I want to be hopeful, and last season did suck, but I spent New Years Day 2020 in Orlando watching our team play Alabama in a bowl game in our last 'real' season.
Has anyone compared this year's team against the '19-'20 team to see if we have reason to hope to return to that version of 'normal' this year? Even, dare I hope, going on an upward trajectory from then on?
I'm a lifelong fan, and remember about the same span of years as everyone else here, so I'll limit myself to childhood until my last year of High School (roughly 1987 - 1995 teams).
QB: Michael Taylor - First QB I liked & always stuck with me
RB: Ty Wheatley
RB: Tshimanga Biakabutuka
TE: Jay Riemersma - Tuman hadn't mastered the naked bootleg yet
WR: Desmond Howard
WR: Mercury Hayes - narrowly edges Tumor & Derrick Alexander
OL: Jon Runyan
OL: Jon Jansen
OL: Steve Everitt
OL: Greg Skrepenak
OL: Matt Elliott
DL: William Carr
DL: Glen Steele
DL: Mark Messner
DL: Buster Stanley - All time great name
LB: Jarrett Irons
LB: Steve Morrison
LB: Erick Anderson
CB: Frosh Charles Woodson?
CB: Ty Law
S: Tripp Welborne
S: Chuck Winters
K: Remy Hamilton
P: Don't immediately remember any
Turned out to be harder than I thought, but it was a fun exercise.
Look at our 2 deep on D last year. Truth is we WERE undersized, though not because of the 'small light non-B10 team' BS you cite. I think it was more due to starting so many underclassmen who had yet to go through the combo of Barwis and growing up from 17 to 21 yrs old.
I would like to throw something out there that I haven't seen said.
I was pretty young at the time, but one of my earlier memories of Coach Mo was either 1992 or 1993. Coach Moeller and the other coaches were on the sidelines of the game and the camera kept zooming in on shots of their watch faces with the number 5 on the glass of the face signifying 5 consecutive Big Ten champions. I don't remember if it was '92 and they were going for number 5, or if it was '93 and they were showing that they wanted to defend the 5 championships.
And Coach Moeller was the coach for the last 3 of those 5 straight. Haven't seen anything like that since Moeller's been gone, and like many have mentioned, those years gave us some awesome memories.
I've clicked through several times in the past month or so to check it out (the name is what got me to click through).
Good stuff. I've been thinking about starting to homebrew and my work internet filter has yet to block your blog as being related to "Alcohol". I'd love to be able to pick your brain sometime once I get up and running.
And it was interesting to see that John Leinenkugel and I have similar tastes in beer (malt and hops in balance), though it always varies based on what sounds good at the moment.
That was an awesome post, and I think it added some good perspective and clearly wasn't meant to trash the hardworking kids on our team that we all love.
I have a request, since part of this post is to imagine what next year could be: how about our guys who are out for the year but will be back next year (assuming Angry Michigan XXXX Hating God will allow it)?
Remember this shows correlation, not causality. The NFL is increasingly a passing-dominated league (look at how frequent the 4000 yd seasons are for QBs now) since they are tweaking rules to favor receivers and protect QBs over the last several years.
So I would expect these results. On average, if a team in the NFL can pass, it has a an offense that scores points. If it can't pass, it doesn't have an offense that scores points. Therefore passing competence would correlate logically with winning football games.
I'd expect similar results in CFB just anecdotally since it seems there are more teams running passing spreads and pro-style offenses than three are teams running spread-option-style offenses or option offenses. But there are a good amount of run-dominated offenses out there, so I would think the correlation between passing offense and wins to be a bit weaker than in the NFL while the correlation from run offense to wins is probably a little stronger. Again, because it's a correlation, not necessarily a causation.
I would love to see a projected likelihood of winning each game on the 2010 schedule based on last year's statistics for each team in the Mathlete's expected points system.
Obviously wouldn't be an accurate predictor since neither us nor any opponent should be the exact same team, but I think it would be a very interesting data point.
Then we can pretend that our opponents haven't improved any but we have and imagine how many more wins that would equate to in an expected value predictor system.
This is true except when the person making the robo-call is none other than Lloyd Carr.
I got a call from him yesterday where he intimated to me that Jay Riemersma will make a "tremendous" congressman. I must say that would have made me more likely to vote for him (at least a little) had I been a resident of his potential district.
If I had to pick a worst call from the 2005 Alamo Bowl, since one HAS to make the all-decade list, it would be Henne's "fumble" with his arm moving forward. I remember it being reviewed and saying to my friend "this will get overturned. We can't get burned by the same blown call TWICE in the same season (happened against MSU that year too)" then the call stood as a fumble.
Looking at the amount of players from the West Coast (obviously lots of them) on this list leads me to a question I haven't seen addressed.
If one of these guys wants to go to a Pac 1X team, are they eligible to get a scholarship? I ask because as we all know from the Boren situation, if a player transfers from one Big 10 school to another they are not eligible for a scholarship in the new school.
Does this rule apply across all conferences (specifically the Pac 1X)?
It would seeem that if it does, that would give us a bigger shot a landing a player since they would be much more likely to look at a long-distance move if they're unable to go to another Pac 1X team.
If Rich Rodriguez were to show this video to prospective recruits who are also considering Notre Dame, would he be breaking his pledge of "no negative recruiting"?
I wanted to see more Carrs there...
Good thing nepotism isn't an NCAA recruiting violation. I can't believe we allowed Lloyd Carr to coach both Jason and Willie Carr on the same team!
Since I am detail oriented, I just wanted to point out that where Brian says "Here's a transcript for the detail oriented" there is no link to said transcript.
And the Legg article was AWESOME. That was my Frosh year, and it brought back lots of memories of my early M Hockey fandom, and lots of stuff I didn't know about where Legger learned the shot.
I had always heard from other students at the time that he was a good lacrosse player and that's how he knew how to pull off that shot.
Recent Comments
...
Yes
Raback it.
...
Yes
Hello Mr Elbel, right back atcha!
You should definitely read "Deonetics", all your answers are in there!
This story is 100% Colombian Awesome!
LFG!
Thank you for so much great work Seth!
I want to be hopeful, and last season did suck, but I spent New Years Day 2020 in Orlando watching our team play Alabama in a bowl game in our last 'real' season.
Has anyone compared this year's team against the '19-'20 team to see if we have reason to hope to return to that version of 'normal' this year? Even, dare I hope, going on an upward trajectory from then on?
I Want To Believe
I hear digging but I don't hear chopping...
Craster?
20 years from now:
Damn you, Firestone tires!
I pray that is not really Jesus, but is in fact Angry Michigan BLANK Hating God that is about to get Atomic Elbow'd.
I'm a lifelong fan, and remember about the same span of years as everyone else here, so I'll limit myself to childhood until my last year of High School (roughly 1987 - 1995 teams).
QB: Michael Taylor - First QB I liked & always stuck with me
RB: Ty Wheatley
RB: Tshimanga Biakabutuka
TE: Jay Riemersma - Tuman hadn't mastered the naked bootleg yet
WR: Desmond Howard
WR: Mercury Hayes - narrowly edges Tumor & Derrick Alexander
OL: Jon Runyan
OL: Jon Jansen
OL: Steve Everitt
OL: Greg Skrepenak
OL: Matt Elliott
DL: William Carr
DL: Glen Steele
DL: Mark Messner
DL: Buster Stanley - All time great name
LB: Jarrett Irons
LB: Steve Morrison
LB: Erick Anderson
CB: Frosh Charles Woodson?
CB: Ty Law
S: Tripp Welborne
S: Chuck Winters
K: Remy Hamilton
P: Don't immediately remember any
Turned out to be harder than I thought, but it was a fun exercise.
If you had Joppru on your list you were around for Fat Elvis Tony Pape. He was a good RT.
Could also go with Rueben Riley or Dave Pearson for solid linemen.
Let's not forget one Terrance Taylor.
I remember (but can't find) an article about Mike Martin arriving as a freshman and he and Taylor talking about who was the best wrestler on the team.
I love that Groupthink is one of the choices.
If I see that Groupthink is in the lead I will vote for it!
I think I'll name my next dog Devin Barkner.
that Barwisizing takes time.
Look at our 2 deep on D last year. Truth is we WERE undersized, though not because of the 'small light non-B10 team' BS you cite. I think it was more due to starting so many underclassmen who had yet to go through the combo of Barwis and growing up from 17 to 21 yrs old.
Ah yes. The ol' Hokey-Pokey.
am excited to see all of these guys playing in these new positions at the same time this saturday...
...once we're up by 35 points!
I would like to throw something out there that I haven't seen said.
I was pretty young at the time, but one of my earlier memories of Coach Mo was either 1992 or 1993. Coach Moeller and the other coaches were on the sidelines of the game and the camera kept zooming in on shots of their watch faces with the number 5 on the glass of the face signifying 5 consecutive Big Ten champions. I don't remember if it was '92 and they were going for number 5, or if it was '93 and they were showing that they wanted to defend the 5 championships.
And Coach Moeller was the coach for the last 3 of those 5 straight. Haven't seen anything like that since Moeller's been gone, and like many have mentioned, those years gave us some awesome memories.
Yeah, that Taliban offense is really one-dimensional: all bombs.
/bad joke
Thanks a lot for the reply!
I'm looking forward to getting the equipment and making my first batch.
I'll stop with the OT posts now.
I've clicked through several times in the past month or so to check it out (the name is what got me to click through).
Good stuff. I've been thinking about starting to homebrew and my work internet filter has yet to block your blog as being related to "Alcohol". I'd love to be able to pick your brain sometime once I get up and running.
And it was interesting to see that John Leinenkugel and I have similar tastes in beer (malt and hops in balance), though it always varies based on what sounds good at the moment.
Miso,
That was an awesome post, and I think it added some good perspective and clearly wasn't meant to trash the hardworking kids on our team that we all love.
I have a request, since part of this post is to imagine what next year could be: how about our guys who are out for the year but will be back next year (assuming Angry Michigan XXXX Hating God will allow it)?
T-Wolf, Mike Jones, (Mike Williams?) etc.
I would take a stab at it but I'm at work...
Is it bad then that when I was a student I used to eat awesome food at Rick's and then go get drunk and dance at Tios all the time?
Why is Denard getting mauled by a panther?
I love the spirit of thefaz's post, so let me second it and save any sarcasm.
HOWEVA, please can we stop with the "Big Blue"?
Big Blue is:
And:
And:
And:
And:
And:
And:
And:
And:
And:
OK, so that last one wasn't so bad...
Sorry if this is a little over-the-top but Big Blue is generic and is not and should not be the Univeristy of Michigan.
We have plenty of real names and traditions that we have every right to be proud of, so let's stick to them!
0 is nonnegative too...
I'm not a wonk, but I am an engineer...
Remember this shows correlation, not causality. The NFL is increasingly a passing-dominated league (look at how frequent the 4000 yd seasons are for QBs now) since they are tweaking rules to favor receivers and protect QBs over the last several years.
So I would expect these results. On average, if a team in the NFL can pass, it has a an offense that scores points. If it can't pass, it doesn't have an offense that scores points. Therefore passing competence would correlate logically with winning football games.
I'd expect similar results in CFB just anecdotally since it seems there are more teams running passing spreads and pro-style offenses than three are teams running spread-option-style offenses or option offenses. But there are a good amount of run-dominated offenses out there, so I would think the correlation between passing offense and wins to be a bit weaker than in the NFL while the correlation from run offense to wins is probably a little stronger. Again, because it's a correlation, not necessarily a causation.
telling. VERY telling.
I would love to see a projected likelihood of winning each game on the 2010 schedule based on last year's statistics for each team in the Mathlete's expected points system.
Obviously wouldn't be an accurate predictor since neither us nor any opponent should be the exact same team, but I think it would be a very interesting data point.
Then we can pretend that our opponents haven't improved any but we have and imagine how many more wins that would equate to in an expected value predictor system.
...when she says she doesn't want anything with him, first she says it's because he's "old", then because he's "married".
I love it because I am only "married", so I may still have a shot!
/horrible, creepy joke
Wow. I almost tl;dr'd it until I read the first line & realized it was "The Day the Music Died" so I decided to read on.
Song parodies aren't often very good IMHO but this was awesome! Well done!
Perfectly captures the mood of probably all of us right now.
This is true except when the person making the robo-call is none other than Lloyd Carr.
I got a call from him yesterday where he intimated to me that Jay Riemersma will make a "tremendous" congressman. I must say that would have made me more likely to vote for him (at least a little) had I been a resident of his potential district.
If nothing sucked, and like, everything was cool all the time, then it’s like, how would you know it was cool?
See, it’s like, you need stuff that sucks to have stuff that’s cool.
Huh huh...
How about "sexy"?
If I had to pick a worst call from the 2005 Alamo Bowl, since one HAS to make the all-decade list, it would be Henne's "fumble" with his arm moving forward. I remember it being reviewed and saying to my friend "this will get overturned. We can't get burned by the same blown call TWICE in the same season (happened against MSU that year too)" then the call stood as a fumble.
Obviously not a fan of Dennis Leary...
Barry F'ing Sanders
Looking at the amount of players from the West Coast (obviously lots of them) on this list leads me to a question I haven't seen addressed.
If one of these guys wants to go to a Pac 1X team, are they eligible to get a scholarship? I ask because as we all know from the Boren situation, if a player transfers from one Big 10 school to another they are not eligible for a scholarship in the new school.
Does this rule apply across all conferences (specifically the Pac 1X)?
It would seeem that if it does, that would give us a bigger shot a landing a player since they would be much more likely to look at a long-distance move if they're unable to go to another Pac 1X team.
C'mon David, where's the "Hawk Love"?
CYA
Cleaning Your Abode
Depending on how "cute" you could leave it as CYA to make people think of Cover Your Ass or you could go with C-YA.
I totally thought you were joking with that suggestion, until I realized I was thinking of this guy, who is awesome but probably not an ideal Bond:
John Rhys-Davies
I remember them thusly:
Spur starts w/ S like a SAM LB, so it is analogous to Strong Safety (more run support, etc)
Bandit is the other one, so it is analogous to Free Safety (more deep responsibility, etc)
Franklin Roosevelt could walk?
If Rich Rodriguez were to show this video to prospective recruits who are also considering Notre Dame, would he be breaking his pledge of "no negative recruiting"?
The only thing that can kill Barnes is Barnes.