Thursday, September 6, 2018

Follow-Up


Always try to do a follow up post from Monday on Wednesday during the season.  I will try to do the same thing this year…

The Mailbag…

It seriously sounded like you were supporting Braylon Edwards and his calling out of players and Harbaugh.  Say it isn’t so and you blame this malcontent for what he is – a backstabbing traitor to the program.

Part of the reason I do this blog is because, for a short period of time while I was in school and time was valuable, I gave freely of that time to support the football team.  I believe that gives me the right to call out the team and the school and when I see that there’s something going on that could be done a lot better.  In some cases, a WHOLE LOT BETTER.


Braylon Edwards earned the right to wear the #1 Jersey and provided a $500K scholarship for the player (wide receiver) who earns it since 2006.


He is also the son of former player Stanley Edwards.  Berkley Edwards is also currently on the Michigan Roster.

When you have that much Michigan Football Family associated with one namesake and a scholarship donation to boot, I’m going to cut all of the Edwards a little slack.  What Braylon came back with later on Monday is FACT:  Michigan is 0-17 on the road in ranked games.  Their record against LNU and THE Sex Toy U also blows.  This team needs to understand that the Michigan fan base is just as passionate as any in the country when it comes to their desire for winning and as a result:  WE’RE ALL EXTREMELY FRUSTRATED.  READ:  Patience is wearing thin.  Better said:  The Michigan fan base understands that winning every game is impossible (for the contrarian view:  See Alabama fan), but they DEFINITELY WANT TO SEE THE EFFORT put forth in every aspect of the game when the team is playing.  ESPECIALLY when playing a rival.  And frankly, what we saw on Saturday appeared and looked an awful lot like a lack of effort. 

And that includes the coaching staff.

So, no, I’m not calling Braylon out for being a malcontent (even though he was often in Lloyd’s Puppy House).  Braylon earned the right to call his team out any time he wants.  Now, is it what every Michigan Man would or should do on Social Media?  Absolutely not.  And Braylon has paid a price for that rant by losing his job with the BTN, temporarily at least.  But I respect him more for doing that and doing what he believed was right and suffering the consequences.  He’s still a Michigan Man, he just has some apologizing to do and I think the Michigan Men playing today would benefit from listening to Braylon and become a little more passionate about the game they’re playing and the school they’re representing.

I think we lost the game due to:
 Offensive Coaching –  although we utilized the shot-gun, the play calling was way too conservative and predictable.
Defensive Coaching –  while I like Don Brown a lot, we can’t be blitzing all the time.  Déjà vu from the Outback Bowl.  We have the opposing offense penned back to the goal line.  It’s 3rd and long, and we give up a huge play by being ultra-aggressive.  While we should not play prevent, we should try to play the odds and just keep them from making a first down.  Here we pin them back on the 5 yard line, and they go 95 yards for a TD.

I agree 100%.  Play calling really seems to be a mess.  It doesn’t appear that Harbaugh did anything to change his base offense (POWER MANBALL) and while they gave a few nods and a wink to a “spread” look, it was still the base offense we saw last season.  I didn’t get into the fact that Michigan does not have a “named” OC, but if I was a reporter in one of Jimmy’s Monday Pressers, one of the questions I’d be asking is “WHO IS CALLING THE OFFENSIVE PLAYS AND WHERE ARE YOU HIDING MIKE DEBORD???”  Because that’s what some of it looked like. 

I think Rich Rodriguez is available for consulting.  Just like Butch Jones going to Alabama as an offensive consultant.  Go find Rich – we KNOW HE KNOWS offense!

So, ho hum, we drop in the polls after this week, we’ll go on to beat everyone right up to Wisconsin, people will be excited as we climb back in the polls, and we’ll drop the 2 games to the Cheeseheads and Sparty.  What then for the rest of the season?  PSU and OSU revenge?

Well, yeah.  What then?  Again, I’m not trying to be as negative as some of you and I get where the anger and general malaise is coming from.  I’m actually surprised you think we can beat Maryland that easily.  Tells me you didn’t watch that Texas – Terps game very closely.  Again, give it a month.  But I even hate myself for typing that because it SHOULDN’T TAKE A DAMN MONTH to figure this stuff out.

No mention of Nebraska from the weekend? 

Nebraska was rained out – game was cancelled.  The Cornhuskers will be looking for a game on their bye week as they only have 11 games now for a shot to win 6 of them to get bowl eligible. 

This Week In Schadenfreude…

I’ve always loved this blog, especially when Brian at www.mgoblog.com was writing it, but it’s still as good as ever.

Except of course when Michigan is the feature…


One good take:  We would have destroyed App State (PSU), Utah State (LNU) and Oregon State (STU) (which kind of DID get destroyed).  That being said, the B1G East looks very beatable right now. 

This Is Cool

I know, it’s bad when I start blogging on Hoop Stuff in Week #2 of Football Season, but this was too good to pass up.



I like these pre-season Tourneys and this one might – MIGHT – be a fun one to go to.  The Bahamas in November is probably nicer than Michigan in November.  Just a hunch…Took advantage in 1998 when Michigan Football played a post Sex Toy U game in Hawaii.  Saw the football team on Oahu and then went to my cousins on Maui and caught a couple of games at the Maui Civic Center during the Maui Invitational – which isn’t as big as most high school gyms. 

File Under “Satan on Being Satan”

Satan goes off on an ESPN reporter in a post game interview.


I don’t blame Satan for this rant.  He’s sick of answering the damn question.  Let it go…

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