Blog Swap with Wolverineblog...

So, as we have been doing every chance we get, we have a blog swap with the opponent.  This week, we have Ace from Wolverineblog, who was gracious enough to answer some questions about the Wolverines.  He asked me some, which you can see here.


1. Michigan seems to have a track record of underperfoming against non-BCS and FCS teams. What do you attribute that to?

Outside of the Appalachian State loss, which exposed Michigan's defensive staff at the time as one that had a lot of trouble handling the spread offense, I wouldn't say Michigan underperforms against non-BCS and FCS teams. It's more an issue of the team just not being that good, period, the last few years. Last week's game against UMass was just another example of that -- this defense just isn't very good. If you look at the track record pre-Rodriguez, Michigan always took care of the lesser teams on their schedule. That isn't a knock against Rodriguez, who I think is a very good coach who was put in a very tough situation, just a reflection of the fact that these past few Wolverine squads haven't performed at a high level.

2. In a similar vein, it seems like Michigan rarely has good placekicking. With all that talent Michigan attracts, why do you think that is?

Again, I think this is a bit of a misconception. Michigan had decent walk-ons emerge at placekicker each of the last three seasons (K.C. Lopata in '07 and '08 and Jason Olesnavage in '09), and before that the team had a very solid four-year starter in Garrett Rivas. This year's team clearly has some major issues at kicker, which is surprising since redshirt freshman Brendan Gibbons was pretty highly touted coming out of high school. He hasn't performed, however, and no walk-on has stepped up like in the last three years. I really don't know what to attribute this to other than poor luck -- when you pull in the No. 8 kicker in the country, which is what Gibbons was rated, it's not crazy to expect him to hold down the job and perform well.

3. Denard Robinson is clearly a special player. Do you think that it will help him even more that no team in the Big 10 really runs the style of offense he does? Will it make him harder to prepare for?

It certainly helps Michigan that no other Big Ten squad runs as much of a run-heavy spread as Rich Rodriguez, but the biggest advantage is simply that it's impossible to prepare for a player who can run and throw like Robinson unless you have a comparable dual-threat player. Rodriguez's system isn't exactly difficult to figure out -- he bases everything off the zone read and adds a different wrinkle depending on how the other team decides to defend it. It becomes a game of Pick Your Poison, and Denard takes that to a different level by being a home run threat on every play.

4. Do you think Michigan will be in the top 10 by the end of next season?

I'd love to say yes, but I have too many doubts about the defense to make that kind of prediction. The secondary should improve as the freshmen safeties gain experience and senior corner Troy Woolfolk returns from injury, but Michigan must replace both inside linebackers (one who is decent, the other just not very good, but nobody has emerged behind them, which is disconcerting) and depth is still going to be a big issue. While the offense should be one of the best in the country, I still think U-M is two years away from fielding an all-around good team.