Sugar Bowl: Michigan 23, Virginia Tech 20

Tag: Brendan Gibbons


4Jan 2012
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Sugar Bowl: Michigan 23, Virginia Tech 20

Troy Woolfolk’s helmet is thrust in the air under a downpour of confetti
(image via BTN)

Wow, that was an exciting game.  And not in a good way . . . except for the fact that Michigan won.  That was Michigan’s ugliest win of the season and it took some lucky calls to go the Wolverines’ way.

The offense disappeared. Yikes. Denard Robinson had 13 carries for 13 yards.  Fitzgerald Toussaint had 13 carries for 30 yards.  Altogether, Michigan ran the ball 30 times for 56 yards, or 1.9 yards per attempt.  Robinson completed 9/21 passes for 117 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 pick.  It was a bad night.  As I was laying out the Virginia Tech position previews over the past couple weeks, people kept commenting on how I was overrating the Hokies.  They are pretty good.  Maybe Michigan fans will understand that now.

Michigan got lucky.  The guys in the winged helmets played hard-nosed football at times last night, but ultimately, they got very  lucky on numerous occasions.  Two Jayron Hosley interceptions were negated, one because the ball hit the ground and one because he yanked on Jeremy Gallon’s jersey and got called for pass interference; he almost had another pick when he jumped a Junior Hemingway hitch route.  Free safety Eddie Whitley let two interceptions go right through his hands, including Hemingway’s 45-yard touchdown catch.  On top of Robinson’s one interception, he almost threw four  more . . . and on only 21 attempts.  Aside from the near-interceptions, Hokies wide receiver Danny Coales caught what might have been the game-winning touchdown pass, only to have it overturned because the nose of the ball hit the ground; it was probably the right call, but it could have very easily remained a touchdown after the replay booth took a look at it.

We’re going to miss Junior Hemingway.  That guy doesn’t get the ball very often, but he makes huge plays. He only had 2 catches on the night, but they went for 63 total yards . . . and 2 touchdowns.  Nobody else even sniffed the endzone.  Roy Roundtree makes some big catches once in awhile, but he hasn’t been nearly the receiver that he was in 2010.  Michigan needs a youngster to step up next year, whether it will be a redshirt sophomore Jerald Robinson or a freshman Jehu Chesson.  Hemingway was the obvious pick for Sugar Bowl MVP, at least on Michigan’s side.

We missed are going to miss David Molk.  I started off the game being extremely frustrated.  Starting center David Molk, who happened to win the Rimington Trophy this season for being the nation’s best player at his position, sat out the beginning of the game after injuring his lower leg during pregame.  Backup Rocko Khoury combined with Robinson to have two bad snaps on Michigan’s first three plays.  Both snaps were catchable but slightly off target, and the second one was a bullet to boot.  I can’t put all the blame on either player, but when you have one starter for the entire season and even up to pregame of the bowl game, it’s somewhat understandable that there will be some snap issues when the backup has to start the bowl game.  Molk returned after the first offensive series and the snap issues disappeared, although he looked gimpy for the entire game.  Michigan’s lack of a running game may have been partly due to Molk’s injury, but I’ll have to watch the game again to see what the real issues were.

That’s what true athletes look like in the secondary.  Michigan lined up in Cover 0 and got torched.  Virginia lined up in Cover 0 and got sacks.  The Wolverines’ cornerbacks and safeties just aren’t fast enough and athletic enough to lock up with decent receivers on a regular basis.  It’s frustrating to watch, but J.T. Floyd, Blake Countess, Troy Woolfolk, Jordan Kovacs, Courtney Avery, and Thomas Gordon aren’t the same caliber of athletes that the Hokies put out there.  Countess is going to be good, I believe, but he’s hit a rough patch here at the end of the season.  Watching Hosley, Whitley, Antoine Exum, and Kyle Fuller fly around the field was a bit of a wake-up call and shows how far Michigan has to go.  Hosley alone had 4 pass breakups.

Everyone’s expectations for Frank Clark just doubled.  The freshman defensive end made a highlight-reel interception when he leaped to knock down a Logan Thomas pass and came down with the pick.  I mentioned in the preview that I thought he would play quite a bit with defensive tackle Will Heininger out, and that came to fruition.  He seemed like a man without a position when he came out of high school, but it looks like he’ll be a good one for the next few years.

Tackling was an issue.  Michigan’s tackling has been so good this year that I’m going to assume this game was a bit of a fluke, but Michigan missed numerous tackles.  And some of the guys who were whiffing are normally very good tacklers, like Jordan Kovacs and Kenny Demens.  It’s understandable to whiff on David Wilson or get run over by the 6’5″, 254 lb. Logan Thomas, but Michigan was missing tackles on Danny Coales, Josh Oglesby, etc.  It was a bad time to have a poor night of tackling, but luckily it didn’t hurt the Wolverines in the win column.

Red zone defense was huge.  For whatever reason, Michigan really buckles down in the red zone.  As the announcers mentioned last night, Michigan was #2 in the Big Ten and #4 in the country at stopping opponents in the red zone.  Virginia Tech had long drive after long drive and ended the game with 377 yards (Michigan had 184), 22 first downs (Michigan had 12), and 76 offensive snaps (Michigan had 52) . . . but it doesn’t matter so much when you have to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns.

Brendan Gibbons to the rescue.  I don’t think anyone – including me – expected Gibbons to be so reliable this year.  But in the Sugar Bowl he went 3/3 on field goals (from 24, 37, and 39 yards out), including the game-winning 37-yarder, and 2/2 on extra points.  And for the entire year, he went 13/17 on field goal attempts and 54/55 on extra points.  Bravo to him.

18Sep 2011
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Michigan 31, Eastern Michigan 3

Thomas Gordon makes a one-handed interception

A win is a win.  It’s tough to complain about a 28-point victory.  I’ll find a way, though.

Al Borges got Rich Rodriguez Syndrome.  Hopefully it’s not an incurable disease, but there’s no reason for Denard Robinson to be running the ball 26 times (for 198 yards and 1 touchdown) against Eastern Michigan in a 28-point blowout.  The guy who missed parts of ten games last season with various injuries – and who’s reportedly suffering from a sore arm – needs a break once in awhile.  When the Wolverines started their second-to-last drive with approximately ten minutes left in the fourth quarter, I thought backup Devin Gardner should have entered the game.  It was 28-3.  But Michigan was close to its own end zone, and I understand not wanting to put in a young, raw backup in that spot on the field.  So what about when they crossed the 40?  When they crossed the 50?  Robinson was still running the ball up until the point that Brendan Gibbons kicked a short field goal.  The other running backs combined for 23 carries in the game.  We get it – Denard Robinson can run the ball, and that’s okay if the game’s outcome is in question, such as against Notre Dame.  But how about getting someone else in gear?

Denard Robinson has Steve Blass Disease.  For a second week in a row, Robinson’s inaccuracy was on display.  He finished the game 7-for-18 (39%) for 95 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception after completing 46% of his passes against Notre Dame.  That’s a two-game total of 43% passing and 4 interceptions.  This is not Al Borges’s fault.  It’s not Brady Hoke’s fault.  There are wide open receivers that Robinson is flat-out missing.  Kudos to Rich Rodriguez for figuring out that hitches, bubble screens, and inside slants are the only passes Robinson can complete with any regularity.

The Big Ten Network’s announcers don’t get paid, do they?  I turned the volume down at various points, but those guys were clueless.  Thomas Rawls had a carry in the second quarter (no, he didn’t), we have a starting defensive lineman named “Will Henninner” (no, we don’t), and Eastern Michigan “abandoned the run game” (they threw a total of 6 passes).  Seeing Jon Jansen on the sideline was cool and all, but if the guys in the broadcast booth are going to be dumb, they could at least apologize to viewers by way of Melanie Collins or Ashley Russell (if they still work for the BTN).

Vincent Smith had a good game.  I don’t know if it’s just luck or if the offensive linemen block a little harder when #2 gets the call, but Smith had lots of wide open running lanes.  Despite getting only nine carries, the 5’6″ running back had 118 yards.  Those yards came on runs of 38, 27, 5, 14, 5, 6, 0, 11, and 12.  Fitzgerald Toussaint had a solid day with 11 carries for 46 yards and 1 touchdown, but he and Michael Shaw keep running into traffic whereas Smith had gaping holes several times.  I noticed in the spring that Smith seems to have his quickness back now that he’s nearly two years removed from tearing his ACL, but it still concerns me that he can’t break tackles.

Craig Roh, welcome back!  In the first two games of the season, Roh did his best impression of Keyser Soze.  Zero tackles, zero sacks, zero pass breakups, nothing.  This week he broke out with 5 tackles and 1 sack.  Last week Greg Mattison said that Roh played very well in the Notre Dame game, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise when Roh started once again over Jibreel Black.  Hopefully Roh continues to improve.

Bye bye, redshirts.  Several true freshmen have played so far this year, including a couple guys who played for the first time this week – Thomas Rawls and Raymon Taylor.  Other freshmen to see time this year include Desmond Morgan, Matt Wile, Blake Countess, Brennen Beyer, and Gregg Brown.  No freshmen have really stood out, although Frank Clark had a nice play and Taylor . . . got a 15-yard penalty for a late hit.  Otherwise, we haven’t really seen any game changers from this freshman class, and I don’t suspect we’ll see any this year.

What happened to the jet sweeps?  Eastern Michigan was having oodles of success with the jet sweep in the first half, and then they just stopped.  I’m not sure if Michigan started scheming against it and taking it away, but it seemed to be in the best interest of EMU head coach Ron English to keep them coming.

This is Michigan’s best safety combination since 2007.  Jordan Kovacs (8 tackles) and Thomas Gordon (6 tackles, 1 interception, 1 fumble recovery) are playing better than any safety combo since Brandent Englemon and Jamar Adams.  Kovacs seems to have gained some speed since we first saw him in 2009, and Gordon is a solid tackler with decent ball skills.  Neither one will win many foot races, but so far they’ve helped to limit big plays.  Hopefully that continues into the Big Ten season.

Brendan Gibbons kicked the ball through the uprights.  That might have been the play of the day, if not for Thomas Gordon’s one-handed pick on a double pass.

16Jun 2011
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2011 Countdown: #76 Brendan Gibbons

Brendan Gibbons

Name: Brendan Gibbons
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 227 lbs.
High school: Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach, FL
Position: Kicker
Class: Redshirt sophomore
Jersey number: #34
Last year: I ranked Gibbons #18 and said he would be the kickoff specialist.  He kicked off in several games, went 1-for-5 on field goal attempts, and finished 13-for-14 on extra point attempts.

Well, the reason I selected Gibbons as #18 last year was because he needed to step up for Michigan to be successful.  The other option at placekicker was walk-on Seth Broekhuizen.  It was a silly notion to pick Gibbons, who required a redshirt year in 2009 because he couldn’t beat out walk-ons that year, either.  I should have known better.

I’ve learned my lesson.  Here’s Gibbons all the way down at #76.  The Rodriguez regime recruited California kicker Matt Goudis to give Gibbons a challenge, and when Goudis de-committed in favor of Miami, the newly hired Hoke staff successfully recruited California kicker Matt Wile, who frankly can’t be any worse.  There have been rumors that Gibbons has been stubborn, won’t respond to coaching, and generally seems to be dead weight.  And aside from all that, he was third on the team in kickoff average behind punter Will Hagerup and the aforementioned Broekhuizen.  This job is wide open.

Prediction: Backup kicker

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2Jan 2011
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Mississippi State 52, Michigan 14

Kick returner Martavious Odoms stiff-arms a Bulldog defender

Well, that was disappointing.

Martavious Odoms is a beast.  Odoms came back from a broken foot that he suffered halfway through the season, and he played an excellent game.  His only reception was an impressive 27-yard catch on which he twisted in the air to reel in the ball.  But he was also very effective on kickoff returns, taking back 7 kicks for 161 yards (23.0 yards per return).  You have to appreciate how hard this kid plays on every single play.

Chris Relf is not a beast, but Michigan made him look like one.  This is nothing new – Michigan makes opposing quarterbacks look awesome.  But never has that been more apparent than on New Year’s Day.  If you extrapolate Relf’s performance on Saturday over 13 games, he would have ended the year with 234 completions on 299 attempts (78%) for 3653 yards, 39 passing touchdowns, and 13 interceptions (and Relf’s lone interception was a Hail Mary at the end of the first half).  Prior to the Gator Bowl, Relf was 111/197 (56%) for 1508 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions.  That’s right.  Michigan literally made Relf about two or three times better than he was during the rest of the season.

James Rogers is fast.  Even coming out of high school, Rogers’ #1 strength was his speed.  Although the Bulldogs scored on the very next play, kudos to Rogers for chasing down running back Ladarius Perkins on his 81-yard reception.  Perkins looked like he was gone on the play, but as soon as I saw Rogers turn on the jets, I knew it wouldn’t be a touchdown.

Here’s my weekly rant against Vincent Smith.  Argh argh argh argh!  Guess who got the most carries aside from Denard Robinson?  Vincent Smith.  Guess who has the second-lowest rushing average on the team?  Yep, Vincent Smith (4.42 yards per carry).  Fitzgerald Toussaint (10.88), Michael Cox (9.3), and Michael Shaw (5.36) are all significantly higher.  Freshman short yardage back Stephen Hopkins (4.08) is the only back with a lower average.  And I find it funny that one of Rich Rodriguez’s reasons for playing Smith was “He’s not a fumbler.”  Well, now Smith has fumbled about 5 times this year, which is far more than any other running back.  So how about just putting the best player out there, someone who might have a chance at being consistent and/or making a big play?  It’s ridiculous that the starting running back is so ineffective when there are other options that just don’t get a chance to see the field.

Denard Robinson is still erratic. . .  Look, it’s painful to criticize Robinson.  He doesn’t get much help, he gets beaten up, he’s got a great attitude, he plays hard, and oh by the way, he has a great deal of talent.  But he shouldn’t be throwing the ball 41 times in a game.  I realize that the game situation called for a lot of throws; when you’re down by 38 points, running doesn’t do much.  But this game just didn’t play out well for him.  If backup quarterback Tate Forcier wasn’t an idiot and remained eligible for the bowl game, then the second half would have been a situation in which Forcier would have been inserted.  Forcier is more effective when the playcalling is limited to pass, pass, pass.  So part of this can be blamed on #5, but Denard Robinson was the one who overthrew Junior Hemingway a couple times.  Denard was also the one who consistently made “inaccurate completions” where his receivers had to dive, jump, or twist around to catch the ball.  You’re not going to get a lot of yards after the catch when the receivers don’t have forward momentum.

. . . and so is Roy Roundtree.  I was all about Roy Roundtree early in the season, but he’s totally fallen apart over the past few games.  He dropped a couple passes against Wisconsin, five against Ohio State, and another couple against Mississippi State.  One of the drops against Mississippi State was a very nice deep throw from Robinson that might have gone for a touchdown, except for the fact that Roy Roundtree spent the previous TV timeout eating some KFC.

Field goal schmield goal.  It’s not like losing 52-17 is much different than 52-14, but I was furious when Rich Rodriguez sent out Brendan Gibbons to kick a field goal in the first half.  It’s 4th-and-4, and you’re going to send out a kid who’s 1-for-4 on field goals on a team that’s 4-for-13 overall?  When your defense sucks and so do your kickers, you go for it in that situation.  Those kickers shouldn’t have seen the field except for extra points.

Rich Rodriguez is gone.  This was probably the case prior to the game, but the 38-point loss pretty much seals the deal.  My expectation is that athletic director David Brandon will let Jim Harbaugh coach Stanford against Virginia Tech tomorrow night in the Orange Bowl.  Then later in the week, Harbaugh will be hired to replace Rodriguez.  Rodriguez and his staff had a chance to make a case for themselves in this game, and they laid a very stinky egg.

16Aug 2010
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2010 Countdown: #18 Brendan Gibbons


Name: Brendan Gibbons
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 227 lbs.
High school: Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach, FL
Position: Placekicker
Class: Redshirt freshman
Jersey number: #34
Last year: I ranked Gibbons #66 and said he’d be the team’s kicker. He redshirted.

Not many people expected Gibbons to redshirt in 2009. He stepped into a situation with one oft-injured kicker (Bryan Wright) and a bunch of walk-ons. But despite being the #8 ranked kicker in the 2009 recruiting class, he sat for the entire year and watched fifth-year walk-on Jason Olesnavage handle the placekicking duties. Gibbons definitely has leg strength; in his senior year of high school, 93% of his kickoffs were touchbacks and he had 7 field goals of 40+ yards, including a long of 52. However, reports of inaccuracy and inconsistency have been rampant, and Gibbons is fighting several former walk-ons for the kicking job again this year.

I’m not sure what will happen with Gibbons. He has been erratic, and walk-on kickers make an impact at various schools around the country every single year. I would not be surprised to see him lose the job, so this #18 ranking encompasses all the kickers, in a way. I think Michigan’s offense will be high-powered enough that field goals won’t be a premium mode of scoring points in most games. Games in 2010 aren’t going to be won or lost with scores of 17-14 or 14-13. These are going to be high scoring affairs, and even though I’m sure Michigan will lose a few games, it will mostly be due to a questionable defense and not entirely the kicking woes that are sure to surface.

And hey, the lower my expectations are, the more likely I am to be pleasantly surprised.

Prediction for 2010: Gibbons will be the kickoff specialist; a walk-on will be the placekicker

Gibbons was the leading vote-getter with 20% of the tally.