Michigan Stadium circa 1955, or thereabouts.

Shirt notes! 1) We printed up a limited-edition run of Notre Dame date/score t-shirts for your delectation. Get them before they are gone forever. Also, for Ann Arbor folk who want shirts but would like to avoid shipping charges, MGoShirts are now available at Underground's Ann Arbor store on South U.

For a good cause. Note: the Pat Maloy Charity Auction, which seeks to establish (now, continue) an endowed kinesiology scholarship in the name of the late Professor Maloy, a guy who had a far-reaching effect on everyone who experienced his teaching. They've got a ton of Michigan memorabilia up for purchase; I suggest you check it out. Goes to a good cause. Robert Haddad has some personal thoughts for you if you're not quite moved yet.

It was dumb for exactly the wrong reason. Much controversy in the aftermath of the Purdue-Notre Dame game concerning Danny Hope's timeout before third and goal. Here's a typical Boiler response:

Why the $%*&@!!!!!!!!!!!! did we call a timeout?

And here's Charlie Weis:

"That kind of helped us out a little bit right there," Weis said. "We were going to clock it, so we made sure we had one play left....It didn't end up paying any dividends for us, because we didn't score on that third down call. But we had an opportunity to gather our thoughts and get the right call for fourth down."

What? Is Charlie Weis actually suggesting that Notre Dame was going to spike the ball on third down? That's the interpretation of Brian Hamilton:

The Irish were set to spike the ball to kill the clock and leave themselves just one play to score.

Notre Dame had 37 seconds when Hope took his timeout. If Weis is actually claiming ND would have spiked it instead, he's either a liar or an idiot. I'm going with the former since there is no college coach in the country that would blow a down on third and goal with 37 seconds left. Even if you're an idiot, you have 20 seconds to think to yourself "maybe we should throw a fade to one of our 6'4" wide receivers, that would probably be better than chucking a ball straight into the ground."

Anyway, the larger issue: Purdue's error here was not in calling the timeout. You can't bank on the opposing coach making the dumbest coaching move since Marty Mornhinweg took the wind. Notre Dame was going to get all four shots at the endzone either way. The error was in not blowing the remainder of their timeouts in an effort to keep a reasonable amount of time on the clock for a potential response. Purdue should have called timeout after Notre Dame got first and goal; doing so would have saved another 20 seconds or so and given Purdue 40 seconds instead of 20 on their final drive. When you only need a field goal that's a big deal.

Hey, man, Smart Football agrees with me. QED.

Adios, Keith*. A reader recently asked about Keith Jackson's 1998 retirement tour stop at Michigan Stadium, which I remember fondly. He asked for what video existed of the game and I asked Wolverine Historian if he had it. He did, of course, because he is ninja like that:

Really wish they had provided the whole thing, but that's life. Jackson's evident emotion at his last game at Michigan Stadium is something I've treasured as a Michigan fan. I generally adhere to the belief that people who go around talking about their program as if it is the be-all and end-all are unpleasant, but the idea that Keith Jackson thought Michigan was a special place defies that cynicism.

*(Sort of, anyway. Jackson decided to un-retire and did a selection of Pac-10 games for a few more years. He stuck to the West Coast, though, and this was his last appearance at Michigan Stadium. [UPDATE: Wrong. Jackson did the 2003 M-OSU game.)

Van Bergen's error. Clarification on what Van Bergen did wrong on Indiana's 85-yarder from the man himself:

"I made the wrong check," Van Bergen said. "It doesn't happen very often, but it was independently on me. It almost cost the team a big loss, and I would have blamed that completely on myself." …

"We were supposed to be running blitz to the boundary and I checked to field," he said. "It's something very basic, and I shouldn't have made that mistake."

So it wasn't anything after the snap but what led up to it that was the error. I do remember that run looking almost indefensible given Michigan's alignment.

Yes, as GSimmons reminds, this sort of thing makes it difficult to hand out pluses and minuses as individually as I do in UFR. For the record: I do try to take the difficulty of making a particular play into account and often let players off when it seems clear that the defense was just not right for that particular situation. Also, UFR attempts to be useful, not gospel.

Other game stuff: Brown was absent for much of the middle of the game with a minor injury, Moosman put the onus on himself on the snap fiascoes (but he was not the guy who was called for lining up off the LOS, that was Ortmann), Donovan Warren insist he's the guy who caught the ball. (Full transcript of Moosman's postgame interview.)

Advertisin' note. The M-Den is running a special that's about to run out: $5 shipping on any order. Orders of more than $200 have been and will be free. As always, if you don't shop at the M-Den, you hate America.

Etc.: Have had a couple requests for a high-res downloadable version of the preseason hype video. You can download it here; right click and "save as". Week 4 hype video. GS has last week's run chart up; never linked to it.

Editor's note: sorry this is late. I thought I'd published this around 11 AM, but evidently I didn't hit the button.

9/26/2009 – Michigan 36, Indiana 33 – 4-0, 1-0 Big Ten

Tate Forcier dropped back to throw and Martavious Odoms broke open and Forcier lofted it. I swear to you that on an overcast, steel-gray day a sliver of light slipped through the clouds to linger on the object's parabolic, causing its rain-slicked surface to glitter as it reached its apex. It started to come back down, and Odoms slowed fractionally, allowing the Indiana safety—

Aw, hell. Indiana? No offense to a program the evidently warranted more respect than Vegas or this here blog offered in the run-up to the game, but passages of soaring majesty get ruined when a Hoosier is mentioned. Since Wangler-to-Carter, when Indiana was 8-4, moments of glory against Indiana only come in one form: oh thank God we didn't lose to Indiana.*

So, yeah: thank God we didn't lose to Indiana.

Since we didn't, we should all just breathe a sigh of relief, recalibrate expectations back down a little bit, and move on. Michigan's not at a point where any win against any Big Ten team is one to freak out about. The freshmen quarterbacks remain freshmen and it's becoming clear that the defense has about the same raw talent level that last year's offense had. The only thing keeping them from plunging off a deep, dark cliff is the fact that no position on defense is as singularly important as quarterback is on offense.

A couple may be as undermanned, though. Indiana's potentially-crushing, one-play, 85-yard riposte to Tate Forcier's first attempt at fourth quarter heroics exposed the secondary's talent deficiency in a way even starker than Michigan fans were treated to against Notre Dame. At least when Michael Floyd and Golden Tate and Jimmy Clausen were running wild you could point to torched opponents past and recruiting rankings and drooling NFL scouts. Seeing an Indiana freshman zip past not only the walk-on safety gamely pretending he doesn't run a 4.8 but the scholarship, potentially-starting cornerback not named Donovan Warren was alarming. If JT Floyd is going to play corner in the Big Ten he's going to do it ten yards off the line of scrimmage.

This is how bad it is: I'm not even mad at Floyd when a player gets vastly open or he commits a silly, unnecessary pass interference penalty. I'm mad at Tyrone Willingham, metaphorically. It's inconceivable that Michigan would find itself in this situation. There is exactly one junior and no seniors at both safety and cornerback. The 2007 class provides three of the four starters and has lost Artis Chambers. 2006 saw the only two defensive back commitments (Brown and Mouton) move to linebacker. The 2005 class was Brandon Harrison (decent but did not redshirt), Johnny Sears, and Chris Richards.  The recruiting malpractice everyone saw on the offensive line last year returned with a vengeance. Hell, even the 2008 class is looking like a disappointment: Brandon Smith is a linebacker; Cissoko and Floyd have been the weak link on a defense that's played three walk-ons extensively. Very little of that is Rodriguez's doing.**

The parallels between this year's secondary and last year's offensive line, on and off the field, are striking, and it's not like linebackers not named Stevie Brown are helping out much. Michigan's recruiting was wildly deficient in more than one area and will be an anchor going forward, basically until such time as the roster is full and the creaky last few Carr classes are no longer weighing down the top of the roster.

We should forestall complaining about Robinson and Tony Gibson and even Jay Hopson, who I've complained about personally, if somewhat obliquely, because there are excellent reasons why their units are performing poorly that have nothing to do with whether or not they can coach. Gibson was the guy who turned Ryan Mundy from a guy with an uncomplimentary stat (Yards After Mundy) named after him into an NFL draft pick. West Virginia's pass efficiency defense in the final few years of Rodriguez's time there: 28th, 63rd, 30th, 20th. There's plenty of evidence that Rodriguez isn't dealing with morons here, and plenty that suggests late-era Carr recruiting was. I'm stashing the torches and pitchforks away, hoping that the rest of the season follows a trajectory similar to that of the offense last year: baby steps towards respectability in the midst of crippling talent deficiency, followed by a second year of growth.

As always, this should be okay. It takes time to dig out from all the reasons 3-9 occurs.

*(The Hoosiers have had a few respectable teams in the intervening years, but Michigan either blew them out, lost to them (once), or missed them. Closest thing to a close win against a respectable team was '91, when Indiana was 7-4-1 and M won 24-16.)

**(Smith and Floyd did commit to Michigan after Rodriguez was named head coach but those players were widely considered locks for months before the coaching transition took place. And please note the criticism here is not necessarily of Smith (or Mouton or Brown) but the recruiting practices that failed to take their likely moves to linebacker into account. Floyd, for his part, might be a functional safety if he wasn't needed at corner.)

BULLETS

• You know, I was sort of coming around to the piped in music but no more. I should never have said anything negative about the band, I take it all back, I believe the piped-in music to be an abomination, and curse anyone who voted in favor of said abomination during this site's earlier poll. The end of the first half was close to my idea of hell, with the evil homunculus responsible for the ear-piercing noise pollution blasting something stupid in-between every play. During the video review, I found myself so enraged at the piped in music that I fruitlessly gave the bird to the idiot playing Bob Seger at painful volume. I went to a concert later that night and the volume level there was considerably less ear-damaging.

  It's just unpleasant to hear a probably-terrible song at volume levels 130% of what the speaker system can actually handle. Turn it down. Turn it off. Stop alienating the people who really care about Michigan's traditions and stop catering to the folk who can't distinguish Michigan Stadium from an ECHL arena. It does not help anything.

  In fact, it actively stops cheers. The students were chanting "Go Blue" at each other during one point and the evil homunculus played over it. The evil homunculus plays AC/DC over what used to be a bass drum pounding out a beat to which the stadium chanted "Let's Go Blue." It has gone from somewhat tolerable to Michigan State in four weeks, and must be destroyed. I'm disappointed but not entirely surprised that the marketing wing of the Michigan athletic department would be so deaf to tradition. Mostly, I'm appalled. Piped-in music is a disaster and should be stopped immediately. (Note: MVictors mentioned it too, though Greg's not as ready to draw and quarter people. That is because he is soft. I am the Dwead Piwate Woberts, I have come for your souls.)

• Didn't expect the official site to out a guy on the 85-yard Indiana touchdown but here you go:
  

  On Indiana's 85-yard touchdown run to take the lead in the fourth quarter, defensive tackle Ryan Van Bergen came off the field distraught after a blown assignment. He was taken aside by defensive coordinator Greg Robinson and then sat on the team bench with his head sagging. "You flush it and you come back and play," Robinson yelled down the line. "You don't need to be a hero."

  As I recall it I watched a 215 pound Indiana tailback outrun not only a walk-on safety (depressing that guy has to play but understandable) but a scholarship cornerback; if Van Bergen had problems he wasn't the only one. Also, Van Bergen was the backside defensive tackle… it's hard to imagine what his assignment was that could have prevented Indiana from running outside the other OT.

• Interception or not, why the hell did Indiana throw at Donovan Warren? Why the hell would anyone throw at Donovan Warren the rest of the year? Opponents have now lost two close games because they threw at Donovan Warren. Sooner or later they will stop doing this, I think.
• Related:
  

  After the game, Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Robinson confirmed that Cissoko’s absence was a coach’s decision. “Yeah, it was,” Robinson said. “I thought, J.T., at first, was a little nervous but as the game wore on he grew more and more comfortable and did a good job, really held his own.”

  I thought that Cissoko had gotten pulled because he had picked up an injury. He did come out for a play or two earlier, and when an Indiana receiver ran straight past him without so much as a head fake I figured it was a hamstring pull or something. Apparently not. Er. That's not good. I'd rather there was some explanation for Cissoko getting smoked other than… well… you know. Not being good at football.

• Attn: Tate. Plz stop doing this plz:
   
  It reminds me of Ryan Mallett and makes me want to die a little. Please continue all of your other activities except running around in the pocket too much.

ELSEWHERE

Maize 'n' Brew has some Zapruder-quality "I took pictures of my TV" stills of the aforementioned Warren interception. They make a decent case the call was correct, if spectacularly close and improbable. I'm waiting for the HD video before I make any proclamation either way.

MVictors notes that Justin Turner isn't even in the section of the bench that contains backup sorts; he's a long way from playing.

Doctor Saturday notes that Michigan and Notre Dame aren't exactly establishing themselves dominant powers in the wake of their entertaining week two matchup:

the question after Indiana's 467-yard, 33-point barrage Saturday is "Who isn't going to put up huge yards on the Wolverines?" The Hoosiers -- dead last in the Big Ten in every significant offensive aspect last year -- went on long marches and hit big plays alike (an 85-yard touchdown run and a 56-yard completion to set up another score) and might have been on their way to more points if the officials had seen Donovan Warren's clinching interception differently on IU's final drive. The Wolverines are 89th nationally in total defense and 92nd against the pass, slightly worse than last year's numbers for the year and significantly worse than their 2-2 start in September. There is no comparison between the offenses, but the progress of the Michigan D (or lack thereof) puts a real crimp in the prospective rise in the Big Ten. The fact is, resetting expectations after the first month, neither of these teams has put much separation between preseason expectations and their prospects for the season.

It's hard to dispute; even if Michigan's offense is ahead of preseason projections I don't think anyone had them giving up almost 500 yards to Indiana on defense. Michigan may be slightly ahead of what seemed like a universal 7-5 preseason consensus, but it's mostly because they've turned one coin-flip game in their favor and the Big Ten has looked slightly more moribund than even their recent standards.

Mike DiSimone has his weekly comprehensive picture roundup.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Florida	1
3	Texas	1
4	Virginia Tech	8
5	Houston	5
6	Cincinnati
7	Boise State
8	Iowa	13
9	TCU	6
10	Southern Cal	1
11	LSU	11
12	Miami (Florida)	8
13	Oklahoma
14	Penn State	6
15	Ohio State	2
16	Oklahoma State	3
17	California	12
18	Auburn	2
19	Brigham Young	4
20	Georgia	4
21	Michigan	1
22	UCLA	5
23	Oregon
24	Georgia Tech	6
25	Missouri
Last week's ballot

This week, I totally scrapped what I had before, and went by a strict-ish resume ranking. The table I used can be seen after the jump. There are some big movers.

• Virginia Tech: They have two of the best wins in the country, plus their only loss was at a neutral site to my #1 team.
• Houston: Knocking off a second BCS opponent (one expected to be pretty good, if not contend for a conference title) sees them jump up a bit.
• Iowa: The win over Penn State finally gives them a victory big enough to warrant a top spot on the blogpoll. They're also one of the few teams in the country with wins over 3 BCS conference teams.
• LSU: They also have 3 wins over BCS foes, though none as impressive as Iowa's.
• Oklahoma State: I'm not sure how I feel about them rising. I guess the loss to Houston is a little more excusable since the Cougars are looking like legit competition so far. Oklahoma State still just has one big win over a "meh" Georgia team and then a couple cupcakes.
• Cal: They were rocked by Oregon. Given the circumstances, I may even drop them a little closer to Oregon in the poll. However, they have two wins over BCS-level competition (as much as Maryland and Minnesota can be described as such), including one away at a sucky time for a West Coast team.

Anything else need to be explained or changed? Let me know.

Highlight reel from Wolverine Historian:

And one from Chris of Dangerous Logic:

And there are two torrents up at the moment: one small SD torrent that's not great quality and one 7-gig HD WMV. There's also an MSU-Wisconsin torrent for those who missed the Spartans' latest game.

This week's lines just came out. Here's the Michigan-Michigan State one:

10/03 12:00 PM
155 Michigan
156 Michigan St	Big 10 GAME OFF BOARD Michigan-QB-Forcier-Questionable

 
Urgh. Here's why Forcier is questionable:

There's another one if you want it. I watched Forcier go off the field holding his arm awkwardly. It may be bruised heavily. It may be sprained. According to one long-time poster who ran into him Saturday night, it's the latter:

…he said he has a AC joint sprain and a big bruise. He said he injured himself like this before in high school and he couldn't throw until Friday of that week.

He was in obvious pain and wouldn't shake anyones hand with his right arm. We'll see, but its a little more serious than just a "bruise". That being said, he looked fine throwing the ball on that last TD pass to Odoms.

1577 points and more than a year registered. This is not a drive-by.

Sprains can be weird; you can operate with them okay immediately afterwards only to wake up the next day virtually unable to move the joint because of all the swelling. Forcier's touchdown to Odoms is no assurance he'll be fine for next week. Medical-talkin' guys on the internet on AC joint sprains:

If you don't need surgery, range-of-motion exercises should be started as pain eases, followed by a program of strengthening. At first, exercises are done with the arm kept below shoulder level. The program advances to include strength exercises for the rotator cuff and shoulder blade muscles. In most cases, the pain goes away almost completely within three weeks. Full recovery can take up to six weeks for grade two separations and up to 12 weeks for grade three separations. Since there is little danger of making the condition worse, you can usually do whatever activities you can tolerate.

Given the lack of concern expressed by both Rodriguez and Forcier in the aftermath of the Indiana game, it's probably a Grade 1 AC joint sprain that isn't a huge deal. The above link indicates that treatment for these sorts of injuries is "pain medications and a short period of rest using a shoulder sling." Don't expect Forcier to do any throwing most of the week; do expect his name on Thursday's injury report, probably as, yes, "questionable."

I bet he at least gives it a go. If there's no chance playing with it makes the thing worse, he can take a painkilling injection and be okay. There's some probability he's noticeably affected by it, though, and we should expect to see more Denard Robinson.

One of the nation's top punters has committed to Michigan, which like, hooray. Informative update coming a little bit later.