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Date	Title	Body
11 hours 54 min ago	Spurrier	Not so sure that Spurrier's time at SC(east) is all that instructive as a data point on any part of the rest of the college football world.   Here's a good piece from 2010 on South Carolina football in the WSJ (written by a Michigan alum): http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703743504575493794087297692   BTW, if you want to get a sense of just how bad it is to be a South Carolina fan, read the last two paragraphs of that article.  Creepy beyond words....   **edit: here it is, because that link is behind a paywall for most >>Gamecock fans even have an explanation for their misery: the Chicken Curse. "I originally wrote that as a joke to show the power of negative thinking," said Doug Nye, the former sports editor of the now-defunct Columbia Record who is credited with popularizing the term. "But nobody read the last paragraph." There's a feeling in Columbia that the Gamecocks' fortunes are finally changing. The school's baseball team won this year's College World Series, the school's first national title in a men's sport. And Mr. Spurrier has a fearsome running back, freshman Marcus Lattimore. But South Carolina has seen this movie before. "I keep thinking he's going to break his leg," says Mr. Conroy, "because of the Chicken Curse."
12 hours 5 min ago	Wow	Calling out first team all-American and team MVP Rod Payne ... that's pretty strong work right there by Les.
12 hours 17 min ago	>>Michael Jordon is arguably	>>Michael Jordon is arguably the most successful pro athlete ever and his stab at baseball garnered less attention.   ... because the sports media world in 1994 without twitter, etc looked just like it does today?
2 days 17 hours ago	Generally true that MSU's DBs	>>He was 7-10 against the blitz because MSU's secondary can't cover anything.   Generally true that MSU's DBs didn't look great ... but he did hit some small windows on really nice downfield passes a couple of times when he was facing pressure and the secondary was in the right place.  Maybe not JD Lewis-level hip pocket coverage, but hardly blown assignments.  And he nailed it. Limited sample size, but he did do it.   That being said, I generally agree on your comment.  I I think our DL introduces him to a whole new world of pain this week and he ends up looking a whole lot more like a rookie QB than he did last week.
2 days 17 hours ago	Do we have a realistic shot	Do we have a realistic shot at any superstar-level CB recruits who could play right away next year behind Long and Hill?   From what you saw of him in HS plus what we've all heard out of camp, what do you think of Onwenu moving full time to DT? 1) DT is a premium pro position (both in the draft and in free agency) ... OG generally is not 2) we seem to have many irons in the fire w/r/t interior OL recruiting.  DT (as noted in other posts in this thread) is pretty thin. Would seem to be a win-win for him and the team if he moves to DT full time. But I might well be missing something that you mght have picked up about him in live action.
2 weeks 1 day ago	sports reporters	I sat in on way too many of these things when I was an undergrad writing sports for the Daily.  It was at least as comical IRL as it comes across in print.  With that backdrop, it makes it really easy to hold onto a burning disdain for the jackasses at the Freep for what they did in Stretchgate. Very glad I went into an entirely different field.  Most of my friends who pursued journalism careers don't seem super happy about it. Also very glad for Brian and his team's commitment to excellence and to not giving up their intellectual curiosity.
2 weeks 2 days ago	don't let the facts get in the way dragonchild	Because McDoom, Crawford, Onwenu, Bredeson and Asiasi are LoLing at the premise of your post.  They've all worked themselves right into the two deep.   And that isn't counting Long or LHill, one or both of whom will be playing (though more likely for reasons along the line of your depth-only conjecture).
2 weeks 2 days ago	1974	If you're going to come at me son, come correct.   King was an '04 recruit.  He was a veteran player in '06, not a freshman.  He was all-conference that year.   Lloyd absolultely did not "back off" ,,, he sat back and stopped working.  PSU sent King a letter every single day.  We did nothing.  They turned the tide in no small part by "showing him the love."  He was very clear on this point.  His words, and the words of those close to him.   But go on taking shots at posts where you admit you don't have depth of knowledge.  I do, and that's why I posted it ... because it really, truly cost us deeply.  Worse than RoJo, even.   (FYI, I wasn't referring to the next year's bowl, either.  I'm talking '06 Wolverines versus '06 Gators.  If we have King on that team, we win.  Matchup very much in our favor.)
2 weeks 2 days ago	misses that really cost us	I'm with you EastCoast on losing sleep over Mikey Weber.   That being said, the one I will truly never get over was Justin King.  He was in the bag, but then Lloyd & Co got lazy and PSU didn't.  Incredibly costly mistake.  You put him on the '06 team, and we win in Columbus and are in the NC game.   Go back and look at the PSU-O$U game that season ... King was the only CB in the B1G who put the clamps on Ginn, who in turn put up over 100 yards and a TD in the Game ... and, crucially, tore into us at critical moments (e.g, that bomb early on into the red zone).   Morgan Trent was a good soldier* ... but you put King on that D and we would have been something else.  And I think we would have matched up against UF in the NC game way better than O$U did.   (* Pete Carroll showed in the Rose Bowl just how important that isn't)
2 weeks 6 days ago	Thank you Brian	The proactive decision to spend your money on the PFF data just made one of the best things on the internet even better.  For no apparent reason other than your love of Michigan and this board community.  This is akin to a couple of years back when Chick Fil A scrapped their already-tasty grilled sandwich for an even better grilled sandwich.  I cannot stay away from her siren's song. You, sir, are a noble beast.   (And you finally got your head right on Stibling!  LoL)
5 weeks 4 days ago	Staee	This could very well help them a lot, as Redfield is one of ND's leading tacklers.  He's a hitter from the S spot.  That will likely matter when Groucho runs LJ Scott between the tackles again and again and again....
8 weeks 6 days ago	PSA:	LaMarr Woodley kills people
21 weeks 3 days ago	can Maryland hold him?	Urb flipped a stud Maryland LB from the Terps post-Durkin last year, right?   O$U has traditionally had a much stronger presence in MD than we have.  As has PSU.  Hopefully Harbaugh can change that.  But at this point, if he flips away from the Terps I would say the money is on an outcome we would not like.
21 weeks 6 days ago	skeletons	Well he does have them, but he owns up to them.  No need to worry about a bomb that has already gone off.
24 weeks 6 days ago	Cobo	One of the most electric basketball games I ever saw was played at Cobo: Chris Webber's DCDS Yellowjackets (reignng Class B state champs) against Jalen Rose's Detroit Southwestern Prospectors (reigning Class A state champs). It was in the heat of the recruiting cycle.  Magic showed up courtside to show the love.  Game was fantastic.
25 weeks 2 days ago	Gateway	I don't think we ever managed to land any recruit of significance from Gateway. Terry Smith sent Justin King to PSU and then we never got any of the others either. I might have forgotten someone, but I'm pretty sure that's right.
25 weeks 2 days ago	So Brian, I'll take the bait...	You are "kind of in the Clark camp" over Stribling about as consistently as I'm kind of in the Michigan camp over Notre Dame. But let me ask you this: to what end do you think the Coaches are working when they have so publicly and consistently stated throughout basically the entirety of Spring ball that Stribling is The Guy? Is it your view that there is some nuanced, player-specific psychology going on (e.g., Strib is soft and needs to be built up; Clark needs the challenge of being called out as the backup)?  Or do you have some other theory? Seems pretty inconsistent with Mr Relentless Meritocracy's general approach to name one guy a starter if in fact the other guy is even remotely close to being The Guy, no?
25 weeks 2 days ago	LoL @ mgoblog's ongoing Clark-fest	Listen to Sam Webb's interview of Harbaugh: Stribling a lock to be the starter opposite JD Lewis   But keep on banging that drum, Brian & Co....   Clark has intriguing ability ... but Stribling has stepped up and claimed the job.  Emphatically.
33 weeks 1 day ago	oh Scruffy	If you're going to take the time to talk down to me, you might want to first go back and do a careful read of both Brian's piece (including what he stated up front as this piece's intent, i.e., the context in which it was to be read) and then also my specific comments (which most assuredly did NOT question Brian's prerogative to write "what he thinks").  To clarify, he said he was laying forth his view of the order in which specific players were most likely to be starters at the 27 listed positions.   To your questions: 1) yes, I am suggesting the Brian improve his occasional heavy categorization of the non-star players ... yes, I think he should change what he thinks.  More precisley, I think he should change HOW he thinks.  He would be well served to let his opinions flow more fluidly with incremental data on players as it arrives.  He has an observable bias in some (NOT all) cases among the lesser players to establish a point of view and then cling to it, many times against futher evidence, and some times (like here with Stribling) against reason.  It can make for entertaining writing and perhaps he feels it is a useful tool in conveying to the average reader a sense of his expertise (which is, in fact, very deep), but I've seen it get off the rails from time to time.  He sometimes crystalizes his view, and then it just flows downstream from that point.  For example, it is not remotely reasonable to expect at this juncture that either of those two freshmen are in the same likelihood category as Stribling (a very seasoned player who is, at the very least, demonstrably competent ... even with some notable flaws).  As others noted in response to your post, he often does this in the context of expectations from the recruiting cycle.  I would also note he has some tendency to do this (in either + or - ways, from player to player) within season and season-to-season.  It is noticable within UFRs, when he selectively highlights (positively or negatively) certain guys. To be clear, I'm not saying it is impossible for Hill and/or Long to pass Stribling up next year.  I'm saying that Brian has no rational basis for making that claim at this point, given what he described as the point of this exercise.  His view on this one point is countervaling to both logic and data.  When coupled with my observations of some of his tendencies over the years, I highlighted it as one example of how Brian sometimes allows his bias to influence his judgment.   2) going back to the first part of this post, I am pretty sure this was NOT a dumb place for my "tirade."  It's exactly the place.  Brian was laying out his view on specific guys' likelihood of STARTING.  To your rhetorical questions about Harbaugh's grand sense of player development and future seasons, of course JH is smart enough to see the need in '17 and beyond.  But that is NOT what Brian was getting at.  Or, if it is the case that he did allow that consideration into his thinknig in the Strib vs Hill/Long instance in particular ... well, then Brian got himself derailed from his own mission, didn't he?  And that would only further my point of his negative bias on Stribling influencing his subjective output around a set of objective facts.   Look, I recognize the entirety of my post is an in-the-weeds observation.  And it is very much the gnat on the ass of the elephant.  This blog (and this board) are spectacular elements of the overall 'M' sports community.  That being said, I do think it's fair to have a discussion on "the little stuff."  I'd be shocked if Brian disagrees with that view.  And I'm not even making an entitled bellyache of "I want Brian to deliver me a better product" ... what I'm saying is that in his quest to be great (which he inherently does have, and it's observable in his passion and fire to do all things well on this site), he would futher his own cause with a little introspection on this point.
33 weeks 2 days ago	biases	Love Brian's work overall, but one of the longstanding bones to pick is how his biases or partially-formed theses (extrapolated from mixed and/or limited data) sometime crystalize into truisms.  Sometimes that is falling in love with a player, other times that is relegating a player to undeserved also-ran status.   Example here: the laughable thought that Channing Stribling ought to be grouped with Vert Hill (or even David Long) in likelihood of PT as a 2016 CB.  Utterly preposterous.  While I'm a  huge fan of Hill's long-term potential, it is complete nonsense to expect a PSL kid to come in and make plays like we often see from Stribling.  See: undercutting Florida WR on a well thrown, well run deep square-in during the bowl game for the PBU.     Sure Stribling has some whiffs (some very frustrating), but he can and will play.  A lot, actually ... and while he may not beat out Clark for the #2 CB spot, there is a near 100% chance he would be next man up if Clark was injured.  He is a far steadier pair of trusted hands out on that CB island than either of the incoming freshmen, regardless of their respective ceilings.  We have, for example, significant evidence that Stribling has made tons of progress as an open field tackler, especially when he's isolated against the run (an important element of the CB trade that few freshmen -- particularly the "pure cover corner" variety -- can perform sufficiently).  We have ZERO basis for an informed opinion on that matter for either Long or Hill.   The prevalence of subtle biases among the non-stars in Brian's work is not new.  Nor is it entirely bad.  It gives us something to debate.  And, unlike various other 'M' website personas, he isn't so threatened by it as to freak out in response.  But it is a weakness that I have noticed creeping in through certain recountings and subjective analyses (UFR, etc) over the years.
35 weeks 8 hours ago	Two things	1) I love you for doing this.  If I could go hang with my 'M' boys one of these Friday evenings over beers, I would insist we geek out on it name by name for hours.   2) on the specific rankings you are a clueless idiot and wrong many, many times over ... but this is still freaking awesome
35 weeks 2 days ago	I'm thinking Shantee Orr 2.0	I'm thinking Shantee Orr 2.0 might be the better comparison.  Unblockable speed off the snap.
35 weeks 5 days ago	No. Wisconsin hates us.	No. Wisconsin hates us. Iowa hates us. PSU hates us. And Illinois really, really hates us. Of course, the lunatic fringe at each of them individually assumes we count them as a rival.
35 weeks 5 days ago	The dad	Now that we've learned the dad's name is Swen Swenson, the pendulum has swung again and I'm officially pissed at Harbaugh. He passed on that kind of awesomeness? Jim just doesn't get it.
36 weeks 1 day ago	Glad to hear you are going to	Glad to hear you are going to do more of this, Brian.   It would be that much more interesting if you could get some of your fellow bloggers following other programs to do the same thing.   I mostly care about what the 'M' related sites are able to deliver on our guys.  But if there is systematic outsized suckiness at one of the services that is analytically observable, that would be worth seeing.
36 weeks 1 day ago	Please do more of this.  I	Please do more of this.  I think they are fair game.
37 weeks 1 day ago	Posible, but Trieu saw him	Posible, but Trieu saw him live and said much the same thing.   There were plenty of reports in SE MI that Trishton is a terrific athlete, and a natural at WR. And he was a monster in high school hoops last year too. Even though he made many of those plays in a league not traditionaly characterized as elite for either basketball or football, the kid is at the very least seriously athletic.   Sometimes you miss some.  And other times you don't worry yourself too much about kids coming out of the 248 area code ... the track record of them fulfilling the hype is pretty spotty, to say the least.
37 weeks 1 day ago	I think everyone on this	I think everyone on this board can agree that Bert sucks.  That truth spans all generations and time periods of the game.
37 weeks 1 day ago	B1G guarantees its schollies	B1G guarantees its schollies are for four years.   Easy picking to market itself as the high ground option relative to the S(ee) E(verybody) C(heats).
37 weeks 5 days ago	Gary	In addition to the challenges mentioned in the prior post in comparting OL and DL, the Kalis comparison is not fitting because it was widely observed in his Army All-Star week that he was far from dominant.  Looked pretty ordinary, actually.  Clearly not a 5*. In contrast, last week at the UA Gary looked like a terror, a man amongst boys.  He has it all: size, unrelenting motor, excellent and diverse technique and freakish speed for his size. I think he is far and away the best DL prospect I have seen.  Ever.

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