This Month in MGoBlog History - October 2007: Maybe this Defense will Turn Out Okay

Submitted by Maize.Blue Wagner on

Previously:

September 2007

 

On Saturday, September 29 Michigan beat Northwestern 28-16. WH Highlights.

October 1 - Monday

Northwestern game post.

When Mike Debord plays rock-paper-scissors, he always picks rock.

Rock totally beats scissors. Why would anyone pick anything else? Sure, occasionally someone will throw his own rock, but this is Michigan. We can out-execute their rock. And there are rumors of this thing called "paper". Apparently it beats rock, which seems darned unsporting, but Mike Debord will believe that when Mike Debord sees it. We can probably out-execute paper, too. Some people will hypothesize that the potential existence of paper warrants the occasional scissors throw, but only three things can happen when you throw scissors and two of them are bad. The idea of throwing "paper" is to be regarded with naught but scorn. Oooh, a Snickers bar! Mike Debord likes Snickers and will let pet monkey Bonzo call a series as he enjoys a candy bar.

Hey, Bonzo scored a touchdown. Now we're ahead. Let's go back to rock. Rock beats scissors.

Rock, rock. Definitely rock. Rock. Judge Wapner's on at ten.

Best Unverified Voracity Ever because Brian met Zoltan Mesko’s parents. Picture included in the post.

The Michigan vs. Purdue game will be on BTN. In case you didn’t read any of this diary series from the summer, BTN is still a hard to find thing.

October 2 - Tuesday

Tuesday Recruitin’ serves as the Kenny Demens Hello Post.

Blogpoll Ballot Week 4.

October 3 - Wednesday

Blogpoll Ballot Week 4 Updated.

Blogpoll Week 4.

UFR: Offense vs. Northwestern. Bad OL play and even worse playcalling.

Can you express my seething rage in a numerical fashion?

Sure!

  • Average yards on first down passes: 8.7.

  • Average yards on first down runs: 1.6.

  • Number of first down passes: 14.

  • Number of first down runs: 16.

October 4 - Thursday

UFR: Defense vs. Northwestern. Big days from Terrance Taylor and Shawn Crable. ‘M’ gave up lots of yards, but the player grades were mostly positive. The players were not helped by the implementation of a 3-3-5 designed to stop the running spread offense, but which in fact fell flat. Relatedly, Don Brown was currently in a conference-winning season with UMASS.

Unverified Voracity, Cowed By Birth. One of the NU lineman who just dominated ‘M’s Oline is being ranked as the 2nd best junior DTs, so that’s...good?

For some reason there was the possibility that some of the 2007 games would have to be forfeited? The MGOBlue link doesn’t work any more. Anyone remember this?  

October 5 - Friday

Preview vs. EMU.

Finally, three opportunities for me to look stupid Sunday:

  • Mike Hart sets the record at the end of the first quarter.

  •  

  • 6 sacks.

  •  

  • 42-17, Michigan.

Coaching Candidate: Les Miles. There is a lot to like with Miles, but also a number of concerns.

Potential Catches: There are many. One: the maelstrom of rumor and innuendo suggesting that Miles is a nefarious win-at-all-costs type who will tie Michigan's virtue to the train tracks and skitter off into the night.

October 6 - Saturday

EMU Open Thread.

Michigan defeated Eastern Michigan 33-22. Highlights.

October 7 - Sunday

Florida Game Post. Ah...that’s the post for LSU’s game from Saturday. Yep, that’s where things were in 2007.  

Miles and his staff were brilliant in one of the marquee games of the season, and LSU is #1.

I am sold. I will sign on the line that is dotted. Get some coffee, Les.

Harbaugh also beat USC the day before, but Miles seems too good to pass up at this point.

October 8 - Monday

Videos of players post EMU press conferences.

Unverified Voracity Welcomes Wontario. Lots of chatter that Miles has always been a Michigan man no matter where he coached and that he would take the job if offered, no matter what he says.

Blogpoll Ballot Week 6.

October 9 - Tuesday

Tuesday Recriutin’ has a few good notes about NJ S Brandon Smith.

Unverified Voracity Needs Tickets. The Illinois game is going to be at night and not on BTN. Brian needs some tickets though.

October 10 - Wednesday

Blogpoll Week 5.

UFR: Offense vs. EMU. Not great, but not terrible. Stephen Schilling and Justin Boren struggled with Jason Jones all day. The latest theory on Debord:

he's setting up foes down the road by actively trying to look like a predictable idiot. Then Michigan ditches the staid stuff in the big games. This might explain both Michigan's tendency to play down to its opponent and its typically better than expected results against top competition.

October 11 - Thursday

Unverified Voracity Rides the Short Bus. Basketball media day has lots of quotes that reveal the terrible condition of the program in the final year of Amaker. Also, Harbaugh quoted Bo’s “Team” phrase after the USC win; this is particularly grating after his comments from the summer.

UFR: Defense vs. EMU. The defense...might be coming together finally. Several personnel changes seem to have made a big change since the beginning of the year. Morgan Trent led the way in this game with a +6.

October 12 - Friday

Purdue Preview.

Finally, three opportunities for me to look stupid Sunday:

  • Hart: 35-208-2

  •  

  • We yield one ugly, long touchdown.

  •  

  • 32-27, Michigan.

META Post. Brian now owns “mgoblog.com”. He is planning to move the blog to a new hosting site next summer.

Unverified Voracity is Shoddy, Quick. Les Miles hires assistants based on their ability to strategize and how much their players like playing for them. What a novel idea. Also, more comments from basketball players about how terrible the culture was the previous season.

October 13 - Saturday

Purdue Open Thread.

Michigan beat Purdue 48-21. WH Highlights.

Not sure what is going on with this post. I guess trying to launch a Hart for Heisman campaign.

October 14 - Sunday

Link to a torrent of the Purdue game.

Press conference videos.

October 15 - Monday

Unverified Voracity and Stuff. Michigan's defense is improving in part because the team is second in the nation in forcing turnovers. Not necessarily a sustainable stat.

Purdue Game Post. Perhaps the first appearance of Henri?

It's nice not to suck. It is. But we've seen this script before. It ends poorly. To get excited is to be vulnerable; caution and forced boredom is the order of the day. I am buying a beret and some urchins to smash upon my tummy. I will watch some reality television and complain about the weather. I may remark on the fact that the urchins these days don't taste as good as urchins used to. No quality in these urchins.

It's a front, but it's a useful one. Otter Lucy is holding the otterball for Otter Charlie Brown; get back to me in November to see whether we rush towards the cliff, hopes aloft, in 2007.

The Minnesota game is going to be on ESPN Classic. An effective BTN can’t come too soon.

Mike Hart is expected to play this coming Saturday after hurting his ankle in the first half of the Purdue game.

Blogpoll Ballot Week 7.

October 16 - Tuesday

Injuries were so rampant that they got their own post with spreadsheet.

Tuesday Recruitin’ is concerned because Sam McGuffie has been seen wearing a USC hat.

Unverified Voraci--DUCK IT’S CREEPILY TAN SKELETOR. In other words, Lindsay Lohan is wearing a ‘M’ sweatshirt.

Blogpoll Ballot Week 7 Updated.

October 17 - Wednesday

Blogpoll Week 6.

UFR: Offense vs. Purdue. It was great. Everything went well. In particular, Carlos Brown looks like he could be set to take over for Hart.

October 18 - Thursday

Content will be late today!

UFR: Defense vs. Purdue. Brandon Graham has turned into the best player on this defense and that was evident in this game with a +8.

Unverified Voracity, Saturday at Noon. Mike Hart might be good to go for the next game, maybe.

Sam McGuffie is on national television, so liveblog!

October 19 - Friday

Vicious Electronic Questioning, but since there is no Illinois blog to speak of at this point, it’s with Black Heart, Gold Pants. Illinois has just played Iowa.

Preview: Illinois.

Finally, three opportunities for me to look stupid Sunday:

  • Hart does play a bit, mostly on third downs as a blitz pickup guy.

  •  

  • Henne busts 300 yards and hits a season-high in attempts.

  •  

  • 31-21, Michigan.

Maybe Hart is out; maybe Juice Williams is out. Either way the line on the game is moving all over the place.

Unverified Voracity Defends Rock. Brian has to defend himself for not criticizing Les Miles for a game theory decision that everyone believes he would have criticized Lloyd for.

There are still conflicting reports about Hart. Ultimately, Brian thinks he is either out or severely limited.

On Saturday, October 20 Michigan beat 27-17. WH highlights.

October 21 - Sunday

Illinois liveblog.

Illinois torrent.

October 22 - Monday

Illinois game post.

Not so impressed was the person accompanying me, a baseball enthusiast at her first football game with little tolerance for the ad-hoc and often arcane set of rules cobbled together to make the sport clatter along without imploding. (Attempting to explain what, exactly, constituted holding proved too baffling a concept for both explainer and explain-ee; eventually I just said it was like pornography -- I knew it when I saw it -- and left it at that.) To her, the whole series of events that had just transpired was sordid and cheap and wide receivers can throw the ball? So why don't they throw it always? And what's with the random events? Where is the storyline? Why is this so ugly? Etc etc etc.

More LSU analysis. Miles passed up the a game winning field goal to take a shot at the endzone. Brian defends him.

October 23 - Tuesday

Mailbag says Brian was too negative after the Illinois game.  

Blogpoll Ballot Week 8.

October 24 - Wednesday

Blogpoll Week 8.

UFR: Defense vs. Illinois. A big day for Shawn Crable, and in general, the defense has come a long way since Appalachian St.

October 25 - Thursday

UFR: Offense vs. Illinois. Mallett is struggling and Stephen Schilling hasn’t been playing particularly well.

Unverified Voracity...is happy because channel 7 will also be carrying the Minnesota game this weekend. Also, ominous rumors about the maturity of Ryan Mallett:

FWIW, I've also received a couple notes along these lines, one about as well-sourced as these things get. The situation here is precarious; without a major attitude adjustment things could be very sketchy at quarterback next year.

October 26 - Friday

Preview: Minnesota.

Finally, three opportunities for me to look stupid Sunday:

  • No Hart, no Henne, no Manningham.

  •  

  • No problem.

  •  

  • 38-14, Michigan.

Unverified Voracity Not Charged with Felony. Actually it’s Manningham who wasn’t charged with a felony from a traffic stop over the summer.

October 27 - Saturday

Minnesota Open Thread.

Michigan beat Minnesota 34-10. WH highlights.

October 28 - Sunday

Minnesota game torrent.

October 29 - Monday

Unverified Voracity’s Running Around in Hurricane Katrina.  David Cone completed a pass at the end of the Minnesota game, and Minnesota coach Tim Brewster was not happy with Lloyd. Turns out this won’t be his last spat with a Michigan head coach.

Minnesota game column. Comments in the game thread were aflame. This was so bad that it elicited an apology to Brian.

I wanted to drop you an apology for the flame war that took place in the game comment thread. I got pretty pissed off at something that was said and unleashed a barrage of f-bombs and inappropriate insults. I know you like to keep that stuff to a minimum. I know you'll end up deleting the posts, but please don't ban me. It won't happen again. I won't comment for a few days and will come back with a clean mouth and without the anger.

Sorry.

The university is under scrutiny because there is allegedly not enough handicap access in the stadium.  

October 30 - Tuesday

Blogpoll Ballot Week 9.

A long post on Lloyd’s career against different levels of opponents, and compared to other coaches.

Unverified Voracity Suddenly Hates Cartoons. Hart says he is going to play on Saturday against MSU.

October 31 - Wednesday

Blogpoll ballot updated.

Blogpoll Week 9.

UFR will be coming this afternoon.

UFR: Offense vs. Minnesota. Mallett is still struggling. Thankfully, RB looks in good shape for ‘08 with the combination of Minor and Brown.  

Comments

PopeLando

October 15th, 2017 at 10:19 PM ^

Which one of these games was the Forward Fumble game? The play where Mallet fumbled FORWARD to Mike Hart, who then ran for a first down, and it was our first positive yards in what felt like forever?

stephenrjking

October 15th, 2017 at 11:49 PM ^

Wow was that Mallett info accurate. And he wasn't placating by playing, of course.

Pertinent to our present situation: he wasn't good, at all, as a freshman. He turned into a good college QB, it just took some time and perhaps a coach too distracted with interns to have actually discipline.

Love/hate the notes about Don Brown and Harbaugh here. Imagine RR plucking Brown out of UMass on a lark.

Worse yet, JH would have been a stretch to go after... but imagine that RR wins that game against Pitt and Michigan goes to Harbaugh out of desperation. Carr gruffs, JH apologizes and takes the job.

Man. That would have been some decade.

Seth

October 16th, 2017 at 5:08 AM ^

I forgot the details but the possible forfeiture was due to some stupid eligibility snafu with a freshman safety (Artis Chambers) because his high school wouldn't sign paperwork for his diploma (possibly out of spite for not going to the local program) or something. It was a Big Ten not an NCAA issue so it only affected the PSU game. Because Chambers got some special teams snaps.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/news/story?id=3049423

Maize.Blue Wagner

October 16th, 2017 at 8:30 PM ^

Ah thanks. Sometimes Brian's writing in this era was obscure. Some big event would pass and he would only give it a passing mention, or he would write about a basketball game but you wouldn't know the score or even who won without looking it up separately. It doesn't help that most of the ten year old links are broken.