They can redevelop the lakefront to include an entertainment district, that's not necessarily a deal breaker.
Why are people parking at Solider Field unless they are tailgating? They will certainly rethink the tailgating in any new lakefront development but they will also improve access to the CTA and Metra - the latter of which goes nearby to nearly every suburb in the area.
I mean, coming from a Chicago suburb native and current city resident, the Chicago burbs are some of the most bland and milquetoast in the country. I'm also a huge proponent of building vibrant, pedestrian friendly urban spaces so to me there is no legitimate comparison of Arlington Heights to the city of Chicago and the lakefront campus. The backdrop is the most beautiful in the NFL. I just can't imagine a bland, corporate domed stadium in a place like AH as something to be excited about. Why would a super bowl in Arlington Heights in February be cool for anyone?
Second, this is not a done deal by any means. Common sense is that the Bears want to "own" the property but only four NFL teams actually own their stadium. Owning the property and all the financing means owning all the risk. Without public funds the private financing markets right now are prohibitive. This is not the optimal market conditions to be seeking billions of private money. Any new owner would be stuck with this financing structure until they can refinance and interested parties in that structure have to be limited.
Speaking of the stadium development, yes the Bears hired Kevin Warren who led the effort for the Vikings new stadium. That stadium was built with a unique public private partnership; i.e the Vikings and the city of Minneapolis decided that the most optimal financial structure was NOT full ownership of the stadium.
Done right, development of the lakefront property offers an opportunity to create one of the best fan experiences in the NFL, greater pricing opportunity, while also not saddling the Bears with prohibitive financing structure
Lakefront tailgating and fan experiences in a PARK, not a suburban parking lot (think Wimbledon, college tailgating, unique and organic atmospheres)
Higher quality dining and entertainment than anything Arlington Heights can attract
Upgraded train (Metra and CTA) infrastructure leading directly to the stadium site
Watch sites in the park and adjacent to the stadium for city visitors and residents who don't actually go to the game
I'm with you, I really miss 3:30 starts. Also coming to mind are 2004 Halloween braylonfest vs MSU, Tate's comeback against ND in 2009, the infamous blocked punt vs MSU 2015 (ignore the ending, that was high intensity start to finish), Jourdan Lewis' game sealing pick of Wisconsin in 2016, the rout of PSU in 2018.
I love the vibe of 3:30 games. Nice fall saturdays turn into pressure packed finishes at dusk. It's beautiful.
Why? I believe M will compete at a reasonably high a level whether they jump into the deep end of NIL or stay in the kiddie pool because Michigan has impenetrable brand value: good coaches will still come, good players will want to go to M regardless.
And that's exactly Jim and Michigan's point - making it more transactional will in fact dilute the brand value, deteriorating it's own competitive advantage that it almost lost during the RR era.
Wisconsin and Iowa and Penn State won't leapfrog Michigan's standing in the Big Ten just because of NIL.
Truthfully, the answer is Jabrill Peppers. I've never seen a more electric player with the ball in his hands. I understand his value on defense, but I think he could have been reggie bush esque as a RB.
Well, that's true. I assume Fickell has bought himself plenty of time at Cincy and just will wait there as long as necessary until Day is gone. Best outcome is probably that his shine wears off a little with a couple mediocre seasons and OSU can't justify hiring him.
One thing that feels safe to assume though is Day is going to head to the NFL as soon as OSU slips a little, I don't think he is willing to miss that opportunity.
All of this is pointing to what seems to be a good amount of dysfunction on the defensive side of the ball, most notably from a leadership perspective. Ryan Day, presumably, is out his depth defensively and with veterans Greg Mattison and Kerry Coombs retired and demoted. I'm a bit confused why Larry Johnson hasn't been promoted, so we should look for a big shakeup this offseason. Doubtful that the dysfunction is going to implode the team and defensive recruiting, but this level of uncertainty hasn't been seen in a while. One can hope..
Separately, I'm curious how the Ryan Day era will shake out. He's obviously on the NFL's radar. I see no way the buckeyes truly commit to him long term at which point he will undoubtedly leave and there is no natural answer to the coaching succession like Urban or Day was. If they stick to the strategy de jour of of prioritizing the NFL passing game a la Lincoln Riley, Matt Campbell etc, those guys are all high risk to leave for the NFL once they prove themselves in college.
All in all, the next year/two seem to be an inflection point in OSU football.
More meaningful how? I think this analysis is confusing to a lot of readers because it contradicts the results on the field. But if the conclusion is already decided - that Michigan doesn't do a good job developing players and tallying enough wins - I don't think we need a chart to show that.
I think we take this analysis at face value, very simply that Harbaugh's program is objectively strong at putting players in the NFL.
Michigan and most of its fans are still deeply scarred from the RR/Hoke eras. It will still take some more time for Michigan to take the risk and be willing to move on from a consistent, even if not spectactular, coach like Harbaugh.
I do believe JH was hired with the expectation to compete with OSU and win Big Ten championships. But at the time, he was also hired to bring Michigan "back" to its roots, culturally, and return that feeling to the fans that made Michigan, Michigan. Both were part of his job description, but I believe the second was and still is more important to the AD.
You and I are agreeing. Absolutely need the time on task in those 9 games out of the year. Practicing big play offense in-game inevitably involves risks though - risks that are easier to take with crushing run game to turn to if things don’t go as planned - and I question if Harbaugh is willing to call games like that knowing it could backfire.
I’d be curious to see if the numbers support this theory for OSU, bama, Clemson - are they playing big play offense against their cupcakes in a way M isn’t?
No Shea apologist here either but Harbaugh doesn't want to win in shootouts. He knows M can win ~9 games on the schedule with his defense - ability to throw 300+ yards doesn't matter. He'd rather wear those opponents down in chunks with a good but not great run game than introduce more variablity with more passing (read: he's not confident enough in his passing game).
The trick is though, during the remaining games the offense does need to play well in shootout fashion and they aren't trained to do it. OSU, Bama, Clemson, they can unleash their passing game against lesser opponents and get good at it because they have an unstoppable run game to lean on. M, sadly doesn't have that luxury.
I often think about this too but sometimes consider that most of those teams still aren't very good. Harbuagh, quite clearly, is of the opinion that high variance offenses puts undue pressure on their defense. Sure, we can probably train our offense to score more points but because we aren't elite at running the ball the defense will give up more points too. And that would open up higher variance outcomes. I don't think Harbaugh wants to go there. The teams that score at will AND maintain great defenses are those that dominate in the run game with superior talent - OSU, Clemson, Alabama.
Aggressive game plan that wasn't executed. Keeping up with OSU's offense, i.e. staying within 1-2 scores and putting their offense in pressure situations is the defense M needs. Make OSU think and worry a little.
The Massachusettes example brings up an interesting point and led me to this conclusion: UM's culture doesn't always match the culture of the top in-state talent.
Our culture meshes better with east coast and a certain type of wholesome midwest kid.
Ohio State's culture better aligns with the culture of the talent that surrounds them.
I'm not sure I follow Brown's logic. Aren't we already good enough to stop the Purdue, Indiana's of the world without moving further into 3 down lineman territory? Shouldn't we be moving closer to the types of base defenses that can match up better with the teams we aren't beating? (Maybe this move does that and I'm just uninformed.)
In reality, college football is about brand names. No matter how "decent" Indiana is, playing Rutgers and Maryland prevents games against the likes of Iowa or Minnesota, which would help this schedule optically.
I think you're missing the big picture. Culture is vastly different. UM and its environment, from the moment you walk in, feels undeniably like a college campus. It's school, it's safe, it's sleepy, it's leafy, it's relaxed. OSU is a NFL-like practice facility. You can easily forget school is even there. The urban nature of Columbus and the amount of people in an around the program is a primary factor. It's NFL-lite. It feels big.
Now I've been to Alabama, Clemson, Georgia etc and the environment is not that different than Ann Arbor so that doesn't explain everything. I'd speculate that it's just easier to recruit closer to where to the players are and to get top kids to come north it has to be "feel big". Penn State suffers from a similar issue as Michigan. It's a sleepy college atmosphere yet it's a far bigger school, which helps its buzz around the program.
Route running is really sloppy. Ronnie Bell’s route was poor and should have easily scored, but our guys are also inefficient once catching the ball. Charbonnet on his third down catch loses 3-4 yards before turning upfield and DPJ on the end of half hitch loops around instead of turning and burning
Even if Patterson chucks it deep with more frequency, he will still have to take advantage of the shorter throws that the deep balls open up. Not to mention short field / red zone situations. He'll still have to stand in there and deliver on time passes at some point otherwise it's moot.
I think QB changes work when your offensive unit (running game, blocking, screen game etc) is otherwise effective. M's offense is largely broken so any new QB won't have much to lean on immediately unless he one/two things exceptionally better than Shea to open it up.
It's not fair to compare Cardale or Tua or Haskins or Book to Michigan. Those offenses were already fundamentally sound enough to allow the new QB's unique strengths to shine.
Hoke deserves due for recruiting a depth of solid players. The key is they stuck around and were motivated by Harbaugh’s arrival and thus were the backbone of two very solid teams in 15 and 16. 2016 graduated an incredible amount of seniors as evidence.
Harbaugh actually successfully restocked the cupboard once with his own recruits that were groomed under all that depth in 16 - I’d argue the 17 and 18 teams were damn strong save a QB and LT.
But Harbaugh’s failure has been not recreating that formula a second time. Fewer players were groomed under the 17 and 18 teams, largely due to attrition and NFL departures. And that’s to his discredit. Where are all the seniors that drove the bus during that 2016 season? Depth has dwindled.
Well, Carr’s late career malaise on the field certainly contributed. But what I’m really highlighting is was what happened on the administrative front - no plan, no direction. After the season players, coaches, methods, culture leaked out bc no one had any indication what would happen.
RR killed what made it special because there was barely any of it left behind after Carr, Martin let anyone and everyone walk out the door after post-2007 by not having a plan
RR was forced to build an entire program from scratch, something he should have never had to do at a place that had the pieces in place to have been successful for the prior 40 years..
Word for word, you said you were laughing at his ignorance. You are not simply applying the textbook definition of the word.
When someone is ignorant (or naive), you can either educate them or you can shame them for your own benefit. You have made your choice quite clearly.
In my experience ignorant in our language has a negative connotation. In fact you used it as such. Perhaps naive may have been the better word in this situation.
Penn State seems strongly lead the way on a deep class of 2020 MD recruits whereas Alabama and other southern schools really cleaned up in 2019. Could be a Locksley thing.
It's true because there's no one at Michigan with any proven credibility. Harbaugh has to be that guy. Gene Smith can hold his coaches accountable, even Urban Meyer, because he's overseen success for years across coaching tenures. Barry Alvarez, ditto. We used to have Bo. It's a different model than Michigan right now and Harbaugh has to be that figure himself, build his own success and hopefully be that guy even after he leaves.
It was a poor hire because RR wasn't encouraged to work within Michigan's existing culture and foundation, a successful backbone for 40 years. Instead the whole AD fell asleep and turned out the lights before a new coach was announced.
Imagine if when Meyer retired, Gene Smith went on vacation and assistants left for new jobs not knowing WTF would happen next. Gene Smith says, eh, we're Ohio State, we'll figure it out! Players would transfer and the new coach would start from scratch. They would stink.
There are so many 3-stars on crap teams at crap schools that have little chance of being successful. A 3-star at a school like Michigan with strong coaching, a strong culture, and surrounded by other quality players is hardly that different than a 4-star
When you call this game for what it was - a total flop - you can start making some more lucid conclusions. Forget that Ohio State may have won this game anyways, Michigan completely failed to play close to it's potential. They utterly collapsed in their biggest game.
So fundamentally you've hit the nail on the head. The current rivalry is years of scars built on top of one another and Ohio State holds every possible psychological advantage. Every year they can come in to the game flexing on Michigan and intimidate them. And it's not so much Michigan's choice to just take it, it's what happens when you lose every year and the pressure keeps building. So Michigan's task is to turn the tables - to somehow scare Ohio State, to finally inject some fear into their side. Theyre trying. And once they do, it'll just take one i promise.
The realization is stark - every season rests solely and entirely on beating OSU. No scenario exists in which Michigan can advance without beating Ohio State. In the playoff world Michigan can afford a Big Ten loss earlier in the season. But it can never lose to Ohio State. That's a lot to bear. The stakes in this game wont ever be higher. And so we'll see.
The reality is M b-ball isn’t an event for students or Ann Arbor. Games aren’t circled on the calendar. Culprit #1 is location, #2 is arena itself.
Crisler is at least 25 min walk for most of campus, without an easy route to navigate, in a not particularly walkable or interesting area. Meanwhile the arena itself doesn’t seem to pack spectators close to the action like other schools.
For kicks, imagine a vintage fieldhouse style arena directly on campus off hill st or south forest. Student attendance and atmosphere would be radically improved
This isn't necessarily a plea against night games, but frankly I miss big games at 3:30, a la Notre Dame in the 2000s. Early season has the nice golden hour of sun late in games and later in the season it turns dark anyways just as the pressure heats up in the 4th Q. I have good memories of some big 3:30 games.
I think we will realize we were spoiled by a number of things. Last year's offense was a massive beneficiary of M's outstanding defense and return game. Tremendous field position allowed the offense to work under very little pressure most of the season.
How many times did M have to drive a long field after a kickoff during a meaningful part of a game? Not often, and while drive charts show the offense could respond, the sample size is small. This will be a major factor in how this season fares.
M's offense will not have the same luxuries as last year; we hope they can step up their game. In my view, Peppers impact will be most felt in the field position game.
It baffles me somewhat that OSU BB hasn't been more historically successful given all the advantages it has in football. But then again the regional competition in BB is far stronger than in football - standout programs like IU, UK, Xavier, MSU, Pitt, Cincy/UM in years past all there to take share of ohio talent.
I certainly don't hate JUB, as he's proven himself to be intelligent, insightful and highly plugged in.
But I must say he projects himself as a very "I told you so/look how smart I am" kind of guy and his lack of cadence/rhythm while speaking makes him an annoying listen. It sounds like everything he says, he's said a hundred times and just wants finish the sentence as quickly as possible.
Can I ask you a serious question? With all due respect, did you go back and look for all the calls that officials missed on M, that would have benefited OSU? There may have been holding calls on M that the refs missed, or PI that you didn't see, or borderline late hits that weren't called, that you as a M fan don't pay attention to. I guarantee you, that if M had won, OSU fans would have come out with their list of blown calls too.
Any objective analysis of the refs has to include both perspectives, yet due to human nature people don't understand that. They only focus on their own wrongs, because they are inherantly biased observers.
Given a chief complaint is uneven schedules due to the divisional split,and the ensuing debate of best teams vs. conference champion, I propose the following:
The league's top 6 programs - those most likely to be the best teams and in the national conversation - must play each other each year. Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa from the WEST; Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State from the EAST. Since the rest of the league are near gimmes, this makes comparing resumes easy and title game appearances duly earned.
Sure, there may be years in which middling programs like MSU or Minnesota or Northwestern take advantage of an easier schedule, but it's unlikely. They would still likely have to finish with 1 or 2 losses to make the title game, and even then, they would have the opportunity to prove themselves on a neutral field against a strong team from the opposite division. If it's not crystal clear at that point if they are a true top team, then no one will give them credence anyways.
Now, you might argue that this saddles big ten with more potential losses, reducing its chances in the national conversation. But the worst case scenario from that round-robin is three 2 loss teams. That's not debilitating.
Finally each scheduling cycle (every 4 or 6 years, whatever it is), it can be determined if one of those top 6 should be replaced.
I responded to the question of how it is thought that crew came to ref the game. To me, this is far and away the most likely scenario. Not misconduct by Jim Delany.
The Big Ten has a lot of faith in their officials. Bill Carrolo, who is wholly responsible for the referee operation, naturally has even more faith in his officials. He assigns what he believes is one his better crews to the M-OSU game, not giving an iota's shit where they are from because like in fields everywhere, people put aside personal biases in the name of professionalism. By employing them, he indicates he believes they have integrity.
Poor officiating occurs. The big ten has 3 options: 1) publicly acknowledge poor officiating, thereby implicitly invalidating the result of their marquee game and casting doubt over any game refereed under the bill carollo's watch past and future; 2) accuse the crew of possible bias that extended into the professional arena, something they have exactly zero proof of and would damage the reputation of its league; 3) say nothing publicly, and internally think about controls to prevent a similar situation in the future.
There's an obvious choice here. As Delany for the day, what would you decide?
Or is it still high crimes and fraud committed by mean jim delany?
I disagree. So many people identify Texas as the best job in the land but right now they are a dumpster fire. Culture is broken and internal drama reigns.
LSU is chugging along ready to win. If I were Tom Herman I'm staying away from Austin. I don't need money to convince me.
I think you're vastly overstating this "reputation/PR hit" angle. The only group that is sensitive to the terms of the agreement are fans like you that are plugged in enough to even know this. Sure, this makes Michigan look bad if you're afraid your ND buddy is going to heckle you. Beyond that, none of this matters to anyone outside this bubble. It's being thin-skinned. To who exactly does this make Michigan look like a wuss?
People around the college football landscape aren't paying attention to this stuff. All they will know is that a big game is back on the schedule, and the hype and anticipation will be a massive net positive for the program.
For example, does anyone outside ND or UT's circle know what the terms were of their agreement to play? No. Did Texas get the short end of the stick by visiting South Bend first? Maybe. Did anyone care?
My opinion is that Oregon has created a culture where players take immense, unrivaled pride in being as athletic as possible. Freshman see the level of athleticism, the training style, the work ethic that the players in front of them display and compete like hell to be the next DeAnthony Thomas, LaMichael James. Josh Huff, Arik Armstead. The standard of play is right there in front of them and continues to be pushed. From that perspective it doesn't take 5 star recruits to get there, it's the culture that develops players into that mold.
I actually only see community/booster support and historic performance as standing out in a significant way..
Strong facilities, financial backing, and administrative stability is shared by many top programs. Location and access to talent is certainly not Michigan's advantage while lack of recent performance and ability to win the league (with a juggernaut OSU) shouldn't have to be explained.
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They can redevelop the lakefront to include an entertainment district, that's not necessarily a deal breaker.
Why are people parking at Solider Field unless they are tailgating? They will certainly rethink the tailgating in any new lakefront development but they will also improve access to the CTA and Metra - the latter of which goes nearby to nearly every suburb in the area.
I mean, coming from a Chicago suburb native and current city resident, the Chicago burbs are some of the most bland and milquetoast in the country. I'm also a huge proponent of building vibrant, pedestrian friendly urban spaces so to me there is no legitimate comparison of Arlington Heights to the city of Chicago and the lakefront campus. The backdrop is the most beautiful in the NFL. I just can't imagine a bland, corporate domed stadium in a place like AH as something to be excited about. Why would a super bowl in Arlington Heights in February be cool for anyone?
Second, this is not a done deal by any means. Common sense is that the Bears want to "own" the property but only four NFL teams actually own their stadium. Owning the property and all the financing means owning all the risk. Without public funds the private financing markets right now are prohibitive. This is not the optimal market conditions to be seeking billions of private money. Any new owner would be stuck with this financing structure until they can refinance and interested parties in that structure have to be limited.
Speaking of the stadium development, yes the Bears hired Kevin Warren who led the effort for the Vikings new stadium. That stadium was built with a unique public private partnership; i.e the Vikings and the city of Minneapolis decided that the most optimal financial structure was NOT full ownership of the stadium.
Done right, development of the lakefront property offers an opportunity to create one of the best fan experiences in the NFL, greater pricing opportunity, while also not saddling the Bears with prohibitive financing structure
I'm with you, I really miss 3:30 starts. Also coming to mind are 2004 Halloween braylonfest vs MSU, Tate's comeback against ND in 2009, the infamous blocked punt vs MSU 2015 (ignore the ending, that was high intensity start to finish), Jourdan Lewis' game sealing pick of Wisconsin in 2016, the rout of PSU in 2018.
I love the vibe of 3:30 games. Nice fall saturdays turn into pressure packed finishes at dusk. It's beautiful.
Why? I believe M will compete at a reasonably high a level whether they jump into the deep end of NIL or stay in the kiddie pool because Michigan has impenetrable brand value: good coaches will still come, good players will want to go to M regardless.
And that's exactly Jim and Michigan's point - making it more transactional will in fact dilute the brand value, deteriorating it's own competitive advantage that it almost lost during the RR era.
Wisconsin and Iowa and Penn State won't leapfrog Michigan's standing in the Big Ten just because of NIL.
Truthfully, the answer is Jabrill Peppers. I've never seen a more electric player with the ball in his hands. I understand his value on defense, but I think he could have been reggie bush esque as a RB.
Can you help explain the linkage between student loan payments and stagflation, or the general state of the economy?
I'm genuinely uneducated on this topic and curious.
Well, that's true. I assume Fickell has bought himself plenty of time at Cincy and just will wait there as long as necessary until Day is gone. Best outcome is probably that his shine wears off a little with a couple mediocre seasons and OSU can't justify hiring him.
One thing that feels safe to assume though is Day is going to head to the NFL as soon as OSU slips a little, I don't think he is willing to miss that opportunity.
All of this is pointing to what seems to be a good amount of dysfunction on the defensive side of the ball, most notably from a leadership perspective. Ryan Day, presumably, is out his depth defensively and with veterans Greg Mattison and Kerry Coombs retired and demoted. I'm a bit confused why Larry Johnson hasn't been promoted, so we should look for a big shakeup this offseason. Doubtful that the dysfunction is going to implode the team and defensive recruiting, but this level of uncertainty hasn't been seen in a while. One can hope..
Separately, I'm curious how the Ryan Day era will shake out. He's obviously on the NFL's radar. I see no way the buckeyes truly commit to him long term at which point he will undoubtedly leave and there is no natural answer to the coaching succession like Urban or Day was. If they stick to the strategy de jour of of prioritizing the NFL passing game a la Lincoln Riley, Matt Campbell etc, those guys are all high risk to leave for the NFL once they prove themselves in college.
All in all, the next year/two seem to be an inflection point in OSU football.
More meaningful how? I think this analysis is confusing to a lot of readers because it contradicts the results on the field. But if the conclusion is already decided - that Michigan doesn't do a good job developing players and tallying enough wins - I don't think we need a chart to show that.
I think we take this analysis at face value, very simply that Harbaugh's program is objectively strong at putting players in the NFL.
Michigan and most of its fans are still deeply scarred from the RR/Hoke eras. It will still take some more time for Michigan to take the risk and be willing to move on from a consistent, even if not spectactular, coach like Harbaugh.
I do believe JH was hired with the expectation to compete with OSU and win Big Ten championships. But at the time, he was also hired to bring Michigan "back" to its roots, culturally, and return that feeling to the fans that made Michigan, Michigan. Both were part of his job description, but I believe the second was and still is more important to the AD.
You and I are agreeing. Absolutely need the time on task in those 9 games out of the year. Practicing big play offense in-game inevitably involves risks though - risks that are easier to take with crushing run game to turn to if things don’t go as planned - and I question if Harbaugh is willing to call games like that knowing it could backfire.
I’d be curious to see if the numbers support this theory for OSU, bama, Clemson - are they playing big play offense against their cupcakes in a way M isn’t?
No Shea apologist here either but Harbaugh doesn't want to win in shootouts. He knows M can win ~9 games on the schedule with his defense - ability to throw 300+ yards doesn't matter. He'd rather wear those opponents down in chunks with a good but not great run game than introduce more variablity with more passing (read: he's not confident enough in his passing game).
The trick is though, during the remaining games the offense does need to play well in shootout fashion and they aren't trained to do it. OSU, Bama, Clemson, they can unleash their passing game against lesser opponents and get good at it because they have an unstoppable run game to lean on. M, sadly doesn't have that luxury.
I often think about this too but sometimes consider that most of those teams still aren't very good. Harbuagh, quite clearly, is of the opinion that high variance offenses puts undue pressure on their defense. Sure, we can probably train our offense to score more points but because we aren't elite at running the ball the defense will give up more points too. And that would open up higher variance outcomes. I don't think Harbaugh wants to go there. The teams that score at will AND maintain great defenses are those that dominate in the run game with superior talent - OSU, Clemson, Alabama.
Aggressive game plan that wasn't executed. Keeping up with OSU's offense, i.e. staying within 1-2 scores and putting their offense in pressure situations is the defense M needs. Make OSU think and worry a little.
The Massachusettes example brings up an interesting point and led me to this conclusion: UM's culture doesn't always match the culture of the top in-state talent.
Our culture meshes better with east coast and a certain type of wholesome midwest kid.
Ohio State's culture better aligns with the culture of the talent that surrounds them.
I'm not sure I follow Brown's logic. Aren't we already good enough to stop the Purdue, Indiana's of the world without moving further into 3 down lineman territory? Shouldn't we be moving closer to the types of base defenses that can match up better with the teams we aren't beating? (Maybe this move does that and I'm just uninformed.)
In reality, college football is about brand names. No matter how "decent" Indiana is, playing Rutgers and Maryland prevents games against the likes of Iowa or Minnesota, which would help this schedule optically.
I think you're missing the big picture. Culture is vastly different. UM and its environment, from the moment you walk in, feels undeniably like a college campus. It's school, it's safe, it's sleepy, it's leafy, it's relaxed. OSU is a NFL-like practice facility. You can easily forget school is even there. The urban nature of Columbus and the amount of people in an around the program is a primary factor. It's NFL-lite. It feels big.
Now I've been to Alabama, Clemson, Georgia etc and the environment is not that different than Ann Arbor so that doesn't explain everything. I'd speculate that it's just easier to recruit closer to where to the players are and to get top kids to come north it has to be "feel big". Penn State suffers from a similar issue as Michigan. It's a sleepy college atmosphere yet it's a far bigger school, which helps its buzz around the program.
EDIT: double
Route running is really sloppy. Ronnie Bell’s route was poor and should have easily scored, but our guys are also inefficient once catching the ball. Charbonnet on his third down catch loses 3-4 yards before turning upfield and DPJ on the end of half hitch loops around instead of turning and burning
Even if Patterson chucks it deep with more frequency, he will still have to take advantage of the shorter throws that the deep balls open up. Not to mention short field / red zone situations. He'll still have to stand in there and deliver on time passes at some point otherwise it's moot.
I think QB changes work when your offensive unit (running game, blocking, screen game etc) is otherwise effective. M's offense is largely broken so any new QB won't have much to lean on immediately unless he one/two things exceptionally better than Shea to open it up.
It's not fair to compare Cardale or Tua or Haskins or Book to Michigan. Those offenses were already fundamentally sound enough to allow the new QB's unique strengths to shine.
Hoke deserves due for recruiting a depth of solid players. The key is they stuck around and were motivated by Harbaugh’s arrival and thus were the backbone of two very solid teams in 15 and 16. 2016 graduated an incredible amount of seniors as evidence.
Harbaugh actually successfully restocked the cupboard once with his own recruits that were groomed under all that depth in 16 - I’d argue the 17 and 18 teams were damn strong save a QB and LT.
But Harbaugh’s failure has been not recreating that formula a second time. Fewer players were groomed under the 17 and 18 teams, largely due to attrition and NFL departures. And that’s to his discredit. Where are all the seniors that drove the bus during that 2016 season? Depth has dwindled.
Well, Carr’s late career malaise on the field certainly contributed. But what I’m really highlighting is was what happened on the administrative front - no plan, no direction. After the season players, coaches, methods, culture leaked out bc no one had any indication what would happen.
RR killed what made it special because there was barely any of it left behind after Carr, Martin let anyone and everyone walk out the door after post-2007 by not having a plan
RR was forced to build an entire program from scratch, something he should have never had to do at a place that had the pieces in place to have been successful for the prior 40 years..
Word for word, you said you were laughing at his ignorance. You are not simply applying the textbook definition of the word.
When someone is ignorant (or naive), you can either educate them or you can shame them for your own benefit. You have made your choice quite clearly.
In my experience ignorant in our language has a negative connotation. In fact you used it as such. Perhaps naive may have been the better word in this situation.
Penn State seems strongly lead the way on a deep class of 2020 MD recruits whereas Alabama and other southern schools really cleaned up in 2019. Could be a Locksley thing.
It's true because there's no one at Michigan with any proven credibility. Harbaugh has to be that guy. Gene Smith can hold his coaches accountable, even Urban Meyer, because he's overseen success for years across coaching tenures. Barry Alvarez, ditto. We used to have Bo. It's a different model than Michigan right now and Harbaugh has to be that figure himself, build his own success and hopefully be that guy even after he leaves.
It was a poor hire because RR wasn't encouraged to work within Michigan's existing culture and foundation, a successful backbone for 40 years. Instead the whole AD fell asleep and turned out the lights before a new coach was announced.
Imagine if when Meyer retired, Gene Smith went on vacation and assistants left for new jobs not knowing WTF would happen next. Gene Smith says, eh, we're Ohio State, we'll figure it out! Players would transfer and the new coach would start from scratch. They would stink.
There are so many 3-stars on crap teams at crap schools that have little chance of being successful. A 3-star at a school like Michigan with strong coaching, a strong culture, and surrounded by other quality players is hardly that different than a 4-star
When you call this game for what it was - a total flop - you can start making some more lucid conclusions. Forget that Ohio State may have won this game anyways, Michigan completely failed to play close to it's potential. They utterly collapsed in their biggest game.
So fundamentally you've hit the nail on the head. The current rivalry is years of scars built on top of one another and Ohio State holds every possible psychological advantage. Every year they can come in to the game flexing on Michigan and intimidate them. And it's not so much Michigan's choice to just take it, it's what happens when you lose every year and the pressure keeps building. So Michigan's task is to turn the tables - to somehow scare Ohio State, to finally inject some fear into their side. Theyre trying. And once they do, it'll just take one i promise.
The realization is stark - every season rests solely and entirely on beating OSU. No scenario exists in which Michigan can advance without beating Ohio State. In the playoff world Michigan can afford a Big Ten loss earlier in the season. But it can never lose to Ohio State. That's a lot to bear. The stakes in this game wont ever be higher. And so we'll see.
The reality is M b-ball isn’t an event for students or Ann Arbor. Games aren’t circled on the calendar. Culprit #1 is location, #2 is arena itself.
Crisler is at least 25 min walk for most of campus, without an easy route to navigate, in a not particularly walkable or interesting area. Meanwhile the arena itself doesn’t seem to pack spectators close to the action like other schools.
For kicks, imagine a vintage fieldhouse style arena directly on campus off hill st or south forest. Student attendance and atmosphere would be radically improved
This isn't necessarily a plea against night games, but frankly I miss big games at 3:30, a la Notre Dame in the 2000s. Early season has the nice golden hour of sun late in games and later in the season it turns dark anyways just as the pressure heats up in the 4th Q. I have good memories of some big 3:30 games.
I think we will realize we were spoiled by a number of things. Last year's offense was a massive beneficiary of M's outstanding defense and return game. Tremendous field position allowed the offense to work under very little pressure most of the season.
How many times did M have to drive a long field after a kickoff during a meaningful part of a game? Not often, and while drive charts show the offense could respond, the sample size is small. This will be a major factor in how this season fares.
M's offense will not have the same luxuries as last year; we hope they can step up their game. In my view, Peppers impact will be most felt in the field position game.
It baffles me somewhat that OSU BB hasn't been more historically successful given all the advantages it has in football. But then again the regional competition in BB is far stronger than in football - standout programs like IU, UK, Xavier, MSU, Pitt, Cincy/UM in years past all there to take share of ohio talent.
It's entirely possible
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I certainly don't hate JUB, as he's proven himself to be intelligent, insightful and highly plugged in.
But I must say he projects himself as a very "I told you so/look how smart I am" kind of guy and his lack of cadence/rhythm while speaking makes him an annoying listen. It sounds like everything he says, he's said a hundred times and just wants finish the sentence as quickly as possible.
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Can I ask you a serious question? With all due respect, did you go back and look for all the calls that officials missed on M, that would have benefited OSU? There may have been holding calls on M that the refs missed, or PI that you didn't see, or borderline late hits that weren't called, that you as a M fan don't pay attention to. I guarantee you, that if M had won, OSU fans would have come out with their list of blown calls too.
Any objective analysis of the refs has to include both perspectives, yet due to human nature people don't understand that. They only focus on their own wrongs, because they are inherantly biased observers.
Given a chief complaint is uneven schedules due to the divisional split,and the ensuing debate of best teams vs. conference champion, I propose the following:
The league's top 6 programs - those most likely to be the best teams and in the national conversation - must play each other each year. Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa from the WEST; Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State from the EAST. Since the rest of the league are near gimmes, this makes comparing resumes easy and title game appearances duly earned.
Sure, there may be years in which middling programs like MSU or Minnesota or Northwestern take advantage of an easier schedule, but it's unlikely. They would still likely have to finish with 1 or 2 losses to make the title game, and even then, they would have the opportunity to prove themselves on a neutral field against a strong team from the opposite division. If it's not crystal clear at that point if they are a true top team, then no one will give them credence anyways.
Now, you might argue that this saddles big ten with more potential losses, reducing its chances in the national conversation. But the worst case scenario from that round-robin is three 2 loss teams. That's not debilitating.
Finally each scheduling cycle (every 4 or 6 years, whatever it is), it can be determined if one of those top 6 should be replaced.
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The Big Ten has a lot of faith in their officials. Bill Carrolo, who is wholly responsible for the referee operation, naturally has even more faith in his officials. He assigns what he believes is one his better crews to the M-OSU game, not giving an iota's shit where they are from because like in fields everywhere, people put aside personal biases in the name of professionalism. By employing them, he indicates he believes they have integrity.
Poor officiating occurs. The big ten has 3 options: 1) publicly acknowledge poor officiating, thereby implicitly invalidating the result of their marquee game and casting doubt over any game refereed under the bill carollo's watch past and future; 2) accuse the crew of possible bias that extended into the professional arena, something they have exactly zero proof of and would damage the reputation of its league; 3) say nothing publicly, and internally think about controls to prevent a similar situation in the future.
There's an obvious choice here. As Delany for the day, what would you decide?
Or is it still high crimes and fraud committed by mean jim delany?
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LSU is chugging along ready to win. If I were Tom Herman I'm staying away from Austin. I don't need money to convince me.
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I think you're vastly overstating this "reputation/PR hit" angle. The only group that is sensitive to the terms of the agreement are fans like you that are plugged in enough to even know this. Sure, this makes Michigan look bad if you're afraid your ND buddy is going to heckle you. Beyond that, none of this matters to anyone outside this bubble. It's being thin-skinned. To who exactly does this make Michigan look like a wuss?
People around the college football landscape aren't paying attention to this stuff. All they will know is that a big game is back on the schedule, and the hype and anticipation will be a massive net positive for the program.
For example, does anyone outside ND or UT's circle know what the terms were of their agreement to play? No. Did Texas get the short end of the stick by visiting South Bend first? Maybe. Did anyone care?
EDIT: double post
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My opinion is that Oregon has created a culture where players take immense, unrivaled pride in being as athletic as possible. Freshman see the level of athleticism, the training style, the work ethic that the players in front of them display and compete like hell to be the next DeAnthony Thomas, LaMichael James. Josh Huff, Arik Armstead. The standard of play is right there in front of them and continues to be pushed. From that perspective it doesn't take 5 star recruits to get there, it's the culture that develops players into that mold.
I actually only see community/booster support and historic performance as standing out in a significant way..
Strong facilities, financial backing, and administrative stability is shared by many top programs. Location and access to talent is certainly not Michigan's advantage while lack of recent performance and ability to win the league (with a juggernaut OSU) shouldn't have to be explained.
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2 - 14 over the last sixteen is sobering, isn't it?