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Illinois tried to hire him last year and he said no. A guy who turns down Illinois isn't going to want a gig at Northwestern.

There is no way that Maryland's travel costs are doubling. On average Maryland is only ~150 miles further away from Big Ten schools than ACC schools. And for football, the schools in the Big Ten East division will actually be closer than those in the ACC Atlantic division.

There is almost no chance that FSU would be invited to the Big Ten. It's not a good school, isn't in the AAU and is a distant 2nd banana to Florida in their own state.

I'm not a fan of Rafftery's schtick either, but he at least has some honest-to-god basketball smarts and can actually say informative things that add to my appreciation of the game. Vitale's logorrhea is comprised of almost zero substance beyond the blindingly obvious.

This was a completely crazymaking game from a offensive playcalling standpoint. MSU was well-prepped and knew exactly what was coming on many plays. Probably a dozen times I thought, OK, fake the inverted veer and toss it to the slot on a slant. Please please pleeeeez. But no.

I was on the field as a student once. I can't remember exactly when - I think it was Iowa in 1986. It also seems to me that it was vaguely half-assed. We ran around whooping it up for a couple of minutes and then scrambled back over the wall and went home.

I don't see Brian claiming that he should be the one to pick out the music.

Who peed in your Cheerios? Wishing a kid (and we are talking about kids here) good luck doesn't mean that you hope that his team beats Michigan.

Exactly. Thomas doesn't have to be Denard. He just has to be not-John Navarre. As long as he can run somewhat well, he's a constraint on the D and they have to defend him as a runner.

The only thing the article says about Oregon is that Meyer wants to run his offense faster - like Oregon. It doesn't say that Meyer is changing his offense to be like Oregon's, as the headline stupidly suggests. Miller says that's he's going to run the triple option because that's Meyer's offense. It's the same offense he used at Florida. It's not Oregon's offense.

I didn't say that it would be like Okie State. I said that in as much OSU's offense will be "modelled" on Oregon's in the form of up-tempo, they might as well have said that it's "modelled" on Okie State's also very up-tempo offense.

I lived on Church St at the time and would have been in the middle of it, except that I had a paper due the next day and wound up pulling an all-nighter to write it after I watched the game. I do remember watching news the next and being surprised about the chaos. I also remember being a little dubious as to the events' status as a "riot" because one of the pieces of video evidence presented by Channel 4 was a clip of an overturned newspaper box.

Huh? It has literally never occured to me that it meant anything other than "someone who is already a sophomore and is getting increased attention". c.f., "his stock is rising".

I changed it slightly to remove the ambiguity.

That's gotta be Lewan.

+1000 for Jorge Luis Borges reference.

Love the chickenshit end of the Molk segment. Molk is already off line, and they run with "With all due respect Dave..." Pretty sure that Molk could execute a verbal reach block on that if they gave him a chance.

I rewatched the Steve Watson late hit call, and the hit and the whistle were almost simultaneous. However, I think that it was a technically correct call because, if I understand correctly, NCAA rules say that the ball is dead the moment someone is in possession of the ball in the opponent's endzone, not when the ref blows the whistle. So even though the ref hadn't blown the whistle when Watson started his hit, Denard was 5 yards over the goal line and the ball was dead. Ergo, late hit.

Blake Countess is not more talented that Ray Vinopal? Good gravy, man.

Which is my point. So if there really is a difference between the seats you get for seasons and the seat that the package deal people sit in, there shouldn't be any complaint about paying more for the season ticket seats. If someone thinks that there isn't any difference in the seats and doesn't like paying more for the season ticket seats, then they should stop buying season tickets and get the cheaper seats from the package deals.

Jerry Sandusky wasn't a coordinator in 2002 at the time of the shower rape. He was a "coach emeritus" or something, having been forced to retire after the 1998-99 season. It's not clear to me exactly how he fit into the Penn St athletic department hierarchy, but I don't think that he reported to Paterno. I'd guess that Sandusky was part of the AD's purview.

None of which is an excuse for Paterno not contacting the police directly.

I just looked through all of Brian's UFRs for this season, and he only has 3 tunnel screen charted: 1 against WMU and 2 against EMU. They gained a total of 2 yards (1 wasn't executed properly and turned into a 14 yard Denard scramble).

There were a couple of other WR screens involving linemen that he has charted as reasonably successful throwback screens.

So I'm not misremembering the lack of tunnel screen success going in the Purdue game, although I could have sworn they'd run it at least a couple times a game. I'll be interested to see what the Purdue UFR has to say on the subject.

It's quite possible that I'm remembering only the times that it doesn't work because I have a tendency to focus on what's wrong instead of what's right.

Bubble screens involve WRs blocking for each other. In the picture posted above, there are 3 WRs to the left and only one DB within 10 yards of them. If 1 or both of the 2 outside guys blocks the DB and you flip it to the slot guy, you've got 5 yards for free.

In a tunnel screen the playside tackle pops out to block the DB over the WR. The WR gets the ball running parallel to the LOS with the idea when the tackle blocks the DB, he'll turn upfield and have room to run.

I wouldn't characterize the tunnel screen play this year as a success at all. The tackles have had a hard time getting outside and getting good blocks. The one example I can remember from the Purdue was moderately successful because the Purdue DB helpfully fell down.

Why Borges seems so dead set against bubble screens, I have no idea. I mean FREE YARDS, YO!

This. Sometimes the other team is just better. No amount of introspection, finger-pointing or second guessing will change that.

In the poorer parts of Applachia, the rural south and Florida there are huge numbers of low-rent pill mill pain clinics where doctors make money by cranking out oxy scripts to anyone who comes through the door. Oxycontin is a time release pill but you can easily get around that by crushing the pill and snorting or injecting it like herion.

That Gallon play was a tunnel screen, which they've been running all season to little effect. Tunnel screens need the playside tackle to pop out and block the DB over the receiver, so the receiver runs back toward the QB. Takes longer, requires an athletic tackle, and send the receiver back towards the middle of the defense.

In bubble screens, the outside receiver blocks and the slot runs parallel to the line of scrimmage and gets the ball going away from the middle of the field. Theoretically, you (quickly) get your slot guy one on one with a DB. Works even better if the DB's are lined up 10 yards off your receivers.

I have no idea when Borgess insists on running tunnels when, given UM's receivers, they seem inferior to bubbles. The only thing I can come up with is that he thinks that the tunnel with the receiver facing Denard is an easier completion than the bubble when the receiver is running away. Still Denard successfully made bubble screen throws all last year, so I have no idea.

Don't bail on BWC just yet. He hasn't been the soul-crushing monster everyone expected but he's had some moments this season that make it seem like the light might be coming on. Also, keep in mind that he should be just a redshirt soph right now (thank you, Angry Redshirt Wasting Gods), and might actually be following the normal development arc for a college lineman. Which is to say that he might actually be serviceable next season (in what should be his redshirt junior year - grrr).

ATTN: People moderating the above as "Flamebait"

It's sarcasm. It's also very funny.

The Big East seems almost certain to survive as a basketball conference. Cincy, Louisville & USF will decamp for someplace that has a home for their football like a newly reconfigured Conference USA. The Big East would probably then expand by poaching the best programs from the A10, probably Xavier and Temple. You could maybe throw in St Joe's or UMass or maybe even a Horizon League team like Butler.

And if the Big East continues, ND's basketball can certainly live on there. Even a complete Big East collapse doesn't really compell ND into a major conference because one of the 2nd tier conferences will take their non-football sports. And their just nuts enough about their legendary independence to ship their hoops off to the Horizon League or whatever.

And? Somebody said that UFR is informative for him and helps him understand the game better. I certainly find that to be true for myself also. It's a tool. It doesn't have to be perfect or flawless for it to be useful.

I don't think you do understand because profitgoblue didn't say anything remotely like that.

Did BWC even get on the field in a non-special team situation in the first half? I watched the game twice (and pretty closely at that), and I don't recall seeing him playing defense until the second. This includes the obvious goal line and short yardage situations in the first half was a theoretically immovable 330 pound object would have some utility.

When he finally came in the second half (or at least the first time I saw him), some sort of zone blitz was and he actually dropped into pass coverage. And my draw dropped to the floor.

It's the left guard #67, BTW. The complete brazeness of it is really kind of amazing. The ball is snapped and the guy just dives straight at Martin's lower right leg while he locked up with the center. Completely intentional and completely dirty.

Correct. JB Fitz is a 4th year senior, and Demens is a RS Jr.

Damn but I miss that place.

There are plenty of sports bars. They just all suck. I know this empirically because instead of going to one of the local sports bars I'm actually willing to go sit in BW3 and pay for shitty food and too-cold beer in a soapy glass during the first week of the NCAA Tourney.

Someone else wrote that this isn't a sports bar kind of town, and that strikes the metal spike fastener squarely on the tool interface. In the old school places - Arena, Cubs AC, Fraser's, Banfield's -  it's 1985 and the selection of games is limited to 2 being broadcast over the air by Detroit network affiliates and shown on projection screens so dark it's like you're watching through the smoke from a tire fire. OK, ok, that's hyperbole. But they've got a long way to go to be good sports bars. Which will probably never happen because they've got a locked in clientele of townies and are happy to keep shuffling along.

Further evidence: someone actually tried opening a sport bar on Main St. I have no idea what the place was like because it set the Main St record for Going Out Of Business Quickly. Whenever I went by it, there was never anyone inside.

North and South. Easy, simple, obvious, non-stupid.

But my real vote is anything besides Leaders & Legends. Steel & Coal, Corn & Rust, H20 & C55H72O5N4MG-CH3. Anything else.

We got creamed by those guys in the IM playoffs. I had the pleasure of matching up against Vada. I managed to put up 12 on him, but that was mostly because he was busy dunking at the other end.

R.I.P.

It was Ray Jackson who was CBA MVP who never made the NBA. (Not sure what's being referred to by "Jimmy King's idiocy".)

Tressel's "compromising the investigation" excuse means that he's a) a liar, or b) an idiot. If anyone compromised the investigation, it was the lawyer feeding Tressel the information or whoever was feeding that guy information. I think that Tressel is in a lot of trouble here, but the guy who's really at the center of a serious shitstorm is the lawyer, particularly if he actually was the tattoo guy's lawyer.

Bardo is brutal. He does occasionally have some decent insight, but he's frequently bizarrely wrong and mostly completely banal. I had my fill of him by the time he asserted that Sullinger should get more calls his way because he's the most OMG SHIRTLESS player in the country.   Holy NBA, Batman. That sounds just like what I want in my college basketball.

*What* was Motta talking about there? There was absolutely zero excessive roughness against Sullinger. And he's a freakin' beast and *creates* all sorts of contact. It's actually a little bit like watching Shaq play: he's constantly slamming into defenders to create space and pretty much never gets called for it.

Weird, petulant moment from Motta, particularly in victory after *his* team played kinda crappy.

McLimans isn't young, though. He did a 5th year of prep school and then redshirted, so he's actually older than Novak. Douglass is the only contributor who's older than him. He does *seem* really young, though. And inexperienced. Whatever the case, though, he's having a really hard time finding any playing time, which doesn't bode well for a 6'10" guy on this team.

Smooth hips....

Thank you for confirming that I wasn't losing my mind by thinking that the Gallon delay of game penalty was conjured out of thin air by the officials. The BTN knuckleheads just breezed right over it with nary a comment.

My point is that with regard to recruiting, every scheme has pluses and minuses. I'm not worried about losing a Denard top player. I'm just saying that while a pro-set offense is an attraction for some very good players, it's a negative for other very good players.

Anyway, you can investigate your pro -set offense == top recruiting class theory pretty easily. Top recruiting class in 2010? Florida. Who run a spread. 

And if UM were running a pro-style offense[1], athletes like Denard Robinson would go somewhere else.

[1] By which I assume you mean "pro-set", since there are very few college teams that actually run anything approaching an offense used by any pro team.

For proof of this, btw, listen to 5 minutes of radio callers moaning about how Rodriguez's offense won't work in the Big Ten. These people *think* that they're complaining about scheme, but they're not because unless they've got their heads in the sand up to their asses, it's obvious that Michigan has a really, really good offense this season. What they're really complaining about is the absence of winning. 

I'm trying and failing to remember Ezeh ever delivering a big hit. His tenure at MLB was mostly marked by being in the wrong position or getting knock backwards by one-legged MAC 2nd-stringers. I do wish that we knew more about Demens' early season absence from the playing field. I can only conclude that it wasn't because he couldn't play because in comparison to Ezeh, he looks like DAVIDHARRISSMASH.

Vinopal is a desperation move, IMO. When your free safety is a converted red-shirt soph WR who really ought to be a strong safety or LB, trying to draw a full house by going with a slow, undersized true freshman who was a huge recruiting reach seems like a reasonable thing.

I think it just may be the constant search for "big time players" rather than smart football players who can read and react quickly.

It seems to me that the existence of Jordan Kovacs, starter, obviates this question.

Mike Martin got McGloin' all over the floor. But don't worry!

Even if you accept the (IMO dubious) notion that a coaching system is a major component of player success and failure, note that with the sole exception of Ryan Mallett none of the kids who left are succeeding in other non-RR systems.

Stats like that are a poor way to measure a CB. For example, good corners may have fewer PBUs because no one will throw it anywhere near them. JT Floyd makes a lot of tackles because he has to make a lot of tackles - linebackers and safeties aren't making tackles and the defense can't get of the field, resulting in more plays for the opposition offense.

That's gotta be in a locker room - note the industrial size scale for weighing Very Large Men that's behind Webb's shoulder.

Are you sure it wasn't "sprained knee"? ABC had a completely clear shot of the MSU kid diving into Martin's leg and Martin's knee bending in a way your knee isn't supposed to bend. If Rodriguez really did say Martin has a sprained ankle, mark me down as a raised eyebrow.

I had to mute the TV in the second half when the extended Bobby Knight jerk-off began. Sweet creamery Jesus, but that was agonizing.

Taking a completely moribund program to the tourney in 2 years (with multiple walk-ons playing) is a significant accomplishment. You can argue whether or not Beilien's performance to date merits a contract extension, but minimizing what's actually happened by saying that he's "done nothing" is silly.

Yeah, that was brutal. His actual underlying analysis was generally OK, but the you-knowing was just horrendous. He had a couple of discussions where there were more you-knows that all other words put together. He even you-know'ed a you-know.

Anyway, he's clearly learning, so I cut him a lot of slack, particularly in a snoozer like Northern vs. UM. He's a really likeable guy, so I hope that he improves and does well.

Watching it on the television machine, I was absolutely sure that they'd rule it a backwards lateral and was really surprised that they called it a forward pass. In fact, I assumed that the decision took so long because they were reviewing the rulebook to decide whether Carlos Brown was out of bounds or not when lying atop a player who was out. (Players and refs on the field at the snap are in play regardless of where they are on the field during the course of play so Brown was in.)

I must have watched the 2 different shots provided by BTN a half dozen times each, and I honestly have no idea what the officials saw. I'm also a little surprised by the Todd Geerlings quote that it was "clearly" a forward pass because it sure didn't seem like anything was clear about it, and, if anything, the available views pointed towards "insufficient evidence" as opposed to "clearly". Granted, in the booth they could have been looking at something that BTN didn't show.

Speaking of BTN, the announcers were completely dumbstruck by that play. They didn't offer a single piece of insightful commentary on it, including even wondering if Carlos Brown was out (as a significant number of viewers must have been) or explaining why he wasn't.

You can't get worse than Ezeh IMO unless team use power run (Wisconsin, OSU to begin games), so barring that (this week for example), Ezeh should be out of the lineup and replace by Fitzgerald.

There's absolutely no evidence that Fitzgerald is in any way better than Ezeh. Zero. Ezeh and Mouton's play is mistake-ridden and frustrating, but they are the best that Michigan has at the moment.

IIRC, it was high and behind the receiver a little.

Absolutely correct. The ball was slightly above and behind Koger's head, and he had to twist around to even get his hands on it. It would have been nice had he caught it, but it's not like he just plain dropped a between-the-numbers ball.

Watching Williams at safety was extremely frustrating. He was out of position, took bad angles and made poor decisions. In some ways he's a 2009 poor man's Stevie Brown.

I'm impressed with Brown. I'm even more impressed with GERG for immediately recognizing Brown's strengths and weaknesses and putting him in a position to succeed.

Turner is a true freshman who the coaching clearly feel isn't ready yet.

The quick snap to catch guys offsides resulted in fumbles a lot because Tate (and Denard) and Moosman don't have the comfort level with each other yet.

More like because Moosman snapped it when they weren't looking.

I remember reading that Kiper comment and being befuddled. I still have no idea what he was talking about. IIRC Branch spent most of his senior season crushing various Penn State QBs, stuffing the run and drawing a double on every play.

"Top what was on the net"? WTF are you talking about? Her privacy was violated in a gross and despicable way, and you think that she might even consider that as a "toppable" event?

Also, nice equating how interesting she is with "super tight tops". As opposed to, you know, being good at her job.

What was up with Collinsworth's comment about Branch, though? "Boy, he's sure come a long way since I saw him play in college." You mean since he was first team All-Big Ten and generally terrorizing anyone in an opposition jersey?

I doubt very much that there will be any freshman corner anywhere in the country that will be able to cover Michael Floyd, let alone one that Michigan is going to just bring in. The guy is a total stud and future NFL player, and the likelihood of some kid who's currently a high school senior being able to cover him is vanishingly small.

The UFR pretty much confirmed my first impressions that the Mouton and, in particular, Ezeh are lost out there. They make poor decisions and are constantly out of position. Obi's particular specialty seems to be following Mouton into the same gap, which is just bewildering to me. I watched him do several times last year, including a few times on short yardage and goal to go situations. I keep waiting for the light to come on and for Obi to transform into a David Harris-like Steamroller of Death, but I'm beginning to have doubts that it will ever happen.

I also was mystified by Cissoko's stranding. After watching him get torched again and again by manbeast Michael Floyd, I finally assumed that the idea was to completely take away one of ND dynamic duo by committing all available resources to Golden Tate and hope that Floyd wouldn't be able to beat Michigan on his own. Which he almost did. Frankly, I thought that Floyd hurting himself was the 2nd most important play of the game for Michigan, after the Tate-to-Matthews winner.

It's true. They've repainted the place and make some upgrades but the menu is basically still the same.

http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/food-drink/rays-red-hots-replaces-...

OK, so this is a bummer, but, really, if Michigan cannot beat Western without Minor, we should just give up on hoping for anything better than a 3-9 season again.

Also, it really can't be stressed enough that one of the reasons that Beilein is here is that he's *not* Huggins or Calipari. Those guys are "great" recruiters, but they also bring all sorts of exposure to the seamy underbelly of high school and AAU hoops. After Ed Martin, Michigan specifically does not want that, not even so much as a whiff of that.

Beilein will be fine. He'll get good players who will come here and represent the university well and maybe even make some noise in the tournament along the way. But if you think that we're going to wake up one day and find an entire squad of future NBA lottery picks roaming around Crisler, then you need to seriously recalibrate your expectations. It's not going to happen, and that has as much to do with what the university and the AD want as it does with Beilein.

"Oklahoma, possessor of the most terrifying quasi-ginger manbeast* in college basketball lo these many years"

Classic.

The answer to your question is "Shaun King", who gunned the ball all over the field and put up huge numbers at Tulane.

There's ample evidence that Rodriguez is well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of his players and will work within his offense to put them in the best position to win.

The Wire. Best teevee ever made. When you're done with The Wire, watch The Shield because it's fantastic.

I can't read that as anything but absolutely dripping with sarcasm.

I was lucky enough to be at the game today. Best Michigan hoops win since... I'm not sure. Maybe the Fab Five era?

Mallett looked like a true freshman. I don't think that makes him questionable.

Can we please dispense with the idea that Henne's freshman performance is a threshold for good true freshman quarterbacking? Henne's 2004 season was a remarkable achievement that's going to be very rarely duplicated.

Yeah. Mea culpa. I claim an awful Monday and lack of caffeine.

Your MVP is a guy who barely played in half the games?

The Freep article quoted elsewhere says:

Though there are no scheduled/necessary surgeries, there is concern about McGuffie, who suffered another concussion against Ohio State. Rodriguez said multiple concussions for McGuffie would result in a further medical evaluation.

http://www.freep.com/article/20081124/BLOG14/81124036/1048/SPORTS

The term used for his injury in the MSU game was a "slight concussion".

I can't find a quick link in the amount of time I'm willing to devote to it, but I'm pretty sure that he suffered a concussion in the Toledo game from the hit he took on the long pass completion over the middle.

McGuffie's had 3 concussions by my count: Toledo, MSU, and OSU. See the discussion on this in Latest on McGuffie?? thread.

In what way was Mallet questionable? Depending on who you listen to, he was either the #1 or #2 QB in the country his senior year. When Henne got injured and there was no other reasonable backup (thanks to Forcier's transfer), Mallett, a true freshman, got put on the field and promptly played like a true freshman. No surprise there.

I assert that the mere fact that McGuffie is even in the position to get concussed against MSU makes him vastly more tough than anyone posting here.

Agreed. Damn near spit out my cheese stick when I read that. Huzzah, Brian.

Additionally, UT might be a better job, but it's probably also a harder job. Whoever takes the UT job is going to have to be a phenomenal recruiter because Tennessee does not have a lot of instate talent and doesn't have too much cachet outside of the Southeast, which means that they have to go up against the other SEC powerhouses who already have a leg up recruiting their own instate talent. It's not exactly clear if Dantonio has that kind of recruiting chops.

Butler is not starting. He was in on about a quarter of the defensive plays against Purdue.

The fact that Feagin is the backup QB this week does not mean that "all of a sudden he learned the offense". It means that Michigan is starting a walk-on QB and there is NO other guy to be the backup. What happens if Sheridan gets hurt? Does the offense just go on the field and mill around? Even if Feagin can only run 1 play, he's a better option that anyone else at QB if Sheridan were to go out of the game. This is a horrible situation for the football team. Pretending that Rodriguez and the coaching staff are somehow either incompetent or liars because they're between a rock and hard place and have to list Feagin at backup QB is just ridiculous.

Ethically? Is there even the remotest smidgen of doubt that it would be totally unethical to put someone with a brain injury into a football game? A tackle football game involving dudes the size of my refrigerator?

Argh. My brains are leaking out my ass after reading shit like this.

Feagin is backing up Sheridan because *there isn't anyone else*. Feagin might know only 1 play but that's probably 1 play more than anyone else on the team who could possibly be put in the game. (Notice that Cone probably knows more plays but is clearly just not going to be put in the game.)

This move does not say that Feagin is either good or competent. He's just less bad and less incompetent than all of the other options. 

Got it?

And if the other option is giving up a big chunk of yards or a TD in the same situation...?

I saw Stanton play live during pre-season. Unless he's come a long way since then, don't expect much.

That's a season trend. Check out the season to date stats. UM is averaging almost 8 minutes less TOP than the opposition. The offense can't stay on the field. The defense cannot make stop on 3rd down (opponents are converting at a 40% rate).

TOP by game:

1. Utah 35:54 - UM 24:06
2. Miami 35:13 - UM 24:47
3. UM 32:12 - ND 27:48
4. Wisc 36:04 - UM 23:56
5. Ill 33:06-  UM 26:54
6. Tol 33:08 - UM 26:52
7. UM 29:41- PSU 30:19
8. MSU 35:18 - UM 24:42
9. UM 22:18 - Purdue 37:42

Just look at the awful badness of that. The only game in which UM had more TOP that it's opponent was the ND Butter Battle 08. The PSU game was close only because PSU sleepwalked throught the entire first half before shaking off the Ambien and applying the clamps in the second half. Miami (of frickin' Ohio) managed to keep the ball 10 minutes more than Michigan.

Just took another look at the box score, and it does say that McAvoy played, although not in what capacity. I can't find whatever I read on Saturday that made me think that only 5 guys played OL the entire game. At any rate, it seems that Ferrara played most of the game, and, obviously, he's won the starting spot.

Did you notice that Siller was 21-34 for 266 and 3 TDs? No amount of wishful thinking is going to help Feagin to a stat line like that. It's clear that right now the kid is not the answer at QB. Everyone needs to move on.

That's kinda what I thought, too, Coach. Hey Purdue's putting in some raw athlete kid at QB. He's probably not going to be able to throw all that well and the main danger from him will be his legs, so let's put a nickel man out there to help keep him from getting around the corner. That should slow him... oh, crap - he can throw pretty darn well.

All manner of guys enroll early and then redshirt their freshman year. They're still redshirt freshmen. That's *exactly* what Threet is. It's totally bizarre to assert that he's anything else.