Recent Comments

was the best Michigan defense ever in the modern (passing) era.   Yes, even better than 1997.  Go look up their stats.  Crazy. Sick.  Awesome. 

and that's it.  Maybe Gardner too because he seems to be the most popular guy on the team and he's the starting QB.

There is nobody on the defense who has established themselves as a team leader.

what the heck the coaches could have seen in practice with Bellomy.  His arm strength in this game was shockingly lacking, nevermind his poor accuracy and lack of field vision.

Ugh. 

n/m

Not only does the ref witness the blatant PI and not throw a flag, what really blows my mind is that he threw his hat.  This means the WR is ineligible to come back in and catch the ball.  But if a player is forced out he should be able to re-establish himself in bounds and catch the ball. 

A DB CANNOT jack a wide receiver OFF HIS FEET (!) while he's running a pass route, regardless of wether the ball is released yet.  And since it was an obvious pass play and Denard was in the procees of throwing the ball TO THIS WR that either gets called 100 PERCENT OF THE TIME or it is a BLOWN NON-CALL 100 PERCENT OF THE TIME.

Space Coyote you are not a football ref, so just stop it. You are wrong here. Move along. We get killed by 3 scores regardless. 

it was painful to watch us not punish their over-commitment on the perimeter defense.

#@%&!!

Watching our forwards not being able to finish 8-10 times when they DID drive to the hoop was equally painful.

I yearn for forwards who can drive and convert!

Mediocre perimeter jump shooters are a dime a dozen.

Sigh.

The whole point of my disagreement with WolverineBlue is that he has NOT found a frame (from any angle) in which the knee is REALLY touching and the ball is short.

He is using a freeze frame that Periera has proven to be a mirage. This exposes WolverineBlue's otherwise thorough anlysis to be flawed.

I commend you for devoting a thorough diary to this topic because this play also caused me so much trauma that it is absolutely worth rehashing, even weeks later!

However, I am very disappointed that you did not even reference the excellent analysis that Mike Pereira, the recognized expert on NFL replay analysis, did on this very play! Did you even see his video analysis of this play?  If not, please look it up and watch it!

Your analysis does not take into account Pereira's pivital point: ABC's coverage freezes the replay frame at a point when Toussant's knee IS NOT DOWN! 

Peirera very astutely points out that ABC's freeze frame captures a moment in time slightly before his knee makes contact with the ground.  He says that replay officials need to freeze the frame when they see evidence of impact, i.e the compression of the knee pad or extremity that is visble when contact with the ground actually occurs. 

What ABC (and you) use as evidence is milliseconds before contact.  The knee at that point is perhaps 2 inches ABOVE the ground, beginning to enter the strands of the artificial turf. Peirera shows the frozen moment in time that ABC INCORRECTLY uses, which shows Toussaint your 2.5 inches short of the goal line. He then continues to run the tape to CORRECTLY show when Toussaint's knee actually DOES impact the ground. THAT is when he is down, NOT when his knee is hovering in the strands of turf 2 inches above the ground.  The rule in football is contact with the ground, so replay officials need to look for evidence of IMPACT.  And at knee IMPACT that the ball is clearly across the goal line.

So, your detailed, geometric analysis is fundamentally flawed, because you incorrectly assumed that ABC froze the frame at the correct point in time. Once you see Peirera continue the footage and then see the plain evidence of knee impact you will recognize the error of the replay official (and yourself).  

The replay offical blew it. Period.

I beseech you to amend your analysis, because you are wrong.

They always pick him to be a speaker, even over the actual captains often times.

Hoke should give Ryan an honorary "C" at the Bust.

Love that kid; he really deserves that kind of recognition.

the name of the replay official?

Thanks.

Your QB grading system is terribly flawed.  You CANNOT have the QB who was responsible for 4 TDs (four BEAUTIFUL touchdowns by the way: two dead-on great throws and 2 runs where he showed his jet-like speed) and only 1 turnover and grade him -12 on the day.

NEGATIVE TWELVE?  You can't be taken seriously with grading him like that after such a great overall game. Drew Sharp himself wouldn't grade Denard that poorly!

I've seen net-negative QB performances before, in 2008 and 2005. I know what a net-negative performance looks like.  THAT simply was not a net-negative performance!

I think you alluded to the solution. You need to give him much better positives to offset his missed reads. 

-12??  C'mon man!

Frankly, I am too damn happy to bicker with anyone right now.

The whole point of my post was "hey remember this quote?" and shake my fist a little bit at last year's coaching malpractice.

You HONESTLY don't feel that's understandable after the beautiful defensive annihilation we just witnessed??

Cut me some slack, brother!

for doubting Mattison (and Mallory). We're 22nd in total defense with how many new starters and true freshmen AND YOU seem to think a 5th year senior was the cause of our problems last year?!?!?

Here, I've got an extra pair of shorts for you too, mister.
Bon apetite.

I'm pretty sure RR did make adjustments for last year's game and MSU did NOT have much, if any, success jumping our snaps last year.

I read in today's Chicago Tribune that the only reason Max didn't choose Illinois is because they didn't have a scholarship for him and asked him to be a walk-on.  He did the smart thing and chose a full ride to a better school.

I would be mortified and clamor for her to be fired.

Gee's comments are disgraceful.  You're the University PRESIDENT for Christ's sake!

Can you imagine being a professor at OSU right now?  Your school is a joke!

Michigan

Ultimately

Prevails

Prompting

Ecstatic

Triumphant

Singing

!!!!!!!

He's between the pipes.

The stats lovers see turnovers being somewhat random and most associated with having (or lacking) veterans.  They fully expect the trend of high turnovers to end simply based on the team's statistical average age increasing.

Meanwhile, many of those "mouth breathers" out there chuckle at such a pointy headed view.  They see the game through an experiential lens, not a statistical lens.

They think  "gee, if your offense is predicated on have a slighly built QB (Denard) and a slightly built RB (Smith) get hit a bunch of times by our huge DLs and LBs, they will tend to fumble the ball.  It is not rocket science. It is grounded common sense and experience from playing the game.

Denard got hit a lot against OSU and ended up fumbling. Vincent Smith also got hit and fumbled against OSU.

Do the stat guys think this magically wouldn't happen next year? 

Results from the last 3 years seem to favor the experiential observers.

He assumes RR asked the AD to hire a top-flight DC for big money and was denied.

He assumes that even if said top-flight DC came in he would be able to work with RR's motley band of defensive assistants and actually field a sound defense.

He assumes the crater of upperclassmen on defense was not greatly RR's fault.  Did Hoke focus on defensive recruits the minute he was hired?  Yes.  Did RR focus on defensive recruits the minute he was hired? No. He was consumed with offensive recruits.

He assumes all 3 years of RR's failure was due to underclassmen everywhere.  The 2008 defense returned 7 starters and was a pretty veteran unit.  It proceeded to be the worst defense in the history of the program (!) up to that point.

The TRUTH is that RR's program had many deep-seated flaws.  It was NOT one good DC hire away from being a juggernaut.  But when Brian paints the situation as if that were true, and makes all of the unfounded assumptions listed above, all he is doing is generating and prolonging unhealthy angst. 

JUST FREAKING STOP IT.

Brian misses the fact that much of the defensive staff seemed to be just as big of a problem as the DC.

He would be a great pick up.

anything short of 8 wins will be considered a disaster.

We know that RR laid the blame squarely on the players. "Even Vince Lombardi couldn't do much with what we've got..."

If that's not putting 100% of the blame on the kids and absolving the coaches then I don't know what is.

So okay. Ask yourself this.  If Gary Patterson and his staff or Greg Mattison and his staff had these EXACT same kids for the last 3 years, would the defensive performance have been EXACTLY the same?

I think everyone except the most ardent RR apologist would say no.

So, it WAS a coaching problem, at least to some extent.  And yet we have never heard RR utter even the SLIGHTEST implication that maybe, just maybe, some of the blame rested on his shitty defensive staffing decisions.

The defense would have again been terrible in 2011 with RR's staff.  This is why he was fired.

If the 2011 defense is terrible under the new staff THEN maybe RR will be proven correct and absolved.

RR/Magee's usage of Denard on ISQLDs (Incredibly Surprising QB Lead Draws) was nominally less imaginative or predictable than Carr's ISQDs.  

Those goddamn predictable lead draws were a huge waste of Denard's ability.  Get some misdirection going. Try to fool somebody, anybody, and increase the chances of getting Denard loose in open space for cryin' out loud.

I don't want to hear bellyaching in the Fall with rosy memories of the 2010 offense that scored 7 points against OSU. I expected more creativity and progression out of RR's offense and I never saw it. Mississippi State knew exactly what we were going to do and shut it down quite easily.

Bellyaching should only be warranted when our 2011 offense is less effective against good teams than our 2010 offense was. That is NOT a tall order to fill.

Cook'd.

Thanks for this.

Is absolutely right on the money.  No DC worth his salt wanted to walk into the situation RR created by stubbornly trusting his defensive assistants.

I've heard that RR's assertion that Mike Cox wasn't able to play due to injury was a "creative" description of the actual situation.

In camp, everyone (even all of the other RBs!) couldn't stop gushing about Mike Cox and what a beast he was. 

We might have a Minor-type RB right under our nose who can provide instant production.

The northern kids don't play as much football in HS as the southern kids, so the northern boys develop their game more in college. 

I think its not very flattering for the recruiting sites that there was only ONE 5-star left playing in the NFL playoffs, and that's a northerner by the name of Lamarr Woodley.

I think that Denard running play action roll-outs and designed scrambles are going to be WAYYYY more deadly than Magee's incredibly predictable QB lead draws every third play.  Sure, those picked up decent chunks of yards against inferior defenses but they also got Denard beat the hell up way too much.

PREDICTION:

The 2011 Borges Offense will be clearly better than the 2010 Magee Offense.

Don't look back!

Typical Age of NO voters: 29 and under

Typical Age of YES voters: 35 and over

The media is publishing untrue negative stories about this coach BEFOAR his team even plays a single game!!!

Hoke is getting the RichRod treatment already?!?!?

The loss to Toledo at home turned A LOT of people against RR.

I propose instead of a pool centered around whining about what some stupid-ass media guys write in their fish wrappers, why don't we instead bet on this:

Chances we score more than 7 points against OSU.

Chances we score more than 17 points against MSU.

Chances we score more than 14 points in our bowl game.

I am in the camp that most teams gladly allowed Michigan to roll down the field between the zed zones. But once the field shortened and there wasn't physically enough room to spread out the defense, our offense sputtered and died.  This means all those yards were a meaningless mirage.

I just bought one!

If DG gets his redshirt and Tate comes back I think next year becomes the critical year to secure another QB, not this year.

I wonder how many people realize that GERG was the Syracuse fans' way of combining the DERP-worthy abilities of Robinson with his first name.

Judging by his resume, Mr. Mattison has 0.00368% derp in him.

So John lied about wanting to keep Greg?

And Greg's comments make it sound like he could have kept his job as the Raven's DC if he wanted to.

The rumblings about wanting Cam Cameron out are more accurate than wanting to oust the guy that just orchestrated back-to-back top 10 defenses.

I'm ecstatic he is here. 

It is a HUGE coup for Michigan. Don't even drizzle on this parade, man.

The Ravens just finished with a Top 10 defense for the 2nd year in a row under Mattison.

This would be a monster hire.

Who gives a shit if he's 61. That concern is dumb.

Hopefully everyone around here can recognize that criticism of Brandon is separate and distinct from any criticism of Hoke.

I'm irritated by Brandon's mishandling of the coaching change.

But when he then cops an incredibly arrogant, condescending attitude about it that's what infuriates me.

I know a handful of alumni and ex-players who have spoken with Brandon and every one of them say "Wow, that guy's ego is off the charts.  And he is incredibly condescending."

Let's give Hoke a fair shake.

But I'm all for burying Brandon until he drops that fucking attitude.

Could you find out if the newspapers were big meanies to the M head coach in those other years?

Apprarently that is a MAJOR factor!

Bears an uncanny resemblance to Nazi Germany's olympic stadium in Berlin.

True story.

We just fired a coaching staff for BEING SHITTY.

So, the good news is that we've upgraded from shitty to mediocre?

C) The same.

If Brady Hoke has the same performance as RR did after year three...

HE WILL BE FIRED AS WELL.

RR's 3 years were constant, horrendous, embarrassing failure on the field.

NOBODY tolerates that.

Not Charles Woodson, not Mark Bihl, not Tom Brady, not  Dhani Jones, and not whiney bitches on the internet.

RR moved CB James Rogers to WR in the Spring of 2008. 2 years later he switched him back. Whoops!

He also should have kept Ferrara at DL. Whoops!

Don't even go there, dickhead.

goes somewhere and THEN decides to hire a comptent defensive staff, my immediate reaction will be "Jesus Christ, Rich, why didn't you hire a staff like that at MICHIGAN?!?!?"

that RR will never again have a winning season ANYWHERE with a defenisve staff as incompetent as the one HE CHOSE at Michigan.

He fucked that up. ROYALLY. The buck stops with HIM.

Hell, I put more care and thought into what kind of shoes I buy my kids than he did in picking the greatest collection of defensive imbecils ever assembled.

131 years of Michigan football proves my point. The 3 worst defenses BY FAR in our program's history.

You CANNOT fuck up staffing decisions that bad and expect to stay. Sorry.

Is Cook implying the media reaction had anything to do with the fact that RR and his staff couldn't teach his players how to tackle?

RR was fired because he lost a bunch of games.

Hoke will also get fired if he loses a bunch of games.

Cook is whining about shit that doesn't matter. 

you'd be amazed how easy it is to get re-admitted to U of M.

Especially when the new head coach can really use your skill set.

The media didn't ramp up the negativitiy until RR started losing.

And losing.

And losing.

Brian and many others around here seem to imply that if past players and the media had a lovefest for RR then M would have magically won a bunch of games.

Bullshit.

Just let it go already.

would ONLY be possible with an overhaul of the defensive staff.  There is no way in hell M was going to go 9-3 next year with GERG and Co.

We were blown OUT in 6 games this year.

We barely beat ND, UMass (!),  Indiana, and Illinois.

We probably SHOULD HAVE lost 2 of those 4 nailbiters.

That would have put us at 5-7 in year 3.  A moribund Miss St program just went 9-4 in the SEC in YEAR 2 and handed us our ass in the Gator Bowl.

It was his wife and one of his daughters that entered the press room.

Sorry, nothing scummy to report.  Apparently, it was actually quite a nice moment.

preach it, brother.  TV and movies just love architects. However, reality pisses on architects.

I'm not even using my Michigan architecture degree anymore. Why?  Because I'm making way more money as a construction project manager. Sad, really.

I ran track at Michigan. 

No, I don't expect you to believe me.

And no, I don't give a fuck whether or not you believe me.

So, in summary: FOAD.

I was just having fun with the haters.

I was like "how did I miss this on Monday (Dec. 13th) and then I realized the article in from 2009.

Fangio made an immediate and dramatic impact.  He worked for Jim's brother on the Raven's staff.  Fangio has a very impressive resume. He is not a youngster.

This guy's performance in his first year is further evidence against people who argue for the M defensive staff to stay intact for continuity's sake.  F that.  Defensive schemes are much less complex and it isn't uncommon to see huge improvements in a new DC's 1st year.

n/m

that coming up with a good logo isn't that easy. 

My initial reaction was "Printer cartridge cyan for the color? Really?"  Just use that same gunmetal gray that the PAC-10 is using and the new logo would be 100% better.

The new division names are pretentious and arrogant.  I can only imagine people in the other power conferences, not to mention the Ivy League, rolling their eyes at these contrived names. 

Just go with "East and West" or perhaps something slightly more nebulous like "Lakes and Plains" and be done with it.

Done and done.

nice work

But I think not knowing is better. 

Leaving doubt keeps the team motivated to win the Gator Bowl.

Maybe DB hasn't been able to close the deal with JH yet?  If that's the case then you definitely keep RR until you know you have JH as a replacement.

If JH isn't coming then RR stays.

Those are called a turnover on downs for a reason.  Also, all turnovers inside the opponents 30-yard line represent a lost opportunity to score points.

IMO, turnovers in the MSU, Iowa, and OSU games was a primary contributing factor in those losses.

Horrendous defense was the primary culprit against PSU and WI.

chose OSU. That is seriously fucked up. I'm going to have to give Kurt and Fred some shit when I see them again.

This really pisses me off.

Anyone who doesn't realize DB is actively exploring a coaching change right now is a silly child.

This info is from former players I know personally and speak with, and what they tell me other former players that they have spoken to have expressed.

Most of the hard feeling are because of the blowout loss to OSU, but the Bust fiasco sealed it.

Again, my feelings about RR differ from theirs.

I know dozens of former players.  I was taken aback by how many of them now really hate RR for what he did at the Bust.  Every single one of the 50-70 guys that I know and heard from don't want RR to be the coach anymore.

But who gives a fuck what they think.

now despise RR after what happened at the Bust.

I'm not saying this matters to Brandon.

And I'm not saying they are right.

I'm just passing along the fact that 98% of the living people who are responsible for Michigan being the winningest program in CFB history want RR fired immediately.

Is 98% due to Vic Fangio's coaching and installation of his defense.

This guy's meeting with Brandon was before the OSU debacle.  If the bowl game goes badly that would be another negative data point to maybe change DB's mind.  Brandon plays it close to the vest, though.  Which he should.

Last year there was "Offense With Minor Rage" (excellent) and "Offense Without Minor Rage" (meh).

This year's offense sorely missed that fast, rangy, power back.  The offense would've been downright Oregonian if it had such a running back.

MiKe Cox's size and violent running style fits that mold perfectly.

Yes, I'm still wondering WTF the deal is with Cox. 

I actually see -GASP! - a solid defenesive effort the entire first half.

Roh messed up a couple of chances to sack Pryor. But damn, Pryor made those plays, too, so you gotta tip your cap to TP.

I also would've like to have seen Vinopal light up Sanzenbacker on that long high pass down the middle.  On replay, it looked like Ray thought he was going to be able to get the INT.  With experience he will learn to just take the WR's head off in that situation.

You make those 3 plays and OSU's offense would've only scored 3 points in the 1st half!

Damn. Next year.

I never said the ZR failures were the only reason for our lack of scoring in the first half.  Michigan used many wildly successful offensive plays. 

I'm just stating that 12 of the zone read plays accounted for a total of 32 yards.  That's not good.  We moved the ball up and down the field in the first half in spite of our many ineffective ZR plays.

the fastest player in college football, and you see him running without the ball around an uncontained edge, time and time again.  And it doesn't occur to RR or Magee that hey, maybe Denard should, you know, actually keep the ball one of those times?

Firing a coach before he can complete his season is messy and negative PR.

Let the current coach finish his season with the bowl game he earned.

And let the new coach finish his season with the bowl game he earned.

Carr announcing his retirement immediately after OSU was a bad situation.

Dave won't let another messy transition happen on his watch.

My only question for Dave would be, if you're convinced RR should stay then why not end the rumors and so say now?  This speculation isn't healthy for RR's program.  So that makes me think RR will be fired and it will be a clean and immediate transition.

I would absolutely advise Brandon to not share his thoughts with anyone except maybe two people: Mary Sue Coleman and the next head coach.

Is this offense too unreliable?  Expecting tiny players and track athletes to not fumble when hit by big, fast defenders is rather... optimistic.   We now have multiple years of turning the ball over with regularity.  This is NOT a fluke anymore. 

OSU has a 27-year-old ex-professional soccer player as their kicker.  RR didn't make having a reliable kicker a priority.  Instead, he placed his trust in an unproven walk-on kicker.  Would Tressel ever allow that to happen?  That's mismanagment right there.

The Football Bust is going to be a circus.  Can you imagine the reaction of the crowd if/when Jim is announced?

"In ’97, if we would have played Nebraska, let’s be honest, we would have gotten our a**** kicked."

In 1997 we played a common opponent: Colorado. Michigan won 27-3 and kicked their ass up and down the field at will.

Nebraska was in a dogfight with Colorado, got behind by multiple scores and came back in the 4th qtr to nip them 27-24.

If you think Nebraska would've kicked our asses then you're not much of a Michigan fan in my book.

I would prefer that my AD thinks it is true.

I will bet you one dollar that the "tough decision" that brian is referring to is whether or not to force RR to overhaul his defensive staff, presumably against RR's wishes. THAT is the tough decision.

Brandon has already decided to retain RR for next year. That one is done and done.  No debate necessary.

I took Brian's bullet to mean that RVB has been poorly coached.

RVB is a great kid and will be even better at football with better coaching.

I think after the Purdue game M was #92 in scoring defense and #100 in total defense.  Now we're #99 scoring D and #112 total D.

I think Spielman was deliberately trying to give the Michigan players some bulletin board material.

He knew what he was doing when he talked smack like this. He's clearly trying to stoke the flames of a smoldering rivalry.

n/m

Sure, Anthony Thomas was much bigger, but the whole subtle juke and keep trucking north-south thing reminds me of the A-Train.

The whole "It rewards individual performance" meme is stupid.

Gee thanks, Lloyd, for getting rid of the stickers.

Hey, RR, want a good PR move?  Bring back the stickers.

The only reason to read it now is to get your hate on.  But I prefer not to antagonize myself like that. 

Of course, the douches at M Zone all love it and thinks its totally "objective."  WTF??

Gee, I wonder what side of the "Fire Dick Rod!" fence they're on?

That's just crazy talk.

Everybody knows that rib tickles and baby talk are way more effective at getting young men to play like a wild pack of wolves!

the 3-man front won't work.  A 3 man front that averages 290 pounds doesn't make any sense.  Hell, Michigan's starting 3-man front of Martin, Van Bergen, and Roh averages 279 pounds.  That is just asking for failure.

/s

Just want to make that clear.

that all of those points and yards are garbage stats put up against a defense that is either complacent in a blowout or at that point is using a "prevent defense" scheme.

If that's what happened is true, that's a valid point.  But I don't think that's completely accurate.  The Michigan offense put the defenses of Iowa and Wisconsin and PSU on their heels in those second halves and had them legitimately concerned.

His post does have some merit, though. Gotta score in the first half, when the battle is joined. See: Illinois game.

It would be quite easy for the offense to run a play that takes a bunch of guys right into the sideline where Meathead is standing.  That would be so fucking beautiful.

But the front 7 is not that  young: Martin, Van Bergen, Banks, Sagesse, Patterson, Ezeh, Mouton, Moundros, Fitzgerald, Demens.

ALL of those guys have been in the program for at least 3 years and many of them are 4th and 5th year guys.

And yet it is that same front 7 that got steamrolled and missed a shit ton of tackles.

The young secondary wasn't to blame in that debacle of a 2nd half. WI threw 1 pass.

So RR, just stop it. Your fairly experienced defensive front got their asses handed to them because your defensive coaches and their scheme and their piss poor teaching of fundamentals suck balls.

I was talking to Yale and I said "who was that badass dude who single-handedly won the MSU game in 2004?"

He said "Braylon Edwards."

I said "Oh, yeah!"

True story.

/s