Wolverine Wednesday: What Are We Doing?

CBS and ESPN are struggling with being media companies and being profitable.  So here is a question for you:  Why are they paying these guys in the booth so much?  Tony Romo which CBS clearly wants to cleary cut ties with gets paid $1M per game.  Monday Night Football host Joe Buck just signed a $108M extension.  For working one night a week for 17 - 18 weeks? 

These companies really think people are tuning in for the folks in the booth and not the game?  This entire industry needs a reboot.  

• University of Miami is moving from adidas to Nike next year. 

• Oklahoma needs to be very careful with New Mexico this weekend. 

• WMU has Boise State in two weeks.  It would be great for Michigan if they are ranked 

• The Dabo vs. Capel Bill might have one of those old pro wrestling, "Loser leaves town games this weekend'

• It makes me proud and pissed that Coach Minter and Coach Mac are seeing so much success in the NFL.  Michigan's program would be in a different place if Jesse Minter was our head coach right now. 

Michigan Tuesday: The Vanilla Gorilla

Coach Whitt has some Harbaugh coaching similarities.  Both are a bit of old school and both are little different.  Evidently Coach Whitt has nicknamed John Henry Daley: The Vanilla Gorilla.  I don't like it, I love it! 

Readers be prepared, I will be running with this often! 😃

Speaking of the Vanilla Gorilla, he was named the Big 10 Defensive Player of the Week. 

• Iowa game with be a 3:30 Kick on CBS, this weeks game is also a 3:30 kick 

• Sounds like Babalola continues to have injury issues and won't be back for some time 

• Two Freshmen I expect to see more is TE Mason Bonner and DE Tariq Toney who was held twice on pass rush against Oklahoma.  Mason made a nice catch but had a foot out of bounds. 

• Oregon 5-star WR commit Dakota Guerrant was in A2 for the Oklahoma game

• Kerry Coombs has done a really nice job with the Special Teams units 

• Excited to see the Defensive line with Carter Meadows who will be back from injury this Saturday. 

Michigan Monday: Too Early Look at UTEP

The Michigan Wolverines are 2-0, when I turned off the TV and was in the shower two weeks ago, I wondered to myself if this season was a total wash already after 1 huge upset by Western Michigan.  Now, Michigan is sitting at 2-0 and I'm not sure I even believe it.  

Michigan lost a little shine off its win after Ohio State lost its big lead in Austin and The Ducks got embarrassed by OK State.  But I will take a quiet upset win, where Michigan's defense was dominate outside a couple bad plays. 

Now it's "a get better week" against UTEP who lost to Oklahoma by 51 points just over a week ago. 

UTEP:

Best Win: Texas Southern 51-10 

Worst Loss: Oklahoma 51-0

Pass: 162.6 yards Per (201st)

Run: 182 per (58th)

Score: 25.5 (91st) 

Give up: 30.5 (118th) 

This team has a weird 51 thing going on.  They lost by 51 in week 1 and scored 51 in week 2.  Maybe we can keep that trend going by the Wolverines scoring 51 on Saturday afternoon. Here is a deep thought, is North Dakota State the best team in the new Mountain West in their first year of FBS Football?

Michigan is in no place to overlook any opponent and there is plenty to work on this week in practice.  The Wolverines need to find a functional offense and clean up some play on the defensive side of the ball. 

Not to mention, a ranked Iowa team coming in 2 weeks, a ranked PSU rolling in 3 weeks, and the National Champs in just over a month.  A trip for the "Little Brown Jug" is in there as well. 

• Michigan now #19 in both polls 

• Nice to see the National Champs back together on Saturday picking up their rings and enjoying an upset football win! 

• Quick question for the BHB Inmates: How does Cole Sullivan transfer to OK and not even start? He did make one nice play that I saw on TV.  He would be the star of the Michigan Defense right now. 

Post Game: Secondary Help

The Oklahoman

In my preview to Coach Whitt, I told him Michigan had to win this game on defense and they sure as hell did.  The secondary locked down the Oklahoma WR's and for the most part got Mateer on the ground when he scrambled.  The pass rush showed up and Michigan ended the game with a big sack by Marshall. 

In the 3rd quarter the secondary was doing its best to lose the game.   A terrible personal foul call on Hill and letting the Big Oklahoma TE run wild in the secondary.  Not to mention back to back terrible plays by Earls with a face mask and a blown assignment for a butt naked TD pass. 

Bryce was effective but the offense was very basic all game.  

There is plenty to clean up and that's why we do Cheers and Jeers:

Cheers:

• Michigan Defense making winning plays and basically scoring the winning TD 
• John Henry Daley had his best game as a Wolverine with 3 TFL's
• Marshall closed the game with a sack 
• NOB out there making plays 
• Another solid effort by Bowles 
• Secondary for locking down the WR's
• Get the ball to JJ! 
• Hiter had a few nice catches 
• Marshall catching all the punts
• Our punter is an All American 
• Butkowski had a nice field goal 

Jeers:

• The offense needs work 
• Bryce was the leading rusher 
• Oline played better but there just not enough holes 
• Michigan needs to find a way to pass the ball
• 11 Penalties for 90 yards is unacceptable 
• The mental mistakes are unacceptable 

This was a great win as the Wolverines and Bryce were the joke of the week, now they just upset the #11 team in the nation.  This is a huge win for Coach Whitt and this team.   They need to focus on getting better next week and finding more options on offense.   Bryce running the ball non-stop scares me with his fumbling issues and his health.  Mateer was gassed at the end of the game.

Huge win and it feels great!  Now go get better again!