Real Kato Blog: College Football Recap

A look back at the Michigan game, and comments on last night's championship.

Michigan 41, Florida 35

So, despite the meh-ness that's infected me over the past couple of days, I do still have warm tingly feelings about Michigan's win last Tuesday.

Michigan was a double-digit underdog, playing against Heisman-trophy winning quarterback Tim Tebow. Florida played a spread offense, the kind of offense Michigan was supposed to have trouble stopping. Michigan was supposed to be slow, stodgy, and conservative. Most Florida fans expected scores in the neighborhood of 41-14, the score of last year's smackdown over Ohio State.

It didn't take long for everyone to realize that things could turn out very different. Michigan marched 93 yards on the opening possession for a touchdown, and even the most pessimistic Michigan fan started to get a glimmer of hope.

It's true that Tebow and Percy Harvin were able to move the ball at times, and put up points. But two players do not make a team. Michigan's offensive line was dominant. You didn't hear Jake Long's name much during the game, but he crushed the defensive linemen who lined up opposite him. Florida's one known weakness, their defensive secondary, proved to be the Achilles' heel; Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington had brilliant performances with a finally-healthy Chad Henne able to zip passes to them. And Michigan's much-maligned defense put pressure on Tebow all day, and limited his ability to run.

SEC speed? Uh. Michigan looked to be the faster team in almost every matchup. Percy Harvin is fast, sure, but Morgan Trent was able to run him down from behind to save a touchdown. I think it is time that the idiots at ESPN (uh, especially you, Pat Forde) quit perpetuating the myth that the SEC is an inherently superior conference to the Big Ten. The SEC has plenty of good teams, I'll give you that. And many years, I'd concede that SEC teams run a tougher schedule than Big Ten years. But take any two teams and put them up on the field against each other? OSU has taken its lumps against the SEC, but Michigan has done just fine, thankyouverymuch.

(A side note here: I browsed through some Florida fan forums after the game, and by and large, the Florida fans were very gracious in defeat. There was a lot of humility and self-flagellation, and people gave a lot of credit to Michigan for its game-plan execution. So thanks, Florida fans... because of that, I'll be more inclined to root for the Gators in the future. Except against Michigan, of course.)

The best thing about all this is that Lloyd Carr and the Michigan seniors get to close out their careers with a storybook ending. This game will the the one that everyone remembers. The grief of the losses to OSU and the previous bowl games, and the anguish of the loss to Appalachian State, will just be seen as motivational fuel for this final game.

Congratulations, Michigan, and most of all, congratulations, Coach Carr.

Ohio State 24, LSU 38.

Going into last night's game, I figured I could safely root for LSU, now that Michigan has upheld the Big Ten banner. And OSU folded, looking woefully overmatched against LSU, and all was well in the world. Right?

Wrong. It was mere hours before Pat Forde came up with this bit of drivel: "The Big Ten... has been the baby's crib [compared to the SEC crucible]". And, "[Jim Tressel] should know not to bring that weak Big Ten stuff back to the BCS National Championship Game again next year."

Just quit it already. Why can't you just give credit to Les Miles for a wildly imaginative game plan? (After watching this game, I can see why Michigan fans were so excited about the possibility of having Miles as a head coach. His LSU team ran a two-tight-end, I-formation off-tackle run that looked straight out of Bo Schembechler's playbook; on the next down, they were in a four-wide-receiver spread look. And they executed from both sets. It was eye-opening.)

You can criticize Tressel for poor play-calling, you can call out their receivers for not being able to get open, and you can point to the stupid penalties and missed tackles... but this whole business of bashing the Big Ten when one team loses (and quietly ignoring the fact that Michigan beat Florida) is just STALE.

Playoff?

College football commissioners appear to be getting serious about installing a playoff... and the most likely candidate seems to be a "plus one" system, where we'd play the BCS bowls as we do now, but the championship game would be chosen from one of the BCS winners. Good luck with those logistics, guys... we'll see how many fans decide to make trips to two bowl games, especially when the second one would come with a week or two of time to buy tickets and make travel arrangements. (Or would you put it on one team's home field? Okay. I think a bowl game in sub-zero weather, with snow, in Michigan Stadium, would be awesome. It'd be a great vacation for all those Florida fans sick of warm sunny weather!)

Coaching News

Rich Rodriguez is getting close to completing his assistant coaching staff at Michigan. On board are:

Offensive coordinator Calvin Magee
Offensive line coach Greg Frey
Running backs coach Fred Jackson
Quarterbacks coach Rod Smith
Wide receivers coach Tony Dews
Safeties coach Bruce Tall
Defensive backs coach Tony Gibson
Strength and conditioning coach Mike Barwis

Still to be determined: defensive coordinator, linebackers coach, defensive line coach, special teams coach. At least one coach will probably have multiple responsibilities. There's a lot of puzzlement about who will be the defensive coordinator... right now, I'm kinda wishing we'd retained Ron English, for his energy and his recruiting prowess.

Getting S&C coach Barwis on board is huge. Judging from my site stats, a bunch of people are Googling for information about outgoing S&C coach Mike Gittleson. And in a previous post, I had a Gittleson supporter rail on me for criticizing him.

Look, I have no doubt that Gittleson is a smart and experienced coach. I just disagree with the idea that his system, High Intensity Training, is the best form of training for a football player. Bodybuilders and weightlifters, maybe. But football players need speed, stamina, and fast-twitch muscles in addition to bulk, and I think Barwis understands this better than Gittleson.

I'm certainly not the only one who thinks this. Many Michigan fans are glad to see Gittleson go. And there are plenty of H.I.T. criticisms like this one:

I actually enjoy getting kids from H.I.T. schools because I know that there is so much for me to teach them and so much room for improvement, regardless of their on-field endeavors. Their squat form is usually pathetic, their vertical jump height is usually below average...

Note that the writer of this quote, Joe DeFranco, is talking specifically about Michigan's Dhani Jones and Penn State's Brandon Short, and how he was able to dramatically improve their strength and explosiveness when they came to the NFL. Michigan and Penn State are (or were) two of the biggest schools using H.I.T.

So yeah, I think Barwis will be an improvement. I think I've said all I needed to say about that.

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