There is no ‘q’ in the last name of Michigan’s head coach. The proper spelling is “Rodriguez.”

“My name is Rich Rodriguez, and I approved this message.”

This has been a public service announcement brought to you by Varsity Blue.

Posted under Coaching

Back in the spring, the Michigan staff opened its doors to high school and college coaches from around the country, and conducted a coaching clinic. Near-legendary Mike Barwis gave presentations about strength training, and defensive and offensive techniques were taught to the attendees. However, the main event (if not Barwis, of course), was the presentation on how the Michigan offense will work, and the principles behind said offense.

Many Michigan fans were curious about why the staff would give away its secrets, especially when the enemies could so easily use this information against the Wolverines (several MSU coaches were rumored to be in attendance). Of course, the coaches wouldn’t share all their secrets, nor does a knowledge of the system necessarily reveal the secrets to stopping it.

Instead of focusing on the possible negatives from spreading the… spread…, it is necessary to take note of the positives (and realize that they outweigh any potential negatives). I’ve brought this up before, but looking at future instate prospects, it really hit home to me how beneficial this sharing can be.

In 2010, the state of Michigan has a fairly strong recruiting class. Included in this class are two top dual-threat quarterbacks: Robert Bolden from Orchard Lake Saint Mary’s and Devin Gardner from Inkster (more on them in the upcoming 2010 recruiting primer). OLSM already runs a form of the spread (though not, if I recall correctly, a read-option), but I’m not sure what type of scheme Inkster runs. The Michigan coaching staff, by teaching its system to high school coaches across the state and country, gives itself an advantage. First, the coaching staffs at the high schools have a familiarity with the Michigan staff, and will not hesitate to encourage a player to commit to the Wolverines in the future. Second, players will be comfortable going to a school with an offensive system they ran in high school, and will have a leg up on learning the system by the time they enroll in college.

By giving high school coaches in the state access to the Michigan coaching staff and their knowledge of the spread offense, it helps the high schools develop prospects speficially for Michigan’s system, and also gives the Wolverines an upper hand in recruiting these youngsters.

Posted under Coaching

Items of note (obviously subject to major change after fall camp):

• Your OL (from left to right): Ortmann, McAvoy, Moosman, Zirbel, Schilling.
• Starting TE: Butler or Massey.
• Greg Mathews and JR Hemingway starting split ends.
• Toney Clemons starting slot, backed by… Jim Potempa?
• Threet and Sheridan listed as co-starter at QB.
• Moundros over Helmuth at FB.
• RB: Minor over a three-way tie between Brown, Grady, and Horn.
• Starting linebackers: S-Austin Panter, M-Obi Ezeh OR Johnny Thompson, W-Marell Evans OR Jonas Mouton.
• SS listed as BHarrison OR CStewart.
• Return specialists: Punt – Warren, Kick – Brandons Minor and Harrison.

The VB Depth chart will probably be updated in short order, as part of the team preview.

Posted under Personnel

Posted under Coaching

…and your freshmen are numbered thusly:

Ricky Barnum – 56
Boubacar Cissoko – 33
Mike Cox – 15
Kenny Demens – 25
Justin Feagin – 5
JB Fitzgerald – 42
JT Floyd – 12
Taylor Hill – 36
Rocko Khoury – 63
Kevin Koger – 86
Mike Martin – 68
Sam McGuffie – 2
Elliott Mealer – 57
Brandon Moore – 88
Martavious Odoms – 9
Patrick Omameh – 65
Dan O’Neill – 78
Terrence Robinson – 7
Roy Roundtree – 16
Michael Shaw – 20
Brandon Smith – 28
Daryll Stonum – 22
Kurt Wermers – 64
Marcus Witherspoon – 4

Posted under Personnel

I signed up for XBox Live this weekend. This was almost exclusively for the online dynasty feature of NCAA09. I’m looking to get a dynasty started Monday after work (about 5pm EDT). I have two other people already on board, so we only need nine more to max out. If you want to join in and have time to play at least one game most days, e-mail me at panel |at| umich |dot| edu with NCAA09 in the subject line, you gamertag and if you have a conference preference.

If you just want to beat someone who occaisionally blogs about Michigan, my gamer tag is Paul VBlue. Feel free to friend/challenge/whatever people do on Live.

Posted under Misc.

This edition of NCAA seems to have drawn more hand wringing and fist pumping than any of the previous iterations. I’m not sure if that’s because there is a big split between the hardcore football simulation fans and the casual gamer or that the Internet allows for such a build up and subsequent thrashing. I’m not sure where I fall in that spectrum. The most editing I’ve ever done to the rosters is adding in the names of Michigan players (occasionally updating numbers, hometowns) and basic slider work (I hate when a wide open WR drops a ball). Yet, I usually end up going a least 10 seasons deep in a dynasty, so I think I’m somewhere in the middle.

I got the game at midnight and have played Coop-dynasty, solo-dynasty, legend mode, and a player vs. player game. After those few hours, I have some quick hits:

• The movement and actions seem a lot more engine based rather than animation based.
• The stadiums look pretty amazing and the ambient sounds have improved considerably (and I haven’t even added the custom sounds yet).
• Dynasty recruiting in season is still super tedious, but the quickcall feature makes it much more bearable. (Quick aside: I bought the game and wanted to get right in and play some dynasty games, but had to spend about 25 minutes getting all the preseason stuff in order. I get it, but it’s a drag)
• Playing a game co-op is way more fun than in previous editions. Breaking routes to wholes in the zone and coming back for the jumpball are really fun. So is just levelling someone with an impact block on an option run or toss play.
• Legend mode is basically the same except it’s more difficult to keep that 2.0. I used to be able to do whatever I wanted and keep at least a 3.7 now I’m hovering around 2.6-7 (more realistic?)
• I recommend doing Legend mode as a WR.
• My defense in 08 consisted mainly of OLB blitz to free the DE off the edge. That doesn’t work so well in this game. In fact, nothing really works to get to the QB. I’ve picked up some sacks, but they are usually coverage sacks. Brandon Graham got pancaked multiple times by Toledo…
• The AI for pass defense is a bit weak. If they could split the difference of 08 and 09 I think it would be about perfect. I can usually just throw it up and Matthews will come down with it.
• I recommend Texas Tech if you’re playing against a person. They’re a ton of fun with Harrel throwing to Crabtree. I feel most PvP games in 09 are going to be offense based and I don’t think there is a more fun offense in the game.

I’m looking to start an online dynasty with a few friends this weekend, so I can report back on that later on. Overall I think this game is an improvement over 08. EA is promising two patches (one in 5-10 days the other in 1-2 months) to fix some of the gameplay issues. I’m looking forward to how this game will (finally) come together.

Posted under Misc.

We have, to your right, the Michigan student football t-shirt from a couple years back. On the left? a new Ohio State t-shirt, completely ripping off the format.

Posted under Misc.

Going through the old WOLV tapes, I finally found the original masters of the Shomari and Sean O’Neill Show. In their 1997-98 season they interviewed Charles Woodson a number of times. This episode includes an interview with the soon to be Heisman Trophy winner at Good Time Charlie’s slightly before the Ohio State Game.

In case you didn’t hear, he ordered the monster order of fries…

Posted under Video

ESPN was in Ann Arbor today to tape a Titletown segment on the city of Ann Arbor. No doubt they’ll focus on the dominant Pioneer swim teams!

I went to the shoot after stopping at Moe’s to buy a maize shirt, to fit in. There was a decent crowd, maybe 75-100 partisans. What made the scene funnier was the fact that as their setting up and the crowd is warming up and doing some cheers, there are orientation groups being led through the diag on tours. Just another day at Michigan…

Unfortunately the anchor for the section wasn’t Dana Jacobsen, but the anchor (Nicole something, I couldn’t really here anything from where I was) seemed cool and talked with crowd and whatnot. Anytime Desmond Howard became visible the crowd immediately exploded. One kid shouted “I was born the year you won the Heisman.” Kids are so young these days.

I’ve seen a few of the Titletown segments and it really looks like a quick and easy thing that could have been done live; this is not the case. We did each take multiple times. The producer would give us hand gestures to tell us when to get loud, to cue the band, to let the cheerleaders when to do what they do. I felt like the mob should at least get a small appearence fee for trying to get into to football saturday roudy mode on a Monday at noon.

A couple times the ESPN crew had to reshoot a section because (get this) the fans were TOO LOUD. This could be the only time Michigan fans outside of Yost have ever been too loud. I will remember this always. When the producer told us to cheer quietly during an interview with Desmond Howard, I thought “Finally! Someone playing to Michigan Fan’s strengths!”

Overall it was an fun experience even though I could care less about yet another mythical title that the WWL seems intent on creating bi-annually. Hopefully the small group of fans did the University proud. The A^2 T^2 segment will air on the 6 o’clock Sportscenter on July 20th

Posted under Misc.