Soulfire21

October 12th, 2013 at 10:40 PM ^

I also think Michigan and Penn State are similar this year -- mid-level dwellers in an unimpressive conference.  Difference is we were able to pull out a couple wins that Penn State couldn't.

M-Dog

October 12th, 2013 at 10:44 PM ^

I don't know why everybody is so upset.  

A week ago, we were the worst undefeated team in the country.  Now we are the worst one-loss team in the country.  What's really changed?

 

RJWolvie

October 12th, 2013 at 11:06 PM ^

...next week Indiana at home. Maybe. Other than that, looking like lose out from here. Ouch. Maybe can beat Iowa. But that's on road. Watching CMU game, I suggested they'd beat the worst BigTen teams but that's about it. Got shouted down. I revised after the ND game--Devin looked so good, excepting 2 plays (the end zone pick, but also a similar roll back and sack for 16yd loss or something & out of field goal range). But, other than that, he made up for a lot of bad line play in that game. Since then, I've been revising back to where I was: this team is just a middling team in a really bad conference. This game & Indy & Iowa was our hope to get to 8 wins. Now may get bowl eligible. Maybe. Going to HATE getting destroyed in east Lansing & at home by ohio.

Magnum P.I.

October 12th, 2013 at 11:48 PM ^

Good counterargument. It's one thing to criticize the team's performance (that's one of the chief functions of sports blogs). It's another to get childishly defensive and reflexively insult people. Go browse Us Weekly or something rosier. 

1 percent

October 13th, 2013 at 12:35 AM ^

He didn't criticize the performance. Or even make any sort of argument. He made a knee jerk reaction and I, probably childishly, knee jerked back. All his statement said was 'I don't see 2 wins on the schedule.' That is not an argument or being critical of the performance ... It's just being a dick.



Indiana - win. Iowa - win. Nebraska - should be win. MSU/NW -toss ups. OSU - prob loss.



M-Dog

October 12th, 2013 at 11:44 PM ^

Gardner is consistent in his inconsistency.  That means in addition to his disaster games, he's got at least one more game where he forgets he's Gardner and plays out of his mind.  

We will beat somebody big in November and look dominant doing it.  Problem is, we'll crap the bed in the other games.
 
 

 

bostonsix

October 12th, 2013 at 11:11 PM ^

killed us tonight. Penn st. used their OT timeouts and we didn't. on the same/different note someone needs to tell Borges he doesn't have a "Berry Sanders in the backfield, and any day now he'll break his slump" type RB.... If Al is such an impressive offensive coordinator, that "tinkers" plays like no other, then why run fitz into the middle hoping for a hole that our line has no possible chance of oppening when other teams stack the box.

playcalling when it matters pull out the scheme and get the win. 4 OT's is pathetic considdering the position we were in before trying to run out the clock.

MGoKalamazoo

October 12th, 2013 at 11:19 PM ^

What killed me the most is Hoke allowed this to happen. I understand letting coaches coach but fergodsakes when your tailback carries 20+ at 1 yard a clip something has to give. Akron and UConn where embarrassing enough, at what point does the coaching staff figure that this isn't working.

cp4three2

October 12th, 2013 at 11:30 PM ^

Lloyd beat penn state, won the big ten, and won road games.

I would love to have Lloyd type of teams. His last season we went 9-4 with a loss to OSU and Oregon. App St was a bad loss, sure, but that team beats Akron and probably UCONN this year by more than we did. Season before that we went 11-2 and went to the Rose Bowl.

BlueFordSoftTop

October 12th, 2013 at 11:28 PM ^

 
What is the point of running your backs into a brick wall play after play after play? I just don't get it, why it is Borges keeps doing that.
 
As others have said here, we have a mediocre staff supervising a mediocre team in a mediocre conference. Blech!
 
I will attend the N'western game but otherwise have lost interest in this program for the season. The season-end drubbing will be unbearable; I need a hobby.

Toasted Yosties

October 12th, 2013 at 11:55 PM ^

I'm more embarrassed by the fan meltdown than today's loss. I can't believe some people are calling for the coaches to be fired. We're an immature team that is a year or two out. This year might be a little rough, but it's only going to to get better over the next few seasons. . Stay calm and support the team. Calling for Hoke or Borges to be fired isn't going to make the test of 2013 any better.

Toasted Yosties

October 13th, 2013 at 10:33 AM ^

Is going to struggle. Surprise! Our O-line is a great example of that. Hoke cannot mature these guys overnight. We had a ton of attrition during the Rich Rod years and Hoke's recruiting has been great, but until his guys are juniors or seniors, to expect them to play as well as kids who've had the time to develop is ridiculous. The team needs fan support now more than ever. Calling for any coach's head midseason is not going to help and may even be detrimental to recruiting. Take a few deep breaths, get over last night and support your team.

erald01

October 13th, 2013 at 1:19 AM ^

In todays college football you pay a premium to go watch a team like Michigan so after 3 yrs of no inprovement and shit getting worse, YES i can call for the coaches to get fired, i want someone that is able to coach properly and knows how to win games..look at OSU, since Urban came in, if they would have left that other jerk off in there they would have been in the same position, but they called for hi head after one year of coaching

Toasted Yosties

October 13th, 2013 at 12:36 PM ^

But the real Michigan fans out there aren't. I'm embarrassed by the quantity of entitled fans like yourself that consider themselves "fans" and then after our first loss of the season call for the coaches' heads. Please, take your money and go support another team. You'd be doing all of us real Michigan fans a favor.

Toasted Yosties

October 13th, 2013 at 3:43 PM ^

But when someone like you, who doesn't comment for nearly three years, during which a Sugar Bowl was won, when wins over out biggest rivals have occurred, when recruiting has been outstanding, making for a highly probable successful future, but decides to comment after Hoke's worst loss, really makes it hard not to think you have nothing but negativity to spew. Was your Internet down the last three years?

McSomething

October 13th, 2013 at 7:28 PM ^

You know what else I didn't do, come back after that terribly blown bowl game last season. Or the woefully inept offensive second half of the Ohio State game. Or that god awful snoozer that was the Michigan State game. Literally fell asleep during that one. That Iowa loss two seasons ago? Didn't respond after that one. Or after the absolute shit-kicking Alabama gave us to start last year. Or the Akron game. Or the UConn game. Or the playcalling in the Air Force game. Nebraksa last year? Nope, didn't then either.

Yes, this is his worst loss. However, it's not his only bad one. Nor is the "a win's a win" always a valid defense.



Conservative playcalling on offense late in the game with a lead. Then try to play prevent defense with little time left. All that does is prevent us from keeping the other team out of the endzone. Am I talking about South Carolina, or Penn State hm.....



Just because I wasn't here venting my frustrations doesn't mean I wasn't elsewhere. This game finally pushed me over the edge to come back and see if people finally agree with what I thought was the inevitable outcomes of this coaching philosophy. And, so far, I'm being proven right.

Won in year one with RichRod's players.

Stumbled during year two due to a stubborness towards "manball" offense.

Stumbling even moreso due to that same stubborness.

That November schedule still looming.....

I've been calling for Borges's head for over two years now. Again, just not here. Don't expect that to stop. Didn't want him hired in the first place. Now look at where our biggest problem areas seem to be. QB play. Borges. Offensive line. Funk. Defensive line. Hoke.

People want to rail all day long on Gardner as a QB? Fine, Borges is said to work extensively and exclusively with the QBs. Their poor play is a mark on him. The offensive line has shown no improvement the last two years. Haven't even shown the ability to be rated as high as "mediocre." That's on Funk. Defensive line consistenly gets no pressure. Hoke apparently works extensively and exclusively with the d-line. Their play is a mark on him. What does he do during the game? He'll occassionally yell at someone. But mostly he just stands there with no headset on, and his thumb up his ass. He looks like nothing more than a damn figurehead during the games.

Yes, the team is 5-1. But do you really think the team is as good as its record shows?

They were 5-1 to start 2010. Bet you weren't willing to say then that it was "one bad loss."

Give me one signature win this team has under Hoke. C'mon, the biggest win. Ohio State in 2011? Yeah, the team that finished 6-7 and scored as many points on us as they had on anyone (not named Akron) that season. The Sugar Bowl against VaTech? You mean the team that had been absolutely demolished by Clemson? Which was a team that backed into the ACC title game after two stompings to NC State and South Carolina.

I'm sorry if my showing up now distresses you. The complete ineptness with which this offense is called has finally pushed me over the edge. I wanted to be wrong about Hoke (in regards to his bringing Borges), but so far? Yeah, seen nothing to suggest I am. At least, not over the last two years.

McSomething

October 13th, 2013 at 8:24 PM ^

Boo-fuckin-hoo.

And I'm a coward because I wasn't absolutely fed up with it to the point that I couldn't keep quiet about it any longer? Like I already pointed out, there have been several instances the last 2 1/2 seasons that I could've after a loss, but didn't. Was that cowardice too?

"You didn't come back to bitch after previous losses, but here you are bitching after the worst loss yet! Such a coward!!!"

Whatever.

M-Wolverine

October 14th, 2013 at 12:25 AM ^

You don't post the same stuff after a win because you know you'd get laughed out of the place. If you really believed in your convictions you wouldn't run and hide when things are going well, and then come out of the woodwork when something goes wrong. You'd take your lumps and not just be the "I told you so" guy. But that would require you to not be a chickenshit,.

McSomething

October 14th, 2013 at 3:18 AM ^

Again, I have been calling for Borges's head since Akron (and earlier than that actually, but when talking this season it started there). Just because it wasn't here doesn't mean it didn't happen. You seem to be operating under that assumption that I give a rat's ass what your opinion of me is. Yep, I'm back after the worst loss they've suffered under Hoke. Yep, it's been three years. Nearly, anyway. If it was simply because the team was still winning, why didn't I come back after the Alabama mudstomping last year? Why didn't I come back as soon as it was impossible for Michigan to even play for the B1G title? Seeing as, in Hoke's own words, that it's pretty much Big Ten title or bust. Maybe it's because no other loss had me so pissed off as this loss to Penn State? I knew Alabama was gonna kick the shit out of us. I knew we would blow it late aginst South Carolina. I literally laughed as they ran the game winning TD in. I knew on Monday of the Ohio State game last year how that game would turn out. But with this game? I figured maybe, just maybe, these coaches would figure out how to not fuck up on a monumental level with playcalling and game management. That maybe they had learned some lessons from the Akron and UConn games. Guess not.

You can throw all the ad hominem's at me you want. Doesn't change the fact that Borges is a terrible OC, and needs to be fired.

You have a problem with me coming back now to vent my frustrations that have been building for two and a half seasons? Again, boo-fuckin-hoo.

So, continue with the "chicken shit" and "coward" rhetoric all you want. Attack me, and not my argument. (pst, that's the definition of "ad hominem" in case you were wondering) I frankly don't give a shit.

M-Wolverine

October 14th, 2013 at 2:55 PM ^

We know that because you posted it right before...oh wait, no you didn't. 

Thus my point. 

And what argument is there to attack? You haven't made any arguments. You've just crawled out from under a rock to be all "Whaaaaaaa, Rich Rod got fired, I like me some Rich Rod...I said Hoke sucked and still say Hoke sucked...and all his staff does too, Nyah!" If you're laughing at us losing you stopped becoming a fan of the team a long time ago and are still a fan of a man who isn't here anymore.

But hey, we've got a whole season left to play, so you can now predict how every game will turn out AND how we're going to lose all those games too. Since you saw it coming in every other one. At least now you can use your clairoyance to englighten us all before the fact rather than after. But I'm guessing if we win any of those games, you'll be nowhere to be seen.

funkywolve

October 12th, 2013 at 11:39 PM ^

running into a brick has been happening for a year and a half and the coaches either don't know how to fix it or refuse to make something else the core of their offense.  I'm dreading the OSU game.  Tressel at least would have gone into shell mode when they get up a couple scores.  Meyer is just going to keep twisting the knife deeper and deeper.

Drbogue

October 12th, 2013 at 11:35 PM ^

3 FGs which would've won the game and we miss/get blocked on all 3. Add to that a terrible delay of game on 3rd down during our last series which would've allowed a manageable FG to go up 2 scores with a minute left and instead we choose to not-pooch-punt into the end zone. They did their best to hand us the game and we blew it. Obrien simply decided to go and get the win and surprise, that happened. Take a deep breath and realize this team was not destined for an undefeated season.

SteelBrad

October 12th, 2013 at 11:38 PM ^

I get frustrated when watching my favorite teams struggle. But I've taken a step back lately in regards to college. These aren't grown ass men playing for millions. These are kids playing for the love of the University and the game.



I think it's fair to second guess some of the coaching gaffes tonight but some of you should be ashamed of the way you talk about these kids. There is not once I saw a player half-ass it out there.



Maybe I'm just getting old.

gustave ferbert

October 12th, 2013 at 11:50 PM ^

the half assedness is by design.  But with elevated seat license fees, $50 to park at Pioneer, $95 tickets for Notre dame and the constant "branding", you expect a better product.  Knock the kids? absolutely not.  Knock the program that is pulling in millions on a gameday saturday and be told to like the product we're seeing?  Absolutely not.