I think Gameday will be in Ann Arbor for the Michigan/Michigan State showdown. Two undefeated, top 20 teams. Lots of storylines.
Alabama/South Carolina is on CBS, thus I doubt ESPN will make the trip to Columbia. They'll go to Ann Arbor for a game covered by the ESPN family of networks. Not to mention I think it's more of an intriguing matchup anyways. The winner of this game on Saturday has a legitimate shot to at least be a contender for the Big Ten title.
I actually like how we looked in this game, too...aside from the turnovers.
We moved the ball very well but shot ourselves in the foot in the redzone. I thought the coaches really gave us a good chance to win...it was just a terrible series of mental breakdowns on the part of Tate Forcier (mostly). Defensively, we played the best game we had played all season long.
The Mich State game is about to air...thought we looked pretty ugly in that game aside from a great comeback at the end. Really get to see Tate's leadership potential shine through along with Stonum showcasing his playmaking ability. It was a heartbreaker. I hope we cream 'em this year.
I could tolerate losing to Conn (early in the season and OOC) Iowa, Penn State, Wisconsin (three good conference teams)
I cannot tolerate losing to Notre Dame (shut up, Kelly), Mich State (little brother) or Ohio State (no explanation necessary).
By the way, the SEC and the Big Ten have three bowl tie-ins now...Capital One, Outback, and the Gator Bowl. If UM goes 8-4 a bid to the Gator Bowl is a very likely scenario.
I would love to see Mich go to the Gator Bowl and beat the hell out of the Auburn Tigers.
Exactly...Hart is a much better fit for the spread offense style of running. Saban wants big physical backs who can run out of pro style formations. Not to say that Hart can't do that, but his skills would be best utilized in an offense like RR's.
Been following Dee Hart's recruitment for both teams (UM and UA) for a while now.
I think he ends up at Michigan. UM's been his frontrunner since his recruitment started and Alabama has their sights set on one or two other RB's so I think the odds of them getting Hart are not as good.
Hart's gonna be one great player for whoever he ends up with but I think he'll wear the maize and blue.
Justin Turner is another good choice. He has big size for a corner but natural athletic and ball skills that will make him a true force in the secondary. I'm excited to watch him play.
Offense - Stephen Hopkins. We need a consistent big back on this team to run in between the tackles again and Hopkins is that guy. Will really be great in short-yardage situations when we need to pound it out instead of having so much pressure on the QB's to make plays for first/touchdowns. He brings a totally different running style than what we get from V Smith and M Shaw.
Defense - Jonas Mouton. His experience and knowledge within the system will pay dividends this fall and I expect him to go from an average joe at LB to having a surprisingly good season. Not to mention that he'll be able to better utilize his great blitzing and pass-rushing skills. The 3-3-5 will really display his athleticism.
Give credit to John Calipari and Rick Stansbury for the SEC's dirty reputation.
It's good to see the Big Ten do things the right way while still maintaining status as an overall strong conference in terms of competition and talent. Outside of the Big East, it could be argued that the Big Ten is the best basketball conference in America.
That's why in my other post I said the Heisman is a team award. Ingram would've never won it playing for MSU or any other school that finished with an average record.
Unfortunately, that's how the Heisman works in this day and age. You have to be on a team that is atop the rankings. Look at the finalists from last year. They were from Alabama, Texas, Florida and Nebraska. The first three all finished in the top five in the country while Nebraska wasn't far behind.
It's not a fair award, but Ingram certainly deserved consideration for the great season he had. I don't get the resentment towards him from some Mich fans. Can someone explain it to me? Is it because he's from Flint and left the state? Ingram actually grew up an MSU fan, not a U-M fan.
This is the second time you've made some claim of Alabama fan's opinions that differ COMPLETELY from my own opinion and most of the opinions of other Alabama fans I know. I don't know what Alabama fans you've spoken with, but Ingram had a terrific season last year and proved time and time again that it wasn't just his O-line that granted him success. More than half his all-purpose yards came after contact.
"MGoDC made an excellent point yesterday that his O-Line did 95% of the work for him. "
This is the most absolute BS (and frequently used) claim I've seen against Ingram's Heisman Trophy victory...I don't know how often you guys even watched Ingram last year, but from someone who watched every single carry he had, did you guys even realize he was among the nation's top leaders in YARDS AFTER CONTACT? O-line doesn't help him there, boys.
I will say the Heisman is a team award and thus playing for Alabama helped him considerably. The Heisman is turning into a joke these days because they don't truly try to find the "best college football player" , they just give it to the best player on the best team.
But if you honestly think that his O-line did 95% of the work, you're blindly following what the national media is saying instead of researching it for yourself. Ingram may or may not have been the best runner in the country, but he was certainly deserving of consideration and it's not because he "had a good offensive line".
The whole deal of U-M players being "overpracticed" absolutely pales in comparison to the situations at USC, Florida, and all these other places where agents are getting involved with the players and the players receiving benefits. I honestly don't think U-M is gonna get hit hard at all because of this. The sad thing is, I really doubt that many of the marquee programs in college football abide by the maximum number of practice hours each week. I still haven't understood why Michigan was singled out for it while others weren't investigated for the same thing. I doubt U-M sees any real tough penalties.
I actually agree with your stance, unfortunately we are in a day and age in college football where it's tough to maintain that sense of ethics and respect. Even RR "accepted" the job to Alabama before WV waved dollar signs and facility upgrades in his face and he elected to stay in M-town (yet Saban gets the rep as being 'money-hungry' when actuality it's something that ALL these big-name coaches have to face) It's turned into a business, and I hate it as much as the next guy. I'm not denying RR cares for his players, but he wants a nice paycheck and national exposure as much as the next marquee name football coach.
Believe me, there's something wrong when a kid receives a scholarship and then has to have it revoked because they're "cutting numbers" and he hasn't seen the playing field. Is it "unethical", yes. But more than anything, it's a sign of the times. LSU's dealt with attrition issues the last few years and is already on pace to oversign for 2011. In a four-year stretch from 07-10, LSU has signed 105. Washington has signed 103. Miami has signed 99. Nebraska has signed 96. Texas A&M has signed 93, and even Texas is at 86, still one above the limit. Even Indiana's basketball coach Tom Crean just recently ran off a player to make room for another recruit.
It's not fair one single bit - and if my son is committing to a scholarship somewhere I'd second-guess it myself. Just seems like loyalty in college football has become a thing of the past these days. Maybe there weren't quite as many regulations on it as there used to be. Even back in the times of legendary Bama coach Bear Bryant, there was no limit set on the number of players a coach could sign. He could sign as many players as possible. Sometimes Alabama would sign over ninety players. This gave him the luxury of implementing strenuous conditioning and training practices while not having to be as concerned about injury or attrition. But it's something the coaches of today have to worry about. Offering so many guys but not being able to anticipate future departures/transfers/injuries etc.
It probably doesn't help that the players of today have this "instant gratification" complex where if they don't see playing time immediately within the first year or two, they want to transfer. That's one of the biggest selling points a coach can give a recruit - "come here and you can play right away". It's not a perfect system whatsoever. When those players become part of the team, they are constantly competing for a roster spot and as a result there just flat-out isn't enough room.
I'm a fan of Alabama, not a fan of how the game of college football is appearing more and more like the NFL these days. Like I said, I agree with your stance, you don't have to convince me of that. I was more upset by the fact that one of the above posters insinuated that Alabama fans are in denial and/or just too plain stupid to realize the problem.
This is without a doubt the key stretch...it's the stretch that started our downfall last season.
I feel very confident we can take MSU at home this year. I think we're gonna see more improvement from last year to this year than they will.
Our offense proved that we can at least move the football against Iowa's tough defense in the 30-28 game. Iowa had a lot of good fortune last season and I'm not sure if it'll last. I anticipate our pass rush to be better under second year DC Greg Robinson. Look for Van Bergen and Jonas Mouton and company to put the heat on Stanzi and rattle his cage.
PSU is a bit of a mystery at this point cause I don't really know how their QB will perform. It's on the road, too...but we do have two weeks to prepare for it.
If we can get past UConn and ND, we will enter this "key stretch" with a 5-0 record. Even taking one of these three will put us at 6-2 and in position for a very good bowl game. We just can't drop all three again or RR's seat gets a lot warmer.
Losing Dareus flat-out kills us. He was projected to be a potential top five draft pick in the 2011 Draft. Was by far our best pass rusher and an absolute freak of nature athletically.
I am hoping that this gets resolved soon. Word is that many other players were involved. Interested to see when "the list" gets revealed.
As for Dareus' story about not knowing that agents were involved, I can believe that maybe he didn't know about the agents...but he's gotta have better sense than to take a random trip to South Beach and not anticipate potential trouble. When you're a college football player for a big program in this day and age, everything you do is magnified X 1000000.
As someone who supports the Tide and the Wolverines, I can tell you that your stereotypical judgements of Alabama fans as big, dumb rednecks who don't know how the game works is inaccurate.
Attrition must happen every year leading up to fall camp to crunch the numbers down to where they are supposed to be. Every program has to deal with it. Look at all the players RR makes offers to. You think he intends to squeeze all of them into the 85-player maxiumum?
You'll find that there are plenty of educated and knowledgeable Tide fans. Maybe you should look outside the trailer parks for a change. Seems to me that Mich fans have more a problem with Saban than they do with Alabama. I get it. No one likes him outside of Tide fans. He's a very polarizing figure.
If we finish fifth in the Big Ten, we're probably looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of an 8-4 season with a respectable bowl bid. Would certainly be a step in the right direction. Ohio State and Wisconsin are the class of the conference. Iowa will still be strong. I'm not quite as certain about Penn State though.
Recent Comments
We needed this BADLY. We are facing an absolutely brutal three-game stretch starting Wed night.
Go Blue!
Love the hustle this Mich team plays with. Lots of effort.
This announcer wants to marry Battle..
If we make the free ones, we should be aight.....
NOVAK!!!!!!!! Atta boy
This is gonna come down to the final shot for someone....
These refs are callin' absolutely EVERYTHING...
Let the boys play!
I think Gameday will be in Ann Arbor for the Michigan/Michigan State showdown. Two undefeated, top 20 teams. Lots of storylines.
Alabama/South Carolina is on CBS, thus I doubt ESPN will make the trip to Columbia. They'll go to Ann Arbor for a game covered by the ESPN family of networks. Not to mention I think it's more of an intriguing matchup anyways. The winner of this game on Saturday has a legitimate shot to at least be a contender for the Big Ten title.
CBS has a contract with the SEC, it's pretty obvious they are biased towards the conference.
It's also generally the same way with ABC telecasts and their bias towards Big Ten/Boise/non-SEC teams.
Peterson's a great player, one of the best defensive players in college football, but he's always been arrogant like that.
He also has a knack for cramping up when the game's on the line.
I've been following both teams' recruitements of Hart.
Dee Hart will commit to Michigan.
Bama is getting Isaiah Crowell.
If anyone is a real threat to Michigan in the Hart sweepstakes, it's Auburn, not Alabama.
Dantonio is, and has always been, a dick.
Bielema did seem pretty arrogant at Media Day though...I think he needs to be humbled.
But Dantonio gets on my nerves the most.
I am in deep sh@# if this happens.
I actually like how we looked in this game, too...aside from the turnovers.
We moved the ball very well but shot ourselves in the foot in the redzone. I thought the coaches really gave us a good chance to win...it was just a terrible series of mental breakdowns on the part of Tate Forcier (mostly). Defensively, we played the best game we had played all season long.
The Mich State game is about to air...thought we looked pretty ugly in that game aside from a great comeback at the end. Really get to see Tate's leadership potential shine through along with Stonum showcasing his playmaking ability. It was a heartbreaker. I hope we cream 'em this year.
I could tolerate losing to Conn (early in the season and OOC) Iowa, Penn State, Wisconsin (three good conference teams)
I cannot tolerate losing to Notre Dame (shut up, Kelly), Mich State (little brother) or Ohio State (no explanation necessary).
By the way, the SEC and the Big Ten have three bowl tie-ins now...Capital One, Outback, and the Gator Bowl. If UM goes 8-4 a bid to the Gator Bowl is a very likely scenario.
I would love to see Mich go to the Gator Bowl and beat the hell out of the Auburn Tigers.
Wow...I'm sure the players guilty are shaking in the boots at the thought of being on a short leash.
Exactly...Hart is a much better fit for the spread offense style of running. Saban wants big physical backs who can run out of pro style formations. Not to say that Hart can't do that, but his skills would be best utilized in an offense like RR's.
Been following Dee Hart's recruitment for both teams (UM and UA) for a while now.
I think he ends up at Michigan. UM's been his frontrunner since his recruitment started and Alabama has their sights set on one or two other RB's so I think the odds of them getting Hart are not as good.
Hart's gonna be one great player for whoever he ends up with but I think he'll wear the maize and blue.
Saw this yesterday...his public speaking skills are brutal.
Justin Turner is another good choice. He has big size for a corner but natural athletic and ball skills that will make him a true force in the secondary. I'm excited to watch him play.
Offense - Stephen Hopkins. We need a consistent big back on this team to run in between the tackles again and Hopkins is that guy. Will really be great in short-yardage situations when we need to pound it out instead of having so much pressure on the QB's to make plays for first/touchdowns. He brings a totally different running style than what we get from V Smith and M Shaw.
Defense - Jonas Mouton. His experience and knowledge within the system will pay dividends this fall and I expect him to go from an average joe at LB to having a surprisingly good season. Not to mention that he'll be able to better utilize his great blitzing and pass-rushing skills. The 3-3-5 will really display his athleticism.
Feldman is a sharp fella. I agree with his assessment.
Give credit to John Calipari and Rick Stansbury for the SEC's dirty reputation.
It's good to see the Big Ten do things the right way while still maintaining status as an overall strong conference in terms of competition and talent. Outside of the Big East, it could be argued that the Big Ten is the best basketball conference in America.
That's
I agree completely.
That's why in my other post I said the Heisman is a team award. Ingram would've never won it playing for MSU or any other school that finished with an average record.
Unfortunately, that's how the Heisman works in this day and age. You have to be on a team that is atop the rankings. Look at the finalists from last year. They were from Alabama, Texas, Florida and Nebraska. The first three all finished in the top five in the country while Nebraska wasn't far behind.
It's not a fair award, but Ingram certainly deserved consideration for the great season he had. I don't get the resentment towards him from some Mich fans. Can someone explain it to me? Is it because he's from Flint and left the state? Ingram actually grew up an MSU fan, not a U-M fan.
This
Blue In SEC Country -
This is the second time you've made some claim of Alabama fan's opinions that differ COMPLETELY from my own opinion and most of the opinions of other Alabama fans I know. I don't know what Alabama fans you've spoken with, but Ingram had a terrific season last year and proved time and time again that it wasn't just his O-line that granted him success. More than half his all-purpose yards came after contact.
I'd like to know what Penn State QB plans on torching our "pitiful" secondary.
"MGoDC made an excellent point yesterday that his O-Line did 95% of the work for him. "
This is the most absolute BS (and frequently used) claim I've seen against Ingram's Heisman Trophy victory...I don't know how often you guys even watched Ingram last year, but from someone who watched every single carry he had, did you guys even realize he was among the nation's top leaders in YARDS AFTER CONTACT? O-line doesn't help him there, boys.
I will say the Heisman is a team award and thus playing for Alabama helped him considerably. The Heisman is turning into a joke these days because they don't truly try to find the "best college football player" , they just give it to the best player on the best team.
But if you honestly think that his O-line did 95% of the work, you're blindly following what the national media is saying instead of researching it for yourself. Ingram may or may not have been the best runner in the country, but he was certainly deserving of consideration and it's not because he "had a good offensive line".
Care to expand on that opinion? Other than the fact that he's from the state of Michigan so there might be some bitterness towards him?
The whole deal of U-M players being "overpracticed" absolutely pales in comparison to the situations at USC, Florida, and all these other places where agents are getting involved with the players and the players receiving benefits. I honestly don't think U-M is gonna get hit hard at all because of this. The sad thing is, I really doubt that many of the marquee programs in college football abide by the maximum number of practice hours each week. I still haven't understood why Michigan was singled out for it while others weren't investigated for the same thing. I doubt U-M sees any real tough penalties.
I actually agree with your stance, unfortunately we are in a day and age in college football where it's tough to maintain that sense of ethics and respect. Even RR "accepted" the job to Alabama before WV waved dollar signs and facility upgrades in his face and he elected to stay in M-town (yet Saban gets the rep as being 'money-hungry' when actuality it's something that ALL these big-name coaches have to face) It's turned into a business, and I hate it as much as the next guy. I'm not denying RR cares for his players, but he wants a nice paycheck and national exposure as much as the next marquee name football coach.
Believe me, there's something wrong when a kid receives a scholarship and then has to have it revoked because they're "cutting numbers" and he hasn't seen the playing field. Is it "unethical", yes. But more than anything, it's a sign of the times. LSU's dealt with attrition issues the last few years and is already on pace to oversign for 2011. In a four-year stretch from 07-10, LSU has signed 105. Washington has signed 103. Miami has signed 99. Nebraska has signed 96. Texas A&M has signed 93, and even Texas is at 86, still one above the limit. Even Indiana's basketball coach Tom Crean just recently ran off a player to make room for another recruit.
It's not fair one single bit - and if my son is committing to a scholarship somewhere I'd second-guess it myself. Just seems like loyalty in college football has become a thing of the past these days. Maybe there weren't quite as many regulations on it as there used to be. Even back in the times of legendary Bama coach Bear Bryant, there was no limit set on the number of players a coach could sign. He could sign as many players as possible. Sometimes Alabama would sign over ninety players. This gave him the luxury of implementing strenuous conditioning and training practices while not having to be as concerned about injury or attrition. But it's something the coaches of today have to worry about. Offering so many guys but not being able to anticipate future departures/transfers/injuries etc.
It probably doesn't help that the players of today have this "instant gratification" complex where if they don't see playing time immediately within the first year or two, they want to transfer. That's one of the biggest selling points a coach can give a recruit - "come here and you can play right away". It's not a perfect system whatsoever. When those players become part of the team, they are constantly competing for a roster spot and as a result there just flat-out isn't enough room.
I'm a fan of Alabama, not a fan of how the game of college football is appearing more and more like the NFL these days. Like I said, I agree with your stance, you don't have to convince me of that. I was more upset by the fact that one of the above posters insinuated that Alabama fans are in denial and/or just too plain stupid to realize the problem.
This is without a doubt the key stretch...it's the stretch that started our downfall last season.
I feel very confident we can take MSU at home this year. I think we're gonna see more improvement from last year to this year than they will.
Our offense proved that we can at least move the football against Iowa's tough defense in the 30-28 game. Iowa had a lot of good fortune last season and I'm not sure if it'll last. I anticipate our pass rush to be better under second year DC Greg Robinson. Look for Van Bergen and Jonas Mouton and company to put the heat on Stanzi and rattle his cage.
PSU is a bit of a mystery at this point cause I don't really know how their QB will perform. It's on the road, too...but we do have two weeks to prepare for it.
If we can get past UConn and ND, we will enter this "key stretch" with a 5-0 record. Even taking one of these three will put us at 6-2 and in position for a very good bowl game. We just can't drop all three again or RR's seat gets a lot warmer.
Losing Dareus flat-out kills us. He was projected to be a potential top five draft pick in the 2011 Draft. Was by far our best pass rusher and an absolute freak of nature athletically.
I am hoping that this gets resolved soon. Word is that many other players were involved. Interested to see when "the list" gets revealed.
As for Dareus' story about not knowing that agents were involved, I can believe that maybe he didn't know about the agents...but he's gotta have better sense than to take a random trip to South Beach and not anticipate potential trouble. When you're a college football player for a big program in this day and age, everything you do is magnified X 1000000.
As someone who supports the Tide and the Wolverines, I can tell you that your stereotypical judgements of Alabama fans as big, dumb rednecks who don't know how the game works is inaccurate.
Attrition must happen every year leading up to fall camp to crunch the numbers down to where they are supposed to be. Every program has to deal with it. Look at all the players RR makes offers to. You think he intends to squeeze all of them into the 85-player maxiumum?
You'll find that there are plenty of educated and knowledgeable Tide fans. Maybe you should look outside the trailer parks for a change. Seems to me that Mich fans have more a problem with Saban than they do with Alabama. I get it. No one likes him outside of Tide fans. He's a very polarizing figure.
Greg Mathews muffing that punt return late in the 3rd Q really took the wind from our sails.
We had all the momentum before that.
I forget just how close we stayed with Iowa in this game. The 30-28 final score is no aberration. One or two plays was really the difference.
If we finish fifth in the Big Ten, we're probably looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of an 8-4 season with a respectable bowl bid. Would certainly be a step in the right direction. Ohio State and Wisconsin are the class of the conference. Iowa will still be strong. I'm not quite as certain about Penn State though.