A Michigan Q&A With TheWolverineBlog.com

Biscuit's not the only one who can be diplomatic when he has to. I can do it too, though it's better in written form like the Q&A I just did with Ace from TheWolverineBlog.com so that I can write my words, then let them sit, and then delete half of them before I hit "send."

My own answers to Ace's questions can be found on his site right hee-ya. And kidding aside, I really enjoyed doing this, so thanks to Ace for reaching out to us.

1) We like to kid all the time on HLS about how this is Rich Rodriquez's do-or-die season, and then kid about how much we'll hate to see him go. But seriously, is Rich's seat among the hottest in college football? And if Rodriquez fails to live up to expectations this season, what are those expectations, and at what point in the season would "failure" be determined? Are you on the lookout for a Florida-style Zooking of Rodriguez to make a move oh whoever the hottest CFB HC happens to be in late-October/early-November?

It’s tough to argue that Rodriguez is on the hot seat – when it comes down to it, losing seasons just aren’t acceptable at Michigan regardless of circumstance. Personally, I think expectations for Rodriguez were far too high when he came to Ann Arbor, as Lloyd Carr did not do a good job recruiting -- especially defensively -- in his last couple seasons (that’s not to say I don’t like and respect Carr, who I think is one of the best to ever coach here, but he may have held on too long), and Rodriguez had to make do with players recruited for a pro-style offense while waiting for his recruits to be ready to see the field.

After two awful seasons, I think the reasonable preseason expectations were for Michigan to simply make a bowl, and I expect that will be enough to save Rodriguez’s job, with the assumption that the team will continue to progress as he finally has a team of almost entirely his recruits in 2011. Personally, I think Rodriguez will have a lot of success at Michigan if he gets the chance, and given the obvious progress this team has made since 2008, I’m betting he’ll be around for a while. The players love him, he has succeeded at every other job he’s had at the college level, and I think the fans are finally realizing that at some point it might be best for the program to deviate from the Bo Schembechler coaching tree.

2) Every year I like to award one opposing player on the Irish schedule the "HLS Paul Reiser Award" for being the absolutely most annoying entity on the Irish schedule, and thus making me hate him for no reason other than his annoying-ness. 2 years ago, Sam McGuffie won this award. Last year, I gave it to Tate Forcier. You may see a trend here: I'm giving this award to those "little engines that could" against the Irish, all the way to the point of making me want to kill. Right now, I'm leaning towards handing it over to Purdue's Robert Marve already, knowing full well we've also got Ricky Dobbs on the schedule, but who do you think I'll want to hand this award to after the game this weekend?

Besides Denard Robinson? I’d go with sophomore tailback Vincent Smith, who is Michigan’s nominal starter while splitting carries with junior Michael Shaw. Smith is a 5-6 waterbug who runs hard, doesn’t get taken down by arm tackles, blocks very well for a back, and is a very good receiver out of the backfield. He scored two touchdowns against UConn, the first on a run from 12 yards out in which he just plowed right through some poor attempts to tackle him, the second on a beautifully-executed screen from the 11-yard line, and late last season Smith really came on strong as perhaps Michigan’s most well-rounded back. I doubt we’re going to see Robinson run the ball 29 times again, so expect to see Smith get more carries and also be a big factor in the passing game, especially as an outlet if the Irish bring some heat. If you’re looking for a “little engine that could,” Smith is definitely that guy for the Wolverines this year.

3) We love diving into stats and teasing out probably meaningless numbers and spinning them into entire arguments about "why our team did/didn't manage to do X." Give us a stat about Michigan that could be spun in such a way.

I’m still trying to figure out how to interpret UConn’s passing stats from last weekend. Zach Fraser finished just 18-of-37 for 205 yards and no touchdowns, which was a huge victory for the Wolverines considering the complete decimation of our secondary due to a variety of circumstances (Troy Woolfolk’s injury, key transfers, and Donovan Warren leaving early for the NFL only to go undrafted come to mind).

On one hand, Michigan didn’t give up any big plays outside of a 40-yard completion in which UConn’s receiver bobbled the ball for about 20 of those yards and our free safety couldn’t figure out whether to go for the ball or decleat the wideout – he went for the ball and missed, but the play was pretty fluky. On the other hand, UConn’s wideouts dropped some key passes, including one near our goal line, and Fraser was pretty inaccurate on a day when the wind played a major factor in the game.

So, is Michigan’s secondary actually not terrible or were they just lucky to face a sub-par passing attack on a windy day? Honestly, I have no clue. We’ll know a lot more when we see how the team tries to stop Floyd, Rudolph, Kamara, Riddick, and Jones on Saturday.

4) Denard Robinson obviously had a glorious game last weekend, but your other ball carriers who are not also designated as QBs had pretty tepid days. Any concerns? (And note, we fully buy into the idea that some offensive lines simply block better for one guy than they do others.)

As you can see by my above praise of Smith, I’m pretty unconcerned with anything involving the running game. The offensive line has a ton of experience, and they had a spectacular day blocking the run against UConn – Shaw’s numbers are skewed pretty negatively thanks to one bad play in which he broke a tackle in the backfield and ran backwards, ending in a 10-yard loss on a play that probably should have just gone for no gain. Otherwise, the backs actually did a solid job when they did run the ball, and their yards per carry was certainly hurt when Michigan started blatantly grinding down the clock – they carried the ball 11 times for eight yards after the team went up 30-10 and the team was content to run the ball into the line and let the clock bleed out.

Michigan was expected to play at least three, if not four, running backs, but the coaches liked what they saw from Smith and Shaw enough that no other back saw meaningful time. The way UConn was guarding against the zone read, the holes were there for Robinson more than they were for the running backs, and he took advantage – that’s why the option is so tough to guard. I don’t expect Robinson to gash Notre Dame’s defense the way he did UConn’s (those numbers would be pretty tough to replicate), but I also don’t expect Michigan’s running backs to average just 3.4 yards per carry, either, especially in a close game.

5) Rich Rodriguez has said this week that he may actually try to get all 3 Michigan QBs onto the field this weekend. Outside of injury or blowout scenarios, this seems hard for us to believe and more likely just a ploy to force ND's defense to try to work some Tate Forcier situations into their show teams. Still, Michigan did do a little QB mix-and-match last year. Do you think Rodriquez would really take Denard off the field for any reason other than injury, blowout, or absolutely abysmal play?

I highly doubt it. Rodriguez said the exact same thing before the UConn game (including having the exact same depth chart, which reads Denard Robinson OR Tate Forcier OR Devin Gardner) and we all saw what actually happened.

The one scenario outside of injury, blowout, or poor play that I could foresee Michigan bringing in another quarterback is in the red zone – Forcier is supposedly more efficient near the goal line than Robinson, at least in practice. If last week’s benching was more a punishment for Forcier’s lackadaisical attitude toward summer workouts than anything else, we could see him get his own red zone package the rest of the year.

But, Denard put 30 points on the board in just nine possessions last week, and the team has clearly rallied around him as the leader of the offense. I think the coaches will give him every chance to show that he’s the answer at quarterback regardless of situation.

Thanks again to Ace!