Friday Quick Hits: Preparing for Miami (Ohio)

By Sean · Friday, September 5, 2008 · 1:14 AM |  Share | 4 Comments 

• Going into tomorrow’s game, I expect the offense to play much better than they did against Utah. At the same time, I expect the defense to come out and be dominant from the very start of the game rather than only the second half. The offense still likely won’t look pretty at times, but I do think the coaches will have a better idea of what type of game plan they will run. Instead of focusing on the passing game, I think and hope we’ll see more of a mindset that features the running game. It may take time to get going, but establishing the run will be important.
• Miami will come ready to play and I think they’ll make it close. I don’t necessarily believe that this will come down to the final minutes of the game, but if Michigan won by more than a couple touchdowns I would be pretty surprised.
• The fallout from Marcus Witherspoon not qualifying has resulted in a decision that he will never attend Michigan and instead will likely end up at Tennessee or Rutgers. Also, Michigan once again is coming out of a situation looking like the bad guys even though this had to do with the NCAA rather than U-M.
  

  Looks like Spoon might have got a raw deal. He didn’t find out about his ineligibilty (sic) until July 28 – although it’s not uncommon for the NCAA Clearinghouse to take until mid-August sometimes to determine if a student-athlete can compete.The way Spoon’s father talks, it looks like Michigan dropped the ball and something could have been done a lot sooner.

  Bottom line – The Holy Spirit graduate and 2007 C-P Defensive Player of the Year will not wear the maze and blue of Michigan ever. The family is going to make sure he gets cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse – which it sounds like he will be very soon, according to his dad – and he will enroll somewhere else.

  So it’s Michigan’s fault that the NCAA ruled he wasn’t eligible? I know Witherspoon’s dad is likely upset and is just trying to defend his son, but Witherspoon reportedly had a chance to become eligible when he went home earlier in the summer and wasn’t able to do so. I don’t know if this is a Nick Perry type of situation where he needed a specific credit to become eligible or if he just simply had failed a class needed to go to Michigan, but this is hardly Michigan’s fault.

• Taylor Hill transferred because he wanted to be closer to his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. Youngstown is around 3 hours and 40 minutes away from Ann Arbor, but is only 1 hour and 14 minutes away from Pittsburgh. Early speculation is that he will end up going to Pittsburgh, which would make sense distance-wise.

• Michigan is in the running to land one of the nation’s top defensive end recruits.

• MGoBlog debuts UFR for the 2008 season.
• Genuinely Sarcastic analyzes Michigan’s run game against Utah.
• MVictors has audio of Larry Lage’s recent interviews on WTKA and WDFN. Lage is the AP reporter that went behind the scenes of Michigan football in the week leading up to the Utah game and he shared his thoughts on the experience during the interviews.
• Michigan’s women’s basketball schedule has been released.
• Three Penn State players have been suspended for their game against Oregon State tomorrow after they were caught with marijuana earlier this week.
• Beanie Wells won’t play against Ohio tomorrow. This is the smart move as there is absolutely no point to rush him back from an injury. Not only is he Ohio State’s star player, but they’ve got a game against USC in a week and will need Wells, so every day of rest is important.