This Month in MGoBlog History - January 2006

Submitted by Maize.Blue Wagner on

Previously:

November 2005

December 2005

January 3 – Tuesday

What went right during the year of infinite pain? Among other things: Steve Stribling, Ross Ryan, Antonio Bass, and Shawn Crable.

In this hockey update, Brian talks about ‘M’ coming in third at the GLI, Jack Johnson and Andrew Cogliano getting in a public dispute, and a commitment from Trevor Lewis. It looks like Lewis ended up playing for Owen Sound instead.

January 4 – Wednesday

Unverified Voracity: Putting it to Bed gives various blogs’ opinions on the Alamo Bowl loss. Everyone is sympathetic; no, it doesn’t make anyone feel better.

‘M’ basketball loses to Indiana.

Perhaps this is an overreaction to an abberrantly bad game, but let's be serious: if you were to pick any game from the Amaker era against reasonable competition and peg the under/over on turnovers, 20 would not be a totally implausible estimate. 16 would probably get you even money.

January 5 – Thursday

Bullets on Texas’ national championship over USC. This is interesting with the perspective of ten years:

Can we shut up about Mack Brown now? Blah blah blah never win big game blah blah blah never beat OU blah blah blah never does anything with all his talent... totally bleeding ridiculous given the state the program had fallen to under Mackovic and the powerhouse Sooner teams that kept Texas down for so long. 

And this is as true now as it was then:

Also can we learn our lesson? All talk about "greatest ever" anything should be banned after that ESPN fiasco. Who knows? No one. Who can prove anything about anything? No one. So can we stop the inane assertions of the finest performance, best quarterback, best game ever?

A repost from the previous August showing Brian’s feelings while watching Vince Young play.

January 6 – Friday

Rumors of change are coming out of Fort Schembechler. Here is a list:

·         QB coach, uber-recruiter, and all-around Boy Genius Scot Loeffler is being promoted to offensive coordinator. Or co-offensive coordinator. Or being given more responsibility in the offense. Or pissed off and about to leave.

·         Former offensive coordinator Mike DeBord, who went splat at Central Michigan, is going to retake the post or co-retake the post and is being set up by Carr as his designated successor.

·         Terry Malone is ceding some responsibility, or all responsibility, or has been shot.

·         Jim Herrmann has a silly mustache.

·         Also he may be relieved of his linebacker coaching duties, or his defensive coordinator duties, or just left to stand because that's how we roll. The mustache remains intact.

·         Defensive backs coach Ron English is either about to leave for the NFL, about to be defensive coordinator, or about to undergo a strange procedure that leaves him crippled but able to deflect passes with his mind, like that cat.

·         '07 uber-recruit QB Ryan Mallet of Texas has been told that Scot Loeffler will be offensive coordinator/mayor by the time he arrives and is polishing up for an unprecedented run of twelve Heismans.

·         Former coach Gary Moeller is coming back to be defensive coordinator or something. Yeah, far out, dude.

·         Ohio State is about to get hammered by the NCAA.

·         Bobby Petrino is about to be the new coach.

·         None of this will matter because Carr is still the coach and OMG LLLLLoyd is a LLLLLoser. oneoneone. two.

 

January 7 – Saturday

Jai Eugene is wearing a ‘M’ hat. This is cause for great excitement. It sounds like he might have even committed.

January 9 – Monday

Final BlogPoll Ballot.

Unverified Voracity: This Time I Really Mean It has more rumors about coordinators. Strong signs pointing to Jim Hermann finally being replaced, and maybe Terry Malone too. One possibility is replacing them with Ron English and Scot Lafloer (as spelled by an RCMB poster) Loeffler. Also, Matt Gutierrez and Max Martin are likely transferring. Finally, the NCAA authorized a 12th game which means that 1-AA games are on the horizon. No one knew the disaster that this news meant at the time.

Unverified Voracity: Unfathomable Idahoe. A number of feared opponents are going pro which is good news. These include: Santonio Holmes, Ashton Youboty, Laurence Maroney, and…

Notre Dame TE Anthony Fasano has left early. No doubt Weis E. Coyote will construct a new tight end from the mighty sinews of his frontal buttocks.

January 10 – Tuesday

No 1-AA opponents yet. The 2006 schedule will see the addition of Vanderbilt, but it’s ok because they “will not have that Cutler guy who beat Tennessee and scared the jean shorts off of Florida.”

Final Blogpoll.

January 11 – Wednesday

Recruiting board update. Adam Patterson visits and is impressed. Brandon Minor isn’t worried about having Carlos Brown in the same class.

Unverified Voracity: Go Away Creepy Man deals with moral matters of the day.

January 12 – Thursday

A comparison from last year’s offense to the coming year. It should be improved; however, if things don’t go well, here is why:

·         Evil Henne. This is obvious: he has to play better. He should have more opportunities to actually do something right with a (please, God) better offensive line and the threat of an actual running game, but even accounting for the myriad problems he had to deal with this year he was an average Big Ten quarterback at best, which doesn't cut it.

·         Hey, offensive line, it's your mom! She says you still suck? Yoda says if the OL does not improve, the skill position talent matters not.

·         Proving message board retards right. This is not a place where lamentations about Carr's utter unsuitability for anything other than janitor at a meat packing plant are offered up constantly, but Michigan has shown a tendency to fritter away offensive talent on a regular basis. This usually happens when Michigan has found itself in a "comfortable" lead (like, say, 3-0 in the first quarter) and decides to pack away the scoring offense for another day. Stay aggressive.

January 13 – Friday

Brian recaps half of his Big Ten team previews from the beginning of the season. Here is an interesting note from Wisconsin:

Stocco threw seven more passes in 2005 than he did in 2004 but had 32 additional completions, 12 additional touchdowns, and 921 additional yards. Wisconsin went from 99th to 11th in the country in passing efficiency. Sweet Fancy Moses.

What happened? Paul Chryst returned from pass-nutty Oregon State to become offensive coordinator and lived up to the ridiculous preseason message board hype--a titanic accomplishment. To put it in terms Michigan fans can understand, if Steve Stripling had the impact Chryst did, Lamarr Woodley would have beaten six quarterbacks to death this year with only his right pinky toe.

January 14 – Saturday

Basketball game versus Illinois open tread. Unfortunately, no comments exist.

January 16 – Monday

That Illinois game didn’t go so well. But hey, there was a moral victory.

You can say what you want about moral victories not existing--fair warning if you do: you're parroting dull sports press conferences and are therefore being very boring--but when you're Michigan on the road against #6 Illinois and your eleven point halftime deficit turns into a tight game you literally have a shot at winning instead of a 30 point blowout, eh... moral victories here we come.

Also, Anthony Wright committed. With not the most encouraging headline: "Michigan, Wofford watch Wright."

Recruit board update.  ‘M’ started looking around at other QBs (in addition to Cone), these include Nick Stephens who they offered and Greg McElroy. Stephens went to Tennessee and later transferred to Tarleton State.

January 17 – Tuesday

Unverified Voracity: Blog Bowl. Interesting speculation about Purdue DC Brock Spack being an option to replace Hermann. That didn’t look great then, but he took over Illinois State in 2008 and has had success in the last couple years. Obviously, ‘M’ went a different direction.

Hockey game versus MSU liveblog/open thread. Doesn’t look like the game was going well, and then Brian’s cable died after the 2nd period.

January 18 – Wednesday

Yep, the game from the previous night did not go well.

Recruiting board update. Quintin Woods has committed. Interesting guy, he didn’t attend any camps and there are no substantive articles about his football skills.

January 19 – Thursday

Unverified Voracity: Actually Relevant. Idaho State is excited about Matt Gutierrez.

January 20 – Friday

Brian opines about the changes he has experienced in how he reads sports: from mainline news sources to blogs. He compares it to the comeliness of women in the north vs. the south.

I guess I grew up at 15,000 feet. I'm used to walking into a bar and having my mental girl filing go something like "no, no, yeesh, no, if I'm drunk, no, maybe, no, no, yes." 

Brandon Minor commits! Concerns exist about a lack of speed, but he is a “guy who can smash face.”

January 23 – Monday

Game recap from basketball win over Minnesota. Brian took notes during the game and then commented on them in the column. Sort of a precursor to Twitter.

Unverified Voracity: Ginorbous. Jim Hermann continues to look for a new job (Cowboys LB coach is the latest rumor), and hockey splits with Bowling Green.

Recruiting board update. Thad Gibson has committed to OSU, and Sam Young has committed to ND.

January 24 – Tuesday

Part 2 of the season preview review. The worst prediction was Purdue going 10-1 with BCS bid. They went 5-6.

Recruiting board update. Jason Kates is added. This is seen a bad sign for the progression of Marques Slocum’s test scores.

January 25 – Wednesday

‘M’ is going to play MSU in basketball. It’s been a long time since they’ve had a victory over the Spartans. Can they win this time? They could.

Unverified Voracity: Doctor 90210 gives bad news about Hermann to the Cowboys and Jack Johnson possibly leaving during his freshman year. Looks like Johnson will stay for the rest of the year.

January 26 – Thursday

They did.

Horton was the Making Things Happen Guy Who Takes Over and Makes Things Happen Player Of The Game

It's no exagerration to say that [Chris Hunter] was the best big man on the floor, as Sims provided a valuable service by transmitting his acute vaginitis to Paul Davis, turning the much-ballyhooed beast of board into a nonfactor.

Brent Petway's collision with Ager didn't appear intentional to me, but I think once it was clear the two were going to bump into each other Petway decided to get his money's worth. Ager's response: hunch over and allow teammates and medical staff to swarm over him. Bill Laimbeer he's not. Ager then went 0-4 for the rest of the game, though he did have 4 FTs.

Was it unethical/wrong/evidence of the moral decay inherent in the Michigan program? Um... ask someone who doesn't regard that Laimbeer guy as something of a father figure. IMO: he didn't intentionally clock the guy, so play on.

January 27 – Friday

‘M’ gets a big 5-star OL commit in Steve Schilling.

Unverified Voracity: Just Like Life with recaps of the blogosphere rejoicing over the basketball victory. There is a basketball recruit out of Illinois who ‘M’ is recruiting who Brian keeps referring to as Eric Beverly. I don’t think he’s talking about former Lions Tight End, but rather the once Arkansas Razorback and current Houston Rocket, Patrick Beverly.  

Recruiting board update including several good reports on Brandon Graham and Steve Schilling, and Jonas Mouton is looking good.

January 28 – Saturday

Open thread for hockey game v. MSU and basketball game vs. Wisconsin. Again, sadly no comments still exist.

January 30 – Monday

The basketball team beat Wisconsin, they’re 15-3, and expectations are running very high.

Unverified Voracity: Unusual Pigment. ‘M’ Basketball is ranked for the first time since April 11…1998.

Basketball gets a commitment from Kelvin Grady.

Now a source of confusion in the Grady household can be shared by the entire Michigan family... awwwww.

Also, there was a Grady cousin named Demarcus. Looks like he ended up at Northern Illinois.

January 31 – Tuesday

Recruiting Board Updated: Aaargh Edition. Jai Eugene decommitted to go to LSU. Here is the list of top remaining targets heading into signing day:

·         OL Daron Rose: Dropped us, unsurprisingly.

·         DT Corey Peters: Visited OSU and M recently; those two with UK and Auburn are the final four. I think the late visits to Big Ten schools that had not offered indicate serious interest.

·         DT Jason Kates: His Scout profile has the following two teams as "high" interest: Michigan and Syracuse. No offense to Matt Glaude, but, uh, I think we win this battle.

·         S Jonas Mouton: Down to USC, Michigan, and Texas, though USC has about four guys of the exact same size and build as Mouton--I doubt he ends up there.

·         DE Adam Patterson: Down to Michigan and South Carolina, as the article above notes.

·         DE McKenzie Matthews: Haven't heard much about Matthews as of late. He still maintains a nominal top four of Michigan, Pitt, BC, and Syracuse. With things looking good for Peters, Kates, and Patterson he may get slow-played to one of the other schools, though with the Eugene decommit we do have room.

Unverified Voracity: Don’t Tread on D. Sportswriters are coming to Detroit for the Super Bowl, and writing not so nice things about the city.

Unfortunately, no one coming into town has the ability to see past the blindingly obvious. That's why they're sportswriters--every time you set the bar for them they manage to snake under it.

Adam Patterson commits.

Bonus Voracity: It’s Gettin’ Stale with a weird story about Jeb Bush and Myron Rolle and more good news on Jonas Mouton. 

Comments

Everyone Murders

January 6th, 2016 at 8:52 AM ^

This is a great feature, and I imagine it's a lot of work to put together.  Tip o' the hat to the diarist!

I hope this series continues.  It will be especially fun if the the football and MBB programs continue on their current trajectories - it's nice to look down the long tunnel that was the [post-Carr][post-Fisher] years, and realize that the light there wasn't a train.

It was several trains.  But after those trains, it was pure sweet sunshine.

stephenrjking

January 6th, 2016 at 10:31 AM ^

These diaries are self-recommending.

Only downside is that neither hockey nor basketball finished very well, so the coming months will have a melancholy tinge. But, oh well. Great stuff.

JMK

January 6th, 2016 at 1:52 PM ^

Phenomenal series. Love looking back on these events with the benefit of hindsight. Sometimes we were right, sometimes we didn't know how good we had it.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

jmblue

January 6th, 2016 at 4:50 PM ^

I love this feature.  I've enjoyed reading the old stories, even if the content isn't enjoyable, per se.  (I thought that was going to be the breakthrough year for Amaker's program . . . not so much.)  

 

WolverineHistorian

January 6th, 2016 at 6:19 PM ^

I wasn't on this blog in 2006. I was still on rivals.com (Andy-go-blue with the Flashback Friday features for any other former members).

But....I do remember the majority of these events. In particular, Amaker's basketball teams committing about 100 turnovers per game. Mack Brown at Texas having the Barry Alvarez like record against top ten teams but finally being taken seriously now. And my favorite event during that month: the announcement that Jim Herrman would no longer be our defensive coordinator. I wanted to lead a parade when I heard that news.

Maize.Blue Wagner

January 7th, 2016 at 11:29 PM ^

I wasn't around then, and it seems a little murky, but I would put it at December 4, 2004. There are a few items on December 1 of that year, but they don't mean much, at least not now.

I wish I would have thought to start this last December, so it could have been covered from the beginning; maybe I'll have to go back and cover this time period at some point. 

http://mgoblog.com/content/bloginit

rob f

January 9th, 2016 at 11:24 AM ^

...but not only regarding Bass.  I was really looking forward back around that time (actually a couple seasons earlier) to another Michigan football player with great potential that, due to an untimely injury, never got an opportunity.  That would be Matt Gutierrez, whose transfer to Idaho State was covered by Brian in Unverified Voracity on Jan 9th and 19th of '06.

I put Gutz right up there with Bass among those that had really bad luck with injuries at Michigan before they got the opportunity to show the Michigan faithful what they could really do.   If not for a shoulder injury just a few days before the 2004 season-opener, Gutz could have been a 2-year starter at Michigan after redshirting his freshman year and then being the primary backup QB to John Navarre for 2 seasons---Carr had already named him the starting QB for the 2004 team.   Class act all the way, never said anything bad about his misfortunes, about Coach Carr, about Michigan, despite never being given an opportunity to win the starting QB job back for the Wolverines once over his injury. 

After transferring to Idaho State, he proved how talented he was and went on to a short NFL career as a backup to Tom Brady and later for the KC Chiefs.  A perfect 2-for-2 passing for his pro career!

 

In reply to by ijohnb

Bando Calrissian

January 8th, 2016 at 2:58 PM ^

Spent enough time in the bleachers at Crisler in those years that I could probably still run down those godawful rosters from memory. The Maize Rage got real dismal roundabout 2006...

At least they were good for an upset/near upset or two every year... 

rob f

January 9th, 2016 at 11:17 AM ^

have quickly become one of my very favorite diaries---keep them coming!!!

I wasn't even lurking on MGoBlog back then; instead was spending most of my internet 'fun time' back then on the Worldcrossing U of M  and Detroit Tigers Forums after the Freep shut down their forums for a time.   Worldcrossing no longer exists, but they had provided the forum software for the Freep before the Freep pulled the plug in the early 2000's. 

randyfloyd

January 12th, 2016 at 10:52 AM ^

This is a great series. I remember that I would visit the blog often, back then. It took me three years to actually register but I have always appreciated this blog. Not just for Brian but for everything this blog gives us.

jatlasb

January 20th, 2016 at 3:36 PM ^

I was a just a wee freshman tuba player in jan 2006, but I remember reading mgoblog in the chem building between lab and lecture.  Didn't create an accout until 2010.

 

Remember when we were so innocent as to name a 7-5 season 'The Year of Infinite Pain?"  We were adorable back then.