Adam Rittenberg's latest mailbag
For a good laugh, I'll provide you with a question in Adam's latest mailbag from an MSU fan.
"Tom from Detroit writes: Hey Adam,Is it just me, or does the Big Ten have a contender for new Linebacker-U? With Greg Jones already showing how good he is and Eric Gordon being a great 2nd LB, they've got the experience. Add to that redshirt freshman Chris Norman and highly touted recruits William Gholston (admittedly a hybrid) and Max Bullough, and I think you've got a pretty potent group.But to contend for the title of "Linebacker-U" a school needs to pile on recruit after recruit. That's where I start to wonder if Lawrence Thomas will be the start of a new trend. Bringing him in will essentially give MSU 4 four-star recruits at the LB position (Norman, Bullough, Gholston, Thomas) for the indefinite future.What do you think?"
Tom from Detroit has included 2 linebackers that have yet to even step on the field, and one linebacker that hasn't even signed an LOI as his basis for an argument that MSU is now Linebacker U.... Ian Gold, Dhani Jones, Hendricks, Larry Foote, Lamarr Woodley, Victor Hobson, Pierre Woods, Cato June, and David Harris. Throw in Prescott Burgess, Crable, and BG getting drafted (Can we count David Bowens since he had the single season sack record at Michigan before he had to leave?) and I would say that in the last 20 years, Michigan is Linebacker U.
Edit-(This is my response, not Rittenberg's)
I like how he doesn't even mention the school he's talking about until the second to last sentence. What a n00b...
This makes up for his best/ worse case scenarios last week.
I read this on ESPN this morning and started cracking up, a few good recruits and all of a sudden you're the new LineBacker U.
Thanks for the laugh little brother.
Typical Michigan State fan....
Might want to mention that your second paragraph is not from Rittenberg. His response isn't bad though.
I'm sure he wanted to slam "Tom from Detroit". It was just below the surface when he made remarks like:
Tom, I think we'd both agree that it takes more than a good three-year stretch of linebackers
and
(Pat Narduzzi will) need them to step up after the Spartans defense backslid a bit in 2009.
That's not a long way from saying, "Tom? Are you f_cking serious here? Sure, MSU got a couple of good guys, but c'mon. There are probably 3 or 4 other teams I'd put ahead of the Spartans in linebacking history, even in the last few years. And were you even watching the same MSU "D" as I was last year?"
Although they both were LBs in the NFL, both were safeties at UM.
My point was revolving around how many LB's Michigan has put in the NFL in the last 20 years that have actually "produced" in the NFL. I think we definitely win the quality over quantity argument.
Would anybody care to mention Penn State, which is still better than MSU, Michigan, or anybody else in the Big Ten at producing linebackers?
PSU = LB U
Michigan = QB U
Michigan = Dreadlock U
The instate media, in their never-ending mission to prop up MSU, feed MSU fans even worse, less-accurate shilling than the Columbus "Discharge" does. Consequently, fans who already have a tendency to grossly overrate their team get their "supporting arguments" from the mlive, the freep, and various radio "personalities."
The shilling from instate media doesn't surprise me nearly as much, though, as national media buying into it. If you knew nothing about MSU except what you are fed by the media, and were unable to make your own assessments based on watching them play, you would think that Dantonio is building an elite program in EL by giving "second chances" to "deserving kids."
It has been much worse the last two years becuase of Michigan's rebuilding, but I think it all stops this season. It's one thing to lose to a MAC school when you are having your worst season in over forty years, but it is another altogether to lose to CMU when you are supposedly "resurgent" and "elite."
For all of the blathering in EL, MSU is still the pretty much team that lost to CMU last year and finished under .500 while watching nearly twenty percent of their team plead guilty to violent misdemeanors. On the other hand, Michigan is ready to be a much better team than they were last year and are doing it the right way, kicking the occasional Feagin or Cissoko off of the team before their behavior has a chance to influence other players.
MSU and their fans should worry about keeping their winning percentage over .500 and their police blotter percentage under .200 before entertaining any pretensions of calling themselves "Linebacker U."
...just like Michigan is the new "defensive back-U." I mean, we have Woolfolk, Turner and Cam Gordon next year and with Christian coming in, we are pretty solid. Add in Emilien and we almost got Dorsey here, that is, like, 3 four star defensive backs, a 4 star WR that is a sweet safety brah, another one that almost came so I count him as ours, and a 3 star DB that plays like a 4 star at either CB or S. Michigan - new defensive back U.
I hope this is sarcasm.
is obvious
Considering our secondary is a big question mark going into next year, I was hoping people might get the sarcasm. Although I would say we are as close to being defensive back-U as MSU is to being linebacker-U.
Let's see: How many MSU LBs are there in the NFL right now:
Less than Penn St, Ohio St., Iowa, Michigan. That puts them in, at best, 5th best "Linebacker U." in the Big 10.
However, he has a point that MSU is a candidate (but still behind OSU) for "4-star Linebacker Recruiting U."
I blieve this is cause for riot in East Lansing.
Why would you include Brandon Graham, who played DE at Michigan and was drafted to play DE for the Eagles? Furthermore, why would you include Cato June, who played safety in college?
I was simply trying to make fun of the ridiculousness of MSU fan while giving us a pat on the back. I was talking about players Michigan produced that became productive LB's in the NFL. I didn't know that it was set in stone if BG would have his hand on the ground 100% of the time, or be some sort of hybrid in the NFL. That's why I said "throw in" Burgess, Crable and BG just because they were drafted at LB but haven't produced yet.
I know you're pointing out how asinine the idea is that MSU is the new Linebacker U, but that doesn't mean defensive ends should be included when looking at Michigan's players. That's just kind of silly. But if you didn't know, Graham was drafted to play DE, not a hybrid position. The Eagles play a 4-3.
I still think that PSU produces better college linebackers. Their NFL production is somewhat questionable, but I'd be ecstatic if Michigan's linebackers played like PSU's at the college level.
The fact that you are getting negged for this is exactly why I've been losing more and more faith in the posters on this board lately. There is virtually no sense of perspective around here anymore.
For whining about being negged and challenging the omnipotence of MGoBloggers.
Meh, it wasn't me that got negged, but neg-rape the shit out of me if you feel like it.
I'm used to it by now.
When i saw that mailblog i was cracking up. MSU will never become "Linebacker U", i dont care if they recruited top state LB's, it's not like they developed them into All-Americans like Penn state does, If anything i would unfortunately put OSU as LineBacker U. But ithink no other school in the nation is close to Penn State on producing beast LBs. Being off topic I love the Michigan= "QB U" and "Dreadlock U".
Says hi.
of recruiting in-state MI talent. One good recruiter for them, Dan Enos, is now at CMU, so it will be interesting to see if the Spartans will continue that trend. Landing Thomas would be a good start.
As for which team is "LB U", "QB U", "RB U", that discussion (argument) get's pretty boring after about 2 minutes because inevitably some knucklehead from Hattiesburg, MS is going to claim that Souther Miss is actually "THE QB U" all because of Brett Favre.
The difference between MSU and Penn St. Penn St. gets 3-star LBs, MSU recruit 5,4-star LBs. Im not a Penn St. Lover but i think they develop them into monsters, while MSU lets theirs get arrested =P.. Recruiting 4-star LBs and developing 2,3-star LBs is alot different.
MSU needs to wait until these 4 star guys get on the field and start playing like 4 stars. JB Fitzgerald and Kenny Demens were both 4-star LB's who haven't really done much in their first 2 years at UM, hopefully that changes this fall.
Until MSU gets a handful of LBs drafted in early rounds or starting on NFL teams, I really couldn't give a shit how many stars their recruits had who haven't yet seen the field.