Unverified Voracity Roots For Staee Comment Count

Brian

SON OF A. I should have read this message board post before I posted the game column. Here's some car vandalism from the weekend that would have been a perfect insert:

staee-vandalism

This is what happens when you drop your vandalism major.

Thanks, Les. The Les Miles misery machine managed to bump Michigan below the fold in TWIS…

…so thanks for that. The Michigan section is devoid of anything like dong-punching, but only thanks to this guy and his rageohol:

This is not me. I was in the stadium one row behind an adorable child. I swear it.

Penn State implosion explanation, implications. How did Illinois run for almost 300 yards against Penn State's normally tough defense? It was the second string D:

DIDN'T PLAY

  • Linebacker Gerald Hodges: Missed his fourth game with a hairline fracture but has begun running.
  • Defensive end Jack Crawford: Foot injury, spent game on crutches on the sideline, might need surgery, Paterno said.
  • Linebacker Mike Mauti: Missed game with a high ankle sprain.
  • Linebacker Bani Gbadyu: Knee injury.
  • [Ed: these two are my additions.] Defensive end Sean Stanley: suspended for violations of team rules.
  • Cornerback Derrick Thomas: suspended for violations of team rules.

LEFT GAME

  • Defensive end Eric Latimore: Sustained wrist injury on first play, could be out for an extended period.
  • Defensive back Nick Sukay: Possible torn pectoral muscle, also could be out for a while.
  • Defensive end Pete Massaro: Treated for dehydration symptoms and played with an injured left quadriceps.
  • Defensive back Andrew Dailey: Sustained possible stinger on helmet-to-helmet hit in second half.
  • Defensive tackle Jordan Hill: Aggravated previous ankle injury.

That's eleven guys from the two-deep, all of whom have seen significant playing time. Michigan plays Penn State in three weeks. It sounds like Sukay, Latimore, and Crawford will definitely be out. Mauti and Hodges could be out, too, and who knows what's with Stanley and Thomas. If it's serious enough for them to miss two games it's 50-50 they'll miss four.

While that sucks for PSU that opens the ever-widening window of opportunity Michigan has in Happy Valley. That will be a critical game for Rich Rodriguez unless Michigan pulls off the upset against Iowa, in which case it will only be a very important game.

The vault. MGoVideo has put a bunch of old newsreels from the 50s and 60s on the tubes. I linked one on the sidebar yesterday that didn't end so well. None of them actually end that well, though, since they're reels from the 50s, when Michigan was no good. The best I can do is a 6-2-1 Michigan keeping the Brown Jug in 1949:

Other hat-laden newsreels covering:

  • The 1951 Minnesota game, a 54-27 win over a turrible Gopher team.
  • Football yearbooks in 1957 (5-3-1, losses to very good MSU and OSU teams), 1958 (2-6-1 bler), 1959 (4-5), and 1965 (4-6).

Newsreels only covered mediocre to terrible Michigan teams, evidently.

While we're idling in the 40s and 50s, a reader sent along this 1947 Time article on Crisler's Mad Magicians that sounds strikingly similar to what's going on around these parts sixty years later:

Michigan's 1947 Wolverines are a good bet to be the second team in Michigan's history to play in Pasadena's Tournament of Roses. They have been rated the nation's best. They are as unlike Fielding ("Hurry-Up") Yost's old-time Michigan teams as modern design can make them. There are no roughcast iron men on Michigan's 1947 squad. It is a collection of chrome-plated, hand-tooled specialists. Some never get a chance to make a tackle, others never throw a block. Usually none stays in a game long enough to work up as much sweat as the radio announcer, who tries to keep track of them as they trot on & off.

Michigan's shrewd Coach Fritz Crisler has taken advantage of the unlimited substitution rule. In the first four games of the season, Crisler's team used everyone but the water boy, and averaged 55 points a game.

The way they did it was something to behold. Lacking brawn, they have to be nimble. And jack-nimble is what they are —and as well-drilled as the Rockettes.

And if they had sports talk radio back then someone would call in to grouse about how this team is soft and doesn't compare to what all they had in dickety-two when Michigan beat back the Kaiser and called it a day. It's crazy that Crisler invented platooning—that anyone had to say "hey, now, maybe I should get people off the field from time to time." Also he said this:

"Confound it, if you want to be sensational, bounce the ball, turn a somersault, then pick it up and run."

This is exactly what Rodriguez says to Mike Cox.

Also, things were slightly more relaxed in 1947 when it came to everything. 24 year-old star Robert Chappius is described as such:

At the Phi Delt house, where he is president for the second year, he is a sharp bridge player and a whizz at cribbage. His card sense helps augment his G.I. allotment and the $50 a month he gets from his dad, who is an executive in a Toledo, O., porcelain-products company. On the practice field, Chappuis is very "coachable," which is exceptional in a senior. Chappuis learns easily, just as he does in the classroom, where he makes a C-plus average seemingly without ever opening a book.

Gambling! C+ averages despite never opening books! Coachable despite being a senior! In 1947 anything short of stabbing a man was good, and even that might be okay if the guy seemed German.

Iowa injury bits. Starting MLB Jeff Tarpinian is questionable. He played a little bit early in the Penn State game but left with an assortment of stingers, sending senior Troy Johnson into the lineup. Johnson got a "minor" concussion and was replaced by freshman James Morris.

So who is it this week? The Hawkeye depth chart lists Johnson first and Morris second—no Tarpinian. Everyone else save the battered tailback corps, now Adam Robinson and some freshmen, should be ready to go.

Firin' talk moratorium notification. This was inevitably going to happen after the first loss and it has happened so a note to emailers and whoever else: I'm not going to speculate on whether or not Rodriguez should or will be fired when there are six important data points coming up in the next month and a half.

Etc.: MGoUser tomcat sits next to TX LB recruit Kellen Jones on his flight home from Houston, reports back that he's a nice guy serious about academics. More MSU postgame from Dreaded Judgment and Genuinely Sarcastic; the latter is seriously overheated. I'm not sure what the Hoover Street Rag is talking about in theirs.

Comments

hypomodern

October 12th, 2010 at 12:01 PM ^

Interesting to compare some of those designed halfback off-tackles (run by Ortman in the newsreel footage) to one of our base plays: the power-O dilithium assault: it looks almost the same :). Interesting amounts of pre-snap movement, too. Plus: bonus Statue of Liberty deployment!

Nice finds!

As a side note, it always bothers me when the announcers see our designed QB keepers and assume that Denard has "taken the game into his own hands" or that RR has "asked Denard to go win him the game". Good lord, its a basic play in our offensive package, people. It was called from the booth.

WolverBean

October 12th, 2010 at 2:20 PM ^

Believe it or not, people expected to get C's in those days.  A 'B' meant you were better than most of your classmates, and an 'A' was almost unheard of.  I've seen grade rosters from the Engineering school from the 1940's in which a class of 30 students would receive no A's, four B's, and the rest various forms of C+/-.  Can you imagine the protest there would be if a prof graded that way today?

His Dudeness

October 12th, 2010 at 12:13 PM ^

If I were by myself I would be far worse than that bald, fat guy. Whenever I am in a room full of people I just start to go crazy and then remember that I must avoid looking insane at all costs lest they put me in the white jacket and take me away (one of my biggest fears second only to being judged by a group of my peers for a crime I am innocent of) and collect myself, looking only mildly insane.

southernfriedw…

October 12th, 2010 at 12:42 PM ^

Yeah, I think I had a moment of clarity while watching that video, only because I've been known to act much, much worse than he did. Even my wife got more out of hand than that during the game this past weekend. Apparently we should never go in public and I lucked out in finding another psychotic person to share my fandom with.

Yostal

October 12th, 2010 at 12:29 PM ^

I'm not sure what the Hoover Street Rag is talking about in theirs.

Honestly, Brian, I wrote it and I am not sure what I was talking about in it.  I think it was a poorly executed joke about how adventuring with people in Syracuse can only lead to disaster against the Spartans.  But it didn't end well.  So, in many ways, apt?

nicknick

October 12th, 2010 at 12:32 PM ^

Firin' talk moratorium notification. This was inevitably going to happen after the first loss and it has happened so a note to emailers and whoever else: I'm not going to speculate on whether or not Rodriguez should or will be fired when there are six important data points coming up in the next month and a half.

Wow. That's a lot more diplomatic of a response than I would have expected.

wolverine1987

October 12th, 2010 at 1:32 PM ^

even the most rationale and positive RR backers, I think many have felt--not necessarily believed--the things he discussed regarding the defense. His comments re: switching to a newish scheme in year three that de-emphasizes the d-line are opinion and unprovable-but so are the claims of those that believe it was the right thing to do.  I don't endorse his other several paragraphs, but he has at minimum, a debatable point there.

And RR adds fuel to the defensive fire when he admits again, most recently as yesterday, that he pays much more attention to the offense than the defense (paraphrasing) "I talk to the defensive coaches, but will have to spend more time on that side of the ball." BTW, this is almost a direct replica of his quote regarding defense at this time last year. That sort of delegation is perfectly fine when the defense is ok, mediocre even. But when your defense is that poor, two years in a row, IMO that borders in managerial negligence.

Don

October 12th, 2010 at 12:53 PM ^

You only wish it was similar.

In the ten games of the 1947 season (9 reg season + Rose Bowl), Michigan gave up the following number of points:

0, 13, 0, 21, 6, 7, 0, 6, 0, 0

Sgt. Wolverine

October 12th, 2010 at 1:05 PM ^

on that bit of vehicular vandalism.  Somebody who genuinely cared about the reputation and integrity of the vandalism arts would have knelt down and made an effort to keep the stroke of the letters consistent from top to bottom.  But that particular vandal obviously painted from a high perspective, making the stroke of the lower half of the letters much looser.  What a shame.

So, since he obviously didn't go to vandalism school, does that make him a Value City Vandal?

Raoul

October 12th, 2010 at 1:13 PM ^

Statistically, the comparison to the 1947 team is quite apt. According to the Michigan Football Record Book, the 1947 and 1992 offenses are tied for highest average yards per play at 6.4 yards:

  • 1947: 4,205 yards in 656 plays (10 games), for an average of 420.5 yards/game
  • 1992: 5,603 yards in 872 plays (12 games), for an average of 466.9 yards/game

Through six games, the 2010 offense is averaging 7.8 yards per play (3,202 yards in 410 plays), for an average of 533.7 yards/game.

On a side note, the 466.9 yards/game amassed by that 1992 offense is the Michigan record.

onceandfutureb…

October 12th, 2010 at 2:30 PM ^

They are Michigan Men and proven winners. Regardless of what RR does or does not do, that fact don't change. Let's quit bad-mouthing Michigan Men who are achieving excellence. I salute them.

bjk

October 12th, 2010 at 5:15 PM ^

The way they did it was something to behold. Lacking brawn, they have to be nimble. And jack-nimble is what they are —and as well-drilled as the Rockettes.

brings to mind Tha Stunna's find from BHGP: "I can't tell, but is this even tackle football? This is how you win flag football. But tackle football?&quot

The difference is the lights-out defense from 1947-48, which, depending on your source, were the two holders of an MNC before 1997. The '47 team went to the Rose Bowl, the '48 team was forced to stay home in accordance to B-10 rules, but was awarded the undisputed MNC. (From WH at YouTube:)

SeattleChris

October 12th, 2010 at 6:11 PM ^

And there weren't any forward passes and fullbacks were made out of steel and linebackers new how to tackle! Thanks Brian for helping me return from my denial/grief phase and back into hoping we can actually, possibly do the impossible vs. Iowa. It will be a good character test for Denard to see how he bounces back and if he still looks "too excited" then give the Tater a series our two

JimBobTressel-0

October 12th, 2010 at 7:52 PM ^

false. he actually gives it to his readers straight. and he's right. We don't havea  fucking defense...THREE YEARS  into Rich Rod's era.