Michigan Weekly 9/28

Ugly.  The only way anybody could have summed up this past two weeks in Michigan football.  The team or I should say Devin Gardner has turned into to Turnover Tommy.  They averted near disaster at home againist Akron.  Winning on a goal line stand to escape with 28-24 victory.  Akron for all you that don't know much about football is one of the worst teams in FBS.  With 4 straight 1-11 seasons and they havent won on the road since 2008.  Once that game was over all week everyone was saying how they would bounce back and rout UConn.  Well that wasn't true eithier.  East Rurherford proved it was all Michigan could handle.  Michigan took the lead early and dominated the whole 1st quarter.  Leading 7-0 then UConn struck when there offense finally clicked.  Scoring tying the game up at 7's.  Then Michigan stalled and UConn kept trucking through scoring once again making it 14-7 Huskies.  Scored remained that until half.  Michigan got the ball back at half and on a 3rd and 1,  Gardner kept it tried to get to edge when he fumbled and was picked up by UConn and they took it back, making it 21-7 UConn.  Then after removing there heads from there rectums, Michigan struck on a Fitz 35 yard run, to cut the lead to 7, 21-14.  After trading possessions neither offense doing anything.  Desmond Morgan picked off UConn's Whitmore early in the Fourth Quarter.    Then once again Michigan struck on a Fitz 12 yard run.  Tie ballgame.  UConn was unable to create anything else, punting back to Michigan with 4 minutes left.  Michigan drove down and Gibbons nailed a 24 yarder to give Michigan the lead with a minute left, 24-21.  UConn got 2 first downs then stalled on a 4th and 30, to give Michigan the W.  Michigan now 4-0, will need this off week to regroup before B10 play begins when the Golden Gophers of Minnesota come to town Oct. 5.  For the Battle of the Little Brown Jug.

FCS Five for 9/21

Last week I went 2-3 correctly picking Fordham over Temple and Bethune-Cookman over FIU

This week's predictions:

1-Jacksonville State (Georgia St)
2-Northwestern State (UAB)
3-Citadel (Old Dominion)
4-Western Illinois (UNLV)
5-Murray State (BGSU)

Michigan Weekly-9/14

The Wolverines fresh off victories in weeks 1 and 2 over Central Michigan (59-9) and #14 (at the time) Notre Dame (40-31), are looking for an injury free week, as the Akron Zips come to town.  Michigan after hard fought win with efforts by RS-JR. QB Devin Gardner and SR. WR Jeremy Gallon turned alot of heads.  Many believe this Wolverine team (Team 134 to be exact) has alot of potential in being a no loss team when Nov. 30th rolls around with that team from the south coming to the Big House.  Me, being the biggest Wolverine you can meet was even a little spectical that this was even a reality with road tests by Michigan State (Nov.2) and Northwestern (Nov.16) still on the schedule.  But they get passed those tests and take care of business at home.  They really do have a shot at it.  Thats all for this week, will be back next week to report on the Akron game and to preview next weeks showdown, when Michigan travels Northeast to take on the Huskies from Connecticut.

Hello, Bloggers

Hello, Blogging world. I am the second half to this duo friendship where we live and die on sports. You name it we got it. I'm the University of Michigan writer on this blog, and well my buddy is the Michigan State writer. Happy Football and Go Blue!

FCS 5 week of 9/14

Starting this week for the remainder of the non-conference season I will pick 8 FCS teams that I believe are best suited to defeat their FBS opponents.

1-Bethune Cookman (FIU) The Wildcats out of the MEAC are fresh off a 66-7 victory over Virginia Union and average 8.0 points allowed per game. This stat has a solid chance to continue to stay low against the worst offense in the FBS (5.0ppg). They rank 114th in passing and 121nd in offense and on the other side of the ball they are allowing 40.5ppg. I'll take the Wildcats by 10.

2-Fordham (Temple) The Rams have scored an average of 39ppg over their first two with wins over two ranked FCS foes. The Temple Owls on the other hand rank 122nd (of 126) in the FBS in scoring at 9.5 points per game. Don't be surprised to see the offense struggle enough for the upset to occur.

3-Eastern Washington (Toledo) The Eagles already have won a game on the road against Oregon State this year and will take on a Toledo team who has opened with 2 losses vs SEC teams (Florida/Mizzu).

4-Cal Poly (Colorado St) Last week the Mustangs put up a valiant effort before losing 41-25 against the Fresno State Bulldogs(a very good potential BCS buster). They actually out gained the Bulldogs but two punt return touchdowns were the difference. The Rams have shown defensive struggles in their first two and one was against the lowly Colorado Buffaloes(no stab I love the Buffs). I'd take the Mustangs in this one.

5-Youngstown State(Michigan State) Last week the Penguins had 718 yards of offense (a perfectly even 359 rushing and passing) in a 67-13 win over Morehead State. This offense will not be near duplicated again Michigan State's top rated defense led by Shilique Calhoun, however they get thrown on this list for the Spartans offensive struggles. If they win it'll be a low scoring battle, perhaps 3-0 or 14-10.

The Right Choice for Quaterback at Michigan State

The burning question around Spartan Nation is which quarterback will finally jump start the offense and finally bring this team to its potential, which appears to be Coach Dantonio's best, with a Rose Bowl not out of reach. Lately, the possibility of Coach D burning the redshirt of Damion Terry and playing him in this weekend against Youngstown State has gained a lot of momentum, reaching its peak with Coach D coming out on Tuesday stating that Terry is number 2 on his depth chart. I'd like to inform you that this cannot be the right answer to the solution. Despite Terry's video game like numbers in high school (209/309 3282yds 48td/8int) he has zero college experience. Throwing him in there with the current expectations due to his mythical scrimmage, he is essentially set up for failure. When the 75,003 (everyone but my father and I) last weekend, led by the students, was chanting "We want Terry" they are implying that he will do better than either Maxwell,Cook or O'Connor. This is where they are wrong. Think about it, would you rather rush in Terry into a situation where he may not be ready and he probably will not play entire games or would you rather go with the right pick, Andrew Maxwell who last season gave us enough offense to be in games? Andrew Maxwell has played the best so far in the two games he has received action, including his limited action last week which was definately the best of the 3 (Cooks touchdown was only 31 yard drive). He leads the QBs in throwing percentage (50.0), yards (114) and QBR (81.9) (O'Connor only has thrown 4 passes so I'm not going to count it). So I feel for the rest of the year you should ride the average consistency of Andrew Maxwell, have him hand the ball off about 45 times and ride your top 3 ranked defense to Pasadena. Use O'Connor as your backup, wish Connor Cook a happy trails out on a transfer and use Damion Terry in a redshirt starting role next season with a quality foundation set. Here ya go football fans lemme know what you think?