Random thoughts as they pop into my head:
- Happy for Mike Hart. He never beat Ohio State as a player and deserves a lot of credit for our dominant running game.
- Listened to the Brandy/Dierdorf call of the game last night. Those two were on Bo’s first team that had that generation-changing win over OSU in 1969. Now they are retiring from broadcasting after another generation-changing win. And what a way for the two former offensive linemen to go out, witnessing what John Madden called the most dominant offensive line performance he had ever seen. The two most emotional victories ever over that team down south as book-ends to their careers. And to think that Dierdorf has only seen two Michigan wins over OSU in person. That 69 game that he played in and Saturday’s game.
- I have now seen FOUR Wolverines on Heisman watch/odds lists: Hutch, HH, Corum and Cade. Never seen that before.
- Our best players came up huge on Saturday. Hutch and HH are the obvious standouts but kudos go to everyone, especially the tremendous blocking on offense (not just the OL. Erick All and other receivers had some fine blocks). Also the secondary played lights out against a superior receiving corps. They were seldom beaten by the OSU receivers and those receivers were usually well-covered while making amazing plays. Mazi and Hinton were key in keeping the OSU rushing attack in place. Ojabo was Ojabo. Mike Morris, Jeter and Harrell each came up with big plays. Ross had a fine game. The secondary became a position of strength. Players like Rod Moore (great open-field tackler) and D.J. Turner blossomed into very good Big Ten DBs. A pleasant surprise! And last, but certainly not least, Cade McNamara. Leader and winner extraordinare. He has endured so much criticism from fans. Navarre-like. And like Tom Brady many fans were more eager to see the shiny, strong-armed QBs. Drew Henson for Brady. First Milton, then JJ for Cade.
- As I noted in an earlier post, playing Iowa is sort of like when the US hockey team had to play Finland for the gold after beating the USSR in the 1980 Olympics. Hopefully we have the same result. Frankly, we should be favored in each remaining game we have with the exception of Georgia. And we could beat them. We are THAT good and our number two ranking is fully deserved.
- What I loved about Saturday was that we were the big winners at the point of attack. Much more physical and we literally shoved it down their throat. Nothing like really beating up on and manhandling your greatest rival after a decade of abject failure.
- Recruiting will take a bump and reach a level we have not seen in years. But that will not be the 2022 class. We should finish strongly, even strongly enough to possibly sneak into the top ten. A lot depends on how the pieces fall into place the next few weeks. And believe me, with our big win and all the coaching changes, there are a ton of moving pieces. The window has closed on Domani. Plus I think that Conerly will be a tough pull for us. But other windows will open. Perhaps a couple of Notre Dane verbals?
- 2023 will be much stronger. Our blue-chip player pool with interest in us should rapidly expand after a slow start after the poor 2020 season. We finally have a couple of verbals. Really eager to see the fruits of Michigan’s labor this season, coupled with a better late than never top-notch NIL program!
- Happy for Mike Hart. He never beat Ohio State as a player and deserves a lot of credit for our dominant running game.
- Listened to the Brandy/Dierdorf call of the game last night. Those two were on Bo’s first team that had that generation-changing win over OSU in 1969. Now they are retiring from broadcasting after another generation-changing win. And what a way for the two former offensive linemen to go out, witnessing what John Madden called the most dominant offensive line performance he had ever seen. The two most emotional victories ever over that team down south as book-ends to their careers. And to think that Dierdorf has only seen two Michigan wins over OSU in person. That 69 game that he played in and Saturday’s game.
- I have now seen FOUR Wolverines on Heisman watch/odds lists: Hutch, HH, Corum and Cade. Never seen that before.
- Our best players came up huge on Saturday. Hutch and HH are the obvious standouts but kudos go to everyone, especially the tremendous blocking on offense (not just the OL. Erick All and other receivers had some fine blocks). Also the secondary played lights out against a superior receiving corps. They were seldom beaten by the OSU receivers and those receivers were usually well-covered while making amazing plays. Mazi and Hinton were key in keeping the OSU rushing attack in place. Ojabo was Ojabo. Mike Morris, Jeter and Harrell each came up with big plays. Ross had a fine game. The secondary became a position of strength. Players like Rod Moore (great open-field tackler) and D.J. Turner blossomed into very good Big Ten DBs. A pleasant surprise! And last, but certainly not least, Cade McNamara. Leader and winner extraordinare. He has endured so much criticism from fans. Navarre-like. And like Tom Brady many fans were more eager to see the shiny, strong-armed QBs. Drew Henson for Brady. First Milton, then JJ for Cade.
- As I noted in an earlier post, playing Iowa is sort of like when the US hockey team had to play Finland for the gold after beating the USSR in the 1980 Olympics. Hopefully we have the same result. Frankly, we should be favored in each remaining game we have with the exception of Georgia. And we could beat them. We are THAT good and our number two ranking is fully deserved.
- What I loved about Saturday was that we were the big winners at the point of attack. Much more physical and we literally shoved it down their throat. Nothing like really beating up on and manhandling your greatest rival after a decade of abject failure.
- Recruiting will take a bump and reach a level we have not seen in years. But that will not be the 2022 class. We should finish strongly, even strongly enough to possibly sneak into the top ten. A lot depends on how the pieces fall into place the next few weeks. And believe me, with our big win and all the coaching changes, there are a ton of moving pieces. The window has closed on Domani. Plus I think that Conerly will be a tough pull for us. But other windows will open. Perhaps a couple of Notre Dane verbals?
- 2023 will be much stronger. Our blue-chip player pool with interest in us should rapidly expand after a slow start after the poor 2020 season. We finally have a couple of verbals. Really eager to see the fruits of Michigan’s labor this season, coupled with a better late than never top-notch NIL program!
