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Date | Title | Body |
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31 weeks 5 days ago | It's a classless tradition |
The only time I've been to an OSU - Michigan game was with my son, who was then about 10 years old, at the end of the Lloyd era. We lost on the final drive, a heartbreaker. After the game, the band was coming on, and the OSU team demonstratively took up a huge chunk of the field, blocking the band. They were prancing and preening, making it impossible for the band to do their thing, singing their song and dancing as their fans celebrated in the stands. I remember in particular one huge linebacker with long blonde hair (can't remember his name) towering over a Michigan band member and glowering until the band member retreated. It went on forever. At one point the stadium announcer actually requested them to leave the field, and they just kept on with their interminable display. I think the band actually just gave up and didn't do their prepared ending number, though perhaps they ended up doing it to an empty stadium as everyone left. It was obviously aimed at rubbing Michigan noses in it. Asshole behaviour. If they do it after every game on their home stadium, that's fine. In an opponent's stadium, done quickly and mournfully after a loss, OK. Even after a win in the opponent's stadium, done quickly and inconspicuously off in a corner with traveling fans, that's OK if done with respect and if they leave the field right after the song is done. But that is not what I saw, and I assume that it is what normally happens. In an opponent's stadium after a heartbreaking loss, that is just asshole behaviour. I assume that was what it was like after the OU game last year as well. Damn right they deserve to have a flag planted in the middle of their home field. |
1 year 4 weeks ago | Needed: Wagner game highlight reel with musical background... |
Ride of the Valkyries. Or maybe the overture from The Flying Dutchman. |
1 year 10 weeks ago | I think what MD meant was... |
That remark is often misunderstood. What Dantonio meant was that they only recruit students who write in nothing but uppercase characters. |
1 year 10 weeks ago | I think what MD meant was... |
That remark is often misunderstood. What Dantonio meant was that they only recruit students who write in nothing but uppercase characters. |
1 year 12 weeks ago | Rum, Romanism... |
Rum, Romanism and Rebellion! |
1 year 13 weeks ago | Or in some cases... |
In some cases, they're playing monopoly rather than checkers. |
1 year 14 weeks ago | Very true. Leveon Bell comes to mind. |
Watching the Steelers win on the weekend, I remembered that Leveon Bell was a 2* recruit whose only offers besides MSU were from MAC schools. |
1 year 14 weeks ago | Merci bien, mon chum. |
Merci bien, mon chum. |
1 year 14 weeks ago | That's why the title of the post was "N'est il pas:" |
You got it! I'm overjoyed someone did. But I was aware of the need to make the statement negative. That's why the subject line of the post was "N'est-il pas:" |
1 year 14 weeks ago | N'est-il pas: |
"Ici c'est Pep?" Si!
[Maybe the most obscure joke ever on this blog. But if Benjamin St.-Juste reads the thread, he will get it.] |
1 year 15 weeks ago | 18 year olds trying to impress other 18 year olds... |
18 year olds trying to impress other 18 year olds will say stupid things. Most of us were lucky enough not to have them posted on the internet. Let's wish him well and move on. |
1 year 15 weeks ago | Clayton Richard, for example |
An example from our backyard. Leftie Clayton Richard was Chad Henne's backup, and played well when he got the chance. But pitching in MLB was just a much more promising career option, and so he took that path. Since he's still pitching there, it seems to have been the smart move. |
1 year 15 weeks ago | Pretty clearly a dedicated fake-fan troll |
There wasn't an indisputable-video-evidence problem with the specific post as such, but if you look at his posting history, he's clearly a concern troll masquerading as a Michigan fan. He joins up a week ago, plants a couple of of generic "Jim Harbaugh is the greatest" posts to throw people off the trail, and makes sure he adds generic "Yay team" posts along the way, but the only substantive posts subtly or not-so-subtly inject venom into a discussion and slag Michigan, Michigan players, and Michigan fans in a way that is evidently geared to leave a sour impression for anyone reading. Presumably he's already been banned enough times that he's gotten better at camouflage, but he's obviously a troll looking to spread poison. "[I'm totally a Michigan fan but] Peppers sat this one out intentionally." [Repeatedly, including the accusation that Peppers' grimaces during warmup were faked.] [During the FSU game]: "[I'm totally, 100% a Michigan fan, believe me why would I lie but] the senior leadership on this team is a disgrace." "[I'm totally a Michigan fan but] Player x sucks. [repeatedly]" "[I'm totally a Michigan fan but] Player y sucks. [repeatedly]" '[I'm totally a Michigan fan but] the negging response to my obvious trolling makes me understand why everyone hates Michigan fans." "[I'm totally a Michigan fan but] position group x is so awful that prospective recruit y will decide not to come here." . . . etc. Perhaps most of these individual posts might have been made by a genuine fan posting in a moment of frustration or passing bad temper, but taken together, the pattern is obvious. Add to that the fact that his spelling and grammar are atrocious and his posting style reminds at least one regular poster of a previously banned troll. The use of the name of a prospective recruit in an offensive username and the disgusting, inappropriate avatar are just additional confirmation.
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1 year 21 weeks ago | Do you mean he is... |
Do you mean he is a headless trunk of stone? That we look on his works and despair? I can see your point. |
2 years 15 weeks ago | You shouldn't concede so quickly... |
You shouldn't concede the point so quickly. Some of the soldiers under Henry V in the play are Welsh. Witness the character Fluellen [mangled pronunciation - presumably intentional - of "Llwellyn"]. It is a running joke through the play that because of his accent, no one can understand what he is saying. |
3 years 3 weeks ago | Now they just need a central |
Now they just need a central defender named "Away". |
5 years 3 weeks ago | Doubtful |
This is a non-starter. Sports is not a big deal in Canadian universities. Even in hockey - if you are a serious hockey player you will play Junior `A' or, if you want to go to school too, you'll accept a scholarship to a US university. (I played hockey when I was an undergrad at U of Toronto, and I'm not very good.) Besides the football team using Canadian rules, there is also the issue of scholarships. There are very few athletic scholarships to be had at U of T. Many have academic requirements appended, and they are capped at $3,500 per year. http://www.varsityblues.ca/sports/2009/3/5/GEN_0305092753.aspx?id=140 Of course, U. of T. may decide to change all that. But I don't see much of an upside from an administrative point of view. Massive big-money athletic departments like those in US universities bring as many headaches as they do benefits. If you already have one (Rutgers, Maryland) it might make sense to maximize exposure etc. But this is a choice between not having big time athletics at all versus making the investment of time, money, and revolutionizing campus attitudes to get big time athletics. Not to mention that if some misguided administrator proposed the bright idea of engaging U. of T. with athletics to the degree major American universities are engaged, the faculty and most of the students would revolt. It is just a different culture in Canadian universities, in this regard. "Not only would you have fan support from the city of Toronto but a lot of fans all over Canada would cheer on the Varsity Blue’s.[sic]" This writer clearly knows little of Canada. There isn't much affection for Toronto outside of Toronto.
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6 years 19 weeks ago | There is a very specific exception for graduate students |
If you have completed your degree at one institution, and you still have eligibility left, and you are accepted into a program of *graduate study* (Masters or PhD, for example) then you don't have to sit out a year when you transfer.
I have no idea what the rationale is for this rule, but it gets used now and then. For example, when Ryan Mundy went to WVU from here he may have done this, though I might be mistaken on that one. |
6 years 19 weeks ago | Yes - D'Antonio looked very proud after that 2 point conversion |
Yes - D'Antonio looked very proud after that 2 point conversion succeeded. And then, subsequent in time, he fell. I have this weird feeling that there's a saying in there somewhere. |
6 years 19 weeks ago | My favorite bit... |
(Partly anticipated by Eve_of_the_rivalry above) was the fact that prior to this the announcers just couldn't shut up about the "riverboat gambler" D'Antonio. "Does that look like the face of a riverboat gambler?" blah blah. After he went for two. After he did the roll out and pass on fourth and short, etc. etc. Well, there's a reason why more people aren't riverboat gamblers. Sometimes when you take chances it will blow up in your face. The two point conversion worked, the punt block failed in the way that punt block attempts often do. The cautious play would have been to trust his offence, which had been moving the ball and had scored a lot of points. Tell your special teams players not to go near the punter under any circumstances. He rolled the dice, and learned why riverboat gamblers so often end up broke. |
6 years 20 weeks ago | You think what we saw in Rosenberg/Snider's... |
You think what we saw in Rosenberg/Snider's "Practicegate" hitpieces from the Free Press was "sunshine"? |
6 years 20 weeks ago | In theory, perhaps, but in practice news organizations.... |
In theory, perhaps, if news organizations could be trusted to use the information honestly. But in practice news organizations can distort material very effectively if they are in pursuit of a hit piece. We saw this in the Free Press "practicegate" investigations. It was evident at the outset, and became clearer with every published article, that Rosenberg and Snyder were looking for ingredients to support a hatchet job. They were requesting reams of material including internal emails, and then whatever information they got was presented in a slanted and decontextualized way, creating a distorted impression of the real situation. See also the so called "Climategate" emails. Pore over thousands of emails from researchers to one another and you'll find some where people say things to one another like "[Scientist X] is up to his old tricks again. I'm never going to accept another of his dishonest articles for [Journal Y]". and "The way you set up the graph doesn't present your point in the most effective way - if you choose scale Z and initial year VVVV the picture is more compelling." My own emails contain lots of stuff like that - there are people in my subspecialty - as with any other - who are just dishonest and incompetent, and you get tired of their antics. [Fortunately or unfortunately, nobody has any money to make or lose from my research, so my emails are safe.] And you give friends an collaborators advice about the best way to arrange their arguments to persuade an audience. But in the hands of unsympathetic news organizations, that becomes "CLIMATE SCIENTISTS EXCLUDE OPPOSING VIEWS AND DISTORT THEIR DATA!!!!" Don't get me wrong - from a legal point of view (though I'm not an expert) the claim of "protecting student confidentiality" here seems pretty far-fetched and I expect OSU will lose. But if I were a university president I would at least try to keep things like internal emails under my own control.
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6 years 20 weeks ago | Not so surprizing |
I would assume that the issue the amicus curiae brief addresses is the question of whether the information ESPN wants to get from OSU is protected from Freedom of Information requests. You cannot, for example, force schools to disclose student grades, or health information, or other things covered by confidentiality guarantees. OSU is arguing that these confidentiality rules should be interpreted broadly, ESPN that they should be interpreted narrowly. Of course an association of universities is going to argue for less exposure to FOI requests rather than more, no matter how the requested information is meant to be used. |
6 years 20 weeks ago | Yes it happened. |
I remember it well - 2005 - the only UM-OSU game I've seen in person, there with my son who was about 9 at the time. Michigan had the lead, with a minute and change remaining, OSU had no timeouts, or just one, and UM had a fourth and three somewhere just over the 50 yard line in OSU territory. A first down wins the game, but Lloyd punts instead, preferring to pick up a sure extra 25 yards of field position. OSU storms down the field and wins, the key play being a long pass to a player who had stepped out of bounds and come back in. OSU celebrates, and then as the Michigan band comes on, the Buckeyes march en bloc into the path of the marching band, block their way and sing one of their stupid songs to their section. (I assume it was Carmen Ohio, but I couldn't hear.) The announcer even asked them several times to get out of the way of the marching band and clear the field, but they just ignored him and kept on preening for their fans. So, to echo a common opinion: Buckeyes are the last people who should be complaining about a celebration showing a "lack of class". |
6 years 20 weeks ago | Yes - If Miller could hit an open receiver |
Mattson has done the best he could with the players available. They've improved spectacularly well. But the secondary is not Posey-calibre fast. So you can either leave a huge cushion, and give OSU medium-distance passes for easy short gains (that Miller doesn't have that much trouble throwing) whenever they want one, or you can try to take those away, accepting that Posey will often break open, and count on Miller only hitting a couple of those at best. That's what Mattison chose. And he was right. We gave up a couple of touchdowns on long strikes, but mostly Miller missed them. Including the one at the end of the game. Mattison made a calculated risk, based on the observed strengths and weaknesses of Miller as a QB and our secondary, and it seems to have been the correct decision. But I'm no expert on football, so feel free to correct me.
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6 years 20 weeks ago | That was his motivational speech. |
He kept it simple: Kids, after the year this team has had, people in Ohio will be ecstatic if you win this game. Your gold pants will be worth a fortune. Go Bucks! |
6 years 20 weeks ago | They have a point.... |
I really think that meeting their team bus as it pulls in, unannounced and without warning, with police dogs to sniff them all for bomb-making material etc. was an incredibly classless thing to do. A player could have had a phobia about dogs, the dogs might have slipped their leash.... And generally it was a greasy way to get a cheap psychological advantage.
Oh, sorry. My mistake. That was the classy Saint Tressel. But calling Ohio State "Ohio" is of course much worse. |
6 years 28 weeks ago | C'mon gang |
I loathe Dantonio. But if he did in fact choose "The Waterboy" because Sandler looks like Fickell... well, that's pretty funny. I give him credit.
(Plus it was educational - only a handful of their players knew that H2O meant "water". They might get academic credit.) |
6 years 30 weeks ago | The contractual issue was really fabricated |
Right out of the door we had signs that some newspeople were gunning for Rodriguez. Those "pay $x (huge number) if you take another job" clauses are legally very hard to enforce. You have to demonstrate that this sum is a plausible representation of the actual harm to you of the contract's being broken, so that the money can be represented as compensation for harm. Otherwise it would be closer to involuntary servitude, which contracts are not allowed to establish. That's why every single time in the history of coaches taking new jobs, the settlement is negotiated down to some fraction of the contractual number. I assume Brady Hoke did it, that's what Beilen did when he left WV, etc. Going to court just costs a lot of money for both sides and the result would be some smaller number.
But this time, because all of the state of West Virginia was whipped into a state of outrage, not just about the leaving but about all sorts of bulls**t (OMG he shredded files! Yes, if they are confidential personal files with academic and personal information about athletes, that is what you are supposed to do. Are you going to put them in a caretakers bin out in the hall?) some elected judge decided to grandstand and insist on the whole amount. The ruling would never hold up on appeal, but it would be a p.r. catastrophe to drag things out (and expensive) so the U. said - look, just pay up and let's put this behind us.
From this, lazy journalists got licence to make snide remarks about alleged "contractual controversies" every time RR was mentioned.
I say this not as any particularly huge RR fan, but to be fair: The spinning of that episode was an intentional hatchet job by people who had it in for him.
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6 years 34 weeks ago | Yeah, well... |
I have a low opinion of Tressel, and I have no doubt he is guilty of far more than he's been nabbed for. But this Grantland piece is a hatchet job. Attack Tressel's many faults and flaws by all means, but be fair. One thing that has been true of Tressel from the outset is an apparently genuine concern for the development of his players as human beings. (Even with former players like Clarett - nobody would blame Tressel for washing his hands of Clarett long ago, but Tressel seems genuinely invested in Clarett's rehabilitation.) |
6 years 36 weeks ago | Journey isn't the only one |
Journey isn't the only one with this problem. An English group called Paper Lace had a minor hit in the 70s with a song called "The Night Chicago Died". It starts "(Spoken - portentious voice) Daddy was a cop. On the East side of Chicago..." Which would be Lake Michigan. Always check a map when you're writing songs about places you don't know. |
6 years 43 weeks ago | Come on now. |
"Will Rich Rodriguez be Missed?"
Of course not - nobody's going to actually *shoot* at him, or throw rocks. |
6 years 46 weeks ago | Right on target: this is spin |
There is no way to hide the fact that Tressel has been caught doing something very bad. And that people within the program are breaking the rules. What's the best possible PR strategy? Concentrate on one guy (suggesting that there was just one rule-flaunter) and present it as if Tressel's downfall was due to his failure to recognize the evil of that single guy.
So: Pryor is the Satan, Tressel is just such a noble and fine character that evil is beyond his comprehension: it was impossible for him to see that Pryor wasn't the upstanding young man that every last one of the other OSU players were.
No, rule breaking in the program was an epidemic, and it was that way because Tressel made sure he could never be tagged with knowing anything. A strategy that worked brilliantly until now. |
7 years 6 weeks ago | I'd add Robert Reynolds |
The Reynolds thing was troubling not so much for what Reynolds did - he was clearly a bit of a psycho, he had been a Cooper recruit - but because of the response. It was absolutely obvious what had happened. You could see the replays on the big screen, Alvarez was doing a "strangle" pantomime to the referee, and the Wisconsin QB's larynx was crushed to the point that he couldn't speak. Tressel, of course, pled ignorance, and said he hadn't seen anything. To the credit of the OSU fans, the athletic director was flooded with correspondance from livid alumni who were properly ashamed of what Reynolds had openly done on national TV. Cue the Tressel press conference: "Reynolds has apologized, but after watching the replays, a mere apology isn't enough. So I'm suspending him for the next game. (It was against a laughably weak opponent, I can't remember who, ensuring that he'd be back for the Michigan game where one of his first plays was to end Jason Avant's season with a dodgy rolling tackle that twisted Avant's ankle.) The subsequent "apology" press conference was unbelievable - Tressel presents Reynolds, who appears accompanied by his pretty fiancée dressed up to look like the all American couple, properly modest and respectful. Occasionally the mask would slip just a glimpse, as when Reynolds would grudgingly acknowledge his culpability and then try to slip away by attacking the people who were complaining, as if they were unreasonable, on a witchhunt. ("It was only a couple of seconds") The epilogue was that Reynolds and fiancée were indeed soon married, and just as soon after were divorced, with Reynolds charged with domestic violence. According to the estranged wife, it was not the first time, which I find easy to believe: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/2006-10-24-reynolds-warrant_x.htm |
7 years 12 weeks ago | There have been a couple of other kids... |
Sorry - don't know why the post was multiply duplicated. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | There have been a couple of other kids... |
Oh, yeah - Alain Kashama. Thanks. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | There have been a couple of other kids... |
from that school in Montréal. I can't remember the name of one of them offhand - he was a phenomenally physically gifted kid at DE who never quite seemed to get it completely together but showed amazing stuff at moments. In particular I remember him taking a fumble away from Rex Grossmann in the Citrus Bowl against the Gatorzooks. The shotgun snap got behind Grossmann and this DE seemed to move at the speed of light to get it from him. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | There have been a couple of other kids... |
from that school in Montréal. I can't remember the name of one of them offhand - he was a phenomenally physically gifted kid at DE who never quite seemed to get it completely together but showed amazing stuff at moments. In particular I remember him taking a fumble away from Rex Grossmann in the Citrus Bowl against the Gatorzooks. The shotgun snap got behind Grossmann and this DE seemed to move at the speed of light to get it from him. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | There have been a couple of other kids... |
from that school in Montréal. I can't remember the name of one of them offhand - he was a phenomenally physically gifted kid at DE who never quite seemed to get it completely together but showed amazing stuff at moments. In particular I remember him taking a fumble away from Rex Grossmann in the Citrus Bowl against the Gatorzooks. The shotgun snap got behind Grossmann and this DE seemed to move at the speed of light to get it from him. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | My son plays soccer at Soony's former club, and... |
This news had been going around a few weeks ago. But at that point it was reported that he was joining a second division German club. Anderlecht is a step up in class from that. He'll be missed - the rest of the team will have to solve some problems next season. But the career of a professional soccer player is pretty short, so he should take the chance when it's offered. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | Can't evaluate the father's comment without knowing more... |
"His father, Michael, said that Tate didn’t fail his classes, but instead was ineligible because he had two incomplete grades. He said that all Tate needed was a “chance” from at least one professor to make up the work." Well, I've given a few incomplete grades over the years, and the dad's remark doesn't sound right. Giving someone an "I" involves the understanding that the grade can be converted. Presumably what he means is that Tate got a couple of F's because he didn't complete the required work. The U has very explicit policies on assigning "I" instead of "F". In particular, it has to be cleared with the professor *in advance*. Profs are not supposed to just give "I" grades if the deadline for grading has passed and work just hasn't appeared. Now it does happen that profs will cheat a bit, and give someone an "I" instead of "F" if the student seems to be going through personal troubles, or has been putting in a good-faith effort but has just screwed up, That's the reasonable and understanding thing to do, and it is simply humane to allow people to recover from troubles that come from familiar undergraduate stresses and mistakes. But this is against the letter of the rules, and generally comes as a bit of sympathy and human understanding toward a young person who has let things get out of control. If someone just blows off the work, and makes it clear that they couldn't care less, then I am not going to be enthusiastic about violating university rules to allow them to recover. But that said, I have no idea what the actual facts of the case are, beyond what the father has said, and Tate's on-the record pronouncements about just needing to show up. A word of advice to all you young 'uns out there: if you might find yourself hoping that a professor will violate UM policies in order to cut you a break, calling his/her class a joke in a widely distributed newspaper is unwise. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | Thanks for all your work on this |
I expect this is the bad side of webblogging for a living. Good to know that a Michigan technical education is still serving you well. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | It's inconceivable that UNC on that list would be Chapel Hill |
I'm guessing maybe he got into one of the satellite campuses, like UNC Greensboro or Charlotte or Pembroke. That, or maybe UNC stands for University of Northern Colorado.
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7 years 12 weeks ago | Didn't Debord do special teams and recruiting coordinator? |
I'm pretty sure Debord did special teams (brought in the year after the Boccher (sp?) - Iowa disaster) and recruiting coordinator when he was brought back by Lloyd. I remember because at the time I was irritated that they didn't bring in someone with demonstrated competence in ST. But once he was around, that put him in a good position to bump Terry Malone the next season that the offence burped. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | You could have added this one: |
For all the people like me who were confident that RR would turn it around until finally the bowl game was the breaking point: ("Valerie" and "Vivian" are of course Dylan-speak for Mattison and Hoke. Those Minnesota boys can be obscure at times.)
Too much of nothing
can make a man ill at ease.
One man's temper rises
where another man's temper might freeze.
Now it's the day of confessions
and we cannot mock the soul.
Oh when there's too much of nothing
no one has control.
Say hello to Valery,
say hello to Vivian.
Give her all my salary
on the waters of oblivion.
Well too much of nothing
can cause a man to weep.
He can walk the streets and like most and boast,
but would he like to keep?
But it's all been done before,
it's all been written in the book.
And when there's too much of nothing
nobody should look.
Say hello to Valery,
say hello to Vivian.
Give her all my salary
on the waters of oblivion.
Now too much of nothing
can make a man a liar.
It can cause some men to sleep on nails,
it can cause others to eat fire.
Everybody's doing something,
I heard it in a dream.
But when there's too much of nothing
it just makes a fellow mean. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | True, he grew up in Michigan... |
But he went to that agricultural college in East Lansing. Even played football for them, but had a knee injury in the days before knees could be fixed. ... Scott Steiner, on the other hand, was a Michigan Wolverine! |
7 years 12 weeks ago | 3rd string QB is for emergencies only |
You can only bring the 3rd string in (before the 4th quarter) if the other two QBs are out. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | Hungary won the match 4-0 |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_in_the_Water_match - The page has a famous picture of one of the Hungarian forwards with blood streaming down his temple after the game. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | Since people sometimes roll their eyes at the "student" ... |
Since people sometimes roll their eyes at the "student" part of "student-athlete" I'd add that one of the best students I've taught in the last few years - serious, smart, organized, clear, disciplined writer - was on the women's water polo team. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | Witness the famous game at the Melbourne Olympics |
1956, the two best Water Polo teams in the world were the Soviet Union and Hungary. A couple of days before, Soviet tanks had rolled into Budapest to support an overthrow of the liberal government. By the end of the match, the water was said to be red from the blood produced by all the underwater activity. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | Glad we reopened that pipeline |
I heard we didn't get any of those guys because Sir Topham Hatt didn't get along with RR. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | Completely OT: I love your name and avatar |
An NPR news broadcast I listen to has a Washington correspondent they talk to nearly every day called Something Dinsdale. Whenever they introduce him I can't help but think of Spiney Norman shouting "Dinsdale!" |
7 years 12 weeks ago | Thanks - there are a couple of nice tackles in there too |
He causes a couple of fumbles. Energetic football player. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | Late to the party, but.... |
Danny Gatton on Robert Gordon/Danny Gatton's "Drivin' Wheel" on "The Humbler" (Really, any Gatton solo on that album) Amos Garrett on Maria Muldaur's "Midnight at the Oasis" (dopey song, great solo) and Bobby Charles' gorgeous "Tennessee Blues" Gotta agree with the guy who said Roy Buchanan "I'm Evil" SRV and Lonnie Mack dueling solos on "Double Whammy" and Lonnie alone on "Stop" (produced by SRV) Robbie Robertson on "Going, Going, Gone" on Dylan's "Planet Waves" |
7 years 12 weeks ago | I wouldn't count it as Brock "popping off" |
If I remember the story correctly, the quotes from Brock were all of the "I don't know what will happen" variety. But what's he supposed to say when some newspaper guy calls out of the blue a couple days after Barwis is let go? It was the newspaper writer's choice not to contact the AD or the new staff, which suggests he had already decided where he wanted the story to go and he figured that getting a denial from them would derail it. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | Aren't we? |
Readers all over the world post to this site, and as far as I know the server hosting it could be in India. |
7 years 12 weeks ago | He was a media sideshow, like the Jamaican bobsledders |
He was basically a guy who wanted to go to the Olympics and wasn't nearly good enough in anything. He was OK as a downhill skiier but far from Olympic standard. But Great Britain didn't have any ski jumpers, so he adopted that as his sport and went as Britain's representative in the event. It was a fiasco. Even people who knew nothing about ski jumping (i.e. basically everyone outside maybe Finland and Norway) could see that his form was atrocious. But the media wove an "ordinary geek tastes his dream" narrative, and it caught on. The Jamaican bobsled team was at the same Olympics, and it seemed like 50% of the coverage was either them or Eddie. They changed the eligibility rules for the next winter Olympics to prevent this sort of thing. |
7 years 13 weeks ago | If Wermers read this blog and became furious, he would learn... |
If Wermers read this blog and became furious, he would learn some important life lessons: a) don't make nasty, offensive comments when leaving a team because you will find few defenders if those comments are interpreted in ways you don't intend. b) If you are going to make nasty, offensive comments when leaving a team, you'd damn well better craft them carefully so as not to invite fairly natural unintended, undesired interpretations, because see a). and c) Don't make nasty, offensive comments when leaving a team because if you do none of the people you left behind will give a damn if you are furious or not. |
7 years 13 weeks ago | Actually if there had been an Mgoblog when Navarre was QB... |
Brian would probably have been among the sane people saying that the Navarre bashing was getting ridiculous. At least, that seems to be the message to draw from his classic article in the E3W humor mag in the pre-mgoblog days:
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7 years 13 weeks ago | No doubt execution was part of the problem.... |
But I still have nightmares about that bizarre punt formation in the Iowa game. It was the coach's decision to have Rivas punt instead of Findley, and use a rolling formation that they'd only practiced for a week, and then keep using it even when it was clear that it was just a matter of time before Iowa blocked one. |
7 years 13 weeks ago | Transcription error, I'm guessing, for "Offal? I full." |
One of the caterers passed by as he was talking and asked if he wanted some steer organs and viscera. I can't blame him for declining. |
7 years 13 weeks ago | Agreed |
One reason I was dubious about the Hoke hire is that I imagined it would mean things like the return of Mike Debord as OC. I didn't realize Hoke would be bringing in such a heavy hitter. Glad to know I can strike one worry from my list. Mattison's age and family connections are reassuring too - need not fret about moving on to a HC job in a few years, as one would with a younger, less settled coach. |
7 years 13 weeks ago | Davie was ND DC before he became HC |
If Mattison/Davie fixed problems on the ND defense, you'd think that Mattison would have to get a lot of the credit, since Davie would have been responsible for the problems developing in the first place. |
7 years 13 weeks ago | Yep. |
Agree or (often) disagree, Brian is a smart, insightful, independent-minded guy with an engaging writing style and a wicked sense of humor. That's what keeps me coming back to the site, because such people are not all that easy to find. I can get party-line cheerleading many places. (There are even sites where I could get the privilege of paying for it if I chose to.) |
7 years 14 weeks ago | There may be a coordinated push, but if so it's a good thing |
I was an RR supporter, though with a lot of reservations about player development, staff choices, fundamentals, etc. I was surprised by and disappointed by the Hoke hire, for lots of reasons. But it's done. Finished. Alea Jacta Est. Sincere best wishes to RR, but Hoke's the coach now, and I hope my reservations are unfounded. (And since I know much less about football than any former player, the chances that I'm mistaken are non-trivial.) I sincerely hope he turns out to be a Tressel-type sleeper. One thing that will help him do that is if the press, fans, former players, etc are enthusiastic, and we can avoid PR catastrophes like those that plagued RR. If DB's experience selling pizzas has taught him a thing or two about controlling the message - all the better. |
7 years 14 weeks ago | Mike Debord |
The mention of Mike Debord in this message puts an exclamation point on why I have reservations about Hoke. Lloyd was simply not a good judge of talent in his coaching choices, Debord being exhibit A. In the last three years the marketplace is making apparent what the general coaching world thinks of the people he protected and promoted: most of them decent position coaches at best. Of course, Lloyd could get lucky: Loeffler was apparently very good, Cameron has found a niche as a coordinator. Maybe Hoke is good too. But bringing back Hoke would be reengaging with that circle of mediocrity. |
7 years 19 weeks ago | Nobody expected... |
the Soccer team still to be playing in December. If the team lost early in the B10 tournament and didn't make the NCAAs he might have been able to play in the last few games. |
8 years 6 weeks ago | Good for him |
I've had a low opinion of Tressell ever since his handling of the Robert Reynolds choking incident. But this is a good thing, and he deserves full credit. |
8 years 19 weeks ago | True, but if I were the parent of a student contemplating MSU... |
I would be watching this very carefully. Do I want my kid to be in a place where a group of 15 to 20 adults, most if not all of them well over six feet tall and at least 220 pounds, who in the last several years have spent several hours a day working on increasing their strength, agility and physical size, can burst into a private party and start manhandling some of the participants? Especially when one of them has the history that Winston had. (Why was he even allowed back on campus? If he was just an ordinary student, rather than one who could potentially make a major contribution to winning the Michigan game, he would have been banned from campus for at least a year for what he did, if he were ever allowed back on at all.) I expect you're more or less right as far as the legal niceties are concerned. But setting that aside, even if only three or four are actually striking people, the rest of the twelve to sixteen are making the actions of the four possible. Three or four people are not going to be able to invade a party like that - the partygoers en bloc could overwhelm them and throw them out. They need the glowering nuclear arsenal behind them to go around hitting people unmolested. It's more than just saying "hell yeah" as far as the practical effect is concerned. Point of information: I'm no lawyer, and so I'm curious about what the law of trespass says in a case like this. I assume that had this fraternity had its own frathouse, and the party was a private party in the house, the players could and probably would be charged with trespass in addition to everything else. What is the legal status of a student dorm? Can students of the university who aren't residents of a university dorm be charged with tresspass if they march uninvited into that dorm bent on mayhem? Or is this just a situation that's sufficiently foggy that the DA would prefer to stick to uncontroversially applicable charges? |
8 years 19 weeks ago | They should have been clearer... |
When they said that Winston |
8 years 19 weeks ago | We want Notre Dame to be good |
I'm confident Rodriguez will turn things around and build an excellent program. But I don't know much about these things, so I'm prepared to be wrong. But either way, we're going to need strong opposition: if our team Returns to Glory (TM) then we'll want to display that by beating strong teams. With the Big Ten down, that means our ND game is going to have to be a quality win, if we win it. And if the team remains weak, then playing and beating a weak Notre Dame team will just serve to paper over problems. It's good for a team if the bar is set really high: good teams and coaches will rise to the occasion, and bad teams and coaches will show what they are made of. Kelly seems like an excellent coach. Let Notre Dame hire him and let's get down to business. |
8 years 19 weeks ago | Dantonio couldn't have said that |
"We had another coach [Dantonio] who looked us straight in the face and said he wasn't leaving. We remember that." That's unpossible: that would be bearing false witness, and the Bible on his desk very clearly prohibits that. |
8 years 19 weeks ago | Caltech 38 - MIT 9 |
The wascally wapscallions from Caltech hacked into the scoreboard at the 1984 Rose bowl (UCLA-Illinois)and changed the score to "Caltech 38 - MIT 9". Impressive, though the original card-replacing hack is simply astonishing in its conception and execution. Lots of people can hack badly secured systems when nobody expects it. |
8 years 20 weeks ago | But even some of those comparisons have blinders on |
Admittedly Stoops and Pelini were impressive out of the gate, but some of the others seem to cut in favor of RR. Kiffin took over a very talented team, and his first year improved by precisely one win over Phil Fulmer. Harbaugh's first two years he went 4–8 and 5–7, though admittedly an upset win over USC improved the look of the second year. Fitzgerald took over a team that had been doing pretty well (Walker hadn't been fired for non-performance, but rather passed away suddenly.)And still his first two years he was 4-8 and 6-6. If Fitzgerald and Harbaugh are measuring sticks, their first two years were not that different from what we're seeing here. I remember people saying at the end of his second year that Fitz was over his head and was going to be fired soon. |
8 years 21 weeks ago | One more |
Excellent job. I'd add one more: the lazy groupthinking journos on deadline. Every week there will be a pile of writers for ESPN, etc who save time by just bashing out a column saying what they see everybody else saying. Once there is a critical mass of people in the assembled anti-rrod factions, these hacks will be writing "RRod sucks and Michigan will build a time machine just to be able to fire him yesterday" columns. If (when) RRod and the team turn things around the same people will be writing "boy aren't you glad you didn't fire him" columns. |
8 years 21 weeks ago | That article was a hatchet job |
I haven't seen the press conference. But if saying "the last three or four Februaries have hurt us" is the best he can come up with as a "slap at Lloyd", he is just inventing things. Of the last three or four Februaries, two were Rodriguez' signing days (the last was his entirely, and the one before was the always meagre class that comes in when one coach goes and another one steps in a month or so before signing day.) So at most one or two of those Februaries were Lloyd's and it's not even a slap at Lloyd himself to say they were down. They *were* down, mostly because Lloyd was going to leave soon and absolutely everybody knew it. Other coaches were negatively recruiting using that fact. |
8 years 21 weeks ago | It was sad to see him walk the "dead man walking" walk postgame |
I think of the "decided schematic advantage" bit, and the "now it's x's and o's time", and all his other pompous comments over the last few years, and I think - yeah, that is one insufferable gasbag they got down there. But you'd have to have a heart of stone not to see that guy walk out on to the field, blank face and dead eyes, knowing that his last fragile hope of survival had just vanished with the UConn loss. This was his life's dream job and in five short years he completely f***ked it up. Of course, $18 million will buy him some pretty fine single malt scotch to soften the blow.... |
8 years 22 weeks ago | No, "democrat" isn't the name of the party, "Democratic" is |
You can write (small-d) "democratic" if you want to refer to the political theory and (capitol - D) "Democratic party" if you want to refer to the party. |
8 years 26 weeks ago | Please pull the picture and name down |
Brian, I've been a fan of yours since long before this blog even began (specifically with the classic "Navarre responsible for the great depression etc." piece in the E3W). But here I think you're making a misstep by republishing the picture and name. You're augmenting the very invasion of privacy that you're condemning. |
8 years 26 weeks ago | I don't have any opinion on Dinardo's intelligence or... |
lack of it. But looking at his coaching history with LSU and Indiana, it's clear he is no novice when it comes to watching teams unravel. |