In HS, I was on the baseball team, and we went down to FL to play before it got warm up north. We sucked as northern teams do, and we were playing a local FL HS with multiple guys who got drafted / played college. But we had one good pitcher, and baseball being baseball, we ended up in a tight 1-0 game.
April 1, 1998. Bottom of the seventh. We got a couple of runners on and i came up with two outs. Gentlemen, i shit you not i could barely see what this pitcher was throwing, he was easily in the low 90s and I was an unathletic guy who never made it above HS ball. His fastball had an angry hiss and his slider jerked down and away like it was on a string. I had no chance of hitting this, absolutely none.
So i closed my eyes, prayed, and swung.
And i hit the ever loving shit out of the ball, I never hit a ball so hard before or since, when I last looked the ball was still rising as the outfielder gave up, and we won the game. My coach called it the biggest april fools joke he ever saw.
But that's not what they're trying to do. They want to get data that's as predictive of NFL performance as possible. My understanding is that - inexplicably - broad jump is an independent variable that helps predict NFL performance for OL, even on top of college game film, measurements, etc.
It's like how the SAT and ACT are highly predictive of college performance, even though you don't take standardized tests in college. Sometimes drills or tests can be predictive even though they don't seem like they would be.
FWIW, broad jump is actually highly useful for offensive linemen and seems to add some independent value. The analytics focused teams really care about it. Surprising to me too, but the numbers don't lie.
They have tons of data now without the combine. Combine drills mainly for show and to benchmark guys from smaller programs where the data is spottier. Measurements and interviews still matter but everyone is still doing those.
I received my natty replicas and they look great. Very pleased with them. I also got the lucite mount and while it’s $10 more than buying a lucite magnet brick on Amazon, the one they supply fits the ticket perfectly. It’s all very well done.
But that's what makes it interesting. A bunch of homers making excuses for their guy is not interesting; understanding what we were missing that made Bush's skillset not NFL-suitable is way more interesting. The ACL injury is a flimsy excuse - it's generally not a career altering injury now without other damage (RIP Grant Newsome's leg).
I don't agree that Bush's career was destroyed by injury. He was not great in his first season as well before the injury per PFF. And fwiw, the scouting reports in the NFL aren't criticisms of his athleticism.
To me "bust" is all relative. Like Mike Hart, I never thought he was going to have a career in the NFL, he was just too slow. Some guys you can tell are great college players who don't have the talent / skills to star in the NFL which is a pretty different game. Denard's like that too.
But there are some guys where you're like, yeah, that's an NFL star right there and then they're not that good and its a total shock. Jabrill Peppers was headed that way, but he's figured it out and he's a top safety now, which is awesome.
I guess this inverse of this is who is the most surprising hit who no one thought would amount to much, and you have to stipulate at the start of that conversation that the answer is obviously Tom Brady Q.E.D.,
So non-Tom Brady division, I'd vote for Mike Onwenu, who is basically an average tackle and one of the top 5-10 guards in the NFL, and that's just fucking stunning because he was a good starter at Michigan but I don't think anyone ever thought of him as a star....
Excellent hire. Good mix of continuity and some new ideas to keep the defense fresh and Wink did a great job with the Giants last year with crap personnel. I think even now he’s regarded as maybe a cut below Fangio and McDonald among NFL coordinators; which is to say that he’s probably a top 10 DC in the country at all levels.
I mean, he's getting paid $12 million+ a year to live and work in Los Angeles, with better hours and frankly lower expectations. Of COURSE its a better place to be than Michigan, even a homer can recognize that. The only thing that was keeping him for as long as he stayed was a blind irrational love for a job with a ton of strings attached.
Years ago i was an exchange student in south America. I get there, first day for dinner they serve borscht, I'm like, whatever, lots of people serve borscht. Couple of days later, its Friday, and they get a loaf of bread for dinner that resembles challah. I've got as jewy a name as they come, so I figure, notwithstanding that I can't speak really their language and they cant really speak mine, we need to have a conversation, they obviously think I need special Jew food but they don't need to worry about me, I'm happy with bacon.
Conversation goes something like this:
"Is OK, no need jew food"
"Oh no, we jew too!"
"You jew?!" (points at host family's son) "His name Christian!"
He’s a superb player, easily becomes one of the top 10 or so starters in the conference. Roman Wilson wasnt getting open on him. You'd be nuts not to take him if there’s mutual interest.
IMO that’s wildly wrong. SNL goes through up and down phases, but when the stars align and you get the right group of writers and featured players, it’s always terrific. Original cast was great, then down, then the Eddie Murphy years were great, then down, then the Carvey/Farley/Sandler/Smigel years are great, then down, then the years where Fey is head writer are really good, etc…
Cant agree with this more. I've seen a total and 90+% partials and they are not even remotely in the same ballpark. Partial eclipses are a 1 minute curiosity and total eclipses are absolutely mind-blowing.
Oddly, I’d never watched video of Davis before this AM. That is a looooong and inefficient windup; he’s going to need a year or two in the lab before he’s ready to play. He’s like one of those pitchers that MLB teams draft and stick in the instructional league for a year for a full rebuild.
Weird that with modern youth QB coaching youd see such an obviously talented guy with such a bad hitch. I wonder if he has some shoulder issues?
With time and money, they’re all fairly easy (my slow, middle aged, out of shape ass has bagged them or their equivalent), with the exception of Rainier and Denali. Even the western ones are at worst long approach hikes or scrambles at the top, or combinations of both, and easy enough with time to adjust to altitude and to hike in without doing a death march. Or without doing them in winter, which is just gratuitously, unnecessarily difficult. Who would hike Washington in winter? You can drive up in a minivan 6 months out of the year.
Again, if I can do them, and I am stunningly unathletic or fit, anyone can.
Rainier and Denali are a whollllle different kettle of fish. I’d suspect that with enough money to throw at them, they could be done with a guide that basically carries your ass up, but that’s both lame and includes great personal risk. They are serious mountains in a way that even Gannett or Elbert aren’t.
I think this is something I’d hire an artist to create, and if I felt guilty about using the trademark, I’d send an appropriately-sized donation to the school in exchange, in memory of your dad. Fair to everyone.
This is lazy. In this case, the Araiza has an alibi at the time of the alleged rape. There is also a video of the alleged rape, and he's not on it.
I agree with everything that's been said upthread about most accusations being true, and it being important not to overpunish false accusations, but, come on, this one has clear exculpatory evidence. The vast majority of rape accusations don't come with this much evidence. If Araiza can't clear his name here, then you're basically saying it's impossible for any accusation to be proven false.
(Obviously Araiza may have had sex with the girl earlier in the evening, but the prosecutors developed what appears to be extensive evidence that the encounter was consensual and that Araiza could assert an affirmative defense to statutory rape.)
Evidence matters. Most accusations are true, but not all.
Non-rhetorical question: why does it bother people that recruiting rankings are, when aggregated in a large enough sample, basically accurate?
It’s not particularly surprising (or offensive) that the fastest, most explosive athlete at age 17 is very likely to be the fastest and most explosive at age 21. It would be weird if the opposite were true.
Even if recruiting rankings are really good these days, doesn’t mean that coaching isn’t important. Five stars still require coaching, S&C training and general development - just ask Zach Harrison about that.
It is infinitely more easier to drive an UTV to a trail than it is to load it into a trailer (most modern UTVs are too wide to fit in a pickup bed). Suck it up and pass me at the next straight.
Come on - this isn’t really a fair version of the facts. Alex isn’t a banker - he’s a low level employee at a D tier PE sponsor. It’s the sort of job that, let’s be honest, Auburn grads get. If he really wanted to pursue a finance career after football, he would’ve gone to Michigan, taken a run at Ross if his grades were good enough, and if not, worked at a bank after football and taken the GMAT, like pretty much all the ex-football guys I’ve worked with/across from. That way he could focus on football when he was a football players and business when he was a business student, which makes a hell of a lot more sense than trying to be a superhero.
This dude just wanted to go to Auburn, which is fine. I dated an Auburn girl once. It had its perks.
It feels like a lot more former players are quickly advancing into good coaching jobs. I generally think "culture" is BS - winning teams have great culture, not the other way around - but other teams wanting to bring in Michigan alums as leaders and teachers is a pretty good sign that JH is doing something right.
Agreed re: the lower level Lexus, but I had a chance to ride in an LS and it was legitimately nice - a little dated, because it was a 2018 design and 5 years is an eternity in interiors these days - but not obviously from the Toyota catalog and expensive-feeling materials.
I'm legitimately curious. I assume on a Michigan message board, lots of folks have nice cars and we don't need to pretend we're all driving beaters. If I were posting on RCMB I would've been more discreet.
A 1.72 split for an end is just brutal…lots of NFL teams will write him off as anything but an anchor. Catastrophically bad day for Morris that probably cost him $5M+ over the life of his first contract. A real fucking bummer - but also explains why a guy who had such excellent technique wasn’t that great as a rusher.
Mazi Smith, OTOH, doing 34 reps with 34” arms…now that’s a fucking day at the office.
To add to the chorus: my BIL lives at 1600ft in the southern Green Mountains in VT, up a steep, semi-private dirt road with some serious grade that is only half-maintained in the winter. He swears by Subarus - currently owns an Outback and a Forester - with A+ snow tires. My luxury SUV with expensive all-seasons can't always make it up his hill (and I know how to winter drive); the Subarus chew it up without an issue.
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Sounds like he always lights it up like the Irish, too.
taking this in a different direction
In HS, I was on the baseball team, and we went down to FL to play before it got warm up north. We sucked as northern teams do, and we were playing a local FL HS with multiple guys who got drafted / played college. But we had one good pitcher, and baseball being baseball, we ended up in a tight 1-0 game.
April 1, 1998. Bottom of the seventh. We got a couple of runners on and i came up with two outs. Gentlemen, i shit you not i could barely see what this pitcher was throwing, he was easily in the low 90s and I was an unathletic guy who never made it above HS ball. His fastball had an angry hiss and his slider jerked down and away like it was on a string. I had no chance of hitting this, absolutely none.
So i closed my eyes, prayed, and swung.
And i hit the ever loving shit out of the ball, I never hit a ball so hard before or since, when I last looked the ball was still rising as the outfielder gave up, and we won the game. My coach called it the biggest april fools joke he ever saw.
But that's not what they're trying to do. They want to get data that's as predictive of NFL performance as possible. My understanding is that - inexplicably - broad jump is an independent variable that helps predict NFL performance for OL, even on top of college game film, measurements, etc.
It's like how the SAT and ACT are highly predictive of college performance, even though you don't take standardized tests in college. Sometimes drills or tests can be predictive even though they don't seem like they would be.
FWIW, broad jump is actually highly useful for offensive linemen and seems to add some independent value. The analytics focused teams really care about it. Surprising to me too, but the numbers don't lie.
They have tons of data now without the combine. Combine drills mainly for show and to benchmark guys from smaller programs where the data is spottier. Measurements and interviews still matter but everyone is still doing those.
I received my natty replicas and they look great. Very pleased with them. I also got the lucite mount and while it’s $10 more than buying a lucite magnet brick on Amazon, the one they supply fits the ticket perfectly. It’s all very well done.
But that's what makes it interesting. A bunch of homers making excuses for their guy is not interesting; understanding what we were missing that made Bush's skillset not NFL-suitable is way more interesting. The ACL injury is a flimsy excuse - it's generally not a career altering injury now without other damage (RIP Grant Newsome's leg).
I don't agree that Bush's career was destroyed by injury. He was not great in his first season as well before the injury per PFF. And fwiw, the scouting reports in the NFL aren't criticisms of his athleticism.
To me "bust" is all relative. Like Mike Hart, I never thought he was going to have a career in the NFL, he was just too slow. Some guys you can tell are great college players who don't have the talent / skills to star in the NFL which is a pretty different game. Denard's like that too.
But there are some guys where you're like, yeah, that's an NFL star right there and then they're not that good and its a total shock. Jabrill Peppers was headed that way, but he's figured it out and he's a top safety now, which is awesome.
I guess this inverse of this is who is the most surprising hit who no one thought would amount to much, and you have to stipulate at the start of that conversation that the answer is obviously Tom Brady Q.E.D.,
So non-Tom Brady division, I'd vote for Mike Onwenu, who is basically an average tackle and one of the top 5-10 guards in the NFL, and that's just fucking stunning because he was a good starter at Michigan but I don't think anyone ever thought of him as a star....
TLDR: No politics on the board, unless its politics which I agree with, in which case its fine.
Excellent hire. Good mix of continuity and some new ideas to keep the defense fresh and Wink did a great job with the Giants last year with crap personnel. I think even now he’s regarded as maybe a cut below Fangio and McDonald among NFL coordinators; which is to say that he’s probably a top 10 DC in the country at all levels.
It's going to be great when Kovacs gets brought back as a high-level defensive assistant / DC.
I love the look but the Homefield quality is crap. Shirts are thinner than clingwrap.
I mean, he's getting paid $12 million+ a year to live and work in Los Angeles, with better hours and frankly lower expectations. Of COURSE its a better place to be than Michigan, even a homer can recognize that. The only thing that was keeping him for as long as he stayed was a blind irrational love for a job with a ton of strings attached.
Iceberg, Goldberg, it’s all the same.
Years ago i was an exchange student in south America. I get there, first day for dinner they serve borscht, I'm like, whatever, lots of people serve borscht. Couple of days later, its Friday, and they get a loaf of bread for dinner that resembles challah. I've got as jewy a name as they come, so I figure, notwithstanding that I can't speak really their language and they cant really speak mine, we need to have a conversation, they obviously think I need special Jew food but they don't need to worry about me, I'm happy with bacon.
Conversation goes something like this:
"Is OK, no need jew food"
"Oh no, we jew too!"
"You jew?!" (points at host family's son) "His name Christian!"
"Yes! No one know!"
This is garbage, yes.
He’s a superb player, easily becomes one of the top 10 or so starters in the conference. Roman Wilson wasnt getting open on him. You'd be nuts not to take him if there’s mutual interest.
OSU is stepping up with NIL for year 3 guys. Smart move to copy Michigan's strategy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-hDl6OALv4
WIN THE WHOLE F'IN THING!
IMO that’s wildly wrong. SNL goes through up and down phases, but when the stars align and you get the right group of writers and featured players, it’s always terrific. Original cast was great, then down, then the Eddie Murphy years were great, then down, then the Carvey/Farley/Sandler/Smigel years are great, then down, then the years where Fey is head writer are really good, etc…
Eh. It's a lot of low-B1G level guys. Numbers without quality.
I'm glad michigan put locks on our beigel
He’s a bad journalist and he makes the program look bad because he’s a useful idiot that amplifies false information.
I wish he would find a new career, but I wish him well in those future endeavors.
They're not big fans of losing unceremoniously, IME. They'll lose but they don't want to look like terrorists.
Naw he’s just a Guy
Something stinks about this but I can’t put my finger on it
Cant agree with this more. I've seen a total and 90+% partials and they are not even remotely in the same ballpark. Partial eclipses are a 1 minute curiosity and total eclipses are absolutely mind-blowing.
Whenever a game feels "boring" or "easy", watch that 2009 video and remember how bad it was to remember how good this is.
When your baseline is a guy who is literally leading the NFL in FG made, merely “good” seems inadequate.
It couldn't be more transparent that Matt Weiss is the main source for this article.
Oddly, I’d never watched video of Davis before this AM. That is a looooong and inefficient windup; he’s going to need a year or two in the lab before he’s ready to play. He’s like one of those pitchers that MLB teams draft and stick in the instructional league for a year for a full rebuild.
Weird that with modern youth QB coaching youd see such an obviously talented guy with such a bad hitch. I wonder if he has some shoulder issues?
With time and money, they’re all fairly easy (my slow, middle aged, out of shape ass has bagged them or their equivalent), with the exception of Rainier and Denali. Even the western ones are at worst long approach hikes or scrambles at the top, or combinations of both, and easy enough with time to adjust to altitude and to hike in without doing a death march. Or without doing them in winter, which is just gratuitously, unnecessarily difficult. Who would hike Washington in winter? You can drive up in a minivan 6 months out of the year.
Again, if I can do them, and I am stunningly unathletic or fit, anyone can.
Rainier and Denali are a whollllle different kettle of fish. I’d suspect that with enough money to throw at them, they could be done with a guide that basically carries your ass up, but that’s both lame and includes great personal risk. They are serious mountains in a way that even Gannett or Elbert aren’t.
I think this is something I’d hire an artist to create, and if I felt guilty about using the trademark, I’d send an appropriately-sized donation to the school in exchange, in memory of your dad. Fair to everyone.
this is a…
thats the joke
this is a mel brooks tribute to marceau's genius
This is lazy. In this case, the Araiza has an alibi at the time of the alleged rape. There is also a video of the alleged rape, and he's not on it.
I agree with everything that's been said upthread about most accusations being true, and it being important not to overpunish false accusations, but, come on, this one has clear exculpatory evidence. The vast majority of rape accusations don't come with this much evidence. If Araiza can't clear his name here, then you're basically saying it's impossible for any accusation to be proven false.
(Obviously Araiza may have had sex with the girl earlier in the evening, but the prosecutors developed what appears to be extensive evidence that the encounter was consensual and that Araiza could assert an affirmative defense to statutory rape.)
Evidence matters. Most accusations are true, but not all.
To be fair, what turns walk-ons and 2-stars into NFL draft picks is generally growth spurts and filling out their frame with muscle.
Non-rhetorical question: why does it bother people that recruiting rankings are, when aggregated in a large enough sample, basically accurate?
It’s not particularly surprising (or offensive) that the fastest, most explosive athlete at age 17 is very likely to be the fastest and most explosive at age 21. It would be weird if the opposite were true.
Even if recruiting rankings are really good these days, doesn’t mean that coaching isn’t important. Five stars still require coaching, S&C training and general development - just ask Zach Harrison about that.
So great that he’s going to get paid. Congrats man!!!
Oh my god you had to drive 30 mph for half a mile I’m so sorry not sorry
It is infinitely more easier to drive an UTV to a trail than it is to load it into a trailer (most modern UTVs are too wide to fit in a pickup bed). Suck it up and pass me at the next straight.
Come on - this isn’t really a fair version of the facts. Alex isn’t a banker - he’s a low level employee at a D tier PE sponsor. It’s the sort of job that, let’s be honest, Auburn grads get. If he really wanted to pursue a finance career after football, he would’ve gone to Michigan, taken a run at Ross if his grades were good enough, and if not, worked at a bank after football and taken the GMAT, like pretty much all the ex-football guys I’ve worked with/across from. That way he could focus on football when he was a football players and business when he was a business student, which makes a hell of a lot more sense than trying to be a superhero.
This dude just wanted to go to Auburn, which is fine. I dated an Auburn girl once. It had its perks.
It feels like a lot more former players are quickly advancing into good coaching jobs. I generally think "culture" is BS - winning teams have great culture, not the other way around - but other teams wanting to bring in Michigan alums as leaders and teachers is a pretty good sign that JH is doing something right.
Agreed re: the lower level Lexus, but I had a chance to ride in an LS and it was legitimately nice - a little dated, because it was a 2018 design and 5 years is an eternity in interiors these days - but not obviously from the Toyota catalog and expensive-feeling materials.
I'm legitimately curious. I assume on a Michigan message board, lots of folks have nice cars and we don't need to pretend we're all driving beaters. If I were posting on RCMB I would've been more discreet.
No he’s not explosive over short distances. 1.72 is not good for an NFL pass rusher. Top guys are under 1.6.
A 1.72 split for an end is just brutal…lots of NFL teams will write him off as anything but an anchor. Catastrophically bad day for Morris that probably cost him $5M+ over the life of his first contract. A real fucking bummer - but also explains why a guy who had such excellent technique wasn’t that great as a rusher.
Mazi Smith, OTOH, doing 34 reps with 34” arms…now that’s a fucking day at the office.
To add to the chorus: my BIL lives at 1600ft in the southern Green Mountains in VT, up a steep, semi-private dirt road with some serious grade that is only half-maintained in the winter. He swears by Subarus - currently owns an Outback and a Forester - with A+ snow tires. My luxury SUV with expensive all-seasons can't always make it up his hill (and I know how to winter drive); the Subarus chew it up without an issue.
Good to see that Michigan is back to attracting the cream cheese of the crop in recruiting