For sure. All the academies seem to have rugged linebackers and secondaries that can keep teams in front of them. DL is the obvious limiting factor, but all three academies have had salty defenses the last few years.
Jealous of you guys as a Navy fan. The last three years of quarterbacking has been brutal.
For Air Force and Navy, QB always seems like the biggest x-factor (Army just plows ahead 3 yards at a time, so less impactful).
For Navy, they've had Malcolm Perry and Keenan Reynolds lead to top-20 finishes. For Air Force, three double-digit win years in the last four behind Daniels and Donald Hammond.
As a Navy fan (former Lt. on a destroyer) I’m really excited to see how the Middies do with a new coach. About the only good thing going for them in the last three years of Coach Ken was defense, and that DC is now the head coach. OC brings a shotgun spread and shed variation of the triple option, so hopefully that side is better with tons of returning experience.
If they can give Notre Dame a run for its money in the opener, I think Navy will shoot up this list.
Kind of a confusing misread by Sam on Klatt's UM-OSU comments. It clearly was meant that the last two years were upsets, but a third Michigan win this year would not be one. Seconds later, Klatt says "Michigan is the class of the Big Ten."
It's July, I guess...need any reason to get fired up.
Also re: MSU media…We don’t know about the first assault without Matt Charboneau. Matt Wenzel (MLive) wrote a column unequivocally condemning MSU. Hell, even Couch wrote something along the lines saying Tucker needs to feel heat now and moving forward due to his players’ assault.
Comparoni is trash. Many fans are trash. Not all of the MSU beat is parroting the trashiest of the trash tunnel takes.
While they're passing yards allowed is near the bottom in the country, they allow just 5.8 an attempt, which is 11th in the country. I still think Michigan can protect the passer well enough to still take some advantage through the air (PSU got most of their 13 sacks against Auburn, who is turrible), but it's not like Michigan can expect to blowtorch Joey Porter, Ji-Ayir Brown and company.
Probably unpopular opinion, but I'm fine with Michigan dropping and think it's justifiable to drop them further. These things sort themselves out, and while I (and analytics) still think Michigan is one of the best 4 teams in the country, other teams have better resumes up to this point.
Clemson, Tennessee, UCLA, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss have better wins, so far (btw, I don't think USC or OSU have better wins at this point). If Michigan takes care of business against PSU, they'll have the best win of the country and will be secure in the top-4.
Finally, no UNC or Duke in this challenge. We played UNC or Duke 4 times in the last decade, and I've preferred those Syracuse, NC State, Louisville type games more just for variety alone.
With that said, Virginia is returning almost everyone back from a bubble team and should be pretty decent. Still winnable.
Recent Master's grad from USC here. We had Rance's when I was there (since closed), which was decent deep dish pizza. Never had Rosso Oro's. Does Blaze just win by default?
The readership of the Hill is considered moderate (closer to AP than something like Fox or Drudge Report). I'm referencing a journalism study which states "most commonly named sources classified by ideology" on pg. 60).
Their editorials feature more conservative writers, but their straight reporting is closer to AP, which is the standard of non-partisanship in the industry. The story I referenced was simply a news story.
Also, CNN (your example of a liberal site) interpreted Fauci's comments in the same way.
Minor quibble from the beginning: Fauci countered Biden administration's insistence that vaccine program they inherited was "starting from scratch."
From his Thursday press conference:
"We're coming in with fresh ideas, but also some ideas that were not bad ideas with the previous administration. You can't say it was absolutely not usable at all," he said.
"It's taking what's going on, but amplifying it in a big way."
Don't know if you were specifically talking about just vaccine program, or just the federal government's COVID-19 prevention plan, so open for a clarification. Not aiming to get political, just seeking full accuracy on that point.
Ace, that's such a good point about people wrongly doubting Howard's ability as an X's and O's coach. I'll admit I had my doubts when he was hired, mostly due to his inexperience as a HC coming in. Plus, it seemed his role on the Miami coaching staff was a defensive specialist, but man, it seems like he absorbed everything the Heat are doing on offense and combining that with his staff here in AA.
I think it goes back to something Brian said when Howard was hired...he's always been a guy who respects the process. He stuck around longer in AA than he needed to as a player, presumably to develop more skills for the NBA. Instead of jumping to a HC job a la Penny Hardaway at Memphis, he started at the bottom of the coaching staff in Miami and worked himself up.
I think people, myself included, underestimated time he has spent learning and growing as a coach. Couldn't be happier to admit I was wrong.
Isn't IU's defense really Tom Allen's with Wommack's help? Don't know if Wommack is ready to handle things himself. For a similar example of transition struggles, see Josh Gattis post-Alabama.
I totally hear that point. I'm in the camp that I like Matt Campbell the most due to big-game experience, but if that fell through, guys like Tom Allen don't really excite me. I've heard some say guys like Chris Creighton at EMU would be a fall-back option, but wanted to hear people's thoughts on a guy like Annese (way more sustained success).
I'd add that at DC, I've been banging my hands on the table for Michigan to look at Navy's Brian Newberry. I watch academy football religiously (NROTC at UM, retired as an LT a few years ago), and he built a top-15 defense at a school that had no business being that competent.
After depth issues this year, came out of extended byes and put together back-to-back awesome games against Memphis and Tulsa. His right-hand man was Brian Norwood, who actually has UCLA's defense looking suprisingly unshitty. Get those two guys and surround them with recruiters.
I think an interesting comparison for Milton is Drew Henson. Henson was only an inch shorter, and while he could roll out or pick up a first down, neither he nor Milton are what you'd call burners.
Moreover, Henson's the only other Michigan QB I can think of with nearly the same arm strength. Milton, based on practice videos, can whip it 70-80 yards, but watch Henson's throws in the 2000 OSU game to see some "laser shots" as Brad Nessler put it.
With that comparison in mind, Milton should be good enough to beat most teams on the schedule, save for OSU and maybe PSU (Wisconsin sans Taylor will take a step back towards Iowa levels).
I don't necessarily disagree with canceling the season at this point, but two things really frustrate me:
1) Rather than immunology expert Mark Schlissel providing some sort of preventative guidance to students and the football team, he sat on his hands for months.
2) It's resulted in no football when Harbaugh has testing on lockdown with no cases in more than a month...and students had pretty much no precautions laid out for them.
If science were running the decisions, you'd think students would be mostly remote this semester (other than clinical classes where students need to be in-person). Instead, I can't think of another motivation for students to return other than Ann Arbor landlord Ron Weiser having undue influence as a Regent. Money > science with regards to Schlissel's decision-making.
RE The Eubanks block: He did an okay job diagnosing the blitz, but that guy started with outside leverage and cut across his face with little resistance. Basic football tenet is to take care of the most dangerous guy first, but Eubanks shoves the blitzer into the play.
If Eubanks took an extra beat to push the blitzer down the line instead, then get ahead as a lead blocker, play probably is a fine gain rather than a loss. Even if Turner survived the trip, the blitz would’ve still slowed him down some and given defenders time to rally for a short gain.
Not the worst play by Eubanks, but still worth at least a half-minus. On another note, it’s weird to hear you guys call those who criticized Eubanks as “layman” of football. Just felt a little dismissive and self-aggrandizing.
I’ve loved the podcast for years and the work you do. Just an observation.
I think there's a little too much roughness on Rexrode. A cursory google search shows him revealing the worst details of the Glenn Winston case, and holding the program accountable in that instance.. While it's possible he was too cozy with Izzo to see his faults (his last column at the LSJ hinted at that), I'm not feeling the vitriol shown on this site.
Some good players recently played there, like Jordan Zumwalt at UCLA. Everyone down there gets overshadowed by Long Beach Poly, but it’s fundamentally sound football down there.
I wrote the article. Cool seeing me cited on mgoblog!
Edison, for what it's worth, is a very strong OC public school program, and they threw everything they had at Charbonnet. Charbonnet came across as a one-cut power back with a bit of breakaway speed. He had two fifty yard runs that were the product of leaving DB's in a pool of goop after jukes.
The two TD's were him dragging several defenders. I was expecting Oaks to overwhelm with all of their talent, but really, Charbonnet is pretty much the biggest reason they are now a top-5 team in the state.
I know the locations are irrelevant for Bracketology. As an LA guy, though, please send UM to San Diego. Put them in the West region, though, so they can win the Los Angeles regional, too.
Went to grade school with one of their endless array of sons. They are a stereotypical Italian Catholic family with an army of kids and an incredibly loving mom.
I don’t want to see the series devolve into only stories that have a relation with the original trilogy. The Last Jedi, after some time, may wane for me (its only been a few hours lol), but it at least feels like a fresh voice.
Every year. It’s awesome to make Star Wars a yearly event. Chin up...um, I’m happy, just really disliked Rogue One.
Aside from CGI Tarkin and Leia looking like video game characters, it felt like every time they brought up Ballsack-chin guy from ANH cantina or C-3PO, it was the director shaking keys in front of our faces like we are babies.
Why watch the movie if there aren’t memorable characters that we care about when they die? Krennic is admittedly awesome, but what do we really know about Jyn, Cassian, or Chirrut (had to look up names...I only remember Cassian bc it sounded like Calrissian)? We have one scene for each character to say their background, and the rest is exposition, with no emotional arcs.
My basic requirements for enjoying a movie is does the plot mostly make sense and do I care about the characters? The plot is simple enough, but I was so glad everyone died at the end.
Than Rogue One is Attack of the Clones. I’d rather watch Phantom Menace. If forced to watch any of these three again, I’d probably ask for death, though.
It’s too early to rank Last Jedi, but it’s in the discussion with the originals.
The SW Universe is expanding. The Last Jedi is the best of the new films bc it’s actually trying to move Star Wars in a fresh direction, and have conversations about some of the series’ conventions that they subvert. No spoilers, but they cut off some dead weight from TFA is a satisfying, sometimes hilarious l, way.
Side note, Rogue One was boring garbage. No memorable characters, a fun premise wasted on a funeral dirge of a plot, masturbatory fan service, and embarrassing CGI Tarkin and Leia. I’ve seen some people here hail that one, and I will never understand the appreciation of that one.It felt like such a regression of the universe, relying on “things we know,” and, “remember that moment from the original?”
TFA, plot wise, is a mixture of New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, but it’s at least a fun, crisp adventure compared to slumber-inducing of Rogue One.
1) It’s oo-ung-a-lay-lay. From Mrs. Uiageleilei herself.
2) He’s a Polynesian Ben Roethlisberger. He can throw 80 yards on a line from his knees, and he stepped in mid-season as a sophomore and threw for 25 TD’s and only two picks. This is in the best high school football division in California, as well. Absolute stud.
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His level of insecurity fits well in Columbus. Someone who has to tell you they're not soft...
is.
So ESPN continues to be an embarrassment. Not so much the on-air personalities, but the suits behind the scenes. This is fun to see.
Pie n' Burger in Pasadena. It has pies and burgers.
For sure. All the academies seem to have rugged linebackers and secondaries that can keep teams in front of them. DL is the obvious limiting factor, but all three academies have had salty defenses the last few years.
Jealous of you guys as a Navy fan. The last three years of quarterbacking has been brutal.
For Air Force and Navy, QB always seems like the biggest x-factor (Army just plows ahead 3 yards at a time, so less impactful).
For Navy, they've had Malcolm Perry and Keenan Reynolds lead to top-20 finishes. For Air Force, three double-digit win years in the last four behind Daniels and Donald Hammond.
As a Navy fan (former Lt. on a destroyer) I’m really excited to see how the Middies do with a new coach. About the only good thing going for them in the last three years of Coach Ken was defense, and that DC is now the head coach. OC brings a shotgun spread and shed variation of the triple option, so hopefully that side is better with tons of returning experience.
If they can give Notre Dame a run for its money in the opener, I think Navy will shoot up this list.
Kind of a confusing misread by Sam on Klatt's UM-OSU comments. It clearly was meant that the last two years were upsets, but a third Michigan win this year would not be one. Seconds later, Klatt says "Michigan is the class of the Big Ten."
It's July, I guess...need any reason to get fired up.
It didn't cross my mind writing the story, but we should start appealing 247 to get TE recruiting profiles up on some of these critters.
Also re: MSU media…We don’t know about the first assault without Matt Charboneau. Matt Wenzel (MLive) wrote a column unequivocally condemning MSU. Hell, even Couch wrote something along the lines saying Tucker needs to feel heat now and moving forward due to his players’ assault.
Comparoni is trash. Many fans are trash. Not all of the MSU beat is parroting the trashiest of the trash tunnel takes.
While they're passing yards allowed is near the bottom in the country, they allow just 5.8 an attempt, which is 11th in the country. I still think Michigan can protect the passer well enough to still take some advantage through the air (PSU got most of their 13 sacks against Auburn, who is turrible), but it's not like Michigan can expect to blowtorch Joey Porter, Ji-Ayir Brown and company.
Probably unpopular opinion, but I'm fine with Michigan dropping and think it's justifiable to drop them further. These things sort themselves out, and while I (and analytics) still think Michigan is one of the best 4 teams in the country, other teams have better resumes up to this point.
Clemson, Tennessee, UCLA, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss have better wins, so far (btw, I don't think USC or OSU have better wins at this point). If Michigan takes care of business against PSU, they'll have the best win of the country and will be secure in the top-4.
The M bar in Pacific Beach in San Diego is Backyard Bar on Garnet Avenue.
I was in JX in 2015, so may have changed, but Blind Rabbit in Jax Beach is a great whisky bar where I watched a couple Super Bowls.
Let me know if there are problems seeing the story.
Finally, no UNC or Duke in this challenge. We played UNC or Duke 4 times in the last decade, and I've preferred those Syracuse, NC State, Louisville type games more just for variety alone.
With that said, Virginia is returning almost everyone back from a bubble team and should be pretty decent. Still winnable.
They got the USC Village now, which has a bunch of mini-franchises like Wahlburgers and Baked Bear.
NeoPapalis is pretty good...but I'd take original Cottage Inn, Mani Osteria's, NYPD and Anthony's over it.
I understand one of those is more of an Italian restaurant that just has pizza on the menu, but it's really, really good.
Recent Master's grad from USC here. We had Rance's when I was there (since closed), which was decent deep dish pizza. Never had Rosso Oro's. Does Blaze just win by default?
The readership of the Hill is considered moderate (closer to AP than something like Fox or Drudge Report). I'm referencing a journalism study which states "most commonly named sources classified by ideology" on pg. 60).
https://knightfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/American-Views-2020-Trust-Media-and-Democracy.pdf
Their editorials feature more conservative writers, but their straight reporting is closer to AP, which is the standard of non-partisanship in the industry. The story I referenced was simply a news story.
Also, CNN (your example of a liberal site) interpreted Fauci's comments in the same way.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/president-joe-biden-news-01-21-20/h_db38461d79d88dbb9efd19204e4d902e
Minor quibble from the beginning: Fauci countered Biden administration's insistence that vaccine program they inherited was "starting from scratch."
From his Thursday press conference:
"We're coming in with fresh ideas, but also some ideas that were not bad ideas with the previous administration. You can't say it was absolutely not usable at all," he said.
"It's taking what's going on, but amplifying it in a big way."
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/535327-fauci-we-are-not-starting-from-scratch-on-vaccine-distribution
Don't know if you were specifically talking about just vaccine program, or just the federal government's COVID-19 prevention plan, so open for a clarification. Not aiming to get political, just seeking full accuracy on that point.
Ace, that's such a good point about people wrongly doubting Howard's ability as an X's and O's coach. I'll admit I had my doubts when he was hired, mostly due to his inexperience as a HC coming in. Plus, it seemed his role on the Miami coaching staff was a defensive specialist, but man, it seems like he absorbed everything the Heat are doing on offense and combining that with his staff here in AA.
I think it goes back to something Brian said when Howard was hired...he's always been a guy who respects the process. He stuck around longer in AA than he needed to as a player, presumably to develop more skills for the NBA. Instead of jumping to a HC job a la Penny Hardaway at Memphis, he started at the bottom of the coaching staff in Miami and worked himself up.
I think people, myself included, underestimated time he has spent learning and growing as a coach. Couldn't be happier to admit I was wrong.
My takeaway from these responses: I did as much background checking on Annese as the Lions did on Matt Patricia. Hire me Mrs. Ford!
Haha quarantine's a hell of drug, I guess.
Isn't IU's defense really Tom Allen's with Wommack's help? Don't know if Wommack is ready to handle things himself. For a similar example of transition struggles, see Josh Gattis post-Alabama.
I didn't know about that. Welp, neg this post away!
EDIT: Here's an MLive article addressing this point. https://www.mlive.com/smallcolleges/grandrapids/2013/12/ferris_state_investigation_coa.html
You're probably right that he'd be a better coordinator or high-level assistant.
I totally hear that point. I'm in the camp that I like Matt Campbell the most due to big-game experience, but if that fell through, guys like Tom Allen don't really excite me. I've heard some say guys like Chris Creighton at EMU would be a fall-back option, but wanted to hear people's thoughts on a guy like Annese (way more sustained success).
Obviously, the reaction was...not great!
I'd add that at DC, I've been banging my hands on the table for Michigan to look at Navy's Brian Newberry. I watch academy football religiously (NROTC at UM, retired as an LT a few years ago), and he built a top-15 defense at a school that had no business being that competent.
After depth issues this year, came out of extended byes and put together back-to-back awesome games against Memphis and Tulsa. His right-hand man was Brian Norwood, who actually has UCLA's defense looking suprisingly unshitty. Get those two guys and surround them with recruiters.
Probably. Glad to get it off my chest. Now I can go back to posting once every few months lol.
I think an interesting comparison for Milton is Drew Henson. Henson was only an inch shorter, and while he could roll out or pick up a first down, neither he nor Milton are what you'd call burners.
Moreover, Henson's the only other Michigan QB I can think of with nearly the same arm strength. Milton, based on practice videos, can whip it 70-80 yards, but watch Henson's throws in the 2000 OSU game to see some "laser shots" as Brad Nessler put it.
With that comparison in mind, Milton should be good enough to beat most teams on the schedule, save for OSU and maybe PSU (Wisconsin sans Taylor will take a step back towards Iowa levels).
I don't necessarily disagree with canceling the season at this point, but two things really frustrate me:
1) Rather than immunology expert Mark Schlissel providing some sort of preventative guidance to students and the football team, he sat on his hands for months.
2) It's resulted in no football when Harbaugh has testing on lockdown with no cases in more than a month...and students had pretty much no precautions laid out for them.
If science were running the decisions, you'd think students would be mostly remote this semester (other than clinical classes where students need to be in-person). Instead, I can't think of another motivation for students to return other than Ann Arbor landlord Ron Weiser having undue influence as a Regent. Money > science with regards to Schlissel's decision-making.
Couldn't have said it better. Former DCA on an amphib in San Diego.
I have heard from several of my former shipmates that the early word is it's a total loss.
RE The Eubanks block: He did an okay job diagnosing the blitz, but that guy started with outside leverage and cut across his face with little resistance. Basic football tenet is to take care of the most dangerous guy first, but Eubanks shoves the blitzer into the play.
If Eubanks took an extra beat to push the blitzer down the line instead, then get ahead as a lead blocker, play probably is a fine gain rather than a loss. Even if Turner survived the trip, the blitz would’ve still slowed him down some and given defenders time to rally for a short gain.
Not the worst play by Eubanks, but still worth at least a half-minus. On another note, it’s weird to hear you guys call those who criticized Eubanks as “layman” of football. Just felt a little dismissive and self-aggrandizing.
I’ve loved the podcast for years and the work you do. Just an observation.
Since they have Baumgardner, they’re worth a click every now and again.
Don’t sleep on Colorado. Two years removed from the P12 title game.
They could go 9-3 in a wide-open South, with the SC game deciding the division champ.
The header picture makes Kelly look like Thanos’ pudgy brother.
I think there's a little too much roughness on Rexrode. A cursory google search shows him revealing the worst details of the Glenn Winston case, and holding the program accountable in that instance.. While it's possible he was too cozy with Izzo to see his faults (his last column at the LSJ hinted at that), I'm not feeling the vitriol shown on this site.
Exactly. He had broken them at that point, and was en route to 300-plus.
Some good players recently played there, like Jordan Zumwalt at UCLA. Everyone down there gets overshadowed by Long Beach Poly, but it’s fundamentally sound football down there.
I wrote the article. Cool seeing me cited on mgoblog!
Edison, for what it's worth, is a very strong OC public school program, and they threw everything they had at Charbonnet. Charbonnet came across as a one-cut power back with a bit of breakaway speed. He had two fifty yard runs that were the product of leaving DB's in a pool of goop after jukes.
The two TD's were him dragging several defenders. I was expecting Oaks to overwhelm with all of their talent, but really, Charbonnet is pretty much the biggest reason they are now a top-5 team in the state.
I know the locations are irrelevant for Bracketology. As an LA guy, though, please send UM to San Diego. Put them in the West region, though, so they can win the Los Angeles regional, too.