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O'Korn not on there because...

O'Korn is not on there because he's not enrolled in classes. Can't go through spring practice unless you're a student, and the transfer went through far too late for that. Assume he'll just hang around in the background, go through all the position meetings and such until he can practice.

Also, Brad Anlauf was on the team last year. Might not have been on the roster, but he was definitely on the team. Not sure about Matt Thompson.

It's amazing to me

It's amazing to me that someone so emotionally unstable has had as much success in life as Brandon has.

That is basically what this reads like. The slightest hint of criticism turns him into a nasty emotional wreck. And then his arrogance takes over in the responses and you are left with these exchanges that make him look like he has no business in a position where he is interacting with anyone.

It's nice that he wants to reply personally, but a simple "thank you for your input," while terse and impersonal, would be far better than arguing with fans and outright attacking them.

Do people not remember

Do people not remember that Brady Hoke had an official reprimand put on his record at Ball State in literally his second month on the job because as discipline he forced players to run outside in sub-zero temps and they got frostbite?

Lloyd tried to retire before that

Lloyd tried to retire after the Rose Bowl, but Bill Martin told him that he was needed back and talked him into it. Martin never seemed to understand that the push back on the stadium expansion was from the lunatic fringe, not Michigan fans as a whole. He had the first approval, but there were still a couple more, and he seemed to think he was in a battle to the death on it, and that he couldn't manage a coaching change at the same time.

He should have been ready for it and wasn't. Lloyd was spent and just trying to get through one last year, and that's why App State happened. But it was Martin's fault for not being ready to begin with, and Martin's fault for STILL not being ready 11 months later.

That's where this whole shitstorm started and it just won't go away. But the situation now is a statement on the failure to get past it, which goes more on Mr. Ego and his puppy.

Disagree

Michigan fans read the word "academics," and a lot of them just start hearing what they want to hear.

They think along the lines of "well, some list on some website says Michigan's academics are better than School X's academics, and the kid said academics are important, therefore, the kid either picks Michigan or he's a stinking liar who isn't interested in academics at all."

Makes perfect sense.

But a kid pointing to academics can mean a lot of things beyond some ranking that says they are best here or there. It can mean offering his major. Or Michigan could have his major, but it would be nearly impossible for him to get into it, so he goes to the school where he can get into it. That's a good decision based on acadmics, right? Or it could just mean that he likes the way another school has its tutoring program set up. Or it could mean that he likes that another school has smaller class sizes and more personal attention from the professor. Or it could mean liking the way specific academic programs are set up in terms of course requirements and scheduling over four years. It could mean liking the academic facilities.

Basically, a kid saying that "academics are important" can mean a lot of different things beyond just "I am going to the school that the U.S. News and World Report said I should go to."

To field a competitive product

Not all schools cost the same, so if you take out free tuition, then you would be creating a MASSIVE competative advantage for some schools over others. The cheapest schools would essentially be offering to pay athletes more cash beyond tuition fees.

So you could get the worst schools ending up with all the best players nationally, and the best schools being restricted to in-state recruiting.

In any case, it is amazing to me how poorly thought out the argument is for the advocates of paying athletes. Most of them have no appreciation for the fact that the majority of schools are NOT making millions in profit, only an elite bunching at the top. Most have no appreciation for the fact that any number you set for football and basketball MUST be double with half that total given to female athletes.

What do you think Title IX is?

Title IX isn't some sports rule. It wasn't created with sports in mind at all. It's a federal law that is part of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. It's not going anywhere and a district court has no power to overturn it.

No comment?

People saying Hoke should have said "no comment" on Gibbons ... HE WASN'T ASKED A QUESTION. He volunteered that Gibbons wasn't with the team for family reasons as part of his opening statement when the team first got down to Tempe. It was some sort of luncheon with media and bowl reps. Which basically means that he went into that with the plan to outright lie to them.

No problem with the money

Nussmeier was the 12th highest paid assistant coach in college football last year. Borges was, ahem, ninth.

No problem at all with Michigan identifying their guy, and then spending what they needed to in order to get him. Same essentially goes for Mattison. He would have been tough to get without paying him a lot.

That said, I agree that Brandon must think paying guys more will make them better. Why was Borges the ninth highest paid coach in college football? Why is it that Brady Hoke would have come here for whatever he was making at SDSU, and gladly come here for RR's $2.5 million a year, but instead he gets paid $4.5 million a year.

What was the basis for deciding he needed to make $2 million more per year than the previous coach? Starting out that high with what he proved at Ball State and SDSU was just insane.

Think I might have started a bit lower with him, and said he could have $4.5 million a year after he won the national title.

Sorry if this is common knowledge

Who is Coach Ifft? Never heard that name before.

Okay, one last comment on this

So the Bucknuts story is that these poor innocent OSU fans, pure as the snow in their actions and of course completely sober, did not see the fence outside The Brown Jug and one of them tripped over it. Then Lewan, like a wild preditor sensing vulnerability, savagely attacked them.

Isn't the fence they're referring to like three and a half feet tall? That's well above the hip line on an average person. How would you trip over top of that. It doesn't even sound possible. Did Manute Bol come back to life as an Ohio State fan?

Seriously, how could a sober person miss this and trip over it?

Found that odd as well

"Contusions" might be a diagnosis. Doesn't make much sense for that would be on there. But if that is legitimately on the form, it still doesn't actually mean anything.

If a patient comes in and says he needs to be treated because he was assaulted, it’s not like the hospital is going to send out it’s crack team of investigators to check out the crime scene and interview witnesses. Unless there is obvious evidence that he is lying, I imagine they just write down what they are told. 

Marlin Jackson flashbacks

Anyone remember when some guy accused Marlin Jackson of hitting him in the face with a bottle? Didn't have any evidence to back it up. Everyone that was there backed Marlin's side of the story. But it didn't stop the guy from dragging his name through the mud for a while before backing off and dropping the charges.

Well, the guy then popped back up right before the NFL Draft to start making the accusations again and he filed a civil case against Marlin. Marlin fought back and won defimation case against the guy and was awarded more than $200,000.

The moral of the story is obvious, but that doesn't mean people know that story. Wouldn't be surprised at all if someone targeted a future NFLer in a bid to get rich quick. Especially if it was a drunk OSU fan targeting a Michigan player.

Wasn't there. Don't know what happened. But this is just what popped into my head as I read the Bucknuts article and how it differed from more reputable sources. Even if you didn't know what Taylor Lewan looked like, uhhh, he is 6-8, 300+ pounds. Kind of stands out a bit.

 

Questions aren't an exact transcript

Heiko has said before that the questions are not always an exact transcript of the questions that are asked. I think he might take a little more time in typing out his own questions. The Jarrod Wilson question, for example, was "Brady talks about Jarrod Wilson still having to shore some things up. Where do you still need him to improve?" It wasn't just a name and a bewildered stare....

Hmmm

I think Larry Harrison is the crazy uncle of Michigan football and Jim Harbaugh is the deadbeat dad.

The Herbstreit thing is not comparible.  Herbstreit's job is to publicly provide a fair and balanced take on matters related to college football, including Ohio State.  It was not Harbaugh's job to attack Michigan in an unprovoked manner the way he did.  It served no purpose related to doing his job.  He could have picked any school to attack, or left it open as "other schools," but by criticizing his alma mater, he knew he'd get his message into the national media.

Secondly, and this is often forgotten, he then defended that attack several times in the press.  He used it to raise his own profile.  And when Hart criticized Harbaugh, Harbaugh came back to criticize Carr for letting his players act that way.  The whole thing was far too ugly to act like it never happened.

So getting back to Larry Harrison ... everyone remembers him, right?  Big defensive tackle, who was a starter and becoming a pretty good player until it was discovered that he was lurking through the neighborhoods of Ann Arbor with his pants down, exposing himself to women.  Even going up on their front porches and exposing himself through the windows.

So hypothetically, say that Harrison had gone on to become the best defensive tackle in the NFL, going to the Pro Bowl every year.  He then retired and became a great coach, making it to the Super Bowl.  Would we have to embrace him then as "part of the Michigan family?"

I know these are very different events that I'm comparing.  One was a criminal act that embarassed the program unintentionally.  The other was an intentional act to embarass the program, but not criminal.  But I think most would say Harrison is still persona non grata - yes?

I don't think that Harbaugh being good at what he does should make Michigan fans ignore his actions.  Because those actions are not those of a Michigan Man.

 

Here's another link

There's no new information here, but thought this was really nice compilation on the all-star games as far as players to watch / teams / numbers ... it's kind of a viewing guide.

http://www.maizeandbluenews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=723:michigan-guide-to-national-all-star-games&catid=21:recruiting&Itemid=96

Uniform crap = Brandon

The uniform thing is on Brandon, not Adidas. Yes, Adidas designed uniforms in that couldn't let you read the numbers. And Adidis messed with the shoulder colors. But those uniforms were then presented to Michigan for approval. There was nothing forcing Michigan to use them. Michigan was the home team and could have worn their normal home uniforms. 

David Brandon decided that these were good. David Brandon ordered Adidas to produce them for the entire team for a game.  David Brandon wants Michigan to wear stupid looking alternates for special occasions. 

So poor design by Adidas, but Adidas is NOT the problem. Under Armour, Nike ... they have all come up with some horrible alternates for other teams.  It is up to the athletic director to decide if those horrible alternates are what he wants as a representation of his teams....

Disagree

Michigan being among the most profitable brands in college athletics is not new, nor is it Dave Brandon’s creation.

Tom Goss was a dummy who ran the athletic department into the red, but it has been among the most profitable nationally every year since Bill Martin first showed up. It was top two with North Carolina as I recall back in the early 2000s. Don’t have the exact numbers, but I’d be willing to bet top five every year since Martin first took over.

Secondly, this notion that “the kids love the alternate jerseys” is often repeated, never supported.  Prove it.  Like define the schools that use the most alternates and the ones that use the least and compare their success in the recruiting rankings. I’d be willing to bet that it shows the kids do not like the alternates.

Finally, getting back to the money thing, the special jerseys don’t make Michigan much if anything. They are auctioned off for charity, which is nice. But the sale of alternate jerseys is not that high and is offset by the non-sale of other stuff … people leaving the store with an alternate likely would have left with something else had alternates not been available. Plus, I don’t even think Michigan’s merchandising deal with adidas works that way. I think it most a set amount and they just have more negotiating strength when the contract is up if the sales are high … could be wrong on that last point though.

Won't believe this until I see it

Sort of surprised that everyone is taking this premise and running with it off such little evidence. Kovacs included his name among the players he is helping and then he appears to be in the clip on defense.

It means something is up, but doesn't necessarily mean he has outright switched to defense. Could just be something they are trying out, with him working on both offense and defense.

Not a big fan of DeBorges, so the explaination that he just doesn't know what to do with him sort of makes sense.  But then, if they don't think he's a running back, how hard would it be to look at the roster and see that Gallon and Dileo are two years ahead of Norfleet and realize he could be used to replace them? They figured out how to use Gallon well enough. 

Again though, I'm not buying this as an actual move until Brady Hoke comes out and says so.  If it's too odd to believe, it probably isn't true....

Didn't see anything wrong with Braylon's comments

Thought Braylon was just supporting his brother. A little upset that Michigan didn't give him a shot, but I don't think it crossed the line that bad, and he came back to say that he still was very supportive of Michigan.

Also, here's another Dawson interview - free one - that wasn't linked:

http://www.maizeandbluenews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=648:dawson-details-his-recruitment&catid=21:recruiting&Itemid=96

The Conley logic doesn't make sense

The idea that this ties in to Conley does not make sense to me.  Conley hasn't decommitted.  If he decommitted, THEN Jones was offered, I could see it all tying together.  But you don't go out an offer a kid who has nothing but MAC offers because you think you might lose a commitment from someone else. Because if Conley decommitted a month or two months from from now, Jones would still be sitting there as a real option probably.  So there would be no need to push it forward now, before the Conley situation has been settled.

I actually think that speaks more highly of Jones too.  They didn't have to offer him now, but they did anyway.

I don't fully understand the policy

So the whole thing with the no other visits policy, I get why they have that ... you commit to us, and we commit to you with our recruiting strategy that follows.  If you're going to flirt with other schools, your spot could get taken.

But if a kid commits to Michigan, decides he wants to take another visit and does that, but the visit only proves to him that he was right in his initial decision and he wants to stay committed ... well, does that mean he is still committed or not?

Because I think that exact scenario has played out a number of times.  Greg Mathews is the only one I can think of off the top of my head, but think it's happened.

Yeesh

This is serious stuff.  If he doesn't go to class, how will he ever learn to properly appreciate music.  He could be unaware of the existance of AIDS.  And his golf score will definitely suffer.  Get yourself to class young man.

The game itself is not safe. 

The game itself is not safe.  I think we've all known that for a long time.  Saban probably just sees the pace as being mechanism for less talented teams to level the playing field a little bit.  And with the talent he gets, he doesn't want that.