Not really anything earth shattering, it's a good read for a slow day. My favorite quote was by Troy Woolfolk "Most coaches use college as a stepping stone to go somewhere else, with coach Hoke, you can tell this is his final stone.'' http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/football/ncaa/wires/08/13/2060.ap....

Desmond Howard is interviewed in this non-paywalled TheWolverine.com piece by Michael Spath.

Howard talks about his soon to be released book, his expectations for Michigan this season, what he thinks the hallmarks of a Hoke-led team will be, Stonum vs. Floyd, and the possible fate of the number 21 jersey.

On whether Michigan should use No. 21 like it has used No. 1 and will use No. 2, as jerseys that must be earned: "You should ask Brady about that. I just got inducted to the Hall of Fame. I have no idea why I'm not getting the same treatment. [Editor's Note: he said this tongue-in-cheek].

"Maybe they may have something different in store for No. 21. It may not even be available for them to earn."

On a slow day like this I was bored and began searching through our prospects on scout. I noticed that Marshall has set three visits to Florida, Georgia, and Notre Dame. I normally wouldn't even post this, but it is such a slow day and Notre Dame is involved so I thought you all would like to know. I hope ND doesn't get this kid.

http://michigan.scout.com/a.z?s=162&p=8&c=1&nid=4705843

 

Flip it to BTN to watch the 67-65 3OT affair from last year.  It's a good time killer until the Tigers game starts.

 

Probably the high water mark of the Rich Rodriguez era as well as the last shining moment of Tate's Michigan career.

 

The game also features current Lions RB Mikael Leshoure.

 

 

Also, for you Wings fans out there, Game 1 of this past year's playoff series against the yotes is on NHL network.

It's kind of a slow Saturday on the board, so I figured I would post this up.

As many of you have probably seen, they are posting short bios of the incoming freshman football players at mgoblue.com. 

Well, today was Matt Wile's turn, and my favorite part was...

My advice to young kids ... Nothing good happens after midnight

So hopefully that's a good indication that we won't be dealing with anymore kicker suspensions in the near future. Too soon? Maybe.

Anyways, you can see the rest of the freshman bios here:

http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/080811aad.html#wile

 

[Ed-M: Apologies to mod who front-paged this. I bumped back to diaries. Plan on discussion in today's Dear Diary.]

I did this diary last year knowing our defense would be extremely inexperienced.  Here's hoping the 2011 numbers (and actual Defense) are more kind this year. At the time I did a simple breakdown between upperclassmen (Jr. to 5th) and underclassmen (Fr. to So.) and saw the strength of defenses climbing almost directly with the level of experience.

Michigan fans, myself included, are hopeful that our defense can be average compared to the rest of the conference. From an experience standpoint I believe this is a reasonable goal for 2011.

2011 Michigan Defense

WDE

Jr. Craig Roh

So.  Jibreel Black

DT

Sr. Mike Martin

RS Fr. Ken Wilkens

DT

Jr. Will Campbell

RS So. Quinton Washington or RS Fr. Richard Ash

SDE

RS Sr. Ryan VanBergan

RS Sr. Will Heininger

MLB

RS Jr. Kenny Demens or Sr. Marell Evans

WLB

RS So. Mike Jones

RS Sr. Brandon Herron or RS Sr. J.B. Fitzgerald

SLB

RS So. Cameron Gordon

RS Fr. Jake Ryan

SS

RS Jr. Jordan Kovacs

So. Marvin Robinson

FS

So. Carvin Johnson

RS So. Tom Gordon or RS Fr. Josh Furman

CB

RS Sr. Troy Woolfolk

So. Courtney Avery

RS Jr. J.T. Floyd

So. Terrence Talbott

---

Teams are listed from weakest to strongest based on 2010 Total Defense.

Northwestern

(courtesy of BigTen Nation)

Starters

Upperclassman: 11

Underclassman: 0

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 16

Underclassman: 6

 

Indiana

(courtesy of Rivals)

Starters

Upperclassman: 7

Underclassman: 4

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 15

Underclassman: 7

 

Minnesota

(courtesy of Scout)

Starters

Upperclassman: 10

Underclassman: 1

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 12

Underclassman: 10

 

Purdue

(courtesy of Scout)

Starters

Upperclassman: 8

Underclassman: 3

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 13

Underclassman: 9

 

Michigan State

(courtesy of Rivals)

Starters

Upperclassman: 6

Underclassman: 5

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 12

Underclassman: 10

 

Illinois

(courtesy of Rivals)

Starters

Upperclassman: 9

Underclassman: 2

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 14

Underclassman: 8

 

Penn State

(courtesy of Rivals)

Starters

Upperclassman: 11

Underclassman: 0

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 14

Underclassman: 8

 

Iowa

(courtesy of Rivals)

Starters

Upperclassman: 8

Underclassman: 3

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 14

Underclassman: 8

 

Wisconsin

(courtesy of Rivals)

Starters

Upperclassman: 8

Underclassman: 3

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 11

Underclassman: 11

 

Nebraska

(courtesy of Scout)

Starters

Upperclassman: 10

Underclassman: 1

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 17

Underclassman: 5

 

Ohio State

(courtesy of Scout)

Starters

Upperclassman: 10

Underclassman: 1

Two-Deep

Upperclassman: 17

Underclassman: 5

---

 

Big Ten Averages:

Starters

Upperclassmen: 8.9

Underclassmen: 2.1

Two-Deep

Upperclassmen: 14.1

Underclassmen: 7.9

Michigan:

Starters

Upperclassmen: 7

Underclassmen: 4

Two-Deep

Upperclassmen: 11

Underclassmen: 11

These numbers are much better than last year and are not too far off from the rest of the Big Ten.

---

 

Why That Matters...

After looking at the B10 Total Defense rankings from 2010 there appeared to be three fairly seperate categories of defensive quailty:

Craptastic: 419.9 yds/game (Michigan, Northwestern, Indiana, Minnesota)

Decent: 345.8 yds/game (Purdue, MSU, Illinois, PSU, Iowa, Wisconsin)

Great: 284.5 yds/game (Nebraska, OSU).

There's no difference in the experience of Craptastic and Decent teams but to get from Decent to Great had a huge jump:

Starters	Craptastic	Decent	Great	Mich 2010	Mich 2011
Upperclassmen	8.8	8.3	10	5	7
Underclassmen	2.2	2.7	1	6	4
Two-Deep	Craptastic	Decent	Great	Mich 2010	Mich 2011
Upperclassmen	13.8	12.8	17	9	11
Underclassmen	8.2	9.2	5	13	11

This is quite interesting (and different from last year). Most of the B10 teams, including Michigan, seem to be returning the same amount of experience. Michigan is still less experienced but the gap (especially for the starters) is a lot smaller than in previous years.

Another encouraging note is the four underclassmen being pushed into playing time have all at least seen the field and any true freshmen who play do so because they are actually beating out on another player for the spot.

GO BLUE!