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Harbaugh - Little Interest in College
it seems in an interview, Harbaugh says he has very little interest in returning to college football.
http://247sports.com/Bolt/Report-Harbaugh-has-little-interest-in-returning-to-college-31447016
Hell Week Hump Day Haiku
The Dream I had last night
Okay let me start this by informing you I am an insulin dependent diabetic (20 + years ) and awoke this morning to a severely low blood sugar. This may have effected my dream.
While sleeping last night, I had a dream which involved an in depth conversation with the Michigan football team. The convo came at the end of this season, a season in which we ended up going 10-2.
I'm not a prophet, or a psychic. Unless I am. Maybe we can go 8-0 to close out the season. I know that the product on the field hasn't been good so far, but things can change. Let's not give up yet. Jump back on the wagon. It starts with Minnesota on Saturday. 23-3 Michigan. Hail.
EDIT: Spelling and stuff.
We won't know who's starting at QB until game time
Hoke, on naming the starting QB vs. Minnesota: We'll wait until game time.
— Michigan Football (@umichfootball) September 24, 2014
Hoke says Michigan has an idea of what it wants to do. Sounds like the decision has been made. He's just going to wait to announce it.
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) September 24, 2014
No clarity until Saturday, it seems. Let the speculation commence:
Baseless speculation: Shane Morris will start. Not much reason to wait to announce the QB starter if there's not going to be a change.
— Ace Anbender (@AceAnbender) September 24, 2014
Nick Saban on Lane Kiffin
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/eye-on-college-football/2472289...
Saban took heat when he hired Kiffin - so he is mocking the 2nd guessers.
Interesting quote from Saban - Would love to see some 1 / 2 down passing plays
Saban had previously been asked if Kiffin had been allowed to open up the offense more than his offensive coordinating predecessors.
"No, no," Saban said. "I've been begging the offensive coordinators around here to open it up ever since I've been here ... My philosophy hasn't changed at all. I've always asked for this. 'Why don't we throw the ball on this look instead of running this play where we can't block everybody?'"
B1G Offensive Line Sizes
Hello. First Diary entry, woo! [ EDIT: Lol nope, my 2nd. forgot about the one I did in '09]
So, when the offensive line struggles, the claim is frequently made that the offensive line is too small. I heard this alot on call-in radio shows during the RR era, and it's starting to creep back into style, or so it seems to me.
So, I thought let's see just how big Michigan's line is compared to the rest of the B1G. I basically went through every B1G teams site, got the roster and then checked the game participation notes from the most recent game they were in to see who was listed as starting on the OL.
I then computed the average weight of the OL for that team/game.
Notes: I didn't include any TE's or FB. Just from one tackle to the other.
I didn't check for situation subs (unbalanced lines, etc.)
I went by weight alone, didn't look at height. Perhaps I should have gone by body mass index?
Would be nice to do a comparison of games played / experience as well. Maybe next time.
Also some teams rather suspiciously seemed to have players weights in exact increments of 5 pounds. Some teams roster's were worse than others in this regard. But the roster is all I really have to go on, so, it is what it is.
So, here is the sorted list of average weight of offensive lines in the Big Ten.
Weight Team
321.0 Wisconsin
312.8 Penn_State
312.0 Minnesota
308.0 Illinois
304.8 Purdue
303.8 OSU
303.6 Michigan*
302.0 Nebraska
300.6 MSU
299.0 Rutgers
299.0 Maryland
298.0 Iowa
295.0 Indiana
294.0 Northwestern
*If Kalis is in UM's line instead of Glasgow, the average drops to 301.0
Michigan is smack right in the middle. No surprise Wisconsin is tops, by a relatively large margin. Iowa, a somewhat run-first offense, is surprisingly near the bottom. Indiana's potent offense is also only at 295.
The most notable thing here is probably that in terms of weight most lines are roughly the same.
So IMO this shows that Michigan's line isn't undersized. To some this may not be a big deal, but I've always bristled at the claims of UM's line being small for a reason for them struggling. I always felt that is just a knee jerk superficial criticism. It's kind of a pet peeve and I wanted to dispel any such notion.
Raw data below
UM
52 Mason Cole OL 6-5 292 FR
78 Erik Magnuson OL 6-6 294 RS SO
60 Jack Miller OL 6-4 299 RS JR
61 Graham Glasgow OL 6-6 311 RS JR
71 Ben Braden OL 6-6 322 RS SO
alternate
67 Kyle Kalis OL 6-5 298 RS SO
average weight: 303.6
w/Kalis instead of Glasgow: 301.0
Nebraska
LT 71 Lewis, Alex 290
LG 68 Cotton, Jake 305
C 56 Pelini, Mark 290
RG 74 Moudy, Mike 305
RT 57 Sterup, Zach 320
302
Purdue
LT 66 Cermin, Cameron 303
LG 72 King, Jason 309
C 57 Kugler, Robert 298
RG 70 Roos, Jordan 312
RT 73 Prince, J.J. 302
304.8
Illinois
LT 68 Cvijanovic, S. 310
LG 5H Hill, Alex 310
C 71 Spencer, Joe 300
RG 69 Karras, Ted 310
RT 74 Heitz, Michael 310
308
Minnesota
LT 65 Campion, Josh 317
LG 52 Epping, Zac 318
C 58 Olson, Tommy 306
RG 77 Bush, Foster 304
RT 78 Lauer, Ben 315
312
Northwestern
LT 78 Jorgensen, Paul 295
LG 53 Mogus, Geoff 295
C 66 Vitabile, B. 300
RG 57 Frazier, Matt 290
RT 76 Olson, Eric 290
294
Iowa
LT 68 Scherff, B. 320
LG 79 Welsh, Sean 285
C 63 Blythe, Austin 290
RG 65 Walsh, Jordan 290
RT 78 Donnal, Andrew 305
298
Ohio
LT 68 Decker, Taylor 315
LG 65 Elflein, Pat 300
C 50 Boren, Jacoby 285
RG 54 Price, Billy 312
RT 76 Baldwin, Darryl 307
303.8
PSU
RT 59 Nelson, Andrew 305
RG 53 Dowrey, Derek 323
C 66 Mangiro, Angelo 309
LG 70 Mahon, Brendan 292
LT 76 Smith, Donovan 335
312.8
MSU
74 Jack Conklin OT 6-6 303 SO
63 Travis Jackson OL 6-4 291 SR
66 Jack Allen C 6-2 299 JR
76 Donavon Clark OL 6-4 306 JR
79 Kodi Kieler OL 6-6 304 SO
average weight: 300.6
Wisc
61 Marz, Tyler OL 6-5 321 RS JR
73 Lewallen, DallasOL 6-6 321 RS SR
70 Voltz, Dan OL 6-3 311 RS SO
54 Costigan, Kyle OL 6-5 319 RS SR
78 Havenstein, Rob OL 6-8 333 RS SR
average: 321
Rutgers
Lumpkin 310
Johnson 300
Bujari 295
Muller 300
Alexander 290
average: 299
Indiana
LT 78 Spriggs, Jason 300
LG 68 Kaminski, David 295
C 64 Rahrig, Collin 285
RG 67 Feeney, Dan 305
RT 62 Evans, Ralston 290
average 295
Maryland
T 76 Dunn 300
G 68 Altamirano 290
C 65 Conaboy 295
G 66 Zeller 310
T 55 Doyle 300
avg 299