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Still preferable to at ND, OSU and (pretty much) Alabama.

Shades of Boubacar Cissoko.

Yup. Christians and Americans are under seige. Give me a break. Stop embarrassing yourself.

Now that they weasel we out of the series, ND news is meaningless. They're dead to the world.

It's sad how many students feel that Saturday is really more about drinking than football. Borderline pathetic.

It's only unsafe when people ask questions like this.

The scholly replaces Hardaway. A twin press conference is good news for Michigan. Nobody announces he's leaving with someone else.

Fielder displayed the worst two-day display of batting ever. Literally, I believe.

Guy's not leaving to be a surefire backup.

People love to use terms like "regression to the mean" because they think it sounds important and scientific. Also "data points."

Not to be downer, but why the hell are you so eager to to see a player who helped bring corruption and shame to the university in a major and lasting way? A great player, sure. And everyone deserves a shot at redemption. But he's still playing the petulant victim. I don't think the university needs a reminder of that tomorrow night.

You're kidding, right? The guy fired the coach only after OTL aired the footage. The timing tells you everything. A coach who abused kids, verbally and physically, doesn't deserve counseling. He deserves to be fired. Some things are just over the line. And, according to all indications, the guy was doing it for years. The AD should be fired, too. His crocodile tears are bullshit.

There's no way McGary goes. You can tell by everything he says that even he thinks he's in no wat ready for the nba lifestyle or game.

Not sure random anniversaries -- oh, the big 33! -- merit individual threads. Otherwise the board would be filled with them. "48 years ago today, in bowling!"

Minny is an annual joke. I can't recall a "good" B10 team that so consistently underperforms. Just terribly coached.

Post defense is atrocious.

Losers complain about refs.

No truly kick ass band would ever be caught playing the Super Bowl. Its the ultimate sell-out, replete with fake fans.

Maybe this is something that ought to be decided at, like, the end of the year. 

"Dude's a beast."

You're so right. Among the must f-ed up thing about Teo's "love story" is the degree to which people hailed him for playing in a football game rather than attend the funeral of his girlfriend who just died of leukemia. Most backward-ass "values" I've seen in a long time.

Swarbrick seems not to understand that the film Catfish was itself a hoax.

4) he and his buddies thought this would be a good way to ignite a Heisman campaign. Consider the timing.

Bravo, sir. He went to great lengths to spin flatly untrue myths in the media. The odds he was duped are about the same as the odds that ND would beat Bama in a rematch. And shame on the Irish.

You can't? After he spent years self-righteously denigrating and tearing down anyone who said the truth about him -- including his own teammates? And his charity, while itself a positive thing, served to make Lance very rich. Lance Armstrong "branded" himself into a hero. And he's only coming clean now because he has no choice. And note how he's still trying to spin things, via Oprah and calculated media leaks about how he "might" come clean. He's pathetic.

Too many people are just writing off Fitz. Granted, he had a forgettable season. But he came in late -- his own fault, yes -- and was running behind a very meh line that didn't open many holes for any other backs, either. And then, of course, the leg. But he's shown himself to be a very good back in the right circumstances. And I expect he'll come back very hungry. That's assuming he heals properly, of course. But there's no reason to assume he won't. I'm excited about a running game that includes Lewan, Fitz, and Green/Smith. 

Yes, USC is neighbored by some occasionally sketchy neighborhoods. And, yes, there have been a small handful of violent crimes in the USC area. At the same time, though, Compton, like Harlem, is a large and mostly benign area that gets grossly broad-brushed -- typically by whites who've never been there -- as a giant gangbanger war-zone.

In fact, USC is a pretty impressive place whose students tend to be smart enough to navigate their way through/around the rougher areas and toward the many safe areas just beyond. Students feel quite safe and comfortable there. In fact, USC attracts more affluent and coddled Angeleno kids than does UCLA, which is located in lily-white Westwood.

I love this prevailing assumption that playing a second-tier bowl game in Florida (or anywhere else) gives Michigan a substantial recruiting bump in that area. It's nonsense. How many blue-chip recruits will lean toward Michigan because they played a game in Tampa? None. 

The Free Press thing is so tedious and childish. As is use of of the word "Freep." Grow up.

Although last month Green said he plans to pick a school "soon," and despite vague assertions here that he will be an early enrolee, I don't believe Green himself has confirmed that he'll be enrolling early. Not recently, anyway. If he really were about to enroll, we'd be seeing much more breathless coverage on the recruiting sites, which dearly need page-views during the holidays/dead period.

Isn't this just the difference between "can" and "will"? Teams, thanks to medical redshirts and early admissions, can often find ways to cram in an extra recruit or two. (Except when they're SEC teams -- in which case, an extra seven or ten). To take more than 25 this year would just make next year trickier? Or is there some assumption here that attrition will be greater than expected? 

I can see why M (or any other quality team) would schedule a couple cupcakes to start the season -- glorified scrimmages. But to schedule a patsy ten games into the season is a little cheap and easy. The team will gain nothing from it, except an inflated record. 

Congratulations for the rare post combining both racism and sexism. You should be be so proud. Enjoy the banhammer. 

It's not an insult to the B10. Colorado is a much better job, considering program potential and quality of life. West Lafayette is a dump. Boulder is a paradise.

I'm not sure Arkansas is the better job. Granted, football is king in Arkansas. He'll be the state's unofficial governer. But Arkansas has always been a good but second-tier SEC team, forever in the shadow of Bama, LSU, Florida, and Georgia. Wisconsin has been a top-tier program in the country's other big-ticket conference. Arkansas will never get to three straight Rose Bowls. And those fans down there are vicious. His job security will be far worse.

Plus, he has to live in Arkansas.

I thought it would be higher. SC is a pretty formidable team.

I call BS, in part because Arkansas is designed as a classic pro-style offense. Peterson isn't a pro-style guy. 

Scheduled to visit? Why on earth would he again need to visit?

Academically, it's fine at best, on the high end of commuter schools. But it's nothing to write home about. 

Borges cost us two losses? Really? Bama was a blowout. Nebraska was because we had no QB. And Borges wasn't the one who threw 600 interceptions at ND. Borges cost us one loss. OSU.

Losses to ND and OSU, both whom have undefeated seasons. This is hell.

The Irish aren't as good as their ranking. And they've had a bunch of lucky breaks. But the Irish have survived a far more difficult schedule than OSU has. ND beat OU in Norman, for crissake. OSU and Nebraska beat nobody outside of Michigan.

You're not wrong. The talent level, absent the two QBs and Lewan, is pretty mediocre.

Dileo and Gallon are quality slot receivers. But we don't have a single field-stretching home-run threat. And don't count on a RS freshman to be a game-changer. Treadwell or bust.

Based on the favorable schedule, M will win 10 games almost by default. As usual, it will come down to OSU, MSU, ND, and Nebraska, three of which we get at home.

Let's face it. Rawls is really a fullback. 

He attempted to protect his team's chances of winning a bowl game. It's cut-and-dried. Christ, even he grudgingly acknowledged same. And let's not even get into all the payola that went on during his tenure. 

Is there anything more embarrassing than fans who start "fire" petitions after losses? Actually, there is one thing more embarrassing: fans who think such petitions will actually work.

Well, although the line will be green, it will also feature blue-chip talents with massive upside potential. Kalis et al will make mistakes in the early going. But they'll be killing it sooner rather than later. What we have, in other words, is a high-class problem.

So put the western-most teams with the eastern-most teams. Got it.

Also, Moeller didn't cheat and commit gross ethical violations. He got drunk and made an ass out of himself. Totally different.

Such a depressing sop to the great moneyball in the sky. Totally dilutes the spirit and identity of the B10. Nobody wants to go play in Piscataway and College Park.

Plus, now it's only a matter of time before 2 more teams are added to make it 16. Given the geographic trends, I'm guessing most people here agree that the best scenario would involve UNC and Virginia: top-notch schools with considerable fan-bases and tv markets. But why would basketball-first program leave the warm embrace of the ACC? I don't see UNC separating from Duke and NC State. 

Since it's all about TV, logic says the league now takes aim at other get-able schools near their new footprint (which unfortunately amounts to the dead-zone of college football): GTech, VA, VT, BC. The only remotely viable big-splash options left are Oklahoma, FSU. OU is a sub-standard school; the Noles literally have nothing in common with the other teams.

Prediction: VA and GT.

This looks as close to right as you can get. M's fan-base leans toward the East. M-MSU is protected. Done. I bet this is the way it goes.

For one thing, Vandy, Duke, UNC, Pitt, and Virginia are better universities than MD and Rutgers. The latter two are okay but nothing to be excited about.

The problem is, Md just isn't a B10 school. Neither is Rutgers. The B10 is a fundamentally Midwestern place. MD and Rutgers are clearly Eatern/Mid-Atlantic places. Not worse. Not better. But not B10.

GT is a hell of lot more preferable than Rutgers. The latter is an embarrassment. GT is a good school with pretty good sports.

They're not hiring an aging guy with a heart condition and a mediocre record this year to rebuilt a program. No chance.

To be fair, Arnett has increasingly come off as a fairly significant head-case. I tend to wonder about Arnett's veracity.

LAX. That's the ticket.

Maryland is whatever, a neutral move. Bu Rutgers is a clear step down. A commuter school with a program nobody cares about. Way too low-rent.

Get over it.

Hunter is pretty much the best-case scenario, given their options. Good bat. Great glove. Great leader. Two-year contract. Put him in left. Right goes to the best guy out of Dirks/Boesch/Garcia. Done.

Yeah. Let's limit access for...the actual students of the university. Good idea!

Well, of course it's news. Ole Miss -- given its distinctly hateful past, its current tendency to wave Confederate flags, and its arguably small but still quite unashamed band of racists -- has come a long way, but clearly not far enough. You wouldn't see such overt displays of racism at many other large universities. Nor would you see so many student bystanders passively letting it happen. The only other recent example is LSU. But those rednecks weren't students; they were fans.

Because we have three losses and no big wins. Texas has two losses. There's only one 3-loss team in the rankings, and they're at 25. So that's why we're not ranked.

Gardner didn't suck. He had good moments and bad moments in very limited duty.

The coaches gambled and lost. Gardner is almost certainly better able to play QB right now. But thanks to the lack of talent at receiver, they cut gardner's reps and prayed Denard wouldn't get hurt. As it turned out, though, Gardner hasn't shown much at receiver and we got stuck without an even remotely viable back-up QB. This is the first time I feel like Hoke really blew it. You can't go into a big game without a servicable back-up QB. They should have had Gardner prepared. You can walk and chew gum at the same time.

Oh can we please shut up about the coverage always being slanted toward the opponents. Yeah, it's a huge conspiracy against Detroit.

Occidental is in Eagle Rock, near Pasadena, which is on the fear northeastern edge of LA (whereas SM is in the southwestern corner). But it's a fairly straight shot down the freeway.

I assume you're talking about Loyola Marymount? That's near SM. Just ask for Paul Westhead.

At Iowa. 1986 or 87.

A coach, once he becomes a douche, cannot be un-douched.

What game were you watching? Denard was mostly pretty bad today.

And here come the sofas!

He also went over to hug Tom Gholston. I'm sure Dantonio would do the same. 

I think your optimism, while admirable, is excessive. The Pistons have a handful o solid young players. But there's really no top-tier talent, with the possible exception of Monroe. Drummond is still a few years away. This isn't a playoff team. And I don't think anyone in the league sees it differently.

Because nobody outside of Michigan give a shit about this game.

I'm pretty sure that, if the rumor proves accurate -- which it almost surely won't -- the NCAA would have a big problem with that hiring.

Turble base running by Peralta.

Peralta doubly fucked a big inning by hacking at what was clearly ball four.

And you base this opinion on what?

I call bullshit whenever teams use the old "it's good for recruiting" when they schedule a road game. Seriously, if we played one game in Georgia or Florida, how much of a recruiting gain would that really give us in those states? As if a lot of top recruits would come to Jesus just because Michigan (or ND or whatever) happens to play a game in their state. Especially now that pretty much all big teams are on national tv all the time. 

I recognize there have been some injuries. But it's obscene that the lions' defensive backfield remains every bit as bush-league as it did three years ago. That they keep drafting receivers is absurd.

Yes, of course it's true that Denard has better scrambling and pocket-presence talent. But the advantage still goes to teams that get in his face and force him to throw on the run. Because that's when he goes tacopants. ND's line is better and faster than it was last year. And I don't think we can rely on the fact that our current band of receivers will bail us out via  Hemingway-esque hail-mary grabs. 

Unfortunately, it's not as simple as ND has a weak secondary = we can simply pick them apart through the air. ND didn't need strong DBs last night because its d-line didn't give Sparty time to throw. Fortunately, M's offense appears to be better and less predictable than Sparty's. And now M has seen some (though surely not all) of ND's tricks. But still. If ND's d-line is as nasty as it seems to be -- emphasis on seems -- M's offense will have a tough time.

We're not really playing for ranking. We're not a top-five team. We're just playing to beat our rivals and/or win the B10.

This is a non-story. It's the equivalent of Duke joining the B10 for all sports except basketball. 

What ace is saying is that we don't have nearly enough experience or depth -- problems caused by RR's recruiting failures.

I can't recall a Tigers team I've hated this much. It's impossible to get behind a team that plays down to the level of competition.

Although I wouldn't argue with anyone who says this Bama team is tops, I can't help thinking that the last two USC teams M faced in the Rose Bowl (2004 and 2007) were as good as any team we've faced. I realize the final scores didn't look so bad. But, jeez, those USC teams were like mini-NFL squads. They were in complete control, and both teams knew it.

But of course the answer to the OP's question can't really be answered until after this season. I assume the question isn't really about single-game dominance, which isn't the best barometer -- Mississippi State, despite its dominance in the Gator Bowl, was hardly the best team M has faced. Context matters. If this Bama team runs the table, then they may well be the best opponent ever; if Bama ends up going 9-3, perhaps Saturday's loss will say more about Michigan's weakness than Bama's strength.

So you're saying that Countess may have represented the difference between us winning and losing? Are you kidding? Most of Bama's strength came via its run game and its defense; its pass game was solid but hardly spectactular. With Countess in, we still lose by 20. 

Let go. Just let go.

I agree we don't want to become a football factory like Bama, with its oversigning and splendid academic standards. But, if you think about it, the worse-case scenario is OSU, a football factory that would nevertheless get its ass kicked by Bama. 

Roundtree is just not a wideout. He's a slot. Time to get the two freshmen out there. Evidently Jerald Robinson will forever remain Jerald Robinson.

I think every one of us should start our own individual threads re how we felt about the game.

RR is losing to Toledo.

ESPN decides to call Bell a Heisman candidate due to 3 or 4 decent runs against a second-rate defense during the first half of the first game of the season. I hate ESPN.

This is really messed up. The UNC case, which included widespread instances of academic fraud, preferential treatment, and lack of oversight, is way worse than what happened at OSU and USC. UNC is among the worst offenders we've seen in years, especially among major universities. 

It's baffling to me that so many people here thought the long will-he-or-won't-he period signaled that Fitz was going to play. Never in a million years was Hoke going to say, at the last second, "to hell with suspensions -- they're playing!" That would have looked awful. The decision to suspend these guys was obviously made long ago. Hoke was just trying to game Bama.

Yeah. I'm sure the ref, mid-play, thought "Gee, I better not throw the flag because the higher ranked team is supposed to win." Get a life.

9-3.