Will there be a UGA UFR
Know we are in uncharted territory here and unfortunately did not end the season with a win, will there be a post-playoff UFR?
I might be in the minority, but I am quite curious to see whether this game could have been closer or if this was going to be the result 90% of the time. Hutchinson and Ojabo also did next to nothing which is crazy considering they will be first round picks.
January 8th, 2022 at 9:02 PM ^
In his columns, Seth indicated he was working on a UFR.
January 8th, 2022 at 9:29 PM ^
He also said it on the Roundtable.
January 9th, 2022 at 8:43 AM ^
Already out. It's called Crime and Punishment. Available at your local library.
January 9th, 2022 at 12:43 PM ^
Just shove a couple of these in the eyes, same thing.
January 8th, 2022 at 9:02 PM ^
Probably yes, but it doesn't have to be done any time soon. Seth deserves some time off after doing so much for the blog for most of the 2021 calendar year.
January 8th, 2022 at 9:20 PM ^
Seth's neck sharpies post on the UGA talent advantage was a precursor, I do believe.
Seth's UFR's are unbelievably detailed. The time he puts forth to create quality content is second to none. As I read through them I honestly think how long it would take me to do something like that. I can't even imagine...
Seth - were you formerly "Misopogon" with the yellow M hard hat avatar? By any chance were you a chemical engineer at M?
January 8th, 2022 at 10:13 PM ^
Obviously I’m not Seth but he did go by that name and it’s still his twitter handle
January 8th, 2022 at 11:31 PM ^
That's him, but I'm pretty sure he studied history and/or journalism.
January 9th, 2022 at 12:04 AM ^
Thanks to all that replied with answers. I appreciate the info.
January 9th, 2022 at 10:16 AM ^
He doesn’t seem smart enough for engineering.
January 9th, 2022 at 12:19 AM ^
You know, Seth has really been an MGoBlog iron man this season, not only continuing his own stuff (Neck Sharpies) but taking on the UFRs (which must be a huge job each week) and other front page duties. And the quality has not dropped a bit!
January 9th, 2022 at 10:24 AM ^
Yeah "Misopogon" was my my internet name when we all had those. I wasn't a chemical engineer at Michigan--I worked on the Daily (which at times was a football-level time commitment) and got my degree in History. I couldn't complete a minor in French because 2 courses at La Sorbonne would not translate to French credit and I would have needed another semester.
I learned engineering from my first real job in publishing: Pollution Engineering, a trade magazine for environmental consultants. We focused on water/wastewater, air, and solid waste. In 2003 I took a tour of the Ypsi water treatment center and met all the players along with my editor, and I was the only non-engineer in the room. That was my wake-up call that I had to learn that stuff if I was going to be able to cover any of this. I finally earned some cred with a column and podcast and newsletter called EPA Watch, where I would track the federal register for EPA notices and explain what they meant. I got really good at reading the Stephen L. Johnson administration (under GW Bush) and what they meant by different things. I also had a version that tracked state things called States Rules.
I started at PE as the products editor, and moved up through Managing Editor, Associate Editor, Associate Publisher, then Publisher, the only guy from the editorial ranks at BNP Media to ever become the boss of a magazine. I made my mark by showing I could do two full-time jobs for the price of one. There was rarely enough money at PE, which was paying off its purchase debt, so I would take on a second associate editor position on another of the magazines the company owned, usually one on safety (Industrial Safety & Hygiene News) because OSHA was a lot like EPA so I could just copy my system. I spent 2004-2006 working for Security Magazine, which was a fount of weird stories since that is a weird ass industry filled with people too unbelievable for the movies. In 2006 PE got a great publisher--Doug Glenn, my mentor, though you would never peg us as similar people (he's a health nut, a deeply religious Christian, and conservative). Doug turned PE's fortunes around, and made me PE full-time, and let me create things. I got us into newsletters, had a popular podcast before most people knew what those were, and--this really endeared me to the sales staff because they got all the money--found sponsors for them. One of my tricks was I would work with the people who put on the big trade shows and they would always have marketing budget to spend but didn't fit the normal system for sales territories. Then Doug and I worked with the sponsor I got for the podcast to create a new trade show that we owned, RemTec (about Remediation, which technologies exploded during my time there).
When Doug was needed to save another magazine, he and the salespeople convinced the company to name me (just 28) publisher of PE in 2008. Of course that was the worst year on record to be the publisher of a print trade magazine, but I learned about printing, and understood what Maple Street Press was doing with HTTV, and that we could do a much better job without them. There was nothing to sell and no way to make money except cut, so I just treated the staff well and let the magazine bleed while I wrote more for MGoBlog.
By Christmas 2010 the magazine was still barely making money (you were graded on whether each issue made more than the year before), and in Feb 2011 I was out. They gave me a job as editor of Appliance Design, but by then I was doing MGoBlog on the side as a full-time job basically, since I took over advertising when TomVH left. I really half-assed AD. The rest of the staff were all in Chicago so I had no oversight of my staff, and my publisher had no oversight over me and was insecure about the fact that I came from the same level as him and knew all his bullshit, and once they took away my corner office in Troy I worked from home most of the time.
So that was going to fail. After my third drive to (north of) Chicago in 2 weeks and after I got my check for the first HTTV that I published (2012) and a good check for advertising I decided I'm going to try doing MGoBlog and build a business out of preview magazines, since my wife was now done with her master's and we had insurance through her job even though it paid worse than I ever made at BNP. I had a meeting with Brian outside of his crappy apartment--the two of us leaning on his car in the parking lot for 2 hours before the 2012 season--and he said monetize the podcast. The other preview mags failed, and I got taken by a scammer in 2014, and ad revenue was shit because the sponsors all pulled back, and all told I lost money that year after having a kid and buying a house. Our savings were gone by November, and we embarrassingly had to let family know we couldn't afford gifts that year, and my dad had just died that summer so the safety net was gone and I was not in great shape mentally; if Harbaugh hadn't come along I probably would have gone back, tail between my legs, to the trade publishing industry.
January 9th, 2022 at 11:17 AM ^
From 1994-2001 I worked on the financial statement audit of the Ypsi wastewater treatment plant (YCUA). I spent a couple months out there each year and loved it. You get used to the smell. Anyway, I got several tours and was blown away by the engineering involved in how it was built. An engineering marvel as I would say, and I know nothing about engineering. Absolutely fascinating how the process works from wastewater entering the facility to how it eventually leaves as ash being hauled away by trucks.
I can totally relate to your story. Life can be a grind while you're finding your way but once you get there, there is a lot of gratitude to be shared for the path you had to take. And I'm in no hurry for that UFR.
January 9th, 2022 at 7:26 PM ^
It is. I bet I could find the article we did on it. Was a front page feature, but I have to dig up the hard copy since the magazine went under some years ago and the archives are no longer online.
January 9th, 2022 at 11:26 AM ^
You know, I almost didn't even click on this thread, because I really don't have much desire to relive the Georgia game, but I'm glad I did and stumbled upon this retelling of your professional adventures.
2022 has started off rough for me, and there's more turbulence to come on both the career and family fronts, but it's always heartening to here about comrades who have overcome their own struggles to reach a much better, healthier place. Thanks for sharing this, Seth. It's the kind of thing that makes this site so freaking awesome.
January 9th, 2022 at 1:33 PM ^
Maybe you should think twice about invading Ukraine? Seems like that would take care of a lot of problems.
in all seriousness, hope all is well. You’re one of my favorite posters.
January 9th, 2022 at 12:11 PM ^
Thanks for sharing this. Your work on the blog has been amazing - we all hope you keep it up!
January 9th, 2022 at 2:58 PM ^
What is the corporate body of The University of Michigan “chemically engineering?” - sounds ominous.
January 8th, 2022 at 9:34 PM ^
To add to the above...Seth said on WTKA this week that he had just received the all-22 footage to begin doing the UFR - as the primary broadcast footage was awful for his purposes.
January 8th, 2022 at 9:48 PM ^
I feel like today is finally the right day to ask about initials, so what’s UFR stand for?
January 8th, 2022 at 10:04 PM ^
Upon Further Review
January 8th, 2022 at 10:27 PM ^
I always just called them Ufers like Bob Ufer.
January 8th, 2022 at 11:30 PM ^
Understated Formal Regalia
OR
Useful F*ckin' Rehash
I think it changes, depending on the season.
January 8th, 2022 at 11:36 PM ^
Unbiased Forward Rate, for the exchange market / finance nerds out there.
I usually just tell people, "Just pronounce it like Ufer, and then explain that the fourth Q is silent"
January 8th, 2022 at 11:58 PM ^
There is a handy Glossary under the "About" pull-down menu
January 9th, 2022 at 7:09 AM ^
Uniform Financial Report.
January 8th, 2022 at 9:59 PM ^
Hutch and Ojabo did nothing because the ball was already out of the Qb's hand over to the sideline in .00023 seconds every play. We were thrown off every single time too.
January 9th, 2022 at 9:43 AM ^
I remember one play where Dax blitzed and was untouched and the ball had to be thrown within less than a second. But Cook was 10 feet in front of whatever linebacker was covering him and they got a touchdown.
January 8th, 2022 at 11:45 PM ^
Here’s the analysis:
1. Georgia is more talented;
2. This wasn’t the Michigan team that clobbered OSU; and
3. This wasn’t the UGA team that got beat by Bama.
January 9th, 2022 at 10:05 AM ^
That sums it up and those are the facts. We can ask how did that happen.
1) Michigan cooled off too long, 27 days in between games
2) Georgia had all that time to out scheme Michigan
3) Georgia's fan base ridiculed their team for losing to 'Bama which got them angry
4) Michigan's fan base was all warm and fuzzy and our guys got accolades, and well deserved
5) It was a warm and humid night which could have have slowed our guys down more so
January 9th, 2022 at 8:14 AM ^
I'll read it, but there's really no point. It was a competitive mismatch. I still have the all-22 broadcast DVR'd, but have no desire to watch it. How sad is that? Maybe later this summer...
That crapfest of a post aside, I don't think Michigan is that far away. The second half was kind of a combo of Michigan realizing what they were up against and playing better as a result, and Georgia letting off the gas a little. Nonetheless, a few players here and there, and Michigan is right there.
What players you ask? An OC with more strength and athleticism than Vastardis (dude played GREAT this year, but was plain overmatched against UGA). Linebackers more like Devin Bush than Josh Ross (again, dude plays GREAT, but can't cover pass catchers to save his life). I do think that athleticism and strength are already being dealt with in the secondary and DL.
I'm way looking forward to next year, and now am waiting for UFR to see if my thoughts are accurate! WHERE THE HELL IS UFR??? (J/K, Seth!!)
January 9th, 2022 at 8:27 AM ^
Basically, we had one advantage. Pass rush. They took that away with quick passes to superior players in space. We had no answer.
On offense, we ran into a team that we couldn't run against, but as usual, we have no commitment to establishing a passing game during the season -- so we had no plan B. You would've thought the coaches would've recognized the issue in the month of prep, but there's a neverending belief that any battle on the ground can be won by being more physical. I believe Harbaugh even said something about it at halftime to the sideline reporter. "We have to be more physical on offense". However, it's hard to "out physical" a 6'8" 380lb man-boulder. Hopefully one day we'll commit to passing in games in preparation for future games, rather than showing how powerful our run game is against Western Michigan and Northwestern. Alabama couldn't run on Georgia. Thinking we could run on them was embarrassing, especially given the month to get ready.
It was hard to tell who got whipped harder, the coaches or the players. I lean towards the coaches, bc Bowl prep has been terrible under Harbaugh.
January 9th, 2022 at 9:02 AM ^
Honest question..did you read the neck sharpies post Seth did after Georgia??
M tried to do its magic in the run game - which is more than just “man ball hur hur hur!!” - by running various looks to get numbers advantages where they wanted them. UGA just said “nope”, ran their normal defense and relied on superior athleticism to offset the manpower disadvantage.
As for going to a pass-first offense, you saw pretty quickly why that wasn’t going to work with Cade once they got down 17….he just isn’t athletic enough to deal with the UGA rush if they can “disregard” the run.
If you are suggesting that they should have planned on jettisoning everything they had done year-to-date AND change starting QBs as an admission that GA was just flat better you do not understand this staff.
M may have underestimated UGA, but there is only so much you can outscheme a talent gap that big**. If anything it seems to have reinforced that with Harbaugh and thus pushed the focus on recruiting and NIL that are rumored to be some of the big items in the current negotiations with M.
** OSU actually trails ‘Bama and UGA in the 247 roster talent numbers by a bit of a margin but more importantly had noticeable gaps in the distribution of that talent (LB and elsewhere on defense). M also spent significant more time scheming a game plan for OSU than UGA.
January 9th, 2022 at 9:38 AM ^
Perhaps you're right? Yeah, you have to be right...
Michigan should have dumped the offense it took Gattis 3 years to figure out and installed an Air Raid for this. And used plenty of tempo all game long to tire out Jordan Davis, because that would do it! I mean, Michigan football has been really good with tempo offense for dozens of years now...
January 9th, 2022 at 9:58 AM ^
Georgia schemed Hutchinson and Ojabo's abilities so well that they were able to have Stetson get rid of the ball very quickly so there's no blame there.
The only way that this game would have been closer would have been to play it a week after the conference championship game while Michigan was very hot and Georgia stunned in it's loss to 'Bama. (IMHO) There would have been much less time for Georgia to out-scheme Michigan.
January 9th, 2022 at 10:22 AM ^
Awesome looking forward to it!
January 9th, 2022 at 10:05 AM ^
It could have been worse
January 9th, 2022 at 10:50 AM ^
I would like to see one. Reason being is that I thought Michigan actually played pretty well, but ran into a team that had scouted them like their very life and existence depended on it. The biggest play in the game, from a standpoint of the game being reasonably close or not, was the Gray “stop running” moment on the deep route. I think our the front 7 were starting to find their legs a bit and that was a spirit-crusher. Don’t think we would have sniffed a W but think it would have been a 2 score game all said and done if he breaks that up.
January 9th, 2022 at 12:13 PM ^
Might look something like this.
January 9th, 2022 at 12:21 PM ^
1. We got RPS-ed to death - Georgia had weeks to prepare for this game after an embarrassing loss to Bama. Clearly the team was focused on taking out their frustration on us.
2. The talent gap was sizable - you don't beat teams with 12+ 5-star guys with a 2-3 5-star team unless the 12+ team is asleep.
3. Not sure what OUR gameplan was but clearly we didn't have any answers for the 3-step drops, pressure, etc. We didn't have good weeks of practice.
4. This was a game that was lost at halftime and should have been JJ's coming out party in the 2nd half. The EZ pick by Cade was not surprising (even though Baldwin lost the ball). He wasn't that great when under pressure - and we had done a good job for the most part keeping him clean this year (Cade looked like the 2nd half of Rutgers or 4th quarter vs. MSU).
5. We lose probably 8 or 9 out of 10 vs. a team this talented that is not one to be gouged by good running teams. Look at the UGA-Ark game - the domination was similar.