We’ve all seen glorious Facebook quiz that Marques Slocum put together. Luckily for us, the glorious union between Marques ‘Grand Marques’ Slocum and Facebook has not been severed. Rosey saw this pop up in his newsfeed and passed it along to me. For those of you with a login, login now and look at. For those of you who aren’t down with social networking:

Click for largeness

There are so many layers to this group. It’s like an onion that when peel away the layers it makes you laugh instead of cry. When my buddy sent me the link, I wasn’t signed in, so I couldn’t see all the info. The first thing I said to him was “Oh God, please let this be made by Marques Slocum.” He apparently heard my prayers because when I signed in, there was his name under creator. I couldn’t be more happy right now.

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At Thanksgiving Dinner this year the talk flowed into Michigan’s disappointing football season. Almost all the siblings on my dad’s side went to Michigan for some amount of time (only one graduated). My aunt brought up how East Grand Rapids coach Peter Stuursma inherited nothing and is now going to the state championships every other year (for the sake of this story, we’ll overlook how Kevin Grady’s dad finds “housing” in the district for some talented athletes).

When my uncle brought up the fact that he lost 6 games his first season (that’s a 2-6 season which is the same winning percentage as 3-9 fyi…), she said “Yes, but after that they won a lot of games every year.” At that point my hand was firmly attached to my forehead. When I said what the difference was between Peter Stuursma’s first year and Rich Rodriguez’s, she said that something was, but she couldn’t explain it to me.

Then I explained how Rich Rodriguez generally had a rough first year followed by a fairly good second year and then BECOMES A MACHINE. I told them how at WVU he had one bad year followed by four years of 8+ wins and 3 years of 10+ wins*. After I said that, another uncle said “10 wins won’t cut it at Michigan.” At this point I’m trying to resist the urge to fly over the table with a butter knife. Lloyd Carr was a great coach and only had 5 of 12 years with double digit wins. Bo Schembechler, THE Michigan coach in the modern era was only slightly better at 10 of 20 seasons of 10+ wins**.

I’m hoping he just doesn’t really know football. If Michigan fans think 10 wins is unacceptable, we’re worse off than I expected. 10 wins is a great season. 8 wins is a good season. Sure we’re Michigan and our team should always be in contention for a championship, but you can’t expect to be a game or two away every year. With limited scholarships, you don’t have hegemonic powers. There is more ebb and flow. It’s time Michigan fans learn to appreciate what we’ve had, have and will soon have.

*People are mature. From Rich Rodriguez’s Wikpedia entry:

**It’ s a little hard to compare the to eras given Bo only had 10 games with a much harder to reach bowl up until 1975, but Lloyd’s whole tenure was within the era of limited scholarship era. I’m not sure if the factors balance out or not.

Posted under Football

This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper.

When I woke up this morning I felt a draft in my normally warm apartment. I get up and look at the one big window I have. I pulled with blinds saw two baseball sized holes in the window. I look down at my feet and see a ton of broken glass. I didn’t want to think this was an omen.

The game itself was no different than most other games against good teams. Michigan stayed competitive for the first half and then couldn’t keep it up in the second. The game even started out identically to Northwestern: Stevie Brown takes an interception back inside the 10 and Michigan fails to get any points.

There were some flashes of what a mediocre team looks like. Michigan had a touchdown drive, something the team couldn’t do last year. The defense was lights out for most of the first two quarters. Before the post Pryor hit for a touchdown, I mentioned that Pryor doesn’t look that much better than Nick Sheridan.

At halftime I thought that Michigan had a chance. Then reality came and gave me a swift kick to the balls. I’m not angry at anything for OSU getting their fifth straight win over Michigan. I’m not torn up about a team that has more losses than any other team in the 129 years of Michigan football.

This season was bad. It was almost as bad as it could have been. Every time something was fixed with this team something else broke. Michigan was very close to being mediocre, but instead injuries and serendipity forced this team to bad. We all knew this was possible; we all knew this was somewhat probable. At this point, all we can do is put our heads down, take the jeers and wait for next year.

This isn’t something Michigan fans are used to. 2004 was a rebuilding year; so was 2006. Michigan has had such a run of continued excellence that people started mistaking excellence for mediocrity. I guarantee that Rich Rodriguez knows the difference between the two and knows that this team is neither. I also guarantee that Rich Rodriguez knows what it takes to move this team from where they are to where we all want them to be. He’s a winner, and the only way someone can become a winner is by winning. There’s no compelling, rational argument against his future success.

If you want to complain about the coaches, players or other fans, go ahead. If that’s what you need to do to make this season bearable, fine. Personally, I’m going to hold onto my rational hope, keep my head down and wait for next year. It can’t get any worse.

Posted under Football

Going into the game against UCLA, I figured it would be a idea to play a drinking game where you take a drink for every field goal made. For the first few minutes it looked like a good call as UCLA appeared to be creeping out to a big lead at 9-1. Then something weird happened.

The team last year at times looked confused in the 1-3-1 defense. They didn’t get to their spots in time, couldn’t recover on the swing. It looked like it wasn’t going to work. Against UCLA the 1-3-1 allowed Michigan to aggressively trap and force a ton of turnovers.

The hardest part about watching the Amaker years was the complete lack of fundamentals coaching, especially on the offensive end. Lazy passes, bad spacing, and no movement were the norm rather than the exception. In this game we saw great bounce passes to back-cutting players, exceptional spacing for our players to get to work, and good shooting from the outside. Beyond that, there were a lot of good shots that the players just couldn’t finish. Soon they’ll be able to get those shots to go down and we’ll have a very potent offense on our hands.

At the end of the game I was waiting for UCLA to come back and win. Being a Michigan fan, my experience in the recent past is often “get a glimmer of hope; get that violently beaten to death.” After UCLA made the 3pt shot to get it within one I could feel myself thinking “OK. This is it.” Then, Michigan was able to inbound the ball, not just to anybody, but to a very legitimate closer in “Manny” Harris (quick aside: is it weird that out of Corperryale Manny Harris it’s the Manny that gets the quotes?). I jumped up and started cheering. This was before Manny nailed the two free throws. From my years watching Amaker “coach” Michigan, I fully expected either a 5-seconds call or the ball being taken away on the inbounds. Instead, they got to Manny who got fouled with 4.6 seconds left. He walked to the line and sank two huge free throws like it was practice. UCLA gets a great inbounds pass almost all the way to half court and gets to the arc. The whole time I was yelling “foul him! for the love of all that is good and holy in this world foul him!’ Instead, Harris decides he’ll just block the attempt. Game over.

Sure, UCLA is probably overrated. They lost a ton of production last year, but they are still one of the better defensive teams out there and Michigan only had 10 turnovers. 10 turnovers to 15 assists against a team that usually plays lights out man-to-man defense. This team is turning the corner. I have no reason not to believe they have a shot at the tourney come March. If they can hang with and beat UCLA, there’s very few teams they don’t have a shot to beat. Before the UCLA game, I would have been happy with a barely above .500 season where the team looks good and hangs in tough against the big dogs, but now I think Michigan has a chance to do a lot of damage, especially in conference play once they get Lucas-Perry playing.

The kids seem like they believe they can make the Tournament. I know Beilein believes they can do it. They know a hell of a lot more about their chances then I do. So, I guess get ready for March Madness.

Posted under Football

After much scouring, we finally found a Buckeye who could converse in modern English. Our liaison to the unwashed masses of Buckeyes is Zach Meisel, a football beat writer for THE Lantern. Enjoy:

Posted under Football

Johnny’s posts seems to have a struck a nerve with part of the Michigan Internet. Personally, I don’t really get it.

People who have read RBUAS know that he writes more from his heart, his feelings than most other Michigan bloggers; they also know he writes circles around almost anyone out there. From reading his stuff and talking to him, I can easily see that while he loves Michigan, it’s not a nameless, faceless unit that gets judged on wins and losses, but rather a collection of interesting characters to whom he is able to relate. He probably has 2GB of Mike Hart pictures alone on his computer.

The characters that seem to intrigue him the most are those potentially great players that tend to have problems getting to that plane of greatness. Even Chad Henne and Mike Hart have a glaring hole on their resumes. Lloyd Carr perhaps was a great coach and had lost a step. Steve Breaston’s returns were pieces of art, yet in 2006, he couldn’t perform as the number one receiver. Ronald Bellamy.

I don’t understand the shouts of bandwagoneering. When Tim and I talked with him, he told us that the game that cemented his obsession with Michigan was the 2005 Rose Bowl against Texas. I can see it. Watching that game you could tell the team gave it their all. The game was the birth of arguably the best player in college football, and Michigan hung in and almost won with a freshman quarterback and halfback. Any fan could empathize with their disappointment and their hunger to do more next year.

Then 2005 happened. Then 2006 happened. Then 2007 happened.

Maybe I’m sympathetic with Johnny because we were both in college at that same time. My freshman year was that ridiculous 2004 season. How could Michigan have won the Big10 with a couple freshman leading the offense? (Answer: Mike Hart is ridiculous and… Braylon Edwards).

Then expectations were raised to very high levels for 2005. After the Notre Dame game I was disappointed, but not despondent. After Minnesota, I was despondent. Ohio State was once again tough to swallow. After the bowl game, I was ready to drive down to Sun Belt HQ (I think the mailing address is to someone’s outhouse) and do something violent.

In 2006 expectations were low; people predicted between 3 and 4 losses. I still consider my road trip to Notre Dame that year the single greatest day of my life. I still remember crying after the Ohio State game.

Once it was guaranteed that Hart, Henne and Long were back, it was basically set up as Championship or bust. After Appalachian St., I just sort of quietly walked home went up to my housemate’s room, someone who doesn’t care about football, and talked about life while watching Wedding Crashers. I didn’t check the blogs or watch ESPN until about Thursday.

Then after the 2007 season, everyone that I had associated with Michigan football during my time here was gone.

Lloyd Carr had been football coach since I really cared about Michigan. I saw him win it all in 1997. I saw him continue to believe in Navarre until he eventually beat OSU and went to the NFL. I heard about the dictionary, quoting Kipling, visiting his buddy Russel Crowe. The wins and losses are important, but I grew up with Lloyd Carr and I doubt there can be another coach with his personality, his secret desire to be an English teacher and still be as successful as he was. I don’t care if you bring up games he should have won, or calls he should have made or how he is loyal even to a fault; you are not going to move Lloyd Carr from being my favorite coach.

That’s not to say I don’t like Rich Rodriguez and I don’t think he will be successful. He is an elite coach and will win here just like he won everywhere else. His summer has made more sympathetic to him, and I like his openness and honesty instead Carr’s often intellectual curmudegeonliness, but I root for him to win games and get Michigan football securely into the top tier. I rooted for Carr on a much more personal level.

So, like Johnny I probably am less invested this season than I have been in seasons past. After the Wisconsin win my friends and I were joking about a Motor City Bowl berth. After Toledo, I just sort of shrugged and started thinking about next year. Wins are nice; losses are expected; it’s all a wash anyway. I cheer in the stands; I argue with booers; I defend the coaches, but it’s not the same as cheering for guys like Jamar Adams who checked in to see how Tim’s and my dynasty in NCAA was going.

There is nothing but snow, and rain, and a numbing, overwhelming, and undeniably hopeless decay of something I once loved, and still do, but much less intensely.

While I agree with the radical shift and believe in the new staff’s ability, I can still find some truth in this. The football program is undergoing a huge change, which is probably for the best, but there is still some part of me that misses Carr smirking knowingly at a press conference when he and everyone knows he won’t answer the question that is asked or stiff arming a sideline reporter. There’s something about Mike Hart running the exact play that the defense know he’s running and still picking up 7 yards. There’s something about the parabolic beauty of a Chad Henne bomb. That’s gone; the future is bright, but that doesn’t mean we can’t lament the passing of a great generation, despite all their faults.

We may end up loving this team, these players. Just not yet.

Posted under Football

Michigan made a huge mistake in hiring Rich Rod. The season only get worse.
Minnesota-28 Michigan-7

Minnesota has a very tough defense and an offense that can really move the ball through the air. They’ll beat Michigan by at least 14. Michigan is steamrolling towards 2-10.

Hail to this year’s fraudulent Wolverines! U of M alums will shun each of you forever! Learn to pour some coffee because that’s the job you’ll get on graduation! 2 and 10!

This Rod hire looks worse every week, he is infamous for his arrogance and failure to make adjustments. Chances are his tenure at Michigan will be a failure. Whether the players fit his system or not, there is no reason for the ineptitude his Michigan team has displayed this season. Good coaches learn to adapt.

I agree. R Rod’s master plan is to sacrifice this year’s team and make it go 2-10, so he can claim what terrible team he inherited from Lloyd Carr. This will set the expectations way low for future years. That way, when he does finally have a winning record, say 7-5, he hopes to be praised for what genius he is. In the end, RR will turn Michigan into another Purdue. Few decent years followed by “rebuilding” year, followed by few decent years, and then so on. Don’t expect another National Championship with him.

(Source)

Various outlets are reporting that Rich Rodriguez has called Steven Threet “very, very questionable” for Saturday’s game against Minnesota. Justin Feagin has been moved back to QB to back up Nick Sheridan. If that sentence doesn’t fill your veins with icy dread, I don’t know what will. Who knows, maybe Sheridan will be lost for the season and Feagin will go nuts on the Gophers, a la Justin Siller against Michigan? (Source)

Posted under Football

This has been a rough year for Michigan fans as streak after streak was broken, as benchmarks of sustained success were missed, as the team lost five straight games and seven of nine overall. What got to me the most was the one step forward, two steps back modus operandi of this team. It seemed as soon as one thing became effective, something else broke. So, every time I saw something that inspired hope, that hope was quickly and forcefully shattered by some mistake or failure.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been telling myself and anyone who will listen that this will work, but I have not really taken stock of how bad this season has been. Before last Saturday, Michigan had won two games by a total of 12 points and lost seven by a total of 87 points. Some of the games were competitive, but in Big Ten play I can’t really say Michigan should have won any of the games that it lost. The Wolverines were outplayed by better teams.

This was all sinking in by Saturday. I was resigned to a loss, even a blowout, against a team that Michigan has, quite literally, historically dominated. Even at half time, I figured the same old script would show itself. If this team has proven anything, it’s that it’s inconsistent. So expected the same old script: three and outs on offense; missed tackles and blown assignments on defense.

This is the first game that I’ve been excited to re-watch since the Toledo sadness happened. That was really when I lost my optimism for this team. Subsequent games made me question next year’s team. But one game made me remember why I was so excited to see this team play in August. What they lack in consistency they make up for in potential.

This offense was an absolute machine on Saturday with one quarterback who doesn’t throw well down field and one quarterback who doesn’t throw; with the worst offensive line any of us are ever likely to see; freshmen at almost every skill position; the top two running backs not playing at 100%. For the first time the offense was able to effectively counter the defense’s adjustments. In the past few games, the original script worked well, but once the defense adjusted, the offense stalled. There were a ton of new wrinkles (e.g. Feagin), some nostalgic wrinkles (e.g. the Braylon Edwards Memorial Diamond Formation), and parts of the basic the scheme that worked better this game than any game previous. This is what we have to look forward to. We got a preview of what this offense will be.

The defense, after giving up 48 points and roughly 6.82×10^23 yards against Purdue absolutely shut down an adequate if not amazing Minnesota offense. The defense was vintage Scott Shafer. The 3-3-5 stack was, as this blog and gsimmons guessed, likely and experiment designed to stop a decent running back (Kory Sheets) because there was a third string quarterback playing. The defense against Minnesota varied between 4-3, 4-3 over and 3-4 okie. The corners played up at the line both on man to man and on basic cover two. The defensive line and linebackers played well as a team and kept the running game contained very well.

My favorite part of the defensive game plan was the 3-4 Okie Chaos on passing third downs. I can’t imagine an offensive lineman or quarterback feels comfortable with 4 stand up potential blitzers moving in and out. I have to go back and look, but I don’t believe that Minnesota picked up a first down in one of these situations. Scott Shafer isn’t just a “press-man coverage and blitz” guy. He uses the threat of blitz just as well as actually blitzing.

This is what this team will become. This game proves that these guys can coach. I don’t care if Minnesota isn’t as good as advertised. The team that showed up and played could hang with most teams in the Big Ten. But when you have the youth and inexperience that Michigan has, it’s irrational to expect consistency game to game and from start to finish. After trying to revel in little victories like converting a third down or a good kick return, it’s nice to see the entire product and revel in a victory that results in win.

We caught a glimpse of what will happen, but the best part is that soon we’ll be living in the future.

Posted under Football

That’s what we’re told almost every time a play is reviewed in college football. “Every play is reviewed.” In the time it took the officials to spot the ball and wind the clock, ESPN had already put on screen conclusive video evidence that Obi Ezeh had possession of the ball and was down.

Some people may say “yeah, but it was a gritty, hustle play by the Minnesota player to get down there and dig the ball out of the pile. That’s football.” To that, I’d say when a player has possession of the football and a knee, elbow, or hip hit the ground, the play is dead. It’s a simple if A then B. We had a situation A, but it was not followed by B.

I don’t blame the officials on the field. It’s a tough situation to call. It happens really quickly and it’s hard to get a good angle in a scrum like that. But that’s why we have instant replay. And Rodriguez shouldn’t have to call a timeout to give them time to do what ESPN did in 10 seconds. Rodriguez shouldn’t have to challenge since every play is reviewed.

What do you think was going up in the booth? The replay official was watching the game in real time on his uber-high def monitors and from that decided there was nothing the least bit questionable? I’m in favor of replays happening when the call questionable, not just when the official thinks he (or she) sees incontrovertible visual evidence. I’d rather break the flow of the game in order to ensure the correct call is made.

The player will show in this paragraph

var s1 = new SWFObject(‘http://www.panel-creations.com/varsity_blue/podcast/vplayer.swf’,’player’,’640′,’480′,’9′);s1.addParam(‘allowfullscreen’,’true’);s1.addParam(‘allowscriptaccess’,’always’);s1.addParam(‘flashvars’,’file=http://www.panel-creations.com/varsity_blue/podcast/worstcallever.mp4′);s1.write(‘preview’);This play didn’t really affect the outcome of the game, but it still gets me. I think even if I was watching a game that I had no interest in, I still would have been a bit angry. I don’t blame the officials on the field; they did as well as they could in a difficult situation. The blame falls squarely on the replay official for not even calling for a replay.

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Everyone in Big Ten country (except for maybe Indiana) is saying the same thing: Go Blue!It is refreshing to see Ohio sporting the color blue. Now we’re totally even for the past 7 years…

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