Thoughts and observations from Saturday’s ridiculously amazing come from behind victory over Notre Dame:

1. The crowd was electric and I’m officially a fan of the piped in music. I found myself and the others around me getting louder when the music was playing – which carried over into being loud during gameplay.
2. Tate Forcier has restored the faith of the fan base in the Michigan football program as a whole. His playmaking ability, his poise, his claim that he “never gets nervous” all amount to a kid with a ton of character. He’s going to win a ton of games in a Wolverine uniform.


Allen out of bounds

3. Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis – or CFB, Coach Front Butt – decided that it wasn’t his team that lost the game – it was the officials. This shot pretty much closes the book on this issue – although the camera angles did leave some question as to whether the evidence was enough to reverse the call.
4. Darryl Stonum finally answered the call and lived up to his hype. Coming in as a highly touted Texas recruit Stonum has had some impressive moments – but this was far and away his best performance. Stonum wound up with 4 catches for 54 yards, an impressive kickoff return to put Michigan up 14-3 late in the 1st quarter and kept Forcier’s punt inside ND’s 5 yard line.
5. Brandon Minor is one impressive specimen. Lookout when he gets free and begins to run downhill. Seriously, I feel sorry for all safeties in the Big Ten this season because once Minor gets to that second defensive level he’s punishing someone. Minor netted over 100 yards in his season debut. Minor’s return was very solid and I fully expect him to continue to make a huge impact in each game he plays in.


6. Martavious Odoms continues to be a complete player. In the first two games, he hasn’t had any break out plays on offense like he did last season, but he’s made some critical blocks and plays that definitely have not gone unnoticed. Odoms makes one of the bigger plays in the game on 3rd and 4 during the game winning drive – one play after he does a good job of eluding an ND defender to grab some yards after catch on 2nd and long.



AP - Bill Fundaro

7. Obi Ezeh needs to spend some time watching film and realizing when and where he isn’t making plays. Ezeh misses some easy open field tackles in this game – check the first drive when ND’s tight end Rudolph runs right through his tackle attempt.
8. The secondary – yes they were exploited Saturday – but those ND receivers are really, really good. And Jimmah Clausen has figured out how to deliver the ball. I don’t think Michigan faces a better unit all year. Booboo Cissoko clearly had a rough day as Donovan Warren played significantly better. Still, it was a struggle back there all day long.
9. The defensive line got very little pressure on Clausen all day. Going into the game – I assumed that Michigan walks out of that stadium with a loss if they can’t put a hat on Clausen. It should be noted that ND’s O-line is huge and outweighed Michigan’s D-line by almost 50 lbs. on average.
10. Kevin Koger is a great tight end. He’ll improve his blocking ability, but he’s got great ball skills. He showed his athletic ability on his TD grab where he had to bend down to catch the ball and then twist his body to get himself over the goal line. And of course, it was a great effort and pass on the part of Forcier.

Related Posts:

• “Great Move by Forcier! Touchdown MICHIGAN!”
• Michigan’s Story of 2009 – Chapter 4
• Michigan’s Story of 2009
• Notre Dame Preview & Prediction
• Western Michigan Stream of Thoughts