Michigan has a night game on Saturday if you didn't know. Night games at Michigan are usually saved for big time non-conference opponents like ND or maybe a Big Ten Rival. We know the networks have to fill primetime spots and Michigan got tapped on the shoulder this weekend. The issue is, the Wolverines are playing the Rainbow Warriors and are a 51-point favorite. That's right folks, the line opened at 46 and now has moved to 51. That is usually an over under number for a college football game. If the line drops by 1, we can have Hawaii Five-0.
As you know, I'm for Michigan playing an easier non-conference schedule but this is a bit ridiculous. 51 might be the largest line in Michigan history. I know this is JJ's week to start but I'm not sure he should even be on the field. Let Davis Warren start. (on a side note, I was surprised he didn't get some snaps on Saturday, I'm guessing he will this Saturday). Social Media had some fun with Orji in the end zone.
Week 0: Vandy 63 Hawaii 10
Week 1: Western Kentucky 49 Hawaii 17
BTN 8:00
One of my favorite true freshmen coming into the season is Derrick Moore. I had to look up who #8 was since he was getting all those QB pressures. It was also nice to see Eyabi Anoma (#18) getting his first Michigan sack after being on the team just over 2 weeks. Junior Colston led the team with 10 tackles.
- You can take Brian Kelly out of South Bend, but you can't take the red face out of Brian Kelly. Special Teams will kill you if you don't pay attention to them.
- Quick Thoughts on OSU - ND: Ohio State looks better on defense but ND's offense is really bad. They have zero speed or playmakers. Yes, they have a huge TE, but he isn't getting behind the defense. ND is better than I thought, but their offense will hold them back. Ohio State seemed to struggle a bit on offense, but that might have been first game rust.
- Did anyone notice last night that former Michigan 4-star OL recruit from Clarkston, Garrett Dellinger is now playing center for LSU and struggled most of the night? He cost LSU a TD with a very poor snap on the first drive. He is probably out of position. Remember his brother? He committed to MSU in the 2023 class.
- Michigan's ticket office is offering $55 tickets to this weekend and the UConn games.
- Seems to me that college football missed an opportunity to play afternoon games on Sunday and Monday.
- Arizona won the former Michigan coaches' matchup: 38-20. To quote Jimmy after a TD call, Good Shit Jedd!
6 comments:
My biggest questions coming out of weekend:
1. How any recruit wants to play in Pac12 is beyond me. Just toast as a conference.
2. Bucknuts/ND is exactly why you don't do that for first game of season... in 2 weeks, that would be a more fun game. Ryan Day is a collasal douchebag.
3. Cade is a warrior, leader and champ. But JJ needs to be our starter - kind of no question. I wonder if Jim did the dual starting thing as a way to make that obvious?
4. I'm ok with the offense play calling, as long as we're testing schemes, routes, blocking, etc. Was a boring game from play calling perspective.
My favorite SEC team was LSU, but I was rooting for FSU as I can never root for a Brian Kelly coached team. He's right up there with James Franklin as one of the most overrated coaches in college football. Beyond that he's just a douche!
The ND/OSU game was a match up of 2 teams I dislike the most. My Ex in-laws were goldendomers and obnoxious as hell. And hating OSU goes w/o saying. For now I think the template against OSU is to take the air out of the ball. They seem to struggle when they can't get big chunk plays from the WRs. Be interesting if they adjust and keep doing what they did in the 2nd half and go with more of a running game. Not sure if Ryan Day and CJ Stroud can be that patient? Defensively, not sure if we know anything about them from that game. NDs QB threw what? all of 30 passes last year? Don't know if ND was a good test?
I agree about the playcalling Saturday. It was pretty vanilla and boring. However, the Camp JJ followers were out in force on another site. I wonder how much of Cade's "problems" were due to Jimmy's non-descript play-calling? I also wonder how JJ, the "people's" choice, would have reacted to the same play-calling list. Will he get the same vanilla play-calling?
The Domers D strategy was exactly that; take the long plays out and make $uckeyes ground pound it. They fought it for a half and then went with the "take what the D gives you" and ran it first. Col State ran a 4-2-5 D with dbacks often up on the line. Often they had 6-7 guys up there. Jimmy ran it anyway. His philosophy is always I'm gonna run whether you plan for it or not. Didn't see Cade take a shot downfield once. Sometimes, you take a shot just to keep them honest, make them drop back. Very well could have been Jimmy not wanting to show all his cards knowing he could have a minimal effort that was still enough to win this one. Cade missed a few open reads and also refused to run when he had open turf in front of him. He threw a few away when there was nobody within 10 yards of him. JJ makes that run.
Don't care how vanilla the play calling was. Cade wasn't sharp at all. He wasn't accurate at all, but more concerning was he looked at the very least unsure and at times even scared. He played like a guy that didn't want to lose the starting QB gig and not like a guy that was going to just take it.
Best game I saw Week 1 wasn’t LSU-Florida State. It was UTSA-Houston, and I found it because the Oregon-Georgia game was boring. Up 30 to 7 halfway through the 3rd quarter, UTSA had a 99% probability of winning, but Houston came back to take the lead with 23 seconds left, UTSA tied as the clock expired by driving 53 yards in 6 plays for a game tying field goal, and Houston eventually won in the 3rd OT. To be honest, I was getting ready to turn this game off before Houston started their come back.
Speaking of Georgia and Oregon, Georgia looked elite, and Oregon looked very mediocre. I think it’s kind of lame for that game to be in Atlanta, but a different location wouldn’t change much if anything unless it was at Autzen.
Notre Dame is a 7 to 9 win team. I am very confident Clemson and USC will beat them, somewhat confident BYU could beat them, and there might be a surprise loss thrown in there.
Ohio State normally gets off to a slow start, but Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s hamstring injury could be a big problem looking down the road. These injures linger like a high sprained ankle. I don’t see any challenge this week or next week, but once the conference play starts you never know, especially when they have to go to East Lansing and Happy Valley.
NCAA really did miss out on Sunday and Monday football. Sunday night didn’t disappoint. I didn’t even watch last night. I could see that beating from a mile away. If it was a Saturday, it would have been a noon start. What I would have liked to see:
• Move the West Virginia v. Pitt game on Thursday to Sunday afternoon
• Move the Cincinnati v. Arkansas game on Saturday to Monday late afternoon
• Move the Utah v. Florida game on Saturday to Prime Time on Monday
o Move the Clemson-GA Tech game to the early Monday game
I don’t mind these games against opponents like Hawaii and Colorado State. It gives more of an opportunity to fine tune things and see what we have on the depth chart (assuming things go as planned).
Moving the start time to 8 pm ET (2 pm in Hawaii) is classy, but they are also seizing a pretty weak prime time schedule. Week 2 looks pretty boring. My viewing plan:
• Early game: Alabama at Texas…it’s pretty weak for the 1st games of the day.
• Late afternoon: Tennessee at Pittsburgh, but App State at Texas A&M also looks interesting
• Prime time: Hawaii at Michigan with flipping over to USC-Stanford and Kentucky-Florida especially if it plays out as expected
• Late game: Baylor at BYU…this might be the game I’m looking the most forward too.
This is JJ’s team. He has an ability to run and the ability to make all the throws which are things Cade can’t do. There just seems to be a better vibe and more confidence when he’s out there. Everybody just seems to play faster and better overall when he’s in the game. To this point they look like an elite offense when he's in.
Post a Comment