anUMal

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4 years 46 weeks

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Date	Title	Body
3 years 39 weeks ago	Shouldn't it be...	"Unleash the hell into which Barwis has turned you"? I mean, if this is an mgoblog shirt, shouldn't it adhere to the highest grammatical standards (even disputed ones)?
4 years 5 weeks ago	NSFMF	To me this looks like more of a way to get rid of this than a consolidation of resources with the goal of finally getting to the bottom of USC's involvement with whatever actually went down with Bush and Mayo. The goal of the consolidation is to determine whether USC had institutional control. This allows them to waive their hands, push some paper and ultimately say "while we couldn't determine what actually went on in each of these situations, including the extent to which any coaches or assistants knew or should have known of any benefits received, we can say that during the time period in question, USC maintained institutional control and that whatever happened were isolated instances and not representative of any wrongdoing or lack of oversight by the university." Or something like that. End investigation. This will end up being a lot like the OSU "investigation".
4 years 14 weeks ago	What?	Way to ruin this thread with a serious post. But, yeah, that thought had crossed my mind when McGuffie went down with his third.
4 years 15 weeks ago	Better hit refresh	I think that Scout was a little slow in putting Stokes in the mix for Michigan. We're now #11 on Scout. Not that much of discrepancy between them and Rivals anymore.
4 years 26 weeks ago	100%	Something like Laval is scrimmaging the entire team by himself and winning--we'll be unstoppable when he can play.
4 years 26 weeks ago	Don't Forget	We get Laval Lucas-Perry starting in January. He should be at least another solid contributor. Won't help us for UCLA or Duke, though (who is also on our schedule already so we could end up playing them twice in like three weeks--we'd have to get past UCLA first, though).
4 years 27 weeks ago	But	But it doesn't take place in the first round of a national playoff, where other, lower ranked teams are almost automatically still IN (woo caps) the MNC. You're basically saying that your system is good because it's no worse than what happens now? Aren't you proposing a solution to fix the screwed-up things that happen now? Your solution to discouraging cupcake scheduling is more in your plan for conference realignment and schedule restrictions than in the playoff. Playing Indiana (one more conference game) rather than Miami-Ohio wouldn't really change anything, though. You can play three cupcakes and still make it into the top 16 or whatever it would take to get an at large bid so I don't really see how your plan takes care of that either. If you want to reduce cupcaking, then the NCAA should go back to not allowing wins over I-AA teams to count in a team's BCS score. That'd be a start.
4 years 27 weeks ago	Ummm	Your first round doesn't really make sense. Going by this year's standings, you'd have Florida play Bama in the first round, with the looser out of the playoffs. In your "at large" bracket, you could end up with MSU playing Ball St. with the winner advancing. So you put a 10-15th ranked team (or two) into the second round, while a team that won its division who would ordinarily fall to 5th or so after loosing its conference championship, totally out. If you seeded after the conference championship, the SEC looser would have a prime shot at an at large birth. You also in a hypothetical of hypotheticals, left out Michigan in 06, assuming that the UM-OSU game was a conference championship. I'm sure Brian's mgoplayoff proposal is floating around this site somewhere. It's 12 teams, played after the conference championships with the first round played on campus. It's probably the best one that's out there.
4 years 29 weeks ago	No Speculative Content	That's what next season's preview is for.  Besides, we all know the stories about turnarounds with new coaches: Saban lost to ULL last year (or ULM . . . can't remember for sure, don't want to look it up) and is currently ranked 2nd; Pete Caroll at USC; Cap'n Sweatervest at tuosu; Rodriguez at Tulane, Clemson, and WVU; &c..  You can look at all the characteristics of those teams that you want, but do any of them automatically mean that UM will follow the same path?  And what about the new coaches that couldn't turn the corner (see Callahan, Bill)?  Do any similarities that might exist there mean that we won't be successful in the future?  You can assume that the situation at Michigan right now is completely unique and just look at the team in a vacuum: look for any signs of progress; look for any starters or non-starters that might emerge into a starring role on either side of the ball after an offseason of Barwisizing and another round of spring/summer practices.  That might be a little more useful but, again, that's what the '09 preview is for.  What will this site cover in August? It's hard enough to wait for a new season from January to late-August, which will probably be mid-November to late-August this year.  We don't need to start now.
4 years 31 weeks ago	Agree	Some of the quotes from Coach Rod made me sad though, like the one where he mentioned 110,000 fans booing him.  I hope that the comment was made off-the-cuff and that he doesn't really think all the fans are aginst him.  Maybe we should all chip in and send Coach Rod a puppy wearing an "In Rod We Trust" shirt.
4 years 31 weeks ago	By all of it I mean . . .	the "fire DickRod (LOL)" talk.  Arguing for Coach Rodriguez is not stupid, even in response to something that was initially stupid.
4 years 31 weeks ago	This is all . . .	so effing stupid. That's right. All of it. Ranting starts . . . now! First, I'm actually kind of disappointed that Brian answered the mailbag question that inspired this insipid post as he did. As far as I'm concerned, the only appropriate answer to this question is that it doesn't matter whom any of us would have preferred or whom we now prefer.  Any assessments should be off the table until at least January 2010. You can think all you want about what could have been if Pat White hadn't injured his thumb against Pitt, or if Sailboat Bill had a satellite phone on his yacht, but it doesn't make any difference. Rodriguez is our coach. His track record has proven that he is a good coach who gets the absolute most he can out of his players, but that it takes a season to get everything in order. I thought that everyone (sane) accepted that we are lacking in personnel in key positions on both sides of the ball, and that we also happen to be installing a new offensive scheme that might not even suit what little talent whe have and has proven to take a while to learn? I didn't hear anyone disagree (except sarcastically) with the genereal consensus formed here and elsewhere before the season started that this year would be, at best, irritating, and at worst, painful. Is this somehow news to some people? With respect to this specifc post, the author fails to mention a few other scenarios: that, Coach Rodriguez is, in the near future, either (a)wildly or (b)moderately successful and stays in Ann Arbor. I'm not claiming to know anything personal about the man, but it seems unfair to me to assume that he's greedy or is the Nick Saban incarnate because he left his old job, even if that job was at his alma mater. Maybe he just realized that he would always be limited, to some extent, in Morgantown, be it because of recruiting, funding, horrible administration or otherwise. Maybe, despite all of his attachment to his hometown, home state, and alma mater, that he still retains, he couldn't pass up the opportunity to coach for Michigan. Bo left his alma mater and his home state to come to Michigan. Michigan is not going to fire Coach Rodriguez no matter what happens the rest of the season. Les Miles is not going to coach Michigan Football. Accept this and move on. Almost everyone said this year could be rough, but that acceptance came with the future expectation of, to borrow a term, "ninja football". Don't act so surprised that the former actually turned out to be true and then give up on hope of the latter.
4 years 33 weeks ago	No TO	I don't think there was any need for UM to call a timeout in that situation.  They just needed to watch the ball, not the O-linemen and they certainly needed to ignore the signal of the punter.  That's why in all the practice videos on mgoblue from waaaay back in August, the defensive drills were initiated by movement of a ball on a stick, rather than an audible signal.  I realize that the game situation, especially 4th and short, is somewhat more intense than practice (even with Barwis hanging around), but I'm still fully blaming Thompson et al. for this one.  Also, looking at the replay, it seemed to me that the punter had no intention of taking the snap because he didn't really even have his hands under center (eeeeew, balls).  If everyone had just watched the movement of the football and stayed onside, Wiscy would have called the timeout and then lined up to punt for real. Also also, the line went from a 2 point stance to a 3 point stance, which is allowed.
4 years 36 weeks ago	Right on	Maybe the current version of maize is a little on the neon side, but it is supposed to be bright.  Most "maize" shirts that people sport are pretty much orange. Rule of thumb: if your shirt (along with two others) were free for buying one shirt, don't put too much stock in the authenticity of any colors, logos, or even spelling of words associated with it.  If you can't remember purchasing the shirt, look inside: if it says "Steve and Barry's", it falls into (nay, defines) this category.
4 years 39 weeks ago	Hold on	Are you telling us that your post was rhetorical?  But I wanted the quarter!  You said it would be shiny!
4 years 39 weeks ago	From what I understand	There was some moderate competition between Henne as a sophomore and post-surgury Guttierrez. Insider information at that time expressed concern over Henne's throwing, particularly in short routes (prophetic) and stated that Guttz looked generally better, more confident, and more accurate. Henne, of course, retained the starting position with a healthy Guttz alternating between holding kicks and holding a clipboard. Most just assumed that this was Lloyd staying loyal to his starter regardless of who was best. Granted, I'm not really sure if the insider information that I heard about was true--it was someone who attended several practices during camp that August and told my father directly, but I have no recollection of who it was and what experience they had in making such an assessment. Also, I'm not really sure that those rumblings took hold, except maybe within the cluster of season-ticket holders in the immediate vicinity of my father. But it illustrates a few points, some of which have already been expressed: The access is probably better, because we're more likely to know the source--it's likely to be a member of the media who have a reputation to guard . . . not always a good reputation, but a reputation nonetheless. You have to take it in context: chitownblue hit on this above, and I think it's a good point. We're looking at video clips from mgoblue.com fluffpieces and from the Michigan rivals site. Even reporters are only seeing 30 minutes of practice once a week or so. At this point in the season, the coaches are the only ones who have been around 100% of the time, and they know the players personally, including how comfortable they are with the system and what kind of a leadership role they're capable of taking, plus they're like professionals and stuff. Anumal wears the "in Rod we trust" shirt for a reason. If you look at the results of the 2005 season (don't look too hard, you don't want the person in the next cube to hear you gently weeping at your desk), you can tell that the "information" I had was likely wrong. Carr had no previous problem switching out QB's if he believed someone else is better (see Driesbach, Scott) or if he just has to give him reps to feed his ego (obvious). With Henne's general shakiness, I've got to think Gutz would have gotten a shot at some point, if he had actually shown the capability to do so. Had I any idea who the source was, I could have lambasted them for disseminating such misinfomration, but I didn't. I also could have refrained from listening to their info in the future, but how would I know (generally, I mean in my anecdote, my dad knew the guy, but still). In this context, we know where it came from, under what circumstances and we have our own, albeit limited information to keep it somewhat in check. There are also more sources so outliers can be more easily identified. So IMO, this is good, but we as educated (mostly) and enlightened (supposedly) Michigan fans just have to look at things the right way and not treat this access like crack.
4 years 40 weeks ago	Right, but	Barwis + Walk-On-who-was-hurt-senior-year-but-otherwise-would-have-been-a-three-star* = White Terrel Pryor.** *I don't know if this is true. **Not true.
4 years 40 weeks ago	QB Rotation	Rodriguez did say that any rotation will be "situational", and not scripted; i.e. no set rotation a la Henson replacing Brady at the beginning of the 2nd quarter.  RR said that hes never scripted rotation.  The video from MGoBlue.com on Saturday showed Sheridan running the zone read option and looking decent doing so; however, although it was from the first day with pads, quarterbacks were not live . . . so it was basically meaningless but he did look fleet-footed enough to possibly pull it off. I'm beginning to feel a new wave of optimism for this season based on the possible emergence of former walk-on Nick Sheridan as the quarterback to run RR's offense.  I wonder what Dex will think of that.
4 years 40 weeks ago	You Should Be OK	This was posted by Brian last August, and as far as I know, is still valid this year: http://www.mgoblog.com/content/gameplan-correction Basically, it says that any Big Ten game that gets the ABC-regional treatment, will be broadcast on either ESPN or ESPN2 in the outer markets (i.e. Oregon).  There are no Michigan games on Game Plan because they're, in theory, all available on cable.  That is, provided that you are blessed with the BTN.
4 years 40 weeks ago	I made it up.	That's right. I'm not accusing you, the reader, of wishing for the maize jersey or even thinking that it might happen so just relax. I did not conduct/consult any surveys on the matter; nor did I scour the internet to conduct comparitave analysis of instances where people though it was a possibility v. those who didn't. It was a throwaway sentence and, I think, of little context to the actual point of the post: I thought there was some interest in seeing what the adidas design would look like in maize so I posted it for discussion. That's all. This was already brough up and addressed below, but I edited the post to soften the language so that maybe it's more apparent that I was just sayin'.
4 years 40 weeks ago	Maybe	The 80% wasn't meant to be a prediction--I didn't say that there was an 80% chance of it happening.  FWIW, I don't think the football team will wear it so I'm placing myself in the 20% (maybe more) on that end. Even Nike made a maize replica jersey so that's a definite possibility.