From personal experience, this is true. But to his credit, Paul left practice once to take me to the University hospital so that I didn’t have to see Dr A.
I was a victim. It ruined my life. Literally the very first thing that I experienced as an incredibly-proud-would-die-for-the-team player was a bewildering sexual assault by this pig of a “man”. Thank you for treating this story with the honesty that it deserves. I have a gallon of blood, many concussions, and every ounce of effort I had to make contributions to the glory to of Michigan Football. At the time I foolishly wondered if being sexually assaulted was just one of the many sacrifices for “The Team, The Team, The Team.” That mantra kept me and many others from reporting what happened to us for fear that it would stain the programs. I love Michigan Football, and I love the loyal fervor of all of its many fans. And I grew up in Michigan wanting to do anything to help the team. Wearing that jersey and winning a Rose Bowl was the height of my life. But trust me when I say that I paid and heavy, heavy price that saw me crying and vomiting at regular intervals since this report was released. I love Michigan. I always will. But it’s not perfect.
Perhaps you didn't understand the analogy. Nixon was guilty. Michigan was guilty, as it admitted. There is the anology. Pointing to someone who was innocent is meaningless in this context. Why don't you start a Rosenberg blog. I bet you will accumulate lots and lots of points on it.
Thank you for the advice to me "and other former letterwinners like [me]" on how to think and behave with respect to Michigan football. I am not sure where your perceived moral authority to do so is derived from, but unless you are channeling Bo then perhaps you should STFU. I "got with the program" for hundreds of hours a year and have a fist full of Big Ten Championship and a Rose Bowl Championship ring to show for it. You may disagree, but I consider myself more "with the program" than 99% of those, like you, who talk tough and/or pretend to be well-informed on blogs but never wore the helmet and only really know a fraction of what goes inside a football program.
You hate Rosenberg. I get it.
You think the violations were trivial. I agree.
But the NCAA's definition of repeat violations would certainly include these trivial "major" violations, and this is the very stain I spoke of in my original post.
I have no beef with Jim Harbaugh, and I am pretty sure he doesn't give two sh*ts about what you think.
Ahh...such condescension. Well-earned, no doubt. You have a view on what Michigan should stand for and I respect it. rss ssssvI I r, and ford
Rosenberg hurt the program, without question. But you are truly shooting the messenger, however flawed and conflicted might be. To essentially blame a reporter for the NCAA finding violations is absurd. RR was the captain of the ship. And any man worthy of coaching Michigan knows that the buck stops with him. It happened on his watch. Period. You cannot seriously dispute this.
Setting aside the NCAA's findings, Michigan football admitted to four major NCAA violations. That is unacceptable to me, and it should be to anyone else who loves Michigan. You are giving RR a pass that he doesn't deserve, irrespective of the Freep's role.
But why don't we take a peek at the findings that you referenced.
Page 1
"The Committee was particularly concerned that, even after the head football coach and his staff were specifically educated on multiple occasions regarding the rules that were eventually violated, the violations continued. The duty to ensure that his staff abided by all applicable rules resided with the head football coach. At the hearing he could not say with certainty that he read the educational materials provided to him."
Such words should not be uttered about Michigan's coach, particularly not by the NCAA. We deserve better from the man who holds that honor.
I am not just a fan. I am a former player who was a part of a run of five straight Big Ten titles. My teammates and I, like decades of players before and after us, were part of a clean program that cherished its well-deserved reputation for integrity. You can blame the Free Press for inviting the NCAA to the doors of Schembechler Hall. But what the NCAA found inside those doors is on RR's shoulders. We did, in fact, break NCAA rules. Silly rules, yes. But rules nonetheless. We are better than that, and I think you know that.
Dude...we are arguing semantics. Let me be a bit more direct:
1. Our violations were trivial.
2. The NCAA deemed them "major".
3. That is total BS.
4. The media doesn't care about #3.
5. This happened on RR's watch.
6. I do not forgive RR for #5.
It is one thing to suck for three years. It is quite another to break NCAA rules while sucking and get (unfairly) tarred with the same brush as Ohio and Miami. Blame the media all you want, but without RR's transgressions we are not in a position to be (totally unfairly) lumped in with Ohio and Miami. Bottom line: RR is responsible for the violaitons that are being totally misrepresented.
By the way, you totally miss the point. I am not arguing that our violations are on par with those that you reference. I am arguing that we are lumped in with those shcools by a media that won't spend the time to differentiate from the technically "major" (but total BS) and the actually major (prostitutes and abortions).
When we are lumped into articles with Ohio and Miami about the sorry state of college football, that, my friend, is a stain. I wish it were not true, but it is. Here is a quote from Sports Illustrated:
"The allegations against Miami have sparked what is just the latest in a string of NCAA investigations involving some of college football's most high-profile and successful programs. In the last 18 months, the football teams at Southern California, Ohio State, Auburn, Oregon, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia Tech and LSU all have either been investigated or sanctioned by the NCAA."
...three more years of the honest and decent Lloyd Carr to what a fishing Bill Martin and RR wrought. I recently saw a story on how many major programs had been investigated by the NCAA. Michigan was listed, of course. We can forget about the unwillingness to adapt his style to his talent and conference, his refusal to pay any meaningful attention to defense, and Josh Grobin, but the NCAA stain will never go away.
Although your response does not directly answer the question of whether an offense can score too fast, you have actually conceded the point that it can. If we take your example, namely that the more efficient offense should score as fast as possible to offset the weak defense, then that team's opponent should probably adopt the exact opposite strategy. If you are that opponent, you want to keep the more efficient offense off the field. And for that team you can certainly score too fast.
But the point of football is to score more points, not to score your points fast.
A review of the 2010 season statistics make this point clear. Michigan scored its 32.8 points per game in 27 minutes of possession, which is 1.2 points per minute of possession. Our opponents scored their 35.2 points per game in 33 minutes of possession, which is 1.07 points per minute of possession. So while we scored more points per minute of possession, we also scored fewer per 60 minutes. Which stat would you rather own, scoring more or scoring faster?
I also note that our points per game drops to 27.7 and our opponents' points per game rises to 36.5 if we exclude the very weak UMass, BGSU, and Indiana. That is a difference of 8.8 points per game, and it is thus no surprise that we were 4-5 in the rest of our games. So while we were still scoring fast, we were more than a TD behind for the rest of the season. What does it all mean? Over the course of our season scoring fast did not equate with scoring more than all but our worst opponents.
Mattison is saying that his defense will get stops. But if you don't think your D can stop the other team then of course your offense can score too fast. If your offense scores on half it's possessions and your opponent scores two thirds of the time, you will lose most games. So if your opponent's O is more efficient against your D than your O is against their D, then by all means you should do whatever is possible to limit your opponent's possessions. In other words, each of your opponent's possessions has a higher expected outcome than yours do, so you should limit their possessions by controlling the clock and playing more slowly. Every coach knows this. Only teams whose D can get stops benefit from playing quickly over the course of a game.
If you recall, Tressel said that he did not send the e-mails to anyone at tOSU because he thought they were "confidential" because they came from a lawyer. (To that point, as ESPN reported "Cicero said when he asked Tressel to keep the e-mails confidential, he meant that he would not go to the media or the public, not that Tressel couldn't inform the school or launch his own investigation.")
So, Jimbo, why can the "confidential" e-mails go to this yahoo but not to, you know, tOSU's compliance department?
Dude, you are completely full of sh*t and totally effed.
Curt was my teammate at Michigan and, despite decking me once during a non-contact seven-on-seven drill, is a great guy. His heritage gave him great football knowledge and instincts, and he had a natural toughness worthy of a Big Ten linebacker (he was not a DB). Curt also loves Michigan, something that will be unmistakable on the recruiting trail. I also love that we will have a former LB teaching DBs how to tackle.
I have to say that I am very happy about and proud of the recruting effort by Coach Hoke and his staff. DB handcuffed them a bit, but that seemed necessary given the pursuit of Harbaugh and the timing of the Orange bowl, and they sure have rallied. What is most impressive isthe simplified and no BS message to the players (as reported in post-visit interviews). There is a building sense of momentum around Michigan Football, and it is very exciting.
I was among the many who never thought RR was a good fit and the right representative of the Michigan Football tradition, and I was admittedly not someone who could bring himself to rally around him. I know think that perhaps that was a mistake and that my love of the program should transcend whomever the (I love to sail former) AD hires, but I just couldn't get past what were, to me, RR's obvious and massive shortcomings as a coach and a representative of the program. So it makes me a bit of a hypocrite to hope, urge, and suggest that we all rally around this coach, these players, and this team. But we have to.
May the noise from the Big House on five straight Saturdays to start the season be deafening and heard in Ganesville, Alabama, Orgeon, South Bend, or any other effing place that thinks it has a chance in hell of matching our pride, our tradition, and our status as the winningest program in history.
I believe Coach Mattison when he talks about Michigan being a special place to him and his family. The DC of the Ravens can pretty much be DC anywhere he wants to be, and there are no shortage of college and pro teams in transition, so I tend to believe that he gladly and proudly accepts the challenge of turning our defense into a bunch of swarming baddasses who know how to tackle.
As my prior post on the significance of the #10 in futbol should reveal, in addition to loving all things Michigan Football, I also love soccer. And in that realm, the ultimate fantasy is to see the US win the World Cup. So when I evaluate what happens in the world of soccer, I look at events through this lens: does this make it more or less likely that the US will win the World Cup. Looking at the world this way makes it easy for me to recognize progress or regression.
So WTF does this have to do with Michigan Football? Well, for me the ideal is winning National Championships, of course. So I look at everything through the lens of whether what is happening is getting us close to or further from a National Championship. But as a Michigan Man, the road to that glory includes, of course, as ass kicking of that school down south. And, to me, the kind of ass kicking that I most want to see is us running the ball down their throats. Imagine it is third and three around midfield in the fourth quarter and we bring in two extra tight ends. Our opponent has loads of beef on its DL and the play will be a test of wills, skill, and toughness.......And then we rip off a 17-yard run. And then an 11-yard run. And then a sixteen yard run. Tick, tick, tick, the clock is being bled and the opponent is absolutely at our mercy. To me, that is the ideal. To me, that is where I hope we are headed. And the portion of a story pasted below is what I hope to see:
"Michigan 31 Ohio State 23
Columbus, Nov. 25, 1995
Published in The Lantern, November 27, 1995
Ann Arbor, Mich. The lofty dreams of the 1995 Ohio State Buckeyes Rose Bowl berth, perfect record, national championship came crashing to the Michigan Stadium turf with a sobering thud Saturday afternoon.
Wolverine tailback Tshimanga Biakabutuka ripped the OSU defense for 313 rushing yards as the Wolverines stunned the Buckeyes 31-23 before 106,288 fans. The loss sends Ohio State to the Citrus Bowl for the second straight year and all but dashes any hopes of playing for the national title.
"I'm obviously disappointed," said OSU coach John Cooper. I don't know if I've ever been as disappointed in my life as I am right now."
So I ask, what is your ideal? What should we be trying to achieve?
Here is my view of an ideal decade:
At least one National Championship
At least two trips to the BCS Championship Game
At least six trips to BCS bowl games
At least five B1G Ten Championships
At least 6 wins against OSU, Notre Dame, Nebrasksa, and Penn State
I am not sure if this is why MSoccer10 uses a "10" in his user name, but the number 10 has historical significance in futbol, just like "1" jersey does with respect to Michigan Football. (Remember when a WR actually wore it?!"
"The Significance and Brief History of THE NUMBER 10
Initially numbers worn by soccer players were determined by the positions they played. For example the numbers 1 and 2 were assigned to goalkeepers, number 9 to the striker and number 10 to the attacking midfielder. Even then the number 10 player came to be regarded as the game changer, the problem solver, el maestro.
The initial numbering system meant that if players changed positions, then the number jersey they wore would be changed accordingly to reflect the new position.
This rule was changed however for the Word Cup of 1954 and as a result (with few exceptions) every player on a team was assigned a permanent number that they wore regardless of position changes.
Players now began to lay claim to certain numbers which consequently become jealously guarded. Only players deemed worthy of the continuing legacy associated with certain much coveted numbers e.g. numbers 7, 9 and 10 would even be considered when assigning said jerseys. The biggest honor however going to the player who earned the most prized and protected number of all, the number 10.
The number 10 is worn by the most creative, inventive, dynamic and often enigmatic of soccer players. They are usually regarded by team mates (sometimes grudgingly) and fans alike as ‘the difference maker’, ‘the game changer’, ‘the one who sees what no one else saw’ or sometimes simply as ‘the one’.
Iconic players whom have earned this most prize number includes the best of the best.
True Number 10's include icons such as Lionel Messi, Fransesco Totti, Zinedine Zidane, Kaka, Juan Roman Riquelme, Ronaldinho, Clarence Seedorf, Lothar Matthaus, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Marta, Diego Maradonna and, of course, Pele."
...on my helmet when I graduated and I cherished them. Still do. I grew up dreaming of wearing a Michigan helmet full of them, and all of my teammates were thrilled when they received them. And I like the idea of awarding individual excellence within a team concept. When I played we only got stickers if we won, so individual goals were only awarded when the entire team succeeded.
...is paying dividends. We are fortunate to have a guy direct from coaching All Pros in the NFL who can legitimately tell a recruit that he can teach him everything he needs to know to play on Sundays. That sells.
A much stronger defensive staff plus a year of experience will earn us an extra 3-4 stops a game next year, which keeps at least seven points of the board. 8 wins and this program gathers momentum.
I was actually saying that I don't love his offense and that it takes an incredibly rare player to run it.
I jumped into this thread to take exception with the suggestion that Brady Hoke is selling snake oil.
Is an invitation to leave or get a clue part of the MGoBlog welcome kit? I have read a few of your other posts and generally think you are smart enough not to label someone as clueless merely because you disagree with them. But perhaps the urge was irresistible this time.
It will be another decade before we find another Denard. He is special. If you think that there are plenty of Denards out there, then you must not think he is unique.
And I don't want to tell you how to think, but Auburn just won its first National Championship in fifty years. Not exactly a juggernaut. And Oregon has never won a Rose Bowl, let alone a National Championship, and is 2-6 in its last eight bowl games. This year's BCS title game featured as many turnovers as their were touchdowns: 4. And Oregon only had 75 yards rushing. So I hope you will understand why I do not share your awe at these teams and their offenses.
And Rich Rod's West Virginia teams played in a very weak conference and never finished ranked higher than sixth, while his Michigan teams averaged a 5-7 record.
So why does my questioning the efficacy of Rich Rod's spread (not Auburn's or Oregon's, which are quite different) render me clueless? It doesn't. Neither do my three Big Ten Championship and Rose Bowl Championship rings, M-Club ring or varsity letter.
...about telling the world that Michigan is going to get tougher, run the ball, and play defense. In fact, that IS Michigan football. Anything else, as we have learned with great suffering the last three years, is like mixing (snake) oil and water. Just like the State of Michigan, Michigan Football was built on muscle, not the deception of a gimmick offense that required a once in a decade talent at QB to make it work, an offense that left an under-manned defense on the field far too long. RichRod, my friend, is snake oil. Brady Hoke is meat and potatoes, and maybe a punch in the face for dessert.
.....having the right to do something with doing it being a good idea. For example, I have a right to pierce my ears with bullets, turn my hair into a pink Mohwak, and sing show tunes to my boss, but that doesn't make it a good idea.
Irrespective of how the Athletic Department is funded, someone can use FOIA to obtain information about the search process.
.....that Hoke would pull a bush-league SEC move. To suggest that he would do so just because he signed a player at our weakest position is unfair. At a very minimum we need competition at PK.
Recent Comments
From personal experience, this is true. But to his credit, Paul left practice once to take me to the University hospital so that I didn’t have to see Dr A.
I was a victim. It ruined my life. Literally the very first thing that I experienced as an incredibly-proud-would-die-for-the-team player was a bewildering sexual assault by this pig of a “man”. Thank you for treating this story with the honesty that it deserves. I have a gallon of blood, many concussions, and every ounce of effort I had to make contributions to the glory to of Michigan Football. At the time I foolishly wondered if being sexually assaulted was just one of the many sacrifices for “The Team, The Team, The Team.” That mantra kept me and many others from reporting what happened to us for fear that it would stain the programs. I love Michigan Football, and I love the loyal fervor of all of its many fans. And I grew up in Michigan wanting to do anything to help the team. Wearing that jersey and winning a Rose Bowl was the height of my life. But trust me when I say that I paid and heavy, heavy price that saw me crying and vomiting at regular intervals since this report was released. I love Michigan. I always will. But it’s not perfect.
This is a total fail.
Perhaps you didn't understand the analogy. Nixon was guilty. Michigan was guilty, as it admitted. There is the anology. Pointing to someone who was innocent is meaningless in this context. Why don't you start a Rosenberg blog. I bet you will accumulate lots and lots of points on it.
Kudos for the ability to admit you are wrong and to succintly explain why RR had to go.
Thank you for the advice to me "and other former letterwinners like [me]" on how to think and behave with respect to Michigan football. I am not sure where your perceived moral authority to do so is derived from, but unless you are channeling Bo then perhaps you should STFU. I "got with the program" for hundreds of hours a year and have a fist full of Big Ten Championship and a Rose Bowl Championship ring to show for it. You may disagree, but I consider myself more "with the program" than 99% of those, like you, who talk tough and/or pretend to be well-informed on blogs but never wore the helmet and only really know a fraction of what goes inside a football program.
You hate Rosenberg. I get it.
You think the violations were trivial. I agree.
But the NCAA's definition of repeat violations would certainly include these trivial "major" violations, and this is the very stain I spoke of in my original post.
I have no beef with Jim Harbaugh, and I am pretty sure he doesn't give two sh*ts about what you think.
This is an excellent point. The easy and common answer is to blame the Free Press, just as Nixon might blame the Washington Post.
Ahh...such condescension. Well-earned, no doubt. You have a view on what Michigan should stand for and I respect it. rss ssssvI I r, and ford
Rosenberg hurt the program, without question. But you are truly shooting the messenger, however flawed and conflicted might be. To essentially blame a reporter for the NCAA finding violations is absurd. RR was the captain of the ship. And any man worthy of coaching Michigan knows that the buck stops with him. It happened on his watch. Period. You cannot seriously dispute this.
Setting aside the NCAA's findings, Michigan football admitted to four major NCAA violations. That is unacceptable to me, and it should be to anyone else who loves Michigan. You are giving RR a pass that he doesn't deserve, irrespective of the Freep's role.
But why don't we take a peek at the findings that you referenced.
Page 1
"The Committee was particularly concerned that, even after the head football coach and his staff were specifically educated on multiple occasions regarding the rules that were eventually violated, the violations continued. The duty to ensure that his staff abided by all applicable rules resided with the head football coach. At the hearing he could not say with certainty that he read the educational materials provided to him."
Such words should not be uttered about Michigan's coach, particularly not by the NCAA. We deserve better from the man who holds that honor.
I am not just a fan. I am a former player who was a part of a run of five straight Big Ten titles. My teammates and I, like decades of players before and after us, were part of a clean program that cherished its well-deserved reputation for integrity. You can blame the Free Press for inviting the NCAA to the doors of Schembechler Hall. But what the NCAA found inside those doors is on RR's shoulders. We did, in fact, break NCAA rules. Silly rules, yes. But rules nonetheless. We are better than that, and I think you know that.
Go Blue.
That was well-said.
Dude...we are arguing semantics. Let me be a bit more direct:
1. Our violations were trivial.
2. The NCAA deemed them "major".
3. That is total BS.
4. The media doesn't care about #3.
5. This happened on RR's watch.
6. I do not forgive RR for #5.
It is one thing to suck for three years. It is quite another to break NCAA rules while sucking and get (unfairly) tarred with the same brush as Ohio and Miami. Blame the media all you want, but without RR's transgressions we are not in a position to be (totally unfairly) lumped in with Ohio and Miami. Bottom line: RR is responsible for the violaitons that are being totally misrepresented.
By the way, you totally miss the point. I am not arguing that our violations are on par with those that you reference. I am arguing that we are lumped in with those shcools by a media that won't spend the time to differentiate from the technically "major" (but total BS) and the actually major (prostitutes and abortions).
Love the bold and italics!
When we are lumped into articles with Ohio and Miami about the sorry state of college football, that, my friend, is a stain. I wish it were not true, but it is. Here is a quote from Sports Illustrated:
"The allegations against Miami have sparked what is just the latest in a string of NCAA investigations involving some of college football's most high-profile and successful programs. In the last 18 months, the football teams at Southern California, Ohio State, Auburn, Oregon, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia Tech and LSU all have either been investigated or sanctioned by the NCAA."
Stain.
...three more years of the honest and decent Lloyd Carr to what a fishing Bill Martin and RR wrought. I recently saw a story on how many major programs had been investigated by the NCAA. Michigan was listed, of course. We can forget about the unwillingness to adapt his style to his talent and conference, his refusal to pay any meaningful attention to defense, and Josh Grobin, but the NCAA stain will never go away.
...for the obsure reference and, even better, the keen eyes/ears who spotted it.
Does the countdown to MSU clock start out at Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes?
If you recall, Tressel said that he did not send the e-mails to anyone at tOSU because he thought they were "confidential" because they came from a lawyer. (To that point, as ESPN reported "Cicero said when he asked Tressel to keep the e-mails confidential, he meant that he would not go to the media or the public, not that Tressel couldn't inform the school or launch his own investigation.")
So, Jimbo, why can the "confidential" e-mails go to this yahoo but not to, you know, tOSU's compliance department?
Dude, you are completely full of sh*t and totally effed.
I have to say that I am very happy about and proud of the recruting effort by Coach Hoke and his staff. DB handcuffed them a bit, but that seemed necessary given the pursuit of Harbaugh and the timing of the Orange bowl, and they sure have rallied. What is most impressive isthe simplified and no BS message to the players (as reported in post-visit interviews). There is a building sense of momentum around Michigan Football, and it is very exciting.
I was among the many who never thought RR was a good fit and the right representative of the Michigan Football tradition, and I was admittedly not someone who could bring himself to rally around him. I know think that perhaps that was a mistake and that my love of the program should transcend whomever the (I love to sail former) AD hires, but I just couldn't get past what were, to me, RR's obvious and massive shortcomings as a coach and a representative of the program. So it makes me a bit of a hypocrite to hope, urge, and suggest that we all rally around this coach, these players, and this team. But we have to.
May the noise from the Big House on five straight Saturdays to start the season be deafening and heard in Ganesville, Alabama, Orgeon, South Bend, or any other effing place that thinks it has a chance in hell of matching our pride, our tradition, and our status as the winningest program in history.
So let me get this straight...He asks the cheerleading squad to undress him? I like the way he thinks.
I believe Coach Mattison when he talks about Michigan being a special place to him and his family. The DC of the Ravens can pretty much be DC anywhere he wants to be, and there are no shortage of college and pro teams in transition, so I tend to believe that he gladly and proudly accepts the challenge of turning our defense into a bunch of swarming baddasses who know how to tackle.
As my prior post on the significance of the #10 in futbol should reveal, in addition to loving all things Michigan Football, I also love soccer. And in that realm, the ultimate fantasy is to see the US win the World Cup. So when I evaluate what happens in the world of soccer, I look at events through this lens: does this make it more or less likely that the US will win the World Cup. Looking at the world this way makes it easy for me to recognize progress or regression.
So WTF does this have to do with Michigan Football? Well, for me the ideal is winning National Championships, of course. So I look at everything through the lens of whether what is happening is getting us close to or further from a National Championship. But as a Michigan Man, the road to that glory includes, of course, as ass kicking of that school down south. And, to me, the kind of ass kicking that I most want to see is us running the ball down their throats. Imagine it is third and three around midfield in the fourth quarter and we bring in two extra tight ends. Our opponent has loads of beef on its DL and the play will be a test of wills, skill, and toughness.......And then we rip off a 17-yard run. And then an 11-yard run. And then a sixteen yard run. Tick, tick, tick, the clock is being bled and the opponent is absolutely at our mercy. To me, that is the ideal. To me, that is where I hope we are headed. And the portion of a story pasted below is what I hope to see:
"Michigan 31 Ohio State 23
Columbus, Nov. 25, 1995
Published in The Lantern, November 27, 1995
Ann Arbor, Mich. The lofty dreams of the 1995 Ohio State Buckeyes Rose Bowl berth, perfect record, national championship came crashing to the Michigan Stadium turf with a sobering thud Saturday afternoon.
Wolverine tailback Tshimanga Biakabutuka ripped the OSU defense for 313 rushing yards as the Wolverines stunned the Buckeyes 31-23 before 106,288 fans. The loss sends Ohio State to the Citrus Bowl for the second straight year and all but dashes any hopes of playing for the national title.
"I'm obviously disappointed," said OSU coach John Cooper. I don't know if I've ever been as disappointed in my life as I am right now."
So I ask, what is your ideal? What should we be trying to achieve?
Here is my view of an ideal decade:
At least one National Championship
At least two trips to the BCS Championship Game
At least six trips to BCS bowl games
At least five B1G Ten Championships
At least 6 wins against OSU, Notre Dame, Nebrasksa, and Penn State
At least 7 wins against MSU and Wisconsin
At least 8 wins against the rest of the B1G Ten
80% winning percentage at home
70% winning percentage on the road
75% winning percentage overall
No NCAA violations
90% graduation rate
Lead the nation in attendance
I am not sure if this is why MSoccer10 uses a "10" in his user name, but the number 10 has historical significance in futbol, just like "1" jersey does with respect to Michigan Football. (Remember when a WR actually wore it?!"
"The Significance and Brief History of THE NUMBER 10
Initially numbers worn by soccer players were determined by the positions they played. For example the numbers 1 and 2 were assigned to goalkeepers, number 9 to the striker and number 10 to the attacking midfielder. Even then the number 10 player came to be regarded as the game changer, the problem solver, el maestro.
The initial numbering system meant that if players changed positions, then the number jersey they wore would be changed accordingly to reflect the new position.
This rule was changed however for the Word Cup of 1954 and as a result (with few exceptions) every player on a team was assigned a permanent number that they wore regardless of position changes.
Players now began to lay claim to certain numbers which consequently become jealously guarded. Only players deemed worthy of the continuing legacy associated with certain much coveted numbers e.g. numbers 7, 9 and 10 would even be considered when assigning said jerseys. The biggest honor however going to the player who earned the most prized and protected number of all, the number 10.
The number 10 is worn by the most creative, inventive, dynamic and often enigmatic of soccer players. They are usually regarded by team mates (sometimes grudgingly) and fans alike as ‘the difference maker’, ‘the game changer’, ‘the one who sees what no one else saw’ or sometimes simply as ‘the one’.
Iconic players whom have earned this most prize number includes the best of the best.
True Number 10's include icons such as Lionel Messi, Fransesco Totti, Zinedine Zidane, Kaka, Juan Roman Riquelme, Ronaldinho, Clarence Seedorf, Lothar Matthaus, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Marta, Diego Maradonna and, of course, Pele."
Content of our character, not color of our skin.