The Future: Michigan Football

This is an open letter to all Michigan football fans. Did you, by any chance, catch the Big Ten bowl season this past year? I know your team wasn't involved so maybe you didn't care, but what you don't know ought to scare you.

In the Rose Bowl, Ohio State held Oregon's offense to its worst performance of the season. Do you know Oregon's offense? You should, because it looks a lot like what RichRod is trying to install at Michigan. The problem is that you probably can't expect to find guys faster and better suited for that offense than Jeremiah Masoli and LaMichael James. But Ohio State's defense held them to 260 (260!) total yards and just 12 (12!) first downs.

Here's the deal, Michigan. Oregon had probably the best offense you could hope for, and Ohio State shut them down. Do you realize what this means for the future of Michigan football? It means you're not going to beat Ohio State as long as you're running the spread offense because Ohio State has figured out how to stop the spread.

Granted, it took a couple of years, but they figured it out. They can stop it. Sure, maybe you'll get a couple of big plays here and there, but for every 20 yard pass you're going to have 2 or 3 that go for no gain or a loss. And you just can't beat OSU with those ratios.

And in case you think this only applies to The Rivalry, look at what Iowa did to Georgia Tech, or what Wisconsin did to Miami, or what Penn State did to LSU. The simple truth is that nobody plays defense like the Big Ten Conference, and the defenses in the Big Ten know how to stop your offense.

Here's the point, Michigan. We need you. Heck, I'm a born Buckeye and I need you! I need you to be good again. I want more games like in 2006, not 2008. The Big Ten needs you to be good again. You're supposed to be right there with us, competing for conference and national championships every year. But it's not going to happen as long as you're running this gimmicky offense. If you want to be good again, you need to ditch RichRod. Sure, his game works in the Big East where football players are either fast or big or strong. But in the Big Ten, our guys have strength, size, and speed. I mean, have you seen Terrelle Pryor?