GBMWolverine: Mailbag Question — Michigan Football — Review of Last Season

Posted at 4:00pm — 3/11/2010

GBMWolverine: Mailbag Question — Michigan Football — Review of Last Season

Guys,

Thanks for the great site. I read it several times a day.

I know the 09 season was a disaster, but if the QB hits Odoms short, we kick a field goal and beat Iowa. If, in the Illinois game, Roundtree were to have scored the touchdown, then the Illinois might have collapsed. Take away the interception in the end zone and we beat MSU. And I know Tressel held back but we had plenty of chances to beat OSU even with a one-armed QB.

With all the returning offensive players and assuming we can find adequate replacements for our two best defensive players, do you think I am being Pollyannaish in thinking that 2010 could be a pretty good year?

Thanks for your thoughts.
Don (Dadriehl)

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GBMWolverine Response:

Thanks for the question.

It is early and things can happen, both good and bad, but like you we are expecting a better year in 2010. But we held the same opinion the last two years. GBMWolverine, like about everyone else, never thought the first year would result in a 3-9 record. Then, last year, our staff guys never thought that after a 4-0 to start that this team would only beat a lower division Delaware State team and only win one Big Ten game. In that game against Indiana, Michigan had to come back to win at the end of the game and the game was very equal, more so than people want to admit. And so the final edition reads: Michigan ties Indiana for last place in the Big Ten in 2009.

Everything you say is true, but one can also take the opposite point of view and place forward the following scenarios: if Notre Dame wide receiver’s do not drop two touchdown passes (in which the Michigan defenders had nothing to do with the drop), and Indiana holds on, Michigan is back to 3-9 and 0-8 in the Big Ten. The 2010 Wolverines must step up and play better in the Big Ten conference.

That is what makes football such a great game; five or seven plays can completely change how a season ends up. Also this is what accelerates insanity and high anxiety among head coaches, because most know, through experience, how a couple of plays can turn a game around, one way or the other. Veteran coaches always stress to their players that any given play could be the game changer.

What the results of the previous two seasons indicate, in our opinion, is a combination of a young team and a team without a go-to play-maker. Teams that have difference makers will win more close games than teams within said players.

As we say, the best players MUST play great and those players can help make other players play better as well. When was the last time Michigan had their best players play great in a big game? Certainly is was against Florida in the now famous bowl game, before that Braylon Edward’s monumental performance against Michigan State in the three overtime win.

By watching other games on television one can notice that in most cases with very good teams the stars come out and get it done in the big games. Just take a look at the bowl games this year, along with some of the championship games, and it becomes clear that the best players came to play and were difference makers.

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Written by GBMWolverine Staff

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