The Gar, The Gar, The Gar
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Picutres now available from the first ever Gar-themed tailgate. Recaps and other stuff from the gameday are available here, or by following the link at the top of the page (2016-->UCF 2016). Go Blue!
This Concludes the Laughable and Unusable Portion of Your Football Schedule (Maybe)
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Rich Eisen was the honorary captain for the UCF game. Photo: Upchurch / MGoBlog
Listen man, they weren't an abomination when we scheduled them. They beat Baylor (one of those mobile-quarterback-having, fast as hell Baylors) in the Fiesta Bowl in 2013.
At least we didn't sign up for a home at home like the Terrapins. Seriously, have you seen Maryland's schedule? At FIU, at UCF? You must really enjoy FloriDUH. Honestly, only those of us that have been to the Citrus Bowl can appreciate the disappointment of the surrounding area of America's Worst Bowl Venue. And that area is basically UCF's campus. Sure, they stopped playing in the Citrus Bowl in 2007...but that should tell you just how bad it is. Basically a no name school scoffs at using a bowl venue as a home stadium. That's Orlando...and it's not the Disneyland version you see on TV. You are 10 times more likely to be slipped a Mickey than see Mickey Mouse.
So about the game:
“There was no lull. We outhit them in the first half, I thought we outhit them in the second half. They’ve got a lot of playmakers and they made a bunch of plays. But standing on the sideline, watching the impacts and watching the collisions and watching the line move, I thought we won that battle.””
Photo: Upchurch / MGoBlog
Clearly, there's no quit in the Knights of UCF. Even when their backs were against the wall, down 21-0 after the first quarter, they managed to only be outscored 30-14 the rest of the way.
All my snark aside, I was prepared to provide the Knights with a small compliment along with the check we gave them to show up that will eclipse their gate take at home for 2016. But after Frost, his mother's son, had his chest puffed out after losing by 37? Makes me want to rekindle a hatred for Nebraska that I have ignored for the better part of the last 20 years. I only wish for Frosty to pull off the amazing feat of having the team go over .500 in his tenure like the legend of resume stuffing did before him. Looking forward to watching our old defensive coordinator kick your dick in next week.
OK, architect of the Flea Kicker aside, there were some things to point at on Saturday that weren't so positive. Mind you, only in a world where the Hawaii game existed could this game be looked at as "meh," But the 5-yard wide holes seemed to be missing for Chris Evans to run through, and the defense allowed a few big plays on the ground, skewing the stat line to make it look as if UCF pounded the ball when in fact they inserted a track star as a gimmick. Regardless, this lights a fire in the pants of the "wait until we play somebody good" crowd, and makes it disconcerting to look at the rushing stats on the scoreboard while you are trying to enjoy the game. However, it seems the strategy of UCF was not to take any middle ground. They chose to make Wilton into Tom Brady as opposed to turning Chris Evans into Walter Payton. I'll let Drew Hallett summarize:
So we've got some stuff to work on. Or maybe we don't. I used to use the excuse that we were hiding the playbook early in the season when we'd edge the Northern Inferior University Fighting Idiots by less than 10 points. Turns out most of the time we just sucked. We won by 37 on Saturday. And I'm pretty sure we're hiding the damn playbook.
Mike McCray was defensive player of the week in the Big Ten last week. Wilton Speight is the offensive player of the week in the Big Ten this week. Balance baby, balance. Injuries are healing. Young guys are getting real game time. Depth is building, and our schedule seems to be perfectly arranged so far in order of increasing difficulty. This should ramp us up nicely to beat the team that beat LSU.
All of the Gars you can handle.
In tailgate news, pretty nice turnout for the tailgate considering the weather.
3:30 kick next week folks. You think you're ready but you're not. Pace yourselves.
Way Back When-sday Pic of the Week
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November 13, 2004: Mike Irish wins the first edition of the UMTailgate.com MVP Birdhouse following Michigan's defeat of Northwestern 27-19. He was never seen or heard from again.
The Stars Which Were Signed Have Already Aligned
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The Michigan Fan of the new millennium is a scared one. Scared of a type of failure that was thought of as impossible in our lifetimes. Five loss seasons? Never heard of it. Losing seasons? Not a chance. But they came. Multiple times. So much crow eaten. So much fall after the pride. A rigid program with stable lineage in leadership gave way to inconsistency. New schemes, usually the polar opposites of the previous year's, implemented with trepidation and confusion. No continuity. Zone blocking or man blocking? Spread or pro-style? These are the times that try men's souls.
If it was easy to stay, everybody would be a champion.
Though we made so many mistakes, from the hiring of Rich Rod to the lack of support he received, Brady's good guy routine with no accountability, mishandling of recruiting classes, and apologizing to the enemy, and Brandon's general dumpster fire of a career at the helm of the athletic department that culminated with shitty toned emails to fans...even though we were all complicit in it, we received a gift. One with the old fashioned heart and bravado of Bo, the new age wit and social media skills of a Santa Clara startup, and an NFL pedigree just an older brother shy of a Lombardi trophy. And we received this gift because we created it. He's ours. Spawned by Jack. Molded by Bo. Here to stay.
On February 3rd, Coach Harbaugh created an awards show to introduce the latest class of Michigan Football recruits. It was excessive, egregious, and damn spectacular. The Signing of the Stars. His guys. That day, they would share a stage with Tom Brady, Desmond Howard, Derek Jeter, and Rick Flair. Seven months later, they would see Jeter again...and retired GOAT Charles Woodson. That would be enough pageantry for any program's home opener, but those two legends played second fiddle as the team walked out to the 50 with Michael Jordan in tow. Captain Michael Jordan.
Michigan was the beneficiary of a ridiculous amount of pre-season hype. Despite not having a runaway starting QB emerge from camp, despite some questions on a young and shuffling O-Line, and a despite fielding a linebacker core that could only be counted as legitimate when Jabril Peppers gets designated as one...the returning starters, leadership from upperclassmen, and year two of Harbaugh had the Wolverines in a more than a few mock Final Fours.
On Saturday, they were finally allowed to show if all the talk was legitimate, to show what "iron sharpening iron" had created. Sure, Hawaii limped in to the Big House, jet lagged, over-matched, and generally inept. But Michigan beat them like they were jet-lagged, over-matched, and generally inept, posting a 63-3 victory over the Bows, the largest margin for Michigan over an opponent since 1975. And I promise you Harbaugh knows that, wrote it in his personal journal, and will try to beat it in the future.
But as the game progressed, it became very clear that the only thing burning faster than the gas warming up Hawaii's bus back to the airport were redshirts. The Stars of signing with the stars are not the future. The Stars are now. 17 true freshman saw the field. Some came later as the blowout became such, but many were first off the bench in the rotation, leapfrogging their sophomore, junior, and senior counterparts, adding an aspect of depth that we could not have anticipated, and showing a level of talent that will push (and in some cases replace) the incumbents.
My preseason "hot take" was that Smith wouldn't be the leading rusher on the team this year when it was all said and done. Ty Isaac, Kareem Walker, Kingston Davis, Chris Evans...I felt one of them would emerge as the breakout back. Smith has that Chris Howard / Chris Floyd feel to him, and we need some more speed and shifty-ness. Enter Evans, who lived up to the submarine leaks.
“A cool customer. A guy who prefers his black-rimmed glasses over contacts. A guy who wears a high-top fade in honor of Will Smith’s role in “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” A guy who has no problem talking with Michael Jordan.”
Looking forward to seeing "all the other things he can do."
Speight was great after that first throw. Had a handful of really nice passes, and he seems to be able to be that game manager we need him to be, though we will have to see how he handles getting knocked around at a later date since he was barely brushed up against in his little over a half of work.
Solid fill in by Bredeson at guard with Braden being injured. That meant Newsome got the start by default in week one at left tackle. Loved seeing Onwenu get some O-Line time in the 3rd quarter as well. Biggest dude on the any field he enters, and he's 18 years old. And McDoom was the fastest frosh-to-fan favorite ever, grabbing some great catches to the harmonious bellows of McDoooooooooom from the student section.
Pretty exciting day for an absolute, no-doubt manhandling. Transitive property states that if the future is bright and the future is now, then NOW IS BRIGHT. On to the next one.
