Real Kato Blog: College Football Recap

Michigan 21, Wisconsin 37. N.C. State 31, North Carolina 27. Also: Breaking news on Lloyd Carr.

Michigan 21, Wisconsin 37. There are a lot of things you might say about this game. If you're an optimist, you might say that it was a meaningless exhibition game: regardless of the outcome, the Big Ten title will be determined by the Ohio State game next week. You might say Michigan was saving itself for OSU, keeping Mike Hart on the stands and only playing Chad Henne for a quarter. You might say that Wisconsin played well and simply caught Michigan on a bad day.

If you're a total asshat, you might say this was the game that exposed Michigan as a pretender, who lucked their way through a weak conference schedule up until now. (Uh, even though Michigan was playing this week without its star quarterback and running back. Did Forde even watch the game?)

And of course, there's the usual chorus of folks decrying Michigan's lack of coaching ingenuity and poor player preparation.

If you ask me, Michigan could have won this game with a fully healthy Chad Henne. Ryan Mallett looked every bit like a confused and frustrated freshman quarterback out there; his footwork was poor, his reads were poor, his throws were largely off-target, and under pressure, he took sacks or threw into coverage instead of throwing the ball away. Without the big play by Manningham, a 97-yard touchdown pass that was really a 15-yard pass and a 82-yard run, Mallett's numbers look dreadful: 10 for 35 (28.6% completion rate), 148 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions, four sacks.

Hart's absence was also a factor, of course. Carlos Brown and Brandon Minor have some talent, but they don't come close to matching Hart's ability to find holes and exploit cutback lanes. Hart rarely loses yardage because he can escape penetrating defenders; Brown and Minor simply plow into people and go down.

Without Henne in the game, and with Wisconsin loaded up against a weakened running attack, Michigan simply could not maintain possession of the ball. I don't fault the defense as much as some folks do: Wisconsin had the ball for 38:15 (compared to Michigan's 21:45), and ran 80 plays on offense (compared to Michigan's 66). Michigan's defense was simply worn down in the second half because the offense kept failing to convert first downs.

Mallett is going to have to make some big strides by next season if Michigan is going to have any kind of respectable 2008 campaign. Right now, he is trying to force plays that aren't there. I credit him for wanting to be a playmaker, but he has got to use his head.

Of course, Mike DeBord didn't really make his job any easier by calling screens or quicker pass patterns. No, it was drag routes here, long outs there, and good luck with that seven-step-drop against Wisconsin's blitz. There have been times I've defended DeBord (I mean, at least he's not Terry Malone), and I'm not as critical about Michigan's run-pass mix as a lot of folks are. But what I can't forgive is having a package of plays that don't put the team in the best position to succeed. Zone running is all well and good, but where do you go when opposing teams stack their defenses against it, especially when they know you like to run behind All-American Jake Long? Deep drops and slow-developing plays might work here and there, but when you run into a team like USC that likes to throw a dozen different blitzes at you, what do you do? If you're Mike DeBord, apparently, you continue to try the same plays until you finally give up in the fourth quarter.

And that leads us up to our breaking news: Lloyd Carr reportedly will announce his retirement after the Ohio State game next week, according to MGoBlog. You can bet that speculation about replacement coaches (and Les Miles in particular) will reach a fevered pitch.

I, for one, will miss Carr and his commitment to doing the right things. And I hope that the replacement coach is, whoever he is, will maintain the integrity of Michigan football. But I also want to see the team win, and a change just might be what the program needs now.

N.C. State 31, North Carolina 27. Well, this game was a thriller, and that's what you want in a rivalry game... but frankly, it's hard for me to get excited about two schools in the midst of rebuilding, grasping at the slim chance they'll play in a sucky bowl game. I'm glad to see N.C. State win, but I'm not going read too much into a victory against a 3-7 UNC team, especially when N.C. State blew a big early lead and needed a late turnover to get the winning score.

Other News

#1 Ohio State lost to Illinois 28-21, all but eliminating them from national championship contention. You could almost see this one coming. OSU and Michigan will now back into the Big Ten title game next week; it's the first time both teams will come into the game off a loss since 1959. Which team will bounce back better from its loss? I'll take a guess once I know more about the health of Henne and Hart.

#2 LSU, #4 Kansas, #5 Oklahoma, and #6 Missouri all cruised to victories. #3 Oregon was idle. After Saturday's results, LSU moved up to #1 in the BCS rankings, followed by Oregon; however, it's very possible that the Big 12 winner will jump past Oregon by the end of the year.

#8 Boston College was shown up again; they lost to Maryland 42-35.

#9 Arizona State hung on to beat UCLA 24-20.

#10 Georgia thumped #18 Auburn 45-20. Georgia is looking at a possible at-large BCS berth.

#13 UConn lost badly to Cincinnati, 27-3.

#15 Florida crushed South Carolina, beating their former coach 51-31.

#16 Hawaii remains undefeated, beating Fresno State 37-30.

#17 USC beat Cal 24-17. Like I said last week, USC is a dangerous team, now that they've got their Booty back.

#24 Tennessee remains in control of their destiny in the SEC East, beating Arkansas 34-13.

Indiana, Iowa, and Michigan State won, and have all now become bowl-eligible. The Big Ten has ten bowl-eligible teams; only Minnesota is locked out of the post-season.

Western Michigan lost to Central Michigan 34-31 last Tuesday.

Permalink 1 Comment

Posted by Ken in: sports

Comments

Comment #1 from Brett (Guest)
2007 Nov 13 - 12:33 am : #

The WMU/CMU game was actually on ESPN2. Despite the lack of talent compared to some bigger programs, it was actually a REALLY good game. It came down to a last second CMU TD, giving WMU a chance to win with the 'keep pitching' kick-off return that didn't quite work out.

WMU's best player, according to announcers, welcomed himself to successfuly getting himself kicked out of the game for blatently kicking a CMU player while down in the 1st quarter...excellent decision on national television, be sure to wave to the scouts when you're through.

In regards to Carr...Carr is a GREAT man. But one of the 'hot topics' in the past o' so many years, has been that Michigan consistantly recruits top talent without the ability to develop them, while Ohio St. recruits above average/top talent and makes them better players, and it's evident on draft day.

Michigan may miss Carr's recruiting, but a new coach with a better ability to develop it's players may be just what U of M needs.

(After typing that last sentence, I just realized that you said nearly the exact same thing in terms of 'what U of M needs,' "change just might be what the program needs now." So we may be on the same page.)

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