October 3rd, 2009 at 8:08 PM ^
I hope, I hope, I hope.
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:13 PM ^
Iowa is a very beatable team. Playing them at home at night makes things far more difficult, but they are not the team the rest of the country thinks they are.
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:14 PM ^
Yes. Ferentz can be outcoached, I think. Also, even the Iowa fanbase is not sold on Ricky Stanzi. Still.
(On a Ferentz-related note, the guy has to be the least charismatic recruiter ever, if his performance in the Big Ten commercials is any indication. Most of the coaches manage to sound at least a little excited about their school, but not KF.)
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:20 PM ^
He had one or two solid classes when ND was really down, but after that, he lost the pipeline into some of the Illinois schools he had and just wasn't able to maintain the momentum from the early 2000s.
But a lot of Iowa fans will tell you that Ferentz is god and things are just fine recruiting.
Until they lose. Then everything is awful.
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:21 PM ^
Dantonio is not much better. He can't even crack a smile in a fake recruiting pitch.
October 4th, 2009 at 12:09 AM ^
But no offense, but your wrong.
Iowa is a very good team.
1. Fundamentals are solid,
2. They have good quick shifty running backs. Wegher (who the announcers are in love with) is legit (he tore up my high school team in the state championship game last year)
3. Its at home, a night game, and its homecoming
4. Kinnick's visitor locker room is pink.
Now they can be beaten yes, their passing game is nowhere near as good as anyone thinks. Stanzi is not that good.
Their defense is way better then MSU's, in fact i would put it as the top defense in the big ten. Their line is big strong and fast, look at the penn state game, penn state's line isn't that great, but still, they had pressure on clarke on almost every throw. Tyler Sash is leading the nation with 5 picks. Their linebackers names are some of the best linebacker names (Angerer pronounced without the second er and Hunter. and are the second best linebacker corps in the big ten. SO i would bet that unless we somehow fix what we were doing wrong against Michigan state, we won't be able to run the ball against Iowa either.
Now they always have problems with the smaller teams ie. Northern Iowa, and Arkansas State, yet they pull it out in the end. two blocked field goals in the last 7 seconds. yet they always are on the top of their game for the big games.
DISCLAIMER- I am a Michigan fan, but living in an extremely biased environment, you do hear all this info about Iowa, and i still wasn't able to get any d*** tickets
October 4th, 2009 at 3:05 AM ^
I said this at the beginning of the season that I thought psu was over-rated. It would be huge to be able to upset them. I think our poor offence can get away with not being good with Iowa b/c they're offence isn't that good. Their D on the other hand...
October 4th, 2009 at 5:24 AM ^
Michigan needs to shore up its offensive line play (the loss of Molk has been huge) and find a way to totally forget the MSU loss. Iowa has a great defense, but their offense is average. We have an explosive offense and, despite Iowa's defense, should be able to put up enough points to keep this game close. My biggest concern is that the Michigan players will not be able to let go of the MSU loss fast enough and it will carry over to next week. I hope that doesn't happen. But if we can steal a W in Iowa City, we come home to Delaware State and should be 6-1 going into the PSU game. Not bad for mostly freshmen and sophomores.
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:14 PM ^
we have a good shot of winning against Iowa. They seem to have struggled against some of the "Northern" Iowa's and Arkansas's of the world so we have a shot. I hope we can cover and get some sacks this week or it may be a long night.
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:46 PM ^
You're right. Unfortunately, we mean more to Iowa than NIU and Arkansas State. They'll be ready. I'm ready for us to bring a mean streak like we did against WMU and ND.
October 4th, 2009 at 3:21 AM ^
this is also the Iowa that beat Penn State rather soundly.
Illinois and Purdue are teams I think we should beat. Of course Delaware State. That's 7 wins.
The rest are toss-ups in my book. I was more hopeful leading into this game but this performance today puts doubts into my mind as to how improved this team is from last season.
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:20 PM ^
Right now it feels like we can beat any team or lose to any team (save Del St.) left on the schedule.
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:22 PM ^
Oh god, we're going to lose to Delaware St! Ahhhh! Where's the nearest cliff for me to jump off! The end is near!
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:33 PM ^
How many folks really think that today? I heard a few people already say that we'd be lucky to win any more games this year. I hope they were just venting...
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:37 PM ^
I believe that we shouldn't read too much into this game. Does it suck? YES. We move on and find some good things from it. I hope that you slapped those who said we wouldn't win anymore games.
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:38 PM ^
Sadly, there are probably more than a few people who think we will lose the remainder of our games.
Luckily, those people tend to have extreme highs and lows, and they'll be just fine by tomorrow.
October 4th, 2009 at 5:43 AM ^
Nobody really believes that, they are just venting. Just like the team, we all should be allowed 24 hours to wallow in self-pity and recrimination and then forget it. Rivalry or not, it is only one game (sorry, Sparty, you don't get to count it as two or three no matter how badly you need the wins). We are now 4-1 and Sparty is now 2-3. And, despite all the Sparty hatred, going into Iowa City and beating an undefeated Iowa team that is ranked in the top 12 or so will more than make up for going into East Lansing and dropping a game in OT to a 1-3 Sparty who will not be playing on New Year's Day. We need to get our swagger back and focus on kicking some Hawkeye ass.
October 4th, 2009 at 8:41 AM ^
For "This Week in Schadenfreude". Fortunately, Brian writes that piece on TSB, so here's to hoping no one but UM fans read MGoBlog, (yeah, right).
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:25 PM ^
and play in front of a fired up homecoming crowd. Their effort will almost certainly increase compared to today's lackluster performance. Michigan really needs a big win on the road to build confidence but we might have to wait until @Illinois on Halloween. On the other hand, if Michigan can keep it close, I like their chances down the stretch. Honestly, after today, who wouldn't??
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:33 PM ^
I think we can make a more energetic showing that we did today. Some teams get intimidated by the big night games on the road, other teams thrive on the energy. I hope we're in the latter category.
I also agree that Iowa is not *that* good. If we play as well as we're capable of, then I think we have just as good as chance of winning as they do.
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:18 PM ^
The last Iowa homecoming I attended (2007), they lost to Indiana. So. You know.
I've attended a couple of games at Kinnick, and I'm not sold on the idea that it's a really intimidating place to play (like, say, Happy Valley or the Horseshoe).
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:26 PM ^
If they lose after putting up a strong fight, then the better team won. It just means we have to improve, and that we will. Every game is a lesson learned for this young football team and i think we are headed in the right direction. To almost pull off that victory in the first away game, with a bunch of fresh and sophs, under inclement weather is just impressive.
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:28 PM ^
After five games, it doesn't seem like our team can play steady football both on offense and defense. They haven't yet come together as cohesive units. We beat ND at home, but almost everybody (Sparty, Purdue, and Washington) else has played ND with a chance to beat them to the last seconds. We won big against Western and Eastern at home. Eastern lost today 12-24 at home against Temple. Western lost 38-3 at Northern Illinois. And we know we kind of struggled against Indiana at home. We played horrible for the first three quarters today. Not saying we can't pull off a win next week, but I'll temper my optimism a little bit, and will be curious to see how these young wolverines progress from now on.
Go Blue!
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:34 PM ^
agreed. more questions than answers at this point with respect to gauging how good we really are.
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:55 PM ^
I think Western is surprising, but Eastern is a truly awful team.
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:03 PM ^
more about the same. Which is probably another way of saying what you're saying. There will be some great moments that will be tempered with some frustrating ones. I doubt much will come easy for this team, but they're competitive. That's key. They will likely continue to be fun to watch, win or lose.
They played a team with its back against the wall, one that absolutely had to win to salvage any kind of respectable season, got their asses handed to them for most of the game, and yet still found a way to make it interesting at the end.
Now that some of the young guys have a road game under their belts, hopefully they get some things worked out this week, come out with some fire in Iowa City.
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:40 PM ^
This is a very young team, and young teams do tend to be inconsistent. Look at that Florida team we beat in the Capitol One in Carr's last season. They had Tebow, Harvin and a ton of young talent, but they were up and down and list three regular season games and a bowl game on top of it. The next year they had most of those players back, cut the points they allowed nearly in half and won the BSC title game.
I'm not suggesting by any stretch of the imagination that we're going to be as good as Florida was last year. Unfortunately we have don't nearly as much talent on hand. Nonetheless, we should be competitive in most or all games this year, and we should be greatly improved next year.
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:54 PM ^
I had no clue how important Molk was to this team
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:08 PM ^
Molk's absence is HUGE. Pass protection and run blocking are clearly suffering with him out of the line up.
What's interesting is the more often than not solid play in the red zone of this overall poor defense. They held IU and Michigan State to field goals when the chips were down.
October 4th, 2009 at 5:49 AM ^
Yeah, the red zone defense has been very good. I think that highlights the fact that the weakness on defense is largely with the LB/DB. When the field is compressed, they are well coached enough that they can make the plays. When the field is stretched, they don't have the talent and/or experience in the secondary. I am sure the coaches know this and have a plan to correct it. It will just take some time.
October 3rd, 2009 at 10:02 PM ^
Some of those bad snaps today were costly.
October 3rd, 2009 at 10:41 PM ^
the weather had something to do with that.
October 3rd, 2009 at 10:32 PM ^
Yeah, really. You don't know what you've got til it's gone! Here's hoping he'll be back for the PSU game.
October 4th, 2009 at 12:12 AM ^
agreed i have tickets to that game, and i am hoping to come and see a win (knock on wood)
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:13 PM ^
We all predicted at least one loss. So, here it came today. Why is the sky falling? We are still on our way to a good season. We are going to win some games we thought we might not and we will lose some games we expected to win. Life with freshmen/sophmores. But, they are an awesome bunch of underclassmen. We are gonna take it to Iowa next week.
Go Blue!!!
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:24 PM ^
I am curious to know who predicted only 1 loss. I thought everyone predicted 3+ losses.
October 3rd, 2009 at 10:39 PM ^
THE_KNOWLEDGE predicted a 12-1 season.
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:48 PM ^
Iowa Shucks
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:51 PM ^
I had Iowa picked as one of our losses this season but now I am not sure. That was based on us winning this one. I think we will come out with renewed grit after this heartbreaking loss. And Iowa, well, they definitely have what it takes to beat badass teams but they seem not entirely consistent. Hell, we're still gonna go 10-2 one way or another, I vouch.
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:19 PM ^
Musberger mentioned a few minutes ago that he and Herbstreit will be doing the game in Iowa City next week. So our young guns will be playing the in the primetime, nationwide slot. I don't know if that changes anything, but it certainly surprised me. Not sure if this means Game Day is going to be there as well.
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:25 PM ^
Big Ten scheduling is weird. Iowa is one of those teams that we don't seem to play that much. It seems like we're always either coming off a two-year hiatus with them, or on the verge of another one. Meanwhile, we're going to play PSU for the 15th time in 17 years. They claim it's all done by computer, but I wonder. (Not that I dislike playing PSU, mind you.)
October 4th, 2009 at 12:10 AM ^
Get State off the schedule...I don't even want them in the Big Ten. They are a waste of my efforts. It is like scheduling in-state MAC schools. No recruiting benefit what-so-ever.
If we win, well, hell we are supposed to. If we lose, the sky is falling and the world has changed.
I see no problem with removing them from the annual slate.