media

Prompted by the retirement of Brent Musburger, Mike Hall tweeted this:

Here's an impossible task: American Sportcaster Mount Rushmore. You only can put up 4. I think Brent's in there. Who ya got?

— Mike Hall (@BTNMikeHall) January 25, 2017

Someone in response pointed out that one needs to differentiate between "sportscaster" and "play-by-play" guy, which is probably wise.

It's not easy. I don't think Brent is there (he would make the college football mount, along with Keith, Verne, and... hard to narrow down a fourth. Maybe Joe Tess in a few years). 

Focusing on just play-by-play guys, I would list Al Michaels, Vin Scully, Howard Cosell, and Keith Jackson, even though I'm not a big fan of Cosell even granted the generational differences there.

Brent actually has a better case if you expand the field beyond play-by-play, because he was an iconic studio host for CBS for years. Cosell fares well there, too. Jim Nantz becomes a legit candidate, even though I don't like him, as do guys like Chris Fowler.

Who ya got?

I perused the college football shows this morning, expecting to hear some praise of the defenses on display yesterday at Michigan Stadium. I was disappointed; the general assessment of this “defensive slugfest” implied that the offenses “struggled,” and that the struggling produced the good defensive play and not the other way around.  Sure, they singled out D highlights, but the tone was softly critical that anything remotely special occurred.

IMO, the summary of the talking heads and various analysts was that this boring game may have lived up to expectations to be close and physical, but the level of play was malodorous and full of inherent offensive incompetence.

I argue that what we saw on display on defense (both sides) was as more glorious and far rarer than the video game offenses in the Big 12, Pac 12 and ACC. Yet little credit for those special defenses; however, I heard how “dominant” Clemson’s defense was and profuse praise for individual defensive performances in various games producing 90+ points.

It appears defense is only desired as part of an occasional highlight play or defensive stand that doesn’t otherwise impede the mad sprint up and down college football fields all over the country.

I am old enough to remember the ’85 Bears. I say Viva la Defense!

I initially read this at www.detroitsportsrag.net.  I know there are varying opinions on Jeff Moss, but he usually is pretty accurate when it comes to the goings on at the local news outlets.  

He will replace a simulcast of The Huge Show.  For the full article, here you go (plenty of sentence enhancers used in the article).  Here's the relevant SFW info:

Anyway, after 8am tomorrow, Simonson will no longer be able to claim he is on in Ann Arbor or lie that his reach gets to Motown. Because an announcement will be made on WTKA that Simonson’s simulcast of his trash Grand Rapids show is being axed and Jamie Morris will return to PM drive with a local program.

(I am told the former U of M stud running back will be joined by Marcus Ray.)

To confirm this, check out a tweet tonight from Jamie Morris:

Jamie Morris ‏@JMorris23  15m15 minutes ago

If you're fortunate to pick up WTKA, an alternative to the Sparty slap show on 97.1 is coming soon.

EDIT: Changed title to officially call this a rumor until this is confirmed.

CNN spent time making fun of Jake Butt.  When did TV News become so stupid?

First off, I know this belongs in the other thread. But on behalf of every student at CC, I apologize if in fact this letter was written by a CC student. We are all devastated at school, and about at least 400 students went to see the Dean today to express their displeasure with the letter. Cass Tech is a great institution and had the better football team and we respect that. We just don't like the negative view we are getting from the media and from Michigan. We know that this doesn't represent CC and we know that it's alot better there than what people paint us out to be. We just hope this thing dies down and we can actually focus on our classes and final exams instead of getting interviewed by Channel 4 in school and taking a ton of criticism when we go out in public with any CC gear on. As students, we should not have to put up with this crap. 

If the Mods feel this is offtopic, please feel free to delete but I just wanted everyone to know what we as the students had to say

Lately I've noticed several threads that all go something like, "This media person thinks X but I think Y!"  Seeing this and also knowing how mgobloggers like having lots of small threads even less than they like the opinions of media people, I thought I would try turning them all into one big thread.

The main benefit is for people who want to get some insight into the game that's outside of, or even contrary to, what the mainstream media is reporting.

A couple of the ideas below are drawn from this blog, some come from blogs like SBNation, but most of them come from someone who doesn't know that much about football (me), even though he's been watching it since he was a wee tyke waiting for Bo to throw his headset into the ground again so that his dad would laugh.

So, without further ado:

Advantages - Things the media missed that will help Michigan

Brandon Herron.  Although he's not a safety that's coming back, Brandon Herron is a junior.  And that means experience -- something the defense needs just as much as it needs deep-backs.  Also, his return frees up Roh to play at DE and rush the QB like a hungry Rhino with rabies.  Which leads us into....

Hitting Cousins on the Road (courtesy of this thread by brewandbluesaturdays).  It turns out Kirk's numbers drop pretty reliably in road games.  Check out last season's difference in his average per-game stats.  HOME: 16/24.5 (60%) for 220 yds, .33 INT, 1.5 TD, and 4 wins out of 7.  AWAY: 17/31.2 (54%) for 233.4 yds, 1 INT, 1.8 TD, and 2 wins out of 6.  Some of this stems from a tendency for Cousins to make mistakes when under pressure.  The combination of MSU's first true road game, the increased stadium noise, and the return of Herron bode well for Blue.

Denard Robinson.  Okay, the media has said plenty on this front.  But one thing they haven't brought up is his history (a short one, yes) against the Big Ten.  Last year, Denard ran just fine over Big Ten defenses.  Overall, he rushed for 351 yards, averaging 5.1 per carry.  Much of that came against stalwart defenses like Iowa, Penn State, and Wisconsin; and, all while he couldn't pass.  They knew he was going to run and still could do little to stop him.  His average bumped up to 5.8 ypc against those three.  Here's the other thing that often goes under the radar: Denard's pass-efficiency is now #3 in the country.  So, guess what?  He can throw now too.

Penalties and Turnovers.  Yes, the media has pointed out how MSU is the most penalized team in the Big Ten (91st nationally) and ranked 8th in turnovers (67th nationally).  They might even mention how well Michigan is doing: 5th in penalties (32nd nationally) and 3rd in turnovers (15th nationally).  What they don't mention is that this is key to Michigan's defense doing anything.  Although our defense has about the same strength as recycled tissue paper, its greatest only hope is for the opponent to make mistakes.  By playing bend-dont-break and stopping the big plays, Michigan will force MSU to run as many plays as possible, hoping to increase the number of drive-ending penalties and turnovers they commit.

That Golden Dome.  Despite being so early in the season, Michigan and State have one mutual opponent: Notre Dame.  Of the two games, Michigan won theirs more convincingly.  They did it on the road, and they didn't need a trick play in overtime.

Disadvantages - Things the media missed that will help State