The former quarterback of Michigan, Tate Forcier has signed on to play for Miami according to a statement released by the school on Wednesday.

Both ESPN.com and The Palm Beach Post first announced that Forcier had indicated his intention to play for the Hurricanes.

Forcier spoke with ESPN.com and stated, “I really want to be a part of the rebirth at Miami.”

When Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez was let go and Brady Hoke was hired, Forcier made the decision to play for another college.

Forcier was going to visit several different colleges, with Washington being one of them, but the quarterback situation in Miami presented a unique opportunity for him in Coral Gables, FL.

According to NCAA transfer regulations, though, Forcier will not be allowed to play in 2011 and will have to wait until 2012 before he can get on the field for Miami.

Not too long after it was made public that Les Miles had turned down the Michigan head coach position and would come back to LSU, where he has been for 6 years, Michigan named a new head coach.

On Tuesday, it was released that Brady Hoke, coach at San Diego State, would be hired as the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines, making him the 19th head coach in the 131 years the football program has been in existence.

The athletic director of Michigan said in a statement, “We are pleased to announce the hiring of Brady. He is a terrific coach and will be a great ambassador and leader for our football program. We look forward to having him build a championship program on the field and in the classroom.”

Hoke was once an assistant coach at Michigan, but has been at Ball State and San Diego State for the past eight years in the head coaching position. Following San Diego State’s 9-4 season, Hoke was bestowed with the coach of the year honor in the Mountain West conference.

On Wednesday, at 1 p.m. ET, Michigan will hold a press conference to introduce Hoke.

Hoke will take over for Rich Rodriguez who was fired as head coach of the Wolverines a week ago after only his third year of a six-year contract. Rodriguez was unable to coach the team to a victory over rivals Michigan State or Ohio State in any of his seasons and finished a disappointing 15-22 during that time.

Everything seemed to look good when the move was first announced. Rich Rodriguez had been a great coach in his time at West Virginia, and was considered to be one of the top spread offense coaches in the country. When he was asked to join Michigan, it seemed like a match made in heaven – albeit a very big change from the way that things were in Michigan previously. In his three years as their head coach, he was not able to duplicate his success and in the end  turned out to be a failed experiment for the team.

In his time with the team he posted a total of a 15-22 record and overall was unable to  make the spread as successful in Michigan as he had hoped. This can be attributed to the fact that Michigan had not recruited players that would thrive in the spread offense. Because he did not find immediate success, Rich Rodriguez had a lot of trouble recruiting the kind of players that would succeed in his offense, and in the end it turned out to be a bad fit for Michigan.

Michigan fans are used to nine and ten win seasons. This is a number that Rodriguez did not hit in his time with the team. After the team’s huge 52-14 loss in the Gator Bowl to Mississippi State, it was celar that the team was never going to find the success that they had hoped for under the former Virginia Tech spread genius.

It is not currently clear where the team will be heading next. Tehy will begin their search for a new head coach imemdiately. Some have suggested that they could decide to hire from within the organization, but given the lack of success that the current coaches have seen, do not be surprised if they decide to go elsewhere.

Michigan hopes to get their program back together. That will start with the hiring of a new head coach, hopefully someone who is able to meet their needs and will not make the sweeping changes to the program’s philosophy that we saw with Rodriguez.

Mississippi State came out on top in their game against Michigan to finish the season at 9-4 and pretty much surely end the career of Rich Rodriguez at Michigan. the game was out of hand from the second quarter on. The first quarter ended with a score of 10-14, Michigan lead, but they were unable to score another point throughout the rest of the game, allowing Mississippi State to put up 21 in the second, 14 in the third, and 7 in the fourth.

Relf had a great game completing 18 of 23 passes for 281 yards on the game with three touchdowns and one interception. He spread the ball out very well, with no receiving catching more than four balls in the game and all of them having less than 80 yards on the game. Ballard helped Relf to secure the victory, rushing the ball 20 times for 76 yards and three touchdowns. His longest run was only eight yards but his downhill, hard, running style made him a popular option for the team when they were looking to control the clock.

Meanwhile, Robinson’s two touchdowns came in the first quarter as he completed 27 of 41 for 254 yards and two touchdowns on the day. He also spread the ball out quite a bit, but Roundtree was the favorite receiver with nine catches for 53 yards and a touchdown.

All in all, it started out as an interesting game but quickly got out of hand and Michigan was unable to keep up with the constant attack that Mississippi State threw at them. Michigan didn’t play so bad offensively, but defensively they were unable to slow them down. Michigan remained in the game through the first quarter but things quickly got out of hand in the second quarter of the game.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Rich Rodriguez. He is considered to be one of hte smartest coaches in the NCAA because of his time at Virginia Tech but he is working with a different set of talent here that was ultimately unable to institute a great spread attack for the Wolverines and was force dto change his game plans as a result of the lack of his talent.

Michigan will be facing the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the upcoming Gator Bowl. The match up was announced on Sunday evening. The Wolverines will be relying on their great quarterback, Denard Robinson, to help them get past a Mississippi State Bulldog team that has been at the center of the Cam Newton scandal throughout the season. Some representatives for the school had claimed that either Cam Newton or his father Cecil Newton had tried to receive payment from the school for his commitment there.

The game is played on New Years Day, and the Michigan executives said that they would wait til after the game to review their struggling coach Rich Rodriguez. A win in the game would certainly go a long ways toward securing his job, but a loss would not help him to keep it, and he would likely be replaced.

He led the team to a two win improvement in his first year with the team but did finish 2-5, which has the university questioning whether or not he is the man for the job. Mississippi State was 4-4 in their conference, but in the SEC that is not all that bad in the grand scheme of things.

Both teams have very different offensive styles which should make for a very interesting game. The Wolverines will look to run the ball effectively. They have a very potent offense, but were ranked102 in the country in total points allowed. They are currently ranked 11th in the nation in rushing while Mississippi State is ranked number 16.

Although Michigan is, for the most part, favored to win the match, they will first have to slow down the rushing attack of the Bulldogs. It will be a challenge for both teams to remain balanced given the fact that they both rely heavily on their rushing attacks. The Bulldogs undoubtedly have a better defense, but is it good enough to keep the Wolverines in check. The key for the Bulldogs will be to stop the running game, and run the ball as effectively as possible.

No D and all Denard?   No, not this time around.

On Saturday Michigan won in a way that not too many thought was possible.  On a very rainy day in West Lafayette, IN at Ross-Ade Stadium, the Wolverines were able to overcome a miserable performance from Denard Robinson, their star quarterback, and relied instead on their heavily depleted defense to defeat Purdue by a score of 27-16.

Rich Rodriguez, Michigan coach said, boy that sure was an ugly win.  We will take it though.

Both ways, it was really ugly.  If the game was judged on ball security, then neither one of the teams deserved a win.  Each of them committed five turnovers in the game.

Robinson himself committed four- two were interceptions and two were fumbles.  Things got so bad that Rodriguez started to rotate Robinson, a Heisman trophy favorite, and backup quarterback Tate Forcier, beginning mid third quarter.  On six possessions in a row they alternated possessions.

Robinson, however, even having such a bad day did come back and convert two critical third downs during the last minutes of the game to set Michigan’s clinching touchdown up.  He first connected on a pass of 25 yards with Kevin Koger, tight end, on third down and seven.  Next, on third down and nine he had a run of 11 yards.

The Wolverines (7-3, Big Ten 3-3) iced the game with a touchdown run of 3 yards from freshman Stephen Hopkins with 1:58 to play.

For the very first time in the three years that Rodriquez has been their head football coach, Michigan has won back to back conference games.

Next Saturday the Wolverines will play at home versus Wisconsin, who this Saturday defeated Indiana 83-20.  Michigan will wrap the regular season up on the road by facing Ohio State.

The young defense of Michigan started gaining some confidence during the triple overtime win last week over Illinois, contrary to popular belief and despite allowing 65 points (the most in school history).

In the Illinois game the Wolverines defense was being constantly put into tough situations due to poor special teams play and turnovers.  However they were finally able to complete on third downs, which for much of this season has been their biggest weakness.  On the two point conversion Michigan’s defense was also able to make a clinching stop.

For Michigan’s defense these were baby steps.  For three years in a row the defense has been atrocious.  However, they were able to carry their progress over to the game on Saturday versus Purdue (4-6, Big Ten 2-4).

Being able to stop the Boilermakers isn’t a big accomplishment certainly.  The offense of Purdue’s is the Big Ten’s worst ranked team, and is also depleted due to injuries just like the Michigan defense.

Someone in this game needed to look good.  It had to be either the league’s worst defense or worst offense.

For the Wolverines, fortunately, their defense was the one that looked good.  They didn’t allow any touchdowns.

That isn’t a misprint.  The defense of Michigan didn’t allow any touchdowns.

Purdue’s scoring came from an interception return of 94 yards along with three field goals.  The defense for Michigan, which was averaging 453.7 yards allowed per game, only allowed 256 yards on Saturday.

On their third down conversions, Purdue went 2 out of 17.  Last week Illinois was 6 for 16.

That was quite a turnaround after Penn State two weeks ago went 10 out of 16 on third downs and 2 for 2 on fourth downs in their win over Michigan.

Also, the Wolverines defense had been quite inept when it came to creating turnovers, but in this game got a touchdown score when safety Cameron Gordon returned a fumble 58 yards during the first quarter.

Most astonishing of all, is Michigan played nearly the whole game without Mike Martin, nose tackle and top defensive player, as well as Jonas Mouton, linebacker and leading tackler, due to injuries.

Rodriguez said, I am very proud of the team’s defense.  Our young guys really did hang in there.

It’s a good win for us.  Anytime you get a Big Ten win on the road, that’s a good win.

Watching the game, you may not have thought the win was so good.  It was actually fairly nasty.

However when your defense has to play without their most experienced and best players, and the team’s quarterback, who is supposedly unstoppable, keeps stopping himself, then yes you will take the win and cherish it.

The cardinal rule of college football is do not commit turnovers.  However, don’t give up long third down conversions isn’t too far behind.

Both principals were violated by Michigan today in their 38-28 defeat to No. 15 ranked Iowa.  They failed to complete their spirited comeback with Tate Forcier leading the charge.

Iowa made a lot less mistakes and was able to make big plays when they really counted, particularly on third down and long.  Iowa got outstanding performances from Ricky Stanzi, quarterback, Adam Robinson, running back, and wide receivers Derrell Johnson-Koulianos and Marvin McNutt.  Robinson, out of all of them, was the most impressive.  As the only proven and healthy back he continues to take a pounding but keeps on producing.  The Hawkeyes converted 7 out of their 13 attempts on third down.

Iowa, however, probably isn’t too pleased with their performance on defense, despite forcing the Wolverines to turn the ball over four times.

Michigan’s performance on offense was outstanding against one of the best defenses in the nation.  They gained 522 total offense yards in addition to 29 first downs.  Early second quarter Denard Robinson had to leave due to an injury.  However Michigan’s offensive didn’t skip a beat, as Tate Forcier took over, leading the Wolverines on three scoring drives during the fourth quarter.

However good teams can not excel in one phase of the game while being terrible in two others.  The Wolverines, after sevens games this season, are horrible on special teams and defense.  For a football program such as Michigan, their inability to execute the basics on the kicking game and get stops is staggering.  During the team’s bye week Rich Rodriguez and the Wolverines have lots to work on before their pivotal road game versus Penn State.  Iowa is returning home next week to face Wisconsin.

Mark Dantonio, in his four years of coaching Michigan State, has emphasized the rivalry his team has with Michigan.  The Spartans have certainly responded by beating the Wolverines in their last three matchups.

Suddenly there is a new challenge for Dantonio’s team.  For the remainder of the season, Michigan State needs to attempt to make the Michigan game on Saturday appear to be just one win on their schedule, one of several big victories for them in this memorable season.

Dantonio said, when we came in, we wanted to be able play the best and play at a very high level.  What that means to me is you need to have the ability of playing the top 20.  Over the past two weeks we have done that.  Our conference is a really difficult one and we still need to play through it.  Next week our next challenge will await us.

The more wins we have, the bigger the games become.

Michigan State, after defeating Michigan by a score of 34-17, is 6-0.  The last time they had a 6-0 record was in 1999.  Also, after defeating Wisconsin and then Michigan back to back, the Spartans have moved into the No. 13 spot on the AP poll.

The Spartans have continued to win over a tough stretch that started with Dantonio suffering a mild heart attack on September 19.  He had to miss two games before he returned to coach on Saturday from a box over the field.

Dantonio said, coming into this game I said it like it was a kind of winner take all game, in terms of bragging rights for the conference and rising in the polls.  We decided not to play this game close to our vest.  We played to win.

Although it was an emotional victory, as all wins are versus Michigan, Michigan State will need to put this game behind them quickly.  The impressive start by the Spartans has raised the stakes in next week’s game at home versus Illinois.  On Saturday Illinois routed Penn State by a score of 33-13.

Kirk Cousins, Michigan State quarterback said, we know from that alone we are in for a big challenge.  We’ve only made it halfway.  There’s still lots of work for us to do.

Michigan State will have to play without Chris L. Rucker, starting cornerback, who the team suspended on Sunday for one game at least for violating team rules.

Cousins passed for 285 yards along with one touchdown versus Michigan.  Unlike Denard Robinson, his counterpart, Cousins was able to avoid costly turnovers.  Lately Cousins has looked very sharp, complementing Le’Veon Bell and Edwin Baker, running backs.

Don Treadwell, offensive coordinator said, without question Kirk Cousins is for our program a tremendous leader.  It’s not just the things he does on game day.  He does so many things that are behind the scenes.  He is team’s and offense’s emotional leader.

1999 was the last time Michigan State had a 6-0 record.  Their winning streak was emphatically snapped when Purdue defeated the Spartans 52-28 when Drew Brees passed for 509 yards.  Ron Dayne then rushed for 214 yards against the Spartans defense to lead Wisconsin to victory by a score of 40-10.

The last time the Spartans had a 7-0 start was in 1966.  That year they went 9-0 before their famous 10-10 tie with Notre Dame.

Michigan State this year still has six remaining Big Ten games.  At this rate however, they may be the underdog in just one of those games- their October 30 contest in Iowa.  This season Michigan State is not playing No. 1 ranked Ohio State.

Dantonio said, we are halfway through.  Things are going well however, it doesn’t make the whole season.