I Liked Last Week’s Locale for
writing the blog post A LOT BETTER!
Snow in November? Before Thanksgiving? There's no way I'm shoveling yet!
Rutgers Highlights
I
don’t know how you get up for a team like Rutgers…
One thing that every coach will tell you is
getting your team up for a “dud” of a game against an unworthy opponent can be
one of the most difficult things a coach has to do. And Rutgers qualifies under all those
categories.
At first, the 1st quarter run was a
little disturbing and I think everyone watching felt that little twinge of, “Oh
no. Don’t let this be us.” But then Michigan fell into its rhythm and
everything was fine.
But did you notice anything about Saturday’s
rhythm?
It wasn’t as much Shea pulling and keeping the ball
and running. It was Shea handing off…a
lot. It was also Shea getting put into
“test” mode of a few more than regular 3rd and longs. Someone sent a note to me at some point and
stated that Michigan had, and I’m paraphrasing, “Better not get into 1st
quarter trouble when it matters. These
slow starts are going to be a problem against a better team!”
Well, yeah.
No excrement Sherlock. Great
observation. OR was it? Anyone could see that Michigan had superior
athletes on the field. It was just a
matter of time. Michigan could have
CRUSHED the Rutgers defensive line and chose not to. And, I’m being nice here, was
it not PAINFULLY OBVIOUS TO anyone and everyone that Rutgers is NOT a better
team? In fact, that was one of
the most vanilla offenses Michigan ran all season. There was a REASON for this: To test Shea Patterson and give him his
first game of over 250 passing yards.
And he threw for 3 TD’s.
This game was entirely by design because Michigan was playing such an inferior
opponent that it could “pick its’ poison it’s handing out” this week.
Or are you still one of the gullibles
thinking Michigan’s rush offense couldn’t move the ball on this team? If you’re answer is yes, I really want to
invite you to my home poker game.
This game gave Shea a chance to hit some
people deep. And Develop something that
he needs going into Columbus.
CONFIDENCE.
It was an awful day for chucking the pigskin
around. High winds, moisture in the
air. The entire passing and receiving
core got into the act.
And they just may need to remember back to
this game come November 24th in C-bus. And they can look back and say, “Hey! This isn’t the first time running this
play! We killed with this in Jersey.”
Yes, I will give a HUGE HAT TIP for the QB
Whisperer who resides in Ann Arbor and coaches the Maize and Blue. This was a chance to do things Michigan
doesn’t normally do. Get
out of the Higdon and Mason Comfort Zone. Let Shea air his wings out a little.
If you honestly didn’t see this…well, you have a
lot to learn about developing and getting to the “Next Level” when it comes to
football.
In fact, it was even more ho-hum then PSU
was. If that’s possible. (Why does PSU
fell like it was eons ago? And not
merely 2 weeks?) The beauty was,
Michigan was picking them apart however they wanted to.
That’s the hallmark of a great team.
The Rest
Of the Mess
Complete Unmitigated Disasters
The B1G WEST - Special thanks to Wiscy, Purdue, the Gophers,
Cornhuskers, and Iowa. I’m leaving the
Illini out because I never really had any faith in them to begin with. I know the MMQ in the Pre-Season Preview stated
that the Purple Kitties could be a dark horse.
To quote:
This
will be the 8th Championship Game, and it’ll be an interesting
question as to who from the West will make it.
There’s a very good chance that Michigan could potentially be in a
re-match with Northwestern or Wiscy.
I’m not entirely sure I completely believed it when I wrote it. But here we are. The Purple Kitties, with all of the help they
could ever possibly hope to have managed to lock up the B1G West on
Saturday. A team that went 0-3 in
non-conference play. That includes
losses to Akron (where the Zips scored 36 2nd half points), the
domers, and a bad Duke team. Fitzy is playing for a
shot at the Rose Bowl, which Northwestern hasn’t seen since Fitzy played there
in 1995! Northwestern literally has
everything on the table for themselves.
Auburn – Had a chance to make a statement and couldn’t
follow-through. Yeah, Georgia is the
better team, but still. Malzhan has to
man up somewhere along the way and the Tigers need to beat somebody. I guess there’s still Bama.
Kentucky – I said The Cremesicles would win 2 SEC games this season and everyone
laughed at me. I said that the
Vols had decent players, just not a good game coach. That’s the Vols 2nd SEC win
(Auburn and Kentucky) and they are close to being bowl eligible. Kentucky may have just played it’s way out of
a New Year’s Day Bowl with this loss.
Iowa – You’re getting special attention because the only way the
Purple Kitties could clinch on Saturday was if you clowns botched the game
against the Purple Kitties. And you
did. In crazy fashion.
SOLNU – SOL instead of SOS.
Somehow, I think it kind of works.
In what can only be described as the “Most B1G Game of the day!”, LNU
and THE STU took turns NOT moving the ball and punting for Field Position. THE STU fired the first
“Volley of Suck” with a 4-yard net punt. Then, once LNU had proven to everyone that THEY REALLY SUCK at this kind of game, they gave us the MOST LNU THING EVER! (Jump to the 1:35 mark for the “snap over the cross bar!”)
“Volley of Suck” with a 4-yard net punt. Then, once LNU had proven to everyone that THEY REALLY SUCK at this kind of game, they gave us the MOST LNU THING EVER! (Jump to the 1:35 mark for the “snap over the cross bar!”)
Yep – a center snap over the cross bar. I didn’t see the presser, but that would have been a question
for D’ANtoins.
We Won But
The LATERS – Again, the Laters proved to just about anyone watching that
they can score at will and on command.
The only problem is, even with a new D-Coordinator, they can’t stop
anyone from scoring on them. While everyone
considers Oklahoma a great team, until they prove they can win a game by more
than 2 scores of victory, they’re FRAUDS!!
LSU – Just like the Laters, except their problem is offense. Can’t just beat decent teams by 1 score. You have to go out there and take the game
over.
THE MMQ’s “I DON’T NEED A COMMITTEE!”
Is there CHAOS
out there waiting for someone? The math
suggests there is. All top 4 teams have
less than a 25% chance (combined) of ALL being in that same position on
Selection Sunday. So, where does the
trouble lurk?
SEC: Bama – Georgia Winner is
IN! Bama still has Aburn and Georgia has
to deal with a fading Georgia Tech in two weeks. This is the annual “tune up” week in the SEC
where they play FCS competition before their big rivalries. It’s hard to see CHAOS here. The only CHAOS FACTOR: Georgia winning the SEC Championship by
a nose leaving a beaten Bama team rubbing their worry beads praying that
Michigan or the domers lose somewhere along the way.
B1G: Michigan is IN. The problem is, its Michigan and Michigan
seems to seek out and find CHAOS. I
don’t think it will happen this weekend in Ann Arbor. I’ll go so far as to stick my neck out and
say that the Revenge Tour will play out well for the Wolverines in Columbus on
November 24th. MY BIGGEST CHAOS
WORRY: The FITZ Factor. Beating a team twice in the same season isn’t
easy. And Northwestern doesn’t
give two shits about what happens in the next two weeks. Giving Fitzy and company 3 WHOLE WEEKS to
Game Plan the Wolverines. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see the
Purple Kitties lose one of the next two games.
But look out Indianapolis. And
The Purple Kitties are statistically the worst team in the B1G West…Sheesh.
ACC: Clemson is IN! Unfortunately, unlike Northwestern, there’s
no one in the ACC that can do to the Tigers what the Purple Kitties could
potentially do to Michigan.
The domers: IN. CHAOS looms in New York with Syracuse
this weekend and then in LA the following weekend in the form of USC and Clay
Helton coaching for his job.
They could be the team that falters.
Big iiX: IN – Nobody. Either WVU or the Laters still need a
lot of help and CHAOS everywhere else.
Whoeve wins the Big iiX needs a lot of CHAOS. Get Max on the phone!
The Hot Seat
ZAPPED List
We’ll keep track of
who’s gone as the season progresses….
1.
Durkin – I know I didn’t comment on this last
week, but when it looked like Durkin was going to remain the HC of Maryland, I
was ready to begin ignoring college sports altogether. Thanks to the Prez for making things right.
2.
Mike
Jinks – Bowling Green. I guess starting out 1-6 in the MAC gets you
canned now…
3.
Beatty
– KANSAS. Kansas has been bad at
football so long that I really don’t know how you even begin to fix it at this
point. They’ll hire someone and all
he’ll be is the next guy to get the hook.
4.
Petrino
– Louisville. I really didn’t think
Louisville could afford to part ways with Petrino with everything else that’s
been going on. I guess dumping the other
Italian’s contract, Pitino, is helping with the $14M buy-out of Petrino.
5.
Electric Chair of Death
Seat!
Fedora – North Carolina. Fewer wins
in each season he’s been at UNC
The Hot Seat
The Hot
Seat Traditionally heats up in November, and this season is no different. As fans stop showing up and donations from
alumni dry up, AD’s all over the country are evaluating their Head Coach and
what can be done about him.
- Ash – Rutgers: Off the ECOD simply because if they haven’t fired
him yet, they probably aren’t going to.
- .
- Helton – USC.
Clay Helton was not Lynn Swann’s choice, but he did give Clay the
extension to 2023.
- Snyder – K State.
The
Octogenarian needs to go. I would
point to institutions like PSU and FSU that hold on to old guys way too
long. Probably should have already
happened, but the stadium is named after the guy.
- Smith – Oregon State.
Yeah,
they’ve had a couple close games…but the seat is hot
- Interim Canada – Maryland. I don’t expect Maryland to keep Canada as he’s
part of the “culture” that was a problem under Durkin.
- Sanford – WKU Sanford took a very
successful program and literally flew it into the ground. I would be surprised if he’s still
around come January.
- Kiffin – FAU Lane has
been out of the news lately because he’s LOSING. Not saying FAU will pull the trigger,
but Lane’s potential days are number if he has another lousy season.
- Ruhle – Baylor. Again, took over a heaping
pile of warm dog-doo-doo after Briles left. Will probably get another 2 years before
job is really threatened.
- Malzhan – Losing to Tennessee is a fireable offense in
Auburn. Not being competitive
against Georgia and eventually Alabama will become an issue as well.
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