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Date	Title	Body
13 hours 18 min ago	Hoke Talked Some About It...	Brady Hoke was actually on "The Huge Show" today (I caught it online) talking about what he felt made Green stand out from other freshmen running backs he had seen in the past actually. He talked quite a bit about Green's physicality and running ability, as well as his ability to cut and accelerate. He was very complimentary of everyone who was in the mix at RB, and said it will be a "great competition".  As I recall, Derrick Green had two seasons in high school where he rushed for over (well over, I believe) 1,000 yards and scored at least 20 TDs. It will be very intriguing to see how his already apparent skill plus development in Ann Arbor combine in the college game. If he can continue that level of productivity in college, even if it is not as a freshman, that would be awesome all the same.
15 hours 1 min ago	For Another View...	Grantland had an intriguing viewpoint on the subject of introducing "game show" stylings to the Pro Bowl (HERE). My favorite part of it concerns the suggestion of incorporating elements of "Legends Of The Hidden Temple": "There are plenty of directions this could go, but the one in which I’m interested involves Olmec-sanctioned temple runs following all touchdowns. What’s the biggest issue with the Pro Bowl? It’s too easy to score. How do we fix that? By placing a huge, obstacle-filled maze in the end zone. It’s pretty simple — if you don’t finish in the time allotted once you cross the goal line, you receive no points." It seems to me that if we can find some analogous to Double Dare's "Physical Challenge" events for, say, two-point conversions, we might very well be onto something.
18 hours 51 min ago	The Tribune Piece...	Not unexpectedly, the Chicago Tribune wrote a rather nice tribute to Urlacher - you can read it here (LINK).  One thing of note: 12 seasons and 1,353 tackles (1,037 of which were solo tackles)  per ESPN's stats would place him at a solid 11th on the all-time list for tackles between Ronde Barber and Junior Seau - not bad company at all.
21 hours 55 min ago	From The Article...	Here is a sampling from the associated picture gallery: Supposedly, Burress plans to expand into bow ties, cuff links and belts too.
1 day 12 min ago	Depending On Where You Are...	Depending on where you are and which cable provider you have, it is possible that you could get the game on the BTN2Go. If your work computer (assuming it is a desk job) allows streaming media, you might be able to catch it online. If you have a capable phone, the app works on iOS and Android.  The list of current providers who can utilize the BTN2Go site or the app is here - http://www.btn2go.com/btn2go/FAQ.jsp
1 day 37 min ago	Here You Go....	Here's the welcoming committee... Supposedly, per a Raiders blog, they lined up this welcome before he actually signed as a demonstration of the support Woodson could expect from them. He didn't arrive at the Raiders' offices until the middle of the afternoon, but they were apparently ready.
1 day 9 hours ago	So, If I Read This Right...	In those three years, Ole Miss was ranked either 2nd or 3rd in both the AP and Coaches' poll, so it is based on some combination of these and/or other polls. I am shocked that they don't claim 1955 because, using Massey's algorithm, they would have been the best team that year based on historic statistics. Surely Freeze is aware of these things, right? Incidentally, the major polls of the day would have put Syracuse on top in 1959, Minnesota in 1960 and USC in 1962.
1 day 10 hours ago	Could Be Wrong...	At last report, the most likely order would be Magic, Bobcats, Cavaliers then Suns for the first four. If I am not mistaken, the lottery actually has not been won by the team with the worst record since 2004, when - oddly enough - the Magic used this pick on some dude named Dwight Howard.
1 day 11 hours ago	Per A Quick Web Search...	Per a quick perusal of the Internet, Adidas apparently has 71 facilities which do work for them in the United States, with major ones being located near Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Fayetteville (North Carolina) and a few in Florida. If it was one of those facilities, not only are they not from Ohio, they were made well away from Ohio. I admit to having disagreements with Adidas, but facilitating the addition of this entertaining dimension to the rivalry would not be one of them.  Your move, Columbus.
1 day 14 hours ago	Congratulations!	Congratulations to you and your wife on becoming MGoParents! Hopefully the little ones are out of the NICU and you are home as a family soon. If I may also say it, I really like the names.
1 day 15 hours ago	Regarding The Second Point...	When Rutgers and Maryland joined the conference back in November, the purely hypothetical figure that was discussed in the unlikely scenario that the BTN should get into all 15 million available homes in the DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia and NYC belt was about $200 million to the conference. That would also take into account a subscription fee which would be as high as $1.25 per month.  Obviously, it likely will not be in 100% of homes in those markets, especially to start, possibly because there is little about Rutgers, for example, that says, "I must write my cable provider and demand the Big Ten Network." Even if it is a $100 million windfall, it's still enough to sustain the projected payouts for schools literally zooming towards the $40 million mark over the next few years between this and the renegotiation of the ESPN contract. In time, I imagine that the increased exposure and the benefit of enhanced resources probably changes Maryland and Rutgers athletics for the better, but it will take several years to come to fruition, I would think.
1 day 17 hours ago	This As Well...	"Robinson’s captivating debut featured the following stat line: 11.0 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 1.0 SPG and 57 percent shooting from the field. His offensive rating of 128.4 was ranked 10th nationally per KenPom.com (regardless of possessions used). " Looking at his season averages as well as his drive to be even better this season makes for a situation that is awesome to contemplate really since Robinson will likely get even more chances to score. Some of the potentially overlooked items from his work last year - Robinson accounted for almost 1/5th of the rebounds and had the highest effective FG% among starters, as well as an assist-to-turnover ratio that, as I recall, may have been second only to Burke.
1 day 18 hours ago	What Might Make It Interesting...	One thing which could make this move interesting is that part of the Big Ten's heavily revised approach to bowls is that the conference has rescinded the independent authority of the bowls to make independent selections, giving the conference a say in who goes where. They also plan to stipulate that non-BCS bowls select different teams (five different teams in a six year period was the proposal, I believe). If that goes into effect, the matchup for the No Longer Little Caesars Bowl could at least occasionally be intriguing.
1 day 18 hours ago	As A Sidebar...	Related to this point and as a sidebar to the diary I posted yesterday, I actually did Notre Dame's before and after attrition Rivals star averages, and the 2012 class alone went from 3.53 to 3.18, which is huge and does weigh on their recent average considerably. Actually, with attrition, Notre Dame has lost about half of its 5-stars and slightly over 20% of its four-star haul in the last 5 classes. Eventually, that has to hurt - they only signed 2 DL recruits in 2012, I think, so losing Vanderdoes poses a huge problem for them.
2 days 9 hours ago	Alrighty...	I don't see where people offering prayers and good vibes for a natural disaster that has affected people here per the content of the thread is the action of, as you termed it, "selfish assholes". I also don't see where you get the idea that this is a "Good Samaritan jerk fest" when a couple people have already inquired where they might donate to help the people in Moore. Blanket ad hominems are typically frowned on in the MGoBlog community.  Bolivia. See you in the waning hours before the season.
2 days 10 hours ago	Yahoo! Story...	http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/tornado-oklahoma-city-moore-205548879.html According to this, two elementary schools - Plaza Towers and Briarwood - were leveled and as many as seven children have died at Plaza Towers with about two dozen trapped in the rubble of the building.  Sadly, this is not the first time Moore has been hit, and indeed, it has seen a few incredible tornadoes in the last 15 years or so. Thoughts and condolences to the people of Moore, OK.
2 days 13 hours ago	Hilariously Enough...	His name somehow made it into an IMDB listing for the 1976 Rose Bowl - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1614938/ Not sure what the editorial rules are on IMDB, but someone was trying to make this look like a thing anyway. Now, if he had pretended to be Pete Johnson, who I believe scored Ohio State's only TD in that game....
2 days 15 hours ago	Ask And You Shall Receive...	You got me curious actually... I whipped this up quickly now that I have a base template for doing the comparison. Pardon the thumbnail link to the actual graph - these are not all that legible when scaled down to only 400 pixels wide. Of course, take this for what it is worth as they are also being compared to Big Ten conference means here.  Notre Dame's recruits tend to be rated rather highly by Rivals, but their average star rating for the period 2002-2013 is 3.50, which is slightly lower than Michigan and Ohio State. This is the case despite their 2008 class, which averaged a 4.04 rating. The distribution of highly rated recruits (4 and 5-star) is similar to Michigan and Ohio State as well. In that space, Notre Dame recruited 17 five-stars and 108 four-stars based on Rivals data.  Here is the three-way comparison between Michigan, Ohio State an Notre Dame:
2 days 18 hours ago	A Different Approach...	Oregon State does this by actually producing a map every so often which highlights the approximate location of Oregon State coaches in their recruiting travels. For example: ...and yes, it is called the "Beaver Barrage". From the SBNation piece: "One gets the sense of Riley sitting at a great, orange #beaverthrone in the #beavercommandcenter, moving his #beaverchess pieces around the #beavermap, receiving #beaverintel from the field and adjusting #beaverbattle plans."
2 days 20 hours ago	Hudl.com Highlights...	Here is the Hudl.com video (LINK) According to this, last season he had 83 tackles, 14 TFLs and 11 sacks. The video highlights a fair number of the tackles for loss and the sacks, but they all look pretty good overall. Brown seems like he could dominate up front.
2 days 20 hours ago	Year-To-Year Distribution	Here is the year-to-year distribution: YEAR % OF 5* % OF 4* % OF 3* % OF 2* 2002 1.46% 19.71% 37.96% 40.88% 2003 1.57% 15.75% 45.67% 37.01% 2004 1.79% 13.57% 38.93% 45.71% 2005 3.01% 18.80% 44.74% 33.46% 2006 2.27% 21.21% 40.53% 35.98% 2007 2.02% 21.46% 49.39% 27.13% 2008 1.81% 18.05% 48.01% 32.13% 2009 1.17% 26.85% 46.69% 25.29% 2010 0.37% 17.54% 60.07% 22.01% 2011 0.39% 16.47% 66.27% 16.86% 2012 1.54% 17.37% 64.09% 16.99% 2013 1.54% 21.24% 60.23% 16.99% What jumps out to me is the trend in the columns for 3-star and 2-star recruits actually. By comparison, the 4-star column seems almost stable. The overall number of rated recruits sits almost invariably in the 255-280 range for the conference (again, including Nebraska for comparison here).
2 days 22 hours ago	Game 6 In 1988 Finals...	I still remember watching on TV when Thomas stepped on Cooper's foot and sprained his ankle, thinking in my 10-year old mind that this might be it for the Pistons. It was great to watch him come right back in the game (a minute later, maybe even less) and score 43 points in the game - including 25 in the 3rd quarter alone - despite being in visible pain. That was a very dramatic game in a very dramatic series.
3 days 10 hours ago	Can't Turn Up Much...	I haven't been able to turn up much either, but it should be noted that in his NFL career, he was the third WR behind Lynn Swann and John Stallworth even after his very notable Michigan career, during which he was an all-American in 1976, if I am not mistaken. With the Birmingham Stallions in the USFL, he was a consistent top producer on offense for the three seasons he was with them.
3 days 10 hours ago	Comeback Indeed...	I would agree with that. Peralta already has over 40 hits this season after having only about 130 in 150 games last season. He's already got about half of his total runs from last year and about 1/3 of the home runs already. As I recall, keeping him was not a popular thing in the offseason among those who frequent the sports talk shows and other sorts of popular outlets, but so far it has paid off. It is nice to see.
3 days 22 hours ago	"The Scream" Guy...	"I get it now....use the styptic pencil BEFORE the Lagerfeld. THE BURNING!" Also, jaw-drop guy: "Good lord....jockeys DO exist...."
4 days 9 hours ago	Sipping Glenkinchie...	Per the earlier thread, sipping some Glenkinchie - a nice, smooth Lowland single malt.  That passed ball and the Sanchez throwing error sort of loom large after that home run sadly - for the moment anyway.  As for happenings, the Romulus City-Wide Garage Sale is this weekend, so we merged with my mother-in-law's sale, took our stuff there, and made a day of it. We even made burgers and hot dogs at lunch and made money off of that as well.
4 days 10 hours ago	Fairly Confident....	We did pretty  well in the initial seeding per the Facebook Poll. The admittedly unscientific Legends Division results were: Michigan - 723 votes Iowa - 349 votes Nebraska - 251 votes Michigan State - 240 votes Northwestern - 57 votes Minnesota - 24 votes So, Michigan took 45% of the Legends Division vote initially. Michigan helmet fans were definitely showing up.
4 days 14 hours ago	Here's The List...	The last Triple Crown winner was Affirmed in 1978 (the third winner of the Triple Crown in the 1970s), which means the Belmont Stakes which Affirmed ran would have been about a month before I was born. It would be fun to see the first one in my lifetime too.  Here is the complete list of Triple Crown winners, along with the Kentucky / Preakness Doubles (meaning the horse did not win the Belmont) as well as other close calls (LINK).  I still would like to see a horse named "Do The Pose".
4 days 14 hours ago	Glenkinchie...	I will have a sip of the Glenkinchie tonight in celebration, which my friend at the liquor store managed to find for me. Very nice Lowland single malt and perfect to toast a Wings (and hopefully Tigers) victory later.
4 days 23 hours ago	Additional Information...	Here is Eastern Michigan's official announcement - (LINK): The entire description for the $5,000 donation level: "Skydive with Coach English! If we hit or exceed our overall goal of $60,000 in fundraising efforts (between our IndieGoGo campaign and Golf Outing), Coach English will be skydiving and you can join him! You'll be able to ride with him from Ypsilanti to Skydive Tecumseh, compliments of LaFontaine Buick GMC of Ann Arbor and spend the day and jump with coach! Your on site training, jump and equipment is all included and you'll get to ride in the plane and jump out of it with Coach English. In the event we don't reach the $60,000 goal, you'll still get to ride with the coach to Skydive Tecumseh, spend the day with coach and participate in the skydive. " Skydive Tecumseh is a pretty cool experience, to be fair, so there is that if nothing else. Beautiful view of Ann Arbor from 18,000 feet too. Here's his indiegogo.com site (LINK)  - with 22 days left, the campaign has managed $100.

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