Weekend Roundup, Glass Half Full with Defense Edition: August 18, 2014

It wasn't really all that fun, but for the football starved it wasn't a horrible way to spend a Saturday night in Ann Arbor.  It's was kind of reminiscent of what the Spring Game used to be, like 10 years ago.  So it wasn't great, but it was markedly better than the PNC sponsored bullshit they trot out in the current iteration each April.  Complaints?  I've got a few.  There wasn't nearly enough announcing of the play by play by bizzaro Grapentine.  New players, new numbers, constant substitutions...help a brother out!  Also, someone needs to clean up those ten million dollar scoreboards:  dirty, dead light bulbs, digital artifacts on the screens.  And finally, don't tell me to print off a bunch of free tickets and then tell me I don't need them when I show up.

I'm no rocket surgeon, so take my opinions for what they are...a few things I saw when I wasn't trolling twitter combined with everybody else's opinion from twitter.  

• Simply put, the offense is the same suckfest as last year and when you see it go against the defense, it makes you think the defense might be serviceable.  
• Northfleet has been thisclose to breaking one on special teams for what seems like 5 years...I think you'll get that same feeling all year before each time he's tackled at the 30.  
• Peppers looks like the kind of athlete you want on the field as much as possible, and combined with the fact that he is a child maybe the only thing to get excited about going in to this stupid opener.
• The offense line looked like disorganized crap.  But that's because it IS disorganized crap.  Glasgow is out for the opener, there's a true freshman that might start, Bosch has a hurt back....lots of in and outs is not conducive to the idea of a cohesive unit.  I think it might be best to reserve judgement until South Bend.
• Punting and kicking looked as good as it has ever looked.

Here's what you missed around the internets when you bought a set of season tickets on woot:

• Maize and Brew covers some post scrimmage comments from Coach Hoke, which includes "We need to catch up Offensively."
• Full Hoke post scrimmage presser from MGoBlog.
• The AP Poll is out.  We do not appear in it.
• Not technically from the weekend, but full of pre-season coverage, it's Dienhart's tour from BTN.
• An Oral History of the last Appalachian State loss is covered in the Freep.  Why?  Dave.  That's why.  Well, Dave and the fact that Freep cradles the stones of Dantonio ever so gently.
• Hoops is in my homeland, and they crushed Perugia Select by 39, which if nothing else got some game action for Austin Hatch....which is pretty cool.
• Notre Dame - killed a kid, cheated on some tests, faked a girlfriend with cancer and her subsequent death, cheated some more.  Wake up the echoes!

Keep calm and Go Blue!