Week 10: Anyone Else Miss Navarre?

I wanted so badly to forget my own words from two weeks ago: "Michigan can't beat anyone this year." But they couldn't even win this week when so many people were trying to hand them the game. The Spartans tried to shoot themselves in the foot, but the Wolverines wouldn't have it.

They needed the help of the officials to convert on State's first turnover. But after that, they refused to make the most of Sparty's mistakes. It looked like the "bigger brother" was trying to carry on the tradition of keeping "little brother" in the game. "Oh, you'll fumbled the ball to us again? Here you go, 3-and-out, have the ball back. Miss a 50-yd field goal? Don't worry, we'll field it, take it at the 10 and then go 3-and-out. Woah, our defense forced a 3-and-out? Here you go, 2-and-INT. You missed another field goal?! Ok, we'll just go 3-and-out again. That should leave our defense nice and gassed for you. Hey, you ran for a 64-yd TD in one play, good job! And we'll just tie it up before halftime."

"Now in the second half, we'll take the lead, but then continue to go 3-and-out even if you keep missing field goals. And if you need any extra scores at the end, we'll just throw some more picks for you." It's just ridiculous. That's all there is to say.

Standings

This Week	W	L	(Overall)
A True Blue Husker	14	12	(131-57)
Dr. L	17	9	(126-62)
Kenny Pickett	16	10	(126-62)
The Guvna	16	10	(126-62)
The Rev	18	8	(126-62)
Chief Justice	17	9	(125-63)
O-knee-der	16	10	(124-64)
Tornado Beast	DROPPED OUT

Schedule
Thursday, October 30
7:30 PM ET #23 S. Florida at Cincinnati

Saturday, November 1
12:00 PM ET Northwestern at #17 Minnesota
12:00 PM ET W. Virginia at #25 Connecticut
12:00 PM ET Wisconsin at #21 Michigan St.
12:00 PM ET Miami (FL) at Virginia
12:00 PM ET Michigan at Purdue
12:30 PM ET Kansas St. at Kansas
12:30 PM ET Auburn at Mississippi
2:00 PM ET #18 Tulsa at Arkansas
2:00 PM ET E. Michigan at W. Michigan
2:30 PM ET Pittsburgh at Notre Dame
3:00 PM ET #14 Missouri at Baylor
3:30 PM ET #8 Florida at #6 Georgia
3:30 PM ET #15 Florida St. at Georgia Tech
3:30 PM ET #24 Oregon at California
3:30 PM ET Clemson at Boston College
3:30 PM ET Duke at Wake Forest
3:30 PM ET Iowa at Illinois
6:00 PM ET #20 Brigham Young at Colorado State
7:00 PM ET Tennessee at S. Carolina
8:00 PM ET #1 Texas at #7 Texas Tech
8:00 PM ET Nebraska at #4 Oklahoma
8:00 PM ET #13 TCU at UNLV
9:30 PM ET #10 Utah at New Mexico

Week 9: Now You See Me, Now You Don't!

A little bit here, a little bit there . . . Every once in a while we actually get a glimpse of what Rich Rodriguez has been trying to do with this Michigan football team. But as soon as they get us asking ourselves, "Could this be a sign of progress?" They have a complete regression.

How does a team mount three scoring drives for over 200 yards and then follow with three straight 3-and-outs? I don't care if it's a top-10 defense, if you've kept them on the field for 14 of the first 18 minutes of the game and run all over them, there's no excuse for only gaining 8 yards and no first-downs for the rest of the half.

I'm also doubting this mantra about being the best-conditioned team in the conference. We still haven't seen this team put in a 60-minute game. They certainly aren't the most disciplined team in the conference. You're trying to get into halftime up 10 points with two minutes left and you go and spot the team 15 yards with a stupid personal foul. Are you kidding me? And once they put Nick Sheridan in the game we all knew it was over. Just another week of mostly awful football.

Standings:

This Week	W	L	(Overall)
A True Blue Husker	15	7	(117-45)
Kenny Pickett	17	5	(110-52)
The Guvna	15	7	(110-52)
Dr. L	14	8	(109-53)
Chief Justice	20	2	(108-54)
O-knee-der	12	10	(108-54)
The Rev	15	7	(108-54)
Tornado Beast	11	11	(108-54)

Schedule:

Thursday, October 23
7:30 PM ET Auburn at West Virginia

Friday, October 24
9:00 PM ET #12 Boise State at San Jose State

Saturday, October 25
12:00 PM ET #8 Texas Tech at #23 Kansas
12:00 PM ET #22 Northwestern at Indiana
12:00 PM ET #24 Minnesota at Purdue
12:00 PM ET Boston College at North Carolina
12:00 PM ET Illinois at Wisconsin
12:00 PM ET Wake Forest at Miami (FL)
12:30 PM ET Kentucky at #10 Florida
12:30 PM ET Baylor at Nebraska
3:00 PM ET Duke at Vanderbilt
3:30 PM ET #6 Oklahoma State at #1 Texas
3:30 PM ET #7 Georgia at #13 LSU
3:30 PM ET #16 South Florida at Louisville
3:30 PM ET Virginia at #18 Georgia Tech
3:30 PM ET Virginia Tech at #25 Florida State
3:30 PM ET UCLA at California
3:30 PM ET North Carolina State at Maryland
3:30 PM ET Michigan State at Michigan
6:30 PM ET Colorado at #15 Missouri
7:00 PM ET Mississippi at Arkansas
7:45 PM ET #2 Alabama at Tennessee
8:00 PM ET #3 Penn State at #9 Ohio State
8:00 PM ET Notre Dame at Washington
10:00 PM ET Oregon at Arizona State
10:15 PM ET #5 USC at Arizona

Week 8: That Tears It

Well, it's become painfully obvious that Michigan can't win any games this year. Other teams may hand them the game, but they can't beat anyone. They really are that awful this year. How does a program fall this far in two years?

While it can't be pinned on any one person or instance, I would contend that the wheels began to fall off in the Ohio State game of 2006. In the fourth quarter, Shawn Crable was called for a bogus roughing the passer penalty after hitting Troy Smith just before he went out of bounds. Instead of bringing up 4th and 15, the Buckeyes extend the drive and pull ahead with a touchdown. That penalty could have cost the Wolverines a national championship appearance.

Nevertheless, a Rose Bowl appearance is still respectable. But combined with the Appalachian State debacle, Michigan's recruiting must have experienced a devastating blow. Is Terrelle Pryor's sudden change of heart evidence of this? Maybe.

Despite an embarrassing 0-2 start last year, the Wolverines still had the chance to prove they were a national power. But injuries to Hart and Henne proved to be a factor in the losses to Wisconsin and Ohio State at the end of the season.

Then there was the way Lloyd Carr went about stepping down. He sent the university on a mad scramble to find a suitable replacement. And even when they had Les Miles as a prospect, certain members of the organization snubbed him! That whole situation was handled about as well as Michigan carries the ball this season.

And of course there's Rich and his infernal stubbornness. He wants to run his system even though he has absolutely no tools with which to run it. And in the process he loses the second highest recruited quarterback in the class of 2007. Now he's stuck with all these freshmen who can't throw, can't hold on to the ball, can't make good decisions and aren't fast enough to make his spread offense work.

Now that he's responsible for the progam's first ever loss to a MAC team (and not even a good one at that; at least we lost to the best Div. II team last year) how in the world does Rich expect to be able to recruit the kind of talent he needs to make the system work next year?

Standings:

This Week	W	L	(Overall)
A True Blue Husker	14	6	(102-38)
Tornado Beast	12	8	(97-43)
Dr. L	13	7	(95-45)
The Guvna	13	7	(95-45)
O-knee-der	15	5	(96-44)
Kenny Pickett	12	8	(93-47)
The Rev	12	8	(93-47)
Chief Justice	12	8	(88-52)

Schedule:

Thursday, October 16
7:30 PM ET Florida State at North Carolina State
8:00 PM ET #9 Brigham Young at TCU

Friday, October 17
8:00 PM ET Hawaii at #15 Boise State

Saturday, October 18
12:00 PM ET #21 Wake Forest at Maryland
12:00 PM ET Georgia Tech at Clemson
12:00 PM ET Western Michigan at Central Michigan
12:00 PM ET Wisconsin at Iowa
12:30 PM ET #22 Vanderbilt at #10 Georgia
12:30 PM ET Nebraska at Iowa State
3:30 PM ET Mississippi at #2 Alabama
3:30 PM ET #16 Kansas at #4 Oklahoma
3:30 PM ET #12 Ohio State at #20 Michigan State
3:30 PM ET #18 North Carolina at Virginia
3:30 PM ET #23 Pittsburgh at Navy
4:00 PM ET Stanford at UCLA
4:30 PM ET Michigan at #3 Penn State
7:00 PM ET Arkansas at Kentucky
7:00 PM ET Oregon State at Washington
8:00 PM ET #11 Missouri at #1 Texas
8:00 PM ET #13 LSU at South Carolina
8:00 PM ET #17 Virginia Tech at Boston College
10:00 PM ET #25 California at Arizona

Week 7: Where's the D?

Before you go and say, "Well at least we only had 2 turnovers this week," just remember that the Wolverines put the ball on the ground at least 5 times on Saturday. We were just lucky that someone wearing blue covered 3 of them. And those 2 we lost turned out to be pretty critical (especially when we couldn't hold the opposition to field goals this week).

Ironically, the offense actually had a decent outing this week. Threet was only slightly over 50%, but he had some nice completions down the field and had one or two good runs. McGuffie continues to be the only sure-handed Wolverine and will likely develop into a pretty good running back.

While the offense also had its problems (like when it came to converting 3rd downs, pass protection and substituting correctly), a lot of the blame falls on the defense this week. Perhaps they're just not used to defending a lead yet. But I don't see how you can respond to your offense driving 10 plays for 61 yards and eating 4:32 of clock by giving up 46 yards on the first play from scrimmage. After that, it just all went downhill. I mean, 57 and 77 yard touchdowns?! Are you kidding me? Playoffs?! And not one take-away. Even Eastern Illinois and Louisiana-Lafayette were able to force turnovers against the Illini. This just wasn't Michigan defense.

Standings:

If my recent trend continues, I'll be in the basement before long. As it stands now. Nate's still on top and Alex behind him. Derek and the Doctor move up together tied for third. The Rev, with a very good week, moves up into a 3-way tie for fourth with Grant and myself. While Clyde doesn't lose any ground on most of the pack, but doesn't gain much ground either.

This Week	W	L	(Overall)
A True Blue Husker	14	6	(88-32)
Tornado Beast	14	6	(85-35)
Dr. L	15	5	(82-38)
The Guvna	15	5	(82-38)
Kenny Pickett	12	8	(81-39)
O-knee-der	14	6	(81-39)
The Rev	16	4	(81-39)
Chief Justice	14	6	(76-44)

Schedule:

Thursday, October 9th

7:30 PM ET Clemson at #21 Wake Forest (-2.5)

Friday, October 10th
8:00 PM ET Louisville (-5.0) at Memphis

Saturday, October 11th
12:00 PM ET #5 Texas at #1 Oklahoma (-6.0)
12:00 PM ET Toledo at Michigan (-17.0)
12:30 PM ET Colorado at #16 Kansas (-14.0)
12:30 PM ET S. Carolina at Kentucky (-2.0)
2:00 PM ET Kansas St. (-6.0) at Texas A&M
2:30 PM ET #13 Vanderbilt (-2.0) at Mississippi St.
3:00 PM ET Nebraska at #7 Texas Tech (-17.0)
3:30 PM ET Arizona St. at #8 USC (-20.0)
3:30 PM ET Tennessee at #10 Georgia (13.5)
3:30 PM ET Notre Dame at #22 N. Carolina(-4.5)
3:30 PM ET #23 Michigan St. (-1.5) at Northwestern
3:30 PM ET W. Michigan at Buffalo (-3.0)
5:00 PM ET Arizona (-3.5) at Stanford
6:00 PM ET New Mexico at #9 Brigham Young (-21.0)
7:00 PM ET #25 Ball St. (-20.0) at Western Kentucky
8:00 PM ET #17 Oklahoma St. at #3 Missouri (-9.0)
8:00 PM ET #4 LSU at #11 Florida (-6.0)
8:00 PM ET #6 Penn St. (-4.0) at Wisconsin