This Month in MGoBlog History - April 2008: No Spring Game at the Big House! Hockey loses to ND in the Frozen Four!

Submitted by Maize.Blue Wagner on

Previously:

March 2008

April 1 - Tuesday

The first hello post after a flurry of commits at the end of March. Hello Teric Jones.

Hello Isaiah Bell.

April 2 - Wednesday

Unverifie--YEEAAAAAGH HORRIBLE BOR-INFANT because of a great Boren-head-on-baby photoshop effort. Also, some spring football news with LBs John Thompson, Obi Ezeh, and Marell Evans getting good reviews.

April 3 - Thursday

Hello Justin Turner.

While Isaiah Bell and Teric Jones are "under the radar" "sleepers" at this point in time, Justin Turner is "wicked sweet" and "maybe the best prospect in Ohio." He's currently #42 in the Rivals 100, and #137 at Scout.

April 4 - Friday

Unverified Voracity is Like a Free Ride. Football spring practice is way more open than it used to be. Also, it turns out the Ann Arbor News was less than ethical in its reporting on academics and ‘M’ student-athletes.

April 7 - Monday

Brian copies an EDSBS feature with Stuff Green and White People Like, including “talking about how hot the chicks are.”

Even the women will do this. It does not matter that this fan, grad, or provost might, say, be a 180 pound 5'2" woman, or, more commonly, a moderately in-shape girl with a blond dye job and a face Sarah Jessica Parker would find unpleasantly equine.

April 8 - Tuesday

Recruiting update with a  brief run down on each position group. MN WR Bryce McNeal is a possibility to commit soon. NJ DE Anthony LaLota, OH RB Fitzgerald Toussaint, and AZ DE Craig Roh have been added to the board.

Brian is heading to Denver for the Frozen Four, so he gives a programming update.

April 9 - Wednesday

UV. Mario Manningham has sent a letter to NFL teams to admit that he has used marijuana but is no longer.

April 10 - Thursday

Brian is in Denver.

Mailbag. Will ‘M’ football have a night game? Which is better, Rivals or Scout?

I must confess to having considerably less experience with Scout than one might expect. I was briefly a subscriber there but let it lapse. (Subscribing to two separate recruiting websites is a bridge too far even for me.) Also, I've never gotten either site's magazine. I've leafed through a copy of The Wolverine or two and it seemed fine for something on "paper" or whatever you call it. From what I've gathered, Scout's mag is weak sauce that only exists so the U can't turn them down for press credentials and the like.

Scout and Rivals are extremely different sites. The Wolverine is amongst the most professional recruiting sites out there. Go Blue Wolverine is a cult. This isn't all bad for GBW, since the cult is based around Tom Beaver, the chief koolaid purveyor* in all of Wolverine land. Name a personality disorder and Beaver probably has it: megalomania, workaholism, ellipses fetishization, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder. Slightly over half of these are very annoying; the other half are useful.

April 14 - Monday

Game column for Michigan’s loss to Notre Dame in the Frozen Four. It’s a very poignant piece, as Brian relates his observations of Billy Sauer’s mother.

April 15 - Tuesday

A look ahead at the 2009 hockey team with possible departures, incoming freshmen, and wild stabs at line combinations.

April 16 - Wednesday

A recap of various observers from the spring game, including Craig Ross. The QBs look awful, and the Offensive Line wasn’t far behind.

Justin Boren is a communist. Past that, the threat level here is pink or orange or whatever is equivalent to "the nukes are on their way." Virtually every observer has called the offensive line a Sauer -- zing -- this spring, and when Rodriguez made the quarterbacks live for a brief period Threet was immediately knocked out with a minor injury.

April 17 - Thursday

Unverified WHAT? Voracity YEAH. Tressel is back to bringing up “gentlemen’s agreements” within the Big 10. Now Rodriguez is being asked about it again, and Brian thinks this type of journalism is terrible.

April 18 - Friday

D Mark Mitera might make the jump to the NHL. Sources seem to be split.

Hello Fitzgerald Toussaint.

Mitera is staying and has been named the captain for the ‘09 team.

April 21 - Monday

Unverified Voracity Does Unusual Things at Cedar Point. Spring hype at WVU means being excited that your team is going to throw more and how much better the offense is going to be.

Hey! They're just like us. Except their team finished 50th, 5th and15th in total offense the past two years while Michigan was 55th, 38th and 68th. It's surreal to see these guys complaining about "DickFraud" (LOL!!1!) like he's Mike Debord.

Apparently EDSBS posted a picture of Mark Mangino’s for sale house and got in trouble?

April 22 - Tuesday

Wizard Hat and Snake Oil memes are dead. Roy Roundtree says switching his commitment was his choice.

Recruiting update. Fun names added: FL QB Eugene Smith, FL RB Vincent Smith, and TX QB Shavodrick Beaver. QB Kevin Newsome seems close to committing (if hints from his Myspace page are to be believed).

April 23 - Wednesday

Jake Long was the first overall pick in the NFL draft. Brian takes the occasion to run down recent ‘M’ OLs, and try to figure out why that position group got really bad around 2001/2002. Andy Moeller maybe?

Unverified Voracity Desperately Seeking RBUAS. It sounds like Newsome is likely committed, and Tate Forcier is talking to him on Myspace about going to ‘M’ together.

April 24 - Thursday

Football recruit and Mose Schrute look alike Andrew Russell challenges J Lehman for best CFB head shot.

Hello Kevin Newsome.

April 25 - Friday

Saginaw native and St. Johns’ basketball player Larry Wright is transferring to be closer to family and ‘M’ seems like a fit. Looks like he ended up at OU.

April 28 - Monday

Unverified Voracity and Stuff. Bill Belicheck weighs in on Pierre Woods and proverbially scratches his head about the lack of playing time in Woods’ senior year.

April 29 - Tuesday

Recruiting update. All signs pointing to ‘M’ taking a second QB. Candidates are Shavodrick Beaver, Tate Forcier, and Geno Smith. Also TX WR Josh Gordon says he will commit to ‘M’ if he gets an offer.

Hello Shavodrick Beaver.

April 30 - Wednesday

Informative part of the Beaver commit. Rodriguez has two athletic QBs to build his future on.

 

Comments

stephenrjking

April 21st, 2018 at 5:01 PM ^

That bit about Sauer's mom, man. Tough. The tough thing about sports is that, for some people, there is no wonderful redemption at the end of the tunnel. Billy Sauer's legacy is, more than anything, being the weak point that cost some ridiculously loaded Michigan teams shots at the national title.

 

crg

April 22nd, 2018 at 1:16 PM ^

Psyched for the coming years of depressing This Month in MGoBlog posts... Maybe in another 10 years we can read about the program finally coming together just before the dynasty became established. Maybe.

AFWolverine

April 23rd, 2018 at 8:07 AM ^

I didn't realize Myspace was still so active in 2008. I thought it was dead long before.

My, how much hope we had at the dawn of the RR era. We had talent coming in, and more talent giving Michigan a serious look. I cannot for the life of me ever recall Beaver being committed to Michigan.

mGrowOld

April 24th, 2018 at 1:13 PM ^

I am dreading the posts starting in September of 2008 as the dream dies. 

There used to be show on called  "Air Disasters" or something like that.  At the beginning of every episode everybody getting on the plane is so happy and excited to be going someplace but you KNOW the air crash is coming where the bodies are going to be strewn about the flaming wreckage when the plane hits the mountain.

April 2008 is us boarding the plane.

uminks

April 25th, 2018 at 2:01 PM ^

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next 10 years. I hope we will have won a few National Championships. Harbaugh signs another 10 year contract in 2028 ( and has given up coaching in the NFL). It will be my first year of retirement and will be looking forward to attending many Michigan football games.