At halftime Coach Mattison told Doug Karsch “..they’re getting us on the same play..”. Above (click for poster size) is what it looked like all day. Hats off to Air Force and I’m not taking anything away from the Falcons. As you know, they ran that thing to perfection. It seemed the U-M corners did their job – engaging the block, containing the corner and forcing the run inside. It’s just that the inside was a gaping hole you could fit a Stealth Bomber though..let alone any one of Sam McGuffie’s brothers.
That was close. If Air Force could have done something/anything else, namely, toss it downfield more than 15 yards, or execute a fake kick, or execute a real kick, I think we’re 0 and 2.
On the other side of the ball, it’s amazing how numb we’ve become to Denard’s exploits. Denard’s performance seemed to be an afterthought on postgame the talk. We untie our shoe laces, compose songs and videos about how much we love the young man, and sleep in #16 jerseys but I just get the sense that his performance yesterday was met with a fat yawn. Four TDs and 416 total yards, 200 each on the ground and air and those 2 ridiculous scoring runs? I get that it’s coming off the Bama game where he was smothered but sheesh.
And…that concludes the MVictors game analysis. Onto the #’M’iscellanea:
Indulging just a little: Regarding The Michigan Daily’s ‘Resist Temptation’ campaign to get students and fans to replace chanting “You Suck!” with “Defense” before fourth downs. I only was able to catch one instance outside in the 4th quarter, but from the Air Force sideline I can tell you it sounded like: “DEE—SUCK”. (Pretty close to “DEEZ NUTZ!”, which would have been awesome). Also – while there was a lot of space with 10 minutes before kick-off, it looked like the students filed into the Big House at a better than average clip?
Double Zero Indeed. Our AFA visitors made fine guests as expected and the team played beyond admirably. But one bone to pick with my sky blue buddies. The team nickname is the Falcons and apparently they bring a couple of these impressive creatures on road games:
So why, given you’ve got those badass falcons, do you have that silly/cartoonish feathered mascot walking around who goes by the name, “The Bird”? They don’t even call him ‘The Falcon’ or Francis the Falcon or whatever. It’s just ‘The Bird’. Here’s me giving you the bird, Bird.
The two Devins: Added to the postgame press conference hall of shame was the fiasco 
around the media trying to figure out how to address individual questions to Devin Gardner or Devin Funchess, as the Two Devins were trotted out to meet the press at the same time. The Wolverine’s Michael Spath asked the first question and intentionally addressed the question to “Devin” as a joke, but that didn’t help matters. More than a few times the players had to ask for clarification as to whom the question was addressed and it got silly. “The old one,” was offered up at one point to clear up the confusion, making Gardner, who was trying to be a bit stoic, crack up. Props to WTKA’s Steve Clarke who directed the final question to “Number nineteen”. I was going to direct mine to “number square root of 144”.
More Funch: Speaking of Clarke, he asked #19 what the players call him. Funchess said they call him by last name or “D Funch”. I’m going with Hawaiian Funch, or as @stuba2 on Twitter suggested: “Honey Funchess of Oats.”
#NDRG: Coach Hoke said earlier this year that he likes when things get a little chippy in practice. Weeeelll, Coach Hoke himself got a bit chippy with the media after the game. This isn’t the best example of that but it’s the most fun. Here’s Mike Rothstein of the four letter mother asking about “the ‘non-Denard running game’” and Hoke snorting at the new phrase:
The Fitz & Frank boost: Regarding the #NDRG…based on today’s game I loaded the data and crunched the numbers on what would have happened in Dallas had Fitz and Frank suited up for the Wolverines. Average final score after 10,000 simulations: Alabama 41, Michigan 14.
Tight Spiral. Spotted pregame, Tim Hardaway outside Crisler with a nice delivery although he needs to bring that arm across his body a bit more and dial down the wrist action.
Oosterbaan. Looked like they did a real nice job with the Bennie O. ceremony and I love the choice of Jake Ryan to don the #47. While Oosterbaan, like everyone who suited up in his day, played offense and defense, he was best known for his work at WR. But I dig that the coaches aren’t necessarily pigeon-holing the Legend jerseys to the positions the player was known for. If they didn’t it would get weird after a while, with offense skill positions dominating the Legends jerseys.
Onto #87. That said…I do think it would be cool to give Ron Kramer’s #87 to a tight end next week and I think the big debate will be whether they’d be willing to offer it up to a freshman, namely Mr. Funchess. We’ll see. I know some folks won’t be down with the idea of handing over such an honor to an unproven freshman, but if all signs are that Funchess is a good kid, I say why not. And for the coaches it means it’s something they won’t have to worry about again for several years.
Elsewhere:
- Air Force Photos (MNB Nation)
- Takes from Brad @ Maize & Blue Nation
- More Game Photos from UMGoBlue.com
- Photos from Michigan vs. Air Force (mgoblog)
- Air Force Recap: Remnants Of RichRod (mgoblog)
- Touch the Banner recap
- Instant Analysis: Michigan 31 – Air Force 25 (Maize n brew)
- What to Take from the Air Force game (Maize n brew)
Air Force content on MVictors:
5 Comments
Mustelid
Have to disagree a little: I thought the interior D was okay but the perimeter was a mess. On most plays we seemed to have the first two options covered but no one was on the tailback for the pitch.
As for the Daily, why not chant “Go Blue!”
Greg - MVictors
@Mustelid
Thanks and no problem. I haven’t seen the tape so I’m going on what I saw upstairs but I did see it over and over again. To me if anything, the outside corners could have put a more pressure on the receiver and squeezed the play a little more inside, but that’s really all they are responsible for as I understand it.
Jeff Cummins
You’re correct, Greg, that one was scary, but I had a feeling it would be. The triple option is a nightmare to defend, and from field level, it’s often very difficult to determine which player has actually has the ball, not unlike the single wing in that respect. Was it ugly as sin? Absolutely. But there were some bright spots. Devin Funchess appears to be a player, and Devin Gardner continues to impress, regardless of whether he plays wideout or QB. Defensively, a lot of improvement is necessary. Blake Countess, we miss you!
Kool Breeze
They way we struggled with the triple option, I would hate to see the Vikes come to town with the Wing-T, look out!
Greg - MVictors
Unstoppable!