Steve “Dr. Sap” is back delivering the decals.  Ufer Award is mine this week: OFFENSIVE CHAMPION DEVIN GARDNER – In order to fully appreciate what Gardner did on Saturday, some perspective is needed. Jim Harbaugh was the first Michigan QB to throw for over 300 yards in one game. That happened against Wisconsin, in Madison, in 1986. Some big names have produced some big games and record-setting performances in Michigan Stadium. Guys like Roger Staubach, Bob Griese, Sandy Schwab and Donovan McNabb. Unfortunately, the common thread here is that all of these players were opposing QBs. Devin is my friend and I will love him and squeeze and hold him NEW 98 finally put on a show for the home crowd to see! Denard Robinson’s best two statistical games? At Notre Dame and at Indiana. Tom Brady? At Ohio State. John Navarre? At Iowa and at Minnesota. Heck, even OLD 98 had his best games at Cal and at Ohio!  Great to see Gardner make it happen through the air – especially when the opposing team was daring him to throw by putting 7 or 8 defenders in the box. Lesson learned from last week? I hope so. DEFENSIVE CHAMPION THOMAS GORDON – I was going to go with Blake Countess as I counted three Pass Break Ups in the…

Saturday’s edition of this week in Michigan Football History went back to 1904 when Yost’s Point-A-Minute crew put up nearly 3 points a minute when they crushed West Virginia 130-0 on October 22, 1904.   A Morgantown paper described the offensive fury: “At other times they say that they heard a heavy roaring sound as if the air was being split by heavy rushing bodies, but this soon passed away, and the scorer announced that another touchdown had been made.” The big difference of course with that 1904 beatdown and what we saw Saturday was that the Yostmen gave up a mere 3 yards on the other side of the ball.   It felt a lot like the RichRod Illinois shoot out back in 2010 but of course that 67-65 score was artificially inflated by the overtimes.  One time RichRod talked about the wild games, shrugged as said at least they are “fun to watch.”   Kinda. This has been a strange year, man.  One thing I thought was an absolute in the Hoke era is that if nothing else we had a sound defense, and it got better as the game went on and it got better as the season progressed.  I am not disappointed as much as I am confused by what happened Saturday.    Methinks answers come in two weeks. Misc:…

Great work again by Kelley Kuehne – more here and here and here.       This is a bad place to be (Norfleet’s reverseFest)   This is a good, safe place   Tons more from IU: RichRod Redux (Michigan 63, Indiana 47) GallonFest (Photos) The Hoosiers are Here (Early Pregame Photos) TWIMFbH: Flattening the Mountaineers (1904)

via mgoblue.com In private the coaches would probably tell you they called the offense they did to protect the players, in particular Gardner, from making a fatal mistake.  The irony of course is that by calling those toothless plays they ended up putting the team, time after time, in difficult situations.  I don’t think it’s fair to blame Gibbons or Gardner or Wile anyone on the defense for this one—it’s on the coaching staff. Mudbowl >  As part of your therapy after this mess I order you to you attend the annual SAE Mudbowl Saturday morning kickoff at 10:30am: The slopfest benefits C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital once again this year. Stevie the Greek >  Steve Clarke of WTKA’s KeyBank Countdown to Kickoff has an impressive streak running.  He took Penn State yesterday and now he’s correctly predicted the winner of every Michigan game dating back to the 2011 Iowa game. Historical Tidbits from the mgoblue notes > Gallon extended his streak to 32 consecutive games with a reception. He is tied with Marquise Walker for the third-longest streak in school history, trailing only record-holder Braylon Edwards (38 games) as well as Jason Avant (35). With his fourth PAT of the contest, Gibbons passed J.D. Carlson (126 PATs, 1988-91) for the most consecutive PATs made in program history with 127. [The]…