Most M fans were excited about the Oregon game coming into the season. Heck, Brian at mgoblog called this game a 50/50 proposition prior to The Debacle. Obviously most thought this would be the first chance to see what the 2007 Wolverine squad was made of. That’s still a reality but not how anyone had hoped.
The situation that the team in is difficult to comprehend but you have to think we’ll get a lot of answers at 3:30 Saturday. It’ll reveal true mettle of Carr and the determination of Hart & co to preserve (salvage?) their legacy.
The good news:
– Could the schedule set-up better for this team given what just happened? A breather against a MAC school following this game wouldn’t take any of the heat of the team or Carr. For the next three weeks every US American will be watching the Blue in some of the biggest games of the year. A nice win over Oregon could dose a lot of the flames. Following up with wins over Notre Dame and Penn State and Michigan will certainly be ranked again and heading into the Big Ten schedule with major steam. Obviously most Michigan fans, even the folks that want Carr’s head, will be pulling for these guys to rebound.
The bad news:
– If you watched what happened on Saturday, what gives you any confidence that this thing will be turned around in a matter of a few days? I heard somewhere that Oregon is getting 8 points this weekend. What?
I don’t know all of what Lloyd Carr is telling these players right now. We know a lot of it is about not listening to all the negativity right now on campus, on the internet, in the media. I imagine he’ll tell them that they’re going to face bigger challenges in their lives and that the true measure of a man is how he handles times like these. Further, I think Carr will assure them that they’ve got the talent and training around them to win but to do so they’ll need to regain that confidence. He’ll tell them it is us against the world, how do you want to folks to remember this season? Will they respond?
3 Comments
andrew
my imaginary interview response if i were mike hart:
“we don’t have a chip on our shoulder. we have a giant boulder. we’re gonna chip away at that boulder one week at a time until it’s gone.”
that’s almost as good as climbing a mountain! (pats self on back)
MATT HUNT
THE HELL WITH WHAT HAPPEN THEY WILL COME TOGETHER AS A TEAM AND ROCK OREGON WITH THE OFFENSE OF LINE AND A BIG ASS DOSE OF HART AND LONG IT HAPPENED ITS OVER AND NOW WE ARE GOING TO EAT SOME DUCK.
Yellowperil
Oregon is going to stop the entirely predictable Michigan offense just enough to put the fatal bullet into Carr’s career.
Dennis Dixon is bigger, taller, as fast, and far more experienced than Amanti Edwards is. The Ducks also feature two tailbacks who would challenge for the starting job at any D-1 school.
Factor in that we actually care about execution on special teams, and I smell a not as close as expected road upset.
App State is going to beat Michigan twice with an assist from Oregon.