TONIGHT! See you there, now with free food (enough for 50 people).

monuMental wallaper

The MGoBlog equivalent of college football is the Diaries. Nobody there has been drafted to write what they're told. Nobody there gets paid to do it. You'll find legends like MCalibur and ST3 and Enjoy Life and Six Zero and bronxblue frequenting the same threads you do. This is a place where TRADITION means something, man. For those who are new to the extra content I'll use this week to introduce some of the regular things you find there:

The Six, by Mathlete: Okay sometimes we pay these guys under the table—what, you prefer we lose this guy to the SEC? Michigan's 7.0 points per red zone trip is ridiculous. Stray thought: if Michigan has the most effective guy ever at scoring from three yards out, does that change the math of going for two? Mathlete also had a LOT of dumb punts of the week to pick from (including two by MSU). Enos cowardly kicking a field goal after their false start didn't make the cut because it wasn't a punt.

Turnover Analysis, by Enjoy Life: This one is always short and important; he breaks down the turnovers for and against by situation so you can see how much they're really affecting the game, e.g. the arm-punt doesn't hurt as much as giving the opponent the ball inside your five yard line.

Cloud of Dustdate, by Daniel: The newest weekly will help us sort out the running backs. Charting the runs is a really nice touch. Maybe make 3rd and short and inside the 5 yard line runs red in the charts so we know when it's bulldozer time.

[Jump]

Best and Worst, by bronxblue: Like a good-bad-ugly thing. Good: everything in our game. Bad: everything in the Big Ten that wasn't Michigan.

Inside the Box Score, by ST3: This is the weekly me and my robot pals are watching for. Not much in a blowout you can pass judgment on. Ever seen a license plate that said "100% BLU?"

Against the Spread, by UMgradMSUdad: A new one that shows how teams of interest did compared to the spread.

Statistical Review, by LSAClassOf2000: This one now translates to watching base stats, this time for the conference as a whole. Michigan got a lot of kickoff coverage practice; Michigan State used their directional school game to get a lot of punt coverage practice. I am enjoying this stat so much.

Mini Program, by Lanyard Program: Print this off before the game so you'll have rosters and depth charts and quick access to the result of previous matchups handy. Oh yeah? I remember when we beat you…

…38-nothing. Wait, no, the OTHER time we beat you 38-nothing. Shouldn't there be two of those? Also in game-day usefulness, look out for our resident meteorologist mgoweather to give a report sometime this afternoon.

History is Important Because We Beat Notre Dame a Lot in It: This time saveferris takes us back to 1980, when the nation was buoyed by the Miracle on Ice and Michigan's recent victory in the Ten Year War. One thing he left out was that the greatest class ever was born that year, many of us grouped around a few days exactly nine months after the Great Blizzard of '79. Henson, Terrell, Walker, Fisher—the greats! Also in history, I posted a Bentley announcement about the Harmon Exhibit they have going on right now.

Etc. Non-conference opponent recruiting got a big update by EGD. The Blockhams wil

Best of the Board

FACT-CHECKING NOTRE DAME

Myth: This is successful. Reality: False; this is a shameless self-promoter tolerated by delusional people

A thing about peoples of Pictish descent: much of their real history is full of barbarism mixed with a massive dose of atrocities committed upon them. If you travel to castles in Ireland or Scotland the tour guides will feed you total B.S. stories (a popular one is to cliam the game of golf was invented on the grounds) to make it seem this outpost was anything but an artifact of repression. Notre Dame is similar in this respect. Notre Dame's true history is they were the SEC of of the first half of the 20th century (in that many of their athletes were students in name only). Since that is a rather dubious history they've made up a bunch of stuff. Wikipedia entries on ND are filled with inaccuracies.

One thing they didn't make up: Yost hated their guts, and didn't like a lot of other people too for completely prejudicial reasons.

YOST BOOK

Wolverine Devotee found a free ebook of Fielding Yost's 1905 pamphlet on the history of football and how it is played, from formations to the rules to everything. I believe the book was initially produced to help other schools start football teams.

FIG THINGS

You saw it:

Now see the thread.

GAMEDAY SIGN IDEAS

This thread has a few ideas. Anything chicken-related gets my approval, e.g. rubber chickens. I also really like "FRIGHTEND IRISH!"

CMU DISCUSSION

Burning thing: if Beyer and Cam Gordon are this good, what the hell do we do when Jake Ryan comes back? #MattisonWorldProblems.

ETC. Board posting suggestion: if your thread title is too provocative nobody will read what you said after it (the OP was talking more about ways to take advantage of ND's defense being undersized after the front three, awful title.)

Your Moment of Zen:

I've already used the last few minutes of UTL1 for this so…

But no, it's not really a rivalry.