I didn't think of North Dakota as a blue blood until I just looked it up and my history was definitely off. I was thinking of them as a program with a lot of recent success (like UConn in basketball). I was wrong. Frozen Four appearances with championships as a secondary metric seems like the right way to think about it:
Michigan - 27 (9 champ)
BC - 25 (5 champ)
BU - 23 ( 5 champ)
Minn - 23 (5 champ)
North Dakota - 22 (8 champ)
Denver - 18 (9 champ)
Harvard - 13 (1 champ)
Maine - 11 (2 champ)
MSU - 11 (3 champ)
Wisconsin - 11 (6 champ)
I think Denver is the cutoff. If you prefer to prioritize championships, maybe you add in Wisconsin (4th). That is a reasonable approach, but one extra championship vs 12 appearances doesn't feel like as strong as an accomplishment so should be behind BU/Minn.
So, I'd say the order is: Michigan, North Dakota, Denver, BC, BU/Minn, and maybe Wisconsin.
Listening to the first segment, I think we are underestimating how much it was about money in the past. I'm not saying it was completely about money, but I do think that it was a larger part of it than is being acknowledged. The whole idea of limiting TV in the past, for example, was almost certainly because of fears that people would stop going to the actual games which was a much larger percentage of revenue at the time.
The issue is that the scale of TV money is orders of magnitude larger than it used to be and is now a much higher percentage of the revenue stream. It is exacerbated by the fact that the in home viewing experience is leaps and bounds better than it used to be coupled by the fact that going to the stadium is less appealing than it used to be - especially for non-competitive games. Going to the game is way more expensive than it used to be and is generally more of a hassle relative to other aspects of life that have become easier.
At the same time, universities have become much more expensive to go to and to run over time. Public funding has been drying up and competition between the schools for the best students has ramped up. I wish college football wasn't tearing itself apart as well, but expecting universities to not maximize revenue is probably not realistic. It's one thing to protect the regionality and tradition over 5 to 6 figures worth of money. It another thing to ignore it in the face of 7, 8 and even 9 figures worth of money over long time frames.
If a 10 year deal was required to keep him, then I'm glad we didn't give it to him. That's an absurd contract demand. A million things can change in that time.
I am not sure that agreeing to the final immunity clause was in good faith, so to speak. It seems like they only offered immunity after they were sure Harbaugh was leaving. The point of doing it that way may have been to help protect against the PR backlash for losing Harbaugh without any intention of having to honor that clause. We'll likely never know for certain.
I considered it and probably should have done so but it didn't feel as substantial as I thought it maybe should have been.
I've been on here for 13 years but rarely post and I think this might have been the first time I actually created a topic. I don't mind if people neg - I didn't post to farm MGoBlog points.
I agree with this fully. Your second paragraph is a more succinct point of my original post. Warde does not have the power that people seem to think he does. Big decisions at large organizations are almost always made by several people.
Your autopsy rings true as well. I think very little, if anything, of why Jim left has to do with what Warde and Michigan did and didn't do. He's an absolutely compulsive competitor and it's clear from his 'sitting at the big kids table' comment, that he very much wants that Super Bowl win. He got the national championship done - for which I am eternally grateful - and now he wants to one-up his brother and dad.
Keegan said he was getting $225k-$500k this year per SI (RIP) and that is almost certainly much less than Corum, so that doesn't sound that bad in terms of keeping players.
I think it is just the inducement stuff that we are missing and honestly, you can't blame kids who want a paycheck. As others said, we can't do that right now even if it seems like virtually every other major program is doing it.
Per SP+, in our last 5 games, we have played the #8, #3, #2, #13, and #4 defenses while scoring 27, 26, 30, 31, and 41 points. You probably can't average that statistically, but if you could, it would be scoring 31 points on the #6 defense.
Incidentally, the #6 defense is Nebraska who we scored 45 on earlier this year. We put up 52 on Minnesota who has the #31 defense.
Plus, it's worth noting that for the most part, we were not really trying to score for large portions of some of these games.
Washington is the #44 defense which is 10 points worse than Nebraska, so something like 42 points doesn't seem unreasonable is you believe the fancy stats.
44 is fairly bad for P5, not just CFP finalist, but we'll see how it goes. They are ranked about where Illinois is this year on D and about 10 places worse than Minnesota. Hopefully that bears out.
I get that they are still salty, but it's also clear that they collectively blew the impact/importance of the advance scouting completely out of proportion.
Advanced scouting is not as good as, say, being handed a sheet with the signs from an opposing teams/coaches nor is it as good as hiring a recent ex-coach. It's still not even clear that hiring randos to record the sidelines with an iPhone is actually against the rules and even if it is, the value of it was far, far less than they said.
It's worth three TDs just knowing whether it is run or pass? Player safety issues? Come on coaches, be real.
Nah (unfortunately) on Texas getting in with a loss in that scenario. USC got knocked out in the same way last year. Not commenting on what is right, just precedent.
I think what they were checking on was more about whether Wilson was down before getting in the end zone. His knee hit the ground right on the end line. His body was straight up and down from his knee at that point and the ball was in both arms pressed against his chest so the ball has to also be in the end zone, however, there isn't a camera angle definitely showing the ball in the endzone at that exact moment so you have to infer it which makes it's a play stands rather than confirmed.
For all the clowns saying it was sign stealing, in two games against us, Stroud threw for almost 750 yards, 4 TD and 2 INT. Both INTs were in 2022 which was AFTER OSU changed their signs.
In most people's minds, we have effectively taken a plea deal and admitted to guilt. Lawyers will say, technically, that is not true, but that is how the vast majority of people will view this and so we have accepted damage to the university's brand. It now looks like we have admitted to being cheaters.
If you doubt that, think about how you would feel if this was happening, to say, Oklahoma or Texas. You'd probably say something like: Well, it doesn't seem like a big deal but the conference thought it was huge and took a big step to punish them plus they ultimately took a plea deal so there has to be something there.
A brand is an intangible thing and ridiculously easy to damage. Not being willing to fight this has exacerbated damage to the brand. It would have been better to have fought and lost the TRO - assuming there isn't some other stuff hidden that would have become public that would have made this worse.
I have to assume that we're protecting for something else because otherwise, this doesn't make any sense. Losing the TRO doesn't cost us anything because what else is the B1G going to do? They aren't going to ban us from the championship game because they've made it clear that they don't want to punish the players and FOX would absolutely push back on that. Maybe they suspend Harbaugh for the championship game against Iowa, but who cares at that point? I don't even know if they would have the authority to prevent Harbaugh from coaching in the playoffs and even if they did, why would they do that at that point? It only potentially hurts the B1G payout and reputation then.
This has shattered the unity of the Michigan community/fan base that we were enjoying over the last few weeks. There is also the chance that Harbaugh feels railroaded. Any self-respecting person would take the first exit ramp if this is the case - particularly someone who has already earned generational levels of wealth. Given the perceived lack of support for the coach, what top 5 coach would want to come here to replace him if he leaves after this season?
IF this is all true, and he really didn't know about any of this, I fail to see how any self-respecting person such as Harbaugh can continue to work for the University. He - and us (team, University, alumni, fans) - will be branded as cheaters for years - if not forever. Harbaugh may have agreed after this was brokered to say he agrees with this to keep his players focused and give them a chance to win a national championship, but he has to be looking for the first exit ramp after this season. He already has generational wealth, so a big contract doesn't really fix this potential issue.
I actually love that they believe this. I hope their players and coaches also believe this because it will only make it easier for us to beat them again if they don't even know why they are losing.
So, looking for an MGoLawyer to chime in here, but I would think that claiming that player safety is compromised by this scheme and the fact that in-game scouting is allowed and common, would open the B1G to a lawsuit if a player gets seriously hurt. Not automatically a loss, but they have to be compromising their legal defense in the future. Maybe the ability for players to sue the system is signed away as part of the deal of actually playing though, I don't know.
I see no reason to continue to subsidize teams/schools that do not bring in similar levels of revenue in the name of solidarity. For what, tradition and shared history? Sorry, we can’t reach those things due to the dagger in our back.
The last time I got hired (VP marketing position), I was interviewed by: The outside recruiter that submitted me for the job, 2 HR people, and the hiring manager (CMO) - all by phone. Then, I was flown in for the day and interviewed with 8 of the 10 C-suite people, including the hiring manager and CEO. That's 12 interviews in total.
They also did a background check (including checking my social media), drug testing, and the recruiter personally called my references and submitted his findings to the company. After all of that, I was finally offered the job.
I've had a few jobs at the director/VP level and interviewed for several more, and frankly, that's not out of the ordinary. At other places, I've had to meet with psychologists, have lengthy dinners with people, and meet my prospective team members or peers.
I don't think it's asking too much of Michigan to apply a similar level of rigor for the coaching staff and important analyst positions. Perhaps not for really low level positions, but something better must be done. Michigan is a big time program which, crucially, is the face of the University in many ways. It has a lot of strikes against it at this point. A substantial, legit vetting process is now required or we can't keep claiming accidental, bad apple hires. We have an absolutely world class business school that could help with best practices from the business world. Use it, I'm absolutely certain they would be happy to help.
It's like they didn't even see the NBC featured part of the game where their QB was running to the sidelines to get the play each time. MSU did us a favor there, tbh. We can't steal any signs if they don't use them and that was complete destruction on the field.
I've never met him, but Harbaugh strikes me as the kind of guy that would be spiteful towards this kind of thing. As in, oh yeah, let me beat you so far into the ground that you can't use this as a excuse kind of approach.
I checked their model of our defense and OSU defense vs PSU earlier this week. It said that we would allow 1.0 extra yards per play (to PSU) than OSU would (same yards running and +2.2 yards passing). I forget the raw numbers.
I know OSU's defense is improved, but that is hard to believe at this point. Maybe they are not removing garbage time? I guess we'll see when the games are played.
I think some of the big plays that you see out of us has to do with how defenses play us. Since we run exceptionally well, they inevitably commit more to the run and line of scrimmage and tend to keep less safety help back. That helps the defenses keep the runs down on most plays, but when they bust or when we get exceptional blocking, there is no one there to cover the mistake so it’s a TD.
That is essentially what happened to OSU. They couldn’t defend the run without committing extra guys, and so when we picked everything up, Edwards was gone. Twice. You can’t just say that without all the big plays, OSU wins. The big plays were a direct result of OSU not being able to stop the run with regular personal. They tried playing it straight for a drive and got gashed repeatedly so they had to gamble.
I can’t remember if PSU was the same, but I think there were similar elements at play - if not that extreme.
This is happening in dentistry and optometry as well. Private equity backed firms are buying out tons of practices all over the country. They take over the back-end stuff and marketing while pressuring the providers (dentists/optometrists) to push certain additional treatments or sales.
One thing I would add on the first Dutch goal: Either Adams needs to be hauling ass back to mark up at the top of the 18 or Musah needed to mark that space. I lean towards Adams being at fault because the goal scorer just jogged from about the same spot faster than Adams did who easily could have closed that down. That he didn't leads me to think that Adams must somehow not have noticed him. He's the defensive center mid though, it's his job to clean that sort of thing up.
Saying that was the best goal in Netherlands history is absurd. The scoring play was essentially a cross to the top of 18 and a good finish which is a very basic soccer play/tactic. Lots of great passing leading up to that though, sure.
Completely agree. There were many times when we had to one-touch it or quickly two touch it but instead had a poor trap, then took a second to collect the ball and then finally do something with it.
The issue they had on defense was that the only way they could stop the run was to sell out against it. After getting burned in the air, they tried to keep a guy back for a little while and then started getting gashed on the ground. They went back to gambling, got tired and Edwards murdered them.
I think it was that simple. They just didn't have enough to effectively stop both our run and pass at the same time.
I think the issue was that they blew the whistle so they made that forward progress crap up for why they blew the whistle too early and couldn't review it. They knew they screwed that one up.
I agree with most of this, but with regards to the 3 subs at once comment: You get 5 subs but you can only use them at three times so at least 2 of the subs have to happen with another sub or you don't get to use 2 of them.
It think it would take some extraordinary circumstances for the committee to take 2 SEC AND 2 B1G teams for the playoffs. Are they really going to shut out all but 2 conferences? I'm not talking about who actually deserves it - that probably isn't the most important point even though it should be.
It just sends a terrible message to the rest of college football and I don't think they would have the courage to send that message - especially since some of them have ties to those other conferences.
The only way I see it is if all other conference champs have 2 losses which doesn't seem very likely to me. For us specifically, I think there is virtually zero chance of getting in if we lose to OSU and Tenn wins out. If we lose, it's either us OR Tenn - not AND.
Same here. I got tickets at about the red line, 9 rows up for less than $50 each. Pretty good atmosphere but obviously a lot worse than Yost. Q's colors are almost identical to ours so it was a little hard to tell who was who in the crowd. We definitely had more people though. Won't be parking high in that spiral parking deck again though - it took forever to get out of there.
Perhaps a more useful way of looking at this is chance of winning conference:
OSU - 32.8%
Iowa - 22.4%
Mich - 18.1%
PSU - 10.3%
Wisc - 6.1%
MSU - 5.5%
So, the good news is that we're looking a lot better off than we thought before the season started. The bad news is that OSU is still in the driver's seat - as usual.
I would also allow the fouled team to just run out the remainder of the shot clock and then turn over possession (rather than take free throws) which would be the best move in a lot of circumstances. Another option would be to allow anyone on the floor to take the free throws and not just the fouled player.
Recent Comments
I didn't think of North Dakota as a blue blood until I just looked it up and my history was definitely off. I was thinking of them as a program with a lot of recent success (like UConn in basketball). I was wrong. Frozen Four appearances with championships as a secondary metric seems like the right way to think about it:
Michigan - 27 (9 champ)
BC - 25 (5 champ)
BU - 23 ( 5 champ)
Minn - 23 (5 champ)
North Dakota - 22 (8 champ)
Denver - 18 (9 champ)
Harvard - 13 (1 champ)
Maine - 11 (2 champ)
MSU - 11 (3 champ)
Wisconsin - 11 (6 champ)
I think Denver is the cutoff. If you prefer to prioritize championships, maybe you add in Wisconsin (4th). That is a reasonable approach, but one extra championship vs 12 appearances doesn't feel like as strong as an accomplishment so should be behind BU/Minn.
So, I'd say the order is: Michigan, North Dakota, Denver, BC, BU/Minn, and maybe Wisconsin.
No doubt you are correct, but sometimes you hire an outside firm to show impartiality and create evidence in case of disputes.
Listening to the first segment, I think we are underestimating how much it was about money in the past. I'm not saying it was completely about money, but I do think that it was a larger part of it than is being acknowledged. The whole idea of limiting TV in the past, for example, was almost certainly because of fears that people would stop going to the actual games which was a much larger percentage of revenue at the time.
The issue is that the scale of TV money is orders of magnitude larger than it used to be and is now a much higher percentage of the revenue stream. It is exacerbated by the fact that the in home viewing experience is leaps and bounds better than it used to be coupled by the fact that going to the stadium is less appealing than it used to be - especially for non-competitive games. Going to the game is way more expensive than it used to be and is generally more of a hassle relative to other aspects of life that have become easier.
At the same time, universities have become much more expensive to go to and to run over time. Public funding has been drying up and competition between the schools for the best students has ramped up. I wish college football wasn't tearing itself apart as well, but expecting universities to not maximize revenue is probably not realistic. It's one thing to protect the regionality and tradition over 5 to 6 figures worth of money. It another thing to ignore it in the face of 7, 8 and even 9 figures worth of money over long time frames.
If a 10 year deal was required to keep him, then I'm glad we didn't give it to him. That's an absurd contract demand. A million things can change in that time.
Yeah, that may be a more accurate depiction of the situation, but either way, he chose to leave for reasons outside of Warde's control.
I am not sure that agreeing to the final immunity clause was in good faith, so to speak. It seems like they only offered immunity after they were sure Harbaugh was leaving. The point of doing it that way may have been to help protect against the PR backlash for losing Harbaugh without any intention of having to honor that clause. We'll likely never know for certain.
I considered it and probably should have done so but it didn't feel as substantial as I thought it maybe should have been.
I've been on here for 13 years but rarely post and I think this might have been the first time I actually created a topic. I don't mind if people neg - I didn't post to farm MGoBlog points.
I wish I could upvote this more.
I agree with this fully. Your second paragraph is a more succinct point of my original post. Warde does not have the power that people seem to think he does. Big decisions at large organizations are almost always made by several people.
Your autopsy rings true as well. I think very little, if anything, of why Jim left has to do with what Warde and Michigan did and didn't do. He's an absolutely compulsive competitor and it's clear from his 'sitting at the big kids table' comment, that he very much wants that Super Bowl win. He got the national championship done - for which I am eternally grateful - and now he wants to one-up his brother and dad.
Keegan said he was getting $225k-$500k this year per SI (RIP) and that is almost certainly much less than Corum, so that doesn't sound that bad in terms of keeping players.
I think it is just the inducement stuff that we are missing and honestly, you can't blame kids who want a paycheck. As others said, we can't do that right now even if it seems like virtually every other major program is doing it.
Thank you so much for this!
Surprisingly, Maryland has the #13 ranked defense in SP+. I was shocked too.
Per SP+, in our last 5 games, we have played the #8, #3, #2, #13, and #4 defenses while scoring 27, 26, 30, 31, and 41 points. You probably can't average that statistically, but if you could, it would be scoring 31 points on the #6 defense.
Incidentally, the #6 defense is Nebraska who we scored 45 on earlier this year. We put up 52 on Minnesota who has the #31 defense.
Plus, it's worth noting that for the most part, we were not really trying to score for large portions of some of these games.
Washington is the #44 defense which is 10 points worse than Nebraska, so something like 42 points doesn't seem unreasonable is you believe the fancy stats.
44 is fairly bad for P5, not just CFP finalist, but we'll see how it goes. They are ranked about where Illinois is this year on D and about 10 places worse than Minnesota. Hopefully that bears out.
Going from memory, but I think 24
McCord was better than him and he now plays for Syracuse
I get that they are still salty, but it's also clear that they collectively blew the impact/importance of the advance scouting completely out of proportion.
Advanced scouting is not as good as, say, being handed a sheet with the signs from an opposing teams/coaches nor is it as good as hiring a recent ex-coach. It's still not even clear that hiring randos to record the sidelines with an iPhone is actually against the rules and even if it is, the value of it was far, far less than they said.
It's worth three TDs just knowing whether it is run or pass? Player safety issues? Come on coaches, be real.
It's gonna be Georgia, so that will be tough.
Nah (unfortunately) on Texas getting in with a loss in that scenario. USC got knocked out in the same way last year. Not commenting on what is right, just precedent.
It looked to my uneducated eye that gives on both Orji plays would have likely gone for 10+ yards. Am I seeing that right?
Tagovailoa maybe?
Hiring a PI firm to try to 'beat' your rival rather than, you know, actually beating your rival is the ultimate little bro move.
I think what they were checking on was more about whether Wilson was down before getting in the end zone. His knee hit the ground right on the end line. His body was straight up and down from his knee at that point and the ball was in both arms pressed against his chest so the ball has to also be in the end zone, however, there isn't a camera angle definitely showing the ball in the endzone at that exact moment so you have to infer it which makes it's a play stands rather than confirmed.
For all the clowns saying it was sign stealing, in two games against us, Stroud threw for almost 750 yards, 4 TD and 2 INT. Both INTs were in 2022 which was AFTER OSU changed their signs.
In most people's minds, we have effectively taken a plea deal and admitted to guilt. Lawyers will say, technically, that is not true, but that is how the vast majority of people will view this and so we have accepted damage to the university's brand. It now looks like we have admitted to being cheaters.
If you doubt that, think about how you would feel if this was happening, to say, Oklahoma or Texas. You'd probably say something like: Well, it doesn't seem like a big deal but the conference thought it was huge and took a big step to punish them plus they ultimately took a plea deal so there has to be something there.
A brand is an intangible thing and ridiculously easy to damage. Not being willing to fight this has exacerbated damage to the brand. It would have been better to have fought and lost the TRO - assuming there isn't some other stuff hidden that would have become public that would have made this worse.
I have to assume that we're protecting for something else because otherwise, this doesn't make any sense. Losing the TRO doesn't cost us anything because what else is the B1G going to do? They aren't going to ban us from the championship game because they've made it clear that they don't want to punish the players and FOX would absolutely push back on that. Maybe they suspend Harbaugh for the championship game against Iowa, but who cares at that point? I don't even know if they would have the authority to prevent Harbaugh from coaching in the playoffs and even if they did, why would they do that at that point? It only potentially hurts the B1G payout and reputation then.
This has shattered the unity of the Michigan community/fan base that we were enjoying over the last few weeks. There is also the chance that Harbaugh feels railroaded. Any self-respecting person would take the first exit ramp if this is the case - particularly someone who has already earned generational levels of wealth. Given the perceived lack of support for the coach, what top 5 coach would want to come here to replace him if he leaves after this season?
IF this is all true, and he really didn't know about any of this, I fail to see how any self-respecting person such as Harbaugh can continue to work for the University. He - and us (team, University, alumni, fans) - will be branded as cheaters for years - if not forever. Harbaugh may have agreed after this was brokered to say he agrees with this to keep his players focused and give them a chance to win a national championship, but he has to be looking for the first exit ramp after this season. He already has generational wealth, so a big contract doesn't really fix this potential issue.
I actually love that they believe this. I hope their players and coaches also believe this because it will only make it easier for us to beat them again if they don't even know why they are losing.
So, looking for an MGoLawyer to chime in here, but I would think that claiming that player safety is compromised by this scheme and the fact that in-game scouting is allowed and common, would open the B1G to a lawsuit if a player gets seriously hurt. Not automatically a loss, but they have to be compromising their legal defense in the future. Maybe the ability for players to sue the system is signed away as part of the deal of actually playing though, I don't know.
Double post
I see no reason to continue to subsidize teams/schools that do not bring in similar levels of revenue in the name of solidarity. For what, tradition and shared history? Sorry, we can’t reach those things due to the dagger in our back.
The last time I got hired (VP marketing position), I was interviewed by: The outside recruiter that submitted me for the job, 2 HR people, and the hiring manager (CMO) - all by phone. Then, I was flown in for the day and interviewed with 8 of the 10 C-suite people, including the hiring manager and CEO. That's 12 interviews in total.
They also did a background check (including checking my social media), drug testing, and the recruiter personally called my references and submitted his findings to the company. After all of that, I was finally offered the job.
I've had a few jobs at the director/VP level and interviewed for several more, and frankly, that's not out of the ordinary. At other places, I've had to meet with psychologists, have lengthy dinners with people, and meet my prospective team members or peers.
I don't think it's asking too much of Michigan to apply a similar level of rigor for the coaching staff and important analyst positions. Perhaps not for really low level positions, but something better must be done. Michigan is a big time program which, crucially, is the face of the University in many ways. It has a lot of strikes against it at this point. A substantial, legit vetting process is now required or we can't keep claiming accidental, bad apple hires. We have an absolutely world class business school that could help with best practices from the business world. Use it, I'm absolutely certain they would be happy to help.
I think one of them is married to or otherwise related to a Sparty which may explain all the little brother style thinking.
It's like they didn't even see the NBC featured part of the game where their QB was running to the sidelines to get the play each time. MSU did us a favor there, tbh. We can't steal any signs if they don't use them and that was complete destruction on the field.
I've never met him, but Harbaugh strikes me as the kind of guy that would be spiteful towards this kind of thing. As in, oh yeah, let me beat you so far into the ground that you can't use this as a excuse kind of approach.
I checked their model of our defense and OSU defense vs PSU earlier this week. It said that we would allow 1.0 extra yards per play (to PSU) than OSU would (same yards running and +2.2 yards passing). I forget the raw numbers.
I know OSU's defense is improved, but that is hard to believe at this point. Maybe they are not removing garbage time? I guess we'll see when the games are played.
I think some of the big plays that you see out of us has to do with how defenses play us. Since we run exceptionally well, they inevitably commit more to the run and line of scrimmage and tend to keep less safety help back. That helps the defenses keep the runs down on most plays, but when they bust or when we get exceptional blocking, there is no one there to cover the mistake so it’s a TD.
That is essentially what happened to OSU. They couldn’t defend the run without committing extra guys, and so when we picked everything up, Edwards was gone. Twice. You can’t just say that without all the big plays, OSU wins. The big plays were a direct result of OSU not being able to stop the run with regular personal. They tried playing it straight for a drive and got gashed repeatedly so they had to gamble.
I can’t remember if PSU was the same, but I think there were similar elements at play - if not that extreme.
It took 148 turns, but I finally got my first MVP last turn. Go blue!
This is happening in dentistry and optometry as well. Private equity backed firms are buying out tons of practices all over the country. They take over the back-end stuff and marketing while pressuring the providers (dentists/optometrists) to push certain additional treatments or sales.
One thing I would add on the first Dutch goal: Either Adams needs to be hauling ass back to mark up at the top of the 18 or Musah needed to mark that space. I lean towards Adams being at fault because the goal scorer just jogged from about the same spot faster than Adams did who easily could have closed that down. That he didn't leads me to think that Adams must somehow not have noticed him. He's the defensive center mid though, it's his job to clean that sort of thing up.
Saying that was the best goal in Netherlands history is absurd. The scoring play was essentially a cross to the top of 18 and a good finish which is a very basic soccer play/tactic. Lots of great passing leading up to that though, sure.
Completely agree. There were many times when we had to one-touch it or quickly two touch it but instead had a poor trap, then took a second to collect the ball and then finally do something with it.
The issue they had on defense was that the only way they could stop the run was to sell out against it. After getting burned in the air, they tried to keep a guy back for a little while and then started getting gashed on the ground. They went back to gambling, got tired and Edwards murdered them.
I think it was that simple. They just didn't have enough to effectively stop both our run and pass at the same time.
I think the issue was that they blew the whistle so they made that forward progress crap up for why they blew the whistle too early and couldn't review it. They knew they screwed that one up.
I agree with most of this, but with regards to the 3 subs at once comment: You get 5 subs but you can only use them at three times so at least 2 of the subs have to happen with another sub or you don't get to use 2 of them.
Additionally, the ref blew the play dead before Illinois picked up the ball. I heard it live and saw the refs blowing the whistle on replay as well.
It think it would take some extraordinary circumstances for the committee to take 2 SEC AND 2 B1G teams for the playoffs. Are they really going to shut out all but 2 conferences? I'm not talking about who actually deserves it - that probably isn't the most important point even though it should be.
It just sends a terrible message to the rest of college football and I don't think they would have the courage to send that message - especially since some of them have ties to those other conferences.
The only way I see it is if all other conference champs have 2 losses which doesn't seem very likely to me. For us specifically, I think there is virtually zero chance of getting in if we lose to OSU and Tenn wins out. If we lose, it's either us OR Tenn - not AND.
That was CRex and it's my all-time favorite stuff here. Some of the funniest stuff I have ever read.
Same here. I got tickets at about the red line, 9 rows up for less than $50 each. Pretty good atmosphere but obviously a lot worse than Yost. Q's colors are almost identical to ours so it was a little hard to tell who was who in the crowd. We definitely had more people though. Won't be parking high in that spiral parking deck again though - it took forever to get out of there.
Perhaps a more useful way of looking at this is chance of winning conference:
OSU - 32.8%
Iowa - 22.4%
Mich - 18.1%
PSU - 10.3%
Wisc - 6.1%
MSU - 5.5%
So, the good news is that we're looking a lot better off than we thought before the season started. The bad news is that OSU is still in the driver's seat - as usual.
I hadn't thought about the swallowing the whistle thing, that's a good point.
I would also allow the fouled team to just run out the remainder of the shot clock and then turn over possession (rather than take free throws) which would be the best move in a lot of circumstances. Another option would be to allow anyone on the floor to take the free throws and not just the fouled player.