Citrus Bowl Preview

I realize it's now the Capital One Bowl, but I don't agree with corporate naming of bowl games so I'm choosing to go with Citrus Bowl. "You can't spell Citrus without U T" just wouldn't be the same any other way.

Lloyd Carr's farewell
The end of an era
Mike Hart and Chad Henne and Jake Long finish their Michigan careers
Urban Meyer pretends to be nice after badmouthing Michigan last year

There are lots of ways to look at this game. Normally, I'd break down all the statistics and come up with a pretty good guess of the outcome and Michigan's chances for victory. Not this year folks. It's not that I don't care. It's that I'm afraid of looking at the numbers. Michigan sucked this year. It started from the first game and continued the last game. I prefer to just look at some of the possibilities in this game and what they might mean.

For one, this is definitely the end of an era at Michigan and it actually saddens me quite a bit. Lloyd Carr is without a doubt one of the absolute best people in college football. His kids go to class. They graduate. They work hard. They develop as people. They contribute to the community. They come back year after year because they love the school and program so much. Lloyd is the last in a line going back to the day Bo was hired in 1969. It's an unbroken string of Big Ten championships and power football that dominated the Big Ten and culminated in a national championship in 1997.

Rich Rodriguez is going to usher in a new era at Michigan. That's exciting, but it's also a little scary. As long as I've been alive, the rest of the Big Ten knew what Michigan was going to do to them on Saturday and they were pretty sure that they couldn't do anything about it. Michigan also held their own against Ohio State in the greatest rivalry in college football, sometimes momentum swung one way (9-1-1) and sometimes it swung the other (current 4 game winning streak for OSU). There were Heisman trophies on offense (Desmond) and defense (Woodson). It's a hell of an era that is coming to a close. In the end, Lloyd Carr just refused to change a little too much in the changing landscape of college football.

So what do I expect from this game against Florida? Who the hell knows. It could be ugly. Florida has a lot of talent and scored a lot of points this year with their Heisman winning dual threat quarterback Tim Tebow. Michigan never fares well against mobile QBs and has quite the bowl losing streak going. Everybody expects Florida to win in a romp. Well, almost everybody. The guys wearing the Maize and Blue are going to fight tooth and nail in this one. And that's the last little bit of hope that I have left. I've seen them at their best and they can beat anybody. Whether or not they will is another story.

So what needs to happen for Michigan to win? Here are my keys to Michigan pulling the monumental upset:

1) Make Tebow one dimensional. Do not let him beat you running the ball. There is a huge responsibility to the LBs and DL to actually get Tebow on the ground when they get a chance. He's a big boy and hard to bring down and we've missed a lot of tackles on QBs this season. Shawn Crable and company absolutely have to come up big in this one.

2) Healthy Mike Hart. If Michigan Mike can stay healthy, he will churn out the yards. And nothing makes a Lloyd Carr offense more dangerous that a solid running game. You can pretty much pencil him in for 150 yards in the culmination of his record setting career if he can stay healthy.

3) Let Chad Henne air it out. They need the 2006 OSU gameplan in this one. The coaches have to know they need a lot of points and then to cut Manningham and Arrington and Mathews loose on the Gators secondary. This is no time to be conservative against a Gator D that is suspect against the pass and hasn't seen a group of WRs like Michigan will throw at them.

4) Special teams. Need a big game from the coverage units against Brandon James and it wouldn't hurt to break one themselves.



Prediction?

I can't do it. It's too painful to type what I expect to see happen. The only difference is that after this game nobody will be calling for the coach to get fired.




UPDATE

God that was sweet to watch in too many ways to count. The most obvious is congrats to Lloyd Carr for a wonderful career. I'll have many, many more thoughts on it at some point in the next few days.

Rich Rodriguez Runs to Victory

One thing that baffles my mind is the large number of college football fans that have a basic misunderstanding of philosophy and play calling when it comes to various styles of offense. The simple inability to differentiate between the spread option attack run by Rich Rodriguez and Urban Meyer from the spread passing attack run by Joe Tiller and Bill Belichick is crazy. The one and only thing they share is a shotgun formation (at times) and a 4 WR set. That's it. The spread option starts almost every play with either a handoff or fake handoff to the TB. Almost every single passing play is play action or misdirection. Many of the passes are wide receiver screens or short crossing routes and there is not much in the way of downfield passing.

What I want to do here is characterize Rich Rodriguez as an offensive playcaller in terms of run/pass balance at various places he has been. This will give us an idea of where Michigan might be heading in the future.


2007 West Virginia Mountaineers

166/246 passing for 1891 yards
589 rushes for 3515 yards

QB Pat White lead the team with 1185 rushing yards (on 177 attempts) and 1548 passing yards (on 197 attempts). The team as a whole ran the ball 71% of the time.

2006 West Virginia Mountaineers

149/233 passing for 2059 yards
590 rushes for 3939 yards

QB Pat White was second on the team with 1295 rushing yards (on 165 attempts) and lead the team with 1655 passing yards (on 179 attempts). This team as a whole ran the ball 72% of the time.

2005 West Virginia Mountaineers

122/193 passing for 1398 yards
625 rushes for 3269 yards

QB Pat White was second on the team with 952 rushing yards (on 131 attempts) and lead the team with 828 passing yards (on 114 attempts). This team as a whole ran the ball 76% of the time.

2004 West Virginia Mountaineers

149/259 passing for 1993 yards
589 rushes for 3019 yards

QB Rasheed Marshall was second on the team with 861 rushing yards (on 169 attempts) and lead the team with 1886 passing yards (on 242 attempts). This team as a whole ran the ball 69% of the time.

2003 West Virginia Mountainers

129/252 passing for 2034 yards
600 rushes for 2762 yards

QB Rasheed Marshall was third on the team with 303 rushing yards (on 101 attempts) and lead the team with 1729 passing yards (on 215 attempts). This team as a whole ran the ball 70% of the time.

2002 West Virginia Mountaineers

148/279 passing for 1753 yards
714 rushes for 3687 yards

QB Rasheed Marshall was third on the team with 666 rushing yards (on 173 attempts) and lead the team with 1616 passing yards (on 259 attempts). This team as a whole ran the ball 72% of the time.

2001 West Virginia Mountaineers

192/355 passing for 1811 yards
474 rushes for 1999 yards

QB Rasheed Marshall was second on the team in rushing with 210 yards (on 41 attempts) and QB Brad Lewis lead the team with 1339 passing yards (on 237 attempts). This team as a whole ran the ball 57% of the time.

2000 Clemson Tigers

159/296 passing for 2311 yards
557 rushes for 2600 yards

QB Woody Dantzler was second on the team with 947 rushing yards (on 172 attempts) and lead the team with 1691 passing yards (on 212 attempts). This team as a whole ran the ball 65% of the time.

1999 Clemson Tigers

252/423 passing for 3019 yards
497 rushes for 1812 yards

QB Woody Dantzler was second on the team with 588 rushing yards (on 146 attempts) and lead the team with 1506 passing yards (on 201 attempts). This team as a whole ran the ball 54% of the time.

1998 Tulane Green Wave

251/375 passing for 3495 yards
518 rushes for 2523 yards

QB Shaun King was third on the team with 633 rushing yards (on 156 attempts) and lead the team with 3495 passing yards (on 365 attempts). This team as a whole ran the ball 58% of the time.

1997 Tulane Green Wave

201/366 passing for 2608 yards
424 rushes for 2038 yards

QB Shaun King was second on the team with 511 rushing yards (on 124 attempts) and lead the team with 2577 passing yards (on 363 attempts). This team as a whole ran the ball 54% of the time.



A couple things jump out. For one, Rodriguez loves to run the ball. In the last 11 years, his lowest run percentage was 54% (in his first year at both Tulane and Clemson). He also tends to run the ball a lot more the longer he is at a school, which may be a product of recruitng more guys that fit his system the longer he is there. Even his record setting Tulane offense in 1998 ran the ball 58% of the time, despite being characterized as a wide open passing attack.

I think in the long run, Michigan will settle out running the ball between 60-65% of the time with Rodriguez at the helm. He should be able to recruit some dual threat QBs that are better passers than Pat White, but it's also plainly obvious that even when he has a future NFL QB he is going to run the ball a lot. Take a look at those West Virginia rushing yardage totals. When is the last time Michigan cracked 3000 yards on the ground in a season? Rodriguez has done it 4 straight years in Morgantown.

It's also worth noticing that QBs tend to rank very highly on the rushing list each year for Rodriguez. In 11 years since he left Glenville State in the NAIA, the worst a QB has finished in rushing yardage on his team is 3rd and only twice has he failed to have a QB rush for at least 500 yards on the season.

Rich Rodriguez

"Thank you all very much -- great crowd. It's an honor and privilege to be named the University of Michigan's head football coach. I will tell you, it was a very difficult decision to leave a place where I grew up, a program that we had built over the last seven years, to leave family and friends and a wonderful team with great young men. As I mentioned, it was a very difficult decision and in order to leave there, it was going to take a very special opportunity and a very special place, and I think that's what this is."


And with that, the Rich Rodriguez era in Ann Arbor got underway. I must admit that his name surfacing at the end of the coaching search came as a bit of a surprise to me. Honestly, I never thought he'd be in the mix as a candidate after turning down Alabama last year. I mean what was Michigan going to offer that Alabama didn't? They had a big contract at one of the true historical powers in the sport in a big time conference and he said "no thanks". Michigan came along offering a little bit more money and perhaps a little bit bigger of a name, but he decided to bite and for that the fans of Michigan should be greatful.

What do I make of the hire? Boy, oh boy, things are going to be changing in Ann Arbor. From the day Bo Schembechler was hired before the 1969 season until Lloyd Carr's last game in two weeks, it has been a long and continuous run of success at Michigan capped by the 1997 national title. Michigan has often been close but not in the national title chase, but has also been a bully in the Big Ten for 40 years. And they did it basically the same way. Sure, things changed a little over the years. But the people and the philosophy were the same.

What will 2008 bring? Fasten your seatbelts because this isn't your father's Michigan anymore. Rich Rodriguez favors a spread option attack that spreads the defense out and is always on the move. He also likes to go with a no huddle offense. He likes to score a lot of points. He is willing to take risks on offense. He isn't afraid to gamble at times. Gone are the days of Michigan sitting on a 10 point lead in the 3rd quarter content to let the defense close it out. Rodriguez will also likely be bringing about a change in the strength and conditioning program. Depending on who you ask, that might lead to big improvements in the explosiveness of players on both sides of the ball.

Beyond just a change in style, Rich Rodriguez has almost no prior connection to the University of Michigan. He is from outside the family. He is going to have to learn about what it means to be the head coach of the University of Michigan and everything that goes along with it. But he is a very good coach. He transformed West Virginia from a program that was usually on the fringe of the top 25 to a program that is looking for it's 3rd straight top 10 finish and was one bad loss away from playing for the national title. A common complaint from detractors is that he did it against a weak schedule and didn't have many quality wins. Well, I'd like to point out that he also did it with players at WEST VIRGINIA and almost no recruiting base. I'm confident that he can do big things at Michigan with all the talent that he will have at his disposal.

I don't know what his coaching staff will look like and I don't know how exactly how he will fit his offense around the talents of Ryan Mallett. What I do know is that he is a very good coach that he will figure out how to win a lot of games at Michigan. I look forward to seeing what he can do against Jim Tressel and the rest of the Big Ten.

Congrats to Bill Martin for another good coaching hire and apologies to West Virginia fans for once again taking one of your coaches.

Coach - O - Rama

Since the retirement of Lloyd Carr, the rumors of who is to be the new coach of Michigan have kicked into full gear. Most recently, apparently false rumors of Kirk Ferentz accepting the job and being on the verge of an announcement have swept around in the last 48-72 hours. Brian knows his stuff and I think I know where he got some of his information from. As best I can tell there have been some actual serious looking at Ferentz as a candidate by Michigan combined with some Iowa fans spreading some false rumors of Ferentz as accepting the job. I think the two are totally unrelated and the timing is ironic and kind of funny. So where does Ferentz stand in the Michigan head coaching search? I think he is still a candidate, though I don't think any decisions have been made yet.

So here are some of my thoughts on some potential names I have seen kicked around in various locations. Some are more likely than others. We'll start with the 500 lb gorilla in the room.



Les Miles - I think everybody knows the story. Former OL under Bo Schembechler who also had 2 stints in Ann Arbor as an assistant coach. He had some success at Oklahoma State including some big wins over rival Oklahoma and he has had more success at LSU taking over for Nick Saban.

What are some of the pros for Miles? Well, he's a "Michigan Man", whatever that means. He certainly knows what it takes to be successful in Ann Arbor and he certainly loves the school. He also has had success as a head coach in both the Big Twelve and the SEC. LSU finished 6th in the AP poll his first season and 3rd in the AP poll last season. This year they were at or near the top until their recent triple OT loss to Arkansas. You still have to figure they are a good bet to once again finish in the top 5 nationally. Miles also is not afraid to gamble on the field which is a little different than Lloyd Carr. He is not afraid to fake field goals and punts and just go for it on 4th down over and over. There is definitely a little riverboat gambler mentality in Les and that's not a bad thing.

Some of the cons? He has a big mouth and will say some un-PC things to the media. Who can forget "we have a new rival in fucking Alabama"? He also didn't profess to be a fan of the Pac Ten while ridiculing the USC schedule. After 13 years of listening to Lloyd Carr extoll the virtues of every single opponent he plays and talk them up left and right, are Michigan fans ready for a coach that will pop off at any time about any topic and risk offending lots of people? I'm not sure, though I admit it would be fun to listen to him talk about his true feelings about Ohio State. There are also some folks that feel Les has never had a truly great season losing some games each year that he shouldn't. However, you can say that regarding just about any coach in the country. Given the tough schedules he has faced at LSU, I'd say he has handled himself quite well in the W/L category. Also various rumors about Oklahoma State players being surprised they had to go to class and attending meetings and other such routine things after Coach Gundy (he of the press conference tirade) replaced Miles.

The bottom line is that Miles is a good coach and would likely have Michigan routinely in the top 5 or 10 in the country and in the hunt for national titles. How many times he'd embarrass himself by saying something dumb in the media would be up to speculation.

Kirk Ferentz - former player and assistant coach at Iowa that has been the Hawkeyes' head coach since 1999.

Pros? Mary Sue Coleman (the Michigan prez) apparently still loves him from her days at Iowa. Personally, that does nothing for me because she doesn't know anything about sports. His star was much brighter a few years ago when Iowa had three straight #8 rankings in the final AP poll. Lloyd Carr is also a fan of Ferentz.

Cons? Too many to list them all. For one, Iowa has struggled mightily the last three years and has lost some horrible games. If you thought losing to Appalachian State was bad, imagine losing a home game to Western Michigan in the season finale with a bowl on the line. That's the ultimate "what the fuck" moment for a coach. It's also not so hot to go 6-6 overall and 4-4 in the Big Ten this past year when he got to skip Ohio State and Michigan on the schedule. And can you say "off field problems"? Iowa's got way more than I can count with Ferentz at the helm. And don't get me started on the bend but don't break and don't ever blitz philosophy that Ferentz and Norm Park love on offense combined with the run, run, and run some more style he likes on offense.

Kirk Ferentz has a stellar reputation as a head coach. He unfortunately has not had much results recently and there is no great explanation why. In a best case scenario if hired, he could bring some changes off the field in terms of strength and conditioning, but it would realistically be like hiring a younger Lloyd Carr. I would hope he could keep the off the field problems away, but his track record isn't great. I'd also hope he would take a few more chances on the field but I wouldn't hold my breath. It would be a thoroughly boring choice and my only hope would be that he could prove me wrong on the field. My biggest hope would be that he would hire an offensive coordinator that had some cajones in playcalling and we'd have to wait and see who that would be.


Mike DeBord - Lloyd's buddy. You probably know him as the current (or is that soon to be former) offensive coordinator for the Wolverines. He was previously seen as the Central Michigan head coach from 2000-2003 when he lead them to a thoroughly unimpressive 12-34 record.

Pros? None. Lloyd likes him. Probably a nice guy. Wouldn't get lost driving to work in Ann Arbor. He also wouldn't need to look for a house.

Cons? Horrible resume as head coach against bad competition. I shutter to think what he'd do against the big boys.

DeBord would be perhaps the only candidate who's name has been tossed around that would make me instantly call for the heads of everyone responsible for the decision from AD Bill Martin to University presient Mary Sue Coleman.


Ron English - the current defensive coordinator for the Wolverines. English was a long time west coaster before coming to Ann Arbor having played and coached at Cal and coach at Arizona State prior to being named DBs coah for Michigan. This is his 2nd season as DC replacing Jim Hermann.

Pros? English definitely has a different attitude than Carr. He's a young and energetic coach that demands excellence from his players. He's also african american for whatever that is worth.

Cons? His defense was dominant in the first 11 games last year, but has not been nearly so hot the last 13 games. Coaching? Players? Both? I don't know, but his star has lost a little luster.

Ron English might be a very good head coach some day. I'm just not sure Michigan wants to roll the dice on him right now considering he has a total of 2 years of experience as a coordinator.


Brian Kelly - Kelly is currently in his first year at Cincinnati after guiding Central Michigan for 3 years and 13 years at Division 2 Grand Valley State.

Pros? He wins games. In his final 3 years at GVSU, the Lakers went 41-2 including a 32 game winning streak and 2 national titles. At Central Michigan, he cleaned up Mike DeBord's mess going 4-7, 6-5, and 9-4. In his last season, the Chips were the MAC champions. Now he's got Cincinnati in the top 25 in the Big East in his first season. Kelly also is a fan of a wide open attacking offense and he is not afraid to take chances. His style of play would be a welcome change of pace from what Michigan fans are used to watching.

Cons? Not many. This is his first year in a BCS conference level school at Cincinnati, but he does have plenty of coaching experience. He has also been successful everywhere he has gone. One little incident that is a knock on his resume were some comments he made to the press after some players at CMU were involved in an incident at a bar that left one man dead. Kelly made some remarks about how some of the players (who were black) were raised in a culture of violence. He later apologized. Depending on who you talk to this is either a really big deal or a really small deal. The only certainty is that nobody around the country knows or remembers this and it's really only in the minds of those looking for it.


Chris Peterson - the current head coach of Boise State, Peterson will be an intersting candidate for some big jobs over the next 1-2 years.

Pros? He lead Boise State to a 13-0 season in 2006 (his first as head coach) including a Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma and was later named national coach of the year. Not a bad debut season. He has a pretty lengthy career as an assistant coach under his belt, however. A former QB at UC Davis, he coached quarterbacks at Portland State and Pittsburgh and Oregon. He also served as offensive coordinator at Boise State under Dan Hawkins for 4 seasons, twice being named a finalist for national assistance coach of the year (Broyles Award). He is a fantastic offensive mind and definitely not afraid to take chances to go for a victory.

Cons? A grand total of 2 years now as a head coach at a small school in a small conference isn't exactly the best way to prepare to jump into one of the biggest fishbowls in the country. I'm not saying he wouldn't be successful, but he would have to make major changes to what he is used to doing. Recruiting against Ohio State for a kid from Cleveland is a little different than pitching Boise State football to a kid from Pocatello or a juco transfer.

Peterson would be an interesting hire. I'd rather go for Brian Kelly if they were really looking to make a splash because of his lengthy track record as a head coach, however Peterson is a dynamite offensive playcaller. I doubt he gets an interview, but it's not totally out of the question.


I might get into some more names later like Butch Davis, but that's I'll I've got for now.

Hoops and Hockey

The John Beilein era is well under way as the Wolverines got off to a 2-0 start this weekend with wins over Radford and Brown. You can easily say that it is just Radford and Brown, but Michigan looked much different on the court compared to previous years. And I'm not just talking turtlenecks...



Freshman Corperryale (aka Manny) Harris and sophomore DeShawn Sims both got off to good starts and should be quite the dynamic duo this season. Through 2 games, Sims is averaging 20.0 points and 5.5 rebounds while Harris is scoring 17.5 points and dishing 4.0 assists per game. There are enough role players around them that the Wolverines could give some top teams some real problems this year. Player by player brief previews:

#1 Jerrett Smith - the 6'3" junior point guard is still limited in foot speed, but is a good passer and can knock down the open shot

#2 CJ Lee - a 6'0" junior point guard that transferred from Manhattan. He's got speed and is looking to force his way into the lineup.

#3 Manny Harris - reportedly up to 6'7" with long arms, this kid is multitalented. His strongest suit is defense, but he is also dynamic taking the ball to the rim. Once his outside shot rounds into form more consistently, he will be one of the best players in the Big Ten.

#5 K'len Morris - the 6'4" redshirt freshman can play almost anywhere on the floor and he figures to be a valuable player off the bench this year. A natural passer with good basketball smarts.

#12 Anthony Wright - 6'4" redshirt freshman with broad shoulders (he outweighs Morris by 50 pounds) and a smooth outside jumper. He'll be battling Ron Coleman for PT at the 3/4 spots.

#15 Jevohn Shepherd - 6'5" junior with outstanding athleticism. He's a great defender, but struggles mightily to contribute on offense. It will be interesting to see if Beilein can improve him.

#22 Ekpe Udoh - 6'10" sophomore center with long arms and a knack for blocking shots. He has decent range to about 1o or 12 feet, but he will not be shooting three pointers this year. He should provide very solid defense on the interior.

#24 Ron Coleman - 6'6" senior (the only one on the roster) is mostly a role player. He can knock down open shots and can grab some defensive rebounds, but that's about it. He is a poor passer and is slow and subpar defensively.

#32 Zack Gibson - 6'10" redshirt sophomore transfer from Rutgers is a big kid with a good shooting touch out to three point range. Can you say Kevin Pittsnogle? Well, I won't. But he will provide some scoring touch.

#34 DeShawn Sims - 6'8" sophomore is a dynamic talent that can score both inside and out and might be one of the tougher covers in the conference.

#44 Kelvin Grady - 5'11" freshman point guard that has blazing speed in the open court and a good shoot touching behind the arc. He figures to challenge Jerrett Smith and CJ Lee for most of the point guard minutes this season. He could be a Dee Brown type player as he gains experience.

I'm giddy with excitement that Michigan basketball will once again be worth watching.




On to hockey...

Michigan swept the UAF Nanooks this weekend at Yost to improve to 9-1-0 on the season including 6-0-0 in CCHA play. It's too hard for me to follow the hockey team from a distance, but suffice to say they are off to a great start. Considering they weren't picked to do much this year, Red Berenson is doing a great job so far. It will be interesting to see how they do in the Showcase against Minnesota and Wisconsin and also how they fare against current #1 Miami in CCHA play.

Game Time

Now that the formalities are out of the way (Michigan's stinker in Madison), it's time to find out if this team can win the Big Ten and represent in the Rose Bowl again. Ohio State didn't fare so well in their warm up either, but they still had the national title on the line so that was a head scratcher.

No worries, though, as Michigan is just rounding into health for the Ohio State game and it'll be nice to not see Troy Smith out there again. Chad Henne barely played and Mike Hart didn't play at all against the Badgers so that both can be as close to 100% as possible for The Game.

What did I learn from the Wisconsin game?

• Ryan Mallett is still nowhere close to being a prime time performer. He makes a mental mistake almost every other time he drops back to pass and some of them are devastating.
• I also learned that nobody can hope to cover Mario Manningham and he's the best route runner I've ever seen at Michigan.
  
• It's also painfully obvious that Michigan has no ground game without Mike Hart. His continual ability to make something out of nothing is missing in both Brandon Minor and Carlos Brown.
• Michigan's run defense has struggled mightily the last 6 quarters against MSU and Wisconsin and the LBs need to get it straightened out ASAP.
• Tyler Donovan made some nifty moves in the pocket, but it's still frustrating to watch the pass rushers just whiff time after time when they have a QB in their sights. Fortunately Todd Boeckman is a big target that should be easier to get a hold of.

The season was a disaster following the 0-2 start, but this team has rebounded and has a chance to earn a spot in the Rose Bowl and that kind of toughness has to be appreciated. It would also be nice to send Lloyd Carr out with a win over Ohio State and Jim Tressel in his final attempt.

Thoughts on the hockey and hoops teams later today after Beilein's squad improves to 2-0...

Next on CBS: Big Brother!

So apparently Mark Dantonio doesn't take kindly to Mike Hart referring to his program as the little brother in the state. I don't know much, but I do know that it is HI-LARIOUS to watch a rival coach have Mike Hart get so far into his head that he feels the need to comment on it at his press conference two days after the fact.

Let's just run through a little time line of sorts to provide a background to this and some other nonsense.

September 17th, 2005 - Michigan State beats Notre Dame and proceeds to plant a flag at midfield in South Bend (HT for the reminder of this to MGOBLOG).



September 1st, 2007 - Mark Dantonio offers to have a moment of silence for Michigan after being informed that they just lost to Appalachian State. Here's a thread at the RCMB pretty much dedicated to how awesome that quote was and how much they love their new coach.

October 30th, 2007 - Coach Dantonio, the same guy that installed a clock counting down to the Michigan game before the season even started, asks his players if they are ready to stop bowing to Michigan.

November 3rd, 2007 - Michigan beats Michigan State 28-24 on the field, once again coming from behind to beat MSU in dramatic fashion.

November 3rd, 2007 - Michigan celebrates the victory by having a mock moment of silence on the field for the Spartans and then bowing to Dantonio.

November 3rd, 2007 - Mike Hart in the postgame press conference...
"I was just laughing," Hart would later say about the crazed crowd when MSU was leading. "I thought it was funny. They got excited. It's good. Sometimes you get your little brother excited when you're playing basketball and let him get the lead, then you just come back and take it back."

November 3rd, 2007 - Jehuu Caulcrick's postgame press conference where he whines that "You don't have to rub it in...you go off the field, you celebrate with your team...you don't try to rub it in, that's a lack of respect". Sorry Jehuu, after planting a flag at midfield you aren't allowed to complain about this EVER.

November 5th, 2007 - Mark Dantonio goes off about everything except the beating his team took in his weekly PC...
“I find a lot of the things that they do amusing,” Dantonio said on Monday. “They need to check themselves sometimes. But just remember, pride comes before the fall.” Dantonio also addressed Mike Hart’s comments after the game in which he referred to MSU as the “little brother” of U-M. “Does Hart have a little brother or is he the little brother?” Dantonio asked. “I don’t know, he’s…” Then Dantonio placed his hand up to his chest to illustrate Hart’s stature.


I mean where do you even begin commenting on this stupidity? Caulcrick having the stones to criticize the way Michigan celebrated their victory after his showmanship a few years back? Dantonio making fun of Mike Hart's height two days after the game? Anybody having the balls to criticize Michigan's moment of silence after the wise cracks coming from the MSU side when Michigan lost to Appalachian State? It's insane. The entire Michigan team from coaches to players kept the mouths shut all season long regarding MSU. They didn't say a word about the Spartans, while MSU continued to take little shots here and there. Then Michigan wins (AGAIN) and let's the Spartans know what they thought of their antics before the game and the entire Spartan world takes offense to this?

PUHHHLEEEEEEEZ

Don't whine about being called Little Brother if you can't stop obsessing over every little detail of your latest loss to Michigan. Don't go bragging about how Michigan will get theirs and about the latest round of revenge you'll be seeking next year after Mike Hart tells you all about what he thinks of your program. Guess what, for the rest of his life he's 4-0 against Michigan State with a pair of 200+ yard games on the ground and a pair of 100+ yard games on the ground. From here to eternity, he can always point to the scoreboard.

Oh, and it might help if you got a head coach that didn't insist on trying to piss off Michigan. I got news for you, taunting them in the papers and threatening swift revenge next year isn't going to make winning any easier.

Random Thoughts on Michigan Football

It's been a long journey back to respectability for the Michigan football team after a disatrous start to 2007. But, I think they might be back. The most recent incarnation of the BCS rankings puts them at #12 in the nation. I find that a little strange since they were #20 last week and it ties them with Georgia for the biggest jump since last week at 8 spots worth of improvement. Georgia had to beat Florida by 12 points to earn that, while Michigan merely needed to beat Minnesota. It's also nice to see the BCS math at work. Michigan ranks #15 and #14 in the polls and is #16 in computer average, so 15+14+16/3 = 12 in BCS land. It works out, though, because of some massive disparities between the computers and the polls for other teams. USC, for example, is #13 and #15 in the polls, but completely out of 4 of the BCS computer rankings which drops them to #19 in the BCS. Hawaii and Texas average out around #11 in the polls, but Texas is unranked by any computer and Hawaii is only ranked by 1 computer so they both get zero points from the computer rankings.

What does all this mean for the future? I hesitate to use my imagination, because I might find some slimmer of hope that Michigan doesn't deserve after the loss to Appalachian State and the beatdown by Oregon. I'll just stick to understanding that Michigan is 5-0 in the Big Ten and heading to East Lansing with the Rose Bowl firmly on their minds.

Speaking of Michigan State, the more things change (another new coach) the more they stay the same (another horrible loss, this time to Iowa). Is there a more schizophrenic program in the country? Michigan beat Minnesota without Chad Henne and without Mike Hart, but both figure to return for the game in East Lansing. You know the Spartan fans and defenders really don't want to see Mike Hart. In 3 career games against the instate rivals, Hart has rushed for 224 yards, 218 yards, and 124 yards. That's 91 carries for 564 yards and 2 TDs for those keeping score at home. In case you wondering, the previous Michigan record for rushing yards against a single opponent was held by Tyrone Wheatley against Iowa with 519 yards in three games.

Don't forget Mario Manningham. He just ripped off his 4th straight conference game with over 100 yards receiving and a TD when he torched Minnesota for a career high 162 yards. That gives him 32 catches for 541 yards and 6 TDs in his last 4 games. He joins Braylon Edwards as the only Wolverine to ever have 4 straight 100 yard games receiving and he is the first to do it in 4 straight Big Ten games.

Shawn Crable is having a monster year at LB. He ranks 2nd nationally with 22 tackles for loss and has thrown in 60 tackles and 7.5 sacks and 3 forced fubmles. He might be the best OLB in the nation right now.

All things considered, Michigan is playing pretty well right now. They've ripped off 7 straight wins against admittedly relatively weak competition, but they are starting to round into form. The defense has shored up against all sorts of formations and the offense is hitting on all cylinders with both backups and starters. What does this mean for the future? Two road games coming up with Michigan State and Wisconsin will both be tough but winnable. Then the biggie with the Buckeyes. I'm strangely confident about the OSU game this year. Maybe it's the comfort at Troy Smith being in the NFL. Maybe alcohol killed the rational brain cells I used to have. Who knows.

Bo's Lasting Lessons

So I've been incognito for a few weeks working way too many hours day after day and sometimes night after night. Well, thankfully that little bump in the road is mostly behind me so I can have some free time every now and then. The kind folks at Grand Central Publishing were nice enough to send along a copy of Bo's Lasting Lessons by Bo Schembechler and John U. Bacon for me to read and review. I have no particular talent at reviewing books and I'm sure they sent out as many copies to as many blogs as possible, but I feel compelled to share my thoughts.

It was a darn good read, especially for a lifelong fan of Michigan. I'm a little young (not even 30 yet) to remember most of Bo's tenure at Michigan. My first memories of him were the tail end of his career when he kept running the same offense and I kept wishing that we'd throw the ball more and have more aggressive play calling (I loved Gary Moeller's offense). Over the years, I've heard numerous 3rd and 4th hand stories about Bo and had a few brushes with him at sporting events in Ann Arbor. I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but since I'm a sucker for Michigan football I gave it an honest read. Well, let me tell you that I was actually impressed. It's told from Bo's point of view and it gives a lot of his insights into some of the most important moments in Michigan football over the last 40 years, both good and bad.

It's not just a collection of coach speak, but personal tales from Bo himself. You get a glimpse into his fiery determination to win. You see that his primary concern was the personal lives of his players and coaches. You get a chance to see how he helped players after they were long gone from Michigan. Most of all, though, you get a chance to see the real Bo and not the vague character seen storming the sidelines on ESPN Classic.

Bo's Lasting Lessons is an excellent book that I highly recommend for fans of Michigan football, or just fans of fired up old school coaches. There was one or two parts that brought a tear to my eye and at least one or two parts that made me want to throw on some pads and hit somebody. It was a beautiful glimpse into the inner workings of Michigan football that extend into today.

This might sound like whoring for the man for a free book, but it's a damn good book and I hope other Michigan fans can pick up a copy for themselves.

Mike Hart

He's a warrior on the field and carried the ball 44 times against what was the #1 rushing defense in the nation statistically entering the game. Everybody knew he'd need to do it with Ryan Mallett still manning the QB position in Chad Henne's place against #10 Penn State. 153 yards and 1 TD later and it's another victory for Michigan. Quite the performance. Earlier this summer, I noted that Mike Hart was approaching several career records for Michigan. Well, they are going to ride him hard this season and he will have a good shot at some single season marks as well.

Four games into the season, Hart ranks #1 nationally with 655 rushing yards and #2 nationally with 163.75 yards per game and #1 nationally with 127 carries and #10 nationally with 6 rushing touchdowns.

Let's assume Michigan will play in a bowl game this year. Before the season, that was a given. After the 0-2 start, that was a major question. At this point, though, it seems pretty reasonable. That would give Michigan 13 games to play this season. Right now, Hart projects to 413 carries for 2129 yards and 20 TDs. That would be a hell of a season.

Rushing Attempts - the current single season mark is held by Chris Perry at 338 attempts. Hart needs 211 more in 9 games (23.4/game) to tie the mark. Assuming he's got a couple more 35+ carry games coming it would seem that he will break this mark if he stays healthy. I'm thinking 360+ is a likely bet at this point.

Rushing Yards - the current single season mark is held by Tim Biakabutuka at 1818 yards in 1995. Hart needs 1163 more yards in 9 games (129.2/game) which will be tough to do but is within reach. Hart's main problem will likely be that the Michigan coaches will look to give him some breaks against teams like Eastern Michigan so he might only end up with a few sub 100 yard games. I'm not ruling him out, though.

Rushing Touchdowns - Ron Johnson holds the single season mark with 19 rushing TDs in 1968. Hart needs 13 more in 9 games (1.44/game) to tie the record. This will be tough to do, but he will definitely get the ball near the goalline. If he can throw up a couple three TD games he'll have a chance.

100 Yard Games - the single season mark is currently held by Jamie Morris with ten 100 yard games in 1987. Mike Hart is 4/4 on the season and needs to get 6 of the last 9 to tie the mark. It seems pretty likely that he'll at least tie the mark and he might even break it.

A Decade

Penn State. When you're Michigan, that's a team you have not lost to since 1996. That's a long time, even in Joe Paterno time. It's easily the longest losing streak Paterno has ever had to one opponent.

Well, that streak would appear to be in as much jeopardy as it has ever been. Michigan is 1-2 and I really don't have to go into much detail about the pair of brutal losses they suffered. Penn State is 3-0 and ranked #10 in both polls.

But is it really such a colossal mismatch? Does Michigan have any chance?

Let's take a little closer look.

Penn State is 3-0, but what have they really proven? Not much if you ask me. Florida International? Buffalo? Not exactly world beaters that they've played thus far and in fact they are two of the worst teams in the country. Then there is the common opponent in Notre Dame. Any blind person can see that Michigan dominated Notre Dame far more than Penn State did. Be it score (38-0 vs 31-10), yards gained (379-295), yards allowed (79 vs 144), or whatever other measure you want. Not exactly top 10 material if you ask me.

Then we come to Michigan. 38-0 over Notre Dame? I would've predicted that before the season began. After the 0-2 start and with Chad Henne out I did not see that coming. But what to make of it? Are all Michigan's struggles on defense really related to spread offenses with mobile QBs? It'd be nice if that were the case but it can't all be that simple. Is a beatdown of perhaps the worst Notre Dame team of all time really worth anything? Maybe not. There are still major questions about Michigan starting first and foremost with the QB situation. Will Henne play? Possibly, but unlikely if you ask me. Will Mallett be asked to do anything other than hand off to Mike Hart 50 times? Hopefully. Will he be up to the task? I have no idea.

Some keys for Michigan against Penn State:

1) Exert dominance in the ground game. Penn State has a young front four and Jake Long and co. need to continue the power ground game to keep the heat off Ryan Mallett. Let's be honest, Penn State has never held Mike Hart under 100 yards and they are unlikely to do so on Saturday. He's going to get the ball a lot.

2) Let Mallett make some plays down the field. He still makes some freshman mistakes like calling the wrong audible or locking on to one receiver at times, but the talent is undeniable. He might be big and lack speed, but he moves in the pocket well and is a natural at throwing on the run looking quite coordinated unlike Chad Henne who is more of a pure pocket passer that struggles to connect when rolling out. And yeah, he might have the strongest arm in the county as he looks effortless tossing it 30 or 40 yards on a line. I hope he gets to air it out a few times against a PSU defense that will be keyed on Mike Hart.

3) A big game by the defensive line to slow down the PSU rushing attack and get in Anthony Morelli's face. The DL dominated against Notre Dame and has a lot of talent, but they still need to prove it against a real opponent this year. Saturday would be a good day to start.

4) A solid showing in special teams. Zoltan the Destroyer needs a big game and it would help if they didn't muff any punts or miss any easy field goals.


I pretty much wrote off the 2007 season after the Oregon game. It's still brutal, but if the players still want to fight for the Big Ten title they need a great performance this week against a program looking to end a long losing streak.

Completely Random Thoughts

While watching the Oregon game, a few thoughts popped into my mind:

- Chad Henne must've been out with a bruised vagina in the second half. I didn't think it was too serious, but now that he's doubtful for the Notre Dame game it must be pretty bad.

- Watching SS Jamar Adams and MLB John Thompson point fingers at each other wondering who was supposed to be covering the WR that just got wide open for a catch was amusing. I couldn't help but wonder why either one of them was supposed to have man coverage on somebody that neither could cover. Are the defensive coaches just that dumb? I mean they still can't figure out how to even slow down a spread attack. One guess what Notre Dame is going to try to do next week.

- I think Michigan's offense was walking around with two peg legs by the 2nd quarter with all the times they shot themselves in the foot. They had 215 yards of total offense less than 1 minute into the 2nd quarter and they couldn't score points to save their life.

- I was pleasantly surprised any time Oregon got less than 10 yards on a play from scrimmage.

- Why not just toss injuries on top of embarrasment with guys like Henne and Hart and Long and Brandon Graham and others all going down.

- On the plus side, I think Michigan is going to wrap up their fall from grace all into one season. No long, slow slides into mediocrity here. Let's just go 2-10 and get it over with.

- It was sort of refreshing to watch Michigan get hammered yesterday. This was no gut wrenching, agonizing defeat that Michigan fans had grown so accustomed to. 32 point margin of defeat? The horrible five loss campaign in 2005 featured losses by a combined 21 points. This was not a Lloyd Carr Michigan team. Carr's teams would get down by 21 points and then claw back to make it exciting in the final minutes before folding. I've never seen them just completely quit before. There are some serious off the field issues going on with this team.

- Mike Hart may have guaranteed a win over Notre Dame, but somebody forgot to tell him that he is the only player that even showed up against Oregon so I hope he isn't expecting too much help against the Irish.

- Thank God for the Big Ten Network so I will be spared the pain of watching much of this team. It's easy to not go to a bar to watch the game. It's hard to not watch it when it's on ABC or ESPN.

- There are some teams around the Big Ten licking their chops right now at the thought of facing this Michigan team. It's going to be like sharks with blood in the water. Minnesota, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, etc. have all been dying for a shot at a Wolverine team this bad. Hell, you know Penn State fans will be praying to finally end their massive losing streak regardless of how bad the Michigan team is.

- I feel sorry for Appalachian State. Their "historic" upset just doesn't look so impressive any more. You beat 2007 Michigan. Congrats. That might carry as much weight as beating Northwestern. I mean objectively, Michigan lost at home to a D1-AA team and got blown off the field at home by a middle of the road Pac Ten team. That's not very impressive.

- The first 11 games of the 2006 season are sure looking like an aberration right now. Michigan is 18-11 in their last 29 games, including those 11 wins. That's 7-11 from the 2004 OSU and 2005 Rose Bowl through the entire 7-5 campaign in 2005 and with the most recent 4 straight losses.

- Do I really want to look at how spread teams have fared over the last few years against Michigan? Probably not. It's been ugly. I think a well coached HS spread attack could score 20+ on Michigan. Ball State made it look easy enough on offense last year.

- Something I never thought of last week, but does D-1A still have that rule about only counting a win over a D-1AA opponent towards bowl eligibility once every four years? If so, Michigan still has that one in the bag for future use which is nice.

- I was really worried about how Michigan would replace Steve Breaston as punt returner this year. Fortunately, Michigan will not be returning many punts so that isn't as big of a concern as I had originally thought. Whew. Unfortunately, his talents as a kick returner are missed much more than I had anticipated.

Wanted: A Coach

It is becoming painfully and plainly obvious that the only valuable part of the Michigan 2007 football season will be finding a new coach. Lloyd Carr was as good as retired after last year if he would've won either the Ohio State game or the Rose Bowl, but he kept sticking around wanting to go out a winner. It's now quite clear that he doesn't have the energy or know how to remain coach of a big time football program.

So where does this once powerful program look from here? Some have said it's the best job in the country, all the mystique and aura and helmets but without the "win a national title now or get fired" pressure at some other places like Alabama or Notre Dame. Maybe it's not #1, but it's easily in the top 5 or 10 regardless of who you ask. There will be some big names thrown about over the next few months and it's all but assured that Michigan will throw some big dollars towards this. So who are some of the names out there and what might be there level of interest?


Les Miles - the current coach of the #2 ranked LSU Tigers. Les is a 1976 graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in Economics. He was a graduate assistant under Bo Schembechler in 1980 and 1981 and an assistant under Bo and Gary Moeller from 1987 to 1994. His wife was a former women's basketball assistant coach at Michigan. Since leaving Michigan he has been an assistant coach for the Dallas Cowboys and head coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys before his current gig as the head coach of the Louisiana State Tigers. At OSU, he won some big games against rival Oklahoma but also managed to lose some games each year (4-5 per year). At LSU, he has had a pair of 2 loss seasons so far, but each included a blowout win in their bowl game (40-3 over Miami and 41-14 over Notre Dame). Yesterday, his team destroyed #9 Virginia Tech by a score of 48-7.

So what's the mutual interest? According to those that know Miles, he'd take the Michigan job in a heartbeat if the offer ever came and not even think twice. It's his dream job and he'd drop everything to return. The problem until now has been some tension with Lloyd Carr and company in regards to things like recruiting and ethics and other things nobody will really talk in detail about. It is working to Miles favor right now that Carr is going to have pretty much zero say in who gets to replace him with the way things are going. By the end of this year, he might have himself positioned as the favorite.

Rich Rodriguez - the current head coach of the #3 West Virginia Mountaineers. He has built the West Virginia team into a power, even if they are playing some lesser competition in the Big East with back to back top 10 finishes and another excellent team in 2007. He has no real ties to Michigan and just passed on the Alabama job to stay at West Virginia. I think he's a longshot for Michigan, but the name will get tossed out there.

Jeff Tedford - the current coach of the California Bears. He's a career west coast guy that has built some powerful offenses and good teams at the perennial cellar dwellar known as Cal, though he has struggled to have consistently great teams (sounds like he might fit here, right?). It is possible that he has taken Cal as far as it can go and might want to try his hand at a bigger program with more of a national reach to see what he can do. Bill Martin will love what he has done at an academic equal to Michigan and might be willing to give him a shot.

Greg Schiano - the current head coach of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Schiano is from New Jersey and has spent time at Rutgers, Penn State, Miami, and with the Chicago Bears in various coaching capacities. He's a defensive guy and was named national coach of the year last year for his dramatic turn around of the Rutgers program. His name is going to get brought up for every big job opening, but the Michigan AD might just be able to land him if they so desire. Michigan would offer him a major step up in the college football world and he already has spent a few years at Penn State and with the Chicago Bears so Big Ten country isn't foreign to him.

Kirk Ferentz - the current head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes. Ferentz name was on the hotlist for all job openings a few years ago, but he has struggled a bit the last few years. Still, Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman knows him quite well from her days at Iowa and there will be some rumblings about Ferentz whenever Carr eventually "retires".

Brian Kelly - the current head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats. Kelly is no stranger to the state of Michigan having been a dominant force at Division 2 Grand Valley State going 41-2 over his final 3 seasons including a pair of national championships. Then he moved up to Central Michigan and lead the Chippewas to a MAC title. Kelly has a reputation for being an offensive genius and I don't think he would think twice before leaving for Michigan if he got a job offer. There are a few off the field issues with him, however, and I'm not sure how serious of a candidate he would be. I mean a few years at CMU and Cincinnati as your total of D1 experience might not be enough to get the Michigan job.

Mike Trgovac - the current defensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers. Trgovac played and coached under Bo Schembechler for Michigan. He then spent time at Ball State, Navy, Colorado State, and Notre Dame (under Lou Holtz) before heading to the NFL. In the NFL, he has served as defensive line coach in Philadelphia, Green Bay, Washington, and Carolina before being elevated to defensive coordinator of Carolina in 2003. The Panthers have routinely been in the top 10 in most defensive categories since Trgovac took over as defensive coordinator. The two big questions with Trgovac are would he want to go back to college and would Michigan want a guy with no head coaching experience? Hard to say, but his name is definitely going to be thrown into the ring.

Cam Cameron - the current head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Cam was an assistant under Bo Schembechler and Gary Moeller from 1984 to 1993 in Ann Arbor before becoming head coach at Indiana where he struggled to an 18-37 record. Since then he has been offensive coordinator for the San Diego Chargers before signing a 4 year deal with Miami this past offseason. The Dolphins just lost one head coach to the college ranks (Saban at Alabama) so it would be just plain not funny for a Dolphin's fan if Saban's replacement left for college as well. Cameron definitely has strong ties to Ann Arbor, however he just signed a 4 year deal with the Dolphins and I'm not sure he'd back out on it so soon.


I'm sure there are a few other names out there that I'm forgetting, but those are most of the big ones that will be talked about. One thing that is for sure is that with the rapid demise of the team, current assistants will have no shot at the head job so that means no more worrying about DeBord taking over for Lloyd. The more I look at everything surrounding the situation, the more I have to think that Miles is the favorite. Then it becomes a question of timing. Lloyd has been within inches of retiring in the past and you know he is trying to figure out an "exit strategy" right now. He has some health concerns and it is conceivable that he could retire any day. I know he wants to finish out the season, but if the team falls apart on him that might not be possible.

First Team to 40 Points Wins

Well, I'm not sure what to expect in the Michigan-Oregon game today in terms of picking a winner. I know Michigan is still a sizeable favorite, but after last week you can't be too sure of anything. What I do know is that there should be a ton of points scored by both teams. I mean Michigan couldn't stop a D-1AA team from scoring 30+ points, so why would you expect them to stop a good offense from the Pac Ten? On the other hand, Oregon has a bad defense and Michigan still has a good offense (particularly if Chad Henne and the WRs get their timing back).

I'm going to guess the score will end up somewhere in the 42-38 range with big plays galore. Should be fun to watch and hopefully the Wolverines find a way to avoid their 4th straight loss.

I'm feeling a little better after my week of vacation. It was nice not being around anybody I knew and leaving the phone off and just forgetting that the Appalachian State game even happened. Unfortunately I'm now back and they better not lose again or this week I will never hear the end of it.

10 years, $40 million

That's what Charlie Weis signed for a contract extension after one year on the job. After seeing what happened to Notre Dame against Georgia Tech on Saturday, I've got another holiday weekend post in me.

Nearly two years ago, I made what I thought was a meaningless little comparison between Charlie Weis and Ty Willingham after one season of play and found it a little odd that Charlie got a mega contract when his inaugural season was very similar to that of recently fired Ty Willingham. Turns out it got linked on CNNSI's On Campus and I got deluged with angry emails from Notre Dame fans. Well, here we sit in year 3 of the Charlie Weis regime and I'm still smirking just a little bit. How about another comparison?

Through 26 games, Weis vs Willingham:

Overall record: 19-7 vs 15-11 (edge Charlie)
# of 20+ point losses: 4 vs 6
record vs teams in final AP top 25: 1-5 vs 4-7

Gotta give a slight edge to Charlie on overall record and fewer blowout losses, however Ty faced tougher competition. Now one of these coaches was on the verge of getting fired and the other has what amounts to a near lifetime contract. What's the difference between the two? Willingham went 6-4 the rest of the way in 2004 to finish his ND career with a record of 21-15 including a 6-9 mark against teams ranked at the end of the season. Charlie has 7 consecutive losable games coming up and ND starting 2-6 on the season is not an unreasonable expectation (@PSU, @Michigan, MSU, @Purdue, @UCLA, Boston College, Southern Cal).

Is the Notre Dame administration sweating even a little on this one? Should they be?

Wow, that sure was fun

What's there to say after witnessing history? Nothing? A million things? Somewhere in between? Part of me could talk for hours about what went wrong and why it did. Part of me says who cares, it did. I can't believe I rearranged my travel plans to arrive in time to get to a sports bar to watch that debacle. I should've just got drunk at the beach and not believed anybody when they told me the score. Some random musings on what I watched before I get back to barbecuing on the beach...

• This probably goes down as the biggest upset in the history of college football. Now it's not the biggest in terms of point spreads and it's not the biggest in terms of talent differential, because ASU is better than more than a few D1A teams. But in terms of perception? D1AA vs a team ranked #5 in the nation? Doesn't get any bigger than that.
• The only moment I can think of right now since I've been following Michigan football that even comes close to describing the overall shock is Kordell Stewart to Michael Westbrook in 1994. That game isn't there, but the improbability of the moment is similar. That instant that Westbrook caught it is still burned into my memory banks and I'm sure this entire game will be as well.
• I'm happy for the Appalachian State players and coaches and fans. They have a nice program that not many people knew about playing in rural western North Carolina. I'm guessing they will get a little more recognition from now on. Oh, and they can kiss any chance of ever playing a top opponent again goodbye.
• I love rooting for the big underdogs to shock the world, unfortunately it was against my team this team. Oh well.
• Michigan may have done the virtually impossible for 2007. Almost regardless of what happens the rest of the year, the single lasting moment from this edition of the Michigan Wolverines will be the loss to Appalachian State. They could rip off 12 straight wins including a bowl game, and people will still mostly remember this game. That's sad and unfortunate for a team that had big goals at the start of the year. Hell, this game might be the single biggest story of the entire 2007 college football season aside from whoever wins the national championship. It will be the year that X won the title and that Appalachian State beat Michigan. Does this put up more pressure for a playoff? I don't know.
• You can't pin this loss on Lloyd Carr or Ron English or Mike DeBord or Vance Bedford or Andy Moeller or Chad Henne or whoever else you want to. It was a team effort. There are probably 150 people that can all take some blame for this one. It was the absolute perfect storm of things going wrong against a team that played the game of their lives.

Some specific points about the team and/or game:

1) It is beyond obvious that they overlooked Appalachian State. ASU spent the entire offseason watching Michigan's gametapes and coming up with a way to exploit a few weaknesses and figuring out a way to try to take away a few strengths. Michigan apparently didn't even bother to put in a specific game plan for this one and instead just wanted to run some base stuff and keep people healthy and get ready for Oregon. Well, I hope they got ready for Oregon.

2) At what point is Michigan going to a) recognize that their LBs and Safeties cannot cover wide receivers in space and b) do something about it. This is the 3rd consecutive game they have lost and in all 3 games I think you can pin most of the blame on the defense not putting guys in a position to succeed. Last year, Ball State got some points by spreading Michigan out and picking on the LBs and safeties in coverage. Then Ohio State scored at will with 4 and 5 WR sets that Michigan couldn't match up with. Then in the Rose Bowl USC got stuffed for the entire first half before changing gears at halftime and spreading Michigan out and moving the ball at will. Now call me crazy, but I suspected that the coaching staff would've worked at improving their ability to defend the spread formation this year. In this game, it sure didn't look like it. They ended up in the exact same situations as last year with the exact same results watching WRs get matched up 1 on 1 with safeties and LBs and making the defense look clueless. I'll give you one guess what the Oregon Ducks are going to do next week on offense and a hint that running up the middle from a 2 back set isn't it.

3) Why on earth did Chad Henne and his WRs look a step off on their timing for nearly the entire game. A 4th year senior and some junior wide receivers couldn't get on the same page in the first game? Haven't they been practicing for weeks? This would be excusable if it was a bunch of new starters, however all these guys have shown that they are much better than the way they executed yesterday.

4) When is Michigan going to learn how to pick up blitzes. Pete Carroll has owned their OL in the last 2 Rose Bowl matchups by bringing blitzes that they had never seen and making them look clueless. Appalachian State yesterday took a much inferior group of talent compared to USC and employed some of the same schemes and still got decent pressure on Henne. Sure, there are some new starters on the offensive line this year, but come on. That's no excuse. This has to fall back on OL coaching when it's the same thing year after year.

5) Is there any question that Mike Hart is the MVP of the team? Yesterday he racked up 188 yards and 3 TDs on only 23 carries. So what, it was Appalachian State. But did you notice that when he sat out almost the entire 2nd quarter and the first 10 minutes of the 3rd quarter with an injured leg that Appalachian State outscored Michigan 24-6? Michigan outscored them 26-10 with Hart on the field and got blown off the field when he was out.

6) Game management. Who's bright idea was it to go for 2 with a ton of time left and trailing 31-26? Everybody and their brother knows you kick the XP to make it a 4 point game with an entire quarter to play. Instead, Michigan went 0-2 on 2 point conversions down the stretch and lost by 2 points. Way to go.

7) 2 field goals blocked in the final 2 minutes of the game? Yeah, that hurts in a 2 point loss. The blame for the blocked kick at the end of the game falls squarely on Shawn Crable. He was the wide blocker on the left side on a kick from the right hash. There were 2 players coming at him and he blocked the outside man allowing the inside guy to go untouched and block the winning field goal. I'm not sure what exactly he was thinking, but you absolutely positively have to block the inside guy and force the outside guy to take the long route to go for it.

8) Stupid bumbling mistakes that always happen in the first game: late hit out of bounds, mishandling some kick returns, etc. You have to expect those in the first game of the year, but they don't help matters in a tight game.

9) Expectations - I guarantee you that every single person in that stadium outside the Appalachian State lockerroom expected Michigan to win yesterday. Every one, apparently including the Michigan coaches and players. That's not right. Heck, my expectations are as guilty as anybody (however I'm not responsible for lining up and playing). If you listed all 12 games and ranked them from the one you most want to win this year on down to the one you least care about winning, Appalachian State is probably at the very bottom of the list. I mean they just don't matter to Michigan. You want to beat Ohio State. You want to beat Notre Dame. You want to beat Michigan State. You want to beat Wisconsin. etc. Nobody had the season opener circled for anything other than a nice day to watch Michigan win a game. Well, the next 3 games will tell us a lot about a team that "expected" to have a big season. They've got Oregon and Notre Dame and Penn State all in a row and all 3 are pretty much a must win at this point.


I'm sure I'll come up with some more stuff later, but I'm still shocked at what happened as is most of the college football world. What does this mean for the rest of Michigan's season? That's actually a pretty tough call at this point. It might mean nothing. Maybe it was just a perfect storm of things going wrong for one team and things going right for the other. Maybe Michigan is closer to 2005 than 2006. Maybe it's a wake up call and they blow Oregon off the field next week. Anybody that claims to know at this point is just flat out lying. I'm still pretty confident that Michigan's defense will be just fine against teams that line up in a traditional set with 2 WRs and a TE. I'm also still pretty confident that Michigan's defense will not fair well against a spread formation. We'll see how that plays out in the next few weeks.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that it's a little unfortunate this will go on Lloyd Carr's resume. He's one of the truly nice guys in college football and this is likely his final season and it's sad that he'll be remembered for this when he has done so many good things for the University. Here's just a teeny guess: Jeff Tedford is going to get a big $$$$ offer in January to be the next Michigan coach. Bill Martin has very few qualms about conducting a national search for a head coach (see the hires for men's hoops (x 2), swimming, baseball, tennis, etc as evidence of that).

And hey, look at the bright side. Michigan still has a very good chance at becoming the first school in college football history to lose 4 Rose Bowls in 5 years. Ohio State came the closest losing 4 times in 6 years from 1971-1976 and Cal and Michigan both have had 3 straight losses before. History in the making...

P.S. anybody else see a little cosmic karma for finally scheduling a game against D1AA competition for the first time ever? Yeah, lots not do that again.

Let the Games Begin

The greatest time of the year is once again here as football Saturdays are about to begin. So Michigan is playing D-1AA Appalachian State this year from my neck of the woods. They are a great team for their level, but it should still be an easy win for the Wolverines.

The Mountaineers' coach had an interesting quote today in the Asheville newspaper: "We know Michigan is a great team, but we’re not treating them any different than if we were going to Furman or Georgia Southern,” said Moore. “I like the challenge of it. We don’t plan to take guys up there who won’t compete.”

Really? No different?





According to another article it's a $400,000 pay day for the small school and a nice chance for them to be on TV (insert Big Ten Network joke here).

The Detroit Free Press chimes in with a phenomenal article on Michigan Mike Hart and what has helped shape him into the man he is today.

I'm too lazy to do a detailed preview for Appalachian State, but I can't see this being closer than 21 points with plenty of garbage time.

Records

It's a horrible cliche, but they certainly are made to be broken. Last year guys like Leon Hall and LaMarr Woodley made runs at longstanding Michigan football records. In 2007, more records will be broken. Here's a look at some of the big ones with range of current Michigan players.


Career Rushing Attempts - 924 by Anthony Thomas

Mike Hart currently has 750 career rushing attempts including 600 in his 2 healthy seasons. He is only 174 attempts behind Thomas at this point and figures to be a lock to break the record if he can stay healthy.

Career Rushing Yards - 4,472 by Anthony Thomas

Much like the attempts record, Mike Hart is zooming right in on the record for career rushing yards also held by Anthony Thomas. With over 3,000 yards in his 2 healthy seasons, Hart once again figures to be a lock for this record if he can stay healthy needing only 793 yards to tie the A-Train.

Career Rushing Touchdowns - 55 by Anthony Thomas

This record belonging to Anthony Thomas figures to be a little safer from Mike Hart. Hart only has 27 career rushing TDs entering his senior season. He can, however, make a strong push for #3 on the all time list which is currently held by Chris Perry at 39 while #2 belongs to Tyrone Wheatley at 47.

Most Career 100 Yard Rushing Games - 22 by Anthony Thomas

Mike Hart currently has 19 career 100 yard rushing efforts and only needs 3 more to tie the record. This should be a gimmie if he stays healthy.

Most Career 150 Yard Rushing Games - 9 by Anthony Thomas

Another record of the A-Train that is likely going down as Mike Hart already has 8 career 150 yard rushing games.

Most Career Pass Attempts - 1,366 by John Navarre

Chad Henne currently has 1,109 career pass attempts and only needs another 257 for the all time record. If he stays healthy, the record is his.

Most Career Pass Completions - 765 by John Navarre

Chad Henne currently has 666 career completions and only needs 99 for the all time record. Another gimmie if he stays healthy.

Most Career Passing Yards - 9,254 by John Navarre

Chad Henne currently has 7,777 passing yards and sits a mere 1,477 for the all time record. Should be a gimmie if he stays healthy.

Career Completion Percentage - 64.3% by Todd Collins

This record is a little farther out of Chad Henne's reach. He currently has a career completion percentage of 60.1%. Assuming 300 pass attempts on the season, he would need to complete about 240 for the all time career record. If he happened to throw the ball 400 times this year, he'd need to complete 304. I can't see it happening, although he could conceivably make a run at Elvis Grbac with 62.5% for #2 all time.

Most Career Touchdown Passes - 72 by John Navarre

This is the record most likely to be broken in Game 1 because Chad Henne already has 70 career TD passes including three of the five highest single season totals in team history.

Career Total Offense - 8,995 yards by John Navarre

Chad Henne currently has 7,582 career yards of total offense and only needs 1,413 to pass Navarre. It should be easy if he stays healthy.

Career Yards From Scrimmage - 5,273 by Anthony Thomas

Mike Hart currently has 4,213 career yards from scrimmage which places him only 1,060 behind Anthony Thomas. Like many of these other records, if he is healthy the record is his.

Career All Purpose Yards - 6,201 by Jamie Morris

Mike Hart doesn't have the kick return yardage of any of the players ahead of him on the career list, but he's already at 4,213 all purpose yards which puts him 1,988 behind Morris. This one really requires a big year by Hart, but it isn't out of the question. He's much more likely, however, to end up at #2 or #3 on the career list.

2007 Michigan Preview: The Schedule

So much goes into determining how many games a team will win or lose in any given year, but it seems to me that many people forget to look at the schedule they will face. Scheduling certainly isn't forgotten at the end of the year, however, when people try to analyze bowl matchups based on who played who.

Unlike 2006 where Michigan had road trips to Columbus, South Bend, and Happy Valley, the 2007 Michigan Wolverines will have a lot of home cooking against their top opponents. This should help a young defense establish a rhythm. Game by game...


APPALACHIAN STATE - In 2006, App State went 12-1 and won the "formerly known as D-1AA" Championship Subdivision National Title. They gave a bad NC State team a slight scare in Raleigh before falling 23-10. This year, they get to serve as roadkill for Michigan's home opener. It can be a little hard to peg just how good the Mountaineers are. For one thing, they are the best of the best in D-1AA. But really, that's just like being the tallest midget if you ask me. Expect Michigan to win handily just like if they were playing a directional school from the MAC.

Michigan's chances of winning? 98%

OREGON - In 2006, the Ducks lost their last 4 games of the season to finish 7-6. They have playmakers on offense including TB Jonathan Stewart and QB Dennis Dixon and WR Jaison Williams. On defense, however, they might have trouble stopping Michigan's potent ground game as they ranked 78th nationally in rushing defense in 2006. If you are so inclined, you can also tune in to see former all everything recruit Cam Colvin who is still just a reserve WR for the Ducks. This might turn into a high scoring affair, but Michigan is the more well rounded team and playing at home.

Michigan's chances of winning? 80%

NOTRE DAME - The Fighting Irish had an interesting season in 2006. They played three top 10 opponents and got blown off the field in dominant fashion by all three of them (LSU, USC, Michigan) surrendering 41+ points to each. They were, however, able to win every other game on the schedule. In 2007, they lose most of their great offense and will be replacing their QB, RB, WRs, and some of the OL amongst others. It's hard to know what to expect in this game. Notre Dame and Michigan usually play tight games and you know they will be trying to get some revenge for the ass kicking last year. However, Michigan has a better offense and a more talented defense and is playing at home. You cannot expect Notre Dame to win this game.

Michigan's chances of winning? 85%

PENN STATE - The Nittany Lions were decent in 2006 and quite similar to Notre Dame. They played four good teams in the regular season and were beaten by all four and won the rest of their games before ekeing out a win over Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl. This year, however, they replace a some of their best players from last year including Tony Hunt and Paul Pozluszny and they are still straddled with Anthony Morelli at the helm. It's hard to believe he's already a senior having accomplished so little thus far in his career, but this is his last go 'round the conference. The last time Michigan lost to Penn State as 1996 and that was a very long time ago. You know the streak will end at some point, but not this year.

Michigan's chances of winning? 85%

@ Northwestern - In 2006, Northwestern finished 4-8 on the season with only conference wins over Iowa and Illinois. They return the talented TB Tyrell Sutton, but honestly there isn't much talent in Evanston. Michigan traditionally has a nice group of Chicago alums show up to support the team against Northwestern and their is little reason to expect a loss this year.

Michigan's chances of winning? 93%

EASTERN MICHIGAN - The Eagles were brutal in 2006, finishing 1-11 on the season. The Battle of Washtenaw County will once again be a lopsided affair in 2007 with loads of garbage time. The timing of this game is kind of nice after the tough three game stretch with Oregon, Notre Dame, and Penn State as it should allow some key players to rest up and be healthy for the rest of the schedule.

Michigan's chances of winning? 99%

PURDUE - The Boilermakers return to the schedule after 2 years off and fresh off an up and down 8-6 season. They have a dangerous offense with QB Curtis Painter passing to some very talented WRs including Dorien Bryant and Selwyn Lymon (who could give Manningham and Arrington a battle for best duo in the conference). On defense, however, there is a lot of work to be done for a unit that ranked 114th nationally in rushing defense in 2006.

Michigan's chances of winning? 90%

@ Illinois - The Fighting Illini only went 2-10 last year, however they did give a scare to both Wisconsin and Ohio State. This will be Ron Zook's 2nd year at the helm and Juice Williams will now be a sophomore at QB. With the supremely talented Arrelious Benn arriving at WR and Rashard Mendenhall at TB there is lots of talent on offense. J Leman leads the defense from MLB, but there isn't much talent around him. So while the Illini offense could give Michigan fits for a while, their D has little chance at slowing down the Michigan attack.

Michigan's chances of winning? 90%

MINNESOTA - The Gophers had another mediocre 2006 finishing 6-7 and finally firing Glen Mason. It's hard to know what to expect from first year HC Tim Brewster, but he does have a little talent to work with. TB Amir Pinnix and WR Ernie Wheelwright both have big play ability. It's hard to expect much out of the Gophers in 2007, though, and the Battle for the Little Brown Jug figures to be one sided.

Michigan's chances of winning? 95%

@ Michigan State - Much like the Gophers, the Spartans stunk in 2006 and fired their coach. It's a shame, really, because John L Smith had such wonderful press conferences. It was always fun to watch him slap himself. And if that wasn't amusing enough you could just watch his team implode every week. I'm sure Mark D'Antonio will be a good coach. It's always a little tough in the first year, however, to completely change the style of play of a team. He wants a more disciplined team that runs a 2 back set and a more traditional offense. With MSU's personnel, that is going to take a little time to get going. Don't expect too much out of the Spartans in 2007.

Michigan's chances of winning? 90%

@ Wisconsin - Now we move on to the super tough portion of the schedule. Wisconsin went 12-1 a season ago and finished in the top 5. Michigan was fortunate enough to hand them their only loss on the season. In 2007, the Badgers replace their leader John Stocco which will be a big loss. However, they do return most of their starters on offense and defense and will surely provide a big test. With a new QB and less than perfect WRs it remains to be seen how well they can test Michigan's biggest weakness in the secondary. TE Travis Beckum is perhaps the best in the land and will be a tough matchup. On defense, Wisconsin will have their hands full with a pair of new safeties matched up against a 4th year senior QB looking to pick them apart with talented weapons all around.

Michigan's chances of winning? 55%

OHIO STATE - The Buckeyes rolled to a 12-0 regular season and the undisputed #1 ranking in all the land before getting steamrolled by a fired up Florida team in the BCS title game. Now they face life without Troy Smith and Tedd Ginn and Anthony Gonzalez and Antonio Pittman and Quinn Pitcock amongst others. Their offense figures to be much more ground oriented in 2007 with Chris Wells leading the way. Defensively, the lose a little off the DL but return most everybody else and should be very good. Tressel will look to get back to teh formula that worked so well for him in 2004 with defense and special teams leading the way. Fortunately for Michigan, they moved the ball up and down the field in Columbus against this same defense and should be able to do the same at home with the same players in 2007. The defense, however, is probably thanking their lucky stars that Wolverine-killer Troy Smith is finally gone.

Michigan's chances of winning? 65%


So what does that look like for the entire season? It comes out to about a 12.9% chance of going undefeated in the regular season. That's a pretty good chance compared to recent seasons, at least in my book. It also works out to an average record of approximately 10.25-1.75, so somewhere around 10-2 or 11-1 looks to be the most likely record. It helps to have a senior QB and it helps to have most of your tough games at home. I'd classify Oregon, Notre Dame, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State as Michigan's toughest opponents on the season and they get four of the five in Ann Arbor.

2007 Michigan Preview: The Defense

My, oh my, what a turnaround the Michigan defense made in 2006. They were lambasted in 2005 after allowing multiple late scoring drives to lose close games. In 2006, they became the best unit in the country the first 11 games of the year before struggling mightily against the spread formations of Ohio State and Southern Cal. The rushing defense was particularly special allowing only 1.9 yards per carry and 5 TDs for the entire 13 game season and was the best rushing defense in the NCAA in decades at only 43 yards per game allowed. David Harris, LaMarr Woodley, Alan Branch, and Leon Hall all headed off to the NFL and Rondell Biggs graduated as well. That's a lot of talent to lose from one side of the ball. On the plus side, however, a lot of talent returns.

Defensive Line


Tim Jamison, DE (RS Junior)

Contributed 13 tackles and 5 sacks as a part timer in 2006 when he split PT with Rondell Biggs. He's not a big guy on the end, but has a phenomenal first step and great instincts rushing the passer. His biggest weakness would seem to be holding up at the point of attack at only 266 pounds, but he has shown a knack for shedding blockers and making plays. I expect big things out of him in 2007.



Terrance Taylor, NT (Junior)

Terrance was the fireplug in the middle of the nation's best rushing defense last year. He contributed 23 tackles, 5 TFL, 1 sack, and 1 fumble recovery. A former state heavyweight wrestling and powerlifting champion, he is nearly impossible to move from the point of attack and requires a double team on every rushing play. Look for more notice this year as he steps out from behind the shadow of Alan Branch and becomes the best nose tackle in the Big Ten.



Will Johnson, DT (RS Junior)

Will Johnson spelled relief for Alan Branch and Terrance Taylor last year seeing action in all 13 games and contributing 7.5 tackles and 2.5 TFL and 1 sack. He has good size and strength and will help form one of the better duos in the middle with Terrance Taylor.




Brandon Graham, DE (Sophomore)

Brandon Graham was last seen making waves as a true freshman earning PT on the best DL in the country. He was a LB in HS and has a motor that won't quit. Finishing with 3 tackles, 1 FF, and 0.5 sacks as a frosh he'll be looking to make waves replacing LaMarr Woodley in 2007. With his combination of speed and strength, few OTs in the country will be able to handle him one on one and the only thing standing between him and greatness is experience.



Other players in the mix for PT along the defensive line include Marques Slocum (RS Freshman), Adam Patterson (Sophomore), Greg Banks (RS Freshman), Jason Kates (RS Freshman), John Ferrera (RS Freshman), and Ryan Van Bergen (Freshman).

Linebackers

Shawn Crable, OLB (RS Senior)

2nd team All Big Ten in 2006, he was a terror making plays all over the field finishing with 37 tackles, 10.5 TFL, 4.5 sacks, 3 PBUs, 2 FFs, and 1 FR. He's tall at 6'5" with long arms and great speed off the edge and is a great blitzer. He'll have more freedom to make plays in 2007 and I suspect Ron English will move him all around the field to confuse the offense.



Chris Graham, OLB (Senior)

Graham has good wheels and hits like a mack truck, but has had trouble consistently making plays thus far in his career. If he can read the flow of the play better this year, he could be a very good OLB in 2007. He started 4 games in 2006 and made 25 tackles and 1 TFL. This year, he'll be fighting for PT and might be in danger of losing the starting spot if he doesn't produce.



John Thompson, MLB (RS Junior)

The man with first crack at replacing the outstanding play of departed David Harris is likely to be John Thompson. His legacy at Michigan thus far has basically consisted of one legendary 8 tackle, 3 TFL performance in 2005 in an overtime victory in Iowa City. He's isn't an outstanding physical talent, but he does have good instincts. He will be pushed hard by Juco transfer Austin Panter.



Other candidates for serious PT at linebacker include Austin Panter (Junior), Jonas Mouton (RS Freshman), Brandon Logan (Junior), and Obi Ezeh (RS Freshman).

Defensive Backs

Morgan Trent, CB (RS Junior)

Trent is a returning starter at CB in 2007, although he is probably best remembered for getting beaten repeatedly by Ohio State and USC in the final 2 games struggling mightily against Dwayne Jarrett. This year, he can't hide behind Leon Hall and will be tested to make plays and prove his worth over the entire schedule. He's got the blazing speed and good size to allow him to match up with anybody. What he needs to work on is his reads and footwork. I expect a solid season out of Trent this year, although he will not quite be an all conference caliber performer.



Jamar Adams, Strong Safety (Senior)

A returning 2nd team all conference performer in 2006, Adams will be counted on to lead the secondary in 2007. He racked up 47 tackles, 1 INT, 7 PBUs, 1 sack, and 1 FF on the season. He's got good size and is better against the run than playing deep in coverage.



Steve Brown, Free Safety (Sophomore)

Brown was a special teams whiz as a true freshman making plays all over the place and racking up 14 tackles on the season. He's got good size and speed and it will be up to him to prove he can make plays on the ball in the air as the deep man in Michigan's cover scheme.



Johnny Sears, CB (RS Sophomore)

He's big and fast and oozing with potential, but thus far hasn't done much at Michigan. Now there is a starting spot wide open and Johnny Sears has to figure as the favorite to grab it, or at least until super freshman Donovan Warren makes his name known nationally. Hopefully this season he will make himself known more for his play on the field than for his resemblance to Lil Jon off the field.



Other kids in the mix for PT in the secondary include Donovan Warren (Freshman), Charles Stewart (RS Junior), Anton Campbell (RS Senior), Brandon Harrison (Junior), Michael Williams (Freshman), Artis Chambers (Freshman), and Doug Dutch(RS Junior).


All in all, it's an interesting unit. There are some stars (Crable, Taylor, etc) and some major question marks (CBs and a few LBs). If Ron English is going to live up to his billing as one of the best DCs in the country, I expect him to do good things with this group. They might not be a top 10 defense nationally again, but I expect they can be top 30 or 40. If they can find a way to hold opponents to 20 points or less, Michigan will have a very good shot at winning each and every game.

Cameron Maybin

I've been a little slowed down by some side projects the last few weeks, but I have noticed that Cameron Maybin got the callup to AA Erie this week. And my, oh my, what a debut. In his first 2 games, he is 2/6 with 2 HRs and 2 walks against 2 strikeouts and 4 runs scored and 2 RBI.

I'm guessing he starts next season at Erie and if he tears it up, he'll likely be up to Toledo soon thereafter while knocking on the door in Detroit. Not bad for a kid that just turned 20 a few months ago. I'll return to some Michigan blogging this week if time allows.