Kyle O’Neill: Criticism of Navarre is unwarranted

The Detroit Tigers’ Mike Maroth lost his 20th game on Friday,
and I’ve never felt that bad for one person in my life. In all
honesty, no one with his talent and attitude deserves to lose 20
games in a season. Hopefully he will avoid the Brian Kingman route
and not let 20 losses define his life’s purpose.

Then there were teams making college football upsets happen:
Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Bowling Green. And then there were
those escaping by a wing and a prayer: Ohio State, Miami and Notre
Dame.

But even with Andy Roddick winning his first Grand Slam title at
the U.S. Open, there was just one sports story that stuck out in my
mind the most.

It was 3rd-and-8 in Michigan’s third drive against Houston.
Quarterback John Navarre dropped back to pass. Finding no one open,
he took off to run to the left. At one point, he looked like he was
going to pass, but instead he tucked the ball and took the sack
that Houston linebacker Bryant Brown gave to him.

Then it happened. There were boos from the crowd.

Maybe it was because Navarre took the sack, or maybe it was
because it was Michigan’s third-straight three-and-out – but either
way, any negativity was not warranted.

If fans booed because of the former, they probably didn’t
realize that Navarre had just saved six going back the other
way.

The toughest thing to do for a quarterback is to know when to
take a sack. That was something the Navarre of old didn’t do very
well – hence the interceptions thrown into coverage in his younger
days. It is not easy to decide when to take a sack to prevent a bad
decision. Most quarterbacks would sooner throw than say, “Here, hit
me as hard as you can … free shots to my ribs all around!”

But Navarre is wiser and more mature, and for that one play in
the game, he made a Heisman-like play with his head when his arm
was looking like anything but a Heisman candidate’s.

Which brings me to the Heisman talk. John Navarre is not going
to win the Heisman. Simply put. Can he be an All-American, All-Big
Ten or even win the Davey O’Brien award? I have no doubt in my mind
that he can. But he is not a Heisman candidate. It was a nice idea
sponsored by the fraternities around campus and also by a few
college football analysts, but in reality, he’s just another very
good quarterback with very good career (and probably senior season)
numbers and an NFL size that will make scouts take him as a
mid-rounder.

But if any Michigan player will deserve it by the end of the
season, it will be Chris Perry (and until after the Notre Dame
game, I wouldn’t even begin to throw his name in that ring)

If you were a fan who booed for the latter of my two reasons,
then get off Michigan’s back. I know you’d like to see the
Wolverines score every time they touch the ball, but it’s going to
be difficult for them to get started in the first quarter. The
reason: Teams are going to throw things at them that aren’t on
Michigan’s film collection, if only for the reason that it is a
perennial power and that other teams know they have to abandon
their gameplan early on to catch Michigan off guard.

What this means is that the defense will have to be extra solid
in the first quarter as offensive coordinator Terry Malone finds a
way to plow through the opposing team’s defense – as he did with
the running game against Houston.

I know I am making a lot of one play, but if fans are going to
lose patience with Michigan that quickly … well, I’m going to
lose patience with them.

– Kyle O’Neill was also happy to be able to root for Charles
Rogers for the first time in his life – as both a Lion and a
fantasy player. He can be reached at
“mailto:kylero@umich.edu”>kylero@umich.edu.