The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

(I should have a column on Denard Robinson up at Maize n Brew tomorrow, but for now, here are my postgame thoughts.  Enjoy.)

Best backup QB in the country?

I couldn't quite put my finger on what was different about yesterday afternoon.  In the hours leading up to the game I watched Illinois drop opportunity after opportunity in their upset bid against MSU (who is week in and week out executing and not breaking down mentally.  It's a brave new world for Sparty it seems), and I threw on an episode of Breaking Bad at halftime.  As the FSU vs. BC game finished and the coverage shifted to Ann Arbor I settled into my seat with a beer at my side and the computer tuned to scores across the nation.

The strange thing was, I wasn't nervous.  The last six games have all began with me nervously pacing around the apartment and yelling at the TV until I settled in somewhere near the end of the 1st quarter.  I sent a text message to my old roommate asking why I was so calm.  His response was simple, "I'm calm too.  I think it's because the pressure is off."  The pressure wasn't really off, but the difference from the previous weeks was palpable.  UConn and Notre Dame would set the course for the season and UMass and Bowling Green were opportunities for a gigantic regression that was worrisome until the game was in hand (making UMass one of the most nerve wracking wins since Ball State in 2006).  Indiana posed a huge threat to our defense, and the prospect of losing to Michigan State a third year in a row was maddening.

Half Full or Half Empty? Running Backs

There is a hurricane rolling in to Virginia Beach tonight, so posts will be coming hard and fast today and most likely not at all tomorrow.  Let's move on to the biggest unknown question in the running game.


The old adage goes, "if you have two quarterbacks, you have none."  What about two running backs?  What about three?  Four?

The running back position in the spread and shred offense seems to be overlooked sometimes.  When people look back on Rodriguez's tenure at West Virginia the first name that gets mentioned is always Pat White.  But the quarterback position will only account for somewhere around 40% of the rushing attempts in a given year.  The Pat Whites of the world may run the show, but it is the guys like Steve Slaton and Noel Divine that carry the bulk of the workload.

From fumble prone to MINOR RAGE!  Can this year's
running back corp take the next step?

The past two years, the running back position in Ann Arbor has been in a state of constant flux.  Sam McGuffie was thrust into playing time early in his true freshman year of '08 (probably costing him his health and driving him back to Texas), but neither he nor Michael Shaw found much success on the ground, paving the way for Brandon Minor to take a bigger role in the offense.  After a solid end to the '08 campaign, Minor and speedster Carlos Brown looked to be the one two punch that UM's breakout offense would need in '09.  However, injuries took a toll and turned the running back position into a game of musical chairs.

Going in to this season the oft injured Minor and the sporadic play maker Brown have both graduated and taken with them the last remnants of Lloyd Carr's stable of running backs.  Stepping in to fill the void are a number of running backs who have different levels of experience.  Shaw, a junior, and Vincent Smith, a freshman, are both back in the fold having a few starts a piece, but both have been inconsistent.  Joining them are three largely unknown newcomers.  Michael Cox the alleged super athlete saw garbage time last year.  Fitzgerald Toussaint is the owner of not only a fantastic name but an equally impressive load of hype generated by highlight tapes and scout team buzz from last year.  Last but not least is Stephen Hopkins, the early-enrolling freshman who has established himself as the battering ram of the bunch.

Can we get reasonable production out of a group of unproven running backs?