The Sea Wants To Take Me
11/14/2009 – Michigan 24, Wisconsin 45 – 5-6, 1-6 Big Ten
Henri says post away
Well, I finally broke: I've checked out emotionally. This happened last year, too, and the game columns from the on were pleas for something else to do and grim, brief recaps of the latest indignity. It's progress of a sort that it took eleven games for the team to TKO any interest in what might happen the rest of this year, but it's not a fun sort of progress.
A serious thematic analysis of the Wisconsin game is pointless. Michigan's defense is exactly as horrifying as it's been all year. Everyone wants to fight each other in the liveblog. When the MGoPosse assembled to record this week's podcast, Paul said "at least we didn't muff a punt" and I responded "they didn't punt." (It turns out they did punt once in the first half, and Junior Hemingway misjudged a short one, almost fumbling it.)
Today I'll go on the radio and say the exact same things I've been saying all season to people who say the exact same things they've been saying all season. Here I could either repeat the assertion that firing Rodriguez after two years is idiotic or the description of what this season turned into in the third quarter of the Illinois game. Nothing has changed, and there's nothing to say when the team is turning in uncompetitive loss after uncompetitive loss.
There is an increased chance that sometime today I will read or hear something that cause my entire body to crumple and my head to thump audibly on the desk. So I guess that's different. Not different: for the second straight year the Ohio State week is only welcome because after it there won't be this unpleasant thing that happens every Saturday. The Notre Dame game seems like another decade.
BULLETS
- Surprised that Mouton and Ezeh got the whole game after their backups played at least as well as they did against Purdue. I guess there were huge busts by both Fitzgerald and Leach, but… um… right.
- Seriously: after Wisconsin completed their sixth or seventh big gain over the middle because Ezeh and Mouton were hugely out of position on zone drops, I was begging for the backups. No dice. The prospect of starting these guys next year is not fun.
- I'm betting the adjustment Wisconsin made to their running game was to start doubling defensive linemen for real and leaving the linebackers to their own devices, or down-blocking them on their slants and getting outside where the linebackers are on their own. Michigan was shooting into the backfield a ton early.
- Poor Brandon Graham: if Michigan would just cover anyone for two seconds he would have an incredible number of sacks this year. It wasn't Graham who had the most frustrating non-sack on Saturday, though. Stevie Brown came free up the middle on a third and five in the third quarter and Tolzien nailed a wide open tight end for a first down. That turned into the drive Wisconsin used to go up three scores, salting the game away.
- Vincent Smith is now your tentative leader for the starting tailback job next year, though that title figures to be a ceremonial one in a sea of options. I know Shaw's had the occasional nagging injury but I think he's just beat him out, fair and square. My favorite play from Smith was the screen he took past three or four defenders in the first half. He was one desperate hand-wave by a Wisconsin safety away from
a touchdowna long run that looks like it should be touchdown but disappointingly ends short of it. He's got skills. There was one out that was incomplete that anyone else on the team would have caught by virtue of being bigger than a marmot, though. - Brandon Smith seemed pretty mediocre on the edge. I know he didn't make any of the huge, obvious mistakes that Mike Williams did, but Wisconsin isn't the sort of team that puts you in the backfield unblocked to make a huge, obvious mistake. I bet a lot of the outside running Wisconsin did will be on Smith somehow.
- I did think Wisconsin was the grabbiest line Michigan's played against all year. Wisconsin's first drive saw Graham held twice on long completions, and while they got a number of calls later they just love getting their hands outside the shoulder pads. Default disclaimer whenever officiating as mentioned: would not have changed outcome of the game, would merely have led to more second-and-twenty conversions. Maybe I should thank the refs for mitigating the damage I would have done to my forehead and the sidewalk if I watched another guy wide open over the middle.
If you can't get behind the team when they are down you don't deserve to cheer for them when they are on top.
What was with calling the timeouts at the end of the game? That was as classless as Dantonio doing it at the end of last year's Penn State game when they were getting killed. I hope this kind of petty act isn't a sign of things to come.
Stymie2000
Rodriguez was doing it with minutes left on the clock for the purpose of coaching his players through a realistic 2-minute drill, even if it doesn't determine the outcome. Dantonio was doing it with seconds left on the clock, just to be a jerk.
I guess that sounds like homerism, but whatever. I see a clear difference.
NO… please don’t break Brian
You were great on WTKA yesterday and I cannot wait to hear you on tonight. College football is such an emotional game where anything can happen; I really think we have a shot on Saturday.
I can take losing. I can take rebuilding, transitioning, whatever you call it. I think RR is the right choice and will succeed. What bothers me is how emotionally checked out I am- it's horrifying. I now can watch the game, get frustrated, but be better 10 minutes after it's over. Either I'm growing up, or my brain is doing that whole 'in shock' saving me from myself thing. Still though, I do love me some TForce scramblin'.
It has to get better, right? Right?
Maybe ... but the three best players on the team won't be here next year.
Hey, nice marmot.
Birds can fly so high and they can shit on your head.
private residence, man.
Obviously, you're not a golfer.
Like everyone else here, six of the last seven Saturdays have really, really sucked. This year has been crushing. There's little left inside anymore - Purdue took that away. I'm not looking forward to the outcome next Saturday, but
I got to spend seven weekends in Ann Arbor with my son who recently graduated and is now in grad school at Michigan. Singing Hail to the Victors for the last five years with my son always makes my day.
I shared the Notre Dame win with my wife and 110,000+ other fans.
I tailgated every weekend, rain or shine, with a lot of great Umich students.
I finally heard a really loud Big House.
Next year will be here sooner than we think, and we have some great hoops and ice time in our future.
It WILL get better. GO BLUE!
I'm over the moral victories with so & so played better, the team improved in this facet, etc. Fact is we are a bad team and our record shows it. We have 5 wins but let's check the list of what teams they are - a mediocre ND team followed by tomato cans in Indiana, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Deleware State that I honestly believe Inkster would dismantle. We lose Graham who has been the ONLY player to show up on defense every single week and play his ass off for 4 quarters. Don't get me wrong, I still love Michigan, will go to the games, and hope for the best outcome but gone are the days when I go in with confidence thinking we can compete with anyone. Next year will be no different and everyone will be calling for RR's head and then where are we? A new coach with players that don't fit HIS system and yet again we start all over? No thanks. I don't have it in me for 5-6 years of this rather than 2-3 years. 2011 is the year I think we see the change but will people give RR the chance? I sure hope so.
this whole needs his players thing is crap, this is the University of Michigan, not Troy, the players that are here are supposed to be talented players who played various schemes in high school and should be able to adapt to what RR wants to do within 18 months(especially with all the extra practice).
"Needing to give a coach a chance to get his own players in" is something losing coaches say, you don't hear Brian Kelly complaining about getting his own players, you hear it from Weiss and RichRod.
Last year it was "no quarterback" and this year it's a "freshman qd" next year he'll have Gardner win the job and it'll still be a freshman qb holding us back.
I gave him the benefit of the doubt last year, and had positive hopes this year, but sooner or later he has to take the credit for the team being bad and not just the talent level he was left with.
His player shuffles and decisions have been baffling and flat out don't make sense. We used 2 qbs early and he used them well, using Denard as a change of pace worked great against the MAC and Notre Dame and then he completely abandoned the strategy ever since.
I could go on all day with it, but i'll just say i'm not willing to start over yet, but it's put up or shut up time in year 3. I'm sick of being the laughing stock of all these MSU and OSU fans.
Dude, look at Michigan's junior and senior classes... outside of graham and warren, most of these guys wouldn't even start at Troy. You can't compare Weiss to Richrod either... Weiss took over a program that recruited players that fit his offense. Richrod's offense is night and day from the Carr offense. The offensive line on Richrod's offense is the hardest line to adapt, and we didn't even start out with guys who would have been anything above 3 star recruits if we were running the old offense. Gee, I wonder, do you think maybe it has anything to do with us going 7-5 in 2005 under Carr?
In Rod I Trust,
Because he did inherit a pile of rust
With instructions that read:
On 4th and 4 punt from the buck's 39
when 4 yards would give you a win for the times
You won't keep your job
Cause I kept mine
To be fair, Kelly benefited from a decent base left over by Dantonio in Cincy, especially on defense, as well as Tony Pike on offense.
And please stop glossing over things like "no/freshman QB" or "decimated defense with virtually no depth" as useless excuses. I could link to numerous posts that show teams, not just UM, that have suffered because of depth issues, but it would be an exercise in futility.
And as for the MSU/OSU fans, just let it go. Who cares if they make fun of your team for a couple of years. Ragging is part of the deal, and if you cannot handle it when people rib you, you probably shouldn't dish it out either.
It's definitely shut up time for someone. You.
Desmond Howard brought up a great point Saturday...out of the 120+ players, 85 or so are sophomores or freshman eligibility wise. The team plays well for a half and then cannot handle the adjustments (read adversity) that the opponent gives them. This will come with time, as a young team matures, if the fanbase and administration will allow it to happen. If not, they are then in a rebuilding continuum...and then god help us all!
this is a great point, except by now they should be prepared for how the opponent will adapt into. Wisonsin was just stupid in the first half and then remembered what all of us knew already and that was to throw the ball before Graham can get to you and you will have great success.
And why can't we stop a running QB still? that's my biggest complaint and the first thin I though when he was hired was that we'd now be able to stop a spread/option qb because we play against it everyday. No we can't even stop a slow pocket QB from running on us
One week after Elliott rolls out all fucking day with repeated success, GERG allows Tolzein to do the eaxct same fucking thing.
GAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Go Blue
At this point in the season, it is hard to to know how many breakdowns are due to GERG not calling the right play and how many are due to the lack of talent/football IQ of the defense.
In a completely unrelated note, did anyone see Dorrestein's "The Punisher" tattoo? I couldn't stop laughing when I saw it because I just don't consider anybody on our O-line to be someone who delivers any form of punishment to anyone other than our RBs, Tate and Denard.
You play to win the game
They made progress this year. Scoring 11 or 12 more PPG than last year. That is tangible, real improvement. Omahmeh looks promising. And they redshirted 3 highly touted freshmen O-linemen. And Molk will be back next year. I fully expect the offense to be even better next year.
But the defense. God help us. It is downright demoralizing.
Go Blue
Following the OSU game I would love to take several doses so Rich Rod and Michigan can redeem themselves.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/3534/saturday-night-live-hibernol
Unless we beat them of course, and then all will be right and I will happily enjoy the victory over the team that plays its home games in a toilet for 9 months.
Most M fans were like "OMG, he has totally regressed, what the F is his problem, blah, blah, blah." Okay, you're talking about a starting CB on the 7-2 Bengals. The kid is GOOD. His coaches frickin SUCKED.
And yes, I know that M has nowhere near enough talent on defense this year. I know that Jesus Himself could not make this a good defense. Okay, that is my preface. BUT...
It's January 2009. You are Rich Rodriguez. You have the choice between Greg Robinson and Mike Trgovac. Robinson hasn't done squat since the 90's. Trgovac just voluntarily resigned from the Carolina Panthers. His defenses have averaged being the FIFTH BEST in the NFL over his tenure there in THIS decade. Listen, I really hope GERG works out. I really, really do. And again, I AM NOT SAYING Trgovac would've been able to do squat with the depleted group of kids this year, either.
But...huh? Isn't hiring Trgovac the obvious choice there?
(Don't neg-bang, dudes. I'm just trying to cope.)
Go Blue
two things:
1) you can make the case that trent's coaches turned him from a converted wideout into an nfl corner. is it really possible for someone like that to "regress?" i'm not so sure.
2) there's some internal inconsistency in your trgovac vs. robinson argument...if we take as a given that trgovac couldn't do anything with this group, are we so sure that robinson has done poorly? i'm not arguing with your point, necessarily, or disagreeing with your opinion on trgovac. just wondering if robinson's grade should be "incomplete" for the time being...
Trgovac wanted the UM DC job? I find that awfully hard to believe. That would have involved a serious pay cut.
I think he's only the D-Line Coach for the Packers right now. So he might not be making an insane amount of money. My question is that he resigned from the Panthers and then went back to being a D-Line coach in Greenbay. Maybe he left the Panthers because of office politics, or maybe he just likes being a D-Line coach and not a DC.
I'd love to hire him in as our new D-Line Coach and consider him a potential DC in waiting if Robinson doesn't do well. As for Robinson, I'm not sure if he is the problem or talent is the problem yet.
More than DC at U of M? I don't know the answer. That's where Trgovac is right now. Seems like a waste of talent.
Go Blue
Trgovac sounds like a floor cleaning appliance.
Is there any way he can come coach our defense? The nicknames are ready-made.
The Steel Carpet
Big House Cleaners
The Hoover Dam(n)
You could call the linebackers Bagless Uprights!
And that's just off the top of my head.
I logged in for the express purpose of up-arrowing that.
I remember being emotionally checked in to Michigan football. Then we stopped being able to play defense, then we REALLY stopped being able to play defense, then this happened.
Sigh.
Basketball it is. At least that team is likable. Watching suck on the level this defense has provided is just soul-crushing until you're numb. I refuse to believe our linebacking corp could be any worse. What's frustrating is it's highlighted by how good our d-line can be at times. It's letting the team down.
It's their fault. When they sit there in the locker room, their teammates don't say it, but they're letting their teammates down because they're not playing well enough. That might be because they just aren't naturally good enough at football, or it could be a coaching thing, but they're letting their team down, and much less so us as fans down, the university is being let down, and it just sucks. God. The safeties too. It hurts because this could be a mediocre to average football team, showing progress year to year, and they just suck. Damn it.
Also we do stupid things like get roughing the kicker penalties. Sigh.
I knew I had reached my breaking point when I found myself watching much more of the MSU-Purdue game in the second half. After the int on the deep ball to Stonum, I knew it was over. I'd still flip back every couple minutes hoping to see some sign of a comeback only to see Clay pounding away yet again.
I just don't understand the consistent dropoffs on either side of the ball after halftime. Are we just being worn down by bigger stronger Olines/Dlines? Are our schemes too simplistic and teams have us figured out by the second half (this seems to be the view over at GBMW according to the most recent post)?
I LOVE it when my twins see someone in line at the grocery store with an OSU jersey on and say " Is that the bad team daddy?" I love the excitement that builds up inside me leading up to kickoff. And as poorly as the linebackers are..I LOVE MICHIGAN FOOTBALL. Don't panic, we will get better.
The guy who said 2010 will be RR's last year?
Brian for saying if we don't win 8 next year (does anyone think that's gonna happen) RR will/should be fired in 2010?
Me for saying nothing more than I was angry after the game (which actually happened)?
The people who note that the great Jim Harbaugh, a great Michigan QB, who led the team to its evolution to a pro style system is winning at Stanford?
Those who knock Lloyd though all of us would kill if RR had Lloy'ds worst year?
Perhaps the people who wish we had Les Miles? Or, those who say Les fooled around with Moeller's wife?
The team has played for shit. The defense has *not* improved. There will be a third DC in 2010, if not sooner. But you all want to cry and lash out against those who suggest (big) changes. Seems like the perfect metaphor for this team. Michigan fans are a reflection of the team. RIght now, seems like everyone's acting like a bunch of pussies.
I do, and I predicted 5-7 this year.
... the guy who says "I told you so" and puffs his chest out in certitude while the team we all root for struggles mightily.
I hope your satisfaction with yourself helps mask the pain of another lost season... to me it hardly seems to be a good trade and not worth the futile attempt.
Do Something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn't, do something else.
huge thumbs up
In Rod I Trust,
Because he did inherit a pile of rust
With instructions that read:
On 4th and 4 punt from the buck's 39
when 4 yards would give you a win for the times
You won't keep your job
Cause I kept mine
...then whining about point negging. Sorry for being such a pussy. I take full responsibility for every missed tackle this Saturday.
...you just got Nard Dawged!!
especially one who won't hear the, you know, truth
2.) Write 100 times: "Posting restrictions exist because of people like me."
3.) Apologize to all of the sensible newcomers and lurkers here who were unable to contribute over the weekend because you have to, you know, tell the truth.
the coaches rated Fitzgerald Toussaint as the best back in '09 class. Toussaint is injured and is in competition for PT.
Don't count out Mike Shaw for the starting job. He is the most explosive back on the roster. Just need to stay healthy(hmmmm, sounds familiar with Carlos Brown).
Vincent Smith would be a good change of pace back rather than a featured back IMO.
I'd forgotten about him when I was trying to decide who would be the ideal every-down back next year.
I'm still convinced that Smith is too small to be effective as the go-to guy, though he certainly will make important contributions. Toussaint, Shaw, and Cox should make for a strong backfield next year.
They are clueless and there is no progress. If any, they've regressed. So Hopson really needs to go, right? The guy hasn't done shit in recruiting, and his group of LBs are not freshmen and they are not walk-ons. He must be fired. Something has to be done there.
Go Blue
Yes you are correct he must go.
No matter how bad that the team is I always love football Saturdays. I love going to Ann Arbor, I love seeing the stadium filled to capacity, I love playing beer pong, I love everything about football Saturdays... except the losing.
No matter how terrible the team is doing every new Saturday comes a new hope, a new irrational sense of "we can do this" and I'll never give up that hope.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand"
You've got the right attitude Bouje and if we by chance win this Saturday, I owe you a drink and shot for being faithful.
Whatever. Had enough.
Mouton sucks. Ezeh sucks. Smith sucks. Williams sucks. Fitzgerald sucks. At some point, the carpenter has to stop blaming his tools. The reality is that RR made the second bad DC hire in two years. It will be his undoing.
"Fear. Columbus is rank with it. Let us ease their pain."
There's not necessarily glaring problems in the overall scheme (see: English, Ron) or in overall man-management and communication (see: Shafer, Scott). There is a lack of talent up the middle of the field, there is the regression of Mouton and Ezeh, and there is the frustrating inability of our DBs to turn around and make a play on the ball when they are in position to do so.
I think the most sensible thing for Rod to do will be to fire Hopson and and least take some responsibility away from Gibson though there doesn't appear to be any hope for the latter, considering the lengthy personal relationship between Rodriguez and Gibson.) Robinson simply hasn't shown enough one way or another to warrant either confidence or firing, so it's simply not worth it to make another hire and have to install another scheme.
Quite frankly, I think the continued presence of Gibson puts a cap on how good our defense will ever be, but if we have a good overall scheme, good athletes, and good coaching for the front seven, we should be alright.
Note that the positions GERG coaches (Brown, Roh) are not a problem. Brown is easily the best LB we have, and Roh's only problem is that he's too small yet to take on a double-team from serious opponents. I love the way both of those kids play. The defense is straight up uncompetitive at two spots, so if you want to blame a coach, blame the coaches of those positions.
I haven't seen anything that makes me think we're schematically or tactically bad. We have confidence issues, which is obvious considering how often these kids have been blown out. We also have epic fail issues at S and LB. No defense that lacks confidence and skills over the middle will stop anyone with any consistency. I don't get how the DC can do much about these problems in 11 months by himself. I think we need two new coaches, LB and S. Let's quit shuffling the overall plan and start shuffling the pieces that are broken.
At this point I'm amazed we get full half out of them before the cracks show up.
A 4th DC in 4 years would be the answer?
Don't have an answer. Just the depressing observation that, despite everything said around here and even by me at one time, it is statistically impossible for Michigan to have all the moron defensive players who can't follow directions or execute assignments.
"Fear. Columbus is rank with it. Let us ease their pain."