Game Day- Michigan Wolverines vs The Michigan State Spartans

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#23 Michigan vs. Michigan State

Date: Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012   |   Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Venue: Michigan Stadium   |   Location: Ann Arbor, Mich.
TV: Big Ten Network (Channel Finder)
Radio: Michigan Sports Network (Affiliates)

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All-Time Series
U-M leads, 67-32-5Last Meeting
Michigan State 28, Michigan 14
(10/15/11 – East Lansing, Mich.)
Michigan State
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Michigan State Celebrates at the Big House

 

Michigan State Celebrates with the Paul Bunyan Trophy

 

Michigan State Fans Taunt Wolverines

The Michigan QB Dilemma, More Kirk, less Picard

Michigan Offensive Coordinator Al Borges loves to diagram offensive plays for hour on end.

He’ll sit drawing up play after play with multiple options, against different defensive looks and tendencies looking for the perfect call to give his offense the advantage.

His ideal quarterback is someone tall, who can survey the field and pick apart the defense, exploiting the mismatches that Borges identifies.

Denard Robinson isn’t his ideal QB.

Since Hoke and Borges arrived they’ve done their best to put Denard Robinson in a box. A lesser player would have grown frustrated by now. But Denard soldiers on.

Sometime its helpful to look a problem through a different lens.

This week is the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation and once again fans are debating incarnation of Star Trek i best.

One of the most heated arguments is which captain is best, Kirk or Picard?

Kirk is the gambler, flying by the seat of his pants, surviving and thriving by natural skill and gut intuition.

Picard is the calm, cool, and collected manager, carefully analyzing every situation.

Both have their strengths, but you would never confuse one with the other.

It’s clear that Borges is a Picard fan.

Given the choice of a playmaker versus the game manager at quarterback, he’d go for the later every time.

But that’s Denard.

Denard is at his best when plays break down he chooses to make things happen with his amazing speed.

You can’t draw that up on the play sheet. You can quantify it. You just acknowledge the truth.

Next year Al Borges will get his game manager at quarterback.

But for now he needs to let Denard be Denard.

No defensive coordinator fears Denard’s passing game.

But him running free in the open field is a nightmare.

Borges needs to realize that’s it’s been a mistake trying to stop Denard from being the playmaker.

He needs to make adjustments before this season ends up like an odd numbered Star trek movie.

 

 

 

 

After Careful Consideration- To Hell with Notre Dame…

Tradition is one of the main differences between college and professional football.

And there are few college football programs with the long and storied tradition of Michigan and Notre Dame.

It began when the Wolverines visited South Bend to teach the Irish how to play the game over a hundred years ago and has continued on and off since.

Over the years Michigan and Notre Dame have rung up the most wins in college football history and the best winning percentage- with Notre Dame trailing Michigan in both totals.

Both of these teams have had their share of national championships, Heisman trophy winners, and thrilling games. In short, Michigan and Notre Dame often represent the best that college football has to offer.

But it appears that rivalry is about to take another break, and given the attitude displayed by Notre Dame it might be a long time before we see Wolverines play the Fighting Irish on the gridiron again.

Moments before this year’s contest, Michigan Athletic Director David Brandon was handed a letter pulling the plug on the future of the series.

This isn’t how you treat an honored rival.

Notre Dame pink-slipped Michigan with no discussion minutes before kickoff, invoking their three year termination clause in such a way that insures that they have the final home game of the series in 2014.

A classier move would have been for ND to meet with Michigan officials beforehand and discus how to keep the rivalry alive in the future.

But Notre Dame has chosen different course.

It takes to two tango. Michigan can’t force Notre Dame to continue the series and at this point it’s hard for me to argue that they should even try.

Maybe in ten or twenty years, a new generation of leaders at Notre Dame will come realize how important the tradition of the Michigan/Notre Dame is for not only for each university but for college football overall.

Michigan Immortal Fritz Crisler said, “Tradition is something you can’t bottle.  You can’t buy it at the corner store.  But it is there to sustain you when you need it most…”

Apparently Notre Dame officials believe they have so much of it they can throw out their oldest vintage.

You would think the opportunity to take on the team beating them in overall wins and winning percentage would be too enticing of a challenge to throw away.

I’ll miss playing Notre Dame. I have grave concerns about what teams will take their place on the schedule.

But for now the words of Bo Schembechler come to mind.

“To hell with Notre Dame.”