38-25-2 +24.40 units
Lets recap last week first...
Started the week off with the Utah game. Man, not the right call. Their o-line isn't great and Oregon State seemed to have a very good defense off balance all game long. Not much else to say here. Was confident in it and loved the situation but things happen. Lets go to the other ats loss, Ole Miss. I honestly thought we had a good number for this game. That team really could and should be 5-0. Smelley starting was a big factor for me as well. I give him credit though as he got the job done. Scary looked cook down 14-3 early but fought back. The ML loss hurts. Capped this one well imo. Javon did next to nothing other than the 29 yard run in the 4th quarter. Iowa really bottled him up. The Hawks had their chances but just couldn't get it done. The ats was nice though. Ml was more of an ego thing..lol. Elsewhere early, got the front door cover by the Gators. They started slow with the hangover as I thought might happen. Just seemed a bit off but got a gift late and will take it. It'll go the other way later in year. They all even out. The big win of the day was on Illinois moneyline. Michigan looked great those first few drives. I was a bit scared. Was thinking w had turned the corner. The rest of the game we were soft though as RR said. Juice set the Big House all-purpose yardage mark and it got ugly late. Only bright spot for Big Blue was Martavious Odoms. What a great young freshman. The eastern Michigan game was a thing of beauty. I shoulda bit on some ML Kyle style but didn't. One of the easier wins you'll ever have. Thanks again for the push. Texas game was easy as well. That defense looked superb for the part of the game that counted most. Last, but not least, Okie State was dominant again. They are going to bit one of the big boys in the butt this season. I see it coming.
Other random thoughts:
-Terrelle Pryor has great composure. Very impressed by this young man.
-Penn State is very impressive. They held down a very solid offense.
-Was way off witrh my Toledo-BSU capping. Luckily layed off.
-Man is Wyoming bad.
Articles locally
At his news conference last Monday, University of Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez said he has told his players there's nothing worse than being called lazy or soft.
Two days after Michigan was routed 45-20 by Illinois, Rodriguez used the term "soft" himself to describe his team's performance, and said it applied to all three areas of the game – offense, defense and special teams.
"I'm not saying we have soft guys, but if there's one guy, one out of 11 guys, that plays soft on one play, that's unacceptable," he said Monday. "That will never be acceptable."
When asked to be more specific about what was soft during Michigan's game against the Fighting Illini, Rodriguez said this: "You can run full speed and still be soft. It's a physical ball game, and there comes a point in time where you have to play physically. ... You can't allow them to block you. You've got to want to block them. To me, it's not that they're not trying. Sometimes, they don't realize it. Unless we become a tougher football team, physically and mentally, we'll have a lot of problems."
Film study sessions on Sunday at Schembechler Hall provided the players with evidence of what was missing during their homecoming loss to Illinois. They saw an offense that generated just 69 rushing yards, a defense that allowed 501 total yards and special teams return units that did a subpar job of blocking.
"The film never lies," Michigan senior cornerback Morgan Trent said. "You'll get an honest assessment of what's going on. It's blatant on the film to see who's doing what, and who's not doing what."
But how to get everyone doing the right things with the needed physicality is a subject of debate. Rodriguez said he has asked players if they need more full-contact practices. As it stands now, the only such practice each week happens on Tuesdays, and the coach said he'd prefer not to change that.
"You don't want to beat each other up in practice, and not have your team ready on Saturday," he said. "So the times that we do go physically on Tuesday, we have to go."
Rodriguez said he believes playing more physically starts with having a certain mind-set at practice, then again on game day.
"You've got to cross that line and flip the switch," he said. "And that's not to hit guys dirty or cheap and get stupid penalties. I'm not talking about that. It's an inevitable point of contact or collision - I should say collision. You are either the hammer or the nail. I'd rather be the hammer. We want the hammer."
Getting to that point quickly will be the challenge for the Wolverines, who are 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten. Next up for Michigan is a nonconference home game against Toledo (1-4), followed by a road game at No. 6-ranked Penn State.
Trent said being called out once for being soft should provide motivation enough for the Wolverines to make lasting changes.
"It's a word you hope never comes up," he said. "Of course we're disappointed to hear that. We have to continue to get better.
"You should never be soft. It's something we can control all the time. That shouldn't come up again."
Added backup defensive end Ryan Van Bergen: "After watching film, (Rodriguez) was right. It's a horrible insult to call your team soft; I mean, that's the only way you could describe it Saturday."
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EVANSTON, Ill. -- Unbeaten Northwestern is gearing up for its first real test against No. 23 Michigan State, a squad head coach Pat Fitzgerald calls "the most physical football team" the Wildcats have faced this year.
"Obviously an exciting game here on the horizon," Fitzgerald said Monday. "Two very good football teams who are probably playing their best football of the year."
Coming off a bye week, the Wildcats (5-0, 1-0) have gotten some national recognition, earning votes in the Associated Press poll and falling just outside of the Top 25. Michigan State (5-1, 2-0) beat Iowa 16-13 on Saturday.
Fitzgerald has consistently downplayed the significance of votes his team has received in various media polls as the season has progressed and said he wasn't impressed by his team's recent jump.
"The significance on that is very minimal from our team standpoint," he said. "Expectations around here never change. Maybe the expectations in the media or outside of our football team change but we can't control that so we don't worry too much about it."
Standout running back Tyrell Sutton said support for the team has become more pronounced around campus and hopes the Wildcats' play will keep the enthusiasm rising.
"I've seen some people on campus decide to jump on the bandwagon," he said. "It's up to us to give the fans something to buzz about and I think we've done a good job of that the last five or six weeks. We just have to maintain that buzz and make sure we stay humble and stay grounded and play every game like we're 0-0."
Fitzgerald said his team spent the off week practicing and preparing, before relaxing and watching college football on TV during an idle Saturday.
The rest was welcomed by the Wildcats, who were dealing with assorted bumps and bruises.
"It came at a great time," Sutton said. "I was a little sore after the (Iowa) game and it couldn't have come at a better time. We were a little banged up, we had some guys not playing at 100 percent."
Fitzgerald said that "we're as healthy as maybe we've been five weeks into the season in a couple of years," and said offensive lineman Kurt Mattis and running back Stephen Simmons should be healthy enough to play against Michigan State.
He also hinted at some changes on the Wildcats kickoff return team.
Jeremy Ebert and Jeravin Matthews lined up deep for Northwestern last week, but Sherrick McManis and Omar Conteh were listed as the kick returners on the Wildcats depth chart on Monday. Fitzgerald said any of those four, along with Simmons, are candidates to return kicks against the Spartans.
"We've got a plethora of guys that can return the ball," he said. "They all have unique talents, they're a little bit different in their running styles. I think we've got a good problem back there."
The Plays:
East Carolina -6 -110 2 units
Texas +7 -110 3 units
Wisconsin +6 -120 3 units
Miami Fl -16.5 -110 2 units(5dimes)
Georgia -11.5 -110 2 units
TAMU ML +120
Stanford +7 -115
Northwestern ML +100
Utah -23.5 -110
Lets recap last week first...
Started the week off with the Utah game. Man, not the right call. Their o-line isn't great and Oregon State seemed to have a very good defense off balance all game long. Not much else to say here. Was confident in it and loved the situation but things happen. Lets go to the other ats loss, Ole Miss. I honestly thought we had a good number for this game. That team really could and should be 5-0. Smelley starting was a big factor for me as well. I give him credit though as he got the job done. Scary looked cook down 14-3 early but fought back. The ML loss hurts. Capped this one well imo. Javon did next to nothing other than the 29 yard run in the 4th quarter. Iowa really bottled him up. The Hawks had their chances but just couldn't get it done. The ats was nice though. Ml was more of an ego thing..lol. Elsewhere early, got the front door cover by the Gators. They started slow with the hangover as I thought might happen. Just seemed a bit off but got a gift late and will take it. It'll go the other way later in year. They all even out. The big win of the day was on Illinois moneyline. Michigan looked great those first few drives. I was a bit scared. Was thinking w had turned the corner. The rest of the game we were soft though as RR said. Juice set the Big House all-purpose yardage mark and it got ugly late. Only bright spot for Big Blue was Martavious Odoms. What a great young freshman. The eastern Michigan game was a thing of beauty. I shoulda bit on some ML Kyle style but didn't. One of the easier wins you'll ever have. Thanks again for the push. Texas game was easy as well. That defense looked superb for the part of the game that counted most. Last, but not least, Okie State was dominant again. They are going to bit one of the big boys in the butt this season. I see it coming.
Other random thoughts:
-Terrelle Pryor has great composure. Very impressed by this young man.
-Penn State is very impressive. They held down a very solid offense.
-Was way off witrh my Toledo-BSU capping. Luckily layed off.
-Man is Wyoming bad.
Articles locally
At his news conference last Monday, University of Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez said he has told his players there's nothing worse than being called lazy or soft.
Two days after Michigan was routed 45-20 by Illinois, Rodriguez used the term "soft" himself to describe his team's performance, and said it applied to all three areas of the game – offense, defense and special teams.
"I'm not saying we have soft guys, but if there's one guy, one out of 11 guys, that plays soft on one play, that's unacceptable," he said Monday. "That will never be acceptable."
When asked to be more specific about what was soft during Michigan's game against the Fighting Illini, Rodriguez said this: "You can run full speed and still be soft. It's a physical ball game, and there comes a point in time where you have to play physically. ... You can't allow them to block you. You've got to want to block them. To me, it's not that they're not trying. Sometimes, they don't realize it. Unless we become a tougher football team, physically and mentally, we'll have a lot of problems."
Film study sessions on Sunday at Schembechler Hall provided the players with evidence of what was missing during their homecoming loss to Illinois. They saw an offense that generated just 69 rushing yards, a defense that allowed 501 total yards and special teams return units that did a subpar job of blocking.
"The film never lies," Michigan senior cornerback Morgan Trent said. "You'll get an honest assessment of what's going on. It's blatant on the film to see who's doing what, and who's not doing what."
But how to get everyone doing the right things with the needed physicality is a subject of debate. Rodriguez said he has asked players if they need more full-contact practices. As it stands now, the only such practice each week happens on Tuesdays, and the coach said he'd prefer not to change that.
"You don't want to beat each other up in practice, and not have your team ready on Saturday," he said. "So the times that we do go physically on Tuesday, we have to go."
Rodriguez said he believes playing more physically starts with having a certain mind-set at practice, then again on game day.
"You've got to cross that line and flip the switch," he said. "And that's not to hit guys dirty or cheap and get stupid penalties. I'm not talking about that. It's an inevitable point of contact or collision - I should say collision. You are either the hammer or the nail. I'd rather be the hammer. We want the hammer."
Getting to that point quickly will be the challenge for the Wolverines, who are 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten. Next up for Michigan is a nonconference home game against Toledo (1-4), followed by a road game at No. 6-ranked Penn State.
Trent said being called out once for being soft should provide motivation enough for the Wolverines to make lasting changes.
"It's a word you hope never comes up," he said. "Of course we're disappointed to hear that. We have to continue to get better.
"You should never be soft. It's something we can control all the time. That shouldn't come up again."
Added backup defensive end Ryan Van Bergen: "After watching film, (Rodriguez) was right. It's a horrible insult to call your team soft; I mean, that's the only way you could describe it Saturday."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Unbeaten Northwestern is gearing up for its first real test against No. 23 Michigan State, a squad head coach Pat Fitzgerald calls "the most physical football team" the Wildcats have faced this year.
"Obviously an exciting game here on the horizon," Fitzgerald said Monday. "Two very good football teams who are probably playing their best football of the year."
Coming off a bye week, the Wildcats (5-0, 1-0) have gotten some national recognition, earning votes in the Associated Press poll and falling just outside of the Top 25. Michigan State (5-1, 2-0) beat Iowa 16-13 on Saturday.
Fitzgerald has consistently downplayed the significance of votes his team has received in various media polls as the season has progressed and said he wasn't impressed by his team's recent jump.
"The significance on that is very minimal from our team standpoint," he said. "Expectations around here never change. Maybe the expectations in the media or outside of our football team change but we can't control that so we don't worry too much about it."
Standout running back Tyrell Sutton said support for the team has become more pronounced around campus and hopes the Wildcats' play will keep the enthusiasm rising.
"I've seen some people on campus decide to jump on the bandwagon," he said. "It's up to us to give the fans something to buzz about and I think we've done a good job of that the last five or six weeks. We just have to maintain that buzz and make sure we stay humble and stay grounded and play every game like we're 0-0."
Fitzgerald said his team spent the off week practicing and preparing, before relaxing and watching college football on TV during an idle Saturday.
The rest was welcomed by the Wildcats, who were dealing with assorted bumps and bruises.
"It came at a great time," Sutton said. "I was a little sore after the (Iowa) game and it couldn't have come at a better time. We were a little banged up, we had some guys not playing at 100 percent."
Fitzgerald said that "we're as healthy as maybe we've been five weeks into the season in a couple of years," and said offensive lineman Kurt Mattis and running back Stephen Simmons should be healthy enough to play against Michigan State.
He also hinted at some changes on the Wildcats kickoff return team.
Jeremy Ebert and Jeravin Matthews lined up deep for Northwestern last week, but Sherrick McManis and Omar Conteh were listed as the kick returners on the Wildcats depth chart on Monday. Fitzgerald said any of those four, along with Simmons, are candidates to return kicks against the Spartans.
"We've got a plethora of guys that can return the ball," he said. "They all have unique talents, they're a little bit different in their running styles. I think we've got a good problem back there."
The Plays:
East Carolina -6 -110 2 units
Texas +7 -110 3 units
Wisconsin +6 -120 3 units
Miami Fl -16.5 -110 2 units(5dimes)
Georgia -11.5 -110 2 units
TAMU ML +120
Stanford +7 -115
Northwestern ML +100
Utah -23.5 -110
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