marcus ray

Paul Bunyan Trophy

We are at the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown.

The Sponsors

We can do this because people support us. You should support them too so they’ll want to do it again next year! The show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan we would be saying all of this to our confused offspring.

Our other sponsors are also key to all of this: HomeSure Lending, Peak Wealth Management, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, the University of Michigan Alumni Association, Michigan Law Grad,Human Element, and Lantana Hummus

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1. Offense

Starts at 1:00

What happens when their trash program does their trash stuff, and Michigan isn’t going to apologize anymore. Michigan gains about 400 yards, 78 of which on the fly to DPJ that’s been coming for years. Recurrence of Shea’s nervousness, one bad read on an arc keeper, but the zone reads were camera fakeout-level. Were able to grind out the end of the game.

2. Defense

Starts at 28:22

MSU ran a trick play from the 4 yard line to score—when you’ve got to do that… Ton of opportunities for MSU to get a PI, missed long a bit but for the most part refs fairly allowed the guy who won the route to run it. Lewerke did and didn’t practice this week. Uche had two sacks, leads the team with five despite little in the way of snaps. A Rutger is when a team gives more points than they have yards (so for example MSU had a rushing Rutger).

3. Special Teams, Thoughts and Feels

Starts at 44:03

Bad punting decisions. You cannot punt on 4th and 5 from the 38—that was an 18-yard net punt. If you’re in go-for-it field position you should be setting up a makeable 4th down. Wish M had a play to get a second score from spending all 2nd Q in MSU’s zone. The worst punter in the conference made the play of the game. Guy was punting ground balls with eyes that you can’t field in a rainstorm. Dantonio’s sad timeouts: there’s no dignity being a Spartan.

Marcus Ray: shut up. Old players bashing the team aren’t helping the team; they’re trying to get notoriety at its expense.

4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac

Starts at 1:01:05

How’s Michigan going to defend Rondale Moore? Is Ohio State’s defense just bad? Haskins made Woody roll in his grave 73 times, 20 more passes than the previous Ohio State game record. 4th down is a different world sans Barrett. Wisconsin and Illinois played a weird snow game. Iowa gave Maryland no big plays, i.e. nothing. We nearly lost a conference room to the worst Rutgers team since they joined the conference, which is saying something. IU outgained Penn State but lost in a #Chaosteam-like performance and kickoff returns. If the playoff committee is considering 1-win teams, Nebraska is first. Frost will be fine but what about Fleck?

MUSIC

  • "Hate to Say I Told You So"—The Hives
  • "You Ain’t a Killer"—BigPun
  • "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion"—The Flaming Lips
  • “Across 110th Street”

THE USUAL LINKS

What part of the Wisconsin secondary is checking Rondale Moore?

buttzone

[Fuller]

Previously:

This week: This one is the most fun. I'm looking for the single best highlight produced at each position. It's also going to require the most help from the crowd. If you've got a reel that beats what I've listed, please share in the comments!

Rules: Best single individual highlight, regardless of context, although there's naturally going to be a lot of rivals on here because duh. If there are multiple contributors who made a play great I'll try to have it go to the guy who was most responsible. I might also stretch the rules so that it's not just a "best highlights ever" list. 

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Quarterback: To Kolesar With Love, by Jimmy Harbaugh

A quarterback touches the ball on almost every offensive play, so to avoid having to just pick the greatest play in Michigan history I tried to focus on the quarterback doing something completely magnificent with only a little help from his friends.

Ohio State was climbing back into The Game in 1985 and with a cold stop to bring up 2nd and 7 you could feel the Buckeyes starting to feel like the chips were ready to fall their way. Eager to cash in on that momentum, Earl Bruce called for a safety blitz. What he wasn't counting on was a stone-faced Jim Harbaugh sitting across the table, ready to call his bluff, or, you know, take a safety in the chin while dropping an inch-perfect ball into Kolesar's bucket over OSU's best defender.

Quarterback Again: Shoelace, by Denard Robinson

Shut up I couldn't leave it out. It's his first snap. They start by explaining why his redshirt was lifted. Then you see his smile. Then they're focusing on his shoelaces, like this is the quirk that will define him. Then he drops the snap. Then he picks it up and runs around some, probably to the sideline. Then he cuts, and it's Rookie Mode to the endzone. I've still never seen anything like it.



The debut (grainier version with his introduction)

Honorable Mention: Denard's oeuvre, Henne2Mario, Navarre's buffalo stampede, Henson's rocket, Denard to Hemingway with a Domer DT on his ankle, and a thousand more

[Hit THE JUMP and then hit the comments to let me know what I forgot]

[Lead image: Bryan Fuller]

REMINDER: Hail to the Victors 2018 is nearly done. Get your orders in! Also of extremely less significance: don’t forget your daily CFB Risk marching orders—daily MVPs still get 200 MGoPoints you can spend everywhere MGoPoints are accepted.

Previously:

This week: Previously we did the five-stars so “Only recruiting rankings matter!” guy can send that to his three-star-loving pal. Now it’s “Recruiting rankings don’t matter!” guy’s turn to forward a link that proves nothing except we’re short on #content in the offseason. Also it’s badly named because I’m including 2-stars. Also also it’s going to be more focused on their recruiting stories since you probably know enough about their Michigan careers.

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Rules: There are two ways to make an all-under-recruited list: a) the best of all those who qualified, or b) performance relative to recruiting rankings. I think b) is more fun, but you end up leaving off too-obvious candidates. I’m going with a combination of both: best eligible player for how I construct my team, but if it’s close the lower-ranked recruit gets in.

Also it’s by college production, not NFL.

Cutoff Point: Had to be less than a 3.9-star based on my composite recruiting database—which goes back to 1990—who earned a scholarship. For reference that means Carlo Kemp is eligible and Jibreel Black is not. To avoid guys that one scouting service just ignored we’re leaving out anyone who made a top-250 list for two or more services or anyone’s top-100 (which means Mike Hart is disqualified because HE WASN’T A THREE-STAR except to the two services that left online databases.) Also not doing special teams because they’re always rated 3-stars.

Preemptive Shut Up, Stars Don’t Matter Guy: There were 278 players who fit the criteria in my database, compared to 93 who got any kind of fifth star, so if you’re comparing this team to the team of blue chips remember you have to sing three times as many players to get this level of quality. For reference here are the fates of Michigan recruits 1990-2018 by recruiting ranking:

Rating as Recruit Drafted UDFA No NFL MLB Still playing
2- or 3-star 9% 5% 66% 0% 19%
4-star 20% 9% 51% 0% 20%
5-star 35% 18% 25% 1% 21%

Conclusion: Recruiting rankings matter, but they’re just a guideline

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Quarterback: Tom Brady

Yes I did say this is only based on college production. I admit to being a “Put in Henson” guy, right up until a few games into 1999. Michigan that year had OL problems due to injury and Tom Brady was surviving while Henson was constantly getting driven from the pocket. The MSU game—a loss—sealed it as Brady nearly brought Michigan back from a massive deficit.

As a recruit he was on the borderline between three and four stars. His video is out there too if you want to see what the scouts did, which was a crisp passer with a great feel for the game and tiny chicken legs you’re afraid will snap the first time he’s sacked. USC had first pick of Cali QBs, could get five-star Quincy Woods, and over the strong objections of OC Mike Riley, took local boy John Fox as their second dude even though then-USC head coach was, like Brady, a Serra alum. UCLA took Cade McNown so Brady’s second option was out. Stanford was in the area but chose Chad Hutchinson and Tim Smith, whom Lemming rated just behind Brady.

By then however Brady was a senior and Michigan had had him on campus and made him their first target for 1995 QB. Moeller (Excalibur was a few months in the future) and QB coach Kit Cartright already had a stocked QB room between Scot Loeffler, Jay Riemersma, Brian Griese, and Scott Dreisbach, so they were staying out of the crazy battles over Dan Kendra and Bobby Sablehaus, the #1 and 2 overall players, in the class. Michigan’s other real target was Chad Plummer, who went to Cincy.

Honorable Mention: John Navarre, Brian Griese (who technically walked on but only because his dad offered to pay), Wilton Speight, Scott Dreisbach, Jake Rudock

[After THE JUMP: I post the 313 video again, twice]