Sunday, November 23, 2014

Maryland 23, Michigan 16

Joe Kerridge
Goodbye, Brady Hoke. I thought Hoke's fate was sealed a few weeks ago, but this was Hoke's chance to redeem himself in front of a home crowd that had to brave a late start, some cold weather, some rain, and some ugly football. The sloppy way in which this one played out was indicative of Michigan's last couple seasons. The only real question at this point is whether Michigan fires Brady Hoke this week, or whether they allow him the dignity of finishing out the season before dropping the guillotine. I don't see a reason to let him go right now. Michigan doesn't have a suitable replacement on staff, recruiting wouldn't be affected in a positive way, and there's no home game next week for which to please ticket buyers. Furthermore, through it all, I think Hoke has been a class act and seems like a good guy. I think Michigan should let him coach out the week and fire him next Monday, but I still wouldn't be totally surprised if he got the Will Muschamp treatment.

Big gaffes. Michigan made some stupid plays and decisions down the stretch to seal their fate. Unfortunately, this has become the 2014 team's modus operandi. A punt return touchdown was called back for a pointless block in the back. A field goal turned into a touchdown when cornerback Jourdan Lewis took out the kicker, giving Maryland an automatic first down. (Regardless of what some bitter Michigan fans say, it was clearly a roughing the kicker penalty and worthy of 15 yards, whether you think Maryland kicker Brad Craddock exaggerated or not.) Worst of all was Brady Hoke's clock management at the end of the game. Michigan's drive stalled with roughly four minutes remaining in the game, and Hoke waited most of that time before calling his one timeout. By the time he did, the Terrapins just had to run one running play before allowing the final 34 seconds or so to run off the clock.

Speaking of bitter. Maybe I'm bitter, too, but how was Maryland head coach Randy Edsall allowed to do what he did at the end of the game? With a little over 30 seconds remaining, he rushed out onto the field. When the officials stopped him, he turned around, threw his headset in the air, and started celebrating in the middle of the field. I fail to see why a coach is allowed to celebrate on the field before the game is over, but maybe I'm just old-school.

Joe Kerridge fun time. Redshirt junior fullback Joe Kerridge had himself a pretty good game. It's not often that fullbacks get attention, so here's some for him. Kerridge has turned into a solid blocker. He also has good hands - as evidenced by his one-handed catch for 7 yards. The most memorable play of his career so far, though, is probably the fake punt run from the first quarter. Michigan was set to attempt a quarterback sneak on 4th-and-1 when running back De'Veon Smith inexplicably false started (seriously, a running back false starting on a quarterback sneak is among the dumbest things you can do on a football field). On 4th-and-6, Michigan would surely just punt the ball. Instead, they snapped it to upback Kerridge, who plunged through the line and then got to the left sideline on his way to a 52-yard run. He couldn't quite get past the punt returner for the touchdown, but that play got Michigan inside the 10 . . . so they could settle for a field goal.

This is the Devin Gardner I like. I can't say that Gardner played a brilliant game, but this was the best he has looked since the first few games of the season. His ankle finally looked somewhat healthy, which allowed him to use perhaps his best asset - his ability to tuck the ball and run. He ran the ball 14 times for a net of 82 yards (5.9 yards/carry), including a 24-yarder and a 15-yard touchdown. Passing the ball, he was 13/24 for 106 yards and 1 interception. He looked decent throwing the ball at times and was victimized by a few drops, including a Freddy Canteen drop that would have been a touchdown, a Jake Butt seam route that may have been a touchdown, a near-catch by Bo Dever that turned into the interception, and your standard Devin Funchess drops. Remember in 2011 when Michigan's receivers - mainly Junior Hemingway - bailed out Denard Robinson on numerous occasions? This year is the opposite of that.

Devin Funchess isn't really trying. Funchess and Blake Countess are the two biggest disappointments this season, but at least Countess seems like he's trying out there. Funchess, on the other hand, seems lackadaisical most of the time. For being 6'5" and 230 lbs., he doesn't have a great desire to dominate people who are smaller than him. It's the same mentality that got him moved away from tight end. He didn't try very hard to block, so the coaches moved him to wide receiver. Now he doesn't try very hard to catch the ball, and when he does, he goes down way too easily. I don't think I can say this about any other regular during Hoke's tenure, but Funchess looks lazy and too often self-centered. (I know there is the occasional  effort to, say, snatch the ball away from a Penn State safety or chase down a Northwestern safety who dared to intercept the ball - but those plays just hint at what he can do if he does that whole "trying" thing.)

I'll give Funchess a pass on his last "drop." Maryland safety Jeremiah Johnson pretty clearly interfered with Funchess when Michigan was trying to drive the ball for a game-tying touchdown near the end of the game. Johnson's left hand got to Funchess's left hand when the ball was still a few feet away. The big guy may very well have dropped it on his own, but he never really got the chance.

Walk-ons. Fans complain when starters are out there on special teams, so I hope they're not complaining today. Dennis Norfleet finally returned a punt for a touchdown only to see it called back because walk-on safety A.J. Pearson blocked a Maryland player in the back for no good reason. The Maryland player wouldn't have made the play, anyway, but that's kind of the point. Walk-ons are walk-ons for a reason. Sometimes they overreach because they're trying to prove themselves, and sometimes the game just moves too quickly for them. Of course, starters are capable of committing penalties, too, but they don't have those things working against them. Meanwhile, Bo Dever's failure to reel in a catch resulted in a William Likely interception. The ball was thrown behind Dever, but he still got both hands on it.

Speaking of Bo Dever, why Bo Dever? Wide receiver recruiting/development has failed in a big way if this is what Michigan has to throw out there. I have been supportive of wide receivers coach Jeff Hecklinski the past few years because of the work he has done with Junior Hemingway, Roy Roundtree, and Jeremy Gallon, among others. But this season has been ridiculous. Let's take a look at Michigan's contributors at the position:

  • Devin Funchess (Jr.): Recruited as a tight end, couldn't block, moved to WR, generally lackadaisical, too many drops, physical specimen
  • Amara Darboh (RS So.): Recruited as a wide receiver, mediocre speed, mediocre route runner, great hands
  • Dennis Norfleet (Jr.): Recruited as a kick returner/running back, can't block, can't catch anything other than a screen pass
  • Jehu Chesson (RS So.): Recruited as a wide receiver, best blocker at position, questionable hands, seems to play less and less
  • Freddy Canteen (Fr.): Recruited as a wide receiver, decent speed, has done zilch
  • Bo Dever (RS Fr.): Not recruited, slow, supposedly decent hands
  • Da'Mario Jones, Jaron Dukes, Maurice Ways don't play at all
  • Drake Harris is injured
Two of Michigan's early-season starters (Funchess, Norfleet) weren't recruited as receivers, a large contributor wasn't recruited at all, and three able-bodied guys are mired on the bench. Meanwhile, nobody in the receiving corps is exceeding expectations.

Did Michigan miss Frank Clark? Yes, I think they did. His replacement, Mario Ojemudia, had an okay game (5 tackles, .5 tackles for loss, 1 pass breakup), but Ojemudia is not a match for Clark. Clark was consistently overpowering offensive tackles, and he had reached a point where he was not committing the immature mistakes that plagued him early in his career. Ojemudia lacks the same strength, and there were a couple times where he ran too far upfield and allowed Maryland quarterback C.J. Brown to take off and run. I think Clark would have slowed down the running of Brown (18 carries, 87 yards, 1 touchdown). Obviously, it's nobody's fault but Clark's - I respect Hoke for booting him immediately, and I think Ojemudia did what he's able to do. It just sucks for Michigan and for his (alleged) victim that he's such a moron.

Can Michigan beat Ohio State and go to a bowl game? Yes. Ohio State lost earlier this season to a Virginia Tech team that is currently 5-6 after a double-overtime loss to Wake Forest by a score of 6-3. Ohio State almost  lost to a 3-8 Indiana team yesterday, but they pulled it out with a 21-point fourth quarter. There are some chinks in the Buckeyes' armor, particularly defensively. Indiana running back Tevin Coleman had 228 yards rushing on 27 carries, including touchdowns of 90 and 52 yards. Unfortunately, Michigan hasn't had a running back like Tevin Coleman in a very long time. Even so, Drake Johnson has shown a decent burst (14 carries, 94 yards yesterday), and a healthy Devin Gardner gives you a chance on offense. The Buckeyes will be the overwhelming favorite, especially when they're playing for a chance at the playoff, but anything can happen.

38 comments:

  1. This should cheer everyone up: RichRod is now 9 - 2 with Arizona after thumping Utah (yes that Utah) 44 - 10 yesterday.

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  2. Ohio State beats this team like a drum. 4 TD margin at least.

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  3. What a season smh....LMAO @ us beating Ohio next week we can barely score a touchdown on NW and Maryland. The football program is in trouble and needs a change quick.

    Brady Hoke "Michigan Man" couldn't get it done , Rich Rod never got the support he needed to succeed and got ran out of town. I think before we hire a new coach we need to understand why this program has failed? and how we can prevent this from happening in the future?

    Just bring in a hard nose coach that develops talent and is innovative on Offense and Defense.

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    1. You know who has more insight on that than anyone else -- Rodriguez. It'll never happen, but he's really the best man for the job, now that he has the lessons learned from 2008-10.

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    2. Rodriguez's success at Arizona is because of the lessons he learned at Michigan. He learned the lesson about defense. His Arizona offense is more varied than just "QB keep" that was his offense in 2010.

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    3. I don't know how many lessons he learned on D from Michigan. He hired Casteel at AZ, the guy we should have paid big money to draw away from WVU in the first place. That wouldn't have fixed everything, but it would have helped a lot. The 2010 D wasn't going to be good with Nick Saban and Kirby Smart coaching it, but it could have been a hell of a lot better with some consistency, which he's had at Arizona..

      He did seem to transition his O to his system a little more slowly at AZ, but then again he had more talent at AZ than the 2008 team. His offense was far from just QB keep (are you forgetting Forcier?) but that was the best playcall in 2010 (and again in 2011) because that's what Denard did best and the kid was special. Anyway, the 2010 offense was very very good. Far from the problem.

      .

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    4. Michigan 7, Ohio State 37
      Michigan 14, Mississippi State 52
      Yeah, offense really lit them up.

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    5. Selectively picking two games from his entire tenure here-especially one where the team seemed to have given up-to support your point demonstrates the weakness of your argument. Yes, his offense was QB run driven, but that stemmed significantly from his inability to develop or recruit a top-level RB and Denard's talents. His play-action from the Option to a pass to a streaking slot receiver was patented by RR here, so he showed some ability to adapt and develop his offense to suit the personnel he had. I know the usual retort here is look to the 2008 offense; however, one can easily point to the fact that offense returned two starters and only 3 significant contributors.

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    6. His teams were not good against decent defenses. He lost to Michigan State and Wisconsin that year as well by putting up only average offensive numbers. Go check the box score for the UCLA game this year. His offense works well against average defenses but has trouble against great defenses. Period.

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    7. He went 2-5 in his last 7 games in 2010 because he ran out of cupcakes to play. His not having a top-level RB is whose fault? By the end of 2010 it was all Robinson runs and defenses knew that. A boxed in Robinson was not very effective. He was better than Hoke turned out to be he was never going to lead M to a championship.

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    8. Lanknows - disagree about the 2010 defense wouldn't be good no matter who was coaching it. It was pretty much the same players in 2011 and Mattison turned them into a pretty solid unit.

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    9. @ Anon at 5:05 PM
      "He was better than Hoke turned out to be.." How is RR's 15-21 (RR's record in his 3 years, less the bowl game since he only went to 1 and Hoke's been to 3) better than Hoke's 20-16 (his 3 worst years, excluding bowls, and assuming a loss to OSU.) And don't give me that trajectory nonsense. If you really believe that, then UM's next coach would be wise to tank his first year so that he can show "improvement."

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    10. @Anon 5:52.

      Some truth to this bust missing the big picture. Mattison deserves credit, especially on the DL (where he is always good), but that defense returned almost everyone and added a lot of new pieces...

      Good in 2010 and 2011: Roh, Van Bergen, and Martin.

      Mattison coached up: Campbell, Demens, Floyd (who was hurt a good chunk of 2010)

      New in 2011 (not available in 2010): Woolfolk, Countess, Morgan, Ryan, Heininger.

      Guys who were too young in 2010 but helped in 2011: Black (FR), T.Gordon (FR), C.Gordon (FR), Avery (FR), Kovacs (walk on Soph)

      The difference in the secondary alone was enormous. In 2010 they were running out every true freshman that could walk.

      In 2015 our OL will be a whole lot better than it was in 2014 and it's not necessarily going to be a credit to the new coaching staff (whoever they are.) It's getting everybody back that will be the main thing.

      @Anon 5:05

      Good defenses stop good offenses. That's why they are good defenses. The 2006 Michigan offense got shut down in their bowl game too. That's what good defenses do.

      Anyway, they did run for 4.8 ypc against MSU and scored 16 points - we'd kill for that now. The problem with that team was turnovers - which tend to decrease with experience.

      Nobody is arguing the 2010 O was a juggernaut, but it was very good (one of the best in recent M history) and everyone was coming back for 2011. That O was so good that even Al Borges and Brady Hoke managed to produce a functional offense with them. Most of those guys are playing in the NFL or at least hung around practice squads.

      Anyway, look who the 2010 team was playing. 4 of their 6 losses came against top 15 teams. Their "bad" losses that year were to Penn State and Iowa who were quality teams (beat Florida and Mizzu in their bowls). Look who Michigan is losing to now. This year's team (and last year's for that matter) are worse than the 2010 team that got Rodriguez canned.

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    11. @ leu2500
      RR did have an improving record at Michigan while Hoke does not. RR is also having success at Arizona. But I agree that the trajectory talk is nonsense. I think RR would have topped out at 8-4 or 9-3 at Michigan best case. He would have lost to MSU, OSU and Wisconsin more than win those games.

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  4. Did anyone happen to notice Hoke towards the end of the first half when Nuss called the timeout? Hoke was actually wearing a headset and the clock was running down and I kept saying call timeout, call timeout. Finally Nuss comes running out from behind Hoke to call the TO. As he called it you could see Hoke kind of look up towards the clock with a clueless/panicked look on his face. If I could read his mind I think it would have been something like "oh fuck I was supposed to call TO". It looked like Nuss was waiting for Hoke to call it and when he realized he wasn't going to, he ran out and called it himself. That pretty much sums up the last 4 years. Time to go out and get a real coach.

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    1. Saw this too, though I didn't notice the headset. If you're not going to call plays on O or D you should be doing SOMETHING right? Like watching the clock?

      The last drive on the half was horrible time management. It is amazing that it got them points.

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    2. Couldn't agree more and I've said the same thing so many times. I think he was wearing the headset at the time but I could be wrong. He was wearing it at some point because I remember being surprised at seeing it. Watching the play clock should be his only job and he can't even do that. It will be nice to see a coach on the sidelines next year instead of a cheerleader.

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  5. Can Michigan beat Ohio State and go to a bowl game? Yes.

    Will Michigan beat Ohio State and go to a bowl game? No.

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  6. Zero chance of beating OSU. Zero point zero zero. Hoke hasn't pulled off a big upset once in all his time here, and his team is playing worse now than it ever has.

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  8. Edsall is a clown. Not only was his celebration embarrassing, he celebrated alone to the exclusion of his team.

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  9. Even after that decent game, people are still calling Gardner a coach-killer. I don't even know how to respond to that. How can a player be a "coach-killer?" Especially when the other players at the position are worse options. It's a shame we don't have a second-string head coach for when the starter sucks it up.

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    1. ha. that's a good line.

      Gardner has kind of sucked though. I know he's the last resort defense for the hopeless Hoke-defenders, but he has. He's one of our best players but isn't playing like it. The kid has a serious case of PTSD from the OL, has faced a bunch of injuries, and so on, but it doesn't entirely excuse his regression in 2014.

      Thunder says Funchess is the biggest disappointment on O, but I think it's Gardner. (Mostly because I didn't expect as much from Funchess and expected A LOT more from Gardner.)

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    2. The coaching staff put themselves in a position where Gardner was their supposed best option.

      That being said, Gardner would make Saban look bad. This staff wanted to implement system A but had some positions for system B.

      A square peg in a circle hole. Even if Hoke had the right players he would still be mediocre. Just watch his sideline coaching, UM is doomed with Hoke.

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    3. Oh, Gardner's been fairly bad. I fully agree. But calling a player a "coach-killer" ignores everything about the team. The QB depth chart speaks for itself. One player consistently sucking is one thing. Everyone on your depth chart being worse is an indictment of the coaching staff alone.

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    4. As you mention the depth chart, Hoke is 4 years into his tenure and he has not developed or recruited a single viable option at QB. It's the most important position on the field, and Hoke has completely failed on this front. In this day and age of college football, it is completely inexcusable to be lacking a viable-not even necessarily good-option at QB.

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  10. I honestly think Hoke views a drive with 5 first downs that lasts 6 minutes and ends in a FG as superior to a 1-play drive that ends in a TD. I don't think he'd admit it, but I think he feels a lot more satisfaction, because TDs are flukes outside of the red zone.

    The D let him down again in 4Q, but offensively THIS is what successful Brady Hoke football looks like. The offense had 44 carries for 240 yards, an impressive 5.5 ypc. Even if you excise the QB runs (that I'm sure Hoke would rather not have to 'resort' to) its 158 yards on 30 carries for 5.3 ypc -- pretty darn good.

    But that got you all of one touchdown because the Hoke/Nussmeir offense isn't trying to score, it's trying to move the ball down the field using as much time as possible. That way it looks like you play good defense.

    Michigan outgained and outrushed Maryland. It had more time of possession and more 1st downs. It converted on more 3rd downs and had only one turnover. They had only 3 penalties and all in all played pretty good Brady Hoke football...and lost to Maryland.

    On the happier side of the football, Michigan is not very good. Advanced stats have been calling it out for weeks, but now it's become obvious. Maryland bailed Michigan out by dropping several 3rd down slants - very Funchessian.

    Meanwhile, in Salt Lake City, Rich Rodriguez's defense held Utah to 10 points while scoring two defensive TDs. That's right, Rich Rodriguez's DEFENSE won the game by themselves. This to the same Utah team that beat Michigan 26-10. Arizona won 41-10.

    This despite losing their starting QB to an injury. Something that actually happened to Utah in the Michigan game... AND Michigan was at home while Arizona was on the road -- to a notoriously home/road splitting program in Utah.

    The contrast here is staggering. Rich Rodriguez, in his 3rd year, has a better defense than Hoke has in his 4th year at Michigan. His talent is inferior, his schedule is harder, and his results are superior. And I haven't mentioned the obvious issue - Hoke driving Rodriguez's 2010 offense into the ground.

    Michigan made a huge mistake in 2010 and anyone who argues otherwise has their head buried in the sand.

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    1. Michigan did make a huge mistake in 2010, but I don't think it's the mistake you're thinking of. Rodriguez has since hired a different defensive coordinator than he had at Michigan. The marriage of Rodriguez with Shafer, Greg Robinson, Bruce Tall, Tony Gibson, etc. was not what it needed to be. Michigan had terrible defenses during Rodriguez's tenure, and a decent offense with a terrible defense is bound to give you a mediocre team, at best.

      If Michigan had been able to pair some quality defensive coaches with what Rodriguez was doing offensively, then they might have had success.

      I also think recruiting should be taken into consideration. Rodriguez had WAY too many washouts, and that 2010 class was mostly terrible. Except for a few guys (Jake Ryan, Devin Gardner, maybe one or two others), Michigan got absolutely nothing from that group. Several of them have gone on to play at other colleges, and they're also mediocre in their new locations (Josh Furman and Ray Vinopal have been decent, but Michigan is just fine at linebacker and Vinopal's not a difference-maker, so I don't think losing them has been a huge negative).

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    2. That was the a mistake Michigan made in 2007. I guess you could say they repeated it in 2008, when Rodriguez made HIS big mistake (replacing Schafer with GERG).

      I'm not going to dispute that those defenses were bad, but the 2014 M defense isn't that much better than the 2008 defense, statistically, and Rodriguez thought that D was bad enough to justify firing the DC. An inconvenient reality for Hoke defenders.

      My argument was and is that his offense earned him another year or two to figure out the 'other' side of the ball. Most of that staff is doing OK other places, so the potential was there to right the ship. I think it's difficult to argue those guys are all bad coaches when they are succeeding elsewhere. It was just a bad mix of capable people and below average personnel and inconsistency, instability, and uncertainty. By 2010 injuries and ineptitude put them in flat out panic mode and the results were a disaster. But the blame for that was spread around to a lot issues, not just Rodriguez.

      The recruiting argument is something I disagree with but don't have the will to make a full case for right now. Here are a few key points:

      1. You can't fully fault a guy for "washouts" when he's not around to coach them. (e.g., Boren, Cissoko, Mallet, Cone, Patterson, Kates, Helmuth, Sagesse -- can't entirely blame Carr for them not succeeding under Rodriguez)

      2. The lack of institutional support handcuffed Rodriguez in 2010 and into the aborted 2011 class he was really on the hot seat. Rodriguez needed to be extended in 2010, not fired. The one class that was fully HIS was 2009 -- and it was pretty damn good. As was the half class of his guys in 2008 (even though it was very targeted to address the offense and they whiffed on the big fish in Pryor).

      Look no further than Hoke's current recruiting class to see the impacts of questions about job status on recruiting.

      Rivals ranked Rodriguez's 2009 class #8 in the country. A top 10 class, just like Hoke got. When losses and job status concerns hit home, the recruiting quality wavered. When Rodriguez was just the Michigan coach, he recruited well, just like Hoke, Carr and any other Michigan coach will.

      But yes, Rodriguez did struggle in recruiting defensive talent that fit the 3-3-5 he wanted to run. He looked for 'hybrid' players, didn't have them, didn't find them quicky enough, and then didn't run it. He got more than his fair share of busts (e.g., Justin Turner, Will Campbell, LaLota). Was the poor performance on bad recruiting or bad development or bad scheme? Chicken or egg? Doesn't matter because either way the D was a huge problem...but one that could have been fixed. It was not irredeemable.

      The TEAM was getting better under Rodriguez. The team is getting worse every year under Hoke. Every coach deserves at least 4 years. Hoke has had his.

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  11. RE: Funchess

    It's not just about effort - Jeremy Gallon is a far better wide receiver that Devin Funchess. Everyone talks about his 'talent' but it's really just that he's big. First round NFL talent? Absolutely not. It's great that he's big, but his hands suck, he doesn't separate from CBs, use his body to shield defenders and he doesn't do anything impressive with the ball in his hands. "Catching radius" only gets you so far.

    I'll take Gallon, Odoms and Dileo over Funchess, Darboh, and Dukes any day of the week. Another Hoke/Rodriguez contrast. Rodriguez wouldn't have recruited Gallon to SDSU, let alone Michigan, just like he admitted he didn't want Jake Ryan at SDSU despite having his brother and scouting him.

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  12. Pretty good recap. You touched on a lot of the problems with the team right now. I had the same reaction to Edsall, but really - I can't blame the guy for celebrating. It was an important win for his team. How he did it (by himself, before the game ended) was classless. Glad he's not our coach.

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  13. I'm a loyal fan its a bad year but to much young talent we'll be back nextyear

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  14. Michigan is a pretty good team its a down year for sure and they should have won a lot of those games they lost the Michigan st game was winnable if u was watching it they kinda gave up at the end as far as the defense because Gardner cant sustain drives, I like gardner he's a good athlete but he's not a QB he has bad mechanics and makes poor choices and you'd guys knock fuchess but a lot of the throws his way he has to adjust and honestly I would make him my #1 reciver I'd make Jake butt first target. I can say this in hoke's defence he's not an offensive coach never been and he never got a QB that what the problem was the d developed to national ranks I still think we need a actual secondary coach but there's tons of talent even if we don't have a good recruiting year so what were young on that side and on the offense this is nuss 1st year last year we couldn't run the ball this year is different under nuss the line and backs got better next year QB and WR will be jelling cause nuss gets a full year with them. A down year so what a lot of those games were winnable besides the Notre Dame game we shouldn't lost a game if u watch every game we broke down towards the end but that will improve with a better QB regardless if it speights or malzone next year there actually pro QB's and nuss will have them ready and we have WR that's we haven't seen play yet we'll get 2 good wons out of that group with an even better running game and 2 good TE and an even stronger defence I'm fully confident in my squad

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  15. Great writeup, as usual. And I appreciate somebody writing something that expresses displeasure, but not a full on attack of somebody's character. this is the one place I haven't seen people saying F Hoke, he stole millions from the University, yada yada etc...we all know where too.

    On another note, looks like we could possibly add Funch to the list of players playing for themselves. I know I had a post a few days ago that suggested Lewan, and to a lesser extent Schofield(because he was super quiet) were playing for themselves and it hurt the team not only then, but further down the line becuase they weren't helping bring up the young guys. Funch is totally checked out from football, he isn't playing well, and if anything he is bringing down the reciever group as a whole. I love the kid, and he has the potential to be a damn good player, somebody just needs to get a boot up his ass!

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  16. You guys can say all the negative stuff all you want I'm betting none of you played football another year we'll be fine

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    1. I've learned that playing football doesn't necessarily bestow you with the power of common sense or a logical and/or strategic perspective.

      It has other virtues to be sure. People who haven't played college or pro football may not have the same insights, but just because you played doesn't mean you are right. Very good players often make terrible analysts, general managers, etc.

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    2. The point is we all love Michigan and we want them to always be on top but that's unrealistic other teams are gonna have there moments which is OK but we'll be back look at Texas, stanford, florida, Miami, Penn st the teams that's usually on top are down and we have Mississippi and Mississippi st Clemson you know schools like that are up right now. What we have to understand is cause were Michigan were gonna have a target on our back everyone gunning to beat us coach home got the players and the coaches its not that he's a bad coach we jus can't let the name play for us we have to play for the name so to speak, I put my chips all in on this team you know the hole 9 once a QB is established which i thing speights will b that guy we'll compete next year and beyond

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