Best thing you saw: Week 5
Hopefully Wifeday 2017 (or Spouseday or Husband-day so we're all-inclusive) was a success wherever you may be. Luckily, I still got to watch a bit of football. And while UCLA - Colorado looks like it'll be a good an entertaining game throughout, it's time to call it a night here. With that...
Non-Michigan:
Not gonna' lie, seeing the ESS-EEE-SEE look like hot trash is a little fun. Frankly, it looks like we're heading toward Bama-Clemson III, but there's still lots of season and maybe, just maybe, Auburn and/or Georgia can get lucky on the right day.
Regardless, somebody called it a couple weeks ago that the best thing they saw was the Iowa Wave. This week, the best thing I saw was the Spartans doing a live feed back to Iowa City and joining the Iowa team in its weekly wave. Easily the classiest move out of EL since...ever? It was cool to see them do that, and proper respect due for it.
Michigan:
Still 4-0! Woo! BEAT STAEE! And, oh yeah, the best thing I saw was the James Joseph Can Opener. Who knew? So talented in khakis.
What you got?
October 1st, 2017 at 2:34 AM ^
Tennessee getting absolutely demolished was pretty funny. The 9.5 point spread on that game was a joke.
I'm still not sold on Auburn, but Georgia actually looks pretty damn strong. Sadly, I still don't see them being strong enough to give Alabama a run. Still, they're probably going to walk right into the SEC championship game as champs of the East (sorry, Gators).
Overall, this was a pretty boring weekend of football. MSU and Iowa both looked laughable. LSU and Miss St. had no business being ranked. Rutgers is still a nightmare.
I've gotta say Harbaugh's Can Opener off the platform was by far the best football-related thing I saw this weekend.
October 1st, 2017 at 3:00 AM ^
Bad weekend of football. Air Force and Cincinnati getting fisted does not inspire confidence.
October 1st, 2017 at 9:29 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 3:27 AM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 1st, 2017 at 8:17 AM ^
Relax... The NFL just handed its beer to the NCAA.
October 1st, 2017 at 4:54 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 6:16 AM ^
Butch Jones is done. They are a very poorly coached team. Not sure why the National media continues to say he's a good coach.
Penn St is pretty good - pains me to say it but it is true. That will be a tougher game for us than Wisc. Penn St. has seemed to enjoy a really good streak of good fortune as the ball just seems to continue to bounce their way. That has to end eventually. McSorley and Barkley are a tremendous duo. If one goes down, Penn St is done.
Hornibrook is much improved over last year. Their true Fr RB Jonathan Taylor is pretty good too. Their Defense is good but not elite. I don't see anyone challenging them for the West title.
MD and Minn are both meh. Very boring game but Bortenschlager (MD's 12th string QB) was better than I thought. He looked better than Conor Rhoda. We will be big favorites in both of these games. I would guess -21 against Minn and -17 at MD.
Keep an eye on Miami - they have some really good athletes on both sides of the ball. Richt has that team going in the right direction.
MSU is better than I thought. They play tough and hard but lack athleticism and speed. For whatever reason, they cannot get LJ Scott going. Lewerke may take some shots next week if he has to scramble to generate some offense (look out for #10!) . I think Iowa was a half-step slow yesterday coming off that emotional loss the week before, but MSU deserves some credit for holding them to 232 yds. Iowa's QB is not very good yet.
October 1st, 2017 at 8:15 AM ^
Looks like a good HC job for Joe Moorhead.
October 1st, 2017 at 11:35 AM ^
Bring back the Cat Lover - Bo Pelini. Far better than having a shark humper.
October 1st, 2017 at 10:38 AM ^
But interim head coach Brady Hoke...
October 1st, 2017 at 10:18 AM ^
The rest of the team is quite average. If Indiana didn't have to play special teams that game would have been much different. When Indiana wasn't giving the ball to PSU for instant scores or easy scores they actually looked pretty good.
I went shopping with The Bride at halftime and when I managed to tune in again they were talking about Indiana's backup QB playing most (all?) of the 2nd half. Turnovers and Barkley are what won that game for PSU.
If anything, after watching I feel more confident about the PSU game. They are really going to struggle with Don Brown's cooking.
October 1st, 2017 at 12:02 PM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 10:39 AM ^
Wisconsin's defense reminds me of ours, with less creativity but tons of aggression. Jim Leonard has a philosophy to Don Brown as far as not letting offenses dictate what he runs.
October 1st, 2017 at 12:50 PM ^
If Barkley was to go down for w/e reason, Penn State’s season is over. Barkley is their offense. Yes they have other weapons, but nothing even half as dynamic as Barkley.
Everyone on Penn State’s team outside of Barkley doesn’t scare me. But Barkley terrifies me. He can win the game against us by himself if he has to. And he will be running with a vengeance in that game. Michigan is the only team he’s ever played that has been able to shut him down. It’s very likely we see him hoisting up the Heisman in December.
October 1st, 2017 at 7:00 AM ^
The Orgeron bubble has burst rather abruptly. Les Miles must be chuckling.
October 1st, 2017 at 9:54 AM ^
Only the most delusional fan could have possibly convinced themselves that Orgeron was a good hire. That guy sucks as a head coach; he's proven that...repeatedly.
October 1st, 2017 at 10:21 AM ^
He made 2 teams worse in the offseason. Besides LSU, he brought in Pitt's OC leaving Pitt as an afterthought again.
October 1st, 2017 at 11:05 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 12:17 PM ^
He has however proven to be one of the best interim coaches ever. At least he has that going for him. Maybe Tennessee should can Butch Jones today and hire Orgeron to finish out the season.
October 1st, 2017 at 7:09 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 7:38 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 8:11 AM ^
We went partial "Bye" here, at least for a few hours - took my son for a haircut during the noon slate, but even then, the Wisconsin-Northwestern game was on in the place, and then we came home and played board games as a family for a bit, but Wake Forest-FSU was in the background by then, and that might have been the most intriguing "this shouldn't happen quite this way" game of the day, weirdly enough.
October 1st, 2017 at 8:02 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 8:11 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 9:13 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 8:14 AM ^
Cajun Brady Hoke shitting himself and losing to Troy.
Both of these guys are going to have to answer a lot of questions about why they think they still deserve to be the head coach.
October 1st, 2017 at 9:55 AM ^
If you look at the career trajectories of Hoke and RichRod, Michigan really chewed them up and spit them out. We're a tough crowd.
October 1st, 2017 at 12:44 PM ^
Yes yes the media and a good chunk of the fanbase had it out for RichRod from the very beginning, but the dude can’t field a defense and his offenses have been figured out by any defense with a pulse. He got curb stomped in humiliating fashion every year by MSU and OSU. His product was shit and he deserved to be fired.
Hoke just couldn’t handle the pressure. Plain and simple. Denard kept that team afloat and when he left, Hoke’s teams took a nosedive off the ugly tree and hit every branch coming down.
October 1st, 2017 at 8:32 AM ^
Best thing I saw? Football wise, probably UTenn getting beat down at home, after honoring Peyton for some odd reason. Helluva way to respect your legends!!!
Think its good to see Floriduh battling like hell every game. They're not well coached, but the raw talent on that roster is coming through. I don't like UF, or its shark-banging coach, but I think they're the only SEC East team capable of giving UGA a run. And I can repect a team thats playing hard and battling through shit to win. Conversely, watching FSU struggle to beat WF was just sad...
Wish I would have seen that Iowa Wave from Sparty. That sounds like a total class move. Wonder what outside image consultant came up with that idea?
Michigan wise, Harbaugh's can opener!! And Dick Kimball, too!! Guy's 81 years old and still man enough to ride a bike off the 10-meter platform! Who knew divers were so manly? LOL!!! (Uh-ohh, safe space alert...)
Now just focus on beating the shit out of spartina and pushing thier face in the mud, just for fun.
October 1st, 2017 at 8:38 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 8:57 AM ^
of Beat Sparty week, and Troy over LSU. Guess that is why they play the games.
That said, while Bama was abusing Ole Miss, noted (OT alert) on Bama's schedule that Mercer is their second to last game. Not to thread jack, but that is the most inexplicable thing I saw yesterday.
October 1st, 2017 at 9:00 AM ^
Yep they schedule a cupcake second to last week every year. And yes it is bullshit.
October 1st, 2017 at 9:45 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 9:49 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 10:06 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 9:54 AM ^
Auburn does the same thing.
October 1st, 2017 at 10:07 AM ^
Most of the SEC follows this pattern. This helps in terms of rankings because it is always better to lose early than late as far as pollsters go. The SEC has set it up so that they play a lot of conference games early, thus their teams can load up on easier games at the end of the schedule so that they can appear "hot" at the end of the season.
I can remember a time when Tennessee (back when they were still good) had a streak of not losing a game in November for a crazy long time. That was because they always played one non-con cupcake as well as Vandy and Kentucky in November. Pretty easy to win lots of games when you only have one competent opponent to face in an entire month.
If the Big 10 was smart, they would adopt this scheduling pattern as well. Its a good way to game the system.
October 1st, 2017 at 9:09 AM ^
Definitely looking forward to our next 3 games. Most worried about Indiana. We'll dominate Sparty, and I think we'll embarrass PSU in their home stadium because their best win is...Indiana? I just don't want our guys overlooking Indiana as they can put up some points, but...Don Brown. I hope the PSU hype train keeps rolling so that they can be a major quality win for UM. Our D is nastier than it was last year so we just need the O to score 17-24 pts. Even with the problems on Offense, Harbaugh is so zeroed in to each game that he comes up with creative ways of moving the ball with all the limitations on that side of the ball. I trust our coach and his coordinators (including Drevno!)
October 1st, 2017 at 9:41 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 10:10 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 12:20 PM ^
I have no concern about Indiana. Simmie Cobbs is good and Tegray Scales is good. Other than that, they more resemble the pre-chaos Indiana teams.
October 1st, 2017 at 9:24 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 9:46 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 9:50 AM ^
Until we obliterate state.
GO BLUE!!
October 1st, 2017 at 9:52 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 10:13 AM ^
Agreed. There are a few teams I always enjoy seeing lose and USC is a member of that select group.
October 1st, 2017 at 9:54 AM ^
October 1st, 2017 at 10:18 AM ^
Not really that odd.
Sparty is 3-1 but they still looks pretty "meh" and are unranked. TCU and WVU are both ranked, so that game has more "cache" than the MSU-UM rivalry game which isn't a big deal to anyone outside of Michigan.
October 1st, 2017 at 12:28 PM ^