Unverified Voracity Misses Exit Wound Opportunity Comment Count

Brian

Not in Ohio. Via Bo Dever's twitter account, Michigan's footballs have taken to redundancy:

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I kid, I kid. Ohio is our most special state.

No words. I take that back Plaxico Burress is our most special state.

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Where are the exit wounds? Are you telling me Burress is going to be a sock magnate and does not have a sock with exit wounds on it? Life! What a waste!

Batten the hatches. So those hockey games against BC and BU that were rumored but unconfirmed? Yeah, they're at Yost. Michigan has dropped the full hockey schedule and it's a doozy. In addition to the home-and-away against all the Big Ten teams, Michigan's signed up for this nonconference schedule:

HOME: BC, BU, Lowell, Michigan Tech (2x), Niagara, Ferris State
AWAY: RIT, UNH(2x), UNO(2x)
NEUTRAL: WMU, Tech or State

If you stopped paying attention to college hockey out of self defense last year, Lowell was a one-seed, BC and UNH twos, Niagara a three. BU was third behind Lowell and BU in HE last year and got squeezed out of the field. UNO was a middling WCHA team, Tech not so good. There are no Bentley-level patsies at all, as both RIT and Niagara have reached the NCAA tourney in recent years.

Combine that with Minnesota/Wisconsin/MSU/OSU/PSU and that is the opposite of football's 2014 schedule. Michigan chose to thin out its fall schedule with the extra two weeks the Big Ten's hockey-spiting playoff system provided, taking a bye the week of the Nebraska game and playing only once the week of the Iowa game.

I'll take it. ESPN's reporting that the Pizza bowl is dead and will be replaced by another event at Ford Field matching a Big Ten team against an ACC team, which everyone is going to hate except M and MSU fans. But I'm one of them so woo.

George Perles isn't phased. I mean, what's better than Detroit in December? Detroit outside in December.

Keep up with the Joneses, plz. One of pleasant surprises from a couple of trips to the SEC has been the presence of both bands at the game even for non-rivalry matchups like (mediocre) Auburn versus LSU. The second time I asked around to see if I had gotten a fluke, and southerners looked at me with horror and pity once they realized Big Ten football usually has one band involved.

Ohio State's going to change that, mostly:

Gordon Gee, Gene Smith and the powers that be at Ohio State got together and determined that the College of Arts and Sciences and athletic department would continue financing the band. But one key change would be the addition of the Development Office of the President. Instead of a miniscule $220,000 operating budget – ninth in the Big Ten – the Buckeyes will have $1 million, which vaults them to first. With it comes more travel.

The band will attend road games at California, Purdue, Illinois and Michigan.

Meanwhile Michigan scrounges for pennies to send the MMB to a game against friggin' Alabama and the Uber Alles subset of the fanbase praises that decision as sly money-grubbing genius instead of a slap in the face to the band and fans. If only this was true:

When Michigan’s band traveled to the Cowboys Classic in Dallas last season for the Wolverines’ game with Alabama, it cost the university an estimated $400,000. The decision to send the band came after heavy criticism when it was announced they would not make the trip. Less than a year later, it appears two of the nation’s premier marching bands have earned a spot near the top of their university’s hierarchy.

The MMB is the same as it ever was. They will travel probably once this year, the free trip to East Lansing. State College, Evanston, Iowa City not so much, let alone UConn.

Pay attention to Mike Hart, plz. Hart on his quick ascension to the top of the depth chart and what Derrick Green can do to replicate that feat:

"The biggest thing I tell my guys is I didn't get all the reps (when I was a freshman), but I made sure I watched every rep," Hart said. "There's freshmen on my team over there talking, and they don't know the playcall or what's going on.

"You can process these things without getting a physical rep. I think that's kind of what helped me transition, is I was only getting a couple reps, but I was really getting 15 reps per period. A new playcall, I was thinking about what I had to do and how I had to do it."

Draft order set, now we can wince at what will happen. SI has Trey Burke going to New Orleans at #6 while the Pistons get the flashing red light that is Shabazz Muhammad. Hardaway does not appear. Glen Rice Jr. does, though, and a year after he got booted from GT's team.

Hated Chad Ford($) has Burke #2 to Orlando, has the Pistons taking walking red flag Anthony Bennett—LOSE GAMES AT THE END OF THE SEASON FOR PANTS SAKE—and puts Hardaway at the tail end of his first round, going to Denver after "one of the best performances of anyone at the combine." He brought "an intensity with him that few players could match"?!?!?

Do we think Mitch McGary and Hardaway pulled a Derrick Rose-SAT-swap here maybe? I do. I think Hardaway convinced Mitch McGary to pretend he was Hardaway at the NBA combine. This is a thing that happened.

UMHoops breaks things down in more detail.

Etc.: Michigan has two Parade All Americans, equalling the rest of the conference combined. MSU has two quarterbacks. Uh oh? Softball ace Sara Driesenga profiled. The News on Patrick Biondi's stellar senior season. Denard Robinson is not exactly a trekkie. Michigan State fans looking for love.

Comments

Tater

May 22nd, 2013 at 12:53 PM ^

I saw a projection that has the Magic taking Trey at #2.  It would be pretty cool for Trey if the Magic decided that Jameer Nelson is at the end of his "shelf life" and that Burke would be a better choice than an inside player.  

beat ohio

May 22nd, 2013 at 12:56 PM ^

That juggalo thing was the most unfortunate thing I've seen since learning that people recovering from opioid addiction often get anhedonic.

mvp

May 22nd, 2013 at 1:13 PM ^

The MMB and its travel is about to get more complicated.

In the past, with MSU and Ohio on alternating years, the band always went to that game.  Typically, the band would always also travel to ND and any bowl game.  With ND, MSU, and Ohio now in the same year, the band has hard choices to make in 2014.  Three road games in one season is a lot.

Planning to travel to significantly more games, like Ohio is, requires quite an effort in terms of planning and commitment above and beyond the dollar cost.  I'll be curious to see what unfolds.

I'm expecting the MMB to only travel to Lansing this year.  I expect they would plan to attend the B1G championship game if the team made it, but I don't know.  That's a busy time for students as well.

MGoShoe

May 22nd, 2013 at 1:38 PM ^

...there may be other reasons why the MMB might not travel to multiple away games besides budget constraints?

I wonder if the MMB members would really sign up to do what OSU is apparently going to do and appear at each of the 13 regular season games plus potentially a B1G Championship Game and/or a bowl game.

mGrowOld

May 22nd, 2013 at 1:17 PM ^

When Michigan’s band traveled to the Cowboys Classic in Dallas last season for the Wolverines’ game with Alabama, it cost the university an estimated $400,000. The decision to send the band came after heavy criticism when it was announced they would not make the trip. 

I'm just counting my blessing that the players and coaching staff still get to go to the away games.  When somebody figures out exactly how much money we'd save by keeping them home we might be in trouble.

InterM

May 22nd, 2013 at 1:27 PM ^

When they sent out the annual survey to hockey season ticket holders, I took the opportunity to rant about last season's schedule, and especially the front-loading of all home games in Oct/Nov and virtually none in Jan/Feb.  Apparently that did the trick (although the home schedule in Jan/Feb is still a bit light for my tastes).  Next year I'll turn my powers for good toward the B1G hockey tournament format.

oldcityblue

May 22nd, 2013 at 2:18 PM ^

"Ok, here's what we're thinking... a nice white mens dress shirt, with super bright stripey socks, sans pants. Oh, and we also want you to sit on a precarious clear plastic chair perched on top of a smallish, white cubed lightbox. Maybe drop a book so it looks like you might be reading something = you are a smart, casual stylish hottie. Sound good?"

Not an actual quote.

Jedelman11

May 22nd, 2013 at 1:48 PM ^

Looks like there are 3 other Parade All Americans in the Big Ten

Peter Jok -- Iowa

Mark Loving -- Ohio

Luke Fischer -- Indiana

Not a huge deal, but maybe should be corrected...

Bando Calrissian

May 22nd, 2013 at 2:27 PM ^

All you do is double it up. Either do a show for the first time on the road and repeat at the next home game, or do it the other way around. It's not that big of a deal.

The bigger deal are the financials and the seating arrangements in opposing stadiums. Penn State is tricky because they won't seat a band on the field, so you have to decide early enough so they'll block off the tickets (which is why the MMB didn't end up going to State College in 2006, despite all the other arrangements being made). Plus, there's the fact that they won't pay to send the MMB to a patsy game, which is why the Evanston trip hasn't happened in many a decade.

The funny thing is back in the day, when travel wasn't easy, the MMB would do train trips to Minneapolis and Champaign, even New York City. Nowadays? Not so much. And even funnier is the fact that if previous years are precedent, about a hundred-plus MMB kids will go to the Northwestern game anyway...

Honestly, the stinginess when it comes to MMB travel just never makes sense to me. The last non-MSU/OSU/ND/Jerrahworld game the MMB traveled to was a pep band to Penn State in 2001, and the full band to Illinois in 2000. That's absurd to me.

MGlobules

May 22nd, 2013 at 3:18 PM ^

Now that is strange. Some people fix a player in their minds and then never let them evolve, whatever the evidence to the contrary. 

"FAZED," fwiw. 

johnthesavage

May 23rd, 2013 at 8:37 PM ^

Wanted to make a new thread about this, but apparently I can't.  A short series of well-reasoned, well-written logical posts, which were downvoted by the easily offended mgo board userbase due to stating unpopular opinions, is likely the cause.  One of those unpopular opinions was the lack of wisdom in selling "WORST STATE EVER" gear about Ohio, when Ohio is a very important recruiting base for the U-M.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130523/SPORTS06/305230104/michigan-footb…

Hoke obviously agrees with me; he does not like this football and wants to distance the program from its creation. This is wise. If the Michigan fan base wants to incessantly insult a critical state for recruiting it will, eventually, pay the price. I'm glad Hoke understands this, but I wish more Michigan fans did as well. No problem with hating OSU as much as you want, but the spillover into vigorously hating the entire state and advertising that hatred at every opportunity is flat stupid.