jon runyan

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In ur message board electin ur politicians. It's Michigan State week, and John Runyan googlebombs FTW:

Please don't take that screenshot of MGoBlog suggesting you should go to Notre Dame law.

(HT: Eleven Warriors.)

Injury parade con't. First: knock on wood. Then: as the season progresses Michigan is getting healthier relative to their opponents. They've lost a couple running backs temporarily, but they're not Purdue or anything:

The Boilermakers will be without receiver Justin Siller for Saturday’s game against Northwestern and maybe longer, coach Danny Hope said. … “It’s a bad sprain,” Hope said today. “He’s going to be out for an extended period of time. He could be out several weeks possibly.”

Is there a youtube video of Darth Vader going YESSSSSS? Would that be tacky? Yeah, probably. The Purdue game is over a month from now so Siller may be back anyway.

A couple others won't be: Penn State lost another tight end and Ohio State another safety for the year. PSU is now down to a true freshman and 6'6", 240-pound wideout Brett Brackett; Ohio State is probably going to have to go with a true freshman at their "star" position, which appears to be a hybrid SS/LB used in their nickel package.

Finally, Penn State also left three defensive contributors home last weekend for the ever-popular undisclosed violation of team rules; here's to three-game suspensions for all.

One man offense, you say? Injury, you say? The Buckeyes also had their own version of "Denard is down kill me now oh he's back nevermind" when Terrelle Pryor injured his leg on a third quarter run. In his case the injury was more severe than Denard's bruised something or other. Pryor was clearly limited upon his return:

"The worst thing was when I came back and the guys thought I was all right," Pryor said. "They were saying, 'Come on, Terrelle, lead us,' and it was hard because I knew I couldn't do anything about it. There was no way I could do anything about it other than hand the ball off and maybe throw a couple passes. It kind of hurt a little bit dropping back."

… After he returned, he handed off 26 times, was 3 of 4 passing for 28 yards and gained 2 yards on a sneak.

The official diagnosis is a "strained quad," so could be one of those things that lingers until the offseason or he could be fine next week. Former Buckeye and guy who strained his quad Dustin Fox thinks it will be the former:

Just so u guys know. There's no such thing as a mild quad strain. As soon as u try to burst it's gonna lock up

If it's a Grade 1 strain he should be fine in a few weeks; if it's Grade 2 he could be limited for up to two months. Re-aggravation is possible since OSU has little choice but to ride Pryor as far as he can take them. Their backup quarterback situation is grim and a lot of their praise for Boom Herron's workmanlike performance reads like it's from Michigan fans hoping Vincent Smith is better than he seems right now. This slight window of hope will be followed by Pryor pulling a Denard against their next opponent, which is… Indiana. (Welcome to the Big Ten season, Hoosiers. Yeesh.)

Penn State jealousy update! Kevin Newsome: still backing up a true freshman. Anthony Fera, who Michigan recruited as a kicker:

By my count, Anthony Fera had four mediocre and one really, really bad punt.

They're still 39th in net punting and Michigan is 88th, but we're catching up after being in triple digits last week. While we're on Penn State, that game continues to look very plausible but I don't like this bit:

Credit where it's due: despite being harried and pounded on for pretty much the entire game (and dealing with a difficult night-game atmosphere in Kinnick; it got LOUD on multiple occasions), Robert Bolden seemed to keep his composure well and he did a nice job of leading the Penn State offense down the field on those two drives on either side of halftime.  The coaches made things easier on him by using a lot of quick roll-outs and short passes, but he looked pretty calm in executing that gameplan. Things got more ragged in the fourth quarter and he threw a lot more balls that could have (and should have) been intercepted (including the one that was, by Shaun Prater late in the fourth quarter), but freshmen quarterbacks are going to take their lumps; Bolden seems like he could be a pretty good quarterback for PSU in the not-too-distant future. 

Who hates quick rollouts and short passes? You do, because Michigan can't defend them. That's another game in which I have no idea what will happen. That's a big step forward from the beginning of the season. As a bonus, JoePa punted on fourth and six down 14 with 4:36 left: that's not a game in which fear of Denard will make coaches go Romer.

All hat. Remember when we were all excited about getting Les Miles and despondent when he said GTFO?

(HT: The War Eagle Reader.)

Dodged an enormous penis-shaped bullet there. What looked like enormous balls and a refreshing ability to do that Romer stuff we've been talking about all day turns out to be an inability to comprehend the conventional wisdom or the clock rules. You've seen this, right? It's seven minutes but if you didn't see how this went down you have to repair this immediately:

There are no words. If you insist that there are, Orson has you covered:

The clock runs. You do two things when you might want to stop the clock on the goal-line down 14-10 with a running clock. You may spike it---wait, that's not happening. There's a thing about spiking the ball at LSU, if you'll recall. They could call time out, but they have no timeouts because Les Miles is pretty sure the federal government demands those back at the end of the year if you don't spend them all. Though they've been on the two yard line ever since the pass interference penalty, the LSU offensive staff suddenly remembers OH MY GOD WE HAVE A GOAL LINE PACKAGE and sets off a fire drill the People's Republic of China would call "disgracefully hurried and chaotic."

Imagine if the smoldering tire fire that is Michigan's secondary was inside the head coaches' skull. LSU recruited Russell Shepard, a five-star dual threat QB Michigan thought was more talented than anyone they've recruited at the position and moved him to wide receiver so Jordan Jefferson could play. Guh.

BONUS: The Alphabetical's D, E, and F all concern the Michigan-Indiana tennis match, with Denard ascending past Woody Danztler in Orson's pantheon of spread quarterbacks.

Etc.: Stencil this across the world. Football coaches are focused on play success, not drive success. Chait is with me: just say no to punts.

Former Michigan offensive lineman Jon Runyan, a 14-year veteran of the NFL, is running for congress in the state of New Jersey. Though mgoblog doesn't endorse or un-endorse any political candidate or ideal, we had the opportunity to ask Jon a few questions about his football career, Rich Rodriguez, and his upcoming congressional race.

Michigan and Football

Growing up in Filnt, were you always a Michigan guy or did you like the Spartans growing up?

I was and always will always be a Michigan Man.

You racked up a number of awards during your college career (most notably All-Big Ten in your final season), but was it a hard decision to leave early for the draft?

It was hard, but the fact that I got injured the year before and missed the Bowl game was a huge factor in my decision to leave. It was a calculated risk, but looking back on it, it all worked out for the best.

How often to you manage to catch Michigan games, either in person or on TV?

I have not been back to any games. I have a very young and active family, therefore most of my free time in the fall is spent on the youth soccer/football fields.

Going on to your NFL career, you played primarily for a couple teams, the Oilers/Titans and the Eagles. When you think about your football career on the whole, which team do you identify more with? Why?

I have to say the Eagles, I feel that I had a bigger role in making that team into how everyone knows it. In my early years (Oilers/Titans) I was young and looking for direction. I learned that from a great group of guys and took that knowledge to Philly.

With the Eagles, Brian Westbrook credited you with the idea to take knee at the one yard line going in a couple years ago. Was that the Michigan education shining through?

We can say that. Also it has a lot to do with confidence and understanding of the people and situations around you!

Michigan Today

What is your opinion of the first couple years of Rich Rodriguez in Ann Arbor?

It takes time. When you bring in a new system and coaches, you have to get the current players to buy in and at the same time recruit players that may fit your system better. But that's the challenge of being a college coach.

Have you talked to Coach Rodriguez at all, worked out on campus, etc.?

I have introduced myself once, the only time I have been back to A2 since he was hired.

You experienced a coaching change during your Michigan career. What was it like to go from Moeller to Carr? I assume the transition wasn't quite as rough as the one Michigan's going through now.

It was not as rough as the current change. I was lucky to be recruited by coach Carr out of high school, and it was't as big of a transition. There also wasn't a huge changeover in assistant coaches (lot of friends in the room).

Politics

Moving on, what made you decide to go into politics following your NFL career?

I have been very active in my community dating all the way back to my trips to Motts Children's Hospital and this is the next step in my community service. Although it is a big one, I know it is the right one.

To learn more about my campaign, please visit my website at www.runyanforcongress.com.