CLARIFICATION: The title is just a Revolutionary Road reference. Trust me, if I get in a fight with the fiancee the internet will not be informed.

Dedication II. Michigan will dedicate its soccer stadium Friday with a game against Notre Dame at 7:30. Their latest home game featured an 89th minute winner from Justin Meram; freshman Soony Saad is tearing up the nets. It should be a good game: Michigan is 3-1-1 on the year, Notre Dame 5-1-1. I'm planning on going. Stop by and say hi if you're around.

Roundtree fluff. Further adventures in incredibly easy to root for Wolverines:

One dollar they pull the #1 out of mothballs for him next year.

Getting blown up. As we all await Denard Robinson's inevitable dissolution into a pile of smiling but sadly immobile goo, Michigan bloggers are working overtime to compile excessively researched nuh-uhs that metro Detroit talk radio blitherers don't care about and couldn't understand even if they did. MGoFootball went over the tape in an attempt to determine just who is hitting Denard and how badly:

Front 7

2nd Level

Down/Slide

Not Touched

UConn

10

10

7

2

ND

13

6

7

2

Total

23

16

14

4

Avg/game

11.5

8

7

2

What does this mean? I have no idea. MGoFootball has some opinions back at his place, though. Meanwhile, In Rod We Trust looks back at a selection of do-everything QBs in college football, finding that… eh… they don't hold up too badly, actually. Which you probably knew already.

"It's the mental side of the game," Jonas offers in a rare sound bite running longer than 10 seconds. "Instead of relying on my athletic ability so much, I wanted to improve the little things. I watched extra hours of film. I worked on studying routes and formations." …

Note that the official site is getting friskty. The Mouton story mentions his "badass beard" and they've even got a "definitive guide to Tom Brady's hair" that chronicles his ascension from Lloyd Christmas to David Beckham. My favorite is the Leonardo DiCaprio:

"Where I grew up, a lot of stuff goes on - just from being out and with the wrong people," Graham says. "There were a lot of different cliques. I had friends, but they all had different friends. Some people had friends that were off into drugs. Some people had friends who were out looking to steal things. It was crazy.'

Both reinforce that Avant and Graham are amongst the best people to come through Michigan in the last decade.

Forever dumb. Long, long ago in 2005 when every college football blog talked to every other college football blog because there were a half-dozen total, there was a sissy-boy blogger slapfight over whether or not throwing a jumble of completely unrelated teams together and declaring them the vanguard of a New College Football because of, like, similarities and stuff was visionary or asinine. Thunderous slaps resonated across the blogosphere, no one was convinced of anything, and eventually everyone forgot about it UNTIL RIGHT NOW:

About five years ago, I spent a lot of time and energy writing about the emergence of the spread and how it would change college football–yes, even the crusty offenses of the SEC. I admit I didn’t always get all the minor details or predictions right (I famously thought that Boise would beat Georgia in 2006), but the big picture was overwhelmingly correct: Offense was no longer going to be played in a phone booth, the entire field would finally be used, deception was on the rise and the quarterback position was changing.

But back then, the notion of the spread being dominant in college football was controversial. It would never work in the SEC, said the average blogger, who had eaten his three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust wheaties every morning for breakfast for as long as he could remember and couldn’t quite wrap his head around the concept. Now, most teams in college football run some form of the spread and it is the pro style attacks that are the dinosaurs in retreat.

Oh no he di'in't. As per usual, HP is has a persuasive ability equivalent to Lane Kiffin's PR skills. To review: back in the long long ago, HP selected a "Gang of Six" teams that were 1) super good on offense, 2) "sophisticated," and 3) coming off nice records in 2004. His theory was that these teams represented a new way of playing football because they could run and pass, or something. He never really explained it.

Anyway, these teams and their 2005 quarterback rushing:

USC: 55 carries for 25 yards.

Cal: 76 carries for 100 yards.

Louisville: 53 carries for –88 yards.

Boise State: 107 carries for 262 yards.

Utah: 152 carries for 478 yards

Florida: 105 carries for 81 yards

Collectively these teams averaged 7.6 quarterback rushing attempts per game including sacks and averaged 1.6 YPC on those attempts. Whatever these teams shared (basically nothing since USC and Cal were pro-style, Louisville and Boise Purdue-style passing spreads, and Utah and Florida actual-ish spread 'n' shreds) Denard Robinson and the "evolution of the quarterback" had exactly nothing to do with it. The argument here was never that spread offenses were something other than the future of football's metagame (just check the Gary Danielson reactions for evidence) but that HP, specifically, was making an argument so inane it can't even be rebutted because it boils down to "these offenses are good so they are good."

An actually perceptive argument along these lines would have flagged West Virginia (graduating Rasheed Marshall but about to take off on the White rocket), Texas (Vince Young in bloom), Texas A&M (17th in total offense with Reggie McNeal), Penn State (Michael Robinson revival), and Missouri (Brad Smith) as members of a new wave of offense. None of those teams came in for a mention. HP is dumb. Always.

I'm sure if they did give him #1 next year there'd be some angry-ish jawing by people that don't follow Michigan football as obsessively as the average MGoReader, but I think (as long as Roundtree keeps doing what's he's been doing and shows the improvement one expects of a receiver after another year in the same offense) that most of us would be pretty satisfied with it. Sure, he's not a burner and he's not going to be drafted third overall but he could definitely deserve it.

I get that we have a new type of offense, and I'm fine with that. But it seems that there are some revisionists (not saying you are one) who would suggest that there is little value to a pro-style offense in college. We had some pretty damn good years with it.

But the idea that a "deep-threat" is per-se more valuable than a smaller slot reciever is outdated. With dudes like Wes Welker in the League, that notion is changing, and it probably should in Ann Arbor, too.

That is the exact reasoning that I expect some people to have and thus not like Roundtree [hypothetically] getting #1. I'm not saying that your opinion is somehow wrong, I'm just saying that I bet it would be common.

I can see some positive with what you say, deep-threat receivers are far more likely to get Sportscenter worthy catches and big numbers. But, unless Denard continues to progress a fair bit with his passing, we're probably not going to have a lot of passes going for 80 yards unless it's because the receiver beat the safety because he was playing too close to the LOS.

who is capable of threatening defense vertically so it would open up more spaces for underneath routes and running game. Chris Henry is bascially an exclusively a deep threat and he hasn't had one since Henry. Stonum has the potential but Denard's deep touch is a bit iffy because he's a bit all over the place.

He obviously hasn't earned the #1 jersey yet, but an entire season of Notre Dame-like performances would.

And I know some were only in the spring game, but in Roundtree's limited experience, how many more "long passes" could he catch? He had a long one from Forcier in the 2009 spring game, a 97-yard TD catch from Robinson in the 2010 spring game, a 76-yard catch from Forcier in the Illinois game, the breakaway TD against Notre Dame this year, the near GW touchdown against MSU last year...

I'm asking because I really don't know, but did Braylon Edwards ever have a 76+ yard catch? I don't remember one, but it's possible...

Anyway, if Roundtree continues his performances from the last few games, he should be #1 in 2011.

But we're talking about a player who has only played in about 8 games. So we have to go on what we've seen. But in that limited time (as I said) he's got a 76-yarder and a 31-yard TD against ND. He was also wide open deep against ND and could have scored another TD if Denard would have lofted the ball over Manti Te'o rather than throwing it on a line.

You're saying he's not a deep threat, but I gave you several examples of him catching LONG passes in competitive situations. How many long passes does he have to catch before you give him credit for being able to make big plays?

It's funny that you're telling me to relax when your last post said this:

C'mon now...you know spring games don't count. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that we're now throwing passes, almost exclusively, in the 5-15 yard range.

But I'm the disagreeable one, right?

Anyway, your argument continues to fail because Roy Roundtree's catch against Illinois last season was not a 2-yard pass turned into a 76-yard catch-and-run. It was a downfield pass that he caught and kept running.

And seriously, if you don't think the #1 jersey should go to a receiver that was on pace for 90 catches, 1,170 yards and 6 touchdowns (Roundtree's pace over the last few games last year), then you need to rethink your interpretation of the wide receiver position.

Like I said, your "deep threat" receivers never caught passes as long as the one Roundtree did last season. So your barb up above that says Martavious Odoms should be neck-and-neck with Roundtree? Not quite accurate.

But how about this? In your interpretation, not even Anthony Carter and Braylon Edwards were worthy of wearing the #1 jersey. So who's the one being ridiculous here?

I can't see many people being upset if RR give RR the #1. As I understand it, the #1 is supposed to go to the receiver that (1) is a kick ass wide receiver, and (2) exemplifies the good, warm and fuzzy qualities of a Michigan Man.

There is no indication that Roy does not satisfy qualification #2. Roy is a great guy who busts his ass for Michigan football. As to #1, well, RR has come up big game after game since the middle of last season. He is our most consistent WR, and while he doesn't have the Braylonesque ability to leap over tall buildings and come down with the ball all while keeping a toe in bound, he will lead the team in # of catches.

Maybe? I feel dirty after each one ("why can't I be more like John Hollinger? Why can't I be more like John Hollinger! Stupid, stupid, stupid!") and silently resolve never to write one again until the next time. What can I say? It's rageohol. Rageohol is gooooood. One general principle is that once I have eviscerated someone for excessive stupidity I institute a ban on further ripping unless something really egregious comes up. A partial list of these people:

"Look, guys. It's great to want to change the way sports reporting gets done. There's a lot of it that is maddeningly lazy. But to do it you're going to have to break down some film or explain some concepts or analyze some numbers. Waving your hands and talking about how some coach showing up changes everything does not qualify as a revolution. I can get that from anyone. The Emperor's New Punditry ain't gonna cut it."

Word, Cook.

(bolding mine)

Also: how long did you refer to yourself as "mgoblog" on your own blog? I'm pretty sure it was gone by '07...

Lets all hold off on the #1 jersey talk this early into the season. You have to do a lot more than a few good ( not great ) catches in TWO games early in the season. I like Roundtree as much as the next guy but lets just wait and see how his season goes. I mean I dont even know if he's the best receiver on the team, Junior (when healthy). The #1 jersey is a pretty special thing and just because its been a while since we've had a guy wear it, doesn't mean we need to rush into giving it away like a fat chick on prom night. Good luck to Roundtree and any other receivers this year towards the #1.

First off, that was made more towards the MgoBlog community than Brian, second, I completely agree with you that it'll be very hard to put up Braylon type number in this offense ( although that might change when D. Gardner takes over). All Im saying is he had one nice game with 8 reps. for 81 yards ( with 31 coming from a play in which no one was covering him), which makes 9 reps. for 80 yards in two game ( yeah he had -1 against UConn ). Is Roundtree the frontrunner because of an early start ( and what he did last year ) yeah but lets see if he can continue it through some of the tougher games ( MSU, WIS, Penn, and OSU). I'd love to see him earn and wear the #1, but based on some of the comment here I think some people really just want to see that #1 come back . Again hopefully Roundtree or someone else can step their game up and prove worthy of it. I think we're going to see the passing game really open up down the road.

Freshman soony saad is a beast. National team potential. Coach burns hasn't always done the best job but he's done a great job recruiting and should compete for a big ten title this year. If he doesn't, his job shouldn't be looking so safe. There is too much talent this year between wood, marem, and the saad brothers as well as the freshman fabio. This is the year they should finally break through. Anything less than a top three finish would be a disappointment.

...the content of the HP article, putting aside his fake prediction from 5 years ago? He uses HS 100m dash times in 2009 to argue that Robinson has elite athletic ability, and says he is basically the first "elite" athlete to play QB in a modern spread option.

"perhaps you recall the 1995 15-yard catch against UVA to win the game"

Recall it? I'm glad someone else does! I was there, front row, cheering loud and playing the Victors louder. He caught tht right in front of the band! An unbelievable catch, comeback and win in Lloyd's first game as head coach. Also, never been happier to see a receiver drop a pass like Butterfield (I think?) did on the play just before that. If he catches that, the time runs out on UM.

"If you shoot me, you're liable to lose a lot of those humanitarian awards."