This sucks.

Rationally I knew it was likely that Michigan would lose. This isn’t a good team. The offensive line is inexperienced and constituted mainly of middling recruits. The wide receivers included James Rogers and Zion Babb. A ton of the big contributors are injured or nicked up.

There’s a brand new offense that’s different, scary and wildly inconsistent. The defense is having growing pains learning a new scheme. Sometimes they look amazing, and other times they look confused.

There’s no reason to expect big things. Hume disproved the principle of the uniformity of nature. Just because Michigan has been consistently good does not guarantee that Michigan will be good in the future.

I know Rich Rodriguez will mold this team into a something amazing. He is a winner everywhere he goes. Michigan has a great base and program to support the team. All evidence points to greener fields ahead. The 2009 class (as of now) looks to be elite. The 2010 class will likely be better. Something good is around the corner.

Sparty tried to give Michigan the game. They did not play well. They left a ton of points on the field. Michigan got a very dubious call in their favor (how the Hell was Minor in bounds?). Michigan is just not good enough to capitalize. Rationally I know this season shouldn’t be evaluated in wins and losses. Michigan fans need to take their medecine and look forward to the future.

But irrationally, this sucks.

Posted under Football

In this blogcast we talked with Cash Kruth, football beat writer for the State News. We discussed the state of State football and commiserated about recent loses as well as got a preview of the upcoming flag football game between the the State News and the Michigan Daily. Enjoy:

Posted under Football

On Confusing Insults
Saturday morning we left the house where we were staying decked out fully in our Michigan gear. Before we even hit the street from the back door, we ran into a few a Penn State fans. One of these partisans pointed at the group of us and yelled “FAG! FAG! FAGGOT!” I think we responded with either “Go blue!” or “Keep it classy State College.” Then the more we thought about, the more confused we became. Was there one of us who looked or acted some way to earn the extra syllable? Did one of us just seem more homosexual that that person deserved the full pejorative? By the end of the day we were arguing with each other about who was the full word. We decided it was Tim.

On Beaver Street some girls walked by looking really confused. As we got close to her she said “Who are all these yellow people?” We looked around quickly to make sure it was in fact referring to us. We were definitely the only people who could classify as “yellow.” I’m not sure if her use of the term “yellow people” is common in State College to refer to Michigan fans, but we were not used to that use of the term.

On Hilarious Things Saved for All Time

This photo was taken on Foster between Atherton and Barnard.

On Things That Might Be Related
One really awesome feature on Penn State’s campus is the Creamery. Both times I’ve made it down to State College I’ve stopped at there and gotten some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, there was no Peachy Paterno or Jay’s Java Chip or Chocolate Marshmallow Morelli. I got bittersweet mint and Nate got vanilla. It was delicious as this picture shows:

On The Surprising Calm
We were pretty sure that Michigan was going to lose, but we also knew we wanted to hang out in State College Saturday night. In the unlikely event of a Michigan win, I would have been worried about some sort of murder-suicide, mob mentality sort of thing. To prevent this, we bought Penn State hoodies (if Braylon can do it, we can). After the loss we decided to see how excited the fans were about a fairly huge game in recent Penn State history. We threw on our Penn State clothes and headed out on the town.

Walking down the street, one of us would yell “WE ARE!” and listen for a response. Generally even with big groups of people there wasn’t a huge response. Usually it was one or two people out of all of them. I’m not sure if it was a come down from the excitement and build up to the game, but many fans simply seemed deflated and relieved. I remember after the Wisconsin game this year or the Penn State game in 2005, Michigan fans were going crazy in Ann Arbor all night after the game. I’m not sure what was holding the Penn State fans down, but something certainly was.

Posted under Football

I couldn’t figure out a larger frame for these stories, so we are going to make them into a collection. There may be some things I forget, so bear with me. I’m still trying to recover.

On the Necessity of Shirts:
I will try not be too specific in order to protect the guilty. We stayed at a chapter of my fraternity at Penn State. It was started up there in 2001 and is now starting to become cemented on campus. Well, on that Friday night we got into State College around midnight with 30 rack purchased in Ohio. We were obviously too sober for the scene when we arrived. The level of inebriation was completely appropriate for the occasion, except for one gentleman.

This gentleman was one of the original founder of the chapter. He had to be at 25, but likely older. Tim, our mutual friend Nate and I were talking with a few of the brothers in the kitchen when this gentleman walked up the stairs from the basement we could immediately tell it was going to get interesting. He was wearing jeans and boxers and that was it. We all know the term OMG Shirtless, this was the opposite, so LOL Shirtless or maybe OMFG Shirtless. When both nipples and navel point to the ground, you should wear a shirt.

He seemed completely confused as to why Michigan fans would be in State College. He seemed fairly confused about everything else. After babbling on about getting special forces troops to kick our (meaning Michigan I believe) Marines’ asses, he set out trying to explain the new shirt sweeping Penn State this year. The conversation went something like this:

• Drunkard: On the front it says “Make Michigan our Bichigan.”
• Tim: uh… OK.
• Drunkard: Bichigan. You know, like bitch again.
• Paul: yes… bitch. OK.
• Drunkard: Bichigan. Do you get it? Like bitch again… get it?
• All Three of Us in Unison: Yes! We went to Michigan. We get it
• Drunkard turns around and walks away

He would later find his shirt and disappear into the night. I assume he made it to wherever he was heading. This was clearly not his first rodeo.

On the Dichotomy of Fans:
Before the game, we were walking around State College and campus decked out in our Michigan gear. We were going to see our friend play Penn State’s club tennis team, so we were walking down Curtin street by the Creamery (I think). As we were approaching the street, a car slowed down and the passenger leaned out the window and yelled “FUCK MICHIGAN! FUCK YOU GUYS.” A middle aged woman walking toward us turned around looking horrified and said “I can’t believe people would say things like that.” She did not acknowledge our existence.

We were walking down Beaver St. (I think) and on either side of there are tall apartment buildings with balconies. We saw a group of kids on an 8th floor balcony having a good amount of fun. Tim and I have been to State College before and are a little wary drunk Penn State students. Well, they started yelling at us when we crossed the street, and by the time we got near to the balcony on of the kids up there poured some vodka. This surprised me. I could understand throwing empty cans or something, but wasting perfectly bad alcohol on us? That’s just lame.

We were walking around trying to find a bar to watch the game. We went into the Saloon, and once we got inside of a bar, the fans were all friendly and good sports. One woman gave us a drink recommendation (a Bong Water Monkey Boy FWIW); I talked with another fan about how Rodriguez will work out in the long run (more logically than some conversations I’ve had with Michigan fans). Sure we were ribbed and there were some friendly barbs thrown, but it was in the spirit of college football.

I don’t mind people making fun of Michigan or me by proxy. That’s what makes college football great. Be creative and not threatening. Everyone is there to enjoy two programs going up against each other and two fan bases coming together. Have fun and enjoy it.

Photo: On Penn State Signs
The text of the sign:

ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION

Used for improved livestock breeding. Was made feasible for dairy cattle by the work of Prof. John Almquist, who, beginning in 1944 in the Borland Lab, perfected the use of antibiotics to preserve semen and developed commercial methods of using it. His internationally acclaimed research increased food production and breeding efficiency worldwide.

That’s all I have for right now. One or more parts will be coming throughout the week.

Posted under Football

This week we talked to talked to Jason Mack, the Sports Editor for the Independent Collegian at the University of Toledo, pictured to the right. I’m trying a new audio player, so let me know if you can see it. Enjoy:

UPDATE: I tried a new player and there’s an issue with it. To get the blogcast, just right click here and select Save Target As.

 

 Previewing the Toledo Rockets [10:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted under Blogcast

UPDATE: Issue fixed

Coach Simmons, purveyor of the best technical football blog this side of Smart Football, Three and Out, joined us today for the podcast. In addition to being an excellent blogger, he is defensive coordinator for a large high school in North Carolina. In whatever spare time he has, he acts as the resident coach of the Michigan blogosphere posting as gsimmons85.

In the podcast we talked about his coaching philosophies, his team, how he views Michigan and his love of his car. We barely scraped the surface so we hope to have him back. Without further adieu:

 

 Coach Simmons Talks about the Illini [16:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(If you can’t see the player, you can right click here and click save target as)

Visual Aid 1:

Visual Aid 2:

Posted under Blogcast, Coaching

As I watched my recording of the game yesterday I was a little surprised how much Bob Griese stated, flat out, that Steven Threet cannot run the spread option offense. I generally like Griese, and he and Nessler are the best pair on ESPN (I just pretend Maguire isn’t there), but he is flat out wrong in this instance.

No one will confuse Threet with Pat White; all one needs to see is them each throw a 10 yd out (zing!). Pat White was really successful in the zone-read option offense because of how much the defense respected his ability to run. It would open up holes for Slaton if the defense played disciplined and White could punish them when they didn’t maintain their assignments.

The play that, in my mind, really cemented the fact that Threet could in fact run this offense wasn’t the absolutely ridiculous 58-yd keeper, but rather the Minor touchdown run. Take a look:

Deandre Levy, a senior linebacker, is rocked back on his heels by the threat of a QB keeper. This, combined with the inside linebacker blitz, opened up a huge seam for Minor. If Levy didn’t respect Threet’s running ability he could have a crashed in and stopped the play for little or no gain.

Threet is not Pat White, and he won’t be successful in this offense in the same way that White was, but that doesn’t mean he cannot run it. He can run the zone-read and pick up yards when he keeps it, as we’ve all seen. This forces the defenses to at least respect the threat, which can open up holes for Michigan’s talented backs. He may not break the big runs as often as Pat White did, but if he can consistently get 3-5 ydson his keepers, Threet can keep the defense honest. Beyond that he’s getting better touch on his passes. Once he gets those hitch-and-go routes down, we could see yet another dimension added to Michigan’s big play potential.

I’m not convinced that either of the freshman quarterbacks will be able to come in and unseat Threet. If they do (and judging by Rodriguez’s personnel choices this year, they’ll get a shot), we can feel confident that they beat out someone who can, at least competently and at best efficiently, run the zone-read based spread option.

Posted under Analysis

This is a collection of text messages I sent to Tim during the game. They are in chronological order:

Posted under Analysis

For this week, we talked to Derek Zetlin, the football beat writer and sports content editor for the Badger Herald. If you want to know what Mr. Zetlin looks like, I’ve got you covered. Topics ranged from the fleetness of Evridge to the fatness of Hill. Many thanks to Mr. Zetlin for his time and insights. I hope you guys enjoy the preview:

 

 Previewing the Wisconsin Badgers [15:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted under Blogcast

As some of you may know, Zoltan Mesko is a student in the business school. Also, some of you may be aware that our economy, as Sarah Palin would say, “has some things that need a little fixin’.” One reporter asked Prof. Mesko to explain the recent conversion of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. I’ll let the Mesko take it from here:

Here’s the NYTimes take on it, for what it’s worth. I wonder what’s in Mesko’s portfolio…

Posted under Video