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| David Guralnick / The Detroit News |
After the sun shine brightly off his bald head, Big Al rose from his chair with the knowledge and creativity that had be lacking 10 games before. He had 2 tremendous quarterbacks, one blessed with unique running ability, while another was blessed with a strong arm. He then started to remember the week before how the challenger from Chicago had come into this same stadium and was a few seconds away from beating his beloved Wolverines. The challenger from Chicago deployed two quarterbacks who were blessed with similar talents as the Wolverine QB's and had moved the ball easily on the #1 ranked pass defense in the land. Then another memory flashed in Big Al's mind eye, it was the Nebraska game from a year ago and the double option. Big Al now understood what needed to be done. His top throwing QB shouldn't be playing WR, he should be throwing. His top running QB, shouldn't be sitting on the sideline or trying to beat defenses with his arm, he should be running. He did have talent at wide receiver with the likes of Roundtree and Gallon. He anticipated that both would rise up and make game changing catches.
An easy feeling fell over Big Al and the crowd at Michigan stadium that day. They knew they had released the power of Michigan's offense and it was running as smoothly as it had all year. So smoothly the Michigan students forget to leave their tailgate and come into the stadium to watch the forgone conclusion.
The day seemed to be perfect before the Wolverines top running back went down with a terrible broken leg/ankle in the first quarter. The Iowa running back curse had befallen the other team, it was a cruel and unfortunate way for the young man to end his year. That injury was the single cloud in a blue November sky filled with maize sunshine.
After the game, that felt like it took minutes instead of hours, Big Al leans back in his chair and stares at his can of diet coke and thinks about his only regret of the year. "If only I had thought about this 3 months before, our fate would have been so much different"
Yes, it would have.
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Cheers:
- Congratulations to the seniors!
- Loved seeing Joe Reynolds catching balls and President Jack Kennedy getting the final snap
- The Iowa loss streak is over
- There seems to be some issues on kick off coverage. Please fix before next week.
- The defense was confused in the 1st and 4th quarters. It was mostly the 2nd team in the 4th
Words can't describe what the likes of Denard Robinson and Jordan Kovacs have meant to this football program. They have been through hell and back in their 4 years and both guys kept this team together. Congratulations to all the seniors on their day!
I feel bad for Fitz, who clearly has a year ending injury. That is a tough loss for the Wolverines and their trip to C-Bus next week. I also worry about Michigan's defense next week against Braxton Miller. The Michigan D, has struggled against the likes of Air Force and Northwestern with mobile QB's. Braxton Miller will be the best mobile QB they have seen this year (outside of practice). It seems more and more that Michigan is playing Joe Bolden and James Ross at LB's. Next week will be handful for two true freshman. Michigan will need very good games from both units next week if they are going to beat the Buckeyes but tonight rest easy Maize and Blue faithful and keep Fitz in your prayers.
1 comment:
Excellent post. I have said before that we have Al and Hoke to blame for this years fail to reach the B1G championship. There was a lack in evaluation of the talent they had and the preparedness for the second half of that Nebraska game. I hope they learned well.
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