Most were surprised how easy that went Saturday for Hoke and crew and Michigan together the most complete half I can remember. The biggest factor was the poor play of highly-rated QB Ryan Lindley, who seemed out of sorts all day. The U-M defense deserves some credit for that for sure but Lindley didn’t get a lot of help from his receivers who ran poor routes in many cases.
Here’s Lindley trying to connect in the end zone in the fourth quarter and his receiver has a step on Countess – the ball is too high, off-target and just sailed:
Commence the Miscellanea:
Since I’m not going to tell you anything about how Denard fared on the field that you didn’t see with your own eyes Saturday, try this:
Laces on Lockdown
Denard’s “Xs” – In the postgame Denard talked about a recent trip to the lanes. He told the media, “I did all right,” and shared that he bowled the 200-160-170 series. The “X” in Denard’s Twitter handle stands for strike, and use can use an X to mark one thing off the list of things that you thought you could do better than #16.
Switch to Schutt – Some nerd I asked Denard about his switch of helmet manufacturers this year. I was half hoping there was some major reason behind the change (like, ‘my hair fits better in the Schutt’ or ‘The lab determined I’m slightly faster in the Schutt helmet’) but no go. The switch was simply recommended by the folks in Schembechler Hall.
Old #5 – Speaking of Jon Falk, I wonder if these days they even bother to make minor mends to these jerseys. Ryan Van Bergen was a couple series’ away from being #5:
They Really Like each Other – Hoke paused when he was asked to cite something that surprised him (either positive or negative) through four games. He finally talked about how much the team truly likes each other. And he noted that that’s definitely not always the case in his experience. #toughness
Tough Hugs – You’ve probably already watched the scene, but Hoke spent some time embracing the SDSU players after the game and it was real, man. I got mildly verklempt watching the whole thing.
5 Comments
gobluetwo
Glad you pointed out the ripped number. It seems these new adidas techfit jerseys (or whatever they are) are a bit less durable than the previous jerseys. Someone has a ripped jersey every game it seems. The UTL jerseys seemed especially weak. Is this by design, or maybe just due to the lighter, stretchier fabric they use in the new jerseys being weaker? Does anyone else really care?
Tom
Huh, I had assumed the X was for his middle name, Xavier.
Greg - MVictors
@Tom
It’s a shout-out to his favorite local radio host, Thayrone X
http://www.thayrone.com/
Kevin
If I’m correct, I’m fairly positive that’s one of last years’ jerseys…not the new material? In another picture of the post game interviews it looked like both Van Bergen and Martin were wearing the old type for some reason.
jmblue
@Kevin
The telltale sign would be on the back of the jersey. This year’s have the small “M” added above the nameplate.