Eye of the Tiger

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Date	Title	Body
5 weeks 2 days ago	Laughing at Sparty	...is a bit of harmless fun.  Love the "unique" grammar and spelling at RCMB as well... :)
6 weeks 4 days ago	I like Football Outsiders, but...	I'd want to know a bit more about their methodology. Last year we went 8-4 despite: 1. Having a bad interior O-line 2. Get meager production from the RBs 3. Losing a starting WR to a DUI in the offseason 4. Losing our best CB to injury in the first game 5. Playing the national champions (away), the runners up (away) and the only undefeated team in the country (away).  6. Having almost no depth at any position. My best guess for 2013 is we go 9-3, but 10-2 is not out of the question--and neither is 8-4. We should be good-not-great. 7-5 is overly pessimistic.
14 weeks 3 days ago	Crossfit hate	It seems to hav a cultish hold over a certain percentage of its practicioners, sort of like the Atkins diet 10 years ago, and so people get annoyed at the "ZOMG it's teh only real workout, bro. CROSSFIT f*** yeah!" That said, it is a pretty good workout and can be a perfect fit for some people.
15 weeks 16 hours ago	WRs	I think the O-line will have its growing pains early on, but should grow strong as the season progresses.  I'm more worried about the receivers--we need someone to develop into at least a solid #2 option, or those 3rd downs could be trouble.
19 weeks 5 days ago	I just stated a fact. Here's another one	RR was the first Michigan coach since the 19th century to record a career winning percentage under .500.  Sure there were problems he faced, but let's not kid ourselves here: laying an egg of such Titanic-sized proportions doesn't happen unless the coach screws up...a lot. I'm not sure how Mary Sue Coleman, the Freep and a bunch of entitled seniors in 2008 translates directly into the, what was it, 110th ranked defense in 2010, but I am pretty sure I know how bad defensive recruiting and an incompetent defensive staff does.
19 weeks 6 days ago	So...	So the man who left with the lowest winning percentage ever recorded by a Michigan football coach is still pointing fingers, I see.
22 weeks 2 days ago	Thanks	This was what I was looking for. Thanks for taking a serious question seriously. Very informative!
22 weeks 4 days ago	Good for him	It's nice to see someone turn their passion into a paying gig. Well deserved.
22 weeks 5 days ago	10-2 seems reasonable	We're a great home team under Hoke, but not a great road team. Expect at least one road loss, wtih the likeliest candidates being MSU and Northwestern. (Just because MSU crashed this year doesn't mean it won't be very difficult to win in East Lansing next year...as it happens it was very difficult to beat them in Ann Arbor this year).  In terms of home games, ND doesn't really scare me without Teo and Eifert. Nor does Nebraska. So it comes down to Ohio. Are we going to be good enough to theoretically beat them at home? I think so. Are we going to actually beat them at home? We'll see.
22 weeks 5 days ago	Why he might go	The unreasonable expectations of ND fans, the stress of recruiting nationally every year, the desire to "prove himself" at the professional level and the lure of NFL dollars PLUS the fact that, if he did and didn't like it, he could just Saban his way back to the FBS.
22 weeks 6 days ago	Probably gone, but...	...you never know, right? Sometimes emotional choices win out over rational ones.
23 weeks 19 hours ago	Those numbers aren't really that different	Especially on defense. Turnovers being the major exception.  So why the extra 3 losses? Schedule. Here's what we got in 2012:  *Alabama as a non-conference opponent. *Notre Dame away. *Nebraska away. *Ohio away (and this time coached well). *A better bowl opponent than we had last year.  ...and what did we gain in exchange? A disappointing MSU at home. A much worse Iowa at home. Maybe we don't go 8-5 with a few things going our way. I think, for example, without the Denard injury, we win at Nebraska. But we weren't going to win the Alabama game, and both ND and Ohio are considerably harder to beat on the road than at home.
29 weeks 15 hours ago	In hindsight, a bad decision	Obviously hindsight is 20/20, but I think it's clear this was one of the worst, if not the worst, decisions made by this coaching staff since taking over in January 2011. With Gardner at QB, we have a chance to win that Nebraska game. And we gave that up knowing full-well that Denard has a history of leaving games due to injury (no surprise there, given how much we used him for offensive output). ARG.
30 weeks 19 hours ago	So why didn't we take Missouri last time?	They were on record saying they wanted to be in the Big 10, and that they didn't get interest.
30 weeks 1 day ago	You're sort of missing the point	For the record, this team didn't really have a whole lot of trouble scoring against anyone.  But pedantics aside, the "back to 2010" argument is that you can't just blame Borges for the failure of this generation of offensive personnel to score on quality opponents, and claim that this constitutes serious regression, when you saw the same thing with a different coaching staff in 2010. The only real area of regression I've noticed has been in Denard's TD/INT ratio. Otherwise we've followed from where we left off.  TBH, I think that the days of RR's style of spread catching opponents flat-footed are over. It's still effective, but defenses are better able to adjust to it now than they were 5 years ago. Oregon's modification to the offense is more consistently successful, thanks in large part to superior personnel. Florida's under Urban Meyer as well. We could say "they are/were great because of the scheme," but really it's also about having triple-A talent in all the right places...as in any other offense.  The problem with our current iteration offense is that we don't have superior personnel. Denard is a unique talent, but has some serious deficiencies as a passer. Our O-line has only had 2 triple-A linemen since 2008. We've had exactly 1 year where an RB has gone over 1,000 yards, and we've never had much to brag about in the receiving corps. These were problems for Rodriguez in 2010, and are problems for Borges this year.
30 weeks 3 days ago	Elements of "yes." More of "no."	I think there's a strong argument that the SEC remains the best conference in the country, that southern teams are on average the best in the country, and that the lack of a national championship contender at this precise moment in time is a function OF that conference/regional advantage--since everyone in the SEC has to play at least 3 other high quality SEC teams, the law of averages suggest the chances of anyone going undefeated is lower than in other conferences. That said, I think there is an element of truth to what you are saying. Texas A&M may be an SEC team right now, but they are still in essence a Big 12 team. And anyone who thinks K-State playing in the SEC wouldn't win some big games over elite SEC talent hasn't watched K-State play this year. Oregon too.  I think what we are seeing is a lessening of the SEC's advantage, but it's a marginal lessening rather than a tectonic shift. Notre Dame has arguably the best player in CFB in Manti Te'o, and a whole lot of luck, but they really aren't that good. The PAC-12 and Big 12 lack elite teams after Oregon and K-State. The Big 10's best team (record-wise) can't play in a bowl game, and probably couldn't hang with the top 3 SEC teams anyways. Alabama may get shut out of the National Championship Game, even though it's the best team in CFB. Could Oregon or K-State beat them? Yes. Would they? I'm not so sure.  Would any conference's #2 or #3 or #4 team beat the SEC's #2, #3 or #4? I kind of doubt it.
32 weeks 3 days ago	Borges	Was it me, or did Borges seem to call a better game with DG at QB than he normally does with  Denard? I think DG is better suited to his kind of game.  That said, there's a reason that, even if that is actually true (and it may not be, since my sample size is one game against Minnesota), there's a reason they've had Denard start up to now. No one runs like him, and that's still our best weapon. Still...I'm relieved knowing that we have a great backup, who will be a great starter next year.
33 weeks 5 days ago	I agree on bubble screens, but	People also often forget that our offense was frustrating in 2010 as well--a lot of its production came when games were no longer competitive.
33 weeks 5 days ago	You make some good points, but	I'd suggest this was a unique situation. Because: a) MSU's defense is probably the second best we've faced, and possibly the second best we'll face all year b) They were fired up and playing about as well as they can c) MSU's offense, by contrast, is among the more containable of the non-baby seals on our schedule In other words, this was one of the few games we really could win with defense. I don't see that replicated on our schedule, except maybe for Iowa. Nebraska and Northwestern are the exact opposite--we'll need points, but should have little trouble scoring them. Ohio perhaps as well.
33 weeks 6 days ago	27-21 Michigan	Brendan Gibbons FTW
34 weeks 1 day ago	Depends on how you are counting	They are still undefeated, and no one else in the conference is. Like I said, my own rankings are a mix of record, first, then resume and then "feel." Ohio State has the record, an iffy resume and iffier "feel." Even if I feel like that we are as good of a team, or better, we do still have those 2 losses, and losses do generally push you down the rankings in the AP, coaches poll, etc. I conceived of mine the same way. Does that mean I think they will be ranked #10, when the regular season ends? No. They'll lose to us, and possibly to Penn State as well. So yeah, no.
34 weeks 2 days ago	I think it's an accurate reflection	Of where we are right now, relative to the rest. I think we could take Stanford and S. Carolina, but they also play in conferences that are stronger at the moment, and have wins over ranked teams (Stanford over USC, South Carolina over Georgia). Makes sense that they would be ranked ahead of us.
34 weeks 2 days ago	Part of it is Hoke	Dantonio hates Michigan, but I think he finds it hard to hate Hoke. Hoke is always respectful and professional, and never fuels the rivalries. He's so good at taking the high road that his peers have trouble hating the program he represents. Even Dantonio.
34 weeks 2 days ago	Okay	The OP has the right to say whatever he wants, and point #1, at least, is something Brian has asked for a year and a half now. You could add "where are the bubble screens" legitimately as well. These were staple plays in the RR days that would work well with our personnel, and help push defenders out of the box.  That said, I do think as fans we need to realize we're not OCs. We tend to gripe that "Borges didn't do X" because Y obviously didn't work all that well, but sometimes we selectively forget that he did actually do X, as in point #2. (FTR, we did do the throwback screen, and it didn't work.) It's also worth noting that passing plays typically have more than one read, and so to answer #3, Funchess was almost certainly "involved" in the plays Borges called--either he wasn't open or Denard didn't make that read. MSU has good, athletic linebackers, and they probably made covering him a priority. I'd have to see some tape to know that, though. For #4, that would entail Denard being able to accurately read the blitz. Otherwise you throw a screen and it blows up.
34 weeks 3 days ago	RCMB is literally exploding with hilarity	...oh, and a hearty FUCK DANTONIO to all you good people!
34 weeks 3 days ago	It's funny	That so many people who claim they don't want to read something actually do when the title is pretty clear on what they can find inside. And then take more time to respond. Seems to me like they really do want to read stuff like this, doesn't it. Why on earth they'd want to troll on a day like today, and towards a fellow fan (an alumnus, actually) is less clear. I'd think any self respecting alum would want to help ensure all others can watch the game.
34 weeks 3 days ago	Thank you	Of course some people have nothing else to do. But hey, there are enough good folks on here to more than balance that out. GO BLUE
34 weeks 3 days ago	Thanks to everyone who has been helpful	From this Wolverine. Hopefully it works out
34 weeks 3 days ago	Wow, you're really helpful	This must make you a happy and truly satisfied person in life.
34 weeks 3 days ago	Didn't BTN used to have	A pay-per-game option?

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