Hail to the Victors

It's almost kickoff for the Gophers vs. Bowling Green, a game I most certainly am not going to watch, but I wanted to mention the big upset, Appalachian St over Michigan.

The App State coach did pretty much everything he did to lose this game. On App's final drive, they had the ball at the five, on a hash mark, with 26 seconds left and Michigan had 1 timeout remaining. The went ahead and kicked the go ahead field goal right then and there.

What? Why? Can anyone explain that to me? Run a play to the middle of the field. Result = easier kick, Michigan uses it's last timeout. Then, run a kneel down to start the clock. Line up under center, wait until about 6 seconds left, and spike the ball. Then kick the field goal with 3 or 4 seconds left, so Michigan won't get the ball back. Worried about kicking on fourth down and a bad snap? Won't matter, you don't have any timeouts anyway.

Then, once Michigan got the ball back, how the hell does Henne complete a 46 yard pass to Manningham, against one-on-one coverage! The safety wasn't anywhere around that play, which tells me there clearly weren't enough safeties back. Prevent defense is there to prevent big plays - like 46 yard bombs with time running out when you are up by 1.

He was bailed out by the blocked field goal, and no doubt, this might be the biggest upset of all-time. I can't think of anything in my lifetime that compares to this. However, if that field goal isn't blocked, the story isn't the upset of all upsets, it's the bonehead coach. I have no idea what the coaches name is, but I'm going to assume it's Glen Mason. Or Dan Monson.

Congrats though Mountaineers, I was rooting for you.

I plan to Tivo the Gopher game and watch it tomorrow. I'm sure it'll be thrilling - although I am very interested to see Weber.