Be Still My Heart -- ESPN Talks Positively About Michigan

Submitted by Enjoy Life on

Todd McShay: "Well guess what, Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson are the right parts. And I think this can work. Forcier is more of a dual threat and Robinson looks like he is Pat White minus the passing skills. Great speed"

Nice to be back in the sports news in a good way.

formerlyanonymous

September 9th, 2009 at 10:47 AM ^

Pat White minus the passing skills made me laugh. Does he remember Pat White when he first came out? I thought Denard rifled a few about as inaccurately as Pat White did with less arm strength.

Just my e-pinion.

EDIT: I don't think either were that wildly inaccurate to start, just neither was spot on, which is to be expected.

MGoAlumnus

September 9th, 2009 at 11:21 AM ^

Personally, I like that most outsiders are assuming that Denard cannot throw well. I may be looking into this a bit much, but I wouldn't be surprised if Rich Rod purposely limited Denard's throwing during the Western game. Then, against Notre Dame, Denard comes out and throws many of the =15 yard passes that he reportedly is quite accurate with.

I may just be overly optimistic here, but I guess we'll find out Saturday.

Cameron

September 9th, 2009 at 11:40 AM ^

I think the "Denard can't pass" talk comes solely from the Tate comparison.

I wouldn't call him a polished passer. But he did successfully execute a bubble screen, which would have have put him atop last year's QB crop.

samgoblue

September 9th, 2009 at 2:06 PM ^

I think the biggest issue with Denard is his ability to read a defense and make the right throws without locking onto his first read. If you watched him in the game, he would look directly at the receiver he was going to throw to.

More experienced DBs will make him pay for that. IMHE, his bigger issue is with understanding the offense, not with throwing the ball.

mjv

September 9th, 2009 at 11:54 AM ^

FA, I agree with, but it is likely that McShay only got to see the cuts of a few plays from several games. So he sees the play where Denard is late making his decision on the long ball up the right side and it goes incomplete. From a very limited data set and a whole lot of assumptions, he's Pat White (as people remember him from his junior and senior years) less the passing ability.

Brodie

September 9th, 2009 at 11:15 AM ^

McShay played FCS football (albeit as a walkon) and worked as a scout for Scouts, Inc. Mel Kiper started a newsletter about who he thought was a good draft pick while in community college and got laughed off when he applied for a job as an NFL scout. Guess who's epinion I'd trust?

Tater

September 9th, 2009 at 11:00 AM ^

As Michigan wins more, the "fall of Michigan" will officially become "old news," and Michigan will reclaim its place among the elite, both in the polls and in the tone of their coverage. A nice win over ND and a 5-0 start should turn Michigan football coverage into another "RR turnaround" story. 9-3 would be a great turnaround, but I have a feeling that even 8-4 with a win in an easier bowl game for a total of 9-4 would be enough to turn most of the stories into either "
RR turnaround" or "Michigan football is back."

Shalom Lansky

September 9th, 2009 at 11:15 AM ^

I'm not putting much stock in their about face, it symbolizes nothing more than ESPN jumping on the story of the minute. Michigan wins, they're back! Michigan loses this week, they're not back and Rich Rod won't last the season!

Bmarks

September 9th, 2009 at 12:36 PM ^

Colin Cowherd just finished talking to Sweatervest and mentioned that he was kinda pulling for Michigan because he's sick of people piling on RichRod. This guy flip-flops like no other. Maybe its because the "mother station" is broadcasting the game instead of the Domers' NBC.

NorCalGoBloo

September 9th, 2009 at 1:11 PM ^

...if the fact that ABC was broadcasting this game would visibly alter the ESPN hype machine's content for the week. Signs point to yes, though it could just be excessive backpeddling after all of last week's drama and the win.

At least we won't have to stomach another NBC domer homer broadcast...

Blue in Yarmouth

September 9th, 2009 at 1:21 PM ^

Some have already mentioned the fact that this is likely just going to last until we lose a game. Once we lose one it will be right back to doom and gloom for UM as far as ESPN and most other media outlets are concerned. Screw 'em all. We had a great first game and hopefully we can pull off the upset this weekend. ND wasn't tested by the D of Nevada but they should be getting all they can handle this weekend. If we can run the ball and control the clock I think we have a much better shot than most people think. Honestly, if we win this I am going straight after all those ND fans who have been rubbing in how badly they whipped us last year, inspite of the fact that we lead in virtually every statistic except turnover margin and score. They beat us, but didn't whip us by a long shot. I don't think there is an ND fan alive that thinks we can pull this off so we could get in some serious gloating if we win. LETS GO BLUE!