Unverified Voracity Has Manic Swings Comment Count

Brian

Let's feel good! Here's a danged good college football hype video that features Michigan a surprising amount:

YEAH LET'S GET HYPED FOR THE OPENER AGAINST [record SCRATCHHHHHHHH]

Well, that didn't last long. A casino has set an over/under for Michigan football wins next year…

At the moment, 5Dimes has Michigan's over/under for wins in 2014 set at 7 1/2. Presently, the money line is set at -170 on the over of 7 1/2 wins, which means most bettors are going with at least eight wins for the Wolverines in 2014.

…ugh. Not hitting that number would mean losing all three rivalry games and two more from the pu-pu platter that is the rest of the schedule.

Let's feel good again! Jabrill Peppers ran a 100 meter dash in 10.52 seconds, a veritably Denardian high-school-meet destruction.

He wiped out fellow touted corner recruit Minkah Fitzpatrick by a half-second.

Well, that didn't last long. Peppers is still slower than a robot velociraptor. Ugh.

Now you're just rubbing it in. ESPN gentlemen are trying to make college football better, and two of them say Michigan has to stop sucking. Thanks. We agree. And then there's this:

From the day that Bo Schembechler died in 2006, on the eve of No. 2 Michigan's 42-39 loss at its archrival, No. 1 Ohio State, the Wolverines have a record of 50-41 (.549). That's an average of 7-6, pretty much the definition of mediocrity.

Yeesh.

Thank you for coming, now go away. Florida's president was trying to say something about how he doesn't like the graduate transfer rule and ended up saying something about his latest incoming graduate transfer:

"If they really wanted to transfer somewhere else, they should sit out a year,” Machen said Friday at the SEC spring meetings. “Why didn't Horford stay at Michigan another year? Because he had a free pass." …

“Go to grad school at Michigan," Machen said. "They have some pretty good grad schools. … It’s really just a way for a school to fill a void at the very last minute, or a player going to get more playing time without having to sit out.”

Is that bad? I mean, it's bad for Michigan. But the guy's already got a degree, which is the tenuous reason transfers are discouraged by forcing kids to a sit out a year.

I do think it's unfortunate that guys are now transferring upwards with frequency; that would really grind your gears as a low-level coach who developed this player for four years only to see him depart. Now you've got a bizarre incentive to not have your players graduate before their eligibility expires.

At least there's a trend. Florida's done playing FCS games, albeit for the same reason Michigan is. More interestingly, Nick Saban is hoping to cut out the lesser schools entirely:

It's better for Saban, too, as there will be fewer pretenders with shiny records to compete against for playoff spots. The difficulty there is that everyone needs their seven home games even if two of them are necessarily bad.

HELLO. South Carolina president Harris Pastides:

“I think we're holding the fort,” Pastides said. “If we allow this reform to fail, the obvious next step would be to give up amateurism.”

I'm pretty sure that was intended to be the rhetorical nuclear weapon that makes everyone gasp whilst Mark Emmert is fanned by the people near him, moaning "lawdy." But someone said it.

Incoming? USC transfer and former five-star Ty Isaac is on campus… uh, now. Isaac is seeking a hardship waiver to play immediately, which would make him a slightly awkward fit for Michigan for two reasons: 1) you need a waiver for your waiver if the school you pick is more than 100 miles from home and 2) that would put him in the same class as De'Veon Smith and Derrick Green.

So, if Isaac does get his waiver it's more likely he ends up at Northwestern or Illinois or Notre Dame, which was supposed to be restricted to him but may not be because of a paperwork error on USC's part. While Illinois and ND are technically outside of the 100-mile radius they're outside by a few miles and would probably get meta-waivers. Michigan would be a harder sell.

If Isaac doesn't end up getting a waiver then Michigan has an excellent shot—they finished second for Isaac. And they didn't bring in a tailback last year.

Ohio State is apparently trying to get involved, but they'd be in a similar situation with the waiver.

Etc.: Sherman built this system, now Sherman's going to burn it down. NCAA #2 is getting out of dodge. Congrats to Bruce Madej, who won a major award. Guess who's mad about harmless spicetweets from Alex Malzone.

Comments

bronxblue

June 3rd, 2014 at 3:28 PM ^

It's one thing for fans to get bent out of shape, but its another for a purported "news" site like 11W to get bent out of shape because a recruit from the main rival said "I am looking forward to winning against said rival".  Have some pride, guys.  

As for claims of lost amateurism coming from an SEC school that hired The Ol' Ball Coach and had a 29 person class and a 32(!!) person class in the past 5 years is pretty rich.

Giff4484

June 3rd, 2014 at 7:43 PM ^

That fan base is that worked up over what a 17 year old kid said on twitter. I bet half the guys on the 11 W post comment section are well over 30 which is pathetic they are mad about a high school kid. I don't care what OSU fans say to Michigan fans but that fan base is the worst with high school kids. 

Letsgoblue2004

June 3rd, 2014 at 4:02 PM ^

This is year 4 with a 5th year Sr. QB. The schedule is absurdly easy and Michigan has money coming out of its ears. The bar should be much higher than 7-5.  A difference maker (Malzahn, Meyer, etc.) wouldn't have trouble putting an excellent product on the field in these circumstances. If Hoke isn't a difference maker, why keep him? 

bronxblue

June 3rd, 2014 at 4:13 PM ^

Probably, though I could see a world (e.g. injury mid-season to Gardner and/or Funchess, bad luck losses but big wins against the rivals) where a 7-6 run might get Hoke back.  But yeah, he needs to win now, and win a good deal.

evenyoubrutus

June 3rd, 2014 at 3:46 PM ^

"Pipkins, Kalis and Magnuson have since posted an 0-2 record against Ohio State. (Although, to be fair to Kalis and Magnuson, they were such prodigious talents they spent the 2012 season wearing the same color shirts as many Ohio State fans on game days.)"

Sometimes I wonder, is Rhamzy the only non high school student who writes on that blog?

pearlw

June 3rd, 2014 at 6:25 PM ^

Kyle Rowland (their main news beat writer) and Ross Fulton (does football analysis for them) are excellent. They actually do a great job of covering news around the B1G and college football.

It really just goes downhill when DJ Byrnes gets involved as he does act "perpetually aggrieved" about everything (not just Michigan stuff). Overall, i think it is a very good site..but it has gone downhill since DJ started writing their morning piece every day as he changed the tone of it from a great news/information source to a daily bitching session about everything in the world.

Muttley

June 3rd, 2014 at 4:01 PM ^

Kansas will become a hot commodity.  So, too, will the current versions of Purdue and Illinois. The phones will also be ringing off the hook for Kentucky and Colorado, and Wake Forest .

grumbler

June 3rd, 2014 at 4:03 PM ^

I enjoyed the 11W piece.  The start of it, where he whines about Hoke calling OSU just "Ohio" is pretty funny, given that now even OSU has started doing it; they changed the name of their stadium from "Ohio State Stadium" to just "Ohio Stadium," and now they dropped spelling out the "State" with the band, just doing a script "Ohio."

Hoke is obviously a fucking genius.  You'd think Byrnes would at least notice the changes OSU themselves have made in response to Hoke's campaign..

Real Tackles Wear 77

June 3rd, 2014 at 4:10 PM ^

Eleven Warriors is the worst blog on the internet. Their writing style, except for Ramzy (who I do think is a very good writer even if he roots for the wrong team) is that of a ten year-old and its clear that despite Ohio's success vs us over the past decade, they still have the chip on their shoulder of the perpetual loser. Half of their articles are about Michigan and one tweet from a guy who won't even suit up for the maize and blue for another year+ causes so much butthurt....just wow.

Everyone Murders

June 3rd, 2014 at 4:37 PM ^

"Peppers is still slower than a robot velociraptor."

Technically, but Peppers is much more fluid in the hips, and accelerates better (i.e., is quicker even if his top-end speed is lacking compared to a robot velociraptor). 

In balance, I'm still satisfied that we got Peppers.  The robot velociraptor may have a home on special teams, though.

Swazi

June 3rd, 2014 at 4:46 PM ^

I understand the fear of going against App. St. But come on. This isnt any where close to the same App. St. that won in The Horror.

rob f

June 3rd, 2014 at 5:18 PM ^

there's much "fear" of going against App St at all.  Rather, it's the re-living of The Horror that has so horrified Michigan fandom, with that game leading off the schedule this fall. 

As that game draws near, every story about the upcoming season's home opener will focus on a game that nearly all of us don't need  and don't want to be reminded of.  Worse yet, the entire Michigan Team will have it shoved in their collective faces when no one other than Fred Jackson roamed the Michigan sidelines that day.

(Not that I at all blame Fred Jackson for what happened that awful Saturday afternoon.)

MGozer

June 4th, 2014 at 3:18 AM ^

into bulletin-board material.  Just like the 7.5 over-under, and all the chatter about demands for success this season.  And because players probably read about their team more than enthusiastic fans do -- you don't televise your college announcement and then suddenly forget that media exist -- they all see the world looking down on them.  A 0-0 record come August is a big opportunity to show what they can do.

I think Hoke has the wherewithal to put a chip on their shoulders and motivate them for week one and beyond.

M-Dog

June 4th, 2014 at 6:50 PM ^

The school I feel bad for in all of this is App State.

That win put their program on the map.  I work with a guy that went to App State.  He told me that before the win he was ashamed to tell people that he went to App State.  But not any more.  (In fact I did not even know he went there until after the Michigan game.)

So why contaminate the memory of your program's biggest win of all time with a likely big loss that says what you did was only an aberration?  Why not stay forever undefeated against the winningest program in college football history?

If they were after a paycheck, I'm sure they could have gotten one against a program that nobody would notice when they lost.

Dave Brandon sold us out with this game, but App State's AD really sold them out with this game.

 

SalvatoreQuattro

June 3rd, 2014 at 6:36 PM ^

Mike Valenti. Oh and then he attempted to trash Denard by saying that he represented "all that is wrong with Michigan football". It was precisely at this point that I turned off 97.1. 

You can hate Michigan's arrogance. You can hate Dave Brandon and his feeble aerial trashtalk.  But Denard? Come on, man! You won't find a more likeable or modest football player. 

Mike Valenti is all that is wrong with Michigan State, New Yorkers, and Italian-Americans. 

Hoek

June 3rd, 2014 at 6:46 PM ^

The game against app state, was the beginning of bad times for Michigan football. It was a curse and that curse needs to be crushed, like 77-3 crushed! Then the curse will be lifted and Michigan will return to glory!!!

GoBlueInNYC

June 3rd, 2014 at 11:21 PM ^

I think most would peg the start of the bad times a few events prior, namely Bo's passing right before the Game of the Century loss to OSU, which was then followed by the Rose Bowl loss to USC, which was then followed by the back-to-back embarassments that were the Horror and UO games.

There is no curse to be lifted. Rescheduling App State was simply the dumbest fucking thing ever.

EDIT: Goddamn, it's been a frustrating decade.

trustBlue

June 3rd, 2014 at 8:53 PM ^

I first I wasn't overly excited about the possibility of Ty Issac coming to Michigan. We seem to have enough talent at RB to get the job done if the big uglys up front figure out how to do their job.  Why add to a glut of still unproven RBs all in the same class, for a RB who was somewhere around 5th in the depth chart at USC?  

But it makes a lot more sense if Ty is actually denied the waiver and is forced to sit out for a year.  That would essentially give Ty the same eligiblity as if he came in with the 2014 class, which we know the coaching staff tried (unsuccessfully) to fill with a late RB recruit.  It would also probably eliminate the need to sign more than one RB in the  2015 class, and create some more urgency with Harris/Weber and the other RB targets.  

Njia

June 4th, 2014 at 7:50 AM ^

This site/board has discussed the impact of Bo's death ad nauseum, so seeing it appear in the ESPN story doesn't surprise me.

I'm just afraid that until someone steps in to fill both the shoes and the void left by his passing, this program will have a hard time getting unstuck.