Michigan

I don't think it is a stretch to say that what I saw Saturday was the worst display of college football I've ever seen. I'm not trying to be overly dramatic or cynical, we aren't even competitive. We may be the worst team in the history of the sport and certainly have to be in the lead for worst in our storied history. And there is ABSOLUTELY no excuse for it. Yes, the deck is stacked against us with a front-loaded schedule, youth and inexperience, and poor offensive line play. But our performance Saturday lacked any resemblance of a prepared football team and my confidence in Weis and his offensive prowess has diminished to nothing. There are plenty of other teams out there, both past and present, that fall into the same category as us but can, at least, move the ball. You cannot convince me that we are 38 points worse than Michigan. You cannot convince me we should have lost to our last five opponents. And you cannot convince me that we should lose to anyone by 20 points, let alone five opponents in a row.

I don't have the emotional capacity to write anything specifically about this game. It was just pathetic. For the third straight time we had virtually no gameplan and for the first time our defense played poorly, our team, uninspired. I was downright embarrassed by our performance, at one time suggesting we punt on first down to avoid losing field position via penalties and sacks. And it isn't just that we don't execute, we didn't even play hard for most of the game.

I didn't expect us to win many games this year. I thought eight was achievable, but didn't necessarily expect it. However, all of my predicted success was based on the conjecture that we had a coaching staff in our employment. At the moment, there is sufficient evidence to suggest otherwise. What is further disheartening is the fact that we didn't play like we cared or with any emotion and/or determination. It's time to panic, the loss of recruits and/or transfers are imminent.

Weis continued to commit a series of fatal blunders by "opening up the offense" and giving cause for more pathetic execution. I've said it several times, and I'll continue to say it. This team should be practicing a few things, doing them well, and always coming back to them. You can't score if you can't get first downs and we can't get first downs because we are trying to do a million things. Trying to do that simply results in doing many things poorly, instead of a few things well. And it looks like people out there are starting to come around to my perspective (here, here, here, here, and here). The failure to execute is the largely the players' faults, but I can't blame them much when they are having a million things thrown at them. We should never have used the spread, we should be practicing what Weis knows and what is proven, and we should be supremely focused on a physical and punishing ground game.

Mike Patrick made some good comments about "it all starting up front" for us. And, to a certain extent, he's right. Much of the blame can be placed on our poor offensive line play. But that doesn't solely contribute to 38 point beat-downs. Neither does youth and inexperience at many of our positions. Michigan doesn't have that much more talent than us. We are in a catch-22, to be certain, keep in seven and give Clausen time but with no hope of only three in routes getting open or sending four or five into a pattern only to have Clausen broken in half. Without a running game and solid offensive line to fall back on, e.g. Michigan, we are left with nothing.

On the bright side if we maintain the recruiting success we've had in the past at least the next coach won't have to suffer through what Weis is right now. And that's exactly what will happen, we will get a new coach, if Weis doesn't evaluate how he is running things and create leadership and motivation to put the ship back in the right direction.

Demetrius transferring was in no way responsible for this loss. Perhaps he was supposed to take that direct snap instead of Armando on the first play but we shouldn't be doing that gimmicky crap anyway. The fact that he took reps in practice after being enrolled at another school for nearly two weeks is terrible. The fact that he would leave the team because he isn't playing and not tell anyone about it speaks volumes about his selfishness. By all accounts he seemed like a stand-up kid to me. My opinion of him has dwindled, however, after hearing the situation surrounding his transfer.