Gameday Recap

Week Twelve
November 17, 2007
Ann Arbor, Michigan - Ohio State vs. Michigan

Big 10 title on the line, but surely this can't be the hype machine it would've been had both OSU and UofM not lost last week? Please? At least there's a massive crowd on hand, unlike last weekend. I bet I won't be able to pick out the same person in the crowd twice, let alone 45 times.

• Maybe I'll be able to spot those guys wearing pop-pom skirts and no shirts more than once.
• Desmond Howard opens on the set, first time for a while. Balancing Herbstreit?
• Desmond offers gifts to the crew - Bo Schembechler's posthumously published book.
  
• Nice hat, Kirk. Signing up with Elliot Ness?
• Corso tells us that it's gun season for deer, and if you need to do outdoor chores, do it during the Michigan-Ohio State game, because most hunters will be watching the game. Or something like that... it made little sense.
• Second time ever that OSU and UofM both enter the game off a loss.
  
• Fowler says maybe OSU can win and sit back and back into the BCS Title Game. Not sure whether this is narrative building or if it's a slight (why would OSU "back in"? - there are only so many teams with 1 loss - if the math favors OSU, then it favors OSU and they wouldn't "back in").
• That's crazy how OSU has only played in 1 Rose Bowl since 1985.
  
• Corso then says that OSU would have a good bid for the BCS title game if they win, and Herbstreit naturally agrees with the argument.
  
• Then Herbstreit tells us how hard players in the Michigan-Ohio State game will be playing, and Howard agrees. Question - do they play harder than the DIII guys they bragged about last week?

First Commercial Break

• Highlights from Hawaii-Nevada.
  
• Highlights from Oregon-Arizona.
  
• Fowler talks about how sad it is that Dixon got hurt, and how that may affect his Heisman status. Corso also says that Dixon was his Heisman pick and that Oregon will suffer greatly. Herbstreit also says Dixon was the Heisman frontrunner. Why not still vote for him?
• They do the Saturday Slate after the first break this time (too much Ohio State-Michigan talk to fit it in?)
• Interesting way they framed the Oklahoma-Texas Tech game - using the last time they played in Lubbock and bad officiating and how the respective coaches have responded to bad calls recently.
  
• Corso thinks Texas Tech-OU might be a high scoring game (out on a limb there!), but also likes TTU's chances, but not enough to pick them.
• Fowler points out that Texas Tech's passing game isn't that great against Oklahoma in recent years.
• Internet poll says Kansas had the best chance of losing yesterday (won huge), Oklahoma had the worst chance of losing (lost).
  

Second Commercial Break

• ACC talk. Fowler calls the ACC a microcosm of college football - inconsistency, messy.
• BC-Clemson.
  
• Radio clips on Clemson and their yo-yo tendency.
  
• Herbstreit: "Clemson plays in the ACC, but their fans are from the SEC." Then he breaks down Clemson's defense. Then picks Clemson.
• Corso likes Cullen Harper for All-ACC QB. Then he gets Clemson's ACC record wrong (says they're 5-1 and will be 6-1).
• Fowler walks back the others on Clemson, saying not to underestimate Matt Ryan.
• Miami-VT. Fowler says "you have to question Miami's heart."
• Corso recommends Miami players go see the Wizard of Oz and find a heart.
  
• Herbstreit says the fact that recruits are questioning the efforts of Miami players is a good thing for Miami and Shannon is on the right track because someone like Ray Lewis would also question the efforts of players. Newsflash, Kirk: those recruits might not go to Miami because of what they saw on the field. That's not exactly a good thing, or a reason to think Shannon is on the right path.
• The entire set thinks the Miami-UVa result the previous week looks even worse because UVa doesn't blow anyone out.

Third Commercial Break

• Energizer Spirit Meter - 109 dB. Last week's number was total BS.
  
• Extended Piece on Mohawks. Greg Garber reporting. Lord, this is totally useless. For a while, I thought they'd given up on doing these BS pieces. Les Miles thinks mohawks are the result of not having enough money for a full haircut. Is it a surprise that USF is the site of the most mohawks, considering that Tampa is home to the most "clippers on the side, but leave it long on top and in the back" mullets than anywhere south of Ontario?
• Fowler mentions how the Michigan fans cheered when Les Miles was on camera.

Fourth Commercial Break

• Game Face: Guy dressed in X-Men Wolverine costume. Nice work.
• Yale-Harvard talk.
  
• Wired!!! with Yale's coach. That stray ear hair on the coach disturbs me.
  
• Duke-Notre Dame talk. Fowler admits that it's the first matchup of 1-9 teams ever discussed on Gameday.
  
• Fowler: "this Duke-ND game is fairly evenly matched".
  
• Interviews with Duke players. Note to other terrible programs: if you want some publicity, no matter how bad you are, play Notre Dame (no matter how bad they are).
• Show offensive stats of Duke and ND - good lord that's terrible.
• Howard is back on the set.
• Howard says it's comical that Weis isn't getting more scrutiny from the national media because the team isn't improving from week to week.
• Corso (without irony!) says that (a) the national media IS getting on Weis, but (b) Weis deserves a free pass because he took ND to two [undeserved] BCS bowl berths. Apparently Corso isn't a part of the national media, and he's an idiot.
• Herbstreit says Weis is getting a free pass from the national media, says that were Willingham or Davie 1-9, SportsCenter would devote full episodes to the crisis. Says Weis is getting a free pass because of Super Bowls and a supposedly great recruiting class, but thinks the heat should be hotter.
• Fowler says lots of other coaches (Robinson at Syracuse, Orgeron, etc) are feeling heat, with better records than Weis and at smaller programs than ND.

Fifth Commercial Break

• Highlights of Colerain-St. Xavier high school game in Southern Ohio
• Cincinnati-WVU.
  
• Semi-extended piece on Owen Schmitt. Nobody named as reporting. I thought they did a piece on this guy a year or two ago. This is new material, though.
  
• Herbstreit ably points out the difficulty in defending WVU's various talented offensive players. Nails the pick too.
• Corso likes Cincy because the spread seems low and WVU is ranked a lot higher.
  

Sixth Commercial Break

• Big Ten segment - lists a lot of those odd Big Ten rivalry trophies.
• Tom Rinaldi joins the set (where only Fowler remains) to talk about his extended piece on Indiana and Terry Hoeppner's legacy.
• Rinaldi sets up the next segment, as everyone else has left the set to go inside the stadium

Seventh Commercial Break

• Lots of commercials and longer breaks than usual, it seems.
• Should I know who the preacher guy is who is hyping Michigan-Ohio State far far far more than the game deserved?
  
• When they went inside the stadium at the season opener at VT, Fowler couldn't stop talking about how emotions were building. Now, he's already said twice how the "excitement is building".
  
• Some talk about Lloyd Carr's legacy at Michigan.
  
• Corso tells us that he thinks the OSU game would be Carr's last regular season game (apparently unaware of Brian Cook's story breaking), praises Carr's getting contract extensions for his assistants.
• Herbstreit rambles about Carr reaching out to players on a personal level.
• Desmond Howard is outside with a few other UofM former players, who say nothing.

Eighth Commercial Break

• Shots of Sly Croom firing up the Miss State faithful, then clips of LSU destroying them.
• Arkansas-Miss State talk. Interview with Croom.
  
• Corso tells us that he relates a lot to Croom because, in case you didn't know, Corso used to be a coach and had limited success on the field, but supposedly had great relationships with players and staff.
• Herbstreit also talks about character and backbone and perseverence, etc.
• LSU-Ole Miss. Highlights of last year's game, where LSU struggled greatly. Fowler hints that Ole Miss might sneak up on LSU. Herbstreit thinks LSU will get the job done because they've seen other highly ranked teams lose. Corso, on the other hand, thinks LSU has been living on the edge and could struggle against a team that can throw the ball.
• Corso also adds that he thinks Oklahoma is better than LSU. For those of you keeping score at home, this is a reversion to his original statement about Oklahoma, after a week or two of a flirtation with Oregon being the best team in the nation. Who knows what he'll say next week.
• Tennessee-Vandy. Herbstreit thinks Tennessee doesn't lose focus.
• Georgia-Kentucky. Fowler calls Georgia the best 2 loss team in the country. Herbstreit apologizes to Georgia fans (seriously) for "being the last to the party" and refers to the Tennessee loss as "spooking" him. Also says that if UGA plays LSU, UGA will win if they keep up the intensity or something.
• Corso and Herbstreit both think Tennessee will have more trouble with Kentucky than Vandy.

Ninth Commercial Break

• Shots of the Michigan band, Mike Hart getting taped. Seems like there are a lot of meaningless, contentless simple shots of pregame routines. They could spend a whole lot more time breaking down the actual game (or talk about a few other games).
• Quick history of teams unranked in the preseason finishing high in polls as segue into Kansas talk.
• Todd Reesing talk. Desmond Howard interviews him on his Hello Heisman segment. Useful stuff in here - mainly focusing on visibility of a shorter QB with a big O line.
• Howard then muddies things a bit - compares Todd Reesing sending his own highlight tape to colleges to rappers sending demo tapes to record labels or something like that.
• Fowler and graphics make some statements about Kansas - and how they haven't played anyone good.
  
• Herbstreit says Kansas is good even though he knows they haven't played anyone good.
  
• Corso is more certain - says Kansas doesn't deserve to be #2 because their schedule is so bad. Then he walks it back by saying Kansas could be OK if they end up beating Missouri and Oklahoma.
• Fowler says that it's now starting to rain and cites Guns N Roses.

Tenth Commercial Break

• Injury news on Mike Hart, sort of. They need to do more informative injury updates.
• Extended previews on player matchups - QB vs. QB, etc. Not so much detailed information as "these are the guys whose names you'll hear later".
• Corso talks about Michigan's need to throw the ball deep and well - because of how important it is to beat OSU. Corso also says that OSU isn't out of the National Title picture.
• The key to the game according to Corso: "which coaching staff lets their players play". Instead of mocking such an empty cliche, Herbstreit says Corso is "exactly right".
• Herbstreit says that Ohio State has relied on adding wrinkles, but then the highlights pretty much show good decisionmaking against Michigan's defense (picking out the right matchups, etc).

Eleventh Commercial Break

• Lisa Salters provides some more injury updates - including news from the parents of Henne and Hart.
• Pontiac Game Changer. Corso - Sam Bradford. Herbstreit - Pat White. Fowler - Juice Williams. Herbstreit wins.
  
• Saturday Stupid Selections: Corso: Maryland, Clemson, Cincinnati, Oklahoma, Yale. Herbstreit: Clemson, Duke.
  
• Herbstreit calls the Texas Tech upset, and got almost all the picks right.
  
• Keep Corso away from the picks this week. He kept mentioning weird spreads as if that was an intelligent way to pick games.

Next week in Kansas City for Missouri-Kansas. Lots of great games next week, so let's hope for an information-driven show, rather than lots of extended pieces and meaningless segments.