Real Kato Blog: College Football Recap

Michigan 38, Notre Dame 0. N.C. State 38, Wofford 17.

Michigan 38, Notre Dame 0. The fine folks over on mgoblog had referred to this matchup as "cripple fight" or "kitten fight". It was a matchup of the winningest programs in college football history, meeting as unranked 0-2 teams for the first time ever. Both teams were starting true freshmen as quarterbacks. Michigan gave up 73 points in two losses, one of those to a 1-AA school; Notre Dame had failed to score on offensive touchdown in games against Georgia Tech and Penn State. Something had to give.

Most expected it to be an ugly, close game, putting strength against strength (Michigan's offense versus Notre Dame's defense), and weakness against weakness (Michigan's defense against Notre Dame's offense).

As it turned out, Notre Dame's offensive ineptitude made for an easy day for Michigan. Notre Dame barely crossed into Michigan territory the whole game, never seriously putting up a scoring threat. Meanwhile, Michigan rode the backs of tailback Mike Hart and tackle Jake Long, running the zone stretch play to the left side for huge chunks of yards, even when Notre Dame knew the play was coming. Mike Hart ended up with with 35 carries for 187 yards, for 5.3 yards per carry. Michigan had 60 total rushing plays, compared to just 16 passing plays.

When quarterback Ryan Mallett did pass the ball, he did so reasonably well. Yes, he looked like a freshman out there, locking onto his receivers early and failing to make a few reads. He even fumbled his first snap. But three of his seven completions went for touchdowns, and he's showing himself to be a remarkably accurate passer. And best of all? He actually looks like he's having fun when he plays. It's a marked contrast to the Ivan Drago-like determinedness of Chad Henne.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame's offense generated just 79 yards of offense, including negative 6 yards rushing. In its two previous games, Notre Dame rushed for negative 8 yards, and zero yards. Hey, Mr. Charlie "Offensive Genius" Weis: most of the time, in college football, if you cannot run the ball, you cannot win. Do you realize that a 19-year-old freshman might not be able to run a complex passing offense with the same skill as an NFL quarterback... like, say, Tom Brady? Oh, and those trick plays you brought out on your first drive? You deserved to have those blow up in your face. Michigan offensive coordinator Mike Debord has to feel vindicated; Michigan's good old "run your best play as long as it works" strategy was miles better than Notre Dame's attempts at trickery and finesse.

So is Michigan's defense suddenly revitalized, or is Notre Dame just that bad? I think it's a bit of both. Notre Dame's offensive line certainly looks like one of the worst in the country, and perhaps the worst in Notre Dame history. But Michigan did play better in this game than in their previous outings; I think the fact that Brandon Graham is back in the starting lineup is huge. That lets Michigan play with four true linemen instead of using Shawn Crable as a defensive end. The Michigan defensive line absolutely pwned the Notre Dame offensive line. At one point, four linemen converged to sack Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen simultaneously.

And what does this mean for the two programs? For Michigan, it's a sigh of relief, but the future is little hazy. The team finally showed the promise that gave them a pre-season#5 ranking, with a nearly unstoppable running game and a defense that put pressure on the opposing offense. But Notre Dame is one of the worst 1-A teams in the country right now, and things will get substantially more difficult against Penn State. I think next week is when we'll get a true measure of Michigan's progress. But at least the target of the "what went wrong" questioning will shift firmly over to Charlie Weis, and Lloyd Carr and his staff have a little breathing room. And note that Penn State hasn't proven anything either; they beat Notre Dame 31-10, and their other opponents have been hapless Florida International (who holds a 15-game losing streak) and Buffalo (who went 2-10 last season).

For Notre Dame, the next five opponents are: Michigan State (3-0), Purdue (3-0), UCLA (2-1), Boston College (3-0), and top-ranked USC (2-0). There is a very good possibility that Notre Dame will start 0-8 before closing the season against Navy, Air Force, Duke, and Stanford... and even those last four games aren't a lock. (Air Force is also 3-0 right now, and Duke managed to end its 22-game losing streak by knocking off Northwestern Saturday). I think there's a good chance that the fickle Notre Dame administration will be calling for Weis' head... in former coach Tyrone Willingham's final season, Notre Dame went 6-6, with wins over Michigan and Tennessee. If that's bad enough to get a coach fired, what do you think of 2-10 with losses to Air Force and Duke?

Grades: Offense B+, Defense A.

N.C. State 38, Wofford 17. Okay, yeah, Wofford is a 1-AA school. But as we know all too well, that doesn't make them a pushover. Wofford plays in the same conference as Appalachian State, and they went 7-4 last year.

Still, N.C. State looked to this game to turn end their nine-game losing streak. And while they were outgained by Wofford 353 to 330, and committed 11 penalties for 109 yards, Wofford helped them out by turning the ball over three times, while committing 15 penalties themselves. Andre Brown had a good day, rushing for 133 yards on 21 carries. And quarterback Harrison Beck managed to avoid throwing interceptions, an improvement over last week when he threw six.

Other News

#1 USC crushed #14 Nebraska in a highly anticipated matchup, 49-31. Nebraska kept it close for a while, but USC went up 21-10 at the half, and then scored three more touchdowns to seal the victory.

#4 West Virginia beat Maryland 31-14, rushing for 353 yards on the day. I only mention this because West Virginia runs a spread option running attack... and I would hate to see Michigan go up against this team.

#5 Florida beat #22 Tennessee in an important SEC game. Some are starting to talk "repeat" for Florida, but I don't think it's gonna happen. Tennessee isn't really that good this year, and I don't think this game showed us all that much about Florida.

#7 Wisconsin beat Citadel 45-31. This game was close into the fourth quarter... with a few bad breaks, Wisconsin could have been the second ranked team to lose to a 1-AA school.

#9 Louisville lost to Kentucky. Kentucky is a very dangerous team this year; quarterback Andre Woodson is one of the best in the country.

#10 Ohio State beat Washington 33-14. This game was an ugly affair through the first half, which ended with Ohio State trailing 3-7. But Ohio State pulled through in true Big Ten fashion, rushing 46 times for 263 yards (compared to 25 pass attempts for 218 yards).

#11 UCLA got crushed by Utah 44-6. So much for UCLA.

#15 Georgia Tech lost to #21 Boston College. BC is looking like the frontrunner for the ACC title right now.

#16 Arkansas lost to Alabama 41-38. I think Alabama fans finally might have found a coach they can live with, in Nick Saban.

Michigan State squeaked out a win against the Pitt Mustaches, 17-13.

Illinois crushed Syracuse 41-20. I'm still not on the Illinois bandwagon... Syracuse is a bad team.

Minnesota may be the doormat of the Big Ten this year; they lost to Florida Atlantic 42-39.

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