Recent Comments

Yikes, I must've hit a wrong link somewhere. Thanks for the heads up on the RPI—going through and fixing those now.

Yup.

I've said this elsewhere, but I don't think Robinson was ever under serious consideration. He's 6'2", 230 pounds, and plays more like a strongside end than a weakside end. Given Marshall is the more explosive athlete and has a longer frame, he's a much better fit for what the coaches want—they're building a really big D-line, and Marshall could end up packing on the pounds like Frank Clark did. I'm not sure Robinson could do that and still be effective.

Brown is still a long way from narrowing things down (he just named a top ten a few weeks ago) and making a decision, and he hasn't visited campus, so until either of those things happen I'm having a hard time entertaining him as a serious possibility.

That said, if Brown showed interest he'd be making a decision late in the cycle—he hasn't visited several of his top schools, after all—and by that time the coaches would have a better idea of the final class numbers (and likely know the destinations of McDowell and Marshall). They could look at Brown as a potential alternative to Hand, should he go elsewhere, or if there's room for both I doubt they'd turn down any interested five-stars in this class—again, there aren't enough pressing needs for the coaches to turn down the best players available late in the game.

At this point I'd consider Brown quite a longshot, though, so this probably won't be relevant.

Tacopants has managed to remain invisible for nearly a decade, so I think this should work out quite nicely, actually.

Unless one of the programs in contention has a particularly great (or terrible) season, I doubt 2013 wins and losses are going to make a huge difference in Hand's recruitment. He seems very serious about the academic side of things and how well he connects with the coaches—Bud Foster is the reason VT is on top, and Greg Mattison is developing a similarly-strong relationship with Hand—and I think those will be much bigger factors than how each team does this fall. These guys are looking at the next 4-5 years, not where the team is the year before they get on campus.

I was going to post that, but when I went to check Peppers' feed the tweet was no longer there. Think it stirred up a little bit too much of a reaction, but I doubt the sentiment has changed.

Thank you—very much appreciate the incredible level of support I get from the people on this blog.

It means a lot to me to know that this has reached someone else in the CFS/ME community, buddhafrog. I've been around a couple people who also were diagnosed in the very early days, and I know that must have been very, very difficult, and I completely understand your decision not to tell anyone. If, as you said, this helped you get through that in any way, that's the best thing that could've come out of writing this.

On a personal note, if you ever feel the need to talk to someone who knows (at least some) of what you're going through, don't hesitate to send me an email.

Thanks for pointing me in that direction—here's the direct link for those wondering. Even with a solid knowledge of the illness I maybe understood half of that on first glance, but I'm excited about the recent progress towards unearthing the root cause instead of simply trying to deal with symptoms as they come.

I'm 99% convinced that Mitch McGary holds the cure to all fatigue-related illnesses, and am subsequently trying to convince Heiko to slightly alter his field of study.

Thank you, everyone, for the overwhelming and touching response to this. I'm incredibly lucky to be a part of the MGoCommunity—your support doesn't just keep me employed, it keeps me motivated to continue doing what I do.

Brian is out of pocket because he's in the midst of a move, I'm attempting to write a longform piece today, and other outlets were running with the story. I'd agree that, in light of what's been revealed about Heitner, his report didn't deserve the attention it received. But it also received a ton of attention, and at least this way a more complete version of the story is on the front page for those who have come across the original report and want to know more.

But yes, it turned out Heitner isn't front-page material, and I apologize for any unnecessary consternation posting this has caused.

Backtracking from a reckless, blanket statement and then ending the argument when it's convenient for you is, I'll admit, a pretty surefire way to win every argument you participate in. Congratulations.

Yeah, because even disregarding that small turn of phrase you pointed out, it's impossible to tell that BiSB wrote this instead of Brian. No variation or originality, really.

BiSB, you are awarded no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Webber#Charity

I'm a pretty big NBA fan. The only people I've heard say bad things about Chris Webber are Michigan fans—a certain set of Michigan fans that feels personally betrayed by the Ed Martin scandal—and I'd love to see those fans give the man a chance to prove he's grown up and moved forward since he was 18 (or, if you'd prefer, in the decade since he lied to a grand jury). There's a whole lot of positive that could come out of the Fab Five reconciling with Michigan, and the only negative I see is bitter fans who don't want to be reminded of an era that the program has obviously moved beyond.

Take a moment and read the letter—Yago Colas is a phenomenal writer and he makes a compelling argument. Personally, I'd love to see this happen.

Oh wow, no idea how I missed that the first time through. Here's an HQ version:

You've got some explaining to do yourself, BiSB:

Pretty sure that's the only angle CBS showed—there wasn't a timeout until well after it happened, and they didn't show a replay going into or coming out of the next break. Haven't seen another angle in the highlights, either. Definitely disappointing, since I'd like a wide-angle look at it, too.

This is not a McGary/Horford vs. LeVert/Vogrich proposition, though. Beilein's offense is designed to have four players who can shoot from the perimeter. Playing two bigs is something he's been more open to this year, but it still bogs down what he can do offensively. In a system designed around spacing and outside shooting, having two big guys who can't shoot isn't ideal.

Meanwhile, Michigan's guards need the occasional break, too, and LeVert is one of the team's best perimeter defenders. Vogrich really isn't part of the rotation, so I'm not even sure why he's being mentioned here—the guy has maybe played 10 meaningful minutes since conference play began.

Michigan has the country's second most efficient offense. Wisconsin is 50th.

Why do they want to be more like Wisconsin, again?

Jack's actually a pretty huge sports fan himself, and talks about being at that game much the same way I do.

He did, however, hate to be photographed as a kid. This hasn't stopped him from complaining about how there aren't any good pictures of him in the family photo albums.

As for my thoughts on Trey coming back—well, I felt like I'd be missing a huge opportunity if I didn't write this piece now. I certainly don't expect him to be back, and I think he'd be making the right choice.

Whoops, thanks. And I claim to write professionally...

I'm pretty sure he did not visit over the weekend—wasn't on the list of planned visitors and I haven't seen a word about him being on campus.

Indeed I did. Thanks.

"These posts are actually quite popular—we've had a ton of good feedback on these. I'm pretty sure you're very much in the minority."  

 

If this is the case, then why did you first say, "I keep seeing complaints like this and I don't get it." when replying to me?

http://mgoblog.com/users/shop-smart-shop-s-mart

I figured it out. All the complaints I saw were yours.

I keep seeing complaints like this and I don't get it.

1. Every outlet—including us!—posts video highlights. They are not hard to find.

2. Using gifs allows people whose workplace blocks YouTube and the like to see these.

3. The gif format has its own merits—I can edit them (see: Hardaway's trollface), for one, much easier than I can with video. Also, the fact that they loop allows one to get repeated viewings of a play without having to reload a video over and over.

I'm sure there are more reasons, but I guess my main point is that if you don't like gifs, don't click on a gifs post.

I'll put it this way: unless chunkums decides to stick with strictly scatological humor, that'll be the last "Poop Gif" I post for a while.

The guy who runs it (Coach Brown) is a little rough around the edges at this point—so were Tom and Steve when they started, and I cringe re-reading some of my old stuff—but it's free info and legit. If two places have the same info I do my best to link the free blog over the paywalled content.

There are over 11 months until Signing Day. Westphal hasn't had the chance to visit any other school more than once outside of two in-state schools (Northwestern and Illinois). He also has offers from all over the country and a good chance at picking up many more.

I'd hold off on calling him indecisive. He's one of the few guys who's even given a decision timeline.

Just to be clear, since this was asked—the information I had went beyond what was in the interview, but I'm still comfortable with the decision to remove that part of the post.

I'll agree that this is not the ideal forum for such a discussion. I'm not trying to imply that the guy committed a crime nor that he needs to be thrown in jail or anything of the sort. That's up to the girl to decide what to do, which is what I tried to express.

It's possible what he did was in part an accident, but he still grabbed a woman he doesn't know in an area that he shouldn't be grabbing. I don't think that's up for dispute at this point.

Yes.

Usually I try to give the consensus of the recruit, but since rankings just got released for 2014 sometimes I go with what's in the article I'm linking. Moving forward I'll do my best to give the most accurate consensus ranking—sometimes I'm up against a deadline and opening four tabs for every recruit is cumbersome.

Of the guys I think Michigan has a legitimate shot at, here's a quick list (I'm writing this off the top of my head, so any glaring omissions are likely exactly that):

1. Da'Shawn Hand — Top prospect in the country has M in his top five, so he's a clear choice for number one.

2. Malik McDowell — If he played against better competition in HS I think he'd have a great chance at being a five-star. As it is, he's still very close.

3. Drake Harris — Getting a top-flight wideout would be big. Getting a top-flight in-state wideout from State (and OSU, and the rest of the country...) would be bigger.

4. Jabrill Peppers and/or Adoree' Jackson — I'm cheating here, but grabbing an elite corner would be great, and both of these guys have expressed legitimate interest. Still just an outside shot for both, IMO.

5. Damian Prince — Ditto for this five-star OL.

6. Mason Cole — Top-100 offensive lineman who Michigan may very well lead for.

7. Alex Bars — Ditto.

8. Tyler Luatua — I'd love to see Michigan continue to stockpile talent at TE, and he's the best in the country.

9. Parrker Westphal — Getting him would ease a lot of the hurt from losing Damon Webb to OSU (Webb would be high up on this list, but he seems firm in his commitment).

10. Artavis Scott — Cole's HS teammate is a hell of an athlete at WR and they could be a package deal.

I'm sure I left out several worthy candidates, but that's a rough list. All of the above guys have at least mentioned Michigan as being in contention. Of the above, they've got the best shot at landing McDowell, Cole, Westphal, Bars, and Scott, IMO.

Mo-nay, I believe.

Thanks for the idea, NFG. I wish I didn't have such a depressingly perfect time to unveil it.

Haha, my bad. Added a note.

That one's great too, but I'm looking for the actual facepalm—happened during the game.

Yes. Can somebody track down the gif and/or video of Facepalm Guy? Brian's original video got pulled, unfortunately, and I'm busy putting together Part Two and the Wisconsin preview.

Ondre Pipkins barely played last year and he had a much better recruiting profile than Hurst. I wouldn't expect a true freshman DT to come in and play much, if at all.

Norfleet was a four-star Detroit kid with great film who was committed to Cincinnati and his lack of an offer was inexplicable. There isn't a guy out there like that this year. Not saying there won't be a surprise offer, but it'll be much more of a surprise than Norfleet's.

There were a lot of issues with updating the 2013 board (both tech issues and my own personal time issues)—at this point, there's absolutely no point in updating it for this class.

The plan is to put together the 2014 board as a Wiki (yes, complete with the smileys) and have it be user-updated; it's worth keeping around but it takes a lot of time to keep updated.

This is very true, and should probably have been mentioned. I am in no way advocating for a reduced role for Morgan—think there's too much noise in these numbers to take away anything definitive, and he best fits Beilein's defensive philosophy.

This is what happens when you only get six months to edit.

Cornwell and Caleb Henderson (out of Virginia) are the two main ones. Michael O'Connor could be in the mix as well—Michigan was recruiting him as a 2015 prospect before he reclassified.

All the buzz around Cornwell makes me think he'll be the first one to get an offer and then the coaches will go from there if he doesn't commit.

As the Cornwell thing suggests, I think you'll see at least one 2014 QB offer go out soon. If you're only going to take one or two QBs, you have to minimize the chance that you get a guy who's a bust—I think the coaches are doing the right thing by taking as much time as they need to evalutate the available prospects. Remember, there's still a year before signing day, and unlike the 2013 class there's no obvious blue-chip in-state prospect.

Along those lines, I wouldn't expect Jayru Campbell to get an offer in the imminent future. He's still got a ways to go as a QB, especially with his accuracy; Michigan is looking for strong pocket passers, so he's got to prove he can stand in the pocket and hit his targets. With more than two years before Campbell can sign, they've got a lot of time to evaluate him before they need to make a choice about an offer.

That's simply not going to happen. I think Morris has a ton of potential but he needs time to develop. Gardner proved himself to be very capable against Big Ten defenses last year despite practicing largely at wide receiver; there's no way the coaches are going to want to start a true freshman over a proven commodity.

The only way I see him starting next year is if Gardner gets hurt, and if that happens it's going to be trouble. That's not a knock on Morris; it's just extremely difficult to step right in as a freshman—enrolling just a couple weeks before the season starts, no less—and be anything but overwhelmed.

The recruiting rankings will be back—between basketball season and the increasing number of teams in the rankings update, I've had a harder time finding a chance to update the spreadsheet on the weekend. I'll have a pre-NSD update and obviously final rankings post-NSD.

It was #1 on Thursday night, if memory serves.

Not to be a killjoy, but unless Foster visits campus at some point—which seems doubtful—there's about a 0% chance of that happening.

There's no way the staff doesn't leave room for Green; if they have to hold off on accepting other commitments until he makes his decision, they'll do so.

There's something like that in the works—a gif depository of sorts so there's a permanent home for all the mgogifs. I like the idea of adding a HoF section. This likely will happen post-basketball season so I have the time to get everything organized, and I'm guessing you'll see some sort of SBNation-style gif tournament as well during the offseason—perhaps that can have some bearing on the HoF nominees.

Whoops. Thanks for that.

I'll be honest—I've drafted two of those, and at this point they've both been sitting there long enough that they would require an extensive rewrite. I'm optimistic I'll be able to use one. The other, not so much.

In related news, I've stopped pre-writing Hello posts unless a commitment is pretty much inevitable.

I don't think McCray would've seen the field much next year. He's at by far the weakest linebacker spot on the team depth-wise (SLB) and would still be behind Jake Ryan and Cam Gordon.

I'm passive-aggressively angling for a raise.

Yeah, don't try to translate the individual numbers to team numbers—that produces the doubling up that you anticipated. Michigan is at 1.17 points per possession, which is still quite good.

Basketball UFRs are D-E-D dead—way too much time for something with dubious actual value. I'll start doing more post-game analysis and stuff like the above, however, especially once Big Ten season starts. Looking into doing some stuff with shooting heat maps; Michigan compiles shooting data for the home games, and I just have to figure out how to put it into a database and produce the charts. (If anyone has suggestions or knowledge of how to do so, please get in touch with me.)

Considering these comments and my love for Biggie, I might have to start calling these "Life After Death".

In all seriousness, I'm open to suggestions—went with what we had from last year because I was rushed writing the first preview and didn't think of anything better.

For the love of... STOP MESSING WITH MY HEAD, WHICH APPARENTLY WORKS BETTER THAN I GIVE IT CREDIT FOR, BiSB.

Right now they've got 24 spots available, so two more open spots in the class, but that assumes no further attrition, which won't be the case. Expect it to get at least to 25, possibly as high as 27—Michigan can backdate some of the planned early enrollees (Bosch, LTT, Butt, Charlton, Thomas).

I'm enjoying the fact that my typos and formatting errors are being interpreted as trolling and inside jokes. Alas, they're not.

Let me put it this way: Michigan has done all they can do within reason to try to land Treadwell. He's been on campus six times, including visiting with his mom. They've shown him plenty of love. They've had him as the top wide receiver on their board for the duration of the recruiting cycle.

It's possible the staff hasn't been pushing for a commitment as hard as Ole Miss/Oklahoma/Oklahoma State in recent weeks. It's also possible that Treadwell is looking for more than Michigan is willing to offer, whether that's guaranteed playing time or whatever.

If Treadwell ends up elsewhere, and that appears likely, it's not because the staff didn't do their best to land him. And if they've backed off, they have good reason to do so. You don't just stop recruiting the #1 wideout in the country when there's a huge need and he's shown great interest.

That would put Illinois behind Indiana, which is equally ridiculous as the Illini being ahead of Ohio State.

Again, wait until signing day, the only day these rankings actually matter. I guarantee the Buckeyes will be ahead of Illinois barring the relatively unfathomable; if they aren't, I promise I'll change the formula. Until then, you have all the information you could possibly need right here to rank the teams any way you desire.

Click the link—that's not a typo. Lot of states use "end" interchangeably with "wide receiver" which is pretty archaic but, well, high school football.

Let's just say I had to disable the "suggested videos" feature.

Just watched it again, and it wasn't remotely close to the Corey Person three/reaction. Wouldn't make for much of a gif.

Yes. Gotta wait for the torrent to do this one, but in the very near future I'll have it set up to record games directly to my hard drive from my DVR, which will expedite the process dramatically.

Media members are well within their rights to take photos of visiting recruits at the game; Eric is credentialed to take photos, obviously. Understand that McQuay probably doesn't enjoy being photographed at games but Eric wasn't doing anything wrong taking that photo—The Wolverine puts together an entire gallery of recruit visitors for each home game.

Anybody else having this issue? They all work fine for me, but clearly I'm having a difficult time finding something that works for everyone—probably because that's impossible, but it's worth a shot.

EDIT: And it would be nice to get some details about what browser you're using and if your computer is usually slow loading gifs. Because, hate to break it to you, sometimes you're just SOL if you have a slow connection. These kind of posts can't accommodate everyone, unfortunately.

Yes, you can. Sorry about the troll. And thanks.

That's probably what I'll do from now on—capture a still and then you can click that to open it up in the lightbox. Thanks for the suggestion.

I don't have the torrent from that game and couldn't find the clip in a cursory look. If somebody else can locate it, however, I'm more than happy to make that gif.

EDIT: Found where it happened—LINK—but unfortunately you only see the very tail end of the run up in the corner of the screen. Bummer.

I am a terrible person:

Haven't seen an explanation; at that point in the rankings, though, a 30-place difference doesn't mean a whole lot—it's the difference between a solid four-star and... a solid four-star.

I should probably note that you can hit 'escape' to stop the images from animating, then right-click and hit 'view image' to open it up in its own window. I realize these posts are quite bandwith-heavy but there's really no way around that with a post full of gifs, which is why most of them go below the jump.

Stephenson had a Grade 3 concussion. Taylor had a neck injury, but no head injury.

They're streaming it on MGoBlueTV [LINK—I believe signup is required].

This is true. I'm not going to bother correcting it, however, because that nomenclature is outrageously stupid. I'm not going to pretend a couple of play-in games actually represent a real round.

It's these kind of strong moral stances that keep you all coming back to mgoblog, I'm sure.

I saw first-hand LTT receiving a lot of one-on-one attention from Darrell Funk at the SMSB camp this summer; I'm sure he picked up a few things there, which bodes well for when he's coached by Funk at Michigan.

Because (1) it's still an issue being discussed on our board in an entirely appalling matter, so I think it needs to be addressed for the sake of future discussion on this site, and (2) a highly-rated prospect strongly considering Michigan's two main rivals is relevant to Michigan regardless.

Unless there's news about Dawson and Michigan reconnecting (as said above, highly unlikely) this is the last I'm speaking on him aside from a passing mention if he commits to a Big Ten school.

It's also not fair to other prospects interested in Michigan for a commit to hold a spot and still be looking around; I think that's the main reason for the policy, both for the sake of Michigan (make sure their commits are completely committed to the fullest extent they can) and interested recruits.

I hope you stop posting.

[EDIT: Not directed at the above. Let's just say don't tempt fate in the hours after a particularly brutal sports weekend.]

I read it that way as well. Also, while I don't claim to be plugged into Green's recruitment to any serious extent, what I'm hearing about him is trending in a very positive direction.

Yikes, that wasn't how I meant it to come across at all, obviously. Thanks.

Indeed I did. Thanks.

Just my inexperience—I've been doing these for a week now, and certainly don't have it down pat by any stretch. For the straightforward gifs I'm using a program that allows me to set frame delay, but I might start saving those as frames and doing that part in Photoshop, where I have a little more control. With a little more practice I should be able to smooth these out.

They're pretty easy to do (the Ryan one took about an hour and a half, but that involved extensive photoshopping). The plan right now is to do a Monday gifs post, so they'll be a regular feature from here on out.

Suggestions are always welcome, by the way. If people notice something particularly interesting or funny that happens on the broadcast—especially during home games, when I don't have the benefit of watching on TV—please email me or hit me up on Twitter. This includes stuff like "sad fan is sad"—especially so if there are sad Juggalos on Saturday.

Whoops, that's right. Got ahead of myself there.