Recent Comments

cbssports.com already has the replay up, including the ceremony at the end...

They had subs.  It was crazy!

He committed to play for the visiting team when basketball was his primary focus. It's sort of a "soft flip" not that football is the deciding factor.  ...Not that he wouldn't be an awesome pickup!

When did they say that the new division format will be released?

I'll be content with either option that puts M and OSU in the same diviison, though I think the East/West will give us better exposure for recruiting.

Maybe he was referring to injuries related to inflexibility.  If you don't stretch enough (aka loose) then you get injured and have to leave the team.

/s

Well, given the evidence at hand, I'd say the posts are based on poor grammar and punctuation.

Posted this on Brian's thread too:

I'm wondering if a stacked Eastern division is better.  Recruits know they are guaranteed a number of big games each year.  Also, playing at Maryland and Rutgers every other year probalbly helps recruiting.

I think the odds of winning the division are a bit lower in the East/West format, but it also makes for a great number of big games and might help recruiting in some hotbed areas.  I'm going east-west.

Awesome.  I've been waiting for a long time for this to come together!

Other than Charoltte and the Triangle, I know of no other UofM alumni clubs in North Carolina.  I see a decent number of Michigan bumper stickers out in Western North Carolina, but I don't think there's any formal organization.

i think the last thread on this was started in March.  Hopefully with the increased traffic here during football season this will be finifhed in short order!

...I seem to always f-up block quotes the first time, and then manage (sometiimes) to fix it with trial and error on re-edit.

Anyone want to thow that in here too?

And thanks for the help!

It's not an article.  It's just a link to their recruiting rankings.

Friend of a friend, etc... with connections in Cape Coral said it has been well know down there that he hated Kelly and was hoping to last just long enough to declare early for the draft.  Looks like he decided that wasn't worth suffering through.

Do you mean "Champions of the West!"?

It seems to me that a prefferred walk on without a profile on Rivals or Scout (at least that I could find) =/= a 3-4 star 2013 prospect.  Mandle is still a welcome addition, but if the coaches really think we need another top TE, they'll still take one.  There is still a lot of time to evaluate prospects and give out offers.

Also, if the coaches really think we need another top TE, I hope we get one.  They know far better than we what our needs really are.  Perhaps they're expecting more attrition and know we'll be in the 23-24 range.  Maybe everyone will be happy!

Or else we'll have picked up other well-regarded players, most likely.

I think the last one I experienced was the great Ladies Bible Study email bomb about 5 years ago.  There were even t-shirts: "Spammin' Your Way to Heaven"

It is well documented on the interwebs as well:
Here at ArborWiki --LINK--
And made it all the way to Urban Dictionary.  --LINK--

Yes, I do miss those times... Sigh.

When I moved to Asheville a while ago I was very happy to see that New Belgium beers were readily available in bars and stocked in stores.  

I was even happier to find Bell's just as prevelant.  Asheville annually competes for the title of Beer City USA , and while there are a lot of great local brews, Bell's definitely is held in high regard.  (Founders and a few others are well-represented as well.)

Answered in the comments to Brian's post: He was not going to be staying around after this season thus already considered gone from the standpoint of 2013 recruiting.

But even after it changes to RS Jr that would still be his 4th year. RS Seniors sometimes don't get their 5th year. RS Juniors always get their 4th (unless they move on on their own.)

How does one assume that a RS Junior will be left off the roster?  Bell is currently listed as a RS Soph.  Unless I'm missing something (certainly posible at 5am), next year would have been his 4th year, not his 5th.  

I know it's a moot point now, but if he hadn't quit, I don't see how the coaches were going to kick him off the team.

I think we're on the same page.  A few final thoughts...

I was thinking more of you linking to the TTB Rating scale at the end of your eval when you give the grade.  I, for one, hadn't read many of yoru reviews before, and didn't know the scale was linked at the top of the page, so I was definitely missing some context for a while there.

My point with the whole NFL draft potential, is that I care much more about what the college world will think of a player.  I want to know who the college version of the Danny Wuerffel, Eric Crouch, Charlie Ward, and even the Denard Robinson-type players will be.  Whether or not an amazing college player (skill position or otherwise) will translate well to the NFL is definitel a valid thing to assess, it just isn't so relevant to my interest as a college football fan.

That said, keep up the good work!

IIRC she's just a few points away (I'm on the iPod app now so can't see points) so no need to worry.

But yes, I second.

Edit: Now on the laptop.  See100+ points.  Crisis averted.

I also appreciate the non-sugar coated evals. My only complaint (same with Rivals) is that, IMO, NFL potential/draft position is irrelevant.



Think back to some if the Heisman winners who were not highly regarded in the NFL. I'd much rather have the best player in college football who may not translate as well to the pros, than a lesser college player who will be better at the next level.



Tell me about (and rank) a player's college potential. I'll look to Mel Kiper for the draft eval.

Thanks, Man!  It will be interesting to see how those rankings evolve over time.

Not to throw dirt... but let me throw a little dirt!

/s  The dirt throwing appears totally deserved.

Sorry... Can't edit that post from the iPod app... Checked back and it seems that the premium sites are in agreement on the (non)visit. Sorry for the old info.

This is a Michigan blog.  Amaker is a Harvard coach.  Why don't you go find a Harvard blog?!?
Grumble, grumble... Rich Rod... grumble, grumble...  Arizona... grumble, grumble...
/s
Sorry, couldn't resist.  Could never undersand how, with OT and Rich Rod clearly on the title of other posts, they still drew these flame types of comments.  Easy enough to ignore if one is not interested.

Anyway, Glad to see Amaker having some success (though sorry that it was at the expense of the mighty Fighting Quakers.)  I would have liked to see the one-game playoff.  Without an Ivy League conference tournament, that is a pretty exciting way to determine who wil be dancing, when needed.

Also, while I appreciate the effort, why explain the most services have 20-30 5-star players, but then turn around and call the top 50 on each service a 5-star?

If you want a "true" definition of a 5-star at least an average of the services (33-34 players/year) if not the most restrictive (22-29) criteria seems more appropriate.

...for those of us who don't follow McCray?

Though I should have said he re-tweeted that info.

Our UofM guys still stack up very nicely.  Martin was tied with BYU's Loni Fangupo for second among the DLs (third overall, after Molk's 41, I believe) with 36.

Memphis DL Dontair Poe put up 44.  Best this year.  NFL.com article here.

Just wait until his cousin Tom tears up the combine in a few years!

He bested the next buy by 7 reps.  Results here.  And here's the video.   

(Video includes OSU's Mike Adams' pathetic 19 on the bench.   Per the announcers "That's not acceptable... You'll see a lot of deensive backs do better than that")

While I do greatly appreciate the monkey bread recipe, I was hoping to check out some Sparty schadenfreude first-hand.

That is amazing, but I suspect he's a bit disappointed.  He said in the ESPN story on he and Martin that he'd done 39 reps after an entire workout.  I suspect he was hoping for a bigger jump.  Still, amazing.  I hope his potential is seen and translates to an decent draft position.

When I saw this "trust me" post from someone who'd been registered for all of two days and is still in single-digit mgopoints, I was grabbing the popcorn in anticipation of the replies.  But then... nothing.  Man, are you guys are getting soft.  :-)

Anyway, just because we're "in on" a lot of good *ones at this point (11 months from NSD) it is still far from an assurance that we'll end up with any of the current top uncommitted targets.  Granted, I'll take our current position over many alternatives, but I'm not going to start counting those (exceptionally large) chickens before they hatch, err... sign.

I've also noticed that, unlike Bosch, it seems that the calls usually go in the order I described:  Call and commit ("lockign in" the decision.)  Then calling the the coaches to give them the FYI.

I suppose when you call from the Crisler Center, the other coaches probably know they don't have a chance to talk the player out of the decision, not that they would necessarily try anyway.

I doubt we'd have room to take both Tunsil and Pocic, but having them both want to Go Blue would be a nice problem for the coaches to sort out!

You do know that, other than maybe Dawson, none of this weekend's recruits project to center, right?

Posted this in the Kozan thread too:

I'll happily welcome him into the fold if/when he chooses to Go Blue.  I still fail to believe the lack of understanding of the stress a teenager could feel making what must feel like a huge commitment and likely the biggest decision of his life.

Just like it was tiring hearing the whiners talk about "not closing" our top 10/top 5 recruiting class, the folks who continue to throw out statements about Kozan not being 100% committed and moving on prove tedious as well.

Kozan is a great prospect and plays a position of need.  I couldn't care less if it takes him two months to decide.  I hope to see him on the field in the Big House sometime soon!

I fear you're right, but will still enjoy this glorious weekend to be a Wolverine!

This weekend WILL go down on Wolverine lore. That's a done-deal already!

Actually, as someone else mentioned in another thread, there was precedent, and at Michigan.

See July 8, 2003.  Probably not the same fan experience without the mgoblog effect, but 6 commits (including one Mike Hart) nonetheless.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/commitmen...

Forget the size of the school, what Brady Hoke and Michigan did today was unprecedented.

Edit: Of note, only 4/6 commits then were 4-stars, and July is a bit different than February.

*than Kozan.

..because one trolling post deserves another!  :-)

Unless, of course, you meant that we'd get one commit, which would then be followed by Kozan's commitment.

If you want to call it high-risk, then I'd say that it has the potential to be an ugly loss, setting up a potential early seasion slide (including the game at Notre Dame,) coupled with a few other losses throughout the season which could turn next year's record into one which is much worse than this past season's.

If the down side is that we could end up at 12-1, that is not high-risk.

Also, in the quote I referenced a "nothing to lose, but everything to gain" situation was described which, if you accept that as reality, is decidely not high-risk.

IIRC, Diamond made a number of relatively early visits.  He did have a former team mate here to visit, but that didn't turn out as we'd hoped.

Still, I'd (optimistically) had some similar thoughts regarding LTT.  We'll see... (keeps fingers crossed awkwardly for the next 11.5 months)

IIRC... Diamond took a number of early visits here.  He does have a former teammate here, but that didn't end up as hoped.

I still like your thinking with LTT, and had (optimistically) thought the same thing myself.

Decision has been made.  You have to find the secret hidden topic in order to find it though.  Just keep clicking on random blank spaces on the page to find the hidden link.

*fewer inane posts.  

...Sorry, couldn't resist the chance to add to the "inanity"

Let''s also hope he doesn't choose door # 3, as both he and his high school teammate (both PSU commits) have received calls from ohio.

I belive this is pretty much a direct quote of one of TomVH's insider articles over at ESPN.  Kudos to you, sir, for the spot-on analysis!

Joking aside.  With this year's class as large as it is, it's hard to argue that there are many gaps in the 2012 class that the 2013 class needs to fill.  That said, it would seem that we did a great job signing "big time" prospects on defense in general, and also on the O-line.  I think some great skilled players on offense in the 2013 class would really round out the two years nicely.

He would not count against either class' limit of 25, but would count against the 85 total players allowed on scholarship.  I do not believe that his addition would be retroactive to count against 2011 numbers, as he would not arrive until 2012.

Double post

I'm not watching the game.  Did all of Illinois coaches decide to show up?

Indignant ALL CAPS should also include proper grammar:  *YOU'RE

...You can't have one without the other.  :-)

If the kid wants to come he come. Same with any of our recruits. If they want to go on a visit then they can. Just don't expect there to be an offer sitting when you get back. When you commit to some where. YOUR COMMITTED! if your visiting, all your doing is saving your spot. In hokes system, you either have a spot or you don't. You know your place. Stop this two way street crap. Reeves isn't committed to psu if he's shopping around

Any opinions on which feed is working better for people?

Go Blue!

We want Oklahoma St to beat Oklahoma, I believe, as Oklahoma is less likely to get an at large bid with another loss.



We want an LSU and Alabama win and an LSU win in the SEC Championship game. LSU and Alabama are more or less guaranteed BCS spots so if they aren't in the championship game they are taking other slots. Also, we don't want Georgia to win the conference and pick up an auto bid.



I wonder if a Notre Dame win is a double bonus- giving Stanford a second loss and a loss to close out the season, plus our ND win looks better especially for the computer polls.



What else?

You forget that they don't want the Midwest kids because the recruit nationally.

Yeah... I suspect there's an automatic renewal of your free subscription tied in there, and I know I'll forget.

I miss Tom too.  I wonder how many more people would be inclinded to subscribe if our 2012 class were not so full already.  Not nearly as much news to report, though still some big names on the board for the last few spots in the class.

Little help here for a fellow Wolverine?

I installed AdBlocker and had it fired up and working well on my PC laptop here at work.  Had to step away for a bit and the computer went to sleep.  Now I'm just getting a black screen on attempt to start up again.  Any helpful suggestions would be much-appreciated!

Go Blue!

I'll give the sincere disclaimer that I am really not trying to be/sound like a jerk here, but would you mind mentioning what the take-homes are here?  How is Lewan's lower BMI a "sign of fitness" but other's higher BMI correlating to better performance?  What is BMI adding here that simply looking at the OL's weight does not?

P.S.  I think that putting this much work into evaluating BMI was probably a waste, and had initially down voted based on frustration with BMI/assessment of the content here.  I switched over to an up vote, however, because even though it seems this turned out to be a long way of saying nothing, I do appreciate the effort.

They are offering him a scholarship, just not for this class. 

If what we've heard it correct and the staff is being honest and up-front, he'll have a scholarship as of January, presumably for 4-5 years.  Assuming next year's class will be a bit smaller than this years, one could argue that next year's scholarhship spots are even more valuable than this years.

As this will likely be a topic of discussion:

Greyshirt Info HERE.

Grey-shirting:

While most people are familiar with the phrase "red-shirt" most people have no idea what a grey-shirt is.  In fact, the NCAA does not even acknowledge the term.  In a way, grey-shirting is like the U.S. Army's Delta Force—everyone knows it's their, but the governing body doesn't acknowledge it's existance. 

Here is how grey-shirting works:

1. A player commits to a team that is over-signed.
2. That player either doesn't go to school in the fall, or enrolls part-time and pays their own way.  They are not officially on the team.
3. In January of the following year, that player enrolls full-time and officially joins the team.  They are technically part of the recruiting class for the following year. 

Grey-shirting is a way for schools to skate around the recruiting rules.  It allows schools to over-sign, regardless of how many prospects they signed the previous year. 

Every player has a five year window to play four seasons.  That window starts the second a player is enrolled in college full-time or are on scholarship.  Since the player is not enrolled full time and is not on scholarship, their "NCAA clock" has not started. 

Once they join a team, they still have the full five year window and the ability to red-shirt if they so choose. 

While grey-shirting, players are not on the team. 

They can not practice or condition with the team.  They can not be given any advantage not extended to the normal student body.  Grey-shirts are not allowed at team meetings or functions either.  For all intents they are essentially, regular students.

And this is not nefarious in the way that the SEC has made grey shirts nefarious.  If you do it up front the kid knows he will be paying his own way for a semester with the scholi to follow.

Greyshirting has gotten a bad name, however, when schools oversign, telling all the incoming kids that they have a spot only to rescind a kid's scholarship after he is already on campus.

Broken down nicely by Dr. Saturday in this article.

How could it possibly have taken this long for someone to comment on the "csack" email address? <insert scrotum joke/pic of your choice here>

I'd love to see them on the 50, and will be even happier seeing them crossing the goal line!

I'll take Denard -17.5

Sounds good to me.  I've here, continually refreshing enough this weekend!

I wouldn't argue that a QB couldn't benefit the most, but I find it pretty hard to believe that EE wouldn't help any player.  Heck, pick at random any of the recent articles on virtually every sports site about the importance of the extra practices teams get with bowl games.  They all say something about how important they are for the younger players, and then almost always make some mention of how most Freshman spend the first half of the season trying to get use to their new system, the increased speed of the game, etc.  While certain positions may benefit more, I think that any player would be better off (from a football standpoint) from the extra practices.

That said, unless a kid has a very realistic shot at seeing playing time as a true freshman, I'd also push for completing high school and enrolling over the summer.

Anyone else want to know what browsing method found the two hidden ticket sale pages?  I'm definitely curious.

Fawzi's is great. Also, Carol or Robert in admissions will take care of her too if she let's them know she needs a little help. Good luck with the car, and the interview!

I'm trying to figure out if the BTN has any type of web broadcast (ala ESPN3). 

I think not, as they are trying to encourage the BTN's inclusion in many cable packages, but I'm stuck at work and still holding onto the small hope that I can watch the game online.  If there is one, please pass along the info!

If not, it's the radio broadcast mgoblue.com/allaccess for me, which isn't a bad way to go.

Go Blue!

Double-post

...Saban would find a way to do just that.

...but when I wear anything with Michigan on it here in North Carolina I have people stopping me at work, in the grocery store, wherever to talk about Denard, Rich Rod, etc.  & Lots about Denard!

My productivity at work is going to take an even greater dive than it has over the last two weeks of Denard-mania... and I love it!

Go Blue!

Mixed scene in Asheville.  Where I watched, there is a great Michigan fan with a great attitude whom I've gotten to watch the game with the last two weeks.  He, my wife, and I had a great time today, thought it was certainly tense on many occasions!

We went crazy at the end, and loved the outcome, as well as Denard's performance.  Down here in SEC/ACC country, the OSU fans who were watching them beat Miami were happy for us, and we were also happy to see the BIG TEN representing themselves well in a number of games.

Unfortunately there were a few Michigan fans (thankfull not sitting by us all the time) who admitted that they almost wanted us to lose so that Rich Rod would get fired.  One woman in particular seem like the type that always wanted something to complain about.  They were *leaving* in the middle of the last drive, and were it not for our chearing, would have been in their car before the winning TD was scored.  Oh, well, we can't all be great fans.

Anyway, Great Game.  Great Win.  ...And plenty of things to work on improving over the next few weeks so that we'll be even better by the time the Big Ten season rolls around.

GoBlue!

I can remember attending games in the late 70's and 80's and the Slippery Rock score was always announced... to great applause from virtually the entire stadium when they were winning.  I even called their admission's office at bought a Slippery Rock sweatshirt as  a Christmas gift for my dad (a Michigan alum from the last 60's) one year.  He remembered hearing the scores when he and my mom were students there.

Here's a random source: http://mysite.verizon.net/vze7tsc4/id36.html

"2.  How does a 7,000-student, Division II school get its football scores on TV ?

It seems like the list is mostly sticking with recent starters or semi-recent top performers, but I'll throw out a suggestion/question... What bout AC?

Was he also plain fast, or simply one of the best receivers ever?

Tap, tap, tap. Is this sarcasm detector working?

I figured most people wouldn't notice that virtually my entire post is a direct quote of the stuff we've been (good-naturedly) making fun of you about in the Dann O'Neill thread, but I didn't expect it to fly entirely over your head. :-)

Point taken though: Dead horse. Beaten. It will receive no further comments from me.

Really? I somehow can't imagine O'Neill saying, sorry coach Rod, I was going to change my mind, but some random guy on MGoBlog says he heard from some dude on the team that I quit, so I guess it's a done deal.

If anything he'd be able to make all of us look like morons for prematurely jumping on the story. I just don't see how an online discussion burns any bridges, or makes his return (or not leaving) less likely.

...and then Weis sued his surgeons twice when he suffered some of the complications which are known to come with the procedure.

I hope that everyone here knew what your point was. It was well-written.

But immediately following your discussion of star players with your own high school and college accomplishments implies that you're including yourself in that group (intentional or not). I didn't think you were being a douchenozzle (to borrow the expression) but did find it at least slightly more than minimally humorous, and worth a comment.

In my opinion it was not, however, worth the three comments from me it has now received. Sorry if you took great offense... Only minimal offense was intended!

Everyone knows that blogs are the place for only rock-solid facts, confirmed directly from the source, announced with their explicit approval. Don't you remember Brian's scoop interview with Lloyd Carr breaking the story of his retirement? As I recall, that's how MGoBlog burst onto the public scene in a major way.

Well, I simultaneously dislocated *and* broke my right pinky finger while on the 8th grade team. But wait, hold off on the nasty reply. I know you're going to like this story because I played through it with a small soft cast, some foam... and it was wrapped up! :-)

Seriously though. Take a joke man. I'm sure you were (and are) a better athlete than I, but you have to appreciate getting your chops busted a bit for telling us all that you were the man in High School.

"Furman competes in NCAA Division I athletics as the Paladins. The university is a member of the Southern Conference. In 1988 Furman won the NCAA I-AA National Football Championship. Furman also appeared in the 1985 and 2001 NCAA I-AA National Football Championship game, but lost (to Georgia Southern and Montana, respectively). Furman, Colgate, Lehigh and Richmond remain the only private universities that have appeared in the I-AA Football Championship game, and Furman was the first private school to win it, with Richmond becoming the second 20 years later. Over the past few years, Furman's football team has been consistently ranked in the top 3 spots in the NCAA I-AA polls, and recently climbed to no. 1 in the nation in the latest Sports Network polls [10]. The Paladins have also claimed 12 Southern Conference football titles, more than any school in league history."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furman_University#Athletics

It will be interesting to hear what, if any, guarantees were made regarding a scholarship after this year. I wonder if this is basically a one year tryout, or a three year deal.