Didn't help that easily our most physical receiver getting regular snaps was only 5'9 & only got limited minutes after being banged up in the UCLA game. About the only good that came of that Mich game was we saw Houk get worked into the rotation as a go-to receiver.

Holliday & Anae definitely got schooled in the personnel game that day. But at least they made adjustments after.

So far, I'm encouraged by the promotion of Shumway & the grooming of Akile that the coaches are high on a physical receiving corp. Also, I thought our WRs blocked MUCH better last year than the year before -- & Trinnaman was probably our best blocking WR out there. He really took that job seriously & has impressive strength for his size.

But ultimately, the promotion & use of Balderee & El Bakri was the sign to me that our current staff gets the importance of physically & legitimately tough skill players in going against smash-mouth teams like Wisc & Mich. And I'm hopeful that between the bigger version of Moroni & the addition of this Bushman dude--we're gonna not be embarrassed like we got 2 years back in Michigan.

And of course our OL is night-n-day better than its counterpart 2 years ago. It was sad to see Tejan worked as bad as he was in Ann Arbor, & I think we'll see a version of him this year that would never let that happen at the D1 level. As for the other positions -- last year's performance gives me confidence the whole gamut will be better. Our OL rotation 2 years ago amounted to 6 guys (w a couple glaring weak spots still). This year we should run 9-10 deep in terms of game-ready performers. The Doman-Weber fiasco is ancient history.

mutu.