Nazar's elite speed gives him such a high floor. He could be a really good third-line center who occasionally moonlights as a second-line guy for a decade-plus. Best of luck, Frank!
Btw... per hockeydb.com, the average age of Qunnipiac's top 10 scorers this season was 22.9. Michigan's was 19.8. A difference of a whopping 3.1 years. Quinnipiac's oldest player was nearly 7 years older than Fantilli... LOL. Not an excuse by any means, but that is the difficult part of winning with a blue-chip laden team.
The atmosphere at Yost and the overall value of attending an M hockey game remains the best in Metro Detroit and one of the best in all of sports. For all the hoopla surrounding M football and hoops, hockey somehow remains something of a well-kept secret. A highly enjoyable year despite the tough finish.
Look forward to big things from Naurato & Co. Hope to see a ton of these guys back next year. Getting Fantilli back seems plausible, unless he wants to go play in a minor league rink in Arizona or join the perpetually woebegone Blue Jackets.
Jim has deservedly taken a ton of criticism the past few years, so it's only fair we heap the praise on him and the staff after this one. The game plan, play calling and in-game strategy were all on-point, with the team being aggressive on fourth down early then pulling back once it became apparent the D was having its way with the Badgers.
What can you say about Mike Macdonald? He hit Wisconsin from every angle imaginable and the Badgers didn't appear to have a clue where it was coming from next. You never like to see anyone get injured but for chrissakes we knocked their two best offensive players out of the game with crushing hits.
Dax Hill looks to me like Jamal Adams 2.0 (occasional coverage lapses included, LOL). Just an unbelievably dominant, thorough win, almost from start to finish. Cheers to the players and staff. Hope they enjoy this one.
Luke Fickell: Absolutely zero chance. Forget about it. Brent Venables: Meh, a DC with no head coaching background in an era dominated by offense? Hard pass.
Eliminating the fullback last year seemed premature, especially after watching Kyle Shanahan do so much damage with Kyle Juszczyk. Upgrading to a modern spread with RPO principles while still utilizing the elements that are near and dear to Michigan's heart -- mashing tight ends and fullbacks -- feels like sweet spot. Excited to see it all come together and how it continues to evolve.
Michigan recruits well enough to be a top 15 program but not even close to well enough to compete with the OSU, Clemson, Georgia and Alabama-caliber programs. When was the last time Michigan produced someone on the same level as a Michael Thomas, Zeke Elliott or Marshon Lattimore? Or one of the Bosa brothers? (Please don't say Gary or Winovich, I'll start sobbing in my Cheerios.)
If you don't have an elaborate, stealth system of paying players then you just better accept your lot in life, which will be OSU winning 22-23X every 25 years. Michigan is trying to live up to an impossible standard (compete with OSU, compete for the CFP, play by the rules). Those things are fundamentally incompatible.
Even Duke basketball, which I would have argued was previously a nice comp for what Michigan football tries to be, gave up and got in bed with the shoe companies a few years ago. If your network isn't paying the kids and their families, someone else's network will. Stop trying to pretend you can be all things to all people.
Last but not least, the coaching is woefully inadequate. Harbaugh has been here 5 years and his impact on the QB room has been negligible. The head-scratching penalties that mortally wound them in big games... running into a punter when you're desperately trying to get the ball back (and the other team is trying to give it to you!), the offsides on 4th & 4 yesterday, the mind-melting fake swinging gate XP debacle yesterday... the list of errors goes on.
I give this staff credit for coming in and stabilizing the program... recruiting at a level that allowed Michigan to return to being a solid top-15 program. But this appears to be the ceiling unless sweeping changes as well as a new philosophy are implemented.
Probably the only thing that could save UM football at this point is the death of amateurism. If the elaborate payments become above-board in nature, maybe Michigan strikes back in a big way, but it sure would be nice to do that with a new coaching staff.
Spot-on analysis. Is there a single guy on Army's roster who would play at Michigan? And UM ran for 2.9 yards per rush? GTFO. Time to launch this entire program into the sun. The runs up the middle are f***ing nauseating. It's like... when the going gets tough, Harbaugh has a seance with Bo who calls in some power from heaven. An absolute joke. This program is making a mockery of itself.
Minnesota returns most of its team; avoids UM, MSU and Ohio State; and gets Nebraska, Wisconsin and Penn State at home. Couldn't set up any better for them.
After watching the first few weeks of NFL season (see Thursday night's wide-open Rams-Vikings game for example) and then watching Michigan's offense, Michigan appears completely oblivious to the direction the sport is headed. Tempo, tempo, tempo... keeping defenses off-balance, spreading the field, attacking the middle of the field, attacking vertically, gashing defenses with a combination of play-action and spacing the field... attacking the entire field... and then you watch Michigan... absolutely zero tempo or sense of urgency, play clock constantly under 10. They look like a 1980s offense with some pistol mixed in. It's painful to watch. Michigan is fortunate (and gotta give some credit to the players for executing) but if they hadn't scored on that final drive, they likely would have run out of time before having another shot to get the ball back, because the final drive was so slow and methodical and plodding. Michigan isn't even in the same stratosphere as the premier programs in college football, and I don't believe talent is the reason. Woohoo, great comeback against a team that just lost to Akron. See y'all on New Year's Day in some generic, meaningless greasy bar food dot com bowl game against a 7-5 SEC team.
If a team only plays 2 games and has a 51% chance of winning each, its projected record would be .51 + .51 = 1.02 which would round to 1 win and thus 1 loss. If you add up the probabilities in each of ND's 12 games, it probably adds up to something like 9.8 wins and hence 10-2. Having a 51% chance to win a game is not the same degree of "favored" as having a 99% chance to win.
...has basically turned into the Lions fan base. There's always a new scape goat. Rich Rod, Hoke, GERG, Al Borges, Doug Nussmeier, Greg Frey, Tim Drevno. The list rolls on. Anyone ever think maybe the problem runs deeper than a couple position coaches or nah?
...agency we should just kill this thread now. Is that the same New York City where 75% of the seats behind home plate at Yankee games (one of the world's iconic brands) sit empty every game?
...that it is highly valued in this dawning era of sabermetrics. Shouldn't the act of getting on base always have been a top priority? Pat Caputo (LOLZ * infinity) was ranting yesterday about sabermetrics keeping Jack Morris out of the Hall. Um, no. ERA is one of the most basic and most widely recited pitcher stats of all-time, and Jack would have had the highest of any pitcher to ever enter into the Hall. That's what kept him out, not sabermetrics you jackwagon.
...from a top-40ish national MBA program (top 25 in some years) and to be quite candid, I think your time/money would be better spent in another degree program. First of all, sports management isn't a discipline. It's soft. If you're gonna go the business route, go finance or accounting or economics or statistics or supply chain or marketing. Sports management encompasses all of those disciplines but in and of itself is an empty degree. And the best way to break into the sports industry on the business side is to sell, sell, sell. Get a part-time job while you're in school selling tickets for either your school or a local pro team. Even if sales isn't your long-term interest, it's the best way to show you're serious about the industry. And you sure as hell don't need a sports management degree to do this. I had a very positive experience working in the sports industry but after several years realized there were many, many, many more opportunities outside of sports and chose to exit the industry.
...but lately he looks like a broken man. Sure the o-line is bad and the playcalling is crappy but he's also a big part of the problem too. He stares down his receivers when he does throw and other times holds the ball way too long in the pocket (the Sam Bradford syndrome!)... based on what i've seen lately, i don't even need to consider what Ohio State's pass D is like to know that this is a massive disadvantage for Michigan. It's Gardner's 4th year in the program and he's gone noticeably backwards.
...one thing that I'm just exhausted by is the "youth" bit. The offense just isn't that young. Your quarterback was heavily recruited and is in his 4th year in the program. You have two NFL linemen. You have Jimmy Graham Lite at tight end. And you have an undersized but wildly productive receiver in Gallon. Although Toussaint has clearly not been the same since his gruesome injury, he's still a senior who has plenty of experience and past success. Oh and then you have a 5-star running back in Derrick Green. There is more than enough talent and experience to field a competitive unit. I'm still behind Hoke because nothing is worse than getting in that cycle of firing a coach every 3-4 years, but god almighty damn stop it with the youth horseshit. There are countless programs throughout the nation who do more with far less than Michigan is doing offensively right now. So if you still support Hoke and want to stay the course, hey, I'm all for it. But godammit stop with the youth crap.
You wouldn't spend a 3rd or 4th rounder on an 18-year-old Jadeveon Clowney or Adrian Peterson? Shit, the Lions usually end up cutting their 3rd and 4th rounders a couple years later anyway.
What I'd really like to see is blowhard administrators like Jim Delany go make 7-figure salaries in the minor leagues. Oh wait, that would never happen. Guy is the absolute worst.
...with Larry Foote and I believe both were fairly highly touted, to the point where Pershing entered the '97 season ranked #17 in the nation in the USA Today poll on the strength of those two players. At the time that was an extremely lofty ranking for a Detroit PSL team. This was well pre-Cass Tech dominance and the PSL played mostly bad, disorganized football. I believe Catholic Central beat them something like 35-7 in the season opener at the Silverdome.
...and came to the conclusion that the failure of the Coyotes is in no way an indictment of Phoenix as a hockey market. It's an indictment of the idiots who decided to build a hockey arena way out in the western suburbs when the mega growth and mega dollars were in the East Valley. They had a prospective location on Scottsdale Road (which is now occupied by new ASU buildings) that seriously could have made that franchise the envy of hockey. But they got cheap land in JV Glendale. Incredibly short-sighted and catastrophic set of decisions. Phoenix absolutely could have worked for hockey but unfortunately the rest is history (or soon to be history anyway). Hockey's demise there is a negative reflection on the idiots of the NHL and the idiots running the City of Glendale, not the sports fans of Phoenix.
...this day in age is absolutely beyond me. If I were Chip Kelly, I'd be taking a look at the Chiefs before I'd take a look at Philly. This is a team 24 months removed from hosting a first-round playoff game, has a lot of those pieces still in place, and may just need a QB. I'd rather show up in KC as a package deal with Geno Smith and be in a division with the gutless Chargers, laughinstock Raiders and soon-to-be 37-year-old Peyton Manning than head to the NFC East to duke it out with the Giants and RG3 every year.
Nick Saban is a great coach and I'd hire him in a second to run my NFL team, but if he heads to Cleveland sans QB, it will be Dolphins redux for him.
Over the last 20 years, while the rest of college football fought over the likes of Mizzou, Colorado and Utah, Delany delivered the Big Ten iconic college football behemoths Penn State and Nebraska. And let's be honest, not even a lot of Big Ten fans saw Nebraska coming. We were pretty convinced it would be Mizzou. So, what I'm saying is that there's no way Delany has all his cards out on the table yet. But this had to be the first domino to fall, and since Maryland was vulnerable, they were an easy target to start the destabilization of the ACC.
What if this is the end game: 22-team Big Ten. The West is the current B1G minus Penn State. This whole shit storm they're involved in is the perfect time to inform them they'll be anchoring the East with Maryland, Rutgers, Virginia, Duke, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech and obviously a couple others (to be determined later).
THEN you have everyone play 10 conference games. Michigan plays EVERYONE in the West. 10 games. Instead of Iowa once every six years, you get 'em every freakin' year. Michigan-Ohio State, rather than being minimized, is more important than ever. In a lot of years it might be a ticket to the playoff. The B1G championship game is a de facto national quarterfinal, a permanent B1G vs. Pac-12 Rose Bowl is the national semifinal and then you have your title game. You can preserve rivalries with two non-conference games, but by and large... NO MOAR BODY BAG GAMEZ. No more UMass, no more Central Michigan, no more Delaware Fucking State.
The B1G and the Big Ten Network bring the old ACC the stability they never could have dreamed of in the ACC. B1G lacrosse takes off like wildfire, B1G hoops is basically a mini freaking NBA, the Big Ten Network has an assload of programming, most of those old ACC stalwarts can preserve many of their traditional rivalries, and well there ya go.
I'd accept Maryland and Rutgers if it was part of a larger plan to get North Carolina, Virginia and Duke and just ruin the ACC (and Notre Dame). Otherwise, get lost. In the last 20 years, Delany has delivered two titans of college football, Penn State and Nebraska, while the rest of college football fought for the likes of Missouri, Utah and Colorado. For some reason I have faith in him even though this looks like it could get ugly.
There is a salary cap in the NFL but none in the SEC. If it hasn't become patently obvious to you guys that money is flying around left and right in the SEC, and quite frankly a lot of other places, well, how does that George Strait song go? I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona...........
...is the place to be. Anyone recommending JV Addison should have their posting privileges revoked. If someone came to visit Detroit/Ann Arbor for a game, would you tell them to go hang out in freakin' Canton?!?
Go grab dinner at Bob's or Del Frisco's if you want a steak, and go hit up Javier's if you want Mexican and a really good cigar bar. After dinner, if you want the strongest drinks in town and a dive bar feel (plus a lot of talent) go hit up The Loon. If you want a fancier experience, hit up Sfuzzi or Renfield's and your head will be on a swivel.
...of Bartelstein's miss? Highlight of the year for me. I think he missed wide right and it glanced the bottom of the backboard. Bench was cracking up. Best part was that he backpedaled down the floor after he shot it, like he had it all the way.
...is a complete freak of nature and IMO has gotta be gaining steam for the #1 overall pick in the draft. If the Pistons could grab a guy like that, they'd be relevant again overnight. Kid just set the school's single-season blocks record last night (January 17!)... 27 pts, 14 reb, 7 blks vs. Arkansas. And he was a point guard up until a few years ago, so his footwork and athleticism for a kid with that size are unreal. /mancrush
...my only concern with Griffin is that the Big 12 has more or less become flag football in the past few years. there are obvious sample size issues with what I'm about to say, but three Big 12 QBs were statistically (I'm using passer rating) the three worst regular passers in the NFL this year -- bradford, mccoy and blaine gabbert. and Josh Freeman, after taking the Yuccaneers to the playoffs last year, turned in a forgettable performance this season. (EDIT: they went 10-6 last year but missed the playoffs.) sure, i'm ignoring supporting cast and all that other stuff, but when was the last time there was a good pro QB who came out of the Big 12? i'm not saying Griffin can't or won't do it, but the learning curve will be steep when he jumps from the Big 12 to the NFL.
...but the bottom line is that he was drunk and fighting and someone got badly hurt and the timing of it all was really, really bad. Furthermore, the whole stick-up-for-a-female thing doesn't even hold water because she was apparently long gone from the scene at this point in time. Rough break for Milano but he didn't have to be in that situation.
...and to this day Cass Tech's 116-115 3OT victory over CC in the '98 state regional final at Fordson is the best sporting event I've ever seen in person. I think Chris Young had something like 44/20 in that game. Cass Tech's stud was D. Bryant.
Anyway, congrats to Cass Tech on their state title, and hopefully this nonsense blows over. Obviously whoever sent that letter is an ignorant zero, but c'mon, Wilcher's gotta have a little more common sense than that. Be above that crap.
...standing on the sideline, and RG3 is the real deal. Hard not to root for a kid doing it at a program that has enjoyed so little success. It was my first trip to Waco and I was pleasantly surprised with the atmosphere. ...Also, it was interesting to note that John Elway was there, presumably taking a peek at RG3 and Landry Jones. So much for Tebow being the QB of the future!
...and although I know RR loves to recruit Florida, I think he'd be a perfect fit at ASU. Dennis Erickson is absolutely TOAST at the end of this season. Expectations are always low at ASU, their facilities are lacking, and there's almost a total absence of anything that could be construed as media pressure. However, getting talent to ASU is usually not a problem, especially with such close proximity to Los Angeles. The academic standards (at least from an undergrad standpoint) are low. And the Pac-12 South Division (USC and then a bunch of nobodies) is extremely manageable. I think RR would be a big coup for them and they'd be really happy to have him. His recruiting ties aside, ASU should be a far more attractive option than Ole Miss to RR.
...pass interference, but M had 4 cracks from short range and couldn't get it done. Plus, you go -2 in turnovers on the road and you usually lose. Like the direction the program is headed, don't love the way Denard is being used, but let's be rational. Things are looking up long-term. Tough loss though.
...played by anyone other than the band is an absolute abomination against everything the Michigan tradition allegedly stands for, and I respect the hell out of Brian and this blog for continuing the crusade against it. And the water situation is beyond unacceptable... you were the freaking CEO at Domino's, go on weather.com, see that it's gonna be almost 100 degrees and make the necessary arrangements. It's not rocket science. Hey, at least we got freakin' Arby's logos plastered all over for the Big Chill. Cut the athletic department some slack, right? The regional manager/Charlotte/ECHL rant is about as spot-on as it gets.
In the past I've had a lot of success finding good deals on tickets on Craiglist, but recently it seems like everyone in America has their own ticketing website, so anything for sale by owner is snapped up almost instantly and put on one of these ticketing sites at a seriously jacked up price. My gut feeling -- and please correct me if I'm wrong -- is that a lot of this inventory will go unsold and will thus wind up on the streets and the golf course outside the stadium on gameday at more reasonable prices. I don't doubt demand for M-ND is really high, but come on, there's 115,000 seats in that stadium. I'm not paying $250 to sit in the 88th row. Maybe I will eat these words on gameday, we'll see.
...with Malware last night. Brought my computer to its knees. Probably somewhat my fault for still using Internet Explorer. Will using Firefox help me prevent these issues?
...and I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing for the Huskies. They haven't been relevant in more than 30 years. You'd think that at least once since 1980 they would have just by sheer dumb luck won the four-team GLI with a couple bounces here and there. It's time to take a step back, re-evaluate your place in the college hockey landscape and come up with something more sensible, which will ultimately be aligning with NMU and Lake State and playing numerous home games every year with their Yooper rivals. When I was at Tech, games with NMU sold out or came close to selling out every time, while games with Minnesota and Wisconsin did not attract nearly the same level of interest.
So now you get together with NMU, Lake State, Ferris State, St. Cloud State, Bemidji and Minnesota State and you do something that makes sense from a travel standpoint and puts you on a more level playing field. There is a ton of hockey talent in the Copper Country for it being such a small area, and now hopefully more of these kids will have a shot to play at Tech, whereas before, they were a bit out of their league. Bringing in a fresh crop of kids from Western Canada every year just to win 5-10 games was beyond the point of getting old. Keep some of the local kids home, focus more on the USHL and downstate Michigan high school kids and put a competitive, hard-working product on the ice. No reason Tech can't turn this into something positive.
Recent Comments
Nazar's elite speed gives him such a high floor. He could be a really good third-line center who occasionally moonlights as a second-line guy for a decade-plus. Best of luck, Frank!
How is Warde Manuel still employed?
Btw... per hockeydb.com, the average age of Qunnipiac's top 10 scorers this season was 22.9. Michigan's was 19.8. A difference of a whopping 3.1 years. Quinnipiac's oldest player was nearly 7 years older than Fantilli... LOL. Not an excuse by any means, but that is the difficult part of winning with a blue-chip laden team.
The atmosphere at Yost and the overall value of attending an M hockey game remains the best in Metro Detroit and one of the best in all of sports. For all the hoopla surrounding M football and hoops, hockey somehow remains something of a well-kept secret. A highly enjoyable year despite the tough finish.
Look forward to big things from Naurato & Co. Hope to see a ton of these guys back next year. Getting Fantilli back seems plausible, unless he wants to go play in a minor league rink in Arizona or join the perpetually woebegone Blue Jackets.
Jim has deservedly taken a ton of criticism the past few years, so it's only fair we heap the praise on him and the staff after this one. The game plan, play calling and in-game strategy were all on-point, with the team being aggressive on fourth down early then pulling back once it became apparent the D was having its way with the Badgers.
What can you say about Mike Macdonald? He hit Wisconsin from every angle imaginable and the Badgers didn't appear to have a clue where it was coming from next. You never like to see anyone get injured but for chrissakes we knocked their two best offensive players out of the game with crushing hits.
Dax Hill looks to me like Jamal Adams 2.0 (occasional coverage lapses included, LOL). Just an unbelievably dominant, thorough win, almost from start to finish. Cheers to the players and staff. Hope they enjoy this one.
2. I…
1. He's not wrong.
2. I wouldn't blame Michigan.
3. Stop whining.
4. Get a thicker skin.
5. There is no #5.
MATT CAMPBELL…
MATT CAMPBELL
MATT CAMPBELL
MATT CAMPBELL
Luke Fickell: Absolutely zero chance. Forget about it. Brent Venables: Meh, a DC with no head coaching background in an era dominated by offense? Hard pass.
Eliminating the fullback last year seemed premature, especially after watching Kyle Shanahan do so much damage with Kyle Juszczyk. Upgrading to a modern spread with RPO principles while still utilizing the elements that are near and dear to Michigan's heart -- mashing tight ends and fullbacks -- feels like sweet spot. Excited to see it all come together and how it continues to evolve.
"You need 1 yard, I'll get ya 3 yards. You need 5 yards, I'll get ya 3 yards."
--Leroy Hoard
Michigan recruits well enough to be a top 15 program but not even close to well enough to compete with the OSU, Clemson, Georgia and Alabama-caliber programs. When was the last time Michigan produced someone on the same level as a Michael Thomas, Zeke Elliott or Marshon Lattimore? Or one of the Bosa brothers? (Please don't say Gary or Winovich, I'll start sobbing in my Cheerios.)
If you don't have an elaborate, stealth system of paying players then you just better accept your lot in life, which will be OSU winning 22-23X every 25 years. Michigan is trying to live up to an impossible standard (compete with OSU, compete for the CFP, play by the rules). Those things are fundamentally incompatible.
Even Duke basketball, which I would have argued was previously a nice comp for what Michigan football tries to be, gave up and got in bed with the shoe companies a few years ago. If your network isn't paying the kids and their families, someone else's network will. Stop trying to pretend you can be all things to all people.
Last but not least, the coaching is woefully inadequate. Harbaugh has been here 5 years and his impact on the QB room has been negligible. The head-scratching penalties that mortally wound them in big games... running into a punter when you're desperately trying to get the ball back (and the other team is trying to give it to you!), the offsides on 4th & 4 yesterday, the mind-melting fake swinging gate XP debacle yesterday... the list of errors goes on.
I give this staff credit for coming in and stabilizing the program... recruiting at a level that allowed Michigan to return to being a solid top-15 program. But this appears to be the ceiling unless sweeping changes as well as a new philosophy are implemented.
Probably the only thing that could save UM football at this point is the death of amateurism. If the elaborate payments become above-board in nature, maybe Michigan strikes back in a big way, but it sure would be nice to do that with a new coaching staff.
Holy fuck
Spot-on analysis. Is there a single guy on Army's roster who would play at Michigan? And UM ran for 2.9 yards per rush? GTFO. Time to launch this entire program into the sun. The runs up the middle are f***ing nauseating. It's like... when the going gets tough, Harbaugh has a seance with Bo who calls in some power from heaven. An absolute joke. This program is making a mockery of itself.
Minnesota returns most of its team; avoids UM, MSU and Ohio State; and gets Nebraska, Wisconsin and Penn State at home. Couldn't set up any better for them.
This is very well-stated and fair, couldn't agree more.
After watching the first few weeks of NFL season (see Thursday night's wide-open Rams-Vikings game for example) and then watching Michigan's offense, Michigan appears completely oblivious to the direction the sport is headed. Tempo, tempo, tempo... keeping defenses off-balance, spreading the field, attacking the middle of the field, attacking vertically, gashing defenses with a combination of play-action and spacing the field... attacking the entire field... and then you watch Michigan... absolutely zero tempo or sense of urgency, play clock constantly under 10. They look like a 1980s offense with some pistol mixed in. It's painful to watch. Michigan is fortunate (and gotta give some credit to the players for executing) but if they hadn't scored on that final drive, they likely would have run out of time before having another shot to get the ball back, because the final drive was so slow and methodical and plodding. Michigan isn't even in the same stratosphere as the premier programs in college football, and I don't believe talent is the reason. Woohoo, great comeback against a team that just lost to Akron. See y'all on New Year's Day in some generic, meaningless greasy bar food dot com bowl game against a 7-5 SEC team.
...math.
If a team only plays 2 games and has a 51% chance of winning each, its projected record would be .51 + .51 = 1.02 which would round to 1 win and thus 1 loss. If you add up the probabilities in each of ND's 12 games, it probably adds up to something like 9.8 wins and hence 10-2. Having a 51% chance to win a game is not the same degree of "favored" as having a 99% chance to win.
Bolivia
...has basically turned into the Lions fan base. There's always a new scape goat. Rich Rod, Hoke, GERG, Al Borges, Doug Nussmeier, Greg Frey, Tim Drevno. The list rolls on. Anyone ever think maybe the problem runs deeper than a couple position coaches or nah?
...that it is highly valued in this dawning era of sabermetrics. Shouldn't the act of getting on base always have been a top priority? Pat Caputo (LOLZ * infinity) was ranting yesterday about sabermetrics keeping Jack Morris out of the Hall. Um, no. ERA is one of the most basic and most widely recited pitcher stats of all-time, and Jack would have had the highest of any pitcher to ever enter into the Hall. That's what kept him out, not sabermetrics you jackwagon.
/rant
...from a top-40ish national MBA program (top 25 in some years) and to be quite candid, I think your time/money would be better spent in another degree program. First of all, sports management isn't a discipline. It's soft. If you're gonna go the business route, go finance or accounting or economics or statistics or supply chain or marketing. Sports management encompasses all of those disciplines but in and of itself is an empty degree. And the best way to break into the sports industry on the business side is to sell, sell, sell. Get a part-time job while you're in school selling tickets for either your school or a local pro team. Even if sales isn't your long-term interest, it's the best way to show you're serious about the industry. And you sure as hell don't need a sports management degree to do this. I had a very positive experience working in the sports industry but after several years realized there were many, many, many more opportunities outside of sports and chose to exit the industry.
...but lately he looks like a broken man. Sure the o-line is bad and the playcalling is crappy but he's also a big part of the problem too. He stares down his receivers when he does throw and other times holds the ball way too long in the pocket (the Sam Bradford syndrome!)... based on what i've seen lately, i don't even need to consider what Ohio State's pass D is like to know that this is a massive disadvantage for Michigan. It's Gardner's 4th year in the program and he's gone noticeably backwards.
...one thing that I'm just exhausted by is the "youth" bit. The offense just isn't that young. Your quarterback was heavily recruited and is in his 4th year in the program. You have two NFL linemen. You have Jimmy Graham Lite at tight end. And you have an undersized but wildly productive receiver in Gallon. Although Toussaint has clearly not been the same since his gruesome injury, he's still a senior who has plenty of experience and past success. Oh and then you have a 5-star running back in Derrick Green. There is more than enough talent and experience to field a competitive unit. I'm still behind Hoke because nothing is worse than getting in that cycle of firing a coach every 3-4 years, but god almighty damn stop it with the youth horseshit. There are countless programs throughout the nation who do more with far less than Michigan is doing offensively right now. So if you still support Hoke and want to stay the course, hey, I'm all for it. But godammit stop with the youth crap.
You wouldn't spend a 3rd or 4th rounder on an 18-year-old Jadeveon Clowney or Adrian Peterson? Shit, the Lions usually end up cutting their 3rd and 4th rounders a couple years later anyway.
What I'd really like to see is blowhard administrators like Jim Delany go make 7-figure salaries in the minor leagues. Oh wait, that would never happen. Guy is the absolute worst.
...with Larry Foote and I believe both were fairly highly touted, to the point where Pershing entered the '97 season ranked #17 in the nation in the USA Today poll on the strength of those two players. At the time that was an extremely lofty ranking for a Detroit PSL team. This was well pre-Cass Tech dominance and the PSL played mostly bad, disorganized football. I believe Catholic Central beat them something like 35-7 in the season opener at the Silverdome.
...and came to the conclusion that the failure of the Coyotes is in no way an indictment of Phoenix as a hockey market. It's an indictment of the idiots who decided to build a hockey arena way out in the western suburbs when the mega growth and mega dollars were in the East Valley. They had a prospective location on Scottsdale Road (which is now occupied by new ASU buildings) that seriously could have made that franchise the envy of hockey. But they got cheap land in JV Glendale. Incredibly short-sighted and catastrophic set of decisions. Phoenix absolutely could have worked for hockey but unfortunately the rest is history (or soon to be history anyway). Hockey's demise there is a negative reflection on the idiots of the NHL and the idiots running the City of Glendale, not the sports fans of Phoenix.
...this day in age is absolutely beyond me. If I were Chip Kelly, I'd be taking a look at the Chiefs before I'd take a look at Philly. This is a team 24 months removed from hosting a first-round playoff game, has a lot of those pieces still in place, and may just need a QB. I'd rather show up in KC as a package deal with Geno Smith and be in a division with the gutless Chargers, laughinstock Raiders and soon-to-be 37-year-old Peyton Manning than head to the NFC East to duke it out with the Giants and RG3 every year.
Nick Saban is a great coach and I'd hire him in a second to run my NFL team, but if he heads to Cleveland sans QB, it will be Dolphins redux for him.
...to Penn State. Do the names Larry Fitzgerald, LeSean McCoy, Jeff Otah and Darrelle Revis mean anything to you?
I'd accept Maryland and Rutgers if it was part of a larger plan to get North Carolina, Virginia and Duke and just ruin the ACC (and Notre Dame). Otherwise, get lost. In the last 20 years, Delany has delivered two titans of college football, Penn State and Nebraska, while the rest of college football fought for the likes of Missouri, Utah and Colorado. For some reason I have faith in him even though this looks like it could get ugly.
There is a salary cap in the NFL but none in the SEC. If it hasn't become patently obvious to you guys that money is flying around left and right in the SEC, and quite frankly a lot of other places, well, how does that George Strait song go? I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona...........
...crappy uniformz almost as quickly as he cranked out crappy pizzas.
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...Yale Van Dyne is the best player to come out of Missouri.
One other thought: I didn't know anyone lived in New Mexico in 1895, let alone played football or somehow wound up at Michigan to play football.
Great work on putting this together.
...is to not go (other than for the game itself).
...is the place to be. Anyone recommending JV Addison should have their posting privileges revoked. If someone came to visit Detroit/Ann Arbor for a game, would you tell them to go hang out in freakin' Canton?!?
Go grab dinner at Bob's or Del Frisco's if you want a steak, and go hit up Javier's if you want Mexican and a really good cigar bar. After dinner, if you want the strongest drinks in town and a dive bar feel (plus a lot of talent) go hit up The Loon. If you want a fancier experience, hit up Sfuzzi or Renfield's and your head will be on a swivel.
...of Bartelstein's miss? Highlight of the year for me. I think he missed wide right and it glanced the bottom of the backboard. Bench was cracking up. Best part was that he backpedaled down the floor after he shot it, like he had it all the way.
...is a complete freak of nature and IMO has gotta be gaining steam for the #1 overall pick in the draft. If the Pistons could grab a guy like that, they'd be relevant again overnight. Kid just set the school's single-season blocks record last night (January 17!)... 27 pts, 14 reb, 7 blks vs. Arkansas. And he was a point guard up until a few years ago, so his footwork and athleticism for a kid with that size are unreal. /mancrush
...my only concern with Griffin is that the Big 12 has more or less become flag football in the past few years. there are obvious sample size issues with what I'm about to say, but three Big 12 QBs were statistically (I'm using passer rating) the three worst regular passers in the NFL this year -- bradford, mccoy and blaine gabbert. and Josh Freeman, after taking the Yuccaneers to the playoffs last year, turned in a forgettable performance this season. (EDIT: they went 10-6 last year but missed the playoffs.) sure, i'm ignoring supporting cast and all that other stuff, but when was the last time there was a good pro QB who came out of the Big 12? i'm not saying Griffin can't or won't do it, but the learning curve will be steep when he jumps from the Big 12 to the NFL.
...but the bottom line is that he was drunk and fighting and someone got badly hurt and the timing of it all was really, really bad. Furthermore, the whole stick-up-for-a-female thing doesn't even hold water because she was apparently long gone from the scene at this point in time. Rough break for Milano but he didn't have to be in that situation.
...and to this day Cass Tech's 116-115 3OT victory over CC in the '98 state regional final at Fordson is the best sporting event I've ever seen in person. I think Chris Young had something like 44/20 in that game. Cass Tech's stud was D. Bryant.
Anyway, congrats to Cass Tech on their state title, and hopefully this nonsense blows over. Obviously whoever sent that letter is an ignorant zero, but c'mon, Wilcher's gotta have a little more common sense than that. Be above that crap.
...standing on the sideline, and RG3 is the real deal. Hard not to root for a kid doing it at a program that has enjoyed so little success. It was my first trip to Waco and I was pleasantly surprised with the atmosphere. ...Also, it was interesting to note that John Elway was there, presumably taking a peek at RG3 and Landry Jones. So much for Tebow being the QB of the future!
...and although I know RR loves to recruit Florida, I think he'd be a perfect fit at ASU. Dennis Erickson is absolutely TOAST at the end of this season. Expectations are always low at ASU, their facilities are lacking, and there's almost a total absence of anything that could be construed as media pressure. However, getting talent to ASU is usually not a problem, especially with such close proximity to Los Angeles. The academic standards (at least from an undergrad standpoint) are low. And the Pac-12 South Division (USC and then a bunch of nobodies) is extremely manageable. I think RR would be a big coup for them and they'd be really happy to have him. His recruiting ties aside, ASU should be a far more attractive option than Ole Miss to RR.
...pass interference, but M had 4 cracks from short range and couldn't get it done. Plus, you go -2 in turnovers on the road and you usually lose. Like the direction the program is headed, don't love the way Denard is being used, but let's be rational. Things are looking up long-term. Tough loss though.
...played by anyone other than the band is an absolute abomination against everything the Michigan tradition allegedly stands for, and I respect the hell out of Brian and this blog for continuing the crusade against it. And the water situation is beyond unacceptable... you were the freaking CEO at Domino's, go on weather.com, see that it's gonna be almost 100 degrees and make the necessary arrangements. It's not rocket science. Hey, at least we got freakin' Arby's logos plastered all over for the Big Chill. Cut the athletic department some slack, right? The regional manager/Charlotte/ECHL rant is about as spot-on as it gets.
In the past I've had a lot of success finding good deals on tickets on Craiglist, but recently it seems like everyone in America has their own ticketing website, so anything for sale by owner is snapped up almost instantly and put on one of these ticketing sites at a seriously jacked up price. My gut feeling -- and please correct me if I'm wrong -- is that a lot of this inventory will go unsold and will thus wind up on the streets and the golf course outside the stadium on gameday at more reasonable prices. I don't doubt demand for M-ND is really high, but come on, there's 115,000 seats in that stadium. I'm not paying $250 to sit in the 88th row. Maybe I will eat these words on gameday, we'll see.
...with Malware last night. Brought my computer to its knees. Probably somewhat my fault for still using Internet Explorer. Will using Firefox help me prevent these issues?
...and I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing for the Huskies. They haven't been relevant in more than 30 years. You'd think that at least once since 1980 they would have just by sheer dumb luck won the four-team GLI with a couple bounces here and there. It's time to take a step back, re-evaluate your place in the college hockey landscape and come up with something more sensible, which will ultimately be aligning with NMU and Lake State and playing numerous home games every year with their Yooper rivals. When I was at Tech, games with NMU sold out or came close to selling out every time, while games with Minnesota and Wisconsin did not attract nearly the same level of interest.
So now you get together with NMU, Lake State, Ferris State, St. Cloud State, Bemidji and Minnesota State and you do something that makes sense from a travel standpoint and puts you on a more level playing field. There is a ton of hockey talent in the Copper Country for it being such a small area, and now hopefully more of these kids will have a shot to play at Tech, whereas before, they were a bit out of their league. Bringing in a fresh crop of kids from Western Canada every year just to win 5-10 games was beyond the point of getting old. Keep some of the local kids home, focus more on the USHL and downstate Michigan high school kids and put a competitive, hard-working product on the ice. No reason Tech can't turn this into something positive.
FOOTBALL ANNOUNCING
"This team just needs to figure out how to make plays."
NFL DRAFT
"This pick is a really good value."
BASEBALL
{Pitcher with 6-2 record but 5.90 ERA} "He just knows how to win ballgames."
"He has a closer's mentality. He knows what it takes to pitch in the ninth inning."