Unverified Voracity Deploys The Napkin Comment Count

Brian

[Tardy thanks to MRI, about which more later, and Stonum going poof. Please excuse any datedness that may appear.]

Some progress. Over the summer the SEC further clamped down on oversigning by reducing a Houston Nutt-induced cap of 28 signees in any particular year—a fig leaf—to an actually impactful 25. You only have to look at Michigan's projected 2012 class of 27 or 28 to know there's at least some teeth in the SEC's latest cap, but if you want more direct evidence, Georgia running back Justin Taylor provides it:

One of Georgia’s top running backs said that was told by Alabama’s Nick Saban this weekend that he will have to wait until next year to sign with the Crimson Tide. …

Coach Saban just said I’m the 26th commitment. I would be the 26th signee. I guess he went and picked up somebody else. He said I make 26 and they only get 25. They talked about bringing me in next January.” [Note: Alabama has 27 commitments]

That somebody else was Auburn decommit and five-star TJ Yeldon. Taylor, a generic three star who lost his senior year to a knee injury, is now adrift two weeks before signing day after spending almost a year committed to the Tide.

In a hilarious effort to create a binding commitment between a party with no power and College Football Stalin, Saban proposed they deploy a +5 Napkin of Ultimate Bonding:

"He said he was going to sign me with the next class. But he also said he would sign a piece of paper to show that they are keeping their word – they are going to sign it and they want me to sign it to make sure I know I still have my scholarship"

You have to hand it to Saban. That is weaselry worthy of Magnetar. The HSR suggests a T-shirt:

Alabama Napkin[1]

So Saban is still a disingenuous weasel. Here he does exactly what Sevon Pittman did to MSU, except he's a millionaire adult instead of an addled 18-year old with two dollars to his name. He is still committed but looking at options, which means he's trying to find a landing place as fast as possible.

At least Taylor found that out before he signed a document that committed him to Alabama but not vice-versa. This is still not ideal since 25 x 4 = 100 and it seems like a reasonable number to average on a yearly basis is 22, but it does forcibly hack the worst oversigning offenders' practices in half.

To repeat the brilliant suggestion of an Oversigning.com commenter, the best way to fix the problem is to do away with an 85 player limit entirely in favor of a yearly limit on letters of intent somewhere between 22 and 26. This removes any incentive to take kids off the team. Unfortunately, Title IX probably makes this impossible.

Indiana State could not be reached for comment.

Decline and fall. Virginia Tech's special teams looked surprisingly weak in the metrics tracked by the NCAA, but that fails to account for blocks and whatnot that were a large portion of the "Beamerball" free touchdowns. I wondered if that had evaporated recently. Survey says:

beamer-ball-blocked-kicks[1]

One blocked kick with major upside per year each of the last three,  with a couple of blocked PATs thrown in there. Foster's defense is keeping them afloat these days. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just thought it was interesting.

We're really mad now, you guys. The NCAA is going to get serious… just in time for Ohio State to get off mad easy. I'll believe this when I see it:

"We were damn mad and not going to take it anymore," Ed Ray, Oregon State president and chair of the Enforcement Working Group, said.

Given Miami AD Paul Dee's comeuppance after the "high profile compliance" shot against Reggie Bush, expect Oregon State to be swallowed whole within the year. The working group has created a penalty matrix that provides two different violation levels with a total of eight tiers between them. No one seems to know what goes in those categories but hoo boy, getting hit with a Significant Level I violation would net you a 2-3 year postseason ban and a loss of 38-50% of your scholarships. Dang.

Apparently even Michigan's piddling violations would have netted a four-scholarship loss "per year"—not sure how many years we're talking about here—which is more than OSU's massive year long head-coach-lying carnivale got them. Again, believe it when I see some athletic department burned to the ground.

At least they didn't take dumb action. The totally outrageous proposal to hack down scholarship numbers in an era when TV networks can't throw enough money at schools was voted down. Also it sounds like the 2,000 stipend may return in some other form and the board of the directors is going to make schools who want to override the multi-year scholarship proposal get a 5/8ths majority to vote it down.

So okay. The Indiana States of the world can stew.

Guh. A portion of a paywalled interview with Brandon on playoffs brings up an old canard that's annoying when bloggers deploy it and doubly so when it's your athletic director($):

"This whole notion of a playoff is ridiculous because I don't care what you come up with, it's not going to be a fair playoff. You've got a bunch of teams that don't play one another and play different competition and in different time zones in different conferences in different stadiums in front of different crowds and different weather and suddenly at some point in the year you are trying to arbitrarily decide which one is better and which one deserves to be in a four-team playoff or a six-team playoff."

This is a downside of a playoff that the current system doesn't have? Except infinitely worse because you can literally win all your games and still get passed over? Are these even questions? No?

Rothstein challenges Brandon on his arguments, to his credit, but you'll have to have Insider to see the result. Spoiler: it's the usual pastiche of academics and wear and tear that apparently only applies to I-A, with an added bonus of "kids love bowl games." CBS surveyed players on the four teams in the Fiesta Bowl and SEC West Division Championship Game. They found 19% favored a bowl game and 43% a playoff with 38% abstaining.

The thing that bothers is not the opposition to a playoff, which is a somewhat tenable position as someone who believes the current system benefits his schools. It's that the arguments put forth are all logically inconsistent.

BONUS: Weird that he went from four teams to six instead of eight, eh? MGoPlayoff's tentacles extend.

Winter Classic: official? Not officially official but someone is now saying it is a done deal instead of something discussed in nonbinding chats over tea:

The NHL, the Detroit Red Wings and the University of Michigan have finalized a deal to hold next season’s Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium, a source told MLive.com.

They're going to build a rink at Not Tiger Stadium as well to "appease Mike Ilitch." Maybe the GLI will be there. Or something. I don't know. It's weird.

Michigan may now lose its own record for hockey attendance and force a bunch of people to choose between that and the inevitable New Year's Day bowl Michigan will find itself in unless it manages the same at-large BCS trick it did this year or makes the MNC game. But, hey: incremental revenue.

Star turn. CBS's Jeff Goodman was in the house yesterday; he profiles Trey Burke:

"I knew pretty quick in the summer," Novak said. "Trey was doing things right away that it had taken me four years to pick up. He has such a high skill level -- and you can tell he wasn't fazed by anything."

Speaking of things it took Novak four years to pick up, how about the shots he's generating off the dribble now? Needs more usage.

Head: removed. Entertaining board thread on Hardaway's emotive pictures notices that… uh… he has opted out this time.

Michigan-State-at-Michigan-12-400x600[1]Michigan-State-at-Michigan-8-400x600[1]

Photos via UMHoops

I don't like the socks either, trueblueintexas.

If you'd like to revisit the old bad thing, BHGP has put up their Fran Graphs on the Michigan-Iowa game.

frangraph_mich_medium[1]

Recommended. It was interesting hearing Beilein talk about the five games in thirteen days thing as a major factor… but in retrospect Michigan has shot like total crap from the outside lately. Hopefully they can get their legs before facing down the all-press all-the-time Arkansas runs (even when it's just giving Anthony Davis dunks).

Personal note that may affect you at some point. If you follow the mgotwitter account you may know that Michigan is bad at scheduling MRIs. This is because I had one. I had one because ten months ago a guy put his spikes into my knee when I was playing indoor soccer. I went to the doctor; the doctor said "walk it off," basically. I tried that but the knee was obviously unstable even after the swelling and whatnot had gone away.

Since I was getting married, going on a honeymoon, and not missing football games there wasn't much point in finding out until now. I'm in the process as we speak. In all probability I'm going to find out my ACL is no longer extant and get the surgery, which means there is going to be a period of time I'll be taking an involuntary vacation.

Yes, the "Michigan Difference" commercials are currently making me peevish. BONUS: I am passionately arguing for red cards whenever I watch anything, especially NASCAR.

Etc.: New soccer coach Chaka Daley on WTKA. Michigan lax is taking on Detroit-Mercy in Warren if you're from around there. Van Bergen's Sugar Bowl foot injury was a lisfranc sprain. I would bet on Van Bergen in a fight with a bear.

Comments

Geaux_Blue

January 18th, 2012 at 5:53 PM ^

at reporting results of MRIs. had one for my shoulder, heard nothing back after it and thought, as a 20-something is prone to do, that it meant nothing was wrong. shoulder kept dislocating during moderate to mild "exercise" so I did a request in grad school for my UM results. ended up being a full tear of basically everything in the joint and muscle. still haven't had it fixed but would have had the benefit of full coverage as a student had they gotten back to me back in the day. 

grumble.

Jon06

January 18th, 2012 at 5:56 PM ^

i hurt my rotator cuff a few years ago and UHS told me to take it easy and just wait for it to heal, since it would be better by the time they could get me into physical therapy for it. i was young enough not to call bullshit back then...

Needs

January 18th, 2012 at 7:01 PM ^

Went into UHS with intense abdominal pain. The doc determined it was gallstones and told me to avoid eating fat. The next morning, the fiance said "Hey, why are you yellow?" Into ER ... weeklong stay in UM hospital.

At least the ER introduced me to the wonders of Dilaudid. 

Best. Painkiller. Ever.

grossag

January 18th, 2012 at 6:16 PM ^

Ouch, good luck with the ACL surgery!  I've had both replaced (1 ultimate frisbee, 1 basketball).  The difference for me between the two was the quality of physical therapy that I had.  For the first one I did my PT at the Cube in Ann Arbor and it went really well.  The second one was out in California and not so well.

lunchboxthegoat

January 18th, 2012 at 6:20 PM ^

I am going to go ahead and say "ACL tear" was near the bottom of my "injuries likely sustained in an ultimate frisbee game" list. BONUS: 1, 2, and 3 were (in no particular order): "screwed up my dreads", "crushed my stash I forgot was in my pocket" and "broke my really nice glass pipe that I forgot was in my pocket."

FrankMurphy

January 18th, 2012 at 6:39 PM ^

Careful now; if Molk reads this, he'll show up at Brian's house and "encourage" him to blog through the pain. Then he'll show up at your house and have a chat with you about speaking on his behalf. 

FrankMurphy

January 18th, 2012 at 6:37 PM ^

After having dealt with Stanford Hospital, I will never complain about UofM Hospital ever again. I'm convinced that the only difference in quality between Stanford Hospital and an unlicensed clinic in Tijuana is newer magazines and the name "Stanford". 

elm

January 18th, 2012 at 6:51 PM ^

Many, many years ago UHS wanted me to get an MRI to rule out a brain tumor.  Next available opening: 6 weeks later, on Superbowl Sunday.  Obviously, I didn't want to miss the Superbowl, but I also kind of figured I wanted to know at the first available opportunity if I was dying.

 

Thankfully, it was not a tumor.  I hope that the similar long wait leads to similarly good news for you.

Kilgore Trout

January 18th, 2012 at 7:09 PM ^

The brain tumor story above me aside, the rule that I always heard growing up around Ann Arbor was that if you did something relatively common (broke your arm, hurt your knee, whatever) go to St. Joe and you'll be better off.  Think you have some sort of crazy weird illness, go to U of M.  Knowing what I know now in my career, you're in good hands with any of the neurosurgeons at St. Joe or U of M. 

dnak438

January 18th, 2012 at 10:22 PM ^

I had ACL replacement surgery, then read and reviewed a 700-page academic monograph  written in French while recovering from surgery.

PS If you think Michigan is bad about scheduling MRIs, try getting one in Ontario. At least it's paid for by my tax dollars, I guess.

Asgardian

January 18th, 2012 at 8:26 PM ^

"Everyone else, besides the people close to you, will say, 'Oh, you hurt your foot. You probably shouldn’t even give it a try. Maybe it’s a sign,'" Van Bergen said Friday shortly after a six-hour workout at Barwis Methods. "Whereas our attitude, and Mike’s attitude, is, 'We’ll get over this foot thing, bench the house and, when you get a chance to run, we’ll show them what you can do."

Epic.  Will miss both of those guys for quite some time.

Asgardian

January 18th, 2012 at 8:31 PM ^

Expect that guy to use the same tired "party line" talking points in public while being much more thoughtful in private.  There will come a day when his public opinion seemingly flip-flops in an instant, because he was waiting for the opportune moment to reveal how he really felt (or the opportune moment to start telling you the opposite lie).

The dude is like Mitt Romney's ugly cousin.  Think about it.

aaamichfan

January 18th, 2012 at 9:48 PM ^

Anyone know how long it takes to recover from surgery from a torn knee ligament nowadays? How long would a person have to be on crutches post surgery?

I had a situation kinda similar to Brian's about a month ago, where I twisted my knee badly and heard a "pop" while skiing. The ski medic basically told me, "Walk it off. If you can move your ankle and toes freely, there shouldn't be any ligament damage." Fast forward 4-5 weeks, and it's pretty obvious that something isn't quite right in there. Trying to decide how much longer I can wait before the recovery seriously impacts my Summer festivities. 

dnak438

January 18th, 2012 at 10:21 PM ^

I was walking without crutches after a week or two. I wore a lockable knee brace when I was outside to be on the safe side, for about a month and a half. After about three months I was doing some light jogging.

I had my ACL replaced with a hamstring auto-graft; if you do a patellar auto-graft I think the rehab is harder. Of course it depends how well the surgery goes and how good you are about the rehab.

uncleFred

January 18th, 2012 at 11:08 PM ^

Then when he was told that he no longer needed them but to take it easy and rebuild slowly, he over did it and had to have more surgery. Total time to a full recovery was about 14 months. He was 35 at the time. He thought he could come back like when he was 20, not so much.

Everyone's rehab is different. Listen to the docs and to your body. 

eigenket

January 18th, 2012 at 9:50 PM ^

If you want to complain about MRI scans, blame the state of Michigan. They actually have a law that requires ct and MRI scanners to be approved by the state before they are purchased. It's the only state I am aware of that has this requirement. As a result, getting a scan scheduled in Michigan takes longer than other states (except Ontario!).

M-Wolverine

January 18th, 2012 at 10:01 PM ^

How many similar injuries and recovers have you had to mention players going through, while never knowing what they were going through, recovery time, etc. Here's a chance to WRITE about what it's like to have a knee injury, how bad it is, what rehab is like, how long it takes...so we can all be amazed when some guy takes on 300 LB tacklers after X weeks, and you were still laid up in bed. This has off-season series written all over it. Lemons into lemonade content!

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

January 19th, 2012 at 10:41 AM ^

Where?  I haven't seen much promotion hardly at all, not much more than for a regular lax game.  And you'd think I would see it because I'm a grad student at UDM.  But there was exponentially more promotion for the Dickie V game in December, and hell, more promotion for the women's hoops game against UWGB as well.  Besides, as UDM is the host, they ought to promote it - it's probably their best chance at getting some attendance for a "home" game, and it'll likely be their best chance to pick up a win over Michigan besides.

laxalum

January 19th, 2012 at 10:47 AM ^

I overstated.  Of course they are going to promote basketball more heavily.  But take a gander at the tickets, for example:

http://detroittitans.com/news/2012/1/12/MLAX_0112122609.aspx

"The Ultimate Rivalry Begins..."  Do you think Michigan is thinking of the game this way?  I wonder if Detroit is even on their schedule in a few years.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

January 19th, 2012 at 11:43 AM ^

"Ultimate Rivalry" is probably a little off the deep end, true.  I would honestly be very surprised, however, if this game isn't a yearly thing for a long time.  It's in both teams' best interest to grow the sport at the high school level, and a yearly game between the two teams is a great way to give it a push.  Besides that, there's always the travel cost thing.

a non emu

January 18th, 2012 at 11:06 PM ^

I am another unfortunate one that has had ACL replacements done on both knees (soccer, and basketball). I had the first one done at UoM. Dr. Bruce Miller was my surgeon and I thought he was really good. I think he prefers patellar grafts (which is what I got). Also, I did post-surgery PT at the UoM MedSport clinic in the Domino's farms complex of Plymouth Rd, and those guys are awesome. I strongly recommend going there for rehab. 

I got a hamstring graft done on my other knee, and I wish I had done the patellar on that knee as well. Other people will probably disagree, but it feels like my hamstring is a lot weaker (the muscle contour is actually different!), and it gets really tight. On the other hand the patellar has felt great (except when squatting or kneeling when it hurts a little down the front of the knee), and I feel like that knee/leg is a lot stronger. Also, the post surgery PT, while more painful at first with the patellar, progressed faster and my strength came back sooner.

In any case, good luck if you need to have surgery, and enjoy the pain meds :) The first few days and weeks are pretty rough, and it is a long grind back. But things started to get easier around the 8 week mark in my experience. You just have to be really diligent with PT and make sure you get at least 80% - 90% of your pre-op strength back before you go back to any kind of sports.