Unverified Voracity Is Tiny, Mesmerized Comment Count

Brian

I call him Mini-Rod. Over the past few months I would periodically receive emails about Brady Hoke. Most were to the effect of "bet Hoke looks like a much better candidate now," which was true but only because this was his attractiveness level before this season:

Awful. Awful, awful, awful. The worst possible candidate. The mere idea this guy -- who's never even been a coordinator anywhere and has his MAC team performing at a level well below the program's historical baseline -- could get the job is infuriating.

I was a little cranky, as that was posted at the nadir of the coaching search, when Miles had told everyone to "have a great day" and candidates were thin on the ground and the Rodriguez miracle had not yet bloomed from nowhere, but the point stands: Hoke remains a below-.500 MAC coach even after this year.

He's also just ditched his alma mater for San Diego State, which is basically the same thing Rodriguez did. Except for one thing: instead of moving to, say, BYU—the mid-major equivalent of the nation's winningest program—he's moving to the equivalent of Indiana. San Diego State hasn't had a winning record since 1998 (they were 6-6 in 2003) and is currently 2-10. I guess SDSU is tripling his salary, which is not a small consideration.

The Realests also go "huh?" I just wonder if anyone, anywhere, is going to make a coaching move that makes a damn bit of sense this offseason. Quick: what's the best hire of the year? Probably Dan Mullen to Mississippi State. And this is a year when Auburn, Tennessee, and Washington came open. WTF.

Mesmerizing. Yes, for the record, I remain obsessed with Charlie Weis, and will remain so until such time as he is no longer a public figure. (And, for the record, I don't think he'll get fired next year; Notre Dame's schedule is comically easy and ND returns quite a bit from a team that was significantly better; a similar step forward is probably 9-3 and an ill-gotten BCS bid. I am terrified of Michael Floyd. That kid is going to be a Manningham-esque thorn in Michigan's side for the next few years.)

Anyway, BGS posted the following clip without comment*. Notre Dame trails by a billion and Weis has made a pointless (and fruitless) coaches' challenge in the fourth quarter:

*(OK, some comment in the comments: "I don't think it's a rip on Charlie per se (although some may read as much into it). Take it as more abstract, perhaps as a trifling snapshot of the current state of affairs.")

Where's that bump? Michigan's recent acquisition of Taylor Lewan caused me to check back in with Minnesota's recruiting class. Tim Brewster was hired primarily because he was a swanky recruiter at Texas, after all, and had a surprisingly excellent first class, though the star of that class failed to qualify. This year… eh:

  • two four-stars, one of them a JUCO,
  • twelve three-stars,
  • two kids lower than that, and
  • a kicker.

Brewster has locked down Minnesota, I guess, but other than Bryce McNeal there are no four-stars in the state. Is this better than your average Glen Mason class? Not really. To be fair, the class that suffers after a dismal season is usually the one a year behind, and Minnesota was a disaster zone in 2007; if Brewster bounces back there may be hope for him yet.

McGuffie finale. Fred Jackson was ambushed at halftime of the Eastern Michigan basketball game and spoke thusly on Sam McGuffie:

"(His issues) have been going on since he got here," Jackson told reporters at halftime of Michigan's 91-60 basketball win over Eastern Michigan. "It's just difficult.

"The kid wanted to be here, but he just had things happen with family that weighed heavy on him. And because of those things, he couldn't concentrate."

FWIW.

Keep your pants on. There was a minor recruiting PANIC over the weekend when Shavodrick Beaver unwisely updated his myspace to read "have a bad feeling about Michigan," or something to that effect. The premium sites have done their best to tamp this down but I think there's some real waver here now.

Beaver doesn't have a lot of time to defect, though, as he plans to enroll in January and much of December is a Christmas-related dead period. I think this is probably McGuffie-related—Beaver does a lot of communication and probably talked to a fellow Texas native about going up—and will hopefully get smoothed out for the better soon. More tomorrow in Tuesday Recruitin'.

Etc.: This has nothing to do with anything, but is there a more Christopher Hitchens headline than "The moral and aesthetic nightmare of Christmas"? That guy makes yours truly look like head cheerleader.

Comments

Kolesar40

December 15th, 2008 at 1:56 PM ^

rates Michigan's class of 2009 as the 7th best. A few weeks back we were 10 or 11 so some nice pickups as of late. I think the fact that we are top 10 after the year we had and the crap RRod has taken is very telling. Add big Will and a few others and this class may go even higher. Rankings mean very little but its a testament to RRod and the program in an otherwise rough season.

Subrosa

December 15th, 2008 at 2:23 PM ^

"To be fair, the class that suffers after a dismal season is usually the one a year behind, and Minnesota was a disaster zone in 2007"

Is this because the majority of the groundwork for recruiting someone happens while kids are juniors? Also, should we be anticipating a dip in the overall level of recruiting for the 2010 class?

Jay

December 15th, 2008 at 2:53 PM ^

Brian,

Quit posting potentially negative news about Shavodrick Beaver. It is not appreciated.

Sincerely,

90% of the Mgoblog forum memebers (not me, of course)

GCS

December 15th, 2008 at 2:59 PM ^

It's worth pointing out that the source of the negative news was Beaver himself and not Dandy Don. That's something to reflect on when trying to figure out why you catch so much flak and Brian has no such issue.

Jay

December 15th, 2008 at 3:32 PM ^

We aren't sure it was from Beaver himself. Myspace pages have been faked before, fyi. Anyway, I posted the "DandyDon" link becaus it mentioned a recruit that we're all interested in. I'm pretty sure I won't be wasting too much time "reflecting" on it. I think you need to lighten up just a bit, GCS. Weblinks to articles from "DanyDon" or any other site having to do with the world of sports probably shouldn't annoy you so much considering all of the other frightening shit going on right now in the real world.

GCS

December 15th, 2008 at 3:41 PM ^

Wow, using the "compared to the real world" argument? That's... amusing.

Hey, your original message was saying that we didn't appreciate negative news about recruits. I'm just clarifying that statement to make it more accurate. We don't appreciate negative news when it's clearly some guy talking out of his ass and even you know it.

(Oh, and I think Scout and Rivals have been following Beaver long enough that they know whether or not that's really him. It's not like the MySpace page just appeared a week ago.)

noahtahl

December 15th, 2008 at 3:24 PM ^

live in san diego or muncie in., no brainer.live in san diego or almost anywhere, no brainer.

on the subject of no brainers...what does self deprecating mean?

maracle

December 15th, 2008 at 3:43 PM ^

Whenever I try to read something written by Christopher Hitchens I get about 2 paragraphs in, have no clue yet where he's going because he starts with a lengthy anecdote about something that happened to him in 1987 and give up. Tl;dr.

Erik_in_Dayton

December 15th, 2008 at 3:50 PM ^

Maybe I'm being a homer but the thing I like about this Michigan class is that the guys I've been able to read about sound like guys who really like football and who aren't just really good athletes that happen to be able to use football as a ticket.

Re: Beaver, hopefully he just got a little spooked by McGuffie leaving but will be calmed to learn that McGuffie had to leave for family reasons.

My own rumor contribution is that it looks very likely that 5-star dual-threat QB and recent Tenn de-commit Tajh Boyd is going to commit to OSU. I get this from a die-hard OSU friend of mine who keeps on this stuff.

Don

December 15th, 2008 at 4:12 PM ^

that the rumors about Beaver were just that. I'm not doubting his information, but when it comes to guys from the deep south and far west, I don't believe in anything until signing day. Occasionally that extends to guys like Will Campbell, who I understand just visited Florida and Pope "Notre Dame is still my dream job" Urban. I'll be very surprised if Dequinta Jones from LA ends up signing with us; I still remember all too well Marquise Hill, another DL from LA who everybody said confidently was a sure Michigan signee. At the last minute he signs with LSU. If all these guys sign, fantastic, but I'm not betting the mortgage on it.

jaster

December 15th, 2008 at 5:08 PM ^

during this holiday season. May his noodley appendage touch all of you, even the non-Pastafarians.

RAmen!

Oh yeah, and I hope Beaver doesn't de-commit. Which he won't, FSM willing.

wolverinekeith

December 15th, 2008 at 5:23 PM ^

Brewster's first real test as a recruiter who will lock up Minnesota's talent is next year, when Cretin-Durham Hall (sp?) has offensive tackle Seantrel Henderson, who will likely be a 5* and is about 6'8"/310 right now.

If he can get him, it would be a huge domino. If not, it's yet another sign Brewster's upside will be about the same as Mason's.

J. Lichty

December 15th, 2008 at 6:21 PM ^

I dont necessarily agree with you W-keith - M does not always land the top player in the MI HS class, and I would not say we are doomed.

A player like Henderson who goes to ND feeder CDH is not necessarily a sign that he has not improved over Mason. What Brewster needs to be able to do is stop the bleed of the next tier kids to Iowa, Wisconsin and other schools in the second tier.

By most accounts, Mason had a terrible relationship with the HS coaches in MN. Brewster cannot help but improve upon that.

While Brewster does not have the margin of error we have in losing players like Nick Perry and Ronald Johnson to Pete Carroll, not getting the 5 stars from instate does not mean that the borders are not more secure for 4 stars and 3 stars with upside that need to form the backbone of his recruiting. If he can hit on a few of the 5 and high 4 star players while doing better on the others he will be improving on Mason.

Now, I think Mason is a better X and O coach than Brewster, but Minnesota's problem has, at least since the 1960's been a talend deficit on defense. If Brewster can do better on that side of the ball, I think he will turn out to be better than Mason as well.

WolvinLA

December 15th, 2008 at 6:33 PM ^

In a state like Minnesota, if you don't lock up the top talent, you aren't left with much. Your analysis would make sense with regards to Michigan, but not MN. Look at this year, MN has zero 5 stars and one 4 star recruit (McNeal) and only 6 3 stars. That means that the 8th best recruit in MN is not a Big Ten performer. If Brewter fails to lock up the top 3 or 4 in-state prospects, he's looking at slim pickings after that.

BILG

December 15th, 2008 at 9:38 PM ^

College Basketball Rankings Are a fucking joke!!!!
I don't really care if UM is ranked at this point as it doesn't really do anything except give us some premature attention. Get to the tournament and all the necessary accolades and recruiting benefits will fall into place.
That being said, how is 2 loss MSU, getting blown out by UNC and losing to a no name school ranked?? Do the voters even look at the games played of simply rank based on the preseason rank and the last decade's performance. UM's resume is stellar, losing only to Duke and later avenging that loss, and then losing a tough close road game to a tourney level Maryland team. Outside of the top 10 teams, UM has arguably been the most impressive team. What a joke.

J. Lichty

December 16th, 2008 at 10:16 AM ^

While I agree that Brewster has to get some of the top MN prospects to say that if he whiffs on a 5 star, he has basically been Mason is a stretch.

What he needs to do is consistently get the 3 star- and most of the 4 star talent from the state with an occasional homerun for a player like Henderson or McNeal.

He needs to stop the bleed of the second tier kids that MN is after to neighboring schools like Wisconsin and Iowa i.e. demonstrating that a kid is open to staying close to home. Losing guys like Gilreath at Wisconsin are what is killing the depth at MN.

He is always going to lose Cretin DH kids to ND, athough perhaps ND transfer Carufel, a CDH alum could help stop that bleed with his experience there, but losing players to Wisconsin and Iowa is something that Brewster can do much better at that Mason.