Jihad The Second: Mike Forcier, Mike Schofield Deny Allegations

Mike Schofield sounds like a good man.

I have to agree that this free press article has the worst timing. Who at the free press is so much against Michigan? This is going to be a huge distraction this week as they prepare for opening day against Western Michigan.

On the front page of espn.com, there is a video of joe schad talking about how a current starter, and starter last season both said that the reports were accurate...this is starting to get annoying because there is no way that this is not happening all over the country. However, this is disturbing since its our own players blowing the proverbial whistle about all this. I am more worried about all these allegations coming from within against the program.

Quoting the article:

"Football players in the NCAA's Division I Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A) said they spent an average of 44.8 hours a week on their sport — playing games, practicing, training and in the training room — compared with a little less than 40 hours on academics."

I don't really want to go back through the Freep article and count up the implied hours, but in the very least we can decide how above or below average we are. I assume somewhat above since the Bowl Subdivision average is probably split more or less by BCS and non-BCS participant.

USA Today link

I too am most concerned about this coming from players who are still on the team. I understand Stokes' and Hawthorne's comments were likely taken out of context, and were possibly baited, but if there are others this would probably contradict the "buying into what we're doing" meme we've heard so much about this offseason. It could really divide the locker room, and more so, could divide the players from the coaching staff. That could create a huge cascade, ultimately resulting in firing of the staff (maybe not this year, maybe not even next year, but eventually due to internal strife).

In Bo's time there were no compliance officers, nobody cared about how many hours the team practiced, and everyone did just fine with their lives. If the Free Press tried to print some bullshit like this the "journalist" would get punched in his pussy little face. I practiced way more than 20 hours per week when I was in high school. This is D-1 football. For the free press to try to make a story out of something that is without a doubt the norm in college football, it is obvious they have a vendetta against Michigan and RR. No wonder why Lloyd forbade any interaction with the press, they do nothing but try to fuck us in our hiny holes.

Here's the relevant passage, which Brian highlighted, for hours past the allotted 20, assuming I can read and comprehend:

"With three hours on Saturday and a full day on Sunday, players tallied about 12 hours on those two days. They were off Monday. Players said they would spend an additional three to four hours with the team on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, bringing the weekly total to 21- 24 hours."

20+24=44

Average (see previous post) was 44.8 hours per week. So we're actually at most below the average? Jeebus. Get fucked, Freep. And thanks for providing the proper context.

What a great comment from him, that about sums up everything.

Kudos to Mr. Schofield for this response. Howeva, we do have names, at least one of whom is quoted specifically: Terance Taylor. The clear import of his words was that Sundays were excessive. If he had to be there that Sunday for that amount of time (which needs further clarification) that alone is a violation.

Well looks like I won't be listening to any local sports radio for the next few days. I'm sure the local sparty hosts are going to have a field day talking about this stuff.

Someone is undermining Michigan because they didn't get the spot they wanted or they didn't like being told to run everywhere for practice. This is a strategic allegation! If it is coming from a coach or coaches. The purpose is they fear what Michigan will soon become a threat. Go back in history and see how that even the Big 10 made rules to hinder Michigan's dominance. Michigan, in turn, left the B10 for 10 years. This mess is not new. I just wish we kick enough butt over the coming years to shut up the haters. Or just let them eat 40 years of crow.

Even Tressel admits to Michigan's ability to truly transverse transitions well. Personally, I think that Michigan will weather this storm. The comments parents made about the kid's and their Michigan activities was very helpful. Media Hype? Who knows? It is apparent that someone is doing some major hating. I don't think it is true. RR can't be that stupid. He knows he is at Michigan right? The team under the media electron microscope.

I hope things sort themselves out and exonerate my Wolverines. Michigan doesn't need this now!

Ever. From anyone. This is the first hint of UM's EPIC FAIL this season. I get a lot of clients who are former Michiganders and I used to kid them about UM "once upon a time having a football program" after last season. Apparently I was fairly prescient as I'm afraid this is a terrible harbinger of things to come. You can't win with people who don't want to be there, and this is how that manifests. I can't imagine some douchebag bitching to the PRESS about "long practices" under Bear Bryant or Urban Meyer, etc. I will no longer make that joke as it will hit too close to home. My condolences fellows. =(

Joe Schad is now on his way to Ann Arbor, according to his Twitter feed.

So, I'm assuming he'll be on his way to every other program after that, right?

I like the point he made about how the good things that the team did around the community and in the classroom never was in the news, but the bad stuff always is.

I am friendly with some of the former members of the team. During a family gathering, the subject of offseason workouts came up, and I specifically asked if there was a limit imposed by the NCAA and the player responded: "there are limits, but these workouts are voluntary. Of course, the coaches have a saying: if you don't come to the volunteer workouts, you volunteer to not play."

End of Story IMO.

How about they take a poll of every single college athlete, at big schools and little, and define:

College
Hours of Scheduled Practice in High School
Hours of Actual Time Spent on *Sport* in High School, including working out alone etc.

I guarantee you that the bigger and better the school, the higher the differential between those numbers will be. In order to be good at something, you have to work at it. It is that simple.

The biggest complainers will be the kids who aren't good enough to start without working out all of those extra hours, who know that they have no opportunities in the NFL.

After almost 30 years in journalism as both reporter and editor, I read a story like this and see something that was rushed to print before it was nailed down.

If these violations have been occurring since RichRod got here, why haven't any of the departed players gone on the record and/or ratted him out to the NCAA? What would Boren have to fear? Or Threet? Or any number of graduated seniors? Or a host of disgruntled West Virginians who saw the same pattern there?

As an editor, I would send this back to the kitchen for more seasoning. As a reporter, I'd worry that my desire for a scoop has overriden my lack of on-the-record sources, and in the end, sacrificed accuracy. If this reporter is right, he has scored a major coup. If he's wrong, he'll go the way of Rob Parker.

Mike Schofield brings up a good point about media control...which raises the question:

Will RR excercise tighter controls over the media than he has?

Carr was paranoid about allowing some players to talk to the media, maybe over-paranoid at times...but it was effective in keeping young guys from saying things that would be easily twisted by Rosenberg-ites.

Media Day, is hard to put a cap on, but perhaps RR should cut down on so much of the open-ness to the program that he has allowed. It was a great/nice idea in concept, but clearly is backfiring and not working as the Rosenberg-ites are relentless in picking over the program for anything worth speculating on, like a seagull picking over a piece of old fried chicken lying in the beach parking lot.