A big win in Happy Valley for the Wolverines and for the first time since 1997, Michigan has won ALL of their B1G Road Games – can you believe that? That shows you the type of effort involved and how special this team is. Speaking of Special – let’s take a look at your Champions. SPECIAL TEAMS CHAMPION – Most of the time, Special Teams will flip the field with a long punt. Saturday, Jourdan Lewis not only flipped the field, he flipped momentum in the game at a most critical time. While Penn State settled for a field goal to make it a 5-point game midway through the 4th quarter, Lewis’s 55-yard kickoff return set the table for Michigan to ice the game. While the Wolverines’ Special Teams were not exactly stellar all game, this return erased the block punt earlier in the contest and provided a much-needed spark. OFFENSIVE TEAM CHAMPION – Jake Rudock is the man! Plain and simple. We are seeing now, what Jim Harbaugh saw in #15 months ago. Calm. Cool. Accurate. Heady. Sure, he fumbled and threw a pick when he locked onto a receiver in the game, but he is starting to play Brian Griese-esque. He makes good decisions and my gosh is he accurate! I’m not saying he is flawless but “Dad” as the…
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Sights & Sounds: Michigan 48, Indiana 41 (2 OT)
via mgoblue.com Heading into the season we figured Harbaugh was the answer but that he needed time. We hoped that time would be short, even just maybe something would happen this year. We hoped that under his tutelage, a quarterback would emerge to lead this team. And we hoped somehow we’d muster a running game and the defense would come together. So here we are in mid-November with much on the line and with the events of the past few weeks—very hopeful. Rudock looked like a different cat out there, with a new level of confidence and toughness. At times he looked a bit like a young coach Harbaugh himself with the fierce runs on third down and balls to fire the pigskin over the middle. And as Sap said, the passing game is starting to click. The concerns for these 2 weeks are obvious. A winless in B1G team in IU won the line of scrimmage and the “yeah but Glasgow” excuse turned into this. We still couldn’t really run the ball and in space the first “man”, meaning mainly an Indiana 19 year old kid, took us down. The penalties were horrible. The linebackers were ineffective at best. We missed a bunch of tackles. But you are hopeful, aren’t you? Despite all that stuff Michigan is a really…
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Double OT Hoosier Champions | Dr Sap’s Decals
WoW – what a finish! Take the W and get out of Bloomington. A win is a win. Now it’s onward – to your Champions. OFFENSIVE CHAMPION – When things start to click, your game becomes one with your teammates. Plays that weren’t being made before, suddenly look like old hat. Jake Rudock is starting to click, but more importantly, he’s clicking with Jehu Chesson. That deep threat wasn’t there earlier in the season, but in these last two games, especially against Indiana, Jake Rudock to Jehu Chesson has been money. The two had record-setting performances Saturday night and it’s a perfect time in the season for this to happen. The threat of a deep passing game can only help the Michigan offense these next two games. Jake to Jehu – sounds much like another great Michigan QB to WR combination: Benny (Friedman) to Bennie (Oosterbaan). DEFENSIVE CHAMPION – Playing against a spread offense like IU only brings out the worst in your defense. It exposes lack of depth. It exposes poor tackling in open space. It’s never a pretty picture on D. As the game wore on, and as IU’s Jordan Howard kept ripping off huge run after huge run, I wasn’t going to select a Champion on defense. It just felt as if I would be rewarding the…
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1984 Holiday Bowl Avenged! | Dr Sap’s Decals
For those of you who weren’t old enough to endure the no-holding-calls-ever-made-against-BYU-1984-Holiday-Bowl-disaster, this shutout avenged some of that bitter taste. So you’ll have to excuse me if I enjoy this 31-0 shutout just a little more than any other win this year. Alright, enough of that – here are your BYU-1st-shutout-of-the-year-Champions: OFFENSIVE CHAMPION – Could have gone several ways here, (OBJ Darboh, De’Veon Smith, heck, O-Line for that matter), but I’m going with the guy under center – Jake Rudock. Sure, I loved seeing a Michigan QB RUN for two touchdowns, but it was WAAAY more than that. He looked comfortable running the offense. He threw the ball well downfield – in part to the kick-start provided by OBJ Darboh – and he had no turnovers against the Cougars. Do you realize his turnovers have gone down each game this year? Utah (3), Oregon State (2), UNLV (1) and now BYU (0). Umm – I’ll take that ANY DAY! DEFENSIVE CHAMPION – Last week I mentioned that Channing Stribling set the tone on D with his early INT. This week, the D-LINE came out and made a statement against BYU. Seemed like each series there was a different guy getting penetration and that is a good sign! When BYU had only completed 2 passes in the first half, I thought…
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Beaver Beatdown – Sights & Sounds (Michigan 35, Oregon State 7 – 2015)
“I GUESS I HIT THAT HOLE YOU NERDS!” (via Michigan Daily) Following another Smith score to put U-M up 26-7, Harbaugh personally called for the 2 point conversion. He gave some kind of signal to the celebrating players – it looked like a bear claw from the press box. He sat hunched over outside the team area basically begging for Rudock and a few other guys to get the message and line up—flashing the bear claw gesture as hard as he could. Rudock and crew eventually got the message, lined up, and successfully executed the 2 point conversion to put U-M up 28-7. On the trot back to the sideline Rudock tried to slide back to the bench with the rest of the unit but Harbaugh put his hand in Rudock’s chest—stopping him in his tracks. There was a quick chat between QB and coach, I assume something along the lines of maintaining composure even after a TD and paying attention. After the chat, #4 delivered a pair of hearty butt slaps and Rudock went back to the bench. Here’s the deal – Harbaugh is in absolute control (most of the time) of the sideline and what the players are doing on the field. The only other way he’d have it is if the rules allowed him to play a…
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Salt Lake City Sights & Sounds (Utah 24, Michigan 17) – Jim Harbaugh’s first game
Darn. It turns out there is no magical khaki lint for #4 to sprinkle around the locker room but you, the most rational and reasonable Michigan fan, was still hoping there was. Guilty as well. Sights and sounds from Harbaugh's debut:
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Media Day: Miscellanea and Photos
Quick takes from media day: 1. I thought the idea of having 5 kids ask questions during the press conference was a bad idea—but it turned out to be pretty fun, cute, and at times, actually a little interesting. Well done #1000SSS. 2. The Harbaugh highlight was old #4 himself coordinating the team photo – from calling out the order of where guys would sit, to the spacing, to where they should put their hands, etc., etc. It was classic. I sat there and watched the whole thing. 3. Peppers is a beast. 4. Uniform notes: The players appeared to be wearing last years’ jersey and the 2015 maize pants. The pants were clearly a darker shade of maize. Just a guess, but the jerseys will follow the same tone. Speaking of the 2014 jerseys, they deliberately put a blue patch over the big block M above the nameplate (see Morris below). Hmm. I’m guessing the block M over the name plate won’t return in 2015.
