Unverified Voracity Self-Inflicts

Nothing would make me happier than to see Kirk Cousins under constant siege.

you don't see these two words together often.
Usually "shallowness" or similar.
It's like seeing "buckeye integrity" - doesn't quite roll off the tongue.

Considering that DT is historically one of the toughest positions to recruit, it's strange to see MSU switch so many people FROM DT to the offensive line.

I disagree that A&M dilutes the SEC. They would be somewhere in between the 50th and 75th percentile in terms of prestige (not on par with adding oklahoma or fsu) but the world needs doormats too. And yes, markets blah blah but Texas is a big state and people like football there. More than any state the SEC is currently in. It's a big deal and there is a lot of revenue there. At worst they'd be a revenue neutral play for the SEC.
That said I'm happy the big 10 hasn't added Pitt, Syracuse, Missouri, rutgers (yet).

The piece on the D-line coach along with everything that Hoke and Mattison have said suggests to me at least that consistent, give it everything you have effort was lacking along with technique, which seems like a scathing indictment of Gerg,  Or am I reading too much into this?  I wrote our D off last year based on youth, but this seems to go way beyond that.

...but when coaches constantly bring up "violence," "toughness," "being physical," and "being consistent" in interviews it makes me very happy

My expansion idea hasn't changed since last year.

I say the entire pre-expansion Big Ten and Pac 10 merge to form a super-conference.  In fact, we'll call the division with the Big Ten teams the "Big Ten" and the division with the Pac 10 teams the "Pac 10."  Then, at the very end of the season, maybe on January 1st, we'll have the winners play in a conference championship game.  Maybe call it the "Rose Bowl" or something.  Then the other conferences can arrange similar mergers and conference championship games.  Maybe call them things like the "Orange Bowl" or, I don't know, the "Sugar Bowl." 

No, actually, I'm all for a very modest playoff, but this expansion thing is getting silly. 

Oh, and I'd take a Nick Lidstrom in Ann Arbor.  Any chance that we can keep him for 20 years?

Lloyd sighed disgustedly at just about every question.

Reporter guy: What'd you have for lunch, Lloyd?

Lloyd: *Sigh*, I had a cheese sandwich and a Faygo Red Pop.

Would be an outstanding mgoblog user name.

I think the SEC should expand, but they already have enough high-quality teams.  Now they need four tomato cans disguised as decent teams that can help them expand their market.  A&M and Texas Tech would make a great package deal.  If the rest of the Big 12 gets tired of kissing Longhorn ass, the SEC might be able to pick up two more of their teams.  

If they want to keep the quality level high, they could pick up a couple from the ACC.  With the amounts of money that are at stake here, the tacit agreement between SEC presidents not to add a team from a state that is already represented is as good as the paper it is written on.

I'm all for four superconferences, a breakaway division, and a de facto eight-game championship playoff starting with the conference championship games and ending with two semis disguised as bowls and the plus one championship game.

We're fairly certain that adding whatever big programs you can won't hurt your bottom line.  They almost always either bring a major market or a rabid fan base to the table.  So it would be with average programs like Missouri and Pitt. The less spoken about aspect of the agenda of super conference mania is it moves everyone closer to a playoff system that the big conferences do want.  

Dual motivations: These marginal schools like A & M get the security of a strong future super conference. The power brokers of the major conferences get something entirely different: the growth of a super elite division of football schools aligned in maybe 4 conferences that will sit above the current FBS.

Then the slow expansion of the post season to actual meaningful games would begin. The big schools and conferences want a playoff because right now they aren't making nearly what they can on the post season. They just don't want to enter into a playoff system that includes smaller conferences who don't have a big following or TV cache. Once they enter into that, there is no backing out. Look at basketball and the trend towards more not less inclusion of marginal teams.

 The more seperation they can gain via the super conference structure, the easier it is for them to control the postseason. There's probably hundreds of million if not a billion dollars annually to be made in an actual playoff system. They want that money, but they don't want to open up anti-trust suits from discgruntled states who have teams in small conferences.

Never forget that in this climate, even with the existence of cable networks and conference title games in these conferences,  you still have a lot of major athtletic programs who are sucking wind financially. The last big profit center untapped is in a real postseason rather than the current one (which is a financial dud overall). It's the mother of sport's spectacles and it would literally print money.  It's wise to look at every move being made by these conferences with football in light of their collective desire to tap the gold of a playoff.

All the BCS is, is their miniature way of excluding the smaller leagues butstill trying to grab some extra money the old bowl system was pissing away every year by playing games with diminishing ratings. It is the system they can get away with for the moment, but barely.

so somebody doesn't have to change the dang thing EVERY day.

At times like these I think about Lloyd Carr in his last couple years sighing disgustedly whenever the subject of money came up in press conferences. He believed placing it above all other goals was destructive, he's looking prophetic at the moment.

Wow, did I just hear Brian say something nice about Lloyd Carr? Color me speechless.

When you hear Jerry Montgomery talking about consistency at the end of that video, you can close your eyes and almost hear Coach Hoke's voice coming out of Montgomery's mouth.  Nice to see this staff is all on the same page.

Also, hilarious to see Hoke standing in the background watching Montgomery work at about 2:47.  Hoke looks like he really wants to jump in and say something, and is fighting it because Montgomery's got it covered.  Mattison praised Montgomery the other day for being good enough at his job that he can manage with two other D-Line coaches constantly looking over his shoulders.  From this clip, looks like he's handling it just fine.

I gotta say, I'm really excited about this coaching staff.

I'm glad to hear in the video that BWC is making some good progress.  We need him playing consistently well this fall to be successful on defense.   I think between Coach's Montgomery, Mattison, and Hoke, we're going to eventually see the great Michigan D-lines of the past.  And that's where championship teams start. 

I wish state was our first big ten game this season. I bet that line is going to be a mess. Of course ND and Ohio get first cracks. Not to mention rival of rivals central.

I agree with Brian that the bowl expansion "stories" are just rumor posting for the sake of clicks.  If someone really wanted to investigate a key aspec to the relationship between conferences, playoffs, and TV revenue maximization, then they have to explore what is going on with the bowl games.  This not only includes the very rich TV watching market in the winter, but also the shenanigans that bowls are playing with where their money goes and what it does to the "less than elite" football programs.

Afterall, the biggest benefit from Nebraska joining the Big Ten was the addition of the Big Ten Championship game.  A game played at a neutral site, but completely controlled by the Big Ten conference.  The BCS system has already proven that money is out there in the middle of January for College Football (meaning the NFL isn't really a competitive market share situation, there is more untapped Eyeball viewing time available to expand the market that the NFL doesn't have the resources to exploit!)

On top of that the Big Ten is conservative and thoughtful in it's decision making.  But it has shown to be innovative, since it was the first conference with it's own TV Network.  The SEC still doesn't have one (yes a deal with ESPN, but NOT their own branded Network), and the jealous Longhorns have gone off and done what they normally do in their very arrogant way by copying the Big Ten and one upping it by creating their own University Network.   This move by Texas A&M is interesting because it's bringing the unhappiness to the light of day, and can be timely if the LongHorn Network falls on it's face.  But A&M needs some support to show up eventually or they will have to tuck tail and go back to their doghouse in the Long Horn Conference.

Of course the SEC is going to play hard to get, they KNOW they are the hottest girl at the dance.  And the Big Ten knows that things are great now, and that IF anything gets decided it is just going to increase the pressure on our long time sweetheart ND.

But the motivation is all on the unhappy teams of the Long Horn Conference.  If someone else doesn't make a move in support against UT, I don't see why the SEC, Big Ten or Pac 12 needs to do anything.

I don't really expect much else to change until we see how the LHN plays out.

They even call themselves Ohio. But well done to the person that made the sign, used the correct block M in Michigan

If you read the articles written by spartan's they act like this line is going to be amazing. I have actually heard spartan fans call fou fonati the best JUCO transfer in the country, he had offers from powerhouse FIU and western michigan. He might have only gotten an MSU offer because him cousin is domata peko.