History

Member for

4 years 2 weeks

Blog

View recent blog entries

Karma

Current value

2

Recent Comments

Date	Title	Body
5 days 9 hours ago	Not in passing they don't	Two things: - Of course most teams have had some one who was "good", but not still stastically leading, seventy years later. Passing has exploded in terms of importance, and thus production, since the mid-80s, and in particular in the past twenty years. Go team by team -- the passing records (and even the top 5 statistical seasons) are not held by old-time legends like Otto Graham, Bart Starr or Norm Van Brocklin but by Brian Sipe, Aaron Rodgers and Jim Everett. - Even the Lions, the worst team in pro sports in the last sixty years, have had more recent success passing. From Scott Mitchell, to Matt Stafford, to the immortal Jon Kitna -- they've all had better passing years in terms of yards than anyone in the history of the Bears (and thus, in theory, Terrell would have cut off a body part to play for the Lions, but I don't know if he's insane).
6 days 5 hours ago	Yeah, people don't appreciate how bad Bears QB's have been	Terrell's comment is a bit silly (as Cutler is not THAT good; he's no Brady, Rodgers, etc) but it's based in the truth of your list: the Bears have been non-existent for decades as a passing team. Even with the explosion of passing that has occurred since 1994, the Bears have seemingly belonged to another era. It is truly, amazingly, bad. Consider: their leader in passing yards in a season is Erik Kramer! (YTLEK*); they've never had ANYONE throw for 4000 yards (a number not exactly hard to reach lately) and beyond Kramer and Cutler, Rex Grossman has the next highest total: 3193 yards. Their TDs in a season reads: Erik Kramer (29, 1995); Sid Luckman (28, 1943); Jay Cutler (27, 2009); Sid Luckman (24, 1947); Jay Cutler (23, 2010). When two of your top 4 passing TD seasons are from over 60 years ago, when people literally could clothesline a receiver, you've had some bad QBs. * Yes, the Lions' Erik Kramer.
2 weeks 5 days ago	Never understood why UM lets him keep these many jobs	I don't understand why UM, a public institution that tries to avoid controversy because of that, has allowed Beckmann all this time to be both the voice of Michigan football while keeping his other job as a right-wing talk show/host columnist. That's bound to lead to trouble. Beckmann should choose one or the other. And I would say that if they had a left-wing talk show host/columnist as an alternative. I know absolutely zero about the poltical leanings of Jim Brandstatter. The same with George Blaha (voice of MSU football). That's how it should be. If I was Brandon, and I'm protecting a billion dollar brand, I'd rectify this situation quickly and find a nice retirement package in Beckmann's future.
3 weeks 6 days ago	This timeline shows the opposite of what you're saying	There's no doubt Brandon/adidas have been changing the uniform, more often and more radically, than in living memory. Look at the 80's and 90's. Essentially each year has one change, which is the patch for the bowl - a minor thing. There are few other changes that were significant (e.g., the switch to Nike in 1994), but there's basically 1, maybe two, changes a year and they are essentially 1) patch and 2) perhaps something like helment decals. Earlier, the chart goes from 1968 and then jumps all the way to 1960, i.e., no changes to report. Then you get to the last 3-4 years, and the changes go far beyond a different patch for each bowl. There's yellow stripes, blue stripes, number changes on jerseys, number changes on helmets, matte helmets, different socks, huge patches for 'legend' players, etc. All this frequent change may be your thing, and thus not ruining anything, but it's not a "Michigan tradition".
7 weeks 4 days ago	Not as close as you might think	Sure, Jacksonville has the least fans in the NFL, and has been terrible in the last couple of years, but people forget just how truly awful the Lions are/have been: there is no comparsion - the Jaguars have a much more relevant recent history. Lions: 1 playoff win since 1957 Jaguars: 5 playoff wins since 1996 (last one was in 2007). Never forget -- the Lions have the worst on-field perfomance of any US team in the four big team sports over the last 50+ years. It's not a fun team to be "your" team, as any Lions fan will tell you.
7 weeks 6 days ago	Vandy is WAY more appealing than Rutgers	- Academically: not even close. Vandy is one of the tops in the nation; Rutgers is a fine school, but it will be in the lower half of the B1G (which has many good to great schools). - Research dollars: Vandy gets about $100 million more a year - Sports: Vanderbilt traditionally was the dregs of the SEC in football, but has been coming on with James Franklin and has been better than Rutgers the last couple of years. In basketball, Vandy, while not great, has at least made same NCAA tourney about every other year for the past 15 years; Rutgers hasn't made it since 1991 (not mention the Mike Rice scandal). - Cites: Nashville is, outside of Atlanta, the city you'd want to be in the south (Florida's a world of its own). Rutgers is central NJ - it has no more claim to the NYC market than UM does. If the B1G HAD to expand, we definitely should gotten Vanderbilt over Rutgers (if that was an option). It's not even close.
10 weeks 40 min ago	What in the hell...	...was that? How have I missed this Keanu super clip all my life?
10 weeks 1 day ago	Here's "proof" he is covering for a player	Right after the game (but before the press conference where he blamed himself), Beilein talked to Tracey Wolfson from CBS about the game. http://www.cbssports.com/video/player/play/collegebasketball/VAhYN9tu78nC Her first question was "at the end of the game...you let 21 seconds off the clock. Why not foul quicker?" Beielin: "Well, we were trying to..we were trying to foul the right guy as quickly as we could, but we probably could have fouled a little quicker, yes." Nothing about 'we didn't realize it we had a foul to give' or anything. Just "quickly as we could" Now, perhaps he misunderstood the question (after all, both of the first two times Michigan had to foul they took too long - the first one was just especially long) or perhaps he confused his team by having them focus on fouling a particular player, but I think he's covering for his team, specifically his freshmen guards.
12 weeks 1 day ago	Based on these comments, some	Based on these comments, some people are going to need the pharmacy keys from the 'Nurse Who Loved Me' to calm down. FWIW, one of my favorite albums of all time as well. Terrible name for a band though. But that's another thread, another blog.
12 weeks 4 days ago	There's other fish in the sea	Thanks for that lovely image of Brandon and Phil Knight, but there's more options than Nike: we could go to Russell or Under Armour. Now, Under Armour created those Maryland football uni monstrosities, but it seems weird that a humungous school like UM couldn't afford a graphic designer on staff (we have the coin) that can make sure all images put forth by the ath dept promotes whatever image Michigan's wants to promote. I'm sure we could veto dumb uniforms if we wanted to. Whatever the case, leave Adidas - it's one thing to look bad (which we now do with alarming frequency, which is the AD's fault as much as Adidas). It's another for the jerseys to not even freakin' WORK!
12 weeks 5 days ago	Because they are a pox on	Because they are a pox on college basketball.  I root for the B1G, generally speaking, to do well in post-season tourneys. But I never root for Wisky b-ball. Their style of play is completely unappealing to watch and one reason it isn't emulated more is their lack of NCAA tourney success. Thus, them losing in the 1st round is a good thing - more proof that their clutch & grab, bleed the clock style of play may work to get you top 5 finishes in league play (which is a credit to Bo Ryan's coaching skill), but it's too falliable in one & done scenarios. There is too little margin for error.
13 weeks 1 day ago	Agreed: he is so full of it.	He better alert Northwestern now that they shouldn't be spending $220 million and Michigan not to spend $250 million on non-revenue sports, etc. Also: he should inform Maryland that all that money they thought they had coming: no go. Ask David Brandon, Mark Hollis, Gordon Gee, etc how that will all work out with a D-III model. Man, I hope O'Bannon wins. It's time for hypocrites & blowhards like Delany to be taken down.
13 weeks 5 days ago	When you wear these to your	When you wear these to your gym to go workout, will you be listening to Technotronic, Young MC or C&C Music Factory on your Sony Walkman?
13 weeks 5 days ago	How did Michigan sports go	How did Michigan sports go from having the coolest uniforms/gear on the planet to our fans regularly having to say, as compliments, "Well, I've seen worse", "It's not terrible", "The blue hides the camo design well" or "If the sun's not out, they actually are pretty good"? Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
15 weeks 5 days ago	Love the very mlive headline for Manning	"Cincinnati players give former Roy Manning standing ovation after introduction." Is Roy Manning an alias? Is he an imposter? Perhaps the headline writers don't have an edit button.
15 weeks 6 days ago	"Freshmen can't and won't learn good defense overnight"	Anthony Davis would disagree with you. Also, no one is asking them to be the 2nd coming Scottie Pippen, Kevin Garnett or even Aaron Craft. But with all the constant "Game Stauskas" chatter and thrill over GRIII's sweet dunks, it can't go unremarked that they are bad (not just needing some work - Stauskas is legimately bad) at defense. Still glad they're both on the team and hope they both improve at D, but there's no use sweeping it under the rug. It's part of their game along with the 3pt bombs and 360 dunks.
16 weeks 2 days ago	Why hasn't there been a burn off?	If MSU and WVU got together for some massive blaze off to see, once and for all, which school is the best at couch burning, I think you would be able to see the amount of smoke from space. Vince McMahon, Donald Trump or someone needs to make this happen.
19 weeks 2 days ago	Those journalism circles have changed, and so has WSJ	I have been reading the WSJ for close to 20 years (ever since I got a sweet student subscription deal as a UM BBA student), so I hvae some experience with it. I would say over the past ~3 years, the separation of the editorial side and new side is not nearly as clear as it once was. I'll leave it to you to decide if that's good or bad, but in my opinion, it has definitely changed since Murdoch bought it. To illustrate this point, see this link with some good "headlines" examples from James Fallows: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/why-i-get-more-than-... (Key quote: "As with two previous examples, here and here, bear in mind that these are news headlines, not the editorial page. Also as in the previous two cases, the play and billing of the WSJ stories (and opposed to the details in the stories themselves) are more "Republican" than in the other two papers (Post and NYT).")
23 weeks 6 days ago	Excellent point	Updated OP to note that. Also I'll say, with the Cap One bowl switching from ESPN to ABC this year, its jump up in ratings was not just b/c of the networks, but b/c it had two national opponents (UGA/Neb) in a competitive, high-scoring game. So in short, both teams and network matters. It's good to know we can draw as well, if not better, than Georgia, which is what I would suspect.
23 weeks 6 days ago	A few things for an individual season	- Jan 1 (or later) bowl game - 10 or more wins - At least 2 wins against OSU, ND (or top-tier schedule replacement, when there), MSU - In control of our own destiny for B1G div title when we play OSU - Competitive in bowl game - A minimum of major off-field incidents (such as drunk driving, assaults) - Doing well in the classroom in terms of graduation
23 weeks 6 days ago	Hell no	I think it will be close, as Alabama's strength on offense (running) plays into ND's strength on D, but I definitely will not be rooting for ND, even though I also dislike Saban. To help solve this, I likely won't even watch the game except perhaps the end if it is close. I object to the BCS anyway (I'm an 8-team playoff guy), and don't think it will be a particularly exciting game, so why torture myself with two teams I dislike to boot? Life is too short.
26 weeks 1 day ago	These uniforms make a statement.	And that statement is...WHO wants some free PIZZA-AAAAAAA?! Seriously, these look like uniforms you'd shoot out of T-Shirt cannon at a San Jose SabreCats game.
26 weeks 2 days ago	Glad you enjoy it	Beyond loving the show, I'm keeping this avatar with Bearded Jack until we win a Big 10 title. Hopefully, I can change it to Happy Jack sometime in the next season or two.
26 weeks 3 days ago	Absolutely	Three strikes (that we know of) and you should be out.
27 weeks 5 days ago	The expansion hasn't even taken effect yet!	I'm sorry your already tired of it, but it's going to be a topic of conversation until it happens and we see the effects. Your logic is "Hey, we'll get more money" so B1G programs can compete in terms of salaries, but why is that a slam dunk, medium/long term, with this reckless expansion? It's all based on TV, right? Well, look at the ratings of the most recent championship games outside of the SEC. They were bad to terrible (e.g., B1G down 42%). http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/12/ncaa-week-14-record-low-again-fo... These championships games are the result of expansion. Why, in the future, will sports networks pay big money for games that draw 3.3's and 1.4's ratings? Why will cable customers pay for channels for games they don't care about? You seem to think every conference will expand to 14 or 16 and that will be the end of it. I forsee there being a collapse, as these unwieldy conglomerations of institutions that have nothing to do with each other realize that not many more people attend or watch a Maryland-Purdue football game than they do a Maryland-MEAC basketball game. College football is not the NFL - people won't watch just any old teams play each other. People care about rivals and nurse grudges from decades ago (heck see Bielema complaining about a long-ago Michigan loss this week. He still hasn't gotten over it!) Winter is coming for the sports media landscape. It's like the housing market in 2003 right now, but you can see a bubble forming that will pop. And in the meantime, Michigan fans will end up with more games against teams we don't care about (or at least I don't care about; I'd much rather play Wisconsin, Minnesota or Purdue than Rutgers or Maryland). And for what? More money for Brett Bielema, that Wisconsin could have afforded anyway, pre-expansion?
27 weeks 6 days ago	Because a university is more than having a good football program	At Petrino's previous job at Arkansas, he didn't just cheat on his wife, get in motorcycle accident with his mistress (an Arkansas staffer), and then initally lie to the media (and I believe his AD) about the fact he was alone when he crashed. More importantly, he recommended his mistress be hired for her Arkansas job (the Arkansas folks didn't know they had a relationship) giving her preferential treatment for a state job. That's a huge no-no. In short, he's not just a scum bag in his private life (which you can argue, is his own private business between him, his wife, and his girlfriend), but in his public life & with his employers as well. If I was regent of the University of Tennessee, I would think long & hard about putting such a guy in charge of one of the most important visible parts of my public institution.
28 weeks 4 hours ago	Generally agree, but 2013 needs to be fixed	I generally agree with your points, but I think you are being too flip about 2013. If it's easy to find someone to organize and put this race on, than why didn't Brandon already make the announcement that U of M (or some other organization that are apparently easy to find that runs these kinds of things) will be running the event for April 2013? That way, the 100+ charities, who have probably already put in the budgets for 2013 the $1.5 million+ they were planning to raise, could know what the situation was? Why make their lives more difficult? Again, if Brandon & co had a problem with CFC and were sure Uof M could do a better job, fine - just say so, and more importantly, than do it and set up the alternate event. Stop having your assistant prattle on about the fact U of M now has "private events" (i.e., weddings) and that it was so difficult hosting the Big House run.  I hope sometime in December there will be an announcement of a U of M-sponsored replacement event for spring/summer 2013.
28 weeks 5 hours ago	What do you mean, "It now comes out"?	Brandon and U of M should have spoken up earlier. They literally have people whose job it is to comment to media and various outlets. In the original story, and in theircommunication to CFC, if Brandon and U of M had a problem with how CFC ran things, then say so. It's not hard. They can say "CFC is a fine organization, but we were not given enough clarity about how funds raised were utilized by CFC and thus we would like to organize the event ourselves to ensure the maximum amount of funds raised go to charities." Done. Instead, Brandon sent hist asst Ablauf out there with goobledygook words that just said they'd go in another direction and that it was "a very challenging event...to fit into our stadium" This goes again to the tone deafness of Brandon (like the band incident). U of M didn't show any caring from the 100+ charities (some of which are U of M-based charities) that were counting on this event, which was less than 5 months away. If he had an alternate plan, than state that when the CFC-run event was canceleed.  More to the point, they just generally have a plan - there is nothing specific, so until something official is announced, he just cancelled a huge charity event for 2013 and didn't put anything meanginful in its place.
28 weeks 6 hours ago	That's not quite right; the race raised $1.5 million last year	CFC had about $500k in entry fees last year (15000 runners times $33), so if they gave 25% to charity, that's $125k. However, 10 times that amount, $1.5 million, went to 175 charities because of the race, in addition to that $125k. http://annarbor.com/news/university-of-michigan-says-annual-big-house-bi... Thus, I'm not sure the ~25% is a fair figure (honestly, I don't know - I can't tell how other charitable fund-raising organizations/evaluators handle this accounting).  If CFC takes $375k out of the $2 million generated for the race, that means 82% of the funds raised for the race went to charities; the other 18% went to CHC for T-shirts, water, permits, rental fees, salaries, etc. If Brandon really can run a more efficient race, that's great. But since he has not formally proposed one with a specific date (he's just talked about it generally), I can't evaluate whether U of M can do a better job or not. One thing is for sure: those 175 charities counting on the $1 million plus for this year are scrambling because this wasn't communicated earlier by U of M.
28 weeks 3 days ago	Agreed, but glad NIU made it	I've always hated how bowl games went from exhibitions (e.g., before ~2005, stats didn't count towards all-time records) to now supposedly being the be-all, end-all for how good a team/conference is ("See? Our conference went 6-2 in bowl games - that means we're awesome!"). I doubt NIU is one of the ~10 best teams in the country, which is sort of what the BCS is for, but there aren't any great teams this year, so why not them getting in over, say, Oklahoma, who hasn't looked that impressive themselves? The bowls can't go back to the backroom deals of old (under which NIU would have never gotten in) because they would be exposed for being the cartel that they are and face congressional action. So they're stuck in this current version where non-BCS schools get crumbs and sometimes it blows up in the bowls (and in this case, ESPN's) face. Fine by me. I won't be happy until there is an eight-team playoff, with the first round at home campuses, and the big bowls (and their enablers) stand in the way. I could not care less what happens to the big bowls - they're fake "nonprofits" that are a pox on the college game.

more