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He had a really impressive…

He had a really impressive four-game win streak 14 years ago.

And KC still can't get…

And KC still can't get anybody blocked.

It used to be illegal here…

It used to be illegal here too.

The Rose Bowl doesn't need a…

The Rose Bowl doesn't need a DJ. OSU/Michigan doesn't need a DJ. The Super Bowl does.

Probably because the ball…

Probably because the ball gets moved back to the point of the fumble.

Oh, that's just great…

Oh, that's just great. Reminds me of a James Tiptree story...

Must he and all dead life be borne back each time helplessly to suffer, to jerk anew on the same knives and die again until another energy exhumes him for the next performance?

A useful rule of thumb is…

A useful rule of thumb is that Duke's basketball revenues are roughly equal to their football revenues.

A piece of the analytics…

A piece of the analytics that sometimes gets lost is that one of the reasons you go for it on 4th down close to the goal line is the positive value of the other team's bad field position even if you fail (inside the one it's about a field goal's worth all by itself).

At the end of the half that value disappears.

First the DFB should give…

First the DFB should give him a chance to win a world cup. He can always go back to club coaching afterwards.

This is eventually going to…

This is eventually going to happen somewhere.

The truly unique double that I doubt any of us will ever even see sniffed again would be the Harbaugh brothers.

Michigan should have been…

Michigan should have been and still fighting both of these allegations in court.

Still? What could be done in court now? We can't undo the suspensions and there's no plausible claim for damages.

A lot has happened since …

A lot has happened since "less than a year ago," including six weeks of gameday suspensions that Harbaugh may well lay at Manuel's feet.

(That said, I will also take this with a grain of salt unless we find out who JUB's sources are.)

"When you can no longer play…

"When you can no longer play, you coach, and when you can't coach, you die."

And at least this year he got to coach during the week. That wouldn't be true the next time we get caught leaving a toilet seat up, and sooner or later somebody's bound to.

I think the writing was already on the wall with the self-imposed suspension. Then the fight for the TRO was pulled (I think we got outmaneuvered but I could see it looking different from Harbaugh's POV). Maybe if the school's got $100 million at risk they'll fight it for real next time?

What I do NOT think is that Harbaugh was looking to get paid for not coaching. He wants to coach, the alternative is unthinkable. And he just got half a season of unthinkable.

I knew it was but I thought…

I knew it was but I thought it was worth being explicit. The guy has the most wins and most titles in school history, at a school that's had three of the greatest coaches ever, and people are talking about him like he was some sort of failure there.

Since Stanford resumed…

Since Stanford resumed football in 1918, David Shaw is...

  • first in wins
  • third in winning percentage behind Clark Shaughnessy and Pop Warner (which means ahead of Harbaugh and Walsh)
  • first in bowl wins
  • tied for first in conference championships with Pop Warner and Claude Thornhill
  • first in COTY awards, and more than all other Stanford coaches combined

If that's what we're getting with Sherrone Moore, bring it on. And if at the end of it all the "wheels have fallen off" and we're back to baseline like Stanford was, so be it. Our baseline isn't quite the same as theirs.

"Those who leave will be…

"Those who leave will be champions"

--Joe Burrow

It's not about ego, greed,…

It's not about ego, greed, honor, love, money, Jesus. It's about coaching football.

When you can't play, you coach. When you can't coach, you die.

He just spent half a season not coaching on Saturday. The next time it happens they won't even let him work during the week. Either the university commits to doing everything in their power to make sure that never happens again, and takes a very wide view of their possible powers, or it's time for a separation.

Is there anything left to…

Is there anything left to litigate? The penalty's already been paid, and in a form that doesn't allow for reimbursement if it was wrong.

I don't think it was about…

I don't think it was about the indemnity per se, because it isn't really about the money. An indemnity would be Michigan putting skin in the game the next time the conference or association said Harbaugh couldn't coach his team. He's done with sitting on the couch on game days and I can't blame him.

At minimum he would have needed a clear signal that next time there was going to be a fight and not another self-imposed stint in the sin bin. Throwing the indemnity in at the last minute wouldn't be that, it'd be a sign of desperation.

"I'm as serious as I can be…

"I'm as serious as I can be without serving jail time" said a Florida insurance agent.

Ignored? It wasn't even a…

Ignored? It wasn't even a month later that Chris Day was filing his legal papers and preparing to quit his day job.

Ignored by the authorities, sure. But OSU damn sure took notice.

They don't mind because it's…

They don't mind because it's booster money. Suggest that the actual revenue pipe should be tapped and see what happens to you.

It's an interesting legal…

It's an interesting legal question...how nonzero does a probability need to be to not be considered fraud?

Should you buy alien abduction insurance?

It is difficult to get a man…

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his windfall condo profit depends on his not understanding it.

There's one thing I'm…

There's one thing I'm absolutely certain of: he'd rather spend gameday coaching his team than sitting on his brother's sofa watching it play without him.

If we can't offer that (or at least a clear commitment that everything in our power will be done), there isn't much else to discuss.

I'm pretty sure it was a…

I'm pretty sure it was a loophole already being exploited by others, including the very people that turned him in.

someone would've shut that…

someone would've shut that nonsense down

Would we have? I honestly don't know--except for CMU (for sure nobody would have signed off on that) it wasn't obviously a violation and a fair amount of similar grey-area stuff (and some clearly outside the grey) seems to be going on out there elsewhere. I'm at least uncertain enough about what would have happened to be glad it wasn't put to the test.

His kids were on a recent…

His kids were on a recent cover as "The Chosen Sons."

Another great long-form…

Another great long-form article was the one on the Jacobs family (Emprise, Sportservice etc.) in 1972. Led to a successful criminal racketeering prosecution.

Stanford's a completely…

Stanford's a completely different baseline. They'd had two winning seasons in the last ten when Harbaugh was hired; we thought we were at a historical low because we'd only had seven in ten. They'd only been to one major bowl since Jim Plunkett graduated. We had nineteen between Plunkett (ugh) and Hoke's departure.

Historically they're basically Minnesota, holding on in the top-50 in all-time winning percentage thanks to the glory days of Pop Warner.

I think the question is,…

I think the question is, what will the university do when the NCAA says he can't coach any more?

Bill Self's still coaching; it can be done. Even Will Wade's still coaching, if not at the same school.

Or "this contract's going to…

Or "this contract's going to outlive Warde and I have no idea who the next guy's going to be."

Ultimately it seems to that if the NCAA doesn't call off its vendetta (and there's no reason to think they will), Harbaugh needs to know the Regents have his back because ultimately that's where the decision to bring out the heavy legal guns would rest. One thing these demands do is push the contract decision to that level. Maybe that's calculated?

Harbaugh interviewing with…

Harbaugh interviewing with Vikings in person on Feb 2

The first comment got 38 upvotes:

It’s time to cut the rope here right? Recruiting will only get worse each year if he’s going to do this every offseason i would think? 

I am absolutely 100% certain…

I am absolutely 100% certain this is going one way or the other.

Orji, Edwards, and Mullings…

Orji, Edwards, and Mullings all start and we run that 3-QB single-wing Princeton used a decade or so back.

Or it means we have two…

Or it means we have two feeder lines instead of just one.

It's fortunate for all that…

It's fortunate for all that Athens GA doesn't have a Lamborghini dealership.

Assuming the condo check…

Assuming the condo check cleared, Tony's doing just fine.

I mentioned this above but…

I mentioned this above but this is how it should be done.

Teams frequently lose when…

Teams frequently lose when they have more yards or first downs. Teams rarely lose when they rush for over 300.

For all the talk about the…

For all the talk about the weak schedule, in the end it didn't turn out to have been that bad. UNLV played for a conference championship, BGSU had a competent defense for a MAC team, only ECU and MSU were truly abysmal.

FEI has a few different SOS calculations posted:

(1) How many games would an average team be expected to lose playing this schedule? Michigan was 4th here, behind the other three playoff teams.

(2) How many games would a good team (one standard deviation above average) be expected to lose? Michigan is 11th at 4.64.

(3) How many games would an elite team (2 s.d.'s above average) lose? Michigan is 14th at 1.85; the only schools in the FEI top 10 with tougher schedules all played Michigan.

To me that's really what we mean by a difficult schedule: how many chances did you have to lose? It doesn't matter whether your cupcake was MTSU or ECU or Portland State, though that's a heavy factor in the usual average-ranking SOS calculation.

FWIW, Washington was #1 in all three. That's not a surprise, they had to play three games against FEI's top two.

Just watched it on the…

Just watched it on the skycast and you are correct. And the sideline reaction removes any remaining doubt.

I'm about to date myself,…

I'm about to date myself, but that first TD run reminded me of Electric Football. Ball carrier runs into the back of a pile, bounces off it a couple of times without being touched by a defender, everyone aimlessly vibrates for a bit and then the pile tilts to one side and the ball carrier veers off in the other direction.

It's a shame none of these…

It's a shame none of these are open source. What semi-reasonable ranking system has Maryland, Texas A&M and Virginia Tech ahead of Florida State?

That depends...is Ufer's…

That depends...is Ufer's call on one of the ESPN channels?

They will, but on ESPN3. It…

They will, but on ESPN3. It's only on a cable channel when it's an SEC home call.

They didn't quite have things synced last week; the radio call was a half-second or so late.

Skycam/natural sound is on…

Skycam/natural sound is on ESPN News; I wish it was an option all year.

While we're doing computer…

While we're doing computer projections:

  • Massey: Michigan 31, Washington 24
  • Sagarin: Michigan 27, Washington 22
  • Fremeau: Michigan 32, Washington 24
More ball-unknowing than the…

More ball-unknowing than the anonymous coach who watched Indiana stuff us 7-52?

I'm impressed that the best…

I'm impressed that the best of the computer systems are able to hold their own against Vegas's predictions but I certainly don't have any gambling advice. Even this 2017 level of performance, which didn't turn out to be sustainable, barely clears the rake.

But I do think the relative worth and the limitations of the various models matter. SP+ says that Michigan State and Minnesota are close peers of the Washington defense, and there's been discussion on the board of a Connelly tweet about Michigan's performance against those defenses.

FEI says that's nonsense: Washington's defense is #27 and Michigan State and Minnesota rank in the 80s. The closest peer there among Michigan's opponents was Maryland. Massey says the closest peer was Nebraska.

Which is it? There's a big difference between Michigan State and Maryland/Nebraska.