Michigan @ Illinois, Saturday, 10/12, Noon, ABC/ESPN Video

[WM Wolverine]

Harbaugh hired someone from Franklin's coaching tree to run his offense. Hopefully Gattis is as good as his branding of his offense. Destroying Illinois by 40 won't impress me, he'll need to score points against a defense with decent talent.

[WM Wolverine]

Harbaugh > Franklin solely because he hired Don Brown. We'll see in a week and a half for another data point for Harbaugh vs Franklin.

[iam416]

I don't know if Franklin is a better game day coach than HARBAUGH!!!!, but one could certainly make the case that he's doing as good as job at Penn State as HARBAUGH!!!! is doing at M.

[lineygoblue]

But even if Michigan loses to PSU next week, Harbaugh will still be 3-2 in head to head matchups vs Franklin.

I'll admit that Franklin has had more post season success than Harbaugh. That is painfully true, considering that Franklin has the coaching skills of a gnat.

He's all emotion and rah rah.

For my taste, I'd rather have a guy like Paul Cryst at Wisconsin. That guy can flat out coach, and he's not all crocodile tears and rah rah. He just gets his guys ready to play ball every week. I really like his brand of football.

I wouldn't let Franklin coach my local HS team ... and they really, REALLY suck.

[THE_WIZARD_]

FRANKLIN!!!
FRANKLIN.jpg

[Cody_Russell]

If they ONLY struggle at Penn State then they have a chance. I think it's as likely they'll zoom way past struggle straight to catatonic. I'm becoming increasingly optimistic that M won't get the offense figure out by the end of November and that OSU will have a shot on the road.

[froot loops]

Maybe it has to do with a Big Ten title.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Just scanned mgo's FFFF. I rally don't care. The only interesting aspect of this game would have been watching Brandon Peters run Rod Smith's, yep that Rod Smith of RR lore, ZR/RPO offense potentially better than the guy that "beat him out" at Michigan to run what we thought would be a Gattis, ZR/RPO offense. Nope - Peters probably won't play being in a concussion protocol.

Michigan has a mish--mash of power IZ/OZ and ZR/RPO that plays Rock-Paper-Scissors missing two of those components on most plays. To go along with that, a QB who can't run either offense at a competitive level.

I'm suitably disinterested in the Illinois game.

...... and the UFR offense should tell people why. Michigan can't pass the ball or run it. There are moments but Patterson is missing in some fashion in the pass or run game on 90+% of them. Frustrating to say the least. The receivers are contributing to the shit show. They run bad routes (coaching? - I've seen comments that they miss McElwain), they drop balls that should be catches. Finally, the play-calling is sometimes head-scratchingly inexplicable.

I'm in the crowd that think the problems are significant and systemic and there is a about a 5% chance that they are going to get fixed. I'm beyond trying to find explanations. I'm ready for the brutal losses that will come after the rainbows out the unicorn's ass flow like diarrhea out of the mouths of M fans following a win V. Illinois. That will becasue M will putt up some points v. Lovie's Kittens and Diabolical Don Brown will create huge problems for Rod Smith's, B-Ball on grass offense run by a Fr. QB.

42-10, Michigan.......an absolutely meaningless win with the shoe to drop in Happy Valley the next week.

[hodgkal]

I remember attending a game in Urbana several years ago. On one of the main streets on the way to the stadium was a car parked on the median with Michigan license plates an logos and with several sledge hammers and a sign inviting fans to express their thoughts. The car had been smashed to smitherines with all the windows smashed and all kinds of "hate Michigan" messages posted. Those people really hate Michigan!

[paul daugherity]

As a native Illinoisan, I can tell you that Illinois fans hate UM more than any other school in the Big Ten - even more than Iowa. They blame Bo and UM for the end of the halcyon days of the Mike White era. They are convinced that Bo brought on rule changes that resulted in them losing a recruiting class and other good players.

[lineygoblue]

As a native Illinoisan, I can tell you that Illinois fans hate UM more than any other school in the Big Ten - even more than Iowa. They blame Bo and UM for the end of the halcyon days of the Mike White era. They are convinced that Bo brought on rule changes that resulted in them losing a recruiting class and other good players.

Their hatred is probably about 50% justified. They got Bo's attention when they fired Garry Moeller after just 4 seasons of a 5 year contract. Bo didn't want Moeller to go to Illinois to begin with, but he did anyway. Then when the Illini fired him, and brought in Mike White, whom Bo hated, that set him off like a firecracker. Problem for the Illini was that White did indeed run afoul of NCAA rules, and got Illinois put on probation. Kind of like what Woody Hayes did to Michigan State and Denny Stoltz.

Bo and Woody were good friends outside of football, and one thing they completely agreed upon was their mutual hatred of cheating. They couldn't stand cheaters and turned them in whenever they saw it happen. Neither OSU nor Michigan ever had any NCAA problems when they were coaching.

[lineygoblue]

As for the game, I'll stick with my original prediction. Illinois is poop, but they're playing at home, and they're likely playing to save Lovie's job. Michigan always struggles on the road, no matter how weak the opponent is. Illinois will have some moments, but overall, I think Michigan is still too talented for the Illini to handle.

Given last week's crapfest on offense, I wouldn't count on Michigan to score a lot of points. And in that same vein, given how well the defense played in the 2nd half against Iowa, they are capable of shutting down the Illini completely.

I think the last line I saw was Michigan was a 31 point favorite. I think that's too high given the problems on offense.

Michigan 26
Illini 9

[iam416]

41-6

[hack]

45-0

[Hannibal]

41-14. I think that our offense will give us some false hope in this game. WRs will make some big plays and RBs will get some space.

Reggie Corbin will break off at least one long run against us. He's a legit excellent RB. Everyone else sucks.