Comments Re. athletes on mgoblog

In the end, it IS the kid's choice whether he wants to come to the school or not. If he's good enough, he will. If his confidence is hurt by me (or any other random poster on a message board), then honestly, he probably doesn't have the confidence to succeed at a position that requires self-confidence.

This is what fans do at every level. Kids discuss in high school who the best players are. We discuss it here. They'll be talked about in the NFL in the exact same manner.

Whether it's right or wrong, it's a train that's impossible to stop.

Ari Fleischer. "People need to watch what they say."

If a player isn't confident enough in his abilities and flinches or disavows his committment because of what a bunch of fans post on a blog, I question his guts anyway. Shouldn't the natural reaction be "fuck those idiots on MGoblog, they'll be chanting my name after I become an All-American" vs. "Oh, my god, those Michigan fans are mean. I don't want to go there."

Just my two cents. And we sometimes are idiots here, me included.

What fun is anonymous blogging under the guise of a screen name if you can't say things anonymously that you would never say under your own name or to the persons face. /sarcasm

by any material on this blog can you imagine the mental state they would be in after Barwis was done with them?

between analyzing a recruits performance and questioning whether he will be an asset for the team and just bashing someone. I don't think asking whether we need another short CB after one was struggling just a couple weeks ago on the field currently is a bad thing. The key is constructive criticism and not just ignorant, baseless slander.

If a recruit comes to Michigan and thinks everyone is going to clap, cheer, and smile no matter how they perform than they are simply mistaken. That goes for just about every major school in the country.

I just cannot imagine a recruit being influenced by anything you or I type of this blog. I would certainly hope their opinion of UM and the coaching staff would be influenced more by recruiting trips and campus visits rather than a blog entry. Maybe I have underestimated the affect of some of these posts on the psyche of a 17 or 18 year old?

thus far in most respects, except the following recurring counter-point: "sheesh, if the kid's confidence is shattered by our criticism, he wouldn't make it anyway!"

I think that's pretty far afield from the OP's concerns, which I understood to be about having a recruit torn between two or three schools (as most are), and being turned off by an overtly unwelcoming fan base at one of the schools. I think there's a dilemma there that doesn't involve the player's confidence.

I'm not sure where I come out on how these circumstances (could/should) affect MGoPosting (I think the easy answer is Magnus's: it's a train that cannot be stopped), but I wouldn't mind seeing more cogent points that don't fall into a straw man about the kid's confidence/mental state.

thank you for repeating what craig roh's dad said. in my opinion, a very supportive, optimistic fan base is very important to a recruit. the best way to determine that...aside from going to an actual game...is looking at message boards. scout.com is probably much more available to casually interested recruits, but still, we should watch what we say here.

just because you can say something doesn't mean it's right

i like how mgoblog is slowly influencing which players our football team gets. soon we will be the coaches.

I can agree with the fact that we should be careful about what we post - along the lines of what Papa-Roh said. At the same time though, I think athletes, too, ought to be careful about what the post, on say ... facebook.

If you think fans should post responsibly because the players might read it, then I think it follows that the players ought to make their postings responsibly, too, since the fans might read them.

I think I speak for most of us when I say this:

When we say we don't want a certain player (Mathis, in this case), we USUALLY also say we want someone else (Grimes and/or Christian, in this case).

So if Mathis's psyche is such that he's offended by random message board posts, wouldn't it make sense that an equally sensitive Christian/Grimes would be flattered by our posts?

While I agree that people don't need to be disparaging recruits we've never seen play a college down, the things written here are nothing compared to what these kids will have to deal with as college football players.

I remember hearing stories of Navarre getting a pitcher of beer dumped on his head at Rick's following the OSU loss in 2001 (an extreme example, for sure).

The players get into the facebook thing. I really think that recruits have thicker skin than we think. I'm sure that it is like this on other blog sites. I think that we will not influence a kid either possitively or negatively.

I think the issue is - why are we saying anything about Mathis? What's our basis of knowledge here? We know he's a pretty good player at Cass Tech. Now there's this conversation about his tolerance for criticism, and HE HASN'T EVEN DONE ANYTHING. It's this discussion we've cut from whole cloth and are now arguing over, and it's not based in a single identifiable event.

And what level of expertise does anyone here have to claim that "we don't want Mathis"? Magnus is a coach, so I'll give him that, but I can't break down film - I'd wager most of the people here can't either. Then we get "insiders" like MGoObes up above with their oblique, ephemeral posts about "he had his chance" and shit. Most of us are unqualified to comment on him from a football standpoint and have no basis of knowledge to claim to know his motivations, or anything. So why say anything? What does it contribute?

If I don't have the basis to form an educated opinion regarding a players charactor or even if I do, when still a young college player, it's not really OK to judge and engage in a personal like attack. Mine was not a good post and should have been negged as it was.

zohizzle = zoltan? could it be?!

If someone is offered, I think that implies that Mich would be honored to have them. To intimate anything else needs to be backed up with some credibility. Posting on MGoBlog is fun because many people take it seriously. As MGoBlog (to Brian's credit) becomes more popular - it is demanding more serious posting.

If someone spews opinion as fact or worse yet their opinion as that of the fan base on whole it's lame. With some recruits comments have be interpreted to speak to the priorities of the coaching staff. That is a line that shouldn't be crossed. Why get into the coach/recruit mindset? It's already a crazy relationship.

If people spew we need to question it (and yes neg it - though neg banging has become a lot less prevalent with the voting stats - this is a good use for it - as this is trollish behavior.)

You can be critical without being nasty, is that so difficult to understand? If Roh misses a tackle, pointing it out is a fact, no bigee. But to make personal insults of Roh, because he misses a tackle is unwarranted IMHO.