Recent Comments

We did play UCLA in 1982 (and a second time in  the Rose Bowl on January 1st, 1983) and it didn't work out nearly that well. Tom Ramsey was the QB on the 1982 UCLA team.

Which I dread. I support sales people but am not actually in sales myself.

Because of previous sales conferences I have missed the 2009 Delaware State, 2011 Iowa and 2012 Nebraska games. (The 2010 conference was during a bye week.)

My first name is "Michael." It's not so bad since I moved to Toronto, with its huge population of immigrants, but growing up there were always at least one other Mike in all of my classes and as many as five.

(Now I work with three other Mikes on the same team. Only one of us was actually born in Canada. One was born in the Philippines, another in Romania and I was born in Ann Arbor.)

The Lions do not need another Titus Young.

“We have strict and clear standards regarding these types of behaviors,” Chryst is quoted as saying in the article.

So what, no more than 5 bag of heroin?

Are still dwarfed by the odds of getting killed driving to the stadium. My recommendation is to stay home and wrap yourself in bubble wrap, since the odds of getting killed in an accident in your house also far outweigh the odds of getting killed by a terrorist.

That's my standard answer for any question involving a cable company, anyway.

It has a population slightly larger than a third of Ann Arbor's over an area larger than Alaska and Texas combined. 

/Canadian stereotypes strike back

/Well, overly pedantic American living in Toronto does

No /s.

Bell does not. This is the only reason I've stuck with Rogers.

I live within walking distance of the UT football field. Every winter they put up a big temporary dome in the middle of the field (I believe for golf). Fans walking along the street can see through the fence to the field. They do however occasionally cover up the fence.

It'd be great to see a Michigan game in Toronto, even if it was 73-0 in the second quarter.

Canada does produce the occasional NFL player like former Wolverine Tshimanga Biakabutuka (whose family moved to suburban Montreal from Zaire when he was 4).

It's north of Cincinnati off of I-71. 

Link. He left Purdue after they fired the coach that recruited him and hired Fred Akers, whose offenses tended to feature the ground game.

You can't find many coaches thse days who spent their entire career at one place. The only one that comes to my mind is Joe Paterno.

As others have pointed out, Brady Hoke coached at other schools, leaving Michigan to coach at Ball State. So did Gary Moeller, who left Michigan in the late seventies for Illinois before coming back.

They were pulled over in Tennessee.

Yes, I agree that he should have retired at a more appropriate time so they could better prepare, but by 1999 they had signed James Stewart at RB. He wasn't great, but probably the best they could do on the free agent market. I don't think it made much of a difference. Sanders wouldn't have been there for more than another year or two at most.

The Lions went 8-8 and 9-7 the two years after he left (which was better than the 5-11 the Lions had in his last year). The Lions were ruined by first Bobby Ross's poor drafts and then of course Matt Millen's. Blaming Barry Sanders for this is ridiculous.

Mostly because of injuries his junior and senior years. He had 1357 yards and 7.3 yards per carry as a sophmore but because of those injuries and missed games he was never able to top that.

A lot.

Not enough to pull out the game, though.

He went 8-5 last year and 3-9 this year (including a 49-0 loss to Alabama). I don't know how many wins would have kept him at Auburn, but I know it was more than three and probably 8 or more.

I think Kelly almost certainly does better than that.

I see uncovered receivers everywhere.

(And the two links on the left don't even work. What is this "Maple Street Press" you speak of?)

I'm not saying Larry Coker was a good coach, but I am saying when he had the talent he knew what to do with it. Those Miami teams started to go downhill after '02, but they were still 11-2 in '03 before falling to 9-3, 9-3 and then 7-6.

The problem was that he apparently wasn't very good at evaluating, developing and/or recruiting talent. Oh, and he couldn't keep his team under control, either.

Otherwise I don't know what it could be.

Speaking of which, the blocked field goal made me very happy. 

To be honest, I thought Pryor would be a backup tight end in Oakland or a second-string quarterback in Saskatchewan. It should be interesting to see how he does, in a Tim Tebow/Ryan Leaf sort of way.

I wouldn't have drafted him, but then again I would haven't Jamarcus Russell either. On the other hand, Pryor was a third round pick in the supplemental draft and Russell was the first overall choice.

According to Wikipedia Pryor was Al Davis' last draft choice.

Three years of a competent defensive coordinator running his own defense would have certainly worked better than what we actually saw. It would almost certainly have resulted in some additional wins.

Having said that, I don't know that it would have been enough to save Rodriguez. 

Who bike to work all winter long.

They are admittedly all younger than Riley is, but Riley will be able to afford a house near the athletic complex.

Sure, he put two 11-win seasons together for a program that had won more tham 9 games in a season exactly once, and hadn't gotten any coaching offers. Towards the beginning of the first of those 11-win seasons, though, he had a heart attack. That and his age (56) may be bigger factors than his abilities. If he were ten years younger and healthier it'd be a different story.

I suspect he's also not interested in any jobs except at Ohio State, and I don't see that happening. If he's not interested in other jobs, he's not going to get much of a look.

Didn't play a real tough schedule but still won 12 games in a BCS conference.

Neither he nor Alvarez managed to get a lot of great recruiting classes into Madison. What they did do was get recruits who fit into their system and then develop them well. 

In 2010 they gave Ohio State its only loss. In 2006 they went 12-1, with their only loss to us (although admittedly they didn't play Ohio State). 

He's also been able to recruit decent quarterbacks who work in his system. I believe the only reason why he went with a transfer this year was injury, but O'Brien didn't end up finishing the season anyway.

I'm not a big fan of Bielema, but he's done a good job with the talent he's managed to recruit. Even if he is a horrible game and clock manager.

But they are next to Maryland.

They finished 7-4 and beat Ohio State, which ended up 6-4. Stanford (sigh) was probably the best team.

Northwestern's long period in the toilet didn't really begin until 1972,

It still probably wasn't televished, as of course it wasn't clear in advance.

Historically, they were good enough to go to the occasional bowl game. As bowl games became more often, they went more often. 

With a few exceptions, they were rarely terrible but they tended towards mediocrity. Their usual ceiling was a 3-loss season. Only last year (11-2 with a bowl win) and in 1984 (10-2 with a bowl loss) were they able to better that.

Good job!

I could certainly see the Irish getting their ass kicked, but it's not a given.

I don't think Gruden is going to be seriously considering any coaching jobs.

But yeah, nothing is a done deal until [Big Time Coach] signs on the dotted line.

He's the quickest example I can think of. 

Barry Switzer resigned in 1989 under pressure after winning a national championship after the 1985 season. The Sooners were put on probation, one of their star players was arrested for selling coke to the Feds, etc., which led to Switzer's resignation. However, he wasn't fired.

I do not recommend leopards or other big cats as home security. Especially if you have children. You're not going to domesticate them in one generation, and as long as they have teeth they're going to be dangerous.

They've been to a bowl every year since 2005. While most of those teams were fairly marginal in terms of quality, the 2010 team went 13-1 and gave Boise St. its only loss.

My dad was 8 at the time.

If we could run the ball without Denard, Bellomy wouldn't have had to throw as much

Steve Smith in his first start in 1981: 3 of 18 for 38 yards with three interceptions. He was more of a runner than a passer but he ended up being a three-year starter.

Rick Leach in his first start* in 1975: 2 of 10 for 34 yards with 3 interceptions. Leach again was more of a runner than a passer but he was a four-year starter.

*Or his first action. He may or may not have started the game, but he was the full-time starter very quickly.

About every 20-30 years they make a run at it. They were Big Ten champs in 1945, they were Big Ten co-champs (with Purdue and Minnesota) and went to the Rose Bowl after the 1967 season and lost to OJ Simpson's USC team, and they could have gone to the Rose Bowl in 1987 had they beaten Michigan State in November.

So me no like.

Michigan was down 12-10 but in position to win it in the waning minutes. Notre Dame's Bob Crable jumped off a teammate to block Bryan Virgil's field goal. The rules were changed the next year to prevent that.

To be fair, Virgil probably would have missed it anyway. Special teams mistakes (including missed field goals, missed extra points and blocked punts) played a role in all four of Michigan's losses that year.

Their defense wasn't all that good last year. They gave up nearly twice as many points last year (348) as they did in 2010 (176), both with Casteel.

The new DC apparently is not helping, though.

 Not one of this forum's finer moments.

This was one of the few situations where an onside kick after a safety made sense. Unless there's a penalty, whoever gets the ball after an onside kick usually has it around the kicking team's 30.

Safeties are rare as it is. In a close game in the fourth quarter, I think the winning team is more likely to intentionally take a safety. Up by 6 (and sometimes more) and backed up to their one, teams will sometimes take the safety rather than risk a blocked punt.

Having said that, I *think* Iowa did it against us in 1998. Michigan had a 10-9 lead late in the game, and their punt returner made the ill-advised decisions to both return the ball and to dance around in an attempt to get a little more yardage. He was tackled in the end zone for a safety and I believe they tried on an onside kickoff afterwards.

Edit: Yes. See the sequence starting at about 8:25.

Carr vs MSU from 1995-1999: 3-2

Carr vs MSU from 2000-2007: 7-1

Carr's only loss to MSU after 2000 involved some clock problems.

Edit: this was intended as supporting data.

I lived in Madison from 1989 until 2008 and my wife actually raised money for the university for a number of years. From 1986 until 1990, they didn't win more than 3 games in a season. Average attendance dropped from around 68,000 to less than 42,000. Tickets to home games  were easy to get, even if you didn't have a connection. 

Starting with the 1993 season, when the Badgers started winning again, attendance shot up and tickets became much harder to get.

But completely understandable, since losses by our division rivals benefit us.

Although if Ohio is going to lose, I hope they get blown out.

He had been an assistant at Arkansas under Petrino up until sometime in 2011. He left Arkansas for the head coach position at Weber State for only about 4 months before coming back to Arkansas.

Apparently all the other in-house candidates made less sense (link to an old Mandel column). UAB had hired away their old offensive coordinator to be their head coach, Petrino's brother was the new offensive coordinator, and both the defensive coordinator and the assistant head coach were newcomers from Ohio State. 

Yeah, Arkansas is a train wreck, but with the starting QB down Petrino would be struggling (although admittedly not quite as badly as they are).

They beat Washington (which beat us in the Rose Bowl) early in the season and were a bowl team (albeit a pretty marginal one). 1976 Purdue was 5-6.

1976: Michigan is undefeated and #1 going into the Purdue game. We miss a field goal at the end to lose 16-14.

1964: they win by a point 21-20 to give Michigan its only loss.

No /s.

That even with a loss to Notre Dame Michigan can still rebound to have a good season. In the eighties, two of Bo's better teams started their seasons off with two non-conference losses and went on to win the Rose Bowl (1980 and 1988).

So while  a loss to Notre Dame would certainly be discouraging I agree that it is in no way "defining."

Obviously UCLA has struggled in recent years, but they have a new coach and are obviously recruiting California as well.

1 with SF, 1 with Dallas. Sanders was still in Atlanta for the other Dallas Super Bowl wins in the nineties.

So if the Packers win it all again this year...

When they have a lot of guys with experience in their system, they do well. When they don't, they tend to struggle. They went to the Rose Bowl two years in a row, so they're due for the down end of the cycle.

No /s.

I didn't think Georgia Tech ran the triple option until Paul Johnson was coach.

Edit: I see Carcajous addressed this below.

That's 134 yards on only two returns. One was 82 yards for a touchdown, the other was 52 yards to set up a touchdown. I don't think "handful" does him justice.

Link.

Every other year while he was coach at MSU they were at or slightly above .500 (6-5-1, 6-6, 7-5, and 6-6). In his first three years, they were blown out in their bowl game and in his fourth year they didn't go to a bowl.

I think this reflects more on Michigan State's situation on the time than it does on Saban, though. He's clearly proven he can coach at the collegiate level. George Perles on the other hand had really started to slip in his last few years. Perles had been athletic director for a while but was forced out later, and was fired during the 1994 season while the team was under NCAA investigation. Recruiting seemed to have dropped off during his last few years, and the way he was fired couldn't have helped things.

Grbac unfortunately had two interceptions returned for touchdowns. The second one was on a desperation fourth-down play when we still had an outside chance of winning the game. Given that we had the ball in the red zone four times that day without scoring (thanks to Grbac's other two interceptions and turning the ball over on downs twice), I feel comfortable in saying that the game was closer than the final score indicated.

The Rose Bowl game against Washington, though, was probably worse than the final score. I thought we were lucky to be down by only 6 at the half, and our first touchdown was something of a gift.

See the story in the freep. 

(Edit: Click on "freep" above. Is it too much to ask, after all these years, that links be underlined?)

I have yet to find a gluten-free beer I like. I wish I had the time to brew one.

Thank you.

/s

Michigan has the toughest schedule in the Big Ten and plays Nebraska and Ohio State on the road, while last year's team had a tendency to struggle on the road. The defensive line may also take a step back this year.

Having said that, we do get Michigan State at home, and I think they'll be beatable. I also think Denard is going to take a step forward this year and make better decisions.

I actually like Herby as far as ESPN talking heads go. He does a reasonably good job of looking at things objectively and keeping his biases off of ESPN. (It's a completely different story when he's talking on local Columbus media, though.)

This could be the first, but I'm inclined to doubt it.

His worst years as head coach were 2001 (8-3 in his first year at Bowling Green) and 2010 (8-5 in his last year at Florida after Tebow graduated). 

Wasn't hard to google it, though.

Looks like he was actually arrested in August of 1987 before his one good season in the pros.

He was hurt in the final minute against Notre Dame and missed the next two games against Oklahoma State and Houston. Todd Collins started in his place. Grbac's first game back was against Iowa.

I've tried twitter. I have an account I never use. It does nothing for me.

Having said that, for live chat purposes I've begun to think that Brian's scheme is in fact workable.

Exactly twice since 1999. That's a lot of 10 and 11 win seasons. I don't see the program collapsing unless Beamer retires (and it may not then if they hire a decent replacement).

So presumably they're not paying anything out of their own pocket for housing.

Indiana 2011 was worse than Minnesota 2011. Minnesota managed two victories over conference opponents, which was two more than Indiana had. 

Your illusions will be destroyed soon enough.

I lived there for about a year in the late eighties and also went to school 45 minutes away in Oxford. Cincinnati seems to have had more than its share of problems with racial relations in the last twenty years, and based on some of the people I talked to I have no trouble believing that.

I also distinctly remember some clowns distributing literature from the Aryan Nations or the like on 27 between Cincy and Oxford.

He was on the GIants roster for 1991. So he only played one year in the nineties.

Penn State and McGloin were just inept the rest of the year.

A homer spins everything to put his team in a better light. Sharp spins everything to put his team in the worst possible light. Neither one of them does much in the way of thinking, and neither one of them is worth reading.

I bet he'd be up for it.

Turns out I may be celiac, which is going to put something of a damper on my beer consumption.

I do see your point, though, in that we won't play at least two of those teams even if we do play in the B1G championship game.

I believe I like nearly every other beer they make, though, and up until I moved out of Madison in 2008 I had tried them all.

I love New Orleans, but I am not a big fan of the drunken French Quarter experience.

Per stats.ath.umich.edu, Dreisbach's stats against Notre Dame in 1998 consisted of exactly one rush for a three yard loss, while Henson threw 8 passes and had a single carry. See here for the box score against Notre Dame. Other than that, Henson threw a pass against Wisconsin and had a pass and a carry against Wisconsin. That does not suggest that Dreisbach had any significant playing time.

Basically, they're not supposed to do any more than they need to do in order to convert the raw file captured by the camera into a JPG or a print-ready image. The photographer would certainly get in a lot of trouble for removing legs. I think HartAttack20 has the right idea.

(You do see editorial photos that have been manipulated, which is justified by the fact that they're editorial. It can be controversial anyway.)

1997 (see here) was Barry's best year with 2053 yards. The next year, his last before he retired, he had "only" 1491 yards (see here).

So while I was never impressed with Ross as a coach I don't think we can credit the run-and-shoot with too much of Barry Sander's success.

He was a track star who played for the 49ers for a while under pretty much the same logic Kiper is using here. He had great speed but wasn't terribly successful and went back to track about a year or so after the 49ers drafted Jerry Rice.

Renaldo Nehemiah on Wikipedia

Otherwise it's prone to abuse and enforce group-think. I would start X at 5, and perhaps increase it with certain thresholds.

I'd cap the number of free +1s as well to make it more difficult to upvote your own posts with sock puppets. 

This year: Michigan State (10-3 with a bowl game remaining), Purdue (7-6) and Air Force (7-6), with (as you said) Pitt pending at 6-6 with a bowl game remaining.

Last year: Pitt (8-5), Boston College (7-6), Utah (10-3), Army (7-6), Southern Cal (8-5) and Miami (7-6).

So more than expected, but five of them went 7-6. The only two that stick out are Southern Cal and Michigan State.

They would be playing LSU instead of Alabama. In what was a down year for the B1G, I think that's the only they would have gotten in.

Purdue has been up and down over the years, but they are good for the occasional upset. They're especially dangerous at home.

They beat us in the 1983 game. Steve Smith separated a shoulder and little-used backup Dave Hall played in the second half. He threw two touchdown passes and a pick six. The score was 10-0 before Smith was hurt, so I'm not sure we would have won if he'd played the whole game.

They also slaughtered Illinois (45-9 in the 1984 game) and Iowa (45-29 in the 1986 game).

Brian's point is that Beyer's fake injury caused him to miss the next game.

BCS shaved into your head will be gone when he lets it grow out (or shaves off the rest of his hair).