1. If you had one opponent(non Big Ten) whom you could watch Michigan Demolish, who would it be?

Hulk:  I would love to see us lay the beat down on USC or <insert SEC team here>. USC is like kryptonite to Michigan. Sooooo many successful years shot down in a blaze of glory in Pasadena. Couple that with their huge ego and it makes a win over USC oh so sweet. I would also love to see UM smoke any SEC. Pick one, I'd love to see them in the fetal position.

JC: Probably an SEC team like Alabama or even Florida. I just can't stand the arrogance of the coaches like Saban and Meyer, and in 2008 I was a very happy camper when Lloyd Carr won his last game against Urban.

SCS100: Oregon would be nice. After the display in 2007 that sent all of us reeling, I’d love to see us pay them back in kind. Close behind: Tennessee (2002 Citrus bowl) and USC (Rose Bowl).

Seth9:  Notre Dame is the obvious answer here, as they are rivals and incredibly irritating in so many different ways. However, as they are the obvious answer and may join the Big Ten (cue EVIL LAUGH) when the BCS is reorganized should they lose their special status*, I’m going to go with Oregon. I was at the 39-7 drubbing we suffered at Oregon’s hands after the Horror. While I could live with that alone (after all, they’re not supposed to go easy on us and if we suck, it’s our fault) I thought that Oregon going for it on 4^th down within field goal range in the fourth quarter when already up 39-7 was very classless and if we ever play them again, I hope we humiliate them and make everyone on that team cry. Also, what team needs 20141 jersey combinations? It’s idiotic. And never mind that they are the worst losers on the face of the planet (looking at you LeGarrette Blount) and that the only time I root for them they get pounded by Ohio State.
*The reasons for why I think this is somewhat likely is forthcoming in my in-progress recap on conference realignment

Shredder: Ahhh good question. Texas I would say. They recruit at such a high level and are so good. I would love to watch UM go into their house and kill the horns.

Dark Blue: If I had to pick one OOC opponent to watch Michigan destroy it would probably be USC. Or anyone of the ess see see schools. I hate the ess see see and USC on equal grounds.

2. Does Devin Gardner Redshirt?

Hulk: I have stated ever since Denard has shown in practice that he can be a B10 level QB, that Devin would get a MUCH needed redshirt year unless one of Tate or Denard gets injured. Of all the position groups, QB comes in only behind OL when it comes to redshirting. QBs who have time to ride the pine, learn the playbook, and get acclimated to the college game while not having all the expectations heaped on their shoulder. A RS Jr Devin Gardner looks a whole lot better in a few years than a SR Devin Gardner.

JC: No way. Devin will play, especially early in the season against BGSU/UMass or other teams. Ever since Pat White went down in 2007 and cost WVU a chance at the National Title, RR has been adamant that more than one QB will be ready to play.

SCS100: Yes, but that’s assuming that neither Tate nor Denard get injured over the course of the season. If either gets injured, all bets are off.

Seth9:  Assuming that Tate and Denard remain healthy, then I’m going to give a tentative yes. This yes is tentative because I’m assuming that the rather negative reports about Tate’s work ethic are understated and that his performance in the spring game is not emblematic of a lack of progress. Should Tate and Denard both show significant improvement, then they are very good complimentary players and it makes sense to give Gardner a full year to learn the offense, adapt to the college game, and generally refine himself into an elite collegiate QB. All in all, I give Gardner a 35% chance of getting a redshirt, as the combined chances of issues with Denard or Tate (injury or otherwise) and Gardner simply being good enough to force himself into the mix are rather high. Still, I think a redshirt would be ideal here.

Shredder: Ahhh............... Yes? No? If DeTate Robinforce fail than yes. Rich will play all his cards. He has to. You cant answer this one since two things have to happen. The two QBs in front of him have to fail and we have to be losing games. I still think he would make great use in the red zone but I don't think it's worth blowing his red shirt over. I know Hulk will say yes he will red shirt but it's gotta be 61% yes he does and 39% he doesn't for me.

Dark Blue: I think barring injury, Devin Redshirts. However it should be noted that RR is going to use the best available tools. This is a do or die year so nothing would shock me.

3. Who starts at QB vs. UConn?

Hulk:  I WILL NOT PLAY YOUR DEVILISH MIND GAMES YOU GYPSY!
I bet we will see about 50/50 of both the QBs with Tate taking the first snap.

JC: Denard Robinson, but Forcier will see plenty of playing time.

SCS100: Tate. If he tanks, Denard takes over quickly. Tate hasn’t been bad enough to lose his job yet. Plus, Tate has the experience from last year and will not be playing with a bad shoulder again. Once Denard improves enough though, anything is possible,

Seth9:  Denard starts at QB. This has more to do with UConn than it does with our QB situation however. When Denard is QB, our offense is most able to take advantage of UConn’s inability to defend the rush against the spread. Furthermore, Denard’s running ability is more likely to wrong foot an opposing defense in an opener than a more conventional attack that we would use with a QB like Tate. Of course, this assumes that Denard can actually pass the ball, thus keeping UConn’s secondary honest.

Shredder: I was gonna say Tate all the way but after hearing T-Wolf say what he did I may swing my thoughts to Robinson will start vs UCONN. I wouldnt be surprised if Tate got his ass in gear and did get the starting gig but if you ask me today(which you did) than I gotta run with Denard. This could change in the coming weeks. It should be fun to watch to say the least. I know this, Tate needs to check his ego and figure how to be a good leader and teammate. If he doesn't than his team will want nothing to do with him off the field and that's a problem.

Dark Blue: Nard Dawg is going to be the starter for UConn, I think we’ll see an awful lot of Tate on that day, but Denard right now has probably got the lead in the race. And no one catches shoelace.

4. Does Kenny Demens Replace Obi Ezeh as a starting LB?

Hulk: No. I think Obi has all the physical potential to be a all big 10 LB. Injuries, different schemes, and inept position coaching has nullified everything we saw from Obi his freshman year. Slow decision making and Obi being flatfooted has run rampant the last few years. I believe GERG will get Obi back to being a good LB. I mean shit, GERG made Stevie Brown a NFL draft pick.

JC: I don't think he'll replace him, but he'll definitely see plenty of playing time. The coaches want to rotate the linebackers a lot this season.

SCS100: No. Now that we know that Obi was playing with a back injury for all of last season and kept it quiet, I would say it is safe to assume that Demens does not take over for the time being. Now if Obi continues to play horribly, then anything is possible.

Seth9: No. I believe that with some consistency from the defensive coaches and the direct tutelage of Greg Robinson, Ezeh will develop into a somewhat competent interior linebacker. Also, I have my doubts about Demens because he failed to pass Mike Leach on the depth chart last year

Shredder:  No I think Obi will be blitzing a lot and thinking less. Demens will see spot duty but a full replace? I don't see it. Obi will finally have two years in the same system.

Dark Blue:  I think Demens will be a contributor on D, but I don’t expect him to replace Obi. I honest to god feel that Obi is going to have an All Big Ten season. I expect him to be a leader on and off of the field.

5. Who is your favorite band?

Hulk:  Right now I would have to say Cage the Elephant. I am also digging Eminems new album Recovery.

JC: Probably Weezer? I'm strange, I know.

SCS100: Beatles. Innovative, entertaining, and nothing like most of today’s junk. Close second are the Rolling Stones, although Mick Jagger being tone deaf does not help their cause much anymore.

Seth9:  The Blues Brothers. There is no band that I would claim is my favorite because of their music and The Blues Brothers is one of the greatest movies ever made. And yes, they are a real band.

Shredder: My favorite band? Hmmmm.. Rise Against,Rage Against the Machine,Michael Jackson and Infant Sorrow.

Dark Blue: Probably a toss up between The Weakerthans and The Mountain Goats. I’ve also been listening to quite a bit of Wakey Wakey lately.

6. What could MM do better to represent the blogosphere?

Seth9:  Moderate the CBOX. I don’t know if this is even possible, but general audiences tend to gravitate towards moderated venues of discussion because they know that they will not be subject to overly offensive or lewd comments if they participate. Currently, some comments that appear on CBOX do not necessarily cause harm or offense, but do create the impression that participants in the community will face such comments directed at them. This is not designed to be a criticism of the CBOX comments, but simply a note on how others may view them.
To put it another way, CBOX is a great tool for members of the MM community to communicate and interact when we aren’t doing a liveblog. However, when comments, particularly personal ones, appear on CBOX that a large majority of outsiders would find offensive, many outsiders will typically choose to refrain from joining the MM community. Since a large source of our traffic comes from our liveblogs, growing and maintaining steady traffic is dependent on growing and maintaining a community. Since people gravitate to moderated communities more often than un-moderated communities, moderating the CBOX and Liveblogs will help us grow the MM community.
To be clear, I think one of our greatest assets at MM is that we generally give all opinions a fair hearing (outside of rare examples of extreme idiocy), encourage participation from people who don’t write posts, and do not censor productive or amusing comments just because they might offend some people. However, on some occasions, there are comments that cross a line (on rare occasions, I’ve seen overly personal and explicit questions and racially offensive terms) and I think we need moderate these comments if we want more people to come and more sites to link to us.

Hulk: Ban all Arabians.

JC:  Provide a lot of different content (which we do).. and stuff that the normal reader can comprehend, not just massive statistical analysis and fact-filled posts.

SCS100: Write pieces with original content. For example, the roundtable idea is nothing new, but coming up with original questions and thoughtful answers helps things out much more. Not putting up panic /rumor posts like many other blogs do is also helpful. Only when the rumor is substantiated should it be posted (see the Shaw eligibility stuff).

Shredder: More and more content. Thats why Mgoblog is the mothership. Lots of content and it's good quality. I am not a strong writer so I have to find other ways to make us better which can be hard working 3rds and sleeping most my days away. It's great we have good writers like Seth,SCS,DB ect to make up for my lack of writing. I also feel our Live Blogs have become great sources of information(and BS). Thanks to JC and TOB(and new comer Vader) we have lots of people coming during the day just to skim through what was talked about the night before. I never thought the Live Blog would be a good source of info, which is a great surprise.

Dark Blue: Create a domain and run with it. Fuck Blogger, we could do this shit bigger and better. Other than that I don’t know how much more we can do. We are a 5 star prospect, we’ve just got to put it together. We will keep growing until we are unstoppable.

7. What is the biggest key for success in 2010?
 
Hulk:  I have to pick one? I'll say staying healthy. We are still a really shallow team. I think we can be a good team, but if we have to dig into our bench, it could get really ugly, really fast.  The offensive line gelling also deserves a mention. Face it, we have to score points this year. If we can't open holes for our RBs and protect our QBs, we are pretty much fucked from jumpstreet.

JC: Being more consistent on offense. The offensive line needs to protect the quarterback better, and the running game needs to be strong. If the tackles can protect Denard/Tate, then the receivers will have the chance to catch the damn ball! Defensively, we've just got to stop giving up big plays. Tackle, tackle, tackle.

SCS100: Turnover margin. Michigan needs to have a positive turnover margin in order to do well. Even if it is negative, if they can hold it close to 0, then things will still be better than they could be. Close second is pass defense, which absolutely killed us last year. Hopefully the secondary is somewhat improved.

Seth9: The biggest key to success in 2010 is the play of our deep safety. At the moment, we plan on starting converted WR Cam Gordon. If he’s there because he’s genuinely good at the position, we can at least produce a semblance of competence in our secondary because failures by the CBs won’t be compounded by poor safety play as much as it was the latter half of last year. If he’s there because we’re in massive trouble at that position, then our defense will likely be putrid. Based on reports out of practice, I’m leaning toward the former belief, but considering that Gordon hasn’t played a down in a game, I’m still worried.

Shredder: It's pretty easy for me. The Defense. Now I know the QB play is huge and must get better but I am way more confident that our QB play will take a step forward with who ever is our starter. Now the defense I am not so confident on. If it can at least be avg and not allow 30ppg than we will have a shot a a very good season. The defense has a lot of holes and things to prove. There is some good young talent on the defense but they all need to put it on the field. It has to happen for us to have a good season and for Rich Rod to stick.

Dark Blue: Limiting turnovers is the key to success in 2010. Turnovers absolutely destroyed us last year, we’ve got to be better than we were. Last year we probably win 7 games, if the turnover margin is anywhere near “middle of the road”. Also we must kill Brutus.