Each of these two games have increased my expectations for the team a bit. While at the beginning of the season I thought 5-7 would be the lowest acceptable finish, right now, I'd be somewhat disapointed, but not surprised, at 7 wins. Of course our upper bounds seem so much higher now. The next two games can only lower our expectations. Hopefully we'll take care of business and be 4-0 going into the State game.

don't be surprised if we are undefeated, heading into the Penn State game. if we beat MSU, after beating EMU, there is something to be said for the inherent momentum.

That Florida win in the Citrus bowl felt oh so sweet as well.

I'm very concerned about East Lansing on October 3. Everyone's writing Sparty off and calling it an inevitable win for us, but we'll be a very young team on its first road trip. I'm not going to go so far as to say we don't win, but it's a red flag on the schedule. Obviously I don't think Iceman Tate will be rattled, but I'll feel a lot better about the season as a whole when I see our team travel well for the first time in unfriendly territory.

While I *am* considering the next two weeks as auto-wins, I refuse to overlook the @ MSU and @ Iowa games. I am not looking past 4-0. There's a little Winston Wolf principle here - let's all put away our "popsicles" and take this season one step at a time. Oh, one more thing. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I couldn't be more excited than I am right now about this team. My 6-6 expectations from two weeks ago seem a bit silly after watching how well they've played in the first two weeks. And the schedule does set up nicely to make a run at anything from 7-5 to 8-4 (I won't dare say more than that. I also realized while fretting about the poor defensive showing that this will be the best offense we face all regular season. PSU might be pretty good as well, but ND has an NFL prospect at just about every skill position on offense and the line played well. But before we start making plans for bowl games, let's keep a few things in mind: -- We've already lost Hemmingway and Stonum to injury so far this season. We're about to start playing Rogers and Stokes. That's a big drop off. -- Minor looked great, but can he stay healthy? If his 16 carries go to someone else on Saturday we probably lose. -- Tate could not be off to a better start (for fun, go compare his stats to Henne's first couple of games). But we're one big hit away from Robinson or Sheridan playing and that's a HUGE drop off. -- We ended the game playing a walk-on at safety. And our CB depth is non-existent. I guess all I'm saying is that we still need a lot of things to go right the rest of the year, specifically with regard to heatlh. I expect this team to lose a game they should win just as much as I expect them to win another game they should lose.

Can we all feel good now about Rich Rod's coaching ability? Good game plan going in? Check. Solid half time adjustments? Check. Great clock management and play-calling in crunch time? Check. The man is the Wizard of Offense. The half-time adjustments this coaching staff made were just absolutely huge. We were getting outplayed on the line on both sides of the ball in the first half. In the second half, we started to get some pressure on Clausen, and suddenly an ND team that wants to bomb away on long passes just can't make it work. In the first half, they killed us 3 times with that screen play. In the second half, that play failed badly the only time they tried to run it. Meanwhile, our offense had stalled out in the 2nd quarter, but in the second half Rodriguez found the right calls to get it clicking again. Great adjustments all around. Another thing I haven't heard mentioned yet: while we allowed a fair share of long passes yesterday, we were very effective in limiting yards after the catch. Obviously it would be preferable not to let them complete those passes in the first place. But given that our D-line was having trouble getting pressure and that Clausen with time to throw + Floyd + Tate is going to equal some big completions, I think limiting yards after the catch was huge in keeping ND's offense from having much greater success.

1. Agree with Wolverbean. The tackling skills by UM defenders, especially, the secondary has improved a lot. It seemed the first defender, if they didn't make the tackle, at least held on to the ball carrier so other defenders could help make the tackle. 2. Cissoko (sp?): did he just have a bad day or did ND really expose him as a weakness in the secondary? Good news, not sure UM will face to many teams with as good a combination of QB and two wr's as ND has. 3. UM's run defense seemed feast or famine. They either did a good job of shutting down ND's run or gave up a big chunk of yardage. 4. ND was a better team then I thought. Not that I thought they were going to bad or an easy W, but I was impressed with Claussen and Tate/Floyd as well as their oline. UM didn't seem like they were able to get to much pressure on Claussen unless they were rushing more then 4 guys. 5. Forcier has exceeded my expectations. Along the same lines, my expectations for the season have risen. I was just hoping for a bowl game, but now, a good bowl game is a distinct possibility.

I agree with AC. While this is a nice win, there is still a long season ahead. Given our paper thin depth in the secondary and on the D-line, and even at QB, we can't take anything for granted. Let's try and keep our expectations in check as that has been working for us well so far.

I agree that ND is probably the most potent offense we will face outside of PSU and OSU for the rest of the season. But keep in mind that although teams like MSU, Wisky, Iowa, etc will have less powerful offenses than ND, they will probably have somewhat better defenses too. We absolutely must go 4-0 both from a wins and a confidence standpoint. At that point, we need to shoot for at least of a split of the Iowa and MSU games. I certainly think we can win both, but being at tough road venues we could also lose both if things start going wrong. At that point, we roll though Delaware State to go to 6-1 heading into the PSU game. Again, a win is possible here, but still less than 50% if you ask me. At 6-2 in mid-October we are in excellent position to win 7,8,9 games. Illinois, Purdue, and Wisky all look beatable, but again (again) two of these games are on the road so no guarantees. Hopefully we get that 7th win early in this stretch to really take the pressure off of ensuring a bowl game. I figure we will win two of these three games, and face off against OSU with an 8-3 record. Hard to predict a win here, but this is the point where the season can go from excellent to legendary IMO. Bottom line is that I will breath a huge sigh of relief when Michigan hits that 7 win mark. Everything else is just icing on the cake after that. But man, I love me some icing!

i was thinking/hoping for 6-6 at the beginning of the season. I now optimistically expect 7-5 with the absolute possibility of pulling off some other big wins and getting to 8-4 or 9-3, but I will be happy with 7-5. Just a few weeks ago we were still a little worried about where we were headed so I am not going over board. I am; however, predicting a minimum 9-3 next year and for many years to come. I think Richrod and the team turned a major corner yesterday and the "future so's bright we got to wear shades.

how much of the coaching adjustments were made by Rich Rod and how many were made by GERG. I think some of the credit is going to the wrong person

Does anyone think that since Tate has proven himself as a capable starting QB that this is going to make Devin look elsewhere? I hope it's just me looking to far into it! I would hope Rich Rod would have a way to work all three QB's in but to young men, that might not be the most appealing situation?