Unverified Voracity Will Be Nicer To The Media Comment Count

Brian

Not actually, actually.

Off topic season is over. It is game week and we are putting on our game faces. Most off topic posting is hereby illegalized until after the Ohio State game. The exceptions:

  • local pro teams in moderation
  • general college football in whatever quantity you'd like

As a reminder that will forever go unheeded, threads about the Big Ten and Michigan opponents are on topic. I will shake my fist at you and scream "why?" if you label a thread about Ohio State OT.

Captains. Not much surprise that Michigan's captains are David Molk, Kevin Koger, and Mike Martin.

It's amazing to me that the guy who recruited Molk to Michigan was Lloyd Carr. It's been a long four years. Here's Molk latest appearance on CTK, where he discusses being a captain in his usual blunt fashion:

Q: Will you change at all, publicly?

A: Yes. I will be nicer to the media.

Molk!

We did this winning thing from time to time. Bo after the 1976 Ohio State game:

And he's actually a lizardman wearing human skin. AnnArbor.com has discovered four things about Mitch McGary you might not already know. They are:

  1. Thinks the bowler is the king of hats
  2. Was worshiped as the sun god by ancient Sumatrans
  3. Pinky finger can be removed and applied as a teeth-whitening device
  4. Enjoys bread

That what I got out of the article, anyway.

This is what I am talking about. The Muskegon Chronicle does something cool with its archives: it uses them instead of locking them away, reprinting a September 1st, 1948, article on the ascension of Bennie Oosterbaan to the top job:

Bennie knows football from A to Z. He is popular with his players and with his fellow coaches. There is very little about football that Bennie doesn’t know. Fritz Crisler gives Oosterbaan considerable credit for much of Michigan’s successes in recent years.

Michigan will have a good team this fall. Practically the same defensive eleven as last year will be available. The squad won’t be as deep with experienced players as it was last year, but enough talent has returned to continue the two-team idea used so successfully last season. …

Michigan’s attack this season will probably be built around the running of Derricotte. While all of the backs can pass, there probably won’t be as much passing as a year ago.

Recruiting was important even back in 1948—the article mentions Michigan's stiff admissions requirements made the freshmen class "the poorest in years."

RIP Killer. I lost my interest in the Lions a while ago and withdrew into maniacal focus on Michigan a few years later but still remember Tom Kowalski as a quality beatwriter and one of the rare people who could carry a nickname like "Killer" ably. He died in his sleep two days ago at 51. John Niyo remembers him, as does local media flamethrower Jeff Moss.

poll-turf

Do you feel like crushing something? How about this poll that determines the winner of the USMAP Best Team/Region-Specific Blog category? You and the overwhelming onslaught from the rest of the readership here should be able to produce a damp squeak if you pile in willy-nilly. Some of these other blogs are not very highly trafficked at all. The slaughter will be impressive.

Where power fits now. Shakin' The Southland runs down all the different things you can do to that defensive end you're usually optioning off in the zone read game. One of them is something Michigan ran last year and will run more of this year:

Now what else do I want to throw at that DE to get inside his head? What if he has a tip on the read option and plays it right, or the opposing DC has instructed him to always go for the QB? We can use that against him with a Trap. …Another option, very similar, is to run a Power on him. Below I'm using the TE/H on the playside, but he could also be set in the backfield beside the QB. Either way, he gets kicked out or log blocked.

What if he spots this formation based on my tendencies as a playcaller, and figures out that we're going to run Power from this set? To keep him from making that guess every time, I need to be able to run my zone read option from the same formation. Also, instead of having the TE/H kick him out, I just send the blocker on an Arc outside, and run the tight zone or power anyway. If he stops to set his feet to take on the H-back, he wont be able to do much to the RB in time to stop the play.

Here you're making up for a lack of pile-bulling beef by using the power as a changeup that exploits the need to cheat on whatever the base play is. Lately those ends just tear down the line so power might not be the best anwer—Michigan had success pulling the playside guard last year and getting outside that end.

Etc.: Pahokee football is struggling after an epic run of dominance. Tressel's vacated year will cost him his spot amongst the Big Ten's all-time winning percentage leaders, which require a minimum of ten seasons. Yost-Bo are 1-2 now. Mike Martin finishes #1 on TTB's countdown of most important Michigan players. /BOOM cowherd'd.

Winners abound on youtube.

Comments

turd ferguson

August 30th, 2011 at 1:19 PM ^

I'm still really shocked and saddened by Kowalski's death.  It doesn't help that the Lions finally have a real team and Killer won't be there to enjoy it.  It's like seeing Obama's grandmother pass on the day before he was elected president or Bo pass before 2006 UM-OSU.

M-Wolverine

August 30th, 2011 at 1:20 PM ^

And not till after the bowl game? I mean, we think we're going to a bowl game, right? (Not that I'm pushing for a longer OT ban, because I love me some OT, but I think last year it was till after the Bowl.  So I'm just wondering when we're granted parole.)

And as for Tressel...HA HA and all...but when they vacate games, do they vacate the losses too?  I mean, if you beat a team vacating games, you still get the wins, so shouldn't you still get the losses? They have him going from 22 losses to 21.

JeepinBen

August 30th, 2011 at 1:22 PM ^

how can I vote for a blog with incorrect grammar?

"You and the overwhelming onslaught from the rest of the readership hear should be able to produce a damp squeak if you pile in willy-nilly. "

/will actually go vote now

AceCubbie

August 30th, 2011 at 1:53 PM ^

Congrats on the USMAP finalist thing. I am both a long-time reader of MGoBlog, as well as the proprietor of one of the not-very-highly-trafficked other finalists. Were I a bigger man, I would vote for MGoBlog - and would tell my readers to do the same, because I'm a huge fan. But I'm a very, very small man. So I vote for myself. 

But I'm honored to be sharing the dais with the Internet equivalent of my hero. 

/nerd

ken725

August 30th, 2011 at 1:54 PM ^

When I read the title of today Unverified Voracity, I had a hunch it was going to have something with David Molk.  I love watching his interviews.

BornInAA

August 30th, 2011 at 1:59 PM ^

is very simular to the old single wing formation - pulling guard and all - except "spread" out with two receivers instead of ends.

Nice thing is to set this up and then fake the power and have Denard zing it to the TE or Z back in the flat.

 

DuganFifeFor3

August 30th, 2011 at 2:01 PM ^

Im going to eat a basket of paint chips, drink a half gallon Kesslers, and sniff glue for the next 6 hours in an attempt to understand how mentally impaired the guy who made those videos about OSU is.  Its gonna be tough but Im doing it for research.  I didn't think it was possible for people to be that stupid - science needs to know how someone that dumb has survived long enough to learn how to walk let alone make a Youtube video

ChowDr

August 30th, 2011 at 3:13 PM ^

If you skip ahead to about the 11:50 mark of that 1976 Bo video, you'll get to see some great archival footage of what fans were like 35 years ago.  The bit with people hanging out of moving cars at around 14:00 is especially entertaining.

Cameron

August 31st, 2011 at 1:01 AM ^

Serious question for anyone who listens to Michigan Insider on WTKA:

At the 12:29 mark of that clip, is that frequent caller Dennis? If so, he's either a) not putting on an act when he calls in, or b) been in character for over 35 years.

kevin holt

August 30th, 2011 at 5:47 PM ^

FWIW I posted a thread about ohio that seemed OT just because it was about a random fan posting something on a message board, which seemed non-newsworthy. I was wrestling with myself about whether to include the tag or not, but I decided to use it liberally.