Pat Forde is an Imbecile

Yet again, Pat Forde shows us why he has little if any credibility to be a college football writer.

After Michigan's loss to Wisconsin yesterday, Forde wasted no time rejoining the "Michigan was always overrated" camp. Admittedly, being a die hard Wolverine fan, I am biased myself but I can at least respect criticism when it's warranted (i.e. after our embarrassing loss to Oregon). What does Forde use to establish his claim? Yes, our defense played poorly, allowing Wisconsin to put up 477 yards of offense. However, down only 2 points in the 4th quarter, Michigan was still in a great position to win the game...blame Ryan Mallett's rash decision to throw into triple coverage and pay the price with a pick.

Forde goes as far as saying that Michigan has "no business playing for a Big Ten title against Ohio State". Are you effing kidding me? We have ONE loss in the B10 that came on the road at one of the toughest environments to play in and we didn't have our best two offensive players! Up to this point, what makes Ohio State (or any other Big Ten team) any worthier to win the Big Ten? (Let me remind you that Ohio State lost at home to an Illinois team that Michigan defeated on the road.)

Yes, Michigan is not a NC contender and maybe not even a top 10 team this year given its young defense and injury plagued offense. Yesterday's loss was disappointing but that shouldn't take anything away from the 8 wins we had going into that game. In a season that has been the least bit kind to the powerhouse programs, Michigan has managed to stay in there and still be in a position to compete for a BCS bowl.

Maybe Forde should just stick with covering horse racing where absurd and ridiculous statements won't reflect as poorly on a sports writer.

Where are the Michigan Haters Now?

Hm, can we get a little love here in Ann Arbor? Yea we lost to Appy State and Oregon which gave plenty of reason for all those closet Michigan haters (and/or Ohio State lovers) to come out in their true colors. Since then, Michigan has won 6 straight including victories against Penn State, Purdue, and now Illinois. Yes, the same Illinois team that defeated Penn State and Wisconsin. Michigan went out there without Mike Hart. Chad Henne was playing with a shoulder and wrist injury. Yet we still won in a hostile environment against a pretty good Illinois football team.

Yesterday's win should have proven that Michigan's resurgence is legit...that our team has a lot of talent outside of Mike Hart (please do yourself a favor and don't call us the Mike Hart Wolverines anymore)...that our defense can handle the spread offense quite well now....and that with young studs like Ryan Mallett, Carlos Brown, and Donovan Warren, Michigan is not going to be falling anytime soon.

We'll be heading into November right in the thick of things to win the Big Ten. Sorry critics, guess your time isn't here yet.

MICH-PSU Recap

Michigan basically owns Penn State. I know Lions fans (including most of the other writers on this blog) are going to hate hearing that, but after winning 9 straight, I think we just may have earned the right to make that claim.

After this game, everyone’s left to answer whether Penn State was just overrated to begin with or if Michigan has turned it around with a much improved defense. I personally think it’s a little bit of both.

Game Analysis:
Offense:
Mike Hart was solid with 44 carries, cementing Lloyd Carr’s traditional philosophy of managing the clock well (Michigan’s TOP was 34:52). Hart’s on pace to break the 2000 yard mark this season. The offensive zone blocking scheme seemed to work quite well against Penn State's defensive line. Ryan Mallett also managed the game well. I was very impressed with the poise that he showed on 3rd down situations when Penn State brought the blitz. We’re not very used to seeing that composure from Chad Henne. Also, Mallett showed once again that he’s got nasty zip on his passes. If he works on his accuracy and decision-making, he’s going to be fun to watch in the post-Henne era at Michigan. Manningham and Arrington both contributed well on the receiving end with a combined 12 receptions for 131 yards.

Defense:
Defensively, the pass rush was excellent. Credit here goes to Brandon Graham and Tim Jamison. Like last year, Morelli couldn’t seem to handle pressure from the linebackers. Freshman Donovan Warren did a very good job of shutting down Derrick Williams for the most part. Overall, the defensive performances from the past two games close the door on those awful showings against Appy State and Oregon.

The Big Picture:
We beat a good Penn State team today. Two weeks ago, the sky seemed to be falling in Ann Arbor; but now, Wolverine faithful are finally getting a taste of what was expected of their team in the preseason. This win should hopefully silence some critics and restore some credibility to Michigan. The schedule ahead looks really favorable until we play Wisconsin and Ohio State to end the season. I think we’ll be in good position to compete for the Big Ten Championship and play in Pasadena again in January.

Lou Holtz is the Greatest Motivational Speaker of All Time

During half time of the Miami-TAMU game, ESPN gave Lou Holtz air time to provide a motivational speech for Penn State before they play in Ann Arbor on Saturday. To close his spirited and moving sermon, he said the following:

"Those Michigan guys are an arrogant bunch. They probably do crossword puzzles with pens because they think that they'll never make a mistake. They'll realize that scheduling us was a huge mistake."

Yes Lou, it's unfortunate, but we are just that arrogant. I can't tell you how much we look up to Notre Dame to understand what modesty is all about.

Ohh Lloyd

I was very tempted to write a blog right after last Saturday's loss to call for Lloyd Carr's firing (not that AD Bill Martin would ever read our blogs or care about my opinion). However, firing Carr at this stage really doesn't have much upside. Michigan would likely lose some of our prized recruits for the next two years (like star RB Sam McGuffie) and the senior core of Mike Hart, Chad Henne, and Jake Long would collapse if Carr left abruptly. Carr knows that his legacy isn't looking too bright after ASU rolled into town. Under intense pressure to steer the ship in the right couse, I'm confident that he'll work his tail off to make the adjustments needed to save this season. We'll get a good sense of how accurate my assessment is after tomorrow's Oregon game.

With all that being said, Carr should definitely leave at the end of this year by when AD Bill Martin and President Mary Sue Coleman will be in a much better position to hire a worthy replacement. Carr's conservative play calling and weak in-game adjustments simply don't work today in college football. If Pete Carroll or Urban Meyer were coaching the Wolverines....ah, I'll just say that things would be markedly different. SI's Stewart Mandel lists Les Miles, Jon Gruden, Bill Cowher, Jeff Tedford, and Greg Schiano as possible successors to Carr. At this point, I'm done with being picky. Any of those coaches would bring a refreshing look to Michigan Football that is well overdue.

The Eddie Griffin Tragedy

I have a habit of quickly glancing over the many news headlines on the right side of ESPN’s home page. Today, one of those headlines read “Ex-Wolves player Griffin killed in crash”. I’ll admit that if it weren’t for KG, I would struggle to name even a single player on Minnesota’s roster from last season, but in a strange way I suspected that this was Eddie Griffin.

I first heard about Eddie Griffin 8 years ago on a local New Jersey sports website when he was a highly touted recruit that had signed to play with Seton Hall. Back then, I didn’t have the luxury of looking up his highlight reel video online so I couldn’t judge for myself if his hype was deserved. I figured that if he really was that good, we’d hear all of Jersey talk about him soon enough. Griffin didn’t disappoint; as a freshman, he averaged 17.8 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 4.4 blocks. However, his stat line didn’t tell the entire story. His erratic behavior and turbulent relationship with teammates at Seton Hall led him to leave early for the NBA Draft.

I didn’t hear much about him in the following 2 years outside of random stories of his off-court altercations that didn’t surprise me too much. His name came up again in 2004 when the Nets gambled by signing him to a deal. I remember talking to a few fellow-Nets fans about how this would either be a great steal or a terrible miscalculation. It was the latter extreme that played out as Griffin’s alcohol problems escalated to the point that he entered rehab to miss the entire 2003-2004 season.

Griffin went back to obscurity until now. Sadly, it’s a fatal accident that brings his name back in the news. Former Wolves coach Dwayne Casey put it well: “Basketball was never an issue with him. He needed more life lessons, and unfortunately he was never able to reach his potential.” His tragedy reflects a common and frequent theme in sports: poor decisions can overshadow the greatest of talents and destroy a career…or even a life.

Another “-vic” in tennis? This one’s worth remembering.

In this era of tennis, it’s unfortunate that the obsession with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal tends to overshadow the successes of other up and coming players. Sure Federer and Nadal have earned their respect and adulation; now meet Novak Djokovic, the Serb who defeated both Federer and Nadal two weeks ago at the ATP Master Series Canada in Montreal.

What’s the case for Djokovic? First, he’s proven himself to be more than just the next one-dimensional player; his results have been impressive on all surfaces. Just take his grand slam results from this year so far: he made it to the 4th round at the Australian and the semis at the French and Wimbledon, losing only to either Federer or Nadal in all three slams. Also, Djokovic is only 20 years of age, which means he’s bound to get better with experience as long as he stays clear of the injury bug. But what’s most important for now is that he’s made it to the finals of all 3 hardcourt ATP Series tournaments this year, winning two of them.

Now, I’m not guaranteeing that Djokovic is the next Sampras or Federer. Just ask Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick or Marat Safin and you’ll know that potential and hype alone translate to very little. But with the US Open only two weeks away, Djokovic has set himself up to be a strong contender for the title.

Bloggers

• J Mays - Site founder and primary contributor. Penn State alum.
  
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• A - Contributor. Michigan alum.