jfs52

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Date	Title	Body
37 weeks 20 hours ago	dear the knowledge	i am much admire your the knowledge.  michigan for victory 31-28.  brendan gibbons will become a left footed hero of lore.  it will suprising everyone but myself.
1 year 43 weeks ago	one wonders	greatest part: bear trapped under ice comes to life, creates energy hockey stick and smashes ship that rescuses him? OR earth explodes for no reason? they are both so greatness for so many reasons, it's hard to decide.
2 years 2 hours ago	detnews comments	Because I am stupid, I read the comments under the Detroit News article just now, and the unwillingness of people to read and understand the specifics of this very frustrating. Most people read the article, cry something like "cheaters never prosper" and then say the coach should be fired and the university burned to the ground. I know, I know, it's my own stupid fault for reading the comments, but yeah. Thanks Brian for posting non-reactionary, informative articles, that reference, you know, facts.
2 years 6 days ago	strategy is behind	Interesting point Brian brought up at the end - that I think is essentially correct -  about strategy being behind statistics.  I think this is very true, and I always hated when Lloyd punted from the opponent's 38.  This is a great column because it shows how far behind that thinking is.  Despite RR's first few years being....less than stellar....I am encouraged at his risk taking usually and I think he will be much more willing to not punt on the opponent's side of the field.   Couple of things about that though that I think go a long way in explaining the behavior - not excusing of course, but expaining- first, old habits die hard, and back when Lloyd started with Bo, 4th and 7 was a lot different then it is now.  (Actually, I would love to see this chart from a prime Bo year, like 1972 or something, and see what the decision chart looked like then.  I bet back then anything over 4th and 5 anywhere had really low returns.  Then we could see what years current coaches are trapped in!) Anyway, when Carr had Henne and Braylon that 4th and 4 short pass was a very effective play, back in the day it was much less reliable.  One of my principal complaints with Carr was that even though we obviously used Braylon to great effect, we could have used him even more on those stupid 4th and 3's at the Notre Dame 39 instead of punting.  In fact, given Carr's willingness to use short passing much more than Bo I'm surprised he didn't go for that more often.  In that way I totally agree with the column that the decion making is way behind what offenses can actually do now.    But I think what explains that in part is what one might call a strategic decision verus what you might call a tactical one - Carr in general wanted to play a low-variance game.  He wanted a game with no surprises more than he wanted to maximize one possession.  This was usually a good thing for Michigan - against Indiana there was NEVER a reason to take chances no matter what.  There was no reason to maximize one possession because, all things being equal, it was only a matter of time.  And it's important to keep in mind that Carr was good at that part.  What I think a lot of us would liked to have seen is more risk taking (and not even that big of a risk...) in close games where one possession had much more importance.  This is kind of a related question, but due to all the data you had I wondered if you thought it suggested anything along these lines - is there any percentage at all in keeping the game within a score?   Let's say we are down 10-0.  Does that make a field goal make more sense statistically than if we are down 14-0?  I know that kinda falls under game specifics, but I only wonder because I think a lot of coaches make decisions to keep the game within a score, and I was wondering whether there was anything to that or just a preference not to take chances?
2 years 1 week ago	run the damn ball	I do understand that the offense is quite a bit different these days but it is hilarious that the ABC commentators said "Michigan doesn't just run anymore, they pass sometimes" because we were passing so much more than before.  That was 1986, and people are still saying it today.  Also, how about Brent's hat?
2 years 6 weeks ago	that's me!	I am the kid in the blue jacket in the Mike Legg video.
2 years 12 weeks ago	I like this post, because it	I like this post, because it gives you a feel for the allegations. Sadly, there is actually some lapse in all of this on UM's part, and it's a shame, no matter how small the lapses may be. I also like the reasoned approach and can now feel more comfortable than ever in my previously held opinion that the Free Press is a bunch of slobs, and malicious slobs at that. To me, a huge mischaracetization is a huge lie, and I blame a lot of the outcry from the rest of the country on the Free Press. A lot of what this shows, actually, is how useless the NCAA can be. Lots of rules that don't make things any better.
2 years 28 weeks ago	yeah	i have to say, this is about the greatest thing i have ever seen. of course that could be friday morning at work but whatever.
2 years 28 weeks ago	kinda disagree	We did have them on the ropes in the first half, but we didn't take advantage. To me, scoring only 13 after all the opportunities we had wasn't good either. I was extremely concerned after the first half.
2 years 28 weeks ago	on target	I absolutely agree with your 6-6 or 7-5 before the season started, and that people are being too emotional now, because we have a fair shot to end up where we were going to end up generally. However, there is one thing that I find a little dissapointing, though, and of course this will depend on the Purdue game as much as Illinois- if we had beaten Illinois and Purdue, then we could say we took a huge step forward and beaten all the teams we should have beaten, plus maybe one extra, and lost to all the teams better than us, and I would have felt pretty ok about things. It would have been really nice to be absolutely comfortable that we had progressed from last year's disaster to being a real team again. An average or below average big ten team, granted, but a real big ten team. I think part of the reason people are so worked up is that after Illinois they are afraid that no such progress is being made. Illinois is really bad, and has been pounded by pretty much everyone- so I think the fear is that we just aren't getting any better. Is it too early to tell? Of course. Is it just one game? Of course. But, man, it was a stinker. So, I'm not saying that's right necessarily, or that the freak out crowd is right, but at this point it's more than simply whether we hit the 6-6 target or go -1 and go 5-7 or whatever. If we lose to Purdue, and go 5-7, then depending on manner of said loss, I think you could argue- with some fairness- that we really haven't made much progress this year. Maybe 5-7 would be more preogress than it seems, because we didn't lose to a MAC team, but only 1 big ten win would kinda suck. Now, I'm not ready to fire up the torches or anything extreme like that, but like Brian said yesterday, there is really legitimate concern at this point. It feels like every game this year is the most important, but once again Purdue will tell us a lot. If we can beat Purdue, then maybe we did just suck against Illinois and oh, well, shake it off and whatever. But if we lose to Purdue then I think there's a real possibility that something larger is wrong with the team that goes beyond youth or game mistakes. There is a real difference between reactionary whackos and a legitimate cause for concern, and right now I think there is legitimate cause for concern.

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