Ignorance is Bliss

We went in early, a very rare occurrence for my crew and I, but everything that happened throughout the day said that this one was different, that this was that time where the warnings of stadium crowds and needing to be at the gate before the band took the field needed to be heeded.  The glow emanating from Stadium and Main, the one I had seen nearly every night driving by throughout the late summer, was no longer a sign that the scoreboards were being tested, it was a sign that the build up of over a year of waiting for THE night game, and a lifetime of waiting for "cool" to come to Ann Arbor was over.  Walking into the section with a little over 30 minutes left on the pre-game clock, it became apparent that even though I was early as I had ever been, I was most definitely late.  Of the record crowd of 114,804, over 100K of them were already making noise at 7:30pm.  It was brimming as the band took the field.  And it was certainly already over capacity as cheers and tears accompanied Desmond Howard's ceremonious acquisition of "Michigan Legend" status.

The sun set at 7:54pm, and then we played football.  And we did so very poorly for the better part of three full quarters.  Yes, I wanted Denard pulled.  And yes, I gave up on the game and the whole season long before the entire receiving core channeled Braylon Edwards catching Chad Henne's freshman ducks.  I cursed Borges's offense, and the fact that we ruined the most exciting player in college football with our coaching change.  And the defense was the same defense.  Gashed by runs, continuously picked apart by passes to the same receiver over and over and over, long gains on 3rd and long, and long gains on 3rd and short.  

But there was something weird about the whole thing.  Maybe it was the lights and the hoopla, or my brain bleeding from having to watch black leotard wearing band dorks blink in the night at halftime, or maybe it was the fact that Notre Dame just couldn't put us away despite dominating the Wolverines in every facet of the game.  Again, just something in the night air, something weird that made me think that we were about 5 or 6 miracles away from pulling this out of our ass.  I think we received no less than 15 of said miracles...odd bounces on kickoffs, Denard's magical breakaway style jersey, Hawthorne orchestrating his own personal 3-and-out, Denard throwing rainbow lobs to the endzone as if all of our receivers were 7 feet tall and would just take the ball away from defenders (which they did). 

And suddenly, it became last year.  Hurry up and let them score so we can get the ball back to Denard.  Last team with the ball wins.  Football?  Not so much.  Fun?  Yessir.  And our timing was impeccable.  Somehow we won on the biggest stage...our stage...on a historic night AND in dramatic fashion.  Every Saturday that I return home from a game and watch the national night game on TV, wherever it is, I am always in awe of the atmosphere.  It's something that I always assumed couldn't be accomplished at Michigan.  Too many old alumni with their hearing aids and "down in front" attitudes.  But I was wrong.  When Michigan began to gain some momentum late in the third quarter, the entire stadium was in unison.  Maybe the old people didn't come because of the late start, or perhaps there was a Matlock marathon on somewhere....or maybe they just finally gave in.  Because it was Club Big House in there.  Techno beats and pom poms and singing and dancing and Seven Nation Army and the 12th man....and whatever other clichéd things you can cram into a sentence.

We were a factor.  We were part of the momentum.

And when the game ended, a smiling but reserved Brady Hoke was approached by Erin Andrews.  She was looking for the emotional response, for what this meant to Brady.  Coach didn't budge an inch, going over a laundry list of things that needed work, chastising the offense for never finding a rhythm, and a defense with glaring problems.  Erin would try a second and third time to pry out some personal feelings...she got "It's a great win for Michigan."

"The team, the team, the team" indeed.

At this point, after two previous years with September triumphs that left us overrated, I shouldn't have to remind you to stay grounded.  Notre Dame is not good...and they dominated us in every category except turnover margin.  The hype surrounding the game has already vaulted us to the cusp of the polls.  Barring an egg-laying on Saturday, we will be ranked going into San Diego State...and that's crazy.  

So let's just enjoy this week, our blissful ignorance, and revel in a wild, historic night in Ann Arbor while savoring a third consecutive victory over Notre Dame.

Pictures tomorrow....

GO BLUE!

Western Michigan Tailgate Pics

Here they are...

It Looked About the Same, Only Different

Western Michigan surrendered on Saturday following two defensive touchdowns by Brandon Herron and a couple of lightning strikes, saving themselves from having to have to mount a comeback against the new Michigan defense.  If I were them, I would have demanded that the game be continued in the name of Jordan White's Heisman campaign.  His 119 yards on 12 receptions in just three quarters had him on pace to break some NCAA records.  Which if nothing else makes today feel like yesterday.  The only "Michigan difference" was the offense, whose 8 minute, 33 second first possession virtually eradicated an entire quarter of play.  The weather would eventually eliminate the fourth stanza, leaving us with a mediocre half of a football game and more questions than answers.

But...scoreboards!

The Denard show never got started, and I am getting that Lloyd-era feeling (or at least hoping it was the case) that we were holding things back from this game in order to not giveaway our master plan to the next opponent.  This idea is something that Michigan fans have held onto for many years and used whenever inferior opponents have a modicum of success.  It helps us sleep at night.  So ya, we didn't show Western our awesome arsenal because we're saving it for the most hyped game between two unranked opponents in college football history.  Then again, we really didn't have a chance to see anything...between defensive touchdowns, sustained drives and rain delays, Michigan only mounted 7 offensive drives.  There were only 15 possessions total in the entire game...both teams.  Last year's Michigan - Illinois game had 39.  Different era indeed.  Right now, Michigan-Notre Dame is like Army-Navy or Havard-Yale, steeped in tradition with a historic past, but in the scheme of today's college football landscape, nearly meaningless outside of the team's hometowns.

This, however, is Ann Arbor.  So Saturday means something to us.  ESPN will try to make us relevant again in the name of Saturday night ratings, and the Gameday crew will be on hand to help honor Desmond Howard's election to the Hall of Fame.  It's a very unique opportunity for Michigan...a chance to win a game against an opponent that sucks, but have it count as a big win based solely on the ESPN machine.  

Also, Erin Andrews.  Yessir.

So we go into next week, able to continue with eyes wide shut and high hopes, oblivious...to the inordinate amount of passing yards we gave up to the Broncos, and more importantly, to the meaninglessness of the last two Septembers.  And that's neither a good or bad thing, it's just how we do it.  Forget about everything else, just beat the Irish.  With their fancy ascots and champagne tailgates and their golden domes and sexually segregated student cheers.  And that little leprechaun, a living human mascot...creepy little bastard.  Hate them, remind them that we taught them football, make a Ron Powlus joke and chase it with a Charlie Weiss anecdote and a "return to glory" pun....and do it all with a Lou Holtz lisp for good measure.  Because Saturday we tailgate for 13 hours and then we head Under the Lights to put Notre Dame's latest group of echo wakers to rest.

Speaking of tailgates, we had a great one on Saturday, at least in the pregame.  The new two-well deep fryer did it's job, and a tip of the hat goes to Frydaddy Frank for giving it all the food it could handle, as well the many pigs that gave of their loins for our grilling pleasure.  Post-game hot dogs were cancelled because of the inopportune lake effect tropical storm, but we hope to get them out for a midnight snack this week.  The tailgate stuff was a complete wreck, and thanks also go out to Tuba, Johnny Cleveland, Cakebaker Lisa, and everyone else that handled the crisis situation with vigor and got all of the stuff taken down and packed up in the downpour.  It wasn't fun...and I really appreciate the help.

Pictures won't go up until later...having trouble with uploading on the road here in Cleveland (where I am leading the Tigs to a central division championship) so be patient.  I think they are still using dial up in Ohio.  Anyway...pics coming soon.

GO BLUE!

The Post Where I Study the Western Michigan Release in Detail

Tim Allen....Bronco

My apologies to those that thought that the "Western Michigan Release" was something you get from a drunk Bronco coed at Wayside West.  This is about the game notes, or "press release," which I guess could be confusing too....might be what Drew Sharp does when all the teams in the state lose at everything.

But I digress...

We start with a hard look at the "Did You Know?" section, which informs us that this, the 132nd season opener in Michigan history, is the first of five consecutive home games.  We haven't started with that many at home since 1976.  And 1976 was an amazing year in world history, as I was born that year.  The home slate started oddly with Wisconsin, then interesting matchups with Stanford, Navy, Wake Forest, and Sparty.  We outscored our opponents 234-51 in that five game span, which included a 70-14 punishing of the Midshipmen.  Ricky Leach was under center that year, and adorned the cover of Sports Illustrated's college football preview issue.

Moving on to "Quick Hits," we find that Michigan has a 108-8-2 record all time in home openers, including a 15-3 record in the last 18 games.  You remember all three of those losses well....very well.  Donavan McNabb showing us how unprepared we were for a mobile quarterback back in 1998.  9 seasons later, Armanti Edwards showed us how unprepared we still were for a mobile quarterback on the way to the biggest upset in college football history.  In 2008, we fell to Utah in RichRod's debut as Brian Johnson threw for 300+...and one of our quarterbacks was the second string kid from Pioneer High School.

A page or two down, we've got the "Tale of the Tape", and while it's pointless to compare a team that played in the MAC to a team that played in the Big Ten, it's still worthwhile to remember some of the glaringly awful stats put up by last year's Wolverines, ya know, just to keep you grounded going into Saturday.  In 2010, Michigan was 4 out of 14 kicking field goals.  Shut it down.  Turnover margin was -10.  The defense allowed 35.2 points per game on average, as well as 450.8 yards.  Those are all records.  Seriously, I didn't even check....those are all records.  

But hey....let's look at some good news as we take "A Look Back at 2010."  Michigan led the Big Ten in total offense last season, was 2nd in passing offense and 3rd in rushing offense.  It set a school record with 6353 total yards, going over 500 yards in a game in 6 of 12 games...I guess we're ignoring the bowl here (342 total yards, for the record).  Michigan scored 24 touchdowns on drives that elapsed 2 minutes or less, and scored 10 touchdowns on drives that took three plays or less.  In 2011, we won't have a single drive that lasts less than 2 minutes.  We'll turn three-and-outs into 4 minute drives...good or bad...who knows?  Time of possession as a measure of anything is up for debate, mass debate if you will (say it fast).  Also of note, we had 419 yards passing in the Illinois game last year...we will not have a 300 yard passing game this season.

We're on page 7 now, and I'm looking at "Wolverine Bites," a section that will no doubt have a picture of our faithful mascot whenever that debacle goes through.  For now, it's adorned with the smiling face of Denard, and that makes me (and everyone) happy.  I know MVictors touched on this earlier this week, but Tate Forcier is #10 all time in completions in Michigan history.  That kinda blows my mind.  He passed Drew Henson last year.  Weird.  Looking at Denard's place in Michigan history, he was on pace to break pretty much every record in the book, both rushing and passing, before this coaching change.  I know he's not going to be able to carry us as much this year, and that's sad, but also maybe good?  I don't know.  How he is used is going to be THE topic of discussion all year.  How is Denard going to handle his role?  How much second guessing is going to be going on?  At what point are we going to clamor for him to be cut loose?

On to page 9, and looking at win-loss details in the "2010 Michigan Record When..." section.  4-0 in September stands out.  Early success hasn't turned into much lately.  Octobers have really sucked in the past 3 years.  Also, my biggest criticism with last year's staff was their lack of halftime adjustments.  Michigan was 0-6 in games in which they trailed at the half.  That's coaching...somewhat.  And it's also something that needs to be addressed in the lockerroom.  It's a mental challenge for a group of men that don't know what it's like to make a comeback when down at the half.

Finally, let's take a peak at "Brady Hoke's Year-by-Year Coaching Record."  It should be mentioned that Hoke was a part of the only two teams in Ball State football history to go undefeated in conference...first as a player (1978) and then as coach (2008).  I know you know this but seriously, Hoke led Ball State to a 12-1 record in 2008.  That's kind of a big deal.  He also led San Diego State to a 9-4 record, somewhat of a big deal.  He accomplished both of these things in a span of 3 years.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that he is 47-50 all time as a coach.  I don't know what that means for what he is going to do at Michigan, probably nothing.  Especially since I think despite the magic that has happened with regards to the 2012 class, Brady's greatest recruitment since arriving on campus was that of his assistants.  

Time to see what they can do with what they've got.  2 days.

Knee Deep in the Two-Deep

Nobody really knows before at least a few Saturdays in September what is really going on in college football.  How do you predict results for rosters that exchange out 25% of their players on a year-to-year basis?  You can't.  And that's why the pre-season top 25 is never remotely close to the post-season top 25.  That makes the pre-season the best time to be delusional.  I'm usually pretty good at being delusional.  

For the last few years you just closed your eyes and hoped for the best from the mad offensive genius that was Rich Rodriguez.  He made things so difficult to predict, for the most part because he was not Lloyd Carr.  Lloyd-era teams were a lay-up to prognosticate.  Lloyd Carr teams should have won every game...but we always knew they wouldn't.  They would always get caught once or twice trying to run out the game clock just after the half, and there were always one or two games where they came out bored and couldn't recover from the early momentum of opponents that spent the year thinking about beating Michigan.  Mix in a less than 50-50 chance at bowl victory, and you've got yourself 2-4 losses.  That's Michigan.  Good news and/or bad news...the man referred to by EDSBS as Lloyd Carr holding a Matt Foley puppet is at the helm...yep, Lloyd's back.

The two-deep roster for Western Michigan hit the press with the customary "weekly release" from Fort Schembechler.  I swear, each and every year I start the season thinking about how if everything goes perfectly, there's a way for us to win all of our games.  You say "it's one in a million," and I say "so you're saying there's a chance."  That's the Maize goggles I wear.  But I've been staring at this sheet for a day now.  And there are a lot of issues.  Glaring issues.  There are still walk-ons making an impact on this sheet.  And while that's great for gym rat intra-mural champions everywhere, it actually means we have players on the team that got beat by a walk-on.  Whether that's because of attrition or nutrition I don't really give a shit...because it's not because these guys are soooo good we had to give them a look.  It's because we're sooooo bad, that warm bodies are a slight upgrade from putting 10 men on the field.

The special teams portion of the roster is "OR" ridden.  I subscribe to the policy that if you don't have one kicker, then you don't have any kicker...and that seems to be the case here.  According to Coach, Gibbons is apparently good from about 45-yards and closer, and we're going to give the nod to the Freshman if it's any further than that.  I have a suggestion, anything further than 30-yards and we should be GOING FOR IT ON 4TH DOWN.  When all else fails...I trust the Desmond-like smile of Denard.

Hagerup's suspension really screwed us.  Practice reports say Wile is not ready for prime time, and I refer you to last year's Ohio State game (which we didn't lose BTW) to get an idea of what Seth Broekhuizen has going for him.

There's a 4-way "OR" for punt returner.  That means we get to go through the growing pains of four different guys mis-playing punts.  I still vote to rush eleven and let it roll.  More yards for Denard.

Speaking of which, there's only two QBs on the roster thanks to Tate being mildly retarded, and I can't help but think back to last year when Denard started about twice as many games as he finished.  So...Gardner is going to certainly see the field.  If something were to happen to him we do what?  Paging Jack Kennedy?

What did Odoms do?  Is this punishment?  He's basically the last receiver off of the bench.  This is not boding well for Dreads-to-Dreads numbers.   

**UPDATE**  Odoms was wearing a bulkier protective device on his wrist at Tuesday's practice...so this looks like it's injury related.  My bad.

Anyway, I see a lot of frustration ahead.  None of this takes into account the fact that there is a completely new system on both sides of the ball, that the only thing that was worth watching last year (Denard) is now going to be handcuffed Pryor-style by Borges-ball, or that the defense is rocking the same personnel aside from two guys that are returning form injury (Jones & Wollfolk) and haven't been a part of a meaningful snap since 2009 (assuming that anything was meaningful in 2009).

Ugh.