Postgame Presser Notes: Eastern Michigan

What isnt fair about this whole thing is that if an ND player did the infraction instead of a Michigan player the ND player wouldnt get suspended because ND is not a Big 10 member or member of any league that can govern their conduct.

i totally agree, I think Rodriguez should just worry about Michigan. i mean, that's what he always says when transfers like Boren and Mallett get brought up. he should stick to that philosophy.

and I'm not positive what happened. It looks to me like contact was made, maybe a punch, maybe Mouton just trying to get balance on standing up.
I know I'm a slappy and would probably always think that, but the ND player didn't seem very fazed, nor did he react to a punch.

showed pretty clearly that it wasn't a punch. His hand was open. He just sort of slapped/shoved the guy's chin, and RR was right that he deserved a 15 yd penalty, but not a suspension. If you need further confirmation, look at the ND player's reaction. Have you every seen an athlete punched in the heat of battle who didn't retaliate in any way? (Excluding knockouts, of course.)

I'm not suggesting our coaching staff expend energy on this. I'm saying us, our fan base, should be looking at our opponents the week before looking for infractions and posting to you tube with inflammatory language. Let's just draw the attention to the incidents.

I'd bet huge money that it gets assigned to a GA. I'd also wager that every Big Ten team will be doing it. Delaney is going to regret it. I don't like what Mouton did, and I don't like that RR blew it off (good politics required that he do *something*), but I think the Big Ten is going to regret opening what could easily be a Pandora's box.

I have two problems with RR's reaction.

The first being that our players need to be held to a high standard of conduct, representing the University as it should be- with integrity and class. The suspension was appropriate and should have been given by the University, that was a punch, and Michigan Men don't resort to cheap shots. The ND lineman deserves credit for not reacting and getting penalized as "the guy that reacts and always gets caught" thereby hurting his team.

Second, it is petty to pick fault with other teams' conduct. RR's time would be much better spent developing our players' characters, recruiting/developing a playable MLB, and getting ready for the B10 season.

I am a little concerned about the way that RR has represented M so far.

Even pro QBs occasionally make the mistake of forcing the ball into double coverage. Robinson has a grand total of 6 weeks in the program. Under normal conditions, you wouldn't see him until his sophomore year. You wouldn't be seeing him now, except for the fact that Michigan is one injury away from falling back on Nick Sheridan.

Tate Forcier's success has, perhaps, lulled some people into believing that it is normal for a player to arrive fully formed. If anything, Robinson's performance (as a passer) is more typical of what you would expect of a true freshman being thrown in at QB, especially one that didn't have the benefit of spring practice. That, of course, is the reason why most programs do not play a true freshman.

What's worse is Charlie gets the last laugh, because while he has the whole Big Ten now suspending players for tick tack, he has no conference authority to answer to in reverse. Even if we wanted to have Olsen's actions reviewed, who would we complain to?

I now can't wait for the ND game next year ....

You obviously did not watch the entire Mouton video, in which he gets a very similar elbow to the neck in the 15 seconds before he throws what I would barely call a punch.

There are two things that I think are important to note.

1. Last year Carson Butler did throw a punch at a Notre Dame player. He got suspended by Rodriguez for that. It was no question that it was a punch and he was punished for it even though the refs didn't eject him from the game. There is no evidence that Rodriguez will not punish his players when it is necessary.

2. The Mouton "punch" is less clear than Butler's was. As mentioned above, the Notre Dame player didn't react in any way. He didn't get up and yell at Mouton or look at the refs and try to get a foul on Mouton. Slow motion can be deceiving.

Maybe it was a punch to the facemask and the Big Ten punished him properly. Maybe it was not a punch and he got suspended for a (thankfully) meaningless game. It doesn't matter anymore. It's done.

Now we see if Golden Tate gets punished for swan diving into the Michigan State band. :)

Sounds like you are...

An elbow-drop to the kidneys when the player is already down could easily be considered unnecessary roughness or unsportsmanlike conduct

Your homerism is reaching new and unexpected levels, please re-calibrate all of the necessary controls and meters and come back later. Thank you.

I don't think you watched the Purdue game either, because that's not what happened.

He's already had a redshirt year, so it would be hard for him to get a medical redshirt.

All it will take is Hope saying he is punishing his player internally, and the Purdue player won't be suspended.

I maintain that if Rodriguez hadn't punted on "was there a punch?", we wouldn't have had to suspend Mouton. If he'd just said something out his ass about extra conditioning, the BigTen wouldn't have stepped in. I firmly believe that to be a punch, however light some of you may argue. By ignoring it, Rodriguez just sent it to higher powers to make the decision.

As for the timing, I don't think we can complain about it as we had our chance to set punishment. We punted. We let someone else dictate it on their terms. That falls back on us.