When Carcajous Start a New Adventure

Today the WCA blog reaches the end of its own road. I certainly had a blast with the blog this last year.

When Carcajous Attack! was my first attempt at sports blogging, and despite going it alone these past 12 months, I actually learned a great deal. I sincerely appreciated all of the comments from followers this past year, as well as the many considerate links extended to my stories by so many of my fellow Michigan sports and football bloggers. It was really cool to see other people reading and responding to some of my views, observations and ideas.

Let me say that it is not easy to run a meaningful sports blog on Michigan football, not to mention Michigan athletics. Not many people end up accessing and reading the thing in first place. And to get the hits, writing interesting and unique stuff can be challenging and a lot of work. There were days and weeks where I didn't feel like I was getting together sufficient content in the first place. Often times work and family life got in the way of contributing more.

So for 2010 I've decided to explore a new method, expand my horizons, and improve the exposure of my work. I'm taking my Michigan Wolverine football addiction - or affliction, if you will - over to the Maize N Brew Blog, which has been providing excellent content on Michigan athletics for several years now, including my own main area of obsessive interest: Michigan football.

I'm really looking forward to writing alongside Dave and the entire cast of great writers of the Maize N Brew crew this year. It should be a lot of fun. And I figure if my writings go downhill, I'll still have a new group of colleagues as a support group to help me improve my personal coping skills with things like 3-9, Michael Rosenberg, 5-7, and whatever the 2010 Michigan football season may have on tap!

Of course, it is now mid-January and the dreaded "dead period" is almost over. Michigan football recruiting, Spring Game 2010 preparations, Coaching Changes, Position Battles, Pre-Season 2010 Predictions, Way-to-Early Opponent Previews, and of course Michigan schedule analyses will all be coming up on deck soon. If you enjoyed some of my past writings from the WCA blog, please be sure to visit and bookmark Maize and Brew blog going forward.

Thanks again for everyone's support of When Carcajous Attack!. It was a lot of fun.
See you over at Maize N Brew!

Sincerely,

Markusr2007
Hail to the Victors!
Let's Go Blue!

Michigan Lands Another Big Kicker

The University of Michigan received the verbal commitment from Will Hagerup of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. Hagerup is a 3-star rated Scout.com prospect and the No. 4 rated punter in the country with many other high-profile offers from Ohio State, Alabama, Florida, Wisconsin, Iowa and Northwestern.

Hagerup is 6-4 and 210 lbs as a high school senior. This is in alignment with the size and stature of Michigan's more recent punters like Zoltan Mesko (6-5, 238 lbs), Adam Finley (6-4, 209 lbs).

The last Michigan punter who hailed from Wisconsin also played outside linebacker for the Wolverines, John Anderson (1974-1977). Anderson was an All-American for Michigan and an All-Academic Big Ten honoree. Anderson hailed from Waukesha, Wisconsin and went on to star as a Linebacker for Bart Starr's Green Bay Packers in the early 1980s. While playing for Bo Schembechler at Michigan, John Anderson had a 39.5 yard per punt average.

Anderson's most famous play in a Michigan uniform was not a punt at all. It was a bear hug tackle of Ohio State's quarterback Rod Gerald on the Buckeyes' last threatening drive which caused a fumble, which Derek Howard recovered for Michigan, sealing the 14-6 win over Ohio State, the Big Ten championship, a trip to Pasadena, and prompting Ohio's head coach Woody Hayes to throw down his clipboard and punch things - anything - within his direct vicinity. Even an unfortunate ABC sideline cameraman.

Anderson is appropriately numbered "86":


Back to Mr. Hagerup. Yes, he punts like a maniac, and even plays TE for his high school team, the Dukes. You can follow his and the Dukes 2009 gridiron exploits here.

When Carcajous Attack Hoosiers!

Preview: No. 23 Michigan vs. Indiana, September 26, 2009 – Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

When You Crave Irrational Exuberance On A Level That Only Brett Musberger Can Deliver:
“Did I mention before that we’re LIVE!!! in Ann Arbor, Michigan yet again! Two Big Ten football teams that were 3-9 only a year ago are today undefeated 3-0 in 2009 and entering their first game of Big Ten play. The last time these two schools met on the gridiron was 2006 when Michigan crushed the Fightin’ Hoosier’s 34-3 in Bloomington. One cannot overstate the challenge ahead of Indiana in this game. The Hoosiers have not won a Big Ten opening game since 2001 (versus Wisconsin 63-32 under then coach Cam Cameron). They have not beaten Michigan since a 14-10 victory in 1987 in Bloomington. They have not beaten Michigan in the Big House since 1967. Michigan and Indiana have each played at home one common opponent this year: Western Michigan. The results were quite different. Michigan defeated WMU in resounding fashion 31-7, while Indiana hung on for dear life in the waning moments of a mistake-prone football game 23-19 over the Broncos."

This football game is important for Michigan for the following reasons:

1.) From here on out Michigan faces 9 straight Big Ten opponents (CORRECTION: 8 Big Ten opponents because Delaware State is not a Big Ten team!) with no bye week. Today there are 5 unbeaten teams in the Big Ten conference (UM, PSU, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa). Four of them clash head-to-head this weekend (UM vs. Indiana, PSU vs. Iowa). Michigan won only two Big Ten games in 2008 at home versus Wisconsin and at Minnesota. A decisive victory over Indiana on Saturday, therefore, keeps Michigan tied for first place in the Big Ten conference standings.

2.) A UM victory over Indiana keeps the Wolverines in a position of considerable strength and confidence heading into next Saturday’s match up, and first game on the road, against cross-state rival Michigan State in East Lansing. All eyes on that damn clock!

3.) Historically Michigan claims hegemony on the gridiron over a number of Big Ten teams, but none quite to the same extent as over Indiana. Michigan has played Indiana only 59 times since the turn of the century. The Wolverines are 50-9 all-time versus the Hoosiers (only 59 meetings!?), and 29-1 since 1970.

4.) Michigan’s defense has faced essentially 2 pro-style football teams (WMU, Notre Dame) and 1 power run team (EMU) so far and had mixed results. Indiana will present Michigan with their Pistol Offense on Saturday, giving Greg Robinson’s Wolverine defense some much-needed additional preparation against a downhill, power run-oriented offense, plus a passing attack that really spreads the ball around to many different players and can score a lot of points quickly.

5.) Just like last week versus Eastern Michigan, the Wolverines need to be able to heal team injuries and be fortunate enough to avoid new ones in this game. Michigan must also continue to build greater depth and experience at several key positions by getting more reps for 2nd and 3rd string players at quarterback, along the defensive front, linebacker and the defensive secondary. This opportunity was afforded last week against EMU in the second half. Michigan has a similar opportunity for more playing time on Saturday if they can overpower the Hoosiers early.

6.) This will be Rich Rodriguez’s first game ever against an Indiana football team.

7.) Following Michigan’s 2006 road victory over Indiana 34-3 in Bloomington, the Wolverines proceeded to lose 4 straight football games (Ohio State, USC in 2006, and versus Appalachian State and Oregon in 2007) before shellacking Notre Dame in Ann Arbor 38-0.

It’s important to note that Indiana returns 6 starters on offense and 9 starters on defense for the 2009 football season. On the other hand, Michigan returns 9 starters returning on offense and about 7 starters on defense. On paper Michigan is a far more talented football squad than the Indiana Hoosiers at just about every position.

Three Great Reasons to Wipe That Ridiculous Smile Off Your Face:

1. Hoosier Quarterback Ben Chappell
Ever since former quarterback Kellen Lewis was kicked off the Indiana football team, every man and his dog thought Bill Lynch and the Hoosier football team was as good as toast for 2009. I never really bought into that argument 100%. Why not? Well, aside from 9 starters returning on defense for Indiana in 2009 including 49 total letterman, it’s a little known fact that as a backup last year (2008) to Kellen Lewis, quarterback Ben Chappell played in 9 games and threw for over 1,000 yards, 4 TDs and 3 INTs. He also rushed for 72 yards and 3 TDs. So the kid did some things that made you at least recognize his arm strength, playmaking skills, and overall talent package. The 2008 experience serves Chappell well in the new implementation of the Pistol offense by head coach Bill Lynch this year. To date Chappell is now hitting on 70% of his throws for about 224 yards per game and 7.3 yards per attempt. He does admittedly have only 3 TDs and a disappointing 3 interceptions after just three games against opponents of questionable potency (Eastern Kentucky 1-1, Western Michigan 1-2 and Akron 1-2), but Chappell makes things click for Indiana and his consistency is getting better. What’s more is that Chappell really spreads the love amongst his speedy receivers. Four different Hoosier receiving targers have 9 or more catches so far this season.

Chappell has three favorite targets to throw to. All of them are big and possess big play speed: Sophomore Tandon Doss (6-3), Sophomore Demarlo Belcher (6-5) and junior Mitchell Evans (6-3, a converted QB). I suspect that covering these players with any degree of consistency is going to be a serious challenge for Michigan’s banged up and rather smallish secondary on Saturday.

Suffice it to say that Ben Chappell is a good quarterback. He has plenty of dangerous weapons to work with on offense. He is only a junior, and is already showing improvement each and every week this season. This has to be a welcome relief to Hoosier fans following the Kellen Lewis departure.

2. Pistol Packin’ Hoosiers
If you had ask me about the greatest Indiana Hoosier running backs since 1970, I could probably name four: Mike Harkrader, Anthony Thompson, Vaughn Dunbar and BenJarvis Green-Ellis. Four! That’s a pretty damning indictment on Indiana football’s stature in the run-oriented, “smashmouth” Big Ten conference over the last 40 years. But, if given time, that might change once Indiana’s new Pistol offense starts to churn out anything closely resembling what Chris Ault achieved over his many years at Nevada. This is a deceptively powerful offense and can score a lot of points quickly when executed well. With the loss of Kellen Lewis at quarterback, I really like Bill Lynch’s decision here because it plays into Indiana’s few strengths: a quarterback that can throw and experienced running backs. Hoosier tailback Demetrius McCray is the team’s leading rusher with 228 yards, 1 TD and a 5.4 YPC average. Indiana also fields a good amount of depth to complement McCray with senior tailback Bryan Payton, junior Trea Burgess and freshman Darius Willis. Of all of these backs, Demetrius McCray is clearly the one to watch.

3. The Hoosier Defensive Line and Linebackers
Indiana is sort of weird in that they have two defensive coordinators: Co-DC Bryan George who is DC but also looks after the defensive line and Co-DC Joe Palcic, who is also the secondary coach. Indiana runs a 4-3 defense and returns 9 starters on defense in 2009 including two of the best defensive ends in the Big Ten conference: seniors Jammie Kirlew and Greg Middleton. Kirlew tallied 11 sacks over 12 games last fall. The Hoosiers also have two of the finest linebackers in the Big Ten in team-leading tackler senior LB Matt Mayberry, as well as senior LB Will Patterson. Both are hard hitters, have nice sideline-to-sideline quickness and tackle well in space.

This level of experience and talent along the Hoosier defensive front and middle is extremely important because the Hoosier secondary, while nicely-sized, is not fortified with a high-level of talent or experience. Chris Adkins and Richard Council are the most experienced players there. After three games against relatively benign opponents, Indiana’s defense looks improved over 2008. In my e-pinion, they have the ability to beat teams like Virginia and Purdue this year and perhaps surprise somebody else as well. So far they’ve only given up only 17.7 points per game and 312 total yards per game (ranked 4th in the league for both categories). It might sound strange for me to write this, but I do predict that Michigan’s run game and pass protection will encounter a much more pronounced challenge by the Hoosier front 7 on Saturday that they’ve seen all season. And I include the Notre Dame game in that assertion. Such challenges are a good thing for this young Michigan team.

When Carcajous Attack! On Defense:
While I don’t like the fact that Michigan’s defense is ranked 9th in the anemic Big Ten in any category, particularly defensive yards per game (359 yards given up per game), Greg Robinson’s efforts have placed Michigan 5th in scoring defense so far with 19.3 points per game, which isn’t too shabby given Michigan’s more fortunate offensive fireworks displayed thus far in averaging 38 pts per game. In my view, Michigan’s defensive statistics after 3 games confirm to the severity of the situation that was predicted months ago. The Wolverines have inadequate depth and experience at all defensive positions. Still what does it say to you that Greg Robinson’s defense has not given up a single point in the 3rd quarter and has given up only 21 points in the second half after the first three games? Michigan is giving up about 235 yards through the air and about 123 yards on the ground each and every game, but they’re finally making teams work for their points this year. Michigan’s defense starts slow, but plays hot in the latter half of football games. This will be an advantage against Indiana.

Indiana is going to try and keep Michigan’s vaunted read spread option offense off the field with the power run game and a lot of quick out passes and flies from Ben Chappell to his 3 favorite receivers (Doss, Belcher and Evans). Chappell has only been sacked once this season in the season opener versus EKU. With the exception of Chappell’s three interceptions, the Hoosiers have done a very good job of eliminating lost fumbles. Unless the Wolverines found some better linebackers over the last 6 days, the Hoosiers are going to be able to run the ball on Michigan just as EMU and Notre Dame did. Like the Notre Dame game, Chappell’s throwing accuracy and the height and speed of Indiana receivers will be a problem for UM in this game.

That all said Indiana’s offensive line has not yet faced a defensive front like Michigan’s.
They must control Brandon Graham, Mike Martin and Craig Roh, or there will be serious consequences in the Hoosier backfield all game long.

When Carcajous Attack! On Offense:
As “good” as I believe defensive ends Jammie Kirlew and Greg Middleton are, and as talented as Mayberry and Patterson have proven to be at linebacker for the Hoosiers, Indiana’s defense is about to run into a buzz saw on Saturday. Most college football pundits are still doing triple-takes about the Michigan turnaround from 2008 after just three games. Rich Rodriguez’s Wolverines are now No. 1 in the Big Ten in scoring (38 points per game) and No. 2 in total offense (439 yards per game). Michigan has outscored it’s opponents 114 to 58 so far. Unlike the Wolverine defense, the Michigan offensive unit does better early on in football games, having scored 63% of its points in the first half.

For Indiana, nothing done right or well versus Eastern Kentucky, Western Michigan or Akron is going to matter much. Do we have to go through the yards per carry statistics and the number of different UM players that have a touchdown to their credit?

OK, then let’s do that. Michigan tailback Carlos Brown? He’s averaging 8.8 yards per carry. Tailback Brandon Minor? 6.7 yards per carry. Quarterback Tate Forcier? 3.7 yards per carry. Six different Wolverines have scored rushing touchdowns. Seven Wolverine receivers have 5 catches or more. The Hoosier front seven will need to apply significant pressure on Tate Forcier early and try tp “force” critical mistakes. Forcier played well below par last week in passing yardage, but has his star receiver Junior Hemingway back at full health from injury this Saturday.

Star tailback Brandon Minor is questionable for Saturday’s game due to injury, but Carlos Brown, Michael Shaw and Vincent Smith are capable and dangerous backups for Michigan. Second string quarterback Denard Robinson has already scored spectacular touchdowns runs in two of Michigan’s last three games. Indiana doesn’t know this Michigan team at all offensively, and since more of Rodriguez’s playbook is being installed each week, they’ll need to be prepared for just about anything.

The Last Time:
Michigan last played Indiana on November 11, 2006. The Wolverines pounded the Hoosiers 34-3 on ESPN broadcasted nationally. This set up a huge clash of highly ranked unbeaten teams in No.1 Ohio State 11-0 versus No. 2 Michigan 11-0 in Columbus in the “The Game” the following week. Bill Lynch has never coached a game against Michigan before and it’ll be his first visit to the Big House as head coach.

The Indiana-Michigan series has not been particularly exciting mainly due to the one-sidedness. It is interesting to note, however, that just 30 years ago, one of the most exciting Michigan-Indiana games was played in Ann Arbor came down to the last seconds. With the game tied 21-21, Michigan’s junior quarterback John Wangler connected on a highly thrown pass to true freshman wide receiver Anthony Carter, who reached to catch it and then proceeded to rambled past several Hoosier defenders into the endzone as time expired. This win was over one of Lee Corso’s best Indiana football teams.

If I were Hoosier head coach Bill Lynch, I’d keep an watchful eye on any true freshman on the Michigan football team roster who hails from Florida.

Pssst, Bill! Denard Robinson!



What to Expect:
Part of me believes this will be a EMU game redux because the Hoosiers will try to run the ball out of the Pistol I formation, eat clock and keep Tate Forcier and Co. on the sidelines. Another part of me believes this could be a tough challenge for Michigan’s rushing attack, requiring the Wolverines to throw much more than they had to versus Eastern Michigan. Therefore, I do expect a more balanced offensive attack by both teams offensively in the ratio of passing yards to rushing yards.

Hoosier quarterback Ben Chappell is just too good not to connect on at least one TD strike or two to those tall wide outs of his in this football game. By now we all know just how cooperative the Michigan defensive secondary will be on that one. Likewise, because of Kirlew’s and Middleton’s aggressive play and Indiana’s 9 sacks over the last three games at defensive end, Forcier is going to roll out frequently and exploit the over pursuit. With proven run threat like Carlos Brown, Michael Shaw and Brandon Minor, Forcier should have a great day throwing against Indiana’s rag tag secondary players. One should not be at all surprised to see some touchdown runs by Michigan’s quarterbacks in this game from the read option play.

Then there are the rushing attacks to consider. The Hoosiers should be able to move the ball on the ground against Michigan in much the same way as the Irish and Hurons (Eagles) did: right up the middle on delays, draws and traps. The play action of the Pistol offense is going to easily confuse Michigan’s linebackers, and open up some nice running lanes for Demetrius McCray. However, I do expect Robinson to make some good adjustments yet again at halftime to shut this down for the latter half of the game. Despite the loss of center Dave Molk to injury, Michigan should be able to pound the Hoosiers into submission with the read spread option attack this Saturday. If Minor doesn’t play, then expect Carlos Brown to have a 100+ yard day. We can expect 100 additional yards rushing split between the two quarterbacks (Forcier and Robinson) and one other running back (likely Michael Shaw).

As predicted for the EMU game, Mr. Denard Robinson’s appearance in the upcoming Indiana game will again prove to be electrifying.


WCA Prediction: Michigan 38, Indiana 17

Eagles Taken Down by Carlos Brown

Michigan's Carlos Brown Taking It Downtown
(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

The Michigan Wolverines struggled early with Eastern Michigan on Saturday. But gradually, over the course of 60 minutes of play, Michigan's meat-grinder rushing offense wore down the Eagles with several big rushing plays and an improved second half defensive effort to defeat the Eagles (Hurons) 45-17 with over 107, 903 fans in attendance.

Michigan's 28 point margin of victory against EMU on Saturday was the most decisive for a Wolverine football team since a 2007 victory over Notre Dame 38-0. It was also the offensive highest point total achieved to date by Rich Rodriguez at Michigan, and the second highest point total for a Michigan offense since the 2007 victory over Purdue 48-21.

Eastern Michigan kept the game respectable in the first half, closing the gap to 17-24, aided by the running of both quarterback Andy Schmitt and a fleet-footed tailback named Dwayne Priest, who had 91 yards rushing and 1 TD.

But Eastern simply had no answer for the Wolverines' own rushing onslaught. Eight different Michigan players carried the football on Saturday and half of them found the end zone at least once. By game end, Michigan had tallied 380 yards on the ground. The Wolverines were sparked by spectacularly quick runs from senior tailback Carlos Brown who had 187 yards in just 13 carries and two touchdowns, including a 90 yard TD jaunt in the second quarter.

Defensively, Michigan struggled to stop Eastern Michigan's ball control offense in the first half. The Eagles matched Michigan in first downs achieved (17). Most astonishing was that the gamestrategy of EMU head coach Ron English had managed to keep Michigan's explosive offense on the bench for 40 minutes of the game. Michigan worked to make the most of their few opportunities, scoring 45 points in the remaining 20 minutes of ball possession in the game. Michigan's defense gave up 3.7 yards per carry, but kept EMU's passing game under wraps most of the day, surrending 15 catches for only 106 yards. With Schmitt and Priest, Eastern Michigan accumulated 285 yards in total offense against the Wolverines - an average outing for the Eagles thus far this year. Wolverine defensive coordinator Greg Robinson emphasized some key read adjustments at halftime. His players responded by shutting out EMU on the scoreboard in the second half.

The hero of Michigan's last two games, quarterback Tate Forcier, was slightly off Saturday, hitting on only 54% of this throws for a meager 68 yards. Michigan's second quarterback, Denard Robinson was 0 for 4, and threw two interceptions. Robinson eventually redeemed himself via two electrifying touchdown runs of 13 yards and 36 yards in the second half.

By vanquishing EMU on Saturday, Rich Rodriguez and Michigan have already tied last year's win total of three. Also, at 3-0 Michigan is one of only 5 remaining teams in the Big Ten that is undefeated. Penn State, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa are all 3-0.

Some other items of interest:

• After 3 games Michigan leads the Big Ten in scoring, averaging 38 points per game compared with 18.7 points per game this time last year

• After 3 games Michigan leads the Big Ten in rushing with 812, and is basically tied for first place in the conference with Purdue in total yards per game (439 yards per game).

• After 3 games, Michigan has yet to lose a fumble in 2009. By game 3 of 2008, Michigan had already lost 6 fumbles and had 3 interceptions.

• After 3 games, Michigan's total defense is currently ranked 9th in the Big Ten giving up 359 yards per game on average. In scoring defense, Michigan is currently ranked 5th giving up only 19.3 points per game.

• Michigan moves up from 25th in the AP poll to 23rd this week following the win over EMU.
  

Next weekend Michigan faces it's first Big Ten opponent in unbeaten Indiana (3-0) in Ann Arbor for the annual homecoming game. Michigan has not lost to Indiana since 1987 in Bloomington 10-14 when Bill Mallory was the coach for the Fightin' Hoosiers. The last time Michigan lost to Indiana in Ann Arbor was a 20-27 defeat to arguably the finest Indiana Hoosiers football team ever, the 1967 Big Ten Co-Champion.

2007 Game Footage: Michigan 33, Eastern Michigan 22

They always say "A win is a win!", but man, this one was fugly.

I don't think I have to remind people that this 2007 Michigan team was supposed to be one of Lloyd Carr's finest since 1997 with four, count 'em, four Heisman Trophy candidates on the roster, including Chad Henne, Mike Hart, Mario Manningham and even LT Jake Long. That Wolverine team beat the Eastern Michigan at home on October 6, by only 11 points and looked pretty unconvincing doing it.

This was a textbook example of a football game where Michigan had the power to score 60 points and possibly more at home against a way overmatched opponent.

Yet, why didn't they?

Here are some nice pics from that game.

When Carcajous Attack Fighting Irish

Who wants Scotch?

Michigan vs. No. 18 Notre Dame, September 12, 2009 – Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

When You Crave Irrational Exuberance On A Level That Only Brett Musberger Can Deliver:
“We’re here LIVE in Ann Arbor, Michigan! (Except that I’m physically really in Columbus, Ohio with Kirk Herbstreit, preparing for the USC-Ohio State shootout!). Alright fans, Rich Rodriguez and the 1-0 2009 Michigan football team will being going head to head with Charlie Weis and the 18th ranked, 1-0 Notre Dame Fighting Irish! This is a major statement game for both teams for the following reasons:

1.) Wolverines head coach Rich Rodriguez is under the gun for a 4-9 record so far at Michigan. Recent allegations of violating NCAA rules regarding practice rules has generated a lot of negative publicity to Rodriguez and the Wolverine football program.

2.) Rich Rodriguez is 0-2 versus Notre Dame all-time, including a 24-34 loss to the Irish in 2001 while coaching West Virginia his first season, and last year’s 17-35 loss in South Bend during his first season at Michigan.

3.) Fighting Irish coach Charlies Weis is on the hot seat at Notre Dame for his rather unimpressive 30-21 record since 2005 and for no meaningful victories over quality opponents since that first year. Weis is 2-2 versus Michigan since 2005. On the road against Michigan his troops are 1-1.

4.) In the modern era (the series restarted in 1978) Notre Dame leads Michigan in this series 13-11-1.

5.) The home team in this game has enjoyed considerable advantage. Michigan is 7-5 at home and 4-8-1 on the road versus Notre Dame since 1978.

6.) Both schools are unbeaten heading into this game for the first time since 2006.”

Notre Dame is the more veteran ball club this fall with 9 starters back on offense and 6 starters on defense, including star junior quarterback Jimmy Clausen. Michigan is a much more youthful team from head to toe although the Wolverines do have 9 starters returning on offense and about 7 starters on defense.

Three Great Reasons to Wipe That Ridiculous Smile Off Your Face:

1. “Jimmah” Clausen, Golden Tate and Michael Floyd
Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen has been dead-eye accurate the last two games against WAC defensive secondaries of Hawai’i and Nevada. Michigan’s secondary isn’t WACish from a talent perspective, but from an experience standpoint, yeah, Michigan can look quite a bit like a WAC defensive secondary come to think of it. Golden Tate and Michael Floyd are outstanding talents with track speed and good hands. Floyd had 3 touchdown snares last week (47 yards per catch!) and Tate has a 19.7 yards per catch average going so far. Also, the Fighting Irish have a solid TE in Kyle Rudolph and numerous other dangerous targets to soften Michigan at the edges, including Robby Paris, Deion Walker and tailback Armando Allen. Suffice it to say, Charlie Weis is going to attack Michigan’s weakest link: the Michigan safeties and banged up corners (Cissoko, J.T. Floyd). It’s going to take a Herculean effort of the Michigan defensive line and secondary to prevent what will very likely be at least 2 to 3 long touchdown bombs from Clausen.

2. The Fighting Irish Running Game
This Notre Dame offensive line has been much maligned since Weis has been head coach in South Bend. They gave up 21 sacks last year, but this fall Notre Dame has 4 highly talented senior offensive lineman and 1 sophomore guard in the starting lineup. They’ll be rotating in some players at tackle apparently, but this could be the year Weis finally gets the running game going with tailbacks Armando Allen, Jonas Gray, Theo Riddick, and their big fullback Robert Hughes. This group may not get the attention it deserves. Although Notre Dame has struggled to run the ball well against Michigan (and everybody else?) since 2006, I simply do not trust this Fighting Irish team to suck at running the football for a 4th straight year against Michigan.

3. Threat of Michigan Injuries
I stated for the Western Michigan game preview that this item will probably become a permanent addition for all of Michigan game previews in 2009, regardless of the opponent. I have yet to be proven wrong. Michigan will probably not have the services of starting wide receiver Junior Hemingway (ankle) this Saturday, and veteran tailback Brandon Minor is still not at 100%. It’s worth noting that Michigan’s secondary lost cornerback Boubacar Cissoko to injury in the latter half of the WMU game, though he is slated to play on Saturday. With Cissoko out of the game Michigan took it on the chin with a Hiller to Nunez touchdown bomb of 73 yards. Yikes! Any injury to the Michigan secondary versus Notre Dame spells almost certain death for the Wolverines’ chances of victory. That’s how bad things are on the Wolverine depth chart. And just to make sure that Michigan fans have a sufficient number of things to worry about for this Saturday’s game against Notre Dame, the Wolverine team walks a similarly precarious plank for the defensive line and linebacker positions as well. Any injuries there, start playing taps.

" I'm kind of a big deal. I embarrass the hell out of evil Leprechauns on national TV.
Oh, and I like Scotch."

When Carcajous Attack! On Defense:
OK, so Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Robinson knows what it takes to beat Notre Dame. It wasn’t pretty, but his overmatched Syracuse team shocked Weis and the Fighting Irish in South Bend in 2008 24-23 with a far less experienced team. Of course, there’s no way in hell Weis and his Fighting Irish will discount a 1-0 Michigan team to the same degree. Michigan played well on defense last week against a pretty decent offensive football team in Western Michigan, featuring a dangerous quarterback like Tim Hiller (albeit gimpy from ACL surgery), a big, veteran offensive line, and a 1,000 yard rusher in Brandon West. The big difference with Notre Dame is at wide receiver, where Michael Floyd and Golden Tate are big play machinery for Weis’s NFL style offense. In my estimation, Michigan’s safeties Michael Williams and Troy Woolfolk are going to have to play out of their minds on Saturday for Michigan to pull off a win because Weis is going to go for the jugular early in this game to get the lead and take the Michigan crowd out.

The one thing that might favor Michigan slightly on defense in this game is Greg Robinson’s flexible defensive sets and the 4 man front of Brandon Graham, Ryan Van Bergen, Craig Roh and Mike Martin. If these guys can get penetration and pressure Clausen consistently, then Michigan has a good chance to keep the game close. Notre Dame is very balanced on offense, however, with good possession receivers to soften the edges, a capable TE to confuse the Michigan middle, and good tailbacks that are dangerous on screens and draw plays. Jimmy Clausen is way more mobile than Hiller was, so this will be a test for the Wolverine linebackers and DL as well. Then there is the deep threat of Floyd and Tate. Both can pull Michigan’s heart out of its ribcage in a matter of seconds. The Wolverines are going to need one hell of a creative defensive game plan to stop this kind of balance that the Irish will bring to the football field this Saturday. Michigan’s defense is unlikely to play like USC did last year. But they just might play as good or better than Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Stanford and Navy did last year against the Fighting Irish. And with that disorganized level of play, this young Michigan team has a shot at keeping the score close enough to win the football game.

Denard Robinson says: "Phone booth? What?...No, baby, just dial 1-800-TOUCHDOWN!"

When Carcajous Attack! On Offense:
I was surprised with Notre Dame’s 35-0 shellacking of Chris Ault’s Pistol Offense of Nevada last week in South Bend. Star quarterback Colin Kaepernick, a dual threat player, was just 52% from the field for 149 yards with 0 TDs, 2 INTs. He was also sacked twice. However, Nevada tailback Vai Taua did rush for 114 yards in this game with a 6.3 ypc average. I have few doubts that Michigan, given the robust 2009 theme of Gulo Gulo Semper Accursus, is going to do all they can to establish the running game early, eat game clock, and keep Clausen and Co. off the field as much as possible. If Michigan can’t run the football against this Notre Dame defense on Saturday, then this game will be a very long one for UM. Michigan quarterbacks played fairly well last week against an anemic WMU defensive front and horribly inexperienced secondary. Notre Dame’s defense is going to be much better than that. What’s more, given Notre Dame’s potential offensive firepower, the level of urgency is going to be very high for Rich Rodriguez’s offense to score touchdowns in this game not field goals and to get an early lead. This would allow the Wolverines defense to pin their ears back and maintain their aggressiveness. Jon Tenuta is the Notre Dame defensive coordinator and will no doubt have his linebackers unit blitzing on almost every down against Forcier and Robinson to try to shake the freshmen. Michigan’s offensive line must play significantly better than it did last week to establish the running game and protect against these blitzes. Michigan’s counter to Tenuta’s blitzing will likely be many more QB waggles, rollouts, screens and tight end dump passes over the middle to take advantage of the over pursuit. Michigan had success last week attacking the edges with bubble screens and hitches, and quarterback draws. I would expect this to continue again this week. Michigan will need to beware of cornerback Robert Blanton and safety Kyle McCarthy as both had picks from last week’s game versus Nevada. A couple of things Notre Dame needs to look out for this week will be the possible return of tailback Brandon Minor and the resurgence of the Michigan downfield passing game to TE Kevin Koger and WR Greg Mathews. Michigan is not explosively fast at the receiver positions, but Forcier is an accurate thrower on the run and in the pocket, while the Wolverine receiving targets are many, and talented enough to inflict plenty of damage. By the way, it should surprise no one (except hopefully Notre Stain) to see some newly concocted trick plays introduced in this game by Rich Rodriguez, Rod Smith and Calvin Magee.

The Last Time:
Michigan last played Notre Dame was on September 13, 2008. In this game, Charlie Weis injured his knee severely by one of his own players careening into the sideline. But little else went wrong for Notre Dame as the Fighting Irish capitalized on an incredible avalanche of Wolverine errors (7 fumbles, 4 fumbles lost, 2 interceptions, and 7 penalties for -79 yards) resulting in a 17-35 Irish victory over Michigan. Interestingly, Michigan out gained the Fighting Irish in this contest with 388 yards to 260 yards by the Irish. Michigan also had 21 first downs compared to Notre Dame’s 14, and the Wolverines were slightly better on 3rd down conversions as well (33% for UM, 25% for ND).

Yes, as stated above, Rich Rodriguez has never beaten Notre Dame in his coaching career. Ever since West Virginia lost a shot to play in the Gator bowl in 2002 due to the Irish’s enigmatic conference affiliation (Independent/Big East), Rich Rod has about the same affinity for Notre Dame as Bo Schembechler ever did.

What to Expect:
On paper Notre Dame should win this football game, I'm sorry to say. And they could very well do it in decisive fashion. The Fighting Irish have a veteran defense and a good defensive coordinator (Jon Tenuta), a veteran offensive line, 2 outstanding NFL-esque wide receivers in Floyd and Tate, a five-star, 3 year starter returnee at quarterback in Jimmy Clausen. The Fighting Irish also have a decent kicking game (Freshman PK Nick Tauch 5 for 5 on PATs, Senior punter Eric Maust 40.7 yard punting average).

So what does Charlie Weis and Fighting Irish fans have to worry about?

Well, first, this game is being played in Michigan Stadium. Since 1978, the visiting team historically doesn’t fare well in this series. Second, the Wolverine defense showed considerable improvement (aggressiveness and relentlessness) versus an experienced MAC offense last weekend and the talented pro-style QB Tim Hiller. Third, the Wolverines have something special going on at quarterback this fall with big play machines of their own in Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson. Fourth, there is the x-factor for Michigan’s offense this week, which could involve return of star tailback Brandon Minor. Tenuta’s blitzing defense still gave up 150 yards rushing and 150 yards passing last week and 5.5 yards per play against a decent WAC team. It also surrendered 100 yards rushing to the Wolfpack’s best rusher, tailback Vai Taua. Michigan is going to move the ball on the Irish this Saturday one way or the other, which could mean trouble.

If Michigan’s defense can somehow harass and pressure Clausen and prevent enough big plays from the evil wonder twin wideouts Michael Floyd and Golden Tate, then I like Michigan’s chances of keeping this game close and down to the wire.

Of course, if they do, then it’ll be down to which sides has the fewest penalties and turnovers and the best special teams play (field goals) to determine the final result.

Yeah, I said it. That means field goals!

Arrgggghhh! Run away?

We all remember with horror names like Chuck Male, Harry Oliver, John Carney, Reggie Ho. Well, this year the shoe is on Notre Dame freshman place kicker Nick Tausch who was perfect last week on PATs, but has yet to try a field goal for Notre Dame.

Michigan has senior place kicker Jason Olesnavage, who was 4 for 4 on PATs and was perfect on a long 44 yard field goal versus Western Michigan.

WCA Prediction: Notre Dame 27, Michigan 24

The Western Michigan Game Day Experience

New Stadium Construction
I live in southern California so attending Michigan football games is a real treat for me. The last Wolverine football game I attended in Ann Arbor was the 2006 Ball State game, which Michigan won in typical indecisive, Mike Debordian fashion. The game day experience back then was really cool, as it always is in Ann Arbor, but man, I didn’t have a very warm and fuzzy feeling after that football game, despite Michigan’s high national ranking at the time. Michigan then went on to beat Indiana decisively on ESPN the following week, but lost a barn-burner at Ohio State. Of course, then Michigan was royally embarrassed by a vastly superior Pete Carroll-Ken Norton Jr.-coached USC team in the 2007 Rose Bowl.

The Western Michigan game last weekend just seemed very different. The Victors Walk, the support for Rich Rod and football team both off campus and at the stadium, and the new towering dark navy blue box structures on both sides of the field…it was different and impressive to me. I really like what they’re doing with Michigan Stadium. Once complete, this is going to be a great and massive venue for college football games. The one thing I kept thinking about was, how cool would it be if Michigan started playing night games here.

I know. I know. I’ll stop. But still…

It was also kind of neat to see a few construction guys in hard hats taking in the game as well.

So, was it louder?
I thought it was louder. My father is 71 years old and slightly deaf in both years. He attended the game with me. After the game he complained about a headache from the crowd noise and said his ears were still ringing on Monday. The bleachers weren’t shaking or anything like they do in Husky Stadium (Washington), but I was in Section 22 Row 45 well away from the Michigan student section and the band (By the way, I could not hear the band very well at all where I was sitting, which really sucked). The crowd noise was sufficiently loud most of the game, but what I did notice was that on big plays there seemed to be a clap or a louder “eruption” of sound from the crowd than what I remembered. Regular Michigan game visitors probably don’t notice this (and you should rightly all have your hearing checked by a physician tomorrow), but for infrequent visitors to Michigan Stadium like me (and probably for UM opponents as well) it was surprisingly loud.

Michigan Stadium, Now with Rrrrawk!
There have been numerous statements in the blogosphere this week about the piped-in music during the Western Michigan game. I guess this was a Michigan Stadium first. So what do I think? I’m in the camp that likes to impersonate an irate Bo Schembechler when a 38 Belly Option play in practice goes horribly wrong:


“Goddammit! Can’t you engineering propeller heads hookup some decent audio hardware to the Michigan Marching Band and blast the stadium visitors into oblivion with crystal clear music!!!?"

By God, I want to hear that band playing The Victors right all the way down in F*bleep*ing Akron!”

"And *bleep!* Neill Diamond!!!"



The answer is apparently no. The University of MichiganMarching Band is arguably the best marching band in the country and can play just about any music that Generation X, Y and Baby-boomers and even older want to hear. Piped in music at Michigan Stadium? Look, Guns and Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” is fantastic when the Detroit Redwings first take the ice, or just prior to an Anaheim Ducks hockey game face off. But seriously, it has no freaking business in Michigan Stadium. Bo Schembechler would be rightfully enraged by this, so I thus rest my case....And....I’ve probably just given away the fact that, as stated frequently in the Lethal Weapon films: “I’m getting way too old for this shit”.

Quarterbacks
I hate to say I told you so. But I freaking did tell you so. As long as he stays healthy, I’m telling you folks in Ann Arbor right now that you are going to be very pleased with Tate Forcier’s exploits over the next 4 years. He is simply not your average mobile high school quarterback that just happened to run a spread option offense. The kid can take over football games by making big, WTF plays. And the other thing is he gets better when the pressure is turned up in football games.Opponents are not going to be comfortable until the clock really hits 00:00.

The only thing Rich Rodriguez and Rod Smith need to guard against is whether Mr. Forcier falls into the belief trap that: “If it’s gonna be, it’s gotta be me”. He can’t do it all himself. Forcier has a crap load of talent all around him this year and well into the future. Finally, we’re all going to get to know those other players pretty well this year because the ball will end up hitting their hands courtesy of Mr. Forcier and Mr. Robinson.

I was very pleased with the quarterback play and confidence overall, even with all of the mistakes, with the sole exception of SheridINT’s interception, which would have given Michigan a 38-7 win in all probability. Denard Robinson is going to keep Tate honest week after week and serve as a nice option for the Wolverines offensive packages going forward. Oh, and he just happens to be a jack-in-the-box-like Impact Player. It’s like you’re 1 year old again, and you hear this funny music playing, knowing perfectly well that something fabulously shocking is about to happen. How interesting is it that exactly 30 years ago a freshman player from Florida became a star player for the Michigan Wolverines (Anthony Carter, 1979)? Denard Robinson’s future at Michigan is going to be a very bright one.

But I’ll say it again: There are going to be a number of mistakes from these quarterbacks this year. Prepare yourselves mentally for that eventual certainty.You may tear your hair out, chug a bottle of Pepto (I’ve seen it a hundred times out here from UCLA fans), or just run outside and scream a cloud of expletives that will cause it to suddenly rain. Most UM fans are newly accustomed to such rituals after the 2008 season debacle. Yet these freshmen quarterbacks are going to work out OK over the long run. Competition is going to increase next year, and that’s probably all we need to know for now to finally get some rest.

My Favorite Thing
DEFENSE! How about Greg Robinson? It’s early days, and Notre Dame comes to town this Saturday, but we saw a number of familiar but different things versus Western Michigan on Saturday with the Michigan defense:

1.) Guys knowing where they were at and what they were doing
2.) Wrapping arms and driving through tackles with their feet (this was the bestest thing everest on Saturday!)
3.) Hot pursuit up until the whistle. (Whoa. Are we sure Bill McCartney isn’t the Michigan DC this year?)
4.) Appropriate, though not perfect, pursuit angles. (Yeah, that was sort of a problem last year.)
5.) General relentlessness and meanness along the Michigan front 4 (Van Bergen, Martin, Graham and Roh*). Not perfect, mind you, but wow, a lot of upside shown here for a group that lost Taylor, Jamison and Johnson to graduation last fall.
6.) More aggressive jamming and tighter coverage from the Michigan corners. (Dear Mr. Jesus, please do not let there ever be a 2008 Purdon’t Game redux until the end of the world. Thank you. Amen.)
7.) Just one big play on blown secondary coverage in the game. Not eight or ten.

*For the record, the word “roh” is German for “raw” or “uncooked”. It also means “rough”.

I, for one, deeply appreciate the new mean streak and furrowed brows of this very young Michigan defensive line. We will respect the new appetite for horrendously undercooked quarterbacks by Mr. Martin, Mr. Graham, Mr. Van Bergen and Mr. Roh. That name, Mr. Roh, suits you, sir.

Evolution is right, but brutal
So yeah, Greg Robinson perhaps has no business acting as head coach anywhere in the country. But so far the man appears to have evolved in Darwinian fashion through slow, gradual change over many years of coaching in the PAC 10, NFL, Big 12 and Big East football to make a fairly decent coordinator of defensive coaching staffs. A defensive coordinator sets the objectives and ensures the strategies support that defensive objective in every game. He allows the individual defensive coaches to recommend and implement the agreed individual tactics that support each of the strategies that will ultimately result in the final objective being met: defensive domination and victory. GERG learned from one of the best defensive coordinators ever (in my opinion) while at UCLA: Bob Field. Sure, UCLA had a prolific, West Coast style offenses throughout the 1980s under Terry Donahue. But you simply don’t go unbeaten in major bowl games with shitty defenses either. I think Robinson changed some things right away when he saw what he had to work with at Michigan, and he will be a much more flexible operator than prior Michigan defensive coordinators depending on Michigan’s opponents. This is a very important change for Michigan football in my opinion. It’s still early days, but at least we are witnessing what other football programs have enjoyed called "adjustments" and "relentlessness".

Position Report Card: Western Michigan Game

Quarterbacks: B+
OK so I’m harsh here, but I’m kind of still pissed about Sheridan’s interception, otherwise quite good. Michigan has a good quarterback again. Actually, the Wolverines have two. And Wolverine fans welcome the return of a downfield passing game again for the first time since January 2008. Yippy Skippy!

Running Backs: B
Minor was out with injury and that sucked, but Carlos Brown and Michael Shaw did a capable job in his absence. Would have like to see bigger runs in this game versus Western Michigan’s inexperienced defense, but that’s partly dependent upon Tate making some better reads in the future and offensive line executing a ton better in the future. If this group goes down in productivity, it may not be their fault, but it will be very disappointing. I do worry about Minor's fragile nature.

Offensive Line: C
Way too many penalties and not exactly the dominating performance one would have expected versus an overmatched and way inexperienced Broncos defensive line. It was the first game, but the run blocking simply has to get better. I was disappointed to see no big runs by the Michigan running backs opened legimately by the OL. The pass blocking wasn’t too bad, but my theory is that Michigan’s more mobile quarterbacks this year (Forcier and Robinson) are going to make the OL look a lot better than 2008 in this regard. I'll talk about this in the Notre Dame preview, but Michigan is not going to beat Notre Dame this weekend without marked improvement with the offensive line play against considerably better talent in the Irish front line.

Wide Receivers: B+
Aside from Junior Hemingway’s welcome back party (5 catches, 103 yards and 2 TDs), this group did pretty well, ratcheting up Michigan’s yards per catch to 13.1! Zoyks! Western Michigan’s secondary was as advertised (not good at all), but Michigan’s pitch and catch attack in this game was a significant step change from 2008. This group can and should get better and more consistent. I bet they’re all smiling about their new quarterbacks. I was not particularly impressed with the downfield blocking of Michigan receivers in this game, and this has to improve significantly to beat Notre Dame next week, and just about any other more talented secondary in the Big Ten.

Tight Ends: B+
I posted earlier that Koger and Webb were going to be factors in 2009 that defenses must prepare for. They showed pretty good blocking in the WMU game as well. I like this group and expect some very good things as this year progresses. Koger is the real deal. This is the part where we feel warm and fuzzy inside because Kevin Koger is only a sophomore and Martell Webb is only a redshirt freshman (CORRECTION: Martell Webb is a junior! Thanks Tar).

Defensive Line: A-
I was really worried about this group over the off-season and still will because of Michigan’s frightening lack of depth here, but I did not expect this front four to play this well against a veteran Broncos offensive line. I seriously believed that Bill Cubit would logically deduce that his best chance to win last Saturday would be to run behind their experienced, behemoth offensive line with that 1,000 yard rusher Brandon West and then balance it out with Hiller’s long ball chucks. Only he did not. West had only 46 yards in this game and 3.2 yards per carry. If this group can somehow stay healthy, this could easily become a better than 7 win season for Michigan. Mike Martin, Brandon Graham are very good. Van Bergen and Roh are still “raw”, but in a good way. Barring injury this group should progress and get better each week. Kudos to Bruce Tall, Mike Barwis and Greg Robinson for making this group angry and relentless.

Linebackers: C+
I’ve come to the conclusion that Obi Ezeh and Jonas Mouton are going to do OK this year. Nothing great or spectacular, but they’ll be functional. The thing I liked to see was the pursuit and speed of these two linebackers in the game Saturday. Both are more athletic than last year. The thing I didn’t like was some of the incorrect reads and general hesitancy on some plays to take on blockers and fill gaps. I hope this will improve more under the new DC. Stevie Brown did well in his OLB role in this game. Again kudos to GERG for moving Brown to a position where he can actually dish out some damage instead of the reverse.

Secondary: B-
Tim Hiller normally throws for 300+ yards and lights up the scoreboard for 3 TDs or more against MAC opponents. Michigan held him to 259 yards passing including one major blown coverage up play for 73 yards, sacked him twice and intercepted him twice. He never got in the groove. Most importantly, Michigan corners played much closer coverage and did well jamming WMU receivers like Nunez, Ponder and Arnheim at the line. WMU never got any kind of rhythm going. Cissoko and Warren are going to do well for Michigan this year, but we all observed the kind of ruin that almost certainly awaits the Wolverines the moment even one player gets injured in this group.I really don’t mean to knock on J.T. Floyd. He’s young and will only get better in the future. But the second Cissoko went out of the game with a nerve pain injury, Floyd ceased the disruptive press coverage and gave his man way to much room to maneuver. I didn’t like the penalties on Warren, but in general I thought these guys covered, tackled and pursued fairly well for a first game. And let’s face it, these young Michigan secondary defenders are going to be burnt toast at least 2 times next week versus Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen, Golden Tate and Michael Floyd, maybe more. Tony Gibson and GERG will need to sharpen their pencils this week and put together one hell of a game plan. Maybe I’m batshit crazy, but I’m thinking Michigan needs some better speed and coverage capability at the safety spot.Unfortunately, it probably won’t be very long before we get a preview of what Vlad “The Impaler” Emilien and 5 star DB Justin Turner have to display.

About the Monkey
Rodriguez and the team faced a tough week with the practice allegations coming out on Monday. He did a great job keeping the team focused and executing the game plan against the Broncos. Notre Dame is going to be a tough opponent, but even though both teams won decisively Saturday, the pressure is clearly much higher on Charlie Weis than Rich Rodriguez.

When the game concluded Saturday, Calvin Magee and Rod Smith made their way down the steps of Michigan Stadium around my section (22). A number of fans yelled out to them and said "Great game coach Magee!" and "Great job guys!".

I left that game impressed with the support for the coaching staff, despite the distractions from the press.

Here's to the New Freshmen Quarterbacks

Michigan Quarterback Rick Leach as a freshman in 1975

A new era of Michigan quarterbacks begins on Saturday versus Western Michigan.
Many fans and pundits deeply disparage the spread option offense and the quarterbacks that operate it because like the Wishbone, the Veer and the Option I offenses before it, the spread option is considered by some to be just not as good, not as prolific, and considerably more "boring" than the more refined and exciting pro-set, West Coast, NFL offenses that have featured the tall drop back quarterbacks like Elvis Grbac, Todd Collins and Tom Brady.

With the two freshman quarterbacks Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson, Michigan is going to finally be able to open up the entire Rich Rodriguez's playbook on Saturday. Both of these youngsters are going to make some big mistakes. No question. But I'm convinced that they are also going to give Michigan fans plenty to smile about this fall as well.

College football is certainly a game of great emotion. It's also very much a team sport. No one player can do it all themselves. Tate and Denard will not only have 10 other guys sharing and carrying the load on every play. They'll also have 105,000+ Wolverine fans cheering them on. Though California and Florida are hundreds of miles away, they'll both be playing at home. In their Big House.

Best of luck to Tate and Denard in their first game in the Maize and Blue this coming Saturday versus Western Michigan!

HAIL TO THE VICTORS! AND GO BLUE!

Tate Forcier, QB, Scripps Ranch High School, Scripps Ranch, CA:


Denard Robinson, Deerfield Beach High School, Deerfield Beach, FL:

Michigan Lands First 2011 Recruit

Michigan apparently just received the commitment of junior cornerback Greg Brown, who hails from the same Fremont Ross High School in Ohio. This is the same high school that produced Michigan's Heisman Trophy Winner, Charles Woodson. Woodson too played cornerback.

Mr. Brown's specifications are as follows:

5 foot 10, 155 lbs, junior, 1-star, unranked Cornerback

He's only a junior, so the ratings will be updated as the season progresses.

Nice to see Michigan continuing to have recruiting success in enemy territory.

Welcome aboard Mr. Brown!

J'accuse

Detroit Free Press columnists Michael Rosenberg and Mark Snyder have today accused Michigan head football coach Rich Rodriguez and his staff of violating NCAA rules by:

a.) monitoring player attendance to voluntary workouts,

b.) purportedly "requiring" Michigan football players to participate in 100% voluntary activities (workouts, practices, exercises, and preparation drills)

c.) issuing punishment to Michigan football players for not participating in voluntary activities (workouts, practices, exercises, and preparation drills).

I'm not sure I agree with their police work here. Gannett's stock basically tanked right about the time of the Michigan spring game. You remember, when there was a lot of good news coming everyone's way about the early enrollees, offseason conditioning, etc. Well, the Gannett stock is finally making somewhat of a comeback in late August. Leaning on trusty, sensationalist stories by Rosenberg and Snyder can only help the Freep and its ownership in the backdrop of declining sales and subscription renewals.

Look if there's something wrong in Schembechler Hall, then the NCAA search dogs will be sure to find it eventually. And if they do uncover that Rodriguez and staff have been breaking the rules at Michigan, I will be very surprised. Here's why:

No Big Ten football coach that I know of has so frequently and so publicly cited NCAA rules regarding football player recruiting, guidelines for involuntary offseason workouts of football players, and NCAA guidelines regarding early enrollees, and all of the UM athletic department's frequent compliance monitoring processes, as Rich Rodriguez. Bo Schembechler rarely if ever talked about such things. Neither did Moeller. Lloyd Carr personally installed a "Cone of Silence" around the football program back in 1995. Rodriguez changed all of that and opened the Michigan football kimono so much, it's been lying on the floor collecting dust for over 18 months.

What Rosenberg and Snyder fail to address is how Rodriguez has been pretty forthright about the whole "you gotta love football" agreement with his players, and that Rodriguez has repeatedly stated that playing time too is voluntary. After reading their accusatory release, I was asking myself whether it is possible for Rosenberg and Snyder to be a little more vague about who the "quality control staff" of Rodriguez actually are or were? And what kinds of questions were actually posed of the freshman players to elicit the responses they printed?

I would be very surprised if a coach like this one who has been coaching NCAA Division 1 football since 1999 and who is so overly open, and who talks to the press about virtually everything and anything under the freaking sun, is eventually found guilty by the NCAA of something so well understood by the coaches and his staff, and so well-monitored and documented by the university athletic department staff.

As for the timing of Mr. Rosenberg's and Mr. Snyder's column, it couldn't have been better planned. Both writers are doing a fantastic job of attempting to undermine Rodriguez at every opportunity. They will continue to drive wedges of doubt into the hearts of Michigan football fans going forward, regardless of how the season plays out. It will be very interesting to see how the Michigan coaches and players respond to these accusations in the upcoming week of practice and in the opening game versus Western Michigan next Saturday.

As for Rodriguez himself, I'm hoping that he will respond appropriately to these accusations. By this I mean he should respond with both clarity and brevity. Whether or not Rosenberg and Snyder are on target or have completely missed the mark with their story, I'm confident the truth will come out. If true, there will be and should be consequences for Michigan.

The much bigger issues at hand in my view, aside from the allegations themselves, is that kickoff lies but 6 days way, and Rich Rodriguez simply cannot seem to put the turbulent past behind him. Michigan football fans are not used to the river of negativity about the coach and the program

Also, it's abundantly clear that no matter how hard certain coaches and players try to cover it up, not all of the 2009 Wolverine football players are "All in for this Michigan".

The best thing and the only thing the Michigan coaches and team can do right now is focus on game preparation. Winning football games will silence most of the hell-bent critics eventually.

Michigan Players And Hollywood Resemblances

I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but sometimes I'll meet somebody, look at their face, and then think to myself "Man, that guy is the spitting image of _____", or "Wow, she looks just exactly like _____!". It's weird. Sometimes it bugs the crap out of me for a few hours until a new idea flashes up like "I found the remote control!" or "But I didn't eat that."

Well, when I saw this chillin' but thrillin' new photo of Michigan quarterback commitment Devin Gardner from the ESPN article "Three Elite 11 Ball Boys Stand Out", the machinations began again within that vacuous region between my ears.

"Dammit, Devin Gardner looks an awful lot like somebody I've seen before! He looks like a famous person I know!"

"But who?"

"Oh yeah!!! Now I remember..."


Devin Gardner looks just like a dual-threat version of famous Hollywood actor John Amos!

The Triple Option Play From the Spread Formation: A Nice Overview

Steve Sharik posted a nice piece over at mgoblog about the triple option play out of the spread formation. The progression is similar to the same options observed from conventional triple option plays that most college football fans recognize out of base offensive formations like the "I formation" and "wishbone formation".

The triple option play has been frequently utlized by many read spread option football teams in the past like Utah, Northwestern, Oregon, West Virginia, Florida, and many others. When executed properly, this is a very difficult play to defend against, as the misdirection of the blockers and the QB and tailback fakes frequently places defenders out of position to make the stop. The advantage of perfecting this triple option play is that auxiliary plays tack on to it fairly easily, including regular and play action pass plays, and even run or pass reverse plays, which can really mess with the heads of the opposing defense.

Here's Steve Sharik's post which is a very concise description of the formation, positions, prescribed blocking and progression of the triple option play: Triple Option in the Spread Offense: a Brief Overview (Posted using ShareThis).

This of course begs the question whether Michigan's 2009 quarterbacks will be seen running this play very much? In 2008, I cannot recall a single game where Steven Threet or Nick Sheridan ran a full triple option play with a trailing tailback or a Y or H receiver shimming over into trailing pitch position. I may have missed it.

The answer to the question is yes. Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson both operated spread offenses in high school that utilized the triple option play.

Here is an example at the 2:11 mark of Tate Forcier running only a double-option play out of the spread offensive set, where he pitches the football perfectly to his trailing tailback Brennan Clay (OU commit) for a 35 yard gain versus Oceanside during the final state championship game for Scripps Ranch high school. Oceanside won decisively 49-14.

Here is Forcier running a speed double option play for a touchdown in the game:



I would not be surprised to see the double- and triple-options plays to be incorporated into the Wolverine repetoire at some point early this season, and possibly by the first game.

Judge Me By My Size, Do You?

And well you should not. For my ally is the Forcier. And a powerful ally he is.
- Yoda, 1 foot-6 inch, 30 lbs., 900 Year Old Senior Slot Receiver

OK, so sometimes I too can get carried away and need to retire to my nerdery with my calculator.

And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only Michigan football recruiting geek to have been slightly spooked about the smaller-sized skilled position players that now populate the Wolverine football roster. Observations and tweet messages from sports bloggers and national sports reporters during Michigan's first week of fall practice picked up on the apparent changes in Wolverine player stature as well. Of course there’s also a growing list of 3-star, sub-six foot recruits and commits brought in to play cornerback, tailback or slot receiver positions.

Rich Rodriguez’s spread offense doesn’t specify any particular player height or weight to play running back, slot receiver or outside receiver, or even quarterback. If such specs for skilled position players were ever written down for Rodriguez's read spread option offense, they'd probably include:

A. Under 6 feet tall

B. 4.6 sec 40 yard dash times or better,

C. Strength and athleticism to break open field tackles, and

D. Ability to fracture the ankles of oncoming defenders by making laser-precision, jock-removing jukes and cuts in the open field.

Michigan Freshman Running Back Vincent Smith

Football players of any size can certainly achieve the above. However, there’s been an interesting trend in offensive player profile and player size under Rodriguez, especially when we view some of the highest performing players at skilled positions like the quarterback, tailback and slot receiver positions over his coaching career.

Size of Impact Players At Tulane
I’ve probably written way too much about Rich Rodriguez’s stint at Tulane on this Michigan blog already. But it is an instructional reference point for Rodriguez’s first fully-fledged read spread option attack at the Division I level. As you can see from the 1998 season, there were several impact players under 6 feet tall and well under 200 lbs.

QB Shaun King: 6-0, 223 lbs., 3,495 yards passing, 38 TDs, 611 yards rushing, 11 TDs.

FB Okie Woods: 5-11, 230 lbs
TB Toney Converse: 5-8, 158 lbs., 982 yards rushing, 8 TDs
TB Jamaican Dartez: 5-9, 185 lbs., 679 yards rushing, 7 TDs

WR Jajuan Dawson: 6-1, 197, 74 catches, 1,030 yards, 12 TDs
Slot PJ Franklin: 5-10, 180 lbs., 79 catches, 1,216 yards, 10 TDs
Slot Adrian Burnette: 5-10, 186, 11 catches, 201 yards, 3 TDs
WR Kerwin Cooke: 6-1, 176, 31 catches, 528 yards, 4 TDs

Size of Impact Players At Clemson
Rodriguez was the offensive coordinator for 2 years under Tommy Bowden at Clemson, 1999-2000. The Tiger slot receivers and wide receivers were much taller than at Tulane. Travis Zachery was the main running back in 2000.

QB Woodrow Dantzler: 5-11, 200 lbs, 1,691 yds passing, 10 TDs, 1,075 yds rushing, 13 TDs.

TB Travis Zachery: 6-0, 190 lbs., 1,044 yards rushing, 13 TDs

WR Rod Gardner: 6-4, 215 lbs., 51 catches, 956 yards, 6 TDs
Slot Jackie Robinson: 6-1, 190 lbs., 24 catches, 276 yards, 3 TDs
TE Kevin Youngblood: 6-5, 219 lbs., 12 catches, 221 yards, 2 TDs

Size of Impact Players At West Virginia
Rodriguez coached at WVU for 7 years. I select the 2002 and 2007 seasons as samples with the size and weight of some of the top performances over this period, not repeating names:

2002
QB Rasheed Marshall: 6-1, 190 lbs, 1,616 yards passing, 9 TDs, 666 yards rushing, 13 TDs

TB Avon Cobourne: 5-9, 190 lbs, 1,710 yards rushing, 17 TDs
TB Quincy Wilson: 5-9, 210 lbs, 901 yards rushing, 6 TDs

WR Miquelle Henderson: 6-2, 205 lbs., 40 catches, 496 yards, 2 TDs
WR Phil Braxton: 6-3, 200 lbs., 20 catches, 379 yards, 2 TDs

2007
QB Pat White: 6-2, 190 lbs., 1,724 yds passing, 14 TDs, 1,335 yds rushing, 14 TDs

TB Steve Slaton: 5-10, 200 lbs, 1,051 yards rushing, 17 TDS
TB Noel Devine: 5-8, 170 lbs., 627 yards rushing, 6 TDs

WR Tito Gonzalez: 6-2, 210 lbs., 10 catches, 219 yards, 1 TD
Slot Jock Sanders: 5-8, 185 lbs., 12 catches, 102 yards, 0 TDs, 105 yards rush, 2 TDs
Slot Darius Reynaud: 5-10, 200 lbs, 63 catches, 725 yards, 12 TDs
WR Dorrell Jalloh: 6-0, 190 lbs, 24 catches, 271 yards, 1 TD

Impact Player Size And The Power of the Forcier At Scripps Ranch High School
Tate Forcier is not a huge quarterback by any means. He’s only 6-0, 190 lbs. and entering year 1 of the Michigan football strength and conditioning program of Mike Barwis. Forcier was a very accurate thrower, especially during his senior season of high shcool, when he connected on 65% of this throws for 3,331 yards and 23 TD passes. His top receiving targets on the Scripps Ranch football team last year, as one might expect at the high school level, were (with one exception) rather smallish in size:

TB Brennan Clay: 5-11, 182 lbs., 66 catches, 1,010 yards, 6 TDs
Slot Todd Herrod: 5-7, 142 lbs., 37 catches, 875 yards, 6 TDs
Slot Malcolm Billingsley: 6-0, 175 lbs., 21 catches, 365 yards, 1 TD
TE JT Kerr: 6-5, 230 lbs, 21 catches, 294 yards, 3 TDs
Slot Trayvon Herrod: 5-10, 140 lbs., 13 catches, 184 yards, 2 TDs
Slot Jake Curran: 6-1, 165 lbs., 10 catches, 103 yards, 2 TDs

Impact Player Size At Michigan
Since Rodriguez’s arrival in Ann Arbor, he’s continued to place quite a high level of emphasis on player speed and athleticism for the quarterback running back and slot receiver positions, as well as the defensive backfield. One cannot help but notice the physical stature of some of these lightning quick additions to the 2008 Michigan roster:

CB Boubacar Cissoko, 5-8, 175 lbs.
SR Martavious Odoms, 5-8, 171 lbs.
SR Terrance Robinson, 5-9, 170 lbs.
TB Sam McGuffie, 5-11, 190 lbs.

2009 Roster Additions:
TB Vincent Smith, 5-8, 165 lbs.
SR Jeremy Gallon, 5-9, 175 lbs.
CB Teric Jones, 5-10, 194 lbs.
TB Fitzgerald Toussaint, 5-10, 185 lbs.
WR Thomas Gordon, 5-11, 205 lbs.

2010 Verbal Commitments (so far):
TB Tony Drake, 5-8, 160 lbs
CB Courtney Avery, 5-9, 164 lbs.
CB Terrance Talbott, 5-10, 172 lbs.
WR Drew Dileo, 5-10, 175 lbs.

Rodriguez clearly doesn’t mind going after smaller-sized players, as he knows they will be well-conditioned by the time they hit the field and have the skills to perform their duties in this offense. Given the many examples at Tulane, Clemson and West Virginia, any panic about Rodriguez’s affinity for recruiting smaller profile players may be misplaced. Besides this, many Michigan fans may recognize the names of several high-impact players at Michigan over the last 40 years. Perhaps it’s comforting to know that a great many of these Wolverine players didn’t exactly arrive to Ann Arbor in “extra large” packaging:

TB Gordon Bell, 5-9, 178 lbs, 1973-1975
TB Roosevelt Smith, 5-10, 198 lbs 1976-1979
WR Anthony Carter, 5-11, 161 lbs, 1979-1982
TB Lawrence Ricks, 5-10, 205 lbs 1979-1982
WR Erik Campbell, 5-10, 168 lbs 1984-1987
TB Jamie Morris, 5-7, 175 lbs, 1984-1987
WR Desmond Howard, 5-10, 161 lbs. 1988-1991
TB Jon Vaughn, 5-10, 174 lbs, 1988-1990
WR Mercury Hayes, 5-11, 180 lbs. 1992-1995
TB Mike Hart, 5-9, 196, 2004-2007

Jamie Morris was only 5 foot 7 inches tall and 175 lbs. Yet he left burnout marks all over the Tartan surface at Michigan Stadium for 4, 392 yards and 25 touchdowns between 1984-1987.

Bienvenue Talbott Brothers!

The Michigan Wolverines football program earned the commitment of two new players: defensive tackle Terry Talbott, and Terry's brother, Terrance Talbott. Terrance was recruited to play the cornerback position. Both positions at Michigan are in dire need of talented playmakers.

The Talbott brothers specifications are as follows:

DT Terry Talbott, 6-3, 265 lbs, Wayne High School (Huber Heights, OH), 4.87 speed. 3-Star, No. 50 DT in the nation. Terry's offer list included Cincy, Wisconsin, NC State, Michigan State, Kent State and Toledo.


CB



Terrance Talbott, 5-9, 172 lbs, Wayne High School (Huber Heights, OH), 4.5 speed. 1-Star, unranked CB. Terrance's offer list included Cincy, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Toledo and Ball State.



OK, so Mr. Terrance Talbott is getting just about zero love right now by Scout.com and Rivals.com. But watch the footage at 00:21 as he absolutely tattoed another Michigan recruiting target, 4-star and No. 6 TE in the nation Alex Smith, of (CORRECTION): Lakota West High School (West Chester, OH). Choice.


The Talbott brothers helped to lead Wayne High School to an 8-4 record in 2008.
Both return for the 2009 season alongside star Warrior quarterback, and OSU recruiting target, Braxton Miller for the 2009 campaign.

Welcome to the Michigan family, Terry and Terrance!

Here is the Talbott family crest:


Their family motto?

Prest d'accomplir.

That's "Ready to Accomplish".

Rodriguez's recruiting strategy is finally starting to emphasize the much needed defensive position players. The next 7 months are going to be a lot of fun on the recruiting front.