Farewell, Justin Boren
This Saturday marks the end of the Justin Boren / Michigan / OSU saga. Justin's last game in Columbus, his last meeting with Michigan, his last Big Ten game.
What a long, strange trip it's been with Justin.
It is, in my mind, the worst-reported and most underreported story in the history of Michigan football. Here was a kid, a really good player and the son of one of Bo's boys, who left suddenly, inexplicably, and on his way out, was party to the strangest press release in modern memory.
It was the "famliy values" meme; which gave rise to a couple of years' worth of weird, unfounded and increasingly strange presumptions and rumors about the Rich Rodriguez football program. All of them false. Justin was not a lazy kid or a lazy football player. Justin did not leave Michigan because he didn't want to run. It wasn't about "scheme." To think, as some did, that it was about abusive language in Rodriguez practices; that's a joke. Mike Boren is the biggest goddamned fucking hardass in Pickerington, and Justin once recounted how his dad yelled at him so fiercely at halftimes of his high school games, he thought "somebody might call the cops."
In fact, the real weirdness was sourced in the Boren family, and the simple story behind Justin's departure from Michigan was his parents' rage when they learned that Justin's younger brother Zach was not getting a sholarship offer from Michigan. Mike and Hope Boren yanked Justin out of school, within days of their learining that Zach was not getting a Michigan scholarship. The story is old now, and despite the fact that no reporters ever seemed to want to touch it, the "famliy values" knock on Rich Rodriguez was inevitably defeated by the truth and the balm of time.
But as Justin's collegiate career and the story of his unprecedented transfer from Michigan to Ohio State comes to a close, it is sort of funny to have a look at this Cleveland Plain Dealer article from a year ago, giving a charming little snapshot of "Boren family values." What a psycho-crew.
http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2009/08/nasty_offensive_lineman_justin.html
November 24th, 2010 at 10:56 PM ^
The narrative from the MSM has been clear. Examples:
"Snake oil"
"Family values"
"NCAA violations"
Again...all I did was point out that the meme is there and that I wish it wasn't.
November 24th, 2010 at 11:29 PM ^
November 24th, 2010 at 11:32 PM ^
November 25th, 2010 at 9:27 AM ^
I love that funking autospell, that shut is the bomb.....
November 25th, 2010 at 1:39 AM ^
Whatever his older brother's problems, Zach seems like a tough competitor. Let's just hope both of them have bad games Saturday.
November 24th, 2010 at 10:46 PM ^
Section 1 needs to get a damn hobby
November 24th, 2010 at 11:22 PM ^
There is at least as much fact and substance behind it as there is the meme that Boren was a lazy fuck. In fact, his post was MUCH more levelheaded than the assholes that trash Boren.
November 24th, 2010 at 11:27 PM ^
The man beats dead horses like they own him money. Jesus Christ I think he wrote almost ten 10,000 word essays on the threat of the Freep to the human race.
November 24th, 2010 at 11:46 PM ^
The man beats dead horses like they OWE him money.
OR
The man beats dead horses like they OWN him, money.
I can't decide which one I like more. But really Bieber... glass houses.
November 25th, 2010 at 10:45 AM ^
I'd much rather have the player that hates donkeys than one who is dumb enough to loan money to dead horses.
November 25th, 2010 at 9:00 AM ^
He may indeed need a hobby, but IMO every damn one of his posts has been well-written and insightful. That's worth something, I think.
November 25th, 2010 at 9:36 AM ^
But he's right.
Also, I want to punch your avatar so much.
November 24th, 2010 at 10:46 PM ^
Do you have any concrete sources for stating that Boren left because Zach Boren didn't get an offer? I was under the impression that he was going to get offered soon before the whole Boren fiasco.
November 24th, 2010 at 10:55 PM ^
http://michigan.scout.com/a.z?s=162&p=8&c=1&nid=3363435
Actually, I think that Scout link is wrong in one respect; I think Justin also had an offer from Kent State. He did not have a Michigan offer, ever, as far as I know and I challenge you to show that he did.
Justin did, by all accounts, attend every Michigan camp he could, and took every opportunity to impress Michigan coaches. By Justin's own account, he had a closet full of Michigan apparel and paraphenalia. Later, by his own words, put into a bunch a boxes and given away.
November 24th, 2010 at 11:34 PM ^
He did not have a Michigan offer, ever, as far as I know and I challenge you to show that he did.
Didn't mean to imply in my reply that he had an offer. I thought that he was going to get an offer but never did once the Boren family turned on RR. FWIW Rivals also doesn't list a Michigan offer for Zach Boren.
Also, that looks like a link to his profile on Scout. I couldn't find the article that claims that Justin Boren left Michigan because Zach Boren didn't get an offer.
November 25th, 2010 at 9:30 AM ^
for the content you cannot get anywhere else.
November 24th, 2010 at 10:48 PM ^
Hopefully we can make his final game quite miserable with an upset win!
November 24th, 2010 at 10:56 PM ^
the Boren narrative about how Rodriquez is a bad guy and not a "Michigan Man" took hold to a degree, fueled by those that were anti-RRod from the begining. It pisses me off.
November 24th, 2010 at 11:01 PM ^
It has nothing to do with the Borens, who will play some more football in Ohio, and then perhaps get into the landscaping business.
It has everything to do with our head football coach, and how a two-year slander of Rich Rodriguez festered, without the correction that the mainstream press owed to everyone.
November 24th, 2010 at 11:07 PM ^
and how a two-year slander of Rich Rodriguez festered, without the correction that the mainstream press owed to everyone.
Exactly. It's clear that RR was undeserving of this type of treatment. Especially when compared with what is happening with Dantonio in EL. Rodriguez has had his name dragged through the mud enough in regards to this and it's truly unjustified.
November 24th, 2010 at 10:59 PM ^
http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2010/11/terrelle_pryor_vs_denard_robin.html#incart_hbx
on Cleveland.com, about Terrelle Pryor and Denard Robinson, a very respectful discussion about the significance of the meeting in this week's game, some relevant recruitment history, with comments from OSU players:
"I have a couple of buddies who are Michigan fans and that's all they do is talk about Denard," OSU defensive lineman Cameron Heyward said. "I think he's in his own class right now. I would vote for him as my Heisman winner."
and Minnesota coach re: the excitement of seeing Denard play, and former OSU QB Cornelius Greene pointing out that this will be the first Ohio State-Michigan game featuring two African-American starting quarterback since Greene and Michigan's Dennis Franklin led their teams in 1973 and 1974.
[Sorry. Still don't know how to do the yellow boxes.]
November 24th, 2010 at 11:15 PM ^
There's a little button that has a double quote in it. Highlight the text you want yellow-boxed and click that button. Should work great. (It won't show up in yellow in the editor, but it'll indent it.) It's a little finicky as far as getting only the stuff you want in the box and avoiding extra boxes, but it works pretty well.
November 24th, 2010 at 11:30 PM ^
[Sorry. Still don't know how to do the yellow boxes.]
Aha! Thanks guys.
November 25th, 2010 at 10:26 AM ^
There's a little button that has a double quote in it. Highlight the text you want yellow-boxed and click that button. Should work great.
Edit: Damn it...
November 24th, 2010 at 11:19 PM ^
Blockquoting is actually pretty easy. When you're done typing your comment, go down to the option underneath the text box that says "switch to plain text editor" and click that. It will switch to HTML coding.
Then just put <blockquote> at the beginning of the text you want to quote and </blockquote> at the end.
EDIT: BlockM beat me to it. And wait a minute, there's an auto-quote option?!? I can't believe I never noticed that before.
November 24th, 2010 at 11:10 PM ^
Thanks for posting. Not sure I can jump on with the negativity regarding Boren.
It's important to remember that these are 18-22 year olds.
Perspective.
November 24th, 2010 at 11:32 PM ^
You dont leave UM to go play for the bastards down south. Thats like Jeter joining the Red Sox, Potter teaming up with Volemort, or Lloyd Brady turning communist...
November 25th, 2010 at 5:05 PM ^
November 24th, 2010 at 11:15 PM ^
Glad to see him go and I hope Mike Martin gives him one from The Team this weekend. A clean shot of course.
Family Values! Really!
November 24th, 2010 at 11:21 PM ^
Michigan fans who know nothing, and even less about Justin Boren, will grow big bonerz posting negative things about him while further embarrassing this already pedantic, infantile fan base.
We are probably already gaining a reputation as nothing more than a juvenile group of people who do nothing more than call each other names, excuse the repeated, HUGE and embarrassing failures of a head coach who is at best a fish out of water, and at worst a "snake oil salesman" who is a complete fraud, and blame everything on defensive coordinators who are forced to coach a defense that is more gimmicky than junk bonds, while working with a staff laden with cronies and holdovers who do nothing more than get Rodriguez his morning coffee and hold up a mirror so Rita can dump another forty pounds of fluorocarbon-filled hairspray onto her West Virginia mullet.
Justin Boren was a troubled young man who wanted to be closer to his family (imagine that! What a fuckhead!) and didn't agree with the way this staff handled themselves. It's funny, but not only he, but about 20 some-odd other guys have bolted this program in the last three years. But of course, THEY have the problem, NOT our precious lil Rich Rod.
It reminds me of the line from the movie "Colors"--"You got a problem with the world, and I'm in it!"--I think by now 40 or so guys have left this program (and a lot of them Rich Rod recruits), including (likely) TWO defensive coordinators, yet they suck, and Rich Rod is just trying to do his best.
The media are ALL out to get Rich Rod. Many former players don't like him. Many alumni don't like him.
I'll grant you this: Opposing teams in the Big Ten LOVE HIM.
But of course, lil Richie Rodriguez is perfect and it's all someone eltse's fault.
Give me a break.
November 24th, 2010 at 11:30 PM ^
-115 mgopoints.
Dude, that's impressive.
November 24th, 2010 at 11:33 PM ^
MGoPoints if Spoof Football and his trolling buddies would go away.
November 25th, 2010 at 12:09 AM ^
What he said was impressive. And what is truly pathetic is people like you who only care about mgopoints. Brian Cook has created a monster, allowing losers like you to punish unpopular truth by negging away. So...neg away, and show what a loser you really are to make reference to the dude's points. Actually, it's beginning to shape up as those who have a ton of points have been nothing but blind blowhards who truly do not deserve M success.
November 24th, 2010 at 11:31 PM ^
Does it get tiring being a fucking idiot?
November 24th, 2010 at 11:47 PM ^
We are probably already gaining a reputation as nothing more than a juvenile group of people who do nothing more than call each other names, excuse the repeated, HUGE and embarrassing failures of a head coach who is at best a fish out of water, and at worst a "snake oil salesman" who is a complete fraud, and blame everything on defensive coordinators who are forced to coach a defense that is more gimmicky than junk bonds, while working with a staff laden with cronies and holdovers who do nothing more than get Rodriguez his morning coffee and hold up a mirror so Rita can dump another forty pounds of fluorocarbon-filled hairspray onto her West Virginia mullet.
That's a really long sentence. And I have no idea what it's about.
November 25th, 2010 at 12:14 AM ^
leaves no doubt in my mind that Spoof Football is a WVU fan, still acting like a jilted psycho girlfriend after all these years.
November 25th, 2010 at 9:54 AM ^
Syracuse 19, West Virginia 14
Eat it.
November 25th, 2010 at 12:00 AM ^
40 players have left under RR watch huh? care to name them dipshit
November 25th, 2010 at 12:11 AM ^
While your stupidity and negative point total are impressive, it's comments like this ...
... hold up a mirror so Rita can dump another forty pounds of fluorocarbon-filled hairspray onto her West Virginia mullet.
... that should get you banned.
Don't like Rodriguez? Ok, whatever. But clearly you are just an asshole, and because of that, I will be negging you until you're gone.
November 25th, 2010 at 12:23 AM ^
Are you saying I'm an asshole because I call people names?
Thanks for proving my point.
November 25th, 2010 at 12:42 AM ^
I'm calling you an asshole because you sound like an asshole, and a racist one.
But thanks for posting again so I could neg you again.
November 25th, 2010 at 1:14 AM ^
You really speak from a position of authority...
UM fans have no class for attacking a kid who threw his team under the bus?
Save the "it was only about RR" bullshit... The whole team has had to deal with the negativity he helped fuel with his vague (cowardly) parting shots .
Then you turn arround and attack the man's wife?
You're an asshole, because you're an asshole.
Asshole.
November 25th, 2010 at 9:03 AM ^
November 25th, 2010 at 12:13 PM ^
I was waiting for that...
Yes, it is my speciality... The whole ass, that is (not just the asshole).
November 25th, 2010 at 1:53 AM ^
Its funny we have been down for two years and trolls are still consumed with the greatest football program in history! Go blue!!'
November 25th, 2010 at 8:56 AM ^
That spells quit...and he'll never out live that trait...
November 24th, 2010 at 11:21 PM ^
I did not know the whole story. Very interesting that the family values comment was correct and totally incorrect at the same time. And in both respects wrongly reported.
Did RR do his due diligence on Zach's placekicking? That's all I want to know.
November 24th, 2010 at 11:22 PM ^
Who cares about the boren's none of them were as good as thier dad any way *uck that!!!! and him I hope we go in the shoe and play the best game we've ever plyed
November 24th, 2010 at 11:26 PM ^
. . .
November 25th, 2010 at 9:38 AM ^
Wasnt close to the strongest. And he only has like a 12" stroke with those little t-rex arms. Wich brings me to my next point. Stumpy legs vs stumpy arms.