Welcome to the Weekend!

Start celebrating your weekend with some good looking ladies beyond the jump, including a Marisa Miller gif.

Welcome to the Weekend!

Begin the weekend properly with some good looking women, including a Rachel Williams gif.

Happy 13,000,000th Pageview!

Thanks for visiting the site 13,000,000 times. Hit the jump for your reward . . . in the form of good looking women.

MLive: Michigan talks pace, quarterbacks

Offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier talked about the pace of play and the performances of the top three quarterbacks.

Hit the jump for swimsuit model Marisa Miller.

Self-Indulgent Post of the Week: Top Five 2014 SI Swimsuit Issue Pictures

I have no reason to post this other than the fact that the Sports Illustrated  swimsuit issue is awesome. So here are my top five pictures from this year's issue. (Photos with nudity were disqualified for obvious reasons.)

In honor of multiple family members, 50% of today's ad revenue and donations will be donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, an organization rated an A+ by Charity Watch.

Happy 6000000th Pageview!

Ashley Sky

Ashley Valence

Brooklyn Decker

Catalina Otalvaro

Marisa Miller

Denise Milani

Nathalia Melo

Krystal Forscutt

AnnArbor.com: Spring preview - specialists

Marisa Miller

Last one!  Kyle Meinke talks about the specialists Michigan will have for the upcoming season.  He does make a booboo by suggesting that Terrence Robinson will be a potential returner next year, because Robinson is leaving for (hopefully) greener pastures.  Nobody's perfect.  Except Marisa Miller.

Michigan State 28, Michigan 14

Here's a picture of Marisa Miller to ease the pain.

I have no problem with the way Michigan used the Denard/Devin duo.  Against teams with winning records this season, Denard Robinson has gone 44-for-96 (45.8%) with 7 touchdowns and 7 interceptions.  There's really no doubt in my mind that Devin Gardner will be a better passer than Robinson whenever Gardner becomes the starting quarterback.  As Urban Meyer said on the broadcast, it's about getting your best eleven players on the field.  The issue with Gardner right now is that he's lacking game experience and he's not getting starter's reps in practice.  Chris Spielman (more on him later) showed his lack of Michigan knowledge when he griped that Denard Robinson would have seen Stephen Hopkins running open down the middle of the field on the Fullback Pop Pass but that Gardner threw an incomplete pass to Junior Hemingway instead.  Even if Robinson would have seen it - and I'm not convinced he would - his arm is so erratic that there's less than a 50/50 chance he would have hit Hopkins.

Al Borges blergh.  I think Borges has done a good job of playcalling for the most part this year, but that 4th-and-inches play action pass that got Denard sacked in the fourth quarter was an atrocious call.  Tell your offensive line to man up, run a dive play or a QB sneak, and see what happens.  Taking the ball away from the line of scrimmage and expecting your inaccurate quarterback to gain six inches through the air is near lunacy.

Michigan's front seven got manhandled by a patchwork offensive line.  That was perhaps the most demoralizing part of the game.  Michigan State running back Edwin Baker had previously been averaging 4.1 yards per carry.  He finished the game with 26 carries for 167 yards (6.4 yards per attempt).  It reminded me of the 2010 Penn State game, when Michigan took a struggling Evan Royster and turned him into a star again.


Surprise, surprise, that was a refereeing failure in East Lansing.  The referees for this game were atrocious.  Let me count the ways:

• The lateral to Keshawn Martin was indeed a backwards pass and when it was picked up by Brandin Hawthorne, it should have been Michigan's ball.
• Edwin Baker stepped out of bounds at the 22-yard line.  Viewers could plainly see his cleat hit the sideline.  Somehow he was allowed to get the ball all the way down to the 7-yard line.
• William Gholston flat-out punched Taylor Lewan in the face and should have been ejected.
• On his way to the endzone, Isaiah Lewis clearly taunted Denard Robinson at about the 1- or 2-yard line; under college rules, the touchdown should have been disallowed.

Surprise, surprise, that was a broadcasting failure . . .  From the very beginning, it was apparent that Michigan was going to get no love from the broadcasting crew, especially Chris Spielman.  Spielman had nothing positive to say about Michigan at all.  Why would he?  Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio was a graduate assistant at Ohio State when Spielman played there in the mid-1980s, and Dantonio was also the defensive coordinator for the Buckeyes in the early 2000s.  I guffawed when Spielman said about Dantonio, "That man right there stands for hard nosed, clean football" or something to that effect.  Right, Spielman.  

. . . because Mark Dantonio is a despicably coach.  That's why he allowed Glen Winston to rejoin the Spartans on the day Winston was released from jail.  That's why he clearly allowed his team members to repeatedly hit Michigan players out of bounds (once), punch Taylor Lewan (once), jump on Denard Robinson after he was down and then grab his facemask and twist (once), and repeatedly throw Robinson to the ground after he threw the ball (three times).  The dirty play reminded me of the time when Wisconsin quarterback Jim Sorgi was choked by Ohio State linebacker Robert Reynolds.  Who was Reynolds' defensive coordinator that year?  That's right . . . Mark Dantonio.  Eff that guy.

What happened to Michigan's offensive line?  I thought one of Rich Rodriguez's best coaches was offensive line coach Greg Frey, who turned a redshirt freshman Taylor Lewan, lightly recruited Patrick Omameh, lightly recruited Mark Huyge, and a couple upperclassmen into a very solid offensive line.  It's clear that Lewan was hobbled somewhat by an injury or two yesterday, and I doubt the spin move by Marcus Rush would have turned into a sack if Lewan were healthy (when has Lewan ever looked that inept?), but Michigan allowed seven sacks overall and couldn't get the running game going.  Obviously, the offensive line's regression didn't truly hurt the team until yesterday, but the only change from last year is the Ricky Barnum/Michael Schofield combo at left guard . . . and the hiring of Darrell Funk to replace Frey.

Can we please change up the snap count?  I have grown tired of Denard Robinson punching toward the ground, David Molk looking up, and the ball being snapped on rhythm.  The coaches need to find a way to change up the snap count, put on a dummy count, etc.  There's a reason Michigan State has been jumping the snap and timing blitzes perfectly for the past couple years - it's because Michigan's coaches have been painfully vanilla with snap counts.

Prediction recap: I said in Friday's preview that MSU would have the advantage in all categories except Michigan Rush Offense vs. MSU Rush Defense.  I was wrong.  The Spartans had the advantage in all phases except sportsmanship and class.  Michigan couldn't run (2.3 yards per carry), Michigan couldn't pass (12/31 for 161 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception), Michigan couldn't stop the run (5.5 yards per attempt), and Michigan didn't do great against the pass (Kirk Cousins was 13/24 for 120 yards and 2 touchdowns).  I did guess correctly that MSU would score 28 points, although I thought Michigan would score a little more.

Ultimately, this has been better than expected.  I don't think many people expected that Michigan would be 6-0 heading to East Lansing, and I don't think anyone expected the Wolverines to climb all the way to #11 in the polls.  Michigan is 6-1 heading into a bye week, and while I don't plan for Michigan to go undefeated the rest of the way, the remaining schedule shows five winnable games.  In the first year of the Brady Hoke era, I'm pretty satisfied with how things have gone.

Maize 'n' Brew: July 9, 2011 Recruiting Update

Marisa Miller

The weekly recruiting update is over at Maize 'n' Brew with updates on Jarrod Wilson, offensive tackles galore, and more.