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  2009-01-07 20:49:10

  • Coming out of the shadow of death. It appears I will in fact live. Haven't been this sick in a long time.

  2009-01-07 11:41:43

  • Spent yesterday in bed with the chills, shakes, and various other unsavory things. I hope today is the last of it.

  2009-01-06 10:17:17

  • Great. I appear to have caught the stomach bug my wife had and now my daughter is throwing up. Should be a fun day at Chez Holtsberry.

  2009-01-06 09:53:54

  • Decide to ride the bus and we get freezing rain. Nice. Miserable morning.

  2009-01-06 00:56:25

  • UT lost its only game to a last second comeback and the wins its last game in simlar fashion. Sorry Buckeyes, sucks don't it?

  2009-01-06 00:44:36

  • 40 yards in 38 seconds with the game on the line.

  2009-01-06 00:21:02

  • I guess that answers my question.

  2009-01-06 00:01:19

  • Is Tressel giving Boeckman time cause he feels bad or because he thinks it will work?

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Is there such a thing as off season bulletin board material? If so this ought to motivate the University of Michigan football players and coaches as they work at rebuilding the program. Bob Hunter in the Columbus Dispatch:

Put it this way: Ohio State-Michigan has suddenly begun masquerading as an OSU-Toledo game, a switch not without a touch of irony considering the Wolverines lost to Toledo this season.

But the rivalry is tottering not simply because Michigan has had an embarrassment or two, or because of an unprecedented five consecutive OSU wins in the series, or because Michigan has just finished the season 3-9, or even because the Buckeyes hammered their hapless rivals 42-7 yesterday in Ohio Stadium.

It is tottering because the Wolverines looked so weak yesterday that it’s hard to imagine they’re looking at a quick fix. This is a team so bad that even the rivalry couldn’t lift it up, and this is a rivalry that injects so much emotion in the game that it sometimes makes mediocre teams look pretty good.

Rich Rodriguez is a good coach, but he’s not Moses. After Michigan’s woeful performance in the Horseshoe, it seems clear that for Rodriguez to lead his team out of the Big Ten’s second division — not even one of college football’s lower-middle-class neighborhoods these days - it’s going to take more than a few top recruits.

Hunter goes on to all but predict that Ohio State wins the next two meetings. And then gets in a litte dig:

Some rivalry, eh?

If this keeps up, those little gold pants Ohio State players receive for winning the Michigan game may eventually become worthless trinkets around here. They used be rare as a gold doubloon. Now they’re like loose change. Fifth-year seniors have five pairs.

The Buckeyes fans are clearly enjoying things. But you have to think this kind of talk will serve as good motivation for Rich Rodriguez and the Wolverines as they work to regain their winning ways and the respect that comes with it.

File this away for the future.

After the expected beatdown today that is the only question left.  Has the Michigan Wolverines football program reached the low point?

- First time ever to lose to a MAC school.

_ First losing season in four decades.

- Not going to a bowl game for the first time in over thirty years.

- First time in history Michigan has lost more than 7 games in a season.

- First time Ohio State has won five in a row against Michigan.

This “historic” season has been a cruel and unusual punishment for Michigan fans.  This was the first Ohio State Michigan game in my memory where I simply knew we were not going to win - where I was without hope.

It was a weird experience.  There was a lot less tension and anger.  It was kind of an empty feeling.

When Warren picked off that Pryor pass and then the offense proceeded to fail to score any points I knew the game was over.  I just knew the offense was not going to be able to score enough points to win.  I was hoping for something that didn’t seem embarrassing.  But even that was out of reach.  Nick Sheridan simply isn’t a capable enough player to win against a competent foe like Ohio State.

Want to talk about offensive impotence?  Out of 12 games Michigan failed to score in two or more quarters 9 times!  In two thirds of their games the offense failed to score for half of the game!

So here is the question: assuming Michigan has a Division I caliber player - even if a freshman - can Michigan return to competitive football?

Only time will tell, but I say yes.  As bad as things have been this year, with a capable QB Michigan wins 6 or 7 games in my opinion.  There are a lot of young players who got valuable experience this year both in playing and in learning the system.   I have to think these players will only get better next year.  Provided the horrendous turnovers don’t repeat themselves. I can see Michigan winning 7 games next year even with a freshman at QB.  Heck, Chad Henne had a great freshman season.

Rich Rodriguez has a history of turning programs around and I think at Michigan he can recruit the talent to get it done.

But all that is just hope.  Right now the program is ashes.  The question is whether there is a Phoenix lurking.

Michigan fans have to suffer a long off-season to find out.

Brian at MGoBlog tries to envision a scenario:

Let’s try: Ohio State fans have been complaining about the offensive line all year, saying it’s taken a major step back and is full of fat lazy jerkos (hmmm…). The only thing that’s been keeping their run game afloat is Chris Wells stiffarms. With Michigan’s defensive line looking pretty real and Ezeh and Mouton looking equally real, you could see a lot of second and longs, at which point Tressel will decide on Tressel-ball because he’s got a freshman quarterback, avoiding the deep middle zone seams that have been the biggest problem on Michigan’s defense all year and settling for runs and out routes and punts.

Michigan gets lucky a few times when OSU stalls out due to their own failings, maybe gets a turnover or two, and hangs around until the fourth quarter with help from two successful trick plays. Tressel dares Nick Sheridan to beat him, going into a shell up four in the fourth, and with five minutes left in the game, Sheridan strides on to the Ohio Stadium turf, history at his back.

It’s at this point the scenario falls apart.

As much as I would like to disagree, I can’t.  It is just hard to see Sheridan and the offense able to make the plays need to win a game like this.

I wil be hoping and praying for a miracle, but I don’t see it happening.  The year of pain will come to a conclusions with, er, pain.

Pat Forde notes yet another potential streak that could end in this Saturday’s Michigan Ohio State game:

In the illustrious history of Michigan football, 12 coaches have played against Ohio State. Their record in their first game in this rivalry: 10-1-1. Only Harry Kipke (24) failed to get it done, in 1929. The rundown:

(Note: attendance in 1902 when Yost’s team put that fearful beating on the Buckeyes was listed as 6,000. By the time Yost was done, he had built Michigan football into a colossus. Attendance for George Little’s first shot at Ohio State in ‘24 was 70,000.)

So no pressure Rod, but you’d be making one more bit of horrible history this season with a loss Saturday. A 3-9 record and the first debut loss to the Buckeyes in 79 years? Not ideal.

Interesting article in the Columbus Dispatch on Rich Rodriguez and the trials of taking over a storied program like Michigan - and struggling mightily your first year.

A couple of things stood out to me.  One was the discipline he is trying to install:

It wasn’t just the playbook that changed.

“From practices to meetings to dress codes to lifting schedules to where we eat, what we can do, where we can go, curfew — there are a lot of things that are different,” senior defensive tackle Terrance Taylor said. “You expect that, but being here, you want to hold on to something you know about.”

Michigan used to have season-long captains. This year, they were chosen on a weekly basis.

Before, Michigan players didn’t have a curfew. Taylor said Sunday night’s curfew required players to be home by 10 p.m., in bed by 11.

Rodriguez has banned players from using cell phones in the team’s building “because when we’re in the building he wants us talking to each other,” Taylor said.

Given the trouble college football players seem prone to get into when out late, the curfew seems like a good idea.  And the cell phone rule connects with a larger theme Rich Rod is trying to build:

As for changing the team’s culture, Rodriguez said he wasn’t sure how that should be defined. He said that if that meant instilling the desire to do the best they can on and off the field and put team before individual, that’s what he wants.

“Is that the culture where I’m at right now?” he said. “I don’t know. But that’s the culture that I want. If that’s the culture that our fans want, then we’re on the same page.”

I think that is a simple but worthy philosophy: the desire to be the best on and off the field and to value your team more than yourself.  I am confident Rodriguez can recruit talent.  But if he can mold a true team that has that camaraderie and commitment then Michigan can be a national contender again.

The article ends with an anecdote that shows how Rodriguez is illustrating that commitment himself:

It could very well be that all Rodriguez needs is time. That’s something he didn’t have after his hiring. Though he had the senior class over to his house more than once, some of them felt they got short shrift.

Harrison, the safety, was among them. Then last weekend on Senior Day, his parents were late getting to Michigan Stadium from Dayton because of traffic from an accident. So instead of having Harrison take the field unescorted, Rodriguez accompanied him.

“He didn’t really need to do that,” Harrison said. “I see him in a whole different way. I used to look at him as just my head coach. Now I look at him as if it’s a different type of bond.”

I don’t know about other Michigan fans, but I felt better about our coach after reading this article.  There has been a lot of debate about the so called “family values” at Michigan under Rodriguez, but the values noted above are the right ones in my opinion.

I was able to talk with Michael Rosenberg, the Detroit Free Press columnist and author of War As They Knew It, at an event here in Columbus back in September.  And after our chat Michael was gracious enough to agree to answer some questions via email.  I figured Ohio State Michigan week would be a good time to take him up on that offer.  I posted Ten Questions to him regarding his book (to the left) over at Collected Miscellany, but wanted to focus more on football in this set of ten.

So here they are:

1. How did the rivalry between Bo and Woody change Michigan football?

Michigan is the all-time wins leader, all-time win percentage leader and plays in the greatest rivalry in college football. So naturally, Michigan fans like to think the program has been one of the best in college football since its inception. That is largely true, but in the 1960s, Michigan State surpassed Michigan on the field and in fan interest. If Bo had not succeeded and MSU had hired a fabulous coach to replace Duffy Daugherty, who knows what would have happened?

Bo put Michigan football back at the forefront of college football, where it has remained ever since. He also gave the rivalry incredible life - even if you didn’t care about Michigan or Ohio State, you knew Bo and Woody. It created a momentum for Michigan football and the UM-OSU rivalry that has never really abated.

2. Is it fair to say that Michigan has underachieved in the years following the 1997 National Championship?

No, I don’t think that’s fair. Michigan never had a losing season, won an Orange Bowl, played in three Rose Bowls and won several other January bowl games in that period. Were other programs better? You might be able to find five or six. You won’t find 10. So I don’t think “underachieved” is a fair term.

3.  What do you think is behind the apparent weakness of the Big Ten when compared with SEC or Big XII?  Is this just a cyclical thing with recruiting, etc. or has the Big Ten lost its edge in fundamental ways?

I think it is cyclical. Contrary to popular opinion, the SEC is not far ahead of every other league every year. The Big Ten held its own in bowl games against the SEC. That’s just a fact. People concentrate on the national-title games and ignore all other evidence.

Having said that, I do believe the Big Ten is down this season. Almost every program is in transition in some way. Let’s see where the league is in three years.

The rest of the questions are below.

Read more

In a Michigan football season full of disappointment and a comedy of injuries and errors, one thing has stuck out to me: Michigan’s offense has disappeared for long stretches in almost every game.  This lack of scoring has absolutely killed Michigan and in many ways explains, or at least illustrates, their inability to win games they were in a position to win.  The offense has rarely played well for more than a half and has played particularly bad in the third quarter.

Here is the breakdown:

Utah: no points in 2nd or 3rd quarter
Miami (OH): no points in 2nd or 3rd quarter
Notre Dame: no points 3rd or 4th quarter
Wisconsin: no points 1st or 2nd,
Illinois: no points in 2nd or 3rd quarter
Toledo: no points in 3rd or 4th quarter
Penn State: no points in 3rd or 4th quarter
Michigan State: no points in 4th quarter
Purdue: scored in every quarter
Minnesota: scored in every quarter
Northwester: no points in 3rd or 4th quarter

So in 8 games this year Michigan has gone two or more quarters without scoring a point!  How can you expect to win ball games if you take half the game off on offense from a scoring perspective?

Here are the points but quarter:

1st: 92, 2nd: 51, 3rd: 34, 4th: 65

Clearly this team struggles mightily in the third quarter.  Almost half of the yearly output (14 pts.) was in one game (Purdue).  In only 4 of 11 games this season have they scored at all in the third quarter.
Thoughts on why below. Read more

There was something about Saturday’s Michigan Northwestern game that was painfully familiar.  The same old mix of hope and despair we have seen all season.  The defense comes of with a big interception only to have the offense fail to score a touchdown and have the field goal attempt blocked.  Yet another special teams fumble that leads to an opponent touchdown.

But it wouldn’t be this Michigan team if they also didn’t give the fans some sick hope they might pull out the win.  So a walk on manages to block a punt and that leads to a touchdown and a halftime lead. Then came the reliable Michigan third quarter collapse.  Michigan scored with 6:30 left in the half and never scored again.  Despite having more first downs, more yardage, and more time of possession Michigan loses by a touchdown.

A they have so many times this year, the offense simply disappeared.  Despite a strong running game led by Carlos Brown (115 yards), neither Sherridan nor Threet could muster any consistency in the passing game.  As a result A nice second half touchdown drive and one 53 yard passing touchdown by Northwestern was enough to seal the win.

Michigan had a number of opportunities to win and simply failed to take advantage.  Donovan Warren had an interception that appeared to be run back for a touchdown, but the refs ruled he stepped out of bounds.  Nevertheless, Michigan had the ball in Northwestern territory, but Threet badly overthrows the TE Massie for an interception in the endzone.

The defense continues to hold and the offense puts together what looks like a nice drive.  After picking up a key fourth down, the sequence is a summation of Michigan’s season.  First Martavious Odoms drops a pass that would have been a first down.  Then Carlos Brown trips and falls when he has clear room to run.  Suddenly it is 3rd and 11.  Two more incomplete passes and the game is essentially over.

Read more

Brian from MGoBlog offers insight into football and a little humor in reacting to Michigan’s win over Minnesota:

Football, though… in football inexplicable things happen on a regular basis and they’re all gussied up to look like Flat Out Heart. You might think that, eventually, close observers would figure out this tendency and start saying things like “watch for the inexplicable thing!” but no, not really.

This is of some comfort to me in a season where the only thing more reliable than Michigan’s ineptitude is this blog’s ability to incorrectly forecast future events.

To be fair, if you had collected everyone on the planet who thought Nick Sheridan would lead Michigan to victory over a 7-2 team, no matter how fraudulent, and put them in a room that room would contain Nick Sheridan’s mother, that one guy on the message board with the annoying, unkillable optimism, and a bushman who speaks one of those clicky languages and erroneously believes there to be free sandwiches because of a mindboggling linguistic coincidence.

This train of thought could apply equally well to last night’s Steelers loss.

In a year when Michigan football streaks were being broken by the handful it is nice to see a streak continue.  Let’s review:

• First lost to a MAC team in 25 games?  Check.
• First lost to Penn State in 10 years?  Check
• First lost to Michigan State since 2001 and first at home since 1990?  Check.
• First lost to Purdue since 2000?  Most points ever given up to Purude?  Check.
• Headed to first non-bowl season in 33 years?  Check.
• Headed to the first losing season in 41 years?  Check

So today against Minnesota Michigan was in danger of their first loss in the Metrodome and giving up the Little Brown Jug for only the third time in 31 seasons.  But Michigan finally played a complete game and notched thier twelth win in the Metrodome.

Most Michigan fans are wondering where that Nick Sheridan has been all season.  His poor play had led fans to believe that Sheridan = death, but he played a nice game today and Michigan’s offense was balanced as a result.  Combine this with a defense that never let Minnesota get on track and you have something we really haven’t seen all year: a Michigan team that seemed in control and who played consistently for sixty minutes.  More thoughts below.

Read more

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