Tate Forcier speaks

Wanna feel better about Michigan football? Head over to MGoBlog and read the interview with Tate Forcier. (Sorry DP.) The money quotes:

TOM: I know everyone is expecting a lot out of you in your first year, how do you deal with the expectations and pressure that comes along with this experience?

TATE: I’ve watched a lot of freshman play, and Coach Smith talked to me about this. I’m not going to try to do too much. I’m going to manage the team, rather than try to make the big play and taking a sack. The seniors and juniors make the plays, and I’ll just keep moving the chains. Take it one week at a time.

TOM: What were your thoughts and initial feelings when you heard that Shavodrick Beaver had changed his commitment to Tulsa?

TATE: Shavodrick, I told Coach Smith I knew it was going to come. I almost felt like he was just trying to wait me out, to see what I would do. I think sometimes kids make their choice for the wrong reasons, and then this ends up happening. Decommitting happens though, but this is Michigan, we should have no problem filling those spots, and we haven’t. As much as we would like to have those guys, we have found great replacements for them that are as good, if not better.

Referencing Michigan as "we," is tremendous in and of itself. But the maturity this guy is showing as an incoming freshman who will be fighting for a job (um, yeah, right) is awesome. Be sure to read the whole interview over there. It will get you pumped for the spring game.

Paul Bunyan Goes to East Lansing

Two wins, six losses. We knew this season was gonna be tough, but this is not good. Now, Big Blue is one loss away from ending the nation's longest bowl and non-losing season streaks. It's OK, because we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but now that it's upon us, it stings a bit.

The offense was explosive at points, but dreadful for the most part. Threet ran the ball well at times, and not in others. Threet threw the ball well at times, and not in others. The O-line was awful, and even if Threet could throw, he never had the time to do anything anyway. The reason DickRod is yelling at Threet in this picture is a bad read by Threet on a blitz, he looked right, and only right, and should have been picked off.

Now, Sparty earned this one. There was no "extra second," or a bad pass interference no-call, or blatant holding on the game winning play. The refs were awful, but they were awful on both sides, and definitely didn't cost Michigan the game.

The worst part about this? We're gonna be hearing about it from Sparty fan for the better part of a decade. "Remember when Taylor guaranteed victory? Huh huh.. how'd that work out?"

Try winning more than one game in the second half of the season once, Sparty, then start talking.

Can I make one more point? Those of you who know me, know that I hate almost all national announcers. There are very few that can pull off a neutral call of the game, and most are certified idiots. Chris Spielman was the color man for this one, and I LOVE listening to him. I always learn something new about the game when he calls it. And Sean McDonough knows enough to stay the hell out of his way, and just call the play-by-play. On the other side of the coin, Gary "I've always known SEC football is the best" Danielson was calling the Georgia-LSU game. As LSU was lining up for an onside kick at the end of the game, Gary actually tried to make a point about having to change the rules because now, teams are having their kickers try to bounce the ball up in the air, and they send players in to take out the receiving team, and they might get hurt. Yeah Gary- this is on-thinkable[sic]. This has only been going on for, I don't know, a century? Teams have ALWAYS kicked the ball for that big hop. And the prefix "un-" rhymes with bun, not Don.

Fire Dick Rod for president!

What a comeback. 21 yards of offense in the first half, 27 points in the second. The defense kept Big Blue in the game through 30, and held them close enough for the offense to find its way for over 270 yards of offense in the second half. Let's not get ahead of ourselves- Michigan will still struggle to make it to a bowl game this year, and they will look bad at times. Lots of times. But they can look to this game when they're down 14 against Michigan State or Northwestern, and actually believe that they can come back.

We got a glimpse of what this offense can do. Just imagine when Dick Rod has some athletes.

Michigan Football, week 1

I wanted to post my thoughts on the Utah game, but like I said, I have spent more time putting together resumes and reading about Business Organizations and Wills, Estates and Trusts.

First impressions of the spread: Kinda gimmicky at first. Two things popped out right away: you can, in fact, line up under center from time to time; and it was WAY too much right out of the gate for these two QB's. It is a very difficult offense to nail down, and with zero experience for either QB, they needed it watered down. Or at least a running game, which was non existent. When they did line up under center, and got the traditional running game going, Utah couldn't stop it. But they only ran one or two in the first half, and by then, Utah realized that neither quarterback can run this offense, and had eight or nine guys around the line of scrimmage, putting only one safety back for the rest of the game. The receivers were getting open. There was at least one guy open on almost every play, but the QB's had a lot of trouble picking them up in time.

The defense: Started horribly. Made adjustments. Stopped Utah dead. Pretty much it.

As losses go, this is one that we can live with. Dick Rod will make some adjustments, simplify the offense a bit, and we'll see where they are this week against Miami. They should win, but don't expect the traditional 68-0 beat down. Offensively I would be happy with 24, because this defense isn't giving up more than 6. I asked the question after the game- who was the last Michigan head coach to start his tenor with a loss? Actually it happens more than I thought, with three of the last five doing it. The last was a Gary Moeller loss at Notre Dame.

Other than pouring $4 bottles of water on your head to keep cool, it was still a very good day. This is a team that will get better as the season goes on and they get more experience under fire.

Quote of the week

Michigan strength and conditioning coach, when asked about his energy for Inside Michigan Football:

"You know, I probably drove my parents crazy. I probably drove my grandparents crazy. My Grandma still tells me I'm the only grandchild she ever had to hit."

Awesome.

11 days

Dan-o has the NCAA Football 09 warmed up, has played the Maize-Blue game, been practicing the spread offense and is better with Sheridan than Threet, and the team is ready to hit some Ute ass.

4.13 seconds

That's fast.

Morgan Trent ran a 4.13 forty.

Shouldn't he be in the SEC then?

UPDATE: Turns out it was his shuttle time, not forty time. Reason #4,389 to hate and never trust ESPN.

Utah = meat

Because it's still a long way to August 30.

OH-HOW-WE-HATE ohio state

My buddy DP has a good writeup on the Sporting News article on Justin F'n Boren.

I have a real problem calling this asshat Benedict Arnold. For those of us who are students of history, we know that the war would have been lost if not for the leadership and direction of Benedict Arnold at battles like Syracuse, the first major victory for the young American Army, before he, you know, went all Benedict Arnold on us.

So yeah,I'm citing to a blog who is citing to a news article. Nice.

Go Blue

Kinda campy, but pretty cool...

Just because...

...it's a long way to August 30.