Wolverine Wednesday: Points at a Premium

The over/under for Iowa at Michigan at 38.5 continues to remain low and I joked on Monday, the first one to 10 wins! Leading the Hawkeyes now is QB Mark Gronowski from Naperville who was a transfer from South Dakota State, Hank Brown, transfer from Auburn.  We all know too well about Michigan's struggles on that side of the ball.   Michigan has faced a very difficult 4th ranked Oklahoma defense and Iowa has faced Iowa State's who has the 13th ranked defense (points against for both stats). 

When defense is king points become a premium and that means field goals will play a huge role in Saturday's game, which will probably take 2.5 hours to play.  Which means we will be commericaled to death by CBS as they try to pay for the Romo contract buyout.  

• The Harbaugh brothers are a combined 1-3 in the NFL right now.  

• Tony Diaz Iowa's best WR #14, loves man to man coverage and calls it "shopping at a candy store"

• Tony again on Michigan's man to man:  "We've just got to make plays. We're going to get what we want — we're going to get man on man. It's just, who's better at the end of the day?"

Michigan Tuesday: The Andrew Sprague Mystery

Andrew Sprague name sound like a NYC Detective that fumbles through his cases but always arrests the killer and has a 100% close rate on all his cases.  

In actuality, Andrew is an NFL Offensive Tackle prospect on Michigan's O-Line.  He was a late scratch on Saturday morning for the UTEP game after practicing all week and going through walk throughs on Friday. 

Coach Whitt did not seem pleased after receiving the news for Jim Harding the offensive line coach.  I had assumed he was just out sick, but it now seems more serious then that. 

Coach Whitt on his radio show: 

“What happened between half hour ago and now," Whittingham said his response to Harding was. "It was just a weird thing, but hopefully we get Andrew back. That's the major concern right now. The primary concern is his health and making sure we can get him back to where he needs to be.”

Then at Monday's presser:

“Andrew Sprague, gosh, that's a tough question. I think it could be anywhere from this week to several weeks," Whittingham said. "And so we just don't know and we're trying to sort through that, not we but the medical staff and making sure that we get the exact diagnosis and treat this thing the right way.

So for right now, it looks like Andrew is out against Iowa and there isn't a good timeline for his return to the lineup.  

Michigan Monday: Too Early Look at Iowa

I would like to say, this is the week things get real for our Michigan Wolverine Football team, but that happened almost immediately during the Western Michigan game.   This week is the start of conference play and if Michigan is going to gain the respect of the league and CFP, it starts on Saturday. 

Iowa: 3-0 #17

Best Win: Iowa State 16-13

Worst Loss: None 

Pass: 209 yards (143rd)

Run: 268 yards (10th)

Score: 37 per (47th)

Give up: 4.3 (#1)

I haven't watched a lick of Iowa Football this season.  It seems they have gotten their offensive problems fixed.  I think the most interesting game to review would be the Iowa grudge match with Iowa State two weeks ago.  I still find it funny that Iowa's program got in trouble by the NCAA for contacting Cade while he was on Michigan's roster.  How did that work out?

There are always 3 things we know about Iowa Football.  #1 They play good defense, #2 they like to run the ball, and #3 they use their Tight Ends.  You could also throw in; they lately have had a good punt returner.  

With Michigan's struggles on offense and aggressive defense, the first one to 10 points might win this game.  The game opened with an O/U on 38.5 the lowest of any game this season.  Iowa giving up 4.3 points per game is just crazy! 

• Michigan is now #18 in the AP

• Hope to get an update on injuries at Coach Whitt's presser this morning

UTEP Post Game: Arnold Palmer

Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com

I drink Arnold Palmer's, if your not familiar it's half ice tea and half lemonade.  Other's call it half and half.  At a restaurant one time, I ordered a half and half and they brought me half sweet tea and half regular ice tea, which doesn't make sense to me.  

Today's game was 2 distinct different halves.  The first half had 2 turnovers and 2 lapes by the defense that led to two separate occasions where UTEP was leading the Wolverines 7-0 and 14-7.  Michigan's offense looked like a bad high school offense.  You can't run right at a box full of defenders, doesn't matter the quality of the defense, they can tackle the RB when they have a numbers advantage. 

Michigan limped to 3 point lead at half-time and felt lucky to be leading by that much.   Then the 2nd half became the dominating defense, Marsh, and Underwood show.  The defense decided to lead with aggression and limited the UTEP offense to negative yards for the 3rd quarter and Beck decided running into a loaded box was a fool's errand.  

Michigan dominated from that point on and it was game over.  I was worried about this staffs ability to adjust strategy at the half, but they did that and Coach Whitt got the team back to playing with energy and aggression. 

Cheers:

• Bryce was 19/25 for 223 Yards 
• Hiter had 2 TD's
• Marsh 105 yards 10 catches and 1 TD 
• JJ 7 for 92 and 1 TD 
• Chase Taylor led the D with 5 tackles, 1/2 sack, and 1 TFL 
• Bowles continued his good play 
• Lea'ea with the Big Man Pick 6 (Thick 6!)
• Trey Butkowski with a nice long FG 
• The 2nd Half 

Jeers:

• The 1st Half 
• 2 bad turnovers fumbles by Bryce and Savion 
• Marshall being banged up 
• The offensive line is still not great 
• Some early penalties were very costly

Hello, Nice to Meet You!

• Boney Toney! (Tariq Boney) 4 Tackles, 1 Sack, and 1.5 TFL 
• Cater Meadows 
• Travis Johnson 
• S. Moa with a TD catch 
• Tommy Carr with his first Michigan TD pass 

First half was full of WMU flashbacks for the fans, the players, and the coaches.  Good on the staff for re-focusing the team at the half.   Michigan can't have a half like that with conference play starting and a ranked Iowa team coming to the Big House next week. 

3-0 and we will take it.