Freep < Horse shit
At least horse shit makes for good fertilizer.
Support MGoBlog: buy stuff at Amazon
More FreePress rubbish
http://freep.com/article/20090205/SPORTS18/90205050/Kudos+to+Dantonio+fo...
The Freep's Mike Brudenell gives MSU the advantage in recruiting this year, because Dantonio's 2009 class is "Made in Michigan."
He goes on to describe how Dantonio recruits:
"He's filling his needs with kids who really want to play, know something about the history of the school and represent the region. "
It is logic like this why newspapers are struggling.
How does Brudenell know that UofM's players are any less hungry to play football or know anything less about their school's football history? A lot of out of state recruits say that they were a UofM fan growing up and thus would know traditions of the school. Michigan has a big time program and people outside of our state borders know many of the traditions and history behind the program. This isn't MSU. So 2 of 3 of his reasons have been debunked as pure assumptions with no evidence provided by him to back it up.
This only leaves his idea that MSU has a better class, because MSU has kids who represent the region.
Perhaps CMU has a better class than UofM too, since it has more in state kids that are hungry, know the history, and are homegrown. Maybe we could trade classes with CMU so we can compete against MSU!
Why should we care what states our players come from as long as we get some Michigan players when we need to? Should Rodriquez get the kids who fit his system or try and get a roster with a kid from every single one of the 83 counties in Michigan to best represent our lovely state? Ultimately, they all represent their school when they commit. How many of you were disappointed when a Wolverine from Ohio won the Heisman? My guess is only bitter rivals would answer that they were. Michigan is not a traditionally talent rich state, we may have to head out of state at times to get a championsip roster with our system.
He goes on to say:
"For me, it's quite simple. I’d rather watch a kid from Ypsi score a touchdown over someone from West Palm Beach. How about you?"
No, I would rather watch a UofM player score a touchdown than someone from another team. And perhaps UofM can score more touchdowns with getting the best talent for the system, regardless of what state they are from.
I wonder if this guy would applaud MSU when Daughtery got NCAA violations in order to entice southerners to come up north and play in the late 50's and early 60's.
Finally he is misleading about where the recruiting classes finished ranked nationally. He says: "Rivals.com ranks MSU’s class of 2009 16th in the nation, while it rates U-M seventh. Tom Lemming (CBS College Sports) ranks U-M 10th, while Tom Luginbill (Scouts Inc./ESPN) has MSU at the same spot." That implies that MSU is 10th in the ESPN's Luginbill's rankings. MSU is not ranked at all, he only ranks the top-25.
This illogical article isn't even suited for a high school newspaper. It would make as much sense for me to praise UofM's class as better than MSU's, merely because we bring in more out of state people to a state that has a declining population. Sure there can be benefits to recruiting your local area, but this guy fails to mention any.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:26 PM
#2
Freep < Horse shit
At least
February 6th, 2009 at 1:02 PM
#3
That is absolutely rediculous
That is absolutely rediculous to say that out of state recruits do not get up for Michigan's rivalry games. The OSU-Michigan game is a nationally televised game year in and year out. These kids know what that game is all about. That game is used as a recruiting tool to get recruits to come to Michigan. I guarantee that RR goes into the living rooms of recruits and says "I want you to come to Michigan and help us beat the Buckeyes." Why do you think an Ohio kid will go to Michigan? Because he's lived in Ohio all his life and he cant stand the way the Buckeye fan base is so full of themselves so He goes to UM so he can have a chance to make them eat it. Im from Ohio and have been a Michigan fan for 23 years. I love Michigan and embrace all their traditions. Michigan Football traditions stretch nationwide. Go Blue!!
February 5th, 2009 at 6:36 PM
#4
Recruit Kids from Near the Back of the Alphabet.
Most primary schools depend heavily on alphetabetic order to decide the order in which children participate in activities. Kids from the second half of the alphabet spend more of their school time waiting to begin assignment or to have them returned. They wait longer to begin drills in practice and to ride the school bus. These kids are hungrier than their early alphabet counterparts and I am willing to believe they will show it on the field.
MSU's class included 17 players from the first half of the alphabet (A-M) and only 7 from the second half of the alphabet (N-Z) while UoM's class 13 players from the first half of the alphabet and 9 from the second half. This gives Michigan a much stronger class and was the reason the Robinson/Witty package was so important.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:41 PM
#5
this was...
brilliant
February 5th, 2009 at 7:27 PM
#6
Good thinking....But
Good thinking....But sometimes teachers switch it to first names which is completely different. Also, they also do tend to switch the order sometimes like calling the second half of letters first.
February 5th, 2009 at 7:29 PM
#7
Gladwell
Someone's been reading Outliers...
February 5th, 2009 at 6:37 PM
#8
Define:
"grasping at straws"
oh, wait... you pretty much did. neat
February 5th, 2009 at 6:40 PM
#9
If people are ignorant and
If people are ignorant and choose to believe his words without going to any of the recruiting sites than so be it. The facts are there on all the websites that our class is better. Whether this guy agrees or not doesn't make our class any worse. Lets just laugh at these reports and move on, no need to dwell on what these people are saying.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:59 PM
#10
I am extremely happy with
I am extremely happy with this class and I won't let any Freep article change that. I am not really dwelling on the issue. I merely critiqued an article that came out today. I think its alright to critique any major newspaper article. I vented and I am fed up with all of the BS logic coming out of the media.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:44 PM
#11
Ya, have heard this before from non-newspaper
people, too, it seems somewhat widely held. I agree with you, but some people seem to feel that Dantonio is out recruiting us in the sense that the out of state kid somehow can't appreciate the rivalry and won't "get up" as much as the in-state kids for MSU and OSU. Doesn't hold water.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:46 PM
#12
Personally when I watch football games, I never know where
a player is from. The only thing I know about a player is their last name and jersey number. Whether they grew up in Michigan or China never enters my thought process.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:47 PM
#13
Ya, have heard this before from non-newspaper
people, too, it seems somewhat widely held. I agree with you, but some people seem to feel that Dantonio is out recruiting us in the sense that the out of state kid somehow can't appreciate the rivalry and won't "get up" as much as the in-state kids for MSU and OSU. Doesn't hold water.
February 6th, 2009 at 11:21 AM
#14
Yeah, I wonder if they think
Yeah, I wonder if they think that kid from lazy California who was our QB in the late 90s or so didn't get it. I'd write his name but I'm being blinded by the diamonds in his super bowl rings at the moment.
Or that walk-on QB from that evil southern state Florida who was our QB around 1997. He didn't get the rivalries at all. He only won a national championship.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:57 PM
#15
If anything
I'd say the opposite is true for kids in-state being hungrier. There are recruits from CA, AZ, FL etc. that are traveling 1000+ miles to possibly play for a championship. They are leaving their familes, friends, teachers, and coaches to play at a great, tradition rich program. That shows hunger and sacrifice. Not that huge of a step to go from Ypsi to East Lansing to play for a team that has hung their hat on just being mediocre 4 out of every 5 seasons. Let's be honest, these recruits going to MSU are going to MSU because that was their only choice beyond Western or Toledo.
February 5th, 2009 at 7:02 PM
#16
Ha ha ha ha
I really couldn't believe that article! Doesn't anyone with half a brain know that Dantonio would take those better out-of-state players if he could get them?
February 5th, 2009 at 7:14 PM
#17
I guess I'm less of a
I guess I'm less of a Michigan alum since I grew up in Ohio.
February 5th, 2009 at 7:27 PM
#18
Am I the only one
who's getting the smokin hottie on the "find your russian beauty" banner ad here? Are these driven by keywords? Or by a preponderance of lonely bloggers cum commenters of football recruiting.
Back on topic: MSU had a great class. Good for them. Michigan's was better. The Freep is desperate, true, but they also have lots of space to fill and gotta write about something.
But since it's football, only thing that will matter is the game.
February 5th, 2009 at 7:53 PM
#19
check.....
on the smokin hot Rooski. :thumbsup:
I didn't read the Freep article because, frankly, I don't like that liberal rag. However, there was a story in the Detroit News on Tate For-see-ay (UM:QB wants to become a household name). I didn't get through the first page when it donned on me.......this is why Lloyd/Bo never let freshmen talk to the media.
Tate's appears to be an intelligent guy who has nothing but good intentions for this team. But the media is not your friend. They want you to keep talking. In reality, they're giving you just enough rope to hang yourself.
The old saying, "Freshmen are to be seen and not heard" rings true for many reasons.
Here's a link to the article. Try to be SUBJECTIVE when you read this (say, for instance, you're a State fan).
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090205/SPORTS0201/90...
February 5th, 2009 at 7:56 PM
#20
my only gripe
"It is logic like this why newspapers are struggling."
If anything, it's blogs like this that cause newspapers to struggle. Don't get me wrong, I love this blog and check it daily, but why read a newspaper when you can get up to the minute info online? Anyways, there is no need to dump on the newspaper industry just because of an extremely illogical college football recruiting article.
February 5th, 2009 at 8:37 PM
#21
I guess that I shouldn't have
I guess that I shouldn't have dumped on the whole industry. My brother works in the newspaper industry.
Sure the economy is killing the newspaper industry, along with the internet. However, with frequent extremely-biased and poorly researched newspaper articles....why not seek out the internet?
February 5th, 2009 at 9:57 PM
#22
"However, with frequent
"However, with frequent extremely-biased and poorly researched newspaper articles....why not seek out the internet?"
Probably because the internet, too, is full of extremely biased and poorly-researched articles. There's excellent content on the internet, but for a lot of people, it's not THAT easy to find it through the volume of low-quality content that gets in the way.
February 6th, 2009 at 5:01 PM
#23
Money. Don't overlook that
Money. Don't overlook that most people already have internet access - so why pay more money to get a newspaper delivered that is full of articles that have poor logic, little research and a blatant bias?
Why not just find better information and spend less money?
At the very least, blogs and the such tend to have more forums that serve as 'fact checkers' to straighten out the BS.
February 5th, 2009 at 8:35 PM
#24
hold on
Isn't Dantonio from Ohio? He obviously knows nothing about the state of Michigan and isn't nearly as hungry. I'm afraid to think about what he's going to do to allll the tradition and history they have at MSU
February 5th, 2009 at 9:34 PM
#25
newspapers are going the way of the horse and buggy...
...and this writer is trying to sell you one.
It's old technology, these newspapers. How often do you open the classifieds? What about 15 years ago?
How about the cost of manufacture and delivery of a paper? Huge compared to the internet. So competition is severe. In order to differentiate itself from the internet, they should be writing in depth stuff. Instead.....
...Shitheads write stuff like this BECAUSE ALL THEY DO IS SURF THE INTERNET! Really, this guy did NO research(!), was totally misleading, and probably spent 10 minutes writing this. What's the difference between this guy and someone sitting next to you at the bar? Nothing!
Brian does far more research in his writing than this guy. Let this guy's job die. No one will miss it. Dude should really be a janitor somewhere. All smart people are moving to different professions. He's a goner.
February 6th, 2009 at 9:28 AM
#26
So, by the Freep's logic...
...it would be alright if U-M went 3-9 every year, as long as we recruited primarily from Michigan. Nobody from the Freep would criticize RRod, or demand a change, and nothing negative would ever be written again.
Right.
February 6th, 2009 at 10:16 AM
#27
MSU is changing its tradition of out-of-state stars
It's great to see that Michigan State and its supporters in the media have finally recognized the folly of recruiting players from outside the state of Michigan. The following list of Spartans certainly is indicative of the sad state of affairs under previous coaches like Duffy Daugherty and George Perles. I'm sure all loyal Spartans would support expunging all these names from MSU football history, since they didn't come from the state of Michigan:
Clinton Jones - Ohio
Gene Washington - Texas
Tony Mandarich - Ontario
Flozelle Adams - Illinois
Lorenzo White - Florida
Scott Greene - New York
Javon Ringer - Ohio
Sedrick Ervin - Florida
Jeff Smoker - Pennsylvania
Blake Ezor - Nevada
Don Coleman - Oklahoma
Morten Andersen - Indiana/Denmark
Bubba Smith - Texas
Larry Bethea - South Carolina
Julian Peterson - Maryland
George Webster - Texas
Greg Montgomery - New Jersey
Plaxico Burress - Virginia
Tony Banks - California
Mark Ingram - Illinois
Tyrone Willingham - North Carolina
Sherman Lewis - Kentucky
Thank God Mark Dantonio is finally doing something right and not recruiting out-of-state losers like these guys.
February 6th, 2009 at 10:17 AM
#28
I wonder how Brundell felt
I think Brundell is Australian. I guess by that logic, I'd rather read an illogical piece of shit from some guy from Canton than a guy from Australia.
