Recent Comments

I don't know guys...I think everyone will comit to Michigan when it's all said and done.

HOKA HEY! I try and watch all his games and this and the Stanford games were heart stoppers.

Todd Collins wasn't good enough.  Dreisbach wasn't good enough.  Henson wasn't good enough.  Navarre wasn't good enough.  Henne wasn't good enough.  Forcier wasn't good enough.  Denard is not good enough.  Please tell me, when was the last time you were happy with your QB?

He did say Oregon:  Lets get that on the record.  I do think Chip Kelly is different only because he was able to recruit better.  So everything you put in parenthesis is true, but I think RR would evolve to that if he could.  But at WVU and Michigan he never had the opportunity.

Colt Lyerla has a 62" vert....good lord.  See, that makes sense though.  With the crazy amount of money Nike puts into their facilities I would expect world beaters to be on this team at multiple positions.  It confused me when they were only geting 2-3 amazing athletes  on this team.

Here's hoping for 28 unanswered points

Here is what I don't get.  The guy that runs this site watches more game tape than any amateur fan in the country.  This same guy says the best offense he can concieve of is RR's.  So...why are we hating on RR?  Its' not his philosophy.  Is it because how he was treated?  Because he couldn't grab his D-coordinator?  I just don't get it.  

RR is doing his thing,

Hoke is doing his thing.  

Why hate on either guy?

My god, how can you even watch a Penn State game. I watched 2 plays and wanted to fall asleep. Switch it over to CBS.

Rich Rodriguez will.  Go Wildcats

I think those standards hold true for any perennial top 20 team

USC plays so damn hard. These guys block like their about to lose their starting spot if they don't go all out.

Im going to be jacked up for this ND-Sparty game. Then I'll change the channel during commercial to the USC game. After 1 drive I won't be able to go back to the sparty game. Damn the big ten for sucking.

without question.  Our front 7 on D in 2006 was one of the best ever.  It was on a Miami 2001 level.  If we had Rojo and King commit (they were very close) and paired them up with Leon Hall, wow.  That D would've been considered one of the best ever.  Ohio State couldn't have spread us out and that defense would've killed Leak and Tebow.

Meyer, I'm sure, could find a way to make Braxton Miller and Dunn work.  Power inside runs, veer, whatever.  You don't win 2 MNC's and then say "Dunn and Miller...geez, how does that even work?"  And after he gets his Percy Harvin then he'll have Miller, Dunn, and Percy Harvin Clone.  (Fuck!!)  I'm sure he will find a way.  I just hope Dunn likes what he hears on our side more than what he hears from Urban and Co.  Either that or he saw Pipkins on Saturday and decided he wants to live to see 21.

Not just UVA and Tech but Penn State too.  Maryland could easily be a BCS power if they could just build a damn fence around their state and grab a couple of prospects from DC.  That being said, I've attended the University and I have no idea what they sell to recruits on campus lifestyle other than the proximity to DC and Baltimore (ugh).  They have the Under Armour money coming in, so maybe that'll help with facilities.

Great job Heiko...keep up the excellent work.

Zook handled that about as calmly as you could, good for him.

Shannon sounded scared as hell to even ask the question.  She should've just said: "From a football perspective...WHY AREN'T YOU FIRED YET?!?  ....from a football perspective, I mean"

Also, I remember Brian trying to ask technical questions to Rich Rod's staff and they just said "I'm not going to answer that."  Which is understandable.

What's mind-blowing is how Hoke's guys are all about answering these questions.  Does Hoke's regime LIKE how MGoBlog covers the team (covering what happens on the field) or is it more "well shit, they aren't going away, we better treat them with some respect"

I'm liking this 1-2 punch of Brian and Misopogon.  This post made me laugh/snicker the most outside of Brian's stuff.

""We didn't have that the last few years because we didn't have the right guy as coach but we've learned from our own mistakes."

I know I'm so pissed that Jeremy Gallon and Denard Robinson play for our team.  And that offensive line?  I mean Taylor Lewan who schools like USC missed on until late in the recruiting year....and Omameh and Christian Pace?  WTF RICH ROD?

And how do you explain the destruction of Brandon Graham under RR and Barwis?  Andy Reid said he was impressed with BG's core and technique, sure...but Reid is nothing more than an NFL coach.  Rich Rod was a plant from that school in Ohio, book it.

Big mistake....I can already feel the headache setting in

 Never in the history of this blog have I seen such chaos on the board since after this years Ohio State game with countless "Coaching Change" threads hour after hour. 

You must've missed the RoJo fiasco...

"[Some poeple] think we might be going west (Harbaugh) I think we might go in a different direction" (I WANT TO BUILD VOLTRON!!!!!)

Enough said.

Watch his press conference and interview from this past week.  He had me pumped for this game since Wednesday.  It's a good day to die gentlemen.

RR went hard after Molk when he was coaching at WVU.  RR is building a machine and Molk is the fucking metal chest.

Give me 21 starting 2 star recruits and 1 Jeremy Gallon, and I'll see you in the BCS championship game.

I want to see Jeremy Gallon do everything except play NT. Not because he can't handle it, but because we are thin at Center right now

I went to Quince Orchard...which HS did you goto...watkins mill?

doesn't he workout with Barwis' staff during the off-season?

I'm with you on this one. Coaching wise I haven't seen evidence that CB would be our savior.

Recruiting wise: Doesn't our LB coach only have responsibility for 2 positions: Mike and Will? I would imagine the block M, ALONE, would get us good enough recruits for those 2 positions.

...CA S Sean Parker are longshots for Michigan...

He does have an Oregon visit (and USC, but a poster claimed he wants out of CA) upcoming which is a little scary...but "longshot"? Didn't he say we were his best visit so far?

But Fitz is the #1 WR IME.

So many "star athletes" just don't have the willpower to get out there and work as hard as they can to get a starting spot.

What exactly are you basing this on...

Even Sheridan looked improved in the small amount of snaps he got. Not skill wise, but more tempo wise. The offense was going at a smooth pace...and he was even making some adjustments at the line. I thought that was very promising to see in terms of Forcier's potential at the helm next year.

is handling this well

haha, +1 sir. I myself would be studying for my pharmacy law test.

This kid is ruining LIVES right now...

1. To see Jeremy Gallon go OFF. Roy has locked up a spot, but Gallon has to see the field soon. His hype tape was ridiculous.
2. 0 walk-ons on the defense for the entire year
3. Ezeh on the bench
4. A game in January
5. Tate starts every game

tl;dr, not diary worthy.

If you visited UCLA you would know. That campus is amazing. Plus the girls, weather, etc.

A better question would be...how have they managed to suck for this long?

4. Insistence on throwing the ball. The strength of this offense is in its running game. Minor, Brown, Shaw, Grady, etc. should be fed the ball. Going 5-wide with a mediocre offensive line and a fidgety freshman QB is ridiculous. Play with a tight end and run up the middle. Run the stretch play. Run from the I-formation and get some play action passes.

I'm wondering if this is for recruiting purposes. Maybe he's made some promises/comments that we will be a balanced offense and not just a spread n shred running team. I too agree we are incredibly successful running it, but there has to be a reason we throw as much as we do. Since I don't see reasons on the field for doing this, I'm thinking the reasons are for the recruiting trail

I just checked out the website...I'm liking the sound of this place. How much are dances? Champagne rooms?

College Park, MD had a couple but they really sucked...not sure if they are still in business.

We hit up Hustler in Baltimore every now and then, last time was for the MD-California game.

Yes I have a sister. And I know where you are going with that...if that's how you feel, fair enough, don't attend one.

Damn, no alcohol = Strip Club FAIL. Thanks for the heads up...

Holy God...

Things like that put our recent 2 game skid in perspective for me. I couldn't imagine the state of mind I would be in if we ever got jobbed like that. I'm not even mad about that dropped punt against Iowa now.

Tate has 1 of every 3 girls that reside in Ann Arbor. I only have Gentleman's Jack. I love Tate...but fuck that, I'm the one that needs your support.

Because once Gallon gets on the field, holy shit it's so over.

Scott Loeffler does not fail. He has molded an infallible machine. Tate Forcier gains 300% knowledge from watching Henne warm up. Watch for Adrian Arrington to make the team next year just off of Henne's influence. Henne for GM and QB in 2010.

How do you even get angry with seats that close to the field? If I ever got seats that good I would just stfu and pay attention to the game.

.............................wow, what a great interview. We just had Eli Manning on........................................................in case you missed it, he told me, "We have to win football games" Amazing interview. Let's go to the phones:

"Yeah Jim...that interview was amazing. All you New York Giants haters out there...watch out, we comin for YOU!!"

........................'All you New York Giants haters out there'....rack em. Amazing interview with Eli Manning just happened. What a great interview. When we come back, we're going to take more of your calls and then we're going to talk about that great interview with Eli. You're in the jungle.

------------

fuck Rome.

I want a UFR by TONIGHT. No excuses Brian...are you ALL IN or not?

Last I checked the injury report, Craig Roh and ALL IN were good to go...Michigan will be just fine.

As far as Te'o...18 years old AT Michigan against some of the fastest athletes in the country with Rich Rod orchestrating the plays....he's about to get an education.

THE KNOWLEDGE has an email account?

Lloyd said he'll do whatever it takes to help out this program. He and RR talk on the golf course and have said on numerous occasions that they have a good line of communication.

LC didn't freak out over these allegations...he sees the big picture on things. Combine that with the fact that he hates most of the media and you have a plausible answer as to why LC stayed silent on the issue. I think LC figured this would pass without his help. He knows winning cures all.

oh...shit. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm still excited about the win, and I still think ND fields a lot of bad athletes...but that does temper my expectations just a bit.

Savoy ran a bad route. Look at it. Nick looked his way first, then had to bail out when nothing was there...later he talked to him on the sidelines about it.

RB and Slot on either side of the field both ran wheel routes. The 2 outside WRs looked like they were supposed to stem upfield and then cut towards the middle on a post/dig. Matthews did, but Savoy didn't. Even if it was an option route, Savoy had the middle of the field wide open to run to.

I could be wrong but that INT looked to be mainly on Savoy not Nick.

Didn't we own ND's d-line last year with our run blocking? If McGuff put a hurtin on them, then ND don't want it with Minor...

#72 and #71 were missing blocks at the 2nd level in the run game. Molk and Schilling were hitting all theirs though, especially Steve...he mauled a few guys. The number 1 thing I would look for is can our tackles play in space.

...he's kinda awesome. His passion/intensity comes across as real, not manufactured...and he's a X's and O's analyst first unlike most others that work for the WWL.

Craig James, whose calling our game, is a little arrogant and SEC loving for my taste. (but he just defended RR this morning, so I'll tolerate him for today)

what the hell are you even saying? There needs to be a 1 year ban on using the terms "tradition" and "values" on this board because people just throw those words around without even thinking.

And you misspelled Rodriguez, made assumptions you can't back up, and can't even define "Michigan Man". Maybe it's because I grew up in Maryland and don't understand, or maybe it's this Gentleman's Jack in me talking, but fuck this "Michigan Man" talk. NO ONE CARES. It's all about football, not meaningless catchphrases. Also, fuck tradition...I like winning more. RR was hired in part to help us win the big OOC games, and he's going to do just that. Our players work too damn hard to not succeed. I hope you catch E. Coli

I'll cosign on this. I went to College Park...football saturdays were not something to look forward too. That being said MD stays getting top athletes:

Last 2 or 3 years ALONE:

Pass Catchers: Vernon Davis, Heyward-Bey

CBs: Dominique Foxworth, Travis Hawkins (RR recruited him last year), Josh Wilson (2nd rounder Seahawks), Kevin Barnes (3rd round, Redskins)

OL: Gaither and Heyer, STARTING LT and RT in the NFL respectively. Fridge, former OL himself, recruits some big dudes and coaches them up.

LBs: D'Qwell Jackson and EJ Henderson: 100+ tackling machines.

The 2 things standing in MD's way from being BCS contenders every year, is QB play (how in the world do they not recruit better QBs is beyond me) and Penn State. PSU stays recruiting the hell out of MD.

I can't believe he'll improve based on off-season chatter...he'll f' up, BUT with safety help behind him this year...hopefully. That might help him recover mentally quicker after a mistake, maybe that's been part of the problem in the past.

Could the coaches just be moving Graham around to give him the best match ups? I guess they like him best on the RT if there isn't a TE and if there is then they put him on the LT?

I really hope that's the case...BG at the WDE lined up wide outside the LT...oh man. I don't like the idea of him having to worry about double teams on the strong side. I understand the concern with BG playing in space, but I'm sure we could scheme around that. You can cover the 'flat' zone with say...Mouton at WLB while BG embarrasses whatever fat slab of meat is in front of him...

And what's the deal with RVB...Is he going to predominately be a 3-tech? I'd assume we'd switch him to SDE from time to time...he'd be a PERFECT fit for handling the C gap while handling run-stoppage duties. Martin could play the 3-tech with the French Canadian/Campbell handing A...

Or we run the 1-4-6 with Zoltan at NT.

That pretty much answers everything, thanks...

Seeing the USC pics puts it in a clearer perspective

"calm down" is an appropriate phrase to be used on this board...

this is not one of those times...

If you watched that video, you should be crying at your desk right now. Partly because of how beautiful he plays the game, and partly because you are now incredibly depressed.

FUCKER.

I was expecting J.T. to be on a Sean Taylor-Fuck. Shit. Up.-level...this one hurts.

It looks like he questioned the power of Zoltan...and was humbled.

I believe the contract is if ABC isn't showing it in your area then it will be on ESPN/ESPN2. At least that's how it worked out last year for us in the DC area.

Agreed, True Blood has a long way to go before it is even in the same realm as The Wire it terms of greatness. The 1st season of True Blood was kinda boring, but it has really stepped up this season.

I'll take a flier on USC until we prove that we can win our conference first. I always thought USC struggled with the spread option (Dixon, Young and Pryor last year in spot duty)...so it would be an intriguing match up...perhaps later on though.

Didn't we lose 1 or 2 recruits to the 'secondary' Florida schools? Lets get one of them up here...plus Martin won't have to cry about a home-and-home.

Otherwise I'd take Arkansas...just to see us out-run a SEC school sideline to sideline and then see ESPN commentators cry as everything they understood crumbles away and their universe shatters.

good thing for Wolverine Historian.

They just showed the 2003 texas-ttech game...TTech looked a lot like what I envision Michigan to be this year. A whole bunch of fast little buggers in the slot (Welker, Henderson, etc.) and also playing RB. Those little guys were breaking ankles out there...and not just any ankles...I'm talkin about guys like Derrick Johnson.

Pretty exciting possibilities to consider...

"The Salton Sea" with Val Kilmer

Nic Cage gets shitted on a lot, and rightfully so, but "Weatherman" was straight

Nothing wrong with that. Miami stayed fucking teams up...their "thugs" were just hungry crazy bastards that wanted to kill their opponents...I'll take half a dozen please.

I currently live in Winchester, VA (20 min outside West Virginia)...I work with a pharmacist who knows Pat White's mom and few of the WVU players...apparently RRod is a thug himself in the sense that he sleeps around, curses the hell out of his players etc. etc.....But who cares? RR knows what he's doing and is aware of the type of personalities he's bringing in. Brian already touched up on this...the mentality of players his staff gets includes a handful of crazy fuckers that will run all day in probably the hardest S&C program in the country....and come gameday they should be flying all over the place, hitting harder than normal, and just overall be playing out of their minds.

I got a customized Edwards #1 jersey. They don't regulate the names like you think they would. All that being said, the cut of the jersey kinda sucked...disproportionate sleeves, etc.

appreciate the heads up

RR's running game worked just fine with Minor. It's hard to judge the passing game given the lack of experience at QB. I figure this year we should have a pretty good running game...until Minor gets hurt.

The speed he's brought to our team is something I wouldn't trade for anything. OSU and PSU still can't run with certain teams. I thought our D-line was vastly improved with it's lateral speed. Can't wait to see how they look this year.

I suppose we should expect a lot of 3 man fronts...

I'm wondering if other schools were saying our D will be heavy on the 3 man fronts and that scared away the 2 prospects. Either way...now we have to lean toward the 3 man lines vs the 4 even more so...right?

I'd rather play for Butch Davis if I was a DL, and not a die hard Michigan fan...and he's from SC? I don't see how we beat out UNC for Montgomery. Hopefully he's a sucker for tradition.

Size AND speed usually comes from upper echelon recruits...yes that would be nice. But if we can't reach a USC level of recruiting, I say recruit all the little buggers we can.

haha

Well Marty Odoms avoided losing brain cells all season. Plus we are recruiting plenty of depth at these positions to avoid being burned by any single injury. I still say this is the way to go and has been since the early 90's.

speed > size. I don't want to see any size anywhere at any skill position.

Y'all still talk about "wearing defenses down with big backs". FUCK THAT...I'm sick and tired of that philosophy. Miami did it right first and now we're following the blueprint: smaller, quicker guys playing at a high intensity.

You want Nebraska of the mid-90's? Go cheer for Wisconsin, see where that gets you.

Amen. That turnpike is the worst drive ever. That and the fact that Philly and Pitt suck as cities...it's a worse state than Ohio...and I've been to both.

And why the hell are there so many damn Steeler fans in the D.C. area? GET THE HELL OUT.

Go Cards.

ok...got the adblocker and used the easylist filter. All is well now. Back to my grey goose. Damn there is a lot of traffic out right now.

How about acquiring the Bengals or Lions 2010 1st rounder at whatever cost so you could get Taylor Mays:

http://www.pe.com/imagesdaily/2007/09-29/usctlp23zb_1_400.jpg

they are in this offense. Some rookie QBs rely on the middle of the field and TE's...we do bubble screens to the tiny slot guy. Which is fine and all...but it'll be a couple years before we get a Shaun King or Colt McCoy. By then there will be Stonum, Jackson and Miller on the outside...that's plenty! Plus Clemons and J.R. are only going to get better.

I still don't understand why outside WR is listed as a position of need. Our WR's are primarily blockers right now while the QB position matures. As far as route running skill guys go...Stonum is fine for now until the 2010 kids come in.

As far as LBs go...it looks like we're sticking S/LB hybrids in there. A stud MLB would be nice, but the only positions I'm stressing over is 1 more corner and a capable dual threat QB. Period.

I really think this is an issue of speed, not X's and O's philosophy. Stopping QBs like Pryor should continue...unless they all learn to play fake like Juice of 2008, then...um, shit.

Miami (FL) and Auburn are the only 2 schools I can think of that consistently stop a mobile QB out of the spread....and their S&C programs are predicated on speed, specifically with the d-line. In the case of Auburn, they went as far as to put in 199 lb guys at LB. Our incoming S/LB recruits appear to fit this philosophy.

Other top notch programs like LSU and USC still struggle with mobile QB's out of the spread...and, from what I've seen, I don't think they don't emphasize speed up front the way Michigan, Miami and Auburn do.

at the rate we're throwing the ball? Nobody for a while. If Stonum can't get it with Tate throwing him the ball the next 3-4 years, then I don't see who will...unless they lower the standards.

man that was a boring read.

So a 3 man front even though we recruited a ridiculous D-line? I don't see it happening...but I could be wrong.

point well taken...but them down South boys and everyone else that Rich Rod is bringing in don't give a fuck. They ready to unleash that Pahokee aggression on unsuspecting fools.

McGuff and Boren are just 2 examples. What about TTaylor, B. Graham, Will Johnson, Odoms, et al? They LOVE them some Rich Rodriguez. This kind of sick workout mentality will bring about a certian type of team in the years to follow. One that is so incredibly different that even with it's sucuess, won't revolutionize the Big Ten's ways...because how the hell do you mimic this?

So, good luck to McGuff (not Boren) but this is a movement we are embarking on. WAR WOLVERINE.

Also, at least they granted the kid a 'no restriction' transfer.

If we get Campbell then you can add one more star to all our LB recruits.

And that starting 3 of Mouton-Ezeh-Fitzgerald is pretty damn good. I say throw size out the window and get the fastest LBs possible to fill out the 2 deep. We'll be fine.

that OSU UFR is going to be hard to get motivated to do. With nothing pending for Michigan football outside of recruiting, you could push that UFR back all the way to next year.

Good luck!

We held Pryor to -7 yards rushing...I think that's pretty huge. Stopping a running QB out the spread is something we had yet to do. RR's staff has brought some speed to this defense.

Literal LOL

There were the last team out there that reminded me of our final Carr years.  It was therapeutic to watch them be stuck in mediocrity, without a chance of winning it all...but still getting just enough recruits to give them hope.

To see that kind of team from the outside looking in...oh man, it was good while it lasted.

The dashboard is what lets Brian link the videos on his UFR (or any other posts that he wants to link videos too)

It shouldn't be showing up for anyone other than Brian and whoever he's invited to be able to use apture on this website.  This is probably a glitch with apture...I'm assuming.

ha...if he picks Maryland, I'm going to go to all there games with my MD sweatshirt (I went there for a year) and BOO THE HELL OUT OF HIM.  He'll begin to hate Maryland fans and transfer within the year.  Or not even hear me, whichever.

Oh.  that.

 Well the state and university are still garbage.  If academics really matter then it's a no brainer he comes here...unless by academics he means he wants to be a Park Ranger.

I like the last "question" that really drove the point home about 'hey, our facilities are great too.'  You could tell Hawkins tried to dodge it though.

Why are we talking about Fragel?  Who is he?  I don't even want anyone to answer that question.  If I actually find out who he is, that will be precious brain space dedicated to my memory of Adam Stenavich wasted and gone.