Let’s take a look at the best thing about today’s 30 to 10 win over the University of Connecticut. And no, I’m not talking about Denard Robinson’s stunning display of control over the offense.

No, more surprising (and gratifying) than Robinson’s dominance is the discipline and ball control that the entire team displayed. The University of Michigan had one, that’s right, ONE penalty. That was a personal foul early in the game. On top of that, they had NO turn-overs. There were a few shaky plays (a botched hand-off and a poor choice in trying to catch a punt on the run), but Michigan recovered. Michigan forced a turnover in the Red Zone, ending the night plus-1 in the turnover column, which is a major improvement over previous years.

That’s not taking anything away from Robinson, however. He had an amazing game, showing that he is a true threat in every way. He threw spot on passes, having only three balls that were not caught (one of which was a ball that only he and God know how Robinson got off, having dodged the majority of UConn’s defensive line and some of their linebackers). Robinson also ran for 197 yards, a Michigan quarterback record. He threw for a touchdown, ran for one and took care of the ball. Everything you could want in a quarterback, Denard Robinson delivered.

It’s only one game, but it was a solid performance from a team that many people were uncertain about. Next week’s game in South Bend against the Fighting Irish will be a big test for a young team, but after today, I doubt many people will be able to ignore the Michigan Wolverines. Go Blue!

Why? Simply put, with the rules the Big Ten is going to institute, they’ve turned The Game into The Exhibition. The Big Ten decided, according to some reports that I’ve read, to have only inter-division games to decide who goes to the Big Ten playoff game. Why does this affect The Game? Simply put, it has become irrelevant. Playing at the end of the season, The Game will no longer determine anything but bragging rights between the states. More often than not, the division winners will have already been decided.

Ready to hear something that makes it worse? Let’s say that both Michigan and Ohio State are the division winners. We’ll be getting to see the two teams twice in a season! Great, right? Well, not really. Since the divisions have been decided in this example, the first game is not only meaningless, but neither team is going to put everything on the table. Neither team is going to tip its hand for the championship game for a throw-away. Both teams will want to win, obviously, but the coaches will pull punches in hopes of having something to surprise their adversary. So The Game becomes even more unimpressive, and worse, the fans that paid good money (I’ve seen UM/OSU single tickets as high as $3,000) will get drudgery in a game that used to be the most exciting game of the year almost every year.

I love the Big Ten expansion. I love splitting into two divisions. Heck, you could have even put Michigan and Ohio State into different divisions, you just would have had to move The Game to an earlier week. True, it still would not have an impact on the end of the season, but it could be construed as a ‘true test’ for both seasons early in the year. For all the traditionalists that insist The Game is the last game of the regular season, then you have to accept that the two teams are in the same division to make the game relevant.

Want to hear something scary? Michigan versus Michigan State will be a bigger, more important game that Michigan/Ohio State now…

Denard Robinson appears to have the job in hand after an impressive set of spring practices, plus the news that, today, Tate Forcier had his helmet modified to reflect the coaches’ disappointment in his work. Forcier, last year’s number one when healthy, has appeared to fall from grace with both the coaches and his teammates, and will only get back the winged helmet (instead of a plain blue one) when both are satisfied with his performance.

That leaves just Robinson and true freshman Devon Gardner vying for the starting spot. As impressive as Gardner was in the spring game and so far in practice, Robinson has been better. His decision making and accuracy (two major flaws in his game last year) are vastly improved, and his speed, running and elusiveness are still top-notch. So, while I think that Gardner might not get his redshirt (as much as I think it would benefit both him and the team), my money for the starting spot and the majority of the snaps are going to Robinson. And that sits just fine with me.

On a side note, Rich Rodriguez and David Brandon flew out to meet with the NCAA about the violations the school was found to have violated. Let’s hope that the NCAA is kinder to the Maize and Blue than they were to USC. Go Blue!

Now, here comes Mr. Brandon and talks with Alabama about a neutral site game. This is what football should be. Go test yourself against some of the nation’s best. If you struggle or lose, it might be the end of the Title hunt, but then, it might not. There hasn’t been a ‘perfect’ season all that frequently in recent history (Alabama and Texas in 2009 and 2005, and Pete Carroll cheated his way to one in 2004, but that one isn’t official anymore). One loss is not the end of the world in college football, especially if it is against a good opponent.

I want to see more of this. Bo used to be known for insisting on it. He’d have a tune-up game, true, but then he’d pit his boys against the best in the country. Heck, Bo even let you know what he was going to do to beat you and dared you to stop him. (Run the ball between the tackles. Deal with it.) That’s what I want to see from upcoming schedules. Have yourself a tune-up game against the Toledo’s and Massachusetts‘ of the nation. Then play two big names (Notre Dame if they don’t end up joining the Big 10 and someone else, be it Texas, Alabama or the like). After that you’ll be into the Big 10 part of the season, and you will have a much better idea of what kind of team you have.

Interested in some logic to that last statement? Look at it this way, after four games in the 2009 season, Michigan was 4 and 0 and everyone was talking about how Rich Rod had put the program back on track. Heck, I even heard some rumblings about a National Title. What happened with the rest of the season? They eked a game out against Indiana for their fifth and last win. Granted, if they were playing better teams like Alabama, I’m willing to bet that the Wolverines would have been another point to the wrong side of .500, but I would rather have an idea of what the team can do against real competition than how badly they can beat up on the ‘patsies’ of the nation.

So Mr. Brandon, bring on ‘Bama. We’ll roll the Tide. And if we don’t, well, at least you can’t say the Wolverines hid in the MAC and beat up on the directional schools like some other schools we could talk about…

So, what does all this mean to you, the fan?  Assuming the NCAA agrees with the report and does not decide to add more to the punishment (and yes, it is within their purview to do so), not much.  Below are Michigan’s self-imposed punishment and what they mean to the both the players and fans.

1. The reduction of the number of quality control staff for football from 5 to 3.  This means little if anything to fans, but only slightly more to players, to be honest.  It was more of a ‘this was the group that screwed up, we’ll take some of them away.’
2. Quality control staff will not be allowed to attend practices.  Again, to the fans, this means nothing.  To the players, it just means less people on the field helping (or yelling) at them, so the coaching staff will be stretched a bit thinner.
3. Quality control staff will be treated as the same manner as other non-football staff on game days.  All this means is if those three people want to watch the games, they’ll have to buy their own ticket.
4. Quality control staff will not attend coaches meetings from June through December.  This is actually allowed under the vague NCAA rules regarding control staff.  But it doesn’t really affect the players or the fans.
5. Quality control staff will not work in the weight room or be a part of the strength and conditioning staff.  Again, nothing for the fans and the players will have more of Mike Barwis yelling at them than other people.  Nothing major.
6. One hundred and thirty hours of CARA time decreased overall from 2010 until no later than the end of the 2012 academic year.  For the fans, this just means that the players might not be quite as crisp as they could be, but in reality, it shouldn’t really affect the outcome of anything, especially since it does not specify which CARA time will be decreased.  So they might just free lift instead of team lift and the strength and conditioning team cannot be in the weight room with them (and it would be optional, but most players lift by themselves anyway.)
7. Two years of probation.  For the fans, pray that nobody screws up again, or I’m willing to bet the NCAA comes down like a hammer on Michigan.  Other than that, nothing.
8. They fired Alex Herron for lying.  Good riddance to bad rubbish.

These are my opinions on the sanctions Michigan imposed on themselves.    I believe them to be fair, especially when you realize that David Brandon was right, individually and singly, these acts were not major violations.  It was only the continued and multitude of events that make this a ‘major’ violation.  And I for one am happy that Brandon has chosen to allow Rodriguez to stay.  Let him sink or swim of his own accord, and not because he made a few mistakes and trusted some people he should not have.   I plowed through the entire of Michigan’s response (and it was the expected legalspeak that made me not want to be a lawyer.)  If you want to read it for yourself, you can find it here.   I do find it amusing that the University, in its formal response, basically rips the newspaper for “greatly exaggerated if not flatly incorrect” reporting.

The new season is fast approaching.  It’s time to put this mess behind us and get ready for the excitement and energy that is Michigan Wolverine football.  The stadium is beautiful, the players look good and our schedule looks promising.  It’s great to be a Michigan Wolverine.  Go Blue!

The pregame tours were an interesting look into a usually unseen side of the football experience, and the alumni flag football game was entertaining, especially watching the ‘coaches’ get into it with the referees, Bo-style.

As for the actual game itself, it was encouraging to see how much the defense looks improved. They were making significant strides to stop the run, and Will Campbell clogged the middle well. He looks like he’ll have a good year in the trenches. The secondary was still prone to some bad coverage. They gave up a 97-yard pass between Denard Robinson and Roy Roundtree. To be fair, the pass was perfectly placed (and I mean perfect), but Roundtree shouldn’t have been behind everyone to begin with.

Speaking of Robinson, he looked exponentially better. His throwing was crisp, he still had his explosive running and his decisions were quick and accurate. Since they did not allow hitting the quarterbacks (Tate Forcier was the only one to actually touch the turf with his body on a scramble-run), it was hard to judge Robinson’s running, because there were times I think he would have made the tackler miss, and others that I think he might have been sacked, but he still had his amazing speed and he still moved well with the ball.

Unfortunately, the other two quarterbacks of note were not as impressive. Devon Gardner showed why I believe he needs a year as a redshirt. His arm strength was impressive, but it lacked consistent accuracy. He moved around well in the pocket and up-field, but he wasn’t as elusive as one might have hoped. Forcier, on the other hand, looked slow and rusty. Some of that might be because of his ankle problems, but most of it just looked sloppy. Towards the end, he did start showing signs of his amazing ability to stay in the pocket and make throws downfield, so hopefully the rust shakes off. For now, however, Robinson looks like the leading candidate for the starting job.

There was one more unpleasantness. Zoltan Mesko will be missed. Watching the kickers proved that. The field goal attempts were actually rather good, with some of the kickers hitting 40+ yard attempts in a swirling wind. The punters, however, were rather pathetic. In all seriousness, the best punt o f the day came from Forcier on one of his rugby-style kicks on a fourth down. I think one of the two punters did not connect on a punt for over 20 yards; one of them didn’t make five. So let’s pray that the punters spend some time in the off-season practicing, or you might see Tate out there for fourth downs too.

Commercialization is not necessarily something that will stain the tradition of Michigan, but it needs to be done carefully. As SBC learned a few years ago, trying to sponsor something as large and tradition-rich as the Michigan – Ohio State game will get you rioted out of town, Spartan style. PNC sponsoring the Spring Game is a small enough affair that most fans probably would not even notice had it not made the newspapers, although what the other ‘events’ are remain to be seen.

There is room for more commercialization at the stadium. Having an advertisement on the scoreboard is not disgraceful, if done properly. Absopure is already advertised on the big board in a commercial-like display. Things like sponsoring the Little Brown Jug, however, are decidedly ill-advised.

Selling sponsorships helps both the sponsor and the team, and should be pursued. Teams, especially college teams, get monetary contributions to projects (like the Michigan construction at Mott Children’s Hospital) or to help keep the sports programs in the black (Michigan football is not in danger of losing money, but what about some of the more obscure sports, like lacrosse?) So far, I think that David Brandon has done an admirable job introducing commercialization softly to the Michigan Nation. Let’s hope the trend continue.

Defensive coach Greg Robinson is implementing a 3–3–5 defense to the overall scheme for the Wolverines. Basically, the 3–3–5 is designed to use more defensive backs to help cover the spread offense’s multiple receiver options. Three down linemen are used to stop the run, three linebackers are to help either with the run or the pass (or to blitz) and the five defensive backs cover potential receivers and are also used to run unusual blitzes or deeper zones. The National Football League generally does not employ this defense, preferring instead to go with what is called a nickel defense (4–2–5), taking away a linebacker for an added defensive lineman to assist in stopping an opponents running game (and possibly to add more pressure to the quarterback without blitzing), or a dime defense (4 –1–6 or 3–2–6) for plays where running the ball really is not an option.

When Rich Rodriguez was first hired by Michigan, I wondered how long it would take for this defense to make an appearance. It was a highly successful tool for Rodriguez down in West Virginia, and definitely fits his style of player better than the standard 3–4 or 4–3 defenses. Also, the secondary has been a bit of a weakness for recent teams. Rodriguez recruits athletes that are considered more of secondary players rather than linebackers or linemen. Having more of the type of player you recruit for on the field makes sense, especially when you play them in a scheme that utilizes their talents.

Like everything new or unusual in sports, getting adjusted to the new scheme will take time, but I believe that, used properly, the 3–3–5 can be a great tool for Michigan. I do not think, however, that it should be the standard from which the rest of the defense starts. The Big Ten is a conference that prides itself on being a punishing, pound-you-into-the-ground conference. Its teams have been more focused on running the ball, and they generally do it right down the middle. While some schools are beginning to go away from this philosophy and are starting to adopt spread offenses, lining up with two tight ends and running between the tackles will always define the Big Ten. Having a defensive style that cannot stop this type of attack will be a liability in the long run. However, having a standard 4–3 to stop the run and a 3–3–5 to cover the emerging spread could put Michigan ahead of the curve. Hopefully, that is exactly where Greg Robinson is heading.

Brandon’s latest announcement for the University of Michigan’s football program is one that is long in coming. In 2011, the Michigan Wolverines will play the Notre Dame Fighting Irish under the lights in a primetime Saturday night game. The lights are not a fixture on the stadium, which would be nice, but the portable lights will be more than enough to allow the players and fans to enjoy the robust atmosphere at Michigan Stadium. The Big House is a raucous affair in big games; adding the fact that games might be at night will definitely be advantageous to the Wolverines.

One change I’d like to see for the night games is changing the ‘Maize-Outs’ that most Notre Dame and other big games are. The deeper shade of blue that the Wolverines use would make a dark stadium seem eerily empty while still being amazingly loud during Michigan’s brisk fall nights. ‘Maize-Outs’ are a good idea, but they don’t go off as well as other programs’ attempts at uniformity in the crowd. I believe this is mainly for two reasons. One, yellow by any name is not one that most people have in their wardrobe, nor one they want to add to wear once or twice a year. Two, when the weather gets colder, maize is not a highly available choice in long sleeves, be it sweatshirts, hoodies or the long-sleeved T-shirts. Navy blue, on the other hand, is quite popular (and more the standard for University of Michigan fans.) I believe that changing the ‘Maize-Outs’ to ‘Navy Waves’ (or whatever they want to call it) would field a much better showing in the stadium.

Michigan fans should be excited for this change in the Michigan football program. Realistically though, some games probably will not get the opportunity for the nightcap of a Saturday of football. Playing the Ohio State Buckeyes at 8 o’clock sounds like an amazing idea that would heighten one of, if not the, biggest rivalry in sports. Unfortunately, it might be a bit chilly in late November for some people to give it adequate consideration. I know the students would be their usually boisterous selves, but some of the more reserved donors to the school might be a bit unhappy with sitting through that late of a game in those conditions. I hope I’m wrong. I’d love to see Ohio State surrounded by the deep blue sea of Maize and Blue faithful in prime time. Actually, with how well he’s started, I bet David Brandon’s already working on it.

Tate Forcier is the safe bet for who will get the opening day start for the Wolverines. He has the most game experience, did the best in the previous season, and proved that he can lead the team downfield when the game is on the line. While not the fastest of the bunch, Forcier showed the ability to move the ball on the ground himself when the situation arose. His accuracy and arm strength could use a bit of improvement, but that will hopefully develop as he progresses through his collegiate career. He is a leader on the field that gets respect for his grit and determination.

Denard Robinson is probably the fastest man on the field for the Wolverines. He is a born playmaker, making people miss and breaking tackles as he scampers down the field. Robinson’s major drawbacks as a quarterback is a lack of accuracy and decision making mistakes. Honestly, Robinson would probably be best used as a running back or wide receiver, where he can use his speed to beat coverage or run through or around opponents. If, however, he insists on staying at the point of the offense, Robinson would be best acclimated to a Wildcat-type offense. The problem with this, as shown last season, is that you cannot bring him in specifically for that purpose, or the defenses in the Big Ten realize what you are about to do. Expect to see more of Robinson this year, but I would not count on his being a starter.

Devon Gardner is the best of both worlds; he’s fast and has an amazing arm. Unfortunately, he’s green in college and needs to get acclimated to the speed of the game on this level. Enrolling early helped, but Gardner would probably be best served by a red-shirt. Gardner’s skills lean to him being potentially the best of the three candidates and he eventually will earn a starting spot at quarterback, but a year of experience will be enormously beneficial to him.

Looking forward to the season, it will be interesting to see how Rich Rodriguez handles this ‘problem’ that most coaches would love to have. I’d love to see him let Forcier and Robinson handle this season and let Gardner grow before throwing him to the fire. Time will tell how this will shake out. Go Blue!