More or Less Confused

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UMASS beat Stoney Brook under the lights on Saturday night by a final score of 26-21. UMASS put up 455 yards on the Seawolves, just 16 yards more than they put up on our fair Wolverines. The Minutemen intercepted a pass with a little over a minute to go to seal the victory in front of a Lavalle Stadium capacity crowd of...wait for it...8,136.

If you are looking for a defining moment for this team, for this season, right now it's the two touchdowns Denard orchestrated in less than 30 seconds to end the first half against UMASS. It was those two quick scores that took the wind out of the Minutemen's sails. They went into the locker room down by 4, and they could have, and should have, been up by ten. They didn't get their swagger back until the interception-turned-fumble in the 4th, which they followed up with a touchdown and a blocked punt...and another touchdown. Quickly it became a case of "if you seek an unpleasant Michigan fan with hands together on top of their head in disbelief, look about you." And though it wasn't a disaster, it became the sign of an impending one.

Is it really only a matter of time?

And then Bowling Green came to town.  Shoelace broke another run for you to file in your mental highlight reel.  Just a little something for you to tell your kids about.  Then he went down hard, living up to the predictions of all of the haters that label him as Mr. Glass.  But in came Devin, followed by Tate.  And nary a beat was skipped.  Sure, the breakaway speed isn't there, but these kids know the offense.  Denard is the kind of talent that only comes around once in a while, but Tate is no slouch.  He went 12 for 12 through the air, and allowed Denard to get the day off we expected him to have last week.  In the process, Tate opened up the discussion of what the limits are for this scheme, this system.  Will we see Tate and Denard together in the backfield?  Will Devin be there too? Is that where this is going?  I can't wait.  And if the defense and special teams continue to be as embarrassing as they are, maybe Rich can't wait either, as Michigan is still near the bottom (93rd in NCAA) in total defense.  We give up, on average, 175 more yards per game than the Iowa Hawkeyes.

The 11th ranked passing game in the nation is waiting for the Wolverines next week in Bloomington.  Disaster seems so close.  And yet, so does relief.  Michigan only needs to win it's next two games to get a lot of monkeys off of their backs.  Bowl eligibility...check.  Winning the only really vital rivalry game...check.  Momentum...check.

Sanity...check.

Sagarin ratings of our four opponents through 9/25 (Michigan is 26th):

UCONN 69th

Notre Dame 64th

UMASS 84th

Bowling Green 94th

Sagarin ratings of our next four opponents through 9/25:

Indiana 85th

Michigan State 41st

Iowa 27th

Penn State 22nd

Again, Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing. Eyes Right, Mind Right , Stay Hungry and Sell Out.

Pictures from the Bacon Tailgate are right here:

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It's Really Not OK

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I've racked my brain the last couple of days trying to figure out how the UMASS game was "OK."  It hasn't been easy.  I tried to tell myself that this is a game of emotion and momentum, and that the Minutemen came in fired up, had some early game success, and rode that wave into a great performance.  And Michigan was disinterested in this FCS opponent, created a defensive gameplan to combat the deep ball problems of Notre Dame, and was caught off guard by a bruising, in-your-face running attack.

The problem is, while some of these things might be true, the reality of the situation is we got our ass kicked.  UMASS dominated the line of scrimmage, often both on offenseand defense.  The way they attacked our defense is the EXACT way the teams of the Big Ten are going to attack our defense, the difference is that MSU and Iowa aren't going to be coming at us with transfers from Hofstra.  All signs point to Michigan being in some pretty deep shit.  UMASS dictated our offensive gameplan, forcing Denard to the air, when we should have been able to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted.  Lucky for us, Denard was up to the challenge.

So the question remains, how long can Robinson hide all the things that are wrong with this team?  Last year I thought the defense would grow as the season went on...they regressed.  Why would this year be different?  Also, hands down the worst set of kickers, and that includes placekicking, kicking off, and punting, that we have had at Michigan.  And Jeremy Gallon must have pictures of Rich Rod shredding documents...there's no other explanation for why he continues to be the punt returner.  The defensive scheme rarely put players in position to make plays, usually because they had a UMASS player driving them right off of the field.  But when it did put them in a good position, they did a tremendous job of missing tackles.  Everything you thought was good enough now sucks.  We've been exposed.  And it's just a matter of time before our weaknesses are exploited.

But....

We didn't lose.

Not losing makes this game go away, like 10-7 over Utah in 2002, 24-21 over San Diego State in 2004, or 34-26 over Ball State in 2006.  And even though there's that feeling that we've been here before (because we actually HAVE been here before) maybe we'll be like Iowa...

I can point to Iowa's 2009 season, which started out with a one-point win over Northern Iowa in which the Hawkeyes were outgained and had to block two(!) field goals on consecutive plays to avoid the killer upset. Four games later Iowa survived 24-21 against Arkansas State; they ended the year by whipping Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl.

Whatever.  I'm fairly certain the whole Big Ten sucks anyway, so maybe we have a chance to get that elusive 6th win.  But that is looking ahead, and if Saturday taught us anything, it's that we cannot look past the team in front of us.  So, ya...Bowling Green.  Here's to hoping we hold them under 400 yards.

Tailgate pics here...

Holy

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Notre Dame Stadium is not all that big.  Their press box isn't very impressive, and the scoreboards remind me of the pixelated version from early-90's Crisler Arena that used to blink "BIG NOOK" when Juwan Howard was introduced.  The "open bowl" setup lends itself to having the noise escape a la the pre-suite Big House.  The student section is small, as is the school in general, about 1/4 the size of the University of Michigan.  In short, on paper, Notre Dame is not all that intimidating of a place to play.  The reality however, is that the second you enter the stadium, you can literally feel the tradition, like you're in a museum, or a hall of fame.  The pageantry of the Notre Dame marching band, the boisterous student section's male and female portioned cheers, the gold helmets, and there's like a garden with shrubbery and ivy, green as Ireland, behind both the benches.  Seriously, it's beautiful.  And while I've never actually met a Notre Dame fan that actually attended Notre Dame, they are still very passionate, and enjoy looking down their noses at you.

But there's something about the place.  Something is different there.  It's hard to describe.  Sometimes called "luck" or "magic," and often playfully given religious metaphors.  This power, this certain something, this twelfth man that Notre Dame possesses for each and every home game...it's real.  I've seen it.  And I'm not talking about touchdown Jesus, though after staring into his eyes for the better part of 4 hours on Saturday,  I know that each time I looked to the heavens for help with my team, he scrambled the signal.

That's why I was never comfortable.  A 14-point lead is nothing against the power of that place.  Even referees are unable to resist the mystique.

Early on, we knocked Notre Dame quarterback Dane Crist silly, whose last name is an h short of being the messiah, and they brought in Joe Montana's son.  Seriously...Joe Montana's son.  He rode in to the stadium on a unicorn.  He had on his dad's NFL number.  And he had giant calves from wearing shape-ups.

With just under 4 minutes to go in the game, the sky, which had been thick overcast, parted, and sun hit the field for the first time all day.  And a rainbow in the distance hooked around and landed on the 50-yard line.  Ten seconds later, Crist, back in the game for the second half after guzzling holy water, threw a 95-yard touchdown pass to a tight end to give ND their first lead since the first quarter.  The PA announcer actually said "95-yard touchdown pass from Dane Crist to Kyle Rudolph, and a rainbow on the 50-yard line."

I'm not making this shit up...except for maybe the unicorn.

But there was Denard.  And Denard is something that the football gods, or the gods, or god Himself may have not been prepared for.  Notre Dame, despite seeing the films from the previous week, certainly was not.  Denard broke the rules of tradition.  Denard broke records.  He now holds the mark for the longest run in the history of Notre Dame stadium.  He is also the first person to use the Heisman pose out of necessity since the guy they modeled the statue after did it in 1934.  Denard doesn't know or care who Knute Rockne is, and he doesn't know or care about his own stats.  He only cares about the team.

And this is a team my friends.  Coach Rodriguez is building his own family here.  He's creating his own Michigan men.  Don't kid yourself, he created the phenomenon that is known by many as "shoelace."  He took a sprinter and made him a football player.  Rich Rodriguez created Denard Robinson to take everything that is wrong with these Wolverines, from the placekicking to the punting to the defense's inexperience, and eliminate them from the equation of football completely. 

They say special teams wins games, and defense wins championships.  We have very little of either, yet we have a chance to win both.

We're Kind of a Big Deal

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Saturday by the numbers...

10 lbs of corned beef hash

54 eggs

6 pounds of chicken apple sausage

100 lbs. of grilled Kraft Macaroni and Cheese...which was, by the way, really good

24 lbs. of marinated pork loin

10 lbs. of bacon and kimchee fried rice

...and that's just what came off of the grill.

For the christening of our new tailgate spot and a celebration of 10 years of tailgating these internets, I'd say things went pretty well.  Couple that with the re-dedication of Michigan Stadium, Brock Mealer touching the banner, and Flash Dilithium re-introducing himself to the world...and I'd say the whole damn thing was pretty much perfect.

Thanks go out to Andrew Barnett for setting us up with the people of Kraft, and for all of his hard work making sure we had enough product to go around.  Thanks to Brian and Kevin for turning that Mac and Cheese out by the ton.  Thanks also to big #37 Jarrett Irons for being so accessible, so warm and welcoming, and for spending so much time talking to our group.

Here's the pictures from the Luau tailgate and Michigan's 30-10 victory over the UCONN Huskies: