there remains a certain segment of the UM fanbase that believes Hoke is a patsy and Lloyd is really Emperor Palpatine, pulling the strings behind the scenes.

The fact is, Dantonio never did anything as a head coach prior to arriving at MSU that was more impressive than what Hoke did as a head coach prior to arriving at UM. Dantonio had success as a coordinator - on the staff of a proven cheater on a team that rode a felon and an ineligible athlete to a national title. As a head coach, Dantonio did nothing of merit at Cincinnati, and yet has proven himself to be a very dependable coach at State. Hoke also had success as an assistant, and he has a national championship ring on his finger too, from 1997. So he had an under .500 record at Ball State. Can you name a coach that had success at Ball State? Can you even tell me where Ball State is located? And yet he managed to win 12 games in his final season there in 2008, their first 10-win season since 1978. They scored the most points in school history that year, with 489. The second most was 2007, also coached by Hoke, with 409. After that, in third place? 377, in 1977. At San Diego State, Hoke took over a program that was 4-7, 5-7, 3-9, 4-8, and 2-10 in the five years prior to his arrival. Two years later, they were 9-4, losing four games by a combined 15 points, being the only team to stay within striking distance of TCU (until the Rose Bowl), and winning the Poinsettia Bowl by three touchdowns. No evidence exists to suggest Hoke is any worse of a coach than Dantonio was prior to taking over MSU's program. Using the aversion many Michigan fans had to him as proof he's a lousy coach is amusing, but useless.

Throw out all the excuses you want. "MSU's depth is scaring recruits away." "Some of these kids are too small." "Some of these kids are lifelong Michigan fans." "Hoke is selling a dream." "There will be mass decommits when we kill UM on the field this year."

Thank you, Rationalization Man. You have saved the village.

A Slow Parade

2011-05-05T12:37:00.000-04:00

Sharks 4, Red Wings 3 (OT); Western Semifinals, 0-3

	A.A. Bondy - A Slow Parade .mp3

	Found at bee mp3 search engine

I suppose I could just link to this post from exactly one year ago. It's essentially the exact same thing.

One of the biggest cliches in this world is "all good things must come to an end." And as is the case with almost all cliches, it's a cliche because it's true. There is nothing in our lives that has an infinite lifespan. When we encounter something good, or even decent, something we deem to be worthwhile, even if we resist it at first, we eventually come to rely upon it, and we subconsciously do whatever we can to preserve it. We try with all our might to keep the decency in our lives, clinging to whatever joy we find in an otherwise cold world.

But it's irrelevant. The passage of time inevitably brings with it the winds of change. Regardless of what we do, sooner or later, the things we cherish slip through our hands, in some way or another. The most tragic among us witness the greatness fading away, while the blissfully ignorant remain blind to it until they realize it's gone. Either way, the end result is the same: we all feel the same emptiness when we lose something we held dear. We all feel the same pain in our hearts that accompanies the void that was once filled. In the end, all we have left are the memories we forged, the images we burn into our minds, and the sounds of a lost paradise that we use to fill the silence that dominates the present after what we loved has faded into the clouds of history.

For Red Wings fans, the past 20 years have instilled in us a righteous sense of superiority. We acquired the feeling that not a team in hockey could match the skill of the Red Wings, and if the Wings played "their" game, their precise execution would win the day. We never acknowledged the possibility that another team was actually "better" than us. In 2006, Edmonton wasn't "better", they simply employed the trap to suffocate the Wings' offense, a crutch used by a clearly inferior team. In 2007, Anaheim wasn't better, they had to resort to goonery and thug tactics to muscle their way past the Wings in the West Finals. In 2009, the Penguins weren't better, they were simply able to drag their bodies across the finish line just ahead of ours, because we had to endure injuries upon injuries and terrible officiating and the brutality of the Western Conference playoffs. Detroit fans have this romantic notion that if the Wings were in the Eastern Conference, we would've won every Stanley Cup since 1996.

I'm (mostly) exaggerating, of course, but the base point remains the same. By and large, we've never accepted the possibility of a team being better at what we do than us. But now, as we stare own the barrel of another elimination from San Jose, as we swallow the bitter pill of a seventh loss in the last eight playoff games against the Sharks, the reality is as obvious as it is painful: they are truly and genuinely better than the Red Wings. They're not deploying some gimmicky defense, nor are they taking advantage of pussy ass referees and pulverizing the Red Wings after every whistle. No, they're doing what the Red Wings have done for the majority of the last 20 years. They're dominating in the faceoff circle. They're winning the battles in the corners. They're backchecking and forechecking with relentless vigor, and for the most part they are destroying us in the special teams department as the Red Wings' penalty kill swirls the drain for the third year in a row under the incompetent eye of Brad McCrimmon - while former Red Wings assistant Todd McLellan dominates the Wings in the areas he himself built to elite status while in Detroit. Our own weapons, used against us. Beaten at our own game.

The reality we all want to ignore but can't deny now lies ahead of us, plain as day and right out in the open. The days of overbearing dominance by the Red Wings in the West is over. The mystique is no longer there. These same Sharks wilted away like spineless cowards in the face of the Winged Wheel four years ago when Robert Lang scored in the final minute to tie Game 4, a game the Red Wings would win in overtime to tie the series. The Wings dominated the next two games to eliminate the Sharks. For Michigan fans, this is a familiar experience. For 40 years, Michigan occupied the minds of the other Big Ten programs, a phenomenon we sometimes refer to as "Winged Helmet Paranoia." In that same vein, "Winged Wheel Paranoia" has enjoyed a reign of nearly two decades. And it's gone now. Teams don't fear the Red Wings anymore. The Sharks and Penguins have shattered the aura of invincibility that surrounded Joe Louis Arena since the early 90s. The mind games are gone, just as the last three years (some would certainly argue more than that) saw the mystique fade from Michigan football. Teams no longer fear coming into the Big House; just the opposite, in fact. They see it as an opportunity to exact vengeance for years of tyranny under the oppressive thumb of the Wolverines; a chance to snatch a pound of flesh 40 years in the making.

But the thing is, as Brady Hoke and Greg Mattison have the grand opportunity to restore the mystique, as they plunder the state of Michigan and lay waste to Mark Dantonio's grand vision of "turning the state green", as they dare to encrouch on the evil empire's territory to the south of us, there exists much smaller chances for the Red Wings to fight off the wave of insurgency against their power. College football provides the luxury of a clean slate every few years as the entire roster turns over and the chance for younger, better players to step in presents itself. We're already seeing the beginning of it for Michigan football, as we can rest assured that greatness lies ahead with James Ross, and Royce Jenkins-Stone, and Joe Bolden, and Kaleb Ringer, and other stars in the making whose best days lie ahead. This isn't the case in pro sports. The usurpation of Detroit's throne in the West by teams like Chicago, and San Jose, and Vancouver - these are teams with nuclei much younger than ours. The future doesn't hold promise for the Red Wings as much as it holds uncertainty. Lidstrom and Rafalski are on their last legs; behind them resides unproven talent that will need to be proven lest an enormous hole in our already-shoddy defense be torn open. The Wings had great hope for Jonathan Ericsson, and instead we've been treated to three years of incompetence and utterly dreadful play. Up front, Datsyuk and Zetterberg and Franzen are on the wrong side of 30. Bertuzzi and Holmstrom are almost out of gas. The youth that exists in the system - players like Tatar and Nyquist and Pulkkinen and Kindl and Smith and Mursak - is completely and utterly unproven at the NHL level, and as the transition from old to young takes place over the next several years, we'll have to rely on these prospects to live up to their full potential, all while competing against teams that will have their young stars entering their prime.

A future that contains the unknown is a future to be feared. And for those of us who invest far too much emotion in trivial things like sports, the angst of the unknown is surpassed only by the agony of the present, as we watch the one thing we could always rely on be laid to waste. For me, the socially inept, self-loathing, clinically depressed jerk, what little energy I have left as I struggle to find a reason to get out of bed each day is zapped as the Red Wings fade away into the sunset. I get to watch them break apart and slip away, just as all good things in my life have already done so. My shattered existence just fractures more, the spider web of cracked glass growing each day, with things like hope and optimism being conspicuously absent, and worse, the concept of them becoming more and more foreign.

Three things in life are certain. Death, taxes, and the expiration of all things pleasant and comforting. Some of those things last longer than others. Some can last 20 years. Some can last 15 months. But they all end. Whether it's via a three minute phone conversation or an unexpected snap shot from the right circle, time always catches up.

And time brings everything to an often-unwanted conclusion.

The Battle of Michigan: 2011 and 2012

2011-02-10T19:28:00.000-05:00

Part 4 and a continuation from the summer. Part 1: The Numbers. Part 2: The War of Perception. Part 3: The PSL.

In the almost six months since I finished Part 3 of the "Battle of Michigan" series, highlighting the ongoing battle between Michigan and Michigan State for the state's top high school prospects, much has changed. Both schools were burned by the loss of high level prospects previously thought to be near locks, and of course Michigan went through the change from Rich Rodriguez to Brady Hoke, a transition that is still causing ripples.

In Part 1, published on July 28th of last year, the 2011 instate battle looked as such:

And now we arrive at the present. Both coaches are coming off underwhelming, disappointing 2009 seasons on the field, and one of the two has some warmth under his seat. But at the same time, both are also becoming more entrenched in the state and building relationships with the coaches within the mitten.

Both UM and MSU have, at this moment, offered the following prospects this cycle:

1. LB Lawrence Thomas, Detroit Renaissance (Michigan State)
2. WR DeAnthony Arnett, Saginaw
3. OL/DE Anthony Zettel, West Branch Ogemaw Heights
4. CB Valdez Showers, Madison Heights Madison
5. DE/LB Brennen Beyer, Canton Plymouth (Michigan)
6. RB Justice Hayes, Grand Blanc
7. OL Jake Fisher, Traverse City West (Michigan)
8. LB Ed Davis, Detroit Southeastern

Eight offers apiece at the end of July is abnormally high, indicating a deep year in-state. The early scoreboard reads Michigan 2, Michigan State 1, and it will of course be much different as time passes. If I had to guess today, I'd say Arnett goes out of state, Zettel goes to Michigan, Showers goes out of state, Hayes goes to Notre Dame, and Davis goes to MSU. Those are 100% guesses though, no inside info.

Furthermore, Michigan offered these kids, but MSU didn't:

1. CB Delonte Hollowell, Detroit Cass Tech (Michigan)
2. WR Shawn Conway, Birmingham Seaholm (Michigan)

Until the class is wrapped up and everyone is signed, this number is purely cosmetic, but at the moment, Michigan's 2011 in-state recruiting is at 40% (4 for 10).

On the other side, here are MSU's offers this year with no UM offer:

1. RB Onaje Miller, Lansing Sexton (Michigan State)
2. WR Jake Duzey, Troy Athens (Iowa)
3. LB/S Taiwan Jones, New Baltimore Anchor Bay (Michigan State)

Again, it's early, but MSU's percentage this year is 27.3% (3 for 11). This number in particular will most likely change wildly if history is any indicator, as MSU will probably extend several more in-state offers before the class is finished.

Since then, Michigan landed Justice Hayes, MSU landed Ed Davis, and both schools lost Anthony Zettel, DeAnthony Arnett, Valdez Showers, and Jake Fisher.

Here is the revised list of prospects that both UM and MSU offered in the 2011 recruiting cycle:

DE/LB Lawrence Thomas, Detroit Renaissance (Michigan State)
WR DeAnthony Arnett, Saginaw (Tennessee)
OG/DE Anthony Zettel, West Branch Ogemaw Heights (Penn State)
DE Brennen Beyer, Plymouth Canton (Michigan)
CB Valdez Showers, Madison Heights Madison (Florida)
RB Justice Hayes, Grand Blanc (Michigan)
OT Jake Fisher, Traverse City West (Oregon)
LB Ed Davis, Detroit Southeastern (Michigan State)

In a bizarre twist, neither school offered the same instate prospect after the summer. These are the same eight players from July. The final head-to-head scoreboard for 2011 reads MSU 2, Michigan 2, with four going out of state. Zettel and Arnett were particularly damaging to UM and MSU, respectively. Zettel was a heavy lean to Michigan throughout the entire process, but had whispers in his ear that dissuaded any sort of early commitment, and when it became clear that Rich Rodriguez was a dead man walking, those whispers finally swayed him, and he committed to Penn State. Brady Hoke and Greg Mattison made a late charge, but Zettel stuck with his commitment to PSU. Arnett, on the other hand, favored MSU throughout most of the process, and as it turns out, MSU's coaches treated him as such, and ultimately dropped the ball. They took him for granted, and he slipped right through their fingers. After that, the numbers are a wash compared to the summer; Fisher dropped UM for Oregon, and Hayes was turned from Notre Dame.

Meanwhile, these are the final numbers for Michigan on 2011 instate; kids that UM offered but MSU did not. Shawn Conway is omitted because he is a non-qualifier.

CB Delonte Hollowell, Detroit Cass Tech (Michigan)
LB Desmond Morgan, Holland West Ottawa (Michigan)
CB Raymon Taylor, Highland Park (Michigan)
RB Thomas Rawls, Flint Northern (Michigan)

These numbers combined with the ones above give Michigan a final 2011 instate recruiting percentage of 50% (6 of 12).

Conversely, here are MSU's signees instate who were not offered by Michigan:

RB Onaje Miller, Lansing Sexton (Michigan State)
TE Jake Duzey, Troy Athens (Iowa)
LB Taiwan Jones, New Baltimore Anchor Bay (Michigan State)
DE Damon Knox, Muskegon (Michigan State)

That puts MSU's final tally for 2011 at 41.7% (5 of 12). Michigan's percentage bumped up from 40% in July to 50% in the end, while MSU's percentage went up from 27.3 to 41.7.

The final tally during Rich Rodriguez's ill-fated tenure in Ann Arbor, straight up, head to head with Mark Dantonio: Michigan 11, Michigan State 10. The 11 for Michigan:

Boubacar Cissoko
Mike Martin
Kenny Demens
Rocko Khoury
William Campbell
Cameron Gordon
Thomas Gordon
Devin Gardner
Austin White
Brennen Beyer
Justice Hayes

And the 10 for MSU:

Fred Smith
Tyler Hoover
Edwin Baker
Chris Norman
Larry Caper
Dion Sims
William Gholston
Mylan Hicks
Lawrence Thomas
Ed Davis

Factoring in the complete 2011 class now, in the last four classes, Michigan offered 40 prospects in the state of Michigan, landing 18 of the 40 (45%). Over the same time period, MSU offered 74 and landed 39 (52.7%).

So...that book is now closed. The "outsider" Rodriguez is gone, and the perception that he neglected the state of Michigan during his time here will live on in the minds of the people who want it to live on. Unfortunately, as is often the case, perception is often reality, facts be damned.

====================================================================

So now...here we sit, in early February 2011. Both UM and MSU have closed the door on the 2011 class and are in the process of diving head first into the 2012 class, especially in Michigan, where the overall talent level is probably the highest it's been since the loaded 2007 class. The last couple days in particular have seen a frenzy of offers going out instate from both sides, as Dantonio continues his mandate of making the state of Michigan #1 and Brady Hoke works to rebuild what Rich Rodriguez allegedly tore down.

Neither team has any commitments yet, but the list of prospects both schools have offered and are pursuing is impressive:

LB James Ross, Orchard Lake St. Mary's
WR Aaron Burbridge, Farmington Hills Harrison
LB Royce Jenkins-Stone, Detroit Cass Tech
CB Terry Richardson, Detroit Cass Tech
DE Mario Ojemudia, Farmington Hills Harrison

In addition, Michigan has offered these prospects, but not MSU...:

DT Dan O'Brien, Flint Powers
TE Devin Funchess, Farmington Hills Harrison
WR/TE Ron Thompson, Eastpointe East Detroit

...while MSU - but not UM - has offered the following:

WR Dennis Norfleet, Detroit Martin Luther King
OL Kelby Latta, Battle Creek Harper Creek
DL Matt Godin, Novi Detroit Catholic Central
DT Jabari Dean, Detroit Renaissance
S Riley Bullough, Traverse City St. Francis

10 offers from MSU and 8 from UM - 13 prospects total - is a very, very large number so early in the process. It's a sure bet that both schools were certainly offer at least some of the kids the other side already has. And that's not even factoring in kids that neither have offered yet but are still evaluating and waiting to see in camp during the spring and summer.

It will be a very competitive year instate once again, and the battle lines are already being drawn. The general consensus among the "experts" and fans is that the top three are (in any order, really) Ross, O'Brien, and Burbridge. Cass Tech remains very friendly to Michigan, giving UM an inside edge on Jenkins-Stone and Richardson - and by extension James Ross at OLSM, who is close with the CT duo. Farmington Hills Harrison is still Spartan territory, and MSU has to be considered the favorite for Burbridge and Ojemudia (and Funchess if/when they offer). Bullough is quite obviously an MSU lock with his brother there and all the other connections, while Thompson grew up a big Michigan fan. O'Brien also grew up in a UM family and looks up to Mike Martin, but Michigan has some bridges to repair in the wake of the coaching change.

It's too early to make any sort of reasonable predictions about where these kids end up, how the numbers shake out, who wins the battle in 2012, but one thing is certain: the war of perception is over. Brady Hoke has already gotten back into the good graces of many high school coaches in the state of Michigan who were turned off or felt disrespected by Rich Rodriguez. You can argue the fairness of that until you're blue (or green) in the face, but the fact is, the outsider perception is that a "Michigan Man" is back in charge of Michigan, and the prestige and respect that that moniker entails is going to pay dividends, sooner or later.

Keep Me in Your Heart

2011-01-05T14:22:00.002-05:00

	Warren Zevon - Keep Me In Your Heart .mp3

	Found at bee mp3 search engine

More often than not, sports always end up blurring our thoughts, distorting our most basic of human emotions. We refer to simple games as wars, to mere players as soldiers, warriors, etc, often without giving thought to what we're doing. But in no instance is this disconnect more evident than when the topic of termination of employment comes up. We're all guilty of it. We never consider the man, we always consider the coach. I suppose that's our obligation as sports fans. It's our job to look at the results, not the family or the person. We don't consider the ramifications beyond our own self-interests.

It was an easy decision to make, and one that had to be made regardless of "process" and who is or is not coming to do the job next. Firing Rich Rodriguez was the only logical conclusion after three years of seeing Michigan sink into a well of misery so deep that the prevailing emotion in the face of a 38-point bowl loss to a 5th-place SEC team was apathy. By every reasonable measure, Rich failed and failed historically as Michigan's head coach. The promise and overly confident optimism he brought 36 and a half months ago was long extinguished, replaced by anger from those within and laughter - or worse, pity - from those on the outside.

But the fact that this was the only reasonable endgame doesn't make me feel better. It doesn't take away the cold knot in my stomach, or the weight on my heart. The randomness of the universe is something that has haunted me for years. This ongoing process called life, where good, decent people can be struck down by the cruel hand of forces sometimes larger than themselves angers me, because it's never about what you deserve. I'm not talking about Rich Rodriguez the coach. I'm talking about Rich Rodriguez the man. He came here as a stranger in a strange land, in many ways the worst possible candidate in retrospect. Generally, being a simple person who just wants to succeed in your walk of life would be considered an admirable quality. Rich had no interest - and worse, no real capability - in navigating the minefields of politics at Michigan. He didn't want to hand-hold the people who couldn't cope with the outsider from West Virginia. He wasn't interested in providing counsel and leniency to those who had trouble adjusting. All he wanted to do was do things his way, install what he knows, and coach football. On the surface, that would be, and should have been, fine. But at Michigan, you can't just be a football coach. For better or worse, it's a unique place that requires a unique mind. And it saddens me that it had to play out this way, because I know that Rich Rodriguez genuinely loved Michigan. He felt blessed and honored to be the head coach at such a special and hallowed place. He knew the opportunity that was presented to himself, and he embraced it as best he could.

Unfortunately, as fate would have it, the best he could fell well short of even the most modest of expectations, and on a personal level, that saddens me most of all, and it produces a sort of repulsion in my gut that I find myself on the same side of the fence as people like Michael Rosenberg, Drew Sharp, Mark Snyder, and so many others who passed judgment not just on the coach, but on the man. The fact that these people are celebrating today brings me angst that is beyond words. They feel like they landed their prized scalp. They have Rodriguez's head on the plate they started polishing off three years ago. That special spot they picked out on their walls to mount Rich's head on is now ready, and they take delight in it, and it sickens me. That's another thing that really pisses me off, when the end result agrees with people whose process was beyond flawed, because it makes them feel vindicated in what they've done. Mike Rosenberg will sleep well tonight. He shouldn't.

My faith in this experiment was dealt a punch to the throat in early October when Michigan State bulldozed Michigan. My last shred of belief was dealt away when Penn State's backup walkon quarterback did whatever he pleased against our tremendously flawed defense. The Penn State game was the last straw for a lot of us, I think. Even during the subsequent wins over Illinois and Purdue, the feeling that this was nearing its end never left my mind. That didn't stop me from yelling and screaming at the TV during the Illinois game. It didn't stop me from enduring a six hour car ride to Purdue to stand in a driving rainstorm for three hours with the girl I love, because if there's one thing that approaches the love I have for her, it's the love I have for that team that takes the field in the winged helmets, and that's the solace I will take from this sordid tale. No matter the coach, my support for Michigan football will never die.

On December 17, 2007, I got up earlier than usual to turn on the TV and watch the ushering in of what we all believed to be a new, prosperous era. 1115 days later, we bid farewell to that era, in some ways weaker, and in some ways wiser.

Attention to Detail

2010-11-29T13:47:00.002-05:00

Note: This is not my work. I did not do the research, I did not voice the opinion, I did not tell the story or transcribe the narrative. I just happen to agree with it wholeheartedly and believe that this is the most logical, most even-keeled, and overall best representation of our present situation.

If you are a subscriber to Michigan's Rivals site, you can find this under the post titled "What was, what might have been, what is, and what could be.... (long)." I have received permission from both the poster of that topic and the actual author of the words therein to post this here in an effort to spread the message it contains, not just as an effort to sway the opinion of those who still disagree, but to articulately explain and describe our collective point of view and why we hold it.

So, without further adieu:

Subject: What was, what might have been, what is, and what could be.

(Jonathan) Chait made a point recently that Rich Rodriguez inherited a "hollowed out" roster.

Is this really the case? Let's look at who the starters were for the second game of the 2008 season.

QB: Steve Threet
RB: McGuffie/Brown/Shaw (with Minor on double-secret probation)
LT: Ortmann
LG: McAvoy
C: Molk
RG: Moosman
RT: Schilling
TE: Butler
WR: Stonum
WR: Odoms

DE: Graham
DT: Taylor
DT: Johnson (with Martin making early contributions)
DE: Jamison (with Van Bergen making contributions)
WILL: Mouton
MIKE: Ezeh
SAM: Thompson
CB: Warren
CB: Trent
FS: Brown
SS: Harrison

That offense was young. You had a redshirt freshman QB, two true freshman WR's, and three new starters on the OL.

Conversely, the defense was a solid unit. Not hollow in the least! The DL should have been the Big Ten's best that year, or at least close to it. You had a senior Thompson at SAM, a returning starter in Ezeh at MIKE, and Jonas Mouton ready at WILL - and he played some good football in '08. Warren and Trent were a solid duo at corner. Harrison was a senior at safety, and Brown was a junior.

What could we reasonably have expected had Lloyd or DeBord continued to coach the team?

In 2008, we would have surely played the type of football that many of Michigan's faithful wanted to see go away: conservative, three-yards-in-a-cloud-of-dust, ball control football, keeping a stout defense fresh and making just enough plays throwing over the top to beat most teams.

Justin Boren would have still been here in 2008 and 2009, and Manningham and/or Arrington might have been around for 2008 as well. (I am assuming Mallett and McGuffie were gone regardless.) But Steve Threet would have had a fighting chance in a passing offense behind an OL of Ortmann-Boren-Molk-Moosman-Schilling with Manningham and Arrington at WR, and Stonum and Hemingway behind them. Certainly a better shot than he did running read-option and throwing to freshmen.

When you look back at 2008, think of all the games that were there to be won: Utah, Toledo, Purdue, MSU... even PSU and ND. Under Coach Mike DeBord, that team probably goes 7-5 or even 8-4 (and DeBord gets skewered by fans for doing so).

Due to some recruiting misses at safety and on the offensive line (which resulted in some shaky play on the right side for the last few years of the Carr Era), and a perfect storm of Henne, Hart and Long all graduating at once, Vince Lombardi could not have done better than 8-4 in 2008. 3-9, however, was a fail under any coach.

Now play the tape through.

In 2009, you lose Jamison, Taylor, Johnson, Thompson, Trent and Harrison off the defense. Martin and Sagesse step in at tackle (and in hindsight, we know Martin was ready to be an impact player, with Van Bergen at DE. Fitzgerald and Demens battle it out at the SAM. Kovacs and Brown make up a shaky safety duo.

But on offense, you would have had all five OL starters returning. Minor and Brown as seniors at RB. Steve Threet in his second year starting in the passing offense we have since learned he could flourish in. And you may well have had Forcier backing up Threet. Jason loved it here and only transferred for a chance to play - the old staff probably recruits Tate and lands him.

Look back on the 2009 schedule. MSU, Purdue, Iowa, even OSU... there were a couple of more wins to be had there beyond the low-hanging fruit we picked up. Probably another 7 or 8 win season. Imagine the flak Mike DeBord would have been taking! There wouldn't have been a DeBord "apologist" on De Board, despite maintaining our bowl streak and winning several more games over two years than Rodriguez did.

The 2010 roster gets harder to project. But we would have certainly had Molk and Schilling starting on the OL, probably with Huyge and Dorrestein. It's difficult to project the other OL's because the rest are Rodriguez recruits - and this is one area where he and his staff have done a bang-up job (better than their predecessors). It's also difficult to project who the running backs would be - but this was not a stellar year for our RB's, so you can at least assume that whoever Carr & Co. brought in would be no worse. But instead of a first year starter in Denard, you'd have had a fourth year junior Steve Threet at quarterback, now in his third year starting in a pro-style system. He'd have been throwing to a well-seasoned Stonum and Hemingway, with probably Kelvin Grady as the 3rd/slot receiver. Toney Clemons is probably still hanging around somewhere, perhaps making more rap singles with a 5th year senior Coner.

On defense, we know the anchors of the line would have been Martin and Van Bergen, and we'd have had Ezeh, Mouton, and Fitzgerald/Demens together for a third straight year under the same system, and probably getting better coaching than they have under the Rodriguez regime. That may well have been a really good linebacking corps had things been different. Donovan Warren would likely still be here at corner with Floyd and Rogers and whoever else Lloyd might have recruited competing across from him. Much better than the mess we had this year. I couldn't even begin to tell you who the safeties would be. Teric Jones and one of the Gordons? Rogers or Floyd at FS? Couldn't be any worse than what we had.

Had the Bo/Mo/Lloyd program continued under DeBord, it's a good bet the last three years would have averaged about 8-4, and people would be very dissatisfied with that. Gary Moeller was ostensibly fired for the Southfield incident, but in reality he was fired for losing four games in 1993 and 1994.

It would have been perfectly fair to be disgruntled with the state of the program had things continued on their old course. Almost any organization, be it business, education, whatever, can get stale without new ideas coming in from the outside. And it was frustrating to be able to see the top of the mountain from where we were, only to continue coming up short. The 2004 and 2005 OSU games that LITERALLY slipped just through our hands... the calamitous starts to 1998 and 2007... the Rose Bowl losses to USC in 2003 and 2006.

Some, however, cautioned that a wholesale dismantling of the program means you are throwing the baby out with the bath water. And those people who so cautioned turned out to be spot on. Almost every year, under Lloyd, we woke up the morning of the OSU game knowing that we would have a shot at at least a share of the Big Ten title. We NEVER woke up on any Saturday assuming Michigan would lose. Many if not most people took that for granted, and assumed that anyone who came from the outside and took over after Lloyd would automatically have that and just add to it. But that's not how it works (as we have very painfully discovered).

By electing to completely throw away everything that Michigan was and start with a blank piece of paper, we ended an historic streak of non-losing seasons, the longest active bowl streak, and at many points over the next three years became a national joke.

Now, were there people who didn't accept Rich Rodriguez from day one? Hell yes. Many fans had reservations. You had the Rosenbergs of the world. And you had some people internally. But the fact of the matter is, this is no different from transitions at any big football program - and it's not even unprecedented at Michigan. There was great resistance to Bo Schembechler when he took over for Bump Elliott. For the rest of his life Bo maintained that he never could have gotten off the ground without the support he got from Bump during the transition, and this was a "lasting lesson" that Lloyd did not take from Bo. It wasn't enough to stay out of Rich's way and resist actively undermining him. If Lloyd wanted to do what was best for Michigan, he should have been Rich's loudest, most visible fan. And behind the scenes, he should have been telling his former players who were not "all in" to man up and f*****g GET all in!

Now... Rich was not blameless, either. The special joy he took in dismantling the program in order to fully rebuild it in his own image was something that would have sickened Bo. When Bo took over, there was absolutely a new sheriff in town, but he came to the job with an acute awareness of the brand he was inheriting. He had his own way of doing things, but he was not trying to fashion a "Bo Schembechler program" or recreate any past success. His job was to do the best he could with MICHIGAN - it was bigger than he was. And he knew it. Rich doesn't seem to understand that quite so well.

Further... many insiders will tell you that Rich was like a bull in a china shop within the walls of Schembechler Hall. While he said the right things publicly, inside he routinely disparaged what he had been left by Lloyd and criticized Lloyd's program, apparently too dense to realize that most of the people still involved with the program were former colleagues and admirers of Carr. He established a tone from the start that all but invited the skeptics to actively undermine him, and he did little to earn the respect that he very much needed from Lloyd Carr. In short: don't portray Rich as merely a victim of a stodgy blueblood establishment. There's plenty of blame to go around for why this marriage didn't work out, and that includes Rich. He had his own "faction".

And none of this political intrigue cost Michigan a single win under Rodriguez.

What DID cost us wins?

I agree with those who are believers in the Rodriguez offense. It works, and has the potential with an experienced, talented group to be absolutely explosive. He's an elite offensive mind. It's easy to say, "all we need to do is improve the defense a little and we'll win 10 games!"

But there's a reason that fixing the two phases at which we are historically bad is not likely, and it goes deeper than X's and O's and star gazing and all the directly observable factors.

Whether it's the New England Patriots, Ohio State, Google, Apple, Hyundai, GE.... some programs are able to build a culture of attention to detail. It's a common denominator in high performing organizations in sports, in business, everywhere.

In a game with 22 players on the field, with that many moving parts, everyone doing their job is critical, and it's about more than just "making plays". Breakdowns in execution, breakdowns in fundamentals, breakdowns in concentration, breakdowns in ball security... when it happens week after week after week, you may not be able to pinpoint the exact cause of the pattern, but it IS a pattern that DOES have a root cause.

When Denard puts the ball on the ground like clockwork EVERY WEEK, when Lewan picks up a personal foul EVERY WEEK, when Jeremy Gallon makes a bad decision or fumbles the ball EVERY WEEK, when Roy Roundtree drops passes EVERY WEEK... it all falls under the category of "attention to detail". That culture of attention to detail simply is not there under Rodriguez.

Look back at the fumble stats for Rich Rodriguez teams. Fumbling has been a problem all three years here, and it was a problem on four of his teams at West Virginia. Maybe it's that his teams consistently have the ball in the hands of small players who can't absorb a hit and hold onto the football as well. Or maybe ball security isn't worked on enough (and actively enforced through the withholding of playing time). But West Virginia fumbled away a shot at the National Championship against Pitt in 2007, losing three and having one or two others kill drives. On 7 of Rich's last 10 teams - different programs, different players - fumbling has been a major problem. There is only one common denominator: Rich Rodriguez.

Attention to detail.

West Virginia ended up with the nation's #3 defense this year (Catseel, without Rodriguez), and Syracuse ended up #6 (Shafer, without Rodriguez). Greg Robinson, with two Super Bowl rings in his trophy case, presided over the nation's #109 defense - the bottoming out of a three year trend. The difference in competition between the Big East and Big Ten cannot account for that kind of disparity - especially when West Virginia and certainly Syracuse don't have near the level of recruited talent that Michigan does.

Attention to detail.

The utter cluster*** that is our kicking and return game - despite three years of recruiting ideal kick/punt returner prototypes and having a US Army All-American kicker AND punter on the roster - is another area where attention to detail (or the lack thereof) is painfully evident. Special teams is ALL about coaching and attention to detail. Ohio State and Virginia Tech have great special teams every year. Their preparation and attention to detail allows them to be better in this phase than we are.

At Tulane and Clemson, Rich was only responsible for the offensive scheme and play calling - a job at which he is nothing short of exceptional. And at Glenville State and West Virginia, the level of competition allowed offensive scheme alone to carry the day - along with catching lightning in a bottle in the form of Steve Slaton and Pat White (who in addition to great speed had exceptional instincts and timing on the read option - something Denard and Tate do not possess).

When he got to Michigan, Rich was not only responsible for the whole enchilada, but the weekly level of competition - on the recruiting trail and on the field - got ratcheted up a couple of notches, as did the expectations. His offensive thought leadership was no longer enough. Factors like management and leadership skills, and ATTENTION TO DETAIL, are the difference between success and failure when you graduate to the grownups' game as Rich did when he took this job.

That's why it's not a random occurrence when Denard coughs up the football at the end of a long drive against Ohio State. It's what Denard does! His 10 fumbles this year are less than only Taylor Martinez (11) and Fresno State QB Ryan Colburn (12). He's fumbled as many times this month as Mike Hart fumbled in his entire career, and it's criminally negligent that the problem hasn't been coached out of him in two full seasons. Historically, it's what Rich Rodriguez teams do. Attention to detail. And a microcosm of the offense under Rich: brilliant enough to move you all the way down the field, mistake-prone enough to not finish the job against the real good defensive competition. The scheme works beautifully. The execution all too frequently derails it.

On balance, there were plenty of reasons why Rich Rodriguez might not have been able to replicate his WVU level of success at Michigan. The Big East is a BCS conference in name only. WVU was Rich's alma mater, and as a favorite son the leadership challenge of getting everyone pulling in the same direction was not nearly as daunting. Morgantown is a small town that doesn't provide the media scrutiny of a big market like Detroit. Michigan is simply a bigger, tougher job than West Virginia was for him. While Rich is an offensive thought leader - unquestionably one of the top offensive minds in the game - the challenge of being the czar of this particular program appears to be beyond his management and leadership abilities.

Here's the real distillation of the arguments over the relative fullness of the cupboard and what Rodriguez could have or should have accomplished:

Lloyd had left us in a position where we were going to be in a football "recession" for a couple of years. But Rich came in and turned it into a full-on Great Depression.

Just as economic tweaks and a New Deal were not enough on their own to lift America out of the Depression, defensive tweaks and a New Coordinator will not be enough to lift Michigan out of this quagmire.

Rich Rodriguez will someday come to be viewed as the Herbert Hoover of Michigan football: a man not lacking for technical knowledge, but too much of a tinkerer and not a strong enough manager and leader to cope with the events of the day and halt a critical downward spiral.

Ending the Great Depression required World War II to get everyone to work and energize the economy. Michigan football needs its own galvanizing event to end our Depression.

Michigan football needs its FDR. NOW.

Just as another great Michigan football player, Gerald Ford, said after a famous transition of power that "our long national nightmare is over"... when this nightmare hopefully ends in the coming days and we have our own transition of power, Michigan Nation must turn its lonely eyes to Jim Harbaugh.

He resume belies the thoroughly moronic notion that Michigan fans only care about him because he played here.

He was a Heisman finalist in college, and played for fourteen years under many different offensive systems in the NFL. He played for some coaching giants, starting with Bo Schembechler, and then Mike Ditka. He played for one of the most noted offensive minds in NFL history in Ted Marchibroda when he was with the Colts, and a fairly accomplished college offensive mind in Mike Riley when he was with the Chargers. Harbaugh has studied under some big time football acumen, and since his own father was a college football coach, he was probably a more keen observer of the coaching chops of his mentors than the average player.

He cut his teeth as an assistant coach at Western Kentucky, serving in an unpaid capacity under his dad, Jack Harbaugh (who was Michigan's DB coach under Bo Schembechler from 1973 to 1979). Despite playing at a big time college program and starting at QB in the NFL for many years, Jim went back to school and learned his craft as a coach from an old hand - and he did it for no money in a college football backwater. He didn't have anything handed to him. He put in his time.

As a head coach, he started off at the University of San Diego - a non-scholarship program in a scholarship league. He went 7-4 his first year, then 11-1 the next two, winning the Pioneer League both times.

At this point, you could have made an argument that Harbaugh was an intriguing candidate for a Bret Bielema-style transition year under Lloyd. Yes, some guys like Miles and Rodriguez were more accomplished at bigger programs, but Harbaugh was by no means a "small school" guy given his Michigan and NFL experience, and Miles and Rodriguez both carried with them questions about a cultural fit - questions that were raised at the time (and turned out to be very prescient with Rich).

In any case, Harbaugh took over a Stanford program that was 1-11 the year before, and was routinely recruiting classes that were not even in the top 50. They were the doormat of the Pac 10. They were Indiana. Except worse. Talk about a "hollowed out roster", Mr. Chait!

In four years, he has beaten USC - the 'roided up, player-paying Darth Vader of college football - three times.

In his third year, Stanford made their first bowl since 2001.

This year, his fourth, he has flipped that 1-11 to 11-1 and has Stanford in position to possibly go to a BCS bowl. Their only loss was on the road at AP #1/BCS #2 Oregon. They have shut three teams out defensively and have a top 25 defense to go with a top 10 offense. This defense is nothing to sneeze at when you look at the offensive ranks of Oregon, USC, Arizona, and Steve Threet's Arizona State - all offenses in the top third of the nation. And Notre Dame, who was also on Stanford's schedule, is in the top half. They lost a Heisman finalist, Toby Gerhart, and it affected them not a bit. Finally, Stanford is about to bring in a top 20 recruiting class - their best since Rivals has been around - and if you don't think that's an accomplishment, look through the academic numbers of Harbaugh's recruits. You'll find a whole lot of them who could get into Michigan on academic merit, and I guarantee you that "we'll find out in August" are words that you will never hear uttered on the Stanford message board with regards to whether a kid will qualify.

Let's look inside the numbers at exactly what Harbaugh has done to elevate Stanford's program:

Scoring Defense - Improved by 13 points per game over four years (31 to 18)
Scoring Offense - Improved by 29 points per game over four years (11 to 40)

Ponder the enormity of this for a moment: a positive point differential of 42. Six touchdowns a game Harbaugh has added to that program!

And he did it without trying to sneak academically-deficient felons through the back door.

Strength of Schedule (Per Sagarin)

2007 - 10
2008 - 12
2009 - 29
2010 - 8 (YTD)

This is not the Big East. In fact, Stanford has had a stronger SOS than Michigan each year. Harbaugh just went 11-1 against a top ten SOS.

Recruiting Classes (per Rivals)

2007 - 51
2008 - 50
2009 - 20
2010 - 26
2011 - 11 (YTD)

You cannot do a better job at either San Diego or Stanford than Jim Harbaugh has done. Given his playing pedigree, the fact that he comes from a coaching family and studied under numerous big time coaches, that he put in his time to learn the craft, then put it into practice at two different levels and was wildly successful at each, Jim Harbaugh is unquestionably the hottest coaching commodity to be ready for the big time since Urban Meyer was set to leave Utah.

When you then consider that Harbaugh was a rug rat on the Michigan sidelines while his dad coached under Bo, and then starred here as a player... outside of bringing in someone who has been winning national championships elsewhere and is just ready for a change, you could not design a better candidate for the Michigan job than Jim Harbaugh. He is significantly more qualified than Rich Rodriguez was when we hired him, let alone after three years of Rodriguez failure.

If Harbaugh had this same resume three years ago, Rich Rodriguez would not have even gotten a courtesy listen from Michigan. Harbaugh may have been ON the boat with Bill Martin!

As it is, it's probably now or never if we want to bring Harbaugh home, and every indication is that he wants the gig. Rich has not accomplished nearly enough for us to pass on this opportunity.

Now, let's address Harbaugh's controversial comments from 2007.

"I would use myself as an example. I came in there, wanted to be a history major, and I was told early on in my freshman year that I shouldn't be. That it takes too much time. Too much reading. That I shouldn't be a history major and play football."

Was this true? Strictly speaking, yes. But there's a major lie of omission there. Harbaugh has mild dyslexia and a reading-intensive major is a difficult choice whether you're a football player or not. This was bad, and Harbaugh would be a better man for walking that one back.

It's also worth noting that Harbaugh was honored on the Big Ten All-Academic Team as a player - so there is some indication in his background that he does take academics very seriously. He had this to say on that:

"Most avid college football fans, unfortunately, just think about how exciting it is to watch college players play and not think about what happens when the football comes to a screeching halt. They need to get a degree - a quality degree - and develop a skill set that helps you for the next 60-70 years."

Frankly, I like the idea of someone who takes academics seriously beyond the lip service that virtually every coach pays to the classroom.

The meat of Harbaugh's thoughts were this:

"Michigan is a good school and I got a good education there, but the athletic department has ways to get borderline kids in, and when they're in, they steer them to courses in Sports Communications. They're adulated when they're playing, but when they get out, the people who adulated them won't hire them."

This is hardly "taking a dump on the university", as many have characterized it. In fact, he made sure to delineate between the school and the football program.

Michigan DOES take kids who just barely qualify, which Stanford does not. While Lloyd used to get his one or two exceptions a year for borderline kids, we take more of them under Rodriguez than we did under Carr - one more piece of evidence of a problem with cultural fit. Now, unlike SEC programs, you do have to meet those Clearinghouse requirements for real to get into Michigan, as Demar Dorsey found out. You can't fudge it at the 11th hour through correspondence courses which anyone can take for you, or senior year grades and test scores that are bizarrely inconsistent with your entire academic background.

But the fact remains that most of these academically borderline kids, while some may get their sheepskin in one of the athlete-centric majors, are not going to be qualified for the types of jobs that a normal Michigan student who took a normal curriculum in college would be. When Harbaugh says these kids couldn't get hired by the people who adulated them... he's right! You probably won't see Jeremy Gallon and Mike Shaw and Jake Ryan going to work for Wall Street banks and Chicago ad agencies and Detroit auto makers if/when they graduate. (Although it does appear you can get elected to Congress in some red districts with that academic background at Michigan. The qualifications there are a bit lower.)

You may not like what Harbaugh said - just as many didn't like his brashly guaranteeing a win over OSU when he played here. But just like he did then, Harbaugh backed up his arguably ill-conceived words with action and got it done, winning in a big way with a higher caliber of student than the NCAA requires. (You also won't see players fitting the profile of Gallon, Shaw and Ryan on Stanford's commitment lists.) There aren't that many schools that legitimately set a higher bar than the Clearinghouse, but Stanford is one of them, Harbaugh said he would win there... and he did, with a whole team full of players who could be academic all-americans. That's just bad ass.

And let's be honest here: running your mouth, sometimes inappropriately, doesn't have to keep you from being beloved at Michigan. (See also: Hart, Mike.)

But why did Harbaugh say it in the first place?

"My motivation was positive. I see how it's done now at Stanford, and I see no reason it can't be the same there. I have a great love for Michigan and what it's done for me. Bo Schembechler was like a second father. Michigan is a great school and always has been, and I don't see why they can't hold themselves to a higher standard."

There is no reason Harbaugh could not do at Michigan what he has done at Stanford. There is no reason, as he said, that Michigan can't hold themselves to a higher standard and still win at the level we expect. Harbaugh has already gone to a challenging conference and built a culture of toughness and attention to detail and winning football, and done it with a higher caliber of student. He has also shown he can recruit at a high level at a program known more for academics than football. Hell, he has already laid down the gauntlet for himself at Michigan- just as he did in 1986 when he guaranteed a win over OSU.

"It ain't bragging if you can do it," said Dizzy Dean.

There is every reason to believe Jim Harbaugh would be more successful here than Rich Rodriguez has been. This is not about what is "fair" to Rich. The team, the team, the team, right? Michigan football is bigger than Rich Rodriguez - just as Bo knew it was bigger than Bo.

This is a results-oriented business, and Rodriguez has not achieved anything close to the expected results - despite attempts by many of his proponents to retroactively lower the bar. 1-13 against the top five programs in the Big Ten, 5-5 against the bottom feeders. A loss to a MAC school for the first time in school history. A defense that has gotten worse each year and has transcended "bad" into a full meltdown in many games. A kicking and return game in year three that is an embarrassment. Recruiting in decline - both in terms of average rank of player and rank of student.

When Lloyd Carr went 7-5 in 2005 with an injury-ravaged team playing against the #1 or #2 toughest schedule in the nation, depending on which ranking you look at, this was considered incomprehensibly bad, and the fan base was apoplectic. Yet now 7-5 under Rich Rodriguez is considered by many to be a sign of progress? We need one more year of progress just to get back to the level that many were dissatisfied with under Carr! There is no reason to believe an overhaul of the defensive staff - after two other competent coordinators failed here - will fix the problem.

The common denominator is Rich, himself, and his approach to the role of defense on a football team. Rodriguez views the defense, as Denard told us a week ago when he offered up his truly bizarre opinion that Michigan has one of the best defenses in the country, as a sparring partner for the offense. They are there to get our offense ready. Stopping other teams is the secondary objective. This will likely not change with a new set of coaches. Nor will the lack of a culture of attention to detail - the foundational deficiency of all other deficiencies.

All Dave Brandon owes Rich Rodriguez is the buyout as specified in his contract - a clause which Rodriguez, as we all remember, knows about all too well from when he tried to avoid paying his after dumping WVU.

Karma's a bitch, I suppose.

It's time for us to move on, to bring a very successful native son home, and to let our current coach try again in a situation that better suits him.

Saigon

2010-11-27T15:29:00.003-05:00

I would hope that at this point I would've gained a reputation for being at the very least, fair, if not decidedly in the "pro" camp for Rich Rodriguez. All the essay-type posts I've typed up over the last three years, I would've thought some sort of credence would be given. But alas, the moment I started questioning things, the moment I dared to speak out, I had people questioning my fanhood, calling me fake, berating me, etc. I'm not terribly surprised - if there's one thing I've learned in the last three years, it's that the Michigan fanbase is ultimately spineless and afraid.

So, as it stands now, there are two camps: one still throws out offensive ranking statistics and "youth"; they want Rodriguez back. The other throws out defensive ranking statistics; they want Harbaugh.

Before the season, I was "all in"; I have since grown to despise this term, as it is disingenuous and screams of bleating by sheep who cling to whatever they can cling to. It's the same sort of thing the (sorry, about to get political here) Bush administration did when they questioned the patriotism of those who criticized the war and other things. Same sort of nonsense I hear democrats throw out when people criticize President Obama. The "all in" crowd has tried to blur the line. They try to say if you're not "all in" for Rich Rodriguez, then you're not "all in" for Michigan; that somehow you're not a true fan. Well, there's something to be said for loyalty. But there's another thing to be said for blind devotion and thoughtlessly following your leader into the fire.

I dare anyone to question my fanhood. I was at Purdue and stood through the monsoon as we yakety sax'd our way through the game and managed to stumble into a win. I was at Iowa and UMass when the defense couldn't stop a thing. I sat in front of my TV for every play of today's game. My heart hurt as yours hurt when OSU scored, when we fucked up, etc. So no, I will not tolerate anybody saying I'm not a real fan because I refuse to stand in lockstep with the Rodriguez supporters.

There are legitimate reasons for our incompetence on the football field, some that are indeed out of Rodriguez's hands. Once again, Rodriguez did not break Troy Woolfolk's ankle, didn't put JT Floyd in the ankle lock, didn't tell Donovan Warren to leave and go undrafted, didn't turn Boubacar Cissoko into a thug, didn't tell JT Turner to be lazy, etc. But he does employ Tony Gibson, who has shown not one iota of coaching ability. He did force some bastardized, pathetic version of the 3-3-5 on this defense. He has shown, in three full years, zero ability to put together any form of cohesion on defense. There is nothing redeemable there. No coaches, no scheme, no fundamentals. Nothing. After three years. What makes anybody think that's suddenly going to change moving forward?

And despite the screams from certain significant people about the statistical prowess of this offense...well, you saw what happened today. It wasn't some outlier. The offense was similarly squashed when it mattered by Michigan State, Iowa, Penn State, and Wisconsin. Putting up a ton of yards and points isn't really worth a whole lot when you don't do it until you fall behind by three touchdowns. Every single aspect of this team has proven to be tissue paper soft against the real Big 10 competition. So we're able to beat Indiana, Illinois and Purdue now. We look like "Michigan" against MAC teams. Congrats, our coach has built a MAC champion. Against every single Big 10 team with a winning record, the defense has been meek, undersized, and bulldozed into submission. The offense has been tenative, turnover-prone, and they make mistakes like they're still learning how to play football. Penalties, fumbles, dropped passes - against the physical elite in this conference, this offense turns to goo, because they're soft, both mentally and physically. The wide receivers are pretty good at catching the ball...except against legitimate, "old school" Big Ten defenses. Then they get alligator arms and start dropping everything. The running backs are physical...until they face physical defenses, then they go down on first contact and cough the ball up. The quarterbacks are accurate and make plays...until they play good defenses, then they turn the ball over and are wild with many of their throws.

So yeah, I'm off the bandwagon. I'm "all in" for Michigan, and that means I'm ready to abandon this wild experiment, admit it was a sunk cost, and ditch everything associated with it. And the whole "We can't go through another 3-4 years of rebuilding" is a red herring. If that's your best justification for keeping a coach, then that says it all.

I don't take pleasure in any of this, I hope people realize that. There are those who secretly (and perhaps not-so-secretly in some places) took delight in what happened today because it serves as more vindication for their stance. Not me. My heart is broken over all this. I never want to see Michigan swirling the drain like we are now. And I desperately wanted Rodriguez to win because I saw and am aware of how unfairly he was treated when he arrived, how he had essentially zero support on the inside when he took over. But I've reached the point where I no longer trust him to turn the corner. Getting revenge against no-counts like Illinois and Purdue was important, but, for me anyway, we had to show something more than we did against the upper tier of the conference. Watching the games against MSU, Iowa, Penn State (who isn't even upper tier this year), Wisconsin, Ohio State...I saw no difference in these games than what was on the field in 2008 and 2009. In some cases, it was even worse.

So, for those of you who remain loyal to the coach and still believe he is the man for the job and think he deserves more time, I admire your conviction, even if I no longer understand it. And for those who believe the time for change has arrived...I begrudgingly ask for a seat at the table.

At the end of the Vietnam War, there was no war at all, really. The violence had long since ended, the gunfire long silenced, the ambush attacks by the rebels long quieted. Instead there was a steady, solemn withdrawal by US forces as they realized everything they had invested was going to be for naught. And as the Communist forces finally closed in on the city of Saigon, the final helicopter loaded up what it could, trying to get as many people as it could to safety before the city fell. They were allowed to leave, and shortly thereafter, PAVN tanks rolled in, the final candle of democracy in Vietnam was extinguished, and all the blood, sweat and tears poured into the country in the name of freedom were rendered moot.

I'm certainly not comparing something as ultimately trivial as football to something as real and horrifying as war, but as a history major, I can't help but see the parallel. And right about now, Michigan football is reaching the point where the final helicopters are warming up on the roofs of the embassy, with refugees trying to board as enemy tanks and winds of change close in.

I predicted after the end of last season that 2010 would be the end for Rich Rodriguez. A year later, my prediction remains the same. And my heart is heavy.

67-65 Michigan

2010-11-07T09:48:00.006-05:00

Victory from a missed two-point conversion in triple overtime. 67-65 Michigan. Bowl eligibility for the first time since our evisceration of Tebow's Gators in the Citrus (sorry, Capital One) Bowl. After the chaos that was the Michigan fanbase last week, it's wonderful to see a more joy, chaotic joy, but that may be the best variety. I was depressed after last week, but not to the point of despair, as much as doubts were creeping into my head, I had hope that some light would break through the murk. It's funny how much a week can change things... a day, a second. How much perception shifts because of thousands of little moments that could have shifted either way. A 67-65 victory over Illinois, a Big House erupting into absolute pandemonium. A victory hasn't felt this good in I don't know how long. Yet, as if in some cosmic joke, last week's defeat only makes it all the more sweeter.

Rich Rod conducts The Victors after the game

To paraphrase Freud, happiness is subjective. There is no Platonic ideal joy that we can ever aspire to achieve. The gut-wrenching pain of Penn State only made last night more joyous. The last three years or pain, defeat and hardship make victory all the greater. The Horror balances with Lloyd Carr's last moment in the sun. Is that any solace during the low times? Not much, I'll be honest, but a bit... a tiny bit. As much as my megalomaniacal delusions would love to see undefeated seasons and mythical national championships every year, as much as my mind relishes the fantasy of annihilating Ohio State season after season until the end of time, it wouldn't make me any happier. It would dull the happiness, as nice as it would be to see them put into their place time and time ago. Joy can only be compared to despair, the highs and lows are what make life interesting.

And when we finally have a stalwart defense to augment the unceasing Ragnarok that is our offense, all the suffering that we've experienced since 2007 will make it all the better. I'm not one who subscribes to the theory that one game changes everything; that we've somehow turned a corner, but I think we're finally emerging form the darkness. Next year the defense will be improved, and, as scary and as titillating as this is, so will the offense. But, I don't want to spiral off into ramblings about the decimation we will wrought upon our opponents next year, so let's come back down to earth.

This offense is unstoppable, as I think we showed by putting up 45 points in four quarters and put up wet-dream-inducing yardage totals despite turning the ball over five times. The touchdown pass to Roundtree on the first play from scrimmage summarizes it nicely. Despite his two picks and only 50% completion percentage, Denard put up over 300 yards passing and three touchdowns. We rushed for 257 yards combined among five different players. We made mistakes, but we redeemed them. I don't know what would have happened if we hadn't turned it over so many times. The offensive line was dominating, and Roundtree simply amazing despite a few drops, but perhaps most importantly was Forcier coming in and the offense not missing a beat. The run game was neglected a bit, but he cobbled together a victory out of moxie and sheer force of will.

And to continue to the more maligned side of the ball... the defense played well enough. Were they good? No, but they allowed us to win the game and played better than they have in a long time. Let's get one thing straight: Illinois may have scored 65 points, but the defense did not allow that many, not really. 20 of those points came in overtime, where, I think we can all agree, starting at the opponent's twenty-five gives the offense a pretty sizable advantage. Additionally, Illinois scored 18 points off of turnovers and their starting field position was tremendous throughout the game. They forced six punts and four field goals and made two do-or-die stops at the end of the fourth quarter and on the last two-point conversion attempt of the game. Mike Martin, with two bum ankles, played almost the entire game and might just have been the difference maker. While the defense made some horrible mistakes, they were aggressive and took it to Illinois. I really think this unit showed a lot yesterday, after being absolutely torn apart last week.

What will come of the rest of the season, I don't know, but basking in the glory of victory sure feels good after the past three weeks.

Note: Photo from SI.com

Moving On

2010-10-30T23:22:00.005-04:00

Note: I haven't posted here in long time and probably won't for a long time after this. The past three seasons have been wearisome and grad school takes up far too much of my time. I suppose more than that I haven't felt I had something that was meaningful enough to contribute to the Michigan blogosphere. I'm not sure I do now either, but the urge to write was overwhelming. I'm sure Brian won't agree with much of the following, but that's okay. We've always disagreed.

I haven't missed a Michigan game since The Horror. I'm sure I've neglected to catch a few plays here or there, but not many and always regretfully. I was in Boston for Appalachian State, and with no broadcast to be found, glued to ESPN's game tracker. I'm not sure if it would have been more painful to watched the game or not, but I still haven't seen it. I don't think I ever will. But, I was away from home and it was easy to escape from everything and forget.

This summer I left Michigan for grad school and won't be back home until Bowl Season. I certainly miss it, but the distance would be so much more bearable if on Saturday afternoons I could just be happy. In a lot of ways football feels like my one true bond with my roots. That may seem melodramatic, or insane, but I know it's true. I talk to my parents and my friends, see my dog through Skype, but in so many ways those fleeting moments are just a reminder of the distance. They only make the homesickness worse. Watching Michigan is different. Everything else washes away in the glow of the TV and all I'm left with is a beautiful tunnel vision. Every Saturday I get lost in something larger than myself; something that invokes happiness from as far back as I can remember. In so many ways Michigan is home, even if I can't be in Ann Arbor.

Yet, instead clutching that contact as long as I can, all I want to do is forget. It's so easy to become disconnected from it all; to slip away. No one is obsessed with Michigan here. No one asks me about the game. The chatter isn't in the air. I can forget. I can hole myself away from it all.

I don't have any thoughts on the game right now, they fled away with the last fleeting image of riotous white as the television faded to black. I don't have any comments about the angry villagers that are surely storming the castle back home right now. All I can do is sit here and write.

I know next week I'll be right back in front of that television, on the edge of my seat, working on that same ulcer. It's not something that I could ever give up on, I know that with every fiber of my being. I'll wait and hope and grimace and cheer and hopefully things will turn out all right in the end.

Because I need it to. Goddamn do I need it. In so many ways, I feel as if it's the most important thing in the world. Because I'm obsessed, because I cannot help but wallow in nostalgia, because I need something, anything to look forward to, but most of all, for the simple reason that at the end of the day everything is still the same. Because when all is said and done nothing has changed except for the position of some padded men on a chalk-marked field. I don't say this to make light of the game, no... I say it for exactly the opposite reason. The truth is: it's so damn important because it doesn't matter. I know that's a paradox and you probably all think I'm insane, but I believe that wholeheartedly. With football I can pour everything I have into it, and lose myself completely, exactly for that reason. I know most of you are out for blood, and I understand that, but I'll be right here waiting, offering no judgments and reaching out for that connection for the rest of my life. It's all that I can do.

Disillusionment

2010-10-09T20:14:00.000-04:00

Michigan State 34, Michigan 17; 5-1, 1-1

I said yesterday we'd find out a lot about this Michigan team based on the actions and events that took place during this football game.

Well, as it turns out, we did. As it also turns out, a football team takes on the personality of its head coach; and that matters. If you had to treat a football team like some sort of dish with a bunch of ingredients, the personality would be something that has to be thrown into the mix. Other things matter, like how you recruit, how fast your players are, how big and strong they are, etc. It's a very complicated process that is even harder for outsiders like us to decipher.

Today, it was simple: Michigan State takes on the personality of its head coach. Dantonio is a lot of things. He's a hypocrite, a trash talker, and way too dramatic. But he's also tough, hard-nosed, determined, and he has successfully instilled that mindset in his football team.

On the other side, Michigan's defense plays like it's an afterthought - just like their head coach treats them.

I don't pretend to have all the answers, or even any of the answers, really. If you come here looking for seer-like wisdom about what has to happen for things to be fixed, you're probably better off going elsewhere. All I can offer here is my opinion about the state of affairs and why things are the way they are. I don't pretend to have all the facts. I base what I believe off the information that becomes available to me. So if what I have to say here upsets you and you accuse me of being a "fairweather" or "fake" fan, I respectfully tell you to kiss my ass. I've been keeping this inside since the UMass game because I didn't want to be one of "those guys" that feels the need to harp on negativity when the overall outcome is still positive. Well, after today, I no longer have that obstacle, and I'm about to bust out the flamethrower. So here it is.

Rich Rodriguez is an offensive genius. It's not his fault that Denard Robinson missed Stonum in the endzone, and misjudged a pair of crossing patterns that resulted in redzone interceptions. Certain people in certain circles will use this game as more "proof" that the spread doesn't work in the Big 10. I don't buy that even a little bit. Before the game got out of hand, Michigan went up and down the field against MSU, and their sophomore QB in his 6th career game finally cracked under the weight of having the carry an entire program on his shoulders. What Rich and the offensive coaches have done is very, very impressive.

On the other hand: Rich Rodriguez is guilty of borderline criminal negligence in regard to this so-called defense. Did Lloyd Carr leave a stocked cupboard? No. But this is Year 3, and we have no direction, no goal, no ANYTHING on defense. Why? Because our head coach is a glorified offensive coordinator who pays no attention to the other side of the ball. Because Rich Rodriguez hired Scott Shafer in 2008, and then stood by as his buddies cut Shafer's balls off and ousted him as defensie coordinator. Shafer was fired after the season, rendering the entire 2008 season moot. The stench of 3-9 sticks, but any miniscule lessons any of the players learned along the way went swirling the drain when the coordinator and scheme changed.

And then, as if trying to one-up his own stubbornness, after another catatstrophic meltdown in 2009, Rich Rodriguez "recommends" the 3-3-5 defense to his second year coordinator, Greg Robinson. It's bad enough that in Year 3, we were once again headed down a new path, defensively. It's even worse that we decided to go to a scheme that takes a defensive lineman off the field and puts an extra defensive back on. I don't have an issue with the 3-3-5 in principle. With the proper personnel and proper coaching, just about any scheme can succeed. But we decide to install a scheme (with a coordinator who has never run it before) that marginalizes our defensive line, puts more strain on our worst unit, and calls on our linebackers to react quickly and fill gaps, something they have almost no capability of doing. It's asinine, it defies logic, and it'd be laughable if it wasn't so ridiculous.

So who's to blame? Obi Ezeh was a Lloyd recruit...and in year 3 Rodriguez has failed to find anybody to get Obi off the field. Rodriguez has failed to dedicate himself to a scheme on defense like he did on offense. Rodriguez has failed to hire the proper coaches to coach the defensive side of the ball. There are massive, massive personnel deficiencies in the defensive backfield, I understand. Rodriguez didn't tell Boubacar Cissoko to lose his mind and become a thug. He didn't tell JT Turner to be lazy and not put in any effort. He didn't break Troy Woolfolk's ankle. He didn't tell Donovan Warren to leave early and go undrafted.

But he did take a gamble on Vlad Emilien after an ACL tear; didn't work out. He chose to pursue Demar Dorsey and Adrian Witty instead of trying for other recruits with better academic prospects. He has chosen to leave Tony Gibson in charge back there, when Gibson is universally mocked as nothing more than Rodriguez's drinking buddy. This kind of nepotism had Michigan fans breathing fire at Lloyd Carr for employing Mike Debord as offensive coordinator. Rodriguez isn't exempt.

So what's the solution? I ask, because I don't know. There is not a single redeeming quality about this defense. It does nothing well. I thought they'd be able to hold their own against MSU's running game. That thought was comically extinguished when Edwin Baker was GONE the second he got past the line of scrimmage, because I knew our linebackers had blown it and our DBs weren't going to be able to stop him. In a sense, this game was lost in the first quarter just like last year, because our own ineptitude allowed MSU to dictate control of the game. Last year, it was the defense being unable to get off the field despite three (!!!) MSU personal fouls, giving up a 12-minute drive culminating in MSU's touchdown to make it 7-3. This year, in a situation where we know the defense sucks and we know the offense had to be balls to the wall...we get 3 points in two drives in the redzone. Should've been 14-0 Michigan and an entirely different complexion to the game. Instead, it was only 3-0, and MSU was allowed to get into a rhythm with their offense, and of course, our defense was entirely incapable of doing anything correctly.

This is a radical thought considering what we've seen the last two and a half years, but it really DOESN'T take an act of God to install a sense of toughness and basic fundamentals in a defense. All you need are competent coaches and the proper attention to detail. Michigan has neither. Rodriguez pays no attention to the defense and leaves them to their own devices, running a scheme they (and their coordinator) are new to. The results are predictable. Apocalyptic, but predictable.

And with that, my patience runs thin with this whole experiment. Having a glitzy, rock and roll offense only goes so far. Try to remove the maize and blue glasses and look at today's game from an objective point of view. One team was physical on both sides of the ball, more or less fundamentally sound, tackled well, played solid assignment football and executed their gameplan brilliantly. The other team failed to execute in the redzone and lacked any kind of competence, execution, or toughness on the other side of the ball. Which program looks to be in better shape going forward?

Again, this isn't a blind "Fire RR" post. I'm asking. What's the solution? If you think Greg Robinson is the problem, what coordinator is out there that can stabilize things? Who can step in and install some form of toughness? Look at how the tables have turned. In a matter of what, four years, Michigan and Michigan State have become complete opposites. Michigan has gone from the old-school "boring" offense and more or less smashmouth defense to the explosive spread offense with nothing even close to a mediocre defense, while MSU has gone from the John L spread and no D to the old Michigan look of run, run, playaction, play D. Curious how this reversal of attitudes has accompanied a reversal of game results...

I'm out of answers. Disillusionment has set in, and I now look at every game left on the schedule as one we could very well lose. What's different about Iowa that will make it a different result from today? Wisconsin and Ohio State will do the same. Penn State? On the road? At night? Even with their issues, do you expect this defense to shut them down? Illinois and Purdue? Even with their personnel losses, after all the points they've put up on us the last two years, how can they be viewed as slam dunks?

With this defense, nothing is a slam dunk. And against the first truly sturdy, competent defense they've seen, this offense stalled. How many times this scenario repeats itself will determine the future. But even then, if he survives, has Rich Rodriguez done anything to cause any sort of optimism about the defense after this year?

Sure hasn't for me. In fact just the opposite. Frankly, I'll believe a Rodriguez-coached Michigan team will field a competent defense when I see it. And the way I see it, we're light years away.

What Do You Go Home To?

2010-10-08T20:07:00.000-04:00

Some form of judgment: Saturday, 3:30 ET

	Explosions In The Sky - What Do You Go Home To? .mp3

	Found at bee mp3 search engine

What do you go home to?

For the majority of people, folks like you and me, life is, despite the drama we make of it, largely simple. We wake up in the morning, perform the tasks we have carved out for ourselves, eat at some point, socialize with colleagues at other points, and at the end of the day, at some point or another, we find our way back home, more often than not into a safe place where the world is simple and the sweet release of sleep undoes any type of stress we accumulated during the previous day. Life is a vicious circle in that the pattern of stress and agitation repeats itself; and life is cool in that there will always be that warm, cozy bed to collapse into when the day is long past and the sun is long set, and for hours, there is no trouble, no turmoil, no trepidation.

For an unlucky portion of us, the setting of the sun on the onset of fatigue offers no quarter. The soundless hours of night reserved for sleep sometimes offer a hauntingly lonesome silence, which some of us find ourselves trapped in, knowing the issues of one day are not erased by eight hours of unconsciousness. For some, what we do on any given day stays with us, no matter how terrible, and no matter how responsible we actually are for the circumstances. It's a cruel fact of life, I suppose, that even if you're a good, decent human being, sooner or later, you will find yourself awake at 3:00 AM, staring at the ceiling, unable to escape into the land of hope and dreams, trapped in the real world where there are people who despise you for what you've done and are intent on seeing your poor circumstances worsened, no matter what.

This is a situation Rich Rodriguez has found himself in for over two years now. The debate about how responsible he is for the given situation over the past 24+ months will never end, even long after he's dead and buried. But at some point, the time for debate passes, and the time for action arrives. Rarely is an opportunity presented to someone where they have the chance to exterminate a massive portion of the cancerous monkey that occupies your back, heart, and mind 24/7.

Tomorrow around 3:30, that opportunity will present itself to Rich Rodriguez.

It's been mentioned before, and has increased in frequency this week, but it's not hyperbole: This is the biggest game of Rich Rodriguez's Michigan tenure. But it's bigger than that. This is the biggest game for the winged helmets since that fateful, wretched day in Columbus in November 2006. Everything that has plagued the Rodriguez era in Ann Arbor, it all boils to the surface tomorrow afternoon at Michigan Stadium. Back to back losses to "Little Brother." Back to back seasons without a bowl game. A mythical perception of in-state dominance being lost, both in recruiting and in the eyes and minds of the public. The equally mythical perception that Rodriguez's offense is "finesse" and cannot succeed against physical Big Ten teams.

All of the above can be doused in gasoline and set ablaze in front of 110,000+ people tomorrow under the Ann Arbor sun. It will be difficult. It will be nerve-wracking, physically draining, and heart attack-inducing. With the defense being what it is, nothing is assured, no matter what. A shootout seems likely. And if I could pick only one coach in America to coach my team through an offensive explosion, I would pick Rich Rodriguez.

The moment he arrived in East Lansing as Michigan State head coach, Mark Dantonio had one priority in mind: Make the Michigan-Michigan State game matter again. Under John L, the game became a farce because MSU was so woefully coached. They could always be counted on to make the critical mistake and were just generally outclassed in essentially every aspect. It became an afterthought on Michigan's schedule. Dantonio vowed to change that, to make the Spartans tougher, to make them matter to everyone of the maize and blue persuasion; players, coaches, and fans alike.

Congratulations, Mark. You have our complete attention.

There will be no more underestimating. No more overlooking. No more dismissive waves from Michigan fans who can't be bothered to invest any time worrying about State. Since he opened his stupid, childish, hypocritical mouth three years ago, I've wanted to see Mark Dantonio suffer. He's made it abundantly clear how important this game is to him, black mark on the soul, all that theatrical nonsense like he's some kind of character in a dramatic football movie. When he had his heart attack last month, all that was set aside. That's not the kind of fate I wish upon the man. I want him to live a long and very healthy life. The kind of suffering I have in mind for that miserable wretch is the kind that Michigan can inflict on him tomorrow. I'd prefer to see 60 points and 700 yards and Sam the Eagle (Google it) trudging off the field with that same hateful look on his face like he just watched his dog get plowed by the mailman's truck in slow motion. Those extravagant numbers aren't realistic, so I'll settle for a small victory. One point more is all that's needed. A one point differential is all that's needed to extinguish the Big Lie, to push the mute button on the noise, to put the kids back in the crib.

I alluded to it last summer. The doomsday clock is ticking down once again. Around 6:30, 7:00 tomorrow evening, it will strike 0 for somebody. When that happens, what will we go home to?

Run Chart: Indiana

2010-10-07T04:46:00.000-04:00

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun H-back	Smith	Zone read stretch	4	Dorrestein, Robinson	Molk
2-6	Shotgun H-back	Robinson	QB draw	72-TD	Koger, Omameh, Molk, Lewan, Stonum, Robinson (3)	-

1st and 10: Correct read by Denard as the read end stays at home. Molk doesn't really get *beaten* by the playside DT per se, but he gets pushed back enough that it forces Smith to cut upfield, which sort of sours the play. Dorrestein mashes the backside DT enough so it still gets 4 yards.

2nd and 6: Koger moves in from the H-back spot to serves as the lead blocker, and he does so superbly. Omameh crushes the DT inside and Molk erases a linebacker on the second level. Lewan ~~gets away with a hold~~ obstructs the DE enough for Denard to pull away, and Stonum's block downfield on the corner sends Denard blazing to the endzone. WOOSH.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun H-back	Smith	HB dive	4	Webb, Molk	Lewan
2-6	Shotgun slot left	Robinson	Zone read keeper	5	-	Robinson
3-1	Shotgun 2 H-back	Robinson	QB draw	27	Molk (0.5), Schilling (0.5), Webb, Lewan	-

1st and 10: Pretty sure there's no read here as Webb peels back from H-back position to nail the unblocked end, which he does perfectly. Molk gets to the second level to take out one linebacker, but Lewan is drilled up high by the other and is badly staggered, falling backward and to the ground (!), allowing that linebacker to hold this play down.

2nd and 6: Wrong read here, the end is staying home and they have a linebacker scraping over. Luckily Denard freaks them out with a couple steps outside enough that he has room to cut back and Denard his way to 5 yards here.

3rd and 1: Smith going in motion out of the backfield causes one of Indiana's players to freak out and jump offside and then fall down. Molk and Schilling double the playside DT, while Webb and Lewan bury a DB and DE, respectively. Pretty impressive that the safety from the other side of the field was able to track Denard down downfield.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR trips left	Robinson	QB draw	2	Dorrestein, Omameh	Molk

1st and 10: Dorrestein and Omameh have handled the DE and DT on the backside of this play, so when Denard cuts that way, there is tons of room for him...but Molk didn't get to the linebacker for some reason, and he makes the tackle. Molk got to the second level cleanly, had his eye on the linebacker...and hesitated. Not sure if he expected Omameh to drive the DT through and clean them both out or what.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun slot right	Smith	Zone read handoff	4	Robinson, Lewan	Schilling
1-10	Shotgun slot left	Robinson	QB off tackle left	13	Molk, Schilling, Koger	-
2-3	Shotgun slot left	Smith	Zone read stretch	6	Robinson, Schilling, Molk, Omameh, Webb	-
1-10	Shotgun slot left	Robinson	QB sweep left	28	Koger, Schilling, Odoms, Roundtree	-
1-G	Shotgun ace	Robinson	"Midline" zone read keeper	5	Robinson, Koger, Lewan	-
2-G	Shotgun 2 H-back	Robinson	QB draw	1	-	Omameh

1st and 10: Correct read. Lewan easily gets inside of the backside DE and turns him away as Smith cuts up. Schilling is beaten inside by the DT and gets away with a hold. Smith falls forward for 4.

1st and 10: Both Molk and Schilling pull around here to lead the way as Koger seals the DE inside. Schilling gets popped by a linebacker but stands his ground so Denard can zip past. Molk chucks another linebacker about 5 yards downfield.

2nd and 3: Correct read again. Schilling gets a nice cutblock on the backside linebacker to prevent him from running this down down the line. Webb gets a nice push, and Omameh has locked onto Jibreel Black's older brother. Molk scoots around and shoves the safety backward. There's clutter, but enough space for Smith to pick up 6.

1st and 10: Schilling pulls this time and neutralizes a linebacker as Koger once again mashes the DE inside to give the edge. Once on the edge, Denard gets good blocks from Roundtree and Odoms, and slips inside of them to pick up an additional 15 yards or so.

1st and goal: Oh look, new stuff! This is a zone read, but instead of the entire line zone blocking one way, Koger stays on the read side to kick out the edge linebacker (which he succeeds at). This is sort of a version of the midline zone option that Jeremiah Masoli and Oregon used to eviscerate USC last Halloween. It's not quite the same, as Denard is reading the standup defensive end and not a defensive tackle. The Ducks ran this play most notably against Washington, USC and Arizona last year, with execution on the goalline resulting in Masoli walking in mostly untouched into the endzone. In this case the end crashes down on Smith and Denard correctly pulls the ball. The safety has eyed him all the way, so he has to cut back. Lewan has buried the middle linebacker, so this picks up 5. I'm excited to see this debut, and I hope it becomes a staple of our offense.

2nd and goal: Larry Black sheds Omameh and prevents a touchdown.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR trips left	Smith	Zone read dive	2	Robinson	Schilling

1st and 10: Correct read, but Schilling gets kind of overwhelmed inside and Smith runs right into him. The guy beating Schilling and the unblocked end combine to tackle.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun trips right	Robinson	QB blast	8	Dorrestein, Omameh	-
2-2	Shotgun H-back	Smith	HB dive	1	-	Webb

1st and 10: Dorrestein kicks the end out and Omameh gets enough of the DT to push him back and create a seam. Denard hits it, goes down, and is hurt. Sigh.

2nd and 2: Tate in now, straight dive all the way, but Webb misses the block from the H-back position. Wouldn't have made a big difference, Indiana was sniffing this out all the way.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun split slot left	Smith	Zone read stretch	56-TD	Robinson, Dorrestein, Omameh, Molk, Schilling, Stonum	-

1st and 10: Correct read. Dorrestein kicks the DE out, Omameh and Molk execute a perfect scoop block to seal the tackle and get to the linebacker at the same time. Schilling cuts the middle linebacker to the ground with ease, Stonum picks off the safety, and Smith is gone. Poetry in motion.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun split slot right	Smith	Zone read stretch	1	Robinson	Molk (-0.5), Schilling (-0.5)
3-9	Shotgun 4 WR	Robinson	QB draw	8	-	-

1st and 10: Molk and Schilling both engage the playside DT, but get no push on him. That combined with the blitzing linebackers, and this play dies after only a yard. Another correct handoff by Denard, though.

3rd and 9: The nature of the QB draw is to give the illusion of pass blocking, so rarely are they pluses for the OL. None here. And there aren't any real errors either. This is the play that drove me mad when we ran it with Tate last year; he's almost never going to pick this up. Denard can, but doesn't here, as Indiana had men dropped in zone and were able to contain.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun heavy	Robinson	"Midline" zone read keeper	11	Robinson, Webb	-
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR trips right	Smith	Zone read (?) handoff	2	-	-
2-8	Shotgun slot right	Robinson	QB off tackle right	3	Omameh	Webb

1st and 10: Same as the last "midline" play, really. H-back Webb picks up the man blitzing off the edge while the rest of the line blocks down, and the unblocked end crashes down on Smith. Denard correctly keeps the ball and has plenty of space.

1st and 10: I can't tell what this is. There is no unblocked end to read here. Is Denard supposed to be reading the linebacker? If he is, he's not even looking at him. I'm gonna leave this one alone.

2nd and 8: Omameh pulls around and pops a linebacker, but Webb can't maintain his block on the DE. IMO Denard should stretch this out further toward the sideline to try and get the corner, but whatever.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun heavy	Robinson	"Midline" zone read keeper	3	Robinson, Koger	Robinson
2-7	Shotgun heavy	Robinson	QB sweep right	0	-	Omameh, Koger

1st and 10: More midline-type stuff. Koger steps out and blocks the outside linebacker as the end crashes down and Denard pulls the ball out...and then for some reason, despite there being a huge seam and nobody there, Denard stuttersteps and tries to bounce it outside around Koger. Sweet jesus. The worst case scenario is the safeties converge properly and hold this down to about a dozen yard gain. Jeez.

2nd and 7: Nobody bites on the fake reverse to Roundtree, and this is general crappiness. Omameh gets shoved backwards and falls, and by now Denard has been forced to stretch this out far too much. Koger's man spins off of him and tackles.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun slot right	Robinson	QB sweep left	8	Stonum, Lewan, Schilling, Molk, Omameh	-
2-2	Shotgun 4 WR 0 back	Robinson	QB blast	17	Schilling, Lewan, Stonum	-
1-10	Shotgun slot right	Robinson	QB sweep left	2	Lewan	-
1-G	Shotgun 2 H-back	Robinson	QB sweep left	4-TD	Smith (2), Webb, Lewan	-

1st and 10: Lewan locks onto the playside DE and drives him away, getting away with a hold at the very end. Schilling slips through to the second level easilly and erases the playside linebacker. Molk gets leveraged back by the playside DT but does a good job standing his ground and preventing his man from releasing so Denard can go by. Omameh provides obstruction, preventing the backside DT from flowing down the line unimpeded. Stonum drives the boundary corner back as well.

2nd and 2: Schilling mauls the DT inward and chucks him to the turf as Lewan gives the DE a similar mauling and gets away with another hold. Stonum with another good block downfield.

1st and 10: When I watched this play live I figured this was Rich Rodriguez's way of spiking the ball. He strikes me as a man who absolutely despises completely wasting a play with a spike, so he calls a QB sweep to the sideline that either goes out of bounds and stops the clock or possibly sees a crease for a big play. Either way, Indiana gets some decent penetration, and Lewan - for the third play in a row - holds Darius Johnson, which allows Denard to get the corner and go OOB. Johnson is fed up and flat out gives Lewan a huge shove well after Denard steps out. To hell with the as-usual incompetent Big Ten refs. Bad enough they missed what could've been holding on Lewan three straight plays. Denard was past the white on the sideline and almost to the actual bench when Johnson threw Lewan to the ground. It should've been a personal foul then, not two plays later when those mouthbreathers thought Lewan tried to step on him. Gimme a break.

1st and goal: Vincent Smith with onions again, brilliantly cutting a blitzing linebacker who had this play sniffed out all the way. Denard then follows Webb, who escorts the safety out of the way. Lewan provides the final level of protection by (possibly) once again holding Darius Johnson. Heh. He ends up burying Johnson at the goalline as Denard dives in.

Game Chart:

	Yay	Nay	Total
Lewan	8	1	7
Schilling	6.5	2.5	4
Molk	6.5	2.5	4
Omameh	7	2	5
Dorrestein	4	0	4
Stonum	4	0	4
Roundtree	1	0	1
Odoms	1	0	1
Koger	5	1	4
Webb	5	2	3
Smith	2	0	2
D. Robinson	12	2	10
TOTAL	62	13	49

Thoughts:

This offensive line is in much, much better shape headed into the State game than it was last year. Lewan has been a big upgrade over Huyge, Schilling is playing better, Omameh is an upgrade over Moosman, Dorrestein has been under the radar awesome, and of course, Molk is healthy and mauling as usual. This will be almost a complete 180 from what MSU saw last year in terms of a Michigan running game.
For comparative purposes, here is last year's Indiana Run Chart: Schilling actually a little worse, Lewan comparable to Ortmann, Molk, Omameh and Dorrestein upgrades over Moosman the center (obviously), Huyge, and 2009 Dorrestein. Biggest difference (and the most underrated difference overall in the running game): the tight ends and wideouts are much, much better at blocking this year, and, of course, Denard is running this offense infinitely better than Tate did last season.

Comprehensive Chart:

	UConn	ND	UMass	BG	Indiana	TOTAL
Huyge	4	-4	3	N/A	N/A	+3
Lewan	N/A	N/A	10.5	8.5	7	+26
Schilling	8	-3	4.5	6.5	4	+20
Molk	10	8	10	8.5	4	+40.5
Omameh	-6	6.5	6.5	11.5	5	+23.5
Dorrestein	4	4	9	7	4	+28
Koger	-2	5	3	4	4	+14
Webb	2	3	5	5	3	+18
Grady	1	-1.5	N/A	2	N/A	+1.5
Odoms	1	2	N/A	1	1	+5
Roundtree	1	3	N/A	N/A	1	+5
Stonum	0	N/A	1	2	4	+7
Stokes	N/A	-1	N/A	N/A	N/A	-1
T. Robinson	1	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	+1
McColgan	1	1	2	1	N/A	+5
Shaw	-2	-2	3	2	N/A	+1
Smith	4	4	-1	1	2	+10
Hopkins	N/A	N/A	N/A	0	N/A	0
Gardner	1	N/A	N/A	3	N/A	+4
Forcier	N/A	N/A	N/A	3	N/A	+3
D. Robinson	-2	1	4	6	10	+19
TOTALS	26	26	60.5	72	49	+233.5

Run Chart: Bowling Green

2010-10-01T05:18:00.001-04:00

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun split slot right	Smith	Zone read dive	5	Robinson, Shaw, Schilling	-
1-10	Shotgun split slot left	Smith	Zone read stretch	5	Robinson, Shaw, Molk, Omameh	Schilling
1-10	Shotgun split slot right	Shaw	Zone read stretch	11	Schilling (2), Lewan	Molk
1-10	Shotgun slot right	Robinson	QB power right	9	Molk, Omameh	-
2-1	Shotgun slot left	Shaw	HB dive	3	Lewan, Schilling	-
1-G	Shotgun ace	Shaw	HB dive	2	Omameh, Schilling	Schilling
2-G	Shotgun ace	Robinson	QB blast	2-TD	Koger, Dorrestein	-

1st and 10: Right read by Denard, and Mike Shaw is the lead blocker up the middle here. He gives the read end a shove, and that coupled with Schilling sealing off the slanting DT gives Smith a relatively easy 5 yards.

1st and 10: Again, correct read to handoff by Denard. Shaw sticks a linebacker in the hole, and Molk and Omameh seal the middle linebacker and playside DT, respectively. The backside DT, however, has slanted toward the play and gotten away from Schilling. He makes a shoestring tackle on Smith, saving a huge gain and possibly a touchdown.

1st and 10: No yay/nay here on the read, as the "read" end isn't completely unblocked anyway. Schilling doesn't exactly "block" the playside DT, but he puts a hand on him and runs him off enough while Lewan latches onto the playside DE and turns him inside out, providing a lane for Shaw to run through...once he sheds the tackle of the linebacker that Molk missed. Schilling gets an extra yay for having the instincts to give Shaw a not-so-subtle shove that picks up an extra 5 yards.

1st and 10: Omameh pulls around and gives a linebacker a big shove. This combined with Molk doing the same upfield to another linebacker gives Denard plenty of space.

2nd and 1: Straight dive play, no read. Schilling and Lewan smash the DT here, plenty of room again for the ball carrier.

1st and goal: Yes, I'm plussing and minusing Schilling on the same play. Omameh gets a perfect seal on one DT, and while Schilling gets a good push on the other, he doesn't contain him. A good enough block to pick up a couple yards, but it could've been better. Nitpicky?

2nd and goal: Dorrestein does a good job mashing (...kind of holding) the playside DE inside, and when Denard bounces outside Koger gets enough of the safety so Denard can zip in untouched.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
2-1	Shotgun 4 WR	Robinson	QB draw	24	Hopkins, Dorrestein, Omameh, Stonum, Grady	-
2-2	Shotgun 4 Wr trips right	Hopkins	Zone read dive	0	Robinson	-
3-2	Shotgun ace	Robinson	QB off tackle left	47-TD	Lewan, Dorrestein, Webb, Stonum, Robinson (3)	Schilling

2nd and 1: Stephen Hopkins in and serves as lead blocker. Dorrestein gets away with another could-be-hold, but it works. Omameh drives the DT backward, and once Denard zips through as a result of Hopkins hitting the linebacker, he's able to bounce to the outside and pick up an extra 15 or so because of downfield blocks from Grady and Stonum.

2nd and 2: I suppose this is the right read. The end does end up right in Denard's face, so I guess he makes the right decision to hand off...it's just that BG sends a blitzer as well, and this play goes nowhere.

3rd and 2: Schilling gets leveraged backward by the playside DT, which makes Denard take a wider approach (might've actually been beneficial). Lewan mashes the DE inside, and from here Denard ninjas his way from contained on the sideline to past the sideline and back to the middle of the field, where he's goooone. Dorrestein, Webb and Stonum provide cover downfield. I'm a bit murky when it comes to giving out pluses and minuses to actual ball carriers (aside from fumbles and zone read decisions), but this is just too good for Denard to not get rewarded.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun split slot left	Robinson	QB draw	47	Smith, Molk, Omameh, Schilling, Odoms, Grady	-
1-10	Shotgun split slot right	Gardner	Zone read keeper	1	Gardner	Gardner, Odoms
1-10	Shotgun split slot left	Gardner	Zone read keeper	2	-	Gardner

1st and 10: Lead blocker Smith pops a filling linebacker in the hole. This allows Denard to scoot through because the interior OL has creased the defensive front perfectly. As Denard zips through, Kelvin Grady nails the safety downfield, just crushes him backwards. Odoms occupying the corner on the boundary gives Denard an alley to blaze another 35 yards before he hits his knee out of bounds and is finished for the game.

1st and 10: Devin in now, easy (but correct) read as the end crashes down and he pulls the ball out. There is a lot of open space here, the type of the space a 6'4, 210-220 pound fleet-footed QB should rumble through for 10 yards or so. Instead, Gardner does what Tate Forcier did last year and tries to go outside with it. Works in high school when you're playing a bunch of nobodies. Against D-1 athletes, you're just a freshman. Doesn't help that Odoms fails to get to one of the corners. Still, this is mostly on Devin.

1st and 10: This should've been handed off to Smith, as the design of the play has Shaw cut blocking the end who's crashing down. Alas, Devin keeps it and the backside blitzer gets him. FWIW, I don't blame Devin too much here. Rich Rodriguez and Calvin Magee can talk all they want about how Devin's advanced and has a firm grasp of the offense. In the heat of battle, he still looks like a freshman, and I personally think the coaches should make things simpler for him. He's doing the most simple thing there is here, he's reading the end, and when the end crashes down on Smith wildly, he pulls the ball out. That should be the extent of it. But hey, that's me.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR	Hopkins	Zone read dive	4	Gardner	-
3-1	Shotgun H-back	Hopkins	HB dive	7	Omameh, Molk, Schilling (0.5), Lewan (0.5)	-
1-10	Shotgun H-back	Hopkins	Zone read stretch	19	Dorrestein, Omameh, Molk, Gardner	-
1-10	Shotgun split slot left	Smith	HB dive	4	Dorrestein, Omameh, Hopkins	-
2-6	Shotgun H-back	Hopkins	Zone read stretch	-2	Gardner	Molk, Omameh, Schilling (-0.5), Lewan (-0.5), Hopkins (-2)

1st and 10: On the other hand......with both the end and outside blitzer coming down, Devin hands it off. I agree with Brian's interpretation of this play: Devin is reading the outside man here. Possibly designed that way because Hopkins is the RB? After all, he's the power back and gets 4 yards despite running into the arms of an unblocked tackler. Shrug.

3rd and 1: No read here as Webb peels back to pick up the unblocked man (who has run himself out of the play by coming too far upfield). Omameh mashes one DT with a tiny assist from Molk, who then peels off seamlessly onto the linebacker. Schilling and Lewan double and crush the other DT. Easy first down.

1st and 10: Correct read by Devin. Dorrestein gets leverage on the playside DE and drives him away. As Brian also notes, this is where Molk and Omameh shine with the "scoop block". They're moving to the right with the zone blocking, but maneuver themselves so they're facing left and walling off a DT and linebacker. This is a vital aspect of this offense, and is one of the reasons (one of many) we've been hit or miss on offense the last two years. Outside of Molk picking it up midway through the 2008 season, we haven't really had the interior OL capable of executing this. Omameh can, and Molk excels at it at this point.

1st and 10: The playside DT maneuvers around Omameh, but Dorrestein blocks him off. Hopkins cuts the playside DE and Omameh latches onto a linebacker. Smith has room for a few.

2nd and 6: Gross. Outside of Devin correctly handing off on the read, ugliness all around. Lewan and Schilling combine to commit an illegal chop block as Lewan goes low on a guy Schilling had up high. Molk and Omameh both get beaten (rather badly) on the inside, and to top it all off, Hopkins fumbles and loses the ball. @#$%

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun H-back	Smith	HB dive	9	Lewan, Schilling, Koger	-
2-1	Shotgun H-back	Smith	Zone read stretch	11	Gardner, Lewan, Schilling, Molk, Omameh	-
1-10	Shotgun heavy	Gardner	Zone read keeper	3	-	Gardner
2-10	Shotgun H-back	Shaw	Zone read stretch	3	Gardner, Koger, Lewan	Dorrestein

1st and 10: Koger peels back as the H-back and blocks the unblocked man, which is important because Smith cuts back to that side. Schilling owns the backside DT, giving Smith space when he makes the cut. Lewan is on the linebacker in a blink of an eye and tosses him.

2nd and 1: Correct read by Devin. Omameh and Molk escort the playside DT and LB, giving Smith a lane. It's there because Lewan has cut the backside DT to the ground. This was allllllmost another chop block because Schilling was dangerously close to being engaged with the DT be necessity. Nevertheless, he avoids him and manages to shove the backside LB, preventing him from making the tackle.

1st and 10: Freshman mistake. Absolutely should've been a handoff.

2nd and 10: Bowling Green has Michigan's OL badly fooled on this play, as we epically fail to pick up the slant on their DL. Thankfully, a) Devin makes the correct read by handing off, and b) the handoff is going the opposite direction of the DL slant. Koger and Lewan do a great job sealing, giving Shaw some room, but Dorrestein didn't get to the linebacker on the second level, and he chases this down.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR	Forcier	Zone read keeper	5	Forcier	-
2-5	Shotgun H-back	Shaw	HB dive	9	Webb, Lewan (1.5), Schilling (0.5), Molk	-
1-G	Shotgun 2 H-back	Shaw	HB dive	8	Koger, Dorrestein, Omameh	-
2-G	Shotgun 2 H-back	Shaw	HB dive	2-TD	Dorrestein, Webb	-

1st and 10: This is what I've wanted to see Denard do a little more. The end isn't recklessly crashing down here, but he's shuffling inside. Tate keeps, the end is flat footed and can't get to him, and Tate jukes a linebacker a bit and falls forward for 5. Denard always hands off in this situation; I'd like to see him pull the ball when the end shuffles down like that. He's not going to catch him.

2nd and 5: Webb peels back and hits the unblocked end. Molk seals one DT inside, while Lewan and Schilling double the other and drive him back. Lewan has reflexes like a cat though as he swiftly shifts off the DT and also neutralizes a linebacker all on his own. Color me very impressed.

1st and goal: The "Wolverine Heavy" formation, I suppose. Brian provides a picture of it in his UFR. Koger serves as lead blocker from one H-back spot and picks up a linebacker. Dorrestein stonewalls the DE, Omameh seals the DT, and Shaw flies through, a desperation dive by the backside linebacker the only thing preventing him from going in standing up.

2nd and goal: Same play I think. Dorrestein buries the DE inside, Webb drives the edge blitzer back, and that's enough for Shaw.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun split slot right	Shaw	Zone read stretch	2	-	Dorrestein, Omameh
1-10	Shotgun H-back	Shaw	HB dive	8	Omameh, Molk, Schilling	-
2-2	Shotgun 2 H-back	Shaw	HB dive (counter?)	2	Schilling, Webb, Lewan	Koger
1-10	Shotgun 2 H-back	Shaw	Zone read stretch	9	Forcier, Koger, Webb, Lewan, Odoms	-
2-1	Shotgun 2 H-back	Smith	Zone read dive	0	-	Lewan, Forcier
3-1	Shotgun 2 H-back	Smith	HB dive	3	Omameh (0.5), Molk (0.5)	-
1-G	Shotgun 2 H-back	Smith	Zone read dive	4	Forcier, Dorrestein, Molk, Omameh	-
2-G	I-form heavy	Shaw	Iso	0	McColgan	-

1st and 10: Another slant by BG catches the offensive line offguard. A safety coming down to the LOS prompts Forcier to hand off despite the end crashing down; we'll call it a wash. Omameh and Dorrestein are leveraged backward by the slant, which causes this play to drag out all the way to the sideline from the opposite hash.

1st and 10: Mosh pit inside as Omameh, Molk and Schilling bulldoze the defensive tackles and middle linebacker. Easy pickings.

2nd and 2: ...Did Rich Rodriguez design a play specifically to take advantage of Michael Shaw's insane tendency to cutback at the drop of a hat? If he did, he's an evil genius. Schilling muscles the DT backward, Lewan occupies one linebacker while Webb occupies another, and the only thing preventing a touchdown on this play is Koger just missing on the safety who comes screaming down.

1st and 10: Correct read by Tate. Koger with a great blitz pickup on the edge, and Webb erases the linebacker who steps out as Lewan mauls the DE til he can turn him inside. This gets Shaw to the second level, and Odoms running off and shoving the corner turns 4-5 yards into 9.

2nd and 1: I'm not sure if this is an actual read...since there's nobody there to read. If Tate keeps this he most likely scores, so I feel compelled to neg him. Regardless, the playside end gets the jump on Lewan and smothers this.

3rd and 1: Molk and Omameh crush the soul, spirit and body of the DT here, doubling him and burying him in the ground. Schilling actually falls and loses his guy, but I won't neg him because we got the first anyway.

1st and goal: Correct read by Tate. Omameh sort of rides his guy out of the play...looks like ah hold to me, eh. Molk sort of ghosts the other DT away (he's slanting as it is) and gets to one linebacker as Dorrestein gets to another.

2nd and goal: McColgan gets a nice block...but Shaw doesn't follow him, and the OL gets nothing.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-G	Shotgun split slot left	Smith	Zone read stretch	8-TD	Forcier, Dorrestein, Omameh, Molk	Schilling

1st and goal: Correct read. Dorrestein clears the DE out. Omameh does the same to a linebacker while Molk just abuses the DT and throws him down to the ground. Schilling whiffs badly on the backside linebacker, and Smith has to shed the tackle. He does, and scoots in.

The 44-14 score and appearence of Michael Cox on the next possession signals the end of significant play. Thus, the chart ends here.

Game Chart:

	Yay	Nay	Total
Lewan	10	1.5	8.5
Schilling	11	4.5	6.5
Molk	10.5	2	8.5
Omameh	13.5	2	11.5
Dorrestein	9	2	7
Stonum	2	0	2
Grady	2	0	2
Odoms	2	1	1
Koger	5	1	4
Webb	5	0	5
McColgan	1	0	1
Shaw	2	0	2
Smith	1	0	1
Hopkins	2	2	0
Gardner	6	3	3
Forcier	4	1	3
D. Robinson	6	0	6
TOTAL	92	20	72

Some thoughts:

Same as last time, not much of anything. We won't face a run defense worse than this one this year...I think. Teams like Indiana, Illinois, Purdue...we should run through these teams with relative ease. Not to the tune of +72 overall, but with devastating efficiency.

Comprehensive chart:

	UConn	ND	UMass	BG	TOTAL
Huyge	4	-4	3	N/A	+3
Lewan	N/A	N/A	10.5	8.5	+19
Schilling	8	-3	4.5	6.5	+16
Molk	10	8	10	8.5	+36.5
Omameh	-6	6.5	6.5	11.5	+18.5
Dorrestein	4	4	9	7	+24
Koger	-2	5	3	4	+10
Webb	2	3	5	5	+15
Grady	1	-1.5	N/A	2	+1.5
Odoms	1	2	N/A	1	+4
Roundtree	1	3	N/A	N/A	+4
Stonum	0	N/A	1	2	+3
Stokes	N/A	-1	N/A	N/A	-1
T. Robinson	1	N/A	N/A	N/A	+1
McColgan	1	1	2	1	+5
Shaw	-2	-2	3	2	+1
Smith	4	4	-1	1	+8
Hopkins	N/A	N/A	N/A	0	0
Gardner	1	N/A	N/A	3	+4
Forcier	N/A	N/A	N/A	3	+3
D. Robinson	-2	1	4	6	+9
TOTALS	26	26	60.5	72	+184.5

Run Chart: UMass

2010-09-30T02:41:00.001-04:00

Woah. Sorry this is just coming out now. I did this later than usual to begin with because I was stuck between doing this first and typing up a complete evisceration of the defense after this fiasco. And then I did this and thought I clicked publish. But I have this nasty habit of not logging into Blogger for days at a time when I don't have anything planned to post...so this just sat there, unpublished but finished. Bah.

Bowling Green should be done by tomorrow, hopefully.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun split slot left	Smith	Zone read handoff	1	Robinson	Schilling, Omameh

1st and 10: Correct read by Denard, but both Schilling and Omameh get beaten on the inside. Blah.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR	Robinson	QB draw	9	Shaw, Molk, Omameh, Dorrestein	-
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR	Shaw	Zone read dive	6	Schilling, Molk, Omameh	Robinson
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR	Robinson	QB blast	-1	-	Omameh
1-G	Shotgun H-back	Shaw	HB dive	4	Schilling, Molk, Omameh	-
2-G	I-form heavy	Shaw	HB dive	1-TD	Molk (0.5), Omameh (0.5)	-

1st and 10: Probably the most basic play in our playbook. Molk and Omameh double down on the playside DT, while Dorrestein kicks the DE out and Shaw hits the linebacker. An easy gain for Denard.

1st and 10: This might be nitpicky, but I think Denard makes the wrong read. The LB/S who was covering Roundtree in the slot blitzes and crashes down on Shaw along with the readside defensive end. The linebacker scrapes outside, but even he's got his eyes on Shaw. If Denard pulls this, it's probably an explosion play. Luckily the interior OL mashes the UMass DL back and Shaw has an easy six despite unblocked guys on the edge coming after him.

1st and 10: Omameh gets beaten inside by the DT here, and the tackle makes the play, but it was because Denard had to cut back because UMass had this play sniffed out with a run blitz that occupied the lead blocker (Smith) and took away the hole created by Schilling and Huyge.

1st and goal: Schilling gets inside leverage on the backside DT. Molk stalemates the playside DT, which is fine down near the goalline. The strongside linebacker foolishly jumps way too far inside, and Omameh makes sure he stays there.

2nd and goal: Molk and Omameh double and smash the playside DT back, allowing Shaw to easilly dive in.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun split H-back	Robinson	Zone read keeper	20	-	-
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR trips right	Robinson	-	-7	-	Robinson
2-17	Shotgun 5 WR	Robinson	Pump fake draw	7	-	Molk (-0.5)

1st and 10: This is a new formation. The tight end is in as the H-back, but there are two half backs in the game as well, flanking Denard. I should -1 Denard for the absolutely wrong read - the DE keeps perfect contain, it should be a handoff - but it feels wrong to minus someone who then delivers a stiff arm and runs for 20 yards, so I'm not going to.

1st and 10: Denard bobble. He was definitely not focused early on in this game.

2nd and 17: Hmm. This is actually on the umpire. Molk has the linebacker lined up, which would've given Denard a few extra yards at least, but the ump moves directly into Molk's path, which allows the linebacker to evade him and trip Denard as he goes by. Blah.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
2-5	Shotgun slot right	Robinson	QB off tackle right	16	Shaw, Koger, Dorrestein	-
1-10	Shotgun slot left	Robinson	QB off tackle left	8	Huyge, Koger, Shaw	-
2-2	Shotgun slot right	Shaw	Zone read handoff	0	-	Robinson, Shaw
3-2	???	Robinson	???	16	-	-
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR trips left	Smith	Zone read handoff	5	Robinson, Omameh, Molk (0.5), Schilling (0.5)	-
2-5	Shotgun 4 WR trips left	Smith	Zone read handoff	-1	Robinson	Molk

2nd and 5: Shaw hits the strongside linebacker and gets enough of him. Koger mashes the DE inside while Dorrestein pulls around and plows the middle linebacker. Open space for Denard.

1st and 10: Huyge and Koger get nice blocks on the perimeter, with Huyge mashing his guy and Koger possibly getting away with a little hold. Lead blocker Shaw gets enough of the middle linebacker to turn this from 4 yards into 8.

2nd and 2: Slightly nitpicky on the Denard minus I guess. The end doesn't wildly crash down, but he's shuffling his feet; this play gains more if Denard keeps the ball IMO. Regardless, he hands off, the line doesn't create much, and Shaw tries to do what he always does and cut back. Doesn't work.

3rd and 2: Sigh, BTN.

1st and 10: Correct read by Denard this time, and the OL gets blocking. Omameh reaches the second level and sort of pops the linebacker, while Molk and Schilling double the weakside DT and crush him backwards.

2nd and 5: Another correct read by Denard to handoff, but Molk doesn't lay a finger on the defensive tackle and this play gets blown up. Almost seems like there was a missed assignment on the line, because it wasn't a case of Molk whiffing or getting smoked; he is headed to the second level the whole way like he's assuming Schilling or Omameh has the tackle. He gets the minus either way, because he either missed the guy he was supposed to block, or didn't assign the correct blocking (which is his responsibility as the center).

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR	Robinson	Pump fake draw	4	Molk, Dorrestein	-

1st and 10: Good job by Molk and Dorrestein creating a huge hole for Denard, and downfield blocking could've made this a big play, except Denard slips on the turf.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR	Robinson	QB blast	2	-	Huyge
2-8	Shotgun heavy	Grady	Reverse	15	Shaw, Stonum, Dorrestein	-
1-10	Shotgun heavy	Shaw	Zone read dive	9	Huyge, Schilling, Molk, Robinson	-
2-1	Shotgun 4 WR	Robinson	QB blast	3	Huyge	-
1-10	Shotgun slot left	Robinson	Zone read keeper	6	Webb, Huyge	-
2-4	Shotgun H-back	Shaw	HB dive	34-TD	Webb, Omameh, Molk, Schilling	-

1st and 10: Huyge gets no push against the defensive end, and is then muscled aside. Meh.

2nd and 8: Interesting concept here, with Shaw moving against the grain and serving as a lead blocker for a reverse. Dorrestein also peels away into the second level. Those two plus Stonum get good blocks for Grady.

1st and 10: Good decision by Denard on the handoff. Huyge blocks down on the blitzing linebacker, while Schilling gets the DT and Molk gets to the second level to get another linebacker. And easy nine yards.

2nd and 1: Kind of a mucky play. Decent enough push from Huyge and the OL, and although Shaw whiffs on the lead block, this is more on Denard here. Cavernous opening on the right side, but he decides to cut left. Meh. He then insanely thinks about pitching it. You could even tell from my seat in the corner that he thought about tossing it to Shaw, which would've been ridiculous.

1st and 10: There doesn't even appear to be any read here. There's no defender unblocked, so I wonder if this was a designed keeper. Either way, Webb and Huyge drive their guys backward, and this is an easy gain.

2nd and 4: Webb cracks back from the H-back position to nail the unblocked end, while Omameh, Molk and Schilling seal the inside to create an enormous hole for Shaw...so enormous that even though he inexplicably stops as soon as he receives the handoff, he still has time to restart and zip through untouched. Very bizarre.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Ace twins left	Smith	HB dive	4	Molk (0.5), Schilling (0.5), Omameh, Dorrestein	-
2-6	Shotgun ace twins left	Robinson	QB off tackle right	9	Webb, Dorrestein, Omameh (0.5), Molk (0.5)	Smith
1-10	Shotgun heavy	Robinson	QB counter left	4	Lewan	Koger, Schilling
1-10	Shotgun heavy	Smith	Zone read stretch	5	Lewan, Molk, Robinson	Schilling
2-5	Shotgun slot right	Smith	HB dive	11	Lewan, Molk (0.5), Schilling (0.5)	-
1-10	Shotgun slot right	Smith	HB dive	7	Lewan, Molk, Schilling, Dorrestein	-
2-3	Shotgun ace	Robinson	Zone read keeper	8-TD	Lewan, Koger, Robinson	-

1st and 10: UMass run blitzes, so this is contained, but not because of poor blocking. Molk and Schilling double the DT, and Omameh and Dorrestein seal nicely. Also, hello Taylor Lewan.

2nd and 6: Webb with a beautiful kick out block on the DE, driving him far away and creating a huge gap after Dorrestein seals inside. Molk and Omameh obstruct the other DT. Smith actually misses his block as the lead blocker.

1st and 10: Interesting wrinkle here. Denard fakes the handoff to Smith and runs the opposite way with Koger the H-back as the lead blocker. Only problem is Koger gets beaten (along with Schilling), forcing Denard to go wide. He's able to go wide though because Taylor Lewan has locked onto the linebacker on this side of the field and driven him back about seven yards before burying him in a shallow grave on the shores of Lake Michigan. Goodness.

1st and 10: I like the concept of this play. Koger peels back and serves as a lead blocker for Smith on the edge. Molk gets pushed back a bit by the DT, but keeps him at bay well enough. Lewan latches onto the DE and mauls him, but Schilling whiffs rather badly on the linebacker, who tackles.

2nd and 5: Straight handoff. Lewan again erases the DE, and with Molk and Schilling doubling the DT and sealing him off, Smith has a big hole to zip through.

1st and 10: Lewan actually probably gets away with a hold here, but it does the job. Schilling and Molk hit the playside DT again, with Schilling then advancing onto the linebacker. Dorrestein contains the slanting backside DE, as the idiot BTN guy says Smith is hit in the backfield two yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

2nd and 3: The end shuffles inside a bit, and actually shows good instincts in popping out towards Denard, but it's still a good choice to keep. Lewan mashes the DT inside and Koger blocks the safety near the one yard line. Denard flies into the endzone.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun slot left	Shaw	HB dive	50	Webb (2), Lewan	-
1-10	Shotgun H-back	Smith	HB dive	3	Schilling, Omameh	Molk
2-7	Shotgun H-back	Smith	HB dive	8	Lewan, Schilling (0.5), Molk (0.5)	-
1-10	Shotgun ace	Shaw	Zone read handoff	7	Robinson, Lewan, Schilling, Molk	Koger
2-3	Ace 2 WR	Shaw	HB dive	4-TD	Koger, Lewan	-

1st and 10: Webb kicks the end out while Lewan just crushes the DT inside, and Shaw has another huge hole. He then makes a man miss and breaks a tackle and is off and running. Webb picks up another huge block on some poor bastard way downfield.

1st and 10: Schilling turns one DT outside, and Omameh comes around and mashes the other, but Molk misses the linebacker on the second level, keeping this to three yards.

2nd and 7: Lewan erases the DE again, and again Molk and Schilling double team the DT. More easy yardage for the UM running back.

1st and 10: Correct read by Denard. Lewan and Molk own the defensive tackles, allowing Schilling to get to the second level and nail a linebacker. This would be a touchdown if Koger doesn't miss the block on the safety inside the 5.

2nd and 3: Koger and Lewan block down, and it's more than enough for Shaw to muscle through for the score.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	I-form twin WR right	Smith	HB blast	1	Lewan	Schilling
2-9	Shotgun slot right	Robinson	QB off tackle right	8	Koger	-
3-1	I-form twin WR left	Smith	HB iso	-2	-	-

1st and 10: Lewan locks onto the DE and drives him back, but Schilling surprisingly loses leverage and gets overwhelmed by the DT, and the play is blown up.

2nd and 9: Koger opens up the edge here with a good block on the defensive end. Jeremy Jackson (hello!) gets tossed aside by the corner...who then whiffs on the tackle anyway, so no minus to the coach's kid.

3rd and 1: Lloyd Carr approves of this incredibly predictable playcall that has sketchy execution because it turns an obvious blitzer loose unchecked, blowing up the aforementioned predictable play. Blah.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	I-form heavy	Shaw	HB iso	7	McColgan, Molk (0.5), Omameh (0.5)	-
2-3	I-form heavy	Shaw	HB iso	2	McColgan, Dorrestein (2)	-
3-1	I-form heavy	Shaw	HB iso	2	Lewan (0.5), Schilling (0.5)	-

1st and 10: McColgan nice lead block, Molk and Omameh double the DT.

2nd and 3: McColgan again, along with Dorrestein with a spectacular pancake on the defensive end.

3rd and 1: Hurray, we win.

Game Chart:

	Yay	Nay	Total
Huyge	4	1	3
Lewan	10.5	0	10.5
Schilling	8.5	4	4.5
Molk	12.5	2.5	10
Omameh	8.5	2	6.5
Dorrestein	9	0	9
Stonum	1	0	1
Koger	5	2	3
Webb	5	0	5
McColgan	2	0	2
Shaw	4	1	3
Smith	0	1	-1
D. Robinson	7	3	4
TOTAL	77	16.5	60.5

Some thoughts:

Hello Taylor Lewan!
Other than that...this is what an offensive line is supposed to look like against an FCS opponent. Can't read much into it other than that squashed an opponent that they were supposed to.

Comprehensive chart:

	UConn	ND	UMass	TOTAL
Huyge	4	-4	3	+3
Lewan	N/A	N/A	10.5	10.5
Schilling	8	-3	4.5	+9.5
Molk	10	8	10	+28
Omameh	-6	6.5	6.5	+7
Dorrestein	4	4	9	+17
Koger	-2	5	3	+6
Webb	2	3	5	+10
Grady	1	-1.5	N/A	-0.5
Odoms	1	2	N/A	+3
Roundtree	1	3	N/A	+4
Stonum	0	N/A	1	+1
Stokes	N/A	-1	N/A	-1
T. Robinson	1	N/A	N/A	+1
McColgan	1	1	2	+4
Shaw	-2	-2	3	-1
Smith	4	4	-1	+7
Gardner	1	N/A	N/A	+1
D. Robinson	-2	1	4	+3
TOTALS	26	26	60.5	+112.5

Run Chart: Notre Dame

2010-09-16T14:24:00.000-04:00

Note: As Brian did last week, formations containing the tight end as the H-back will now be designated as such.

However, this week Michigan debuted a slight wrinkle from the normal H-back formation.

This is the "Shotgun H-back" formation Michigan featured prominently against UConn:

The H-back flexes back against the grain at the snap, and, as Martell Webb displayed last week numerous times, nails the unblocked end.

However, in the new formation that came into play against Notre Dame...

The H-back is lined up on the opposite side, and in this case serves as a pure lead blocker. This came into play during the 87 yarder. In the Run Chart, this formation will be called "Shotgun heavy."

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun heavy	Robinson	QB power left	4	Huyge, Koger	Molk, Schilling
1-10	Shotgun trips left	Robinson	QB lead draw	2	-	Schilling
2-8	Shotgun trips left	Robinson	QB keeper left	3	-	Huyge, Shaw

1st and 10: Very basic. Huyge and the H-back Koger do a good job escorting traffic away, but Ian Williams has gotten leverage on Molk, and Schilling, despite being right there, chooses to bypass Williams to go after Manti Te'o. Williams tackles.

1st and 10: Huyge actually gets away with a hold here, but this is all on Schilling. He's too slow getting to the second level, and Carlo Calabrese stuffs this play in its tracks.

2nd and 8: Huyge can't contain Kapron Lewis-Moore, who sheds the block to derail this play, along with a failed cut block by Shaw on the linebacker. FYI, this play directly sets up Roundtree's touchdown on the next possession. Exact same formation, exact look, and on this play Terrence Robinson came wide open down the seam as the linebacker came down when Denard showed run.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun heavy	Shaw	Zone read handoff	4	Robinson, Huyge, Schilling	Shaw
2-6	Shotgun 4 WR trips left	Shaw	Zone read (?) handoff	1	-	Huyge, Shaw

1st and 10: Lewis-Moore stays at home, so correct read on the zone play by Denard. Schilling mashes Sean Cwynar inside here, and Huyge puts a hat on Te'o, but this is poor vision by Shaw. Omameh, Molk and Dorrestein have all picked up their blocks on the right side here, and there is reasonable room for Shaw to slip through if he takes it that way, but instead he chooses to immediately cut upfield with it.

2nd and 6: Not sure what's going on here, as Denard gives the appearence of a zone read, but there's nobody being read on the play. And once again, as the right side of the line plus Molk solidly locks onto defenders to create a sizable hole, Shaw once again displays well below average vision and tries to cut upfield again, where Lewis-Moore has muscled Huyge backward, forcing some spinorama nonsense that Shaw unfortunately has a history of. No surprise, Vincent Smith is in to start the next possession.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
2-1	Shotgun trips left	Robinson	QB lead draw	9	Smith (+2), Schilling	Huyge, Robinson
1-G	Heavy offset	Hopkins	HB dive	1-TD	-	-

2nd and 1: Huyge gets driven back by Lewis-Moore again, forcing Denard to bounce outside. Smith locks onto Te'o, and Schilling gets to Calabrese on the second level, but as Denard scoot by Te'o disengages from Smith and punches the ball out. -1 to Denard because it was definitely hanging out there to be stripped. An extra +1 to Smith for hustling and diving on the ball.

1st and goal: Not giving anything out here, just a case of hoping your mass of humanity is stronger than theirs and your running back falls forward for a yard. This happens. Notable on the field in this formation: Taylor Lewan, William Campbell, Quinton Washington.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR	Robinson	Zone read keeper	36	Robinson, Roundtree	Grady
2-10	Shotgun 5 WR	Robinson	QB draw	6	Molk	Schilling, Grady
3-4	Shotgun slot left	Shaw	Delayed counter draw	1	-	Schilling

1st and 10: Perfect read by Denard. The end is actually blocked, by Te'o is blitzing and there's nobody else nearby, so he yanks it from Shaw and puts a move on Brian Smith. Roundtree pops Zeke Motta a dozen yards downfield, springing Denard really loose. Kelvin Grady, lined up at the other slot on the other side of the field, doesn't get Harrison Smith. If he does, Denard runs for a 92 yard touchdown.

2nd and 10: Molk moves Ian Williams out of the way so Denard can scoot right up the middle, but Schilling is just a step slow and can't get Anthony McDonald on the second level. Also, Kelvin Grady can't hold the block on Darius Fleming long enough.

3rd and 4: This is that dreaded counter draw that destroyed Michigan's defense for so long. Poorly timed here, as Notre Dame is blitzing. It still may have gotten a first down if Schilling was able to restrain Ian Williams.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun H-back	Smith	HB dive	2	Schilling, Molk	Huyge
2-8	Shotgun trips left	Robinson	QB blast	14	Omameh, Koger	Dorrestein
1-10	Shotgun split slot left	Smith	Zone read stretch	4	Molk	Dorrestein

1st and 10: This is the staple play from the UConn game. The H-back Koger cracks back to pop the unblocked end, and normally this would be a plus, but the end (Kerry Neal) is too tenative and the block doesn't factor in anyway. Schilling and Molk double Williams, but Huyge doesn't stay on Lewis-Moore long enough, and KLM tackles Smith for a minimal gain.

2nd and 8: Denard blasts through the right side as Omameh and Koger get enough (not all, but enough) at the line to spring him through. Dorrestein is too slow to get to Gary Gray in time, so Denard "only" gets 14. Te'o may have made this play right where Gray did regardless. Denard is shaken up, and we all want to die.

1st and 10: Maybe a handoff all the way since it's Gardner at QB, but whatever. Dorrestein gets blown back, which ruins the stretch play. Molk has calmly escorted Ian Williams down the line, so there's some room when Smith cuts up.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun slot left	Robinson	QB sweep right	2	Omameh	Schilling
2-8	Shotgun slot left	Robinson	QB sweep left	7	Smith, Koger, Molk	-
3-1	I-form twins right	Smith	HB dive	2	McColgan, Huyge, Schiling	Molk
2-10	Shotgun heavy	Robinson	QB power right	87-TD	Koger, Dorrestein, Molk, Omameh (+3), Roundtree (+2), Odoms	-

1st and 10: Omameh locks onto Ethan Johnson and drives him back, but Ian Williams gets the best of Schilling again. Much more impressed with Williams so more in this game than in the 2008 or 2009 games.

2nd and 8: What onions by Vincent Smith here. Brian Smith is blitzing right into the place where this play is going, he could've created a disaster, but V-Smith chops his legs out from under him, springing Denard. Koger latches onto Te'o, and Molk mashes Ian Williams. Williams actually makes the tackle here, but when a defensive tackle is making the play eight yards downfield and wasn't dropping into a zone, it's usually because he got owned by an interior offensive lineman.

3rd and 1: McColgan gets a decent enough lead block, and Huyge and Schilling double Lewis-Moore. Of startling note: Williams drives Molk violently back here, to the point where they almost took out Smith in the backfield.

2nd and 10: Freakshow time. H-back Koger picks up Kerry Neal, who was waiting on the QB run. Huyge occupies Ethan Johnson, and those two blocks are enough for Denard to get to the second level. Molk also mauls Cwynar. Now the real fun. In one of the coolest things I've ever seen from an offensive lineman at any level, Patrick Omameh locks onto Te'o, drives him back a solid five yards so hard and so fast that he uses Te'o to trip Harrison Smith and take him out too. He then buries Te'o in the Notre Dame Stadium turf for good measure. After this, Roundtree executes a devastating cut block downfield on the outside on Motta, Odoms chases off and stymies Darrin Walls enough, and it's a trail of vapor from here as Denard is gone. My god, this is a thing of fuckin' beauty.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
2-6	Shotgun H-back	Robinson	QB blast	1	-	Robinson, Omameh

2nd and 6: Ethan Johnson sheds Omameh rather easily to make the tackle, but I have no idea why Denard stops and cuts back here, the right side looks to be reasonably open, and he stops and ends up trying to reverse his field.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun trips left	Smith	Zone read handoff	0	-	Huyge
3-10	Shotgun slot left	Robinson	Pump fake draw	3	-	-

1st and 10: Hard to determine if this is a misread by Denard, the end is blocked and Te'o and Brian Smith are on the edge, so it's probably the right call, but I'll leave it alone. Regardless, Lewis-Moore knifes inside of Huyge far too easily and tackles for no gain.

3rd and 10: This is really on Denard again, he makes the wrong cut and runs right into tacklers.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR trips right	Robinson	QB blast	3	Dorrestein, Shaw	-
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR trips left	Shaw	Zone read handoff	5	Dorrestein	Robinson
2-5	Shotgun 4 WR	Robinson	Pump fake draw	19	Omameh, Molk	-
1-10	Shotgun 4 WR trips left	Robinson	Zone read keeper	1	Robinson	Omameh
1-10	-	-	-	-10	-	Molk (-2)
2-15	Shotgun slot left	Robinson	Pump fake draw	8	Molk	-

1st and 10: Dorrestein seals inside and Shaw blocks Brian Smith on the lead, but Te'o isn't picked up and contains this.

1st and 10: I'm going to be a stickler here and subtract from Denard, because even though the read end stays square and doesn't recklessly crash down on the RB, he's still shuffling his feet toward Shaw, and would be flat footed if Denard pulls it here. Dorrestein blocks down on Ethan Johnson which allows Shaw to pick up five, but this play goes for more if Denard keeps it, IMO.

2nd and 5: Omameh and Molk get good blocks to provide a hole, but the bulk of these yards are a result of Denard's pump fake to Shaw in the flat getting Te'o to bite.

1st and 10: End is coming down here, so a good decision to keep by Denard, but a) Omameh whiffs on Calabrese, and b) Harrison Smith is coming down from his safety spot the whole time. Simple case of ND sniffing the play out.

1st and 10: Holding on Molk.

2nd and 15: This is the type of playcall that infuriates Michigan fans in 2008 and 2009 because it was called with below average (Threet, Sheridan) and barely above average (Forcier) running QBs. With Denard, this is an easy eight yards due to his Denardness (and Molk occupying Calabrese on the second level).

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun heavy	Robinson	Zone read keeper	0	Robinson	Robinson
2-10	-	-	-	-10	-	Omameh (-2)

1st and 10: Correct read by Denard in keeping, but he tries to make it something bigger by bouncing outside instead of going straight upfield. If he goes straight, he picks up 4-5, instead Motta and Te'o string it out and he gets nothing. Denard also actually has Roundtree wide open on the bubble, and still had time to get rid of it once Motta committed to the run.

2nd and 10: Holding on Omameh.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun H-back	Smith	Zone read stretch	3	Robinson	Huyge, Dorrestein
2-7	Shotgun slot left	Robinson	QB power right	4	Smith, Webb, Odoms	Omameh
1-10	Shotgun trips left	Robinson	QB power left	5	Huyge, Molk	-
1-10	Shotgun slot right	Smith	HB dive	6	Omameh, Dorrestein, Molk, Webb	-
2-4	Shotgun H-back	Smith	HB dive	0	-	Huyge, Schilling

1st and 10: Looks like the right read, but Huyge getting pushed back (and then discarded) by Lewis-Moore forces Smith to cut upfield, and Dorrestein's cut block on Ethan Johnson fails spectacularly.

2nd and 7: Vincent Smith as the lead blocker smacks Carlo Calabrese. Martell Webb occupies Ethan Johnson, and Odoms locks onto Darrin Walls and drives him down the field. Omameh though, can't get to Te'o in time.

1st and 10: Not especially dazzling blocking here, but Huyge and Molk get enough of Nwankwo and Williams so Denard can get a decent gain.

1st and 10: Webb seals Ethan Johnson outside, Omameh just wrecks Cwynar, Molk seals Calabrese, and Dorrestein catches Te'o offguard and bulldozes him. Good stuff.

2nd and 4: ND blitzes here, and Schilling doesn't pick it up. This is compounded by Huyge getting mauled badly by Kapron Lewis-Moore.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
2-5	Shotgun heavy	Robinson	Zone fake/QB power right	11	Koger, Dorrestein, Omameh	-
1-24	Shotgun slot right	Robinson	QB draw	11	Molk, Omameh	Stokes

2nd and 5: Denard gives a token appearence of a zone read, but it's for a nanosecond; this is a QB run all the way. H-back Koger and left tackle Dorrestein get great kick out blocks on Ethan Johnson and Kerry Neal, and Omameh locks onto Te'o again and blasts him not once but twice.

1st and 24: Molk and Omameh do their jobs in creating a lane. We have a Je'Ron Stokes sighting! Unfortunately it's of him mostly just standing there as Gary Gray sidesteps him to hold this down.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
1-10	Shotgun ace	Robinson	QB power right	1	-	-

1st and 10: Denard slips.

Down	Formation	Runner	Play	Yards	Yay	Nay
2-10	Shotgun 5 WR	Robinson	QB draw	12	Molk, Schilling, Grady (0.5), Omameh (0.5)	-
2-3	Shotgun slot left	Robinson	QB power right	2	Dorrestein	Schilling
3-1	-	Robinson	QB sneak	0	-	-
4-1	Shotgun ace	Robinson	QB power right	1	Omameh	-
2-5	Shotgun slot left	Robinson	QB power left	0	Webb	Huyge
1-G	Shotgun ace	Robinson	QB power left	2-TD	Dorrestein, Molk, Omameh	-

2nd and 10: Molk and Schilling double Ian Williams and drive him back. Kelvin Grady gets a nice block on Calabrese from the slot, and just as Calabrese is shedding him Omameh steps in to finish him off.

2nd and 3: Dorrestein kicks Darius Fleming out with ease, but from the other side, Schilling is too slow (slightly impeded by Molk) in getting to Calabrese, which allows Calabrese to tackle.

3rd and 1: Nobody really screws up egregiously here, I think everybody in maize and blue expected to catch ND's D-line off balance here. Instead the Domers get under our guys and stuff this play.

4th and 1: Denard runs up behind Omameh, who gets just enough push to pick up the conversion.

2nd and 5: This might actually be more on Denard for not picking up the blitz and letting the OL know, but regardless, Huyge kicks out to pick up the blitzer, but this also catches Shaw off guard and takes him out of the play. If Shaw picks up the blitzer and Huyge goes downfield to block, this play likely ends in the endzone, as Webb pancakes Kapron Lewis-Moore, but because the left tackle stayed in, there are multiple unblocked defenders, and the play goes nowhere.

1st and goal: Dorrestein cuts Ethan Johnson from the backside, and that combined with Molk reminding Ian Williams who his daddy is creates a cavernous cutback lane for Denard, who zips through it and dives in as Omameh gets one final blast at Te'o. Celebration time, bitches.

Game Chart:

	Yay	Nay	Total
Huyge	4	8	-4
Schilling	4	7	-3
Molk	12	4	8
Omameh	11.5	5	6.5
Dorrestein	7	3	4
Koger	5	0	5
Webb	3	0	3
Grady	0.5	2	-1.5
Odoms	2	0	2
Roundtree	3	0	3
Stokes	0	1	-1
McColgan	1	0	1
Shaw	1	3	-2
Smith	4	0	4
D. Robinson	5	4	1
TOTAL	63	37	26

Some thoughts:

Schilling crashes down to earth because ND had two very good linebackers and Ian Williams was not the laughably movable object he was the last two years.
...But yeah Molk still owned him when they matched up.
Much better from Omameh. The 2* who was a 250 pound DE in high school crushed the 5* all-world linebacker multiple times, with brutal efficiency.
I was very impressed with the tight ends.

Comprehensive chart:

	UConn	ND	TOTAL
Huyge	4	-4	0
Schilling	8	-3	+5
Molk	10	8	+18
Omameh	-6	6.5	+0.5
Dorrestein	4	4	+8
Koger	-2	5	+3
Webb	2	3	+5
Grady	1	-1.5	-0.5
Odoms	1	2	+3
Roundtree	1	3	+4
Stonum	0	N/A	0
Stokes	N/A	-1	-1
T. Robinson	1	N/A	+1
McColgan	1	1	+2
Shaw	-2	-2	-4
Smith	4	4	+8
Gardner	1	N/A	+1
D. Robinson	-2	1	-1
TOTALS	26	26	+52

You'll Never Walk Alone

2010-09-13T02:34:00.000-04:00

Michigan 28, Notre Dame 24; 2-0

Around 7:20 PM eastern time on Saturday, as the adrenaline just barely began to slow down, Rich Rodriguez stood on the Notre Dame Stadium turf, answering postgame questions from NBC's ~~eye candy~~ Alex Flanagan, who at one point said, "Rich, we've all seen what you've gone through these past two years", which lol no you haven't. But she concluded the interview with a simple yet poignant statement that was much deeper and encompassing than she realized.

"Just keep doing what you're doing."

Ever since Rich arrived, almost three years ago now, he has been trying to "do what he does." As each day brought another loss or another controversy or another negative story or another personal attack, the people who have wanted him to do what he does have become fewer and scarcer. I'm sure at times, even when surrounded by family and ever-loyal followers, Rich has felt alone, as if he's the only one who believes in what he's trying to do.

By the time the carnage Denard Robinson inflicted on Notre Dame started to settle and the sun faded toward the horizon in South Bend, I bet Rich felt differently; that he has finally found the life preserver he needs; that at long last, through the wind and the rain, he'll never walk alone again.

I went somewhat catatonic around the time Kyle Rudolph rumbled across the goalline late in the 4th quarter, my mind just overloading with the madness and bloody insanity of it all. I sat back on my couch, my arms crossed, my head slowly shaking back and forth. Even as the drive that slayed a dragon began to progess, I was muttering to myself, "This thing just isn't going to work out, is it?"

A few minutes later, our latest savior gave us a reason to believe. He dares us to dream, and gives us the audacity of hope.

His health remains the hot button issue, especially because if he's Batman, then his Robin is currently in an Orlando high school. Our running backs aren't awful (and contrary to popular belief, their absence on Saturday isn't all on them), but there definitely isn't a Steve Slaton or Noel Devine here; no running mate for our superstar. So as risky as it may be, running Denard like a running back is, at present, our #1 weapon. We'll hold our breaths after every tackle, tighten up until he gets up. At the moment, it appears simple: if Denard stays healthy, this ship is, in some form anyway, straightened. If Denard stays healthy, Rich will be our football coach, the clouds of uncertainty will part, and slowly but surely, order will be restored.

There is reason to restrain optimism and remain cautious. The defense is still shaky at best, with issues that remain glaring and will be pressed by all future opponents. Cameron Gordon would be perfect, absolutely perfect at one of the box safety spots. He's not a slow-footed linebacker playing safety like Cato June was, but he is definitely not the burner you need at the back end, and his instincts are still very much a work in progress. If it were possible to play him closer to the line of scrimmage, we'd be better off, but there's nobody else back there right now, so we have to make do and try to minimize the damage. Other issues exist, too. The pass rush isn't really there, the linebackers are still erratic (though both Ezeh and Mouton made some very impressive plays on Saturday), and we don't have a field goal kicker.

But for now, at the moment, we have a weapon capable of covering up all those issues. And while we are in the same spot we were at this time last year - 2-0 after a dramatic last minute win over Notre Dame - it's easy to see how this is different. The passage of time allows one to obtain a perspective not feasible in the heat of battle. Lost in the euphoria early last year but clearly visible now is the fact that much of the success Tate Forcier had at the start of 2009 came from improvisation and making plays when the original play broke down. This made him wildly exciting early on, but that style, predictably, gradually degraded as his feet got too happy and his ball security got looser and looser. This year, through two games, every big play and every touchdown Denard has produced has been within the offense. It was breathtaking last year when Tate scrambled and directed traffic and fired a laser to Junior Hemingway in the opener against Western, and it was ridiculous when he bobbed and weaved his way through the pocket on the penultimate play against the Irish (when Laterryal Savoy almost caught the touchdown Greg Mathews would one play later). But now? A pump fake bubble screen springs Terrence Robinson wide open down the seam. A designed quarterback draw springs Denard 37 yards to the endzone against Connecticut. A fake quarterback draw has Roy Roundtree wide open for a touchdown at Notre Dame. A designed QB off tackle play turns into an 87-yard freak show that had every jaw on the floor. All within the offense, all executed to near perfection. That's why this has staying power, as long as Denard stays healthy.

That's why Rich Rodriguez has staying power, as long as Denard stays healthy. And as long as Denard is healthy, Rich shall walk through the storm with his head held high, and he won't be afraid of the dark. And he'll never walk alone.