This Month in MGoBlog History - March 2007: The End of the Amaker Era

Submitted by Maize.Blue Wagner on

Previously:

February 2007

 

March 1 - Thursday

Stewart Mandel wrote a piece about how Troy Smith is not getting enough respect from NFL scouts; after all, he won the Heisman.

As one AFC personnel director told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "He's six feet tall, he's not a super fast guy and he's not super athletic. ... I don't think he's horrible. He's just a guy."

These are all reasonable criticisms.

See what I'm saying? How can you not admire a guy who's short, slow and unathletic yet managed to win the most prestigious award in college football?

Jason White.

It's like someone who can't act winning an Oscar.

Charlie Ward.

Or someone who can't sing winning American Idol.

Eric Crouch.

Unverified Voracity Runs a 3.2. USC recruit Brandon Jennings is making fun of ‘M’ commit Alex Legion for going to Michigan.

March 2 - Friday

A closer look at scholarship numbers by conference that Brian and EDSBS came up with a few weeks ago. Specifically, the meaning of the advantage that the  SEC has.

Is this scholarship gap necessarily a sign of poor moral fiber? Not necessarily. There are two different arguments getting conflated into one here:

  1. SEC classes are overrated on Signing Day and during the media blitz that follows because their increased attrition rate -- something the numbers show is indisputable -- allows them to sign a bunch more players who will never make an on-field contribution.

  2. The SEC doesn't care about football people. [/Kanye]

Argument #1, as noted, can be accepted as a given. Argument #2 is murkier and requires us to consider...

March 5 - Monday

Recruiting Board Update. Jonas Gray isn’t looking like a lock to ND any more and there could be some mutual interest with ‘M’.

The basketball team lost its last game, and the writing is on the wall for Amaker.

But whether or not Tommy Amaker is a good coach or not is no longer all that relevant -- though for the record all available evidence indicates they he is not. He has had six years to produce a basketball team that fans are capable of watching for more than two minutes at a time without screaming something profane and punting the cat into the next room. This he has not done, and he must be fired, even if none of what's transpired over his tenure is actually his fault.

March 6 - Tuesday

Pairwise update and things are looking up for the hockey team.

Unverified Voracity is Confused and Thrilled by YouTube with lots of ‘M’ related clips. The only one  that still works is  of Jack Johnson taking off a goalie’s helmet with a slapshot.

March 7 - Wednesday

PSA that more posting will be delayed.

JMFJ photoshop collection.

March 8 - Thursday

After switching to zone blocking before the ‘06 season, the football team found it difficult to convert on third and short.

March 9 - Friday

Liveblog of Big Ten tournament game against Ohio St.  The basketball team loses again.

If you met Greg Oden on the street, how old would you think he is? Like... 800, right? You can't be that enormous and craggy without having hit your eighth century. OSU alley-oop.

I Call Him Mini Voracity with a working video of The Victors done on beer bottles.

March 11 - Sunday

Hockey update. Michigan is firmly in the tournament and might get as high as a 5 seed.

March 12 - Monday

Third down statistics from the ‘06 season. Links to charts no longer work.

March 13 - Tuesday

Unverified Voracity is Also Emo. Lester Abram says the basketball team won’t try to lose on purpose. Amaker says a lot of people want to trade places with them to be in the NIT.

Complete list of noun phrases willing to trade places with the Michigan basketball program:

  • Penn State

  • Northwestern

  • anyone rushing puck against JMFJ

  • Lemmiwinks

NIT Liveblog with a single remark.

March 14 - Wednesday

Michigan beat Utah St. which is the worst case scenario. Amaker’s tenure is extended.

Does Michigan's performance in something that doesn't exist have an impact on Amaker's future? The implication is that it does, and therefore the implication is that a good performance can help Amaker's case. Furthermore, it implies that there is an Amaker case at all. There is no case. Michigan can win the entire freakin' Not Extant Tournament and it will matter not one bit.

Spring Football Presser. Adrian Arrington, Carson Butler, and Eugene Germany have been in trouble and are currently suspended. Carlos Brown is switching to CB, and Brandon Graham will play inside.

March 15 - Thursday

Brian looks at Ben Wallace’s departure and how it has affected the Pistons’ 06-07 record. (In case you didn’t realized, Detroit Piston and Edmonton Oiler posts were a thing back in this era of the blog.) His conclusion is that Wallace’s replacement of Chris Webber, Nazr Mohammed, and Jason Maxiell send their opponents to the line more often. Otherwise, production hasn’t fallen off.

March 16 - Friday

Recruiting Board Update. Added names of note: Kurt Wermers and Latavius Murray. ‘M’ leads for Daryl Stonum and Sam McGuffie.

March 17 - Saturday

Amaker has been fired. It’s not mentioned, but the basketball team lost to Florida St. on Thursday night.

Final Pairwise.

March 18 - Sunday

Amaker Voracity with lots of reaction, but not a whole lot of substance yet on where things will go from here. Terry Foster says Tom Crean would be a good option.

Hockey gets the Denver bracket instead of the GR bracket. Brian swears a lot.

March 19 - Monday

Coaching Profiles: Mid Majors looking at Reggie Theus, Todd Lickliter, Chris Lowery, Greg Marshall, and Karl Hobbs but Sean Miller is a no.

Coaching Profiles: Name Guys  looking at Mike Montgomery, Tubby Smith, Lon Kruger, and John Beilein. About Beilein:

Buyout is prohibitive and the total outlay in that situation is approaching a range in which Montgomery or Smith might perk up. There will be -- already has been -- a lot of talk about him, but I don't see it happening.

Coaching Profiles: Absentminded Edition looking at Sean Miller.

March 20 - Tuesday

Unverified Voracity Swoons for Chris Lowery. Internet says the top three candidates are Lowery, Miller, and Beilein. Lots more coaching stuff included.

March 21 - Wednesday

MGoBlog moves to a new host site, and for the first time there are a significant number of viewable comments.

Unverified Voracity is so Over Chris Lowery with a closer look at John Beilein.  

Carson Butler and Chris Richards have been arraigned for beating up another student. Probably the end for both.

The hockey game will be on tape delay on local Comcast.

And...Eugene Germany is in court for Marijuana. Probably not a big deal.

There’s a sale in the MGoBlog store. Buy shirts.

March 22 - Thursday

Apparently, the issue with Germany was more serious. He’s off the team.

Recruiting Board Update. Dann O’Neill committed last weekend.

Tubby Smith is heading to Minnesota. It’s unknown what this will do to the coaching landscape now that Kentucky is open too.

March 23 - Friday

Preview of hockey game against North Dakota.

March 24 - Saturday

Germany, Richards, and Butler are official out of the program. The biggest loss is Butler. TE is left with Mike Massey and Chris McLaurin and only freshman Vince Helmuth at FB. 2008 would have been rough no matter who was the coach.

I am leery about the possibility that our third-and-short conversions get even worse next year.

March 25 - Sunday

Michigan hockey lost, and Jack Johnson is moving on.

March 26 - Monday

Jason Forcier is transferring to Stanford. Brian says Lloyd is not happy about it.  

Blog changes update.

Unverified Voracity is Husky Proud (Or Something). The coaching search continues. Calipari is mentioned, but how shady do we want to be?

*(an MGoBlog created measuring stick for coaching corruption. Not actually headed by Huggins:

11: Dave Bliss (yes, this one goes to 11)

10: Tarkanian -- full on cheaty cheaty all the time

9: Jim Harrick -- a consistent pattern of malfeasance that includes academic fraud

8: Clem Haskins -- Harrick except not slimy enough to get away with it for quite as long

7: Huggins -- as skeezy as you can be and still have a job

6: Steve Fisher -- classic don't ask, don't tell

5: Billy Donovan -- you just KNOW there's something fishy but can't actually prove it.

4: Kelvin Sampson -- persistent minor flouting of NCAA regulations to harrass recruits for personal aggrandizement

3: Rick Majerus -- persistent minor flouting of NCAA regulations because he thinks they're stupid

2: Izzo -- basically squeaky clean, will occasionally take flyers on dodgy characters

1: Amaker -- ick

0: Whoever the current sacrificial lamb at Northwestern is.)

 

March 27 - Tuesday

Hockey Postmortem.

For two years Michigan has been the same team, a top heavy array of scorers with prone to stupid faith-shattering breakdowns and shaky goaltending. This has been good for not much: first-round exits in the NCAA tournament and watching other teams raise CCHA and GLI banners. In a sense, the departure of the defensemen and TJ is a relief. The team next year might be terrible. It might be fantastic. But it will definitely be different.

Banner Contest.

March 28 - Wednesday

Coaching Search Update. Beilein seems to be the guy simply because no news has come out and he’s still in the NIT, so no contact can be made for another couple of days. Bruce Pearl says he’s not interested, and John Calipari is rumored to have approached ‘M’ but was turned down. Also interesting that Beilein nearly went to NC State the year before, but the deal fell through  at the last minute.

A closer look at Beilein, refuting arguments from other bloggers, specifically about his offense and his ability to recruit.

T. J. Hensick is not a Hobey finalist, despite leading the nation in scoring.

March 29 - Thursday

Beilein! Beilein! Beilein! (Unverified Voracity). Rosenberg says Beilein isn’t just a candidate, he is the candidate.

Recruiting Board Update. Not much of interest ten years later. One name of note is J.B. Shugarts, but he has named OSU and LSU as his leaders.

March 30 - Friday

All Quiet on the West Va Front. Nothing much new. Top three seems to be Beilein, Chris Lowery, and Kevin Stallings.

Shirt sale still ongoing.

March 31 - Saturday

Lots of nitty gritty on a potential Beilein buyout situation.  

West Virginia message boards are saying that Beilein is gone.

1:02 PM today. "creamer14" posts this:

Vernon's right, JB gone - creamer14 3/31 1:02 PM (show all) Views 2403

Message board freaks out like whoah. Scout WVU board picks up on it and gives an indications of this guy's rep:

Saw that too - coming from a very solid poster as well. This is the same guy who gave the scoop on Coach Rod staying, ND verballing, WR coach hiring, the initial hiring of Ron West. This guy definitely has an 'in' with the athletic department.

Comments

KTisClutch

March 7th, 2017 at 2:31 PM ^

Interesting looking through the Coaching candidates. The mid-major favorites from Brian were Todd Lickliter of Butler (unceremoniously fired by Iowa after 3 years), and Chris Lowery (Led SIU to 3 really good years then totally tailed off and eventually got fired by SIU).

 

Then there was Gregg Marshall pre-Wichita State who got a write-up, and Sean Miller who got a passing mention.

stephenrjking

March 7th, 2017 at 7:28 PM ^

Well, this month didn't age well. 

Let me preface this by saying that I like Stewart Mandel and I think he does a great job these days. He's an excellent college football writer and is quite balanced. I read most of his stuff.

So: That article he wrote about Troy Smith was all kinds of wrong. In fairness, a fair amount of Brian's fisk was bad, too. The whole thing is a train wreck. The only valid point he made was that height is not the be-all-end-all, a point proven by Drew Brees, whom he mentions in the article, and Russell Wilson, who had not yet emerged, but a point not proven by Troy Smith.

Brian's mentions of Jason White and Eric Crouch are savage.

There's some stuff that mitigates the damage. Mandel hits scouts for comparing Smith poorly to the top QB prospects, which he names as... Jamarcus Russell and Brady Quinn. And Mario Williams, Reggie Bush, and Vince Young are also mentioned. Not exactly a great lineup of stars.

In other news, the TJ Hensick snub continues to sting. The Hobey winner that season was Ryan Duncan from North Dakota, a joke of an award. Especially notable as a joke because he shared a line with TJ Oshie and Jonathan Toews, both of whom were much better players and have had much better careers since.

Brian's suggestion that "different is good" in the wake of the departure of Johnson and Hensick winds up being totally accurate, though, as Kevin Porter and Chad Kolarik led a much more consistent team to the brink, followed by a couple of years of Shawn Hunwick joy.

The basketball stuff is strange. Tom Crean. John Beilein. And a serious effort by John Calipari, what would that have looked like? And Greg Oden was 10 years ago!

(I think that basketball corruption scale needs to be updated a bit.)