Good evening, only one B16 game on tap this coming week and it will involve the West and Eastc Champions...
Before we get into the game, some random thoughts from last week and a look into the future...
Okay, we are seeing this around the country right now -- some very bad conference championship matchups where if one team wins, they likely are not going to the playoffs. That is no disrespect to the teams, simply and outdated system. With expansion ongoing and a possible playoff, all this will sort itself out. For now, we suck it up and be happy to have more games to wager on...
The BT West got stronger over the last few days with two excellent coaching hires. Fickell was getting a big-time job when he was ready for it. I know many thought he might wait out the eventual demise of Ryan Day, but he jumped on over to Wisconsin. That took many by surprise obviously. This will be a new type of Badgers, and hopefully the school and fans can be patient for a bit. On the flip side, Rhule goes home to Nebraska. I have high respect for him as a college coach. Nebraska being competitive in football is good for college football in general. They will get there sooner rather than later (consistent 8-9 win seasons).
I'll wholly admit, the only Big Ten action I saw last week was The Game. Diuring the 3:30 slot I didn't watch the conference games at all. Good to see Maryland finish on a high note. Did Taulia get hurt? Michigan State misses a bowl game after flirting with the 6 wins in November. Good to see Nebraska get a win vs Iowa. That was a win-win day for the program. Does Pat Fitz leave the Wildcats? That has to be miserable right now. Wisky and Minnesota went about exactly as one would envision...
As far as The Game goes...just a few quick observations...
1. I said that Michigan had to stay close and that Magic Jesse Minter would make his usual halftime adjustments.
2. I am not surprised Blake only last a few plays -- this ended up being a blessing in disguise. I believe a fully healthy Blake means that JH stays stubborn on running the ball. Now, with that being said, there was 1-2 Stokes carries that Blake likely gets 50+ yards on.
3. Corn Johnson gets A LOT of heat around here for his drops. Good for him.
4. The Bucks were bound and determined to not get embarrassed in the fun game again. This eventually worked against them. Once they relented a bit in the 3rd, Michigan started getting yardage which was opening everything up.
5. I know the OSU fanbase at the game had a lot of nervous energy pre-game and you could see it coming out from mid-second quarter onwards.
6. Two awful personal foul calls. What are these kids thinking?
7. Game was pretty clean They let both sides play. Now, there was a few plays that should have been reviewed but that is college football.
8. Ryan Day was very cautious in the 2h when he had opportunities on 4th down. That seemed way off to me.
9. Now, Minters schemes were working, so I get that.
10. Donovan was a decoy. I was scared shitless he was going to fumble the game away at some point. Instead, he put himself into the lore of The Game.
11. JJ was awesome. That is just a microcosm of what he can do. Watch out next season.
12. The biggest play of the game was when they let JJ start running in 2h and he just plowed over guys for an extra 8-9 yards. Beautiful.
13. The jump pass is a Josh Gatts play from last year. They never got to use it. The play was built for Corum. Mullings is a linebacker that they have had working at short yardage back in camp. They moved him to RB again this week with the injuries.
14. Mike Sainistril moving from WR to Nickel is one of the better position switches in modern day history.
15. The rivalry is fully back and right now OSU will be heading back into the Big House next year with a lot of heat and will be playing a more talented Michigan team than this year.
Onward...
Current number is 16-51 down in Indianapolis.
Michigan Running Back situation...
This isn't good. Neither would play last week or this week if their wasn't that much on the line. I highly doubt Corum plays this week. From what I heard a bit ago, Edwards is playing down in Indy, one-handed again. I'll be interested to see how Brohm and company game-plan this.
These teams haven't played since 2017. There simply is no history to go on.
Mike Morris is another injury we need to look at. He got injured in the 4tth quarter of the Nebraska game, probably should not have been in the game at all. He said two days later he was fine on a radio show. Wrong. He sat out versus Illinois and didn't play much in Columbus. He is the heart and soul of that line.
Last year I was worried about the letdown from beating OSU and playing Iowa. Hopefully they come with the same attitude this year.
My early thought is UM will force a few turnovers and win this game something like 31-19. We shall see.
Looking forward to @PaintCrew take as well.
Last but not least, I'll leave the receipts in the vault, but UM apologizes for not letting you all see that OSU/UGA matchup in the finals that you all had but circled. You can ask Hunt, I said all year this OSU team was not as good as last year. There was no help given in the fact they played ND real early then only one other good team till Michigan (Penn State). Ryan Day has turned this team into Oklahoma West, period. I've said that for a year now. Hey, great for making money betting but when they play a strong, physical team, they are doomed.
For historical purposes.... two things happened Saturday that made me reminisce...
1. The first CJ touchdown was much like Griese to Tai Streets back in 1996 right out of halftime (9-0 deficit and they won 13-9.
2. The Don long runs were akin to the 1993 Rose Bowl vs Washington where Ty Wheatly broke a few long ones.
Neat stuff, Go Blue.
Before we get into the game, some random thoughts from last week and a look into the future...
Okay, we are seeing this around the country right now -- some very bad conference championship matchups where if one team wins, they likely are not going to the playoffs. That is no disrespect to the teams, simply and outdated system. With expansion ongoing and a possible playoff, all this will sort itself out. For now, we suck it up and be happy to have more games to wager on...
The BT West got stronger over the last few days with two excellent coaching hires. Fickell was getting a big-time job when he was ready for it. I know many thought he might wait out the eventual demise of Ryan Day, but he jumped on over to Wisconsin. That took many by surprise obviously. This will be a new type of Badgers, and hopefully the school and fans can be patient for a bit. On the flip side, Rhule goes home to Nebraska. I have high respect for him as a college coach. Nebraska being competitive in football is good for college football in general. They will get there sooner rather than later (consistent 8-9 win seasons).
I'll wholly admit, the only Big Ten action I saw last week was The Game. Diuring the 3:30 slot I didn't watch the conference games at all. Good to see Maryland finish on a high note. Did Taulia get hurt? Michigan State misses a bowl game after flirting with the 6 wins in November. Good to see Nebraska get a win vs Iowa. That was a win-win day for the program. Does Pat Fitz leave the Wildcats? That has to be miserable right now. Wisky and Minnesota went about exactly as one would envision...
As far as The Game goes...just a few quick observations...
1. I said that Michigan had to stay close and that Magic Jesse Minter would make his usual halftime adjustments.
2. I am not surprised Blake only last a few plays -- this ended up being a blessing in disguise. I believe a fully healthy Blake means that JH stays stubborn on running the ball. Now, with that being said, there was 1-2 Stokes carries that Blake likely gets 50+ yards on.
3. Corn Johnson gets A LOT of heat around here for his drops. Good for him.
4. The Bucks were bound and determined to not get embarrassed in the fun game again. This eventually worked against them. Once they relented a bit in the 3rd, Michigan started getting yardage which was opening everything up.
5. I know the OSU fanbase at the game had a lot of nervous energy pre-game and you could see it coming out from mid-second quarter onwards.
6. Two awful personal foul calls. What are these kids thinking?
7. Game was pretty clean They let both sides play. Now, there was a few plays that should have been reviewed but that is college football.
8. Ryan Day was very cautious in the 2h when he had opportunities on 4th down. That seemed way off to me.
9. Now, Minters schemes were working, so I get that.
10. Donovan was a decoy. I was scared shitless he was going to fumble the game away at some point. Instead, he put himself into the lore of The Game.
11. JJ was awesome. That is just a microcosm of what he can do. Watch out next season.
12. The biggest play of the game was when they let JJ start running in 2h and he just plowed over guys for an extra 8-9 yards. Beautiful.
13. The jump pass is a Josh Gatts play from last year. They never got to use it. The play was built for Corum. Mullings is a linebacker that they have had working at short yardage back in camp. They moved him to RB again this week with the injuries.
14. Mike Sainistril moving from WR to Nickel is one of the better position switches in modern day history.
15. The rivalry is fully back and right now OSU will be heading back into the Big House next year with a lot of heat and will be playing a more talented Michigan team than this year.
Onward...
Current number is 16-51 down in Indianapolis.
Michigan Running Back situation...
This isn't good. Neither would play last week or this week if their wasn't that much on the line. I highly doubt Corum plays this week. From what I heard a bit ago, Edwards is playing down in Indy, one-handed again. I'll be interested to see how Brohm and company game-plan this.
These teams haven't played since 2017. There simply is no history to go on.
Mike Morris is another injury we need to look at. He got injured in the 4tth quarter of the Nebraska game, probably should not have been in the game at all. He said two days later he was fine on a radio show. Wrong. He sat out versus Illinois and didn't play much in Columbus. He is the heart and soul of that line.
Last year I was worried about the letdown from beating OSU and playing Iowa. Hopefully they come with the same attitude this year.
My early thought is UM will force a few turnovers and win this game something like 31-19. We shall see.
Looking forward to @PaintCrew take as well.
Last but not least, I'll leave the receipts in the vault, but UM apologizes for not letting you all see that OSU/UGA matchup in the finals that you all had but circled. You can ask Hunt, I said all year this OSU team was not as good as last year. There was no help given in the fact they played ND real early then only one other good team till Michigan (Penn State). Ryan Day has turned this team into Oklahoma West, period. I've said that for a year now. Hey, great for making money betting but when they play a strong, physical team, they are doomed.
For historical purposes.... two things happened Saturday that made me reminisce...
1. The first CJ touchdown was much like Griese to Tai Streets back in 1996 right out of halftime (9-0 deficit and they won 13-9.
2. The Don long runs were akin to the 1993 Rose Bowl vs Washington where Ty Wheatly broke a few long ones.
Neat stuff, Go Blue.
