Recent Comments

is 6 by teammates in the same season...I would say they can get to 8 or 9 realistically if they both stay healthy.

I agree that I will not be too upset, but (bias acknowledged) if I were him...I would not be able to get my fax in quick enough!

but damn.  Dude seems to pull-away by 15+ yards from everyone else!

More than an octuple post!  Great work!  Beat OHIO!

you make a strong argument for OSU.   : )

the late 4th quarter drive (after fake punt), not OT.  I could be mistaken though.

My facebook news feed was blowing up with Sparty fans talking about Michigan barely BEATING a team that got blown out by Clemson, who in-turn, got blown out by West Virginia.

To this, I asked myself..."why do I have so many Sparty friends?"

Going with The Kraken and Dr. Pepper tonight.

He did recruit the players (almost all of which are less than 2 years from high school)

He did chose the offense.  It will work.  Great young talent.

He did chose the defense.  Shouldn't have.  Still lots of young talent.  Even younger than the offense.

He does own the results.  Getting better.  New it wouldn't happen overnight.  Most of his first group of guys have at least 2 years of eligibility left and are the best players on the team.

I like Rich Rod a lot, and do think (given the opportunity) that he could definitely turn us into a national championship contender year in and year out.  However, there is simply no way that we can keep him now.  We have backed ourselves into a corner with holding out the decision until now.  I thought we should have come out and given him resounding support and assurance a month ago.  We didn't.

DB simply cannot bring him back without losing credibility, even if it would be the best decision.  If RR came back, it would be extremely tough sledding on the recruiting trail...and we could easily be in the same situation next year (even though I do see a SUCCESSFUL 2011 if RR was coach).

All in all, Rich did not get a fair shake.  He ran into a bad situation, without adequate support.  Unfortunately, he has to go.

I hope you are right, but it doesn't seem like a good way to rally the fanbase around the guy.  RR definitely deserves better than he has received in the last 3 years...

Yes.  I am not saying that he isn't good by any means.  Quite the contrary.  He is about as perfect of a defensemen as humanly possible!  The guy has done everything asked of him for almost 20 years (after being a 3rd round draft pick!).  I was also not saying that he doesn't put up any numbers, I was just mentioning his goal totals are not CRAZY and it isn't all that surprising that he hasn't had a hat trick in his amazing career.  I was saying "scoring defenseman" as in goal-scoring.  You used "scoring defenseman" as in point-scoring.

If the wings needed him to score 30 goals a year (a.k.a. Mike Green) while reducing his role in the aspects I described above, then I have no doubt he could serve that role.  Especially in the late '90's.

Big Chill hasn't made the list?

EDIT: Just read the post, not the Subject.  It does say "football" up there...but Big Chill could still be included "Big House"!

Cannot help but be optimistic for these guys.  I was expecting a miserable season coming into it, with no 4th year player on the team (and no center or true big).  They have been very impressive thus far, and I hope they continue to progress!

It isn't really all that surprising.  I mean the guy is a defenseman.  He has only scored 20 goals over an entire season once.  He has never been about gaudy statistics...he just does everything right.  I am sure if his team needed him to take on the role of a scoring defenseman, he could have done it.  However, the wings just need him to be a leader, puck mover, shut-down d' man, and power play quarterback.

That house is like 400 yards away!

At least not in the NFL.  It is a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty (or at least was): See Joe Gibbs 2007.

Is it allowed in college?  I have never noticed it happen before.

Is there a rule in the NFL then that is not in the NCAA?

I remember a few years back that Joe Gibbs got a bunch of flack for getting penalized after calling a second consecutive time-out and the Redskins lost the game. 

I assumed a rule like that would be the same for NFL and NCAA?

I don't know if you intentionally switched the names up or not?  But, Kelvin is the slot ninja (/cornerback [fingers crossed]), and Kevin has moved on...

It would still be overall conference record that would seed the teams in each division, not record just in games within the division.

Head-To-Head would be the first TIE-BREAKER

Michigan vs. OSU would still be extremely important if it was a cross-over game, but I am all for them being in the same division, playing once a year, on the last game of the regular season.  Most seasons, this should basically (hopefully, puts a lot on the game) be a play in to the Big 10 Championship game...

The major problem without divisions is tie-breakers.

With 12 teams in a conference, and 8 conference games (for now), that means that there are 3 teams each year that a certain team will not play, the teams will have to rotate on and off the schedule similar to the way they do now...but this means that each team is not playing a quarter of the conference.

Ties at the top of the conference at the end of the season will be a mess.  Nobody wants to be in or out of the Conference Championship game due to the number of penalty yards they obtained over the conference schedule (or some other dumb tie-break rule).  When the teams are split into divisions, then each team would play the other 5 in their division every year, and play 3 cross-over games that would rotate each year.

That way, if there is a tie at the top of a division, the only tie-breaker you need is head-to-head.  Then it is clear who goes to the championship game.

Me?

Grew up a Michigan fan (especially Charles Woodson), I had a lot of family that went to the University...

As I got older, guys like Lloyd Carr, Jake Long, Mike Hart, Chad Henne, and Mario Manningham really started to make me love the program...

Decided on M as the right school for me, began to follow the program even closer...

First game as a student, ranked #5, all studs returning, National Championship hopes, HORROR!!!...

Really began following recruiting...

Happened upon mgoblog...

Obsession since...

so I wouldn't say it was necessarily the struggles of the last few years, that made me a bigger diehard.  I feel that it was my natural progression to eventually become fully captivated by Michigan Football, but who knows?

I have a buddy that works for the Penn State football team.  He has met and talked with many of the Big Ten coaches.  He told me that Pat Fitzgerald was his hands-down favorite coach.  Said he was a very classy, enthusiastic, and genuine individual. 

If your son cannot earn a high level athletic scholarship...I think a program headed by Pat Fitzgerald (coming with a very well respected degree from Northwestern) would be a great opportunity to help a lot in his development as a football player and a person.

I feel like the preseason would for sure have to be the busiest time of year for this blog.

I know I am not alone in checking the blog every 5-10 minutes around this time of year.  The anticipation of the upcoming season and the new developments in the recruiting cycle (visits, etc.) keep Michigan football on my mind 24/7.  Brian does a great job feeding my hunger for all things blue.

As for the slowest time of the year, I would probably say the couple weeks after everyone has read the bowl game recap (Hopefully we get back to the time when there is a bowl game recap) until the couple of weeks leading up to signing day.

Probably a little slow after signing day has come and gone also...

I am so excited for Brock to lead the 2010 Michigan team through that tunnel and onto the field!  This moment will mean much more than football!

Between this, the stadium re-dedication, and the revenge for the last couple years...the team and the 110,000 fans should be rocking all season with no excuse!

I would hope that they wouldn't burn his redshirt to have him play in a few "scrub-time" situations.  This obviously assumes that Tate and Denard don't get more than dinged up, and that neither struggles mightily.  Unless, Devin can give us a much improved chance of winning a game (which I do not think that he will this year vs. two quarterbacks with experience from last year), I hope they do not throw him out there.

It's not like he was going to continue making less than a million dollars a season.  He was going to get paid.  I still think it is pretty selfish...especially to be the highest paid player in the league at the position.  I agree that he is probably in the top couple corners right now, but taking $15M a year on a decent team doesn't seem as good to me as taking $10M a year on a true Super Bowl contender.

Well done, sir.  I can appreciate that sarcastic back-handed comment!  I actually clicked the link to see why they wrote something about UM

I am all for scheduling tougher out of conference teams. I hate playing bottom level MAC teams and Division I-FCS powerhouses. The argument that we are too good of a program to schedule good teams OOC is ridiculous. I would obviously love to win a National Championship! However, I would struggle to say a Rose Bowl birth/victory is a failed season. So what if we drop a couple OOC games in the process (granted I will hate them at the time...), but these games mean nothing to the team's number one goal year in and year out, and that is a Big Ten Championship. We should definitely schedule nationally respected opponents. I am not saying bring in USC, Florida, Texas, and the like every season (once in a while would be great!), but why not a Boise St. or a mid-level SEC, Big XII, or Pac 10 team or two each year. There is something to be gained from playing quality competition, and I think Michigan should now more than ever, get down off its high horse, and schedule some meaningful OOC games.