Unverified Voracity Finds A Comparison
Ridiculous wallpaper part 7. Via user monuMental and his ridiculous talents:
How could this possibly happen? So when people say things along the lines of "could we really have the worst defensive talent in the Big Ten" and I say "yes," no one believes me. This is usually because one sophomore four star in the starting lineup at a particular position looks like talent and two fifth-year-senior three stars do not. Here's the Iowa two-deep on defense:
| Name | HT | WT | Yr | Exp | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE | Broderick Binns | 6-2 | 261 | Jr | 2V |
| Christian Ballard | 6-5 | 297 | Sr | 3V | |
| DE | Adrian Clayborn | 6-4 | 285 | Sr | 3V |
| Lebron Daniel | 6-2 | 250 | Jr | 2V | |
| DT | Christian Ballard | 6-5 | 297 | Sr | 3V |
| Mike Daniels | 6-1 | 275 | Jr | 1V | |
| DT | Karl Klug | 6-4 | 270 | Sr | 2V |
| Steve Bigach | 6-3 | 272 | So | SQ | |
| OLB | Tyler Nielsen | 6-4 | 235 | Jr | 2V |
| Ross Petersen | 6-3 | 236 | Sr | 1V | |
| OLB | Jeremiha Hunter | 6-2 | 235 | Sr | 3V |
| Lance Tillison | 6-2 | 215 | Sr | 2V | |
| MLB | Troy Johnson | 6-2 | 235 | Sr | 3V |
| James Morris | 6-2 | 215 | Fr | HS | |
| CB | Shaun Prater | 5-11 | 180 | Jr | 2V |
| Greg Castillo | 5-11 | 180 | So | 1V | |
| CB | Micah Hyde | 6-1 | 185 | So | 1V |
| Jordan Bernstine | 5-11 | 205 | Jr | 2V | |
| S | Tyler Sash | 6-1 | 210 | Jr | 2V |
| Tom Donatell | 6-2 | 205 | Jr | SQ | |
| S | Brett Greenwood | 6-0 | 200 | Sr | 3V |
| Tanner Miller | 6-2 | 195 | Fr | HS |
There are 22 players. Five of them are underclassmen, only one of those a starter. Nine are seniors, and this is minus a senior starting linebacker who would shove a freshman out the door. Michigan's starting lineup has as many sophomores (Floyd, Kovacs, Roh) and freshmen (Gordon, Gordon) as the entire Iowa two-deep, and where Iowa has seniors backed by seniors or sophomores backed by juniors in many places Michigan has freshmen, freshmen, and more freshmen. This is why it's impossible to tell anything about Greg Robinson yet. You could take an established genius and give him this roster and the results would be, oh, I don't know… somewhat depressing:
| Category | Rank | # |
|---|---|---|
| Pass Efficiency Defense | 92 | 139.01 |
| Total Defense | 100 | 428.67 |
| Scoring Defense | 71 | 26 |
| Pass Defense | 116 | 287.5 |
| Sacks | 56 | 2.17 |
| Tackles For Loss | 66 | 5.83 |
That's not Michigan. It's USC. USC's secondary:
- Senior CB Shareece Wright, a top 50 recruit
- Freshman CB Nickell Robey, a top 250 recruit
- Sophomore S Jawanza Starling, a top 250 recruit
- Sophomore S TJ McDonald, a top 50 recruit
This is a "talented" secondary. It is also awful because it has one upperclassman; they're trying to bolster things by moving freshman and starting WR Robert Woods to nickelback. That sounds familiar except in Michigan's case it's a guy who should be a linebacker moving from wide receiver and being forced to start instead of being Courtney Avery.
Michigan does not have near that amount of recruiting mojo, nor does it have the veteran consistency of Iowa. Yes, if Michigan is not more experienced and less awful next year it's time to focus the firey finger of blame entirely on Rich Rodriguez. Not quite yet, though.
Parachute in. While everyone was looking at that guy in the parachute he was looking at us:
AIM FOR THE YELLOW.
Alabama-rama. Some final thoughts on the Alabama game, but first Dave Brandon:
"I just thought it was a terrific opportunity for our team, our coaches and our fans," Brandon said. "But we got the numbers right, we worked really hard to make sure there was plentiful availability of tickets, because we wanted to get that right for our fans. We hope to think of this as a preseason bowl trip where we can bring lots of people and really make it a special Labor Day weekend."
Booting the Notre Dame game is not an option, so Michigan will go on the road to face Ohio State, Notre Dame, Nebraska, and Alabama (sort of) in the same season. Have fun, senior Denard. Anyway, thoughts:
- I am almost certain the reason introducing a middleman is preferable to a home-and-home are the messed up TV contracts. If Michigan plays a home and home with Alabama they split the extra TV money with the rest of the conference. It sounds like by doing this neutral site thing they are getting the financial windfall all to themselves. If you dislike this trend—and as a guy who would rather travel to Tuscaloosa than Dallas, I do—the only solution is to let teams keep all the profits from their nonconference games to themselves.
- As to why it's in an irrelevant place like Dallas: when ND started its "barnstorming" games it quickly discovered it couldn't play anyone in a relevant location because TV contracts prohibit anyone from playing a neutral site game in their conference's geographical footprint unless that game is going to be on the appropriate network. The result was ND-Washington State in Texas.
- This will be the biggest nonconference game played against anyone other than Notre Dame in…a very long time. Maybe the 1996 Colorado game? Michigan accidentally played a 13-0 Utah team in 2008 but in terms of pregame hype that pales in comparison. Washington was #9, IIRC, so Alabama will outstrip that.
Etc.: Hockey has a critical road test against UNH this weekend. People are still projecting us for New Year's Day. The Daily takes a look at college amateurism and whether it can or should go away. BWS picture pages the Webb TD.
October 16th, 2010 at 12:24 AM ^
Rodriguez has had two full recruiting classes (the freshmen and sophomores). I don't see how it is his fault if their is one upper classman healthy enough to contribute in the secondary (by contrast, there are about a dozen freshmen and sophomores at that position group) and that the secondary sucks as a result.
Could things have been better if every single recruit had panned out the last couple of years? Obviously, but that doesn't happen anywhere, no matter who the coach is. Will things be significantly better when the current freshman/sophomore classes (the guys Rodriguez has had control over recruiting) are juniors/seniors? Obviously, but it just requires a little patience and understanding of how successful college football teams are constructed.
October 15th, 2010 at 8:02 PM ^
...when he's got walk-ons and freshmen starting and contributing significantly (eg tate last year, roh, kovacs). the opportunities are there for the taking. i could be wrong, but i don't see it. i would bet it's more the recruits aren't willing/able/patient enough to win the starting job than the opportunity not really being there.
but i'm with you on the leeriness.
October 15th, 2010 at 9:17 PM ^
Not every recruit pans out, no matter what school you are at or how highly rated the kid is or how well you coach him. Look at the list of highly rated (4-star or better) running backs under Lloyd Carr who never did much of anything: Kelly Baraka, Darnell Hood, Pierre Rembert, Jerome Jackson, Max Martin, Kevin Grady (and this list doesn't go back all that far)
My point is, you can't look at all the guys who don't pan out. You look at what is there (in the RB case it would be Hart, Perry, Thomas, etc.). In the case of our defense, look at all the talent in the freshman and sophomore class that is already contributing. I think you'll concede that aside from Cissoko and his knucklehead behavior, no one is leaving the program who is getting playing time (to that point, Warren didn't leave to go undrafted, he left to get drafted in the first three rounds but it just ended up not happening as he'd planned). If you look at the depth chart by class on this site and start moving guys over year by year, the defense looks a lot better next year and pretty damn solid when the guys in the freshman/sophomore column are in the junior/senior column in 2012.
October 15th, 2010 at 6:10 PM ^
I am wondering if the jumper was going that fast because he had propulsion? Or is that how it is no matter what? He was really cruising fast and hit the ground hard.
October 15th, 2010 at 8:23 PM ^
That dude broke his leg, right? He was a baller, he stood up on a shattered leg and waved to the crowd, right? Un-be-leivable...as for the propulsion, I believe that would be the force of gravity...
October 15th, 2010 at 6:41 PM ^
The parachuting vid was really cool. What a cool experience that must have been.
October 16th, 2010 at 1:56 PM ^
October 15th, 2010 at 7:43 PM ^
That was way cool. I had no idea it took that much to parachute in. Outstanding. Thanks for posting it.
October 15th, 2010 at 10:57 PM ^
"and as a guy who would rather travel to Tuscaloosa than Dallas, I do" Really? I don't even know anyone from Tuscaloosa that agrees with that and I'm friends with the 'Bama DFW Alumni president! Outside of the university there's, uh, hmm, yeah, nothing. No decent airport to fly into, not a single thing to do when not at the game and, while the stadium certainly has more tradition Jerry World (if we're going to have to play an away game) is the probably the coolest stadium to do it.
Also, you're missing the other big reason it's in Dallas - recruiting. That's also the main reason that UT, A&M, Tech, OU and every other Texas recruiting team is pissed about this. If we can do something that simultaneously pisses off all those teams whatever it is must be the right thing.
October 16th, 2010 at 7:25 AM ^
be that he is widely regarded by SYR people to have been a terrible recruiter. I was never a fan of his hiring by RR in the first place, but I think it's reasonable and prudent to give him a bit of a break for last year and this year, given the ridiculous state of the defensive roster and the fact that he's just started working with the LBs. If there aren't significant improvements in on-field production for the 2011 season, a move by RR to another DC would be warranted for 2012.
In a crazy way, GERG's tenure at Michigan might be as much affected by how well our offense performs as it will by the defense's abilities. A porous defense is much more tolerable if we're winning lots of games because of an unstoppable offense putting up huge numbers each game. However, if our conference opponents are able to keep our scoring in the low 30s or less, the defenses we've seen over the last season-and a half won't get us past 6 wins, if we even get that far.
October 16th, 2010 at 9:11 AM ^
1. I know Michigan is designated "away team", but can the Wolverines show up in the dark blue home uniforms? Michigan has never played Bama wearing the home blues.
2. Will Jerry Jones' Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders possibly make an appearance for that game - halftime or other? Because that would be awesome.
I was at the stadium this week. It's an impressive facility.
October 16th, 2010 at 9:31 AM ^
I want to believe that Hopkins will get at least 6 carries, and that Obi will have a seat on the bench because they are giving Demens a shot. I really do. Sadly, Rich gets my hopes up every week with statements of playing more guys, and after every game, I end up disappointed.
October 16th, 2010 at 9:42 AM ^
RR says more guys are going to play (and not garbage time in a blow-out) and they almost never end up playing.
October 16th, 2010 at 11:31 AM ^
...call out Mallet on the GameDay broadcast? He was talking about the Ark/Auburn contest. They were talking about Mallett's play and he said something to the effect of, "...when things aren't going right, stop looking at your coaches, stop looking at your offensive line, stop looking at your receivers and go make some plays." I don't much care for Herbie but I think he was right on here. I never cared for Mallett that much - he had a chip on his shoulder that he hadn't earned, IMO.
October 16th, 2010 at 3:15 PM ^
Just goes to show you, even if you have a sexier D coordinator it doesnt matter if you dont have the pieces or they are not ready to play yet. Monte's D at Tennesee was far above decent if I remember correctly. He also had 2-3 first two round picks on D right? Now look at his USC personnell which is filled with youth and no direction (or Eric Berry) to lean on as "that guy".
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