1/3/02-
1st Annual State of Michigan Football Address
It's been a tough
season. Coming in, many fans had lowered expectations.
Significant personnel needed to be replaced at the skilled positions
and on the offensive line for the Wolverines to succeed.
The Wolverines
surprised many by posting 6-1 record heading into November.
The single loss being a heart breaker to Washington, 23-18, after
dominating most of the game. The run had included a stretch of
three games (Illinois, PSU, and Purdue) where the Wolverines had
outscored their opponents 89-30 and what had appeared to be a
rebuilding year seemed to hold the promise of much more.
In retrospect the
last game of October versus Iowa (W, 32-26) revealed the problems
that would plague the Wolverines for the rest of the season.
The Wolverine offense didn't get on track until the 4th quarter and
they needed an incredible catch by Marquise Walker to keep the
comeback alive.
The Wolverines
'lost' to MSU to start the month of November (L, 26-24) and I'll say
it again here. The timekeeper cheated his Spartan ass off to
give MSU the chance to run the final play of the game. Spartan
offensive tackle #77 Steve Stewart cheated his overweight Spartan
ass off by practically tackling a Michigan player to prevent what
would have been a game ending sack. I have no problem getting
beat, getting cheated by gutless officials is another matter.
The fact remained that the Wolverine had no answer for MSU running
back T.J. Duckett.
Which left the Wolverines 6-2 with three regular season games
remaining. The two losses were hard to swallow for various
reasons. Honestly, I don't think that the Wolverines ever
fully recovered from the pounding that MSU gave them and the
controversial finish to the game. The next game versus
Minnesota (W, 32-10) was better but the Wolverines
only pulled out the Wisconsin game (W, 20-17) on a fluke play at the
end to set up a field goal.
Then came the OSU debacle (L, 26-20), where the Wolverines played
the worst half of football that I had ever seen at least until the
Citrus Bowl...Everything that could go wrong did go wrong and while
the score seemed respectable it's not representative of the beating
that OSU administered to the Wolverines.
The Wolverines continued their slide into the Citrus Bowl (L,
45-17) ending the season getting pounded by Tennessee.
So what happened during the last six games of the season?
The Wolverines managed a mere 3-3 record while being outscored
157-138. After reviewing the game tapes (ugh!) here are my
conclusions for what went wrong:
QB: John Navarre regressed as a quarterback as the
season progressed. There are number of reasons for his, the
most important being the poor play of the offensive line. In
watching game after game, it's shocking to see how often Navarre
gets pounded by defensive players after delivering the ball. I
don't think he gets credit for his durability in the pocket.
Ultimately, he must take most of the blame for not being better at
going through his receiver progressions although he seemed to be
under fire a lot in the pocket. He also has a really bad
tendency to deliver balls over the middle high and hot which lead to
many of his rebound interceptions.
Conclusion: John Navarre needs to show that he can
beat big time opponent again. The victories over Illinois and Purdue
showed how good he can be- can he be that good again? He seems
shell-shocked. The QB position is wide open heading into
spring practice.
Offensive Line: Teams did a great job of watching
film and attacking this offensive line as the season progressed.
Did you notice how Navarre seemed to be under more pressure as the season progressed?
Did you notice how the running game disappeared? Much of the
blames rests with offensive line. The number of missed
assignments and poor blocking is very disappointing from a team that
prides itself with its reputation of producing NFL offensive lineman.
Conclusion: It doesn't matter who plays QB or who
runs the ball if the offensive line doesn't drastically improve next
season.
Running Backs: B.J. Askew and Chris Perry were
inconsistent this year. Perry was banged up for much of the
season and Askew tailed off as the season progressed.
Conclusion: Chris Perry will need to stay healthy
and get a few solid backups by next season. Perry has the
potential to be great but the a great deal depends on the offensive
line and QB play in front of him.
Receivers: Marquise Walker had an incredible first
half of the season and good second half. He seemed to lose
focus after the Iowa game. I wonder if he had some minor
injuries? The other receivers really didn't show much with
Navarre struggling as the season progressed.
Conclusion: Calvin Bell and Tyrece Butler to
solidify this position next season.
Defense: Was the defense really as good as we
thought it was? Considering that it allowed opponents to score
an average of 29 points during the last 6 games you have to wonder.
Is it time to re-think the defensive philosophy? Tennessee
sure made the Michigan defense look average.
Conclusion: The offense needs to score more points
but the defense may need to re-think it approach.
Does this season signal the decline of Michigan football: No,
remember that this was supposed to be a rebuilding year.
Another four loss season next year? Then it may be time to
worry.
Conclusion: You can't lose as many starters as
Michigan did last year and expect to not miss a beat.
Is the talent level at Michigan sub par compared to other
elite programs: No, the number of former Michigan players
currently playing in the NFL from last year's team shows that
Michigan can still recruit among the best. Unfortunately, when
you couple the losses to graduation with the early departure of your
starting QB and top wide receiver ANY TEAM would have a problem
plugging in talented replacements with the right amount of
experience to get the job done. Michigan does need to recruit
more quality players on the defensive side of the ball.
Conclusion: Evaluate talent after next season, this
year was an aberration.
Go Blue!
Phil Callihan
UMGoBlue.COM- By Fans...For Fans
phil@umgoblue.com
|
