RobSk

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3 years 15 weeks

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Recent Comments

Date	Title	Body
4 days 13 hours ago	Hmm	So, is there a thing to say to actually express enjoyment of an interesting story, well told? :) Whatever it is, consider it said. I enjoyed that.
6 days 10 hours ago	Lorenzo Cain	You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain.. Damn it. :(
6 days 12 hours ago	Wow...	You do know they are 4th in the majors in runs scored, right? "Driving you nuts"?
4 weeks 4 days ago	Job part	With your skill set, you might want to consider talking to Arbor Networks. Full disclosure - I've worked there 7 years, and I've found it an excellent place to work. We make several products that are web based, some to do with network security, others with visibility and reporting. The front end guys don't need to know a ton about networking, just be awesome at making all the data and workflows look good and feel good. https://arbornetworks.com    Rob
23 weeks 3 days ago	Flamebait, really?	For crying out ducks, it was a joke- "2013 LB" kinda looks like 2013 pounds. Foster is a rock, I wasn't suggesting he was fat. Good grief, does anyone have any sort of sense of humor?          Rob
23 weeks 4 days ago	RE: 2013 LB player- DAMN, he is BIG!!!	Is all that "good" weight?    Rob
23 weeks 4 days ago	RE: 2013 LB player- DAMN, he is BIG!!!	Is all of that "good" weight?      Rob
26 weeks 10 hours ago	Yeah, I'm a believer-	I'm convinced this team is a top 10-15 team, which means they are a really good basketball team. I'm not quite to the point where I believe they are a top 5 (1 seed) team. I think to do that, it will be necessary for McGary to do a little more, to get the ball a bit more down low, and for the Wolverines to show me good rebounding against a GOOD rebounding team, and find another way to consistently score when Burke is off/defended well. Yeah, Hardaway, Robinson, and especially Stauskas have been superb at times. Indeed, sometimes unstoppable in their own rights. But all three have had substantial bumps in the road, mostly when Burke either gets a bit too shot focused or is defended better than usual. To put a number on what I'm talking about: I think 12-6, 13-5 is a floor for their Big 10 record, which is pretty damn good. Main reason for these numbers - There are a LOT of super teams in the Big 10. 12-6 could happen with  losing road games to darn good teams plus one loss either at home to an excellent team or on the road to a team they probably should beat. . OTOH, I think 16-2 or so is absolutely achievable, which would make them one of the better teams in the Big 10 over the last decade, and would be their best conference record in the last 20 years.       Rob
30 weeks 1 day ago	The question is:	Which way works better? Denard - QB + Gardner WR or  DG QB + Denard RB/WR/QB? Clear answer at this point: DG QB, Denard gets 20+ touches at RB/WR/QB = Good chance to beat OSU.   Rob
30 weeks 4 days ago	Sorry for the dumb question	But what are the things in parentheses, for instance in the CA category?
38 weeks 1 day ago	For me	I thought that Grbac, Collins, Griese, Brady, Navarre, and Henne were all outstanding college quarterbacks. I think Denard is an amazing football player, and if he'd been fortunate enough to be in the right system consistently, he would have been more consistently effective.  As it stands, he's given me as much awe and amazement in watching football as anybody I've ever seen.  It's just darn hard to swallow a performance like Saturday from a senior qb. It does happen. People have bad days. All of the above qbs had bad games as a senior. It's just tough to have perspective after such a painful loss.        Rob
38 weeks 1 day ago	I agree	I love Denard. He is a wonderful kid, and always conducts himself with incredible class and dignity.  So remember that when I say: Man, I really wish he was a better quarterback. :(  For his sake, I could almost wish Rodriguez had stuck around. Not that I think Michigan would be better overall, but I'm pretty sure HE would be more effective.  I'm not blaming Hoke/Borges. I know a lot of the numbers show Denard improving, and I think in some ways he has. It seems clear to me though, that he is not going to become the game managing QB in the passing game that we need him to be, and the RRod offense would avoid his vulnerabilities.        Rob
41 weeks 6 days ago	Hmm	QB - 4.5/5 RB - 4.5/5 I think those were upbeat, and justifiably so. DL has major questions - 2.5 or 3 out of 5 seems very reasonable. WR has questions, not as huge as DL, but still substantial-  OL was somewhere in the middle - Very positive on the starters, concerned about depth. I don't see how you can NOT be concerned about depth, unless you have no worries about playing true freshmen (even VERY talented true freshmen). Hoke's done virtually everything right. However, his "turn back the clock and fix DL/OL recruiting depth during RRod days" power has not yet been deployed.          Rob
1 year 19 weeks ago	It's sad	Some people will do anything to be 'on tv'.       Rob
1 year 28 weeks ago	3 and out	In reading 3 and out, one of the things that struck me about 2009/2010 (after the "over practice" allegations) is multiple places where Bacon says straight out and implies that the coaching staff was hesitant to urge kids to do more film work, because they were so paranoid about getting dinged for excessive practice time, even though individual film study hours are "uncountable". Bloody freep. Rodriguez made plenty of mistakes of his own, but it stinks that Rosenberg and friends had to make things even harder. :(          Rob
1 year 28 weeks ago	>>but I want to know	>>but I want to know why Meyer would want Brionte so bad? I don't think he's going to pull the kids schollie offer, but of course the most trivial answer is: Meyer didn't sign the kid or recruit him. That happened earlier. It would just be insane for Meyer, even if he doesn't think the kid will fit, to boot him. That just ain't going to happen.        Rob
1 year 32 weeks ago	I'm looking forward	to re-introducing Purdue to "hope"lessness repeatedly over the next few years, with last Saturday being a beginning.. This silly article is yet another by-product of the last 3 years.
1 year 32 weeks ago	Fair, but..	The two main points I'd emphasize are: --They don't get good pressure on the QB (84th in Div 1). Denard has done FAR better, as most qbs do, with more time. --They don't protect well (68th), and the stats are clear, didn't protect well against Minnesota or other teams. Yeah, Coker could kill us, and I suspect that the majority of the damage will come there. But so far, we haven't been slaughtered by good running backs. Hurt, yes, slaughtered, no. I think we win this one.       Rob
1 year 33 weeks ago	Roinks, Raggy	This is the van that followed the "Mystery Machine" around, trying to pick up "those meddling kids". On a less joyful note- I don't know a lot about Morris- Is he playing with mediocre receivers, or is the relatively low completion % just a function of his youth (I keep reminding myself he's a junior).         Rob
1 year 33 weeks ago	Texas	Texas is just that powerful that they can basically be a conference all by themselves.Not long ago, looked like the Big 12 was history. One TV deal later, the flow is going the other way.
1 year 34 weeks ago	Goatee Spock	So, here's the weird thing- The bearded Spock does get the "evil" label quite often. I would contend that he is actually the only consistent figure across the two universes. Everything from his bold facial hair statement to his behaviour toward the dudes from the normal universe is consistent with what I believe the normal Spock would do. Also, the normal Spock would understand that Mike Martin was not primarily at fault on that play. And that it makes perfect sense to mix things up offensively by having Gardner in there for 5-10 plays a game, as long as you don't get predictable on those plays. Normal Spock would know all this, and more.        Rob
1 year 35 weeks ago	Quit the freakin	Dude, that's just absurd. 7-5 is not going to happen. Purdue, Iowa, Illinois, OSU, Nebraska. They will beat Purdue. To predict that the team that was within 20 yards of tying the game on the road against the 2nd best team in the big 10 is going to go 0-4 against the other 4 teams is nonsensical. At this point, 1-3 is a pessimistic outlook there. I think they will go 2-2 in those games, and 3-2 overall in the remaining games, for a 9-3 season. That's a pretty damn good year (better than I predicted).  While I agree with you (and Brian) that Borges didn't do the things he needed to do to adjust properly to the situation, I think that of the remaining teams, only OSU has a defense anywhere close to as talented as MSU. Further, to somewhat disagree with both Brian and yourself, I thought MSU played the right D and played to stop the run all day. We played to counter that instead of playing to our strength. While it didn't work, I'm not clear it was a mistake.       Rob
1 year 35 weeks ago	Burke	is the difference between a middle of the pack big 10 team and a top 20 team. But it will be interesting to see the tension between what I suspect will be Beilein's urge to go small with Burke/Brundige/THJ/Novak/Morgan, and the fact that Michigan has multiple legitimate bigs now, and could play a successful conventional lineup. I'm sure he will go back and forth depending on the situation, but if you go Burke/THJ/Novak/Horford, you're even more dependent on Burke to be efficient, distribute, and get to the rack. I guess he could go with Brundidge at point, but I get the impression he's more shoot-first, which doesn't feel terribly Beilinish. A fascinating conundrum for the coach.         Rob
1 year 36 weeks ago	random musings, probably redundant	Preseason, that's sure how I had it. At this point, I just have no clue. It's clear both teams (OSU/MSU) don't score well, and are struggling with their offensive lines and OSU with their QB. Michigan is even harder to read. I think it's quite possible we will struggle against the MSU/OSU defenses, which seem pretty tough. However, Borges has done a decent job of adapting, so perhaps we can score 20+ points in those games. I'm completely confident Michigan is a better defensive team, but how much better? Pre-season, I thought they could get up to 60th or so ranking in D1. Based on the secondary play, Jake Ryan's play, Brandin Hawthornes play, and BWC, I think we're better than that. Again, when facing better athletes and so on, how much better? I don't know. But OSU/MSU may have made that irrelevant with their offensive struggles. At 5-0 last year, I was petrified. We'd been so bad defensively against UMass and Indiana that I had no confidence whatever that we could stop any sort of actual offense. At 5-0 this year, I have much more confusion, which is good. Might good/mediocre offenses kill us? Yeah, I still think that's possible, especially if we can't generate the TO's that we've been generating. If UM holds NW under 20, I will officially be ready to think that in the MSU/OSU/Iowa/Illinois/Nebraska games, we have a great chance at 3-2 or...even better. And 3-2 in those games, + beating NW and Purdue == 10-2 overall. Any Michigan fan has got to be absolutely thrilled with 10-2, and I don't even care if the 2 losses are MSU and OSU. Ok, I care a little. Rob
1 year 36 weeks ago	Hopefully	plays like this help against good defenses like OSU/MSU when they put 8/9 in the box or start walking the safeties up and say "Pass if you can, Denard". I'd like to think this will give them just enough more to think about.      Rob
1 year 36 weeks ago	My favorite play	I'm not entirely sure but Shortell appears to be looking for his TE on a tiny little hitch first but pulls it down because Black(+1, RPS +1) chucked him before going into his pass rush. This disrupts the timing and causes Shortell to move on. RVB(+1) gets in at this point, flushing the awkward Shortell out of the pocket, where Hawthorne(+0.5) and Ryan(+0.5) roar up to sack. (Pressure +1, cover +1) ========= This play summarizes one of the huge differences from last year- Ryan and Hawthorne both playing within the scheme, but then bringing the serious speed to finish this play. Good scheme, good talent, great result!       Rob
1 year 36 weeks ago	Very true. Neither of us	Very true. Neither of us knows what is in his mind. It's possible he is giving direct thanks for God "making tacklers miss" or something like that. Generally speaking though, as a believer myself, I tend to take the times of most blessing to give thanks in general for my life, rather than for the precise event that preceded the prayer. Clearly, I could be projecting on Denard. To me though, it seems you're presuming a fairly immature kind of prayer. Again, neither of us knows what he's thinking..        Rob
1 year 36 weeks ago	Royalty	I think Minnesota mostly feared the Prince quote in the middle of that pic page. :)         Rob
1 year 36 weeks ago	Either that, or perhaps he's	Either that, or perhaps he's just giving thanks for good health, or for his happiness at playing football, or his general joy in life. I certainly admire those qualities in Denard, and he seems humble enough to want to give thanks for them.         Rob
1 year 36 weeks ago	So...Wow!	Super nice work! If I might put in a feature suggestion- Consider doing ongoing aggregation of plus/minus by player, and perhaps having the list display as an expandotron or something of that sort. It's one of the pieces of data I'm always looking for when reading a UFR. To re-iterate- WOW, I'm very, very impressed! Thank you for the hard work!       Rob

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