Au Revoir, Gopher!

This somehow seems appropriate this AM….

 

(HT:  mgoblog.com)

And while the Mighty Gopher has once again been defeated, you can’t help but wonder as a Michigan Fan, where and what we’re left with.

1.  Michigan looked much improved in their running game and offensive line play in general.  But was that because of an inept D-line and less than stellar defense for Minnesota or did the two weeks of work really pay off?
2. Gardener’s decision were MUCH better and he even showed some glimpses of what we saw at the end of last year and to a certain extent earlier this year in the domer game….But again, was that two weeks of practice or the Gopher Hole of a defense that Michigan was playing?
3. Gardener also showed that he threw behind a lot of his receivers and it makes me wonder if he’s still not suffering from a small lack of confidence..and can that get better over the next couple of games?
4. Funchess seems to have returned to the Michigan Offense…At WIDE RECEIVER no less!  He didn’t seem to be playing in the Tight End spot very often…but is that good (that he’s catching passes again) or bad (He’s not blocking anymore?)
5. In the 1^st quarter, the 3^rd worst offense in the league was able to put together a 10 minute, 16 play 75 yard scoring drive led by a frosh QB against what was supposed to be Michigan’s strength, the Defense….What’s up with that?
6. The kicking game wasn’t terrible, but kicking out of bounds on any kick-off gets you a mediocre grade...and is that fixable?
7. Minnesota was playing either very motivated or somewhat de-motivated with their head coach sitting at home recuperating from yet another game day seizure…But which was it?  Inspiration and a fired up Gopher team or a team worried about their all-around good guy coach?
8. On the bright side, Michigan did not turn the ball over at ALL…So, where has that been all year and was that part of the two week off fix?  And look at the good things that happen when you don’t turn the ball over…
9. Where does this leave Michigan sitting at 5-0?  We should all be happy and elated, but instead we’re left to wonder when and how it might end….

I hate to sound so down about a victory and in a way I’m not…Michigan keeps the Jug and that’s a big deal!  I know it doesn’t seem like it, but the Jug represents a lot of history – 100 years to be exact.   While history is history and the focus of the collegiate game has shifted on a national level to teams from the SEC, Pac12 and other areas…..It’s still the Jug.

 

 

So, where is Michigan?  On a scale of 1-10, I would right now put them at around 6.5-7 out of 10.  Meaning:  If they were playing an equally ranked team, Michigan would beat that team about 6 to 7 times out of 10.  IF they were playing a team in the top 5, Michigan’s chances drop dramatically.  Probably in the 2-3 range.  They still aren’t there yet, but I do think (and want to believe) that they are improving on the margins.  And they have two more opportunities for improvement before the real test comes in November in East Lansing.  And those Jolly Green Giants seem to be clicking along on all 8 when it comes to defense and now they seemed to have finally discovered an offense…against the #2 defense in the league down in Iowa City.  So, they got that going for them….which is nice…

I’m not dismissing PSU and IU at this point.  They will be good games and they will be tough.  But if Michigan loses one of those….lights out and don’t let me near a computer for at least 48 hours.  But, where is everyone else in the Fan Spectrum better known as the….

5 Stages of Slappy Fan Grief

1.  Denial and Isolation – Domer and Sparty, for the most part, are back up in this area.  With big wins in what were supposed to be tight games, they can each look at the remaining schedule and easily see how they can be close to double digit victories with the opponents they have left.  However, 1 game does not a season make.  The domers WOULD have lost to the ASU team that played USC last week.  And I’m guessing that Iowa looked and played Minnesota a little better than what they showed Sparty on Saturday.  You can add half of the Georgia fan base to this list.  While Tennessee is improving, if you’re a Dawg fan, you can’t deny that your Defense didn’t do its job very well on Saturday.  I’m going to drop a few ohio fans in here as well…They all saw on Saturday that they don’t have a defense….and that some bad calls saved their collective butts…but the slappies will never see it that way. 
2. ANGER  - Some sparties are hanging around in the anger area and I ran into a couple on Saturday and Sunday.  Frustrated that Dantonio made the stupid decision at the end of the Domer game to pull Cook and still bitching about pass interference calls.  Some South Carolina fans are here as well with Clowney pulling the crap he’s pulling down in Gamecock land…NWU Kitty Kats are here as well after what happened in the 2^nd half of their game against ohio…How can you dump a 10 point lead at home to the suckeyes when you’ve got them right where you want them?  And that 4^th down spot shouldn’t have mattered…but the refs still blew it….Tennessee fan is also here en masse as they fight the number 6 team in the country to OT only to lose in the most frustrating way possible…fumbling the first possession through the end zone for a touchback….The Cremeiscle fans were not happy….Throw some Ole Miss fans in here for good measure after losing to Auburn….There are some Texas fans that have bounced back up into the Anger phase out of depression simply because Thursday night’s near debacle at ISU was as close to an embarrassment as losing to K-state is in the 40 Acres….But a majority of Texas fans are still
3. Bargaining – You can also add a whole lot of Georgia Bulldawgs and some domers here.  Season ending injuries plagued both those teams with the loss of some very key players.  Add some Gamecocks with the Clowney issues and fans are just hoping for New Year’s day at this point….Unfortunately, the Gophers hopes of having anything to do with the B1G championship went down in flames Saturday, but they could still play the role of spoiler to someone….Speaking of Spoilers
4. Depression – Put the collective Spoiler fan base here.  I don’t know how you can root for a college football team that is playing as bad as Purdon’t is right now…Terrapins immediately jump down to this level due to the fact that they had finally broke into the top 25 only to go down to Tallahassee and have 63 unanswered hung on them with aplomb…And Jimbo Fisher was happy to do it and get the style points to boot.  Did you hear that noise?  That was Gatorland sucking in it’s breath upon hearing that another ACC school they have to play is getting better and some of the Gators are in the depression mode as well….Not to mention WVU ‘neers are finding that there’s not enough hooch in all of West Virginia to ease their pain…
5. Acceptance – Kansas has moved to this phase of grief and the fire Charlie Weiss websites have popped up. 

Idle Thoughts From Saturday

-Sparty looking like they actually know how to move a football offensively.
-Look-out:  Iowa is moving it with the little out passes…
-Sparty needs to cover the outside or its going to be a long day….
-Sparty adjusts…and Iowa doesn’t…
-Ferentz has to be getting frustrated…
-And the fans are getting impatient….
-Look for Kirk to “think” about one of the big openings?
-You couldn’t see Ferentz at Texas?
-Really?  I could….Not predicting it….just saying it could happen.
-Jerry Kill didn’t even make trip to Ann Arbor…
-Seizures….That’s gotta be tough…
-And he beat cancer, also…Did you know that?
-Makes you wonder what he could accomplish without the distractions…
-Hey – look at that..Michigan is running the ball effectively!
-And by that I mean they are getting 4 to 5 yards on 1^st down…
-Whooda’ thunk it two weeks ago…
-Defense gets a quick TO..I like to see that.
-Can we get a stop here please?
-Jeez…How long has this drive lasted?
-And why aren’t we blitzing more?
-Finally, we’re blitzing…but it took till the 2^nd half…
-What is the spread here again?
-What was the FMQ thinking? 
-And that theme will repeat itself a lot in the ole noggin this Saturday…
-Injury bug hitting a lot of teams and big name players…
-Georgia beat Tennessee…but it was costly…
-Marshall gone for the season…ACL
-domers lost two with broken legs…
-Oklahoma, others losing guys also…
-ohio down early… I like that. 
-But the Purple Kitties need to hang on.
-Last I knew, they didn’t know how to put their foot on their opponents neck..
-Go for the kill….
-Come on Colter…He got it!
-Wait…no?  Is that the spot….really?
-Domers looking good on offense…despite Rees…
-And they look really good on Defense…
-But I’m not sure that ASU is as fired up this week as they were last week…
-FMQ should have realized that…..Idiot….
-Washington hanging tough with the Cardinal…
-This one also closer than the experts thought….
-Wow…crappy way to end that game. 
-Replay is good and bad….
-But what else is new?  Frustrating they just can’t get it right….

The Hot Seat

Irina Shayk holds serve and will be in the Hot Seat Mascot finals!  With the largest vote to date, also!  Glad to see the collective is out their voting and making it count!  This week’s mascot stays in the SI Swimsuit Theme and I do wanna thank SI for that Okie State story…I hadn’t really poked around on their website too much in the past…but golly, I may have to add a link based on what you can find out there with respect to swimsuits alone!  What a display!  And the Hot Seat Mascot for Week #6 is:  Brooklyn Decker!  I was going to save Brooklyn for later…but I figured I’d keep the SI models together….maybe that was wrong..but I could get used to looking at Brooklyn…I wonder if she goes by “Brook?”

GONE LIST: 

 

1.  LANE KIFFIN:  And this is bad because he doesn’t have the BS personality you need to do TV. In fact, he doesn’t have any personality…at least not one anyone can locate.  Now that USC has shown the world how to do it, it kind of makes you wonder who’ll be next….
2. Paul Pasqualoni:  I’m surprised UConn made this move when they made it….seems like they could have waited…but maybe they are worried their guy will be gone if they didn’t act now…
3. Treadwell – Miami (OH).  With the big boys firing coaches early, I didn’t think it would take long to trickle down to the FBS mid majors….Once a guy is ineffective (or has a bad season), it’s over….

Hot Seat Rank

1. Mack Brown:  Didn’t move himself out of the 1 seat after the debacle in Ames when he needed the ref’s help to win the game…
2. Holgorensen:  Blanked to Maryland…who was just blanked by Miami…then BEAT Okie State…and then get embarrassed by Baylor…not looking too good for Dana….
3. Hazell:  I know it’s his first year…but Purdue is really, really bad…
4. Gundy:   Again…needed until the last few minutes to pull his fat out of the fryer…It’s warming up at Okie State…
5. Weiss:  Why not?  This week…there’s a reason…..
6. Ferentz:  He’s not threat to be fired, just a hot seat….Losing to Sparty at home makes that happen....
7. Fire Richt Websites will be buzzing because he let half his squad get injured…like that’s his fault…
8. Mullens – Mississippi State…When was the last time he won a big game?
9. Spurrier:  Not saying he’s getting canned or anything..but not being able to keep Clowney in check will not reflect well on him at all….

FMQ Betting Results:

Crap….That’s really all I can say here.  Seems like everything was going according to plan and now we get a setback week.  I should have thought a little harder about a couple of these bets, but now that we’re in conference…well, spreads can be a little tougher to cover…..I have to remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint and we’re going to be a little more diligent next week.

Washington @ Stanford (-7):  Take Stanford and lay the 7 for $70…OOPS….I just figured that Stanford in revenge mode at Home would be too much for the Huskies….And while the Cardinal won…they covered…

LOSE…

WVU @ Baylor (-28):  Take Baylor and lay the 28 for $40  Baylor comes through…should have played this one as a favorite..

WON!  Bank $76

ASU (-5) @ Domers (Neutral Site Game - Dallas):  Take ASU and lay the 5 for $60  Should have thought about this game and what was at stake for the domers not to mention the inevitable let down of beating USC and getting the coach canned…

LOSE…

Ducks (-38) @ Colorado:  Take the Quack Attack and lay the 38 for $60  At least the Ducks are still managing to get it done against the spread…

WIN!  Bank $114

Maryland (+15) @ FSU:  ..Take Maryland and the 15 for $40 Was this possibly the worst whiff on the board this week?  Year?  I think so….

LOSE…

Louisville (-34) @ Temple:  Take Louisville and lay the 34 for $70   Another whiff and miss….but I have a feeling Charlie took his foot off the pedal in this game…

LOSE….

Sparty @ Iowa (-1.5):  O/U – 42:  Take the 42 - UNDER for $40   And this was a squeaker….right to the end…

WIN!  Bank $76

Minnesota @ Michigan (-19.5):  Take Michigan and lay the 19.5 for $40  Thanks for that last second pick 6 that made this game look like more of a blowout than it was…

WIN!  Bank $76

PARLAY!

Stanford – Ducks - Louisville  $20 - LOSE

Starting BANK:       $971.50
TOTAL WIN:            $342

BANK:                       $1,313.50