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Hardcore History

I've listened to pretty much all of the Hardcore History, and love them all.  But a particular favorite is Wrath of Khans - the story of Genghis Khan dynasty.  I knew nothing about that subject or period in history, and it was incredibly eye-opening (ear-opening?) and absolutely riveting.

Carlin

Absolutely agree on the Carlin.  The Genghis Khan/Mongols series is a particular favorite.

And to bring it back to books - Carlin also lists on his website the source material for his podcasts, so if you like something in particular you can check out the books.  For instance, I enjoyed Bevin Alexander's How Great Generals Win, a snapshot of great military strategists through history.

Why Do Teams Even Get Involved?

"5) If the pressure of the football is so important why does the NFL allow each team to supply their own balls? Wouldn't it be much more fair (and easy) for the NFL to supply all the balls and make each use the same ones?"

 

This is the part I find so baffling.  Why do they have separate balls for each team?  That would just seem to BEG for this kind of potential infraction.  If they have have shared for kickoffs, why not for the whole game?

Love the Matrix

In particular, it's illuminating to see that Bo, for instance, wasn't exactly a slam dunk.

Might be interesting to see how some non-Michigan hires stack up for even more perspective - that is, Tressel before going to OSU, Dantonio before MSU, Meyer before Florida, etc.

"THEY CAN ALREADY DO THIS.

"THEY CAN ALREADY DO THIS. HAVE YOU EVER READ THIS BLOG"

Oh, I love this blog.

This.

This, a thousand times.  They seemed obviously in over their heads -- to me that was most of the problem, not the (admittedly) bad calls they were making.

You said it perfectly:

You said it perfectly:

"For these seniors, Beat Ohio!"

Wonderful write up, and I agree with others -- it would be great to see something like this every year.

Much better on the pads than

Much better on the pads than on the hanger  - but I still wish the kids would get the hell off my precious lawn.

Yes

This is exactly how I feel, and so I LOLed when I saw this.

wow

I have let loose some rants in my life -- but this, sir, is awesome. 

'spam filter'

I'm trying to post a reply in the Mark May thread, and I'm getting a message about triggering the spam filter and so my message won't be posted.  Any idea what sort of things set off the filter? 

edited to add:  no profanity in the post, no brand names, and obviously I don't want to post the text here in case this won't post it either.

Not ALL teams

You beat me to it, but I agree. The better teams - Iowa, Wisc, PSU -- don't feel that way about Michigan.  But I do think the OP is right -- we get much better games from the bottom half (ie, Indiana, Illinois, and unfortunately didn't play Minn or NW) because we're the 'Big Bad'.

'rivalry'

And how great a rivalry can it be if only CU considers it a great rivalry?

Turnovers by player experience

This caught my eye:

This is primarily due to lack of experience (true freshmen last year and true sophomores this year).

Are there any stats to back that up?  I mean, intuitively, it makes sense, but have you seen in all of your TO research anything that flatly says freshman fumble at this rate, sophmores at this rate, etc?  or something about years starting/TO rates?

Because I think we were all hoping that there'd be many fewer turnovers this year, and yikes...

Flack is relative

I agree - I think Michigan/RR would have taken a lot of flack for trying and failing a 2-pt conversion.  But it's definitely relative:  By comparison, ISU's coach is getting some positive press for doing exactly this (going for two after they scored second in the first OT) in their game against Nebraska. I think if you're a David (ISU, or going back even further, Boise State) against a Goliath (Nebraska, or Oklahoma) it's 'gutsy' -- even if you fail.

But if Michigan tried and failed, RR would have been crucified for being desperate, I think.

Comparison to other teams

This is fascinating -- thanks for the hard work.  I was reminded of Diarist tpilews' work on projections, and how tpilews, when trying to project games, downgraded UM's non-conference stats to account for the tougher B10 schedule.

I presume all B10 teams' stats (offensive or defensive) would take a similar hit upon getting to the conference schedule.  Makes me wonder what the average 'hit' is -- ie, offensive stats drop by X% -- and then you can see which teams (or types of offenses?) suffer the least.  For example, the average drop in offensive yds/game goes down 20% upon entering B10 play, but UM's only went down 15%.  (Wishful thinking...)

2-1-1

we'd be running a 2-1-1 defense this year

Thanks for my first laugh about the game.  Scary but true.

Contrasting pictures

Anyone else notice how the pictures of the UM offense almost universally show the player running, with Indiana players trailing along behind?  Nice to be on the PLUS side of those kinds of photos for once.

Florida bad

I don't Florida has done anything at all to warrant that #7 ranking.

Ouch

Okoli was a full-time defensive lineman in high school and at Penn State until spring drills, when he reluctantly shifted to offense.

Wow, glad I'm not the quarterback playing behind someone who doesn't even want to play offense line.

Great series

I've followed football my whole life, and have considered myself fairly knowledgeable.  However, since I never played the game, your explanation of the eligible receivers was the first time I ever learned who was eligible and why.  The rest of the entry was very helpful as well - thanks for this, looking forward reading the rest of the entries.