It's the offseason. Michigan Football isn't praticing. Michigan Basketball is quiet. Bill Martin's out sailing. There is nothing going on. No player felonies to report. No coach's hilariously minor violations of NCAA rules to mock (save Kiffin, but we'll leave that to the SEC guys). Recruiting's kinda quiet and there are only so many times we can watch the video of a monkey sniffing its own butt. Just kidding. We laugh hysterically every time. But all this free time causes our minds to wander, and these are the things we think about...

It's time for a Godzillatron at Michigan Stadium

Yeah. You heard me. At Michigan we pride ourselves on accumulating the best sports enthused nerds on the planet. They're engineers with a football problem. They pack Michigan Stadium with mental charts of run direction percentages and optimum downfield pass (>15 yards) scenarios. When they're not in the Stadium or playing World of Warcraft, they design things. Electrical things. Things that display objects with the clarity it would take a thousand naked eyes to fully absorb. They design and build things that can project a smilely face on the moon, but have to watch Michigan Football replays on this?

That ain't right. Especially when you realize Texas, TEXAS, Has this thing.

Behold the majesty of Godzillatron. All hail. It's the size of an office building. It's got more pixels than your skin has pores. The power it takes to run it on game day would keep all of Columbia well lit for two weeks. It is glorious. If a place like Texas, who cages their nerds and feeds them food pellets every time they design something, has something like this, what stopping us from building something better? Our nerds are free range. There are no organized nerd beatings in Ann Arbor. Hell. They run the damn place.

So lets put them to use.

I'm not talking about a Godzillatron like the one at Texas. No way. That's thinking small, baby. I want something that can be seen from space. Something that the people directly beneath it get a suntan from. Something so powerful you can watch the game clearly from two counties away. We can build it. We have the technology. We can make it bigger. Clearer. Awesomerer.

We've put ten seconds a lot of thought into this. We've even commissioned a reputable engineering firm five year-old with crayons to prepare an artists rendering of what the new scoreboard should, nay, WILL look like. Behold it's awesomeness.

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More photos » by John Raoux - AP

How bout a Bulldogs Wolverines matchup? You know you want it.(AP Photo/John Raoux)

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Please God, let this come to pass. Kyle. Doug. If this works out, you're tailgating with me. This may pave the way for my long held desire to party under the peach trees in Athens to actually come to fruition.

From Ryan Kartje of the Michigan Daily:

Some sources tell me that the Athletic Department is looking into a home game against the University of Georgia in 2010, one that would also bring the Wolverines to Athens in 2011.

Oh, if only. The Movement has been afoot since 2006, when Kyle first suggested the match up. It has been proclaimed dead. And now it is revived. I am hopeful, even if Kyle isn't.

HT: The Rivalry, Esq.

Going into the 2009 season there are three positions on the Michigan Defense that are causing a great amount of concern among the Michigan faithful. Cornerback. Safety. Defensive Tackle. All three of these positions have highly touted players starting for the Wolverines. All three of these positions are also an injury away from becoming an aneurysm inducing mess. In an effort to assuage those fears (or stoke them like coals in a furnace) we'll be taking a look at Michigan Football's positions of need, the quality in place, the replacements on the way, and recruits that hopefully will carry the load for Michigan going forward.

Defensive Tackle

If you're looking for an iconic photograph that basically encapsulates how Michigan fan feels about Michigan Football, you really need to look no further than the aftermath of Alan Branch planting Anthony Morreli in 2006.

The end of Times, via www.thewolverineblog.com

It's all there. Strength. Power. Devastation. Arrogance. This photo sums up both the expectations and historical results of Michigan Football. So, as emblematic as the Corner position has become for Michigan over the past couple of decades, Defensive Tackle may be a more apt symbol. Will Carr, Rob Renes, Alan Branch, Gabe Watson, Terrance Taylor, and the lot. Just like Michigan's football seasons, they've run the gambit from overachievers, to underachievers, to just what you'd expect, good or bad. If you're looking for a positional representation of Michigan's Football fortunes, look no further than Defensive Tackle.

Along those lines, the last two years have been down ones at Defensive Tackle. The talent was certainly there in the forms of Terrance Taylor, Will Johnson and Mike Martin. Unfortunately the results (save Martin) haven't been. Taylor was projected to be a second round pick in 2007, came back to a revamped (totally screwy) defense and wound up dropping into the fourth round after a disappointing senior season. Will Johnson, despite being one of the strongest guys on the team, never lived up to his billing. As a result, teams ran all over Michigan. Now you can't pin the failure of the run defense on these two guys. But the reality is they were serviceable at best for most of the year, with the occasional flash of brilliance. Regarding Martin, it appears he's got star written all over him. But that's easy to say when you're coming off the bench fresh mid game rather than starting.

While game play at the Defensive Tackle position has been adequate, it's impossible to classify Michigan's recruiting at this position as anything better. When you think about the spectacular flame out of Marques Slocum; the underdevelopment Renaldo Sagesse and Jason Kates (transfer); and the fact that we've moved Vince Helmuth from fullback to DT, well, you start to wonder what the hell is going on.

Defensive Tackle has been such a frustrating recruiting slot that John Ferrara, a DT recruit, is now on the opposite side of the ball as an Offensive Guard! I mean how screwy do things have to be when you move a player to a position of need, and his former position becomes the most dire on the team? However you want to read it, with the graduations of Taylor and Johnson Michigan was down to one starter worthy player, a handful of guys whom we really have no idea whether they'll provide any serviceable time, a converted fullback, and an all-star freshman in the mold of Terrence Taylor. In a word: Yikes.

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Going into the 2009 season there are three positions on the Michigan Defense that are causing a great amount of concern among the Michigan faithful. Cornerback. Safety. Defensive tackle. All three of these positions have highly touted players starting for the Wolverines. All three of these positions are also an injury away from becoming an aneurism inducing mess. In an effort to assuage those fears (or stoke them like coals in a furnace) we'll be taking a look at Michigan Football's positions of need, the quality in place, the replacements on the way, and recruits that hopefully will carry the load for Michigan going forward.

Cornerback

With the possible exceptions of quarterback and receiver, it's hard to imagine a position on the football field over the past twenty years that's been as quintessentially "Michigan" as the cornerback position. Ernest Shazor. Marlin Jackson. Leon Hall. Charles Woodson. When you thought about big names on the Michigan Defense, you naturally turned to the backfield to find them.  One of the main reasons those Michigan defenses piled up so many sack was the fact that opposing quarterbacks (usually) had no place to throw the ball.

Unfortunately for Michigan, the last two years have seen that reputation diminish substantially.  In 2007, Wolverine fans watched in horror as short slant after short slant turned into 50 yard plus touchdowns. Teams had no problems going deep on the Wolverines where only a few years before they wouldn't have dared. Part of the problem was recruiting. Michigan normally stockpiled highly rated DB recruits and threw them out when they were ready. But Michigan no longer had that luxury. Defensive backs and safeties were being recruited to become linebackers. Of the pure corners that were recruited, it was a 50/50 chance that they'd be boom or bust. In fact, Michigan took to taking players out of position and installing them at cornerback.

The result of this was talented athletes, like Morgan Trent, being forced to learn the position on the fly because the guys previously recruited for that position couldn't hack it or were being moved elsewhere. Certainly Michigan hit a homerun at corner recruiting, taking in both starting corners Donovan Warren (Jr.) and Boubacar Cissoko (So.) (both were consensus five star recruits), but depth is a huge issue for the Wolverines heading into 2009 and 2010. Looking at Michigan's depth chart, there are no junior backups. No sophomore backups (however JT Floyd is a red-shirt frosh who came in with Cissoko). The second line of defense is comprised entirely of freshmen.

Like it or not, the Wolverines are an injury away from a crisis at corner. Though Warren and Cissoko legitimately have the talent and ability to be 1^st Team All Big Ten, Michigan's primary corner backup is a kid that's not even on campus yet (though he may have arrived by now - ed.), Justin Turner.

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Hey folks. I'm running a tad behind today. Happy Hour will be up in the afternoon. In the meantime enjoy these Michigan Penn State 2005 highlights. - ed.

So Phil Steele has predicted a few things about the 2009 Michigan Wolverines ....

"In his simulation of the 2009 season, Michigan had the most improved offense in the country."

Woo!  Wait, even if we improve 50 spots we're still what... 54th?  Oh.

"Michigan is his only Big Ten contender that has to play all of the other six."  

Doh... 

In other news, here's a brief assortment of random questions, feel free to provide me with answers.

1. Why do Purdue fans count to four after a first down?  I get on this soapbox time and again and I have yet to see a satisfying answer.

2. Why doesn't Indiana build a BIGGER drum?  I contest that if that were a true rivalry, the drum-arms-race would have reached an epic level by this time.

via 1.bp.blogspot.com

3.  Why don't punters use the "coffin corner" anymore?

Eight... I repeat EIGHT minutes on how to properly kick a coffin corner punt on NCAA '09, using cardinal directions nonetheless.

More punting you ask?  SURE!

4.  Why does the collegiate football have the white stripes on it while the NFL ball does not?  

via i184.photobucket.com 

via www.webconsuls.com

5.  Why?  

via www.blackshoediaries.com

With all the high powered offenses Michigan's had over the last few years it's amazing to think that none of them have come close to the shellacking the Wolverines put on Illinois back in '81. Think about that. in '81 we had the first shuttle launch, Muhammad Ali's last fight, the attempted Reagan assination, and Mettalica had just gotten together (yes, they're that old).

The game itself, outside of the score, had some meaning to the Michigan Football Faithful. Text and video from Wolverine Historian:

It was the first home game since the death of the legendary Bob Ufer who passed away just 12 days earlier. The fans payed tribute to Bob with a moment of silence.

Illinois stormed out to a 21-7 lead and was threatening to go up 28-7 with the ball in the Michigan red zone. But from there... well... enjoy.

Real life is intervening right now folks. But just to keep you entertained here's a favorite you tube of mine, courtesy of Wolverine Historian. The 1999 Citrus Bowl. You might recognize a few of the players.