Sep 6 | Michigan
- Thread starter clashmore_mike
- Start date
Domina Nostra
Well-known member
- Messages
- 6,251
- Reaction score
- 1,388
That's a little deceptive considering the ACC games are rotating, but I think it is hard to schedule more than one additional Tier 1 match-up among the last 4-- you never know who on the ACC scedule witll surprise.
Last edited:
B
Buster Bluth
Guest
The Shamrock Series is not its own week.
wizards8507
Well-known member
- Messages
- 20,660
- Reaction score
- 2,661
Johannes
A Peppermint Nightmare
- Messages
- 1,152
- Reaction score
- 418
I believe he means that it can coincide with one of our already scheduled opponents (i.e. ASU, Purdue), rather than an "extra" game we have to fit in the schedule.
Old Man Mike
Fast as Lightning!
- Messages
- 8,971
- Reaction score
- 6,458
Swarbrick and Kelly want a Texas presence.
Plus, we could use a strengthening of our "Chicago-area" presence --- whether that's Northwestern or just another area team like MSU to go along with Purdue, who knows?, but we should solidify the position of being the Beast of the Great Lakes.
The Ohio State thing is part of Rolling the Dice --- begin beating OSU regularly and you begin to get the recruits more regularly that we contend for. Michigan slips further into the rearview mirror. The ploy is based upon Faith --- that we will in fact beat OSU. That's the dice roll.
So.....
ACC
ACC
ACC
ACC
ACC
USC
Navy
Purdue
Stanford
"something in Texas" [Rice?]
"Northwestern" or .....?
... and, apparently, Ohio State.
IF OSU, maybe no more B1G [i.e. NW not necessary].
THEN, some weaker [no home and home] opponent like Western Michigan.
That gives us "WMU", Navy, Purdue, "Rice", and at least one ACC team per year that we [more or less] could count "W"s, and with the exception of Navy's dirty blocking and Purdue's typical DLines wouldn't be put through a physical wringer every week.
With OSU, USC, Stanford, and at least one ACC power, "strength of schedule" is plenty good, and win-em-all and you're "in".
.... trying to channel my Inner Kelly.
Plus, we could use a strengthening of our "Chicago-area" presence --- whether that's Northwestern or just another area team like MSU to go along with Purdue, who knows?, but we should solidify the position of being the Beast of the Great Lakes.
The Ohio State thing is part of Rolling the Dice --- begin beating OSU regularly and you begin to get the recruits more regularly that we contend for. Michigan slips further into the rearview mirror. The ploy is based upon Faith --- that we will in fact beat OSU. That's the dice roll.
So.....
ACC
ACC
ACC
ACC
ACC
USC
Navy
Purdue
Stanford
"something in Texas" [Rice?]
"Northwestern" or .....?
... and, apparently, Ohio State.
IF OSU, maybe no more B1G [i.e. NW not necessary].
THEN, some weaker [no home and home] opponent like Western Michigan.
That gives us "WMU", Navy, Purdue, "Rice", and at least one ACC team per year that we [more or less] could count "W"s, and with the exception of Navy's dirty blocking and Purdue's typical DLines wouldn't be put through a physical wringer every week.
With OSU, USC, Stanford, and at least one ACC power, "strength of schedule" is plenty good, and win-em-all and you're "in".
.... trying to channel my Inner Kelly.
Last edited:
PANDFAN
Look Down
- Messages
- 16,770
- Reaction score
- 2,278
believe player issued only...don't see anywhere...was looking before
ResLife Hero
Well-known member
- Messages
- 6,737
- Reaction score
- 190
I'll be doing my part. Have to keep my 4 year streak of being told to sit down alive.
- Messages
- 20,894
- Reaction score
- 8,126
Paging Koon:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BeatMichigan?src=hash">#BeatMichigan</a> ���� <a href="http://t.co/3VVOgDBzmX">pic.twitter.com/3VVOgDBzmX</a></p>— Greg Bryant J.r #⃣1⃣ (@The1twoWatch) <a href="https://twitter.com/The1twoWatch/status/507925987448086528">September 5, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BeatMichigan?src=hash">#BeatMichigan</a> ���� <a href="http://t.co/3VVOgDBzmX">pic.twitter.com/3VVOgDBzmX</a></p>— Greg Bryant J.r #⃣1⃣ (@The1twoWatch) <a href="https://twitter.com/The1twoWatch/status/507925987448086528">September 5, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
wizards8507
Well-known member
- Messages
- 20,660
- Reaction score
- 2,661
Koon wrapped his car around a telephone pole on Eddy Street.
PANDFAN
Look Down
- Messages
- 16,770
- Reaction score
- 2,278
i find it ironic that Koon posts about his abs and then greg posts a pic of him w/ his shirt ripped half way off.....Koon, you got some explaining man or post the pic w/ the other half
- Messages
- 2,475
- Reaction score
- 237
I think Justin Brent is going to pass him up
greyhammer90
the drunk piano player
- Messages
- 16,822
- Reaction score
- 16,085
Getting on the plane to Chicago! F*ck Michigan.
- Messages
- 20,894
- Reaction score
- 8,126
HLS's NDTex imagined what the phone call between Brandon and Swarbrick was like after news about the OSU series broke:
Jack Swarbrick wore the biggest grin on his face since perhaps the conclusion of the 2012 regular season. His masterful plan now public, he opened his bottom desk drawer, revealing a bottle of scotch and glassware. Certainly some might think scotch before ten in the morning on a Thursday a little concerning, but not this day. This is a day for celebration.
After pouring his morning beverage, his phone predictably rang. He had been waiting for this.
“Hello, this is Jack.”
“YOU SORRY SON OF A BITCH!” screamed the voice on the other end.
“Well, good morning to you too. Now who might this be?” asked Jack, full well knowing the angry voice was none other than Dave Brandon.
“Don’t you play dumb with me, Jack.”
“Why so tense today, Dave? Why the angry phone call. Did someone forget to pay for a pizza?”
“That’s not funny.”
“Indeed it isn’t. An unpaid pizza is an unforgivable crime. Hang on a second,” Jack said trying to contain his laughter as he screamed across the office to no one, “DID ANYONE ORDER A PIZZA? ANYONE?”
“Jack, stop being an asshole. This joke is never funny.”
“Hold, on an intern just walked in,” half chuckling to himself Jack continued talking to thin air “You ordered the pizza…ok…you paid…forget to tip…OH!” Jack returned to the phone again to torment his victim. “Dave, we did in fact order a pizza, but I was just told we’d never order the shit that is Dominos when we have a Pizza Hut on campus.”
“DAMN YOU, JACK, STOP! YOU KNOW THIS IS ABOUT OHIO STATE!”
“Why are you pissed at me for failing a two-point conversion last season? I had nothing to do with that.”
“Jack, I don’t understand why you are being such a dick right now.”
“Oh you don’t? Hold on let me send you an email that will explain it.” Swarbrick already had the draft ready to go. One click of the mouse and yet another needle would antagonize Brandon.
Over in Ann Arbor, Brandon opened Jack’s message to see only this:
“Can you and your school not let that crap go? It’s been a century for crying out loud.”
“Let it go? Look, Princess Elsa, if it weren’t for Yost’s irrational hatred, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now. We could be an annual conference opponent, but noooooo–some small little Irish Catholic school beat Yost’s juggernaut so he took his ball and went home.”
“Yes, yes, I know the story, Jack. Then he blackballed you from the Big Ten while refusing to schedule you. We know. What does this have to do with scheduling Ohio State?”
“Everything,” said Jack pausing to take a sip of scotch, “Look, I know when football gets involved, academics go by the wayside over there, but even you should know that every action has a reaction. Every decision, a consequence. Yost put the wheels in motion for our independence and no one at Michigan ever tried to correct the course. So by the time the Big Ten came knocking in the 90′s, we preferred to close that door rather than give up the national schedule and rivalries that we had in place. You know, the one that Yost forced us into in the first place.”
“Again, telling me nothing new here, Jack.”
“Again, Dave, that decision in the 90′s mattered two decades later when Jim Delany decided he wanted to turn the college football upside down with his conference expansion. Every action has a reaction, and in this case, the eventual reaction was the death of the Big East. So now, instead of Notre Dame being a happy little member of the Big Ten since the early 1900s or even in the 1990s with a nine-game conference schedule, I’m forced to start looking for a place for all our other sports to play. I brokered the best deal that I could, but the five game agreement with the ACC practically gave us an eight-game conference schedule of our own with Southern Cal, Stanford, and Navy. Something had to give, Dave.”
“Do you like hearing yourself talk, Jack? You kicked us to the curb and scheduled another Big Ten team with that so-called ‘impossible’ to handle nine-game conference schedule. Somehow it worked out just fine.”
Jack’s smile somehow grew even larger. Now was the time to lower the boom.
“Well, I suppose you have a point. There’s only one small issue. If you recall, back in the summer of 2012, you wanted a two-year break from us. It was like that phone call you get in a relationship when you say you want to ‘see other people’ for a bit and see if you can’t pick up right where you left off. But even prior to that in 2011, you saw the nine-game conference schedule coming and told people that you simply couldn’t live in a world in which the Big Ten forced you to have only four home conference games and one of your other three non-conference games, namely us, would be in South Bend. That would leave you just one home game short of your magical seven home games, which I figure would be a favor to you anyways considering how your ticket sales went this year. The way I see it, we did you a favor.”
“This is the same load of crap you said in 2012 when you canned the series, Jack. You still need to explain Ohio State.”
“Oh that–well you remember that BS you feed to the press that I blindsided you, even though I freakin’ called you before the game to let you know it was coming? Or Brady Hoke calling us ‘chicken’ for the decision? Or someone thinking they were cute by playing the chicken dance over the Big House PA last year? You’ve all handled this situation about as well as Yost handled his first loss to ND. After a century-plus of our relationship really being about Michigan’s convenience, you wanted to make us the bad guy. And mang,” said Jack slipping into his best Razor Ramon impression, “if you want us to be the bad guy, chico, we are more than happy to play along.”
“Wait, wait,” said a now slightly confused Brandon, “You mean to tell me you are actually petty enough to schedule Ohio State out of spite?”
“Call it petty if it makes you feel any better. I call it righteous rage and a well played middle finger in your direction. I mean, have you read our press release yet? I called this a great move from a strength of schedule perspective, just so other people would take a look at just how far mighty Michigan has fallen. Brian Kelly even called it an even of “huge national significance” just to throw some shade at Hoke’s comments earlier this season. While you chose to very publicly and loudly paint us in the worst light possible, we prefer to respond with a calculated, under-the-radar approach and have everyone else do the dirty work for us. The nation is already laughing at you and I haven’t said a single direct, derogatory insult to Michigan in public.”
“We are going to beat the living piss out of you Saturday, Jack. This will move will motivate Michigan in ways you can’t even possibly imagine.”
“Keep telling yourself that, Dave. Remember, the last time you came to South Bend, our best player and fans rallied around the death of someone that didn’t even exist to take you out. But this hate? It’s real, it’s damn real. If you think our boys don’t want to paint our new turf red with Skunkbear blood and wash it with the tears of the Ann Arbor faithful, you’ve got another thing coming. Once we hand you the beating you deserve, you’ll go back to Ann Arbor and, Dave, your failure as Michigan’s AD will be complete. Angry fans will beg you to get ND back on the schedule so they can have hope to end the torment of their final loss. You’ll try to come crawling back to us and I won’t so much as pick up the phone as long as you’re still the AD.”
The other end of the line fell silent. All Swarbrick could hear was heavy, angry breathing and a pound on a desk from the other end. He could restrain himself any more, he had to laugh.
“Tell you what Dave, just to prove I’m not that much of a jerk, I have a couple more presents for you. You sound really tense. You need a moment of zen–well, actually around here, we call them moments of Nix–but anyways, let me send you another quick email to make you feel better.”
The silence on the line was broken up by a few mouse clicks and the sounds of the video Jack sent Brandon:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/cPxPSzz0LBY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
After hearing what he swore was a monitor being thrown across the room, Jack continued, “And I’m sure you need a drink or two while you’re here witnessing the death of the program you run. So there’s an entire crate of Arrogant Bastard Ale just for you. Don’t worry, no one will touch it, it’s got your name on it after all: Arrogant Bastard.”
The next sound Jack heard was the slamming of a phone and a dial tone. Jack gently placed his phone back in place and finished the rest of his drink as reward for a job well done. His eyes went to the corner of his office, “I’m surprised you managed to stay quiet this long, Everett.”
“And screw up that epic trolling effort? Never.”
“Well, my role in this play is over. It’s time for the final act, Everett. I usually don’t call players into my office like this. I don’t want people to think I’m interfering with Kelly’s job like that idiot that just hung up on me. All I want to do is ask you a simple favor. I need you to destroy them, Everett. You have the chance to claim final victory on over a century’s worth of piss-poor relations with these assholes. Break their spirit. Leave no doubt.”
Jack paused as he examined his empty glass before returning his gaze to Golson a final time.
“End them.”
wizards8507
Well-known member
- Messages
- 20,660
- Reaction score
- 2,661
Grantland's Heisman Watch:
Eff that noise.
Eff that noise.
B
Bogtrotter07
Guest
I was out cutting grass, and I looked up and saw the bald eagle. There is a nesting pair that lives in a natural area near my house. Over the years, nesting pairs have moved up the Maumee to a metro park with a tributary creek of the Maumee flowing through it. From there they headed up the creek to the natural acreage near my neighborhood.
Anyhow. Just an average day mowing, hot but clear. Bright blue sky. Then I saw her. Small movements using the wind currents, minimal effort, maximum effect, wings and feathers spread wide. Scouting below. Patrolling. She looked regal! For a minute, I felt as free and powerful as she was.
I can't explain it but I thought about tomorrow night. I got a really good feeling about this game!
Anyhow. Just an average day mowing, hot but clear. Bright blue sky. Then I saw her. Small movements using the wind currents, minimal effort, maximum effect, wings and feathers spread wide. Scouting below. Patrolling. She looked regal! For a minute, I felt as free and powerful as she was.
I can't explain it but I thought about tomorrow night. I got a really good feeling about this game!
Last edited:
wizards8507
Well-known member
- Messages
- 20,660
- Reaction score
- 2,661
- Messages
- 20,894
- Reaction score
- 8,126
I see you took my comments about CFB augury quite seriously, Bogs.
Now we just need someone to feel the bumps on Cacky's head. If we get a good reading there, we're assured of victory.
Last edited:
- Messages
- 2,475
- Reaction score
- 237
- Messages
- 20,894
- Reaction score
- 8,126
TP just posted another excellent article from Coach Thiel breaking down our defense against Rice and predicting what we'll do against Michigan:
My confidence in our team vs. Michigan has skyrocketed over the last couple days. GET HYPE!
My confidence in our team vs. Michigan has skyrocketed over the last couple days. GET HYPE!
C
Cackalacky
Guest
I actually laid hands on the head of a Fuck Michigan fan today. Based on my limited expertise with calipers and rudimentary measurements of nodules, I feel confident claiming that Michigan fans are 1) gullible and unintelligent and 2) that Michigan in fact sucks.
ACamp1900
Counting my ‘bet against ND’ winnings
- Messages
- 48,947
- Reaction score
- 11,225
Really?? Can I ask why?
- Messages
- 20,894
- Reaction score
- 8,126
Here's MGOBlah's ND preview:
Overview
Well, here it is. Thanks to the shortsightedness of mankind, this is the last Michigan-Notre Dame game for the foreseeable future. It is only appropriate that the winner of this game, then, will lead the all time winning percentage battle. Michigan has the opportunity to send the Irish off having lost 5 of 6, with multiple stabbing-chest-wound finishes. They have the opportunity to send 'em off right, that is.
Note: we are assuming at this point that ND will be without their five suspended players. Those guys are WR Davaris Daniels, CB KeiVarae Russell, LB Luke Moore, DE Ishaq Williams, and S Eliar Hardy.
Run Offense vs Notre Dame
This figures to be the most pillow-fight-y section of the game, with Michigan's noob-laden offensive line taking on an Irish front seven that's Sheldon Day, Jaylon Smith, and five question marks.
Actually, six: in addition to the five non Day/Smith starters, new DC Brian Van Gorder installed a 4-3 after Bob Diaco and his preferred 3-4 left to run UConn. As Brian Stouffer mentioned this morning, this does actually seem a better fit for their personnel—Day excels at getting penetration and DT running mate Jarron Jones is a 6'5, 315 pound guy. That's big, but it's not the right shape to be a 3-4 NT.
Even so, it does make for some uncertainty. Sophomore Isaac Rochell is an awkward fit for 4-3 DE at 6'3", 287; Rice starter Romeo Okwara is about right at 260, but nobody really fits the rangy edge speedster role the 4-3 requires at DE.
Notre Dame did keep a 4-3 on the field against Rice's spread, with converted WR(!) James Onwualu split over the slot and Smith and walk-on Joe Schmidt on the interior. Onwualu looks shockingly thin for someone who purports to be a linebacker, and Schmidt is limited athletically. He is very instinctive in the run game, though, and that's what this section is about.
And now we have to talk about Day. Day is a problem. If you pull the guy over him he will be in your base. If you leave him for a trap blocker he will be in your base. If you try to block him straight up there is a decent chance he will be in your base. And while Rice handled him pretty well in pass protection, last year he whipped Kyle Kalis and was in Michigan's base on play after play. Oh and here he is kind of successfully covering a wheel route, via Ace:
Rice scraped out a bleah 3.5 yards a carry with a long of 19, that from their quarterback, though. Normally I would say that Michigan should be able to improve on that production. Now is not that time. It does seem that runs should generally go forward unless Day is getting involved, and if Michigan can start grinding on the Irish they could experience a positive feedback loop: ND's backups are mostly freshmen, and they looked pretty shaky when they got in.
As for Michigan, this is a chance to be competent against a defense that gives you that chance. Get Day blocked and no one else is a dynamic player. Smith is good but I haven't seen him become the ninja panther everyone expects just yet. That's no surprise: linebacking is hard. Even guys who end up terrific struggle early, and it's still early for him.
Against App State Michigan was an inside zone offense that mixed in OZ and power and generally executed their assignments against a team that could not fit a run play to save its life. Their tailbacks looked better, but still average-ish in a world where they have to make cuts and stuff before they get 60 yards; I'm not expecting great things. Mediocre ones would be nice.
Key Matchup: Interior line, all of 'em, against Sheldon Day, especially on stunts. ND loves to take advantage of Day's quickness by looping him around the guys next to him. A young OL needs to ID and deal with these because if they don't, Day will be in their base.
Pass Offense vs Notre Dame
Down Hardy, Russell, and senior quarterback-of-the-D Austin Collinsworth, the Notre Dame secondary suddenly looks vulnerable. Onwualu is often their nickelback—they tried him at safety this spring—and will go out to cover slots and the like, usually in zone. When they do sub it's Mattias Farley coming in, a veteran who's okay.
Starting safeties Max Redfield and Elijah Shumate were shaky at best against Rice; Shumate is the guy likely at fault on a massive coverage bust that turned second and 17 into a Rice TD. He also bit hard on a third consecutive WR screen, opening up a shoulda-coulda touchdown for Rice that was poorly thrown and took the WR off his feet. Another post route should have been 30 yards until it went doink off the Rice WR's helmet. (Rice was atrocious in this game. Their QB can't throw, their WRs can't catch, and nobody has field-stretching athletic ability.)
Starting corners Cody Riggs, a Florida transfer who started for two years in Gainsville, and Cole Luke are solid. Riggs is a bit of a mighty mite, though, at 5'9"—not sure Notre Dame feels too good about matching him up on Funchess. Luke is decently sized at 5'11" either way straight man against Minitron seems inadvisable.
Underneath, Schmidt is ponderous in zone coverage; Rice repeatedly picked up nice gains by running drag routes across his face and having the WR run away from him; he also popped up on a short hitch to open up a deeper throw. Smith is super fast; the other guys not so much.
The ND pass rush is weak. Without a natural edge rusher or a dynamic NT, it's up to Day and blitzes. Rochell is particularly poor; his main "move" is to try without success to bull rush a guy. That may work a bit better against Mason Cole than it should, unfortunately. Okwara did have a sack off some laughably bad LT play and a QB who hung in the pocket forever; other than that ND was rather impotent in this department.
On the other side of the ball, Michigan flashed excellent potential before the game got out of hand and it was run run run time. Devin Gardner was 13/14, Funchess looked unstoppable, and Michigan caught everything they found. Tomorrow is an obvious step-up in class.
Still, this feels like a matchup Michigan should win clearly. ND pressure on plain old shotgun passes was nonexistent against Rice; Michigan should be able to match that. And if Notre Dame comes after Gardner someone's band is going to play. With Michigan's threats on the edge, it figures to be the Wolverines.
Key matchup: Gardner versus The Devil On His Right Shoulder Telling Him To Spin Around In The Pocket. There's no Shembo or Tuitt this year, so hopefully this won't come up much.
Run Defense vs Notre Dame
Historically something you could ignore save for the odd second and ten rush, Brian Kelly's run game may be, like, extant this year. ND threw only 22 times against Rice to 42 rushes, and the three-headed tailback combined for 28 carries that went for 182 yards. Golson chipped in a good hunk as well, including the eyebrow-raising draw touchdown Ace included in FFFF:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/BL5pcoEHDgY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This is not Tommy Rees. I miss him already.
This is a spread offense all the way but Notre Dame's favorite run play is power O, where they'll hope to crack open defensive ends headed for the quarterback and the DT. After last week's game a dose of zone belly might be in order as well.
ND's primary backs are:
The ND OL generally overwhelmed the Rice defensive line and the additional threat provided by Golson's legs prevented the Owls from ganging up on the tailback (except when they decided safeties were optional, as discussed in the next section. Spoiler: it went poorly.)
- Cam McDaniel, who you may remember from last year. He is a moderately quick, not-that-big guy who is good out of the backfield and has more experience than the other guys. He will be described as heady, because he is white.
- Greg Bryant, a big time recruit with the best physical package of anyone available. A true sophomore, he's still prone to blow assignments, and his pass blocking is untested.
- Tarean Folston, another sophomore who runs the meanest.
That OL returns three starters and a guy who look over at right guard for four games last year due to injury; all of them are large and highly touted. Nick Martin is a captain and a very good center; Christian Lombard is a quality guard. The tackles are a little shakier, with Steve Elmer moving into the RT job after those four starts a year ago and Ronnie Stanley moving over to LT. If they're vulnerable it's on those edges.
Michigan's run defense was mostly quality last weekend, with bouts of linebacker screwups and over-aggressive DL opening up some avenues for App State. With Desmond Morgan out, Michigan loses their best and most instinctual linebacker. Can Jake Ryan take on a block like a MLB? Will Joe Bolden be the breakout star the offseason chatter exclaimed he would be? I am doubtful on both of these items.
So the best way to mitigate those issues is for the DL to win. Willie Henry, Frank Clark, and Ondre Pipkins are all powerful mofos who can drive the opponent backwards and provide free hits to the linebackers; each one of those instances will be worth its weight in gold.
Key Matchup: Henry/Wormley/Glasgow/Pipkins versus ND interior OL. The opponents are good, but Michigan has some enormous pocket pushing types with the raw strength to not only compete but win. On the other hand, none has fully pupated into a monster—all have technique issues they are still working through save maybe Glasgow, the least physically dominant of the bunch. Winning the run game starts with winning one on one matchups here; leave it to the linebackers at your peril.
Pass Defense vs Notre Dame
Golson's explosion against Rice was impressive and strange. It was impressive because it was impressive. It was strange because Rice often decided that it was a good idea to run cover zero against a much more athletic team, with predicable results:
What in the blue hell did you think was going to happen there? That WR had time to slow up and spin around and still score a touchdown. The very next play after this was a post to Corey Robinson with no safety in sight after the cornerback played inside leverage. So… yeah. Rice may not be real good.
The loss of Daniels hurts this WR corps significantly. Robinson is a rangy downfield target whose speed isn't a wow experience—expect Michigan to press him and force him to the sideline and fades. He may catch a couple but that's a low percentage play. Will Fuller caught the above bomb and three other balls for ten yards; no other ND WR had more than two catches. Amir Carlisle, a tailback last year, is now the top slot receiver, and is pretty good in that role.
And Notre Dame has a Notre Dame tight end. This one is named Ben Koyack for some reason. Look, we know you have a cloning facility inside the stadium. Just name it Eifert Rudolph Niklas II and end the charade.
This needs to be a game where Frank Clark makes his presence felt on every other down.
For Michigan's part, the new Teddy KGB alignment gets its first serious test. Michigan is going to align nose to nose with ND's outside receivers and dare them to complete fades over the top. Appalachian State could not come within several feet of doing so, for what little that's worth.
Notre Dame has experienced this before, when they played Michigan State last year and were the beneficiary of a pile of pass interference flags that were, to my eyes, legit. It'll be a Big Ten crew for this road game, and that'll be interesting to watch. Last year's game was put out of reach when the officiating crew threw two critical PI flags on Michigan's final touchdown drive. One was a no-doubt call; the other was far murkier.
And as mentioned, Michigan has to get to Golson, and get to him responsibly. Vacating a rush lane against him is at best an eight yard run and at worst a big play on your face. Clark and Beyer/Charlton are the key players, and expect a number of blitzes where someone drops out into what I've been calling the "spy" zone. That's not so much an attempt to cover anyone; it's more to clean up when the quarterback flushes.
Key Matchup: Frank Clark vs. Elmer/Stanley. Clark was kept quiet by the nature of the App State offense. Even so he still flashed his power on a couple of occasions. This is a big game against a shaky tackle pairing. It's time for him to put his stamp on something.
Special Teams
Kyle Brindza returns for the Irish. He does everything for them, and mostly well. He was 20/26 on FGs last year with three of over 50 yards, he takes their kickoffs, and he punts. His punting is eh—41 yards an attempt—but there are worse problems to have.
Notre Dame's return units have been dormant for a while but had a very nice game returning punts against Rice. Bryant and Riggs combined to average 16 yards on 5 attempts. Michigan's going to have to get good play from their gunners if long punts from Hagerup are going to stay long.
This looks like a small advantage to the Irish, as their kicker is considerably more proven than Matt Wile.
Key Matchup: YOU PUT THE BALL THROUGH THE UPRIGHTS
Intangibles
Worry if...
Cackle with knowing glee if...
- ND gets anything resembling a pass rush with four guys.
- Sheldon Day is destroying Michigan guards.
- ND OL are getting to the M linebackers on rushes.
Fear/Paranoia Level: 7 (Baseline 5; +1 for Creepy Notre Dame Stadium JuJu Jinx Stuff, +1 for Hey This Is A Real Opponent, +1 for Oh God Our Offensive Line, –1 for ND's Front Seven Kind Of Seems In The Same Situation, +1 for Oh God A Dual Threat Quarterback, –1 for We Finally Have The Kind Of Corner Depth That Matches The Spread Well, +1 for Linebacker Worries, –1 for They Seem More Likely To Explosively Decompress In The Secondary)
- Elijah Shumate or other guy forced into action is ten yards away from where he should be.
- Golson is wearing Frank Clark like a backpack.
- Funchess is unstoppable.
Desperate need to win level: 10 (Baseline 5; +1 for One More Night, +1 for To Hell With Notre Dame, +1 for Good Feelings Are Good, +1 for This Is The Last Time Ever For Now, +1 for Seriously, To Hell With Everything That Had Anything To Do With Ending This Series.)
Loss will cause me to... be accosted by a choir of darling moppets wishing me good game and a nice life, mister.
Win will cause me to... linger in stadium until band exits, eat at Chili's and love it, get irrationally optimistic about upcoming season.
The strictures and conventions of sportswriting compel me to predict:
I like the matchup between Michigan's passing offense and Notre Dame's defense quite a lot. They're down two starters, they have issues both underneath and deep with guys who are not ideal fits, and their edge rushers are impotent. Michigan should pass to set up the run, and fire the ball deep at Funchess quite a bit, and then futz around with Norfleet to exploit what should be a healthy fear of Minitron.
On defense, I expect Notre Dame will get some yards, but they will be of the hard-fought variety. I don't like the matchup between Michigan's linebackers minus Morgan, and their line is good enough to make that relevant. I do think you're going to see Clark and Henry burst into the backfield enough to set up some passing downs that don't go so well for ND; Golson will pull some of those out of the fire. But not enough.
Finally, three opportunities for me to look stupid Sunday:
Michigan, 33-24
- Funchess goes over 100 yards with ease.
- Frank Clark levels Golson twice.
- Gardner is sacked once.