Greatest call ever. Neither of those guys ever played meaningful football ever after that unreal hit. Sad, but what a moment and game to go out on.
I got to go with Hutchinson and Chris Floyd. Absolute animal and old school. Had single handedly one of the best drives in UM in history against OSU. Two nasty runs, and two savage blocks. He also swatted and OSU defender's hand out of face when he was on the ground and the OSU player (need to find out who) tried to help him up. Bas a$$.
This is a ridiculous post, and I am so tired of hearing the argument that Michigan doesn't develop its talent, instead of the argument that Michigan HAS NO TALENT. Look at the number of players we sent to the pros under Lloyd as opposed to RR and Hoke. Look at the way we used to physically dominate teams under Lloyd, particularly up through 2004. Your point about Lloyd being able to recruit in SEC country says it all. Maybe Foote's point about guys being from a "tougher road" is misstated, but the point is that Lloyd was able to nationally recruit talented players who went on to be talented pros. Our 2000 team probably had 12-15 pros on it, and went 9-3 i think. We rarely, if ever got dominated physically by another opponent. Guys like Hutchinson, Jansen, A-Train, Manningham, Terrell, Brady, Henson, Perry, Long, Woodley....to a name a few, were clearly studs when they came in as freshment. Did Michigan develop them well, maybe, probably better than the current squad, but when you get physically pushed around by Minnesota, Utah and Rutgers, it speaks volumes about the base level of your talent, not the coaches ability to develop talent. It's just incredible to me that people think Michigan has talent, but just doesn't develop it well. When you go from consistently sending 4-6 guys or more to the NFL in the first 6 rounds to possibility of 1 or 2, it says a lot. Nick Saban would not be better than 6-4 with this team. its about recruiting, not development....look at the way OSU, Bama, FSU, and others have maintained their level of excellence despite freshmen quarterbacks, new offensive lines, etc. people continue to make the point that 'we have a top 5 or 10 recruiting class." Who cares if everyone person with a brain can tell that the derrick green's of the world, despite being a 4 star recruit, does not have same talent TJ Yeldon. Recruiting should be based on the skill of your freshman after one season, not based on regional recruiting evaluators who trump up recruits to pander to the fan base.
Novak and Douglass are good shooters. Douglass is a decent ball-handler, and Novak is a terrible ball-handler. Novak is also a slow, poor defender. I guess good shooting might (and I emphasize "might") merit a comparison to Mike Gansey...but Joe Alexander. WHAT, HUH? Ummm, this guy was the #8 overall pick, he's 6'7 or 6'8, can post-up, and shoot the three. Comparing Novak or Douglass to Alexander is just plain...well, inexplicable. This strikes me as quasi-reverse-racism, just lumping white players together because they happen to shoot the ball well.
I hate Florida as much as the next Michigan fan, but stop blaming them for 2006. THEY DESERVED IT. They absolutely mauled OSU. We didn't deserve to go the National Championship. We lost to a better OSU team who got killed by a way better Florida team. I don't see how you can hate a team for being right. Also, anyone who hates Texas should compare Mack Brown and Bob Stoops with Lloyd Carr and Urban Meyer. Stoops was the one acting like Meyer, and I thought Mack actually handled the situation in a very classy fashion, like Lloyd. I used to like OU a lot better than Texas, but my opinions of Stoops and Mack Brown have changed some.
Brian, I'm a bit perplexed as to how you can say that autobids are a mistake, but that a six team playoff with no more than 2 teams from each conference going would be a workable system. The fact that you would have Penn St. over Texas Tech shows the utter failure of your system. Either no autobids, and no max teams per conference, or autobids with at-large. I prefer a return to the old system, call me nostalgic. College Football was never about "crowning" a national champion, it has become a complete creation of ESPN and the Sports Media in general. College Football is about winning your conference, getting to the best bowl game, and winning that. If I had to do a playoff, I would do a 16-team playoff with 6 auto-bids. Anything less than 16 teams would make an already horrible system worse. You can't arbitrarily decide between a handful of 2-loss teams, which, although not this year, would be the case in most years. I would drop 1 or even 2 non-conference games, and eliminate the conference championships. Still, the old system was the best.
Recent Comments
Greatest call ever. Neither of those guys ever played meaningful football ever after that unreal hit. Sad, but what a moment and game to go out on.
I got to go with Hutchinson and Chris Floyd. Absolute animal and old school. Had single handedly one of the best drives in UM in history against OSU. Two nasty runs, and two savage blocks. He also swatted and OSU defender's hand out of face when he was on the ground and the OSU player (need to find out who) tried to help him up. Bas a$$.
This is a ridiculous post, and I am so tired of hearing the argument that Michigan doesn't develop its talent, instead of the argument that Michigan HAS NO TALENT. Look at the number of players we sent to the pros under Lloyd as opposed to RR and Hoke. Look at the way we used to physically dominate teams under Lloyd, particularly up through 2004. Your point about Lloyd being able to recruit in SEC country says it all. Maybe Foote's point about guys being from a "tougher road" is misstated, but the point is that Lloyd was able to nationally recruit talented players who went on to be talented pros. Our 2000 team probably had 12-15 pros on it, and went 9-3 i think. We rarely, if ever got dominated physically by another opponent. Guys like Hutchinson, Jansen, A-Train, Manningham, Terrell, Brady, Henson, Perry, Long, Woodley....to a name a few, were clearly studs when they came in as freshment. Did Michigan develop them well, maybe, probably better than the current squad, but when you get physically pushed around by Minnesota, Utah and Rutgers, it speaks volumes about the base level of your talent, not the coaches ability to develop talent. It's just incredible to me that people think Michigan has talent, but just doesn't develop it well. When you go from consistently sending 4-6 guys or more to the NFL in the first 6 rounds to possibility of 1 or 2, it says a lot. Nick Saban would not be better than 6-4 with this team. its about recruiting, not development....look at the way OSU, Bama, FSU, and others have maintained their level of excellence despite freshmen quarterbacks, new offensive lines, etc. people continue to make the point that 'we have a top 5 or 10 recruiting class." Who cares if everyone person with a brain can tell that the derrick green's of the world, despite being a 4 star recruit, does not have same talent TJ Yeldon. Recruiting should be based on the skill of your freshman after one season, not based on regional recruiting evaluators who trump up recruits to pander to the fan base.