Thoughts on Rich Rodriguez and the Sports World

1. There are others who are much more versed in the world of college football. I'm sure the usual suspects will be able to break things down a lot better than I. That said, I can't help but be absolutely thrilled with the outcome to this coaching search--thank you Mary Sue Coleman. Rich Rodriguez is one of the top coaches in the game. He's pioneered an offense that many of the top programs use. He's built West [freaking] Virgina into a kind of sort of national power. And now he's here, to take our offense out of the stone age. As offensive coordinator, he went 12-0. At Tulane. With Shaun King at QB. Read those last 3 sentences again. He made Shaun King the most prolific passer in college football history. It's hard to not get excited about this one. Especially when Terrelle Pryor might follow him to Ann Arbor.

2. I really feel for Les Miles. There have been rumblings that he was still interested in the job, and I believe it. Ironically, if West Virginia hadn't choked on applesauce against Pittsburgh, Miles would probably be our coach, with Rodriguez in the title game. People can say what they want, but anyone who loves this school enough to flirt with it, even with his damn strong football team in the national title game is someone that I will always root for. Beat those Buckeyes, Les.

3. The loss to Pitt will no doubt get brought up by Sparties trying to justify to themselves that this was a terrible hire or that he'll "fit right in". That game doesn't bug me so much. Les Miles lost to Arkansas at home with a chance at the title game hanging in the balance. Same with Tressel's team losing to Ron Zook and Illinois at home. Those two still ended up getting in. But Bob Stoops and the Sooners dropped a game to Texas Tech. Lloyd Carr and company lost to App State. St. Nick and the Crimson Tide lost to a team from Louisiana not named LSU. Urban Meyer lost at home to a ho-hum Auburn team that got beat by Mississippi State. Pete Carroll and USC lost to Stanford. Georgia lost at home to a 6 loss South Carolina team. Mack Brown's Longhorns got blown out at home by Kansas State. It was a weird year.

4. It takes a special play to get me to mention an NFL happening before talking about my Packers, but one happened today. Brian Westbrook, my hat is off to you. For those who didn't see it, the Eagles were up 10-6 on Dallas just before the two-minute warning at the end of the game. Westbrook ripped off a run for a first down and had clear sailing to the end zone. He stopped at the one yard line and took a knee, knowing that they'd be able to run out the clock with Dallas out of timeouts. It was the most heads-up play I've seen in a long, long time. Most players wouldn't have had the awareness to pull it off, and some would've been selfish enough that they would've scored the TD anyway. If there are two things that I'm strongly in favor of in football, they're a) not going for 2 before it's necessary and b) letting the other team score if tackling them means you lose. The latter is hardly ever practiced (or it's not practiced correctly, Mike Holmgren). While I don't think Dallas was trying to let Westbrook score, he was smart enough to pass up the sure TD anyway.

5. I can't wait to hear all the stories about people who lost their fantasy football playoff games because of Brian Westbrook's heads up play.

6. Congrats to the greatest quarterback in history on breaking another of Dan Marino's records, this one, the all-time passing yardage mark. That record came en route to leading the Packers to a 12-2 record, clinching a first round bye. They've got a real shot to come out of the NFC, and I think they can give any AFC opponent a game (and I'm not at all convinced that it's going to be New England).

7. It's amazing to me that after not having a return game since Allen Rossum left a few years ago, it appears the Packers have 4 guys that can get the job done. Koren Robinson gave them great field position all game today and is an ex-Pro Bowler at KR. Tramon Williams has also done well in that role, and took a punt back for a TD against Carolina. Will Blackmon has shown some sizzle on punts, including a punt return for a TD against Oakland last week. And Charles Woodson is solid as well.

8. I really do feel for Lions fans. That team is an absolute disaster, and the city deserves a lot better. It's a testament to the quality of football fans in the Motor City that they continue to show up for games after the crap that Matt Millen has put on the field for the last 6-7 years (not to mention the pre-Millen suckfests).

9. Amir Johnson: 15 minutes, six points, seven boards, three blocks. The other night he had 5 blocks in under 10 minutes. It still blows my mind that he wasn't active for the playoffs last year. No, you're not going to play him 30 minutes or anything, but his energy and ability to create exciting plays could have been the ticket to get the crowd back into a game or gain some momentum. I love Jason Maxiell as well.

10. Another great move by Joe D with the Nazr Muhammad trade. He gets two players he liked, sheds a ton of salary, creates cap flexibility in the future, acquires expiring contracts for if he feels so inclined to deal again, and lands a 7'1" player who was starting as well as a guy who was dropping 20+ a night at the end of last year when he got a chance to play. That's a good move in my book.

11. They said it's a first in team history, but I wonder if it's ever happened where an NHL team has had 2 penalties shots in a game, let alone a period. That was pretty cool for the Wings last night. That team is simply amazing. I still think they need another scorer for the playoffs, but they're playing amazing hockey right now. I'm pretty convinced that no one in the world is better at their job than Nick Lidstrom is at his.

12. I still believe in Beilein but this is hard to watch right now.

13. Congrats to the Michigan volleyball team. They were eliminated in the Sweet 16 by #1 Penn State, but that's the farthest the team has ever made it and the future is bright. Thanks to the outgoing seniors, Katie Bruzdzinski, Stesha Selsky, Sarah Draves, and Lyndsay Miller. Bruzdzinski was a pleasure to watch, and I think she could make a strong case for being the best player to come through our program. I also loved Miller's energy and how happy she seemed to be out there all the time. They're a fun group.

14. I'll get to the hockey point projection analysis hopefully sometime on Monday.

We're #3...But is That a Good Thing?

With the sweep of Northern Michigan combined with the other happenings around the nation, the Wolverines vaulted Boston College, Minnesota, and Denver in the latest USCHO/CSTV and USA Today polls, rising up to #3 in the nation.

Wasn't it just a couple of weeks ago that we were thought of as the #4 team--in the CCHA?

While I'm beyond thrilled about the way this season has started, I still remember 2005-06 and don't particularly want a repeat of that. It might be a case of complaining along the lines of "My wallet is too small for my fifties and my diamond shoes are too tight" but a big part of me wishes we were a bit farther down the poll.

I absolutely loved the fact that we were under the radar at the start of the season. 4th in the CCHA, no expectations, no press clippings to read and get a big head over. I don't want that target on our backs, especially this early in the season. Not to go all Roy Williams, but we're not so far away from being 1-3 or 0-4 right now. Instead we're ahead of everyone in the country not named North Dakota or Miami (OH).

The next test is going to see how this team responds to a tough loss, or a tough weekend. And while I'm hoping that they won't get that test for a long, long time, that day is coming. If they respond better than that 05-06 team did, I'll be very happy. In the meantime, I'll just hope that they respond better to a high ranking than our football team typically does.

A few other comments from the weekend:
-Lloyd Carr deserves a ton of credit for the way Michigan has played after the way this season started. They could've easily rolled over and lost 6, 7, 8 games, especially considering Henne and Hart have been dinged up, along with the problems in the kicking game and whatnot. Instead, they need to win just 2 of the next 3 (Minnesota, at Sparty, at Wisconsin) to set up a showdown with OSU for the Rose Bowl. I said at various times that they still had the Rose Bowl to play for, but I didn't really believe it. I thought it was possible but didn't think it would happen. Now it seems likely that we'll get another crack at OSU with a trip to Pasadena on the line.

-That was a major gut-check win over Illinois in a hostile environment. With the way the game started, Henne getting injured and missing half the game, and Hart not playing, they still found a way to step up and win the game. Or at least take the game when Illinois handed it to them. Either way, it was a nice victory against a pretty decent team who really wanted that one.

-Our field hockey team knocked off Northwestern to finish off a 6-0 Big Ten season and win their first outright Big Ten title since 2002. They've now run off 11 in a row, and haven't lost to a team ranked lower than #3 all year.

-For anyone who hasn't been watching the Red Wings, you're really missing out on seeing one of the great players in hockey rise to another level. Henrik Zetterberg has been absolutely sensational this season. He has 7-10--17 in 9 games this season, and has tallied at least one point in every game thusfar. What's more impressive is that he has multiple points in 6 of the 9 games. And going back to last year, he's now scored a point or more in 16 straight regular season games, and 36 out of the last 40.

-ESPN had a nice article about how Rob Blake is mentoring JMFJ.

Around the Sports World

Since today's Michigan Hockey Preview was so short, and I don't feel like doing Kevin Porter's yet, let's take a cruise around the sports world, because there's been some pretty great stuff out there lately.

Michigan Football: Michigan has now--in the words of Ed Rooney--beating Penn State niiiine....timmmmes in a row. The natives are getting restless. To BWI's credit, most of the posters over there were directing most of their anger at Joe and Jay Pa rather than the officials. I thought for sure that we'd see a lot of complaining about Hart's last touchdown (I thought it should've at least been reviewed), but JoePa was doing more bitching than their fans. At least when I popped in over there. Some people seem upset about the PI call in the endzone and I'm not sure why. That one was completely legit. He held him when the ball was in the air. Done and done. And I mean done.

Ryan Mallett deserves all the credit in the world for his performance. He was erratic in the first half, but was dead on balls accurate in the second half. Those passes on third and long in the fourth quarter were extremely impressive for a true freshman making only his second career start.

I'm officially impressed. I'm not on the "Keep Chad Henne on the Bench" bandwagon like some people seem to be, but the future is definitely bright for this kid. He has it. A lot of people compared him to Favre, and it's easy to do, what with his arm strength and the amount of fun he seems to be having. Even if it's back to the bench in another week or two, this experience will help him a ton next year when it's his team. Instead of breaking in a sophomore QB with next to no game experience, along with a freshman running back, we've got a guy who has a couple of wins under his belt, and led the team to a victory over a top 10 opponent.

And then there's our running back. Just when I think I couldn't be more impressed by Mike Hart, he has a performance like that. If you read this blog, it's 99% that you've already seen this, but Mgoblog's piece on Hart today was just perfect. It can't be said any better than that, so I'm not going to try. But I love that kid. He's officially in my pantheon of Michigan Athletes with Jed Ortmeyer, Jack Johnson, David Terrell & his B.A.D., and whoever finally replaces Billy Sauer.

I think it's safe to say at this point that our defense is pretty good, they just have that fatal flaw that they can't stop mobile QBs or the spread. So, pretty much every other year for the past decade. And after watching the Wisconsin/Iowa game, I'm pretty unafraid of going into Madison late in the season. The fear factor goes up a little bit because Donovan can move around a little bit, but the Badgers really didn't look good. And they haven't looked good most of the year thusfar. The Citadel played them even in the first half before Wiscy pulled away in the second, like good teams typically do against Division I-AA schools ::mutter:: and UNLV almost knocked em off. Ohio State is still (somehow) the team to beat, but this team can still contend for a Big Ten Title. It seems kind of weird to be saying that after the way this season started, but I guess we've done the same thing twice before....minus the whole losing to a I-AA team.

Packers: Holy shit, they're 3-0. I'm as big of a homer as there is and I never in my wildest dreams thought that this team would be sitting 3-0 right now. 1-2 was what I expected, I could've seen 2-1, but to beat three playoff teams from last year, including the Chargers, is really impressive.

People are going to hate seeing it, but Brett Favre is going to keep being slurped by the media and rightfully so. He's playing great football right now. He's taking care of the ball--both INTs he's thrown this year were more on the receiver--and the short passing game has been extremely effective in lieu of a running game.

Plus, now we get to see what having a healthy Greg Jennings can do for this offense. He had 80 yards or so and a touchdown this week, but they didn't know he could go until the day before the game, so I'm guessing they didn't have a whole lot in the gameplan for him.

Chad Clifton deserves all the credit in the world for yesterday's game. He had a rough couple of weeks to start the season, but he was absolutely fantastic against Shawn Merriman. The guy had 2 assists, no solo tackles, and more importantly didn't come near The Legend all game.

This is a far cry from previous efforts against the 3-4 defense. And even though it was the preseason last year, this same Chargers team made the Packers look like a high school squad. It just goes to show how far this team has come in a short while.

After this win, the Packers have to become one of the favorites in the NFC, along with the Cowboys. Though the Packers have been more impressive in the early going of this season: Both teams beat the Giants, though Green Bay did it by more points and on the road. The Eagles are superior to the Dolphins, and San Diego is better than Chicago (they proved that Week One).

They still need to find a running game. Currently, they rank dead last in the NFL in rushing yards, and are second-to-last in rushing attempts. The running game did show signs of life yesterday, however, but I don't blame the coaches for sticking with the pass since it was working so well. They ran effectively when they tried it though. And after the first couple of weeks, I can see why they wouldn't want to risk possessions in the name of establishing the run, especially when the data shows you don't need an effective running game to beat San Diego.

NHL: Scott Burnside had an article about the story lines for the upcoming season, and there were a couple of interesting tidbits in there: One was that the league, it appears, has finally decided that this current scheduling format has got to go. This isn't really news, since it came out last week or the week before, but I'm happy about it nevertheless. I've hammered on the schedule plenty of times on here. It's idiotic not to have guys like Crosby and Ovechkin in every market in the league at least once. Especially when the alternative is 32 games against the Blues, Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, and Predators. Yuck.

The other thing that I found interesting, however, is that it also appears that expansion is on the way to the NHL. I think it's a bad idea because the league is pretty watered down as it is, particularly in goal, but it's hard to tell all the owners to turn down a free $20-30 million in expansion fees.

The best part of this is the cities that Burnside cited as possible destinations for the two teams: Las Vegas, Kansas City, Winnipeg, Portland, Seattle, and Houston. What do all those cities have in common? They're all west of Detroit. Which means that the Wings could finally move into the Eastern Conference where they belong. And the Blue Jackets could come too, which would mean that there would be no Eastern Time Zone teams in the Western Conference.

If expansion has to happen, I'm all for it if it involves the Wings heading East. Enough of this travel BS. You can't tell me it doesn't make a difference over the course of a season that ends up being close to 110 games between the preseason, regular season, and playoffs.

Other News: It's not just football where we own! Penn State! That makes 8 out of 11 in that series, though they have a huge lead overall. I've talked about this before, but I have a hard time believing that too many sports teams have played a schedule harder than Michigan's field hockey team at this point. They're 6-4 on the year. The wins have been against two unranked teams, along with #3, 7, 9 and 16. The losses have been to #1 (ot), 2, 3, and 3. That's brutal.

MGoBlue has an interview with Bryan Hogan, our best hope for salvation this season. His family is friends with Ed Belfour. There's no truth to the rumor that Michigan had to offer Hogan $1 billion to come to school here. Though I wouldn't complain if he gave one of these to Benedict Lerg.

The friendship also led to him training with Belfour, Ilya Bryzgalov, Evgeni Nabokov, and Vladislav Tretiak for a week or so. Not bad company to be in!

Michigan 38, Notre Dame 0

After two straight disappointments at the Big House, the Wolverines made sure that not even the most pessimistic fan had a moment of worry on Saturday. Or should that read, "Notre Dame made sure that not even the most pessimistic Michigan fan had a moment of worry on Saturday"?

Wow that team is bad. So bad, in fact, that it's hard to use this game to say anything about the Wolverines beyond: "Mike Hart is good", "Jake Long is big", "Ryan Mallett has a strong arm but isn't very fast", and "Carlos Brown fumbles a lot".

Again, I think this game said a lot more about Notre Dame than it did about Michigan. I saw a stat over at The Wolverine which was pretty remarkable. The poster, I believe it was Chewbacca, indicated that this is the 5th straight game that Notre Dame has lost by 20+ points, and the 16th time since 2000 that they've lost by such a margin. By contrast, the Wolverines have been downed by 20+ points six times since 1970 (the poster said five, but I doubled checked those numbers and I believe it to be six). Yikes.

But even if you can't take too much away from this game if you're a Wolverine fan, there is at least some reason for optimism. Notre Dame's line couldn't have been worse if they were starting Courtney Morgan, but that being said, the defense was really, really solid in their first test against a "conventional offense". Donovan Warren looks like he's going to be a darn good one at corner. Mike Hart is still amazing. And if he keeps doing his thing, it takes a lot of pressure off of Mallett.

This coming Saturday is the big one. This is the week where it will become evident if Michigan has a chance to make a BCS Bowl as the Big 10 Champion or if last week was simply a function of Notre Dame being horrifically bad. Penn State comes in as a Top 10 team, though they haven't been overly impressive thusfar (which means that they let Notre Dame score). If the Wolverines win, first-and-foremost, it'll really send the PSU fans off a cliff. And that would be funny, as it always is. Additionally, it'll make a statement to the world that you may make fun of us for the whole App State thing, but we're still a contender to win the Big 10 Championship.

Win, and we've still got a lot to play for. Lose, and the main goals for the season are officially gone. The only things left to play for would be the chances to beat Ohio State, keep little brother at bay, and win a bowl game finally, even if it is the Champs Sports Bowl.

A couple of other things that aren't football related:

Marty Turco looks to be wearing gold pads this upcoming season, and they're pretty sweet:


Volleyball finished the non-conference portion of their schedule with a 12-0 record and a top 10 ranking.

Matt Hunwick will likely be in Providence, but he wants to make it tough on the Bruins coaches to send him down.

TJ Hensick has been great in the camp thusfar for the Evilanche. He's turning heads, but also has a battle on his hands because the Avs are pretty deep at center. Good thing we drafted Justin Abdelkader and a guy who we relinquished the rights to instead.

Mike Van Ryn has two working wrists again.

Edit: I can't believe I forgot to mention this. It's not as big of an issue because they won, but Kentucky's head coach nearly made one of the biggest blunders I've ever seen. They were trailing Louisville by a single point late in the game. The Wildcats scored on a long touchdown pass to make it 39-34, and they kicked the extra point. It amazes me how after all these years, coaches can still bungle when to go for two and when not to go for two. Going up by 6 vs. going up by 5 doesn't really matter, unless it's Tecmo Bowl and you have Lawrence Taylor on your kick block team. I imagine that in the excitement of the go-ahead touchdown, they didn't get the right unit on the field. There's still no excuse. If that Hail Mary would've worked (and the guy got to the 10 yard line), Kentucky loses. Plain and simple.

Brandon Naurato = NHL Dominance

Courtesy of Mgoblog, comes a feature story from Askmen.com which ranked the top 10 college hockey teams for getting guys to the pros. They have Michigan as #1, which is fair enough (though I have a feeling Minnesota would disagree--and I'm not sure I'd blame them), but in their comment about the school, they wrote:

Class of 2008: Forward Brandon Naurato has a sweet lefty scoring stroke and with a little bulk could dominate NHL first lines.

I'll let the Geico Caveman sum up my reaction to that one:



We're talking about a guy who last year I commented on by saying, "I'm honestly not sure he consistently dresses next year." It probably won't be the case, since he is decent in his role, but still, that article has to be a mistake right? Did they screw up the double-number and mean to talk about Kevin Porter? Or even Chris Summers?

They also spelled Lerg's name wrong in the Michigan State section. "Brian" should actually be spelled "B-E-N-E-D-I-C-T" (or at least "Bryan"). And is Aaron Broten really the best guy they could come up with to exemplify Minnesota's hockey prowess?

Other stuff:
Red Berenson is up in Traverse City at Wings camp helping out.

Lost in the "ARRRGH MICHIGAN!" football disaster is that a lot of our non-rev sports are doing really, really well to start the season. Volleyball is 10-0 and has moved up to a program-high #10 ranking (now if they can avoid the disastrous Big 10 start they had last year). Men's soccer is up to #18 after a 4-0 start. Women's Cross Country is #2 in the nation. Women's soccer tied #2 Notre Dame, and even though they stand just 2-4 on the season, field hockey has played the best teams in the country tough. Their losses are to #1 (in OT), #2, #3 and #3 and they beat #9.
Hockey season is getting close, everyone! The ice is down and the boys are skating. I figure I'm going to get at least 16 or so games on TV this year thanks to the wonders of Dish Network, so hopefully the level of coverage won't drop off too much now that I'm no longer living in Michigan. Expect lots of live-blogs.