Law Buck and I share quite a few similarities and interests (legal field, cigars, golf, cfb), but our closest bond is more philosophical than an actual tangible thing. We both like taking the most flavor out of life, making an experience out of normally dull or regular activities. Case in point - Out in Columbus one night for a routine beer, we stumbled upon old Miami friends. Instead of smiling our way through hurried "howareyas" and taking off, we ended up meeting their entire group of friends, knocking down a cigar outside and then retiring back to a townhouse where I tried Absinthe for the first time during an argument about the philosophical problems with Soviet Russia's government.

I say that to say this - College football is all about experiences. Downs and points are important, sure, but the 1000 other things that go into CFB is what makes it such a powerful drug. So in lieu of actual news, here are a couple of my favorite college football experiences that I witnessed live. Leave your own experiences, stories, cigar recommendations (those will be taken very seriously)...

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This is National Signing Day. Christmas. The day for which we recruitniks have been pining. The day that marks the culmination of a year or more of obsessive daily blog-checking, commentary, frustration, disappointment and elation. Most of all, especially in the case of Michigan fans, this day signifies Hope. After having suffered through the 2008 and 2009 seasons, marred by inappropriate personnel, youth and underachievement, we can once again look towards the future of Michigan football. Signing day gives us the opportunity to watch firsthand how Rich Rodriguez intends to build the program by stocking it with "his" type of players. As ESPN recruiting analyst Tom Luginbill aptly put it: 

"You don’t take a program that for years and decades and decades was based up strength, size and power, and then all of a sudden, with a 180-degree turn, hire a coach that’s going to be about speed, quickness and agility and change an 85-man roster over night," he said. "I don’t think that’s reality. I think that takes some time. I don’t think you can wave a magic wand."

True dat. Now that the future of Michigan football has been inked, having signed 27 student athletes to letters of intent, we can discuss the general trends that have arisen--both from this year and the previous two years of recruiting--in what RR is trying to with the program by examining the personnel he's gathering.

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As Michigan fans weep softly into the offseason, it's time to ponder the future of the Michigan signalcallers. Tate Forcier excited the world early by beating Notre Dame, but struggled to a 1-7 record in Big Ten play amidst fumbles and INT's. He's not fast like Pat White, he's careless with the ball...but he certainly plays with some panache and guile. Denard Robinson looked lost in the pocket, lightning fast outside of it. Two freshmen QB recruits, both suited for the RichRod Spread, are coming in...and both are quicker than Forcier.

So what to do? Not only does our resident Michigan writer GregGoBlue believe Forcier will be the de facto starter, but he also wants to move D-Rob to a position that will utilize his athleticism. I tend to disagree, believing the RichRod spread will ultimately be more successful with a speedster at the helm. Following is Greg's hypothesis...mine will come next week.

Tate's Just A Baby...

Tate Forcier's QB rating this season was insane. 123.6 for the entire season. He's remarkably accurate, though his arm strength clearly has a ceiling. But when he's on, he's really f****** on. See: ND Game, MSU Game, IU game. Tate's got the elusive IT to lead a late game comeback and to lead a team. Though he's not the ideal running threat, he's got great scrambling ability (like when he juked that ND LB out of his jock!).

...And he's the future too!

Tate also showed a remarkable propensity for freshman mistakes amid flashes of brilliance, which was expected. Holding onto the ball too long, not stepping into the pocket, making incorrect reads on the zone-blitz, holding onto the ball while scrambling like it was a loaf of bread, throwing into coverage, etc... The best things about these mistakes? They're all fixable. Outside of all these mistakes, Tate is a remarkably good QB. The best part? He's only going to get better. Hopefully these "arrrrrrgh, NO TATE NO!" moments will be mitigated next season as Tate spends more and more time under Rod Smith. Sure he's scrawny, but Barwis has often said the second year, not the first, is the year where players show the most development. But if anybody gets a solid hit on Tate, I fear for his life. Offensive tweakage to take advantage of the accuracy and less running? Fingers crossed. RR always said he wants 2 good quarterbacks who can run this offense. Who's the second? NOT Denard Robinson.

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The media has spoken, and they say that Donovan Warren, Brandon Graham and Zoltan Mesko (his royal punt-ness) are all Big Ten first team. 

It may come as a surprise to some that, for a team that finished 9th in the Big Ten in total D, two of the 11 best players in the Big Ten on D played for Meeechigan.

However, if you were a team that played against Meech this season, your chances are pretty good that your QB knows what Brandon Graham's breath smells like. Fear. With 25 tackles for loss, the senior defensive end led the Big Ten in that category, and generally pitched a tent in the opponents' backfield all season. He's a monster, as well as the very definition of a true Michigan Man for always playing his heart out during a nightmarish junior and senior season for Michigan football. With the requisite full Michigan bias, I also believe that Brandon Graham deserves to be an All American, and should be if all is well and right in the football universe. BG said in an interview that he cries after games, but then on Mondays went out and took care of business. He can wipe his tears with the enormous pile of money he's going to get as a first rounder's signing bonus.

Last season, D Warren had some "disagreements," with then D-coordinator Scott Shafer, a general whiny attitude along with fairly inconsistent play. This season he's really matured and has become a leader on the defense. He's finally playing at the level that was expected of him when he was ranked a unanimous 5-star prospect coming out of Long Beach, CA. D Warren's most telling influence this season can't really be quantified by a statistic, mostly because teams generally didn't throw at him. This was especially true when Boubacar Cissoko was playing (and a Michigan student, whoops!). Thank the sweet lord D Warren will most likely be back next season; our D needs the help. Well done, Donovan.

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Friday, 9:15 pm: I roll into Ann Arbor, meeting with Law Buck, his fiance, and two OSU law friends for a late dinner at Zingerman's Roadhouse. We sit down and are promptly given a free pile of sweet potato fries. We instantly suspect they are poisoned. They are in fact delicious, not poisoned. I would refer this restaurant to anyone venturing into Ann Arbor. The seafood was fantastic, the waiter was helpful, and the prices are low. Here is the website for Zingerman's Roadhouse. Dammit, did I just do a "Taste of the Town"?

Friday, 11:00 pm - 1:00 am: We get some decent cigars and smoke them hotbox style in my car. Guess what my car smells like in the morning? Yup, strawberries.

Saturday, 10:00 am: We round up the folks and I drop everyone off around the Big House so they can scalp tickets. I hear later that Law Buck's fiance played hardball with a scalper and got a great deal. Meanwhile, I park on Madison St, which is about a mile from the Stadium. I do this for two reasons: 1) I'm cheap. 2) I like to get exercise on days I can't go to the gym. The miles I have to walk to the Big House make up for the lack of gym visit.

Saturday, 11:00 am: I meet up with a Michigan Alum, Pete Shannon, who is tailgating on the golf course

Two Busch Lite's and one sloppy joe later, I roll over to the Clubhouse to meet with my Buckeye friends. We ride the wave of people through the gates, up the stairs and into our seats.

1:00 pm: I am optimistic about this game so far. The Wolverines are completing passes downfield and Tressel is playing not to lose on offense. For some reason, I am taking verbal abuse from two Michigan fans in front of me. They are perturbed that I am sitting with an Ohio State fan, my buddy Brad. After a great throw to Roundtree, one of the fans turns around and headbutts me, knocking me down on the bleachers into the people sitting behind. Everyone stands shocked - I keep my head and ask him to please calm down, I'm a Michigan fan.

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We're two full days into the bloodbath, and amidst a degenerate cycle of slurs and mind-games one thing has become painfully clear:

Michigan and its hot-shot counsel (Graham) don't seem to want to make this duel about the only thing that matters: the strength and weakness of the men who will take the field in four days.  So far we've heard ad nauseum about Ohio State's annoying traditions: Hang on Sloopy, the four corners state cheer, the O-H-I-O international salute, the violation of cars with Michigan license plates, and the sex-toys we wear around our necks, but when it comes to the proficiency of the Eleven Warriors, the opposition has been embarassingly mum.

Can you blame them?  it's been 2187 days since the team up north has tasted victory against the scarlet and gray.  In between, there's been five insufferable defeats, characterized by physical dominance, and lopsided spreads.  Half a decade of inconsistency and irrelevance has resulted in a sort-of Ann Arbor inferiority complex, marked by limited self-esteem, apathy, and doubt.  Yet, if the fear can be concentrated and spun into something moderately positive, it's the freedom that comes from low expectations, and the simple belief that it can't get much worse.  For a program that's reached rock-bottom, there's nowhere to go but up.

True.  But for a moment in time, let's move on from the stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) in hopes of turning this debate into something probative.  Yes, this is an olive branch of sorts from a Buckeye that's not just about kicking a rival when he's down.  I imagine myself storming into the basements where the hearts of Michigan fans have been hiding, streaming light into the darkness, and kicking past a pile of empty Miller Lite cans and grease-stained pizza boxes, to tug on the flannel-shirt shoulders, and unshaven faces of the fat, drunken, and disheveled enemies to demand they pull themselves together.

You, Wolverine have something to live for and that something is statistics.

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Bob Ufer, the paternalistic patriarch that commanded the airwaves for five decades in Ann Arbor, wrote a famous poem that likened Michigan's surprise 24-12 upset of the 1969 Ohio State Buckeyes -- a team Woody Hayes would later call his best -- to an ironic funeral procession: "Oh They Came to Bury Michigan, But Michigan Wasn't Dead."

Forty years later, I have to ask whether Ufer's resurrection merely prolonged the inevitable.  The once proud maize and blue has sunk into the soft wet earth, an expressionless program silenced by progress and frozen in time.  When I think of Michigan today I see a corpse -- a cruel, and unfamiliar face, hollow cavities soaked in iodine, and pale fists clenched in a lonely resolve. 

No, I don't really think the winningnest program in all of college football is really dead.  But I do think that some part of the past is gone forever.  The big shoulder pads, turf stuffed cleats, chalk hands, and thick necks of our great nemesis have been replaced with a skinny, Circus like array of silk-stockinged trapeze artists.  Michigan may soon be revived, but it will never be the UM I remember.

Here, in the cold fluorescence of the college football morgue, let's take a look at what's lacking in vital signs for our rival:

Class

The University of Michigan used to be a proud and well-groomed member of the college-football aristocracy.  Save for a few accusations of favorable admissions treatment, Ann Arbor coveted its status as a successful and straight program.

Recently, ESPN announced that a May internal audit revealed that Rich Rodriguez failed to keep mandatory logs of the time players spent on football during the 2008 season.  Before the season, the Detroit Free Press accused coaches of extending NCAA limits for practices and workouts. 

If last year's 3-9 effort, and this year's (current) 5-6 record are the fruits of illegal workouts, I'd hate to see what the maize and blue would look like on a normal weekly practice diet.

And as if that's not enough, Athletic Director Bill Martin recently admitted to pulling a few punches on naive student ushers who failed to recognize His Holiness en route to the booster boxes.  As Mr. Martin exclaimed in response to one co-ed's request for identification, "Honey, I am the athletic director."   

Too bad it's not 1929.  Bill Martin and Tom Buchanan would have gotten along swell.

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We have favorites and we have loyalties, but if the Big Ten is going to climb out the national perception doldrums, we're going to have to do it together.  That means that we have to all be pulling in the same direction.  Here's what I want to see from each Big Ten team in their non-conference battles this week. These columns are really short this time of year...

Michigan (vs. Delaware St.)

Wow.  Not a lot to say about this.  I want to see the secondary get some meaningful reps and Denard Robinson make some reads in passing situations.  That said, doing it against the Hornets is nowhere near the same thing as doing it against Penn State next week.

Make sure to go back and submit your picks for Week 7 of the Obligatory Predictions Contest. Weekly winners get a chance to write 500 words on the site. NEW this year is our season long competition - win the whole damn thing and we send you something amazing.

What I Want

I want a blow out and a healthy Michigan squad in advance of the fascinating battle with Penn State.

What I Expect

A blowout.  And a lot of questions about whether Tate Forcier plays/should play in the game.

What We've Got So Far

The Big Ten is 27-10 (.730) out of conference.  The league is 5-8 against BCS Conference teams (plus Notre Dame). Indiana's loss to Virginia guarantees that the Big Ten can finish with no better than a .500 record against the other BCS schools.  The league has two losses to non-BCS teams (Northern Illinois over Purdue and Central Michigan over Michigan State).