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well yea

If our corners were shut down, then a lot of this would be moot.  But our corners have not proven to be shut down and the defense appears to be relying on Gordon a lot as the last line of defense.  In that role, I dont care how hard the guy hits, I just care that he makes the tackle and prevents a td.  Gordon is a great hitter, a terrific athlete and his future is probably pretty bright.  I am just not sold that his future is bright at the current position/role he is playing on this team. 

that just seems

like blind optimism.  Why will he automatically improve and learn from his mistakes?  Im not saying he wont.  I just think its kind of funny that some fans take any critique after a win as an insult to all that is holy. 

I am not sitting here crying over the future of Cam Gordon or losing any sleep over it.  I'm just asking the question if it bothers you and worries you about future games.  Specifically this year.  That seems like a pretty simple concept that you cannot grasp. 

confused?

I am really confused about the responses here.  Some have been fine, but others just bashing seem misplaced.  What is wrong with asking about other fans concerns over a pretty real "issue" with the team.  Now, it may be nothing, and he may learn from these errors and be fine.  Or this may just be a sign that he is not that good as a deep safety and should be playing more of the Kovacs type role.  Just asking the question.  I don't see any reason why people need to react like I am crushing all their hopes and dreams.

i think i am pretty chill

just asking the question.  All you got to say is, "I'm not concerned." 

However, it does bother me that he has been at least partially responsible for most of the big plays against our defense.  Regardless of how many games he has played, that bothers me.  I'm not trying to be a debbie downer, just being real about where this team is at.

wow

I am enjoying the victory, but I am also a realist.  Winning two games means only that we won two games.  We won four to start last year and that got us where?  I am more concerned with where this team is headed and what our play in these two games means for the future. 

My point is simple, it bothers me that our defense seems to be playing a lot of one deep looks, and that one deep guy has allowed several big plays.  I understand its only his second game but I dont think that excuses anything.  Do you think that because its only his second game that he is not a concern?  Personally, I am concerned.  He may improve, he may not.  But we cant give up the type of plays that he has given up and expect to win consistently and the bottom line is that this year, we need to win. 

add on to earlier

Just wanted to add on to the lifting composition posts above regarding the op's workout. They are all absolutely right. Compound movements are the key. Squats, Deadlifts, Cleans (i like hang cleans especially when I'm already doing squats and deadlifts separately), Military Press, Bench Press (preferably incline). Those should be the staples of your workout. Everything else is seconday stuff. Bent rows and dips are also very good.

If you are looking to build muscle, pick on of those exercises each workout and do it early on in your workout, like right after you warm up. Then do some other secondary stuff. Next workout do a different main exercise. Focus on legs one day, chest one day, shoulders one day, back one day, etc.

Then if you want to throw in one day of arms only at some point, like once every couple weeks fine. Just make sure you are focusing more on the tricep than the bicep. The tricep is larger and will give you bigger arms faster than the bicep will. But arm muscles get worked in almost everything else as well, so you do not need to isolate them and work em that often. Just do one killer arm workout at some point.

Also, nothing will build your entire body faster than squats and deadlifts. They are absolutely essential exercises for building muscle mass on the entire body.

personal experience

Its tough to do both one after the other either way and get the benefits you are looking for. If you lift first then run, you are missing out on a key recovery time for your muscles from lifting. Once you exhaust them they need fuel to recharge and grow, not more stress. If you run first, then you will never be able to lift to your potential and push your muscles to grow.

You dont make gains in muscle while lifting, you make them during the recovery period afterwards (not just immediately after but days). But immediately after you have exhausted your muscles is key to put good fuel into your body so that the body has nutrients to use instead of eating away at itself. I always space out my cardio from my lifting (i.e. morning run, night lift). But sometimes I will do light running beforehand or after but never anything that takes too long or forces me to exert a lot of energy.

If you are just trying to add strength, then mixing them shouldnt hurt too much. You won't see a lot of growth but you will get stronger, just at a slower rate than if you spaced them more appropriately. If you are trying to bulk up though, you should really consider cutting back on running altogether. Lift hard, get some protein immediately afterward and make sure you are resting plenty.

I recently wanted to bulk up, and I put on about ten pounds over about a month and a half by lifting monday, tuesday. Taking off wednesday and thursday. Lifting Friday, saturday and running only on sunday.

Everybody is different though and different workouts will work for different people. The key is finding what works best for you and you can only do that through experimenting. But again, if the goal is to add muscle and strength, I would say focus more on your lifting and the rest time then on running.

One more side note, I have heard that P90x program is pretty solid if you are just looking to get kinda stronger and cut. But its not gonna give you big gains in muscle mass.

the more articles I read

the more articles I read about this guy, the more it reminds me of the documentary Hoop Dreams. You have some supposed young star that is going to make it huge one day, yet poor decisions by many involved get in the way. At least that is how it was for Arthur Agee, dont remember the other kid's name, but I guess he had injury problems that hurt him more.

But still, this type of thing for kids this young is just disgusting. Yet I still find myself glued to the computer on signing day.

would love to know

what Barwis' total workout plan is. I have been begging my friend who works at Schembechler to get some inside info, but so far no dice.

In terms of the argument regarding what muscle groups are worked and when, I think both sides are right and wrong. That is, unless you know what kind of reps, sets, and weight they are using, its hard to know whether or not it is right or wrong. For instance, you would not want to do huge weight, low rep, lots of sets, on bench, cleans, squats in one day. That would absolutely kill you. But you certainly could do low weight, high rep, low sets, of all those on the same day, i.e. a circuit program.

I imagine the football team mixes up their training program fairly often. But in general I bet in the off-season (when most of the strength training is done), they do bench, squats, cleans, dead lifts, arms, all on different days. If you are trying to build pure strength, most research has shown, that higher weight, lower reps, high sets, is the best way to go. And in order to be effective with that you need a lot of time in between working the same muscle group to recover. However, when you are building endurance or just toning up, you can do low weight, high reps and do the same muscle just about every day.

I also kind of agree with the post regarding leg presses. They certainly help, but are in no means as worthwhile as squats. Really you want to focus on compound lifts. That is, lifts that require you to use more than one specific muscle. Bicep curls for instance are pretty pointless, but power cleans are absolutely necessary.

No matter what the football team does, I am sure that it is better than anything I do, or anything I know. I just wish my friend would do a little spying for me. I did incorporate those Barwis push-ups into my workouts and immediately saw an uptick in both bench and shoulder press. Hooray for posting drunk on New Years!

omg

that 25 yard run at about the 45 second mark of the first video is unreal. I think I counted 14 guys that had a shot to tackle him and could not.

being there last night

I came close to shedding a few tears when BG got up there. There were several great moments, but another one that choked everyone up was Zoltan. When he started to talk about his parents and everything they sacrificed to come to the States, everybody was fighting back the tears.

There was also a senior walkon I had never heard of, Nick something (long last name). But his speech about getting a chance to play was terrific.

At last years Bust it was hard to tell how much the players cared about RR, but this year, you could really tell that he touched all these players. It was truly great to see.

All the seniors did a great job and they will be missed.

see my response above

This was not RR's comparison. Regent White gave a speech early in the night and brought up the Saints and all they have overcome. He merely brought it back up later in the evening when talking about adversity himself. Sure its not a great comparison, but it wasnt even his comparison.

didnt see this elsewhere in these comments

or the story online. But the saints-michigan comparison was not started by RR. In fact regent White who spoke earlier in the evening talked about adversity and compared UM to the Saints in terms of what the Saints had to overcome with Katrina. RR merely brought it back up later in the night. And, again his focus was not on the comparison as much as it was talking about adversity.

agreed

Zonereadstetch. Cheer more for the guys that are already here especially those that may be suiting up for the last time in the maize and blue (hopefully not!).

However, I was also at the bball game tonight, and did not notice any cheers for the recruits there. It looked like there were probably about 10-15 guys there. It would have been nice to let them know our interest but alas.

yea i think it is pretty obvious . . .

that the spread works fine in the Big Ten. Michigan has moved the ball on pretty much everyone this year. The failures on offense should be attributed to a ton of turnovers, most of which are on the freshman qbs, and injuries to the offensive line.

The big problem with this team is cleary the defense right now. This team needed a defense that could keep them in games while the offense learns and grows. Instead, the defense has faield repeatedly to stop anyone.

if nothing else

we can put to rest the whole "RR's type of play wont work in the big bad big ten." Clearly the way this team plays is good enough to win against whoever. No it is just a matter of the players executing.

What?

So are you saying that MSU is that much better than Iowa defensively. Because it seemed to me that UM changed quite a few things up to exploit what Iowa thought they would see out of the run game. UM ran the ball very well in this game. Plus If Iowa was so sold on stopping D rob running, how come he went right down the field running the ball almost exclusively, except for two passes.

Yes this was a winnable game, and Iowa probably is not the 12th best team in the country, but UM is also not ready to be a top 25 team in the country. Could this team be undefeated right now? Yes, they could. Could the 2007 team have won the National Championship, yes they could have. Just cause the talent is there does not mean results will follow right away. Give them time, this coaching staff knows what they are doing.

glad to see

that there are other level headed fans on this Blog. Go Blue!

EXAXT POINT

Tate made some plays against those teams, but he was also very lucky to get out of those games with great comebacks. Several plays could have gone the other way. Just like tonight. Iowa had chances to pick of a couple passes Tate jsut threw up.

Listen, I love Tate as much as anyone especially after last year, but people need to relax on the Tate is the savior of the World stuff. Maybe we would have scored with him in, maybe he would have fumbled the first play, who knows. What I do know is that Rrod is smarter than me when it comes to football, and D Rob just led a TD drive. We only needed a FG and were almost there when D Rob made a bad decision.

just stupid people

Coaches made a decision, they are smarter than us. Fact is Tate was a half-way decent play by a MSU defender away from losing the State game before we even crossed the thirty on that final drive. Same with the Indiana game in terms of mistakes. D Rob got in when he was rolling with the offense. IF he checks to Odoms underneath, UM is about in FG range, and this whole "wTF RR" post is pointless.

ok your all right on OT

Typed in a hurry. Obviously the game would have ended one way or the other since we were down two. Sorry. Points still stand. Coaches made the call they thought was right, we need to live with that. Like I said, they were on the edge of FG range with D Rob. If he hits Odoms underneath he gets across the 50 with plenty of time left. Only need another twenty yards and we are in FG range.

D Rob made a mistake, but its not like Forcier didnt get away with a ton of mistakes on last minute drives throughout this season.

Agreed

would have liked to see just power running throughout the second half, but not sure this team is built to continue on that pace. Last year against PSU, we carved them up with pretty simple running plays, PSU adjust at halftime, and UM got blwon out in the second half. So maybe we should have run it until they proved they could stop it, but on the other hand, if not for a few stupid decisions/plays by players (forcier to's, matthews muffed punt, robinson throwing to no one) UM wins this game going away.

This game is on the players for not making plays or for making poor plays. Sucks, but it happens when you have a young team.

two years ago

I was able to get a random ticket right before kick off for sixty. Dont know if that is good or bad, did not really try to bargain with the guy, just took the price he offerred at the time. But anyway, I was able to go and sit with my friends in the student section despite having a ticket for another section.

i think he . . .

is probably a good coach. They handled the teams that they should have handled last year and he was a coordinator on a national championship team. He is recruiting ok I guess, but I am not sure he is recruiting any better than other coaches have done at State. This year obviously has not gone as planned, but I would not say any of the losses are that surprising. One onside kick away from beating Central, one bad pass away from maybe beating ND on the road. The Wisky game is a bit puzzling just because of how non-competitive they were, but they could easily be 3-1 right now.

Personally, I do not like his attitude and smugness. But when you coach at State and have to compete against one of the most entrenched football powers in the country, you probably need to have an attitude to succeed. I dont know if he is innovative enough to ever get their program past Michigan, but I think he can produce many years of solid football for State. The ceiling is most likely an occassionaly 10-2 season with a plethora of 7-5 or 8-4 years.

ha

too quick for me.

too short

specifically his arms. I dont think he has the reach to be able to play on D. One of the biggest, yet often underestimated, attributes of a good defensive player is his wing span. You have to be able to keep blockers off of you, as well as grab ball carriers flying by you. If you dont have a long reach, both are very difficult to do. Once an olineman gets to your body, you are pretty much done, unless you are a dwight freeney type that can just spin away. But even Freeney is 6'1. So while Kevin Grady seems to have the athleticism and rage to play the positon of LB, I think he would get eaten alive because of his small stature.

Lynch

Couldnt agree more. In todays age or whining and what have you done for me lately, I am mighty impressed by Bill Lynch. He was classy to a T, both immediately after the game and this week. Indiana has a great coach down there, and while he might not be the young version of a Terry Hoeppner, I believe he will lead that team to some very competitive seasons. Perhaps Dantonio should do some offseason consulting with Lynch.

makes sense . . .

especially Moore and T-rob. Neither of these guys seem to be close to seeing the field at their respective positions right now. Obviously a lot can change in a season and both are capable of becoming big time players, but perhaps they would have a better chance on D. I dont think I would move Roundtree (pretty impressive in spring game and at least has played this year) nor Webb (dropped two big passes, but is a terrific blocker and already splitting time at TE with Koger).

Although I think it makes sense to see how other guys could do, I do not think it would help the team this year. It takes time to learn assignments, schemes, tackling technique, reads, etc. Even if they are great athletes, there would be too many mistakes if they played. Thats why, I believe, Turner has not yet seen the field. Physically he is more ready than a Floyd or Kovacs, but mentally he is not. It is easier to live with the lack of physical skills than it is to live with the lack of mental preparedness. While Kovacs may get outrun by an rb from Indiana, he also made a ton of plays supporting the run and in coverage that helped the team win. If a player does not have the ability to know what they should do, they will get smoked more often than a player who does know but lacks the physical giftedness.

So for the future, I say try out everyone who is not close to playing at their current position. But for this season, play the guys that are ready.

i gotta believe they were

Seeing as how the center has done this multiple times now over the last two years. I dont think a center would do it without having some instruction in practice about it. Now maybe the coaches told moosman after the first time today, they he should not risk it again, idk. Either way, I think its a bad play.

qbs are still looking at the

sidelines for possible audibles; not focused on the D at that point. The second, if called, would have given us the first down, but I just feel like its too risky to chance it. I remember we did the same thing last year at some point and the offsides was not called. Seems like a case of over-thinking.

my favorite moment along

these lines. A few years back, dont remember which game, but an older gentleman in front of me told me i was clapping too loud. Twice during the game he asked, politely, for me to stop. I do claim to have the loudest clap in the world, but still. Its not like I was blocking his view. I was behind him and it was too loud for him. Although I did not stop, if he was not so polite I would have flipped out.

On another note, while I think the piped in music could be better utilized (better speakers and only at opportune times), I have enjoyed listening to some of the old timers complain about it. I really wish that as a prerequisite to getting season tickets for UM games, you have to attend a game at the Swamp, LSU, or even Ohio st. I dont think the person next to me this year has made one peep at all, even during the Notre Dame game.

should probably be disciplined

I dont what the discipline should be, but if the coaches see this, and I imagine they will/did, he should receive some sort of punishment. Maybe taken out of the starting lineup for EMU and going through a couple Barwis hell workouts.

Obviously he was upset by a cheap play by the ND lineman, but you cannot respond in that way. Given the time of the game when that occurred it probably would not have cost the team that much had the refs caught it, but if that had happenned on NDs last possession it could have cost em big.

hopefully technical problem

That was the first game in my twenty some years (several of these years I was quite small) of attending games, where there were not audible intros. I asked my dad who has been attending games since the sixties, and he couldnt remember the last time they did not do them. Shame to b/c I love to hear the "Who cares" chants after the away team players are announced.

If it was not technical, some one needs to change this. I think it adds a lot to the pregame atmosphere. I guess we will find out next game.

I'm not expecting . . .

Tate to be better this year (but who knows maybe he will be). I just think he has more skills coming in than Moore did. Moore is very very good right now; lets see where Tate is in three years.

i would take it

I have only seen Moore play a couple times, but I love his accuracy. He can really pick D's apart. However, I think Tate may have more potential than Moore. Tate is more athletic and has a stronger arm. If his accuracy is more akin to his junior year of highschool rather than his senior, he may be better.

makes sense for this game

I think I would rather have Roh in there, with all his crab-like pass rushing skills, for this game. WE need to pressure the hell out of Hiller. If Roh is the better pass rusher, then play him.

I'm just happy . . .

that the work day is almost over and I can go find something to busy myself with. I have found myself talking to people in my office that I did not know existed before today b/c of my blackout. I have also taken to looking at random cooking websites and reading recipes b/c I know the chances of seeing an RR story are relatively small.

this sucks

I just want to focus on getting amped for the game and instead I got to read/listen to all this shite. I agree that I might have to go into media blackout mode.

As far as the lawsuit goes, its not as bad as the Spartoons are making it sound. They are claiming he is some kind of deadbeat for not paying this loan. When in fact he was just the guarantor on the loan. The guarantor only comes into play when there is a default by the principal. That is the point of the guarantor. So the bank can ensure that they will get paid in the event of default.

As soon as the principal (blacksburg llc) defaults, the bank can immediately go after the guarantor for payment. This also triggers the right of the guarantor to go after the principal. In all liklihood RR recovers from whatever there is from Blacksburg and this gets paid over to the bank.

It was not his responsiblity or liability even, until the principal defaulted. Not a real big deal, except he is now responsible for getting the 4 mill to the bank.

I seem to remember . . .

Tennessee back in either 1999 or 2000, playing thee quarterbacks in their first game. I dont remember if that was the game plan or if it was just a case of the starter sucking.

not at all

I think Western has a very good chance at winning. Or, at least almost as good as Michigan's.

Somewhat agree, however

I think there is benefit to naming a starter right now as well. It gives the team a guy to get behind and support. It also allows you to give more reps to that guy, so he is more prepared come game day.

If other players get discouraged by a different guy being named starter, then they are probably not the type of players you want playing for you to begin with. I would hope they would get fired up to prove their worth more.

he said right after that . . .

that he hopes it means they have three starting qbs and not that the defense is that bad that they are making them all look good. I agree with jg2112, as long as we win, I dont care who ends up playing qb. My guess: Sheridan starts, Tate takes over on series 2 and rotates with Denard for the rest of the half. Sheridan sees another series in the second half, Tate or Denard, whoever has played better, plays the rest of the game. Unless its a blowout in which case they keep rotating.

RR's presser

He said that as of right now he thought all three qbs would play against Western. I dont want them all playing either, but it looks like they are going to. I still think based on what I have seen (very limited) and heard, that Sheridan starts. Either way he is going to be in sometime in the first half.

starting qb

Based on limited, flimsy evidence off the various highlight videos and what RR has said, I think Sheridan will be the starter on Sept 5. To me, he looks the smoothest and most comfortable with everything around him. No question both Tate and Denard have more talent and will likely play more than Sheridan as the year goes on, but I believe RR will go with experience to start the first game.

All of them are going to play in that first game, and the week two starter will likely be determined based off who plays the best in the western game. I dont think anyone should be concerned if Sheridan starts game 1.

he was battling

a grade two tear in his hamstring this summer which he suffered during otas earlier in the summer. The game tonight is certainly good news for his chances at making the team this year. However, he did not really have any serious competition for the fifth receiver spot according to the new orleans times. If he ever gets healthy, he has a great opportunity in the saints offense to make a name for himself. Colston and Moore are pretty entrenched as starters, but behind them are Henderson and Meachum, neither of which has impressed. There is virtually nothing behind those guys, so Arrington should be a safe bet to make the team if healthy.

ha, thanks

Those comments were based off other videos I have seen as well. They also should be taken with a grain of salt considering its all based off limited video highlights. However, it is usually easier to see faults or areas of improvement in highlight vids rather than picking out strengths.

That was my first post on this site and I look forward to many more. I post on Umhoops quite a bit, but never before on this site.

very smooth

He does not have perfect shooting form, but I love how smooth his shot his. I see three areas that he needs to work on: defense, ball handling, finishing at the basket.

I really have no idea how good a defender he is, but usually you can put that as one of the areas of improvement for every incoming basketball player. So there it is.

He has a decent handle, but he does not look confident dribbling in traffic. That probably means he is not a great handler against pressure D. That will need to improve if he wants to be more than just an Ant Wright spot up shooter.

He obviously has some athleticism (not Casey Prather, but still very solid) and he is long. However, if you see the one clip (around 1:10 in the vid) he drives the lane and then puts up a very awkward right handed floater off the backboard. That play should have been an easy left handed lay-up, instead he nearly missed it. He is going to have to learn to finish with either hand and with confidence.

He looks like he will be a very good player, but those three areas might be the difference between a solid player and an all Big-Ten type player.