Sit Down And SHUT UP!

Steve Majors of Dexter is angry and isn't going to go to Michigan games anymore. He claims family at the U going back eight decades. To read his full list of gripes, check out his letter this week to the Ann Arbor News. What seems to be his main problem is as follows:

My second gripe is the fact that season ticket holders do not come to the games. I sit in Section 42, Row 70, and 90 percent of the fans are not the same every week. Everyone stands up for each play and I miss every good play - why? My suggestion is to shut up and sit down. If everyone would have some game day etiquette, we could all see the game. The entire student section stands the whole game - I'm glad I'm not over there.

It's good to know that the loudness is still contained in particular ghettos. Very polite, those Big House traditionalists. If you invite other teams to your place, it's just rude to talk and stuff when they are trying to run their offense.

Please reconsider, Mr. Majors. You're my kind of Michigan Man. I bet you don't even rattle your keys.

Predictions -- Week 6

Finally a recovery last week. The disappointments were NC State deciding against all odds to be the first team NOT to treat Louisville's defense like a pinball machine, and also Ohio inexplicably deciding to not only not cover, but actually lose at home to Kent State. Otherwise, Washington, South Florida, North Carolina, Iowa State and Northwestern all performed happily above expectations.

This 5-2 performance gets me decidedly out of Charlie Weis territory and fighting for a bowl bid.

Season vs spread: 12-13 (.480)

This week, the lines look pretty reasonable. Kind of a reach to find some that looked out of whack. But I'll go out on a limb and try four. All against the BETUS.COM line as listed on ESPN this evening (Wednesday)...

Eastern Michigan @ Michigan -31.5
This just never gets old. Northwestern threatened to beat Michigan while giving me 17 pts last week. And now there's no Mario Manningham, and banged up Chad Henne, and.... um... there's also Appalachian State.
Eastern Michigan, getting 31.5

Wisconsin @ Illinois -2.5
Illinois is favored? Fine, they're better than last year. Yes, they beat a Penn State team that appears to have no offense. I just don't believe all of the Illinois hype yet.
Wisconsin, getting 2.5

South Florida @ Florida Atlantic +16.5
Unlike Illinois, I was ready to buy the USF hype before the season started. I've had them ranked in my top 10 for weeks, and I picked them to beat West Virginia last week. They may be the Big East champs and the best team in Florida. I suspect that the wild crowd from Tampa from the night game against West Virginia will make the trip to invade FL-Atlantic's home venue. This will basically be home game for USF and they win by at least 17.
South Florida, giving 16.5

Stanford @ Southern California -40
The USC spreads are getting sillier by the week. They may go undefeated, win the national title, and be 0-13 against the spread.
Stanford, getting 40

Carr, ranked teams, and losses

Michigan's defeat of Penn State led some to defend Coach Carr on the basis of his record against Top-10 teams, while others said that those stats were cherry picked. This led me to tabulate all games that Carr has coached against teams that were either ranked at the time, ranked at the end of the year, or both. I also tabulated all losses no matter whether the opponent was or finished ranked. The results follow and then I set out some interesting bullet points.

Carr-coached UM versus ranked teams and all losses

1995

Date	Score	Opponent	M @ time	O at time	M final	O final
08-26	W 18-17	Virginia	14	17	17	16
09-02	W 38-14	@ Illinois	13	25	17	-
10-07	L 13-19	Northwestern	07	25	18	08
11-04	L 25-28	@ MSU	07	-	17	-
11-18	L 17-27	@ PSU	12	19	17	13
11-25	W 31-23	Ohio State	18	02	17	06
12-28	L 20-22	Alamo - TAM	14	19	17	15

1996

Date	Score	Opponent	M @ time	O at time	M final	O final
09-14	W 20-13	@ Colorado	11	05	20	08
10-05	L 16-17	@ Northwestern	06	22	20	15
11-09	L 03-09	@ Purdue	09	-	20	-
11-16	L 17-29	PSU	16	11	20	07
11-23	W 13-09	@ Ohio State	21	02	20	02
1-1-97	L 14-17	Outback – Bama	15	16	20	11

1997

Date	Score	Opponent	M @ time	O at time	M final	O final
09-13	W 27-03	Colorado	14	08	01	-
10-18	W 28-24	Iowa	06	15	01	-
10-25	W 23-07	@ Michigan State	05	15	01	-
11-08	W 34-08	@ Penn State	04	02	01	16
11-15	W 26-16	@ Wisconsin	01	23	01	-
11-22	W 20-14	Ohio State	01	04	01	09
1-1-98	W 21-16	Rose – Wash. State	01	08	01	09

1998

Date	Score	Opponent	M @ time	O at time	M final	O final
09-05	L 20-36	@ Notre Dame	05	22	12	22
09-12	L 28-38	Syracuse	13	17	12	25
11-07	W 27-00	Penn State	22	09	12	17
11-14	W 27-10	Wisconsin	15	08	12	06
11-21	L 16-31	@ Ohio State	11	07	12	02
1-1-99	W 45-31	Citrus – Arkansas	15	11	12	16

1999

Date	Score	Opponent	M @ time	O at time	M final	O final
09-04	W 26-22	Notre Dame	08	16	05	-
09-25	W 21-16	@ Wisconsin	04	20	05	04
10-02	W 38-12	Purdue	04	11	05	25
10-09	L 31-34	@ Michigan State	03	11	05	07
10-23	L 29-35	Illinois	09	-	05	24
1-1-00	W 35-34	Orange – Bama	08	05	05	08

2000

Date	Score	Opponent	M @ time	O at time	M final	O final
09-16	L 20-23	@ UCLA	03	14	11	-
09-23	W 35-31	@ Illinois	10	19	11	-
09-30	W 13-10	Wisconsin	09	17	11	23
10-07	L 31-32	@ Purdue	06	-	11	13
11-04	L 51-54	@ Northwestern	12	23	11	-
11-18	W 38-26	@ Ohio State	19	12	11	-
1-1-01	W 31-28	Citrus – Auburn	17	20	11	18

2001

Date	Score	Opponent	M @ time	O at time	M final	O final
09-08	L 18-23	@ Washington	11	15	20	19
09-29	W 45-20	Illinois	17	22	20	12
10-13	W 24-10	Purdue	12	17	20	-
11-03	L 24-26	@ Michigan State	06	-	20	-
11-24	L 20-26	Ohio State	11	-	20	-
1-1-02	L 17-45	Citrus – Tennessee	17	08	20	04

2002

Date	Score	Opponent	M @ time	O at time	M final	O final
08-31	W 31-29	Washington	12	11	09	-
09-14	L 23-25	@ Notre Dame	07	20	09	17
10-12	W 27-24	Penn State	13	15	09	16
10-26	L 09-34	Iowa	08	13	09	08
11-23	L 09-14	@ Ohio State	12	02	09	01
1-1-03	W 38-30	Outback – Florida	12	22	09	-

2003

Date	Score	Opponent	M @ time	O at time	M final	O final
09-13	W 38-00	Notre Dame	05	15	06	-
09-20	L 27-31	@ Oregon	03	22	06	-
10-04	L 27-30	@ Iowa	09	23	06	08
10-10	W 38-35	@ Minnesota	20	17	06	20
10-25	W 31-03	Purdue	13	10	06	18
11-01	W 27-20	@ Michigan State	11	09	06	-
11-22	W 35-21	Ohio State	05	04	06	04
1-1-04	L 14-28	Rose – USC	04	01	06	01

2004

Date	Score	Opponent	M @ time	O at time	M final	O final
09-25	W 30-17	Iowa	17	-	14	08
10-09	W 27-24	Minnesota	14	13	14	-
10-23	W 16-14	@ Purdue	13	12	14	-
11-20	L 21-37	@ Ohio State	07	-	14	20
1-1-05	L 37-38	Rose – Texas	07	-	14	20

2005

Date	Score	Opponent	M @ time	O at time	M final	O final
09-10	L 10-17	Notre Dame	03	20	-	09
09-24	L 20-23	@ Wisconsin	14	-	-	15
10-01	W 34-31	@ Michigan State	-	11	-	-
10-08	L 20-23	Minnesota	21	-	-	-
10-15	W 27-25	Penn State	-	18	-	03
10-29	W 33-17	@ Northwestern	25	21	-	-
11-19	L 21-25	Ohio State	17	09	-	04
12-28	L 28-32	Alamo – Nebraska	20	-	-	24

2006

Date	Score	Opponent	M @ time	O at time	M final	O final
09-16	W 47-21	@ Notre Dame	11	02	08	17
09-23	W 27-13	Wisconsin	06	-	08	07
10-14	W 17-10	@ Penn State	04	-	08	24
11-18	L 39-42	@ Ohio State	02	01	08	02
1-1-07	L 18-32	Rose – USC	03	08	08	04

2007

Date	Score	Opponent	M @ time	O at time	M final	O final
09-01	L 32-34	Appalachian St.	05	-	??	??
09-22	W 14-09	Penn State	-	10	??	??

Bullets v. Top 10 at the time

· Carr won his first 9 games against such opponents

· His first loss, 16-31, was on 11-21-98 @ Ohio State .

· Since the first 10 games, Carr split the next 14 giving him a total record of 16-8.

· The longest losing streak was 3 (04 Rose versus USC, 05 Rose versus Texas and the 2005 OSU game (21-25 at Ann Arbor)).

· Carr is 8-1 at home; 6-3 on the road; and 2-4 in bowls

· Carr is 2-1 when Michigan was higher ranked than its opponent and 14-7 when lower ranked.

· Michigan is 5-4 versus non conference opponents (0-2 v. USC; 2-0 v. Colorado; 1-0 v. Alabama; 1-0 v. Notre Dame; 0-1 v. Tennessee; 0-1 v. Texas; and 1-0 v. Washington State) and 11-4 versus conference foes (4-4 v. OSU; 4-0 v. PSU; 1-0 v. MSU; 1-0 v. Purdue; and 1-0 v. Wisconsin).

· Records versus - #1 0-2; #2 4-1; #3 0-0; #4 2-0; #5 2-0; #6 1-1; #7 0-1; #8 3-2; #9 2-1; and #10 2-0.

Bullets v. Top 10 at end of season

· Carr is 11-14 in such games.

· The longest winning streak was 3 (96 OSU, 98 Rose Bowl versus WSU, and 98 Wisconsin).

· The longest losing streak was 4 (02 Citrus versus Tennessee, 02 Iowa, 02 OSU, and 03 Iowa).

· Carr is 6-5 at home; 3-5 on the road; and 2-4 in bowls.

· Michigan is 2-1 when finishing higher ranked than its opponent and 9-12 when it finished with a lower rank.

· Michigan is 3-5 versus non conference foes (1-0 v. Alabama; 1-0 v. Colorado; 0-1 v. Notre Dame; 0-1 v. Tennessee; 0-1 v. Texas; 0-2 v. USC; and 1-0 v. Washington State) and 8-9 versus conference foes (1-2 v. Iowa; 0-1 v. MSU; 0-1 v. Northwestern; 3-4 v. OSU; 1-1 v. PSU; and 3-0 v. Wisconsin).

· Records versus #1 0-2; #2 1-2; #3 1-0; #4 2-3; #5 0-1; #6 2-1; #7 1-2; #8 3-2; #9 1-1; and #10 0-0.