This Is Minnesota Comment Count

Brian

10/31/2015 – Michigan 29, Minnesota 26 – 6-2, 3-1 Big Ten

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[Patrick Barron]

ONE. We've got a radio show now so I've been listening to sports talk radio even when Sam and Ira aren't on. I do it to compare and maybe get better and maybe draw confidence from the fact that a lot of sports talk radio is outrageously bad. The parts that aren't are often outrageously robotic. WTKA has a bunch of NFL stuff now that they switched to CBS, and it's on when I go to and from our podcast on Sunday; sometimes I catch it on a Thursday.

Tom Brady was on. Jim Gray actually asked him a lot of pointed questions about the upcoming game against the Colts and whether he had a desire to rain unholy fire upon those bastards. Brady responded with the passion of an accountant. I would chalk this up to Brady's flat affect, but I've seen player after player descend into this anodyne non-existence. This is a a league that spent most of the offseason discussing the Ideal Gas Law, after all—even if they didn't know they were doing so. It's just a thing. Colleges teach it but it doesn't take all the way. The NFL perfects it, along with the slant.

TWO. Minnesota has not been good for literally 50 years. Their blips to the positive aren't even Illinois blips. Every decade Illinois will show up in a BCS-level game; the Minnesota coach with the best winning percentage since 1944 is one Glen Mason, who the Gophers fired so they could hire Tim Brewster.

THREE. In 2005 I was pretty mad after a weird game where the Michigan Stadium scoreboards fritzed out and Jim Herrmann called a blitz on which Prescott Burgess, a 230-pound linebacker, was tasked with two-gapping a 270-pound monster TE. When I get mad I tend to be mad about everything, but when Lawrence Maroney rushed out to midfield and planted the biggest damn Minnesota flag in existence I was just like "yeah, go ahead, you earned that."

Sixty-plus Gopher players stormed across that field to reclaim the Jug without considering decorum, sanity, or sportsmanship. Michigan had just lost a game mostly because they called a blitz so telegraphed that a petrified backup QB could check them into a 50-yard run and I had enough non-hate in my heart to genuinely enjoy the fervor with which the Gophers reclaimed Fielding Yost's 30-cent chunk of crockery.

FOUR. Last year the Little Brown Jug went on a tour of the state of Minnesota.

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This was a good idea.

FIVE. Jerry Kill retired last week because he could no longer control the seizures his cancer had bestowed upon him. Jerry Kill talks like a NASCAR driver. He comes by his coachspeak honestly, and when Tracy Claeys was again thrust into a role he probably never thought he'd be in—Kill tends to buy and hold assistants until the end of time—he sounded 100% like Jerry Kill.

It was awkward. It was stilted. It was genuine as hell. He told his kids not to play with emotion because emotion evaporates but to play with passion because passion sticks and I was just like YOU MAY BE SAYING THIS LIKE TOM BRADY SAYS THINGS BUT I KNOW THAT FEEL.

SIX. Junior Hemingway, just shouting and weeping after the Sugar Bowl.

SEVEN. Jerry Kill.

EIGHT. Michigan won a football game that often doubled as an exercise in hilarious improbability. Michigan gave up a 52-yard touchdown after Jeremy Clark executed the platonic ideal of coverage against a corner route. With 19 seconds left in a football game, Minnesota spent 17 seconds on a series of elaborate motions on first and goal from the half-yard line.

Football is weird and terrible and sometimes it gets you to within a half-yard of a cathartic, wonderful victory and then says "nah." Sometimes when you're 2-and-a-billion after always being good your walk-on QB dials up a bunch of incredible throws and you go grab the Little Brown Jug with a newfound respect for its importance. Football, above all, is cruel.

NINE. If you are a Minnesota fan on a bitter Monday indeed, here is the equivalent of Lawrence Maroney planting a flag. It is Jon Falk, the recently retired and legendary Michigan equipment manager, welcoming his favorite 30-cent crockery back home.

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It hurts, but that means something. That is a thing that is real. It is a reflection of Jerry Kill killing himself to be in this game and dying because he has to leave it.

TEN. I've always hated THIS IS MICHIGAN a bit because it reminds me of going to Penn State in 2006 and having their chintzy-ass scoreboards proclaim WE'RE PENN STATE… AND THEY'RE NOT. It's not necessarily as bad, but sometimes it tends to AND THEY'RE NOT. I'm not a huge fan of Michigan's excellently-executed James Earl Jones intro video this year because it claims a bunch of things that should be gestured at instead.

Michigan's great. I love Michigan. I love it all, though. I've been to Georgia and Auburn and Penn State and Ohio State and Minnesota and the feeling of college football is something else. Minnesota hasn't done anything Colin Cowherd would note for 50 years. You could maybe compare them to the Lions, who no one should ever be a fan of.

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Except no. Tell me that doesn't matter. Tell me This Is Minnesota doesn't mean anything. We took the Jug and we mostly earned it and that matters to me. It matters to Jabrill Peppers and Jon Falk and Jim Harbaugh and Greg Dooley. It matters because it's college fucking football, and Minnesota means something.

To Michigan, it means the Jug. They got it back on Saturday by the skin of their teeth, and for a program that's had a bit of a rough go of late they'll take it any way they can get it.

HIGHLIGHTS

Column inspired by Dr. Sap digging up a post-game Bo speech after the 1987 Jug game:

A half hour version that must be most of the game from WD:

Parking God has a more reasonable length reel:

AWARDS

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[Barron]

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Known Friends And Trusted Agents Of The Week

you're the man now, dog

#1 Jabrill Peppers had a 40 yard KO return, a 40 yard punt return, two PBUs, a near pick-six, a rushing touchdown, a reverse set up by everyone fretting about Peppers, a pass interference call drawn—Peppers played nearly 100 snaps and was instrumental in all three phases of the game.

#2 Maurice Hurst didn't actually pop up in the box score much but he was frequently in Leidner's grill; on the final stand he blew up the pass protection on the first play and was one of a few different Wolverines whipping their dudes up front. Actually in the box score: he had a critical TFL that forced Minnesota to kick a short field goal.

#3 Drake Johnson didn't get many carries but was by far the most effective runner Michigan had; other guys had lanes but didn't take advantage of them. Hoping to see more of him going forward.

Honorable mention: Chesson and Darboh both had nice days. Glasgow again contributed to mostly good run defense.

KFaTAotW Standings.

9: Jourdan Lewis (#1 UNLV, #1 Northwestern, #1 MSU), Jabrill Peppers(#2 BYU, #2 Northwestern, #2 MSU, #1 Minnesota)
5: Chris Wormley(#2 Utah, #1 Oregon State)
4: Maurice Hurst (#2 Maryland, #2 Minnesota)
3: Jake Butt (#1 Utah), De'Veon Smith(#2 Oregon State, #3 BYU), Ryan Glasgow (#1 BYU), Desmond Morgan (#1 Maryland),
2: Ty Isaac(#2 UNLV), Willie Henry(#3 Utah, #3 MSU).
1: AJ Williams (#3 Oregon State), Channing Stribling(#3 UNLV), Blake O'Neill(#3 Maryland), Jake Rudock(#3 Northwestern), Drake Johnson(#3 Minnesota)

Who's Got It Better Than Us Of The Week

This week's best thing ever.

Form a f-ing wall.

Honorable mention: Speight throws the go-ahead touchdown and then converts for two; Peppers has the ball in his hands.

WGIBTUs Past.

Utah: Crazy #buttdown.
Oregon State: #tacopunts.
UNLV: Ty Isaac's 76 yard touchdown.
BYU: De'Veon Smith's illicit teleporter run.
Maryland: Jehu Chesson jet sweeps past you.
Northwestern: Chesson opening KO TD.
MSU: the bit where they won until they didn't.
Minnesota: form a f-ing wall.

imageMARCUS HALL EPIC DOUBLE BIRD OF THE WEEK.

This week's worst thing ever.

Channing Stribling gets beat over the top for what seems like the game-winning touchdown, until it was not.

Honorable mention: Mitch Leidner hurling the ball downfield on throws that are very bad ideas only for those to be complete anyway. Rudock underthrows another deep ball by 20 yards.

PREVIOUS EDBs

Utah: circle route pick six.
Oregon State: Rudock fumbles after blitz bust.
UNLV: Rudock matches 2014 INT total in game 3.
BYU: BYU manages to get to triple digit yards in the last minutes of the game.
Maryland: Slog extended by deflected interception at Houma.
Northwestern: KLINSMANN OUT
MSU: Obvious.
Minnesota: The bit where the lost it until they didn't.

[After THE JUMP: fluky fluky fluky.]

OFFENSE

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[Barron]

Weekly Rudock ambivalence shading towards depression. I mean, at this point I'm pretty much like whatever. Rudock started off with a shovel pass interception that was cause for twitter to start rabbling, and by the time I tweeted out a rhetorical question about a third and short that didn't go so well…

…I got one sarcastic answer to that rhetorical question for every Michigan fan on twitter.

22470321370_3b2e9ac04b_zIn between, he was fairly effective. The shot at right is the result of Rudock lofting a soft, arcing ball to Butt on an early drive, the kind of throw we haven't seen much of since Butt's touchdown against Utah. He hit a number of medium-length passes and seemed to have a slightly better grasp of where he should go with the ball.

A number of those passes were a little bit off, necessitating good catches from the wide receivers. Despite the color guy's insistence otherwise, Chesson's first touchdown was late. Minnesota's safety didn't trust his read and couldn't get over; if he had he probably gets a hand in, if not worse.

Later he got very frustrating. The third and two that spurred the above tweet was a WTF event on which Chesson ran into the flat and was definitely open for two yards on what was almost certainly the primary read; Rudock didn't throw. A later drive that ended on a turnover on downs saw Rudock wing a swing pass over the head of Drake Johnson on third down; Johnson easily had a first down if the throw was accurate. The play on which Peppers drew a pass interference flag saw him in one on one coverage against a linebacker. That is a spectacular RPS win on which any throw over the top is likely to see Peppers badly outdistance said LB; the throw was instead 20 yards short, causing me to again wonder whether Rudock has some sort of muscle injury that's causing his deep accuracy to drop off a cliff for the same reason ten-year-olds aren't real good at three-pointers.

End result: 6.7 YPA, 1 TD, 1 INT, and a win. Rudock's at the bottom end of reasonable projections but he's enough to win with if other facets are performing well.

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a palpable throw [Barron]

Speight things. Speight gave a pretty good indicator as to why Rudock maintains his death grip on the starting job despite indifferent-at-best performances. His first half-dozen dropbacks resulted in open receivers that did not get thrown at. At one point Harbaugh resorted to the kind of frenetic pad-pounding that once featured on a Monday Night Football commercial that got me SUPER FIRED UP about Harbaugh:

That seemed to break Speight out of the funk, at least. He started throwing passes, which is a nice thing, and Michigan managed to drive a short field for the winning touchdown thanks first to a double post route he read and threw on the money and then a mansome two-point conversion on which he looked left for most of the play; started scrambling up in the pocket, and then hit a fourth read very late for the winning points*. 2012 Nebraska comparisons: aborted.

In the aftermath there is the inevitable groundswell of support for the backup QB. I'm not surprised but I'm still a little surprised—before that short touchdown drive Speight looked like he wasn't going to move Michigan an inch. The touchdown itself was a lightning bolt out of nowhere.

In the aftermath everyone confirmed that Speight was indeed the #2 QB, clear of Morris. I think that's been the case for much longer than Harbaugh was willing to cop to.

*[Assuming that Minnesota would have kicked a field goal from the half-yard line. Given the events of the fourth quarter this is not 100%, admittedly.]

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[Barron]

Receiver things. They had some opportunities here and they both got open against a very good secondary and made a bunch of catches that were at least moderately difficult. Chesson and Darboh are a terrific #2 and #3 without a Braylon; hopefully next year they're an increment better. If you watch a bunch of college football you've no doubt found yourself exclaiming "catch the ball!" at a receiver on a team that you don't even care about—while Chesson did have a big drop against MSU those are quite rare. I can't imagine what this passing offense would look like if Michigan's receivers were as stone-handed as, say, Northwestern.

All Johnson everything. The difference between all non Drake Johnson backs and Drake Johnson was stark in this game. I have a feeling I'm going to look at a bunch of non-Johnson carries and slap my forehead because there were yards left on the field; Johnson had some pretty big gaps and hit them.

I know Johnson was dinged up and tends to have his ACL implode every nine months but at this point you have to move him to co-starter territory with Smith and see what you can get out of him. This is the fifth or sixth game in which Drake Johnson is picking up yards at the same time other tailbacks are grunting into defenders. At some point that's not a coincidence.

No Poggi. Assume he's hurt, because he didn't play. More fullbacks and Khalid Hill resulted.

No Newsome redshirt. Possibly as a reaction to the lack of Poggi, Michigan pulled the redshirt off freshman LT Grant Newsome. Newsome looked pretty good on a couple of goal-line plays—he certainly looks the part, looming over people in the 77 jersey—and got a dozen or so snaps as a sixth OL. Taeks:

  • Bleah. I mean, he did contribute in a win. Still, I hope we don't regret that lack of a redshirt as much as some that got burned under Hoke. At least in this case Michigan is bringing in a (probably) five-man OL class comprised entirely of high four star kids. Unless that class is as much of a dud as the LTT/Bosch class they'll probably be fine.
  • That's a depth chart clarifier right there. Wouldn't expect Bars to get a fifth year if he's far enough behind Newsome already to justify the burned redshirt. Also, Juwann Bushell-Beatty has dropped behind a true freshman. Dawson and Kugler are also somewhat implicated since your sixth OL could be an interior guy if you so desired.
  • On the other hand. Newsome looked good. If they're expecting he moves into the starting lineup next year then the move makes a lot of sense. That could happen one of two ways: Michigan moves Mason Cole to center, where he practiced a bunch in spring, or Newsome displaces Magnuson (and possibly Magnuson displaces someone else).

Peppers, Peppers, Peppers. He's going to have that role on offense the rest of the year, and I think it'll expand even a bit more. In this game he trucked a guy like he was De'Veon Smith on a touchdown and coulda shoulda had a long touchdown but for the Rudock underthrow. Michigan tried to set him up with a pass play that ended in a slight loss when he ran OOB for a sack; they hit a big reverse from Chesson when Minnesota overplayed a pitch sweep to him.

This was the game when Peppers seemed to come of age. Michigan is relying on him for a ton right now, and if Harbaugh's first version of Owen Marecic at Michigan is a 210-pound CB/LB/WR/RB I'm down with it.

Ty Isaac seeya? Could be injured, but we didn't hear anything about such a thing even after the game, and now:

DEFENSE

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[Patrick Barron]

Fluke fluke fluke. In the preview I wondered how Minnesota was going to move the ball, and in the first half the answer was "hurling it downfield at Michigan defensive backs." Without that Minnesota goes into halftime down 14-3 or worse and the second half is less nerve-wracking.

The three events:

  • Two Minnesota dudes run into the same area. Michigan had three guys themselves, and somehow this was the result:

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  • Mitch Leidner invents the back-shoulder corner route. Jeremy Clark did everything perfectly. He was underneath the receiver, he got his head around, he dominated that route. There is no way Mitch freakin' Leidner saw that and thought to himself "I should patent what I'm about to do." Against mediocre coverage that's an interception; Clark was unfortunate to have perfect coverage. This is 100% fluke.

  • Dymonte Thomas's hands not so much part 1. A deep middle of the field looper is jumped by Thomas, who gets both hands on it and somehow contrives to bat the ball directly to the tight end. Thomas's error there is something we might want to take into account going forward but the fact that it was complete after the dropped interception was 100% fluke.

Michigan had a couple of holes exposed in this game but they also got supremely unlucky to not pick Leidner off two or three times. Football's weird—oh look it's Ohio State in a competitive game with Indiana's backup QB and RB—and I think most of what happened on defense can be chalked up to that. There are a lot of hypothetical M-Minnesota games where Michigan gives up a net of 7 points or so.

I expect about 10% of sportswriters to notice that, and to be annoyed at some articles this week. But that's my problem, not yours. On to some holes.

James Ross at buck happened why exactly? That very odd personnel switch saw Michigan deploy at 230-pound linebacker instead of a 255-pound defensive end for most of the game against the manballiest team that Michigan has played this year. It would be one thing if RJS was suspended or injured, but he played and seemed pretty much fine. Your guess is as good as mine, especially because my initial impression of Ross's play at an unfamiliar position he's not well-suited for physically was not positive.

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[Barron]

Hill meh. Leidner busted a 24 yard touchdown on a third down zone read keep on which Delano Hill was certainly responsible for that contain. That's the second consecutive week he's chased an opponent to the endzone, or close to it. This one is more worrisome than the MSU event since you could reasonably chalk that up to an intricate playcall that was not yet in Hill's experience. This was a basic zone read on which Hill was the eighth guy in the box.

With Thomas struggling to use his limbs effectively—he also got beat badly on a post-corner on Minnesota's first drive—the safety spot is looking a bit wonky outside of Jarrod Lewis.

What is a catch? Nobody knows. Minnesota converted a fourth and five on their final drive on a pass where the wide receiver had a solid grip on the ball but couldn't make the proverbial Football Move with it before he ended up going to the ground. As he did that the ball hit the turf. All of the ball. It was not even sort of close. This was ruled a catch.

I've been saying this for years now, but everyone's life will be much easier if a catch is widely understood to be "he kept it off the ground." That's your job as the WR; Junior Hemingway didn't catch that pass in the 2011 Iowa game and Danny Coale didn't catch that pass in the Sugar Bowl and Minnesota didn't catch that pass on Saturday. Except he did because something something mumble grumble process.

Not a fluke: the wheel route. Desmond Morgan got hit on a wheel route because he bit on play action and didn't have the speed to catch up. I get punchy when things like that happen against teams that are struggling to run the ball, and aside from a couple of Rodney Smith jaunts that was very much the case. Morgan is not a superior athlete; that's the first time this year I thought that had much impact on a game.

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Also not a fluke: the almost-end. Man, Stribling just cannot have the above happen to him given the situation in the game. They're already in reasonable field goal range, there are 20 seconds left, getting hit on a slant-and-go is just brutal. With this and Clark's issue on the 30-yard MSU touchdown two weeks ago the non-Lewis corners are showing some holes.

They're still much better than I think we thought they'd be preseason, but they're not as lights out as they seemed when people were trying to test them on fade routes all day. They can be had by double moves.

Motion to remove Lewis. Minnesota was singling Maye up on the backside and then motioning him across the formation; when this happens Michigan tends to respond by dropping that corner to safety and moving the safety up. That was how Minnesota got a couple of conversions on S/WR mismatches. Michigan went away from the pure Maye/Lewis matchup after.

SPECIAL TEAMS

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[Barron]

Another huge win. Michigan had 6 punts averaging 44 yards; Minnesota, which returned the All Big Ten punter from a year ago, had 5 punts for 38 yards apiece; with Peppers returning a punt 41 yards and a kick to the 43 Michigan had another week with 120 or so hidden yards to the good.

Kickoffs should go back to the old rules. The NCAA's changes to kickoffs are a gesture towards player safety that don't do much of anything to actually help. Despite the miserable inconsistency with with targeting is currently called, it is a necessary change to the rules that needs refinement. The kickoff changes are a public relations exercise.

Kicking off from the 35 instead of the 30 just makes more kickoffs into pointless exercises; if kickoffs are really that dangerous then they should be eliminated entirely. The rule change just moved the touchback rate from 15% to 35% across college football. Any improvement to player safety is minimal because it is a case of optimizing before profiling. Since that is the case we might as well make kickoffs consistently interesting.

Yes, I am complaining about this mostly because I want to see Peppers with the ball in his hands more.

There was one hairy moment. Peppers tried to field a punt inside his own five with an over-the-shoulder basket catch. Michigan was fortunate that he missed it and it bounced into the endzone. Peppers did deflect it, causing the announcers to impose unnecessary heart attacks on various Michigan fans when they exclaimed that this could be A SAFETY. Their ref consultant was on top of things at least—when the ball enters the endzone thanks to its own momentum it's still a touchback as long as you field it.

Dymonte Thomas's hands not so much part II. Blake O'Neill nailed another pooch punt inside the five that Michigan should have been able to down, but the ball bounced just over Thomas's outstretched hands again. Suboptimal. That's why Michigan is trying to field those on the fly.

Kick catch interference. A frustrating call but a correct one. Michigan fans might remember a similar play in the 2005 Iowa game in which Breaston muffed a kick due in part to a guy running through Breaston's path to the ball without actually touching him; when it's in doubt they will throw the flag.

It does suck that Thomas was focused on one guy who called a fair catch only for the other guy to be the guy who actually caught the ball, but once you see a fair catch signal you should shut it down and not get anywhere near anybody.

One thing: kick catch interference should not be a 15 yard penalty. It basically exists to prevent teams from forcing opponents to muff kicks; whenever it comes into play the ensuing return is probably going to be 0 yards. Make it a 5 yarder and throw unnecessary roughness flags if someone gets blown up.

MISCELLANEOUS

Game theory of the week. Uh, don't do that.

Slightly more detail. With 19 seconds and a timeout you can easily get four plays in. The first one is probably going to have to be a quick pass, likely a fade, and then you get one free run in there.

Michigan did win on two consecutive downs from the half-yard line, so that's considerably more earned than… other things that have happened.

What's with the gray? Gray is the sign that whoever is designing your uniforms is out of ideas.

Targeting is in the eye of the decrepit beholder. A second consecutive year where Minnesota knocks a Michigan quarterback out of the game with a clear targeting call that goes unnoticed. (Last year the ref did throw a roughing the passer flag, but Theiren Cockran wasn't ejected.)

And that wasn't the only targeting hit the refs ignored.

That was a late hit flag but not ejection, like last year against Morris.

Can't blame replay officials for that. The on-field guys have to make a call first. Why Michigan gets the short end of every targeting call is a mystery.

Guy running on the field. Well timed, Michigan pitch invader. That is all.

HERE

Best And Worst:

Worst:  Duck Tales

You look at the stats on the paper and Jake Rudock had (what is sadly for him this year) an average performance; 13/21, 140 yards, 6.7 ypa with a TD and a fluky-ish INT.  Not setting the world on fire, but that type of line has proven to be good enough for a lot of wins this year (even when one of those wins wound up not happening).  But at the same time, it’s gotten to the point that there must be an injury that is severely impeding his throwing motion, as his mechanics seem terribly off.  While I agree with the announcers that Rudock has shown a good deal of poise and toughness in games (including in this game after getting lit up a couple of times), he’s not passing the ball so much as throwing it.  Anything beyond 10-15 yards downfield and it looks like he has to load up and use his whole body to the ball there quickly.  I know people will argue otherwise, but he looked much better last year at Iowa, and I’m doubting that a 5th-year senior under Jim Harbaugh’s tutelage would regress this much without a major physical component.  I doubt we’ll hear anything until the end of the year, but with 5 games left in the Rudock era at UM he barely looks like the player everyone expected when he showed up.

Inside the Box Score is highly complicated:

  Earlier this season, I proposed the Stribling's cat paws sequel to Schrodinger's cat illustration. I'm not sure everyone got the idea, so let me present it again. First of all, Schrodinger's cat is imagined as being in a box with a radioactive source and poison that will be released when the source emits radiation. According to quantum mechanics, the cat is considered to be simultaneously both dead and alive until the box is opened and the cat is observed.

      Likewise Channing Stribling's hands are either hands with fingers and opposable thumbs good for gripping a football, or they are cat paws that can only bat at a ball much like a cat plays with a ball of yarn. We can only determine which appendage is connected to his arms at any particuluar moment by throwing a football at him. It appears that this very odd law of quantum mechanics has spread to others in the UofM secondary, in particular, Dymonte Thomas. Seth did a great job recapping multiple points in this game where the cats paws returned. Those who aren't versed in the finer points of quantum mechanics, such as dear leader Brian, refer to this as, "the Gypsy," but it's really just an extension of Newtonian mechanics at the secondary level.

ELSEWHERE

HSR:

The longer you watch college football, the more that you come to realize that even familiar tropes and scenarios can have surprise endings.  On Minnesota's final drive, Michigan couldn't get off the field on third and long in the shadow of the Gopher end zone, well, you start wondering what form the destroyer is to take, because God doesn't forgive poor tackling or coverage too readily.  When the "go for broke" pass beats your coverage, you're shocked when the replay review actually correctly showed the receiver down at the half yard line and the officials got it right.

MVictors:

Bravo.  Tip of the hat to the Gopher fan who showed up as Summer Camp Coach Harbaugh.   Brilliant.

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Straight A’s across the board:  1. The concept  2. The outfit  3. The rigorous diet plan that yielded that physique.  4. Layers of sunscreen to maintain the pasty white belly. 5. The gameday execution, including the front row seating.  Bravo!

MVictors is also deeply concerned about helmet sticker overflow. Sap's Decals:

OFFENSIVE CHAMPION – Gotta give it to QB Wilton Speight.  His first three completions in his career?  WoW!  He was obviously tight at first but it sounded like the old ball coach settled him down and stuck with him.

Wilton

Sure enough, he delivered the goods in a BIG way – especially on that 2-point conversion pass.  He has come a long way since the verbal tongue-lashing he received from Coach Harbaugh that we saw on the HBO Real Sports feature a few months ago.

Touch The Banner.

Dirk Jeeblers took some time off from filming his new movie EL CORAZON DEL DIABLO to take in the Michigan football game!

Hannah Davis is a professional attractive person.

Quinn and Baumgardner.

Stewart Mandel reports that there's talk of a centralized review system after the replay official got about eight different things wrong at the end of Miami-Duke. That would be welcome; might help targeting be called somewhat consistently. What's going down at Georgia sounds pretty familiar. Late Carr malaise has set in.

Comments

SoDak Blues

November 2nd, 2015 at 12:42 PM ^

"Football, above all, is cruel."

After these last three weeks, I am ready for the cruelness to end. A win is still a win, and lets get back to beating the shit out of people this Saturday.

Btw, props to Jeter - well done.

matty blue

November 2nd, 2015 at 12:46 PM ^

i said it three weeks ago, and i stand by it - targeting is the block / charge of football.  nobody knows how to call it, so it essentially becomes a live-action coin flip.  heads you're good, tails you miss next week's first half.

ESNY

November 2nd, 2015 at 2:37 PM ^

If they really want to do it right, why can't the replay official review all potential targeting plays (not that they would get it right anyway)?  Why rely on an official making a call in the first place, especially since it doesn't appear they are over-inclusive even though the replay official can overturn the targeting, as well as the penalty.

ijohnb

November 2nd, 2015 at 12:50 PM ^

a weird game.  It was not 2011-12 Sugar Bowl weird but it was weird in deed.

You wonder if the lack of targeting was because the officials got a talkin to about it, like "ya know, you don't have to call it every time" and we got the short end of the stick again because they are now correcting the overcorrection. 

 

In reply to by ijohnb

Michigan4Life

November 2nd, 2015 at 4:37 PM ^

on the same day in 3 different games. They didn't overcorrect.

I do think the first hit on Rudock is targeting, but the 2nd one which he got hurt isn't targeting. It's moot point because it already happened and it's over.

wwjhd

November 2nd, 2015 at 12:50 PM ^

I wish Hoke had done a better job recruitng a QB. I know Speight did a great job in this game, but I still don't have much confidence in our passing game. It's odd how different our situation is compared to sparty. Dantonio has pretty much had an NFL caliber QB (Hoyer, Cousins and now Cook) since he arrived in EL. 

Gulogulo37

November 2nd, 2015 at 6:50 PM ^

I was shocked when that happened. I believe it was after the Insight Bowl against Texas Tech when TT had a huge comeback. Talk about an overreaction to one embarassing game. Minnesota was like a poor man's Nebraska under Pelini. They consistently had a good power running game with NFL running backs and meh everywhere else, but they got to bowl games and beat the crappy teams they faced.

707oxford

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:01 PM ^

Two things on the final play:

1) I'm not sure how M didn't get flagged for being lined up in the neutral zone.  Look at Ace's tweet above before you play it.  We have at least one helmet over the ball and a hand even with it.

2) M's wall only had 9 players pushing compared to Minnesota's 11, and still stopped them cold.  Damn impressive.

Alton

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:18 PM ^

In fact, looking at that still and the fact that the ball was supposed to be on the 18-inch line at the time, I'm pretty surprised that Minnesota's center didn't get a 5-yard penalty for "illegal snap."  He advanced the football a full ball length prior to the snap.

FreddieMercuryHayes

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:24 PM ^

Harbaugh addressed this specifically in his pressed today. Actually talked with officials. Center is allowed to move the ball forward without any penalty to accommodate snapping. However the DL is not expected to give any of that up. The neutral zone and both lines' alignment is determined by the linesman based on where the dead ball was spotted. So neither team committed a penalty there.




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dragonchild

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:26 PM ^

Players cheat all the time in ways like this.  I don't expect refs to call it.  The football's first motion is backwards and the O-line has to line up first so there's no strategic purpose for shifting the ball.  It's just to try to get a cheap offsides call so as long as the refs don't fall for it, the center can be a douche all he wants.

Alton

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:32 PM ^

Sure, these snap violations are meaningless at the 50 yard line, the 25 yard line and even the 3 yard line.  He moved the ball forward 12 inches or so from the 18 inch line to the 6 inch line. 

That's fine with me--no problem at all--if it's at the 3.  But when you eat up 2/3 of the distance you need to gain just by pushing it forward pre-snap, that can certainly be called.  One of those "nobody calls it" fouls, though, and it didn't affect the game outcome, so I agree that no more need be said about it, except to the people crying for an offside call against Michigan.

dragonchild

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:37 PM ^

The center didn't eat up anything.  The O-line isn't allowed to re-set the line (that's a false start) and the first motion to start play is a snap.  Inching the ball forward like that has zero influence on where the big uglies smash into each other.

If the center focused more on what he was supposed to do post-snap, maybe they would've won the game.

Alton

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:46 PM ^

Fair point; I will have to go back and look at the photo; for some reason I thought the rest of the o-line had taken advantage of the extra inches and lined up in what should have been the neutral zone. 

I think we would have to see the whole play, starting with the initial spot by the official after the incompletion.

Space Coyote

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:53 PM ^

Centers typically move the ball a bit forward, more so in run situations like above, which is fine (by the rules), as stated above.

The reason they do this is because it allows them to put more weight forward and fire off lower on the snap. The center is trying to win the pad level battle. Michigan still won that battle.

dragonchild

November 2nd, 2015 at 2:16 PM ^

I'll admit I've never played center, but contrary to your point, I've noticed that my elbows can bend.

Anyway, this play caught attention because the center supposedly didn't just inch the ball forward but moved it all the way to the goal line.  I don't think it's a big deal; the refs didn't call anything and whatever his idea was -- whether to cheat the LoS or to get a better launch -- it didn't work.

Space Coyote

November 2nd, 2015 at 2:36 PM ^

Sure, if you want to fall on your face, bending your elbow is great coming out of a 3 point stance. But I guess I can't remember the last time I saw a lineman, either on offense or defense, keep his arm tighter to his body and simply bend his elbow, because that doesn't really help you fire off the ball.

Take a second in your office and get into a 3 point stance. Stagger your feet so that the toes of your back foot are at the in-seam of your front foot. Have your feet a little over shoulder width apart. Now lean forward with your hand directly below your eyes and bend your elbow, and try firing off. Sure, you'll be off balance and and when you start to move you'll pop straight up, but that's just physics and proves the point that guys tend to lean further forward when they want to fire off the ball low and hard. For contrast, next keep your elbow straight and put your hand well in front of you, and you'll notice you can fire off much better.

 

dragonchild

November 2nd, 2015 at 7:49 PM ^

Wasn't going to do it in the office so it had to wait until I got home.

To be honest it's not like bending my arm was bad, and I was able to maintain stability, but I did have to support my forward weight with my tricep.  I felt I could launch forward either way, but my wife makes me do yoga* so I'm kind of used to balancing on one hand.  What it was, was unnecessary fatigue.  When I locked the arm I could just use it like a kickstand.

So, I get it.  It's not like bending the elbow can't be done, but if straightening the arm is legal and gets the same results for far less effort, there isn't a reason in the world for anyone to do it any other way.

*It's a PitA but I figure it's a better sign than if she asked about life insurance

stephenrjking

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:29 PM ^

I have to guess that this is one of those "unwritten rules" that officials allow all the time. It's only an issue now because some bloggers brought up the goal line still photo, but centers pick up the ball and shift it around on every play. I would guess that officials overlook this automatically, and also ignore incidental defensive alignment problems that result when the D lines up according to the actual line of scrimmage.

Edit: fmh with even better information than me.

Pepto Bismol

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:24 PM ^

After review of the almost TD, the ref said the ball will be spotted at the "half yard line".  The next play was incomplete.  So in the still shot 707oxford is referencing, that ball should be 18 inches from the goal line, which it most certainly is not.  It should probably be a full football back from the goalline, which would make every Michigan player safely onside.

 

Edit -  What Alton said.

Ivan Karamazov

November 2nd, 2015 at 2:36 PM ^

It wouldn't jive with the section that the picture introduces if it was tamed down. If poking fun at Marcus Hall falls out of favor it would necessarily be replaced by something equally rage inducing/offensive because that's what the section is for. Also Marcus Hall did something bad and he should feel bad so recalling the incident weekly is fine in my book.

stephenrjking

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:04 PM ^

Isaac was definitely participating in warmups. No idea if this is typical, but he was out before the rest of the RBs. Maybe testing a nagging injury?

Props for a good description of Minnesota as a place that is exciting to watch college football because college football is an incredible experience unlike anything else.

It's not Michigan, and it's not, say, LSU or Texas A&M, but it is college football. At night, with a marching band and fans and stuff.

First major football game I've attended since Michigan's visit in '12. It's not as good as Michigan Stadium. That's a poor comparison, though. It's comparing $1 billion cashto $1.1 billion cash. The difference is significant, but to a guy who's just living paycheck to paycheck either would be life changing.

Minnesota isn't a top college football destination. It's way, way better than almost anything else out there, though, because college football is awesome.

M-Dog

November 2nd, 2015 at 4:55 PM ^

The Minnesota environment looked great on TV.  If you did not have any pre-concieved notions about who had a great environment and who didn't, you would say that it was the real deal.

Minny is getting their shit together.  I used to feel sorry for players that went there.  It felt like a consolation prize . . . nobody actually wanted to go there, but it was all that was left to still be able to go to a D1 program in a real conference.  It was Minnesota or a top MAC program, take your pick.

But now it's actually a place that is reasonable to pick when you have other real choices.

Erik_in_Dayton

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:08 PM ^

I finally became frustrated with him on Saturday, but my heart also sank when he went out.  I additionally believe he must be hurt.  Despite Speight's heroics, I think we just have to be patient with probably-injured Rudock for the rest of the year.

stephenrjking

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:22 PM ^

I've pretty much been here most of the year. Rudock is flawed and is not going to improve significantly, but this is who we have. Maybe, maybe, he hits a couple of once-in-a-lifetime passes in a key moment (say, against OSU) and we are delightfully surprised. Perhaps he doesn't. Perhaps Michigan goes 8-4 this year and his flaws are our undoing.

8-4 is still pretty good given where we've been. They are who they are. Let's see what happens.

ijohnb

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:38 PM ^

don't think he has been as bad as the masses do.  The long ball over and under throws have been killer but for the most part he has made the passes he has to make to win games.  He was essentially the game manager that we thought he would be against State, he did not win the game but he put us in a position to win it and that was the biggest game of the season.  His intermediate stuff has been pretty good, he is accurate for the most part to tight ends, his spotty running ability has been a pleasant surprise.

The pick 6 against Utah was brutal.  Other than that I really think he has been good enough to win games and that is really all we asked to begin the season.

B-Nut-GoBlue

November 2nd, 2015 at 7:13 PM ^

Agree with you...it's where I'm at as well. I won't lie I have come to realize it's not going to get much "better", but I'm one who's been thinking for a while now and seriously thinking it for 3-4 weeks that there is an injury going on, truly screwing up his mechanics.

Blue Mike

November 2nd, 2015 at 2:25 PM ^

I think the most telling sign that Rudock must be injured in some way is that they aren't even calling deep passes unless they really need to. If it was just a rust/accuracy issue, the best time to straighten that out is when you've beaten Oregon State/BYU/UNLV/Northwestern into submission and are running glorified scrimmages out there.  But nothing like that has taken place this year.  

Hannibal.

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:09 PM ^

It's not a perfect apples to apples comparison but I think that we found out what it feels like to be on the other side of the MSU loss Saturday night.  Imagine you are a Minnesota fan and rewind back to the 19 second mark.  You have just scored a TD and you have just pulled off a big upset that will probably propel you to bowl eligibility.  One replay and two stops later you have lost.  Certain victory ripped away from you.  On the other side -- relief. 

J.

November 2nd, 2015 at 1:25 PM ^

After a few moments of running around screaming, I actually stopped and apologized to the Minnesota fans around me (who were, in fact, nice).  I said "I was at the Michigan State game a couple of weeks ago, so I know pretty much exactly how you're feeling."  I wanted Michigan to win, and I was happy that it came to pass, but I felt bad for the people around me in a way that I wouldn't have felt about, say, a 31-0 shutout.

reshp1

November 2nd, 2015 at 2:25 PM ^

See, this is the Michigan difference. Every Sparty fan I know went out of their way to rub it in on Michigan fans, and make fun of all the heart broken expressions.