Unverified Voracity Advises Ponchos
One year ago. Not quite today. But close:
Your 1 a.m. press release will make it into our paper. So damn proud to work at the @michigandaily: pic.twitter.com/TmbXBjrBUX
— Alejandro Zúñiga (@ByAZuniga) September 30, 2014
The beginning of the end and the beginning of the rebirth. The Daily's Jake Lourim takes the opportunity to look at Jim Hackett's tenure:
Schlissel said student backlash went “beyond having a football team that didn’t achieve a record that met people’s expectations.”
“It was part of the issue, why people were anxious, but it wasn’t the main issue,” he told the Daily in September. “I think, what people felt was, football in particular and perhaps the other sports were becoming more distant from the campus. That they were becoming more of an enterprise and less of an activity. I think our non-athlete students … felt estranged — they felt like customers.
“I think we’ve gone a long way in the months since … to reset the way the Athletic Department views its role on the campus,” he added.
Schlissel is in charge of things for a reason.
Save a garbage bag, bring a poncho. The Maryland game is going to be in the vicinity of tropical storm Joaquin. How close is going to mean the difference between a nice night and seeing Jake Rudock hit in the face with a soaked, flying cat. Monday's storm track was looking pretty ominous for the football game; Tuesday's is less so:
@michiganinsider @chengelis The photo you tweeted was Monday's storm projection. Here's Tuesday's, much less dire. pic.twitter.com/0tfliPmZoe
— Shawn L. Martin (@ShawnLMartin) September 29, 2015
The Monday track had the storm right off the coast of DC at 8 PM Saturday. Worth keeping an eye on still. A thunderous downpour would be advantage Maryland in the same way playing checkers instead of chess is advantage Borges:
Heavy rain may be a positive for Maryland, who averages an interception once every 10 pass attempts.
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) September 29, 2015
So they've got that hypothetically going for them.
Whoops. When Vegas put out a Michigan –11.5 line for this game, I thought "that seems low." Maryland fans glumly asked if that was a first-quarter line. And sure enough, that line was pounded until it was pulled off the board and returned at M –14.5. Even now only a couple of books are offering a line at all, and the "consensus" is M –16.
A move that big suggests that Michigan and Maryland combine to break whatever models are used to set lines—possibly because the amount of deviation from preseason expectations for both overwhelmed them.
Mark Messner tribute. From Wolverine Historian:
Keep that anger inside where it can be used to hit people hard. The prospect of getting trash-talked by BYU is appealing. In my experience Mormons have the ability to turn an innocent word into the vilest thing you've ever heard with their intonation. When you don't swear the swears leak into the rest of your language; it's quite a trick. So when I wonder what might have made Jabrill Peppers mad on Saturday…
For whatever reason, Michigan's redshirt freshman defensive back found himself on the receiving end of an unusual amount of trash talk Saturday early on against BYU.
He did his best to ignore it, and almost engaged once. But, ultimately, his pads prevailed.
And by the time Peppers wrapped up and, literally, tossed 6-foot-5, 225-pound receiver Terenn Houk out of bounds just before halftime, the talking had officially stopped.
"We play between the whistle, so I'll try to hurt you as much as I can between the whistle," Peppers said Monday. "Especially if you're jawing at me. ... (They were saying) things I can't repeat on camera.
"I just let my pads speak for me, that's how I react to that."
…I hope it's "I welcome this upcoming athletic contest" twisted into a pulsating black sphere of hate.
Also: Harbaugh banning trash talk is 1) amazingly hypocritical and 2) another anger factory. I don't want to hear about how this country "used to make things" when Jim Harbaugh is the world's #1 exporter of harsh feelings.
Side note. Who taunts Happy Fun Peppers? That seems just amazingly unwise.
It is your destiny. So my Hackett statue concept is that he's wearing the outfit he's got on in that shot of Harbaugh exiting the plane at Detroit Metro and he's got a microphone in one hand that he has just let go.
Michigan interim athletic director Jim Hackett agreed with Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly on Saturday, speaking on Michigan's pregame radio show, saying he'd like to see the Wolverines and Fighting Irish resume their rivalry.
In fact, he believes it's "destined" to happen.
"Nothing has happened in that regard from my desk," Hackett said. "But the way I think about the Notre Dame thing is, that's a rivalry that should be restored and it's destined to have that happen.
"The challenge is making the schedules work. Because of television, because of the Big Ten having 14 teams. We've got to find holes in the schedule."
I think that would be a good statue.
Surprise! Larry Brown got hit by the NCAA with a suspension and SMU was banned from the postseason this year.
SMU has been hit with a postseason ban for this season & Larry Brown suspended for 10 percent of this season’s games, source told ESPN.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) September 29, 2015
It turns out that SMU academic support was doing coursework for the players. Sun round, full of hot bits. Michigan travels to SMU on December 8th.
Five are in a dark black. Eighty are in a slightly darker black. PREPARE THYSELVES
ANN ARBOR -- Maryland will be sporting its "Black Ops" alternate uniforms when it hosts No. 22 Michigan on Saturday, according to InsideMDSports' Ahmed Ghafir.
Maryland is 0-2 while dressing in tactical garments, having lost by a combined score of 78-29. The Maryland football team is on the verge of seriously pissing off America's most dangerous special forces troops.
Spartan injuries. No information forthcoming:
Dantonio says there have been no new season-ending injuries. Jack Conklin, Josiah Price, RJ Williamson all left last week's game #spartans
— Kyle Austin (@kylebaustin) September 29, 2015
Conklin is an OR on the most recent depth chart.
Hart profiled. Via the Daily:
“All I knew was, kind of, Michigan,” Hart said. “With Coach English, Lloyd — that’s the only way that we did things. And not bad things. But I needed to open my horizons.”
For Fleck, hiring Hart wasn’t a tough choice. Being Michigan’s all-time leading rusher bought him instant credibility with recruits, and Fleck had already been hearing rave reviews about Hart from prospects.
“(They said), ‘Mike Hart, I love Mike Hart.’ That’s what I continued to hear on the recruiting trail,” Fleck said.
Hurst profiled. Via Brendan Quinn:
But this isn't about who wasn't there and what hasn't been in Maurice Hurst Jr.'s life. This is about what's been there all along.
Nicole Page will board a flight tonight to watch her son play football.
"As long as I can see him a couple of times a month, I'm good," she says. "But it's still tough. I miss him all the time."
Uncharacteristically blunt. Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby has always come off as one of the smartest guys in college football's administrative class and his recent comments on the unionization drive the NRLB essentially punted on are going to prove prophetic, I bet:
“I’m glad the unionization process has cooled for right now,” Bowlsby said. “But the fact is — and it probably will be in the sport of men’s basketball — there will be a day in the future when the popcorn is popped, the TV cameras are there, the fans are in the stands and the team decides they’re not going to play. Mark my words. We will see that in the years ahead. We saw some of it for other reasons in the ’70s, but I really believe that we aren’t finished with the compensation issue or with the employee-vs.-student issue.”
The right combination of ornery dudes and it will happen. If the Fab Five happened today it would be them, for sure.
Bowlsby still comes from a point of view so blinkered that he's startled when a Big 12 athlete tells him that he feels like an employee, but at least he's able to accept that fact and start communicating why that is the case and what that means in the near future. So many NCAA administrators are busy trying to shore up a dike that's about to bust; Bowlsby is trying to whittle a canoe.
Etc.: Is that bad, Bret Bielema? Basketball depth is deep: how will they use it? This is not at all unreasonable. Harbaugh marriage advice is exactly what you'd expect. Texas fans have gone Falling Down on the reffing in the Oklahoma State game. Wheatley to Rose Bowl hall of fame. Top analytics articles. Mud Bowl on the rocks but apparently still a go.
Gameday with the MMB. Butch Jones is under fire.
September 29th, 2015 at 12:21 PM ^
Concussiongate seems like a lifetime ago...
September 29th, 2015 at 12:22 PM ^
I really like Alejandro Zúñiga. (I haven't met him... just his work.) It'd be great to see him covering Michigan sports over the long run.
September 29th, 2015 at 12:33 PM ^
Big announcement: Proud to have @ByAZuniga joining @MaizenBrew as a longform/feature writer. Excited to add what he brings to the table.
— Anthony Broome (@anthonytbroome) September 28, 2015
September 29th, 2015 at 12:22 PM ^
What with that tropical storm forecast and all I can't help but rekindle visions of Justin Fargas' coming out party in Evanston c. 1998.
A moist affair indeed.
September 29th, 2015 at 1:14 PM ^
obligatory, that's what she said...
September 29th, 2015 at 2:22 PM ^
The guy you least expected to be a mudder.
Maybe this will be Drake Johnson's coming out party.
September 29th, 2015 at 11:59 PM ^
The heartbreak still lives with me.
September 29th, 2015 at 12:24 PM ^
What a difference a year makes. Glad we put that behind us.
September 29th, 2015 at 12:31 PM ^
Chris Webber didn't have a reason to protest a lack of compensation in college.
September 29th, 2015 at 2:23 PM ^
Too soon.
September 29th, 2015 at 2:33 PM ^
The guy left 22 years ago.
Oh wait, let's all wait until his book comes out.
September 29th, 2015 at 12:32 PM ^
will appear from BENEATH the field, popping up like prairie dogs, whack-a-mole style until Michigan players weary of combatting them. My prediction: Maryland narrowly wins their war of attrition 21-20; no one knows who scored their points. If you find out they have to kill you.
September 29th, 2015 at 12:40 PM ^
So Maryland in all black and UM in all white? It's a color scheme Ace is familiar with.
September 29th, 2015 at 12:41 PM ^
I was happy to see us make into the AP Poll but I don't think we will ever make into the Coaches Poll. Because of the satellite camps, there is not one coach in the SEC who will ever give us a vote. And after the UCLA coach initially blocked Chris Clark from transferring to Michigan, I'm beginning to wonder if we will be getting any votes from the PAC-12 (don't forget, the Utah coach wasn't too happy about Popular Mechanics labeling his team a cupcake, which somehow got translated to Michigan labeling them cupcakes).
We could end the year as a top-10 team in the AP Poll and be on the outside looking in on the Coaches Poll, sitting at #26. Oh well. I guess we must be doing something right if all the coaches hate us.
Go Blue!!!!
P.S. I: Mark Dantonio is another coach we will never ever ever receive a vote from and he's in our conference.
P.S. II: Borges and checkers? Now, that's funny.
September 29th, 2015 at 1:01 PM ^
How bout next week. We're #26 right now.
September 29th, 2015 at 1:39 PM ^
you obviously stopped reading right after that.
September 29th, 2015 at 4:00 PM ^
I red the hole thing. I can read gud.
September 29th, 2015 at 1:23 PM ^
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September 29th, 2015 at 1:32 PM ^
If true, I think this is a high compliment, especially after our last coach's penchant for having a "We wouldn't want to offend them" mentality.
September 29th, 2015 at 3:12 PM ^
You're putting more thought into this than the average coach puts into his ballot. It's an open secret that the ballots aren't even filled out by the coaches themselves; they just sign off on them.
We're five points behind Cal and Oregon. We'll be ranked with a win over Maryland.
September 29th, 2015 at 12:43 PM ^
I don't think the Terps have quite gone far enough.
September 29th, 2015 at 1:11 PM ^
Maybe his twin brother?
September 29th, 2015 at 12:52 PM ^
I don't get it. If the team doesn't play then they forfeit right? I'd imagine doing that a few times will violate some clause in their scholarship agreement. Plus I doubt it will be a team like Kentucky, those kids are headed to an NBA pay day anyways. The team that would do this would be a mid to low level P5 squad with no real NBA prospects since NCAA will be the highest level they can play at. If PSU basketball started forfeiting games would it really shock the world?
September 29th, 2015 at 1:18 PM ^
they think players on other teams will follow them. I'd think the players risking the most are the ones not headed to professional basketball. They;re the ones planning to use their degrees.
Penn State might just use walk-ons. Their players don't have much leverage. But what is Louisville going to do if their players boycott a game?
September 29th, 2015 at 12:56 PM ^
Is Under Armour working on tactilneck uniformz for Maryland next season?
September 29th, 2015 at 1:00 PM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 1:01 PM ^
Love the no trash talking rule. Let your game speak for itself, and let your opponent wear themselves with pointless chatter.
September 29th, 2015 at 1:05 PM ^
Seeing Schlissel's comments alongside Bowlsby's, more or less, has me wondering at the apparent tension between wanting to treat (college) athletes as employees (or at least more like them) while not wanting to treat (college) students as customers.
Wondering how we resolve this--how do we have an ath. dept. that rewards its workers while still treating everyone else as stakeholders rather than a target market?
Could the students, for example, be something like stockholders in this comparison?
September 29th, 2015 at 1:10 PM ^
makes the Peppers take down of Houk make even more sense. At the time I thought, "Man, Jabrill looked really fired up on that play!" That was impressive. He tossed a 225 lb. guy around like a ragdoll.
September 29th, 2015 at 1:12 PM ^
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September 29th, 2015 at 2:52 PM ^
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September 29th, 2015 at 1:24 PM ^
BYU that was involved in a game ending brawl last season. Recent BYU teams have played with an edge, very chippy, even dirty. We didn't really see that team in AA Saturday, but I'm sure they were mouthing off a lot.
September 29th, 2015 at 2:26 PM ^
for about 5 minutes . . .
September 29th, 2015 at 4:37 PM ^
Once on Rudock late out of bounds and once on Rudock when the guy speared at his knees after the ball was gone. After that there was nothing. Saw an official discussing with Nacua a time or two. Referees did a great job and nipped that garbage in the bud.
September 29th, 2015 at 1:30 PM ^
That BarkingCarnival link, just wow, such desperation. I know there are posters here who'd have the focus and ability to create such a detailed officiating analysis. I know there's often a general feel that the refs discriminate against M. But God, I hope nothing like that has ever been posted here. It's just so sad.
September 29th, 2015 at 1:51 PM ^
I think that forecast you found was on the optimistic side of things. I just checked out accuweather.com and weather.com and while things could change, they're best guess is the storm hitting Friday night into Saturday in the mid-Atlantic. College Park is essentially as mid-Atlantic as you can get. Sigh, says this ticketholder for Saturday,
September 29th, 2015 at 5:19 PM ^
If you are not from these parts (MD), this is by far the best site for DC/MD weather. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/09/29…
The bottom line is that it's just too early. NWS and the Hurricane Center have VERY LOW levels of confidence in any one forecast right now. It could hit the Carolinas, Delmarva, Northeast, or never make land fall at all.
September 29th, 2015 at 1:53 PM ^
Hearing some of the old time announcers was cool also.
September 29th, 2015 at 1:56 PM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 2:02 PM ^
I think that's the most respectful thing Brian's ever said about the Fab 5, though I'm not entirely sure he meant it as a complement. (?)
I happen to agree. There's a lot a more people discussing revenue-sport athlete exploitation these days then there was 20 plus years ago. Webber might have come back for his Junior year just to Fight The Power.
That would have been a more productive and impressive way to orient the energy and resentment to exploitation those guys had. How it actually went down was...worse.
September 29th, 2015 at 2:04 PM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 2:10 PM ^
We've come a long way in one short year. All of us were miserable at this time last year. Who's got it better than us??????
September 29th, 2015 at 3:34 PM ^
One year later, we're sitting here at 3-1, with a destruction of a good fringe-top-25 opponent and a close loss to a now top 10 team on the road in game 1, and now I'm staring at the schedule and wondering how high this team can really go. How much more improvement they have in them. It's finally fun again.
September 29th, 2015 at 9:02 PM ^
That game was the Coup de Grace for the season...no recovering from that debacle.
September 29th, 2015 at 4:43 PM ^
Because that's how you get ants.
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September 29th, 2015 at 9:46 PM ^
September 29th, 2015 at 10:00 PM ^
September 30th, 2015 at 10:59 AM ^
at home with Google! It's by-far the best job I've had. Last Wednesday I got a brand new BMW since getting a check for $6474 this - 4 weeks past. I began this 8-months ago and immediately was bringing home at least $77 per hour. I work through this link, go? to tech tab for work detail
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