Forcier's status on Paulus
Saw this on my twitter-esque newsfeed, thought that some of you guys without Facebooks might want to see it:
"Tate Forcier i can give a damn what Paulus does. If he wants to ruin his career and come here its fine with me cuz hes about to be my backup!"
Fightin' words
BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!
It's on like donkey kong.
That is hilarious
i am terrified this is all just going to blow up
At least he sounds confident. I like that in my QB
I want this over with soon. I don't see how this bodes well for team chemistry one bit.
Hmm... That sounds awfully territorial.
A rich man doesn't need to tell you he's rich.
The best thing Tate can do with this is ignore it and do his thing. Less is more, Tate, less is more.
This sounds awfully defensive, not confident. Rich Rod had better nip this shit in the bud sooner rather than later.
Are we really going to scrutinize a twitter post and determine its confidence level? People, we are better than this.
sounds... reasonable? hmmm. Thank you.
NOOOOOOOOOOO... This is like getting a one-and-done in b-ball. Except more publicity, circus, freaking negative everything, plus the guy won't contribute. He'd only be a problem.
Anything to back up that last statement?
Opinion I suppose, the whole thing reeks of Caliparism, I do not like it. We'd be drug through the mud for this guys publicity and not even help us. A lot.
I don't mind this in the least, but it would be reassuring to have at least one player step-up and mark the update with a positive comment or a "like".
April 16th, 2009 at 10:24 PM ^
Devin Gardner posted.
"Lets go tate..lol"
someone will start another thread on Paulus. Obviously we don't have enough. Then we can have some trollish complainer on the board petition Brian to rename his blog Plaulus go board or Paulus-M-go-Wolverine or some such shit. Or maybe we could have a point system for the best Paulus post. No wait, wait we could appoint a committe of all the old timers to judge the posts and then determine which get posted.
I'm not complaining I'm just sayin.
I'd rather go back to how fast DR is!
This does not sound defensive at all. It sounds like an 18 year old kid that should be prepping for his senior prom. He also sounds like a kid that just threw over 80% and scored 4 TDs in a scrimmage. He has the right to be confident and he being so young is expected to not be so closed vested and professional with his words. He is still young with being a celebrity, so you cannot expect him to be perfect in PR. Also for normal kids, they only have real friends as facebook friends. They dont have to worry about facebook statuses getting publicized.
if you scroll down the comments (over sixty in less than 50 minutes), devin gardner adds:
"Lets go Tate...lol"
http://blog.syracuse.com/haveyouheard/2008/03/large_080320_ap_paulus.jpg
I hate Paulus. He looks like an assclown who hasn't slept in 10 years. When we played Duke in bball this year (twice), I was hoping Manny would posterize this chump.
Good reasons.
Yes, those are my personal reasons for not wanting Paulus at Michigan.
-Played for Duke
-Looks like an assclown (who hasn't slept in 10 years)
Got a problem with those reasons?
No, it is defensive, and it's sour grapes. So what if Paulus comes here to be his backup? If Paulus is Tate's future teammate, this comment is pretty douchey, rubbing it in his face like that. Tate should realize that we're pretty thin at QB, and some depth, which Paulus would add, would benefit the team.
I'll tell you exactly why this is defensive... Has Tate ever made a post like this about the Coner? No. Why? The Coner isn't a "threat" to Tate's status as the presumptive starter.
Tate wouldn't have made this post unless he percieves Paulus as a threat. That's the bottom line.
However, other posters are right that we need to put some perspective on all of this.... after all, we are parsing the words of an 18 year old kid here.
whenever you're made out to look like shit on national tv you also would probably defend yourself in some way.
When was Tate made to look like shit?
If he has been, then yeah, this is a valid point... but I haven't seen that. ESPN has blasted UM's QB play from last year, which was shitty... But Tate wasn't here last year.
basically said we don't have any QBs and cant run the spread. but more importantly, i can guarantee that he's been hearing about this over the last few days from classmates, teammates, other kids in his dorm, etc. you don't think it's getting annoying so he acted to address it?
That's the way I read the comment, too, turbo cool. ESPN was very critical of the CURRENT state of the QB position at UM. Tate could be annoyed by the suggestions of the talking heads rather than the comments or actions of Paulus. Everyone needs to cool off and stop making wild-ass assumptions.
Bottom line is he still hasn't played a down of college ball in a game... The fact that he's clearly upset/defensive about some added competition is suspect.
Granted, this situation is unusual, but, on a level of substance, Paulus is just another guy who *might* competing for the job. That's it. No different than any other high-profile recruit.
Forcier is a high profile athlete. Things like this come with the territory. He needs to learn to deal. I think he could have handled it better. But, as I said before, I'm willing to cut him some slack... he is an 18 year old kid, after all.
No, it is defensive, and it's sour grapes.
"Sour grapes" is normally defined as a denial of desire for that which one cannot attain. What exactly do you believe he is denying?
Has Tate ever made a post like this about the Coner? No. Why? The Coner isn't a "threat" to Tate's status as the presumptive starter.
Or maybe - wild guess - it's because Cone is on the team already; he's not a player at another school thinking about transferring here, attracting the national media's attention.
Ok, I may have misused the phrase "sour grapes"
What I meant by it is this post just reeks of bitterness/jealousy that Paulus is getting so much attention about this. As I and other posters have pointed out, it does sound defensive and territorial.
"Or maybe - wild guess - it's because Cone is on the team already; he's not a player at another school thinking about transferring here, attracting the national media's attention."
Regarding the difference being that Cone is on the team already... that just isn't a good rationalization. The fact that Paulus isn't on the team doesn't justify this.
Tate should welcome talent being added to the team. Treating a recruit - whether it's a HS senior or a potential transfer - is just shitty. It's selfish and not in the best interests of the team.
Let me see if I understand you:
Tate Forcier graduated from high school months before his classmates in order to enroll early at the University of Michigan, spent the last five months going to class, watching film, studying with position coaches, and participating in spring practices all for the opportunity to start against Western Michigan knowing full well that he could be yanked as a starter at any time between now and then or even during the season.
Greg Paulus didn't like his chances with professional basketball and went shopping for a one-year stopgap spot playing quarterback to impress NFL scouts.
Tate Forcier is the selfish one.
Right.
Ordinarily I would absolutely agree with you. However, the Daily has put up a transcript of their interview with Jason Forcier, who said Paulus simply showed up in Ann Arbor uninvited. http://thegame.blogs.michigandaily.com/2009/04/16/extended-transcript-w…
If the coaches had gotten together and said, "Hey, Greg Paulus was a great high school quarterback, and interestingly enough, he has a year of football eligibility remaining. Let's throw a scholarship his way and see if we can't improve the position even further!" and Tate subsequently reacted with this facebook status, you would be right. He would be demonstrating that he felt threatened by Paulus. It would be, in your words, "douchey."
However, if the situation has unfolded as Jason said it has, with Paulus arriving at practice apropos of nothing, meeting Rodriguez (with whom he perhaps had a generic "I like this place" conversation), calling it "an opportunity," and basically inserting himself into the Michigan QB conversation, then I would expect no other response from Tate. Let's all keep in mind that we have not heard a word from the coaching staff on this matter; the "meeting" between Rodriguez and Paulus has only been relayed through Paulus himself. Paulus, in the context of Tate Forcier's day, has not assimilated into the Michigan football program like David Cone or Denard Robinson, about whom Tate has spoken of highly. He is a basketball player who has reached an impasse in his potential profession and he is now searching for alternate routes to further his athletic career. To do so is not necessarily evil, but if he is trying to do it at the expense of Tate Forcier, you cannot ask Tate not to take offense.
Tate has never made a post like this about Cone because Cone enrolled at Michigan immediately after high school and has been a part of the athletic and academic community ever since. For the duration of his collegiate career he has been a member of the Michigan community. Paulus is a potential fifth-year transplant attempting to make a name for himself in Tate's place without (according to the Forciers' reports) an invitation from the coaching staff.
I find it supremely weird that anyone, whether you support a spot on the roster for Paulus or not, would decry Tate's facebook status as "douchey."
Solid post and I agree completely. I'm surprised the coaching staff is so quiet and I'm surprised Brian is so quiet about this.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:02 PM ^
brian not saying anything about this is the MOST shocking story development of the day.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:32 PM ^
...I guess you missed his front page post on the subject that he published yesterday. What more is there to say? Today's news is a non-story - Paulus was given a chance to compete - a bunch of people here assume RR offered him a scholarship though I haven't seen confirmation of that.
Forcier said good luck to Paulus, his coaches said there was no offer.
There's your story, right?
Beautiful.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:36 PM ^
+1 Well said
uhmmm....
denard is a threat to tate's starting job and i have yet to hear him say anything but positive statements....
No its not that he is just a threat, but he won't be a part of this team. Everyone in the locker room will know that he is coming here for one year, maybe a semester. Its fucking bullshit.
I hope espn picks THIS up tomorrow. Maybe paulus will get offended and not come so people can stop talking about it.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:01 PM ^
Not sure if anybody's put up the link from daily of interview with Tate, shocking:
http://www.michigandaily.com/content/2009-04-17/game-michigan-qb-tate-f…
April 16th, 2009 at 10:03 PM ^
WAIT A SECOND! Maybe this does make sense! Maybe Rich did this on purpose! I'll be he wanted to bring in some more competition so that Tate will work twice as hard this summer! Clever Rich Rod clever!
April 16th, 2009 at 11:04 PM ^
and boom goes the dynamite
April 16th, 2009 at 11:45 PM ^
The interview sounds like a little kid. I am really surprised by this because he has competition coming in this fall with Denard. He also made that comment along time ago to Kevin Newsome about competition. He seems like a little baby.
He is pissed cuz he picked this QB competition as the best place for him to start and get exposure IN THE COUNTRY. I mean that is kind of an insult if you know what I mean. He knows he can beat him, since he aint played in forever.
April 16th, 2009 at 11:49 PM ^
wait are you saying tate sounds like a baby or paulus sounds like a baby?
April 17th, 2009 at 12:30 AM ^
best way to solve this is to have paulus sign somewhere else asap
sorry tate, you seem like a great kid, but you're still acting like a kid. you need to learn to STFU and not talk to the media or make statements that people can bitch over. It started with that stupid qbforce website, and, if this is real, this twitter statement is no surprise. go watch Bull Durham. Learn your cliche's. Keep all the drama in house. You wanna talk trash to someone, great, just keep it out of the newspapers. Do it face to face.
Sucks that you have to grow up so quick, but that comes with the spotlight.
I don't think it's that big of a deal that Tate said what he said ON HIS Facebook status. Think about it, some hotshot punk Duke player comes way the hell out of nowhere and walks in DURING a practice, and probably acts like he is hot shit. Tate is not afraid of competition, he just sees a hotshot upperclassmen from one of the most hated basketball programs in the country trying to come in unannounced. I like Tate's attitude, it's about time we hear about some swagger in the UM program.
For the 800th time. Paulus was a 3 year starter until this year, when he lost his starting job, as a senior, to Eliot Williams and Nolan Smith. He was, by all accounts, a model teammate that helped those guys take over for him.
Conjecture is fun, isn't it?
April 17th, 2009 at 12:05 PM ^
O cmon. The Fab Five did this same thing.
April 17th, 2009 at 10:35 AM ^
I wish our kids wouldn't post in-house shit on facebook. Tate thinking this is one thing. Broadcasting it to thousands is another.