There's probably still a few seats left on the bandwagon, but not for long. Standing room only after this week, if all goes well.
But 22:1 seems low. Maybe to win the B1G. But to win the Playoff? That requires winning six games against top-15 teams, starting this week. 22:1 doesn't reflect that, but it probably does reflect the rapidly dropping number of teams with ANY chance of making the playoff. Two weeks from now, that will be a very small number. These odds anticipate that, I think. Right now, Michigan has a realistic shot at being one of those teams (by winning against both NW and MSU).
Northwestern makes me the most nervous of all the games remaining, OSU notwithstanding.
It's a game between two teams with a lot to prove and a lot at stake. Very hard to know what will happen.
Seriously doubt NFL scouts haven't noticed him. It's probably more about them keeping quiet so maybe the could have picked him up in a later round if Michigan had struggled this year. Probably not happening now, though.
I had an email exchange with Brian about it long ago, and he said they were aware of it. I think if an account predates a certain point in time (around the time of the great malware incursion), then the problem arises when you try to change your picture.
Anyhow, I gave up waiting and started a new identity just to get an avatar -- mostly because I like this one so much. Points don't really matter -- the worst part was losing my join date, from mid 2009. People tend to give you more respect when you've been around for a while.
[EDIT: Breaking News! See my post as "Rasmus" below -- there is a workaround for this!]
I think you're closest to describing the issue clearly. Although they did change personnel -- as I understand it, they only had four OL in on those three plays.
I still haven't read a decent description of what the Pats did. I don't have it recorded, so I can't look for myself.
According to Belichick, they only did it three times. The Ravens did adjust, and Harbaugh's stopping the game by walking onto the field to complain to the refs about how they were handling it was part of that.
They only did it three times, according to Belichick. I'm not sure what happened on those plays, and ESPN is no help in telling me. Unfortunately, I didn't record the game, so I can't go back and look for myself.
Baltimore actually adjusted pretty quickly, and the Pats stopped doing it.
Thanks for doing this. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
There are good position switches and bad position switches. Basically, if you're trying to fill holes with position switches, that's a problem. If you're simply trying to get great athletes onto the field when there's no room for them at their best position, that's not so much a problem as a luxury.
One of the things about Morris is that he seems like he may take a while to get going. IIRC, he's only had two starts, one in each of his seasons. He needs to start in at least two, maybe three, consecutive games before he will begin to get comfortable.
This is related to the fact he has a very, very strong arm -- it will take some time for him to calibrate it to his receivers and just this level of competition in general. To use a cliche, the game needs "to slow down" for him -- count me as one who thinks it will once he gets his chance.
He also has one big advantage over the other guys -- he is two or more years older than them. That's not nothing. I'd be very surprised if he is not the starter at the beginning of the season. Whether he remains so depends on what happens in those first few games, obviously.
One thing the NFL-centric guys are missing is the allure of winning a CFP National Championship at Michigan. That's not nothing. How that stacks up against a Super Bowl in Harbaugh's mind is hard to say.
As someone who basically roots for NFL teams depending on the number and centrality of the Michigan alumni on their rosters, it's an easy decision. But Harbaugh played in the NFL, and it may mean a lot to him.
I think the NFL itself truly wants to hang onto him, and a lot of that smoke is coming from an actual fire. They will make a serious offer. It won't be an easy choice.
Regardless, to answer the OP, I myself won't hold it against him if he stays in the NFL.
Those stereotypical Apple hipsters are almost as big of asshats as someone who would post "Apple sucks" in a thread just to be "cool" (I think that reply must be sarcasm? Funny either way.)
Maybe you miseed the memo, but it's trendy to be anti-Apple, and has been for a while.
But they do keep selling gajillions of machines, because they are quality, like you say. That said, I think the watch isn't unique, and it won't follow the iPod/iPhone/iPad trajectories, but I still wouldn't sell my stock in the company.
He said that neither he nor his agent had been contacted.
I understand the need to lie, or at least obfuscate, from a recruiting standpoint and for team morale. I'm not saying that, in itself, was why he may have "screwed himself."
For me, it's more about generating a major sports media story by holding his dumb off-the-record news conference prelude. If I'm Hackett, my response is, "Well, thanks for not waiting, Les. You just made my job easier."
That said, I doubt Hackett is so thin-skinned, and he wouldn't let that stop him if he thinks Miles is the best Plan B. But jerking LSU around the way he did in that non-news news conference (if in fact he still wants the Michigan job, then he was in fact jerking LSU around) isn't a point in his favor.
I don't think there was any reason to say anything at all. I believe him when he says he has not heard from Michgan. By handling it the way he did, I think he showed once again that he doesn't get it.
Let's assume that he is lying, and in fact he wants the job. It's okay to lie off the record, but not on? You go on the record or you don't answer those questions.
No doubt the offer has an expiration date, but not until at least the time Hackett said he thought we would have a coach. So early January? No doubt Michigan knows the NFL rules for Harbaugh finding out what he needs to know about his options there, and any serious deadline must account for that -- without allowing the NFL to stall.
Regardless, making the Harbaugh offer allows Michigan to move on to working on Plan B. Up until yesterday, probably only the search firm was focused on that. With the offer to Plan A approved within the University and officially made, Hackett can move on to Plan B.
That's really the big news yesterday -- Michigan is now searching for its Plan B. The publicity about the offer puts them in a good position, as it makes the situation very clear. The only person who may have screwed himself is Miles, assuming he wanted the job.
FYI, Andy and Jim never played together at Pioneer.
They are the same age and they would have known each other as kids for a couple of years before the Moellers moved to Illinois (1977-1979). But the Harbaughs were gone (to Stanford) when the Moellers moved back to Michigan in 1980.
All that it says is what it meant in context -- that Alvarez, as a former coach, is better qualified to be an AD who "hovers over" his football coaches than Brandon.
This is more about the NFL wanting to retain Harbaugh. All the NFL people who are saying whatever they are saying are always basically trying to undermine Harbaugh-to-Michigan.
The reality is that Jim Harbaugh's energy is worth a lot to the NFL and they want to keep it going. The Jets are my guess, but it doesn't matter. Pretty much everything from an NFL source has to be understood in that light.
Click on the image to go to a larger version. Note the blurb at the top: "The 1979 Football season was not a successful one. ... The team started generating wins when sophomore quarterback Jim Harbaugh came up from the J. V. squad. ..."
Just for fun, and because this post by Brian has moved me from highly skeptical to true believer, I hereby post a detail of Jim Harbaugh's 1979 Ann Arbor Pioneer JV football team photo. I will put the overall of the page in a reply to this. From my wife's 1980 yearbook. She was in his class -- that was their sophomore year -- he went to the prom with one of her friends, but she didn't really know him. He moved to California (i.e., Stanford) the next year. That was John Harbaugh's senior year -- he is number 22 in the Varsity photo below the JV photo.
Takes a year off, then takes the HC job at Ohio (not that Ohio). The greatest thing ever. Also the perfect place for him. Solich just turned 70.
Hoke has a lot of friends in the coaching community, and they can understand where he's coming from. He can get a job if he wants one. It's more of a question of what he wants to do.
You're not alone in thinking that Hoke would get another season, even in this thread.
But, as someone who has consistently thought that, I can't say I still do. I still think Hoke has more support than people here recognize, but I no longer think there is much evidence that he can turn things around next year. This season would have to have gone very differently for that to happen, and I don't mean wins and losses.
Sure, yes, Rutgers was a bad loss -- the whole trip to NYC was a complete mess, not just the game -- and now Brandon is gone. But the other losses are to decent teams that are all having good if not great seasons -- so it isn't that -- it is the way Michigan lost those other games, none of which were remotely competitive. That's what matters.
There has been improvement -- the OL looks good for next year, IMHO. The defense will be fine. I always thought that would be enough -- keep the course and Michigan will win a lot of games in 2015. But the spankings against good opponents this year just don't support that way of thinking any longer.
Exams end the 17th and December degrees are conferred on the 20th. So grades are probably due on the Friday the 19th. If his exams take place before the last day, then his grades could be available even sooner.
Regardless, his Fall semester grades would surely be available by the 20th.
So you might be right. I don't know how eligibility rules work.
Here's the thing -- people get hired into jobs like this from smaller institutions all the time. You can't always find someone with the experience you need at a peer institution.
Sometimes those people survive, but there is ALWAYS a learning curve. It takes a while to adjust to a larger, more complex environment. But other times people just can't handle it. In general, you know pretty quickly whether or not it is working out. Like a year or so. Then you hire them a management coach and if that doesn't work, they are gone.
So what I'm saying is that a serious search would consider some of the coaches mentioned in this thread.
Brandon was screwed the minute he restricted his search to just people with ties to the University of Michigan. No doubt he didn't admit (or even realize -- he doesn't seem very self-aware) that was what he was doing, but in retrospect it sure looks like it. He wanted someone to heal the rifts within the program. He chose Hoke, who did achieve that goal, at least for a while. Unfortunately, he just wasn't ready for the job itself.
I do think Michigan will give Hoke another year. If I'm right, then pray that it turns out Shane Morris just needed a little more time on the field to get his bearings. And who knows, maybe Hackett will hire Hoke a good management coach and he can learn how to do his job. That does sometimes work.
Did any of you actually read the article? Yes, they got the apartment through the brother of someone connected to the football program, for $1300/mo in rent. They did pay their rent, but it appears that sometimes it was late.
The landlord only tried to enforce the late-payments clause of the lease when Peppers transferred. A judge threw that out for obvious reasons, and just had them pay their last month's rent.
Was the eviction and lawsuit payback for transferring? Sure, yes, it's possible. People can be assholes. It's quite common.
But it hasn't got anything to do with Peppers' eligibility. Helping someone find an apartment isn't a violation. We know there was a reasonable rent, and we know they paid it. The rest is bullshit that may be indicative of larger problems at Don Bosco (the lawsuit as a threat -- if you move your kid, we will make your life hell), but nothing else.
I taught undergraduates for many years. So I have some practical sense of what happens inside of a University and in the education and maturation process at those ages. I'm not saying you, but I think a lot of fans have a distorted sense of what is going on here.
I just don't see what you think is obvious, that players on offense are not being developed. The line is still a work in progress, but there is development there. Kalis? Being a five-star is not an automatic guarantee of success. Is there anyone else who is truly performing below expectations? You had two young running backs coming along nicely. One got hurt, but still. Darboh had something resembling a breakout game against PSU. That's good, especially for Funchess against MSU. Jake Butt looks great.
So Shane Morris had a rough go of it -- in his first real, non-mono and its long recovery process, game since his junior year of high school. So what?
I think you can fire Hoke for putting Morris back into that game. There's really no excuse for that. Period. And maybe for being a deer in headlights in general when standing on the field during competitive games as head coach. And maybe for ignoring innovation, whatever. But for a lack of player development? I don't see it.
I just don't think having the families of current players basically doing alumni relations (which is, at root, fundraising) is a good idea. Not just because it isn't necessarily a given that being an active former player means you are not a fool, but also because it's a distraction regardless.
These trips are going to be used for fundraising -- besides television money, it's probably the principal reason why the B1G took Rutgers and Maryland. No doubt Brandon wanted to show immediate results on the first trip to the greater New York City area. But mistakes were made, mistakes that may be undermining the team, if what the OP is reporting is any indication.
Hoke has got problems as a head coach on the field, and it's not clear that he is improving in those respects -- that's why good practices continue to fail to translate into good games, but saying there is "no player development" is just wrong.
I think it is likely that you are going to see that thing you find unreasonable happen (next year), right or wrong. But that's mainly because I see improvement despite the chaos, and I still expect at least one big upset win this year -- if it is at MSU, then watch out. But as I said, that's just me.
First off, last night was a good win, in which the team showed a lot of heart and basic, sustained competence. Let's not forget that. Only very stupid people will say beating Penn State means nothing.
Second, I don't know if this kind of thing -- arranging for players and their families on a road trip to stay with former players -- has been common in the past, under Carr and earlier. Somehow I doubt it?
It feels to me like a Brandon thing -- he seems hung up on his past and it colors everything he does. If so, then it's a fairly big instance of his incompetence, and something that your family should consider bringing to the new President's office. It may not be a terrible idea, but it certainly sounds like it was badly mishandled.
Third, for what it's worth and this is just me, but I would be interested in knowing what Hoke might do with a competent AD making his job simpler instead of making it more complicated, which is what this thing you're talking about sounds like to me. Just the kind of messy distraction you don't need when you're trying to do Hoke's job.
I don't see the point of trying to hire a new coach with Brandon still in place -- even if you could convince someone good to come, they'd still have Brandon to deal with. So get rid of Brandon, and see what Hoke can do next year (and, ideally, the rest of this year). Then make a decision on Hoke.
EDIT: Note that these lag by a week, as they come out on Monday, before any changes are in place. I'm not sure we know when Morgan got injured -- in the App St game or in practice on the Monday after it, but either way, he still would have been (and was) listed as an OR starter for ND, and his status not changed to the current one until Miami U.
Another factor that should be considered is who is doing the hiring.
Was the new coach hired by the same person who hired the old coach?
I think Hoke will need five years, but even if I did not think that I still have no confidence Brandon has the ability to handle the search for his replacement.
Brandon gets a lot of reflected glory from Beilein's success, but in fact he did not hire Beilein. I also don't think he should get much credit for making Michigan's football coaching-staff salaries competitive. That decision (Rodriguez's main legacy at Michigan) was already made when he arrived -- indeed, that's what Brandon was hired to do.
The goal at Michigan is to play Ohio State with something on the line. That's what motivates players and teams. Without it, if you're always playing them in hopes of spoiling their season (as sweet as that can be), it wears you down. It's hard to stay focused in the off-season, or after a setback during the season. You need to believe the goal is attainable.
I still think Hoke will meet that standard. He will find his way. Possibly even this year.
If he does not, you have to look at replacing Brandon before you fire Hoke. In my view, it was Brandon who created the problem in the first place. If you let Brandon hire the next coach, you're just rolling the dice. "Maybe he'll get lucky."
I obviously don't know, but I think probably your interpretation of "attrition" is different from Ace's (and MGoBlog's) -- they don't include the coaches' decision about 5th years in that. So they are currently "projecting" however many players not getting 5th years as needed to leave 3 spots open in the class.
Attrition here would mean injuries or players who leave the program for whatever reason, but not because the coaches are managing their roster as they see fit. I don't think a 5th year is ever understood as a sure thing -- that is made very clear to the players, and they are strongly encouraged to graduate on time.
Another possibility is that there is insider information driving that number, which would explain the silence.
He doesn't state "there are 3 scholarships left before attrition" -- he states "we're projecting three open spots right now" -- so you can take the lack of a response to be an indication that he has done his own count and he means what he says.
Yes, the Sypniewski and the miscount errors should be corrected, but I don't think you can make the assumption that Ace is basing two-thirds of his projection on those errors.
Like the OP's picks, especially Dawson, but think probably the most telling thing about his two posts is the (unintentional) difference in the tiltes: "... offense starting ..." versus "... starting defense ..." -- the latter implies a cohesive starting unit, the former tends to suggest more of a starting point in an ongoing process. Let's hope we have an established "starting offense" by the time Butt comes back.
I think you'll see Smith and Green both get the honor of starting games. But yeah, I like Smith's potential -- but that could just be because we've seen less of him. He's still largely an unknown. Also, given Green's hard work this off-season, I'd guess he also sees Smith as serious competition. All told, it looks good for RBs at Michigan. Not surprising Weber wants in.
It could be that there isn't enough demand for it. From legitimate cable ("television provider" middleman) subscribers, I mean. I believe BTN2Go supports AirPlay streaming from an iOS device to an AppleTV, so there's no real demand from the millions of iPad/iPhone users out there. And Android-via-Chromecast seems to work as well, so not so much demand from that sector either.
Yes, it does seem like a logical next step from a technical and convenience standpoint, and easy to implement, but it's probably also complicated by BTN's contracts with the middlemen.
Have you tried the ACC app? It appeared this year just before March Madness. But it has never carried live games. So I suspect that when the 2014-2015 NCAA seasons roll around, most likely all the current material (game highlights and "feature programming") will still be available to non-subscribers, but to watch live games, you'll need to be in the ACC cable footprint.
Nobody has what he's asking about. Not Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Roku, whatever.
BTN is wedded to the cable (i.e., "television provider" middleman) model. Even if they put the BTN2Go app onto the AppleTV, Roku, etc., it would still require a cable subscription to activate.
OP says he "cut the cable cord" but if he's watching BTN2Go at all, he's using someone else's cable login credentials to do that. Ultimately, what he needs is the ability to subscribe to BTN outside of the cable framework. We're not there yet.
Well, I did qualify it as the best-case scenario, so maybe not too likely, but it remains true that Kugler's father is OL coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. So if anyone can handle it from a preparation and/or conceptual standpoint, it might be him.
MIller seems like he had his shot, but you never know -- all of these guys are young. Sometimes it takes longer, either physically or mentally, or both.
Agree, re: Cole. But if they move him to tackle, it probably means the coaches are confident about things on the inside, so that's good!
The rosiest scenario would be for Kugler to be able to take over at Center now and not wait. That would give the coaches the most flexibility in terms of finding their starting Guards for the B1G schedule, not to mention coping with dings and boo-boos. Tackle opposite Magnuson is what it is, as we don't know much about what Fox and LTT can do, or even Braden, really. We just have to hope at least one of them emerges.
Worst case is the opposite -- Kugler not ready and probably never going to be, Glasgow at Center for the next two years. This puts enormous pressure on Kalis and the interior redshirts, with opposing defenses once again throwing everything at the interior line. But still, there is depth -- there are three more players available for the rotation than last year, not counting Bryant last year and not counting the two true freshmen this year.
Regardless, unlike the past several years, by the end of 2014 we should have a pretty good idea of what to expect from the OL in 2015 and 2016. There is light at the end of the tunnel -- hard to know if it is a bright sunny day or rainy gloom, but we will at least be able to see something soon. That, at least, will make this season more fun to watch than the last...
I think you're way off in your assesment of Hazard's impact in this World Cup. You say that the goal against Russia was a feed from Hazard, and in general he stepped up at the end of that game to dominate. But in the 2-1 win over Algeria, the winning Mertens blast came from Hazard as well -- "great vision from Hazard to set that up." [CBS] So three Belgium goals before they advanced, two of them via assists from Hazard.
They rested him in the third game, along with Kompany, Witsel, and De Bruyne.
He was just clartifying his [?] original point, which was presumably about the guy who melted down upthread. That is the "someone," not you. No need to whine.
For what it's worth, Hoke will get at least two more years, no matter what, whether you like it or not. Probably three or four, really, assuming he is able to hold his classes together. He will get a chance to field a team or two with an intact group of fifth-year seniors that he recuited (not counting his first class).
If that doesn't happen, and Brandon fires Hoke after this season, Hoke won't be the only one gone. Brandon will lose his job. Indeed, if Brandon were to want to fire Hoke after this season (again, assuming his recruiting classes are still intact), I'd fire him (Brandon) first, and bring in someone who has the guts to carry out the plan.
Hoke wasn't hired to "turn Michigan around" (again, as others seem to think, not you). Michigan was never Stanford. It's a useless comparison. Hoke was hired to clean up the mess after recruiting and attrition got out of control. He's done that, and now he needs a couple of years to take the next step as a head coach. The question of whether Hoke can win the big games is one for the near future, not the present.
It is loosely based on the story of Compaq -- there are subtle dramatic tensions that look to me like the people making it know what they are doing -- like the wife of the lead engineer, who solves his basic architecture problem for him in about five seconds at their kitchen table -- what will happen to her? I think the Mad Men influence is apparent in that story line...
But a lot of the rest of it is still a bit raw -- it doesn't have the polish of Mad Men. Part of that is that the period is harder to capture -- the early 1980s is a transitional period. But there is hope, I think, that it will improve and the characters will acquire more depth as the story moves forward.
[EDIT: Just watched the fourth episode -- so I guess the foreshadowing about the wife was not as subtle as I thought, since they cashed it in right away.]
The challenge is keeping the cast together long enough for a long run. Especially for a successful show that launches (or re-launches) the careers of the cast. People start getting major offers for movies, people don't want to get typecast, and so on. This isn't a sitcom.
In my mind, the prime example of this is Battlestar Gallactica, which fell apart in its final season for two reasons -- [1] the long hiatus imposed by the television writers' strike, which was just bad timing for the producers, and [2] the loss of Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben), who was integral to the Kara Thrace storyline -- everything leading up to the final season indicated Leoben held the key to that. But they lost him to a major role in the X-Files movie -- he was not available for BSG's final season. Their attempt to redirect Kara's story away from him was a disaster.
So the GoT producers are on a clock. They've got maybe seven seasons to work with before they run the risk of losing one of the core actors. My understanding is they have the approval (i.e., money) for two more seasons, so no doubt the necessary actors are already under contract for the next two seasons. I think much of a seventh season of the series is also feasible, as apparently Martin has already finished the resolutions to the A Dance with Dragons cliffhangers for the sixth book (The Winds of Winter).
The seventh and final book, though, is likely to be more than four years away. I wouldn't be surprised to see an eighth season, built on whatever he has completed of the final book at that point. I also wouldn't be surprised to see the final book come out after the final season of the HBO series.
There are rumors of an eighth book, but if true I think that is likely to be similar to the problem that resulted in the fourth and fifth books -- too much material for a single book, so he splits it into two volumes. Let's hope he has learned his lesson and he doesn't decide to split them the same way...
Given the theme of the previews for this season, I think Arya's story will move along for sure. They've also spent a good amount of time setting up the next part of Tyrion's story -- it would make sense to get through that now, in my view.
I suppose they could do both if they leave the battle in a cliffhanger. Even at the point it is right now... [EDIT: Scratch that, with the 66 minutes, they will certainly finish the battle -- LoTR has shown how quickly you can wrap up a battle after the tide has turned. So it will happen. I still think there's time to do the other two, and maybe also move Bran one step further long.]
I think you're conflating me with other people, but whatever. I'm saying you don't know, and if you think you know, you're wrong.
You can't have it both ways. You can't damn him for not playing and then turn around and say you have performed a "quick eyeball test." On what?
Now you claim to know what the coaches think of Isaac, based solely on his lack playing time last year and now his supposed performance this Spring under the new regime. So you participate in USC practices and attend coaches meetings? It's just laughable.
Richardson didn't play at all last year, his second year in the program. So that's a completely bullshit example, and doesn't compare at all to Isaac at USC last year.
A better analogy would be De'Veon Smith last year. He was stuck behind Green. Only got into four games at running back. Probably close to the same number of meaningful carries as Isaac at USC -- more than zero, but not many. Can you say with any certainty what Smith will do this year? I thought he looked pretty good the few real touches he had. But the coaches obviously weren't comfortable with him in, so Green got most of the experience.
The point is that there really isn't much evidence on Isaac. Just that his peer Davis was in front of him and two third-year players started ahead of him.
I'm disagreeing with your assertion that Isaac left USC because he was buried on the depth chart. That is crap. The "prior evidence" you cite is thin at best. It's only evidence that he wasn't as ready to play out of the gate as Davis was last year -- by mid-season, when Davis went down, he still wasn't ready. Then the coach got fired! You act like it was a normal year. The fact they didn't use Isaac much doesn't mean squat. Far more likely than what you're saying is that he was still learning the offense, and he just wasn't ready. The whole offense was not available when he was in, so they didn't use him. Yet they still gave him some touches. They had Allen, and Madden off and on. Both with two more years in the offense than Isaac. You're twisting facts and fudging things, and basically not acknowledging that you have no freaking idea where Isaac would have ended up had he stayed at SC this year.
Recent Comments
There's probably still a few seats left on the bandwagon, but not for long. Standing room only after this week, if all goes well.
But 22:1 seems low. Maybe to win the B1G. But to win the Playoff? That requires winning six games against top-15 teams, starting this week. 22:1 doesn't reflect that, but it probably does reflect the rapidly dropping number of teams with ANY chance of making the playoff. Two weeks from now, that will be a very small number. These odds anticipate that, I think. Right now, Michigan has a realistic shot at being one of those teams (by winning against both NW and MSU).
Northwestern makes me the most nervous of all the games remaining, OSU notwithstanding.
It's a game between two teams with a lot to prove and a lot at stake. Very hard to know what will happen.
Seriously doubt NFL scouts haven't noticed him. It's probably more about them keeping quiet so maybe the could have picked him up in a later round if Michigan had struggled this year. Probably not happening now, though.
I had an email exchange with Brian about it long ago, and he said they were aware of it. I think if an account predates a certain point in time (around the time of the great malware incursion), then the problem arises when you try to change your picture.
Anyhow, I gave up waiting and started a new identity just to get an avatar -- mostly because I like this one so much. Points don't really matter -- the worst part was losing my join date, from mid 2009. People tend to give you more respect when you've been around for a while.
[EDIT: Breaking News! See my post as "Rasmus" below -- there is a workaround for this!]
I think you're closest to describing the issue clearly. Although they did change personnel -- as I understand it, they only had four OL in on those three plays.
I still haven't read a decent description of what the Pats did. I don't have it recorded, so I can't look for myself.
Can anyone point to video online?
According to Belichick, they only did it three times. The Ravens did adjust, and Harbaugh's stopping the game by walking onto the field to complain to the refs about how they were handling it was part of that.
They only did it three times, according to Belichick. I'm not sure what happened on those plays, and ESPN is no help in telling me. Unfortunately, I didn't record the game, so I can't go back and look for myself.
Baltimore actually adjusted pretty quickly, and the Pats stopped doing it.
Thanks for doing this. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
There are good position switches and bad position switches. Basically, if you're trying to fill holes with position switches, that's a problem. If you're simply trying to get great athletes onto the field when there's no room for them at their best position, that's not so much a problem as a luxury.
That rumor stems from the fact he was hired at Iowa when Mary Sue was president there.
In Three and Out, Bacon says that he was Martin's first choice before Carr retired, but MSC vetoed it once the search started, for whatever reason.
One of the things about Morris is that he seems like he may take a while to get going. IIRC, he's only had two starts, one in each of his seasons. He needs to start in at least two, maybe three, consecutive games before he will begin to get comfortable.
This is related to the fact he has a very, very strong arm -- it will take some time for him to calibrate it to his receivers and just this level of competition in general. To use a cliche, the game needs "to slow down" for him -- count me as one who thinks it will once he gets his chance.
He also has one big advantage over the other guys -- he is two or more years older than them. That's not nothing. I'd be very surprised if he is not the starter at the beginning of the season. Whether he remains so depends on what happens in those first few games, obviously.
One thing the NFL-centric guys are missing is the allure of winning a CFP National Championship at Michigan. That's not nothing. How that stacks up against a Super Bowl in Harbaugh's mind is hard to say.
As someone who basically roots for NFL teams depending on the number and centrality of the Michigan alumni on their rosters, it's an easy decision. But Harbaugh played in the NFL, and it may mean a lot to him.
I think the NFL itself truly wants to hang onto him, and a lot of that smoke is coming from an actual fire. They will make a serious offer. It won't be an easy choice.
Regardless, to answer the OP, I myself won't hold it against him if he stays in the NFL.
Those stereotypical Apple hipsters are almost as big of asshats as someone who would post "Apple sucks" in a thread just to be "cool" (I think that reply must be sarcasm? Funny either way.)
Maybe you miseed the memo, but it's trendy to be anti-Apple, and has been for a while.
But they do keep selling gajillions of machines, because they are quality, like you say. That said, I think the watch isn't unique, and it won't follow the iPod/iPhone/iPad trajectories, but I still wouldn't sell my stock in the company.
He said that neither he nor his agent had been contacted.
I understand the need to lie, or at least obfuscate, from a recruiting standpoint and for team morale. I'm not saying that, in itself, was why he may have "screwed himself."
For me, it's more about generating a major sports media story by holding his dumb off-the-record news conference prelude. If I'm Hackett, my response is, "Well, thanks for not waiting, Les. You just made my job easier."
That said, I doubt Hackett is so thin-skinned, and he wouldn't let that stop him if he thinks Miles is the best Plan B. But jerking LSU around the way he did in that non-news news conference (if in fact he still wants the Michigan job, then he was in fact jerking LSU around) isn't a point in his favor.
I don't think there was any reason to say anything at all. I believe him when he says he has not heard from Michgan. By handling it the way he did, I think he showed once again that he doesn't get it.
Let's assume that he is lying, and in fact he wants the job. It's okay to lie off the record, but not on? You go on the record or you don't answer those questions.
No doubt the offer has an expiration date, but not until at least the time Hackett said he thought we would have a coach. So early January? No doubt Michigan knows the NFL rules for Harbaugh finding out what he needs to know about his options there, and any serious deadline must account for that -- without allowing the NFL to stall.
Regardless, making the Harbaugh offer allows Michigan to move on to working on Plan B. Up until yesterday, probably only the search firm was focused on that. With the offer to Plan A approved within the University and officially made, Hackett can move on to Plan B.
That's really the big news yesterday -- Michigan is now searching for its Plan B. The publicity about the offer puts them in a good position, as it makes the situation very clear. The only person who may have screwed himself is Miles, assuming he wanted the job.
FYI, Andy and Jim never played together at Pioneer.
They are the same age and they would have known each other as kids for a couple of years before the Moellers moved to Illinois (1977-1979). But the Harbaughs were gone (to Stanford) when the Moellers moved back to Michigan in 1980.
All that it says is what it meant in context -- that Alvarez, as a former coach, is better qualified to be an AD who "hovers over" his football coaches than Brandon.
Click on the image to go to a larger version. Note the blurb at the top: "The 1979 Football season was not a successful one. ... The team started generating wins when sophomore quarterback Jim Harbaugh came up from the J. V. squad. ..."
Just for fun, and because this post by Brian has moved me from highly skeptical to true believer, I hereby post a detail of Jim Harbaugh's 1979 Ann Arbor Pioneer JV football team photo. I will put the overall of the page in a reply to this. From my wife's 1980 yearbook. She was in his class -- that was their sophomore year -- he went to the prom with one of her friends, but she didn't really know him. He moved to California (i.e., Stanford) the next year. That was John Harbaugh's senior year -- he is number 22 in the Varsity photo below the JV photo.
Takes a year off, then takes the HC job at Ohio (not that Ohio). The greatest thing ever. Also the perfect place for him. Solich just turned 70.
Hoke has a lot of friends in the coaching community, and they can understand where he's coming from. He can get a job if he wants one. It's more of a question of what he wants to do.
I don't really see him in the NFL.
I overstated that, and I should have put it differently, since I'm sure much of the trip went fine, but this is what I was referring to:
http://mgoblog.com/diaries/what-player-alumni-really-think-current-play…
You're not alone in thinking that Hoke would get another season, even in this thread.
But, as someone who has consistently thought that, I can't say I still do. I still think Hoke has more support than people here recognize, but I no longer think there is much evidence that he can turn things around next year. This season would have to have gone very differently for that to happen, and I don't mean wins and losses.
Sure, yes, Rutgers was a bad loss -- the whole trip to NYC was a complete mess, not just the game -- and now Brandon is gone. But the other losses are to decent teams that are all having good if not great seasons -- so it isn't that -- it is the way Michigan lost those other games, none of which were remotely competitive. That's what matters.
There has been improvement -- the OL looks good for next year, IMHO. The defense will be fine. I always thought that would be enough -- keep the course and Michigan will win a lot of games in 2015. But the spankings against good opponents this year just don't support that way of thinking any longer.
Exams end the 17th and December degrees are conferred on the 20th. So grades are probably due on the Friday the 19th. If his exams take place before the last day, then his grades could be available even sooner.
Regardless, his Fall semester grades would surely be available by the 20th.
So you might be right. I don't know how eligibility rules work.
Here's the thing -- people get hired into jobs like this from smaller institutions all the time. You can't always find someone with the experience you need at a peer institution.
Sometimes those people survive, but there is ALWAYS a learning curve. It takes a while to adjust to a larger, more complex environment. But other times people just can't handle it. In general, you know pretty quickly whether or not it is working out. Like a year or so. Then you hire them a management coach and if that doesn't work, they are gone.
So what I'm saying is that a serious search would consider some of the coaches mentioned in this thread.
Brandon was screwed the minute he restricted his search to just people with ties to the University of Michigan. No doubt he didn't admit (or even realize -- he doesn't seem very self-aware) that was what he was doing, but in retrospect it sure looks like it. He wanted someone to heal the rifts within the program. He chose Hoke, who did achieve that goal, at least for a while. Unfortunately, he just wasn't ready for the job itself.
I do think Michigan will give Hoke another year. If I'm right, then pray that it turns out Shane Morris just needed a little more time on the field to get his bearings. And who knows, maybe Hackett will hire Hoke a good management coach and he can learn how to do his job. That does sometimes work.
Funny in that it was actually a "there" versus "their" problem.
Did any of you actually read the article? Yes, they got the apartment through the brother of someone connected to the football program, for $1300/mo in rent. They did pay their rent, but it appears that sometimes it was late.
The landlord only tried to enforce the late-payments clause of the lease when Peppers transferred. A judge threw that out for obvious reasons, and just had them pay their last month's rent.
Was the eviction and lawsuit payback for transferring? Sure, yes, it's possible. People can be assholes. It's quite common.
But it hasn't got anything to do with Peppers' eligibility. Helping someone find an apartment isn't a violation. We know there was a reasonable rent, and we know they paid it. The rest is bullshit that may be indicative of larger problems at Don Bosco (the lawsuit as a threat -- if you move your kid, we will make your life hell), but nothing else.
That's an insult to either Yin or Yang, not sure which.
Brandon lacks the balance between extremes expressed in that image.
I taught undergraduates for many years. So I have some practical sense of what happens inside of a University and in the education and maturation process at those ages. I'm not saying you, but I think a lot of fans have a distorted sense of what is going on here.
I just don't see what you think is obvious, that players on offense are not being developed. The line is still a work in progress, but there is development there. Kalis? Being a five-star is not an automatic guarantee of success. Is there anyone else who is truly performing below expectations? You had two young running backs coming along nicely. One got hurt, but still. Darboh had something resembling a breakout game against PSU. That's good, especially for Funchess against MSU. Jake Butt looks great.
So Shane Morris had a rough go of it -- in his first real, non-mono and its long recovery process, game since his junior year of high school. So what?
I think you can fire Hoke for putting Morris back into that game. There's really no excuse for that. Period. And maybe for being a deer in headlights in general when standing on the field during competitive games as head coach. And maybe for ignoring innovation, whatever. But for a lack of player development? I don't see it.
I just don't think having the families of current players basically doing alumni relations (which is, at root, fundraising) is a good idea. Not just because it isn't necessarily a given that being an active former player means you are not a fool, but also because it's a distraction regardless.
These trips are going to be used for fundraising -- besides television money, it's probably the principal reason why the B1G took Rutgers and Maryland. No doubt Brandon wanted to show immediate results on the first trip to the greater New York City area. But mistakes were made, mistakes that may be undermining the team, if what the OP is reporting is any indication.
Hoke has got problems as a head coach on the field, and it's not clear that he is improving in those respects -- that's why good practices continue to fail to translate into good games, but saying there is "no player development" is just wrong.
I think it is likely that you are going to see that thing you find unreasonable happen (next year), right or wrong. But that's mainly because I see improvement despite the chaos, and I still expect at least one big upset win this year -- if it is at MSU, then watch out. But as I said, that's just me.
First off, last night was a good win, in which the team showed a lot of heart and basic, sustained competence. Let's not forget that. Only very stupid people will say beating Penn State means nothing.
Second, I don't know if this kind of thing -- arranging for players and their families on a road trip to stay with former players -- has been common in the past, under Carr and earlier. Somehow I doubt it?
It feels to me like a Brandon thing -- he seems hung up on his past and it colors everything he does. If so, then it's a fairly big instance of his incompetence, and something that your family should consider bringing to the new President's office. It may not be a terrible idea, but it certainly sounds like it was badly mishandled.
Third, for what it's worth and this is just me, but I would be interested in knowing what Hoke might do with a competent AD making his job simpler instead of making it more complicated, which is what this thing you're talking about sounds like to me. Just the kind of messy distraction you don't need when you're trying to do Hoke's job.
I don't see the point of trying to hire a new coach with Brandon still in place -- even if you could convince someone good to come, they'd still have Brandon to deal with. So get rid of Brandon, and see what Hoke can do next year (and, ideally, the rest of this year). Then make a decision on Hoke.
Listed as 2nd/3rd string
The link is here: Game 4 Notes
EDIT: Note that these lag by a week, as they come out on Monday, before any changes are in place. I'm not sure we know when Morgan got injured -- in the App St game or in practice on the Monday after it, but either way, he still would have been (and was) listed as an OR starter for ND, and his status not changed to the current one until Miami U.
Another factor that should be considered is who is doing the hiring.
Was the new coach hired by the same person who hired the old coach?
I think Hoke will need five years, but even if I did not think that I still have no confidence Brandon has the ability to handle the search for his replacement.
Brandon gets a lot of reflected glory from Beilein's success, but in fact he did not hire Beilein. I also don't think he should get much credit for making Michigan's football coaching-staff salaries competitive. That decision (Rodriguez's main legacy at Michigan) was already made when he arrived -- indeed, that's what Brandon was hired to do.
The goal at Michigan is to play Ohio State with something on the line. That's what motivates players and teams. Without it, if you're always playing them in hopes of spoiling their season (as sweet as that can be), it wears you down. It's hard to stay focused in the off-season, or after a setback during the season. You need to believe the goal is attainable.
I still think Hoke will meet that standard. He will find his way. Possibly even this year.
If he does not, you have to look at replacing Brandon before you fire Hoke. In my view, it was Brandon who created the problem in the first place. If you let Brandon hire the next coach, you're just rolling the dice. "Maybe he'll get lucky."
I obviously don't know, but I think probably your interpretation of "attrition" is different from Ace's (and MGoBlog's) -- they don't include the coaches' decision about 5th years in that. So they are currently "projecting" however many players not getting 5th years as needed to leave 3 spots open in the class.
Attrition here would mean injuries or players who leave the program for whatever reason, but not because the coaches are managing their roster as they see fit. I don't think a 5th year is ever understood as a sure thing -- that is made very clear to the players, and they are strongly encouraged to graduate on time.
Another possibility is that there is insider information driving that number, which would explain the silence.
He doesn't state "there are 3 scholarships left before attrition" -- he states "we're projecting three open spots right now" -- so you can take the lack of a response to be an indication that he has done his own count and he means what he says.
Yes, the Sypniewski and the miscount errors should be corrected, but I don't think you can make the assumption that Ace is basing two-thirds of his projection on those errors.
Like the OP's picks, especially Dawson, but think probably the most telling thing about his two posts is the (unintentional) difference in the tiltes: "... offense starting ..." versus "... starting defense ..." -- the latter implies a cohesive starting unit, the former tends to suggest more of a starting point in an ongoing process. Let's hope we have an established "starting offense" by the time Butt comes back.
I think you'll see Smith and Green both get the honor of starting games. But yeah, I like Smith's potential -- but that could just be because we've seen less of him. He's still largely an unknown. Also, given Green's hard work this off-season, I'd guess he also sees Smith as serious competition. All told, it looks good for RBs at Michigan. Not surprising Weber wants in.
It could be that there isn't enough demand for it. From legitimate cable ("television provider" middleman) subscribers, I mean. I believe BTN2Go supports AirPlay streaming from an iOS device to an AppleTV, so there's no real demand from the millions of iPad/iPhone users out there. And Android-via-Chromecast seems to work as well, so not so much demand from that sector either.
Yes, it does seem like a logical next step from a technical and convenience standpoint, and easy to implement, but it's probably also complicated by BTN's contracts with the middlemen.
Have you tried the ACC app? It appeared this year just before March Madness. But it has never carried live games. So I suspect that when the 2014-2015 NCAA seasons roll around, most likely all the current material (game highlights and "feature programming") will still be available to non-subscribers, but to watch live games, you'll need to be in the ACC cable footprint.
Nobody has what he's asking about. Not Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Roku, whatever.
BTN is wedded to the cable (i.e., "television provider" middleman) model. Even if they put the BTN2Go app onto the AppleTV, Roku, etc., it would still require a cable subscription to activate.
OP says he "cut the cable cord" but if he's watching BTN2Go at all, he's using someone else's cable login credentials to do that. Ultimately, what he needs is the ability to subscribe to BTN outside of the cable framework. We're not there yet.
Well, I did qualify it as the best-case scenario, so maybe not too likely, but it remains true that Kugler's father is OL coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. So if anyone can handle it from a preparation and/or conceptual standpoint, it might be him.
MIller seems like he had his shot, but you never know -- all of these guys are young. Sometimes it takes longer, either physically or mentally, or both.
Agree, re: Cole. But if they move him to tackle, it probably means the coaches are confident about things on the inside, so that's good!
Yes. The five redshirts are the key, obviously.
The rosiest scenario would be for Kugler to be able to take over at Center now and not wait. That would give the coaches the most flexibility in terms of finding their starting Guards for the B1G schedule, not to mention coping with dings and boo-boos. Tackle opposite Magnuson is what it is, as we don't know much about what Fox and LTT can do, or even Braden, really. We just have to hope at least one of them emerges.
Worst case is the opposite -- Kugler not ready and probably never going to be, Glasgow at Center for the next two years. This puts enormous pressure on Kalis and the interior redshirts, with opposing defenses once again throwing everything at the interior line. But still, there is depth -- there are three more players available for the rotation than last year, not counting Bryant last year and not counting the two true freshmen this year.
Regardless, unlike the past several years, by the end of 2014 we should have a pretty good idea of what to expect from the OL in 2015 and 2016. There is light at the end of the tunnel -- hard to know if it is a bright sunny day or rainy gloom, but we will at least be able to see something soon. That, at least, will make this season more fun to watch than the last...
I think you're way off in your assesment of Hazard's impact in this World Cup. You say that the goal against Russia was a feed from Hazard, and in general he stepped up at the end of that game to dominate. But in the 2-1 win over Algeria, the winning Mertens blast came from Hazard as well -- "great vision from Hazard to set that up." [CBS] So three Belgium goals before they advanced, two of them via assists from Hazard.
They rested him in the third game, along with Kompany, Witsel, and De Bruyne.
May have originated in biker culture:
He was just clartifying his [?] original point, which was presumably about the guy who melted down upthread. That is the "someone," not you. No need to whine.
For what it's worth, Hoke will get at least two more years, no matter what, whether you like it or not. Probably three or four, really, assuming he is able to hold his classes together. He will get a chance to field a team or two with an intact group of fifth-year seniors that he recuited (not counting his first class).
If that doesn't happen, and Brandon fires Hoke after this season, Hoke won't be the only one gone. Brandon will lose his job. Indeed, if Brandon were to want to fire Hoke after this season (again, assuming his recruiting classes are still intact), I'd fire him (Brandon) first, and bring in someone who has the guts to carry out the plan.
Hoke wasn't hired to "turn Michigan around" (again, as others seem to think, not you). Michigan was never Stanford. It's a useless comparison. Hoke was hired to clean up the mess after recruiting and attrition got out of control. He's done that, and now he needs a couple of years to take the next step as a head coach. The question of whether Hoke can win the big games is one for the near future, not the present.
It is loosely based on the story of Compaq -- there are subtle dramatic tensions that look to me like the people making it know what they are doing -- like the wife of the lead engineer, who solves his basic architecture problem for him in about five seconds at their kitchen table -- what will happen to her? I think the Mad Men influence is apparent in that story line...
But a lot of the rest of it is still a bit raw -- it doesn't have the polish of Mad Men. Part of that is that the period is harder to capture -- the early 1980s is a transitional period. But there is hope, I think, that it will improve and the characters will acquire more depth as the story moves forward.
[EDIT: Just watched the fourth episode -- so I guess the foreshadowing about the wife was not as subtle as I thought, since they cashed it in right away.]
The challenge is keeping the cast together long enough for a long run. Especially for a successful show that launches (or re-launches) the careers of the cast. People start getting major offers for movies, people don't want to get typecast, and so on. This isn't a sitcom.
In my mind, the prime example of this is Battlestar Gallactica, which fell apart in its final season for two reasons -- [1] the long hiatus imposed by the television writers' strike, which was just bad timing for the producers, and [2] the loss of Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben), who was integral to the Kara Thrace storyline -- everything leading up to the final season indicated Leoben held the key to that. But they lost him to a major role in the X-Files movie -- he was not available for BSG's final season. Their attempt to redirect Kara's story away from him was a disaster.
So the GoT producers are on a clock. They've got maybe seven seasons to work with before they run the risk of losing one of the core actors. My understanding is they have the approval (i.e., money) for two more seasons, so no doubt the necessary actors are already under contract for the next two seasons. I think much of a seventh season of the series is also feasible, as apparently Martin has already finished the resolutions to the A Dance with Dragons cliffhangers for the sixth book (The Winds of Winter).
The seventh and final book, though, is likely to be more than four years away. I wouldn't be surprised to see an eighth season, built on whatever he has completed of the final book at that point. I also wouldn't be surprised to see the final book come out after the final season of the HBO series.
There are rumors of an eighth book, but if true I think that is likely to be similar to the problem that resulted in the fourth and fifth books -- too much material for a single book, so he splits it into two volumes. Let's hope he has learned his lesson and he doesn't decide to split them the same way...
Given the theme of the previews for this season, I think Arya's story will move along for sure. They've also spent a good amount of time setting up the next part of Tyrion's story -- it would make sense to get through that now, in my view.
I suppose they could do both if they leave the battle in a cliffhanger. Even at the point it is right now... [EDIT: Scratch that, with the 66 minutes, they will certainly finish the battle -- LoTR has shown how quickly you can wrap up a battle after the tide has turned. So it will happen. I still think there's time to do the other two, and maybe also move Bran one step further long.]
I think you're conflating me with other people, but whatever. I'm saying you don't know, and if you think you know, you're wrong.
You can't have it both ways. You can't damn him for not playing and then turn around and say you have performed a "quick eyeball test." On what?
Now you claim to know what the coaches think of Isaac, based solely on his lack playing time last year and now his supposed performance this Spring under the new regime. So you participate in USC practices and attend coaches meetings? It's just laughable.
Richardson didn't play at all last year, his second year in the program. So that's a completely bullshit example, and doesn't compare at all to Isaac at USC last year.
A better analogy would be De'Veon Smith last year. He was stuck behind Green. Only got into four games at running back. Probably close to the same number of meaningful carries as Isaac at USC -- more than zero, but not many. Can you say with any certainty what Smith will do this year? I thought he looked pretty good the few real touches he had. But the coaches obviously weren't comfortable with him in, so Green got most of the experience.
The point is that there really isn't much evidence on Isaac. Just that his peer Davis was in front of him and two third-year players started ahead of him.
I'm disagreeing with your assertion that Isaac left USC because he was buried on the depth chart. That is crap. The "prior evidence" you cite is thin at best. It's only evidence that he wasn't as ready to play out of the gate as Davis was last year -- by mid-season, when Davis went down, he still wasn't ready. Then the coach got fired! You act like it was a normal year. The fact they didn't use Isaac much doesn't mean squat. Far more likely than what you're saying is that he was still learning the offense, and he just wasn't ready. The whole offense was not available when he was in, so they didn't use him. Yet they still gave him some touches. They had Allen, and Madden off and on. Both with two more years in the offense than Isaac. You're twisting facts and fudging things, and basically not acknowledging that you have no freaking idea where Isaac would have ended up had he stayed at SC this year.
Isaac is up to 240 this year, according to here.
Your whole argument, which is that Isaac would not have played this year at USC, is crap -- pure speculation.
Both were RS sophomores last year. So third year in the program. Isaac's only real peer last year was Davis.