holidays we made up

Brian, I liked your spring summary and I agreed with most of the points.

However, I left the spring game wondering if the performance of our offense (and Forcier, to be more precise) was more indicative of our lack of depth on defense. They played the second team defense and generally had their way with them. Considering how bad our offense was last year, does this just show that our defense has bad depth or that our offense (and Forcier) will actually be serviceable/good next year?

Obviously, this is the million dollar question, but I honestly left the spring game more worried about our defense than impressed with our offense.

Please allay my fears! Thanks.

I will attempt to do so via the magic of bullet points:

1. That wasn't the second team defense, it was somewhere between the second and third team defense with half of the starters injured or largely held out.
2. Depth should improve in the fall when the freshmen arrive.
3. The defense is adapting to a new scheme, their third in three years. While this isn't good they should improve more quickly than a team that knows what it's doing and still sucks.
4. Forcier may have had a lot of opportunities he might not otherwise but at least he took advantage of them in a way that I don't think Sheridan or Threet would have, at least not so consistently.

While I don't think Forcier is going to finish many games 11/14 with three touchdowns against no interceptions, the thing to watch for are things that don't depend on the defense: when a slant comes open does Forcier see it and throw it on time and accurately? When Roundtree bursts open deep does Forcier hit him? How many horrible interceptions, or balls that should rightly have been horribly intercepted, did he throw? By this measure, Forcier did very well.

Your larger point about the seemingly huge dropoff to the second-string defense, well… yeah. I got nothing for that.

This next one caused this late mailbag to be posted today, because today is "Michigan Football Solstice":

Today (April 15) is the longest possible point between actually, non-scrimmage Michigan football games.

There are 288 days between Nov. 22, 2008 (when Michigan last played, @ OSU) and Sept. 5 (when they next play, at home against Western.)

Nov 22. was 144 days ago.

Sept. 5 is 144 days from now.

We’re now closer to the next Michigan football game than we were to the last one.

I've got a listserv with fellow alumni where we're discussing how to celebrate.  Pop in the DVD of the 2004 Michigan/MSU game?  Scour the internet to discover if any former D1 athletes have a year of eligibility left and might be interested in enrolling at UM and trying out at QB?  In honor of this year's Michigan Football Solstice falling on April 15th, maybe we could have a Teabag Paulus Party?  Can we institute some kind of MGoBlog approved ritual for Michigan fans to celebrate this solemn occasion every year? 

- Daryl Vautour

Well, hopefully Michigan football solstice isn't ever on April 15th again. This is usually going to be an early summer sort of event, so early summer sorts of activities would be best: grilling outside, having a beer, maybe lighting a squirrel on fire with a magnifying glass.* Most of the suggestions above are sad or temporary things, but setting aside some time to watch an old glory past sounds good. So: grill tubes of meat, drink beer, and watch… uh… something uplifting from the 1985 season, if available. And you're not doing anything RIGHT NOW.

*(Just me? Oh.)

I'm out until Monday. There will be some posts on the Fanhouse, but I make no guarantees as to their Michigan relevance.