Bielema back 12 years after an arguable all-time low for Michigan Football
Wisconsin vs. Michigan - Game Recap - November 20, 2010 - ESPN
350 on the ground without their number one running back.
I remember the ghoulish smirk on his dorky, pudgy face as they called like 25 straight run plays in the second half. Like it was yesterday.
I was sitting there sad for the players and the Coach who I never doubted were trying their best. Wondering how it got like that in under three years.
I did enjoy at one point after he went to Arkansas and made a fool of himself at a coaches' clinic deriding the spread, preaching how he was going to teach SEC teams about power football.
Game program fan trivia fluff. As a fan it stuck with me. Never thinking he'd be back after the Arkansas flame out.
November 13th, 2022 at 1:32 PM ^
Why the fuck would you do this? Did we all sleep with your wife or something?
November 13th, 2022 at 3:03 PM ^
I never touched the girl!
Wait....what was the question????
November 13th, 2022 at 1:33 PM ^
UM is a modern power team and has speed all over the place. They will give his defense the same treatment he tries to do and that should frustrate him. The big weakness is the receivers’ inability to get open and to make downfield catches. I’m not buying that’s all McCarthy - probably not even half his fault. They haven’t needed an air game yet, but they may need to in order to keep up with OSU. The slow strangle rushing method may not work if the other team is scoring at a rapid pace.
November 13th, 2022 at 2:28 PM ^
They sure didn’t in the second half last year.
November 13th, 2022 at 2:44 PM ^
Yes, here is your evidence.
November 13th, 2022 at 3:40 PM ^
Everyone keeps saying this but it is alternating possessions still yes? If the ground game is working, no matter how awesome their passing game is working, we dont need to change anything. Now I agree if for some reason they make Iowa and Penn States run defense look far inferior to theirs then we will have some issues.
November 13th, 2022 at 11:22 PM ^
We don't have the big, tall, rangy, wide receiver that can go up and get that 50-50 ball. Our current WRs are all the "speed in space" types recruited by Gattis.
November 13th, 2022 at 1:33 PM ^
I take solace in the fact that Penn State will remember this year’s Michigan game in the same manner.
November 13th, 2022 at 1:36 PM ^
Need to beat his fat ass like a drum.
November 13th, 2022 at 1:38 PM ^
that was a lowlight. thx for ruining my sunday
November 13th, 2022 at 1:39 PM ^
NateVolk (OP), I was at that game and I disagree that it represented an all-time low. Really, there are so many choices during those years:
- 11/1/2008: Michigan loses a close game at Purdue and guarantees that their long bowl streak will end and that they'll have a losing record for the first time in many years. (We will always have the Martavious Odoms punt return for a TD.)
- 10/11/2008: Michigan loses to a lousy MAC team (Toledo) at home and manages to put up only ten points in the process.
- 2008-2010: Michigan loses to OSU and MSU all three years.
At least we had Denard in 2010. A winning record, too, barely. Unless your manhood was offended by all that running (which I sense to be the case in the MGoBlog readership) I don't think the 2010 game is close to the all-time low.
I didn't even touch on the first game of 2007, where #5 Michigan lost to an FCS team that would later lose to Georgia Southern and Wofford that season. "People" are still talking about it.
November 13th, 2022 at 2:17 PM ^
The three worst years in the history of Michigan football.
November 13th, 2022 at 1:40 PM ^
This summed up the RichRod years. The agony of having no faith that we could get a stop on defense. Dreading Saturday for the first time in my life. UGH!!! I won't go back. I refuse to go back.
We knew before this game was even played that Bert was douchebag.
November 13th, 2022 at 2:02 PM ^
RichRod's reign proved that to play in the BigTen or at any high level, there must be more than just offense. He never got that message - as can be shown in his time at Arizona, where he had a few amazing seasons with a kid, Khalil Tate - 2017: 1590 yards passing 1411 rushing, 2018: 2530 passing, 224 rushing but the team 7-6, and 5-7.
November 13th, 2022 at 2:16 PM ^
And RR’s excuse was to blame having freshman in the game on D. Good riddance
November 13th, 2022 at 2:51 PM ^
And yet there remains a sizable minority here that thinks RR "got screwed." He was a lousy coach who wrecked the program (and was also kind of a sleazebag.)
November 13th, 2022 at 3:04 PM ^
Both are possible at the same time.
I'm not one of those people who thinks that RichRod deserved another year, or that he would have been successful if only Mallett had stayed.
But I'd like to point out that RichRod won more games every season, and he didn't have an "only won with [predecessor's] star players", which is something relatively unique for a coach taking over from a successful coach.
His flaws (and general sleaziness) are his own. But he also gave Michigan some of the best offensive talents we ever had.
The nuance I'd make here is: RichRod put us seriously behind the 8-ball as a program. Hoke and Brandon were the ones who wrecked us.
November 13th, 2022 at 3:43 PM ^
But I'd like to point out that RichRod won more games every season,
Meh.
2007 (Carr): 9-4 overall, 6-2 Big Ten
2008 (RR): 3-9, 2-6
2009 (RR): 5-7, 1-7
2010 (RR): 7-6, 3-5
Look at the conference record. We actually declined in his second year and in his third, were one whole game better than in year one.
Three consecutive losing conference records at Michigan is brutal. None of Bo, Mo or Lloyd ever posted a losing conference season. Harbaugh only did in the Covid year. RR did it all three years.
Our improvement in the overall record essentially boiled down to 1) not losing to any other MAC opponents after 2008, and 2) squeaking by two ND teams that were as bad as us. Games like the aforementioned UW debacle showed how far off we still were, three years in.
November 13th, 2022 at 1:41 PM ^
The ole 3-3-5 in the Big Ten! Nothing like seeing 300 lb+ O-Lineman driving Defensive Linemen and Linebackers into the secondary. Ahh memories!
November 13th, 2022 at 2:08 PM ^
I have a funny feeling that the defense still would've been inept that year if a LB was swapped for a D-lineman. Other teams have run the 3-3-5 successfully. Also, pretty much all Power Five conferences have big offensive linemen.
November 13th, 2022 at 1:41 PM ^
Was at game yesterday with MGoBrother and noted that second half was the nadir for me. Ran essentially same play every down in the second half, we knew it, and just were not physically able to stop them. Dispiriting.
November 13th, 2022 at 1:47 PM ^
I wonder if Rich Rod ever regretted running off Mallett, Manningham and Arrington? The latter two of course left because they knew without Mallett, there was no reason to stick around. Talk about what might have been.
November 13th, 2022 at 1:56 PM ^
By Mallett's own admission he didn't get run off, he ran off. He said he had a five minute meet with RR, said RR thought he could work with him with the spread. Mallett says it was obvious to him RR didn't understand his skill set, so he picked up his bags and left.
November 13th, 2022 at 3:18 PM ^
That's more what I was referring to. It was clear at the time that the attempt to keep him was rather perfunctory. Interestingly enough, it was immediately after they went spread with Henne against Florida in the bowl game and tore them up with a QB who wasn't a prototypical spread QB. Sometimes you have to modify your approach to fit your personnel rather than the other way around.
November 13th, 2022 at 10:07 PM ^
But but everyone says Lloyd Carr was the one who encouraged Mallet to transfer…(eye roll)
November 13th, 2022 at 2:21 PM ^
Ugh, what I wouldn’t give for a Manningham on this team
November 14th, 2022 at 12:14 PM ^
I'd take Darboh or Roundtree at this point. Nothing is clicking with the passing right now.
What happened with Wilson? Are they even looking his direction anymore?
November 13th, 2022 at 1:54 PM ^
No, the all time low was either the Horror or losing to Toledo.
But hey, thanks for the kick in the nuts after a great Saturday.
November 13th, 2022 at 3:02 PM ^
Appalachian State was a very good FCS team In 2007. In 2008, Toledo went 3-9. We were their only non-conference win.
November 13th, 2022 at 3:11 PM ^
This is of course true, but part of what makes that loss so bad is that (a) no one cares that AppState was really pretty decent that year and (b) it just keeps getting brought up over and over and over.
I agree that, from a purely on-field standpoint, the Toledo loss was worse.
November 13th, 2022 at 11:09 PM ^
I was at that Toledo game. It was brutal.
Nick Moore
Nick Moore
Nick Moore
Nick Moore
Nick Moore
20 fucking receptions.
November 13th, 2022 at 1:59 PM ^
I was at that game and it was rough, but it doesn't bother me now. Games like that just allowed us to rip off the RichRod band-aid sooner rather than have it drag out for years (and possibly have his off-field behavior blow up on us).
It's just unfortunate that Brandon was too dense to grasp that Harbaugh was the guy to pursue that winter. Jim could have come here four years earlier.
November 13th, 2022 at 2:37 PM ^
I try to imagine Harbaugh working for Brandon and...
I can't.
But he went to work for Baalke and York. So what do I know.
November 13th, 2022 at 2:53 PM ^
Brandon simply shouldn't have been hired. Almost anyone else would have been smart enough to go after Harbaugh (and would have avoided a lot of the other stupid things Brandon did).
November 13th, 2022 at 2:09 PM ^
Revenge is a dish best served cold. November cold.
November 13th, 2022 at 2:35 PM ^
Fuck Bort Bigglema
November 13th, 2022 at 2:35 PM ^
God, I'd forgotten what an insufferable prick Bielema is. I hope we run for 500 on them. His comments after that game:
"What we do isn't pretty," Bielema said. "A lot of places, there's a certain emphasis on being pretty and being individualized on players."
That seemed to be a shot at Michigan, especially after Bielema was asked about Denard Robinson's 360-yard, four-TD performance.
"For them, that's great," Bielema said. "We would never recruit to that."
November 13th, 2022 at 2:45 PM ^
Why am I all of a sudden hearing Josh Groban singing?
November 13th, 2022 at 2:55 PM ^
(facepalm emoji)
November 13th, 2022 at 4:33 PM ^
That was such a unnecessarily pissy comment. He couldn't just compliment Denard on an incredible individual performance while praising the "what we do" he referred to? Or atleast just not be a dickhead?
November 13th, 2022 at 2:45 PM ^
The silly, fat wanker had the easiest division crown in the nation on the platter for him, and he proceeds to lose to MSU and Purdue at home in successive weeks. Enjoy your ass beating in 6 days Bert.
November 13th, 2022 at 3:39 PM ^
That was so bad. Wisconsin had a 3rd and 9, ran it and got 14 for the first down. Michigan football did spend years in the wilderness.
November 13th, 2022 at 4:23 PM ^
Hey, now we do that on third down. And sometimes on other downs, too.
November 13th, 2022 at 3:50 PM ^
I live in Wisconsin and remember that game very well. The Badger radio announcers were laughing hysterically because Wisconsin didn't throw a pass and manhandled the Wolverines. I was seething.
November 13th, 2022 at 4:30 PM ^
"Without their #1 running back".
James White and Montee Ball were the guys that shredded M that day while John Clay was out.
They had their best running backs that day.
Also, "all-time low" for M football? This is a bad OP. Well, atleast those two points are lol.
November 13th, 2022 at 8:41 PM ^
Clay started every game but the last 3 (when he was injured). He was the team's leading rusher at the point of the injury.
He was in the final 3 for the Doak Walker Award after the season. He was on the preseason Doak Walker, Maxwell, and Camp award watch lists.
He led the Big Ten in rushing and rushing touchdowns in 2009.
Those other two guys were also very good and had very good seasons. But Clay was number 1 on their depth chart and started ahead of them except for the games he was out with injury. At the end of the season, he led the team in carries despite missing all or most of those three games.