Status Report

Spring football scrimmages are always perplexing to me. It is hard to tell whether all starting players on the offense are playing against all potential starters on defense. The situation in Ann Arbor on Saturday seemed to be a mixed bag. Denard Robinson was sent out with 1st team offense against a mix of backup DB's and the starting linebacker corps., and Tate Forcier was sent out with a ton of Freshman against equally mixed defense.

No one got injured, and I imagine the coaches didn't pull all the fancy plays out of the book. It's difficult for me to place where this Michigan team stands in comparison to last year. I definitely think the team *will* be better. How much better is dependent on how Rodriguez uses the weapons he has, because the team has all the pieces to be good.

Random Thoughts


QBs: If Tate ever gets pulled in a game because of poor play, the opposing team better watch out. Denard looked scary good, and was zinging passes all around the field, and cut upfield if everyone was blanketed. I doubt Robinson would get the starting job, but stranger things have happened. Devin Gardner on the other hand, better not ever see the field. He walked out amidst a rousing cheer, and fumbled his first snap, and threw an interception a few passes later.

RBs: Vincent Smith didn't play, and Mike Shaw and Fitz Toussant didn't really do much. Mike Cox ran in a TD with some nifty moves, so perhaps he will step up in games.

WR: Roy Roundtree stole the show again this year, and he's got the most ability. Jeremy Gallon made some awesome leaps to grab high balls, and Daryl Stonum was a non-factor. The beauty of this group is that there are so many of them, after being thin two years ago, that Rodriguez won't have any problem putting in the right guy for specific plays.

Defense: Hard to judge. DBs looked better, and Obi Ezeh was all over the field. Don't really know much beyond that.

Rodriguez has got to get all the pieces locked in, because this is do or die time...and anything less than six bowl-eligibility-making wins is going to draw the wrath of the fanbase.

Preaching the ET Gospel

At one point during the evening, an elderly man said Thomas Friedman reminded him of an evangelist. In a good way, I hope, because last night at Lake Michigan College, Friedman tried to convince 3,000 people to testify and convert to his Green Religion.

I had the good fortune of hearing Friedman speak once before, at Eastern Michigan University, when his latest book had just been published. Listening to him is an experience, because it's not like listening to most journalists or even heads of state. It's a lot like listening to a distinguished professor give a semester-ending lecture, but he has such worldly knowledge that one is compelled to hang on every point.

"In 2007 and 2008, mother nature and the market hit a wall," said Friedman bluntly.

One has to understand that the reason Friedman gives this speech everywhere he goes, is because he's trying to help reverse the vanished legacy of the greatest generation, a legacy left for us, but we in turn "ate through the greatest generation like hungry locusts," said Friedman.

Much of his material can be found right in the pages of his book, but there are some worth being pulled onto this page.

The overall metaphor for what Friedman envisions is twofold. (1) picture of a billboard he showed onscreen. It was a car advertisement in South Africa, claiming "German engineering. Swiss Parts. American Nothing." (2) The Doha & Dalian condition -- meaning there are little Manhattans sprouting up all over the globe, and two of those are in Doha, Qatar, and Dalian, China.

All these forces and variables are clashing together, toward a situation where energy consumption, population growth, and climate, converge and produce a world that is far different than our current world.

Friedman is opportunistic. That is, if America seizes all these "megaproblems" as said opportunity, to find a way to produce clean electrons, at scale, and transfer from the Information Technology Revolution to the Energy Technology Era. Simple, right?

The large problem thus far of American efforts to get in on this trend, is this. "If it's a revolution, why is no one hurt?" Friedman asked rhetorically. I take that to mean our leaders have not been aggressive enough, and if we as a country truly wanted to end addiction to oil and bad energy habits, why are those bad habits allowed to still operate?

Friedman wants palpable change, not just 192 signatories on some vague legislation that puts loose regulations on carbon emissions. The secret lies within costs and scale. Figuring a durable price on carbon in turn leads to scale, and once scale is achieved, the revolution begins. By that he means the market begins to respond to the scale, and things can be produced for the masses. Its what Friedman calls being "Democratically Chinese."