I love photos like these. This particular image is from the High Speed projects by Andrew Davidhazy. There are some other great photos on their site. One of the most interesting of these sorts of collections I’ve seen is at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.

As has been widely reported all season, Lloyd Carr made it official today retiring after 13 seasons and 121 wins, 5 Big 10 Championships, and one national title as the University of Michigan head football coach. It’s with mixed feelings that, I a Buckeye fan, say goodbye to Coach Carr. He owned John Cooper in the rivalry and it seemed that Tressel reversed the situation. It’s in the conference’s best interest (and the rivalry’s best interest) to have a strong Michigan football team year in and year out – so I wish them well in every game except against the Buckeyes.

Good luck in retirement Coach Carr; you’ve consistently produced at a high-level during your tenure.

Athletic Director Martin, I hope you do pursue a high profile, big money coach because that would make a good story. But if you’re smart, you’ll pursue a coach with a winning tradition, with or without a name, who can restore Michigan’s program to it’s rightful Top 10 position in the universe.

Oklahoma and Oregon departed the national championship picture this week. Notre Dame won the 1-9 bowl, guess they’re back in the BCS mix now…Hawaii and LSU hung on for wins against lesser opponents. Alabama and their $4M/year coach lost to LA Monroe – not to be outdone, Iowa and their $2.7M coach lost to Western Michigan. Let’s see how Ohio State’s opponents did, talk about bowls, review the Top 12, and finally the Bottom 5.

OSU Opponent Watch

• Youngstown State (7-4) – Idle.
• Akron (4-7) – Played Miami away, lost 0-7. Conclusion: Unexpected Loss
• Washington (4-7) – Played California at home, won 37-23. Conclusion: Unexpected Win
• Northwestern (6-6) – Played Illinois away, lost 22-41. Conclusion: Expected Loss
• Minnesota (1-11) – Played Wisconsin at home, lost 34-41. Conclusion: Expected Loss
• Purdue (7-5) – Played Indiana away, lost 24-27. Conclusion: Loss
• Kent State (3-8) – Played Temple away, lost 14-24. Conclusion: Unexpected Loss
• Michigan State (7-5) – Played Penn State at home, won 35-31. Conclusion: Unexpected Win
• Penn State (8-4) – Played Michigan State away, lost 31-35. Conclusion: Unexpected Win
• Wisconsin (9-3) – Played Minnesota away, won 41-34. Conclusion: Expected Win
• Illinois (9-3) – Played Northwestern at home, won 41-22. Conclusion: Expected Win
• Michigan (8-4) – Played Ohio State at home, lost 14-3. Conclusion: Loss

Buckeye opponent’s records after the 12th week, 73-67. Conference play is now complete and Ohio State won the Big 10 and an automatic berth in BCS competition, likely playing in the Rose Bowl though still alive for the MNC game with UO and OU’s losses this week. As for the other 9 bowl eligible Big 10 teams, I predict that Michigan, Illinois, Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Indiana, and Purdue will be extended invitations. Iowa and Northwestern, though eligible, will not participate.

Quick Hits from Around College Football

These are the undefeated survivors; give them credit for standing tall when others are losing games they should win: Kansas and Hawaii. The Warriors eased by Nevada and the Jayhawks dominated the Cyclones. Florida International maintained its perfect zero win season, Utah State ruined its perfect zero win season upsetting New Mexico State.

Projected BCS Top 5: LSU, Kansas, West Virginia, Missouri, and Ohio State.

Game of the week? Tennessee rallied from 16 down in the 4th quarter to beat Vanderbilt 25-24.

Mismatch of the week? Boise State humiliated Idaho 58-14 in their rivalry game.

My Special Top 12 rankings: (Why Top 12? That’s where you need to be to get into BCS contention.)

1. Kansas – Thumped Iowa State.
2. Arizona State – Idle.
3. Missouri – Outscored Kansas State.
4. Ohio State – Dominated Michigan.
5. West Virginia – Escaped Cincinnati.
6. LSU – Rallied to beat Mississippi.
7. Virginia – Idle.
8. Georgia – Beat Kentucky.
9. Illinois – Rushed past Northwestern.
10. USC – Idle.
11. Oklahoma – lost to Texas Tech.
12. Hawaii – Escaped Nevada.

My Special Bottom 5 rankings: (Why bottom 5? If you finish there you should be relegated to I-AA)

1. Florida International – 0-10 Lost to Louisiana-Lafayette.
2. Minnesota – 1-11 this season. Lost to Wisconsin.
3. Utah State – 1-10 this season. Beat New Mexico State.
4. Colorado State – 2-9 this season. Beat Georgia Southern.
5. Notre Dame – 2-9 this season. Beat Duke.

In the coming week I’ll post a Conference Strength Report and Weekend Update Sports edition.

In an ugly game, nasty wet, cold weather, the Buckeyes ran the ball down the Wolverines throat to prevail 14-3 in a tight game on the scoreboard, but not so much from the stats perspective. Players of the game: Ohio State, Vernon Gholston who spent as much time in the backfield as Chad Henne and Mike Hart. Michigan, Zoltan Mesko who’s live leg kept this from being a blowout by changing field position continually. Special mention, Beanie Wells who accounted for OSU’s offense amassing 220 yards on 39 carries and scoring both Buckeye touchdowns.

The Good

• OSU Defense – Rebounded from a bad performance last week and held Michigan to 95 total yards, 15 yards rushing and 80 passing.
• OSU Offensive line and blocking generally – This game was won on the ground. The blockers were physically dominant and sprung Beanie for his big day.
• The OSU Coaching Staff – Pulled the team back together and didn’t allow Illinois to beat them twice. A good game plan with good adjustments due to on field performances and conditions.
• Outright Big 10 Championship – On a team with 2 starting seniors, many people, including me expected this team to lose at least two games. Way to overachieve versus expectations.

The Bad

• Injuries to Michigan’s stars – In as much as I’m excited by this win, it was not as good as it could have been if Henne and Hart were closer to 100%. The outcome very well could have been different. But a win is a win.
• OSU Passing Game – Receivers weren’t getting open, pass protection was spotty, and Boeckman had a bad game for the second week in a row.
• Todd Boeckman – As impressive as he has been as a first year quarterback, he has uncharacteristically regressed. It makes me wonder if he’s been hurt or his confidence is shaken. But, the weather was bad too. His stat line: 7-13 for 51 yards, 1 interception, 1 unforced sack by slipping, 2 fumbles, both recovered, at least 5 passes open where the ball was off target. It was not his finest game. Hope he gets back in the groove for the bowl game.

The Ugly

• Officiating – This is simply going to stay here until I see reasonably called game. At least this time it didn’t affect the outcome of the contest. Football needs to decide if holding is a penalty or not, now even the egregious examples are rarely called.
• Production values – The game was called OK, but they’ve really got to get their act together to not show unrelated content or babble about someone on the side line and miss plays. That happened at least a half-dozen times.

An exciting throwback game that would have made Woody and Bo smile. Congratulations to the mighty Buckeyes for winning an outright Big 10 Championship and securing an automatic BCS bowl bid (likely Rose Bowl.) And, thankfully, my nightmare did not come to pass…. GO BUCKS!

Mike Hart pursued by Buckeyes


I woke up this morning with a very similar image to this in my mind. After last week’s run defense collapse and the fact that Hart didn’t play much in the past few weeks I guess is leading me to wonder if he is really as injured as people think and wonder if the code has been cracked on running against the OSU Defense. Guess we’ll find out in a few hours, but the scene above is not one I wish to witness later today…

I sincerely hope that Michigan is tight with all the expectations they’ve heaped upon themselves, I hope that whoever the Michigan quarterback is spends a fair amount of time running for his life from defenders, and I hope that the Michigan secondary play looks like it did against Oregon. That, coupled with a win, would be a sweet day! GO BUCKS!