Recent Comments

You may be right about Wiltfong and Sapp, but this time TVH confirmed the news.

After two and a half hours watching, I'm convinced the organizers made a conscious effort to put Butt and Boutte on separate teams.

Can we count this as a victory?

Come on down!

You'd have to consult the robot from Foundation. The robot(Chetter Hummin, I looked it up) has more data than anybody, not just recruiting-wise but every relevant gene, emotion, personality trait and sociological influence that is involved in selecting a BCS football scholarship. But even then, I think you'd have a hard time understanding his findings.

EDIT: OK, after an hour or so with no response, I'm officially disheartened. #Mgoblog's nerd/geek o'meter #Crestfallen

As a former Phins fan, I'm familiar with that episode. Wright was what, a fifth round supplemental draft player? That kid wasn't an established pro like Zach Thomas was. He was a rookie, and not even a first rounder with some leverage. That episode further shows how Saban tries to intimidate players.

As a used-to-be diehard Miami Dolphins fan, I had a chance to follow him as the coach of my favorite team for two plus seasons. Here are the reasons:

1. First of all, it was very, very tough to pry him from LSU. It was almost like he didn't really want to go pro but his ego telling him that he had to prove he could win there forced him to. The Phins at that time was a marquee coaching destination. They still had a good defense(Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas) and the number two pick in the draft coming up. 
2. He will never enjoy the power he wields at the college level. He berates his assistants. He scares college players to death, but pro players, especially when things aren't going well, tend to push back to those tactics. Even the players that liked him just tolerated his attitude. A Dolphins employee dared to say 'Good morning' in the hallway to him and his special teams coach warned that employee to never do that again or he/she'll get fired. He bullied media, which he still does, but towards the end of his second year the Miami media really had an axe to grind, and that all came out when he left.
3. He can't out-recruit every team like he does in college. He didn't draft well at all, and mind you he inherited plenty of draft picks. Word was he just couldn't make his mind on who to pick, making every draft choice an agonizing selection. He made one mistake choosing Culpepper over Brees, and that basically wrote his story at Miami.
4. One of the strongest reasons he quit was his wife. She liked being a college HC's wife where she is the queen of that little kingdom. She didn't have as much influence in Miami's diverse culture and where she was just about middle in the pecking order, the owner(and his wife) being higher-ups.
5. He never struck me as a genius coach. Sure, he's friends with Bellichick, but being a close friend of a genius does not equal you being a genius. He can coach defense, especially DBs as long as they don't revolt. But it's not at BB's level.

I know, too many words but simply put, he's not going pro because he can't bully everybody the way he does in college.

Add Joe Mixon(CA) to the list of longshots. To me this '14 kid looks as good as, if not better than anybody in the 2013 class. Magnus could you do a scouting report on him?

I am a UM grad but I didn't grow up in Michigan. I'm rather OK with not playing MSU every year, but that doesn't mean I can't understand your point.

It'd hurt the competitive balance but I guess we could put MSU in the East division and switch one of Indiana and Purdue back to West. Or continue with the dreaded 'protected rivalries'. Problem is if the B1G adds two more east schools in the future then somebody will have to move West anyway.

Jadeveon, not Javedeon Brian

You can't play manball without a sun-blocking OL.

How I understood the OP's first sentence:

(Nodding along) Yes, of course. You need some O-linemen so huge they'd block the sun. Wait a second, sun-blocking? Did the OP mean the whitey stuff? I know some players play with built-in visors, but sun-block??

I read a Chris Brown interview somewhere, and he said if you have top talent in CFB, it probably doesn't matter which offense you run — pro style or spread. And by top talent I think he meant the top 20 or so recruiting classes nationally, in which range Michigan will always be. But for a college team with lesser talent, he suggested a spread offense gives you a chance to compete against more talented teams, and might give you a leg up against similarly talented teams.

Veering a little bit off topic, it's an old story but I always thought therein lied the problem with RR, who many said wasn't a "cultural fit". RR was always the upstart who competed with relatively less talent and a brilliant scheme. He just wasn't used to the idea of smothering the opposition with talent, UM's M.O for decades. You see this everyday in business, most notably Disney hiring and then firing Michael Ovitz. There is something to be said about being more manager than innovator as the company grows in size, and one thing that struck me from the 60 minutes segment on Michigan football was how pronounced the manager side of Hoke was.

Given that angle, Meyer is an interesting case. He's definitely more innovator than Hoke and more adept at managing than RR. To me though he seems closer to Hoke than RR. But one thing to keep an eye on is his tendencies to rely heavily on the Tebows and Harvins: the star-centric system. This is true with his offensive schemes but also reportedly with how he runs his locker rooms. Hoke on the other hand is more even handed, in my opinion more suited for the Michigans, NDs and USCs of CFB. Not right or wrong, but better suited. 

They had more talent on the field, we had better coaching(well, defensively anyway). Here's the real reason yesterday's game is so frustrating: our less talented but well coached defense(the strength of our team) handily beat their supposed strength, the Meyer coached no.1 offense in the B1G. We just couldn't keep our critical weaknesses(interior Oline, Toussaint out, inexperience at QB) from sending The Game down the Toilet. 

Our defense and our special teams clearly outplayed their counterparts. But with the offense in full sabotage mode, no defense was going to win the game for us in that situation. If the offense had just a sub-par game or even a bad game instead of the I'm-making-sure-we-don't-win-this-game abomination in the second half, we should have won. 

You know when you accidentally cut yourself, the blood is gushing out and you realize how deep the cut is? You just know it's going to leave a scar for a long, long time. A day after the cut, I can't stop staring at it.

.

I'd start a new thread if I could but since I can't and I'll post it here:

What is the end game here? Is it, as the OP is assuming, to make RU or MD another USCe? Why? Sure, RU and/or MD would be thrilled, but why would Delany do that? The more important question is - who is making decisions here? What is the goal of that said decision-maker(s)?

The easy answer is Delany and he's doing it for money. But really, who is Delany working for, and does that boss demand short-term profits from him? If Delany does a lousy job, who fires him? All the B1G presidents? No. It's basically Michigan and OSU. Just look at the crude fan numbers that Nate Silver charted. OSU and Michigan are one, two in the whole nation. And if Michigan and OSU really wanted short term profit, they'd do something akin to the Longhorn network and squeeze every penny out of the B1G network. Oh, it's possible. Who is there to stop them? MSU? They're lucky to be in the B1G. PSU is, and will always be an outsider when it comes to B1G decision-making, and they won't be able to persuade Wisconsin and Iowa to side with them against the Michigan-OSU controlling party. So the way I view it, Delany largely works for Michigan and OSU, and what Michigan and OSU wants isn't really the short term profits. Then what could M&O possibly want? Of course, they want LONG TERM PROFITS! The way they structured the B1G network contract where everybody gets a fair share of money, you could even argue M&O is giving money away to the likes of Minnesota and Purdue. But it helps maintain conference stability. And in the eyes of M&O, maintaining conference stability is more profitable long term than squeezing every penny out of the little 10 short term.

So establishing viewership in the NE TV markets definitely is a step in that direction, long term profits. Or is it? The problem with that is, as Brian and a lot of others pointed out, it's not a given those NE TV money would roll in after a few years. And even if it does, you'll have to divide it by 14, minus the investment and the exit fees. Doesn't exactly scream long term profts, especially for the two B1G decision-makers. Furthermore, Delany isn't stupid. He knows adding RU and MD is going to dilute the whole product, which will NOT help with the long term profits. Then why?

My theory is, Michigan and OSU want long term profits, but not in the way you think(TVs). Did you watch the 60 minutes segment, where alabama tripled its revenue after hiring Nick Saban? What changed? Yes, they won national championships. I think Michigan and OSU want to secure long term profits by winning championships, or at least coming close to it. Now, how it the world does adding MD and RU help M&O win championships? That's the tricky part. I think it's two prong. The first prong's been well documented, the power game where B1G has more influence on the playoff format, which will presumably help Michigan and OSU. The second prong, which people mention a lot but not in the vein of Michigan and OSU specifically is, recruiting. YES, I said it, Delany is doing this to help Michigan and OSU recruit 5 star kids. Far-fetched? Ridiculous? Perhaps. But the midwest from a recruiting perspective is in a dire situation. They can field a competitive team, but admit it, they're short on blue-chip talent. The Northeast has some blue chip talent. Not a lot, but probably enough to satisfy Michigan and OSU, and hopefully enough to vault one of them into a national championship game. And my guess is, Michigan and OSU will not be willing to share that blue chip talent with other B1G teams, unlike they do with the B1G network money.

So here is where the division alignment comes in. In my humble opinion, Michigan and OSU will be paired with the east teams, PSU, MD, and RU. Maybe not immeidately, but probably sooner than later. And those rumors where the B1G will strong arm RU and MD into playing their home games in larger stadiums such as MetLife against M&O, I think they'll turn out to be true. And the B1G will likely have a heavy hand in MD and RU's decision-making, because they'd want to get them to at least a competitive level. You think Delany won't do that? Hey, that's what a B1G membership and the subsequent bailout money buys for you these days.

Let's not hatch chicken before we count them... Something like that.

I want to play OUR bottom-feeders!!

Duke and NC aren't going to bring the Carolinas. A lot of people seem to like the idea of GT, but if you really want that area you better get UGA. Not happening. But if the B1G gets UVA and VT along with Maryland, then Virgina becomes B1G territory.

it doesn't have to be the case that UM is down if MSU is up. See, Auburn and Bama. And when it comes to recruiting, I don't really feel the MSU threat. But with ND, we obviously compete to get the Chicago area kids. But even more than that, don't you think we're competing with ND to get those very national recruits you refer to? There are only so many elite prospects willing to leave their state. ND's national reputation is a big pull, and that's direct competition for UM.

But yes, Dantonio makes it a hard proposition to swallow.

MSU. At least you know Little Brother isn't going to be on the ESPN front page 24/7.

I like it. It's 30% dollars, 70% investment into expanding to the East coast, 100% power play for the future. UA is a rising company, and while Maryland isn't known as a football powerhouse neither was Oregon. Maryland is a good bet as any for a meteoric rise. Rutgers is necessary because the B1G needs a foothold to the NY market. I know, college football isn't big there, but that means there's room for growth. 

See, the B1G is on a path towards gradual decline with the change in population around the country. In this age of superconferences, staying put means eventually getting left behind. This will be a three kingdoms sort of thing, with SEC holding the southeast, Texas joining Pac12 to form a southwest kingdom. If B1G wants to compete on equal terms with those two powers, it needs to first grab the Northeast. Add the bonus of giving ND a royal Eff You in the asss, I love what Delany is doing.

GAME OF THE YEAR... and mad respect to NW

The way she jukes defenders and cuts back inside, she reminds me of... hmmm... let me see...  I can't be the only one who thought Denard, can I??

I'm having a hard time understanding why some think the No-Visits Policy(NVP) is bad. What is the downside?

• Would a kid be pressured into committing, and back out later because he wasn't sure at that moment? Yes it happens but it isn't because of the NVP. That kid, 99 times out of 100, wouldn't end up at Michigan anyway. The kid is decommitting because he isn't convinced Michigan is the place for him. Allowing visits to other schools is going to help convince him that it is, how??

On the other hand, I can see two benefits of the NVP.

• To a degree, it should protect our commits from negative recruiting. Other schools will still do it over phones and stuff, but an NVP will limit the exposure.
• And most of all, I think it really helps our overall recruiting, time and effort-wise. With limited time and effort to spend on a huge number of targets, the coaches won't have to always be on their toes with an NVP in place. They'll be able to concentrate on a small number of highly rated kids instead of worrying about soft commits decommitting, and ALSO perpetually scouting potential replacements.

we'll likely have Toussaint back. Because before the season started I was bracing for a new RB to go along with the new QB and O-line. Hopefully he regains his 2011 form.