In The House

September swoon in the Big Ten?

There's been one constant gripe in September regarding the Big Ten Conference - it simply isn't stacking up so far. That point was the focus of a Washington Post commentary on Sunday, which, tongue-in-cheek, recommended that the Big Ten declare Notre Dame its champion and Rose Bowl representative. And ESPN provided a further, in-depth examination of the conference's woes today.

"The narrative is we've underperformed, and I can't argue with that," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany told ESPN. "We haven't won big games. The narrative is about right. When you have big brands, expectations are high. I can't discount the facts, and I can't discount the critics."

The conference is a combined 33-13 in nonconference play but has struggled against BCS opponents and doesn't have a team ranked in the top 10 in either of the national polls. And some worry that winning the Big Ten will come down to backing into a spot, as opposed to earning it. Strictly conjecture ...

But Michigan continues to hand out the company line - they believe they still have a shot at winning the Big Ten title and earning a berth in the Rose Bowl, something we've been hearing since April.

Safety Thomas Gordon even used a cliche about flowers.

"We know we can still smell roses at the end of the season," Gordon said Tuesday, during Michigan's only media availability this week. "That's our focus."

And, he added, the Wolverines still haven't lost any Big Ten games yet.

This kind of thinking - or spin - has become infectious in the Big Ten. Someone has to win it, right?

***

After this week's bye week, Michigan opens its Big Ten schedule Oct. 6 at Purdue and Purdue coach Danny Hope, whose team has received votes in the AP Top 25 and USA TODAY coaches poll, told the Lafayette (Ind.) Journal and Courier he believes the Boilermakers can be a top 25 team.

“We’re not in the rankings right now but we feel we have a lot of people on our team that can make plays,” Purdue quarterback Caleb TerBush told the Journal and Courier. “We feel like we’re a more mature team than last year and we have to prove it on the field."

“We have to go out every Saturday and take care of business and show everybody we are one of those top 25 teams.”

***

And finally ...

The fellows at ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" bid farewell to the Notre Dame-Michigan rivalry.

 

All apologies among the Wolverines

ANN ARBOR - The apologies didn't stop after Saturday's 13-6 loss to No. 10 Notre Dame. 

A few days after an impassioned apology for his performance against the Irish - a game in which Robinson was picked off four times - his teammates addressed Robinson's apology and their response, which was also an apology. They weren't going to place the burden on their quarterback.

"We all made mistakes," tailback Fitz Toussaint said. "Not just Denard."

But, he said, Robinson's demeanor hasn't changed in the wake of the loss. And in his apology to the team, Toussaint said, Robinson said it won't happen again.

"We apologized to him, too," Toussaint said. 

Defensive lineman Will Campbell said that Robinson addressed the Wolverines in the locker room, and that in response, Robinson's teammates texted and called him in support.

"As a defense, we all went up to Denard and told him, it's a team thing," Campbell said. "As a defense, if they hadn't scored, we would have won."

Offensive lineman Patrick Omameh said those turnovers - six of them, including five interceptions - were preventable.

"That was not something that was on Denard," Omameh said. 

And Omameh had a word with Robinson.

"I told him to keep his head up," Omameh said. "We understand that this is a team concept. The game isn't all his, it was the team that put us in that position."

Michigan coach Brady Hoke laid blame across the board.

"You make sure he understands that we took 69 guys to the game, when we've got 115 on this football team," Hoke said. "We're all responsible. Coaches, players, everybody." 

Here's Robinson's postgame apology from Saturday, via TheWolverine.com:

 

In South Bend, Robinson takes things upon himself

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - By now the Michigan faithful is used to quarterback Denard Robinson saying the same things each week. But after tonight's 13-6 loss to No. 11 Notre Dame, the public saw a different side of Denard Robinson. Not necesarily a defeated Denard Robinson, but a little bit of a defiant Denard Robinson. And that might be a good thing.

In the wake of being intercepted four times and sacked once, Robinson issued a personal, almost passionate edict. 

“I’m going to be accountable for the rest of the season, I’ll tell you that much," Robinson told the crowd of media types surrounding him in a hallway underneath the stands at Notre Dame Stadium. "I’m going to do whatever it takes to win, and whatever it takes for my team to win, that’s what I’m going to do. I don’t want to feel like this anymore.”

He scoffed at the notion that he's the one carrying the Wolverines, though his numbers going into Saturday's game in South Bend would say otherwise. In Michigan's first three games, Robinson accounted for more than 80 percent of the Wolverines’ 1,276 total yards, as he rushed for 351 yards and passed for 699 yards. 

Against Notre Dame on his birthday, Robinson finished with 26 carries for 90 yards and finished 13 of 24 passing with 138 yards - and four interceptions. 

"They don't rely on me," Robinson said. "I've just got to be accountable in what I've got to do, and that's passing the ball to the guys. I feel like I wasn't accountable. I should have just played a role."

His role, he said, is to be accountable. But Saturday's loss to Notre Dame, Robinson believed, was the worst game of his career. 

"This the most disappointed I've ever been in myself, in I don't know how long," Robinson said. "I mean, in the 22 years I've been living, this is the most disappointed I've been in myself."

The Irish at Fenway?

While most college football teams attempt to limit distractions during a typical game week - hence the tightly controlled media availability by many progams (not saying, just saying) - less than a week after Notre Dame announced its impending move to the ACC in all sports except for football and men's hockey, more news broke on the Irish as they prepare to face Michigan on Saturday in South Bend, Ind. 

Not bad news, either. The Boston Globe reported Tuesday that Notre Dame and Connecticut are in negotiations to play a football game at Fenway Park in Boston but Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick dismissed those reports.

"We have work to do on our future football schedules, given the announcement last week relative to our upcoming Atlantic Coast Conference relationship," Swarbrick said in the statement. "However, media reports today that we will play Connecticut in Fenway Park in 2014 are inaccurate."

 However, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was open to the possibility of playing football in a baseball stadium.

“I think it would be cool,” Kelly said. “I’d like to do it. More than anything else, I don’t know the ramifications of the 2014 schedule as it relates to the ACC schedule.”

Fenway Park hasn't hosted a football game since 1968, but there's nothing unusual about the venerable baseball stadium hosting non-baseball events. Recently it's hosted Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band and Jimmy Buffett, and has also hosted pro soccer and outdoor hockey games, including the 2010 Winter Classic. Here's a pic I took when I covered the Winter Classic that year: 

A regulation NHL rink is 200 feet long by 85 feet wide, while a football field is 100 yards long (360 feet) by 53 1/3 yards (160 feet) wide. Which could pose a logistical problem. Which did pose a logistical problem at Wrigley Field in Chicago when Northwestern played Illinois in 2010. 

Onward to South Bend ...

ANN ARBOR - Now that that game is out of the way ...

(Is that lede even gramatically correct?)

Anyhow. That would be the presumptive attitude to take after Michigan's 63-13 win over Massachusetts. But in the matter of any perfectionist, the Wolverines still see areas in which they can improve in preparation for next weekend. 

Michigan coach Brady Hoke singled out the offensive and defensive lines, and Michigan’s defense has had trouble creating turnovers in its first three games. And even though seven different players combined for 294 yards rushing, the offensive backfield still needs to refine its depth.

Because the cupcake part of the schedule is over. The Wolverines face No. 20 Notre Dame, a 20-3 winner Saturday over No. 10 Michigan State, next Saturday (Sept. 22) in South Bend, Ind. And it's unlikely that Michigan will face another program like UMass, in its first season of playing an FBS schedule and taking its collective lumps. Because even though Irish coach Brian Kelly is taking the same approach that Hoke is taking after Saturday's games - "There are a lot of things to work on" - Notre Dame has legitimized itself with a win over a ranked opponent and because there's a steadying competitive balance in the Big Ten's Legends Division. 

Next weekend won't just be about the pomp and circumstance that comes with a game day in South Bend. This should serve as the best measuring stick to see where and how high the Wolverines stand. 

What could the future hold for Michigan and Notre Dame?

Yes, let's already start to look ahead. Michigan faces Massachussetts this week in a game that's largely considered a tune-up for the annual grudge match against Notre Dame. But could that Notre Dame-Michigan showdown soon be a thing of the past? With Notre Dame announcing a move to join the ACC in all sports except football and hockey (the Irish will remain independent in football and will begin play next fall in Hockey East) and there's likely to be a shift in the Irish's future football schedules. 

Once Notre Dame officially leaves the Big East and joins the ACC - and as of right now, that date is unclear - Notre Dame has agreed to schedule five ACC opponents each season and that will likely put a few of the traditional rivalries on hold: Notre Dame-Michigan, Notre Dame-Boston College and Notre Dame-Michigan State.

During a press conference to announce Notre Dame's move to the ACC, per several media reports, athletic director Jack Swarbrick indicated that the football program will maintain its rivalries with USC, Stanford and the Naval Academy, but that Notre Dame could potentially "rotate" its schedule to include Purdue, Michigan and Michigan State. Current annual opponents could go two years on and two years off. Swarbrick: "We haven't gotten to that level of detail yet." (h/t Dennis Dodds of CBS, Brian Hamilton of the Chicago Tribune and Pat Forde of Yahoo.com)

Michigan has Notre Dame on its football schedule for the next five seasons, with a two-year hiatus between the two teams in 2018 and 2019 before the series resumes in 2020. That clause was instituted in 2007, when the previous athletic directors at Michgan and Notre Dame agreed to extend the series for 25 seasons. 

Here's the rub: both Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon and Notre Dame associate athletics director John Heisler said in June that there is no actual written contract between the two schools in relation to scheduling football games, though Heisler said dates have been exchanged in regards to the future of the rivalry. It's almost a gentleman's agreement, if you will. The contract automatically renews for three years after each Notre Dame-Michigan game. 

I asked a Michigan spokesperson about the future of scheduling football games against Notre Dame, and while the spokesperson declined to comment directly on the issue - though Brandon told the Associated Press he'd like to see the series resume in 2020 - the understanding is that right now, the ball is in Notre Dame's court as far as the future of the Michigan-Notre Dame football rivalry. 

Behind Robinson, there's a defense that needs tuned up

ANN ARBOR - Saturday became sort of a love-fest of all things Denard Robinson. Rightfully so, in respect to Michigan's senior quarterback. He finished with 426 yards of offense, rushing and passing, and had more total yards than Michigan as a team (422) - a factoid that even caught the attention of Deadspin. 

The math's not that difficult. Robinson ran for 218 yards and passed for 208 yards. However, behind Robinson was a drastic drop-off in Michigan's running game. Tailback Fitz Toussaint finished with seven yards on eight carries, and Michigan lost 11 yards on three carries - all three losses were credited to the Wolverines as a team and Michigan finished with 214 yards rushing. 

But if there's an area of concern for the Wolverines heading into next week's game against Massachusetts, it's not just the run game - it's also team defense. Granted, defending against a triple option is not easy. One, because of the offense's dynamics and two, because Air Force is a team that, even when it's down, will continue to grind away and somehow remain competitive. (And if Air Force is ahead, they'll simply grind their opponents into the turf - consider that consistency a characteristic of a military academy. It almost seems as if the only way to beat Air Force is to outscore the Falcons.)

In two games, Michigan has given up an average of 424 yards in its first two games, including an average of 261 yards rushing. It's no wonder Michigan coach Brady Hoke still considers the Wolverines a work in progress of sorts on defense. 

Though, as a new FBS entry, Massachusetts is 0-2 after a 45-6 loss Saturday to Indiana, and they always say never to underestimate an opponent, Saturday's game against the Minutemen at Michigan Stadium is one that could be regarded as a tune-up of sorts - in two weeks, Michigan travels to South Bend, Ind., to face Notre Dame in the annual grudge match between the two traditional powers. If you're looking for a yardstick to find out how Michigan (or Notre Dame) measures up, that Saturday night affair could be it.

Three times the fun

You probably read today about the triple option offense - one that's unique to only a handful of FBS programs, including Navy, Georgia Tech and Air Force - Michigan's opponent Saturday at the Big House.

What do those triple-option schools have in common? Smart kids. But if that's an equalizer, then that's just a coincidence.

The essence of the triple option is this: the quarterback has three options when it comes to a running play: go to the tailback, go to the fullback or run the ball himself - and those decisions hinge on how the quarterback reads the defense. There's a lot of misdirection involved in the triple option, which places an emphasis on the run.

Air Force isn't quite a passing team - as evidenced by the 142 yards passing in last week's win over Idaho State, and 1,821 yards passing in 2011.

 Since it's not easy to explain the intricacies of it ... here's some footage of Air Force executing the triple-option offense during the 2009 Armed Forces Bowl against Houston. The best thing to do? Keep your eye on the ball.

***

In a video posted Friday afternoon by the Michigan athletic department, Wolverines coach Brady Hoke said Fitz Toussaint will start at tailback in his first game of the season.

***

Air Force won't leave Ann Arbor empty-handed. Michigan's contract with Air Force states that the Falcons will receive a $1.1 million payout for Saturday's game - on or before Feb. 1 following the game.

All a-Twitter over Robinson

Everyone is talking about the Michigan football team's lopsided loss to Alabama - even the Michigan State football team. From Yahoo.com's Dr. Saturday, the site's college football blog: 

• "Is this guy really a QB I'll say my mans (walk-on Tommy Vento) is a better QB lol," linebacker Denicos Allen tweeted. "S/O to my boy vento by the way."
• "DENARD IS SOOOO BAD!" safety Kyle Artinian tweeted. "And it makes me feel so good."
• "I can play quarterback for the school in blue," linebacker Jamal Lyles tweeted. "(Le'Veon Bell) for heisman > the other guy in the great state of michigan."

The players later removed the much-publicized posts. But Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker and former Michigan player Larry Foote, ahem, reached out to the Michigan State contingent late last night on Twitter.

JAMAL LYLES, kyle artian, and back up RBshut yall mouth andGET ON THE FIELDREDSHIRTERS

— Larrry Foote (@LarryFoote313) September 4, 2012

i would have started at state my junior year in high school

— Larrry Foote (@LarryFoote313) September 4, 2012

And during today's weekly press conference in East Lansing, Spartans coach Mark Dantonio addressed the situation, basically saying his team needs to go back to proverbially twiddling its thumbs - instead of using them to tweet. Per the Detroit News: 

"It's disrespectful and something we shouldn't be doing," Dantonio said. "The credit goes to the person in the arena and Michigan has a storied tradition. I didn't see much different from when we played Alabama (49-7 loss in 2011 Capital One Bowl). It's tough."

Tuesday afternoon, Robinson said the Twitter talk didn't faze him. He was more concerned about Air Force, Michigan's opponent on Saturday.

"It doesn't bother me at all," Robinson said.

Per MLive.com, Michigan State's Allen publicly apologized, at the request of Dantonio.

"When I posted the tweet, I didn't think it was a real big deal personally, but I understand now that you shouldn't talk on Twitter, on social media about other opponents," Allen said. "I should have kept it within the team."

A Texas-sized game plan for Alabama's defense

ARLINGTON, Texas - Everything's a little bit bigger here in Texas. I should know - I lived in Texas and covered high school football here for three years. 

But if you're the Michigan football team, then everything this weekend was a little more overwhelming. Including an import from another state - the Alabama football team.

There was no room to underestimate the Crimson Tide. Not as the defending national champions, not with a strong, smart and mobile quarterback in A.J. McCarron and not with a group of versatile backs who seemed to rotate in and out, including T.J. Yeldon, who led all backs with 111 yards on 11 carries, Jalston Fowler and Eddie Lacy. 

"It's amazing," Alabama left guard Chance Warmack said. "We've got different guys who can bring something different to that table ... and they're always willing to score a touchdown." 

And not with a defense whose goal was to contain Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson. While Robinson finished with 200 yards on 11 of 26 completions, he was intercepted twice and unable to create much on the run, finishing with 27 yards on 10 carries. Ditto for Michigan's backfield, which finished with 69 yards on 29 carries. It seemed like a sizeable task - maybe a Texas-sized task - for the Tide, against a player billed in the preseason as a Heisman Trophy candidate.

"He is a great athlete," Alabama defensive back Vinnie Sunseri said. "We knew we had to contain him in the pocket because of his ability to extend plays."

Alabama linebacker Nico Johnson succinctly described Alabama's tactics against Robinson.

"Just try to get him less comfortable in the pocket," Johnson said. "That's it. [We] tried to rattle him early and just get to him."

Obviously, it worked. 

***

Signing off from Arlington, as I have a 6:10 a.m. flight out of DFW in about, oh, six hours. Everything in Texas seems a little earlier, too.