perry the aclephant

You can decommit from Purdue all you want, Russell Bellomy, but Perry the ACLephant will find you and destroy your ligaments.

Michigan redshirt sophomore quarterback Russell Bellomy has suffered an ACL tear in spring practice, TheWolverine.com has learned and U-M has confirmed.

Bellomy is currently the only scholarship quarterback on the roster other than Devin Gardner. Shane Morris arrives in fall, and just about can't redshirt unless Michigan is going to throw a walk-on out there in the event of a Gardner ding.

Michigan's depth chart is really feeling the absence of a quarterback in last year's class. One per year, every year, is what Michigan wants to do from now on; let's hope they do so.

Podcast jonez. If you have it, I did talk to a couple of guys at The Only Colors about the game this weekend. It was their first go-round so be nice.

Boiler Tacopants. Meet Purdue's new mascot:

Boiled Sports says it's just temporary, but we know better.

Just so you stop sending it. Yes, this is badass:

Hacker infiltration ends D.C. online voting trial

Last week, the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics opened a new Internet-based voting system for a weeklong test period, inviting computer experts from all corners to prod its vulnerabilities in the spirit of "give it your best shot." Well, the hackers gave it their best shot -- and midday Friday, the trial period was suspended, with the board citing "usability issues brought to our attention."

Here's one of those issues: After casting a vote, according to test observers, the Web site played "Hail to the Victors" -- the University of Michigan fight song.

"The integrity of the system had been violated," said Paul Stenbjorn, the board's chief technology officer.

I'd sell a t-shirt that said "MICHIGAN INTEGRITY VIOLATIONS" but I'd get sued so I won't. J. Alex Halderman is the professor who unleashed hell on DC voting machines and explains his devious students' accomplishment:

The problem, which geeks classify as a “shell-injection vulnerability,” has to do with the ballot upload procedure. When a voter follows the instructions and uploads a completed ballot as a PDF file, the server saves it as a temporary file and encrypts it using a command-line tool called GnuPG.

For a UFR-level breakdown follow the link. Also that guy runs Drupal.

Onside kicking: no more defense ever. It says something about the state of the defense that there's a serious board thread, an extensive post at Denard for Heisman, and two emails in the inbox all wondering about whether Michigan should go nuts with the onside kicks. The blog post covers the math:

In the NFL, onside kicks are successful about 26% of the time.  When the onside kick is expected, the kicking team recovers the football only 20% of the time.  When the onside kick is considered a “surprise,” the kicking team historically has recovered the football 60% of the time.

The average NFL team needs to be successful at onside kicks 42% of the time for the strategy to work in a team’s favor.

Michigan wouldn't have to reach that level of success for it to be a break even strategy for the same reason that going for it on fourth down becomes a better and better idea the better your offense is. So… yes, I think Michigan should go for the surprise onside kick on a regular basis, around once every ten possessions. I also think zero coaches would actually do this in real life.

Michigan's kickers have enough to work on without onside stuff, anyway.

Yet another reassuring "one of these years is not like the others" post. This one is from the Mathlete and points out Michigan's statistically-adjusted improvement on offense from 2009 to 2010:

Based on the sets of numbers, Michigan initially has been 7 to 11 points per game better than year’s offensive unit. This represents a very high level of play.

The defense? Ask again later once we figure out whether or not Indiana's offense is actually good or not. Hey, you know what would be awesome? Winning this Saturday and killing this conversation forevermore.

Denard talking. You like it.

(Via Boyz.)

Hey, awesome. The Ohio State analogue of Hail To The Victors has been ridiculously sued by OSU:

The university accuses Maple Street Press Buckeye Battle Cry of a series of copyright infringements. It has sent the company a letter demanding that print and online copies of the publication be pulled by Wednesday.

"This product was not properly licensed by the university, and they are competing with our game-day program," said OSU spokesman Jim Lynch. … The lawsuit alleges trademark infringement, unfair competition and "passing off," or an attempt to mislead consumers that the magazine is being published by the university.

A preseason magazine that has no information about the current season is competing with a game-day program and OSU is suing because… they use the word "Buckeye" in the title? Copyright law as currently wielded by large organizations is pure evil.

Etc.: Stuffing The Passer is awesome. Brabbs celebrates one year of domination by unleashing a shirt commemorating the Washington kick. Off Tackle Empire scouts Greg Jones, concludes he is not actually eleven people. Daily slideshow on the M-MSU rivalry over the years.