media

This thread was inspired by some comments in another thread. Who would do you think--whether plausible to add to the show or not--would make a good roundtable contributor?

My personal view is someone with a deep schematic knowledge. I don't know enough about football to know if he knows what he's talking about, but to my mind it's a person in the vein of Space Coyote. 

In general, I think Brian's strength is not only understanding scheme but having a strong analytical framework to put that scheme in a bigger context and derive meaning from it. Obviously, his focus on Michigan football over the years also allows for Brian to find trends in the program--from player development and coaching to playcalling. Anyway, I think this blend of scheme and analytics is what separates him from people who only do one or the other, though they may be more advanced at one or the other skill than he is.

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