"To Hell With Michigan"

Does it ever rain in Hell? Well it might in South Bend this Saturday.

The famous quote (above) was released to the world when an "ND honk" put his personal trip to the ND Spring Game on YouTube. I wonder if he will be asked back? Touching moment with the field security guard by the way. How could something so wonderful go so wrong? Whoever thought an ND fan with a video camera could ever turn out to be "bulletin board"material for the other team? How could something so wonderful go so wrong?

That question has to be on the mind of every ND fan, alumni, and video honk, these days. Maybe "good time Charlie" meant to say, "what the hell is going on around here?"

• They hired an offensive "genius" from the NFL to later find out that he had the other teams defensive sets the entire time


• The top recruit in the country comes to ND and pops off about winning 4 national championships and then ends up getting hit like Jerry Cooney in a heavy weight fight


• They had a losing record and one of worst offenses in D1a


• Haven't won a bowl game in ten years

Don't you just love NBC? No mater how bad they have been during this contract, they keep signing them up for big deals. Memo to ND and NB(D)C: End this contract! and get ND into a conference. I don't care if it's the Big Ten, Big East, or Big 12. Find a damn home or become one of the Military Academies.

With that off my chest, let's move to the game. I think NBC is calling it the Big Slide in South Bend.

Let's start this weeks preview with the Tale of the Tape:

• Michigan's Dline vs ND O Line: Advantage Mich


• Michigan's secondary vs ND WR's: Advantage Mich


• Michigan's LB's vs ND's TE and RB's: Advantage ND


• ND's QB vs Michigan D: Advantage Mich


• Michigan's OLine vs ND's DLine: Advantage ND


• Michigan's RB vs ND D: Advantage Michigan


• Michigan's QB vs ND D: Advantage ND


• Special Teams: Advantage Mich


• Intangibles: Push (Home for ND/Hell motivation for Mich)

I re-watched ND's game this week on one of the HD channels. They looked terrible until the 4th quarter. In the 4th they started hitting short 5-7 yard passes and then having their WR's go long. This gave "Jimmy" quick reads and then a shot deep later in the drive.

If the weather is decent, I expect to see the same type of strategy on Saturday. Lot's of underneath stuff to test the Wolverine Linebackers. Michigan has a very good DLine and the last thing ND wants to see is "Jimmy" running for his life again. Linebacker play for Michigan will need to be outstanding in this game. The Michigan defense will be the best unit on the field, they will need to dominate and even score some points.

Michigan's Offense will need to do two things to be successful on Saturday. One - take advantage of opportunities your defense gives you and Two - don't turn the ball over. This will be a field position game with both offenses struggling. Punting and punting well, will be a good thing.

This is RR's first ND game so look for some new plays out of the offense. I expect to see a number of trick plays to fool the ND defense.

Here is what I predict:

• Bad weather and bad offenses will keep scoring down


• ND will "crowd the box" to stop the run and make Threet throw


• Look for a big day for Odoms on screens, slants, and reverses


• Michigan will throw the ball deep to use their speed against the slow ND DB's


• Michigan will show some pro sets to run the ball if the weather is terrible


• I expect at least 3 turnovers in the entire game


• KC will be very important kicking field goals


• Michigan will get a touchdown on special teams

(*side note: for those that have been following the lines, this has been a crazy one. For most of the summer, ND was giving Michigan more then a TD, then it moved to ND being favored for less then a field goal, as of right now it stands Michigan is favored by +2.0)

Bottom Line: The biggest difference in this game is that Michigan has played two games and ND has played one.

Michigan 13 ND 7

For those that are wondering: The only thing better then beating ND is beating OSU.

Go Blue!