Michigan Monday: We should be focusing on game week

This is game week. The week we have all been waiting for after Nick Sheridan's last pass hit the field turf in Ohio Stadium last November. It's been a long winter, spring, and summer waiting for the next chapter of Michigan Football to be written and we have to deal with two over zealous Free Press reporters making a story of Michigan "working too hard" in the off season.

Since this story is all the rage, let's review some more facts:

• USA Today basically says everyone does it: Some 21,000 current athletes at 627 Division I, II and III schools — including more than 1,600 football and 417 men's basketball players — participated in the survey. In the top-tier Division I, almost two of every three said they consider themselves more as athletes than students. Football players in the NCAA's Division I Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A) said they spent an average of 44.8 hours a week on their sport — playing games, practicing, training and in the training room — compared with a little less than 40 hours on academics.

• The Michigan Athletic Department says we will look into it but we don't expect to find anything. It also goes into great detail on what players send their time on with in the rules.

• Mgoblog interviews 2 fathers who say the story is BS: Mike Forcier: "I've had three sons in college football now, and they've all gone through the same things so far. Tate has been doing the same things as his brothers were at UCLA and Stanford." Mike Schofield Sr.: As a parent of a Michigan Player/Student I find the story in the Freep nothing but nonsense, misinformation, bush league journalism and an attempt to tarnish the great name of Michigan Football, in short it think it is nothing more than Bullshit.

• Want to know what the National Champions do? "A lot of people say two-a-days is the time to get them tough," Meyer said. "It's over by then. You better not be getting tough in August. Our whole philosophy in August is to get ready for the first game. June and July are to get ready for August. Our whole goal in the middle of February is to develop toughness. Make people make a commitment. Get in or get out." --- Meyer, through the work of Marotti and Balis, will demand that his players become one unit. Marotti, 40, gets to the weight room as early as 5 a.m., and he stays late. He is built like an ATM machine — square and stout — but players don't push his buttons. He pushes theirs.

• Morgan Trent spoke to the Detroit News: "Yes, we were there all day it seemed sometimes," said Trent, a former Michigan cornerback now in his first season with the Cincinnati Bengals. "But if you expect to win, that's the sacrifice you make. I was a senior (last season under Rodriguez) -- I just wanted to win, that's all."

• Chad Henne weighs in: “Twenty hours is a very, very small portion of what you do, especially if you’re a quarterback at a high-profile school,” Henne, now with the Miami Dolphins, said in a phone interview Sunday. “Twenty hours isn’t enough for you. You have to be in there by yourself, studying film, no coaches around, and doing it on your own. That’s where the leadership comes in and that’s where, if you want to get better and play better, you have to do it on your own.” -- “I tried to be there as much as I could,” he said. “If I wasn’t in class, I’d be down there studying film and trying to get the gameplan ahead of time just so I’m prepared for that week and that game.” --“I really think whoever’s saying it really doesn’t want to be there,” Henne said. “If they’re saying that then they’re not really worried about the team, they’re not worried about what they’re going to do during their season and they’re kind of just giving themselves up. That’s just negative talk right there. So whoever it is just really doesn’t care about the team, I would say.“If they’re complaining about that, then they don’t want to be the best they can be and that’s their own fault.”

• Rodriguez and Judy Van Horn, the university's compliance director, denied NCAA rules violations in separate statements released Friday.
  "We know the practice and offseason rules, and we stay within the guidelines," Rodriguez said. "We follow the rules and have always been completely committed to being compliant with all NCAA rules." Van Horn indicated in her statement that her department conducts in-person spot checks of practice "during the academic year and summer. We have not had any reason to self-report any violations in this area with any of our sports."

You be the judge, but to me this is the biggest non-story I have ever seen. I'm sure all big time college coaches are getting a good laugh at this story. I can't wait for Saturday so we can put all these type of stories behind us.

BTW: Adrian Witty retook the SAT last week hoping to be eligible still this year. He is most likely looking at a red shirt at this point if he passed.

Also, Devin Gardner's HS team: Inkster played Ricardo Miller's team: Ann Arbor Pioneer this weekend. Devin put on a show but his team lost 32-25. Gardner didn't disappoint, completing 9-of-13 passes for 114 yards and two touchdowns and running 15 times for 111 yards and another score.