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

turd ferguson

July 27th, 2012 at 2:33 PM ^

I don't know what this is based on, but 24/7 now lists Michigan and Auburn as "Warm" on Derrick Green's profile and every other school as "Cool."

http://247sports.com/Player/Derrick-Green-12364

 

EDIT:  I temporarily forgot that since Hoke CAN'T RECRUIT SKILL POSITION PLAYERS and NEVER WINS HEAD-TO-HEAD BATTLES and CAN'T CLOSE OUT A CLASS, there's probably no reason to care about this.  My apologies for posting.

El Jeffe

July 27th, 2012 at 2:59 PM ^

This might be the first post of its kind--one that sarcastically takes to task Hoke haters for their disturbing lack of faith. I mean, given the amount of e-slobber that has (largely rightfully so) been deposited on Hoke's e-knob.

ijohnb

July 27th, 2012 at 3:31 PM ^

what  I mean.  I think his behavior was reprehensible.  It is difficult to me to come to terms with it.  One year ago, that interview would have been thoroughly enjoyable and between two coaches I really enjoyed and respected.  The new reality of Joe Pa the slimeball does not come naturally.

ryebreadboy

July 28th, 2012 at 12:49 AM ^

Apologies. My thanks for the information. I thought I remembered a lot of discussion when it was first announced about how ludicrous it was that we were to be the "home team" at a game in Dallas. Everything makes a lot more sense now.

Low Key Recidivist

July 27th, 2012 at 6:29 PM ^

Brian, you and I obviously have different fashion tastes. 

I look at the new NW unis and all I can think of is the fat pledge in the striped sweater from Animal house.  Just a strange way to go.

As far as the UM unis for the game in Jerry World, if they changed the color band in the jersey from maize to blue, I would happily accept that as our new away uniform.

mgobleu

July 27th, 2012 at 8:05 PM ^

I agree. I can say that on that incredibly svelte and chiseled man in the photo, they look dynamite. Anyone with even a slightly more rotund physique however, may find that the singular stripe makes them look more like donkeylips from "Hey Dude" than the monster-in-pads look theyre going for.

Commie_High96

July 27th, 2012 at 8:13 PM ^

A PSU football fan headed toward their future in the wilderness, were you a UM basketball fans from 1998 to 2010, that is what the suck will be like. I could yodel in Chrisler during those years.

matty blue

July 27th, 2012 at 11:24 PM ^

...who the hell is bill o'brien?  penn state has had essentially the same uniforms for roughly fucking forever, but bill o'brien (if that is, in fact, his real name) comes in and thinks he has anything more to say about ANYTHING other than "yes, i'm the coach, no, it's not permanent?"

"i reserve the right to change my mind?"  dude.  you're just holding the spot for the next guy.  don't get too comfortable.

cloud of dust

July 28th, 2012 at 5:59 AM ^

1915-16 montreal unis... who invented the stripe now, eh?

*1915-1916. montreal was my first thought when i saw these... who invented the stripe now, eh? didn't think i would love it on a football uni, but looks great to me.