Unverified Voracity Invites You To His Lawn Comment Count

Brian

Programming note/briefly. No Friday Recruitin' today since Ace is in Chicago covering Big Ten media days. Here's an abbreviated version:

Ohio State dropped VA RB Derrick Green, who is either the top back in his class (Rivals) or like #5 or so and a guy you can line up in the I-form—mixed feelings ho—and pound away with. So he's changed his plans to spend more time at Michigan instead of hitting up OSU's Friday Night Lights camp. With Clemson also out of the picture since they filled up at running back, Green is now looking like far more of a possibility than he was just a couple weeks ago.

IL WR LaQuon Treadwell: still visiting Oklahoma State. Still probably thinking about officials. Trieu: "I still think Michigan is very much in the lead with him."

FL S Leon McQuay's dad clarified that the younger McQuay had not dropped Michigan but confirmed that Florida State had replaced M in his top three.

No one else exists.

Bo talks Joe. WH posts the Big Ten Ticket segment from before the '98 PSU game:

Hey, kids! Get on my lawn! Jump up and down and smoke the pot! Have a woodstock! Northwestern just debuted new uniforms that are unique and awesome:

AyvD1YNCAAA9AOz_medium[1]Ayu9pNDCcAAvobY[1]

These aren't alternates, either, they're the thing they're going to wear all the time now. I'm not sure about the brickwork frippery on the numbers when you get real close but if you can't see it at all in the above shots it's probably not too bad.

Why do I like these when Michigan's parade of changes are annoying at best and horrifying at worst?

  1. This is a new overall identity for Northwestern, one in which the "Northwestern stripe" is being reclaimed for all their sports. It is not a one-off flibbertyjibber that only confuses things.
  2. It is a One Big Idea jersey minus the fooferrah that made Remember Bo's parody of the direction Michigan is headed in the thing I front-paged hardest last year. I front-paged that so hard. Michigan keeps adding block Ms all over the place and patches and numbers and all this stuff when they have already acquired the One Big Idea—the winged helmet.
  3. They are unique across college football and give you the start of a tradition. I feel like I should have a ridiculous carnival noun in here.

Anyway. Steve Spurrier needs to be involved with this.

mgotrivia: named primary Rock Band band "OBC and the Click Clacks"

BONUS: Man, Under Armor likes misters.

Meanwhile, more detail on our bit. The Alabama jerseys in a 30 second video:

Those gloves will come in handy if any of those guys ever have a test on what the lyrics to the fight song are.

I know you're literally coming off the worst scandal in the history of college athletics, but doesn't this seem extreme? Penn State is considering something drastic:

An issue that generated just as much buzz Thursday was the possibility that coach Bill O'Brien plans to change Penn State's traditional, basic blue and white uniforms. The coach mentioned that possibility during a conference call with players' parents Wednesday night, according to the Reading Eagle.

O'Brien has had discussions with Nike about changing the uniforms, which he has said repeatedly that he would not do since taking the PSU job in January.

"I reserve the right to change my mind," O'Brien said Thursday when asked what led to his decision.

Neither O'Brien nor the Penn State players would give any indication as to what the uniform changes might include, but there has been widespread speculation that it would be names on the jerseys.

The fans are already lying on the ground after a thorough kicking so I guess now's the time to do this. I suggest taking everyone's mind off the terrible things that happened by changing the school's mascot to a rainbow unicorn.

rainbow-unicorn[1]

Try to be sad now! Pretty hard, right?

Also in lack of sadness. PSU adds an unrated 2012 LB named Brennan Franklin who had been ticketed for Eastern Arizona Junior College. Had "interest" from Toledo. Franklin on his commitment: "If I went to New Mexico or New Mexico State or Indiana, they wouldn’t be going to a bowl game anyway."

Oy. I'm not happy about this at all. I can only imagine what it's like to be a Penn State fan. What's the Michigan equivalent of this? Bo helped plan 9/11 and the Rodriguez era lasts 15 years. I would not wish the equivalent on my worst enemy*.

*[False. I would wish it on many people, but only bad ones. Like the people who came up with the Buffalo Wild Wings commercials.]

Boooooooooo. Boooooooo. Booooooooo. PEOPLE ARE JERKS AND STUFF:

Don't expect to see a nine-game Big Ten schedule any time soon.

Commissioner Jim Delany said at Big Ten media days Thursday that league schools are "of a unanimous mind to stay at eight games" in the conference schedule.

Guh. The Pac-12 is already there, the Big 12 and ACC are going to nine, and it's only the teams with the sappiest saps sticking with four nonconference games: the Big Ten and the SEC. And maybe the Big East, but no one bothers mentioning them any more.

This is especially bad for Michigan since its primary foes for the division title play Indiana, Penn State, and Purdue on an annual basis while Michigan gets Ohio State. Anything that softened that disparity helps. Hopefully it won't matter much if Hoke keeps the recruiting train going like he is, but the least the league could have done was make the conference record of your crossover opponents the first tiebreaker. If two teams finish tied at 7-1 and one of them took on OSU and UW while the other didn't, head to head can get bent.

Rebranded. Fan day is now Youth Day, for whatever reason. It's August 12th at 2. Anyone over 19 trying to enter the stadium will be chased through a cornfield by a giant red-eyed monster and eaten.

Yes. Michael Weinreb should take over PR for the Paterno family, because he's able to express the tricky concepts about moving forward as a Penn State fan in a way that sounds right:

There is no way to make up for what has been lost. All we can do is start over again. If it takes Penn State fielding a team full of walk-ons and castaways in the years to come, if it takes losses to Temple and to the dregs of the Mid-American Conference to reinforce the horror of what took place, then I will accept that. What I want now is for my alma mater to become what we’d always imagined it to be, an agent of change in a sport that desperately seeks it. If failure equals success, the punishment will be justified.

I don't know about you, but next year's game in Happy Valley has become a must-attend for me. Not to gloat, just to see what it's like and maybe stare at a place a statue used to stand and think about what is or is not pretty much the same band of RV-possessing friendly people I experienced in 2006.

And so it came to pass that Wisconsin fans bought all the tickets. The Big Ten has added this "TeamTix" system in which you gamble ten bucks on your team making the title game and then can buy a face value ticket if your team gets there. Which may be a hideously overpriced one if it's, say, Michigan State-Wisconsin. Events with Michigan in them may be another matter but I'd probably want to see how the secondary market shapes up this year. You might be able to get a suite for ten bucks.

Walton stuff. UMHoops talks to his AAU coach:

Can you talk about the progression in his game, especially within the last few months?
“He’s gotten tremendously better. He works hard every day, getting his shots up, working on his step back, working on how to finish in the mid-range because he knows that he’s going to run into 7-footers, and 6-foot-9 and so forth, so we try to make sure he’s got a little floater coming and a higher arching jump shot. So he knows what’s to come.”

Taken by the will of the wisp. Will Campbell gets probation, has to pay fines and court costs and restitution, etc. The judge gets it, man:

Judge Chris Easthope said he believed Campbell didn’t have any kind of malicious intent and was rather “caught up in the moment.”

Chris Easthope has been there, man. On the hood of a car at two AM.

Etc.: Brian Phillips on rhythmic gymnastics. Anthony Zettel stays put. Jordan Morgan expectations. Gasaway on the Emmert penalty shotgun. He's in favor. Suspended Wolverines' are called team cancers by teammates. Alabama's NT benches 600 pounds. Yay.

Comments

jg2112

July 27th, 2012 at 12:18 PM ^

The reason why this year Michigan is having "Youth Day" is probably because of all the "Fan Day" autographed merchandise that ended up on Ebay 20 minutes after the end of last year's "Fan Day."

At least this is an attempt to try and stop the creepers.

Shop Smart Sho…

July 27th, 2012 at 3:58 PM ^

I get all the jokes, but something like that is likely to get blown out of proportion, which is why the real headline would have worked all the better.  

Brian gets linked to a lot.  Daily readers will understand what he is doing, but the casual fan probably won't.

 

When he does the funny for mgo.licio.us and has a line to go with it, the joke works better.  When he is making the joke in they link, it doesn't work as well.

Don

July 27th, 2012 at 12:35 PM ^

I generally agree with him on UM's parade of faux legacy and whatnot jerseys, but Northwestern's new unis are "unique?" Since when do stripes on a football uniform constitute "unique?" They've been appearing on college football uniforms since approximately forever.

Needs

July 27th, 2012 at 12:43 PM ^

Apparently, Northwestern originated the custom of placing stripes on football uniforms in 1928 (though really, no other sports' uniforms had stripes? That's hard to believe.) Anyway, not many football uniforms with a cross-chest stripe come to mind, and I guess they're going to claim it as a signature of Northwestern athletics (and there does seem to be something called a "Northwestern stripe" among sports logo people). So that combination of historical legacy and incorporating it across their teams would make it fairly unique.

It is hard to imagine, though, that "Northwestern" will call to mind "jersey stripe," in the same way that "Michigan" does "winged helmet" or OSU "helmet sticker."

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120726/SPORTS0203/207260439

wile_e8

July 27th, 2012 at 12:46 PM ^

They're unique when "since approximately forever" is actually "since Northwestern first put them on their jerseys back in the 20s". The type of stripes (thick middle stripe inside two thin stripes) are called "Northwestern stripes" because they were first popularized when Northwestern put them on their jerseys ages ago.

El Jeffe

July 27th, 2012 at 12:51 PM ^

I'm just happy that if I ever did a Lexis-Nexis* search of "flibbertygibber" within 15 words of "fooferrah" (sic--shouldn't it be "foofaraw?"), this UV would come up.

* I have no idea how Lexis-Nexis works or if my description of it makes sense in any way.

Needs

July 27th, 2012 at 1:00 PM ^

Interesting that Bo and Paterno suggest the defensive trends of the late 90s might lead to a return of option football only a couple years before the read-option really took off.

jmdblue

July 27th, 2012 at 1:15 PM ^

wasn't the judge hearing Willie Campbell Duke's case..

 

Also, Northwestern's unis are A) really cool, and B) will still be cool 10 years from now.

Don

July 27th, 2012 at 1:23 PM ^

Whether or not NW truly "invented" that graphic device I'll leave to the uniform historians, but the notion that a "Northwestern stripe" is somehow unique in college football is twaddle. Not only can you easily google a shot of Harbaugh in his road jersey with a "Northwestern stripe" plainly visible on the sleeves, but a very quick search unearthed these other well-known programs who used them at various times in their histories:

http://www.spartanjerseys.com/michigan-state-football-jersey-helmet/



http://www.iowalum.com/magazine/football_history/



http://www.usctrojans.com/blog/2011/08/sc-classics-the-uniforms.html



http://www.warblogle.com/2012/01/05/football/a-visual-history-of-the-au…

If somebody wants to make the argument that placing the stripe across the chest is an earth-shakingly unique creative development, that's up to you. I ain't buying it.

johnvand

July 27th, 2012 at 1:22 PM ^

I know we're lead to belive that the biggest hatred of 9 game schedules was 4 home games one year, 5 the next, and competitive griping.

Why couldn't they alternate by division and your crossover game is your "extra" home game?  Odd years, the "Leaders" have 5 home games.  Even years, the "Legends" have 5 home games...  That eliminates all "They made the B1G championship game because they had more home games than us.  Rabble rabble, Kork Coupons sitting on a couch, ermahgerd, hurr durr durr."  

Or is that just too smart to work?

GoWings2008

July 27th, 2012 at 1:39 PM ^

"Anyone over 19 trying to enter the stadium will be chased through a cornfield by a giant red-eyed monster and eaten"

Whoa, whoa, whoa.....one dang second.

Where is there a cornfield anywhere NEAR the Stadium????

imafreak1

July 27th, 2012 at 2:04 PM ^

I think it is hilarious that this community has an anneurism if Michigan changes any little thing on their jerseys and even debates at length if Michigan has nefariously changed the shade of maize over the years

And then

Lauds NW's complete jersey remake with only the slightest hint of self awareness.

Numbered rationalizations are unneccessary. You like the jersey change because it is NW and not Michigan.

JBE

July 27th, 2012 at 2:50 PM ^

Laud the NW jersey change because I like the jersey. Laud 97.6% of the Michigan jersey changes too. Laud. Laud. 

Do you really think it's hilarious? Do you laugh and say, "Fuck, man. This community is hilarious. Look how hilarious this community is. In a good way, dude." Or is it that condescending judgemental hilarity? Like, "Shit, man, this community isn't hilarious at all, but I'm going to say they're hilarious. I want to come from a place of power and judgement because really I got nothing else. By saying they're hilarious I can do that."

imafreak1

July 27th, 2012 at 3:24 PM ^

I thought my comments were pretty straight forward. I don't know why you are jumping through hoops to find some sinister meaning.

There clearly exists a very different standard for judging uniform changes for Michigan and that for NW.

If you wish to disagree with that statement then fine but any negative connotation not intrinsic to that statement has been put there by you and not me.

But since you like most uniform changes, that statement does not appear to apply to you.

MGoBSam

July 27th, 2012 at 3:33 PM ^

I'm sure that most of us are bias in regards to Michigan vs. everyone else, but seriously, when I saw NW's new uniforms I thought, "Those look all right."  When I saw Michigan's various changes over the past 2 years, I thought, "What the f*** is this?"  Especially against MSU last year...just thinking about it still makes me cringe.

turd ferguson

July 27th, 2012 at 2:50 PM ^

Northwestern and Michigan football uniforms obviously carry very different histories, and history is much more central to the Michigan "brand" than the Northwestern one.  I have no opinion on the Northwestern thing, I kind of like our Alabama uniforms, and I dislike the amount of playing around that we've seen over the last couple of years.  At the end of the day, if we leave our home uniforms and helmets essentially untouched, I'm fine with some experimentation with the road uniforms.  I've always thought there's room for improvement there.

evenyoubrutus

July 27th, 2012 at 2:18 PM ^

Can't tell you how thrilled I am to finally see someone publicly noticing how atrocious those BW3 commercials are.  I literally change the channel for 30 seconds if I see them come on.  But what else would you expect from a company which originated in Columbus?

sundaybluedysunday

July 27th, 2012 at 2:22 PM ^

Does anyone know where I can apply to be the "Generic Tough, Black Athletic Type" they put in all of these new uniforms? Seems like a pretty lucrative career that will continue to grow. I'm looking for something recession proof.