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From what I've heard,…

From what I've heard, conventional wisdom is that RB coaching matters less than other positions, so it's a position coach for recruiting. Which it appears he is, so good hire. Actually getting our RBs to live up to their potential is a bonus. 

Just using this opportunity…

Just using this opportunity to remind everyone that Jim Harbaugh has more NFL rushing yards than Bo Jackson

It's not that crazy an idea…

It's not that crazy an idea. Bill Snyder, Mack Brown and Don Brown all returned to old football jobs in their 60s. I have faith that John Beilein could do the same for basketball if he wanted to.

There are worse options out there. 

I seem to recall Michigan…

I seem to recall Michigan lineman running 40+ yards multiple times to celebrate with Donovan Edwards in the endzone in important games the last few years.

"He's been in Tennessee, he…

"He's been in Tennessee, he could've impregnated a raccoon, we don't know. We gotta check."

Fine I'll ask the question everyone else is afraid to ask. Why was David sensitive about this joke? 

I'm happy to jump back on…

I'm happy to jump back on the Red Wings bandwagon. I haven't really paid them much attention since the playoff streak ended and the guys I loved from the 08 team all retired or left.

My last memory of Patrick Kane was hatred from his Chicago days, particularly that 2013 playoff series Detroit had no business being in but still should have won. It still feels weird to have him in Detroit.

Can't wait for the playoffs, nothing gets the juices flowing like playoff hockey. 

That's basically what was…

That's basically what was said about Harbaugh in his first 4-5 years. Lots of wins, but few wins in the "big" category: rivalry and/or upsets.

It makes no sense to say…

It makes no sense to say that Nightingale has proven to be a good coach and recruiter while saying that judgement cannot be passed on Naruato. We've won the BTT and gone to the Frozen Four two years in a row. I think hockey will be fine. 

Michigan fans were apathetic…

Michigan fans were apathetic before, at the end of the Amaker years, and then came back in force once Beilein put teams in the tournament. And there was plenty of discontent and (relative) apathy in the dark days of Hoke and Harbaugh. We should know from experience that nothing is permanent and we will likely cycle back to the top with good moves as a program.

This will be the Wings'…

This will be the Wings' fifth outdoor game (not counting the Marquette prison game in 1954). If it gets close to a sellout, it's likely to be the second highest attended, after the Michigan Stadium Winter Classic in 2014.

Bad look for the NHL to be…

Bad look for the NHL to be so insecure in your own product that you need to piggyback off college teams. Especially to the point of reversing the colors of the RED Wings and BLUE Jackets. 

A slam dunk is fun as hell…

A slam dunk is fun as hell and hurts no one, so I think it's the least unsportsmanlike action of the three. Especially in the NBA, they are there to entertain the fans, so if you want to turn into the Harlem Globetrotters for the last ten seconds of a blowout, go for it. It should be allowed equally to home or away, and ahead or behind.

Violating the victory formation truce is not great. It was the end of the season and I get why they wanted to get a guy a TD. They should have just lined up and run a normal play.

The slapshot ENG was a little over the top and he deserved a bit of payback but Rielly overdid it. A chirp, shove, or fight in the rematch would have been more appropriate than the headshot and he will get a deserved suspension for that. 

It's bad but acceptable in…

It's bad but acceptable in context. It was caught on TV in the Super Bowl and featured the most famous player and his head coach. I imagine similar shouting and close physical contact occur nearly every game between a player and position coach or coordinator or teammate. It's a passionate game and I would expect pretty much any player short of JJ McCarthy to have it in him to lose it sometimes. 

WRs are famous for being "divas" for demanding the ball. I assume this is a similar situation. Not that Antonio Brown retiring midgame is the minimum standard, but we've seen worse behavior from receivers who feel wronged for whatever reason.

I did think it was odd how early it was, from what I recall it was after the second drive. I think they were probably still in the opening game script so I'm not sure what he got so upset about and why he was taking it out on Reid instead of Mahomes. But all's well that ends well, Kelce ended with a bunch of yards and KC won. 

It's called football, it…

It's called football, it would be extremely dumb to eliminate kicking for points. 

That being said, the kickoff after scores have become all but a formality with touch backs and fair catches. And onside recoveries are so rare they practically don't happen, which removes some potential drama from the end of games. So I would fix both by requiring a single offensive down after a score. You can punt or go for it. The yards to gain should be calibrated to the conversion rate you want, but maybe 10 for college and 15 for NFL. 

Crazy that Parker Fleming…

Crazy that Parker Fleming was running this site on the side while coaching OSU's special teams, poorly. Hope he can come out with more fun graphs now that he can focus on it full-time.

/s

My hot take is that nothing…

My hot take is that nothing fundamentally changed. They've always tried to build a successful team, just like the other 31 owners, GMs and coaches. Success in the NFL is way less deterministic than most want to admit - there's no consistent formula that works, and no secret method that can be copied from team to team. Lions fans know, since the Detroit Patriots experiment failed horribly. 

In other words, it's mostly luck. Do your draft picks work out or turn out to be busts? Can you get through a season without major injuries compounding a weak area on the roster? Do you catch teams on the schedule at the right time? Do you get fortunate bounces in-game, and key decisions from the refs? If all those lottery balls line up for you - congrats, you are a playoff team.

I don't mean to downplay Hamp, Holmes and Campbell's efforts - clearly they have skills in their positions, and so far we see results. I just don't think the roster management and team culture they bring is dramatically different than what every other team's management tries to do. 

Side note: 4/5 OL were drafted by Bob Quinn (Decker and Ragnow in the 1st round, Jackson and Glasgow in the 3rd), and Sewell was an additional 1st round pick by Holmes. Credit to him for keeping them all, including bringing Glasgow back as a free agent. But the investment in a top OL takes time to build, starting from the Decker pick in 2016. So maybe the lesson is invest in OL, the unit that's on the field for every snap and make your QB more efficient, and then have the patience to let them develop into grown men and gel as a unit, over multiple seasons?

To me, the annoying thing is…

To me, the annoying thing is that many parts of this saga don't make sense in my model of the mind of Coach Harbaugh. There is something motivating him that I can't seem to understand.

He wants to go to the NFL and win a Super Bowl, but not enough that he is just going to resign from Michigan and go all-in. He's talked about loving this and wanting to stay in the past, yet this has happened three straight seasons now. The NCAA issues are new this off season but don't seem to impact the motivating factors above, along with all the other details of the contract that are still open. I don't really see this as a "business decision" as money does not seem to be a factor. Maybe his wife wants to move the family back to California and the Chargers job is an opportunity to do that? Maybe the agents and lawyers are just fogging up the room and getting in the way of what should be an easy agreement? I just don't know, and I'm frustrated by that. 

At least when Beilein left, it was for pretty obvious and relatable reasons of ambition and higher-level competition. With Harbaugh, we just don't know. 

I think going from a mid…

I think going from a mid-level Big 12 program to Washington - a team that just went 14-1 and is moving into the Big Ten - is a clear step up, not lateral move. 

Columbus area tattoo artists…

Columbus area tattoo artists hardest hit

This is not tax advice. But:…

This is not tax advice. But:

Make the Twitter losers pay Champions Circle directly so OP doesn't receive their cash and therefore no taxable income. 

Or, if you already committed to giving to charity and think that CC wouldn't count, use Hail impact or Mott or your charity of choice. Again, if you make them pay directly, you don't have any income from winning the bet. They can even get the charitable deduction themselves, so they get a tax benefit to donating 10k. 

Looks like 2013 was the last…

Looks like 2013 was the last time. When Labor Day falls on September 2 and Thanksgiving on November 28, the latest it can be, there is an extra week in football season. 

That said, in your one OT…

That said, in your one OT possession, if you go first and kick a FG not knowing that the opponent will score 7 next. 

Technically, the opponent would score 6 since there's no need to kick an XP on a TD.

Among the other things that…

Among the other things that make the Rose Bowl special, as both an event and stadium, is that it doesn't have an NFL team as the primary occupant (distinctions that the Cotton and Orange Bowls both had but gave up), and until UCLA moved in, it didn't even have regular major conference football (sorry Caltech).

The bowl game isn't just another event they host to get some extra use, it's the raison d'etre. That's important, and why it deserves the CFP championship, not just another one of the rotating quarters and semifinals sites. 

I'm not saying this was or…

I'm not saying this was or was not a factor for McLaughlin, or in the case of Kyle McCord transferring away from OSU, but the coincidence of easy transfers plus toxic fanbases with easy access to players via social media seems like a very bad combo. 

I'm sure players have heard plenty of awful things from both opposing and their own fans over the years. God knows that Black athletes from George Jewett through the Fab 5 and Devin Gardner heard awful slurs. But I have to imagine that there is a difference in what you hear and internalize on the field, or through spittle-covered letters in the mail, and what today's guys have to go through just to be on X/Instagram/TikTok or whatever they're on. Without actually looking, I can guarantee some Bama yahoo blamed the loss on McLaughlin, which is unfair and unkind. I'm sure it sucks and I feel for these kids, and I understand why they would rather just get out of the situation rather than take the abuse. 

Shout-out to Brian's college…

Shout-out to Brian's college girlfriend who gets her second (at least) mention on this blog, first in that Waterloo, Indiana column, and again with the same story of the '98 Rose Bowl here. 

Winning the Big Ten in 2021…

Winning the Big Ten in 2021 and getting a 1 seed, plus getting to the Sweet 16 a year later is not an epic failure, regardless of what happened after.

Also it's extremely weird to be focused on basketball 12 hours after the biggest win in football program history. 

I'll take 11-1 then a loss…

I'll take 11-1 then a loss in a NY6 bowl if that's what mediocrity is. 

Tough to be a specialist in…

Tough to be a specialist in the League. Make one or two crucial mistakes, and not only does everybody see it, but you may also lose your job on Monday. 

Matt Stafford in 2009: "I…

Matt Stafford in 2009: "I want to help the Lions win a playoff game in Ford Field."

Somewhere: a monkey's paw curls

I don't think anyone…

I don't think anyone expected to win in Lambeau in December back in 2014. Those were still the days when it seemed impossible to beat Green Bay at home. 2017 they had a chance to win the division against GB at home at the end of the year, and blew it.

I think people retcon the Stafford years because they were never consistently good, didn't make the playoffs in consecutive years, and always were the last wild card team in. With three different coaches, "the year" was always at least a few years away.

Rodgers left Green Bay and they beat KC on opening night, so it finally seems like now is "the year" we've all been waiting for. 

The Pistons could have had 4…

The Pistons could have had 4 straight if not for the Bird steal in '87.

It all happened before I was born, and I'm not a big pro basketball fan anyway, but watching the Bad Boys documentary got me fired up about both of the playoff years preceding the championships. It was disappointing like I was there. 

Ironically the picture was…

Ironically the picture was taken on an iPhone from the stands 

Perhaps you are right, but…

Perhaps you are right, but football games are so scarce that it shouldn't be that hard for teams and fans to "get up" for late season games, even outside of CFP or conference implications. Rivalry games help: attendance and passion is high even for relatively meaningless end of season games (see Old Oaken Bucket and similar games).

The NFL has plenty of late season games between non playoff teams, and due to the draft the teams are actually incentivized to lose, yet starters still mostly play, games are competitive, fans show up, upsets happen, etc. 

What odds have you been…

What odds have you been looking at? FD and DK both have FSU as heavy favorites to get in, followed by Texas and then Alabama, which is given a less than 50% chance

Just want to say that…

Just want to say that Villanova coach Neptune winning the Battle 4 Atlantis Trident is very fitting

Unlike anything we've seen…

Unlike anything we've seen...yet.

Just wait two weeks for true holy hell. This will just seem like a warmup. 

Can you bring an enormous…

Can you bring an enormous flip board with "_999" on it, then (I hope) flip to 1000 at the end? 

In fact, I hope we string…

In fact, I hope we string MSU along, making them think that their basketball program is enough to qualify them into the new league, then drop them for Kentucky or whoever at the last moment so they can fade back into obscurity as an also-ran.

You're correct, Jackson is…

You're correct, Jackson is listed first with Bruce Wallace and Oscar Rodriguez also. Keefe Brooks is representing the Regents as plaintiff. Are there any signals in the tea leaves about Harbaugh listed first and Regents second? 

Case No. 23-001419-CB if anyone is looking for a shortcut to refresh the Washtenaw county case records all night. 

What do you, commie_high,…

What do you, commie_high, and Judge Connors all have in common? Never been in my kitchen.

USC, UCLA, Oregon and…

USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington must be thrilled to be walking into this mess. They must know that they'll be perpetually outvoted, and clearly there is no collegiality or fairness among the members of the conference they're joining.

Also, if Michigan actually moves to leave the conference, the four incomers should be paying close attention. They are joining in order to get a slice of the money and interest Michigan generates. Oregon isn't excited about their game at Purdue next year, but they should be psyched about the TV ratings their game at Michigan should generate. If Michigan is working their way out of the conference, well, they didn't join to play Minnesota and Iowa. 

Seems to me the path for Michigan, if they choose to accept it, is to get the super league going. Talk to USC, Notre Dame, and the biggest state schools: Texas, Florida, Georgia, UNC. Include Ohio State and Penn State if you must. Leave the MSUs and Northwesterns of the world to the lower levels, and create an exclusive, professional college football league.

NCHC would be happy to have…

NCHC would be happy to have Michigan and Notre Dame. It would be cool to play North Dakota every year. 

Family-friendly Children of…

Family-friendly Children of Yost explanation:

When a player for the other team does a bad thing, they get a penalty and go to time out. The students chant to let them know to not do that bad thing again.

Lump: as in lump of coal for a naughty kid

Trick: the player tried to trick the referee

Sus: he's a suspicious player (it's what kids say these days)

Smooshbag: he should punch a pillow if he's angry, not another player

Passhole: It's a hockey term for a pass between the legs

Trick: same as above

Cheater: self-explanatory

Witch: a mean, ugly, tricksy person

Snore: the player in the penalty box can take a quick nap

Nut: a joke about bad Buckeyes

Socksucker: a joke about tasting gross hockey socks

 

Touchdowns

Touchdowns

14-6 Michigan. 

We cover…

14-6 Michigan. 

We cover and win relatively easily because PSU's offense isn't better than any other we've faced, but Penn State turns it into a rock fight. Our offense struggles (relative to the season thus far) against a solid defense, which causes consternation among fans.

Currently delayed because…

Currently delayed because they're passed through the Purdue staff first

Service academy games have…

Service academy games have generally had lines set in the low 30s but IIRC Army-Navy had gone under something like 10 of the last 11 years. Their low numbers of possessions are offset somewhat by bad defenses giving up mostly TDs at the end of those long drives.

Ono might not have signed…

Ono might not have signed the letter but I can nearly guarantee he read it before it went out. I think it would be irresponsible to let something of this magnitude get out of his sight. I think we saw how he got involved with keeping Harbaugh from the NFL earlier this year, and he should be familiar with how former President Schlissel mis-handled Dave Brandon and the AD back in 2014.

Plus, Santa sees you when you're sleeping, and knows when you're awake ;)

I hope it makes you feel…

I hope it makes you feel better to know that I am pretty sure the players are ignorant to 80% of what we fans are, in regards to the legal details of this case and fandom more generally. I get the impression that they are primarily focused on practice and games, plus class and irl social activities, over message board minutiae. Which is probably a very good thing.

Another funny DJ moment was…

Another funny DJ moment was near the end of the third quarter when they played "wake me up when it's all over." I feel ya, Sparty dude.