Michigan Tuesday: Nooners

Jimmy has said in the past, that his football sensibilities are that football should be played in the afternoon and specifically at noon.  Bo felt the same way, he was quoted as saying, we are playing football at 1:00, if you want to bring your cameras down to film it, you can.

The power in scheduling the kickoff time of college football games have shifted from the AD and head coach to the networks.  BTN, ABC, Fox, and ESPN put millions of dollars in the pockets of Big Ten teams and now control kickoff times.  Hell, David Brandon even said recently that ESPN paid for the permanent lights at the Big House.  I don't trust anything that David Brandon has to say.

I think a majority of the Michigan fan base would agree with Bo and Jimmy that noon, then 3:30 are the best time slots.  In fact, the Wisconsin game this weekend will actually start at 11:00AM locally.  Fox has actually helped this effort by highlighting noon games to kick off your Saturday.

Rutgers is now a noon game, Maryland, and Iowa are also scheduled for 12:00 kick offs.  Ohio State will of course be at noon and MSU will for sure be targeted at noon or 3:30 depending on the network.   That leaves the ND game and I'm willing to bet that turns into a primetime game.  If your interested in doing a little scouting and hopefully be in a good mood after the Wisconsin game, ND plays at Georgia this weekend on CBS 8:00.  Illinois and Penn State game kickoffs are still TBD and you might expect Penn State could be a night game as well.

• Quinton Johnson had a tweet about coming back, which assumes he maybe injured. 

• Speaking of injuries Jimmy didn't really speak to who and who isn't playing in his regular brief press conference.  I'm hearing DPJ is still questionable and Jon Runyan is expected to play.  Dwumfour is probably out but will try to play. 

Michigan Monday: A Bad Weekend for The Big Ten

Ohio State looked good and many Big Ten teams looked bad.  There were upsets and close games as the conference lost some ranked teams.   Lets take a look at a few teams that had some trouble.

MSU:  Sparty again showed a lack of offense in a close lose to Herm Edwards.   Then they missed a field goal to tie the game after the field goal make the play prior was called for having12 guys on the field.  The PAC 12 did acknowledge the referee team did miss a "jumping" call on ASU on the field goal miss, which should of have resulted in a first down for MSU..

PSU: Penn State struggled against Pitt at home and probably should have lost.   Pat Narduzzi decided to kick a field goal in the 4th quarter from 1 yard line with 5:00 minutes left in the game and down 7.  The kicker missed the kick.  I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the coaching tree.

Maryland:  Was a college football darling the first two weeks scoring a lot of points and beating Syracuse.   They got beat by Temple on the road and couldn't score TD's from the goal line.

Purdue lost to TCU at home which isn't a huge surprise.

Illinois and the fighting Brandon Peters lost to Washtenaw County Eastern Michigan.

Iowa got past Iowa State by 1 after a 3 hour weather delay.

Minnesota beat Georgia Southern by a field goal.

Northwestern and Nebraska won comfortably and Michigan and Wisconsin were on byes.


Let's hope the Wolverines had a successful bye week, which would mean they 1) got better and 2) got healthy 3) didn't sustain any new injuries.

Jimmy should speak around noon on Wisconsin and the bye week.

Michigan Friday: Looking at The Big Ten Weekend

Since Michigan is on a boring bye week, I thought I would look at the this weekends interesting Big Ten Match-ups and there are a few.

Ohio State @ IU:  I don't think this is OSU@Purdue from last year but it will be interesting for about a quarter or two.  IU's QB Penix is questionable for the game and is a game time decision.  OSU -18

Pitt @ PSU:  Love this rivalry and it should be played every year like Iowa and Iowa State.   Penn State is a -17 though.

ASU @ MSU:  Don't press send!  author Herm Edwards will head to East Lansing.  The Sun Devils upset the Spartans last year, not this year as Sparty is a 2+ TD favorite.

Iowa @ Iowa State:  They play for some corn trophy and Game Day is there.  Love non-conference rivalry games that are played every year.  Iowa -2

TCU @ Purdue: Night game on BTN and there might be a few points scored.  Purdue -2.5

• Oklahoma State's #1 Booster T.Boone Pickens died at 91 yesterday.  You have to tip your hat to a guy named T. Boone that made billions of dollars and gave away a ton his favorite University. 

• ND hosts New Mexico this weekend, then travels to Georgia next weekend.  Bowling Green and Scot Loeffler get the Irish in a few weeks. 

Enjoy the weekend! 

Michigan Thursday: Ryan Mallett Update

Ryan Mallett leaving Ann Arbor after Rich Rod was hired was an early indicator that RR's tenure was off to a bad start.   Ryan played a couple years at Arkansas and then was drafted by the Patriots in the 3rd round.   He spent 7 years in the NFL jumping around to a number of teams.  He is still is only 31 years old and there were some rumors he might end up in the XFL.  

Getting back to football took a hit on Tuesday after Ryan was arrested in Arkansas after a two car crash for DWI.

• The State of California allowing amateur athletes to be paid for their likeness is going to open up a big can of worms with the NCAA. 

• Does college football play on Thursday night anymore?  Looks like for two weeks in a row, no Thursday games. 

• Speaking of non-Saturday college football games.   North Carolina visits Wake Forrest on Friday night.  Both teams are in the ACC but this isn't an ACC conference game.   Which is strange and very ND like. Wake is favored by 3.