Wrong album, but yes, that was the first thing I thought of too.
On After the Gold Rush -- I did not know this before today, but much of the album was inspired by a now-lost screenplay with the same title, a California-apocalypse film. Here's what the author, Dean Stockwell, said about it, “Really what was in my mind was that the gold rush in effect created California. And the film took place on the day California was supposed to go into the ocean. So that’s what happened after the gold rush.”
So the lyrics of the title song make sense in that context, and Alex's use of it here seems very much on point. Michigan fans were all "lyin' in a burned-out basement, with a full M00N in [our] eyes" for quite a while there, but now we're the chosen ones, in spaceships, "flying Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun" ...
That said, I myself tend to dream of competent quarterback play. It’s been elusive in recent years, like one of those dreams where you don’t ever quite make it to your destination.
Unfortunately, “transparency,” in these United States, means the doctors and scientists who are responsible for these recommendations would have to hire security for themselves and their families. So it’s not quite as simple as those calling for it make it sound.
You’ve identified the problem, but you’re ignoring it. You and Harbaugh are correct that the football players would likely benefit from the team’s organized approach during the season, but that’s not the problem. The problem is that the university is going to have students on campus at all — the whole damn thing is insane. People are going to make bad decisions. This is true even in countries that have successfully controlled the spread, but here in the US we have not done so. That’s just a fact.
The university is moving forward and it is going to try to create a closed environment, to make contact tracing effective. I think it is folly, but I understand why it has to happen. If anyone can do it, it’s Michigan.
In sum, the question isn’t whether the football team can complete its season with students on campus, the question is whether the university can complete its semester with students on campus.
I can think of ways a season could have happened, like playing every two weeks and having the team isolate for the first week after each game. But even that blows up if the campus has to shut down.
The players aren’t going home, right? The great social experiment that is the Fall semester is still on at Michigan, right?
Princeton was going to open, but they have backtracked and cancelled Fall in-person classes. I don’t know about other schools, but I suspect this will be the reality.
Even if the $10M doesn’t currently generate enough for thirty full-ride law scholarships, it should still all be used for that purpose, to fund full-ride scholarships.
In agreements of this kind, it’s illegal for OSU to do anything else with the money. So the “development fees” loophole must be written into the agreement. The fact the family isn’t simply suing the University tells us that. [They aren’t, right? I didn’t read everything.] Instead, SOL, they’re trying to shame them into doing the right thing.
If I’m OSU, step one is to fire the major-gift officer who is assigned to this family. No way it should ever have come to this. Step two is to go to them with a draft of a revised agreement that eliminates the loophole, in exchange for the recognition that it isn’t enough for thirty scholarships, but all of the income will go to students. Step three is to embrace this thing. The horse is out of the barn.
The thing that folks don’t seem to get is that young people do experience symptoms. Some of them end up in the hospital fighting for their lives. Just because few die, doesn’t mean some won’t go through hell. All of the patients who hold the records for things like “longest stay in the ICU” (63 days was the silver medal at one major hospital a month ago) in the NYC area are younger people under 35. Older folks lose that fight.
People that age don’t usually die, but they do end up in the hospital and in the ICU. It’s just that they are healthy and strong so they don’t die. It doesn’t mean they don’t use care and resources.
So they do have to be accounted for. You could let it rip through the student population and a relatively small number would actually die, but the hospital system would still be overwhelmed and healthcare workers would still die. Not to mention older people who wouldn’t be able to get the care they need because the hospital is already full of young people.
Second this — this is the big story — do some serious journalism about what’s happening now within the university and the athletic department — add that to the usual stuff and you’re all set.
Agreed, it’s not so hard to follow — it’s a dream so don’t expect closure — also Phil Martelli is a bellwether — the flock does what he does (the term comes from shepherding) — he somehow encapsulates everything that is heartening about Michigan Basketball under Juwan.
Most problems with the CF postseason could be solved with one simple rule: all programs that wish to be in the playoff or a bowl must compete in a conference.
The "mistake" was "last year" ... so it would seem by "last summer" he means this past summer.
Obviously he knew it was against the rules. Everything else is guesswork.
I'll predict it was a "let's call it a loan" envelope for his family's trip to the Rose Bowl, and they chose to pay it back so he wouldn't owe this guy anything. The irony will be that he got caught only because they paid it back.
There’s a clue to the answer to this question in Blackwell’s complaint. The part where he describes the way Dantonio handled this guy once they had him on campus. Basically he just met with him weekly — so we can see that Dantonio is used to having tremendous power over these guys — he seems to have thought that he could control this guy just by meeting with him individually, that he could use his power over his NFL future to manipulate him into not being a rapist or something like that. It’s an arrogant and foolish point of view, as anyone who works with deeply troubled people could have told him. But no, he’s God almighty at MSU. He doesn’t see that all his power and virtue comes from his position, not from some inherent natural ability.
My wife and her brother are going to the Badger game. They’ll be two dots of blue 20 rows up behind the Michigan bench.
When we bought the tickets (she is flying in, a present for her brother who lives in Madison), we were thinking it would be special game, between two really good teams.
Now I don’t know what to think. I guess I lean toward Harbaugh having a sink or swim attitude in the Army game — we’re not going to bail you out, you have to execute.
Wisconsin hasn’t been tested. Michigan has. May that be the difference in a tough road game.
The only thing I can figure is it was an opportunity to have the team execute under pressure — if he calls a timeout, they get used to being bailed out from the sideline.
Sometimes you don’t have any timeouts. I think against any B1G team or ND he calls a timeout there.
I kinda hope they go all-in with it, just to watch people melt down here as they develop it.
I actually think it’s okay to use people named McCaffrey as wideouts, but they need to stay with it. If it’s just an experiment that we never see again, I don’t get it.
I’m okay with doing it if and only if it’s also going to be something they do when it matters. If so, then they need to keep running it in games until they are comfortable with it. They did not look comfortable with it last night. Nonetheless, and maybe I’m old, but a guy named McCaffery catching passes doesn’t sound like a terrible idea to me.
I’m not okay with doing it if it’s just something they want to force opponents to prepare for, and they’re not serious about making it work. It can’t be a gimmick. It has to be real.
The “I don’t fully understand this part of my journey...” comment sounds like whatever they found, it’s scary, and there is uncertainty about what will happen.
I’ll guess a medical redshirt this year as they wait and see.
He’s beyond high character, into natural leader and role model territory. The Heat brought him on as a stabilizing element and he basically functioned as a player-assistant coach (you can’t be both in the NBA, not on paper) for them even before he retired. And before that his old teams were bringing him back late in his career because they understood his value in that respect. So he’s got more like ten years of pretty unique experience as an assistant. He’s ready.
I know nothing, but to me most of the following statement about scoring in isolation moves seems aimed at Poole:
“... But it's not Step-back University. It's how do we take the ball to basket, how do we pivot — it's the whole thing because some of our guys have just that one move (step-back jumper). With two seconds to go, it's probably the only shot you can get but there are other ways, like get to the foul line. ... we have to get better at it.”
Not fictional, though O’Brian seems to have added the “straight” ... I’m fairly certain it is attributed to Nelson by Lord Cochrane, so the way it is portrayed in the novels is accurate. (Google failed me just now — I’ll come back and edit if I find the citation.)
“Never mind maneuvers, always go straight at ’em.”
That seems about right for Harbaugh. The quote is featured throughout the Aubrey/Matarin novels, including the first one, MasterandCommander. It’s a real Nelson quote, said to Lord Cochrane, who is the inspiration for Jack Aubrey in the novels.
! I’d never heard of The Rasmus, so thanks for that, but as for Erasmus he’s awesome and I’ve been told I look Dutch but the name comes from my Danish grandfather Rasmus Rasmussen. If I’d had a son, he’d have gotten the name, but it didn’t happen.
The first paragraph implies he accepted the medical hardship waiver, which means he can’t play again. Pipkins turned it down.
[Edit: ninja’ed since it apparently took me fourteen minutes to write that, working on a clever comment that said “Exit:” isn’t the right tag but then I couldn’t think of anything better ...]
Fishgoblue has it about right in terms of what to expect. Although those first two run times feel like something may have been cut out under HBO’s new ownership.
In simple terms, it’s the medieval world if its fantasies actually existed, like dragons, direwolves, and various forms of sourcery. As for stories, basically Winter is coming in the form of a massive army of the undead led by the products of a catastrophic mistake made long ago. In the front lines against it are the two surviving descendants of a family with a mystical link to dragons, one of whom knows of her heritage while the other does not. Surrounding them are a cast of characters who have survived seven rounds of death and treachery, most of whom will probably die.
Alex, it would be helpful if the last paragraph of these tourney recaps contained a bit more information, like when the next game will be played — “the second game in the Saturday doubleheader” doesn’t give me quite enough data to plan my complicated day today, so I have to go find the info elsewhere. I’d rather just get it here...
Actually that seems quite a bit worse than corporate-sponsor excess. Like completely insane to the point where I wonder if it is in fact true.
I can see offering discounts on hockey tickets if you have football tickets, and vice-versa, but requiring hockey fans to buy football seats is just plain weird.
Thanks for doing this. I can't say I've ever tried to think like this -- for me, the number of Q1 wins is the most important thing, as it means you've shown you can win against tournament-worthy competition, and not just as a fluke. So you deserve a shot at the crown.
So Team B's 6 Q1 wins put them at the top of the list. Bad losses are less troubling for me, because all teams take time to develop in this era.
On that note, I'll say I think Michigan's development as a team has been masked this season by its early success. It was a weird sort of perfect storm of Iggy's breakout start (before opponents had figured him out) and the rest of the starters' + Livers' experience giving CC and DDJ time to develop in practice while not being exposed in games. Then Iggy has to go through an adjustment period, but by then Beilein has the luxury of not really having to worry about the bubble and he can continue teaching and experimenting with different combinations on the floor. By the time CM gets injured in the first MSU game, the team is pretty well set for March.
Now we just have to pray Charles will be back because with him this is a Final Four team. Without him, all bets are off since it really depends on some measure of luck with regard to matchups, referees, and opposing coaches.
Another factor recently mentioned by Beilein is fatigue = poor decision making, which presumably raises the probability of fouling. Autobench helps mitigate that risk factor as well.
He won’t be back before the B1G tournament, even if the boot was just a precaution. He will want to play but given the real need for minutes if the freshmen are truly going to replace Davis and Brooks going forward I just can’t see it. If M controlled its own destiny for the regular-season championship, then yes, but as it stands, getting the freshmen some real under-pressure game experience seems like a good idea. A healthy, rested Matthews and upgrades at the last two spots in the rotation? Yes, please.
Beilein sent a message to the freshmen when he played all of them at the start of the season — you are not redshirting and we are going to need you, so get to work. This is the exam. These two upcoming games should be quite interesting.
Helpful, thanks. Re: observation 1: Livers may still be fragile, which could explain the minutes. At the very end he was limping to take those free throws and Beilein got Iggy up but then Livers made both shots and they could just let it play out.
Beilein is walking a fine line on Livers — to keep him sharp without aggravating the injury — it’s a blessing that the alternative to Livers is Iggy who is still learning and needs as much playing time against good competition as he can get. But at the end of close games against good teams I think we’ll see more of the five we saw yesterday — that’s Michigan’s “ending” team (as opposed to the “starting” team).
An OSU defensive UFR would be instructive, especially with regard to what happened when Bush went out. Just how important is that position to Brown’s schemes. We hear a lot of talk about his Viper, but it seems like stellar linebacker play is even more critical for the system to work as designed.
I’d like to see it for the preseason content. Maybe enough time will have passed by then so I could look at it. Maybe, maybe not. Probably not...
Your last bit is true, but it’s also true Day is hiring multiple coaches from a defense that has consistently been one of the best in college football for the past three years.
I don’t see what is so confusing or weird about that. One bad game in which the lynchpin of that defense was knocked out doesn’t change the overall fact. OSU wants in on what Michigan has been doing on defense — how can these hires be read any other way?
Impressive game — I’m not quite sure where the steadiness is coming from, but at this point I think we can say it is a real thing.
It’s not just Simpson — I think it’s the experience of last year's tournament runs, plus the B1G tourney run the year before. This is a tough, battle-tested core.
Recent Comments
Wrong album, but yes, that was the first thing I thought of too.
On After the Gold Rush -- I did not know this before today, but much of the album was inspired by a now-lost screenplay with the same title, a California-apocalypse film. Here's what the author, Dean Stockwell, said about it, “Really what was in my mind was that the gold rush in effect created California. And the film took place on the day California was supposed to go into the ocean. So that’s what happened after the gold rush.”
So the lyrics of the title song make sense in that context, and Alex's use of it here seems very much on point. Michigan fans were all "lyin' in a burned-out basement, with a full M00N in [our] eyes" for quite a while there, but now we're the chosen ones, in spaceships, "flying Mother Nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun" ...
https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-stories-behind-the-songs-neil-young-after-the-gold-rush
Has got to be #2, and the reality-based list is damn short if AAU is a requirement. Basically just Virginia, Pittsburgh, Kansas, and Iowa State.
The SEC will do pods, which is the only way to do it. My preference would be Virginia and Pittsburgh, because it makes for the best pod for Michigan:
Rutgers, Penn State, Maryland, Virginia
Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Pittsburgh
Illinois, Northwestern, Indiana, Purdue
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska
That…
You missed the point.
That said, I myself tend to dream of competent quarterback play. It’s been elusive in recent years, like one of those dreams where you don’t ever quite make it to your destination.
Unfortunately, “transparency,” in these United States, means the doctors and scientists who are responsible for these recommendations would have to hire security for themselves and their families. So it’s not quite as simple as those calling for it make it sound.
This ^
Don’t underestimate the gravity of what he’s facing in Oxford, trying to run his program in a state that has an active outbreak going on.
Lafayette County is doing better than much of the state, but still:
https://covidactnow.org/us/ms/county/lafayette_county
You’ve identified the problem, but you’re ignoring it. You and Harbaugh are correct that the football players would likely benefit from the team’s organized approach during the season, but that’s not the problem. The problem is that the university is going to have students on campus at all — the whole damn thing is insane. People are going to make bad decisions. This is true even in countries that have successfully controlled the spread, but here in the US we have not done so. That’s just a fact.
The university is moving forward and it is going to try to create a closed environment, to make contact tracing effective. I think it is folly, but I understand why it has to happen. If anyone can do it, it’s Michigan.
In sum, the question isn’t whether the football team can complete its season with students on campus, the question is whether the university can complete its semester with students on campus.
I can think of ways a season could have happened, like playing every two weeks and having the team isolate for the first week after each game. But even that blows up if the campus has to shut down.
The players aren’t going home, right? The great social experiment that is the Fall semester is still on at Michigan, right?
Princeton was going to open, but they have backtracked and cancelled Fall in-person classes. I don’t know about other schools, but I suspect this will be the reality.
Even if the $10M doesn’t currently generate enough for thirty full-ride law scholarships, it should still all be used for that purpose, to fund full-ride scholarships.
In agreements of this kind, it’s illegal for OSU to do anything else with the money. So the “development fees” loophole must be written into the agreement. The fact the family isn’t simply suing the University tells us that. [They aren’t, right? I didn’t read everything.] Instead, SOL, they’re trying to shame them into doing the right thing.
If I’m OSU, step one is to fire the major-gift officer who is assigned to this family. No way it should ever have come to this. Step two is to go to them with a draft of a revised agreement that eliminates the loophole, in exchange for the recognition that it isn’t enough for thirty scholarships, but all of the income will go to students. Step three is to embrace this thing. The horse is out of the barn.
Question 19 is key — who has oversight, and do they have the power to pull the plug?
This is a response to borninAA’s selection of Thud as Pratchett’s masterpiece. I would choose Night Watch instead.
Also, someone was asking about good YA books — Pratchett’s The Wee Free Men and Hat Full of Sky are very fine.
In addition to the OP, here’s a link to a good summary of the two recent Nature articles, focused on antibodies and “shield immunity” :: https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/06/immunity-to-covid-19-may-wane-just-2-3-months-after-infection-study-suggests/
The thing that folks don’t seem to get is that young people do experience symptoms. Some of them end up in the hospital fighting for their lives. Just because few die, doesn’t mean some won’t go through hell. All of the patients who hold the records for things like “longest stay in the ICU” (63 days was the silver medal at one major hospital a month ago) in the NYC area are younger people under 35. Older folks lose that fight.
People that age don’t usually die, but they do end up in the hospital and in the ICU. It’s just that they are healthy and strong so they don’t die. It doesn’t mean they don’t use care and resources.
So they do have to be accounted for. You could let it rip through the student population and a relatively small number would actually die, but the hospital system would still be overwhelmed and healthcare workers would still die. Not to mention older people who wouldn’t be able to get the care they need because the hospital is already full of young people.
Second this — this is the big story — do some serious journalism about what’s happening now within the university and the athletic department — add that to the usual stuff and you’re all set.
Agreed, it’s not so hard to follow — it’s a dream so don’t expect closure — also Phil Martelli is a bellwether — the flock does what he does (the term comes from shepherding) — he somehow encapsulates everything that is heartening about Michigan Basketball under Juwan.
https://youtu.be/X7ymriMhoj0
Running game did what it needed to do. Both of the Collins-only drives were punctuated by four-yard runs that kept the defense honest.
McKeon also got a play in the end zone on the field goal drive, but he was covered and the throw was high.
Most problems with the CF postseason could be solved with one simple rule: all programs that wish to be in the playoff or a bowl must compete in a conference.
The "mistake" was "last year" ... so it would seem by "last summer" he means this past summer.
Obviously he knew it was against the rules. Everything else is guesswork.
I'll predict it was a "let's call it a loan" envelope for his family's trip to the Rose Bowl, and they chose to pay it back so he wouldn't owe this guy anything. The irony will be that he got caught only because they paid it back.
We acknowledge the /s, but you've got that wrong. It's as follows:
When Michigan destroys unbeaten #1 Ohio State, none of this will matter.
There’s a clue to the answer to this question in Blackwell’s complaint. The part where he describes the way Dantonio handled this guy once they had him on campus. Basically he just met with him weekly — so we can see that Dantonio is used to having tremendous power over these guys — he seems to have thought that he could control this guy just by meeting with him individually, that he could use his power over his NFL future to manipulate him into not being a rapist or something like that. It’s an arrogant and foolish point of view, as anyone who works with deeply troubled people could have told him. But no, he’s God almighty at MSU. He doesn’t see that all his power and virtue comes from his position, not from some inherent natural ability.
My wife and her brother are going to the Badger game. They’ll be two dots of blue 20 rows up behind the Michigan bench.
When we bought the tickets (she is flying in, a present for her brother who lives in Madison), we were thinking it would be special game, between two really good teams.
Now I don’t know what to think. I guess I lean toward Harbaugh having a sink or swim attitude in the Army game — we’re not going to bail you out, you have to execute.
Wisconsin hasn’t been tested. Michigan has. May that be the difference in a tough road game.
Two, if I recall correctly.
The only thing I can figure is it was an opportunity to have the team execute under pressure — if he calls a timeout, they get used to being bailed out from the sideline.
Sometimes you don’t have any timeouts. I think against any B1G team or ND he calls a timeout there.
Thanks. I was thinking that. Not that the game should have been so close, just that Army looked like a good team that makes very few mistakes.
70th. See Bambi’s comment above. Also Seth’s response on how he approaches FFFF, and why.
I kinda hope they go all-in with it, just to watch people melt down here as they develop it.
I actually think it’s okay to use people named McCaffrey as wideouts, but they need to stay with it. If it’s just an experiment that we never see again, I don’t get it.
I’m okay with doing it if and only if it’s also going to be something they do when it matters. If so, then they need to keep running it in games until they are comfortable with it. They did not look comfortable with it last night. Nonetheless, and maybe I’m old, but a guy named McCaffery catching passes doesn’t sound like a terrible idea to me.
I’m not okay with doing it if it’s just something they want to force opponents to prepare for, and they’re not serious about making it work. It can’t be a gimmick. It has to be real.
First year in new offense
The “I don’t fully understand this part of my journey...” comment sounds like whatever they found, it’s scary, and there is uncertainty about what will happen.
I’ll guess a medical redshirt this year as they wait and see.
Logged in to upvote the use of "rocket surgery" -- it's an ancient meme, from the early 2000s, worthy of a revival.
He’s beyond high character, into natural leader and role model territory. The Heat brought him on as a stabilizing element and he basically functioned as a player-assistant coach (you can’t be both in the NBA, not on paper) for them even before he retired. And before that his old teams were bringing him back late in his career because they understood his value in that respect. So he’s got more like ten years of pretty unique experience as an assistant. He’s ready.
I’m not up on everything that’s been said, but fathers don’t always speak for their sons.
I know nothing, but to me most of the following statement about scoring in isolation moves seems aimed at Poole:
“... But it's not Step-back University. It's how do we take the ball to basket, how do we pivot — it's the whole thing because some of our guys have just that one move (step-back jumper). With two seconds to go, it's probably the only shot you can get but there are other ways, like get to the foul line. ... we have to get better at it.”
Not fictional, though O’Brian seems to have added the “straight” ... I’m fairly certain it is attributed to Nelson by Lord Cochrane, so the way it is portrayed in the novels is accurate. (Google failed me just now — I’ll come back and edit if I find the citation.)
“Never mind maneuvers, always go straight at ’em.”
That seems about right for Harbaugh. The quote is featured throughout the Aubrey/Matarin novels, including the first one, Master and Commander. It’s a real Nelson quote, said to Lord Cochrane, who is the inspiration for Jack Aubrey in the novels.
! I’d never heard of The Rasmus, so thanks for that, but as for Erasmus he’s awesome and I’ve been told I look Dutch but the name comes from my Danish grandfather Rasmus Rasmussen. If I’d had a son, he’d have gotten the name, but it didn’t happen.
The first paragraph implies he accepted the medical hardship waiver, which means he can’t play again. Pipkins turned it down.
[Edit: ninja’ed since it apparently took me fourteen minutes to write that, working on a clever comment that said “Exit:” isn’t the right tag but then I couldn’t think of anything better ...]
Fishgoblue has it about right in terms of what to expect. Although those first two run times feel like something may have been cut out under HBO’s new ownership.
In simple terms, it’s the medieval world if its fantasies actually existed, like dragons, direwolves, and various forms of sourcery. As for stories, basically Winter is coming in the form of a massive army of the undead led by the products of a catastrophic mistake made long ago. In the front lines against it are the two surviving descendants of a family with a mystical link to dragons, one of whom knows of her heritage while the other does not. Surrounding them are a cast of characters who have survived seven rounds of death and treachery, most of whom will probably die.
Alex, it would be helpful if the last paragraph of these tourney recaps contained a bit more information, like when the next game will be played — “the second game in the Saturday doubleheader” doesn’t give me quite enough data to plan my complicated day today, so I have to go find the info elsewhere. I’d rather just get it here...
Or they don’t want Iowa to know either way. Make them prepare for both.
Actually that seems quite a bit worse than corporate-sponsor excess. Like completely insane to the point where I wonder if it is in fact true.
I can see offering discounts on hockey tickets if you have football tickets, and vice-versa, but requiring hockey fans to buy football seats is just plain weird.
B C A D E
Thanks for doing this. I can't say I've ever tried to think like this -- for me, the number of Q1 wins is the most important thing, as it means you've shown you can win against tournament-worthy competition, and not just as a fluke. So you deserve a shot at the crown.
So Team B's 6 Q1 wins put them at the top of the list. Bad losses are less troubling for me, because all teams take time to develop in this era.
On that note, I'll say I think Michigan's development as a team has been masked this season by its early success. It was a weird sort of perfect storm of Iggy's breakout start (before opponents had figured him out) and the rest of the starters' + Livers' experience giving CC and DDJ time to develop in practice while not being exposed in games. Then Iggy has to go through an adjustment period, but by then Beilein has the luxury of not really having to worry about the bubble and he can continue teaching and experimenting with different combinations on the floor. By the time CM gets injured in the first MSU game, the team is pretty well set for March.
Now we just have to pray Charles will be back because with him this is a Final Four team. Without him, all bets are off since it really depends on some measure of luck with regard to matchups, referees, and opposing coaches.
Teske only played 13 minutes in that game, which was before Castleton was ready to go.
So I’d expect a very different game in a rematch.
Another factor recently mentioned by Beilein is fatigue = poor decision making, which presumably raises the probability of fouling. Autobench helps mitigate that risk factor as well.
He won’t be back before the B1G tournament, even if the boot was just a precaution. He will want to play but given the real need for minutes if the freshmen are truly going to replace Davis and Brooks going forward I just can’t see it. If M controlled its own destiny for the regular-season championship, then yes, but as it stands, getting the freshmen some real under-pressure game experience seems like a good idea. A healthy, rested Matthews and upgrades at the last two spots in the rotation? Yes, please.
Beilein sent a message to the freshmen when he played all of them at the start of the season — you are not redshirting and we are going to need you, so get to work. This is the exam. These two upcoming games should be quite interesting.
Helpful, thanks. Re: observation 1: Livers may still be fragile, which could explain the minutes. At the very end he was limping to take those free throws and Beilein got Iggy up but then Livers made both shots and they could just let it play out.
Beilein is walking a fine line on Livers — to keep him sharp without aggravating the injury — it’s a blessing that the alternative to Livers is Iggy who is still learning and needs as much playing time against good competition as he can get. But at the end of close games against good teams I think we’ll see more of the five we saw yesterday — that’s Michigan’s “ending” team (as opposed to the “starting” team).
An OSU defensive UFR would be instructive, especially with regard to what happened when Bush went out. Just how important is that position to Brown’s schemes. We hear a lot of talk about his Viper, but it seems like stellar linebacker play is even more critical for the system to work as designed.
I’d like to see it for the preseason content. Maybe enough time will have passed by then so I could look at it. Maybe, maybe not. Probably not...
Your last bit is true, but it’s also true Day is hiring multiple coaches from a defense that has consistently been one of the best in college football for the past three years.
I don’t see what is so confusing or weird about that. One bad game in which the lynchpin of that defense was knocked out doesn’t change the overall fact. OSU wants in on what Michigan has been doing on defense — how can these hires be read any other way?
Impressive game — I’m not quite sure where the steadiness is coming from, but at this point I think we can say it is a real thing.
It’s not just Simpson — I think it’s the experience of last year's tournament runs, plus the B1G tourney run the year before. This is a tough, battle-tested core.