Posse Incitatus

And now, basketball season

I remember when the Big Ten was a football conference.  No more.  They are rapidly losing ground to the MAC in terms of gridiron prowess, but at least the hardwood belongs to the Conference That Can't Count.

What can one say about the regular football season that has finally, mercifully drawn to a close?

For the Spartans, it was almost as bitter as the John L. Smith days, a series of disasters punctuated by moments of glory. We can comfort ourselves by saying that MSU was three plays away from being 9-3, but the Spartans were also two more plays from being 4-8.  Those moments add up, and part of moving to the next level is being the kind of team that captures those moments.

Mark Dantonio has his work cut out for him, and part of that work is educating his staff.  They need more strategy.  Discipline will only go so far; the Spartans also need some skilled generalship.  Too many plays were botched in the booth, from the senseless quarterback rotation to the pig-headed insistence on establishing the run when it simply wasn't going to happen.

Still, next year the Spartan faithful have much to look forward to.  The senior class is taking few standouts and both running back and QB positions will show marked improvement.  Keith Nichol by now should be the backup, but his skills should not be overlooked.  During the off season, Dantonio should look at using him for special plays or as a slot receiver.  He's fast and has a good arm - putting both Cousins and Nichol on the field at the same time would give opposing defensive coordinators fits.

Hopefully they will use the bowl as a chance to open up the playbook.

Meanwhile, the snow in Ann Arbor is about six feet deep.  I suppose a victory lap is in order regarding my March 25 5-7 prediction, and we'll have to wait a few weeks to see if coach RichRod will last into the new year.  As I said before, the question is how the NCAA investigation goes.  If sanctions are likely, RichRod is toast.  Stick a fork in 'im, he's done.

As a good Spartan fan, I should at this point remind what few readers I have that like the Skunk Bears that I hope he stays on indefinately.  This is a long and storied rivalry and it will take years of MSU victories to tip it in our favor.  So keep him, please.

Final weekend

I missed the MSU game due to unexpected travel plans, and it's probably just as well: my heart probably couldn't take another close-run game.  Still, better to win ugly than lose ugly.

Penn State will close out the season and MSU has a fair chance of pulling off the upset.  Unlike last year, we have yet to be blown off the football field.  Unfortunately, we're also beating ourselves in frustratingly close games.  Without these friendly fire incidents, we'd be 9-2 rather than 6-5.  Oh well, the Spartans still have a decent chance at a decent bowl game - though at this point we have to take what we can get.

Down the road in Ann Arbor, the wheels are really coming off the wagon.  Last spring, I ventured a bold prediction that will likely be half-correct: the Skunk Bears are poised to go 5-7 though RichRod will likely survive to pound the last ounce of prestige from the program - and set some new (losing) records.

This was not a popular position to take in September, but oh how the mighty have fallen.  It's like John L. Smith is running the show down there (4-0 start and 1-7 finish).  The fact that the OSU game starts at noon speaks volumes - it's almost an afterthought.  A far cry from the prime-time showdowns of years gone by.

I still think RichRod would be given the axe but for Athletic Director Bill "Do you know who I am?!!" Martin essentially serving as a human shield until his retirement next September.  Obviously Martin is loathe to give the guy he hired the sack and then look for a replacement at this stage.  So RichRod will probably be whacked a year from now, though if he is able to crawl into a bowl game before then, he may survive to delight Spartan fans for years go come.

It all comes down to this

This Saturday's game against Purdue is the second-most important game of the season.  The most important was the game against Michigan - not only because it was a rivalry game, but also because that was a pivot point that saved the season.

Of course, the season can yet be lost, but a victory over Purdue makes that much less likely.  Given the state of the Big Ten, beating Purdue pretty much locks MSU into a (admittedly crappy) bowl game.  It knocks Purdue out of contention, and moves MSU up within the conference.

In this respect it is therefore a much bigger deal than beating Penn State.  Obviously, I'd like to win both games.  But this week is more consequential.  (Of course, if MSU had beaten Notre Dame, Iowa and CMU, we'd be 8-2 and already have picked out our floral shirts for the trip to someplace warm, but I digress).

Meanwhile, Michigan's woes continue.  Their athletic director apparently likes to shove university security around when asked for identification, but in the best interests of the school, there's no need to actually file charges.

With games against Wisconsin and Ohio State looming, the highly-paid coach of the 5-5 Skunk Bears has got to feeling the heat.

It is worth noting that his lucrative salary figures don't include the $2.5 million the University of Michigan is paying to cover his buyout from West Virginia.  That's a lot of money to shell out for a guy whose accomplishments to date have mostly centered on setting records for losses - both in quantity and quality.

The next two weeks will be crucial for both programs. 

Hiring victories

Well, Saturday offered gifts for both the Spartans and the Skunk Bears.

MSU was fortunate that it wasn't down by 28 at the half.  It was a pathetic offensive performance, worthy of a blowout loss.  Only Northwestern's ineptitude (and our resurgent defense) kept us alive.

The second half was a different story.  We won't have that luxury next week.  Though I remain firmly convinced that Iowa is a fraud, the Hawkeyes are also lucky, and therefore undefeated.

Given the wacky on/off nature of my beloved Spartans, I hesitate to guess which way things will go.  I'm inclined to say that MSU will rise to the occasion, relishing the chance to take down an undefeated, highly ranked opponent and gain back some respect.

On the other hand, the last time we had opportunities like this - last year - we got blown off the field.  Could go either way.

Meanwhile, I hear there was quite the game in Ann Arbor over the weekend.  Money can't buy love, but it apparently can buy a Division I-AA team to pad your bowl resume.   I know, that's the way things are going these days, and MSU decided to join the trend with Montana State Junior College earlier this year.  On the other hand, Montana State didn't forfeit a conference game just to make the trip.  When we Spartans buy wins, we pay full price.  The Skunk Bears demand a discount.

At least Michigan was classy enough not to run up the score.

Where all the football players are above average

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you are a fan of the University of Michigan, you should loathe Coach Rich Rodriquez with every fiber of your being.

As the Freep points out, he has once again started telling whoppers – this time about the brilliant and unprecedented grades his teams are getting.

This wasn’t a one-time gaffe. He didn’t just get carried away with his own rhetoric. He made repeated specific claims which – according to his own university officials – cannot be backed up in any way shape or form.

Why did he do this? The most obvious reason would be to deflect attention from his team’s poor performance and possible NCAA rules violations. “Yeah, we’re getting crushed, and maybe we cheat, but man, are we SMART!”

It’s a talking point – and apparently a wholly bogus one.

You can’t throw out specifics like “best ever” and “best in 25 years” based on a guess. Sportswriters (and sports fans) are all about hard numbers. Either the back rushed for 100 yards or he didn’t. I recall a game where Javon Ringer rushed 99 yards. He was one yard away, but didn’t quite get there. No 100-yard game.

I am a Spartan fan. Thus, the Skunk Bears are my arch-rivals. Yet I can respect the U-M basketball coach because he seems like an honest, capable man – well-respected by his peers and the basketball community. When he left West Virginia, he did so on the up-and-up. No skullduggery, lawsuits, etc.

RichRod is a totally different sort, and the manner in which he came to Michigan should have tipped people off that he was not a particularly honest character.

What amuses me is the reaction of commenters – both on the Free Press site and on this thread. For some bizarre reason, the U-M faithful are closing ranks around a man who has to this point done nothing but embarrass them. It is something I simply do not understand.

The only thing he has accomplished is that he (allegedly) recruits well. So what? Bo recruited well. Mo recruited well. Lloyd recruited well. None of them have performed as poorly.

The irony is that the Freep is otherwise very pro-Skunk Bears.  This story almost certainly didn't start as a "gotcha" but rather an attempt to highlight the coach's claims.  One can almost visualize the graphic showing a winged helmet and ever-higher GPAs.  Alas, RichRod was talking out of his hat.

Spartans bring Zookerdammerung - plus Fraudeyes beat Fraudverines

For the first time in a month, I was able to settle in and watch a solid afternoon of college football.

The Spartans handily demolished the Ron Zook-led Illini, who seem to be returning to their hapless form.  Ron Zook was of course the Florida coach who brought in great recruits but got canned because he couldn't win.

So Illinois hired him, and he brought in great recruits, had one awesome season, and is now demonstrating that he can't win.

MSU's victory comes with a price - Glenn Winston is out for the season, and Larry Caper also left early - both injuries apparently caused by the ultra-high-friction carpet they use in Champaign.

Keith Nichol also got dinged, though no one is saying how much.

Having enjoyed a quantity of good German beer during this performance, I proceeded to nap during most of the OSU-Wisconsin game - the first half was quite the snoozer - so don't ask me what I think.

The main event, of course, was the long-awaited showdown between the Maize and Blue and the Maize-cutting Hawkeyes.

This was a comedy of errors.  Two utterly overrated teams (Iowa is the 12th-best team in the nation?  Really?) staggered back and forth across the field, vying with one another to see who can make the most bone-headed calls.  Iowa set a high bar with their first passing attempt, but Michigan rose to the challenge, treating us to a display reminiscent of last year's "how many ways can we cough up the ball?" odyssey.

My heart goes out to Tate Forcier (not his real name, apparently) for the abuse he got from RichRod.  Here you have a kid, aggressively recruited, highly touted and constantly dinged-up who has put (possibly illegal) amounts of time in practice to help the team.  And what thanks does he get?  The bench.

Anyone remember last year's sensation at running back?  The one who quit?  And what about Ryan Mallett?  I wonder how he would do with a half-decent team.

As for Iowa, the only reason they stand a chance against MSU is that, well, it's MSU we are talking about.  The suicidal impulse runs deep in the green and white, despite Mark Dantonio's efforts to exorcise it (perhaps we should contact the Diocese?).

Had the Spartans not pissed away three games in September, we might be somewhere by now, but, as it stands, the season is not yet lost.  Contrary my esteemed co-blogger T.Mo., talk of a Big Ten title at this point is utterly deluded.  I'm still wondering if we can get to 7-5.

Credit where it is due:  I suspect that RichRod will get the Skunk Bears into a bowl game, thanks to a schedule that keeps them at home most of the time.  Question for the week: will Delaware State be Montana State or Appalachian State?   Hmmm, they had a good year in 2007, but are otherwise unremarkable.

I'd put money on the upset just 'cause, but I'm like that.

Winning should feel better than this

The Spartans have now beaten the Skunk Bears in consecutive games for the first time since 1967 - the glory years of Spartan dominance.

Given this achievement, nay milestone, I should be in full gloat mode.  Had we beaten CMU or Notre Dame, I would be (Wisconsin didn't bother me so much - Madison is a tough place to play).

But we aren't out of the woods yet.  This team is designed to induce a combination of hypertension and alcoholism in already overstressed fans.  If we can handle the next couple of games, I may relax.

Over at the Detroit Free Press, the usual sports columnists are doing their usual best to piss off the Spartan faithful, and their pointy-eared acolytes in the comments section are joining in.  The funniest comments are those from Skunk Bear lovers which imply that the Spartans made a mistake in hiring Mark Dantonio.  Er, no.  This season is clearly a disappointment, but (as the Spartan faithful have pointed out) even the miiighty Tom Izzo has had an off season or two since taking the helm.  Is anyone suggesting that the basketball team would be better off without Izzo? 

No, if anyone should be having buyer's remorse, it is the administration in Ann Arbor.  Consider the historic records college football's most storied program has now achieved under RichRod:

• Most losses in a single season
• End of historic bowl streak
• First loss to MAC team, and of course
• First back-to-back losses to MSU since 1967.

But at least they beat Indiana.

Oh, and how is that NCAA investigation going?  Remembering that they got to pay $1.5 million extra for this guy to get out of his contract with West Virginia, having him get sanctioned would be the icing on the cake.

If I read the schedule rightly, their next stop is Iowa, where I suspect they will be demolished.  Tate Forcier will be lucky if he doesn't leave the field in a body cast. 

And of course there are the Buckeyes waiting below the horizon, like a freight train picking up speed.  When was the last time U-M lost to both of its rivals for two years in a row?  That's got to be some kind of record, too.

How long till basketball season starts?

I don't mind too much about the MSU offense sucking wind.  Kirk Cousins is a new quarterback and it is to be expected that he will make a few mistakes as he learns the ropes.  I agree with color commentary guy Jim Miller (and just about everyone besides apparently Coach Dantonio) that we can stop this business of rotating Keith Nichol in during the second quarter.

Cousins is the guy.  He's in charge.  Rotating Nichol in only screws things up.

But can someone tell me what the hell is going on with the Spartan defense?  These guys can't buy a stop against any team in Division I-A.  Wisconsin was converting third downs something like 75 percent of the time.  What.  The.  Hell.

As a lifelong Spartan fan, I am sick of watching us back an opponent up so that they are 3rd and 19, only to watch them nail a 20-yard pass.

It's beyond demoralizing at this point.  If I wanted this level of pain, I would watch the Lions.

Actually, in some ways it's worse because MSU's defense can do better.  It has done better.  It did better last @#$%^&*! year.

I try to be an optimist, but at this point a victory over the Skunk Bears will not salve this pain, nor erase the shame this season has already brought upon the Spartan Nation.

Meanwhile, RichRod's mercs are tearing up the MAC, punishing traditional powerhouses like Indiana, and basking in the glow of a John L. Smith-like 5-0 start.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't fervently hope my beloved underachieving Spartans could be the instrument of chastisement for the resurgent Skunk Bears, but at this point, I have little confidence that they will.

Fortunately, I still have that Ohio State shirt I acquired when George Perles was running us into the ground.

Go Bucks!

The Chips have our number

I had a bad feeling about this one.

It was too easy, too seductive.  With Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Michigan looming, there was a huge temptation to overlook CMU.

When you overlook a team, you make mistakes.  Mistakes turn a blowout into a close game - and against CMU I knew we would lose a close game.

My co-blogger is correct that the MAC is not what it was - there is much less shame in losing to CMU now than there was in '91 and '92.  Western Michigan beat Illinois in a bowl game and of course Toledo pulled a shocker in Ann Arbor last year.

Which is to say that the Spartans better get their heads together.  The next three games are going to be brutal.  Only the strong will survive.

...and so it begins

I've been busy about the ranch (what with my long absence, the" honey-do" list has reached epic proportions), but I still managed to take time to enjoy the glorious return of college football.

Normally, I'd already have posted my prognostications, but things were a little hectic.

Still, it was nice to see the Spartans return to their normal habit of crushing a totally outmatched opponent for their home opener.  Ah, nostalgia.

Actually, this is a touch September for my beloved Spartans.  After yesterday's warm-up session against Lower Montana State Normal and next week's grudge match against Central Michigan (who defeated us twice in the early 1990s - something that has been seared, seared into my memory), we must face a revitalized Notre Dame and then Wisconsin.  Both are road games.

For years us Spartan faithful have gotten into the habit of enjoying September's easy games only to crash and burn when the leave fall from the trees.  If nothing else, Coach Mark Dantonio has broken that lame and soul-crushing routine.

The running game needs work.  That much is clear.  But the two quarterbacks look sharp and with time, I suspect the threats they embody will help open some holes for a better ground attack.

Meanwhile, in Ann Arbor, the mighty Skunk Bears are rightfully celebrating their unprecedented win over MAC powerhouse Western Michigan.  I say "unprecedented" because it does represent a watershed for Rich Rodriguez.  I actually heard ESPN's commentators referring to the 31-7 score as a "statement."  Wow.  How the mighty have fallen.

Still, the more things change, the more they stay the same.  I naturally have no idea as to whether U-M violated NCAA rules, and the fact that they are immediately lawyering should not necessarily count against them.

On the other hand, we are dealing with Rich Rod, who lied through his teeth for months with the full support of the university - and then passed them the bill, which they gladly paid.  Given the environment at Ann Arbor and the heat Rich Rod must have been feeling after last year's debacle, I would be absolutely unsurprised if he broke rules to help boost his win column.  Again, this is a guy who signed a contract and pretended it said things it did not, brazenly maintained his story until the pain of testifying (and the fact that he would lose anyway) forced him to settle.

And U-M's administration picked up the tab. 

Lest there by any question about my bias, I will remark that I would in fact be surprised if U-M's basketball coach was found to be running a dirty program.  By all accounts, John Beilein came to the university with a clear conscience and the blessing of WVU.  He seems to be a decent guy and is respected by his peers.

Rich Rod is an altogether different sort.  And soon we may find how different.