Babe Ruth,
farewell speech to baseball, Yankee Stadium, 1948
To
paraphrase the Bambino, “you know how bad your stomach sounded (in the final 50
seconds of Saturday’s game versus Akron); well it looked just as bad.”
The
28-24 version of “Escape from Ann Arbor” didn’t need Snake Plissken to snarl at
anyone in the Michigan Stadium stands. Those folks among the 107,120 watching the
debacle against a team which had lost 27 consecutive road games and was a
37-point underdog just KNEW things weren’t going to turn out well for the
Wolverines.
After
all, who is the hell were the damn Zips? What team, with any pride in itself,
has a female kangaroo as a live mascot and is nicknamed for footwear worn in
the depths of winter? The answer is ... the University of Akron, under the
coaching of former Auburn mentor Terry Bowden, who outcoached his opposition
and got his players to out-hustle and outplay the vaunted Michigan football
program.
And
if it wasn’t for one defensive blast from the past (the Rich Rodriguez era), it
would have been the most embarrassing loss for U-M since 2008 when Michigan
lost to Toledo at home in Rodriguez’s initial (disastrous) season. And that was
pre-Tate Forcier …
What
was needed, with five seconds left between victory or ignominious defeat, was
the same call Rodriguez pulled out of the butt on Nov. 6, 2010 against Illinois
on fourth down in the third overtime of a 67-65 defensive battle. RichRod asked
to bring every defender on that final play to force a throw before anyone on
Illinois was ready.
Déjà
vu all over again and defensive coordinator Greg Mattison asked the entire
student body to storm the pocket and force Zips QB Kyle Pohl to essentially
throw the ball away on the final play.
Somewhere
in Tucson, Rodriguez had to break a small smile.
Honestly,
it should have never gotten to that point.
Now,
all talk about Devin Gardner being the second coming of Rick Leach (still, to
this day, the BEST dual threat at quarterback in U-M history) should be muzzled
until the (still) young signal-caller proves he can play steadily without
turning the ball over to the other squad. Thus far in 2013, despite some fairly
gaudy passing and rushing numbers (that are echoes of Denard Robinson), Gardner
is directly responsible for seven of the eight turnovers (one interception was
tossed by backup QB Shane Morris against Central Michigan in garbage time).
Almost
ALL of those miscues stem from poor choices by Gardner – much of it due to poor
footwork in the pocket when he needs to escape pressure (he tends to turn INTO
pressure rather than away from it). However, fans need to remember (in
Gardner’s defense) it was just his eighth start at quarterback on a BCS level;
that’s NOT a lot of time for a young player.
People
will compare Gardner to Robinson for the next two years; that will be
unavoidable. But when Robinson had problems, and committed a plethora of
turnovers, it was against the likes of Notre Dame (en route to the BCS
championship) or Ohio State – not Akron or Central Michigan.
Many,
MANY questions will have to be answered during this week’s practices. Such as:
What has happened to the
Wolverine punting game?
Matt Wile is NOT the same punter who was a weapon for Michigan in the past two
seasons. He is ONLY averaging 32.2 yards per punt (the 51-yard boot in the
opener was made by Kenny Allen, not Wile).
And
when opposing return yardage if factored into the equation, it’s just a hair
over 30 yards, meaning the defense must face a shorter field to defend – a bad
things on ANY level of competition. That’s a liability and a contending team
cannot have such liabilities.
I’m
not sure what solution is available. Colleges can’t pick up players on a waiver
wire, or concoct a trade. You play with what you’ve recruited.
Sometimes
kickers/punters are like relief pitchers in baseball – good one year and
horrendous the next and no one can explain why. Three years ago, UM fans
thought Brendan Gibbons couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn six inches away.
Now, he is considered a fairly reliable three-point when he attempts a field
goal (of course, as was par for the course, he missed his only try against
Akron).
So
things CAN change …
Where is the depth, in
running back, people thought existed after the first two games?
Other than Gardner running out of the
pocket when no receiver was available (as opposed to a pre-called quarterback
option run), senior Fitzgerald Toussaint is the ONLY rushing option, and
everyone – in the stands, in the press box and on the opposing coaching staff –
knows it. The Akron game should have been one of those tryouts to see who would
be in the Wolverine Running Idol finals.
No
one made the grade and, because of circumstances, no one was invited to the
audition. So will it happen at UConn this Saturday? Who knows and that question
MUST be answered prior to the start of conference play.
Why can’t Michigan get
any pressure on the opposing quarterback – either from the front four or
linebackers? The Zips
did not have the same size advantage this week as Notre Dame possessed last
week, yet Akron, bouncing around like kangaroos, made Michigan look slower than
“zippers” in a blizzard.
Either
through better effort, or a re-crafted scheme, there MUST be consistent
pressure on the opposing quarterback, or it WILL be a long, and unsuccessful,
season. Hopefully the impending return of Jake Ryan, Michigan’s best pass
rusher last year, will make things feel all better.
I’m
sure many Michigan followers believed the Wolverines might well fall to a
certain team from Ohio, but not THIS particular team. And all those churning
stomachs in the stands had to feel as if their lunch was about to reappear in
the most painful of manners. It was the type of game that induces involuntary
vomiting; when it ends, you fell like a jockey, trying to make weight, just
stuck his fingers down YOUR throat.
But
the same fans, pointing fingers at problem areas for Michigan, need to take
stock of what happened. First, some respect needs to be given to Akron; the
Zips played with more passion and Bowden was the lead cheerleader. His
defensive coordinator, former NC State head coach Chuck Amato (who spent 18
years as defensive coordinator with Bowden’s daddy, Bobby, at Florida State and
has gotten rid of those ridiculous sunglasses he wore on the sidelines for the
Wolfpack), did a whale of a job of forcing Michigan out of its comfort zone.
When
your top three tacklers are secondary/safety people, it’s not a good thing, and
when it was on offense, Akron constantly burned UM’s corners in the person of
Zach D’Orazio and L.T. Smith. Poor Raymon Taylor was burned worse that a slice
of rye bread in a cheap toaster.
When
a third down stop was needed, Michigan only responded half the time (Akron
converted 9 of 18 third-down situations, and actually ran more plays from
scrimmage than Michigan).
Now
… after ALL that has been said, written and spoke, there is a bottom line not
given proper due – Michigan WON! In 2012, Notre Dame played most of its games
looking like a bad Irish stew, outplayed at least half of those victories.
But
… they were victories, not losses. This goes into the scorebook as a win and
that IS what counts at the end of the day. What would you really do – win ugly
or lose ugly? THAT answer is obvious to a blind man.
---
It
was also a bad 24 hours for the Big 10 Conference; all but one of the schools
previously ranked in the top 25 fell in the polling. Ohio State, blessed its’
cheatin’ little heart, remained at number 4, but all but one of the first-place
votes went to defending national champion Alabama (and one vote for the Day-Glo
mello yello Oregon).
Nebraska,
up 21-3 over UCLA (at home), surrendered the final 41 points of the game and
slinked out of the top 25. It’s just rewards for donning terrible uniforms
(black tops in front of a crowd yelling “Go Big Red!”).
Along
with Michigan’s debacle (resulting in a drop of four spots to 15th), Wisconsin
looked bad in Tempe, falling to Arizona State; Penn State lost at home to
Central Florida; Washington beat Illinois in Chicago’s Soldier Field; and
Purdue lost an early lead and fell to Notre Dame, 31-24.
And
based on strength of schedule, no Big 10 team defeated any team that could
generously be called “quality.” The vanquished opposition, for those conference
teams winning Saturday, consisted of Youngstown State (them Penguins), Bowling
Green (ugliest colors in college football), Iowa State (perhaps the worst team
in the Big 12, along with Charley Weis-led Kansas), California (NOT a Pac-12 powerhouse), Western Illinois and
Western Michigan (I thought westerns were dead).
As
said, it was NOT a red letter day for the Big 10.
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