Bowling Green Wrap Up

It was blow out city this past Saturday in Ann Arbor as the Michigan offense was on a roll all day no matter who was behind center winning huge over Bowling Green 65 to 21.  The Michigan offense racked up a school record 721 yards with 466 of them coming on the ground as the rushing attack went wild all day long. The offense scored on all but 2 series and never having to punt, one series ending with a dropped touchdown, followed by a touchdown called back ,then finally fumbling. The other drive they gave up the ball on 4^th down inside the 30, only not scoring because they can’t seem to find a field goal kicker and would rather just test their luck on fourth down. I really think this not having a kicker will hurt them in a close loss later this year. The defense seemed to play a little better, even with Marvin Robinson playing a limited roll at the end of the game and Greg Banks and Carvin Johnson still resting to be 100 percent for the big ten season opener.

            I was lucky enough to catch the whole game on TV even being in Indianapolis for UFC 119 and it seemed the big story line of the whole game other then the horrible announcing on ESPN 2, was the over reaction of Denard Robinsons knee injury. Denard was on pace for 800 total yards and had 150 in just the first 5 minutes of the game and finished the game with 180 yards and two touchdowns in 10 minutes of playing time. It did get a little scary after he hit his knee straight to the ground on his final run of the day a 47 yard run out of bounds. This really got the idiots in the booth talking about could this injury be really serious and then on the bottom of the screen it would flash Michigan’s Denard Robinson out of game due to knee injury. The announcers left out the fact that after a little time on the sideline he put his helmet on and ran back to be in the game, but Rich Rod caught him and said no way are we putting you back in when up by 2 scores. Any other game of the year Denard would be back out their running wild.

It was good to see that Michigan has two very serviceable back ups in Devin Gardner and Tate Forcier. Devin looked great running and throwing and that was without the help of wide receiver Junior Hemingway who dropped a for sure touchdown and David Molk who the next play made a bonehead late hit after a big touchdown pass. Devin’s future is going to be amazing; he has the frame to run hard, and can throw on the money. Next was Tate Forcier who should be the back up and let Devin redshirt except he wanted to be a baby all summer and not work out very much with the team and fall to third string. Tate was on all day and broke the completion record as he went 12 for 12 for a 120 yards and a touchdown. This depth will be a good thing as the season moves forward.

            The first quarter was all Denard as he ran all over the Bowling Green team before he was taken out due to the knee precautions. Denard had amassed 130 yards rushing already and 60 yards passing. To end the quarter new quarterback Devin Gardner kept things rolling with a touchdown pass to Jeremy Gallon for his first ever touchdown reception as a Wolverine to lead 21 to 0 at the end of the stanza. This combination of Gardner and Gallon could sure be awesome to watch for the next few years.

            The second quarter saw the defense let up and the team look a little flat emotionally with a big lead and Denard being out as Bowling Green scored two quick touchdowns. 1 of those touchdowns was the usual 71 yard big pass we have seen are defense give up every game so far. This has to stop once big ten play starts. I think they get comfortable and then forget to tackle and run to the ball thinking that a linebacker is actually going to tackle in the middle of the field which everyone in the stands knows isn’t going to happen. These two scores were put out by the Michigan offense responding with a Michael Shaw touchdown run at the end of the half to keep Michigan leading 28 to 14.

            The second half would be start with Bowling Green snapping the ball through the end zone for a Michigan safety and the rest of the game would go from their as it was a Michigan clinic for the rest of the game.  Michigan would score 16 points in the third quarter and 21 in the fourth quarter and limit Bowling Green to just one. If you were a Michigan running back and remembered to have your pads on during the game you got to play. The line was making huge holes and one after another a running back was running through them. Fitzgerald Toussaint who everyone wanted to see played in his first game back from an injured hamstring and ran for 66 yards on just two carries and Mike Cox made his first carries of the year also and he recorded his first rushing touchdown of his career wearing the maize and blue helmet. The second string offensive line constructed of all redshirt freshman and sophomores looked great, this group has a lot of people talking about a great future with getting back to having great lineman again coming out of Michigan. This game was great for all the youngsters as they all would get valuable playing time and some confidence going into the big ten seasons.

            For the second time in the last two years Michigan finished their non-conference schedule 4-0 and ranked 19^th in the nation. Except this year the offense is way better, with a more explosive quarterback threat and a healthy offensive line that makes all the difference in the world. The defense is also once again the question as they are about as bad as they were last year. The defense just needs to limit those huge plays and let the offense get a lead to hold onto. Michigan will open big ten play with Indiana who gave them a scare last year and can score points very fast. I still am not sure if Michigan will cover the 11 point Vegas spread, but expect to see a 38 to 31 ball game with the Wolverines being 5 and 0 going into a huge rivalry game against little brother Michigan State next weekend. GO BLUE!

Massachusetts Wrap Up

Michigan survives a so called scare after big win last weekend defeating Massachusetts 42 – 37. The game for us fans that watched it, didn’t seem all that scary until maybe the last couple of minutes. Many fans expected to watch a UMassacre but instead saw Michigan’s defense struggle in the opening and finishing quarters. The game saw UMass jump out to a 17 to 7 lead after their first 4 possessions and Michigan only having possesed it three times. I was never really worried as after that Michigan scored 35 of the next 42 points of the game. It came down to a onside kick that went out of bounds and people that saw the final score had no idea with ten minutes to go Michigan was up by 18. This was a good win for the guys as they are now 3 and 0 going into week 4.  This UMASS team showed the Michigan team what they will need to focus on going forward and that they will have to be serious the whole game and not let up with ten minutes to go anymore and will show that this week against Bowling Green. Not that it should be an excuse but the defense was without 2 starters and depth is going to be huge issue in the secondary this year. Let’s just hope this was all just an emotional let down.

Many people brought up the all so famous Appalachian State game after this, since they just saw the score was close but need to know that both those teams in that game were way better then the ones that played on this Saturday. Yes, Michigan is 3 and 0 and that is great. I almost wish they weren’t even rated, but since people like to talk Heisman so early in the season even after just the first few weeks. The media is of course going to talk about Denard Robinson and then have no clue were this defense is really at or what is going on with the rest of the team. Got to love the people who try to jump on the bandwagon after two weeks or exitement and then all of a sudden you hit a little bump in the road and they start to ask those crazy questions and start to show there true colors. These so called experts that now praise Denard didn’t even know Denard was going to start the season behind center and now want all the credit about his success. This is a team that should win 7 or 8 games, anything better then that is going to be a great success. So for all of those who listen to the guys who don’t know more then the 1 player Denard Robinson and all the talk of running the table need to slow down and take it easy. This is a very young team and remember at this point last year Michigan was 3 and 0 with Tate Forcier on the front of the Sports Illustrated, and now look at this year, he is third string and that team finished 5 and 7.

            The first quarter saw Denard make his first bad decision of the year throwing the ball on the first series for Michigan. Michigan had quickly brought the ball up to the 50 and then Denard made a bad read across the middle of the field. This error led to a UMASS touchdown and they jumped out to an early 7 to 0 lead. Michigan responded with a Michael Shaw touchdown run at the end of the quarter to tie things up at 7-7. This was a breakout game for Shaw as he ran for 126 yards on just 12 carries. It was nice to see him finally read the holes and take his time and burst threw. He had a lot of questions as to the lack of production after the first two games. I think a lot of that had to do with the quarterback read and Shaw just be handed the ball with no place to go resulting in his numbers looking so bad. His success is much needed and is funny as it results in Denard not having to run as much and not needed to pick up so many yards and people not understanding that when they ask why Denard didn’t run for 500 yards this game. The run game from Shaw was a huge positive this week.

The second quarter saw two quick UMASS scores as they jumped out to a 17-7 lead. Michigan struggled on defense on many crossing patterns and just looked plain lazy. I had started to ask myself if the linebackers were just that bad, or invisible. On one run by the quarterback Jonas Mouton looked like he didn’t even want to talk him and was hoping the quarterback was going to run out of bounds. The level of play has to be picked up from here on out. Thankfully the Michigan offense was fined tuned today and with a minute left Denard found Daryl Stonum on a 66 yard touchdown pass to make it more of a game and from this time on Michigan didn’t really look back. A UMASS fumble in the last minute would also lead to Michigan scoring with 16 seconds to regain the lead on another Stonum reception for a touchdown. This was the first time people had seen the Stonum that everyone expected the day he started as a freshman. This is a very good sign for things to come. Michigan would go into half leading 21 to 17.

The third quarter would be all Michigan as they would score twice on another Shaw touchdown and Denard Robinson scamper to the endzone. The defense started to tighten up and make the plays they needed. Without Carvin and Marvin in the secondary due to knee and shoulder injuries it was a little sketchy in the first half and was good to see them play much better in the third quarter. With this lead it also allowed Michigan to get a good look at backup redshirt freshman Taylor Lewan who looked awesome. Taylor could start at many other programs and is the first sign in a couple years that the offensive line has some depth.

The fourth quarter saw this defense that played so much better in the third quarter take a nap and relax. UMASS scored at the start of the quarter to tighten the game up to 35 to 24. Michigan would then score their last touchdown on another Shaw run to find themselves up by 18 points with 10 minutes to go. This is when the defense would start to look as bad as they had in a year with the effort and lack of knowing the assignments, it was just a sad thing to see. UMASS would score with 5 minutes ago making this game a little more interesting and then proceed to stop Michigan on a third and two. Michigan is out their to punt and the special teams who have been playing so awful this year and already missed another field goal this game would drop the snap and get it blocked giving UMASS the ball at the 25 yard line. Thomas Gordan would then intercepted his first career pass that looked liked it would seal the game and then then as he went down he fumbled the ball that would then get back into the UMASS players hands and that’s how UMASS scored the last touchdown. So, they just wouldn’t go away until finally the onside kick went out of bounds and Michigan then ran out the clock.

The last 5 minutes of not being able to close the door resulted in a closer then needed to be victory for the Wolverines. This also will be something this team can grow from and improve on to make sure they never let up again. Hopefully next week Marvin Robinson will return to the defense from injury for sure and will help solidify the secondary a bit more. The special teams also need to finally start producing points and decent punts, they cant miss field goals every week. The Victors will be at home again this week as the finish off their out of conference schedule with Bowling Green. I expect to see another 40 points scored and this time the defense will play better and only give up around 17, so expect Michigan to be 4 and 0 and around 20^th in the nation after this Saturday going into conference play.

Notre Dame Game wrap up

It’s great to be a Michigan Wolverine. Another great game for the Michigan Wolverines this week as they beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on the road 28- 24. This was another great win for Rich Rodriguez’s club. The win now makes them 2-0 and back in the national polls after being unranked since week 4 of last year. Denard Robinson looked amazing once again and put together another classic of a game that won him the National Player of the week honors for the second week in a row. Denard is the first player ever to win these honors two weeks in a row. The defense did enough to keep Notre Dame from winning only really making two bad decisions that hurt the team. This might not seem like a stunning victory, but it should be a big deal as this is only the 5^th time Michigan has won in South Bend in 33 years. A lot of good Michigan teams have went down their and lost, so anytime you can beat Notre Dame on the road is a great thing. The game made for a great Saturday afternoon for me to cheer like crazy downstairs all by myself, while the rest of the household was busy watching some blow out in-state rivalry watching a fellow Big Ten team dominate the lesser Big 12 program.

            The game started with what looked like Tate Forcier saying he was sorry for his sideline antics last week as this week on national TV as he hugged Rich Rod to start the game. The first quarter started with a quick opening 3 play series from the offense that forced them to punt. Dayne Crist easily led Notre Dame down the field to secure the 7 – 0 lead. Michigan returned with the two touchdown drives to lead at the end of the first 14 to 7. I was started to get worried if I was going to see a blow out and if last week was just setting me up for failure as I had put my faith back in this team to win. But, No worries Denard is still behind center as the first touchdown was an awesome quarterback draw pass. The play was executed perfectly as it forced the safeties up to stop the run and Denard hit wide open Roy Roundtree for a 31 yard touchdown pass. The next of the quarter was a scoring drive that saw Denard run all over the defense again and was finished off by a Stephen Hopkins touchdown on his first career carry. What a great start to his career that was by scoring on his first carry, and if you would have read the preview you would have expected a little dose of the big bodied Hopkins.

            The second quarter saw a couple different Notre Dame quarterback due to Crist having some vision problems after his sneak into the end zone in the first quarter. This was a good thing for Michigan with Notre Dame looking rattled and two new quarterbacks that only took a third of the practice snaps this week for the golden domers. They had true freshman Rees who was intercepted by Jonas Mouton on his second career pass trying to throw on a flee flicker that fooled nobody and next to look bad was Nick Montana play, who luckily for us Michigan fans didn’t have on a pair of his dads shape ups on, because he was throwing all over the field to anyone not wearing a Notre Dame helmet. The offense did move the ball pretty effectively and saw Denard use his speed to score on an electrifying 85 yard touchdown run to end the half. The first half saw Michigan shoot out of cannon again this week and finished with the lead 21- 7.

            In the third quarter, we saw the return of Dayne Crist and with him 10 quick points by Notre Dame as the lead quickly shrunk to 21 to 17. The youngsters started to look around a little bit and the Michigan offense got stranded at mid field often and couldn’t seem to convert on a couple short third down plays that they should of. This made me start to question Rich Rod a couple times and short third downs on why the don’t just run as they would call for a 15 yd pass, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me. The defense totally blew a coverage that led to the Notre Dame so called touchdown. If you look at the video the Notre Dame receiver started to celebrate at the two yard line and toss the ball into the end zone. Notre Dame quickly sprinted out and kicked the extra point and NBC conveniently didn’t show the replay until after the TV timeout. Way to go NBC!

            The fourth quarter came down to Michigan just not wanting to put the game away. 3 times they got down inside the Notre Dame twenty and didn’t score. Redshirt Freshman Brendan Gibbons missed two field goals that should have sealed the game and the third drive saw Michigan go backwards on third down after converting the third down due to a holding call. I am pretty sure that I could have made the second missed field goal and I am not an Army Bowl All American so maybe I needed to show up for the open tryouts. These misques would have put Notre Dame away, but instead they gave Notre Dame another chance to win the game. Out of nowhere comes this rainbow as it hadn’t been raining for hours, I started to almost think Touchdown Jesus was maybe real. My friend texted me and warned me of how this rainbow would also bring nothing good to the stadium and he was sure right, as Notre Dame somehow completed a 95 yard touchdown pass on the worst coverage I have seen in a while to retain the lead. Thomas Gordon looked as if he was playing 500 and the sun got in his eyes and then got out ran by the slowest guy on the field. But, as the rainbow went away the air and stadium would turn blue again, and also I personally just think that Michigan wanted to just raise Notre Dames hopes and then crush them back down. It was now time for the man himself Denard Robinson to put together one of the best drives in Michigan history against Notre Dame and win the game. His run ability and clutch 3^rd down completions sealed his fate in history as Michigan would score on Denard short scamper into the end zone and win 28-24. Notre Dame did have a chance at a late Hail Mary, but Crist thought the tuba player in row 4 was open and threw it out of the end zone.

            This was one of the greatest performances by a Michigan player in history as Denard Robinson accumulated 502 total yards. If you would have bet he would have attempted 40 passes people would have thought you would be crazy. He completed 24 of those 40 passes for 244 yards and a touchdown, and ran the ball 28 times for 258 yards. Once again if they gave away the Heisman after week two he would easily have won it. This easily goes in my personal top 5 performances I have ever seen as a Michigan fan, with the likes of what John Navarre did against Iowa, and Tim Biakabutuka did against Ohio State. It was just purely amazing. Denard was part of 94% of the Michigan offensive production, if you compare that to the best Vince Young ever had done was compile 84% of the yards at Texas. That is simply astounding. Expect to see his picture all over the place and the upcoming Sports Illustrated.

            The offense was lucky to see the surprising appearance of Roy Roundtree as he was supposed to be injured and doubtful this week. He played great taking some huge hits again and coming up with some great catches. He also rebounded well to dropping a great pass form Denard that would have been a hard catch anyway and played his heart out and never let it get him down. The offensive line played well again, but they do need to stop shooting themselves in the foot with those holding calls in big situations on the opponent’s side of the field. The defense as a whole played great, they just need to be aware of the big play and start wrapping up as they missed some open field tackles. They did force three interceptions and I haven’t seen that in a while. The defense keeps improving and should get a chance over the next few weeks to get ready for Big 10 conference play. It will also give Carvin Johnson who missed this game a chance to heal and be back at the starting spur position. Walk-on two years ago and now starting safety Jordan Kovacs who should have his own movie pretty soon had 7 tackles and an interception, as he would make Rudy look slow and non athletic.

            This game was another huge momentum factor for the young team to keep improving to the future and really helped the outlook of getting back to a bowl game. The next few weeks they should have a chance to get other players some more playing time and get tuned up for big ten play. I expect to see Hopkins get some more carries and Devin Gardner some reps at quarterback to give him some game experience. The return of Junior Hemingway is going to be huge to the outside wide receiver spot as Stonum and Odoms had to play over 80 snaps and that is too much to expect them to be fresh. It’s great to be a Michigan Wolverine going back home to play UMASS as the # 20^th team in the nation. Rich Rod should really be feeling great now. Go Blue!

Week 2 Notre Dame Preview and Prediction

It’s the midway point of the week and we are half way to game number 2 for the Michigan Wolverines. While the rest of my home state worries about this weekends traffic in Iowa City for some game that is between a couple of instate teams.(only one of them I have actually even heard of since they are also in the Big 10), I am reading about the hate between the Irish and the Wolverines. That means this weekend I will get the TV. to myself and will be watching the game on NBC with just myself and my friendly 30 pack of stones while everyone else around here watches PBS or whatever that instate game will be on, as I get to watch one of the best rivalries in football between the winged helmets of the Michigan Wolverines vs. the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

This is another huge game that could really pole vault the Wolverines forward this year and be a huge boost in team moral as they look for that winning season that escaped them last year. How will the youngsters respond on the road as many of them will be playing for the first time on the road is the question? 12 true freshmen will be playing in their first road game ever and many of the others will be playing in Notre Dame for the first time also. I expect to see some young nerves and a bend but don’t break defense on Saturday.

This week has seen another Safety leave the school as Vlad Emilien has decided to go elsewhere as he is transferring from the university. This and other departures has led to an open tryout on Friday for anyone wanting to try and walk on to the team, this isn’t a joke as it is posted on the Michigan website. So if you know the next walk on star like Jordan Kovacs, make sure he gets to the open tryout Friday, and also please make sure he is more talented then Rudy. This departure is really bad timing as the secondary is already going to be without starting spur/safety Carvin Johnson who is out due to a knee injury suffered against UCONN. Vlad would have got minutes against the golden domers this week and it now it looks as if Thomas Gordon will have to step up and play the bulk of the game without a back up.

The defense will be trying to stop better receivers this week and a better quarterback from what they went up against last week, so I do expect more points on the board from the opponent. The defense has to limit big plays down the field to Michael Floyd, and stop the running back at first impact. On third downs they need to keep the quarterback Frazier from looking around and keeping the drives moving, if they can do this they should be in good shape. This is nothing that the defense can’t overcome as Craig Roh and Mike Martin will once again be the leaders of the D and the solid ground for the youngsters to lean on. Look also for the D to blitz more and drop back up to 7 guys sometimes, they will really look to keep Notre Dame on their toes. They should throw alot of looks at Frazier on Saturday.

The offense will look to keep the high paced scoring action and rack up the yards against a defense that should be a lot bigger and slower then them. Last year Tate Forcier got to lead the Michigan to a great win that landed him on Sports Illustrated, this year he gets to watch from the sidelines as it is now Denard Robinsons time to do the same. The line should be able to make the space needed for the backs to get through and make plays. I expect the offense to put up the points again this week for sure. They will be without Roy Roundtree the sure handed receiver who got blown up last week and had some internal bruising that will keep him out this week. This will be the time for ex point guard Kelvin Grady to take over and show he can hold onto the ball and make the plays necessary. Terrance Robinson who made a big catch last week to finally get the playing time some people had been expecting him to get the last two years. I also expect up to 4 running backs this week to give the guys a break. Stephen Hopkins could get some reps in the backfield and so should Mike Cox who would add a better blocker in the backfield for Denard. The offense has to do a better job blocking down field as Coach Rodriguez was very critical of it after week 1. This could lead to a few two back sets in the backfield, with Shaw and Cox, or even a tight end in the backfield. Hopefully this better blocking will lead to us getting to see another display of quickness and smoothness by the offense. The offense should score another 30 points this weekend.

This game will come down to if the bend but don’t break defense can keep Notre Dame to less than thirty and if the offense can secure the ball and Michigan wins the turn over battle. This means special teams have to do a better job and hold onto the ball and make all the field goals and extra points when needed to do so to give Michigan the edge.

I like that the people in Vegas feel this is more of a winnable game for Michigan more now then they did at this time last week. The betting line has changed from a 7 point in favor of Notre down to 3.5 spread still in favor of Notre Dame. I do still disagree with Vegas as this Michigan team is better then Notre Dame again this year and will outscore them 37 – 31 as Michigan will be rated going back home for a week 3 game against UMASS.

Michigan vs. Connecticut week 1 wrap up

Michigan vs. Connecticut Wrap Up


The 2010 college football season is finally here. Now all the questions will finally start to be answered. This was a huge game for Rich Rodriguez and the start of the 2010 season for the Michigan Wolverines. Coming off another bad season not making it to a bowl game, the start to this season was going to be big for them to get on the right track and finally show the progression people have been waiting for. Favored in Vegas by a few points, but with most of the so called experts all picking UCONN to win the game, even our own great Desmond Howard picked UCONN to win on his ESPN show and he has been to many Michigan practices so this made me a little nervous before the game.

The new stadium renovations looked amazing as the old attendance record would be shattered, and the emotions that would be flowing with Brock Mealer leading the Michigan Wolverines out of the tunnel walking on his own followed by his brother, current lineman Elliot Mealer and his mother, the survivors of a deadly accident that left Elliot’s father and girlfriend dead at the scene and Brock paralyzed and told he would never walk again by the doctors. Rich Rodriguez got his weight staff together and after a year of hard work, Brock was now walking. The emotions flowing and the kickoff only a few minutes away, I was starting to get myself pretty excited for this huge game to start the season. The scene couldn’t be any better to start off the college football season in Ann Arbor.

The game started with a horrible kick into the crosswinds, and you knew then that the defense was going to get tested right out of the gate. UCONN came into the game led by Notre Dame transfer quarterback Zach Frazier, and had been the talk of the football community as one of the Big East best offenses. Well luckily that offense didn’t really show up all day and the Michigan defensive line showed on the first series just how much bigger and faster they have gotten in the last year, as defensive end / linebacker Craig Roh was in the backfield on the first series and all of the rest of the day and so was Defensive tackle Mike Martin. Matt Millen proclaimed during the game that Mike Martin is going to be the best defensive tackle in the Big 10. Let’s hope Millen is actually correct about something in his life this one time. The defensive line pushed UCONN back on the first drive and did so most of the day controlling the front line. The secondary did a very good job not giving up any huge plays and the linebackers finally showed the improvement people have been waiting for all year long last year. Obi Ezeh made a couple huge plays and Jonas Mouton was around the ball all game long. This was a great debut by many of the youngsters on defense and will hopefully give them a ton of confidence going forward this season. I was even having a hard time figuring out which youngster was out their, was it Cullen Christian, Marvin Robinson, Carvin Johnson, Cameron Gordon, or James Rogers, all of them played great in their Michigan debuts and should feel great about their effort.

Then the offense led by Denard Robinson put pressure on UCONN all day long as they seemed to run right by them and control the edges most of the day. Denard Robinson starting his first collegiate game showed why he was the starting quarterback as he set all kinds of new records for a Michigan quarterback on his feet. It is expected these records would go down as no Michigan quarterback in history would have ever ran so much. Denard showed great decisions and ball security all game and threw the ball exceptionally. Mostly short passes, as he controlled third downs, and every once in a while would hit the deep ball down the field. It was one of the best games by a quarterback in his debut that I have seen in a long time. Vincent Smith with his speed to the outside made the zone read a little easier on Denard as Vincent made some great runs. The offensive line looked much better and proved why they are in my top 3 in the conference when healthy. The offense was amazing all day and after exploding out to a 21 point lead it looked as they were very comfortable and having a lot more fun. I had never seen Rich Rod smile that much in a first half in his whole career while on the job in Ann Arbor. The second half was played just as well on both sides of the ball and it was a great win for the Maize and blue. Yes, I will say it, if they handed out the Heisman it would be Denards to take home this week, let’s just hope we can consistently see improvement and great decisions all year.

Denard will be seen all over the place now on Espn, and every website you look and you will hear the comparisons to Pat White all year hopefully. His box score was amazing rushing for 197 yards and completing 19/22 for 186 in his debut was something I don’t think people expected. He really chose his receivers well and made the right progressions while dropping back really well and with the line built for pass blocking, he actually had some time to decide. He is a humble kid and I only expect him to keep learning and to not let one game get to his head. If Denard plays this well all season, a person would imagine that the Wolverines will be playing in the post season and somewhere sunny.

The few problems Saturday were the special teams who bobbled a couple returns and the kicking game which I will give a mulligan to with the wind, as they were sporadic at best. Then comes the Tate Forcier situation, as when Denard got banged up Tate went running to the coach and got completely ignored as they put in true freshman Devin Gardner at their own 15 yard line. This showed what I had believed all along and said in my preview that Tate played himself into the third string quarterback roll over this last offseason and to not expect him very often or until the UMASS and Bowling Green games to finally get some snaps behind center. He then proceeded to sit by himself and cover his head in a towel on the sidelines and not cheer at all for his teammates. Hopefully he can become a team player this season and keep the talk positive, or else he will be having people whisper about the separation in the locker room and all that crap is something Coach Rodriguez doesn’t need this season.

The team played great and will lead themselves into a huge game on the road against the golden domers. It looks as if they will be a couple starters down with the injuries to starting safety Carvin Johnson and leading receiver Roy Roundtree both of whom got hurt in week 1. If the offense shows up I expect them to score plenty against the big and slow golden domers, now can they stop the better passing attack of Dayne Crist will be the big question. I expect to see lots of points in a game similar to last years. If Michigan controls the ball and wins the turnover battle, I see them winning.If they don’t it could get interesting. If they win they will be rated going into a couple much easier non conference games. It’s exciting and I already can’t wait for next Saturday. This week a shout out to the hater Dennis Dodd who all year talked about Michigan going to struggle and now put up and article about how explosive and good they looked. Hope they keep making people watch and change their opinion about the spread in the Big 10 and of Coach Rodriguez. GO BLUE!

Michigan Season Preview and Season Predictions

2010 Michigan football preview

The Michigan Wolverines football team returns to its 131st year of football with more people looking on and questioning the program more then ever in its rich history. Coach Rich Rodriguez is in his third season and looks to be coaching for his job this season. After a 5-7 season last year, with another no bowl game to go to and the fact it was another year of losing to Ohio State made it a tough place to be. Coach Rodriguez has the hottest seat on the coaching planet and needs to win fast. Last seasons failures didn’t come from the lack of production from the offense, but from a dismal season on defense. The offense will need to cut down on the turnovers and keep the pressure on opponent’s offenses to keep scoring. The offense should be super fast getting to the outside with the spread with the 3 headed monsters of Denard Robinson, Michael Shaw, and Vincent Smith all with sub 4.4 speed coming your way. Now if they bring the defense up and can Denard or Devin hit the deep ball this year or to the middle of the field, if so it will really help the offense move the ball. On the defensive side of the ball the big question is can the rookies slow down the other teams. The front will be lead by a couple stars in the making with Craig Roh and Mike Martin on the front line, the secondary will be full of new names and watch for freshman guys like Marvin Robinson and Carvin Johnson to bring with them that southern swagger to the field with them. Hopefully guys like safety Jordan Kovacs who as a redshirt freshman safety sometimes got thrown under the bus by us fans can come back and have a big season, because you sure can’t root against the walk-on living his dream as a starter for his childhood favorite.

This offseason was another wild one in Ann Arbor in the Rich Rodriguez era as more talk of the chance of probation and the players being totally left on their own to do their own offseason workouts themselves, as the coaches had to stay far far away. Some players chose to be lazy and come into camp out of shape, which led to the departure of Austin White and J.T Turner. One of the biggest hits for the team came from the decision from the acceptance committee at Michigan to not accept Demar Dorsey into the school; Dorsey would have started immediately in the secondary, and was the big ten top recruit according to ESPN. Then the news of Tate Forcier being called out by his teammates, even team leader Troy Wolfork mentioned him as a weak leader. It then led to all the talk of him going to another program like his older brother had done before as he also left Michigan to play at Stanford. It left many fans wondering what had gotten into his head, but he is now back and the team has really started to come together with one common goal. Get back to a bowl game and beat Ohio State. Leaders are what are needed on this team, if you want to be Justin Boren and wear a rich rod mask at Halloween, then leave and go elsewhere please.

Now for the breakdown on both sides of the ball. The offense is coming off a pretty decent season from such a young squad; it did have to endure the departure of 3 talented seniors: Carlos Brown, Brandon Minor, and Greg Matthews. The offensive line will be the anchor for this team as they return healthy with David Molk back from an injury plagued season at Center and depth at all the other line positions with Coach Rodriguez forcing his last two classes of lineman to redshirt and get stronger. The offensive line is built for the pass block, but will have no problem being in the top 3 overall lines in the big ten this year. The backs will be led by sophomore Vincent Smith and junior Michael Shaw, both whom saw playing time with the injuries to Brown and Minor during the previous season. Shaw is supposed to be the main back this year after coming off a 400 yd season in limited time, except he has a grade issue that everyone is hoping is handled by the start of the year that caused him to miss a few practices this offseason due to his summer class schedule. So if that forced Vincent Smith to step up during practice and take more reps with the first team and are ready to be the feature back. Smith should be able to do so as he has shown glimpses of his “Muck City” speed that he flashed against the lesser Delaware State running for 166 yards on 17 carries. Let’s hope he is healthy and ready to go. This duo has the speed to get to the corner as that will be the emphasis with them. You could also be seeing true frosh big back Stephen Hopkins who impressed in the Spring Game and Mike Cox by committee if need be. This group of young backs has to be ready to play otherwise the pressure will mount on the back of the quarterback.

Now, the question everyone wants to know is who will be the quarterback, all signs look to be pointed at Denard “Shoelace” Robinson getting taking the reins and getting the chance to be the guy and the very highly touted true frosh Devin Gardner backing him up. The talk of 3 quarterbacks all playing this season could happen as probably even Tate Forcier will work his way back out of the dog house and onto the field. Denard has improved his passing skills in the last year which was his big hold up in playing more last year, but his speed and running skills are what could make the old Pat White West Virginia team look slow running the spread. If Rich goes with Denard I hope he feels comfortable enough which he should because this is the quarterback that will give him another year to coach in Ann Arbor. Denard has to be safe with the ball and accurate, if not it could get pretty wild under center. Devin Gardner was the top dual threat high school in football last year and Rich Rods first big quarterback fish he landed. People expected him to redshirt this season and learn, but he graduated early and with Tate Forcier going in the wrong direction could mean he will see some quality minutes this season. Let’s hope he is ready, as he has the look of a middle linebacker with speed, now can he guy Michigan Fans rely on the next 4 yrs? I think so and I personally don’t expect Tate to play before him.

The receivers will be led by Darryl Stonum who is finally looking like a leader this offseason has some new contacts to pick up the ball better, whatever works I guess. They have plenty of experience and should do fine as long as somebody can put a ball near them. Having guys like Roundtree and Odoms play a whole year will help immensely. Roundtree has the best hands and Odoms would win a footrace, let’s hope those hands and feet can spread the secondary this year. Kevin Koger will be the tight end and after a year of spectacular catches and dropped easy balls, he is needed to make the big catch consistently this year.

Now on the defensive side of the ball, you could go on for days with the questions about this unit. It was a very wild summer in the secondary and would have looked like a meteor shower of the so called recruiting 5 stars leaving the building as Dorsey not getting accepted, and JT Turner leaving means the departure of two guys who would have started immediately this season in the secondary. Don’t forget Boubacar Cissoko finding himself a way to Grand Valley State, now prison, Donavan Warren leaving a year early to watch the Jets from the sidelines instead of being the right starting corner. The hardest blow yet, came a week ago when Troy Woolfork the leader of the secondary and pre-season first team big ten corner dislocated his ankle and will be forced to sit out for the season.

The defense is coming off one of the worst seasons in history giving up 171 yards per game on the ground and 221 yards in the air and finishing 82 overall in the nation has to be retuned and ready to go. With all that, can this new bunch of youngsters keep the games close? It will be greatly aided by the improved front six having more depth and DT Mike Martin in the middle and keeping Craig Roh playing a hybrid OLB and DE spot. The front line should be talented and have more depth this year to help slow the run game, they just need to wrap up and tackle better. With the new 3-5 look implied out there, sometimes putting a couple extra safeties or the spur position to help the secondary with a couple true freshmen Marvin Robinson and Carvin Johnson both big time hitters that will make people look twice, but both safeties could be going for a huge hit to only to turn around to watch a touchdown. Marvin Robinson debut is much anticipated as he has been talked about by Michigan fans for the last three years. Let’s hope good guys like walk-ons to starters such as linebacker Leach and safety/spur Jordan Kovacs have Rudy type of seasons. It will be interesting to watch, so grab your popcorn and your Tums.

The linebackers will have Jonas Mouton returning to the middle and ex-starting fullback Mark Moundros starting at Linebacker also. I sure hope that Obi Ezeh will figure out how to put his talent to use and help this unit out this season. The group that needs to do a much better job of watching the tight end and plays out of the backfield as last year was a mess. The secondary on the left side will once again see JT Floyd starting at corner and opposite to him either ex receiver James Rogers or true freshmen Cullen Christian and Terrance Talbot. I think this opposite corner position is going to be huge, can Buck Nasty Cullen Christian be the first big time corner recruit to start and make it a whole season without an issue unlike the last two seasons with JT Turner and Cissoku. This defensive unit has to avoid giving up big plays and the many times of not being in the position needed to be in and looking confused. No more 40 point games and big plays and it will result in more wins. I think the front 6 this year keeps us in games and the opponents under 40 point every game.

Special teams will get a new fresh look as true freshman punter Will Hagerup will be taking the duties from the nation’s best last year Zoltan Mesko and will hopefully have to punt less then Zoltan did last year. The kicking duties fall to Army Game All-American redshirt freshman Brandon Gibbons who has looked shaky this offseason but good enough from 32 on in. The returning duties on kick offs will be resumed by Darryl Stonum and the punt returns by Odoms and Jeremy Gallon as both hope to stay healthy this year.

Now with all this having been said, it’s almost another year and the average age on the field gets younger which by now shouldn’t have happened. Rich Rod has to hope that out of the 3 quarterbacks that will be starting at quarterback throughout the nation that have worn the Maize and Blue before, the one playing for him is not going to be the worst of the bunch and that the defense can’t be out on the field all day long. This could all be determined by the second week of the season as they start with the rededication of the stadium against UCONN and go on the road to Notre Dame the next week. At worse they would want to be 1-1 coming out of those games. If they do that they should win the other easy non conference games and Indiana to start the Big Ten season, so once again the team would hope to be 4-1 going into a big game at very winnable home against Michigan State before a tough 3 game stretch against them, Iowa, and Penn State. They should get at least one win out of those and have very winnable games against Illinois and Purdue. Leaving them 7 and 3 with Wisconsin and Ohio State wrapping up the season. Wisconsin could be winnable if the team is on a winning spree as Wisconsin could be leading the division, this team they beat when Michigan was bad so Wisconsin might be out for reveng, and then the annual game of the year in the Big Ten with they Ohio State. So I’m just going to say Michigan 7-5at the end of the season playing for a chance to be 8-4 at most. Rich Rods could be on the hot seat going into a bowl if they struggle or Jim Harbaugh’s first game against Iowa State in the insight bowl or Missouri in the Alamo Bowl or some other big twelve team in a bowl game, it could be worse and it could be better this season, we will all have to see. I really do expect if Michigan does better at the start of the season and should make it 7 and 5 or 8 and 4 and going to a Florida bowl game, then Rich Rod should keep his job and then 2011 will be really exciting. But. If this team goes 7-5 losing their last two games, lets expect some crazy changes. This team isn't a losing team, so lets bring in Jim Harbaugh, if this team can only win 7 games then Harbaugh will be the man coaching in the future. With that, Hope this helped you get ready for the upcoming Michigan football season as just thinking of the opening kickoff gets me pumped. GO BLUE !