Unverified Voracity Wins At All Costs
Bzzzt. UMHoops reports that Casey Prather's choice is Florida. Sorry for my incorrect earlier speculation/enthusiasm. Michigan is still pursuing MI SF Trey Ziegler, who won't decide until the spring. If they don't get him it'll be on to the class of 2011.
Old School. The 1957 Michigan-Indiana game via home video:
That comes from Uni Watch, which also notes via a reader that Michigan has some weird inconsistencies in the way they name players on their uniforms:
As you might know, Michigan football has a freshman QB, Tate Forcier. He’s the younger brother of Jason Forcier, who was once a third-string QB on the team (about five years ago or so) and then transferred to Stanford. When Tate started practicing in the spring, there was a thought that Jason would transfer back to Michigan and both brothers would be on the team at the same time. This never happened, but Tate still wears a ‘T. Forcier’ nameplate, as if Jason were on the team.
Meanwhile, we have Kevin Grady at FB and his brother Kelvin Grady at WR (who had been on the basketball team last year and then moved to football this summer). They’re both K. Grady — in fact, they’re both Ke. Grady — but they both wear just ‘Grady,’ even though they’re sometimes on the field at the same time. I sorta wish they did FNOB, which I love, or else ‘Kel. Grady’ and ‘Kev. Grady,’ but alas, they just wear their surname.
Finally, we have Stevie Brown at LB and Carlos Brown at RB. Carlos’s NOB is just ‘Brown,’ while Stevie wears ‘S. Brown’ — weird.
I’m surprised this would happen at Michigan, where they take the home uniforms so seriously.
FNOB = "first name on back." You can probably extrapolate what NOB means. Uni Watch has a weird insider lingo that fosters some community or something.
Let me take this opportunity to denounce a spreading scourge: nameless jerseys. If you're Notre Dame or Penn State, okay, whatever. But it seems like everyone is doing it now in an attempt to emphasize team unity or other such sportwritery nonsense. When Eastern Michigan is doing it, things have gone too far. I want to know who is who as a fan.
Baby's first Michigan-Michigan State game. The universe isn't quite back in order—Michigan State opened a slim underdog but is now a 1- to 1.5-point favorite—but it's getting there:
Michigan-Michigan State is big for both football teams, but for the Spartans, it could be their season
That's Mike Rothstein penning a headline that could have been written at any point in the last 40 years, though probably not with as much truth behind it as this time around. This is Rothstein's first exposure to Michigan State's particular mania…
The anger came in every syllable flying out of Kirk Cousins’ mouth. The disgust was evident on his face, the frustration obvious in his mannerisms.
Michigan may have multiple rivals and already pocketed a rivalry victory against Notre Dame this year, but an hour northwest, at Michigan State, there is only one rival. And there is only one game.
Michigan.
“This game is personal,” said Cousins, the Michigan State quarterback. “And we need to win it, and we’d better win it.”
"The lack of respect they have, period," defensive end Trevor Anderson responded when asked about his dislike for the Wolverines. "It's sickening."
The Spartans' offensive line is hurting and hasn't helped produce a single 200-yard rushing game this season.
But that didn't stop left tackle Rocco Cironi from chiming in.
"I think everybody has a hatred for Michigan," he said.
…I wonder if he thinks State is acting a little odd, in his experience? It would be interesting to get an outsider's perspective.
Win at all costs. Dantonio on Glen Winston:
One move that appears certain is additional carries for Glenn Winston, a sophomore running back from Detroit.
Winston is considered one of the team's top three running backs along with freshmen Caulton Ray and Larry Caper.
"You can't starve the horse that pulls the cart," said Dantonio of Winston's status.
Students going to game: "AJ Sturges" chant plz.
Um… really? My first instinct is that this is insane:
Time for BCS To Include BlogPoll in Formula
That's registered BlogPoll voter Dan Shanoff touting the poll in relation to the Coaches' and Harris polls, which are run by old men who haven't watched a football game since nineteen dickety-two. But the list of grievances presented by Doctor Saturday a month into the season is compelling:
But a month into the season, is it too much to ask the AP, coaches and Harris polls reflect the slightest shred of common sense?
• LSU is No. 4. Because ... ?
• Oklahoma is No. 8. Because ... ?
• The coaches rank Oklahoma State ahead of Houston.
• The coaches and Harris polls rank Penn State ahead of Iowa.
• The coaches and Harris rank Cal ahead of Oregon.
• All three polls rank Ole Miss ahead of South Carolina.
Each of these has explanation over at DocSat, though in many cases the explanation could be "duh." The blogpoll is far from perfect but the ever-expanding cadre of voters who are basing their ballots strictly on what's gone on between the sidelines—something the poll guidelines suggest should be implemented by week five and demand by week eight—makes for a poll that escapes most of those inanities. LSU and Oklahoma are still too high but lower. Houston, Oregon and Iowa are ahead of the teams they beat handily. And while South Carolina isn't ahead of Ole Miss, it's because neither features in the top 25. That's just the draft ballots, but historically what movement there is between Monday and Wednesday is of the variety that sees the final poll move more towards onfield events.
I still think it's insane. The BlogPoll contains a number of motley blogs that put "sucks" after every mention of Michigan or vote their team way higher than it deserves only to be struck down by malevolent forces. But a bunch of guys in their pajamas are transparently doing a better job of paying attention than the people actually in charge of making BCS decisions. So if it's insane, the only thing more insane is the current system.
Nice plane. I'd like to meet the man who owns this baby:
Wheeeeeee. Jonas Mouton Suspension Fiasco will not die:
The Big Ten Conference office announced today that Ohio State University football student-athlete Kurt Coleman has been suspended for one game as a result of initiating helmet-to-helmet contact and targeting a defenseless opponent in the fourth quarter of Ohio State's game against Illinois on Sept. 26, 2009.
This actually seems like it might not be directly related to the JMSF, as the BTN's article cites a new rule for 2009 that mandates post-game review and possible suspensions for helmet-to-helmet hits. I can't embed the actual incident, but here it is. I'm torn on this one. That was basically flinging your brain at a defenseless player's brain, and while it's less obviously unsportsmanlike than either the Mouton or Recknagle incidents it's far more dangerous.
Amusing Dantonio quote from the News (not the Freep, notably).
Somebody call the NCAA! (Unless this was clever dig at Michigan, but Dantonio's not that clever, is he?)
"When you work 85, 90 hours a week to prepare for one single moment, you tend to remember those things," Dantonio said. "This will be no different.
"We'll come ready to play, I can assure you that."
Cazzie33
By "you", he meant internet commenters.
A Reasonable Sparty Blog? Yes, it's possible! www.theonlycolors.com
I agree with keeping the name. Just make sure to say some cliche about caring more about the name on the front than the name on the back (even if there is no name on the front). and put the name on the back.
And didn't it use to be the convention that(at least in high school) the nickname went on the front of home jerseys and the school name went on the front of away jerseys? Or was that just a fevered dream from my youth?
you know, like everyone does.
the 1957 video was great. Do I remember that the band used to do a real fast stepping "double time" entrance? I dont remember it from my last few games, but my last few games were Toledo, Utah and Ohio State so I have blocked out so much.
Go Blue
Oh, Sparty. Your rage doth make us mirthful. Also, thou suckest.
Got a quarter?
...all it means is all is returned to its natural order. Sparty doesn't cope well unless dissed and playing the underdog. Kind of like Israel, except Israel has a > .500 all-time win record despite not fielding a team for a couple thousand years.
A Reasonable Sparty Blog? Yes, it's possible! www.theonlycolors.com
Having lived in SEC territory for sometime, I have on occasion forgotten why I disliked MSU while growing up in the great state of Michigan. Then I read the rants of the fans of MSU and it all comes back to me so quickly. Nostalgia...
The plane is owned by Richard Rogel, a very successful and involved alum.
http://www.zli.bus.umich.edu/meet_zell_lurie/bios_rogel.asp
It was designed by a Michigan Art & Design Student.
http://www.michigandaily.com/content/students-design-lands-learjet
Makes you think what you could/would do if you had the money...
I went up a chair lift with him in Vail a few years. Nice guy though he thought I should upgrade to parabolics, which he was right about.
Pete
Damn right.
I held out forever -- went with slightly parabolic Rossies in '97 but not beyond -- under this impression that parabolics "weren't as effective for skiing on Michigan
snowchopped ice."My little bro (a Sparty btw) coaches the Novi HS team, and managed to disabuse me of my anti-parabolic notions, and OMG I CAN TURN LIKE I'M 19 AGAIN.
/Way OT
This team is under construction. We thank you for your patience.
If a lot of schools start taking the names off of the jerseys, I would hope that UM keeps theirs and tells players, "the whole world will be able to see your name on your jersey." For seventeen year-old, having his name on his jersey might make a difference if it comes down to two schools on opposite sides of the fence.
I can see it at EMU, though. Usually, being on TV is more of a source of embarassment for them than a source of pride, and they are better off remaining anonymous.
http://midnightmaize.blogspot.com/
A little Internet sleuthing made it easy:
http://www.ur.umich.edu/9900/Apr17_00/2.htm
Also, "Ohio State Student-Athlete..." ROFL!
I understand that if one blog has something share-worthy, it's proper Netiquette to link back.
However, I think there should be a corollary to that rule, which states if the page it was taken from uses sobriquets such as "scUM," the blog in question forgoes any expectation of the kindness of a back-link.
The reason this rivalry has jumped to No. 2 for us in-staters is that we have to live with insufferable Sparty fans, who are at their absolute worst the week before the game every year.
Leaving our upper deck seats at the Tigers game last night, caught in the human traffic of the ramps, there was this general good-feelingness that occurs among groups of fans after a tremendous victory.
But then a 4-foot 9 Spartygirl broke the spell, starting up a "GO GREEN! GO WHITE!" cheer. She got one responder, then another guy yelled "SHUT UP!" and it got a general chuckle, but the post-win good feeling was ruined, and for the next 20 minutes of the crowd winding its way out, I had to hear her bitching about "scUM."
I want this week to be over, and I want Michigan to win, so the Spartans can all crawl back in their holes and forget they have a football team until the week before the 2010 game. I never quite understood why of all our in-state brethren, MSU is the only one that always has to make a nuisance of itself. Maybe it's because we let them in the Big Ten; in retrospect we probably should have given them a directional name and stuck 'em in the MAC with the rest of the State of Michigan also-rans.
Stay classy, lil' bro, and please, keep complaining about how nobody gives you any respect, because that's the perfect way to earn it.
This team is under construction. We thank you for your patience.
"starve the horse that pulls the cart?" what the fuck does that even mean?
...Dantonio is pulling from his Earle Bruce quote book.
http://blog.mlive.com/ganggreen/2009/09/winston_to_see_more_carries_ve.html
[/Sparty facepalm]
A Reasonable Sparty Blog? Yes, it's possible! www.theonlycolors.com
pithy folksiness aside, still makes no sense whatsoever.
and seriously - MARK DANTONIO is playing the 'aw shucks' card? give me a break.
So yeah, went ahead and read the Sparty board while checking out the plane link.
Thansk brain. Cant work rest of day due to lossss of QI points frm reeding there comments. dammit....cant get out of white ghetto spelling. Arrrrrrrggh.........
"I don't know where you people get the nerve."
"From a long, hard winter, Mr. President."
That can only be the case when I wake up to find Tim's ballot containing Boise, TCU, Houston and Cincinnati in the Top Ten of any Football poll. And that this is not uncommon. I'll now make a statement guaranteed to generate flaming missiles, but fire away--there is no way that a one loss SC, a one loss OK, and LSU are not only better than than all four of those teams, but in Houston and TCU's case they would not only lose, but be destroyed. Those current (and they are temporary) rankings and records are only comparable if you assume that their respective conferences and teams are even marginally close to those mentioned in talent. They are not. Records only count when you comparing teams from roughly equivalent conferences--when you compare records of Texax v. OK, fine, but to compare 3-1 OK to a 4-0 TCU is fraudulent. And when you say how do you know, I respond: recruiting, NFL draft picks, competition, and every measure of talent that exists. There, childish rant over with, I feel better and am prepared for an e-whipping.
Self proclaimed MGoBlog "quiz-bowl stud"
TCU has beaten Clemson (14-10 so it was close) and Virginia which are not bad wins and are more than what LSU has done
LSU: Washington (looks better now after they beat USC), barely scraped by Mississippi State and beat Vandy and UL-Lafayette
Houston: Has beat Ok State by 10 Texas Tech by 1 and NW State
in comparison: Texas beat TT 34-24
Boise State: well they beat Oregon which is looking better and better after their curb-stomping of Cal and have stomped the rest of their competition.
How can you honestly say that a team that lost to WASHINGTON should be higher than these teams? How can you say a team that lost to BYU (okay without it's best player but still it's BYU) should be in the top 10 when BYU got KILLED by FSU (who lost to Miami who got killed by VT who lost to Bama and barely scraped by Nebraska).
Sorry but those teams have WON the games that have mattered and haven't even entered into conference play and has played better out of conference opponents than the teams that you've mentioned.
Again I don't see how you can say that USC would demolish Houston when they lost to WASHINGTON. It's WASHINGTON!!!!
"A house divided against itself cannot stand"
I really think the negativity spewed towards these teams is overstated. Utah beat Alabama last year, WVU(from the Big East!) has SMOKED SEC and Big XII opponents semi-recently, TCU over Oklahoma? How about Boise? BYU? So, while I think it's a little ridiculous to judge totally on straight results (how many times out of 10 would those teams actually win?), I also think it's ridiculous to discount those wins due to recruiting, NFL draft picks, or any other measure of "talent" that exists.
but those measures are all you can use (other than history) to determine the relative talent levels. If you wipe away the discussion of talent, then there is no justification for saying one conference is better than the other--why is the consensus that the SEC is number one? Talent. Why is the PAC10 superior to the MAC? Talent.
Self proclaimed MGoBlog "quiz-bowl stud"
I've actually been of the opinion that the SEC has recently invested more in coaching than any other two conferences combined (I have no idea if this is true). Meyer, Saban, Kiffin, Petrino, hell even Miles, are all fairly new to the conference and all have been major upgrades. Drop one of those guys in any other conference and you'll immediately get a media buzz. But hey, maybe you're right, it could be talent...history bears this out, right??
At this point those teams have better resumes. LSU has proven absolutely nothing, other than the fact they wear famous laundry. Next weekend, they have a chance to prove something, if they win, they will and should leap over the Non-BCS teams. As for OK and USC, they have lost games that they should have won. In November/Late October, when Oklahoma has actually defeated somebody other than Idaho State, we'll rank 'em highly. Boise beat Oregon, Houston beat two BigXII teams. USC has an argument, by beating OSU, but Oklahoma? Not so much, till they play Texas, TAMU, Nebraska, et al. It will be interesting to see if Houston's game against Mississippi State is as close as LSU's game was.
but that is not an attractive arrangement. Such a fine fellow could have worked out a much better looking paint job for his $13M taxi.
Something just looks goofy, does it not?
and yellow the MOON
on the harvest wain
Coleman had NO BUSINESS throwing that kind of hit at that point in the game. :37 left in a blow out and he's throwing his elbow/helmet at a guy already wrapped up. Dirty.
I hate jerseys without names and I am also annoyed by first initials. The jerseys have NUMBERS too, so why do we need the first initial? How many people look at Carlos Brown, No. 23, and wonder "Gee, I wonder if that is Stevie or Carlos Brown? I sure wish there were an initial to help me figure it out." Or, do people wonder "Why the hell is there an initial on Stevie Brown's jersey? They must think we are total morons. Stevie is no. 3, Carlos is no. 23. Duh."
My brother went to the IU game last weekend and the guy behind him spent the whole game loudly complaining that Brandon Minor was playing on special teams and wondering why Rod would let him do that but not carry the ball.
So, maybe we need giant blinking holograms above the players that spell out their full names.
great and omniscient Grand Poobah of the WLA
I've always wondered why they were letting Sheridan play LB...
i love those rectangles with arrows that go flying around the track. hard to read in person, though. they're speedy.
I sat by a guy who thought Donovan Warren was playing wide receiver during garbage time of the Western game.
Seems a bit odd in light of our very own Tim's ballot that does not list Nebraska.
I guess that one-point loss AT Virginia Tech (ranked #4) was horrible. And Cal's drubbing at the hands of Oregon doesn't drop them out of Tim's poll?
That being said, it is what it is.
I'm with OSU on this one. What Coleman did was wrong, but the Big 10 should not be the force behind suspending players. The Big 10 suspension of Mouton was more insulting because they seemed to have taken it on the word of a coach from outside the conference, plus it was so close to gameday. The conference does not trust the judgment of its own coaches, and that is inexcusable. Another problem is where you draw the line. What if it's a small tussle that the refs let go, like the one between Charles Woodson and David Boston?
If Tressel has a problem with Coleman's behavior, then he should be the one to decide how to deal with it. If he lets guys off too easily, then fine, the Big 10 has a school lacking institutional control, but that's OSU's problem until a certain point (e.g. loss of scholarships, ban from bowls, regular punishments handed out by the conference, etc.)
Ann Arbor is a classy broad.
"Get off my plane!" - Ricky Stanzi, Air Force One 2
What's amazing about the Sparty board you linked to is that they have a picture of Google's 767, part owned by "EL native" Larry Page. Uhhh, that would be UM grad Larry Page...
As far as aircraft owned by Sparty alums, this type had the most hits on the Google (the "Go Green" version):
Nameless uniforms are usually a tradition for a big school or pro team, where the idea is "we don't need the names because everybody knows (or should know) who our players are anyway." EMU doing it is pretty weird.
every team that's EVER taken the names off the jerseys has blathered some sort of self-righteous "we're not individuals, we're a TEAM" b.s...every one of them.
The suspension is a little weak. My question is why is Coleman in the game ?? Maybe Tressel is taking out some frustration on the Big Ten for all the heat he is getting, because that is ridiculous. You have 100 kids busting their ass all week and he can't sub in up 30 with a minute to go??
Illinois danced on the O in the middle of the OSU field after they beat OSU in '07. OSU sprinted out on Saturday and stood over the O before the game and the teams got into a shouting match...Tressel also threw a pass on fourth down with the game already in hand to make it 30-0...Tressel almost never runs up the score but he seems to have had it in for the Illini.
"That's horrible"
"Terrible is what it is."
While on the inside you must be thinking "man there is no way that a bunch of tinfoil hat wearing guys could ever be a part of the BCS system" the blogs have shown that they are more capable than their MSM counterparts.
Also I think that the blogs are a more "democratic" way for the constituents of the U.S. to get their voices heard for the BCS. I would say that you're more of senators for your respective teams than just "blog-writers".
"A house divided against itself cannot stand"
Seats in row 2 of the Michigan section. "AJ Sturges" chant is in.
Is the Michigan section in the upper deck again?
EMU probably went nameless so they could recycle the jerseys every year
hobos
great and omniscient Grand Poobah of the WLA
Kidding aside, for Eastern I'm betting it was a cost-saving measure. Misopogal graduated from EMU, so we've had a lot of experience with general Eastern cheapness.
However, I know for a fact that if they saved any cash on the nameplates, it didn't get put toward the Graduate Records Department, who still (years later) keep sending us letters saying she needs 0 credits to earn her degree.
This team is under construction. We thank you for your patience.
URGENT
ATTENTION
OUR RECORDS INDICATE YOU STILL NEED (0) CREDITS TO EARN YOUR EASTERN MICHIGAN GRADUATE DEGREE
PLEASE MAKE A NOTE OF IT
that is as worthless as UM mailing me a letter every 6 months to tell me that there is still $0.89 in my entree plus account
great and omniscient Grand Poobah of the WLA
Well for pete's sake go buy a taco in the basement of the League and be done with it once and for all.