Unverified Voracity Founds Iowa City Torch And Pitchfork Comment Count

Brian

Let's check in with Iowa City. Hell no they ain't happy after a narrow escape against Ball State and then the missed-it-TO-made-it sequence to lose to Iowa State for the ninth time under Ferentz. The ninth time!

Aaand:

It's kind of like Michigan if Brady Hoke was permanently unfireable. They're probably going to be okay-ish, they are frustrated with their archaic program (and Iowa is way more archaic than Michigan except when Iowa plays Michigan), fans would probably like to move on. But, uh, not happening:

If Iowa were to fire Ferentz for convenience, the school would continue to owe him 75% of his annual guaranteed salary for the remaining years in his contract. …

Ferentz’s base salary has climbed each year since 2010, hitting $2.07 million for the current season. It stays at that level for the next five years. Ferentz also receives supplemental income in the amount of $1.48 million per year, bringing his total salary up to $3.55 million per season. That means if Ferentz were fired at the end of this year, Iowa would owe him $13.3 million, to be paid in monthly installments between now and 2020. That amounts to

roughly $2.7 million per year.

And this is a guy arguing that Iowa can totally afford to dump him. It is possible. Charlie Weis is still getting paid by Notre Dame; the Irish offered him a total of 19 million to go do anything else. (All will be forgiven if one day Weis cites Foul Ole Ron as one of his inspirations.) It's just hard to see Iowa pulling the trigger given that they've put up with all the stuff they've already put up with from Ferentz so far, including the rhabdo event and going 4-8 more than a decade into your tenure.

And then there's the question facing Michigan fans who want a change: is there anyone out there who seems like a good idea? Or is it Terry Bowden sweepstakes time again?

Alabama will just tell you stuff. Because it doesn't matter if you get the kind of stuff that laymen will understand, Alabama's just like "okay here let's talk about it," which makes for interesting articles about the Tide facing a blizzard of screens in their early games against overmatched foes and how you go about dealing with that:

"When they're throwing fast, get your hands up," defensive end Jonathan Allen said. "If they throw a screen, you have to retrace. That's what really defeats the screen is when the linemen retrace and run to the ball. That'll really take away from the screen. So our job's just beginning as soon as he throws the ball."

This is not rocket science. It is part of a respectful-seeming conversation happening about football in front of the media that the media can then go use to write interesting stories, thus increasing the overall happiness around the program slightly.

And this is Alabama, home to the notoriously prickly Nick Saban. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to be on the Michigan beat. I can count the multitudes who have fled.

Meanwhile at Michigan. The university's notoriously expensive FOIA department strikes again:

The only two possibilities here are that Michigan is breaking the law or that they run the most inefficient FOIA office in the country, which implies things about the efficiency of the rest of the unduly-closeted operation. Either way this should change. If you end up talking to Schlissel ask him which possibility is the truth.

And yes more dead horse spread punt stuff but this answer is just …

Okay. What would you like to talk about?

One of the ultimate people in charge of things. Spencer Hall roasts Goodell and shows why the people in charge of things are just in charge of them:

Remember now what a blank social boffin the NFL strapped to its face to begin with: a Senator's son from a safety school who quite literally never worked anywhere else but in the sports job he got directly out of college. Roger Goodell's resume is a hollow blandishment of institutional servitude. He fought in the arbitration wars; he coordinated the events. Calendars were heroically arranged.

Do not expect that having a job means anything. Every great organization will one day hire the moron who will destroy them.

People in charge of coin tosses are just in charge of them. If you missed this from Saturday, whoah:

That's Texas electing to kick after UCLA deferred, the ref explaining this, and Texas's captains going "sounds good to me!" Shockingly, Charlie Strong did not kick them off the team immediately. I would have.

Apparently this happens about once a year? I could never be a coach. I would assume that things like brushing your teeth were outside of my purview and lose games because of it.

Also in CFB oddities. So this was a trick play:

"What should I do on this play to draw attention to myself, coach?"
"Have you seen Showgirls, son?"
"No. Unless the answer is supposed to be yes. Then yes."
"Son. I'm going to need you to flop around like an electrocuted fish like when Nomi—"
"How about I just fall over?"
"…"
"I am just going to fall over."
"FINE"

Arkansas threw at the "tackle", who was eligible, and two different guys on Miami intercepted the same pass. Should have flopped around like an electrocuted fish.

And the oddest oddity. Boston College ran for 452 yards against USC! That is not the grand total of Eagle rushing yards in all Boston College games against USC ever! It is one game from Saturday! What?

you could see the Eagles wear down USC's discipline and will with one play in particular, applied heavily over the course of the game: the zone read with a lead arc block by a tight end.

The common way this play is run is with the QB choosing to handoff or keep the ball. If he keeps, he's attacking the edge based on a read of an unblocked defensive end, with a lead blocker for him on the edge.

BC kept USC off balance with a bunch of other stuff; it was an arc block on the zone read keep that was the killer time and again.

Etc.: Matt Hinton's weekly has landed at Grantland, and is recommended. We don't feature because no one pays attention to 34-10 MAC games. That UGA-SoCar first down is the definition of margin of error.

Guy with name as difficult to spell as Coach K bombs Coach K. I don't really know why Paul George exploding is a big deal in this context; if not playing for USA he would have been doing something else that put his leg in danger.

It begins. Malzahn wants to go even faster. Va Tech's offense under Loeffler. What's wrong with Iowa's ground game.

Comments

TIMMMAAY

September 16th, 2014 at 7:27 PM ^

If the request given to Michigan was "nebulous", doesn't it stand to reason that they would have sent the same request to other institutions? Even if they didn't, as I said above I remember a specific instance where a local paper (can you guess which one?) sent identical requests to multiple schools, and UofM was the highest fee by a large margin. 

If it's because it takes UofM longer, or their data is tougher to pin down, or anything like that, it speaks to the overall efficiency (or lack thereof) of the system we have in place. Or, we just don't want to be FOIA'd so we charge out the ass to ensure that if you want the info, you will pay. 

You keep dodging around this issue with your replies. 

CRISPed in the DIAG

September 16th, 2014 at 9:02 PM ^

Reading the statute that I posted down thread might help understand the process better than I've already explained it. Or you could continue to feel outraged that public employees aren't dropping what they're doing in order to satisfy cynical journalists and bloggers.

Whatever works.

B-Nut-GoBlue

September 16th, 2014 at 1:39 PM ^

"What should I do on this play to draw attention to myself, coach?"

"Have you seen Showgirls, son?"

"No. Unless the answer is supposed to be yes. Then yes."

"Son. I'm going to need you to flop around like an electrocuted fish like when Nomi—"

"How about I just fall over?"

"…"

"I am just going to fall over."

"FINE"

Cheese and Rice...that is brilliantly hilarious.

 

MI Expat NY

September 16th, 2014 at 1:42 PM ^

That Loeffler piece may have been a bit premature in declaring Va. Tech offensively competent.  They averaged 5.3 YPA and 2.8 YPC.  Having watched a decent chunk of that game, those numbers sound about right.  I was left wondering how in the world they managed to win at Ohio State.  

pearlw

September 16th, 2014 at 3:46 PM ^

Simple. CBS asked for info. Michigan said it would charge them for $410 for it. CBS refused to pay it. Therefore, Michigan attempted to charge and was not successful. If you read article, you can see CBS published data for lots of schools but did not include data for Michigan because they did not end up paying for it.

Follow up article shows how much each school charged for it..most were free.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jon-solomon/24711142/wh…

CRISPed in the DIAG

September 16th, 2014 at 4:32 PM ^

As I mentioned in a post upthread, this wasn't a legitimate request for information.  CBS was merely testing the FOIA policies of public schools.  For the purpose of criticising FOIA policies at public schools.

FOIA differs a little  in each state.  Apparently, other states indulge bitter journalists more than MI or NC.  

The University of Michigan, as a public entity, has a statutory right to recover the costs of generating responses to information requests: (http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?mcl-15-234)

3) In calculating the cost of labor incurred in duplication and mailing and the cost of examination, review, separation, and deletion under subsection (1), a public body may not charge more than the hourly wage of the lowest paid public body employee capable of retrieving the information necessary to comply with a request under this act. Fees shall be uniform and not dependent upon the identity of the requesting person. A public body shall utilize the most economical means available for making copies of public records. A fee shall not be charged for the cost of search, examination, review, and the deletion and separation of exempt from nonexempt information as provided in section 14 unless failure to charge a fee would result in unreasonably high costs to the public body because of the nature of the request in the particular instance, and the public body specifically identifies the nature of these unreasonably high costs. A public body shall establish and publish procedures and guidelines to implement this subsection.

 

 

 

carlos spicywiener

September 16th, 2014 at 2:02 PM ^

Paul George slammed his leg against a stanchion that was closer to the court than NBA league regulations, i.e. you can make an arguemtn that he was injured because he was playing in a FIBA game. That's just about enough for NBA owners to blow their respective stacks. George now must sit out a year of his basketball prime to do rehab.

No NBA owner wants their millionare stars running up and down the court playing a team of dentists from Angola or low-skill club players from Serbia or something. The Olympics was bad enough, but other international basketball tournaments like FIBA are really pushing it.

The miles, the wear and tear, the opportunities for injury. It's a bit of an insensitive comparison, but I woudn't loan out my expensive car to my nephew to race against his high school classmates.

samuofm

September 16th, 2014 at 2:27 PM ^

This is my favorite play from the recent USC - BC game and its just beautiful -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7tLLvv-i3c#t=5430



BC motions the WR to the strong side

USC already has their nickelback / lb on the line so the DE can crash down

But the nickelback / lb can't get to the QB because BC's hback pulls all the way to the left and cracks him

the safety cant help because he is in cover one over the top

boom 20 yards, with only one guy missing and USC specifically bringing an extra defender down to stop this. 



Its gorgeous is what it is. I hope Nuss can do some of this. 

Ziff72

September 16th, 2014 at 2:33 PM ^

I think I've found the perfect coach to appease everyone

-Played in the League

-Respected offensive coordinator on high powered offense

-Michigan Man

-51

Calvin Magee...Done

You Only Live Twice

September 16th, 2014 at 4:07 PM ^

Brian, seems to be noticeably down on Michigan lately, not just football or the head coach. My son thinks since the ND game.  I thought more after the press conference last week.

I get Brian's point about how with no access there is less to talk about;  maybe Saban allows more access because he doesn't get stabbed in the back.  There's that whole winning thing, to be sure. Maybe the structure and design of all these pressers could be done differently, or consolidate some.  Maybe if the coaches weren't on the hot seat so much of the time they might be more relaxed with the press.  I don't know.  No one has consulted with me :)

 We're spoiled here at MGoBlog with a superlative writing team providing good content (and free), but a lot of reporters, as was alluded to earlier by other posts, seem to approach their interview subjects with an agenda, instead of providing good quality reports for their readers.

So just know, Brian, how much your readers appreciate you, your staff and the work you do. Group hug!

 

ploeg

September 16th, 2014 at 5:31 PM ^

I can't stop laughing at that attempt.

 

Do you suppose they have a position coach for the "...pretend you have a heart attack..." situation?

 

What is great, is the guy crosses his arms (like in a casket) and slow falls backwards. That definetly takes coaching - "...whatever you do, don't fall forward, 'cause you might go offsides..."