Arizona v. BC: Advocare 100 Bowl
Didn't see a thread on this. Arizona up 21-6 at half. Pretty impressive to see what Arizona is doing with a QB that didn't receive a single scholarship offer at any level in high school.
Also, Ken Griffey, Jr. (whose son plays for Arizona) has a very nice Nikon set-up on the sidelines.
December 31st, 2013 at 3:52 PM ^
But if Alabama is the comparable, FSU has got feel pretty good, even against Auburn.
Auburn beat Alabama on one of the greatest/flukiest plays in football history, while Alabama missed multiple FGs earlier that would have put it out of reach. Alabama, IMHO, is better than Auburn. But the better team doesn't always win.
December 31st, 2013 at 4:06 PM ^
had their stud QB. He socred the go-ahead TD (probably...the refs called it as such and the replay officials backed it up) which had UGA in position to win until that miracle finish.
Aaron Murray wsn't injured until the Kentucky game a week later.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:50 PM ^
GT played Ole Miss tough and Syracuse beat Minnesota. It's not like the entire ACC has been a dumpster fire this bowl season.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:59 PM ^
Florida State didn't play Georgia Tech, and I don't really know what to make of an ACC team that everyone who's anyone took behind the woodshed did to their B1G equivalent.
December 31st, 2013 at 3:04 PM ^
Well Pitt and UNC also both won. I think the ACC had a bunch of mediocre-to-bad teams this year. Some of them have won bowl games. Some have looked bad. I don't think it says much about FSU since, as it was pointed out above, FSU pantsed everyone they played.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:27 PM ^
28-6 Arizona now early in the 3rd. The Wildcat offense is really starting to heat up. The blockers are blocking, the runners are running, and the throwing guy is throwing to guys catching.
Must be fun to be a fan of a team that can execute the expectations for the position.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:34 PM ^
Boy that team is incredibly young. Their best wide receiver is a true freshman; their best linebacker is a true freshman. Their o-line is sophomores and juniors.
But wait...
December 31st, 2013 at 3:15 PM ^
But that 3-star true freshman has over 200 yards receiving in the game. Is that allowed?
December 31st, 2013 at 4:50 PM ^
Their best wide receiver, Austin Hill, tore his ACL last spring and missed the entire season. He had 81 catches for 1,364 yards in 2012. He will be back next year.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:37 PM ^
I havent looked but I'm guess Rich must have a team of 5th year seniors right? Only way a coach can get any sort of development I'm told. You need three, four and sometimes five years in a program to accomplish ANYTHING.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:44 PM ^
Wow, 35-6 now. Does the Arizona offense move faster than UM did under Rich Rod? They seem to snap it so early that ESPN often misses it trying to show the replay.
Am I viewing this through a different lens or does it seem Arizona's offense this year is better than any that RichRod had at UM? This further adds to my frustration.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:48 PM ^
no. Michigan offense under RR with Denard is superior than the current Arizona offense. Michigan offense was top 5 while Arizona was 31. Arizona offense took a step back from last year, but the defense made a huge leap from average(ranked 70s) last year to pretty good this year (ranked 25). With an improvement on both side, Arizona could make a lot of noise next year.
December 31st, 2013 at 3:02 PM ^
It is almost flawless execution. Beautiful to watch. Probably when he builds on this success with more talent RR will have a serious Pac12 title contender in a year or two.
December 31st, 2013 at 3:54 PM ^
wife bought me an arizona football hoodie for christmas. wore it today. felt awkward.
December 31st, 2013 at 3:59 PM ^
Are you saying that RR will get to the Rose Bowl before Hoke will?
December 31st, 2013 at 3:23 PM ^
1. Virginia Tech (DFEI -.828)
2. Stanford (-.792)
3. Michigan State (-.727)
...
20. Arizona (-.327)
...
25. Michigan (-.308)
December 31st, 2013 at 2:49 PM ^
What is this "blocking" and "running" thing you speak of? I have dim memories of such things from days of yore, but I am old now so I can't be sure it's not Alzheimers.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:35 PM ^
regrets. No, je ne regrette rien.
Yes, regrette trop de choses.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:42 PM ^
35-6 after a 8 play 93 yard drive that only took 2 minutes. This offense is fun to watch.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:44 PM ^
Rooting for AZ! Kind of sad seeing RR offense marching up and own the field. AZ is way ahead of Michigan. I'm not sure if AZ was just in better position when RR stepped in and BH had to deal with the youth bubble or if we made a horrible mistake giving up on RR. He does have Casteel and that is the difference on defense at least.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:48 PM ^
Good thing we didn't get matched up with B.C.!
December 31st, 2013 at 2:48 PM ^
RR really did need more time, but hindsight is 20/20. I think the real issues was the lack of support by both the Alumi and a lot of the players did not buy in after being under Carr for so long. You weren't really going to see what RR could do until they purged all of the Carr holdovers.
December 31st, 2013 at 4:04 PM ^
And now people are waiting for the purge of the RR holdovers to see what Hoke can do.
I'm dizzy. I want off this ride.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:57 PM ^
Given the environment at the time I think it was a good call parting ways with RR. To answer your other question, I think the answer is yes.
I still wish it would've worked out here for him, but we're reaping what we've sown in terms of this impossible ideal of "this is Michigan and this is how it has to be at michigan, blah blah blah". If we would've shelled out the $$ for Casteel I think RR probably woud've won enough to get over the hump and would still be here. Instead we later shelled out $ for a new staff with yet another change in philosophy who might not even be the answer but we can't really tell for sure yet because of all the other baggage from terrible recruiting and said philosophy change.
December 31st, 2013 at 3:03 PM ^
it was the best for both parties to part away given the poisonous environment around RR and Michigan. I'm happy that he found success at Arizona with a much more supportive athletic department and fans. Arizona has upset a couple of top 25 teams plus a beatdown on then #5 Oregon last month.
December 31st, 2013 at 7:46 PM ^
Even if he's worth just 1 or 2 wins more a year, I think it would've been enough to get Richrod to year four and maybe it would've gotten us a good D like Arizona has now. If Richrod has gone 4-8, 6-6, and 8-4 I think he would've made it to year four. Then who knows where we'd be now.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:49 PM ^
Im holding hope for the 2014 season but if we look like we did this season then im going to cry..then im going to foam at the mouth like a rabid animal demanding everyone and everything UM be fired..Even Brian and this blog.
RRod has Zona looking solid..im slowly starting to think its something about UM just like the Lions and Browns...2014 is the year of no excuses
December 31st, 2013 at 2:59 PM ^
'08. The coaches will have to make extreme improvements in the team if they want us to have the same record in '11. I'm not very optimistic about next season. The entire OL will be young and the defense looks like a true tire fire. I did not see much improvement in this team through the season, which a concern for me. In fact, I was optimistic after the ND game about winning the legends division. They did not look too bad during the game I attended at CMU but the wheels kind of fell off this team after the close Akron win.
I hope the coaches can make leap and bounds improvement in the team next season but I really don't see anything more than another 7 or 8 game winning season. I think we'll see the real improvement in '15 but I'm sounding like a Lions fan, always waiting for next year which never comes.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:50 PM ^
December 31st, 2013 at 2:54 PM ^
He's implemented faster because I think Arizona was already using at least some spread concepts under Stoops. It wasn't the complete sea change that he had to undertake at WVU and UM.
December 31st, 2013 at 3:22 PM ^
I agree, it's like going from an '09 Elantra to a '13 Fusion, instead of an '86 Bronco to a '13 Fusion. Change, but not a complete paradigm shift like it was at UM.
December 31st, 2013 at 3:32 PM ^
December 31st, 2013 at 2:52 PM ^
Considering the gigantic turd we left on the field in Tempe, I would hate to see what RR would do with a squad that he surely would have charged up to exact some "revenge" on his former employer.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:55 PM ^
the final score would be 67 to 3 or something like it.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:58 PM ^
I would advise against playing Arizona over the next several years at all cost. I think it will only cause more division. I agree that Arizona would make us look bad with our defenses inability to handle a spread offense. Could you imagine what would happen against that offense when the DBs continue to play 10-15 yards off the line of scrimmage.
December 31st, 2013 at 3:21 PM ^
Not until 2019 at least, and probably not then.
If somebody wanted to have some fun with unlikely Rodriguez/revenge scenarios, you might speculate that Beilema continues to struggle at Arkansas, and that the Razorbacks then replace him with... Rich Rodriguez. Before Arkansas and Michigan meet for a home-and-home series in '18 and '19.
December 31st, 2013 at 4:07 PM ^
Dave Brandon would schedule AZ if he could. It would be a Wow event. This is the guy that's giving us App State II.
Wow.
December 31st, 2013 at 4:23 PM ^
I should have included the possibility of a Michigan/Arizona bowl game. But I don't know of there being any liklihood of the B1G getting into any future bowl game agreements locking B1G and Pac-16 teams together.
December 31st, 2013 at 5:11 PM ^
Starting in 2014 the B1G and Pac-12 will match up in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego and the Fight Hunger Bowl in San Fran. If this schedule would have been on place this year, Michigan would have likely played Arizona. So next year it's actually quite possible.
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/6/25/4461146/big-ten-foot…
December 31st, 2013 at 5:02 PM ^
I would love to see it.
December 31st, 2013 at 2:54 PM ^
I love hearing the National Media talk about how good of a coach RR is, while they compare Hoke to Ron Zook!
December 31st, 2013 at 3:58 PM ^
fuck me.
us, i suppose.
December 31st, 2013 at 4:52 PM ^
RichRod IS a good coach. There is no way WVU should be as big a program as they were over the last 10 years (although they may be correcting for market lately after Geno Smith). The last SEC champion to lose the Sugar Bowl (unless you count LSU getting shanked by Alabama in 2011) was UGA in 2006, when the game was played in the Georgia Dome (located in...wait for it...GEORGIA) and RichRod brought WVU in with on offense led by freshmen Pat White and Steve Slaton and were up by four (4) touchdowns less than a minute into the 2nd quarter before the Dawgs ended up making a game of it and losing by a respectable 38-35 final.
The team he built was good enough to destroy Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl in 2008 after he left and Bill Stewart was interim coach...high school players he recruited in 2007 would have been on the Dana Torgeson team that hung 70 on Clemson in the Orange Bowl the year Michigan won the Sugar Bowl.
The screwing he took at UM from Dave Brandon is, to me, unforgiveable. Try to forget that he turned down the opportunity to coach at ALABAMA so that he could stay at WVU. It took the Michigan job to get him away from the program he built from scratch at the school from whence he graduated. He understood the honor that coaching at Michigan was, MUCH more than the alumni there will ever give him credit for.
[/end rant]
January 1st, 2014 at 10:07 AM ^
Well said. It's amazing that some of our fanbase is wiling to write RR off as a horrible coach by ignoring 1) everything he did prior to getting to UM; and 2) the fact that he had no institutional support upon arriving here, and was faced with a horseshit NCAA violation allegations in year 2. As if any coach would have been successful under those circumstances. Can you image what Hoke would have done had he been forced to deal with the amount of bullshit RR had to in his first three years?
December 31st, 2013 at 2:55 PM ^
December 31st, 2013 at 2:57 PM ^
Herp derp.
Casteel joins him (which he likely would've done at Michigan in 2011) and UA is holding one of the best running backs to (at this point) 67 yds on 24 car. (2.8 ypc).
This is exhibit A why coaches need time, Hoke & Co. included.
Michigan fan base (especially the MANBALL crowd) deserves this, and the "you can't run the spread in the B1G" folks should be strapped to chairs and forced to watch these two bowl games back-to-back on a continuous loop for 24 hours.
December 31st, 2013 at 3:02 PM ^
December 31st, 2013 at 3:13 PM ^
But I do think RR failed to demand enough from Bill Martin to pay assistants and get Casteel here. (And certain defensive coaches aren't with Arizona anymore.)
The major difference is that RR, who had won two BCS bowl games at a school that hadn't sniffed one before and is now a Big 12 joke, had to win over too many of the entitled, former "Michigan Men" while those same people rolled out the red carpet for Brady Hoke before he even coached one game in a BCS conference.
The Team, The Team, The Team means if you're a true Michigan Man, you positively support whoever is coaching and playing for Michigan. As has been quoted many times here and else where, Fielding Yost said, "It is based on a deathless loyalty to Michigan and all her ways. An enthusiasm that makes it second nature for Michigan Men to spread the gospel of their university to the world’s distant outposts." Bo and Yost must have been rolling in their graves watching the behavior of some former players (e.g., Braylon, Aaron Shea, etc.).
December 31st, 2013 at 3:05 PM ^
I think RR is a good coach who did a bad job at Michigan. I don't know that any of these bowl game proxy wars people argue about tell us anything we didn't already know.
December 31st, 2013 at 3:16 PM ^
Shutting down the Doak Walker winner and a power running attack is a counterexample to those who claim that a Rich Rodriguez led football program (and a 3-3 defense) absolutely can't.
(Non-sequitir: there's about 250 people at this game.)