Tag: Ohio State

Inside Michigan Football: Post-Ohio

Michigan vs. Ohio State Awards

Eat my dreads.

I’m going to take a slightly different tactic this week than other weeks.  Heading into the bowl game, there’s no real reason to suggest personnel changes other than just for the hell of it.  If a guy is a starter now, he’ll probably be starting in the bowl game.  Michigan just beat Ohio State, I’m happy, and these are all positive awards today.

Offensive MVP . . . Denard Robinson.  He was 14/17 for 167 yards and 3 touchdowns with 0 interceptions. He ran the ball 26 times for 170 yards and 2 touchdowns.  The kid was patient in the pocket, stepped up in crunch time, and seemed more decisive in the running game than he has for most of the year.  This was an easy pick.

Defensive MVP . . . Ryan Van Bergen.  Van Bergen had 7 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 pass breakup, and 1/2 a sack.  He was consistently causing trouble for quarterback Braxton Miller and running back Dan Herron, and he notched the tackle that pinned OSU to the goal line and allowed for a safety on the following play.

Offensive play of the game . . . Denard’s 41-yard touchdown run.  Not only did Denard make a good read in the running game, but he also looked quicker than he has in recent weeks and made Etienne Sabino look silly.  It was electrifying to see him have success against a defense that has smothered Michigan the past few seasons.  I think that play gave the players and the fans notice that the offense was going to be explosive the entire day.

Defensive play of the game #1 . . . Blake Countess’s pass breakup.  On 3rd-and-27 from their own 3-yard line, Braxton Miller launched a missile to DeVier Posey, who was streaking down the middle of the field.  Countess was trailing Posey and turned on the jets just in time to get a finger on the ball, knocking the pass down.  Even though a holding penalty in the endzone would have negated the gain, Countess didn’t know that when he was making the play.  That was a potential 97-yard touchdown pass that surely would have taken some of the wind out of Michigan’s sails.

Defensive play of the game #2 . . . Courtney Avery’s interception.  For a nickel corner to be tied for the team lead with 2 interceptions, that’s a pretty good job for Avery.  He could probably be starting for this team at one of the outside corner positions, but he’s aggressive and physical in the slot and that physicality paid off.  On a last-gasp pass for Ohio State, Avery knocked down wide receiver Devin Smith and then launched himself through the air to pick off the pass.  It was 4th-and-6 so the interception wasn’t much different than a simple incompletion, but it was a great play nonethelesss.

Urban Meyer, Buckeye

Urban Meyer has at least one thing in common with Brady Hoke . . .

Well, the persistent rumors that had been buzzing for weeks finally came to fruition on Monday morning.  It was reported that Urban Meyer – former head coach at Bowling Green State University, Utah, and Florida – has accepted the head coaching job at Ohio State.  The fate of interim coach Luke Fickell, who went 6-6 in place of Jim Tressel, seems unclear right now.

Meyer went 17-6 in two seasons at BGSU, 22-2 in two seasons at Utah, and 65-15 in six seasons at Florida; that gives him a combined 104-23 record (nearly 82% winning percentage).  He also produced first round draft pick Alex Smith (San Francisco 49ers), Heisman winner Tim Tebow, and two national championships in Gainesville (2006, 2008).

Many Michigan fans seem to be bemoaning Meyer’s hiring in Columbus, as if this will instantly relegate Michigan to also-ran status.

News flash: Ohio State will be good.  How that changes the rivalry is beyond me.  The Buckeyes were good under Tressel, John Cooper, Earle Bruce, and Woody Hayes, too.  Ohio State is a good program and almost always has been.  But Brady Hoke, Al Borges, and Greg Mattison have proven to be pretty good coaches, too.  And speaking of Mattison, he used to be Meyer’s defensive coordinator at Florida.  So was Charlie Strong, who’s now the head coach at Louisville.  Dan Mullen was his offensive coordinator, and he’s the head coach at Mississippi State.  Meyer can’t do it all by himself, and he’ll need to hire good coordinators to get the job done.

One of those coordinators might be Fickell.  I’m not a fan of Luke Fickell, but I think he did a decent job with the hand that was dealt to him this season.  He had a freshman quarterback, star players who were suspended for large chunks of the season, and obvious distractions.  There were slip-ups here or there, but when your star quarterback, star running back, and star wide receiver miss the whole season, half the season, and most of the season, respectively, I think expectations should be lowered.  Fickell was a defensive coach for the Buckeyes prior to being elevated to head coach and he’s also an Ohio State alum.  I think it would be the right thing to do for Meyer to keep Fickell on as defensive coordinator.

Meyer’s hiring in Columbus will undoubtedly affect the recruiting landscape in the midwest, but not to an alarming degree.  The fact is that the state of Ohio produces tons of talent and Meyer will likely try to mine his old recruiting grounds in the south, too.  Michigan will still be able to poach some players from Ohio who could succeed in any system.  The interesting dynamic here is that now Ohio State and Michigan have flipped roles; unlike Rich Rodriguez in Ann Arbor and Jim Tressel in Columbus, now Brady Hoke will be recruiting pro-style players and Urban Meyer will be searching for spread-type players on offense.  Class of 2012 running back Bri’onte Dunn has already stated that he doesn’t want to play in the spread offense, and Meyer did a pretty poor job of developing running backs and wide receivers, with the exception of Percy Harvin.  That opens the door for bigger backs, pro-style receivers, and pro-style quarterbacks from the state of Ohio to come to Michigan.  Conversely, dual-threat quarterbacks and slot receiver types will be more drawn to Ohio State.

It will be interesting to see how the story plays out in Columbus, where the dolts who run the university and the athletic department still seem clueless about how tarnished their program might be when the NCAA decides how to punish them.  There could be a loss of scholarships and probation, which might very well affect how quickly Meyer finds success.  But considering Meyer’s achievements, he will most likely produce anywhere from a good to great program and they will be challenging for Big Ten titles for several years to come.  And that’s the way it should be.

Highlights: Michigan 40, Ohio State 34

Michigan 40, Ohio State 34

Denard Robinson made people look silly on this 41-yard touchdown run. (image via CBS)

This was Denard’s best game.  Ever.  I take back all the negative things I ever said about Denard Robinson.  He’s spectacular.  I want to have his children.  In all seriousness, though, the guy was 14-for-17 for 167 yards and 3 touchdowns with zero interceptions; he also carried the ball 26 times for 170 yards and 2 touchdowns.  The only flaw in his game was the fumble (put the ball in your outside hand!), but he made throws in this game that he hasn’t made consistently in his entire career – his 28-yard pass to Drew Dileo was thrown perfectly.  That was a great way to cap the regular season.

The replay official was Woody Hayes, Jr.  There was no way in hell that Fitzgerald Toussaint’s touchdown run late in the fourth quarter should have been reversed.  It was called a touchdown on the field and, at worst, there was no good angle to reverse the call.  Officials are supposed to have “indisputable evidence” to overturn calls, and if it takes 10 minutes to review the play, then it’s obviously disputable.  That’s not the fault of the officials on the field – it’s the anonymous guy in the booth.  That guy needs to be reprimanded by the league.  Anyway, that play would have put Michigan up by 9 points (presumably 10 after the extra point) with about two minutes remaining, and Ohio State only had one timeout left.  It would have taken a miracle for OSU to score 10+ points in under two minutes; all it would have taken is a little bit of luck for them to overcome the six-point deficit that resulted.  Luckily, Courtney Avery saved the day.

What happened to Michigan’s defense?  I absolutely did not expect Ohio State to have that much success offensively.  I figured Braxton Miller would get a good chunk of yards by scrambling or on designed runs, and he did (16 carries, 100 yards, 1 touchdown).  Michigan shut down running back Dan Herron (15 carries, 37 yards, 1 touchdown).  But there were wide open receivers running all over the place, and Miller actually hit some of them nicely.  I can’t even just pick on one guy – Blake Countess, J.T. Floyd, Thomas Gordon, Jordan Kovacs, and Troy Woolfolk all got beat on deep passes.  Miller finished with 14 completions in 25 attempts for 2 touchdowns and just the 1 interception at the end of the game.  I was high on Miller when Rich Rodriguez was recruiting him out of Wayne High School in Huber Heights, OH, and he’s going to be tough to deal with for the next few seasons.

The game experience was awesome.  It was great weather for being the end of November.  The tailgaters and frat houses were partying hard.  (Thanks to the tailgaters who let me join them, by the way.)  I only saw one classless encounter between a Michigan fan and an Ohio State fan, and both of them were drunk and stumbling.  The only downer the entire day was that the Union hockey team was sitting near me and kept complaining that people in front of them were standing.  Usually “down in front!” is reserved for old people, but these 19- to 22-year-old kids were trying to rest their legs for this afternoon’s game against the Wolverines, I guess.

Fitzgerald Toussaint made dudes look silly.  If you are one-on-one with Toussaint in open space, you might as well lay down and take a nap.  He had 20 carries for 120 yards and 1 nullified touchdown, and that was a pretty solid defense he was up against.  Between Robinson and Toussaint, Michigan had 46 carries for 290 yards.  Yowzers.

Ten wins.  I expected the offense to be pretty good, and they’ve put some points on the board.  I expected the defense to be solid but unspectacular, and they’ve been on the verge of spectacular.  Aside from giving up 34 points to a mediocre Ohio State offense, the defense has been awesome this year.  I did not expect Michigan to end up with ten wins on the season, and they still have a chance for an eleventh.  The coaches and the players have done an excellent job overall and have played with a lot of hustle and intensity.  It’s been a great season, and Michigan seems to be on the upswing after a few down years.

Go Blue!