Unverified Voracity Is Personally Writing This Comment Count

Brian

Yeah, it's him. At least some of the coach twitter feeds are written by low-level marketing flacks, but Charlie Weis' is legit:

I, personally, am working on Nevada, our first opponent, this week; Michigan, our second opponent, next week; and Michigan State, our third opponent, the week prior to Memorial Day. Go Irish!

(FTR: That's two tweets conjoined.) Charlie Weis, personally, is on the case. Unlike all those other times people use the word "I".

Coach Cobra Kai. Hopefully Michigan will get to the point where this isn't a hypothetical situation:

show-no-mercy

That's part of the locker room door; as Michigan Football Saturdays points out it's not too far from that to "sweep the leg." Maybe we can be Bill Simmons' favorite college football team now.

Also, I'm pretty sure I know exactly which default photoshop gradient was used to do the effect there.

Kickin' up dirt. JoePa broached the topic of Big Ten expansion—he's in favor of it and name-dropped Pitt, Syracuse, and Rutgers as possibilities—sending everyone into the usual tizzy. Jim Delany said "eh, not so much" and life continues on. There's not much more to add than the usual, but I would like to address this:

Adding a twelfth team to the conference implies, in the minds of most, a move to a two-division structure not unlike that of Big 12, ACC, and SEC, all of which hold moneymoneymoneygrab championship games before declaring a champion. So what would the divisions look like?

That's We Will Always Have Tempe, which is frequent OSU gadfly poguemahone's new joint. WWAHT then goes through a bunch of scenarios that all point to the same thing: there's no division that makes geographical sense and hardly one that makes competitive sense.

Q: why do we have to have divisions? As we've seen in the Big 12 of late, sometimes you get the second-best team in the conference sitting at home crocheting asterisks to put everywhere as a far worse team shows up to get blown out.

If you add another team you can then add another conference game without running up against the horrible realities of math, and then you can just play everyone except two other teams and have a championship game between the top two. It would basically be like what we've got now except with a championship game on the end of everything. Sometimes this would be pointless, but I think it's better than the alternative of having the Michigan-OSU division and then a Penn State-someone else division unless that someone else is Notre Dame, which is not happening.

Score. The Daily scores an exclusive interview with Threet with a bunch of interesting stuff and one major typo: a "Feagin" where a "Mr. Plow" should go. For the record: Justin Feagin has not left the team or transferred. The rumor persists because the Free Press quoted from it on their blog*, linking to a Yahoo reproduction of the interview that hasn't been corrected like the original has.

Items of media interest:

  • The Free Press "blog" is, ironically, the exact sort of blog media people always complain about: it adds exactly zero to the content it lifts and doesn't even have the decency to blockquote the material so it's obvious the content is not Free Press content.
  • The Daily killed the Threet transfer story, absolutely wasting every other media organization out there, and the interview is the cherry on top.
  • …and they're pissing away a good chunk of the linkjuice and hits by allowing the syndication of it to UWire and therefore Yahoo.

To the interview itself: Threet directly addresses the "inconsistent like always" comment, downplaying it, and says point blank that he didn't think he'd keep the starting job with "the way they run the offense" but that it's hard to say for sure. Here's the kicker:

S: What does Michigan need to do to make sure last year doesn’t happen again?

T: They need to make sure that everyone is putting the work in to getting better at executing their job. There were a lot of times last year where maybe one guy didn’t do his job at 100 percent, and that’s the difference between a touchdown and a three-yard loss. Working together like that is especially important offensively. Defensively, you can get bailed out sometimes, but offensively it really does take all 11 guys.

The whole thing is well worth reading.

Zoom! More to file under "Denard Robinson is made of dilithium":

Dauntia Dotson, Adrian Witty, Cassius McDowell and Denard Robinson sent the crowd home contented by running a school-record 40.82 -- the second-fastest time in the country this year, to win the Region 3-4A title.

''I think we can go 40.50, maybe even faster,'' Witty said. ``Who knows? It's our work ethic. We don't want to lose. This means a lot because we broke our own state record twice this year.''

You'll note that Witty is also on this blazing fast relay—good news for his prospects at M—as is Deerfield Beach junior running back Cassius McDowell, who says Michigan leads.

Comments

cfaller96

May 6th, 2009 at 11:59 AM ^

"Also, I'm pretty sure I know exactly which default photoshop gradient was used to do the effect there." Brian just turned the Coolness dial up to 11, and every lady in Ann Arbor swooned. Pimpin' ain't easy, Bri.

Erik_in_Dayton

May 6th, 2009 at 12:05 PM ^

Has any coach ever referenced himself more that Weis does? I'm a little surprised he didn't just refer to himself in the third person, which nobody should do unless they're Rickey Henderson, b/c Rickey Henderson was a great baseball player and Rickey Henderson can do whatever he wants.

bronxblue

May 6th, 2009 at 12:42 PM ^

I agree. The Daily asked tough questions, and Threet acquitted himself well in answering them (reasonably) honestly. I like his point that the average Michigan fan remember Henne as a Junior and Senior, not the freshman who played decently but was helped by having a great team around him. You put Brady, Henne, Navarre, Dresibach, etc. in this offense, and I doubt any of them would have stuck around either. Again, I wish Threet the best, and I think the transfer will work out for everyone.

bronxblue

May 6th, 2009 at 4:41 PM ^

True, the Daily seemed like it was looking for some juicy soundbite, but I don't blame them for it. Writers for the Daily (I presume) are angling for journalism careers, and having a highly-visible/controversial interview on his/her resume certainly would not hurt. Also, this is the Daily we are talking about here...written by a bunch of 20-year-olds...I'm just saying...amiright, amiright?

MichFan1997

May 6th, 2009 at 4:56 PM ^

a couple months back, i said i was going to wait till baseball season then ask you about sites with good defensive stats. so if you don't mind, i think i'm ready to do some sabermetrics with defense. any help is appreciated.

Don

May 6th, 2009 at 1:05 PM ^

as much as I mind the blobby, friendly, non-Barwis typeface it's in. Should have used something spiky, angular, threatening-looking instead.

ntclark

May 6th, 2009 at 2:50 PM ^

It would almost be difficult to choose a worse font for a sign like that. Sticking with the theme, there's probably another sign next to that in Comic Sans that says, "Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women."

Tim

May 6th, 2009 at 1:14 PM ^

The problem with just playing the conference schedule and plucking the top 2 teams is this: It's not allowed. The NCAA mandates that, in order to have a conference championship game in football, the conference must have two divisions, the winners of which play in said game.

Clarence Beeks

May 6th, 2009 at 1:18 PM ^

I'm glad to see the Witty mention here. I've seen this relay's results several times now and the focus has always been on Denard. This should really put to bed a lot of the concern about Witty's recovery. If the buzz about Witty's ability on defense proves to be true, it's entirely possible that the best player out of this "tandem deal" might be the throw-in: Witty.

bronxblue

May 6th, 2009 at 4:47 PM ^

While I agree that Witty's recovery seems to be coming along swimmingly, I do not know if you can read too much into his success other than the fact that his wheels are back. As a corner, he is still pretty small (5'9" and 175 according to the recruiting board), and I'm not sure what position he would play outside of the special teams and an extra DB in the Dime. That said, if Denard and Witty pan out, that will be a coup for RR.

Magnus

May 7th, 2009 at 8:49 AM ^

I'm not a fan of small corners, in general. However, you can't knock Witty for his size if you're not also knocking Boubacar Cissoko, Dior Mathis, and other prospects. Witty has no more hurdles in that department than other small cornerbacks do.

lhglrkwg

May 6th, 2009 at 1:44 PM ^

i dont mind having what WWAHT brought up which is just two mix n match divisions that arent really tied by geography. it could make even divisions as well as split up M and tOSU. plus it won't be like teams have to travel anymore than they already do

Yinka Double Dare

May 6th, 2009 at 2:05 PM ^

"Can you imagine any of the guys who came before me — Chad (Henne), Tom Brady, Brian Griese, Navarre — can you imagine any of them running this offense? " I can imagine Navarre running this offense. It's hilarious.

bhallpm

May 6th, 2009 at 3:03 PM ^

WIsh it could have worked out here. Best of luck to you. Hope Michigan meets ASU in the Rose Bowl, #1 vs #2, and we eke out a win despite your great play. You would not have remained the starter. I don't think you have what it takes to make it in the NFL. But can't blame you for holding on to the dream. Boren you dick.

mgovictors23

May 6th, 2009 at 3:14 PM ^

The guy has some talent, i mean he was a four star for a reason according to rivals. Sadly he could not run the spread at all but good luck in the future.

J. Lichty

May 6th, 2009 at 3:29 PM ^

THreet seemed to grasp the offense and when he could run i.e. before his injury he had some success. Threet's biggest problem pre-inury was his lack of accuracy and poor touch in the short passing game. After the injury, I agree he was not able to run the offense at all because he lost the ability to keep the ball on the read-option. I also agree that his skill-set is not ideal for this offense and that I have no problem with him leaving. I do not think he was afraid of the competition, but simply didn't like playing in an offense he is not suited for. I expect that Threet will have success at ASU - success he would not have had at UM, and I expect that we will be better off with Tate or Robinson running the offense. He was not a dick like Boren, nor do I think RR treated him unfairly.

bluesouth

May 7th, 2009 at 5:58 AM ^

so much was placed on Threet RS freshman relative to the success of this TEAM, Threet was not ideal he missed throws, but the OL and other skill posistions bear much responsibility. I wish the kid nothing but the best in his future. As for that other kid that left who shall remain nameless ahh forget it.

wolverine1987

May 7th, 2009 at 7:38 AM ^

who say that he is lowering the class bar on the program. I don't agree with that in any way, but now, as Chris Rock says "I understand." I don't know why the Those Who Stay banner isn't good enough to stay for the foreseeable future--why fuck around with it?