You vote for Michigan, you get Marvin, the Duck of Infinite Inexplicability.1. Say who what when how? FanIQ pokes around the AP ballots, bringing forth those who still put Michigan on them and giving them the mocking they deserve:
Wayne Phillips hailing from Tennessee, placed the winged helmets at 16th. I'm damn near speechless. One thing we can guarantee, Wayne didn't watch the game.Dunno why Oklahoma voters are so kind. Such a random place to erratically decide Michigan deserves poll placement. CriticalFanatic's favorite hobbyhorse: USC alum Scott Wolfe.
Myron Patton deserves the Oklahoma scrotum twist for his ranking of the Maize and Blue at 18. Mike Strain also from Oklahoma placed them at #25.
2. Adventures in things you probably shouldn't say. Tomahawk Nation highlights a video from Warchant.com in which delightfully-named receiver DeCody Fagg admits that he didn't play very hard in Florida State's loss against Clemson. Really? Isn't this something you might say after an uncomfortably close game against a cupcake instead of another loss to a conference rival? I guess not. The nation of Tomahawks is, as you might guess, unimpressed:
To that I say, "Freak That" .... Get this guy off the damn ball club. This is exactly what's wrong with our Team. It was evident ALL LAST SEASON and it was evident in the 1st half of Monday Nights loss to the Tigers. Some of these players just don't get it. In football its imperative that every player on the field pull his own weight. If not, the entire team suffers. I know Fagg probably feels "Oh its not like Drew's gonna get me the ball any way" .... Guess what #81, there's two-to-three other Wide-Receivers on the field with you.I love the Randomly Capitalized Nouns. It's all very Sports Talk Radio.3. Ugh! I was asked on the radio this week whether Michigan's loss to Appalachian State was "good for college football." My initial response was "I don't care, let's talk about me, I'm saaaaaad." My second response was a sort of resigned acknowledgement that yes, it might be. But SMQB highlights the new meme spreading around coaches and media nodders: I-AA must be respected! These games are not blights upon the college football landscape! SMQB cries foul...
Statistically, over the last five years, BCS conference teams beat I-AA teams at more than a 95 percent clip; in well over 200 BCS vs. I-AA games in that span, the I-AA team has won eight times. By year:
2002: Villanova over Rutgers
2003: None
2004: Maine over Missississippi State; New Hampshire over Rutgers
2005: UC-Davis over Stanford
2006: Montana State over Colorado; New Hampshire over Northwestern; Southern Illinois over Indiana; Richmond over Duke
Set aside that those specific incarnations of Rutgers and Duke and maybe Mississippi State (the same MSU team later beat Florida, which simultaneously validates Sylvester Croom's abilities and dooms his inability to recreate that success against, say, Maine) were hardly distinguishable from I-AA outfits, and Colorado, Northwestern and Indiana were dreadful teams last year. The statistical risk of losing a game to a I-AA team is so extraordinarily small. With Michigan's loss to Appalachian State, in fact, the odds in recent history suggest it may not happen again, and won't happen more than once if it does.
...and I am so with him. If this singular event somehow validates the idea of these I-AA bodybag games and staunches the widely-held public view that these are anything but abominations, the Appalachian State upset will be very bad for college football indeed. I-A teams should not be allowed to play I-AA teams at all. You can AppSt all you want but that upset is the only one of its kind and will remain that way forever.
4. Boy, I wish I was that guy from Memento. presents the best way for Michigan fans to cope with that thing from last week:
Personally, I tattooed myself with the following brief note: "Michigan beats Appalachian State 75-10" and I'm hoping my long term memory disappears when I wake up tomorrow.
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