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Michigan cannot give Harbaugh "complete autonomy" when it comes to disciplinary actions regarding players. No school can, nor is it advisable.

Federal law requires the university to conduct its own investigation for certain transgressions, such as assaults and sexual assaults, regardless of any other investigation or the conclusions reached in any other investigation. The federal rules also control several aspects of how the university goes about taking action and there is no way any university president, much less an athletic department, can trump that.

It is the reason Florida State will soon face a massive civil suit -- they took two years to get theirs done on Jameis Winston.

Undoubtedly the coach can deal with any number of player transgressions on his own, but there are certain categories that will remain under the control of the university, with the same protocol applying to football players as they would to other students.

He was actually the guy who brought along Michigan's passing game, which was never Bo's favorite part of the game. Moeller was a tremendous coach and, as a recruiter, he was just as good. He knew how to evaluate talent and recruit the players who could do it at the next level. We won several Big Ten titles in a row under Moeller.

His demise was sad. If it happened these days, he might be able to enter a program to get help and keep his job. At the time, it was a huge deal, the video of him weeping did not help, and momentum rose quickly to get him out. It's too bad. I thought Lloyd Carr was a solid coach, but I never thought he was not nearly as good as Moeller.

It's a shrewd move to hold the Big Ten tournament in D.C. one year, and not just because I live here, though that will get me buying tickets for sure. In terms of expanding the Big Ten footprint, the Mid-Atlantic area is far more up for grabs than the Midwest. It's a huge population base and it's important to not hold the tournament in the same city every year, especially if that city is Indianapolis.

My sister lives in Howell, Mich., and I have driven there from D.C. several times. It takes about nine hours. For a road trip, not a big deal at all. I would think it's smart to give different live audiences a chance to go to the tournament.

D.C. has been largely an ACC region. Holding the Big Ten tourney here helps change that. I'm all for it. Will the ACC be happy the Big Ten is doing this? No it won't, and neither will the SEC, which sees this region as part of the South and there to be claimed. So all the more reason to do it.

And then the game would start. He might make a fee shots, miss the clutch ones, and usually be a non-factor. Mr. Practice Player.



Now Rice, he was great -- even in games.

Scot Loeffler fired along with rest of Auburn staff today. We should move on him before Meyer does. He was on Meyer's staff at Florida and well-regarded. Caught up in Chizik's mess but an excellent coach.

I think it's a stretch to call a top recruit like Devin Gardner a quarterback out of nowhere. He has shown indications when he's had a chance to play that he could be an excellent quarterback. I thought he settled down nicely against Illinois last year and I was at the MSU game in the ridiculous windstorm. That was a tough situation but even in that game he showed flashes. I would not expect him to play perfectly in those games coming in off the bench, and he didn't, but it was also clear he had ability.

He's always thrown a nice ball and it seemed his accuracy improved the more the game went on, but he just has not previously had much chance to play.

What I continue to wonder is what the coaches saw in practice that convinced them we'd be OK at quarterback without Gardner as Denard's backup. I really think it was less about QB and more about just trying to get a great athlete like Gardner on the field, and to make that happen they talked themselves into believing that Bellomy was ready to be the backup. (He wasn't, but that also does not mean Bellomy has topped out as redshirt freshman. He'll get better.)

But I really think even if Gardner had not moved back this season, he still would have won the job as starting quarterback next year. I just never have thought Hoke would be eager to play Morris as a true freshman over a senior, but that's particularly true when the senior has a world of talent, as Gardner does.

They ran a series riddled with errors and ignored requests that the paper run corrections. Even the report the NCAA produced noted the newspaper was in error.

Drew Sharp hates the state of Michigan and everything about it.

I would ask, why hasn't Drew Sharp or any of the others written about the rampant oversigning and fraudulent medical exemptions handed out by the SEC over the past 10 years? Or ripped the SEC coaches for voting unanimously against ending oversigning, while the university presidents in the league voted unanimously to stop it? Why has he not written that Urban Meyer's departure from Florida came soon after the university hired a new president who said he did not like oversigning and would no longer allow it?

No, instead we see him constantly rip the Big Ten even as he praises the number of consecutive years the SEC has won BCS titles, with no discussion that the run by the league started with Nick Saban's arrival at LSU, where he commenced to blow open loopholes in NCAA rules, to the point that even the most shameless conference in the history of college athletics finally had to do something about it.

I'd rather have a journalist who investigates legitimate stories worthy of investigations than to criticize the Detroit News for not making the same mistake the Freep did -- launch a U-M investigation without really even understanding the concept of countable hours, spend reams of time and ink on a series of stories that essentially detailed nothing more than a paperwork violation by the coaching staff, and then not have the decency to correct the errors in their report.

It doesn't look like the leagues or the NCAA care what the  voters decided. It's still banned.

But this makes sense. There's no way the sports leagues would ever lead this charge. If the U.S. culture changes over time, they'll follow a long. But this is a long way from that.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2012/11/07/recreational-marijuana-sports-colorado-washington/1690651/

This law will have no impact on professional athletes, who have agreed in their collective bargaining agreements that marijuana is a banned substance and they can be suspended for it if they test positive. They have a signed contract with their employers that specifically bans marijuana and the law won't change that.

Same thing for college athletes, Olympic athletes, etc. -- the rules governing them prohibit the use of marijuana.

It does not matter whether the athletes are on the job or not. They cannot use it.

The DEA today said the law changes nothing in their view: It remains against federal law to possess, use or cultivate pot.

What we can expect in Colorado and Washington in the short term is.... nothing, at least until more of this is sorted out. What is most likely to happen is those state governments will be talking to the feds about how the feds will react as the implementation of this law proceeds. One could imagine the governor of Colorado letting someone try to open up a retail marijuana outlet, even though he knows the feds will come right in and shut it down. Turning enforcement over to the feds protects him politically because the voters in his state have said they don't want the state to enforce it. So when he says he will honor the will of the voters, that really means nothing.

The feds typically do not prosecute marijuana cases unless it is a distribution charge involving a large quantity -- they leave the minor cases to the states. But if a state is declaring it no longer will enforce it, most analysts expect the federal government to sue Colorado and Washington on the grounds that a state law cannot supercede federal law.

This is very similar to the Arizona immigration law in some respects, though the marijuana case will law actually be more clearcut in favor of the feds. In the case of Arizona, the Supreme Court split because it was a case in which Arizona was seeking to enforce a state law on the grounds that, in the view of Jan Brewer anyway,  the feds had failed to enforce the same law.

This is a case of a state in direct conflict with a federal law. The feds' potential actions could take many forms, from pursuing busts and criminal cases themselves to simply challenging the law in court and preventing it from being enacted until a federal judge decides. But I would say there is no chance of the feds just letting this go or the NBA, NFL, NCAA, MLB, USOC or any other sport governing body allowing it for athletes in those two states.

In my opinion, we'd been in a better position to compete last night if RichRod had been fired a year sooner. And this is not a 'slam RR' post. I get all his offense excites people, but to me he was far from a complete head coach. His teams are flashy, but they are not tough.

The kind of teams he builds get destroyed by the Alabamas of the world, and there is no doubt Alabama is the current standard of excellence. We got pushed around on both lines and line recruiting was a huge weakness under RR. Alabama has tough guys all over the  roster. Hoke is building a tough team, but clearly not there yet.

The team from Tuscaloosa was built like Bo used to build teams. The team from Ann Arbor was a tweener team, still part-Rodriguez and not yet Hoke.

Saban devours spread teams. If you have no vertical passing game, you cannot beat them. Our QB play was awful and the only receiver to play well was Gallon. Gardner looked like he had no idea what we was doing. Soft cuts, wrong routes, turning the wrong way.

We have no real passing attack and it showed. The goal for 2012 should be to see what kind of passing game Denard can handle and we should just run him more. He is no more accurate than he was last year, a lot of his passes still are just launches that he hopes our guys catch, and he's destined to be a Percy Harvin-type in the NFL, which I feel is a good thing for Denard's pro longevity. I love watching Denard run the ball, but his limitations get exposed by really good teams.

We'll be putting in a true passing game starting in 2013.

Thanks. I have done that myself.

This is posturing and will go nowhere.



Universities can appeal sanctions handed down by the NCAA, but that is not what happened here. There was no investigation, there was the Freeh Report, commissioned by Penn State. The sanctions were agreed to by both parties, not handed down, and signed by the NCAA president and the Penn State president, who cleared with university counsel that he had the authority.



Had a consent decree not been signed, then the school would have been subjected to the standard enforcement process and could appeal that ruling if it found it unfair. But as the NCAA said last week when the Paterno family said it would appeal, the consent decree is not subject to an appeal. It is an agreement, a contract signed by both parties.



The trustees are wasting their time.

How many SEC teams has he seen play? Go to an LSU game and you'll see plenty of jerseys. And plenty of really ugly purple shirts.

Hey troll, thanks for leaving top talent sitting there because of your coach's "system."



What has you worried is you fear the talent evaluation skills of Hoke and Mattison. As well you should. Michigan has no fear of Meyer. Played him once, shredded his defense, handed Tebow his only bowl loss.



Keep up the great work. Leave us the players whose best football is ahead of them, just like you left McCray and Trey Burke in basketball. Conley will end up being better than Burrows. Better athlete, bigger, more upside. When I read stupid comments like yours, I smell fear. With good reason.

If Gutierrez had not injured his throwing shoulder in preseason practice, he would've started ahead of Henne.

My prediction is that Gardner starts for two years -- the second one is contingent on him getting the medical redshirt for 2010 -- that Morris plays little if at all his first year, and then gets more time his second year. I don't see any way that Morris arrives on campus ahead of Gardner, who is a very talented player.

I also could even Morris taking a redshirt year if he is not needed his first season, which would mean Bellomy is the backup and that Bellomy has developed into a pretty good player, which is how the coaches view him. Borges keeps saying everyone is going to be surprised when they see Bellomy play, and I don't think that is false praise.

Every coach could claim caps prevented players from having opportunities to come to his school. Every NFL coach could claim league limits on roster size prevented players from having opportunities to be on an NFL team. The rules are there to protect the sanctity of the competition.

Saban doesn't look at rules as rules. He likes to portray them as unfortunate roadblocks to his goal of assuming advantages no other teams are allowed to have. Then when he wins, he acts as if every coach had the same chance to win as his teams had, and he doesn't mention the scores of extra players he has signed over the years.

This board says Diamond informed all the coaches yesterday and the announcement is tomorrow. They also believe Arkansas is the winner.

Ask yourself how many teams below us view our ranking as elite? All of them. Once you get in the top 5 to 10 classes, it's real close, a matter of opinion always. Our standing tells us our class has a great chance of turning out well. There are no guarantees. Don't get hung up on numbers 1 through 5, like it means we've come up short. Our class has huge talent, character and a lot of smart students. That defines elite.

Having watched how Sean Payton has used Darren Sproles, who also is 5-7, guys like Norfleet can be quite a weapon. He has unbelievable quickness and change of direction. With Stonum gone, he fills a need at kick returner, but I also can see Norfleet doing lots of damage out of the backfield or slot. With us going bigger in generally and bringing in big backs, Norfleet provides a different element. It's a shrewd move by the coaches.

I don't think Hoke's first class had a surprising amount of attrition. Losing one-third of your class, as we seemed to average the previous three years, is bad. It's inevitable that some guys in each class will not stick. What you hope to avoid is guys not sticking because they get in trouble with the law, can't do the school work at Michigan, or weren't really vetted all that well in the first place.

The slow mo really shows how the ground aided the catch. He has the ball pinned between his forearms, but he has not caught it, and as the nose of the ball hit the ground it moves the ball noticeably into his chest.



The ball even drags along the ground as he tries to control it. It is a great effort, but its an incomplete pass. I dont think its even that hard a call. I was in the Dome last night. In stadium we could see on replays the ground aided the catch. The replay ref got it correct.

One thing I wonder about with Hayes is whether he will remain an RB or move to slot receiver. I imagine he'll want to play whatever position gets him on the field the soonest, but it would not surprise me to see him out there as a WR.

They are nervous and they are concerned that he's going to beat them regularly. Hardly hyperbole.

Not only would RR have gotten fired even if Pryor had come to Michigan, more likely is that the firing would have come after we found ourselves in serious trouble for all the stuff Pryor would have pulled. Sleaze is sleaze, and we should not pretend it would not have happened to us just because of the change of scenery. This guy has been taking handouts his entire life. I've never been happier to see such a great athlete in an Ohio uniform; it matched his character.

We'd be facing far more serious sanctions in addition to the silly ones Rodriguez brought our way, and because of that, he'd be fired anyway. He should've taken some of the time he spent on Pryor and given Hankins a call, and an offer.

Pryor was never coming here. We got played the entire time. His mentor was being wined and dined by Tressel and his cronies the whole time, and believe me, they took care of the mentor. I think the Ohio coaches LOVED IT that RR put all his eggs in the Pryor basket, instead of having a Plan B, because they knew how it was going to go and knew RR would be screwed. He got fooled by a con man being recruited by a corrupt coaching staff. We had as much a chance of landing Pryor as we did Maurice Clarett, who hung out on the Ohio sideline during his official visit to Michigan for 'The Game.' Reprehensible.

I think I hold the opposite view of most on here: I'd recruit Dunn, but I would not go overboard trying to land him, I don't think it's crucial that we get him, and I'd be recruiting another big back to take that slot. Hoke is smart enough to not heavily invest himself here if Dunn is not really open to switching.

I believe Dunn is a huge Buckeyes fan, not a casual fan, and in his heart that's the place he wants to go and he might even look back with regret if he changes his mind. This is not like Hankins, who was a Michigan fan but did not hold an offer. Dunn has an offer and they want him badly. It's only natural that the kid will attach the most optimistic view to whatever Meyer tells him, and Meyer does not think twice about lying. He's been doing it for years. Look up some of his characterizations of the incidents his Florida players were involved in, in which he explained away arrest reports. He'll tell Dunn anything Dunn wants to hear, because by the time Dunn see what his role really will be in the 'spread and shit-the-bed-with-a-turnover,' he's stuck in Columbus.

Here is what is interesting, and surprising so soon into Hoke's tenure: Landing Dunn means more to Meyer than it does to Hoke. Ohio fans are nervous and they know Hoke is an unstoppable force who is going to beat them regularly. They are looking for anything that gives them hope.

My concern is if we devote too much energy into landing a guy who I believe has been headed to Ohio all along, we look no better than RR did in his first year, when it appeared he was practically begging Pryor to come to Ann Arbor.

There are plenty of great running backs out there. We'd do quite nicely with Greg Garmon, who also is a big back, is rated almost exactly the same as Dunn, and also has better speed.

Tough guys from all over the Midwest who play with a mean streak and the will to win. I'd like to see this kid in the winged helmet, blowing open holes and loving the contact. How big a monster would he be after a year or so being trained by Coach Wellman?

Shortell is a much better passer. If Gray is out, it completely changes the Minnesota gameplan. The receivers are decent, Gray can't get them the ball. The backup will make them much more balanced offensively. If anything, I think it enhances their chances. Gray is a one-dimensional quarterback.

James did SDSU's bowl game last year and was very impressed with Hoke and his team. He even suggested that Hoke's offense and style should make Hoke a contender for the Michigan job came open.

...people will say it doesn't matter. But I'll feel better.



I'm more worried about Western. But I am FIRED up to start the season!

I also think the preferred positions to pursue walkons for are both lines. Often a category where kids mature late and/or can be taught the position. I will be surprised if none of the offensive linemen you list see the field. It's an interesting group and for the most part they had other opportunities (don't know about what options there were for Yerden, the champion weightlifter, who has not even been playing football for long.) 

They're seeing what Brink is doing in camp and that will only motivate them. I think Brink is going to get a shot. When you hear them talking about his solid technique and how he knows how to use his hands, that's unusual talk about a walkon. He maybe could use a few more pounds, but 6-5, 263 is not small. And I like that Mattison is saying he's looking for the best group of 17-18 guys he can rotate out there, scholarship or walkon doesn't matter, and then he'll go from there.

Great way to grow linemen. I like the way this staff thinks about the game and how best to play it, and they are trying to build the team accordingly.

Don't really see how this qualifies as a 'media obsession' about to begin with the S&C coach, but that's probably just more childish ripping on anything a newspaper does, even though this site constantly links to the articles, proving it's just as big an obsession with the patrons of this site as it allegedly is with the media.

I thought it was a pretty good piece in capturing Wellman's personality and how he, like Hoke and the rest of the staff, puts himself in the background and the players and team first. Worth reading despite the cynical intro that opens this thread.

Make it look good. APR means schools need to be sure players graduate, it doesn't necessarily mean the players have to learn anything. Remember the old Randy Newman song, "LSU, LSU, went in dumb, came out dumb too."

The NCAA typically doesn't change a rule related to academics and immediately commence retroactive enforcement. Michigan traditionally has been fine in APR and should improve now that RR has departed. Rodriguez took more than his fair share of recruiting risks in terms of bringing in players who were destined to struggle academically and either fail out or leave, and that's what led to an APR this year that is lower than Michigan is accustomed to. But we're not in awful shape and should be able to rebound fairly easily with the new staff.

...did you  "run into" as you were getting autographs for your "son." (kidding, kidding).

Our plan is working. It's not really being an elitist if we are in fact much better people. Keep it up, Coach Hoke.

Nothing wrong with pumping up the program. Hoke is anything but arrogant. This is really a story about jealousy, about how obvious it is that Hoke has relighted the enthusiasm of the Michigan faithful and how other programs can only wish they had that kind of support.

The only thing worse than arrogance is false humility. But let us be humble in our return to arrogance.

I say that mainly because I really want them to be drilled. I also happen to believe there are logical reasons to expect it. There is nothing that indicates that by escaping the 'failure to monitor' charge, that necessarily translates to a slap on the wrist. Maybe they won't get a bowl ban, but I didn't necessarily expect that and, honestly, I'd rather see them eligible for the Big Ten title and fail to win it because they received several beatdowns on the field than have them not be eligible and hear their whiny excuses. I'd much prefer humiliating losses. And I hope they keep Gene Smith as AD. We've got that moron right where we want him.

It's quite clear the Tressel era of dominance was built on cheating from the time he signed Maurice Clarett and going forward -- cheating to recruit players and cheating by giving extra benefits to players after they got there, who would then entice more recruits by telling them about all the great cheating that goes on at the tattoo and bong parties, the readily available OSU sluts -- yes, that's redundant, I know -- and the great discounts on cars and car repairs. Getting paid by an agent while in school, Santonio Holmes? No problem. Just keep it quiet until the NCAA statute of limitations expires.

I think what is happening now in Michigan's recruiting will happen every year if the playing field is level. We have the better school, the better campus, the better town. Columbus is nothing but strip malls holding hands and academically speaking, Ohio State may as well be a GED reunion. Get the players on our campus and let them see what we have to offer, we'll get plenty of talent. Hell, we got Ohio players when Woody Hayes was the coach and now that Lyin Jim is gone, we're immediately back in the game.

I don't care if OSU goes the Music City Bowl. I want to see the NCAA hit them where it hurts -- loss of scholarships, recruiting restrictions on coaches and financial penalties. If that happens, the rest of it takes care of itself, starting this November.

Ah, Monday. Rant concuded.

Oh, welcome back Brian and congratulations on your marriage. The love of a good woman is a treasure. Happy wife, happy life. Don't ever forget it.

Maybe the kid has not been to other places. It's a chance to travel. But at the end of the day, he's a guy who wants to be at Michigan. At this point, he has a lot of friends in the class, he is comfortable, it's close to home, and Hoke knows how to handle these situations. The coach will no doubt cover his bases, but I still see T-Rich in Ann Arbor because that's where he wants to be.

RR had no qualms about recruiting players with criminal backgrounds who would not be accepted (Dorsey) or soon be gone (Cissoko, Feagin). Or guys who were so questionable academically they could not get into school or quickly failed out of school (too many to list). So by focusing only on the number of recruiting stars handed it out is only part of the story -- the part that ends up not mattering when 1/3 of the class can't even make it through one year.

That's the problem with all these people who praise RR's recruiting. He was great at attracting talent, the kind that ends up not helping the team win because the talent can't stay on the team.

I've been very impressed with Hoke's emphasis on recruiting highly rated players who also check out in terms of strong upbringing, high character and being serious students who think getting a degree matters in life. That increases the chances that these guys will be in the program for a full 4-5 years, which is what it takes to win.

To me, the kind of analysis done here is exactly what's wrong with how fans rate recruiting classes. They only see the stars next to the names as the players come in, and they just gloss over the fact that four-star players who are no longer on the team don't help at all. RR excelled in recruiting those guys. And the one five-star guy he recruited (Will Campbell) has been wasted for two years as they switched him back and forth from their schizophrenic, laughable defense to being buried on the depth chart on the O-line.

Sorry, not too impressed with RR's recruiting prowess.

To me, that's the most questionable prediction in our division. It basically is saying the writers don't think much of Michigan and Northwestern if they think Iowa, with all the players they lost, will grab third. I think it is a down year for the Hawkeyes and have them just ahead of Minnesota, though they'll finish ahead of Northwestern if Persa goes down again. He's the entire Wildcat offense and it's not so easy coming back from an Achilles tear.

I realize Stanford is a jump ball-type receiver, but there are legitimate questions about whether he has the wheels to be a star at the next level. Not worried about this at all. Burbridge, Madaris or Payton are all better choices.

The RB rating is fair when one considers the steep drop if Wood goes down. And he will go down at some point. Not wishing it on him, but it's a tough position to go all year without getting knocked out here and there. ND does not have experienced depth at RB, WR or TE, and the quarterbacks after Crist are nothing special at this point, because they lack game experience. Floyd is a superstar, so opponents will doubleteam him. He also gets hurt all the time. So it's a team that needs everything to go right and can't suffer any injuries at a few key spots. Teams are rarely that fortunate.

He went 22-for-29 and two touchdowns. The slow UMass running back -- the short, chubby guy -- rushed for more than 100 yards. The Indiana quarterback hit 45-of-64 for 480 yards and three touchdowns -- the best game of his career -- on a horrible team.

We cannot make a judgment about Crist based on how he played against us. It was like running offensive plays against pylons, with a mannequin as our defensive coordinator.

that completely misses the point.

Can definitely play free safety. I like the fit there. He is a ballplayer.

The year we went to the Rose Bowl with John Navarre starting against the USC defense, that Trojans team had more talent than we did. And I'd argue that some of the John Cooper Ohio State teams had more talent than Michigan did.

... does anyone think our defense would even have a chance of improving to 82nd? I'd say no way. Now, in their 3-year journey to producing the three worst defenses in Michigan history, they'd about bottomed out. Once you're ranked 110 or worse, there's not much room to get worse.

But I think there is no way the team would've even improved to 82nd. 99? Probably more than Robinson would be capable of. I can still hear Chris Spielman doing the color commentary on one of our games and openly declaring the defensive schemes Michigan was running were not sound, and the coaches seemed to be making no adjustments.

Let's be clear: Greg Robinson has proven himself as one of the worst coaches in the history of college football, a guy whose teams get worse, much worse, the longer he is there. A friend of mine who has covered Syracuse athletics for decades says Robinson was, by far, the worst head coach he's ever seen at the school, in any sport. Doug Marrone came in and ran off a bunch of players, had almost no time to recruit and the ragtag team he inherited still won more games -- immediately.

So is there any data on how much a defense improves when it goes from being coached by a clown to being coached by football coaches? Is it really possible to make a prediction based on returning starters that has any degree of reliability in a circumstance in which the last staff produced three consecutive years of the worst defense in that team's history?

as soon as the writer said, "The guy got a bum deal. Was undermined from the get-go."

Both are false and the narrative supporting such assertions is just as false. Efforts to revise history by RichRod apologists don't change the facts.

RR cannot win in the Big Ten and he proved it, and the "bum deal" was never true. It is a laughable claim to make for any coach who goes 6-18 in conference play. Did Bill Lynch get a bum deal at Indiana? Coaches who win don't get "undermined," coaches that prove they cannot win suddenly blame it on a "divided fan base. It's a complete joke. Here's a cure for underimining: Win some games in the conference in which your team plays. Or at least be competitive.

RR screwed up the first team he had all on his own, he made the recruiting decisions to bring in players who could not stay in school, he established the one-man offense and the three worst defenses in school history, which may as well have been pylons on the field for the opposing offenses to run by. If he had gone 6-2 every year in Big Ten play instead of averaging 2-6, suddenly he's not undermined, he's still the coach. I'll buy the argument that yards of offense are a meaningful stat in a game or two in which other factors contributed to the team falling short. I don't buy it as a three-year statistical excuse.

Judging a coach by wins, over time, is the right way to judge him. Especially when his teams didn't just lose -- his very best team from his last season was non-competitive against the best teams on the schedule, never even flirting with victory in those games. Hard to believe there are still people out there seeking out stats to defend him after what we just witnessed for the past three seasons. He was making Michigan mediocre for the next decade, and he just about had us there. A fourth year for him, and we would've been doing well to go. .500 in the Big Ten. Indeed, we would not have hit that mark.

A lot of people, led by Rich Rodriguez, continue to claim the team would've been better this season no matter who was coaching, and as evidence they typically point to the three straight seasons of increased wins (suddenly, seven wins at Michigan somehow is viewed as setting the stage for huge success, but only because it came after seasons of five and three victories. RR was a master at lowering expectations).

Yet, in looking at last year's team, it was in utter collapse the final third of the season, and it had digressed as the season went along, as it did the two previous seasons. That was the momentum heading into this season -- none. The team won seven games total after starting 5-0. The defense, on the heels of two previous defenses that were the worst in yet another hot start that turned out to be a mirage. It also established a new low as the worst defense in school history. Bringing back that coaching staff, with all those returning 'starters' on defense, would have again produced one of the worst defenses in school history. Rodriguez was a terrible evaluator and recruiter of defensive talent, and Greg Robinson was worse. Robinson didn't even like recruiting, probably because he's not any good at it.

Here is my claim: The program was about to turn the corner into becoming annually mediocre, a Big East-like team with flashes of excitement on offense that would fail against quality teams and not produce wins against any team that can play defense. And a defense that would get pushed around by even middle-of-the-road Big Ten teams. There is literally no real evidence to suggest that a team in full collapse as the 2010 season ended going to be better in 2011. You can't keep pointing to the great, turnover-prone offense, which was not so great and was not even the problem. My guess is it would have more of the same and Michigan would not contend in the Big Ten. And my guess is it would have been another team that got worse as the season went along, not better, as the little guys RichRod loved continued to get injured and/or overpowered.

It is an arrogant, passive/aggressive shot that RichRod takes at Brady Hoke by claiming the team was about to get better. He's trying to take credit in advance for any success Hoke has, when in fact much of what Hoke is doing is to completely renovate the fundamental craters RichRod left on this program in its defense and special teams. And his one-man offense certainly did not scare the quality teams on our schedule. There are three areas that you have to be fundamentally sound in to win. RichRod was terrible at two of them. And the rankings of his recruiting classes were false, because those lofty rankings were based on the inclusion of a handful of talent athletes who could not get through a month of school. He drove our graduation rate to the lowest in the history of Michigan football. Just what is it that convinces anyone we were about to get better in the two phases of the game in which we were one of the worst teams in the NCAA? It's a false narrative created by a former coach who wants to get hired again.

If we have success this year, it will be because of the quick work Hoke, Mattison and the rest of the coaches do in patching up the defense enough to improve it substantially, at least to keep us in the games, and by somehow finding a kicking game that is not the laughingstock of college football. But I would expect we'll still see our defense get overwhelmed by the best teams we play.

Hoke has arrived with a real defensive blueprint and long experience about what it takes to win in the Big Ten, and he brought in talented offensive and defensive coordinators -- and, hey, a special teams coach. If we succeed this year, those will be the major factors. It's not so simple a warm body could do it. We had one of those running the defense for two years.

It's not that we can't get the Notre Dame coach's name right, it's that we don't want to. I don't want to like the Irish coach, and the past two hires, they've made that an easy call. I don't dislike the players, those guys are competitors. But I don't like the chubby leprechaun. Coach Hoke has 'Ohio,' I've got this guy, Coach Bryan Kelley.

...the longer his recruitment carries on.

We shouldn't be so impatient. We don't have any reason to worry about the strength of this class. Top recruits often don't decide until during their senior seasons or after. It's really not a big deal.

My view is that Chris Wormley probably wants to decide in his mind and then let it sit for a while, be sure he is making the choice he wants. That's a sign of maturity. Anyone suggesting otherwise is showing their own immaturity. Time to grow up and let this man chart his own course.

He obviously likes Michigan a lot, likes the new coaching staff a lot, lives an hour away from campus. He sounds like the kind of guy who, once he commits, he's solid. I'd love to see him join our program, whenever he's ready. And I bet we'll have a spot for a dynamic player like him.

... if you look at photos of Braden from last season until now, he definitely has put on substantial muscle. He looks great.

I really like Braden and Caleb Stacey, another guy with a nasty approach to the game who has been hitting the workouts hard since committing.

One of the common threads in the Hoke recruiting evaluation is that he looks for guys who are highly self-motivated and do the work because they want to, not because they're supposed to. Particularly with high school linemen, that's an attribute that ends up meaning a lot as they transition to college.

These two guys committed early and got the express rolling, and they clearly are not resting now that they've got a scholarship. They're working hard, trying to get better, reaching out to other members of the class. Great stuff.

It's already a strong offensive line class and it can move to superior with a few more key commitments.

I only have a problem with it if the kid arrives on campus and then finds out he's getting a greyshirt, a la the SEC schools, but if the Michigan coaches they have told Clark up front, it's fine. It's the player's choice to take it or not.

The threshold for judging this is honesty. If the coaches are honest about it and everyone is on board, it's just another technique to get a kid on the team who wants to be on the team.

I also like kids like Jeremy Clark, who are growing late and often have upside that is just now becoming visible. I hope it works out for him. He's a big safety, that's for sure.

... are the kind of people we want at Michigan. Great sensibilities and a son who is a smart and talented athlete. We know Steven can play football -- and Michigan is about to return to being an NFL pipeline for O-linemen -- but what's wonderful about him being a high achiever in the classroom is that he'll be one of the athletes who takes full advantage of the great academic programs Michigan offers. I hope they hit it off with Coach Hoke and the rest of the coaches, because the Elmers are perfect for Michigan.

I like the way he runs hard and how he conducts himself on the field after he scores. A competitor who doesn't show any arrogance, that's what we're all about. Nothing wrong with big backs who know what to do with the ball -- no dancing around, just bust it up in there. Alden would look great in a winged helmet.

There is nothing wrong with a headline that says, "Terrelle Pryor's guardian: QB will stay at Ohio State"

The use of the colon after "Terrelle Pryor's guardian: ..." is an accepted grammatical construction to convey that this is the opinion of the guardian (colon simply puts the attribution before the opinion instead of after.) It doesn't mean Pryor necessarily will stay at Ohio State, it means that's what the guardian believes.

I don't see any foul there. If it lacked the opening construction attributed to the guardian, it would have perhaps been misleading. For example, if it just declared, "Pryor will stay at Ohio State" as an undisputed fact. But as written, offering one man's opinion, it's fine. It certainly is not inaccurate. The quotes from the guardian support the assertion of the headline.

I don't see anything wrong with the Tressel headlines either. They represent themselves as offering Tressel's opinion, and that's what the stories are about. As for whether Tressel's comment are newsworthy, of course they are. The first time he speaks, and the next several times, it's going to get coverage and be put out there. Disgraced or not, there's nothing journalistically unsound about writing a story on what he said. There may be plenty of people who don't care what he thinks, but that's the beauty of a democracy. You don't have to read every story, skip it if you think it's not newsworthy. But I'm interested in hearing Tressel's first comments since the scandal broke and I think most people are.

Now, is it silly for a coach to predict that a team will beat another team when the two teams play every year? Of course. But that's classic Tressel-speak.

On defense, I think State had more talent than we did last year. Our secondary was pretty bad and the linebackers were nothing to get excited about.

We've won six Big Ten games in three years. Top to bottom, the league is as tough as it has ever been, especially with Nebraska arriving. I can't see speculating on a BCS berth until we show we can finish .500 or better in our own conference. Michigan State was one of the weakest Big Ten champs the league has seen in 10 years (granted, they didn't play OSU, but they were unmasked by Alabama), and the Spartans dominated us. We couldn't get a hand on their running backs.

Like everyone, I love what I'm seeing out of the new staff, but let's see who lines up at linebacker and in the secondary before we get carried away. On the D-line, is Will Campbell any good? Who backs up him and Martin, talent or just a couple of bodies?

To me, suggesting that we could go to a BCS game this year, with this defense, when we lost to the six best teams we played last year, well, that's quite a reach. In Denard's senior season, I can see us making a run. If we even find ourselves even PLAYING for a berth in the first Big Ten title game this year, that would be a tremendous season.

I do have one expectation I feel confident about: Hoke's team will get better as the season goes along and will end the collapses we've been suffering through.

...his shot at last season's BCS title.

He knew he had a top 5 team returning. This had nothing to do with looking out for his players, it was just what it appears to be: Win at all costs. It's the same approach Tressel always has taken. He made a career of cheating because he knows fans will focus on the record and ignore the fact that he was, no matter how they spin it, fielding a team that was no longer comprised of amateur athletes.

It was all about getting the players, and recruiting gets a lot easier when you offer them cars, housing deals, and the common knowledge that the coaches will look the other way as you flaunt your celebrity lifestyle and smoke some weed at a local tatto parlor hangout where they cater to your every need.

For Musburger and Company to be accurate, they just need a slight revision: "Tressel was protecting his BEST players." Guys on the scout team would not have gotten the same treatment.

This Eleven Warriors article trying to shift the narrative to a children's hospital is beyond pathetic and transparently desperate. Too many college teams to list make those visits.

Tressel did not resign because of the pending SI article. He got out as an attempt to stop people from digging for more, because there is more to be found. Nailing him on tattoo-gate is like getting Al Capone on tax evasion. You do what you need to do to nail the corrupt, even though we all know there's more there. The Department of Justice trips up six players in an unrelated investigation and so that's all the school admitted to. But in a short time on campus, Sports Illustrated easily finds scores more involved. Do we really think that's it? Magazines don't even have subpoena power. 

Tressel knows that if they keep looking, they'll keep finding. And he knows of other stuff that's a lot worse, so he got out now hoping to end the need for more investigations. This is hardly a new play by a guy who is seeing it all unravel.

If his mother is that big of an idiot, it's cause for concern. Anyone who cannot see the Tressel era for what it was -- a completely fraudulent program quite possibly had ineligible players on the field every game he coached -- is simply delusional. The fact is Maurice Clarett, for all his criminal ways, was telling the truth. Terrelle Pryor has the zero integrity we thought he had, and so does his coach. If Kyle Dodson's mother is piping up about how it was all a witch hunt, what is she teaching her kids?

There are plenty of great players we can sign. I'm happy we did not get Pryor and I don't want Dodson, either. Give me Magnuson and Diamond. Give me the high-character kids raised by parents who want to do it right.

Excellent indie movie starring Paul Giamatti, one of my favorite actors, and a kid named Alex Shaffer, who is in his first movie and was cast because he was a champion prep wrestler. Great script, funny, great plot. Written and directed by rising star Tom McCarthy. Just saw it on Wednesday night at an indie theater in DC.

It's not having an academic center, it's the level of corruption inside the academic center.

The SEC schools do not hold the view that it's important that football players learn. They hold the view that they must keep them eligible and nothing else matters. And the level of work at a typical SEC institution is more like high school than college.

There's no comparison between those schools and Big Ten institutions.

A houseplant could pass at Ohio State, if you could get it to go to class. And you could, if you'd give it a good deal on a car.

A degree from Columbus is virtually worthless they're so easy to get. I meet more impressive graduates from Michigan State than I do from Ohio State, and that's saying something because MSU was the bottom-of-the-list safety school for everyone i knew if they could not get into any college they wanted to attend.

Other than this proving what we already knew -- that RichRod's approach was not to worry too much about who stayed, who went to class and who left -- the only thing Hoke needs to do is keep the numbers high enough to placate the NCAA, which just wants to appear interested in athletes being students. Otherwise, who cares.

The SEC schools have responded by building huge "academic centers" for athletes to go to so they can meet with the "tutors" who "help" write their papers. If you want a real eye-opener, check out some of the geniuses stopping in at the academic center at LSU -- which is probably the worst flagship state university in the United States (it is annually ranked 'third tier' by U.S. News). Many of LSU's players can barely speak, but they somehow are able to write surprisingly well after a visit to the center. Those tutors must be really good.

In the real world, the only Big Ten graduates competing with Michigan grads are those from Northwestern and, to a slightly lesser degree, Wisconsin. Ask anyone who does hiring -- those are the three they pay attention to.

The rest are just schools you go to if you can't go to a prestigious school.

... grade inflation is common in some high schools. That's why we have standardized tests. On the other hand, he could be a smart kid who doesn't do so well on standardized tests. It happens. He probably should be 25 or above on the ACT with the GPA he has, but it's hard to pinpoint unless he took the ACT again. But he doesn't need to, he's eligible. And he's big.

...is the sense of competition Hoke is creating for players who want a scholarship to Michigan.

Texas has been doing it that way for years and it's nice to see Michigan filling up its class and creating that natural pressure.

And I really trust their talent evaluation. Hoke has a nice track record of identifying kids who have their best football ahead of them. That's something Hayden Fry used to say is the very hardest thing to do in coaching: Don't make the mistake of taking the guys who have played their best ball in high school -- identify the kids with the frame, growth potential, intelligence and overall motivation to get better every year.

That's something Hoke was able to do at Ball State and San Diego State. Now that he has a chance to use his eye at a place such as Michigan, where he has a shot at more talented players, it bodes very well for the program. It is notable that he is seeking out players who have the smarts and the will to succeed.

Smart players see what is happening with Michigan's recruiting and they want to get in on something good. Hoke comes off as folksy and all, but he's a shrewd man who knows he's got something great to offer in Ann Arbor. He's not overwhelmed by the job at Michigan, he is in full control.

All that really matters here is whether the Ohio State player broke the law or violated NCAA rules, or both. And that has nothing to do with whether Gibson can show he paid for the car. What matters is how much he paid relative to the true retail value of the vehicle -- basically the NCAA will examine the deal he got vs. the deal that would be offered to a typical customer, and whether documents were falsified. Here's betting OSU is in trouble on both fronts:

1. If the player paid 13K for a car that any customer coming in off the street could not purchase for the same price, or thereabouts, it's a violation of NCAA rules. I am guessing that a 2007 Chrysler 300 with 14,000 miles on it, sold in 2007, was worth more than 13k. These cars, reasonably equipped, retailed for $40k MSRP when they were new.

It matters not whether the dealership bought it at an auction, nor does it matter what the dealership paid for it. All that matters is whether Gibson got a special deal. If he got an extra benefit that saved him money, it's an NCAA violation, and a serious one. It saved him real cash. I'm willing to bet the 13k is either at dealer cost or just above it, a special gift from a fan to a player.

2. If, in addition to that, the player and the dealer cooperated in understating the purchase price on documents filed with the state, such as listing the price as $0, that is usually done to lower the sales tax and state registration fees the customer has to pay on the vehicle. It is a very common ploy done by thousands of consumers across the country, and most don't get caught. But if you do get caught, it's illegal and, depending on the amount, the guilty parties will at least face a hefty fine and could face jail time. States have run stings on this from time to time and it's amazing how many people get nailed and get themselves a criminal record to save less than $500.

Cheating the state and federal government out of tax money is at least a misdemeanor -- if the amount is less than $1,000. If the false documents saved Gibson more than $1,000, it's a felony. For the dealership, it's a big problem no matter the amount because if they've cooperated in such a scam once, you can bet they've done it many times, probably with a number of OSU players. The state will start looking closely and they'll find out.

And I really cannot stomach the defense of the Columbus Dispatch. There has been all kinds of talk about wrongdoing at OSU over the years and the Dispatch has steered clear, remaining the 'homers' they really are. They are getting busy now only because it went public, and I am willing to bet the real editors in news are forcing the 'fans' who work in the sports department to do their jobs. The paper has sucked for years and no matter what happens now, it still sucks.

But I am pleased that this investigation will drag out for a while, which is the best possible scenario for Michigan with one of Ohio's best crop of recruits in 20 years. Just off of what the school has admitted so far with Tressel lying, OSU ends up with multi-years probation, a forfeited 2010 season, loss of scholarships and, ultimately, a new coach. And the last part is too bad, because I think we have a staff in place who will prove to be superior to Tressel, particularly if the head coach and his cheating staff can no longer offer extra benefits to bring in recruits. Does anyone really believe a guy with the questionable character of Terrelle Pryor didn't get paid? Tressel has been doing this since he was at Youngstown State, letting things happen and disavowing knowledge. Even his national championship is fraudulent, won with a running back who probably had committed his first felony before he ever suited up in Columbus. It's a sleazy operation.

Tressels actions here merit firing. He has cheated his entire career and he always has handled it in the same way -- trying to maintain he was ignorant of anything that was going on.

That's what he tried to do here, but the Sin-ator got caught. And the truth is he also knew a lot more about all the past transgressions and he preferred to turn his head and portray himself as outraged when he learned of these things.

It is amazing the NCAA can let this slide in comparison to the swooping in to Ann Arbor that occurred after the Free Press printed numerous factual errors to aggrandize some violations that, by comparison, seem hardly worth mentioning -- written by reporters who did not know the rules themselves. Granted, our previous coaching staff created an opening by failing to have players fill out simple, required forms on voluntary workouts, which, by the way, contributed to us being hit with violations more than any other single detail. That doesn't erase the fact that the Free Press report contained errors that were never corrected, a point Michigan made in its report to the NCAA, while in the case of Ohio State we have all of what we know to be true and much more.

I've not seen one credible refutation of any of the allegations made against Ohio State over the past 10 years, particularly since most of the incriminating statements came from the Buckeyes players themselves, who have fully acknowledged they were given benefits that broke the rules. The NCAA simply does not enforce its rules across the board; it picks and chooses and it has purposely steered clear of Tressel.

It can no longer do that, and his favored 'plausible deniability' defense has been blown up. He participated in a coverup and we can all know this to be true: If Jim Tressel is calling a press conference ONE DAY after a story runs that was built on an anonymous source, this is nothing more than a typical ploy be someone who has much more to hide -- make an effort to offer a quick mea culpa and hope to stop the investigation right here. That can only mean he is hoping no one takes a deeper look. The NCAA loses its last shreds of credibility if it accepts the Ohio State whitewash without a full investigation that ends with multi-year probation, a loss of scholarships and a new head coach. Because the truth is, the integrity of the football program matches the academic quality of the school.

What a great post. Right on the money on the South and how people think.

I was born in the South, in Alabama, and my whole family is from Walker County, Alabama, a rural place between Birmingham and Memphis. But my grandparents were of the generation that aimed higher and they made something of themselves. They moved north for one reason and one reason only: To educate their children, to change their lives.

So it was different for me. My grandfather was a major influence in my life and he would not hear of me going to a university in the South, where he had lived most of his life. To him, it was all about the long-term view and what would be best for me the rest of my life. And so he encouraged me to go to Michigan. We were living in Michigan and he said, "You can get in-state tuition at one of the best universities in the world. Why would you go anywhere else?" This was a man who grew up poor, he knew the value of a dollar. I looked around, got accepted at a number of places and even made visits to Dartmouth and Yale. For the difference in cost, I was simply not convinced the education I'd get at those places would be worth that much more than what I'd get at Michigan. 

I have often wondered how different I would be, how different my career would be, if I had gone to Alabama instead of Michigan. And I am grateful I had people in my life to steer me to the place that would mean the most to me down the line. And that's why I love Michigan. It's not the football team, though I enjoy football -- it's that Michigan changed my life.

After graduation, I returned to Alabama, and I stayed in the South for many years. I had the ability to succeed in my chosen field, but the Michigan degree opened doors again and again. Even in places like Birmingham and New Orleans, a lot of people know about Michigan.

And the ones that don't, the ones who see it as any other school like an Alabama, you'd never want to work for them anywhere because all they're really telling you is they don't have an evolved world-view. The number of people in my family who never left Alabama because they just didn't know any better, or were scared of what's out there, far outnumber those of us who went away and came back. It is a region of misplaced priorities and underachievers. It has great soul, but in general SEC universities do not serve their athletes well once the football ends and life begins. It just doesn't matter that much to them, it only matters that they give it lip-service a la SEC Commissioner Mike Silve. He perfectly represents the SEC rationalization brigade.

The mindset the writer discusses here is sadly accurate. Most of the fans of the SEC cannot see beyond the football field. Worse, they don't even understand why anyone would care to. If I could talk to high school players in the South who have a chance to go to Michigan, that's what I'd tell them. They wouldn't all see the value, but many would, and later in life they'd be grateful just like I am.

That's a good question. There's a book waiting to be written. I have seen a number of players who got screwed quoted, mostly in the excellent takedown SI wrote on the subject (and they have continued to pound away.)

But there's got to be more, and you wonder what they were told, how the schools broke it to them. I wonder how many guys learned then the sole power of the university to grant and revoke a football scholarship every year -- or move them to a fraudulent medical list so they still get school paid for, but the athletic dept doesn't have to count it against the 85 cap.

There are no doubt some incredible stories about what these kids were told.

This whole post seems to be just sarcasm and misguided anger masquerading as analysis, but the one comment that stands out as the most inane is this one:

"Hopefully we'll start seeing some reason for optimism other than Mattison soon. Nothing in the intervening weeks qualifies, not even Jason Whitlock's endorsement."

You haven't seen any reason for optimism from the moment Brady Hoke stepped behind the podium when he was introduced? Come on. None of us can predict the future, but if you cannot see any reason for substantial optimism in the way our new coach has gone about his first month on the job, then you're never going to see it. The way he has handled himself has been nothing but refreshing, along with the way he has represented the university and interacted with current and future players. He has a lot of excellent tangible and intangible qualities and I get a little tired of unsupported predictions that everything will get worse offensively just because the predictable spread run by RR piled up a lot of yardage against weaklings, making for some pretty, meaningless stats because it could not score against quality teams.

For every stat this site continues to rely on to cast dirt on the new coaching staff, the simple counter-argument is Michigan went 0-6 last season against the six best teams on our schedule. Constantly dwelling on rushing stats means nothing. Those are averages run up against the weaklings on our schedule who were unable to tackle Denard -- but ranking high in rushing and much lower in scoring tells us a lot. When push came to shove, we got shoved -- for three seasons, not one. So be honest. No strong team had any problems keeping us out of the end zone, and that's really all that matters.

I therefore don't get the point of the attacks on Al Borges, who is a highly qualified coach who has run lots of great offenses that do something the RR offense cannot: Score against physically imposing teams. I do not understand the constant praise of Rodriguez's offense. It did not succeed in the conference in which we play. You can't win a national title without winning the Big 10 first, no matter how flashy it looks.

I don't know if Brady Hoke is the next superstar in coaching, but I think he's a pretty damn good coach. And I think he gets Michigan, and it shows. He has shown a lot of class, including toward Rodriguez, and including wisely staying silent as RR makes stupid comments about how he "didn't get to finish the job" (of completely destroying the football program, I assume) and how "we were just about to turn the corner," which is a galling statement after our final three games against Wisconsin, Ohio State and Mississippi State. Yeah, we were turning the corner -- right in to an oncoming locomotive known as our 2011 schedule.

And based on Hoke's track record, I see no reason why he will not excel at Michigan starting this fall with a team that will be much more able to compete against the teams we play every year. So not only am I pleased with what he has done so far, I am more far more optimistic than I would be if RR had been given a fourth year. It's not even close in my mind.

I have to agree with LandonC. One cannot conclude much from this film. He was pushing down kids much smaller than him, I didn't see him tangling with guys who were more physically mature. And yes, he's 6-7 and has a great frame, but the world is filled with large men who suck at sports even though everyone sees how big they are and assumes otherwise.

I don't think there's any question we'd love to have him as a preferred walk-on. We get depth that may project and we risk nothing.

But a scholarship at this point? I just don't see it, but I'm not a coach. Maybe they work this kid out and like what they see. I just hope they're not seeing a kid who is a worthwhile project for a lower-tier school, but not for Michigan. He has been invited to visit by 3 Big Ten schools, so they are seeing something. But they'd have to be super impressed with his mental makeup, his agility and his upside to even think along those lines. He looks rawer than raw. And if he's playing at one of those 'academies,' that usually means weak competition, almost every week.

To me, a big decision for Hoke and his staff only needs to be made if the kid has decided he'll only be a preferred walk-on at Ohio State, and it will take a scholarship for Michigan or another school to lure him away. Then it's a big decision.

It may not come to that. Hopefully, we sell him on choosing Michigan as the place to be a preferred walk-on with an opportunity to earn a scholarship. Because it seems a stretch to think this kid, as of today, would beat out any of the potential members of the recruiting class of 2012, which is how he needs to be judged. We're going to want every scholarship we have to put together an outstanding class during a year that is being touted already for being full of great talent across the Midwest.

.. if only because Cooper is from ACC country.

But I like our chances if it's a Big Ten school. I can't see him picking MSU over Michigan. I have felt, based on his comments, that Ferentz impressed him and Iowa was the leader.

Cooper bringing his mom and brother with him to Ann Arbor is a big plus. Can only help us.

Plus, he wants to go to business school and play early. We have a great business school and he can play right away. It really comes down to how he did or did not connect with the coaches and players.

DT Darian Cooper, who is from a town right up the road from me, is a key recruit if we can land him. We really need a defensive tackle. Very thin on roster, though there is an expectation that Hoke will move some players around because the previous staff seemed to be very unsure of where some players fit -- either due to the players underperforming (Campbell) or the defensive staff not all being on the same page about the player's position (Roh and a host of DBs).

But even if we find a few DTs on the roster (and new recruit Chris Rock may end up there) we still need bonafide tackles. Doubt it will be a problem after this year because it is a position Hoke really knows how to recruit, but landing Cooper -- and LB Leilon Willingham -- gives us some players in this class who might get on the field this fall. (I put Cooper and Willingham both in that category).

And I think we have a chance. I'd still call Iowa the favorite -- they had him almost locked up until Mattison visited his home and persuaded him to at least visit. But the weightlifting incident, and more importantly, how Ferentz handled it by largely blowing it off and staying on the road recruiting, has produced a backlash and some concerns. It provides an opening. Unsure if Hoke and Mattison can turn Cooper this weekend, but don't forget Cooper is well aware of the Ravens D -- that's his hometown NFL team -- and the draw of playing for a coach who can get him ready for the NFL is he has that kind of ability, well, that's one of selling points.

One more point: Cooper wants to go to business school. The Ross Business School is in the top 5 in the U.S.

Will be interesting to see how it plays out, but I will say we have taken our best shot with this youngster, and I think he's a heckuva talent with a big upside because he is not close to topping out and plays with an unbelievable motor. If you read his comments on twitter, it's pretty clear he has opened up his mind and came to Ann Arbor this weekend sincerely interested. He's not just taking a visit because he had one more to take, which is what a lot of kids do and what I hope Jake Fisher is doing at Oregon.

Unless he gets hurt, VanBergen definitely starts next season. It was the other side, played by Greg Banks and others, where we were really hurting,

But if we put our best four out there on the D-line, it's going to be Martin, VanBergen, Roh and someone else. We need players who are in the system to make their mark, possibly starting with Richard Ash and Terry Talbott. It's hard to say from the mix of recruits over the past two seasons who is still even on the defensive line. One task for Mattison and crew is to straighten that out. Are Campbell and Washington on the O-line or D-line?

To me, the DT spot is overall, the weakest on our team, so we may be looking at playing a lot of 3-man fronts with varied, zone blitzers. Everyone is so focused on recruiting for the secondary, but the fact is the biggest glaring weakness is most likely going to be problems stopping the run. We just don't have depth there and we have not yet identified depth out of what we have. It will be very interesting to see what this coaching staff does with the roster it inherits. At LB, guys like Kenny Demens, J.B. Fitzgerald, Josh Furman, Jake Ryan, Isaiah Bell, Marvin Robinson. Who steps up? Guys who have been on the team will most likely outplay freshman. Experience is not everything. Greg Banks has been there forever and all he really proved last season was why he never played when we had better talent

I don't think we've signed a new defender yet who will get on the field this season, but if we get Willingham maybe he plays at LB. McClure possible at DB. We are signing a lot of talent, but these guys need some experience being in college, getting bigger, stronger, working their way up on the team.

I would say the goal is to redshirt most of the class, with just a few exceptions. If it's more than that, then our class has some surprises in it or our defense is just that bad. I have to think Mattison is going to go with experience and see how those players respond to his staff's coaching.

Yeah, other guys got on some little list, and Wile was picked to kick in the Army All-American game, where he played well. The rankings are always, always wrong. Smart coaches don't recruit by them. A bunch of recruiting experts on the web don't know anything and these rankings, especially on positions like kickers, are always wildly off.

I stand by what I said: Expecting the coaching staff to know that a Div. I kicker has four generations of Michigan history is hardly asking him to know the background of every recruit in the country. That is a highly unusual fact, not simply where his mom and dad went to school. If it were a routine fact, I could see it, but kids like this don't come along too often.

And it's a valid point to make now, because it demonstrates all the qualities Hoke had that we have needed. He gets it. 

...going to give us points where we couldn't get them the past two seasons.

The bar is not too high. We just want a guy we can send out there if we get to the 25 or closer, that's all we ask. He doesn't need to be Janikowski. They other two, Brookshankin and Squibbons, can't hit their ass with both hands.

One question: How in the world was Rodriguez not recruiting an All-American kicker with all this Michigan lineage? Every day, I am more and more glad he's gone. Think of the year of rebuilding we have saved by bringing in Coach Hoke -- and Greg Mattison -- right now. Amazing.

I am reminded of what Nick Saban once told me about recruiting -- ignore the experts, evaluate the kid, make your own call. Watch the tape, check out his character, does he have skills and, if so, does he work hard? Don't take kids who are lazy by nature. The hardest part about recruiting, he said, is to separate the kids who are playing close to their best football in high school, and will only get a little better, from the ones you are catching early.

There are lots of stars in every college sport who were not high-profile commits. As I always like to point out, Glen Rice was Bill Frieder's third choice at small forward -- true story. You know, the guy who broke the scoring record for a single NCAA tournament.

Signing kids such as Keith Heitzman is smart. I don't mind people taking stock of where he is now, but writing speculative predictions such as whether he will or will not ever make All-Big Ten, we start stepping off the ledge with that kind of talk. Heitzman will redshirt, and he's still getting bigger -- who knows what he'll look like in two years, much less five. Michigan history is filled with guys who transformed.

Watch the tape on this kid. He runs well and he's going to get unbelievably stronger with Wellman. You may not recognize this kid in two years because I bet he'll never miss a workout.

And I love the name: How many times have we had some kid from Ohio with a name like Heitzman playing for Ohio State and drilling us? Heitzman is the kind of guy you hate if he's on the other team, the constant motor type, but you love him on our side.

So welcome Keith Heitzman. We can use smart athletes with a big upside. And the mark of a great program is you recruit guys to come in and work for a few years, then see what you've got. That is the preferable way to operate. Freshman who play should be great, not a desperation move. So let's use Heitzman as a guy to watch. Almost no buzz when he committed, yet he was going to a good school in Vandy, which by the way actually has produced some strong SEC defenses.

I predict he's going to help us and he's not going to be a dumbass doing dumb things. I trust this staff's ability to evaluate. Let us not forget that when Hoke's Ball State team played Michigan, they nearly beat our butts. He's building this thing back to be strong for a decade, not just the next few years.

I just want to say that I not only agree with the writer raising the issue, I commend him. Of course he is right. These kids come from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures, and the coaching staff should reflect that, not in rigid percentages or quotas, but significantly enough to show the university's good intentions.

At the end of the day, you always choose the best person. But if you find yourself never choosing a minority coach as the best person, in my view perhaps the evaluators need to at least discuss whether they're making every effort.

Football is a social society as much as anything, it should reflect society. There's a diverse group of great coaches out there and it's not like Michigan is a tough sell.

And it would seem that with coach Brady Hoke, as real as they come and off to a start that I'd call masterful, a world-class university such as Michigan would see the value in bringing in a few young, talented coaches who also bring diversity to the staff. You never know, one of them might go on to be head coach at Michigan.

I don't personally know Stanley Jacobs of the LSU supervisors, but I did work in New Orleans for a number of years and I do know about the Tiger Athletic Foundation, the giant fundraising arm formed as a private nonprofit so it can basically do whatever it wants for LSU football, so I want to offer a sane scenario of why Brandon's visit to Baton Rouge was not necessarily to land Les Miles.

1. If Brandon had really wanted to land Les Miles, Miles would be at Michigan.

2. The people saying Miles was twice offered the job are Lousiana politicians. They certainly aren't going to say they got snookered, because a lot of LSU fans don't even like Miles. He has to be portrayed as being wanted elsewhere because he is substantially unloved by LSU fans.

3. Brandon's plan was indeed to fire Rodriguez and hire Harbaugh, who definitely would be the coach if he had wanted it. But by Brandon saying he didn't offer the job to Harbaugh, whenever everyone knows he would have, it gives Miles cover to secure a contract extension at LSU, which is all he really asked for out of the deal from Brandon, his teammate at Michigan. And Harbaugh was just one of those things: The NFL got in a feeding frenzy over him, and he was gone. And it was an itch he was bound to scratch, so better than dealing with those rumors every offseason even if he had come to Michigan.

4. The reason most LSU fans were ready to fire Miles during the 2010 season is because he is a wacky coach, but he's a consistently fortunate coach if that's the case. He wins, but somehow you don't end up sold on him. Ultimately, Brandon wasn't sold on him. And he met with Miles after he'd already spent a lot of time with Hoke, and was wowed by his interview. Miles was not the right fit and Brandon knew it, but a faction of Michigan faithful wanted him to get a look. It was a four-hour deal, period.

5. Michigan would've had to break the bank to hire LSU and his very highly paid assistants, which is fine if you're getting a coach you are super excited about. But what if you aren't excited? What if, at the end of it all, you kind of liked Hoke, the guy you had just spent the weekend with? Why unload all that cash for a staff you don't really want?

6. Brandon flew in to Baton Rouge for a pit stop. He didn't even stay overnight. He wasn't there to hire a coach, he was there to have dinner with an old teammate, tell him it was going to be Hoke and discuss how to handle it.

7. A lot of NFL players and a lot of former Michigan players who didn't make the league but are doing well in life called Brandon to recommend Hoke, with many saying he was an influence on players on both sides of the ball even then. Do not underestimate the cumulative impact of this display of loyalty. Also don't underestimate its value to Michigan going forward.

8. With more momentum than the public realized rolling behind Hoke, Brandon was never locked in on Miles. After Harbaugh, it was open, and as soon as Brandon got to know Hoke, he was the new favorite.

9. Brandon is not modeling himself after Bill Martin's pursuit of a big name. Brandon would more like to emulate the Michigan Godfather, Don Canham. Canham didn't set out to hire big names, he set out to hire promising coaches who were about to become big names once they got to Michigan, with all its resources. Hoke is an excellent recruiter -- just iike he was at Michigan -- and the two turnarounds he just pulled off did not happen at quality programs suffering a down period. We're talking Ball State and San Diego State, and his impact on those programs is impressive. The overall record is meaningless. You're getting a great coach for Michigan with almost 100 college games of head coaching experience. Hiring purely off stats is just stupid. And we also should look back and think about the defenses we had in the eight seasons when Hoke was previously on the staff. I think he will be fine.

10. So I can definitely see why Brandon did it the way he did it. He was a CEO. You check out all the candidates, then you make a decision. You don't hire in midstream, ever. Hoke is a very sincere guy, a hard-working coach who knows defense and knows to turn the offense over to a guy like Al Borges. He's also beloved by his players, the classic father figure, a guy who really can coach and also happens to love the place. Think about this: As I am writing this, you can rest assured Hoke is working for Michigan tonight and well into the night. That's the guy Brandon was spending time with before he met Miles, and that's why the Michigan plane wasn't on the ground in Louisiana for very long.

11. No matter what your view of the process, ultimately you have to judge the AD by whether he got the right guy. I am confident Brandon did get the right guy and I think Hoke will have success because of how he does things and because he's going to be a lights-out recruiter at Michigan, if not this year definitely after his first season. I'm really not worried that Hoke won't win. He's got the knack, the evidence is there and know one can sell Michigan any better than he can.

12. LSU was still smart to extend Miles and they are nuts if they ever get rid of him. He has enough talent returning to win a national title this year, and he knows it. I wish him the best and I'm glad we have Brady Hoke instead.

Puh-leeze. We'd be better off if we hired every San Diego State assistants compared to the creampuff staff of buddies brought in by Rich Rod (with the exception of Barwis, who we hate to lose.)

But let's be candid: If Rodriguez's Michigan team would've played Hoke's San Diego State team in a bowl game this past season, we would've gotten killed.

The Aztecs had a great offense, not that it takes a great offense to score on a Rodriguez defense cuz even UMass runs wild, but SDSU also had a defense. .

Indeed, Hoke's old San Diego State team will give Michigan all it wants this season, and if Rodriguez were still the coach, it would be a loss for sure. The band of not-so-speedy-midgets signed by Rodriguez gets run over by everyone. And for all this criticism of 'manball' by this site, it is in fact the style of play that wins games in the SEC and every other self-respecting league. Midget ball does not win, and we proved it, except maybe in the Big East or CUSA, where everyone is undersized. The silly stats on this site that tout 'improvement' also don't win games. Our players are going to grade out a lot better once they are really coached.

I'm not going to criticize Hoke for being a coach who believes the game is won up front, on the offensive and defensive lines. That is an undeniable fact. It's exactly how Tressel builds his teams. Anyone who thinks otherwise knows nothing about football. Try telling an NFL coach the game does not start there. He'll laugh in your face.

Rodriguez always believed the game was won in a little room where he and Clueless Calvin Magee draw up plays that they think no one can stop, though honestly, we really only ran about 5-6 plays in his 'innovative' offense for most of the game. The Mississippi State players said they had great coaching on which play Michigan would favor out of which formation, and that's how it went in the game. They toyed with us. 

Hoke is ten times the coach Rodriguez is. It's not even close. Any coach who presides over the three worst defenses at a school that has been playing football for more than 100 years must really suck. And to blame it all on Carr's players -- when in fact the defense got worse the more Carr's players moved on and Rodriguez's came in -- is just a fraud. And RichRod took a school not so known for a strong kicking game and made it not just worse, but remarkably worse. Breathtakingly bad.

So I for one am glad the worst coach in the history of Michigan football is gone. And I welcomed him when he came: The guy can't win in a bigtime league and that's all there is to it. No amount of so-called 'analysis' will convince me he was about to turn the corner next year. That's all designed to avoid giving credit to Hoke when he starts winning. RichRod would've gone 7-5 again if we were lucky, and he would've gotten physically dominated by every good team on our schedule. Imagine Nebraska against a Rodriguez team? Ouch. He got outscored 100-24 in three games against Ohio State. Things were not getting better.

This site needs to stop whining about the lost promise of RichRod's program. He devastated us with his giant ego and 'me first' approach to everything. It's not about the press picking on RichRod and loving Hoke. RichRod brought it on himself, he totally deserved it because of how he treated people. Arrogant and unyielding in fitting the schemes to the talent. Often wrong, never in doubt. His first order of business was to make sure Ryan Mallet knew he did not want him. The guy is a jerk. It's also not true the players all loved him -- we're already seeing that come out. Now that he's gone, maybe our best running backs can play  -- the big, strong ones -- not just the ones who kissed his ass because they were 5-foot-6.

Yeah, we'll take our lumps in recruiting and next season. But at least we got the revival started and did not waste another year watching Michigan get drilled with a predictable spread offense and a bend over defense.

I personally think RichRod is gone only if Harbaugh wants the job and I think that is the right move. If Harbaugh says no, Rodriguez is back with certain stipulations, though in looking at our schedule and the little guys RR recruits, I don't see him doing better than 7-5 next year. We were so far from winning the five games we lost, really, not even competitive, that we aren't going to jump up and win those games next year. Wisconsin, Nebraska, Ohio State -- they will steamroll our small, speedy defense.

I really like Rodriguez as an OC, but he runs a system built for the Big East or ACC, not the Big Ten, SEC or Pac-10. My reasoning? It's a turnover-prone offense (his WVU and M teams have led their respective conferences in turnovers for five straight years), his defensive approach struggles against power teams, and his offense is so tricky to run that you're constantly in the position of suffering a dip whenever the starting QB leaves. True, a dropoff is inevitable when any offense sees a change at QB, but it is more pronounced with the spread because of the type of offense it is. Look at Florida: Tebow leaves and Brantley might be talented, but their offense looked horrible this season. Ohio State changes QBs and it doesn't even matter. Of course, they play defense, and not with little fast guys. Look at LSU: Their offense has been average or worse, their QBs are sporadic, but Les Miles recruits defense and they average 8 or 9 wins a year, even with the down years. Sometimes, they win 10-12 games.

With a more traditional pro set or I-formation approach, the offense is not so totally reliant on the QB. You can spread the risk, bring the player along slowly and the winning from year to year is more consistent. There is a reason Tressel's buttoned-down style wins -- it can be tailored to use the more experienced players more often until the QB grows up. There is a reason teams that run the spread are so up and down -- the QB is the whole offense, far more than in other offenses. They build for that one great season, then suffer a huge drop when new personnel comes in. You see it with every team that runs it. We don't want that at Michigan. It cannot consistently win.

My fear is more that we won't get Harbaugh, we'll go 7-5 or 6-6 next year and we've then lost another year to get the team straightened out. I am not too impressed by the 7 teams we beat this year. We had 5 quality teams on our schedule and they all manhandled us. That's not happening if Harbaugh is the coach. Our defense will get better immediately and our offense won't get our QB killed.

Denard is not going anywhere. He'll do great in any offense and, given that he did not make it through a single complete game this year, he'll see the wisdom of remaining healthy, using his teammates more, building a power running attack with Hopkins and winning a lot of games. He would love Harbaugh, who will help him become a complete quarterback and prepare him for the pros. This guy is a great recruiter and the NFL resume makes a difference with these kids.

I'm for Michigan no matter what, and that means supporting Dave Brandon. If he thinks a change is the best long-term move for the program, it's his job to think about the long-term. The sky is not falling if he pays RR $2.5 million and sends him on his way. RR will get hired somewhere else and Michigan will be far better equipped to compete in the Big Ten than we are now. The nonconference inflated 4-0 record means nothing to me. If we can't win in the Big Ten, nothing else matters. So let's recognize that RR has a gift for his style of offense, but also recognize its limits.

Anyone seeing anything they did not expect? I would dearly love to see a second-half miracle. It is nauseating to watch these Buckeye fans have a 3-hour party in the stands.

But I agree with you. RR is a great offensive coordinator, but let's end it right there. And I think he is a nice guy who the players love. He is not a head coach. He ignored the defense and the special teams and that's why we cannot beat a good team. We don't have a half-team, we have one-third of a team. Our special teams are the worst in the country. The worst. And our defense is -- by far -- the worst defense of any team in a BCS conference, and it's the worst one we have had under Rodriguez. Hard to believe it could be worse than his first two, but it is.

We gain a lot of yards. But we are not a fundamentally sound team. We have been dominated by every good team we played this year and really, the only reason Rich Rod had any chance of saving his job is because of one guy -- Denard Robinson. Take him off the team, we lose to Illinois, we lose to UMass, we probably lose to Indiana.

There is no real 'progress' from the first 3-9 team except we have a superstar at quarterback. But there is more to the game. Tressel's teams are always solid across the board. They win. Flashy may be fun, but RR runs a mistake-prone brand of football that often beats itself. It takes the whole package to be the Michigan coach. We can keep some of the spread plays -- who says you have to be all one or the other? -- but we should not keep the coach. If we do, it means next year you can expect lots of yardage and about seven wins. Anyone who expects differently with this staff is just dreaming, hoping for the best. We need a head coach who can recruit across the board, not an offensive tinkerer who is literally obsessed with only one part of the game.

... maybe you don't know what sources I have. Be sure to tell me I'm right when this goes down.

...but I notice you did not offer any evidence to refute it. The argument I put forth is the analysis going on at Michigan.

Remember what I wrote. The reason it's going to happen is Harbaugh is forcing their hand and Brandon really, really likes him. He doesn't hate Rodriguez (Mary Sue Coleman does not really care for him) but Brandon also is not sold enough on Rodriguez to pass up Harbaugh. He sees next year's schedule and he sees 7-5 again, maybe. Plus, if Michigan does not hire Harbaugh, the San Francisco 49ers will, or some other NFL team. So Michigan will make the move, as you shall see. My sources are not wrong and they are the same ones who told me three years ago that Michigan had decided not to offer Les Miles the job, which prompted Miles' famous press conference in which he acted like he had turned down a job he had never been offered. Every bit of that information was right on the money.

The only way Rodriguez stays is if Michigan beats Ohio State (not going to happen) or cannot close the deal with Harbaugh (doubtful, given both sides' interests). But even if Michigan strikes out with Harbaugh and keeps RichRod, he will then be forced to hire a top DC and let him pick his assistants.

Things can always go wrong in a negotiaton, but that's all that will save RichRod.  Brandon is shrewd. If Harbaugh wants it, he's the new coach.

...that won't matter. If they can hand the ball off, that will be enough against the Michigan defense. Used to be knocking out a star player meant something in this game, but Michigan cannot stop any offense, good or bad. If Ohio State has no turnovers, they win by 21, easy. Because they will stop our offense enough by just forcing it into mistakes.

All you have to do is look at how we did against the four best teams we played -- Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan State and Penn State -- and you will know we have absolutely no chance in this game unless Ohio State has 5-plus turnovers and we get touchdowns off of four of them.

I like the spread offense, I really do, but I am a little tired of all these people on here saying that, 'Now that we have the offense in shape, once we add the defense next year, we'll be great!"

No, we won't. Rich Rodriguez has never had a great defense. In the Big East, there is no such thing. His 'great' 3-3-5 defenses there would have gotten decimated in the Big Ten. All you need to do is note that Michigan, which is not close to contending for the Big Ten, whipped a mediocre UConn team that may very well clinch the Big East's BCS berth.

There is absolutely nothing to support the argument that our itty bitty defenders are going to do any better next year. The truth is, no matter how dynamic the offense, it means nothing because touchdowns mean nothing in Michigan games. They only mean something if we can stop other teams from scoring at will, which we have not been able to do for 3 years. The recruiting claim is hogwash. This defense has gotten worse every year. Indeed, the three worst defenses in Michigan history are the past three seasons -- and this season's is the worst of all. If he was still our coach next year, the defense might even get better, but it still will be the fourth-worst defense in Michigan history. No one can argue that.

It's over folks. Laugh at Wojo and Lynn Henning all you want, but has no one noticed the abrupt change in the tone of Wojo's writing the past few weeks? In his long interview with RichRod about a month ago, he sounded quite supportive. He's not banging that drum anymore. You know why? He's got sources and he knows something. So does Henning. These guys are around the program a lot. They know that Rodriguez is gone. The winning record will not save him. Michigan has not beaten a good team all season. It's a joke. These columnists are sending signals in their columns, they're not guessing.

If you're not seeing those signals, that may be because most are analyzing this the wrong way. It has nothing to do with whether one can argue Rich Rodriguez deserves another year. In a perfect world, he does. Hard to argue that. He's only had 3 years. But here's the problem: Harbaugh is leaving Stanford. Gone. Period. It might be Michigan, it might be the NFL, but he is gone. Bank it. Even Andrew Luck, who is going to turn pro, mentioned that one reason is he's not sure Harbaugh will be back.

So for David Brandon, here is the crossroads: If you don't want Harbaugh, then you bring Rich Rod back. If he doesn't work out next year, you get someone else. By then, Harbaugh is someplace else. But if you do want Harbaugh, you make the move when you can get him.

And quite frankly, it's a move I would make. I like Rich Rod, I think he is one great offensive coach. I do not think he is a great head coach. I think he shows it all the time. A great coach does not let his defense get this bad. A great coach does not keep his friends on staff on a defense this bad, he fires them. A great coach does not get so obsessed with his offense that he convinces himself marginal defenders won't matter, because no one will stop us. There is a problem when the offense is in the top 10 in the nation and the defense is in the bottom 10. If you see that kind of disparity, there is a problem with the head coach. That cannot happen at a place like Michigan and there's nothing to make me believe he has it in him to admit he knows nothing about defense, get rid of his buddies and bring in a DC who has full authority. Rodriguez thinks he has it on the right track. He is that stubborn. And Brandon has figured that out and he's going to end this now.

So the reason Rodriguez will be fired is two-fold:

1) The 'progress' is deceptive, and the 'progress' does not win games. Yes, the team is better on offense this season, but that's only because it has been so horrendous the past two seasons. But the gap between where Michigan is now and actually DEFEATING talented teams is wider than ever. We are not just losing, we were non-competitive against every good team we played except maybe Iowa, and even in that one we were only within striking distance, but not outclassed completely. Brandon is looking at that competitive gap and he does not see this staff, with its philosophy and the head coach's stubbornness, closing that gap. Brandon might have given him one more year except...

2) Harbaugh is leaving Stanford, he has made sure Michigan knows it, and so it is now or never for Michigan. It is going to be now. The man is a complete football coach who could be at Michigan 20 years. It's the job he wants. He wants to coach in the Big Ten, and we should be thankful Michigan State did not hire him four years ago. Brandon cannot pass him up and don't look at our current 7-4 record (7-5 after tomorrow) to make a case for Rich Rod. Look at the huge competitive gap in the games involving the Big Ten's top teams. Brandon has to address it and he knows that if he brings Rich Rod back, it will be another year of big scoring and giving up big scoring.

No one should say Rich Rod did a great job. He cost himself a winning season with stubborness and stupid personnel decisions in year 1. He was an interesting experiment and that's how we'll remember him, but he took 40 years of winning and replaced it with a speedy team of midgets that gets steamrolled by quality Big Ten opponents. A head coach with a big-picture view of what it takes would never have made that mistake, and Harbaugh will start correcting it immediately. Denard is not going anywhere. He'll win more games when we have a complete team, led by a complete coach.

So don't argue about the pros and cons of Rich Rodriguez. We all have seen it. This is about Harbaugh's availability and a new CEO-minded AD who is going to grab him before someone else does. We should all wish Rodriguez well. He has quite an impact on college offenses. But he is not the complete package, as our half-team proves.

Go Blue!

I will admit to a feeling of falling off the cliff when I heard about Troy Woolfolk's injury until I remembered that he is a super athlete, really fast, but not a great football player, at least at DB. And I recalled what Nick Saban once told me at an LSU practice about a highly recruited, super fast guy, who never played, as he raced down the field ahead of everyone else: "He's fast, he's strong, he's a great athlete, but he can't cover anyone and every time he has a chance to make a play, he doesn't. I don't play those guys."

So I'm going with our freshman, just because I've seen our 'experienced' players. My sleeper for the secondary is Cullen Christian, who has the goods to pick things up quickly and play well.

I stand by my 8-4 call, which means we go 3-1 in nonconference (we might drop one in South Bend, though the Irish are also defenseless and their coach seems to hate stopping people even more than ours).

I'm not buying the MSU hype and we correct that little, disturbing trend and anger the most classless coach in the league.

We'll also beat Indiana, Illinois and Purdue, the latter not as tough as some might expect.

And if we start 3-1, we'll need one win out of this group: Iowa, Wisconsin, Penn State (word is Kevin Newsome can't hit the broad side of a barn), Ohio State. I know which one I'd prefer.