The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1155524
SEPTEMBER 2019 THE WOLVERINE 5 FROM OUR READERS In the 2019 football preview, I found two mistypes. The first game played against Notre Dame was won by Michigan 8-0, not won by Notre Dame (this was addressed by Jerry A. Fullmer in the August 2019 issue). The other mistype was on page 139 "First Meeting: U-M 34, OSU 0 (Oct. 16, 1987, at Ann Arbor)." The date is 1897, not 1987. I love The Wolverine, great writing and reporting. Blue Blood Runs Deep — Go Blue! John Hale Via the Internet Thanks for pointing those out and reading, Mr. Hale. You are correct on the numbers of Howard and Woodson, and you are not seeing things. We mistakenly pictured Todd Howard from 2001 with the note, and apologize for the embarrassing errors. DR. J'S FINAL LETTER Dear The Wolverine, After listening to TheWolverine. com Podcast with Jon Falk describing Rob Lytle's locker room pep talk fol- lowing a 16-14 loss to Purdue when Michigan was ranked No. 1 in the country, I was struck with a truism that was not new to me. That truism loosely states that great teams sometimes are beaten by teams of lesser talent. The lesser talented teams tap into some magical level of play and find a way to win. One might say that the same thing happened to the 2018 Purdue football team when it did exactly that and beat Ohio State handily in Lafayette, 49-20. The 2019 edition of the Michigan football team fills me with trepidation that frequently occurs at this stage of the year as we await the coming season. There are many changes that have occurred since 2018. A recitation of them is not necessary when ad- dressing The Wolverine audience. Significant coaching changes often take a while to mature. There are nu- merous examples to refute that ob- servation, among them the success that Brady Hoke and Jim Harbaugh experienced the first years of their re- spective tenures as head coaches at Michigan. Hoke beat a weakened Ohio State team that was adjusting to the loss of Jim Tressel, who was forced out by scandal in his program. Harbaugh lost to Ohio State in his first year. OSU was already enjoying the resur- gence under Urban Meyer. However, Michigan pummeled Florida to end what was considered a successful season. Perusal of the coming season in- dicates that Wisconsin at Madison is vulnerable. Penn State will be a chal- lenge at Happy Valley, but there is genuine hope for a win. Notre Dame at home looks like a toss-up, but I lean towards a win in The Big House. Michigan State is still re-tooling. MSU plays Michigan tough, but look for a win for the Maize and Blue. The other games on the schedule should end in the win column with the usual warnings about Maryland and pesky Indiana. How does one address the inevi- table question of when will Michigan beat Ohio State? This is the year, but one has to add that it will be neces- sary to find that magical level of play that lesser talented teams need to beat better teams. Is it a matter of team leadership or aggression that has been missing? Is there a Rob Lytle in the locker room? Or maybe the Josh Gattis effect? Or play every play, every game up to po- tential — the magical level! Go Blue! J. Richard Jaconette, M.D. Battle Creek, Mich. Unfortunately, Dr. J passed away Aug. 5 at the age of 84, following a brief illness. His son Mike was still able to pass along this letter, which we gladly print as a tribute to our most frequent correspondent in this section. In Mike's eulogy, he noted: "My father loved to write letters, and he wrote letters to his kids and to his grandkids. … In his later years, Dad also wrote letters to the editor of The Wolverine magazine. "I am here to tell you that it was like he was a little kid waiting by the mailbox to see if the latest edition of the magazine had his letter outlining the problems as he saw it with the football team and his solutions to those problems. … "He sometimes threw in that he was from the Med School Class of 1959 be- cause, as he told me, they're more likely to think that I know what I'm talking about if they know that I'm older." FROM OUR WEBSITE On U-M's 2019 offense … • Experienced OL, experienced QB, experienced WRs, strong talent in all three of those; RB may be lacking — we will see. We have an OL coach that showed strong improvement in the OL across the course of last season, which suggests we could see similar improvement in the offseason and further improvement during the season. The offensive coordinator is a WR coach with a strong history of producing excellent WRs who is be- ing given an outstanding trio of tal- ents. He produced a game plan that shredded our excellent defense and has, apparently, a history of produc- ing excellent game plans in other games. We may be lacking RB experience, though the talent seems like it could be there. Not much data on OC call- ing a game. Seems reasonable to be confident. jetcheve • I think our floor and ceiling are both very high based almost exclu- sively on what we have returning on offense. Also partner that with con- tinuity with offensive staff and with one defined play caller who appears to be a bright, innovative mind, and it's hard not to be really optimis- tic. He also appears to understand the importance of getting our ath- letes involved in the game plan. Oh and we do still have Jim Harbaugh around who knows a thing or two. My concern coming into this year is only slightly that I want to see it first and our depth in the secondary. tothevictors56 • Harbaugh and staff seem more concrete than ever in the OL. Great WRs plus an experienced and tal- ented QB returning. Defense will be great again. DL may start slow, but it's not starting off having to face an elite team right out the gate. TConrad76 Join The Conversation: 60 Day Free Trial Use Code BLUE60