M Football season comes to a merciful end
The best thing about the 2008 University of Michigan football season? It’s over. I hoped the team could squeak out a 7-5 record to keep their bowl streak intact, but it’s probably best that the season is over and the team can regroup to prepare for the 2009 season. This season is now in the record book officially as the worst season in the history of the program.
While the record was the biggest disappointment it was closely followed by the defense. I expected much more from first year defensive coordinator Scott Shafer, particularly given the talent on that side of the football. The most maddening game was clearly the 48-42 loss to Purdue, where Shafer’s defense made the Boilermakers’ 3rd string quarterback look like Troy Smith.
While the offense was terrible that was to be expected given the attrition that followed the 2007 campaign, and there are actually some positive stats to build upon. This year’s team averaged 0.1 fewer yards per carry than the 2007 squad that featured Jake Long, Adam Kraus, Chad Henne and Mike Hart. Heck, this year’s squad only rushed for 17 fewer yards per game and had 3 fewer rushing TDs despite playing one fewer game.
That’s with an entirely new offensive line, a walkon QB taking nearly half the offense’s snaps, and a stable of running backs that had trouble staying healthy or staying in the lineup for other reasons. The one thing you should have expected from Rich Rodriguez is that he’d find a way to run the football successfully. If he could nearly duplicate the 2007 squad’s offensive rushing production this year just imagine what he’ll do when he further stocks the roster with talent and the entire offensive unit gets more and more experience under its collective belt.
With that being said I have serious questions about Scott Shafer’s ability to produce a championship-caliber defense in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines needed to rely on their defense this season and for most of the games this season the defense was as much of a liability as the offense. That’s obviously not a good sign. Rich Rodriguez has defended Shafer and said that much like his offense it will take some time for the defense to get up to speed to playing Shafer’s defense. That and obviously some better linebacker and safety play I’m guessing. I hope that’s the truth because far too often I could have sworn I was watching Jim Hermann’s three-man rush and Stevie Wonder-esque safety play this past season.
The special teams were god-awful but I like what I saw from Boubacar Cissoko on kick returns - when he could actually hold on to the football. I hope the team can find a better punt returner than Martavious Odoms, who didn’t seem very dangerous to anyone other than the Wolverines when he was back fielding punts.
So yeah - that sucked. Let’s not do that again. Once every 129 years will suffice I guess. But it could be worse: we could have Charlie Weis attempting to lead us to glory.
Go Blue. Always.
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