Pep Talk - For once, remember 2007
Pep Talk
Half the fun of being a sports fan is game day, but the other half is talking with friends and fellow fans about your expectations going forward, which is what we typically do the other 352 days of the year when our team isn’t playing. As Michigan fans our expectations are obviously high to begin with, and I doubt anyone would debate Hoke’s initial success, coupled with his stellar recruiting, have set the expectation bar quite high for the future.
Then Akron happens, from which many (including myself) are beginning to harbor doubts for that otherwise sunny looking future. So Akron spoiled 352 days out of this year for us?
Hearken or harken (the words are oddly interchangeable) back to a certain 2007 HORROR followed by the second HORROR where Dennis Dixon collectively took all of our mothers named Dorothy out for a nice seafood dinner and then never called them back. How low were we as fans then…. But a funny thing happened on the way to the rodeo. As I recall, our downtrodden heroes turned that ship around and banded together to spank ND. Later, they faced down the might Florida spread attack, subsequently handing Timmy “Thank you Jesus for being in my corner but not my opponent’s corner” Tebow and one chinless head coach their first bowl loss, not to mention beating a highly favored, ESS EE CEE team. This was the SAME MICHIGAN TEAM!!
Now. That team was senior laden, and star laden. This team is exceptionally young. That team actually LOST those first two games, this team found a way to win Saturday. Coincidentally, much like that 2007 team, this team will face down said chinless head coach come season end. That team beat him. This team will too.
So. If any of you are guilty of lowered expectations, then isn't this an indictment of what happened in 2007 in general? I put it to you, MGoBloggers – aren’t these gloomy posts an indictment of our entire Michigan fan base society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of Michigan Football. Gentlemen!
September 16th, 2013 at 12:31 PM ^
September 16th, 2013 at 1:31 PM ^
My point exactly! If a 1-2 team can then go on to vanquish the combined forces of Jesus, Tebow and the Urbinator, the sky remains the limit for this team!
September 16th, 2013 at 12:31 PM ^
App State happened. Bill Martin and Lloyd Carr should've done their homework before scheduling App State. Defending champs with a dual threat D-1 quality QB. That does not equal the sacrifical lamb they thought they were getting. If you're going to get a team at that level, then get Delaware State or UMass and blast them.
Oregon once again showed that in 13 years as a HC, Lloyd Carr's teams still couldn't contain a dual threat QB.
We had to come back to beat State again, reminding people that the gap between the two programs had closed.
Despite all that, we beat Florida in the bowl game, showing what our potential could have been for the year.
And Illinois played in the Rose Bowl instead of us because we couldn't defend our home field to start the season.
How about we leave 2007 in 2007 and strive for something better than bittersweet seasons.
September 16th, 2013 at 12:31 PM ^
C'mon guys, teams have bad games all the time. It's over...move on.
So much of the success of a football team rides on quarterback play. That doesn't mean it's entirely Gardners fault, but if that one thing alone improves the team will be fine. He had a rough game just like most QB's do from time to time. 2-time SB champ Eli Manning just threw 4 int's yesterday.
September 16th, 2013 at 12:48 PM ^
I was thinking 9-3 before the season started and still think that today. The expectation is always a B1G title. We will see if we meet that expectation and win more than I was thinking.
September 16th, 2013 at 2:05 PM ^
Same here - I thought 9-3 with ND being a nailbiter and Akron a laugher. So ....wrong on details but correct at 40K feet. This team is deficient on the lines but Devin can solve the OL issues by being Vince Young 2.0. There will be games he is not. He need not be Vince Young 2.0 every game - just certain games.
Pluses - we have Devin, who will be better than not most games. We have Gallon who seemed a bit dinged up Saturday. We have a Big 10 schedule - these are not world beaters we are facing. We have good LBs - but they need help from that DL. I think the secondary is solid - but no secondary stands up when either (a) you give the QB 5 seconds or (b) you don't adjust to a team that is going to run 7 yard, 3 step drop passes all day on you.
Negatives - the lines. The depth - injury to Gallon or Devin really is devastating. Running game - I like Fitz and how he has played this year when he has a hole. But he needs holes. TBD if holes can be created with this OL against better competition - unfort that will rely on Devin being Vince Young 2.0 again and causing confusion for opponents. Punting - just a disaster unit and will cost a game, if not 2 as we lose 10 yards of field on almost every punt now.
Mattison now knows what he has and maybe he was delusional to a small point about what he had on DL or he did the typical coach speak "i.e. we have a 3 deep like I had when at Florida!" Either he is married to bend don't break all year and death by a thousand cuts or he will begin more blitzing go forward to offset lack of front 4 effectiveness. This will open us up to more big plays....
Devin needs to be on fire for wins vs OSU, Nebraska, NW, and MSU. The first 3 due to their offenses, the latter due to its defense. He won't be on fire each of those games, so some will be losses. He needs to be very good at PSU because PSU will score. Same for Indiana...only because this defense will give up points to Indiana. He need not be superman for the other games, just a cool laid back dude who rushes for 40-50 yards, throws for 200 and has 1 pick or less a game. With that scenario they will challenge for the division, but I fear the OSU game which is our cross over a wee bit tougher than the other 3 team's in our group's crossovers. So winning the divsion with 3 Big 10 losses is going to be tough.
September 16th, 2013 at 2:37 PM ^
I am curious about the UFR, but I am wondering how much of Saturday's near-debacle was due to the focus of practices over the week and the plays prepared for. I think the coaches expected to simply out-power and out-execute Akron. Which didn't happen.
And when that doesn't happen, you have to just hang in there and keep trying to execute the gameplan. It isn't like playing a video game where you can just dig deep and find a cool little-used play and expect the offense (or defense) to run it and surprise the opposing team. It seems that Hoke and Co. wanted to work on some fundamentals and maybe experiment with some personel switches this week, but Akron came in and played inspired.
I noted in Bowden's presser that he basically said they pulled out EVERYTHING on Michigan in this game and tried every trick in the book to get their guys open. That kind of scheming against a team that has been practicing vanilla all week could go wrong if the disparity between teams isn't as great as expected and the execution is off.
Thoughts?
September 16th, 2013 at 5:11 PM ^
In the third game of 1997 UM beat ND by only 21-14 and had three 4th quarter turnovers. While no Akron, this ND team was Bob Davie's first team and had lost the previous two games to Purdue and Sparty, by 11 and 16 pts respectively. A cursory search of the internet didn't find anything to support this, but I would guess there was a bit of overreaction then too, especially after beating pre-season #8 Colorado in the first game.
I think every Michigan fan felt that sick sinking feeling while watching Saturday's game and the issues with this team are well documented. So like everything else in life I prepare for the worst, hope for the best and watch every minute of every game.