Dear Diary Is Highly Spooked Comment Count

Seth

ut_interstellarOpener_f

On the nature of Hoke, life, the universe, and everything. Upcoming Christopher Nolan movie Interstellar went to great lengths to produce the above image, the best yet of what a black hole looks like based on the mathematics of relativity—not just the lensing of space behind it but the surprising twisting of the accretion disc around it due to the warping of space where it's formed.

What's spooky about it is the thing you're seeing isn't the thing that exists. What exists is a disc around a spinning supermass, like Saturn's rings. What you're seeing however is space itself getting so warped by that mass that you can see it in 4D, bending space like a piece of paper.

Best and Worst posted a trailer for Interstellar and raved about the "our place in the dirt" quote while neglecting to mention the one in there by Dylan Thomas:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

This is how I want Michigan to finish the season: certain of its own mortality, fighting anyway. Last year's blowout to MSU was an apocalypse, but at that moment I was profoundly mad, not embarrassed. I was embarrassed when they went out flat and uncaring against Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl. Whenever I wonder if we were right to can Rodriguez when we did, I remember that act of cowardice. Whenever I wonder if we're being too hard on Brady, I think on how he gives up without looking like giving up. Bronx had a different explanation:

This might be semantics, but I don't think Hoke is a quitter.  He's (sadly) calling the game the same way in the 1st quarter as he is in the 4th quarter.  He's like the worst movie version of artificial intelligence.

So he's a robot who faces adversity by going back to his safe place, i.e. the way Lloyd Carr would coach a 1st quarter. I'm not buying it. I think he closes up shop when he thinks it's hopeless, and believes we're not smart enough to notice it.

Ron Utah nevertheless argues that at least that Brady is an essentially good man. I subscribe to the DFW method of rating people: their expectations of other people tend to be the greatest insight into how they themselves think. For example the dude on the board who thinks everything is about political warfare is just a really partisan dude. Brandon's emails were relevant not because they explain how he alienated fans—if he wrote 300 of these that's still a thousandth of the 300k waiting list his policies expunged. Rather they showed us how arrogant Brandon thinks his critics are, thus how truly arrogant Brandon is.

Hoke's goodness is best exemplified, perhaps, in his weaknesses as a coach. He doesn't ever seem prepared for enemies who want to gut him, because he doesn't have that killer instinct. Perhaps he doesn't push his players hard enough—maybe that comes from not expecting other coaches to be doing so. His players seem stunned when there's a cheap shot against them—we look at that like "where's your spirit?!"" but it could just be they're not the type of dudes who expect the other team is trying to scramble their brains.

It is a mistake to see the obvious flaws in Hoke and assume we would make better head coaches. It is not a mistake to see these flaws and assume more successful head coaches would make better head coaches. Perhaps it was our own naivety to think Michigan's particular advantages could compensate for the weakness of goodness.

This football program is as doomed as matter in an accretion disc. Some of the players in it won't be here (Peppers at least said he will be the last to leave), and there's no guarantee that the next step will take us to the dark core of the black hole or shooting out into space to form a new star. Michigan looks headed to 4-8 by Massey estimates, which LSA matrixcised.

REMAININGWINS_zps651a7a1b

This is mathematical reality. The above is how the universe is arranged. But what separates life from every other arrangement of matter is how we approach our doom. Life doesn't just ride the mathematics arc until it spirals into nothingness. Life rages.

It probably won't change anything, but the players on this doomed team plan to rage against that probability. It almost certainly won't change anything, but most fans have chosen to march back to the Big House, and the other home field in Evanston, and even down to the darkest place in the universe, and rage against the dying of the light.

If you'd like to do so and don't have tickets, head to this thread before 3pm today and tell us about the crazy thing you've done. I'm now up to 8 tickets to give away.

[Jump for metaphysical beings—ghouls, goblins, zombies, etc.]

You can't vote on physics. One of our readers put a survey on the board' this week to see who fans blamed more between Hoke and Brandon for the terrible harvest and all the children dying and such. People with an association to the university were more likely to harbor hate for Brandon—only 3 percent thought Dave should outlast Hoke. The non-associated were startlingly different in that regard: 18% wanted Hoke fired first. None of them say why so I don't know what it means except one demographic has the students in it.

Even 80% concurrence in anything not scientifically proven is rare. In this case we've heard from people we generally trust that any top-tier coaching candidate, Harbaugh specifically, will never consent to work for Dave Brandon. So…

Is Wellman a witch? From the replies to last week's comparison of injuries across the conference came a rather scathing assessment of Michigan's S&C program, with a follow-up diary a few days later to go deeper into his explanation of his ideal training program. The gist seems to be that our guys don't do enough tension release things, e.g. yoga, and are too focused on just building muscle mass:

Why do we have so many ACL and other injuries? Where is our fourth quarter performance? It can be traced to the type of strength and conditioning training being practiced. There are four protocols for training: Strength, Power, Endurance, Hypertrophy. It's apparent from results on the field: Our S&C program over-emphasizes gross muscle mass, that is Hypertrophy, over Power and Endurance, which are the real factors in athletic performance. Those impressive pictures we see of our football players getting bigger? That's body building muscle, which does not translate well to sports performance, and sets up our players for injury.

The only other evidence he gave for identifying this as a Michigan problem was Bacon's assertion that NFL teams find Michigan players deficient in these protocols. It's a dense read and I have no way of judging it—even he admits S&C coaches are all over the map and nobody has a scientific basis; for all we know the four protocols could be the four humours. It certainly doesn't disprove the current consensus theory on the rash of ACL injuries: that we offended a vile demon from West Lafayette.

So now we don't stretch enough. #oppositeproblems

Etc. Update on coaching candidates. Wolverines in the NFL.

BEST OF THE BOARD

WHITE OUT, DAVE OUT

6xQ0aZ1

Students are organizing a "wear white" campaign for tomorrow's game to get rid of Dave Brandon. At this point I believe it will be a superfluous gesture.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

Taking the Spielman assertion during last week's game to heart, a guy on the board did a comparison of Michigan's player development under this staff to Dantonio's team. Result:

I think the clear theme in 1), 2), 3), and 4) is that the three year mark is the earliest reasonable time to assess player development.  U of M has numerous walk-ons and 3/4 star recruits who are beyond that mark and serve as starters.  Many of them are all-conference caliber players who will be drafted in the NFL.  Other than Gardner, Kalis, Isaac (really? clearly not a bust), Pipkins (probably not a bust, but I’ll list him anyways), and Magnuson, all of UM’s ‘busts’ have two or fewer years.  All of state’s 3-4 star recruits who developed into all-conference level players have at least three years of development.  Furthermore, MSU struggles at positions where they are forced to play players with less than three years experience.

Time is something that most of Michigan's players have, and their coaches certainly don't.

MEA CULPA ON PINK

WD says they'll wear the pink gear this weekend, even though tomorrow is technically November. This time they're serious. I reported last week that they would wear it for MSU; obviously they didn't.

MICHIGAN MEN DON'T COME FROM MICHIGAN

Here's what the Free Press [edit: Daily] said about Bo when he arrived:

"Schembechler does have one thing going for him. He joins the great non-Michigan tradition of Wolverine coaches. Coming from the University of Miami, the starting point of many mentors, Schembechler, along with basketball coach John Orr, has succeeded in breaking the old system of having Michigan alums named to coach Michigan teams."

For the record, the Bo quote this "MM" business originated from referred to a guy with two Michigan degrees, who just had de-Michigan'd himself by agreeing to take a job in Arizona.

Your Moment of Zen:

Wait like 2 minutes; you're about to get a nice one.

Comments

Vote_Crisler_1937

October 31st, 2014 at 11:30 AM ^

"Perhaps it was our own naivety to think Michigan's particular advantages could compensate for the weakness of goodness."

This made me think of the character arcs on AMC's The Walking Dead. We need to find coaches and players who are comfortable enough to strike a better balance between brutality, goodness, and constant focus. We need Carol to coach this team. Or play linebacker.

Also I strongly disagree about the assertions of the 4 components of S&C. I leave that debate to more educated S&C gurus today.



Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

umumum

October 31st, 2014 at 11:32 AM ^

actually the title of Ron Utah's diary is "Good-bye to a Great Man".  I can certainly ascribe to the former (good man/good guy), but the latter (great man) is a little rich.  Great should be used a little more discreetly---and appropriately.

Proclus

October 31st, 2014 at 11:50 AM ^

It is hardly surprising that Hoke would prove to be weak-willed, since it now seems he was hired primarily to play the lickspittle yes-man to an egomaniac.

After some reflection on the Rodriguez years, though, I wonder if even Hoke can be as bad as his record this year. When he was hired, his record was pretty mediocre compared to what most people thought Michigan could get, but he was generally regarded as a non-power-conference coach on the rise and his qualifications were at least plausible. More to the point, with the amount of talent he has and two coordinators with national championships, a tree stump should have a winning record in the Big Ten.

I'm convinced that somehow there is behind-the-scenes institutional malaise making Hoke even worse than he would otherwise be. I hope that it will be dispelled when they can the arrogant ass who thinks that a few years of polishing pine for Bo make him an expert on how to run a football program, but I worry that it might go deeper than that.

Glennsta

November 1st, 2014 at 9:03 AM ^

I don't know if it's malaise so much as a vague fear.  IMO, I've seen players, going back to RR days, who lack confidence. Perhaps it's a lack of confidence in their coaches or the system that they play in or their teammates, but ultimately it manifests itself in lack of confidence in themselves. Once guys start playing tentatively, it snowballs. This is why a kid like Gardner has been transformed into a turnover machine. This is why these teams when they get down a few scores, start to pack it in and let the Sparties and others punch them in the mouth and dominate them.

The one thing I was always proudest of UM football from the 70's pretty much through the Carr era was that nobody kicked their arse; nobody dominated them.  You never got the impression that UM was completely out of a game, that they had no shot from the get-go. Not any more.

The current situatipon is sort of like the disease process of being depressed. Things can be going fine but when something bad happens, the patient reverts to the default setting of getting down on himself.  The longer the process exists, the easier it becomes to fall into dysfunction when things go wrong. default ear breeds more fear.  They get down on themselves, sometimes quicker than others. And I know it's hard not to, given the circumstances 

But you have to break the cycle. Somehow.  Today's HC game is Day 1.

ff11

October 31st, 2014 at 12:07 PM ^

This has been a problem for Michigan for a solid decade. It was apparent in Carr's later years, got significantly worse under Rich Rod and Barwis, and seems to still be in full force under Hoke. I'm not sure why so many different coaching staffs with different philosophies are getting the same poor results, only that for whatever reason, they are.

bronxblue

October 31st, 2014 at 2:57 PM ^

I always thought the RR being fired after that Gator Bowl was a bad decision; the team had been beaten down all year by a bad defense and the vultures circling the carcass, and I thought they came out and played hard, just that Miss St. really did beat them up.  I mean, the offense had a gameplan but it just kinda got steamrolled by an apparently-decent MSU team.  Fire RR because he couldn't field a good defense, but that wasn't him giving up any more than last week's game against the other MSU game was Hoke and the team giving up.  sometimes you are just beaten.

Also, if memory serves me right, Thomas died of overdrinking/pneumonia (or maybe that's just how all writers of his era seemed to die).  Sounds like we might have a couple of fans going the same way, if the celebration threads are to be believed.

bronxblue

October 31st, 2014 at 2:57 PM ^

I always thought the RR being fired after that Gator Bowl was a bad decision; the team had been beaten down all year by a bad defense and the vultures circling the carcass, and I thought they came out and played hard, just that Miss St. really did beat them up.  I mean, the offense had a gameplan but it just kinda got steamrolled by an apparently-decent MSU team.  Fire RR because he couldn't field a good defense, but that wasn't him giving up any more than last week's game against the other MSU game was Hoke and the team giving up.  sometimes you are just beaten.

Also, if memory serves me right, Thomas died of overdrinking/pneumonia (or maybe that's just how all writers of his era seemed to die).  Sounds like we might have a couple of fans going the same way, if the celebration threads are to be believed.

Rusty Knuckles

November 1st, 2014 at 1:50 AM ^

I love the 'DFW' method..is this the name of it? Dallas-Fort Worth method? Does it have a real name and inventor?

If you want to combine this with Bronx's robot theory where if somebody accuses another of being a robot they probably themselves are a robot then read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.