For What It's Worth is Seeing Rainbows

"For What it's Worth" is our roundup of news making headlines surrounding the Michigan program. Some of these stories may mean a lot to you, some not at all...it's your choice to figure out what it's worth to you. We'll line 'em up, you knock 'em down.

Ranked!!!
Michigan crawled it's way back into both top 25 polls. #20 in the AP, and #22 in the coaches poll. Hey...progress is progress. 

Injuries
Mike Jones broke his leg, and will likely miss the remainder of the season. Brandon Herron's sprained ankle is being considered "day-to-day". For a complete rundown of all things covered in today's presser, Tim from mgoblog has the notes.

Another week, another transfer
Anthony LaLota asked for, and received his transfer from Michigan this week.

Another week, another award for Shoelace
I'll never get tired of seeing pictures like this...

Denard Robinson was named the Big Ten offensive player of the week for the 2nd week in a row. Here's the write-up from Big Ten media relations [HT: BigTen.org]:

Denard Robinson, Michigan

SO, QB, Deerfield Beach, Fla./Deerfield Beach

One week after setting school records for total offense and rushing yards by a quarterback, Robinson reset those marks with 502 yards of total offense and 258 yards on the ground, including the game-winning touchdown run with 27 seconds left to lead Michigan to a road victory at Notre Dame. The sophomore quarterback accounted for 502 of the Wolverines’ 532 yards in the game. His 258 rushing yards rank as the fifth-best single-game effort in school history and shattered the Big Ten record of 217 rushing yards by a signal caller, set by Northwestern’s Mike Kafka in 2008. Robinson recorded 28 rushes for 258 yards (9.2 avg.) with two touchdowns and also completed 24 of 40 passes (60.0 pct.) for 244 yards and another score. He became the ninth quarterback in NCAA history and second in Big Ten annals to rush and pass for 200 yards in a game, joining Indiana’s Antwaan Randle El, who accomplished the feat in 2000. After Notre Dame took a 24-21 lead with 3:41 left in the game, Robinson led a 12-play, 72-yard scoring drive capped by his two-yard scoring run for the win. Robinson is the first Big Ten player to earn back-to-back offensive player of the week laurels since Michigan State running back Javon Ringer was honored three straight weeks on Sept. 8, 15 and 22 of the 2008 season.

LAST MICH OFFENSIVE POW: QB Denard Robinson on Sept. 6, 2010

From today's presser, Denard's audio courtesy of MVictors.

Sort of what its like being on the sideline
Mgoblog posted this on Sunday, and it's truly one of the best representations of being on a college football sideline I've seen. Ryan Terpstra for WMAX posted this video online and it's worth a watch.



One of the real perks of blogging about Michigan football is the ability to cover games with a media pass from time to time (we'll be at UMass this Saturday!). About midway through the 4th quarter, media in the pressbox are allowed to go down to field level for the end of the game. Watching the game from the field is completely different from watching it on TV or from the stands.

Tate Forcier's much improved attitude was definitely noticed
From where I sat on Saturday (at home on my couch), I really liked seeing Tate Forcier much more involved with the game. He seemed to be Denard's biggest supporter, and also seemed much more engaged in what was going on on the field. He had a headset on, he was hugging people...including a somewhat awkward hug between him and Rodriguez right before kickoff. But I'll take an awkwardly engaged Tate over a dejected, self-absorbed Tate any day.

Make no mistake, at some point this season, we will need Tate Forcier. Whether it's an injury, or Denard getting figured out by some defensive coordinator...or to handle placekicking duties (hey, you never know), it will happen at some point. I want more than anything for Devin Gardner to be a great QB at Michigan...but not this year. I want Devin to red-shirt, and I want Tate to step up.

The Irish TD that wasn't
So yeah, this is now a mute point considering how the game ended, but still troubling none-the-less. Just think how loud Michigan fans would be howling if we'd lost this game. It makes me cringe just thinking about it. [HT: mgoblog]



I don't know why this play wasn't reviewed, but if there were TV screens in Notre Dame Stadium (btw...WTF Notre Dame?), you better believe Rich Rodriguez would have spent a timeout to give the replay official time to put down his cappuccino in order to buzz the officials before the extra point was ran.

UConn wins
If anyone was paying attention, Michigan's week 1 opponent, UConn, manhandled the Texas Southern Tigers, 62-3 on Saturday. I don't know how bad Texas Southern is...probably pretty bad. But it still bodes well for our defense that we held a team to 10 points one week, and a week later they hang 62 on someone.

No love from Irish band
Part of the fun of a rivalry is completely ignoring the existence of your opponent's state...hence Notre Dame's band doing an outline of the United States, minus the entire Michigan upper and lower peninsula. [HT: MVictors]

Every time I watch a Notre Dame home game, I hate NBC a little bit more
I don't know how these guys keep doing what they're doing. But every time we play in South Bend, the game is obviously aired by NBC. And every year, Tom Hammond leads the play-by-play. Can someone, and I don't care if you're a ND fan, please tell me who in the world enjoys this man's broadcast? Does he have incriminating photos of NBC executives hidden somewhere?

Maize-n-Brew feels the same way in their recap of the officiating of the game. Yes, that's right..."officiating" is worthy of being reviewed [HT: MaizeNBrew]:

When you play Notre Dame in South Bend, you include "officiating" in your review.  To the ND fans nearby who took exception to my proclamation of "isn't it amazing how that only happens here!!!!" after several of those calls, feel free to skip this section.  This went exactly as expected, someone joked in one of the numerous game threads that NBC would go ahead and just run out the clock after that 95 yard TD...  except they weren't joking, when you play the Irish that's an actual possibility.  To recap: Theo Riddick in the process of going in for a certain touchdown drops the ball on the one, no review despite it being clear as day on every possible replay, which Tom Hammond then attempted to describe as "probably inconclusive".  Don't worry, there's more!  They actually called for a clip, yes a CLIP on Perry Dorrestein for a perfect cut block on a 9 yard gain on 1st and 10.  This took place on the line of scrimmage, which means it was literally impossible for Dorrestein to have made initial contact from behind, which of course, is the definition of clipping (initial contact from behind AND at or below the level of the waist).   For icing on the cake Michigan gets called for a "crackback block" on Kelvin Grady on a key drive in the second half who literally did not touch the Notre Dame defender on the play.  Both of those penalties were drive killers.  Both of them were ridiculous.  That is to say nothing of the holding the ND o-line did all day on Martin, Roh, et al.  Final tallies here?  Notre Dame was called for four penalties for 29 yards, Michigan on the other hand had eight flags for 99 yards.  This after having exactly one penalty the week prior.  Notre Dame gained three first downs by penalty, Michigan none.  This of course also leaves out the blatant helmet to helmet hit on Shaw on the final drive, and yes by law I am required to point out every legitimate helmet-to-helmet that is not called from here until the end of time.

Good take.

Kicking
I'll reserve judgement on Will Hagerup because Greg from MVictors said so. Maybe it was the slick grass that threw his game off, but it seems clear that a lot of work still needs to be done.

But I'd be re-missed if I didn't type something about Brendan Gibbons and his poor kicks from Saturday. Clearly, he needs work. Again, it could be the combination of grass, rain, a defense and national television...but either we need to get Gibbons some work, or find a walk-on who played soccer in high school.