Thursday, October 28, 2010

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Penn State Preview

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Penn State Preview: "After a couple weeks of very bad football the Michigan Wolverines got a much needed bye week last week. This bye week was huge for a struggl..."

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Indiana game leading into Michigan State

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Indiana game leading into Michigan State: "Another exciting game this past Saturday for the Michigan Wolverines football team as once again this weeks game came down to the final driv..."

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Little Brother Fights Back

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Little Brother Fights Back: "Little Brother fights back once again this year. After preventing an early opportunity to be blown out, Michigan State puts it together on 5..."

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Pollspeak.com

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Pollspeak.com: "Ever since Michigan jumped up a 1 spot in the polls a couple weeks ago, because of a late corrected ballot I have been keeping an entertaini..."

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Pollspeak.com

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Pollspeak.com: "Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Pollspeak.com: 'Ever since Michigan jumped up a 1 spot in the polls a couple weeks ago, because of a late ..."

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Iowa game

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Iowa game: "Stanzi was the Manzi in Ann Arbor on Saturday leading the Iowa Hawkeyes to a 38-28 rolling of the Wolverines. With penalties and turnovers d..."

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Penn State Preview

After a couple weeks of very bad football the Michigan Wolverines got a much needed bye week last week. This bye week was huge for a struggling team to get back on track and have some players get rested up. The three best players on the team all left the Iowa game early due to injury so they got all of last week off. Denard should be back and ready to lead the offense at close to full strength. David Molk will be back at the Center spot letting Michigan get back to normal and solidifying the line and Mike Martin should be back after his ankle was tweaked to position himself at the Defensive Tackle spot putting pressure on Penn State. These guys have to be healthy for a winning season this year.
            This week in practice Rich Rod jacked up the intensity and had the teams working hard getting prepared for a Penn State team on the ropes wanting to be knocked out. He made a change that really got some of the fans talking moving Big Will Campbell to the offensive side of the ball and Quentin Washington to the defensive tackle position to try to get both lines a jump start. Will has had a hard time finding the ball after the snap and a lot of people have blamed that on a coaching staff, not understanding the kid should have redshirted but he thought he was a sure lock NFL star, then got a rude awakening ever since on campus. The coaches also moved around some of the freshman safeties to the spur position to give them the chance of playing two positions and getting more playing time the rest of the season. The last couple weeks also really helped Terrance Talbott who was sidelined the first three weeks due to clearinghouse issues and started his second week he was eligible, the more reps this kid gets the better. Hopefully they will be a little more comfortable on the field now.
The last couple of weeks also were a good time to find out what side of the fence people were on regarding this team. The many closet Rich Rod haters got to come out and talk about how he doesn’t care about rivalries and big games. It also got the pro Tate Forcier supporters talking about a quarterback change that is needed. These fans are the embarrassing scum of the earth that just drive me crazy. You are telling me that you can’t even support a player who is being heralded as a Heisman contender. That is just ridiculous. These people need to find something better to do with the air they breathe. If you’re not 100 percent ALL IN FOR MICHIGAN, then get out!! Luckily this team isn’t last years team as many of the current players have said. It is ridiculous these youngsters have to be reminded about last year’s team. I think this team is a way different team made up of better leaders and players.
            Now to the Penn State game. It will be a white out at night like usual when the Wolverines play Penn State this year. This game is going to be huge for the rest of the season, I almost think it is the biggest game yet. Penn State is a team on the ropes with about as many injuries as the Wolverines have been dealing with this year. Being on the ropes could also be said about this Michigan team who people are just waiting to go 5-2 and not win again like they did last year. This game is going to be very interesting how the guys do; many of them there first big night game on national television. It wont help them prepare any that they will have no clue what quarterback will be playing for Penn State, with Bolden injured, Newsome struggling, and a walk on who played his first game last week. Bolden grew up in the state of Michigan and wasn’t heavily recruited by the Michigan staff and Newsome was supposed to be a Michigan man two years ago until he decommited at the end of the year. That could mean both of those guys are going to want to go show off against Michigan. Lucky for whoever it is they always have Royster to give the ball off to against a bad defense should help take the weight off.
            The Michigan offense should once again determine by themselves how many points they score. That is not being said cocky one bit, this offense has determined when they stop and don’t score most of the time. If Iowa can’t hold them under 500 yards I really don’t see Penn State doing it. The offense has to limit themselves to 1 turnover or less to make this game comfortable. It would be really nice to see the special teams show up and maybe make a field goal and kick the ball off in bounds. Either way I still think this week that the Wolverines take a huge step forward and get bowl eligible and beat Penn State 38-28. GO BLUE!!
           

Monday, October 18, 2010

Iowa game

Stanzi was the Manzi in Ann Arbor on Saturday leading the Iowa Hawkeyes to a 38-28 rolling of the Wolverines. With penalties and turnovers dooming the first half for the Wolverines preventing them to get anything on the scoreboard early was too much for the youngsters. Taylor Lewan was the first half drive killer as he had 3 penalties on 3 different drives that moved them backwards and stopped all momentum. You can’t have those mental errors when you are playing a better team and putting the defense out on the field with a short field to protect. Iowa proved that with a steady game plan and experience they will take those mistakes and turn them to a positive for them. Every time Michigan screwed up, Iowa turned that into points. Michigan did rally late and another turnover inside the 15 was huge and halted another scoring possession. After going the first five games with only 1 turnover and now having 7 in the last two games just shows what can’t go on if they expect to win. I don’t have a lot to say this week as too everyone that watched the game knows how it went down and what Michigan did wrong for the second straight game against a better opponent.
            Michigan proved that they can move the ball against anyone gaining over 500 yards against a tough Iowa defense, most of that came when they opened up the offense with Tate Forcier. After center David Molk went out of the game with an injury they put Denard behind center and totally changed up the play calling and that isn’t Denard’s style of game. Denard later would be knocked out of the game and Tate did a decent job at trying a late rally. I still am not a Forcier fan due to the debacle that went on this summer. Yes, he proved he can still play quarterback fairly well, but it led to the burning of Devin Gardner’s redshirt and on the last pass of the game showed with the lack of time with the receivers he isn’t on the same page as Roundtree cut off the route and Tate threw his second interception. I still hope Devin redshirts next year as he has the best tools of all the quarterbacks and is the future. I found it nice that the crowd supported Tate when he came in, but also a little nervous that so many people want him in the game after Denard had played really well so far. Tate is the best throwing weapon on the team, but he is still in my doghouse. The offense seemed to limit Denard for some reason, and when Tate came in they let it go.
            I have never in my life seen special teams as special as what Michigan has now. It is worse then any junior high team in the country. There has to be a player that can kick the ball. To look clueless every time they kick a field goal knowing there is no chance of it going in or being able to keep a kick in bounds is ridiculous for a Big 10 program. Two times in a row the Michigan kicker kicked the ball out of bounds at the end of the game giving Iowa the ball at the 40. These free yards isn’t at all good for the defense, they have enough trouble stopping somebody for going 80 yards. Then on the field goal, to have it blocked and everyone except Tyler Sash stand around confused is just embarrassing. I really think I am going to practice and walk on before the next game, I surely can kick the ball in bounds anyways, and field goals can’t look any worse.
            I can say the one and about only positive thing I saw was that this team unlike last years team showed no giving up. They tried to turn it into a game again and came close to doing so. This shows me that this team will show up and try hard the remainder of the season. With a bye week coming up hopefully they can clear their heads and heal their bodies. It sounds like Rich Rod had a come to Jesus meeting with the team as he made them have a full practice on Sunday to go over the mental mistakes. The team does get Monday off from football activities and will start things back up on Tuesday. This should help iron out any of the issues and I can promise you that this team will come back playing hard after their bye week this weekend. I expected Michigan to lose some of these games against better opponents when the schedule came out and I am still very pleased to be 5-2 and on path for a bowl game. For a report from the Iowa side of the ball your man J-Call should help get you get that fix.
           

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Pollspeak.com

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Pollspeak.com: "Ever since Michigan jumped up a 1 spot in the polls a couple weeks ago, because of a late corrected ballot I have been keeping an entertaini..."

Pollspeak.com

Ever since Michigan jumped up a 1 spot in the polls a couple weeks ago, because of a late corrected ballot I have been keeping an entertaining eye on how certain people vote each week in the college football polls. Pollspeak.com is a great way to compare how voters rate each team so differently and how certain ballots look to have a funny regional favorite or theme to them. I have enjoyed being able to keep a watchful eye over the process the last few weeks now. I agree that early in a season it doesn’t really matter were a team is rated and most likely it won’t be changed or looked at until the last few weeks. Like when TCU was dropped a spot by the human poll last year so they wouldn’t have a chance to make the National Championship. This made me wonder how a team could all of a sudden not be looked at as a top team compared to the weeks before, or was it a way of the voters showing they didn’t want to take the heat for a TCU vs. Alabama national championship. Now with pollspeak it is a great tool to realize who these people are that will always vote the Big Ten down many spots compared to the SEC or the people who still love Texas and USC so much they have them in the top 15 even a couple losses.
            I give the AP voters some credit knowing their polls are going to be public and most likely that means their inbox each week will be full of emails complaining about their ballot. The Harris poll and USA today coaching poll I also think should become available to the public for scrutiny, since we all know that 75 percent of the coaches have an assistant or somebody on the staff fill out their poll. This system is very flawed and this weekly availability of the AP Poll really shows it. I think people would complain anyways in a playoff, even though I would love to see a playoff just so I would find out if Boise State would be able to actually win more then just 1 game to win the national championships, but who is to say voters don’t move them down or a certain team to 9th place so they get replaced by an Ohio State, Michigan, or Southern Cal. This would cause the same uproar as them getting voted out of the national championship in the system that is in place now.
Yes, don’t you guy's worry I also always seem to be that guy that sends a couple emails to a voter just wondering what they were thinking. This week I had three lucky winners that I sent emails to, one was a voter that had Alabama still third and the likes of Oklahoma, Nebraska and Boise State behind, also another voter that had Alabama 3 spots above Oklahoma. How can you really say after last week that Alabama is still deserving to be 3rd in the Nation is my question? I am not even an Oklahoma, Nebraska, or Boise State fan I just feel they are getting unfairly voted down at this point and time. Or are these people not watching the games, like one voter who at least admitted he didn’t watch the Iowa game and had no idea why he had them rated like he did. At least he is honest, because I am certain half these voters don’t watch any of the games. It would be like me talking to you about the Colorado State game, I would have no idea as I didn’t watch it. Another is a guy who constantly votes the Big 10 teams down, he has Ohio State 7th, and Michigan State finally rated this week at 23rd. You have got to be kidding me. He usually gets an email each week from me that he doesn’t respond to. Then finally the lovely lady from little brother Sparties hometown, she hadn’t had Michigan rated once this year and still has Texas in her top 25. Only thing I can muster up to think about that is from the great words of OchoCinco, “CHILD PLEASE”.
No system in the world will ever be perfect to everyone, but thanks to pollspeak.com and other people who constantly monitor the voters, it’s one of the best tools out their for us to keep an eye on the voters. Maybe it will finally make voters more conscious of their efforts, and will have them at least explain their reasoning. That is what we all deserve is just an explanation about why people voted for who and why. Let’s start holding voters more accountable for their actions and pay better attention to them. I will keep an eye on this an talk about it more as the year goes bye.
           

Monday, October 11, 2010

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Little Brother Fights Back

Michigan Football Weekly Updates: Little Brother Fights Back: "Little Brother fights back once again this year. After preventing an early opportunity to be blown out, Michigan State puts it together on 5..."

Little Brother Fights Back

Little Brother fights back once again this year. After preventing an early opportunity to be blown out, Michigan State puts it together on 5 straight offensive possessions to win the game. Missed opportunities came early and often as Michigan proved when they can’t score that it means the defense still can’t give up the points. Those two early interceptions and missing a wide open receiver prevented them from being ahead early 21 to 0. Instead they led 3 to 0. Those interceptions were the ball game, and add that to a team that struggles kicking the ball, touchdown need to be mandatory. Michigan State did a good job holding the ball on offensive and keeping it out of the hands of Denard in the third quarter. The defense did make some early stops and too not have gotten a better lead and more points out of the offense was a blow that the Wolverines didn’t seem to be able to withstand. This will all have to change for continued success.
This was the third year in a row that Michigan State has won, and for some reason on this Saturday during the game I took the loss with ease knowing since Michigan plays in a real conference that they will have a chance to bounce back, and bounce back fast with homecoming against Iowa. I expect this team to have a few hiccups and so should everyone that cheers for them. My moral was intact all of Saturday to be shattered when Carson Palmer totally ruined it on Sunday. But, that is beyond the point.
            This game went from a potential blow out early for Michigan to a good win for Sparty. State seemed to have a well led team that stayed calm and weathered the storm. This loss could also be a good thing for Michigan, and I think if they rebound next week it will prove to be a good thing. The media who we all love so dearly had taken 1 player and forgot about the team. As Denard said, “After the game this is a team game and there is no I or Denard in Team”. Denard is a very humble player and always is smiling, which I kind of like and dislike all in 1. I like how he never takes things too serious and lets the bad things bring him down; I just also hate that smile after an interception. This loss will get the Heisman talk slowed down a little hopefully and get Michigan back to being were they should be in the lower part of the rankings. This team was never going to win them all, I really would think an 8 win season would be great, as this is a super young team and has a lot to keep building on as they progress. I think with the team being so young and most of them it will be the start of the rivalry for them and will also mean they will bounce back well against Iowa.
 I can’t blame the media for talking Heisman since that is what they are paid to do and are allotted so much time to talk about it, and then others who don’t know anything about the team, just make things up as they talk about the stats. I will never talk about Heisman until after the Ohio State game, since that is the game that almost matters the most as molding your future and career while at Michigan. My favorite is a writer who predicted Michigan would only be winning 3 games for the whole season and then after 5 games he talked about them running the table and winning the conference, as the great Mike Ditka would say to him “ C’MON Man. This loss could get the team back to reality and take the team to taking it one game at a time and be a very good thing.
The game against Sparty showed how the defense is going to be exploited when the offense can’t score when they are needed to do so. Not that Michigan State really stopped them yardage wise just the miscues inside the 10 yard line and dropped passes. The team just didnt' look sharpe. Denard had his usual 300 yards and will always have a lot of yards after each game it’s just that he can’t be turning it over so many times. Turnovers will cripple this team. In the previous 5 wins he had only 1 interception and since I think that every game will be close, 3 turnovers proved to be impossible to overcome. The wide receivers missed some easy catches, as 1 easy drop at the 2 yard line was followed by one of the red zone interceptions. We all know the defense will give up big numbers and still need to limit the water intake into the boat. A couple of injuries will hurt the team in the future as Tay Odoms and James Rogers were injured and Odoms looked to have broken his foot. Hopefully Junior Hemingway is getting healthy and will take over the lead wide receiver roll. It would also be nice to have a field goal kicker that could come through. At the end of the half the Wolverines had a chance to get 3 points and didn’t. This would have been a little bit of a momentum push for the Wolverines, instead they got nothing. If you watch even the extra points are a rodeo, with high snaps and missed kicks. This has to be taken a closer look at and fixed.
This week’s upcoming game is a huge game to get the ball rolling forward again, as it could make for a big impact on how the season goes. This will be homecoming and played in front of another sell out at home. Last year the offense wasn’t as close to the being at the same place they are at now and still had a close outcome against the Hawkeyes. Denard will now be the fulltime quarterback against the Hawkeyes scary defense as he only had a couple minutes at the end to do anything last year. Denard did look good and that was before he could throw the ball at all. I am excited to go to this game and watch in person and see the new renovations. I will of course have the cell phone at the hotel room for sure while this game goes on. This game will come down to the offense limiting its turnovers and scoring points. Iowa has an experienced team and will play the same style of football Michigan State did this past week. The key to the game is will Iowa keep the ball on the ground and keep its offense vanilla like they sometimes do, if so it will be another great opportunity for the Wolverines. This game will be different then last weeks and last years as Michigan will be victorious 38- 31. Go Blue !

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Indiana game leading into Michigan State

Another exciting game this past Saturday for the Michigan Wolverines football team as once again this weeks game came down to the final drive. Luckily for Michigan they were team with the ball and were led by the explosive Denard Robinson. Once again for the second time of the year Denard led the team down to a victory in the last minute to beat the Indiana Hoosiers 42 – 35. Denard made history as he was the first quarterback to throw for 200 yards and also rush for 200 yards, the last person to do that in their career was the great Longhorn Vince Young who Michigan fans know all too well after what he did in the Rose Bowl years ago against them. This was another great performance for Denard who looked great once again. Denard did get banged up a little again and after he came back Michigan looked a little tentative in having him push the offense like he had done in the first half and couldn’t ever stretch the lead past 7 or 14 points. I will credit the defense for making the Hoosiers punt more then they did score in the second half and keep Michigan from falling behind during that team. The defense isn’t their yet and it will be another year to they start improving with them playing 8 true freshman in the defensive rotation, but you tell Oregon that defense is that big of a deal, because that team also gives up 500 yards a game and nobody really mentions it.
The offense was without Michael Shaw who was injured with a knee injury and wanted to give him the week off before the Michigan State game so it was needed of Vincent Smith to fill in and take the majority of the plays in the backfield. This he did well running the ball 9 times for 80 yards and had a huge 56 yard touchdown in the third quarter to keep Michigan ahead. The Wolverines went to a lot of big back sets with a tight end or big true freshman Stephen Hopkins leading the way for Denard. Denard was solid through the air as he had two different receivers come through with over a hundred yards receiving. Junior Hemingway is looking like the receiver we saw two years ago before he has been riddled with injures, a lot with him is I personally think he was lazy and out of shape coming into this year and was hampered by a hammy injury due to that. He has always been talked about as being the best athlete on the team; we just haven’t seen that translated on the field very much. He is a big body that can stretch the field and with Stonum and sure handed Roy Roundtree the receivers are starting to look a lot better. The offense line did once again a great job and holding their blocks and moving to the next level against Indiana giving clear running lanes for the backs. The offense stays healthy it should find much success this year.
            I got so many texts about how they look 8 man or they have a Big 12 defense. Well all that matters is that Denard gets the ball with one minute to go and to win the game. These people I thank you for turning it to ESPNU and checking out what all the hype is about, but if you don’t have a clue what your talking about please leave me alone I don’t text you about Iowa or Oklahoma or whatever team it is you’re a fan of. I really don’t care how many points they give up or how they beat the other team by only a couple points, just as long as they win. Iowa did really well last year only beating teams by a few points as I remember.
These first 5 games have already helped with getting back in with the big name recruits and hopefully Friday Michigan will find out they landed the top all purpose running back in the nation, Floridian Dee Hart who will start day one in Ann Arbor. They are about a year away from doing really insane things and looking like Oregon is out now, except then Michigan will be able to out recruit teams like that and be scary good. But, back to this year, 1 game at a time and 1 win at a time. Things are looking good for now and that 8 wins and a Florida or bowl game in Texas is very possible. That will be great for these youngsters as it will mean more practice time and more time for recruits to see Michigan on national television.
            This weekend they might have what some people will call the biggest game in Rich Rodriguez’s coaching career at Michigan so far. I think it should be a big game, but not that much hype. Michigan State has a hard hitting defense and an experienced offense led by a solid quarterback. I don’t think its fair to compare last years game that went into overtime to what will go on this year, both programs had issues going on last year that affected their seasons. Both teams played Notre Dame closely and almost look about even with Michigan having just a few breakout athletes on their squad. I think once again this game will be all about scoring points, and I expect Michigan to score more then the little brother Spartans and win 38- 34. This would make the Wolverines bowl eligible and be a huge momentum swing upwards going into homecoming with the Hawkeyes coming to town. GO BLUE!