braxton miller

WHAT COLOR IS THIS MAN. Adidas released some uniformz for Nebraska that are as goofy as they usually are. I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about what color this person is.

Look at this person's face. That's weird. I guess he's put eyeblack everywhere in an effort to look like a big and tough and maybe remind people of the Ultimate Warrior. You can see that at the edge of his face his skin tone goes back to the lighter shade of his nose.

Now look at this person's arms.

!!!

The Braxton move. If you've followed the first few rounds of Draftageddon you know that Ohio State is basically 1969 Ohio State again. So they've moved a guy who was on Heisman short lists last year as a QB to WR, just cuz:

Miller’s fallback plan has become a reality, as he told SI.com on Thursday night that he plans to start the 2015 season playing H-Back—a hybrid receiver position—for the Buckeyes. Miller hasn’t completely closed the door on playing quarterback, as he estimates that he’ll spend 80% of the time during training camp at receiver and 20% with the quarterbacks. But Miller said with more than two months until he’ll be completely healthy at quarterback, he’s approaching this season as primarily a wide receiver.

"H-back" means a different thing in Urban Meyer's offense than it does in Hoke or Harbaugh's. This is not Wyatt Shallman. This is Percy Harvin.

That does chop down on the "yes, but" Michigan fans are preparing after they saw Devin Gardner's somewhat amateurish attempt to play WR. Miller's going to be an option on a bunch of running plays and get targeted on screens. He is not going to be asked to track balls over his shoulder after lining up on a cornerback—at least not much. That makes his move depressingly plausible.

It also opens up the kind of trick plays you last saw eight-year-olds come up with at the family picnic. Dude.

I have an easy way to fix this. Nobody knows what a catch is anymore. I don't have to tell Lions fans this, of course. Michigan's also had their brushes with the gray area against Virginia Tech and Iowa. The NFL's attempt to fix things:

Who is drafting these rules for the NFL? Just very unclear, poor draftsmanship. http://t.co/Jes6nEnQfu pic.twitter.com/Hx4NmVBXQy

— Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) July 24, 2015

The problem here is that this is not an algorithm for determining if it is a catch. You need a function. This is an NFL function, FWIW.

function isitacatch(feet_down, touchy_feely_vars){

if (feet_down < 2)

     return false;

if (feet_down > 2)

     return true;

if (feet_down == 2)

     did the ball touch the ground? return false;
     did the receiver bobble the ball such that he had to re-catch it while out of bounds?
     return false;

return true;

}

College version is the same except you return false only on feet_down < 1 and check the touchy-feely on 1 or 2. Also I know you don't need the last if statement.

The VT and Iowa plays above should not have to go to extraordinarily long replays subject to announcer debate. Both of them touched the ground. You have one job as a receiver: don't let it touch the ground.

At some point you have accomplished that job. That point is currently determined by feelingsball instead of "you took another step," which is pretty close to definitive. Engineers should write these things, not lawyers.

Gary Andersen sipping tea. Wisconsin has shot down one of their top recruits:

Incoming freshman running back Jordan Stevenson was denied admission to the University of Wisconsin, according to a report by 247sports.com.

Stevenson, a four-star prospect who was considered one of the Badgers’ top recruits for the 2015 class, confirmed on Twitter that his recruitment is open to any Division I program.

“#Badgernation Thanks for all the love also all the support through all I have been through much love,” Stevenson tweeted.

That's a bizarre situation. Players do occasionally get rejected by the NCAA clearinghouse, but in those cases the player heads to JUCO. Stevenson is apparently trying to find a landing spot this fall. And when serious academic schools who are serious reject players for reasons other than "you are literally not eligible to play", they do it before, say, late July.

If Stevenson does end up on campus this fall (Arkansas?), Gary Andersen's shocking jump to Oregon State will look pretty justified. It's one thing to deny entry to a player. It's another to do it now, months after he signed a LOI.

The wave, 1984. They were super excited about new technology back in the day:

According to Wikipedia, Michigan brought the wave back from a game against Washington in 1983. A letter to the editor claimed that it stuck because

"There are three reasons why the wave caught on at Michigan Wolverine games: It gave the fans something to do when the team was leading its opponent by 40 points, it was thrilling and exciting to see 105,000 people in the stands moving and cheering, and Bo Schembechler asked us not to do it."

From Michigan it spread to the Tigers, and when the Tigers won the World Series that year it was on TV a ton. The rest is history.

Indiana, 1980. Not competitive.

Etc.: Roundtree gets a job at CSU-Pueblo with Jeff Hecklinski.

Left: via Eric DeBoer. Right: ICE ICE BABY TOO COLD

Retaining Mattison?

Dear Brian,

It seems very clear that Hoke is gone at this point. Is there a scenario in which we could fire Hoke, but keep Mattison at DC? This is a top 25 team with a competent offense. I actually like Nuss too as I believe the playcalling has been good and Gardner just isn't executing, but he also seems as good as gone right?

-Anon

It's rare for assistant coaches to be kept on after a head coaching change. OSU kept Luke Fickell, but they've devolved his responsibility repeatedly and their defense is not up to par with their offense. You get the sense he's mostly around for recruiting. Other than that I can't recall a coordinator-level assistant who survived their head man getting axed.

Making an exception for Mattison depends on a lot of things. For one, is he pissed off enough that he just retires? Mattison's pressers have been feisty, full-throated defenses of Brady Hoke over the last couple months. It's clear Hoke commands seriously loyalty from him, and it was expected he'd be retiring in the somewhat near future anyway. He would take some convincing to stay, and making that pitch is a delicate thing I'm not sure certain targets *cough*HARBAUGH*cough* would be good at.

Meanwhile, there's the question of how good this defense actually is. Yeah, they're seventh nationally in yards per game and 12th in yards per play. They've also faced a selection of completely horrible offenses. Yards per play rankings of Michigan power 5 opponents, out of 128:

• NORTHWESTERN: 125th
• PENN STATE: 121st
• UTAH: 89th
• MINNESOTA: 68th
• INDIANA: 57th, but most of that is w/ Sudfeld
• RUTGERS: 50th
• NOTRE DAME: 38th
• MICHIGAN STATE: 12th

There are two teams in there that are better than average and if you take Indiana's QB situation into account (Indiana has averaged barely 200 yards a game since Diamont took over) there are three of the very worst teams in the country. #91 Maryland and… uh… #11 Ohio State are pending.

That plus Michigan's notoriously slow tempo means the advanced stats have a very different perspective on Michigan than raw ones. FEI has Michigan 35th(!) in the country, which is barely average in a schedule adjusted system. Michigan is 31st in S&P.

It's not hard to see why. They gave up 400 yards to Gary Nova, got plastered by David Cobb, and folded on the second drive in East Lansing against the one legitimately good offense they faced. The man press misstep was costly, and I don't have a lot of hope Michigan is going to throttle Ohio State.

So. Given that and the likelihood Mattison's going to call it quits sooner rather than later anyway, I wouldn't put a high priority on retaining him. It might be different if there was a guy on staff that looked like an heir apparent, but Mark Smith keeps getting bounced to other roles, Roy Manning is probably still too young, and Kurt Mallory was interviewing at I-AA schools last summer.

I don't see anyone sticking around after the transition except Manning, who's established himself a great recruiter and can go back to his natural LB spot. I still think Nussmeier's track record is an excellent one, especially in QB development, but it's going to be a hard sell to retain him after this year's performance.

[After the JUMP: AD hiring stuff, prez stuff.]

[Fuller]

ESPN's Brett McMurphy is reporting that Ohio State's Braxton Miller, who multiple outlets confirmed reinjured his right (throwing) shoulder at practice yesterday afternoon, is out for the 2014 season.

Ohio State QB Braxton Miller is out for the season, a source told @ESPN

— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) August 19, 2014

NFL.com senior writer Gil Brandt said earlier today that OSU was "expecting" Miller to miss the season, and official word on the matter should come out later today. A Columbus television outlet confirms McMurphy's report, as well. Since last night, Tim May of the Columbus Dispatch—the first reporter to break news of the injury—filled in some details of how the injury occurred:

Neither a team spokesman nor coach Urban Meyer would confirm the news, but sources said that Miller, who had been considered a strong candidate for the Heisman Trophy, suffered the injury while throwing a routine pass. He was not hit, having been off-limits from contact since off-season shoulder surgery.

Miller underwent an MRI this morning, the details of which have yet to be released. There's still no official word from Ohio State.

Before anything else, let me express my deepest sympathies for Miller; he not only faces what appears to be a tough recovery—if he injured the shoulder without any contact, it's likely his injury suffered against Clemson in January never fully healed in the first place—but he's in a very tough spot regarding his pro future.

Miller could take a redshirt and come back in 2015, but there were already serious questions about whether he could be a quarterback at the NFL level; if his best chance to make it is at running back or wide receiver, he's lost a critical year of development and faces a difficult choice: come back to school and take another year of punishment as OSU's QB, or go pro despite coming off a season lost to injury. Here's hoping he fully recovers his past form; he's a truly spectacular player to watch, and college football will be worse off this year without him.

As for the on-field ramifications, Ohio State looks like they'll enter the season with a redshirt freshman starting in Miller's place:

If Miller misses time, redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett currently leads redshirt sophomore Cardale Jones to be the next in at quarterback for Ohio State. Barrett redshirted in 2013 while recovering from a knee injury he suffered in his senior season of high school. Jones appeared in three games last season, completing 1/2 passes for 3 yards and rushing 17 times for 128 yards and a touchdown.

The Buckeyes must also replace RB Carlos Hyde, who rushed for over 1,500 yards in 2013, along with four starters on their offensive line. Their talent should allow them to contend for the Big Ten title anyway, especially if they can shore up their issues on defense under new co-DC Chris Ash, but this certainly hurts their chances at a national title run and likely makes Michigan State the frontrunner for the conference title.

UPDATE: Ohio State has released a statement confirming Miller will miss the 2014 season. Miller is on track to graduate in December; he plans to enroll in graduate school at OSU and return for the 2015 season.