Monday morning presser

Rich Rodriguez:
- Molk is going to practice today and how he feels every day will determine how much he will play. Medically cleared to practice. Tomorrow will be true test.
- No hesitation about Molk playing after missing a few weeks. If rust lingers throughout the week, then you hesitate a bit.
- Line will go back to how it started the season if Molk is back.
- Time off this week was invaluable, especially for players that were injured. Minor and Tate were very limited last week in practice and the game to get healthy.
- Don’t know if Minor will be 100% but he’ll be better than he’s been in past weeks.
- Doesn’t matter what your record is. You go into the game with the same intensity. But it is a different feel when you run down the tunnel about to play Penn State.
- A lot of ways we can control our own fate to win Big Ten championships and we need some help too. Need to take care of what they have to do.
- Darryl Clark is one of the best QBs in the country. Recruited him at West Virginia. Royster is one of the best RBs in the country. PSU plays very soundly, typical JoePa team. Dominated TOP, ball control. Dominating complete games.
- PSU forces loss-of-yardage plays in the games team has watched. A lot of great players and put teams in long yardage situation.
- It’s going to be a game that we’re going to play to the end and hope a few breaks go our way.
- Worries about number of possessions more than time of possession. You want to have 12 or 13 opportunities. If you’re limiting your possessions, you’re limiting your opportunities to score. Need to create turnovers, 3 and outs, and make them defend.
- Stonum has become a big play guy. Wants him to play on a consistent level.
- Identified what Mike Williams’ strength and weaknesses were in camp. Trying to work those out and put him in good situations.
- After watching film, didn’t have anyone that should get playing time above a starter. Not disappointed by this.
- Team doesn’t panic when teams get into the red zone. Playing hard and trying to make plays to minimize the damage. It’s the team’s personality. Team might not always play well, but will always play.
- Has met with Boubacar Cissoko almost every day since he was suspended. It’s a day-to-day thing. Up to Boubacar when he comes back.
- Odoms will be back in punt return more often.
- If players call back 15 years after they’re gone and say they’d do it all over again at the same place with the same people, then the program has been successful.
- Will meet with the team and mention the Jasper Howard [UConn CB who was recently stabbed to death] situation.

Delaware St.: Where Llyod Carr sits in Iowa

It's ironic that one week after reports of Lloyd Carr sitting in a skybox with Iowa supporters in Kinnick Stadium, that the Michigan faithful were given the least Lloyd Carr-esque moment of Rich Rodriguez's tenure: A 63-6 thrashing of lowly Delaware State at the hands of Rich Rodriguez's seemingly unrelenting squad. Not that Rodriguez was particularly ruthless--he did play five quarterbacks in the game and essentially inserted the scout team in the third quarter--or things played out spectacularly against traditional wisdom. But it's difficult to believe that the same game, played under Carr, would produce such a result. In fact, you can be largely certain it wouldn't as Michigan set school records for offensive yardage, yardage in the first half, and points in the first quarter, among other things.

Delaware State, however is also likely the weakest program that Michigan has ever played. It's difficult to blame Michigan for their output because they did everything in their power not to run up the score. It was difficult not to. This was not Rodriguez being a cut-throat coach, dedicated to obliterating every opponent in his way. It was Rodriguez trying to run his team as best he could without thoroughly embarrassing a team that clearly had no business being on the field with the Maize and Blue. This was apparent from the opening kickoff.

It was nice, however, to watch a game that Michigan was calmly in the driver's seat for. Not that I feel like Michigan is back to being the world-destroyer it used to be, but since the Appalachian State game, I haven't felt comfortable watching Michigan, or at least entirely confident, no matter who the opponent. There were too many close calls against inferior competition. When you know you're going to win, it's a good feeling.

All was not settling though. The most glaring problem was the coverage against kickoffs, where some zippy Delaware State player continued to gash the coverage unit, once breaking one off for 51 yards, which set up a Delaware State field goal. Next was the verification of the fear that the depth in Michigan's secondary is as dire as reported. The backups looked completely inept against a Hornets offense that had, to the point they came into the game, looked completely helpless. The defensive line's backups had a nice day, but now is the time to sacrifice a goat for the health of Donovan Warren's extremities. Meanwhile, Greg Matthews is in no danger of losing his punt returning gig (Terrence Robinson and Martavious Odoms were terrible, and Odoms proved he still hasn't solved his fumble-itis from last year on punt returns). And Denard Robinson looked... scattered. I had been a little skeptical of everyone's criticism of his passing game, thinking it was better than it had looked, but his long-ball touchdowns (which I will likely break down later this week) were horrible, horrible decisions, that against better opponents would've seen him crushed in the backfield. Finally, Michigan had 9 penalties for 93 yards, three (?) of which were facemasks. I only hope that this was a function of backups not having enough experience tackling.

But Michigan used this week to get healthy and prepare for Penn State. They did both things, presumably, as no one was injured, David Molk may be able to play against PSU, and, most importantly, Michigan didn't fall victim to an immensely inferior opponent in doing so--and most comforting, they never looked like they might.

As an aside, if the Dolphins/Colts game a few weeks back wasn't enough to convince you that time of possession is a completely useless statistic, look at the box score from Saturday: Michigan held the ball for 29:50 compared to Delaware State's 30:10.

David Cone: Too tall to act

Everyone loves Michigan's walk-on, backup quarterback David Cone, least of all because of the fantastic rhymes he drops in the above video. But MGoBlue's "What I've Learned With David Cone" reveals a side of Mr. Cone that we've yet to uncover (emphasis mine):

I haven't learned too much about love. I try to stay away from it. When you can't live without a person, that's when you know you love them. In football it's great to be tall. Being 6-6 is nice, but now that I'm trying to get into acting I'm too tall. All the guys on the team are starting to wonder why I'm so concerned with my height all of a sudden. I need to shrink a couple inches. I've always been taller than everyone in my classes and I get asked how tall I am all the time. Whenever I'm asked, I tell them 6-6 and then ask them how tall they are, then act interested. That usually ends the conversation. I have a 1994 Toyota Land Cruiser that has 230,000 miles on it. I got it when I was a senior in high school. Before that I drove a little 1973 Mercedes with no air conditioning and no heat. I like cars. I want a nice car one day.

I truly cannot wait for David Cone's acting career to take off.

/worthlesspost

Delaware State Preview

No, this is not Michigan

Michigan is coming off of back-to-back losses to Big Ten opponents. Tate Forcier is concussed and has a shoulder injury. Carlos Brown also suffered a concussion recently. And the team seems to be reeling after two soul-crushing, close defeats.

So what is there to say about this week's opponent? Delaware State is a 1-3 1-AA opponent that lost to a school named Bethune-Cookman by a score of 9-7. Their kicker is 1 for 6 kicking field goals. They rank 100th (!!!) in total offense amongst FCS teams, averaging 265 yards per game and only scoring 8 TDs in their four games. Their defense? 92nd amongst FCS teams, allowing 392 yards per game. They do, however, only allow a little over 15 points per game, which is good for 14th among FCS teams.

Let's put it this way: Delaware State is not Appalachian State. In fact, if all goes as planned on Saturday, Delaware State jumps from 1-3 to 1-5, after only having played one game, because they forfeitted a conference game for the chance to play against Michigan in the Big House (read: $$$$$).

Quarterback Anthony Glaud is averaging 144.5 yards-per-game, completing 57.5% of his passes, and has a 2/2 TD/INT ratio. Their run game is in trouble as one of their top two backs, Jason Randall, will miss at  two to three weeks with a leg injury. Needless to say, this Delaware State team is... not a threat.

So that leads us to Michigan, who will likely try to play as many young players as long as possible. Yesterday I went in depth about the redshirt status of Justin Turner and talked about the secondary in general. I had completely forgotten, however, about Vlad Emilien, a four-star safety recruit out of Florida who we've also yet to see take the field. Emilien is exactly who you'd want to see on the field against Delaware State, and someone you'd hope could quickly replace walk-on Jordan Kovacs (who's done an admirable job in his time on the field) in the secondary.

IMO, it's more likely to see Emilien on the field tomorrow than Turner if for no other reason than we need bodies that have played safety before to be ready to play. With Woolfolk's move to cornerback, Michigan officially has two safeties who have seen playing time this year. Regardless of Cissoko's status or the general talent deficiencies of JT Floyd, there are still able bodies that can be put in at the corner position. And with Woolfolk proving in his first game to be an above-average corner, Turner now has more competition at the position. Not that I necessary expect either Turner or Emilien to play, but the latter is far more crucial to the immediate success of the defense than Turner.

As for the rest, expect to see lots of Michael Shaw, Vincent Smith, and Denard Robinson. Also expect to see Will Campbell get a lot of time in this game, who Brian Cook has been asserting had a truly awful day against Iowa in limited time--I didn't notice. The people I'm interested to see on the field are Kelvin Grady and Martell Webb, though. In Rodriguez's last press conference, he, in so many words, said that Grady had hit a freshman wall but will be incorporated more into the offense in the future. I want to see Grady on the field and see what he can do. Because for all of the OMGGRADY! coming out of spring and fall camp, he's been mostly unremarkable, notching eight catches and one rush for a total of 65 yards, plus a whole spattering of dropped balls. Webb, meanwhile, has seen his playing time significantly diminished when in back-to-back games, he dropped balls that hit him squarely in the numbers. I assume Rodriguez is going to want to see what he's got in Webb and have him split reps with Koger who has been masterful.

Prediction: Michigan runs away with this early on the strength of their ground game and a few nice passes to painfully open receivers by Tate. The defense looks stout and aggressive, and Delaware State manages little over 2 YPC, if that. Denard is brought in when Michigan has a two touchdown lead and has the entire playbook that Tate has. We see less quarterback draws from him this time around and he puts the ball in the air (to pretty good effect) more than we've ever seen him before. Michigan 42-6

Post-presser thoughts: I can has freshmen?

Rodriguez was mostly ho hum about the status of Tate in his abbreviated media contact yesterday saying that doctors were still diagnosing him, but it looked good. It seems obvious now that Tate is going to start against Delaware State. I'm not particularly happy with this move, both because of Tate's continued physical ailments (he's still nursing that shoulder, which brother Jason recently said was worse than the media knew; IMO, unlikely, it probably just hurts a lot), but now also because of the unnecessary risk Michigan will be taking with the brain of Tate Scrambly-Back Forcier meeting a Delaware State defender's helemt. So Tate is going to start. Hopefully he only plays a series or two.

More importantly, we're about to find out whether or not stud cornerback recruit Justin Turner (above) is going to redshirt this season or not. If he doesn't see the field against Delaware State, consider him done for the season. There's no way, when Michigan gets into the real heart of the Big Ten schedule (PSU, OSU, Wisconsin), that Turner sees his first playing time. Rodriguez has been mum all year about the status of Turner and other freshmen seeing playing time, saying that he hasn't redshirted anyone yet and there's still time to play. Given MOAEKI!!! and the possibility of that continuing in the future with Woolfolk's move to corner, Turner's development into a Cissoko+ would enable Woolfolk to move back to safety and allow Michigan to play the football they want to without worrying about lumbering tight ends catching 60-yard seam route touchdowns.

The reason I bring this up is because of Rodriguez's mentioning that Woolfolk could move back to safety, and his "Going forward, we’ll see how the other guys (in the secondary) handle it" comment. If the secondary continues to get burned and Turner has proven himself to be better--not even that much better, either--than Michigan's other options at corner not named Woolfolk and Warren, Woolfolk will move back to safety. But if you don't see Turner play on Saturday, consider Woolfolk's move permanent.

Speaking of freshmen and young'uns in general, Vincent Smith and Michael Shaw should see significant carries against Delaware State. Though Rodriguez said that a perfect split for the running backs would be 15 carries for both Minor and Brown, with their lingering injuries, neither looks to get more than 10 carries on Saturday. Minor will be the starter and get the first few carries on the first drive, but Shaw and Smith should see the field shortly thereafter. I would be surprised, with the nature of his injury (concussion), to see Brown get more than 5 carries in the game.

Ugh
In terms of the Free Press GPA reports, I think I've editorialized about as much as I can on the topic, and I seem to be the only one giving any attention to them in the first place. I don't know why these reports bother me so much. They're clearly not going to affect the standing of the team, and they aren't particularly insightful. But they're needlessly derisive. To a certain extent, I can comprehend the NCAA violation accusations; not that I condone them, but I feel that, if the writers truly believe--rightly or wrongly--that Rodriguez shattered NCAA rules, they needed to report on them. Whether or not there was an agenda behind the report, the writers knowingly left out NCAA exceptions, or the writers used subversive methods they used to get their information, is besides the point. They thought, or at least hoped, that there was truth behind their accusations.

The fact that this GPA story is getting the kind of treatment it is from the Free Press (it's still the lead story in their sports section online and continues to be updated) is disheartening, telling of the Free Press' agenda, and infamatory. The gist of the story boils down to: Rodriguez fibbed. There are no reprocussions that can be brought, NCAA or otherwise, nor is there any reason to have this story make the headlines like it has. This isn't Lane Kiffin telling Tennessee supporters that Urban Meyer committed recruiting violations. This is Rodriguez saying "We did better than everyone ever. *wink*", and then it coming out that they're just doing as well as Michigan has ever done. There's nothing else I can say about this, and I don't plan on discussing it again unless it becomes some big national non-story.