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You could probably fill a…

You could probably fill a football stadium just with middle-aged football coaches with a drinking problem.

Overdue, but at least it was…

Overdue, but at least it was done.

It's pretty obvious that…

It's pretty obvious that someone like Warde Manuel would never rise to the top in a private sector organization. He fundamentally lacks leadership and communication skills.

That's kind of the contradiction in college sports today, on the one hand these athletic departments are major commercial entities, on the other hand they're still structurally part of a massive, slothful  bureaucracy. Time to wake up and smell the coffee or Michigan's 2024 national football championship will remain a generational exception.

The fact Howard will go to…

The fact Howard will go to bed tonight with a job is the tell-tale sign that Michigan doesn't take basketball very seriously.

I wasn't a fan when it went…

I wasn't a fan when it went the other way, I'm not a fan when it goes this way.

Unfortunately, the fact that…

Unfortunately, the fact that Michigan athletics are first and foremost defined by the football team's success has given everyone involved in them a decent amount of cover for a while. Michigan basketball's extreme failures aren't causing outrage, they're playing into apathy and lack of interest. Mediocrity can flourish under the cover of that.

 

If you were born on February…

If you were born on February 29th 1980, do you tell people that you are "celebrating your 11th birthday today"?

 

I always enjoyed hockey…

I always enjoyed hockey fights by and large, but honestly the thing I really loved was situations 'getting out of hand'. Like goon-on-goon quasi organized fighting is nice, but it's not 'thrilling' really. Thrilling is when games get nasty overall and there's just a palpable sense of nastiness and hate in the air. Big hits, heated words, tons of tussling, a crowd baying for blood. That's what made hockey special. It wasn't just 60 minutes of guys trying to win and then shaking hands afterwards and talking about their plans for the weekend.

 

Thereäs no reason for this…

There's no reason for this other than money. But that's a pretty big reason to be fair.

The risk is definitely diluting the brand though. Already the 1st round games are often meh and lacking in any special "March Madness" vibe.

It's the classic problem. When you have something special you want to sell more of it, but the more of it you sell the less special it is. Ask the NHL about outdoor games.

This season turned out…

This season turned out exactly as I predicted. Wings middle of the pack, pushing for that last playoff spot. Clearly awful for the long-term prospects of winning anything of note, but apparently good enough to get the casual fans back in on it and spend some money on the team (which is the entire purpose of the exercise).

The ACC has filed to seal…

The ACC has filed to seal even their complaint against FSU from public scrutiny. So right now we don't know exactly what they're suing FSU over, but I imagine their contract had an NDA attached to it (In fact I'm sure all of those contracts do). Now, validity of NDAs is a whole thing in itself that lawyers can argue about for ages.

Having had a bit of professional involvement with that at the corporate level, I can say that not every NDA is the same and it's not uncommon for loopholes to be intentionally placed or simply making their way into them by accident.

The thing is, my guess would have been that with FSU being a public institution their vending contracts ought to be accessible to the public unless there's a very specific good reason why they shouldn't. The heart of the dispute may well end up being about that 'specific good reason' and whether the ACC and ESPN's need for commercial confidentiality outweighs FSU's obligations as a public institution. I'm sure there's tons of precedent to sort through.

I bought a UDM Titans shirt…

I bought a UDM Titans shirt many years ago. I have no association with the school but it was blue and basically simply said DETROIT in red lettering on it with the old much more subtle UDM logo underneath it. This was at a time when the Pistons were running that teal abomination scheme, so it kinda felt like the closest thing to an old school Pistons look. I liked that shirt a lot actually.

The Chargers are an NFL team…

The Chargers are an NFL team in Los Angeles. I don't care about them any more than about any other NFL team.

Is that a rhetorical…

Is that a rhetorical question? Yes, they are that desperate.

Honestly, I don't care one…

Honestly, I don't care one way or another. 

It's a better hire than…

It's a better hire than Boston College football has any right to pull off.

Field goals in football don…

Field goals in football don't really ruin the game. In the 60s/70s when Larry David came up, yeah I think a lot of people had those complaints back then because games were more low-scoring and many teams were extremely risk averse. But today where winning teams typically score 30+ points and most games are easily over 40 points..I don't know. When scoring is down today it's more to do with teams not being competent rather than playing for field goals.

Kicking for points is a much bigger problem in rugby, which is of course still much more resembling the game that American football developed from. Some teams won't even attempt to really score a try (i.e. touchdown) and instead just play for field position and kicking opportunities all game. It takes the excitement out of that sport in a significant way.

Every time I hear the name…

Every time I hear the name Joe Cullen I think of an NHL player that doesn't actually exist. But it makes me think of a composite of Matt Cullen and Joe Mullen. I'm pretty bad with names.

My Michigan and college…

My Michigan and college football fandom has been following the same curve for many many years. It's practically dormant February into early August, then ramps up, gets pretty obsessive by early October, peaks in late November then drops off slowly through bowl season. The last three years I was in no shape or form as emotionally invested in the playoffs as I was in the Ohio State game. After OSU everything else feels either fairly unimportant, or if we beat OSU, the icing of the cake.

Right now I don't feel very strongly about it. I still check the usual sites and all, but it's trending towards the usual off-season low level interest. I'm sure come late summer that will change though. It's going to be an interesting next season no matter what. It's a brand new start and expectations should be adjusted accordingly. But honestly I've seen the ups and downs with Michigan and being a fan was always interesting even during the lows of the Rich Rod and Hoke years.

Trouble with the snap was…

Trouble with the snap was probably the last time I really got affected by a loss. As I got older the likelihood of a sports loss affecting me that much got greatly reduced. I think as a kid you kinda lack the perspective to evaluate these losses properly, but as a more mature individual you ideally are a little more even-keeled.

The pressure is all on OSU…

The pressure is all on OSU imo. Given how bad the situation Michigan faces now apparently is, I think Ryan Day has absolutely no excuse to not just beat Michigan in Columbus in November but to crush them.

It's a funny situation where Michigan is the defending national champions, but really all the expectation and pressure rests on that team in that cowtown in central Ohio.

It's almost comical how…

It's almost comical how quickly basketball went into the toilet. Howard appears to basically be the anti-Harbaugh.

There's "we lost a good,…

There's "we lost a good, well-regarded assistant" and then there's "the sky is falling". People overreacting to this more than to Minter leaving. Minter had more to do with the success, and yet even he's replaceable.

Some football coaches are 'unicorns' that can't be replaced, but yeah that's more Jim Harbaugh than any of these guys because the real 'unicorn' ability is to reliably identify good, well-regarded assistants.

You either trust Moore to do that or you don't. If you don't then Michigan will be screwed no matter whether Herbert stays or not.

 

I don't care. For two…

I don't care. For two reasons. One, in any professional field, you can never worry about who leaves, only who will be working for you in the future. People leaving is inevitable, it's natural. The strength of an organization is found in things that go beyond individuals.

Secondly, it's the S&C coach. There's a subset of football fans who think that's like the most important job on the team. Typically that's your gym rat types who watch YT videos of 'workout gurus' and are all in on that stuff. Normally, that set is like in its own little world and will occasionally pop their head out to denounce the S&C coach or declare him the best thing since sliced bread (depending on their personal preferences on S&C philosophy and of course the results). In this case that viewpoint got a lot more attention because it was awfully tempting to think the S&C regime is the *real* cause of the recent success, so if Harbaugh leaves but this guy stays, it'll all still stay the same and Michigan will keep being elite.

Now we don't know how Michigan will perform in the future, but it's down to who Moore's choices more than anything. It's not going to be on whether Herbert leaves or even Minter. It's what you do with the opportunity to fill those positions. That's the deciding factor. Moore is pretty young and pretty inexperienced, so yeah there's substantial risk, but hey he's the guy everyone wanted. He's got the keys now and we'll see what he will do.

Based on 'history' the Lions…

Based on 'history' the Lions should have never even won a playoff game. And Michigan should have never beaten Bama in the Rose Bowl.

I'm not sure who's watching soccer here, but I recall a time when it was considered the 'predictable' 'safe' thing to think that Spain will choke in big tournaments and never win one. It was true until it wasn't. They then won three in a row.

History really means jack in sports when it comes to predicting the future.

While it's tough to give up…

While it's tough to give up such a lead, it was always a long shot to win @SF. It was an excellent season for the Lions and they did better than most expected.

"This was our only chance in our lifetime" is the kind of talk that people would come up with who ahead of the season would have said "no way the Lions make the playoffs, it's just false hope". Why shouldn't the Lions make the NFC title game more often? Several other teams have done it.

Establishing the franchise as a good NFL team that knows what it's doing is way more important for the team than some miracle run to the Super Bowl would have been.

He hasn't been quite himself…

He hasn't been quite himself in a while. Being a long-time manager of a top Premiership team is exhausting and also turns you into a major global celebrity. It's life-altering and not just in a good way. It felt to me like he increasingly lost the ability to make light of it all. Probably a good time to take a step back from it.

I would like to think his next job is manager of the German national team in a year or two. A job with a ton of public pressure, but much less global attention and much lower day-to-day stress levels.

It'd be kind of a random…

It'd be kind of a random coincidence. And it's unlikely to actually occur. I mean how do you go from "we'll never be good, same old Lions" to talking about winning the Super Bowl ahead of a NFC championship game in which they're significant underdogs.

 

Stanford didn't go into a…

Stanford didn't go into a season thinking 'we gotta beat USC this year or else this season is a L'. If you won 9+ games at Stanford, they considered it a sensational season. At Michigan 9 wins and a L vs OSU gets you "Is coach on the hot seat next year?" threads.

I didn't say the national…

I didn't say the national title has to occur *every year*, but Alabama with Saban has been 'in the running' pretty much every year. Now that is remarkable, but Swinney at Clemson and Smart at Georgia had similar runs. So it's certainly possible. Is it where Michigan historically has been? Obviously not.

But is it where Michigan has been the last three seasons ? Absolutely. If Michigan loses to Ohio State in Columbus this year and next year in Ann Arbor and gets 9-10 wins in those seasons, there absolutely will be a perception Michigan has taken a step back even if those would be historically within the range of 'solid' Michigan seasons.

I could leave out the total W number even, any successive losses to Ohio State will generate criticism and negativity. That's just how it is at Michigan, and there's a big difference between national champions Michigan 2024 and "perhaps that's just who we are" Michigan of 2015. Harbaugh has shown it can be done. Maybe he's a unicorn of a coach, but every future Michigan season will be measured against a standard that includes the 2021-23 seasons in terms of what is viewed as 'good' at Michigan.

Michigan is an easier place…

Michigan is an easier place to win, which is why the expectation of what you win is much higher. It's a double-edged sword. Stanford doesn't have to beat an Ohio State to define a season as a good one.

At Stanford in the end, Shaw…

At Stanford in the end, Shaw looked like he was done coaching. He's not 'old' in coaching terms, but not everyone wants to spend their entire adult life working an extremely intense job like that.

I've been thinking about…

I've been thinking about that question for some time given that the writing has been on the wall for a while now. I think there's some fundamental differences between the Stanford situation and the Michigan situation, and of course between David Shaw and Sherrone Moore.

For several years, Shaw kept Stanford at maybe 95% of where Harbaugh had them. In Michigan's scenario that'd be a fairly frequent diet of 11-12 win seasons. But there is of course a wild card here, which is that Stanford isn't playing and defining itself vs a team like Ohio State. Ohio State responds to failure by 'going nuclear'. And failure to them means not being a top 4 team in the country. So that's a brutal bar for Michigan to clear and Moore is in the same boat as Harbaugh on that count.

I think it'd be a difficult situation for anyone because after 15-0 the only way is down. Anything other than another national title will be interpreted as 'the program is slowly slipping'.

I wouldn't root for the…

I wouldn't root for the Chargers if I lived right next to SoFi stadium. Though if I did, I'd have much bigger problems.

Chargers have like no fans,…

Chargers have like no fans, so it's probably just spare gear they had in the warehouse gathering dust.

Let's hope his track record…

Let's hope his track record of squeezing a bunch of money out of booster pockets only to go and spend it all on very questionable things continues.

 

The challenge of having to…

The challenge of having to beat an OSU that is always among the top 5 teams in the country is what lifted Michigan. There's no national championship, no 40-3 three year run, without OSU representing that ultimate hurdle to overcome. Michigan simply had no choice in order to avoid stagnating as an 'also-ran'.
 

 

Michigan threw it about 24…

Michigan threw it about 24 times a game this year. It's a misunderstanding to think that means you don't need a good QB. Michigan would not have won the Big Ten or the national championship without JJ McCarthy getting completions in some key moments in those games.

It's unlikely an inexperienced freshman can perform in those moments at the same level. JJ two years ago probably wouldn't. If you have a great O-line, a great running game, and a very stout defense, you can win 9-10 games with a lot of guys at the QB position. But win 11-12+ games? Nah.

Also, it's not said that Michigan will always have offensive lines and defenses quite at that level. Even under Harbaugh we've seen much worse, and we've seen QBs falter as well.

The fact the CFP Final got…

The fact the CFP Final got less viewers than the Rose Bowl shows that clearly there isn't really any widespread acceptance of the CFP Final as one of the 'big' sports finals in the country. It's just seen as another important college game. Making the Rose Bowl the Final every year as suggested by Kirk Herbstreit actually would make a ton of sense, but I'd add that it would need to be played on 1/1.

College football owns 1/1 indisputably the same way it owns the weekend after Thanksgiving. After that day the national attention and focus on college football drops significantly.

Imagine being a college…

Imagine being a college football fan and saying "I don't think Saturday would work at all." I mean yeah it's only worked the entire rest of the year for the last what 100 years or so?

I don't think he's really a…

I don't think he's really a college football guy though.You can tell by the comment about the sanctions...because other than the Harbaugh suspension(s) there haven't really been any yet as the investigation hasn't been finalized.

If Michigan gets hit with scholarship reductions, post-season bans etc. (which obviously would be crazy but we also can't pretend isn't a possibility given the way the NCAA feels about Michigan), you definitely can't rule out that the program will take a dip.

The story between Lloyd Carr…

The story between Lloyd Carr and Michigan Football (as a whole 'thing' incl. the program itself, the community around it, the fanbase, the media covering it etc.) has been complicated for a long time. It's like he's turned into a subject that if you bring it up, it will lead to cleared throats and awkward looks.

 

I will say - reflecting more…

I will say - reflecting more in detail on what Klatt said - I think he overplays the 'hope' element coming out of this for other programs. It's kind of difficult to paint a Michigan national title as some great underdog story giving hope to 2nd tier programs.

Clemson historically has been a lesser program, you could say that's an 'underdog' story giving hope. If you watched Clemson under Bowden and the first few years of Dabo even and then watch them 2011 onward, it's night and day. They almost overnight had NFL players at key positions, and clearly they figured something out that made that possible (*wink wink*). Ole Miss and TAMU if anything have been trying to emulate that.

I think what's changing though is that the obvious route to success is different because of the way money has started to flood the process early on and the way team commitment is clearly temporary. The way the 'one and dones' have changed college hoops, the way a Calipari-coached Kentucky did not win one natty after another with those loaded teams. The easier it gets for players to chase a paycheck as high school juniors and the easier it gets for them to do this here today, there tomorrow, the more the focus shifts toward getting the right guys, keeping them together, keeping them happy and focused.

The current CFB landscape is absolutely wild and much more so than the NFL, which has developed a ton of mechanisms to maintain at least a relatively reliable structure around teams. We hear stories of 5 star players committing to one team for the paycheck and then chasing another one from another team shortly thereafter. It's a crazy environment ripe for abuses and tricks. Teams can still buy star-studded rosters, but they don't know if that purchase includes those guys' loyalties and best performances. In the past the power balance left players with little way out other than to do whatever it takes to keep that team and coaching staff happy. You make them happy, you win, you go to the NFL and get paid. Nowadays a lot of those guys can make life-changing money without ever even proving they have pro talent. It's no wonder so many guys want 6th, 7th, 8th years in CFB. It's a career now. It's a totally different ball game now.

Teams who understand these changes and know how to work with them will benefit tremendously. And it's not necessarily teams throwing money at recruits to get a top 5 class.

Finebaum is a professional…

Finebaum is a professional media troll. This is how they operate. Push a narrative. If proven right, go on about your genius forever. If proven wrong, say "oh I was wrong", dust yourself off, move on and a minute later push the next narrative. They're not really functioning as human beings in a normal sense, they're 'meme' machines. They pump out one easily digested, plausible but controversial thought blurb after another because that's what they think the average person wants to engage with.

Rewatching the game. It…

Rewatching the game. It honestly kinda reminded me of how in the past Big Ten teams would go up against high end SEC teams in bowls etc. and you could just tell that what had worked all season for the Big Ten team just didn't quite work against the stronger, more athletic, more hardened SEC opponents. Michigan simply looked like a fundamentally stronger team, and it's a different kind of opponent than what you get when you play Pac-12 teams all year.

Like Penix can say he didn't think Michigan were special, it's because if you lose a few inches on every play it doesn't really stand out to you, the game just creeps away as your strength gets sapped. Washington couldn't do what they did to win games because Michigan brought just that 1% more than what Washington had seen all year. Washington could never get into a proper rhythm because Michigan was never going to let it be that sort of game.

It's funny so many other Big Ten teams hate Michigan because Harbaugh has built a vindication of the Big Ten way by building an improved version of it. And we've proven you can win with it in the 21st century. Maybe it's just envy that the likes of Greg Schiano or Kirk Ferentz never could quite elevate that concept. Ohio State just built away from it, and it worked. Until they ran into the Harbaughnaut.

How are these situations…

How are these situations even at all similar? What an odd question.

ESPN's coverage is awkward…

ESPN's coverage is awkward. You can sense that they don't like Michigan for the most part and would love to talk about how it's B.S. 'cheaters' were allowed to win the title etc., but they are conscious of how much backlash they'd get and how bad a look it'd be so they kind of tip toe around it. It just feels very passive aggressive.

I got banned from the Scout…

I got banned from the Scout Michigan forum toward the end of the 2010 season saying that even though Rich Rod might well be a good coach, it can't ever work out at Michigan with all the stuff that happened and he needs to be fired asap.

I joined here a few months later, but probably didn't post a ton because at the same time I got onto the 247 forum and posted there. But they turned their forum $$$, so yeah I started posting more here.

No one can serve two masters…

No one can serve two masters. In my experience, if you have multiple teams in the same league/sport you either have a clear hierarchy (i.e. one team you're a fan of and others who you 'like') or you're relatively casual about all of them.

I watch games of multiple teams in baseball for instance but there wouldn't be a 'conflict', I know who to root for if it came down to it.

 

 

There's an air of self-pity…

There's an air of self-pity to the song. Michigan was a self-pitying fan base for a long time. BPONE being a good example of that type of thinking. It was tough times for Michigan football, 2004-2015 in particular, but really no tougher than say what Nebraska, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Texas or USC have gone through at times in the recent past. And yet only at Michigan did it articulate itself in this peculiar form of ennui and Weltschmerz.

It's ironic that the song became a stadium favorite and identified with the fanbase just as Michigan was actually re-emerging as a top program. Maybe that is indicative of the old adage that it's darkest just before dawn, but I think it's also indicative of the lack of patience a lot of people had with the Harbaugh regime.