I wanted to see Minor or Grady or anybody in there trying to get one yard on the goal line. Carlos Brown falls down when defenders look at him. He is the worst UM back that I’ve seen in my lifetime at breaking tackles.

Negative: Ever since last year it seems like everyone on the team has butter fingers. fumbles are happening every other play. do a fumble drill RR! have the defense work on takeaways and the offense work on holding onto the pigskin! possession is everything.

Negative: After watching the Illinois game – there was one turning point. the goal line stance that left us with nothing. 4 run plays and we couldnt get one yard. the oline is as much to blame as every running back. MOVE THE BALL 3 FEET!!! it would of been better to call a roll out and let tate take it. after that stance the illini got some momentum and never looked back.

This season is obviously not turning out to be the 2 year season that RR has been known for turning a team around in but there is a lot of promise and passion on those sidelines. If we can beast osu we will all be singing a different tune about the whole season. believe that.

# 1 The QB position is on solid ground with Tate, Denard and future QB Devin Gardner.

# 2 The DL will be as good as this year or slightly better with Ryan VanBergen, and Mike Martin returning.

# 3 The DC should return, which should help by giving this years players and next years returners a years experience in the same system.

# 4 OL should be solid with D Molk and S Schilling returning, along with TE’s Koger and Webb.

While the O line is not the best line we have seen at UM, it is vastly improved from last year an YOUNG. That will be an area of strength in coming years.

Losing 2 Sr. RB’s to graduation will be a loss but let’s face it. We are deep at RB and we will get deeper next year. While I like Minor and Brown, neither of them can seem to stay on the field for more than a game or two at a time. Everyone thought Minor would be a 1000 yard back this year. We will be better and more consistent at RB next year.

We will be more settled and have more depth at QB next year than we have had in years. Starting next year, we will be the envy of the conf. at the QB position.

WR’s are young and I think they will get better this year and next.

The kickers are doing a fine job and Zoltan will be tough to replace but, RR has already addressed it in recruiting.

The return coverage has been below average and need an upgrade.

All in all I look forward to Michigan being in the thick of things next year. I do hope they get this NCAA thing behind them soon because I worry that it will hurt in recruiting.

However, the negatives at this point outweigh the positives:

1. The defense still can not stop anybody (ex: Del St). We have Brandon Graham, and maybe Mike Martin. After that, the talent level/ability drops off significantly, and shows up on the field. And, there is really no good depth at this point, and recruiting so far isn’t getting in the real studs needed for a strong defense.

2. I think we will be OK at RB, but after Minor and Brown, we really have no proven players.

3. Our OL has shown some improvement this year over last, but there still is a long, long way to go. If Tate could not scramble as well as he does, this would be another 2008 season.

4. WRs do not run good patterns, don’t help their QB in scramble situations, and tend to drop the ball when thrown to them. I don’t see a real possession receiver on the team (Koger could, but plays erratic).

5. We still are not recruiting the 5-star studs we need to be a top tier team like USC, Texas, Florida, etc. Everyone likes to say stars don’t mean anything, but these teams get the 5-stars, and they are annually in the top five, vying for the BCS championship game.

This sounds negative, and it may be. But, I’ve followed Michigan football since ‘65, and this is my assessment of where the team is today. Again, JMHO.