The State of Michigan Football

I attended the Gator Bowl on Saturday to watch my beloved Michigan Wolverines take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Michigan showed up to play 14 minutes of football. Let me start by saying that the offense was fun to watch at the beginning of the season with Denard Robinson at QB, but when he played good teams he could not perform as well. In the Michigan State, Iowa, Penn State, and Illinois games Denard was injured in the first half and Tate Forcier finished those games. Had the team not built such a large deficit before Tate took over they might have won those games since Tate did bring them back to have a chance at the victory in those games and eventually win the Illinois game. The only quality wins on the schedule were UCONN (the Big East champions) and Notre Dame. How quality are those wins they were not impressive teams this year.

The biggest problem with the team however was the Defense. Greg Robinson took Syracuse down to a 1 or 2 win team each season he coached there. Now he has destroyed Michigan's defense. Michigan during the Bo, Mueller, and Carr years had tough defenses. For the last two seasons Michigan's defense has been progressively getting worse. Mississippi state exposed them on Saturday. Michigan is lucky that Wisconsin didnt hang 70+ points on them at the end of the season the way they did Minnesota and Indiana.


Lastly Denard Robinson. Denard is fast and looks much faster in person than on TV. He can read defenses well enough and see holes in the line great. Plus once he is in the open field he is gone. However his passing is so-so. This is why Tate played many of the second halves this season when Michigan was down. They needed an accurate passer. Denard has problems throwing a screen pass which is a necessary play when you do not have a strong rushing attack. The Philadelphia Eagles used to run screens for Brian Westbrook because he was too small to run up the middle. It’s a simple pass and when it’s not thrown 6 feet over a receivers head can gain an offense a lot of yards if the person catching the pass has some speed. That speed is nullified when a receiver is jumping in the air to catch a pass. By the time that receiver lands on his feet a good defense is going to be there to make the tackle.

So how does Michigan fix this problem? First they need to fire Greg Robinson and get a competent Defensive coordinator in there. Secondly they need a quarterback that can throw with accuracy. If that is Tate than play him if it is Kevin Gardner who was red shirted this year then play him. Tate may not be an option if he doesn’t get his grades up anyways. Find a way to use Denard that doesn't involve him throwing the ball all the time. They also need to find a power running back. The defense was young this season and had two or three walk-ons starting by the end of the season. They need to recruit better players and the ones that are their need to mature. Lastly I'm not sure if firing Rich is the right call. I wouldn’t be upset if they did fire him but I wouldn’t be upset if they kept him. All I know is whoever the coach is, I want to win. I want to beat Ohio State, Michigan State, and play for Big Ten championships.

All I know is that I'll still support the team all the way to the bottom if that’s where it goes because one day soon the Michigan Wolverines will be on top again. Go Blue!!!