2007 Rose Bowl

Submitted by Demar Dorsey 4ever on

I figured I would let everyone know at 11:30 am  on ESPN U they are going to show Michigan vs USC in the 2007 Rose Bowl.

Get to Henne, Hart, Breaston along with others. Even though it was a lost it will be cool to watch all of them again.

bacon1431

August 8th, 2010 at 10:57 AM ^

This game was just flat out depressing. It was an anti-climactic result to what was a great season and somewhat of a letdown playing in the Rose Bowl rather than the NCG (although, if the Rose Bowl is a letdown, I'll take that every year). Our pass defense just withered and our offense couldn't do a thing all day.

Don

August 8th, 2010 at 11:11 AM ^

I collected a variety of quotes in the immediate aftermath of the game, and reading them again brings back the same immense feelings of frustration.

.............

"USC center Ryan Kalil knew Michigan's defensive front had been feared most of the season, but he said the Trojans were totally prepared for everything they saw.

"They were very, very comfortable with their schemes and we didn't feel they would change up too much, and they didn't," Kalil said. "There was nothing we didn't see. We were able to call it all out, whether it was from myself or John David Booty . We were able to see everything."
 
"USC's center, Ryan Kalil, and its defensive end, Lawrence Jackson, both talked about the predictable nature of Michigan's strategy -- on both sides of the ball. Jackson called U-M's defense traditional and stale. Meanwhile, USC -- after mustering only three points in the first half Monday -- scrapped its plan and came out throwing."
 
Carr:
"What we discussed at the half we are still in the game at 3-3 was going earlier to our two-minute offense [shotgun formation, more open plays]," he said. "But we wanted to protect our defense, so we decided to stay with the plan."
 
Cushing.... praised the Wolverines afterward because that is what players are taught to do and there is no percentage in not doing so. But he also admitted that he had been well-enough prepared to know what was coming with just about every Michigan trip to the line of scrimmage.
 
"Yup, pretty much so," he said. "I understand what they were trying to do," Cushing said. "It is the Big Ten mentality to try and overpower you."
..........................
 
One of the reasons I was looking forward to the RR era was the hope that we would approach games like this with a different mentality. I hope RR gets the chance to show whether that's true.
 

samgoblue

August 8th, 2010 at 12:16 PM ^

One thing I can't help but notice is how absolutely stacked our team is in 2006. I mean, on defense alone, we have 9(!) starters that eventually made an NFL roster! How long until we're in a position where our team is that talented again? Has RichRod's recruiting put us in a position to get back there anytime soon? I can understand that this or that player is good/pretty good/very good, but overall, can we expect the talent level to return to 2006 days anytime soon?

mgobleu

August 8th, 2010 at 12:21 PM ^

My wife and I were there on our honeymoon. I can remember 3 things: 1, we were dead tired from drivng straight thru from Vegas the night before, 2, we lost pretty bad, 3, the guy right behind me screaming, "GET BOOTY! F-ING KILL BOOTY!" alllllll daaaaaayy looooooonnnng.

Don

August 8th, 2010 at 12:59 PM ^

I'm not sure we would have beaten their ass—they were a pretty damn good team—but you're absolutely 100% correct in thinking that if we'd opened it up the way we were capable of doing, we would have been in the game with as good a chance to win as USC had.

Instead, the coaching decision at the half to keep our offense bottled up by choice in the second half was one of the most maddeningly risk-averse and ultimately self-defeating choices that I've ever seen a Michigan coaching staff make.

Kennyvr1

August 8th, 2010 at 1:39 PM ^

Of Lloyd Carr and his staff being completely out coached by the opponent. I'm sorry to all of those who love Lloyd but come on now it happened time and time again. We had like that dude said above 9 players on D in the league right now....Woodley, Harris, Hall, Branch, etc...then Henne, Hart, Breaston, Manningham, Long etc on offense...USC didn't have that much talent. We were not prepared as per usual for a Carr team out west. No in game adjustments...typical. The worst part is anyone with half a football brain could have predicted this outcome just like many Lloyd coached games.

Moe Greene

August 8th, 2010 at 3:17 PM ^

talk about a game in which throwing rock a little less might have helped....

trust that this staff won't approach their first bowl game like that....

tokarz76

August 8th, 2010 at 3:29 PM ^

I was at this game with my wife (we were also there for the game 2 years earlier vs Texas) and it was terrrible. The USC fans sitting next to us were calling our offensive plays as soon as we lined up. They knew, like the USC defense that our O was very predictable. We definitely needed to open it up like we did vs Florida the next year. The ONLY cool thing about this trip to Pasedena for me was sharing the hand washing facilities with a gentleman who had a mangled pinky that when i looked up was attached to Ronnie Lott's arm. Oh yeah also cool was the parade with grand marshall george lucas. other than that the trip sucked

energyblue1

August 8th, 2010 at 3:31 PM ^

They flat attacked notre dame all game long on defense, went after them in a big way.  They blitzed from different angles, they dropped off guys from blitzing into coverage.  They didn't let up at all.

Against usc, they rarely blitzed or brought pressure they waited till the 4th qtr to even start bringing lbers, they just tried to let the front 4 control the los.  Wich was fine the 1st half when usc was finding out where they stood against this front. 

Offensively, they ran the same protections as usuall and just like 2003 rb usc exploited them, constantly blitzing weakside but bringing pressure strongside to hold the back from looking weakside for protection, and henne never adjusted his calls to roll protections, ever....and the dumbshyte couldn't figure out why he was getting hit all game long. 

 

Manningham, Arrington and Butler were not on that game catching the ball at all.  Henne didn't have timing with them so I still wonder if they were putting in any extra hours themselves and based on all the reports leading up to the rosebowl way too many players were partying rather then focused on the game like they should have been. 

Watch this video, michigan completely owned and dominated nd while usc was beating nd they couldn't ever put the game away.  Tell me if this team shows up usc can beat them, cause I don't see it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4AJA-CBBQo

energyblue1

August 8th, 2010 at 5:17 PM ^

That game was an exact replay of the 03 rosebowl.... no adjustments, not attacking and not prepared for what you had already seen. 

Offense, never ever used motion to force usc to show it's hand, never shifted with 10seconds in the play clock to force usc to adjust last second.  And Henne never even audibled his protections or shifted them weak side, why usc showed strongside overload and he never adjusted, the staff never called anything to counter.  Not to mention they left alex mitchel in to get his tail handed to him.     Usc fans were calling our plays based on formation, personel and down/distance.....  what do you think the usc staff and players were doing.

 

Defense, same thing, usc staff / players prepared for our front English and company didn't bring any new twists, stunts they hadn't run before, no new blitz's.... at all.  And one of the things that oregon st did I thought for sure michigan would try was put corner man up on the los to jam with a safety straight over for deep coverage, ie read the play you read run he comes up and fills, he reads drop step by the tackle he drops for deep coverage and oregon state took him out of the game with lesser athletes!  4 and 5 wr's also leads to different blitz oppertunities if the staff has balls to do them.  They bitlzed the hell out of leaf in 97 but didn't have the balls to blitz usc?  Most of usc's picking them apart was letting booty sit back.

And I'll state this,  usc's oline was holding all game long, at least 8 plays I saw the usc ot hanging on for dear life against woodley 4 times hanging on from behind and never called.  One reason you blitz is to expose those things, ie if a tackle is getting his tail handed to him he gets so focused on his matchup he is missing his calls to other olinemn cause he isn't seeing other players, thus you start pounding the qb!  BTW, booty had been getting hit that game, just a matter of ramping up pressure and bringing what they didn't see before would have allowed them to get there earlier rather then after he delivered the pass! 

jmblue

August 8th, 2010 at 8:05 PM ^

In the first half our pressure got to Booty, but then SC made one key halftime adjustment: they rolled the pocket (always to the right side).  We were unable to come up with any kind of a counterpunch.   

Bando Calrissian

August 8th, 2010 at 4:14 PM ^

Blocked most of this one out, except for those indelible memories of USC wideouts flat-out burning our secondary.

The kinds of things that keep you up at night...  I don't feel any particular need to add to them on a re-viewing.

Gocannon16

August 8th, 2010 at 6:00 PM ^

I walked into fuzzy's tacos for lunch down here in texas look up at the tv and immediately realized i was going to take a lot of crap for my michigan shirt.  Oh well i toughed it out, and hopefully changed a couple peoples minds about where the program is headed.