Friday's Buckeye Bits

Good Friday morning, Buckeye Nation! We're putting a nail in this week, another week without football. Not to worry. By my count, we are merely 57 days away from the Spring Game!

Hoopage News. First, the women's team. Last night was Senior night and Samantha Prahalis wrote one of the final chapters of an outstanding career, playing her last at the Schott. And it was a good one to go out on, with a 25-point thumping of the Gophers.

Prahalis ended the night scoring a school record with 42 points on her own. She hit 15 of 27 shots from the field including 7 of 12 3-pointers, and was 5 for 5 at the line. She also had six rebounds, four assists and three steals before leaving to a standing ovation with 2:27 left after breaking Katie Smith's 1994 record by hitting two free throws.

Brady Hoke Hired at Michigan

Michigan fans got their “Michigan Man” but apparently some of them are not happy about it.



Did Michigan finally get their "Michigan Man"?

Brady Hoke has been hired as the next head football coach at Michigan. Hoke comes to Michigan after stints at Ball State and San Diego State.

Hoke rebuilt the programs at Ball State and San Diego State but had a record of just 47-50 before accepting the position in Ann Arbor.  Hoke had been an assistant coach at Michigan prior to accepting the Ball State job.

Some of the concern about Hoke is that his teams have had just three winning seasons in his eight as a head coach.  If it wasn’t for his 12-1 mark that he put up at Ball State in 2008 before jetting to the west coast, his win-loss record would be even worse.  Perhaps Hoke leaving the Cardinals was just him knowing that he would be losing most of the talent that led to the record-breaking 2008 squad.  With Hoke’s offensive coordinator and former “Michigan Man” himself Stan Parrish as head coach in 2009-2010, Ball State was a meager 6-19, bad even for the Cardinals standards.  Parrish’s struggles led to him being fired after the 2010 season.



Hoke led Ball State to a 12-1 record in 2008 before leaving for San Diego State

Some Michigan fans are not pleased with his under-.500 record as a head coach, but this is something Michigan had to overlook after their top two candidates, Jim Harbaugh and Les Miles, “thanks, but no thanks”-ed the Wolverines.

It’s this simple: Michigan is no longer a destination job.  Do you think Ohio State, Florida, USC, etc. would hire a coach from the MAC or the Mountain West? No. They would find a big name.  Hoke may bring respectability back to the mediocre program that is Michigan at the moment. However, Michigan is supposed to contend, year-in and year-out, for Big Ten titles and national championships.

The last year of the Lloyd Carr era and the entire Rich Rodriguez era took the program from competing for national championships to celebrating when they became bowl-eligible.

Utah, TCU and BYU have brought some respect to the Mountain West Conference in recent years so maybe it isn’t so much of a step up in class for Hoke. But can you imagine the uproar of Michigan fans if Hoke had stayed at Ball State instead of leaving for San Diego State? Michigan doesn’t hire MAC coaches. It’s not what Michigan does.

The hire of Hoke comes one day before the Buckeyes basketball team takes on Michigan in Ann Arbor.  Could they be planning to introduce him at halftime? That did not go so well when they introduced Rodriguez.  Buckeye fans who made the trip up north chanted “Tress-el! Tress-el!” when Rodriguez was introduced.  They also had a sign counting the number of days since Michigan had beaten Ohio State.



Buckeye fans welcome Rich Rod to the rivalry

If any Buckeye fans are making the trip to Crisler Arena for this edition, here’s an update for gamenight: 2,608 days.

2010 Team by Team Preview: TTUN/The State That Shall Remain Nameless/The Mitten/Meat Chicken etc.

Let's think back to the start of the 2009 season. Meat Chicken opens the season an astounding 4-0, "MEAT CHICKEN IS BACK" exclaim numerous football pundits, Rich Rod's job is safe and people are already saying Jim Tressel's dominance over Meat Chicken will surely end soon. What a difference a year makes. We all know that after starting out 4-0 things quickly spiraled down starting with a loss to in-state rival Michigan State and Meat Chicken would go on to lose 7 out of 8 final games eking out a win in a gun fight with a high-powered Delaware State team in the Big(and quiet) House.

The Skunk Bears would finish out the season at 5-7 after a loss at home to the Buckeyes that kept them at of a bowl game for the 2nd consecutive year. The burner under RRod's chair has been turned back up to high and you can tell he's starting to sweat(or are those tears?).

R-Fraud doing his best T.O. "that's my quarterback" impression.

After a less-than-stellar recruiting class, a few transfers and more NCAA allegations/investigations the message in Ann Arbor is clear for RRod: Win or go home. Not in a cheesy NBA playoffs on TNT marketing scheme win or go home way either. It's win or get S-canned, pack your bags and find a new profession because no one will ever hire you to be a head coach in division 1 ever again. That's quite the ultimatum for a man that became head coach as his alma mater, West Virginia and brought them back to relevance and even made them a perennial top 5 team. Some might call the outcome of said ultimatum "karma", and I hear that karma is a female and can be quite testy.

On offense almost everyone is back, including Callista FIVEcier herself. She may not have the starting spot locked up as Velcro Robinson is competing hard in their after hours and beyond NCAA regulated time practices. To be honest, neither one of them scare me as a QB. They're not worthy to be compared to Pat White, the elusive "system player" Rodriguez supposedly needs to be successful. Both are turnover prone and aren't the best passers out there. When under the slightest pressure both make huge mistakes which cost wins. A lot of them. Unless RRod has some of that magic spray from the World Cup, these problems will not all be solved before the season starts. I think there will plenty "Hall of Shame" entries on Callista's own website. (Google it, I refuse to link to QBForce and drive web traffic there) Sure, Martavious Odoms and Roy Roundtree are back, but who's gonna throw to them?

More bad news for defense and special teams: Brandon Graham(aka the only great player on last year's team) now plays for the Philiadelphia Eagles, and 20th year senior Zoltan(makes Z sign with hands) Mesko is kicking balls in Eastern Europe again....or kicking for the Patriots practice squad/same thing. Add the fact that the Skunk Bears are switching to a base defensive formation of 3-3-5 which leads me to say: If it doesn't work in Madden, it doesn't work in real life.

More on the 3-3-5:

Teams that run the 3-3-5 generally use it because they are a relatively fast but smaller unit compared to the opposing offense, and they want to cause blocking assignment issues for that offense. Also, a 3-3-5 can be adjusted to a 4-3, 3-4, or 4-4 defense with the same starting players.

To effectively play the 3-3-5, the "Front 8" (e.g. the eight defensive players closest to the line of scrimmage) must be physical and tough. The three down lineman must be able to control the running lanes, execute an effective pass rush, and be able to keep the opposing offensive line occupied so that the linebackers can make plays. The two outside or "Stud" linebackers must be effective at pressuring the offensive line and reading and reacting to the play as it develops. The middle linebacker (also known as the "Mike" linebacker) must be able to effectively move in the direction the play is going (also known as "flowing to the ball") while also being able to shed blockers and make plays.

The defensive secondary must be equally capable of pressuring the offensive lineman and dropping back into pass coverage. In particular, the free safety is the most versatile athlete on the field as on any given play he can drop in coverage, pressure the quarterback, or play a "Mike" linebacker if the defense switches to a 3-4 alignment. In this alignment the free safety is generally the best playmaker and smartest athlete on the defense.

When you think about what the 3-3-5 is, I guess it does make some sense. You're basically owning up to the fact that most of your defenders aren't the biggest or strongest and are more likely to be smaller and quicker, or players that would be at smaller schools. And If the free safety has to basically be a QB on defense they're really in trouble....

"DERPPA DERPP THEY'RE OVER THERE IN THE WHITE SHIRTS!!! STOP THEM!!!"

(Author's note: no one should ever wear a shirt that yellow. No one.)

What do I see for this team in 2010? Obviously, not much since I have them rated 10th in the big ten. I actually seem them doing just a tad bit worse than they're 5-7 record last year. It's not that I can't put aside my hate and look at their schedule objectively, I did that. It's that they lost talent on defense and bring back an offense that could score points BUT also handed people some games last year with turnovers. Let's break down the schedule:

Connecticut (W): A lot of people are picking this as an early loss for the wolverines, but I'm actually giving them the benefit of the doubt. What this game will come down to is the UConn running attack vs the vaunt ed 3-3-5 defense of the wolverines. I'm calling a tight win for them here, but it's honestly a toss-up for me.

@Notre Dame (L): Brian Kelly will Cincinnati them to death and then sign a 10 year contract extension at the post-game press conference. Yet another loss for Michigan and a bone-headed move by Notre Dame.

UMass (W) : Only because they're not playing basketball. Honestly, I didn't even know that UMass played football....

Bowling Green State U (W): Could also be a tight one, but AGAIN giving them the benefit of the doubt over a MAC school. The catch is that I think BGSU runs some sort of spread, and that could be trouble for a 3-3-5 defense as there will be openings for short passes. (Note that they start out 3-1 and then.... here it comes BOHICA)

@Indiana (L): Yeah, I said LOSS. Last season the refs gift-wrapped this game and handed it to the Wolverines as an early Christmas present. Ben Chappell returns for another season and has tons of WR's to throw to, including a real player in the name on Tandon Doss. Indian wins, Michigan starts to skid.

Sparty (L): Last season the Spartans managed to squeeze out a 26-20 OT win over the skunk bears. This year they won't need overtime as veteran Kirk Cousins leads the Green and White to victory in the Big(Quiet) House. Michigan Girls tears will be sold in jars at your local Kroger. Please buy me some.

Iowa (L): Another game they lost last year by a few points and another game they'll drop in 2010 by more than a few. Iowas defense is tough, real tough. Ricky "USA Chant" Stanzi is back. Michigan Loses again.

BYE

@PSU (L): There will be another white-out, or maybe not, ABC will beat it to death and so on and so on. Daryl Clark is gone, but Royster isn't. He'll have a big game and PSU will win by 9.

Illinois (W): Honestly, I was torn between a UConn win and an Illinois win. This game will come down to pride and who wants it more. The opposite team will win and someone will run away with the worst record in the Big Ten. UM finds a way to not lose.(Initally I had this as a loss, but Illinois is really really bad)

@Purdue (L): Purdue does one thing every year besides beat that stupid giant drum and cheer that big-chinned mascot; play stingy defense. I think Purdue is improving. After narrowly beating scUM in Ann Arbor last year they beat the Wolverines at home by 10 or so points. Robert Marve is no Joey Elliot... in a good way.

Wisonsin (L): What does Wisconsin do well every year? Run the ball up the gut and pass to tight ends(and have a super-white QB). Sorry 3-3-5 :(

@OSU (LLLLLLLL): Jim Tressel in a big big way.

Final Record: 4-8, 10th place in the Big Ten. No Bowl Game, obviously. Does Rich Rod get fired? Probably. Who will take his place? That's a tough one. Les Miles didn't want the job 3 years ago, he sure as heck won't want it now. As history looks back on this era of Michigan football, it may pinpoint the hiring of one Richard Rodriguez as the worst moves in college football history and one that could take another decade to recover from.

Forecast in Columbus: Sunny with a 100% chance of taunting.