Recent Comments

My thoughts exactly.  It was his ego that had him tee it up again instead of the drop zone.  With today's pin placement, you have a lot more green to work with vs yesterdays.

At this point he's just playing for cash.

Well, looks like Maggert will fall off of the -12 line

EDIT: Probably dropping to -10 as his 3rd shot is a long ways from the hole.

Wow Tiger choked on that hole...

Just saw the email for ND tickets! Does anyone know if you'll be able to choose your seats? Not sure how many of you have gone through the process so far.

Zeller said so.

Did anyone just catch Denard's vert?  Couldn't get sound but he looked disappointed.

I think he has potential as a Chris Johnson type tailback. Assuming he wows the scouts at the combines, he should put on 15lbs of muscle. He has a chance as a Percy Harvin type if he can prove his hands are adequate, however I don't see him being drafted as a KR/PR considering he has never done that in a game at the NCAA level.

If I were an owner, I'd probably take him in the low 3rd/high 4th round.

Because a sack would effectively end the game or create a Hail Mary scenario. That and not blitzing doesn't guarantee they don't get enough yards for the game winning FG. The blitz sack was close on the previous two plays. It was just a hell of a throw in the nick of time.

He thinks going 18 and 30 in 48 games plus all of the off field issues is good? I'm confused...

Michigan 90 - Bradley 68

Not that I disagree with you, but the search function really sucks. I searched for a thread I know was posted 2-3 weeks ago and I only found references to 2010 posts.

Overall, I have mixed emotions about him.  One one hand, he made the throws he was assigned yesterday and was hurt by the drops of his teammates.  That said, it is beyond obvious that the coaches reign in the playbook when he is on the field.  I thought that when he came in for Denard when we were deep in the red zone that play action would be a great choice given our repitition of running plays.  

Of course, a lot of this has to do with having the game already in hand by the time he sees a lot of action, but just from a fan's perspective, I'm anxious to see his arm tested in trips or 4wr sets in meaningful play.

But if I was forced to make a generalization on him as a player without a ton of evidence, I would classify him as fairly accurate but limited in arm strength.  

It will definitely be a tough decision for the coaching staff between our 3 QB's for next year.

How do you figure the US is going to lose?

I agree.  Despite my loathsome attitude toward OSU, a MSU loss would help us in our quest for the Rose Bowl.  And it's not like I'd be upset with MSU being knocked down a peg or two.  Maybe then I'd have to hear less Denard ridicule throughout the season (yes, every week, not just the week MSU plays UM). [Sigh]

Should be 3 and 1

Denard, Y U throw MOAR picks?

Now I has a sad.

Kudos to Odoms for supporting his hometown.  

Can someone give a summary of what was said to begin with?

In 2006 we were a touchdown underdog to ND and won 47-21 in South Bend. They play the games for a reason!

I was really hoping the Jags would pick up Hemingway. Was hoping for a Henne/Hemingway combo to root for.

NSFMSRK

(Not Safe for Mrs Stephen R Kass)

I was unaware Rich Rod played for Michigan

  + = 

Question: since it wasn't on the schedule, is it considered an exhibition game or does the win actually count toward the season W/L record? In theory, could coaches all over the country just agree to play impromptu games at the last minute that affect season results?

My original response (and the point of my comment) was that I don't see Morris as a freshman as a liability on the two-deep and as someone with his apparent ability and recruiting profile should be able to step in and compete with Bellomy for the starting job.  I'm using Chad Henne as a basis for measurement because of his success as a freshman.

What do you want me to say?  When looking at tape, I subjectively think Morris as a junior is more skilled than Henne as a senior.  Henne has nothing to do with the 2012 class and I'm not saying he does. I'm using that as a basis to compare Morris to his peers and the fact that he maintains his stature as one of the top prep QB's in the country.  You are missing the point of my post entirely in order to nit pick over the statement that to me Morris right now is further along than Henne was as a senior.

No, I don't have any sort of advanced metrics to spew to you.

Morris's skill in high school is better as a junior than Chad Henne was as a senior.  And Henne led Michigan to a Rose Bowl as a true freshman.  I am not concerned about Morris being the back up.  For all intents and purposes, I expect him to compete for the starting job.  I think the pros outweigh the cons in having Gardner at WR for this year at least.  He can always move back to QB if his skills are needed there.

Yeah but Randle El was the starter.  That would be as asinine as Michigan moving Denard to WR.  I get your point - it's possible to go back to QB after playing WR, but we're talking about a backup QB who is a great athlete.  Why not get him on the field in a position where he can excel as opposed to waiting on the sidelines in case Denard gets dinged up?

This type of thing isn't that unrealistic.  MSU did it successfully in Nichol's first year at WR where Nichol was still the primary backup should Cousins go down.  Ultimately, if the coaches see that there isn't much of an ability disparity between Bellomy and Gardner, this allows us to get a superb athlete with size and speed in a position of great need this year.

Just remember, Gardner playing WR doesn't necessarily mean that he will never play QB again.  If Denard were to lose substantial time due to injury, I could just as easily see Gardner getting more reps at QB in practice and we go from there.  If Denard is just sitting out a few plays, I would say it's not unreasonable for the coaches to think Bellomy (QB) + Gardner (WR) is a better combination than Gardner (QB) + ? (WR).

I was thinking about this during our game yesterday - do you think there is an adjustment that teams from the B1G have to make when playing in the tourney with regard to physicality of play?  It's pretty well known that the B1G is a physical and "rough" conference, so with teams/players in that mentality would there be a higher propensity for what we would all consider "ticky tack" fouls that would otherwise be allowed in conference play? And do players have to scale back the contact to match the consistency of refs from other leagues?

That was a long winded run on but hopefully you see what I'm getting at

Yet you cared enough to click on the obviously titled thread AND comment?

You are a reprehensible human being that should be ashamed of what you just said about a 20 year old kid.

I wish we had a live blog for NCAA tourney games.  

Well, word just came out that he just punched out some woman in a night club and gave her a black eye. Not a good first impression with the Bears.

To be fair, this is a trade.

You're right, thanks for the catch.  I must have misread their W/L (31-9? 40 games in a season? I should have caught that...).  I don't think they jump up to a 3-seed, but anything is possible if they beat Kentucky.  Either way, I would think if they won the SEC they would take Georgetown's spot before ours.  I still think our odds at a 3-seed are 60%, with a 2 or 4-seed probably at 20% each if we win out or lose to Ohio, respectively.  Especially given the weak field on our tails and IU's struggle and injury.

If we beat Ohio I believe we are a 3-seed regardless of any other outcomes.  If we lose, I think we are a 4-seed if Wisconsin beats MSU (Wisconsin would move up to a 3-seed in my opinion).  The other "dark horse" team could be Florida if they win the SEC tournament by going through Kentucky.  They would finish 31-9 and SEC Champs with a recent win over a consensus #1 seed.

This is why I think we need to beat Ohio to solidly take a 3-seed.  If we lose, I think it's a coin flip that the selection committee puts us at a 4-seed depending on what happens around us.  Obviously, IU's loss helps us and if Wisconsin loses, it might be a moot point.

Either way, the 2-seed (and 1-seed?!?!) talk is a little wishful thinking in my opinion.

I'm sure he could have gotten a loan for that amount from a bank.  I don't think having parents that could front him that cash is what allowed him to "make it".

Money order from Western Union.  Also, I wonder if he got a receipt for tax purposes.  Imagine that guy's Turbotax software..."Did you make any charitable donations this year?" ... "Why yes, $100,000,000.00 actually..."

Then again, I'm sure the the guy with an LLM in tax law doesn't use Turbotax

I liked the part about how he got fired from Wall Street for talking back to his boss then decided to start his own business when he didn't want to go through interviewing again.

Shows what hard work and a little luck can accomplish.  Starting with a $10,000 loan from his parents and now being worth $3.1B. 

You're right.  Verizon FiOS cable, Time Warner, and some other one I haven't heard of.

I think a better analysis would be to actually take efficiency and kenpom ratings from years past to actually determine how that correlated into NCAA tournament results.  Then debunk or affirm the relative predicting power of kenpom, efficiency, etc. and determine what, if anything, was a good predictor of NCAA tournament success.

Bert, you must go to the degobah system.  there you will get beer from yoda, the quickie mart owner who sold to me.

Yeah, that's the biggest thing with the whole documentary actually.  There could be a multitude of reasons why or why not health increased or decreased.  I'm not saying their proposed nutritional diet is right or wrong (I have a friend that swears by it and is living very healthily), I'm just trying to do my part to draw awareness to not accepting what a movie says as fact and to really look into sources, academic journals, etc.

I mean, if curing cancer was just as easy as only eating vegetables, you'd think it would have caught on more by now.

Ultimately, I don't care that much about the debate between meat vs. veggies.  Just sharing some stuff I found when I took a serious look into becoming vegetarian and decided that lifestyle wasn't a good fit for me personally.  One of the biggest things I have found in my academic research is a correlation between eating fish and one's health.  I try and get as high quality of fish as possible and stay away from mercury risks (swordfish/shark/albacore tuna/etc.) and opt for fish caught humanely, etc.  And outside of that, unprocessed whole grains and natural vegetables.  In the end, my final thouht (because I'm taking up a ton of my time researching again in this thread, haha) is to do your own research, pick a nutrition plan that focuses on moderation, and make sure you're happy with your lifestyle choice whatever that may be.  That will be much healthier than torturing one's self on celery and baby carrots to lose a few pounds, etc.

Just my two cents while on my own soapbox.

Not sure if you ski, but a GREAT skiing app is Alpine Replay.  It has tons of mountains and trail maps, etc. and uses GPS to track your avg sustained speeds, total distance skied, max speed, calories burned, etc.  You can even "race" friends and see how your stats stack up against other people on the same mountain as you that day or all-time.  I know, random post...you'd think I was a creator or something.  Alas, I am not that tech savvy.

There are a lot of inaccuracies and manipulating data to support your preconceived conclusion. For example, during WWII, they cite a decrease in meat consumption led to a vast decrease in heart disease. The real data will show people were dying before they would had developed heart disease from acute infections (TB, influenza, pneumonia, etc). Additionally, their post death heart wasn't that much healthier. So yes, heart disease did decrease but not for the reason they claim, it's because people were dying sooner from other things before they would have developed heart disease in the first place.



Also, in the cancer studies with the mice: They say the data supports their conclusion that a veggie diet effectively cured cancer in mice. What the full study will show is that although the meat eating mice did develop liver cancer, the veggie eating mice actually all died sooner from their liver consuming itself. So yes, cancer free, but all died 100% sooner. And that is all aside from the fact that they were exposed to levels of carcinogens much higher than humans would ever be exposed to in their lifetimes. An alternate study was performed with moderate levels of carcinogens similar to what humans could be exposed to and the reverse was found true: mice with meat and dairy protein not only lived longer but were cancer free while the vegetarian fed mice died sooner from cancer related issues.



Lastly with the predominantly fish/rice eating Asian population coming to the US and adopting a "western diet" and dying sooner. The real data shows that they moved to coastal regions and their diet changed predominantly fom rice to bread without any addition of meat/dairy from what they were eating before. when the data didn't support their claim, they adopted a general term "western diet" to hide behind. The decrease in life expectancy could be correlated to bread intake perhaps. But it irked me that they mislead the viewers by claiming a "western diet" hoping that we all assume that is Big Macs and Nesquik.



These are just some of the problems I had with this documentary. It was interesting, but chock full of correlation = causation and questionable science as proof. In many instances, the studies they found supported the opposite conclusion but when you can handpick data and assume your viewership will not research your methods and full reaults, you can aell more DVDs. I agree with the message: eat better quality foods and do so in moderation. I disagree with the notion that the problems stem from eating meat/dairy.



Sorry for any formatting, I am via mobile.

I hope this is satirical. Either way, it is buffoonery!  BUFFOONERY I SAY!

A follow up curiosity: say we have 5 OL committed.  If we adamantly ONLY wanted to take 5 OL, and a 6th OL who is higher rated than all current committed recruits wants to come aboard, would the coaching staff be able to pull offers from currently committed, but unsigned, recruits prior to signing day?  If so, wouldn't it be in the student's best interest to have a back-up school, still take visits while committed, etc.?

I understand that this would create a negative windfall with high school coaches and a negative rapport with future recruits should a coach do this, but is this "legal"? Does it happen often?

I could see schools dropping a baseball program before building domed facilities for their teams.

Ah, well that's certainly plausible.  Seems a little redundant, perhaps, but definitely plausible.  In that case, really, lowly intern? Moak? Really?

I just read this from Mel Kiper's chat over at ESPN.com:

John (Indy): Do you like Mike Martin? Seems like a very under the radar player who could be an instant impact on a team like the niners or steelers who would have good ends and linebackers around him.

Mel Kiper: He's a good, solid college defensive tackle. Former high school wrestler. Uses his hands very well. Very intense. Focused. He played a lot of football at Michigan. He battled Moak every day in practice. Moak is a 4-5 round guy. Martin can help you. He's a third round pick.

Moak? Really?

Well, Morgan does lead the B1G in FG% and is #13 in NCAA in FG%...

Is it just me or does Hardaway look like he's completely uninterested in basketball?

I would say that BWC has to be at least honorable mention all-conference to be considered a "non-bust" given his recruiting hype.  I can give him the benefit of the doubt and say recruiting sites overrated him by one star value.  If I recall, the typical forecast when ranking high school athletes:

5-star = potential all american

4-star = potential all conference

3-star = potential starter

EDIT: That said, I would still be thrilled if he was serviceable as a starter given the departures on DL.

Ha I suppose it does. It wasn't meant to be snarky. I'm rooting for Roger but there's no way I can stay up that late on a work night. Actually, I might be able to catch the end of it when I wake up in the morning.

Well to be fair, the OP stated that the interview was courtside, not necessarily his seats. However, your point still stands.

Eli Manning knows a way around it...

Armadillo

After zooming in, I can see sprinkles of green in the stands.  Makes sense for the MSU 2008 game.

RR not capable of petty ego?  You're saying this in a thread about RR being promised to get revenge on his old team? Undermining?  I'm pretty sure he undermined his DC and mandated what style he runs despite minimal defensive experience and no B1G experience.  And backstabbing? Well that would be less painful than the last three year's win total.

I've heard tons of reasons why he took the game off, one of which was that he just wanted to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with his family.  Which isn't entirely crazy.  Another reason was that his father passed away.  I have done no further research into either of these rumors and consider them just that - rumors.  No one knows the real reason.

I think Meyer will be announced as the head coach 'officially' at the half in the Ohio/Duke basketball game, but this same type of publicity and certainty was driven by the media when Les Miles was Michigan's emminent head coach after Carr retired as well.

EDIT: If I were Meyer, I would wait until the NCAA makes its ruling on punishment.  Now I'm sure with his connections that he would be able to put out feelers on a potential punishment.  Meyer is a good coach who's "got the itch" to get back into football.  Ohio would be a great place for him.  The rumors below about ND firing Kelly and hiring Meyer are as interesting as they are ridiculous.  That's not to say it's outside of the realm of possibility for ND [see: Weis contract extension] and I would consider Meyer to be just as interested in that offer as an Ohio offer.

Well, I think it's a forgone conclusion that we make a BCS bowl, however, we need the following to happen in order to guarantee it:

1. LSU Beats Georgia
2. OSU beats OU

If that happens, the rest is practically irrelevant.

I know you didn't list it, but I went to the LSU at Florida night game in 'The Swamp' a few years back when they were both having great years.  It was the year Florida won big.  That stadium is as loud as it's hyped up to be.  We were close to the field and on big third downs, I was trying to get the attention of my Aunt next to me and I was yelling her name and she had no idea I was even trying to talk to her.  I remember an ESPN article of a Tennessee lineman saying that when they're on offense, he can feel his facemask shaking from the noise.  Truly an electric environment. 

The BCS games can only accept a maximum of two teams from a conference.

I'm with you.  However, I know from my job at least, I'm always told that I'm a representation of the company regardless of if I'm actually 'on the job'.  That said, perhaps the NCAA is making this an issue because PSU turning a blind eye to alleged child molestation for a number of years is a poor representation of the NCAA. [Insert joke about NCAA being their own punchline for poor representation here].

If the NYTimes report is true, I hate to see Paterno's career coming to an end by being dragged through someone else's mud.

Yes, he had moral responsibility to go to the police.  However, all he could act upon was that someone else told him that they saw something.  To me, that's on the GA at the time to go to the police as a witness and not on Paterno as someone who heard something from someone but can't confirm it himself..

I feel bad for Paterno.  He followed his chain of command and his career will be tarnished by this forever because he didn't act further what the GA told him.  I just can't wrap my mind around Paterno facilitating or approving that behavior.  I just don't think that's possible.  Sad.

They're basically discussing how WVU is trying to sue their way out of their contract to stay in the Big East and RR jokes around about how he thought there was a coach about 3.5 years ago that wanted out of a contract at WVU and they said "too bad, a contract's a contract" but apparently the landscape has now changed for WVU to change their opinion on contracts.  He then futher joked about how he is very familiar with lawyers and can give some advice in this situation.

That was a response to Don, who made it appear like the major violations were nothing to be concerned with as it was like exceeding the speed limit by 3mph.

Also, I am aware that I can contact the University of Michigan by sending a letter to the aforementioned address.  I attended the University and am familiar with the locale.  Thank you for that information.

That said, as you agree with me and share the same sentiment, you can join me in constructing a letter and we can send it in together.  What do you think? Does that sound like something you might be interested in?

You are probably right, but we can't say for sure. Either way, my point was that the measure of putting the two teams against each other and detrmining who wins cannot accurately access the progress of a program as a whole.   

What you should be saying is the 2008 team without departures due to the coaching change vs. the 2010 team as the addition of Hoke/Borges/Mattison most likely changed this team (mostly defense) from what it was going to be into something better.

I would wager a team that fielded Mallet at QB with Manningham and Arrington at WR with an OL that would have been better in a Hoke-type system that year with Boren (just being realistic here) and a competent downhill runner in Brandon Minor would have been able to shred a Rich Rod team with whatever 3-3-5 defense that is being fielded.

I can't personally say that Rich Rod left the program in better shape than when he arrived.  We had major NCAA violations, a stain on the program that will be there forever, in addition to two bowlless season.  Did Rich Rod's last year appear more successful than his first? Definitely.  But was the entire program better off by having Rich Rod as a coach for three years? I'd say no.

It's probably more like Mclimans is waiting to see if McGary commits to find out if he gets a 5th year...

I had a professor that knew everyone's names too.  Surprisingly, it was on the first day of the class.  Turns out, you can print the class roster and attach the M-card photos of the students enrolled.  He made flash cards and memorized students' names for the first day.

It was kind of creepy and impressive at the same time.

In the endzone, the higher up the better, in my opinion.  That said, the seats aren't bad, but they're not great when the action is on the other side of the field.

NSFSRK

$175? I'd rather buy a custom jersey and wear it as opposed to a used jersey and burn it.  Sorry.

The problem is, people then just say "well he called me [insert whatever here]" in order to get off the hook for flagrant personal fouls.

Words are one thing, but you can't retaliate in a physical way outside of the rules in the game.  By all means, block him into the turf, tackle someone hard, etc.  But nasty things are said and that's just how it is.

Is it justified to go break someone's arm in a Starbucks for saying something racist to me? Maybe.  Are you still going to get arrested and prosecuted? Absolutely.

Supposedly, one of the reasons he chose MSU over Michigan was because on one of his recruiting visits, he was called Tom instead of William.  So Lewan was calling him Tom during the game, which some people considered racist because of the whole "Uncle Tom" thing, but really was a reference to being called by the wrong name for an entirety of a recruiting trip.

This was at least my understanding.  Anyone correct me where I'm wrong.

a) I don't think this is a good argument to why it's not an issue.  These were great collegiate players and Brees is an all-pro QB.  That said, it's an anomaly and certainly not a reason to disregard height.

b) I keep hoping that Denard will 'get it' in his senior year the same way Troy Smith somehow turned from RB that can throw to ohmygod he's killing people with his arm.

I am however losing confidence that it will happen. Time will tell.

Definitely patchwork line.  Good DL's are getting good push and the blocking isn't developing correctly in order to spring MSU's RB's for 200+ yards.  We'll see how it plays out today, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

Ha! I got a laugh out of this.  That' said, I think Abu Dhabi is littered with palaces, Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, etc.  Pretty wealthy oil city.  But to the OP, good luck, I'd imagine you'd have a hard time find a place that showed American sports, let alone a college football game.  Then again, this is Michigan fergodsakes, so we probably have an alumni bar there.

Can you stream Espn3.com from Abu Dhabi?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's a reference to Dion Sims being caught for stealing a bunch of computers from Detroit Public School System and not a reference to his major.

I laughed at that and then remembered that we lost that game by two scores.  Now I'm sad.

Four touchdowns and two safeties?  Or perhaps three touchdowns, missed PAT and four field goals?  32-21 is an interesting pick.

If I recall, Michigan was in shotgun with Smith lined up to the right of Denard.  Michigan was driving the ball "to the right" on the screen.  Not sure which side the camera was on though.

In Soviet Russia, game streams you!

I wonder if Saban had an equally lucrative "Spartan for Life" contract at a whopping $650,000.

Theres a big difference between $650,000 and $3,500,000. Big enough to leave MSU anyway...

There's no smoking in the Big House Herbie.  Come on...

You want your ace to throw Game 1 because of the off days in the series.  Whoever starts Game 1 can throw Game 4 and Game 7 on three days rest each.  That and the Rangers will be throwing their ace Game 1 due to the time off.  Rangers' #1 pitching three times gives them the advantage over throwing JV twice in games 2 and 5.

Moreover, if Detroit is down in the game, throwing Verlander won't help as you need offensive production for pitcher support.  Plus if you have a big lead (3+runs in innings 8 or 9), I wouldn't waste Verlander in the next series to close.  Additionally, JV hasn't ever pitched from the pen and that's different than starting the game.

You and I must have different theologies I suppose, but I think saving Verlander is the better long term decision.

How can you be fairly certain about this?  All we have to go on is the fact that we had Steven Threet and the offense was not adapted.

Wow, knowing where to sit on the plane, hotel rooms, stair locations, etc?  That's leaving no stone unturned.  I can only imagine how well Hoke prepares for an opponent if he puts that much effort into those details.

Only when Yom Kippur is playing.

Along these same lines, get Odoms back in there.  He was pretty sure handed pre-injury. NEED MOAR GOAT.

Already taken. See above.

EDIT: I just realized posting it on here isn't actually doing anything.  Email sent.

No, I guess I'm not sure. But Monterrey and Carmel, CA are right by each other so I just assumed. I've never heard of a Monterrey, IN.



To your point though, I can't be sure.

Well, Ohio wears silver pants and has silver helmets with stickers...so not really...

I think ND must win this game to salvage any sort of season they could have.  The desperation, being at home, and MSU's weak OL and general overrated-ness leads me to pick ND 31 - MSU 27

I agree with all of your points.  A few more cities that popped into my mind: Memphis, a second team in Chicago (like that would be successful, the Bears own that town), even Grand Rapids has the population, but I question the committment to an NFL franchise.

I'm not sure if teams could plant themselves in cities like Birmingham or Lincoln/Omaha and call themselves Alabama or Nebraska teams to capture state-wise support (like the Tennessee Titans have done from Nashville).  Even then, despite being football states, is there large interest in NFL football?

The northeast is solidly NE fans, the southeast is NFL oversaturated and Texas probably is too.  LA can't hold a franchise and other cities (SLC, Portland, OKC) may be weary of adding a franchise and not have the support from the smaller market.  

Really, the NFL should just stay put.  Why is this even being discussed as an option?

No big deal. To be fair, the other title didn't explicitly state anything about contract value, etc.

A nice tall glass of home brewed sweet tea.