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]…

  Props to Steve “Dr. Sap” Sapardanis for producing his decals after that game:     OFFENSIVE CHAMPION DEVIN FUNCHESS – I think Michigan has finally found their tall outside receiver they have been missing since Darryl Stonum. Let’s face it, Funchess is not going to be UM’s tight end. When blocking was needed on the line of scrimmage late in the game, Funchess was on the bench. When a touchdown pass was needed, Funchess was usually on the other end of a Devin Gardner spiral. I like the move as Funchess to me seems like a Michigan version of former USC receiver Mike Williams. Like I said last week – he’s a matchup problem waiting to happen in Michigan’s favor. When was the last time we could say that about one of the WR’s? DEFENSIVE CHAMPION FRANK CLARK – His fumble recovery ignited a huge third quarter for Michigan and the defense. Playing on the road, at night, in a hostile environment, in front of 1007,000 fans, Clark seemed to be the guy that was there to make the big play – whether it was a tackle or fumble recovery. SPECIAL TEAMS CHAMPION DREW DILEO – I’m giving this to Dileo not because he had 66 return yards in the game – which were certainly a decent amount. No.…

Part of building a “foundation of toughness” is having the stones to put a team away when you have a cleated foot on their throats a dozen times.   The coaches can argue they put the team in position plenty of times to win the game and players need to make plays.  That’s fair to a certain extent, but if you’re on the sideline and you can see clearly that the coaching staff has no balls, doesn’t that affect you at some point? One group that has never professed to be tough is the Michigan fanbase, including yrs truly.  Brothers and sisters, this stings BAD.    Sadly I take some solace in understanding a few weeks ago that this wasn’t a great team, but you hoped with the move of Funchess outside, and Ryan’s return and the shuffling of the offensive line, and Fitz finding more space…that just maybe…  Nope.