Unverified Voracity Beats Eagles Comment Count

Brian

All better. Denard doppleganger détente, dastardly dialogue defused:

image

That is downright eerie. They are the same person.

Manball cyborg of yore. Have a desire to see Tom Coughlin get his face caved in Gary Moeller? (Very gradually, anyway.) Here you go:

The skill position talent that year was Desmond Howard, Derrick Alexander, Tyrone Wheatley, Ricky Powers, Elvis Grbac, and Dave Diebolt. That's insane, and Michigan played like it when not going up against Steve Emtmann. They put up at least 20 points in every game until losing to #1 Washington in the Rose Bowl, put up 30 eight times (including a 31-3 blowout of OSU), and cracked 40 five times against Big Ten opposition.

Deep as the sea. The Daily's Tim Rohan got Larry Foote and Jarrett Irons on the record about player payments; what they have to say is surprising unless it's completely unsurprising:

“It’s a lot bigger than Tressel,” said Foote, who was the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2001. “I’ve been telling people that. It’s a lot bigger. College atmospheres, big universities and athletic programs, they’re dirty — a lot of them are dirty. And coaches, they’ve got to take the fall.”

Both Foote and Irons said that in each of their own unique experiences they have come to understand it is common. Yet both denied any wrongdoing happening at Michigan.

“When I was at Michigan,” Foote continued, “that’s one thing I pride myself about Michigan, because the stories I hear about other teams with the money and the alumni and the stuff like that, the stuff I’m hearing — I mean it is brand new.

“And people don’t understand when they ask me, ‘How much money did you get?’ And I’m like, ‘What?’ I’ve never even heard of players at Michigan getting money. Not one story.

Irons is speaking from his experience attempting to recruit players to IMG, so he's a guy who would know. Michigan's compliance program coming down hard on anyone with a new car is recounted (again).

Maybe so? Previous skepticism about Notre Dame setting money on fire to join Hockey East because it has schools people have heard of (and by "schools" we mean "Boston College") is less skeptical now that one Jeff Jackson is on the record about it:

“It’s a possibility,” acknowledged Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson. “I know our athletic director and associate athletic director are doing their due diligence in looking at all of the alternatives.” …

Jackson said they will be looking at being in a conference with “like-minded schools” and that pertains to academics and other areas in addition to athletics.

“It’s not just about the hockey end of it,” said Jackson. “And we’re also looking at our access to TV rights.”

There are still a lot of hurdles. Hockey East does not want an odd number of teams so a 12th would have to be added, whether that's CCHA-killing Miami or one of the Atlantic Hockey schools that would like to offer a full complement of scholarships.

I'm not a big fan of the move, which would put the CCHA on precarious footing, but what can you do?

ian-evattGo on you Tangerines. I linked this series on one Canadian's excellent adventure at the bottom of the Premiership table already but I'll do it again so I can grab a paragraph. Blackpool has just gone from 2-1 up with 33 minutes left to safety to 4-2 down and relegated. The third goal—the crippling one—was an own-goal by Blackpool stalwart Ian Evatt. In the aftermath Evatt is just shattered (example @ right). Cue Blackpool fans:

Marvelously, the Blackpool fans were chanting “ONE IAN EVATT…THERE’S ONLY ONE IAN EVATT.” Evatt, a few yards up the pitch from Holloway, head down and shoulders slumped, turned an acknowledged the support with a wave. I’ve mentioned it before but the relationship between clubs and fans in Europe is so different from the relationships in North America. When Steve Smith scored in 1986 to eliminate the Oilers from the playoffs, he was met with something less than complete support from the fans in Edmonton. As great as the Edmonton fans were in the 2006 playoffs, it was unthinkable that Ty Conklin could take to the ice again after his mistake in Game 1 - he didn’t have the reserve of goodwill to draw on that Evatt did but even if he did, it’s tough to imagine him receiving this sort of support. By turning the sporting experience into the commodity that it’s become in North America, in explicitly turning it into a business from which profits are expected to be generated, the relationship is different. Fans aren’t supporters in North America in the way that they are in Europe - they’re consumers. If the product that the team is offering stinks or the team hits on tough times, they react like consumers who are receiving poor service.

I'd like to think that college sports have some insulation from that but once PSLs come in and uniformz are deployed and it's clear your money teat is being milked not at all gently—80 dollar Eastern Michigan ticket ho—the differences are less than you might like. At least there's a damned war about booing people after things like the Toledo game. That's not a matter up for debate in pro sports.

(As a side note, what a good idea for a vacation: go to England during the final week of the Premier league season and go to as many relegation battles as possible. That's quality sports tourism.)

The court is a lie. Nobody circles the wagons like non-fake Buckeyes, even if they're Penguins. Former YSU quarterback and booster largess recipient Ray Isaac:

Number one, I’m totally responsible for what I did at Youngstown State University. Every year, from the time I was on campus, from ’88 to ’91, Tressel had compliance seminars — not to deal with bookies, not to deal with drugs, not to deal with not buying or selling anything. I knew exactly what I was getting into when I met [booster] Mickey Monus. It is implied that on the first meeting that I had with Mickey Monus that I received $150. That is the biggest lie ever told. … Jim Tressel never ever knew anything about our dealings. I kept it secret. To say Coach Tressel knew about this car, or knew about this money, listen, the only way that anyone knew about the money I received from Youngstown State University was Mickey Monus got indicted on $1.1 million worth of embezzlement and fraud.

The SI article in question:

In 1988, according to court documents from a jury-tampering trial involving Mickey Monus, a wealthy school trustee and the founder of the Phar-Mor chain of drug stores, Tressel had called Monus about arranging a job for Isaac. The player and the CEO had never met, but Isaac told SI that he had heard of Monus's "philanthropist-type hand" from two basketball players. At his first meeting with Monus, Isaac received $150. According to the court documents, by the time he left Youngstown State, in 1992, Isaac had collected more than $10,000 in cash and checks from Monus and Monus's associates and employees. …

Three years later Monus was on trial for jury tampering in the government's first prosecution of him, which had ended in a hung jury. During this trial (at which Monus was found not guilty) Monus and Isaac, who had pleaded guilty to attempting to bribe a juror on ­Monus's behalf, disclosed their financial dealings while Isaac was a student and alleged that Tressel had set these in motion with that first phone call.

A ­reporter covering the jury-tampering trial called the school and reported Monus's and Isaac's testimony, prompting an internal investigation. That probe revealed that Isaac's car was the worst-kept secret on campus. According to NCAA documents, all of Isaac's teammates who were interviewed "except one" knew about the car or had suspicions about it. Even people outside the football family knew. Pauline Saternow, then the school's compliance officer, had such misgivings about the car that she recused herself from the investigation committee because, according to Cochran, she did not feel she could be objective. Everyone raised an eyebrow -- except Tressel.

You can believe Ray Isaac, or you can believe Ray Isaac in court and all of Ray Isaac's teammates except the guy who you have to send all the Snopes links to.

Etc.: North Carolina braces for a notice of allegations from the NCAA. It will be a while before any penalties are clear but it sounds like UNC folk are expecting to take a scholarship hit of "minimal" intensity. LeCharles Bentley writes a David Mayo-level column for ESPN Cleveland: "[Denard Robinson, Braxton Miller, and Nathan Scheelhaase] would not have chosen the Big Ten if Pryor had not chosen the Big Ten — except perhaps Robinson.  But that goes back to the point: Robinson followed Rich Rodriguez to Michigan in hopes of changing the landscape of the Big Ten."

UMHoops checks up on Robinson, Stauskas and possible (but probably not extant) third 2012 recruit. Greg Schiano wants to replace the punt with a 4th and 15 from the 30. I'm intrigued. We could actually shoot threes last year.

Comments

bryemye

June 6th, 2011 at 4:53 PM ^

I mean I suppose you could catch a game in the second to last round, but all the matches start at the same time to close the season.

What a two hours that is! This past season being the best since I've been following (though WBA's great escape was pretty good).

zlionsfan

June 6th, 2011 at 9:58 PM ^

and thankfully I was not watching anything at the time, or I probably would have pooped myself. There is something about relegation/promotion that has no analog here ... the concept that your team could be playing at a completely different level the following season, especially going down from the EPL. (I didn't start following Wigan until 2-3 years ago, so I missed out on their ascension.)

I think it's a bit off to suggest that it's because sports are purely commercial here. The EPL is simply more like MLB with five or six Steinbrenners. The history helps, for sure, and there is most certainly an atmosphere in the stadiums that is not present here outside of perhaps NCAA football games, but money is also a significant factor over there. (See: clubs near the top of the table spiraling into debt to make European competitions, clubs near the bottom barely able to hang on long enough before being pushed into the financial muck that is non-Premiership football.)

Blue in Yarmouth

June 7th, 2011 at 7:57 AM ^

Speaking of that...did you hearthe rumour of C Ronaldo being pursued by Man. City in hopes to make a splash in the champions league next season? I was something in the vacinity of 150,000,000 pounds and that is just the price they would pay Real Madrid for him. Then they have to foot the bill for his salary as well. If memory serves that is somewhere in the vacinity of 20 odd million pounds per season.

I know people here think pro sports in North America are out of control in terms of player salaries and such, but they have nothing on european football.

BillyShears

June 6th, 2011 at 4:55 PM ^

Just for the record, the final round of the Premier League season takes place at exactly the same time. So you can only attend one match for that week. Of course, you could watch a few games of the relegation battles but it would require a vacation longer than one week.

Erik_in_Dayton

June 6th, 2011 at 4:56 PM ^

Alexander: I saw him in the BC video, but didn't he miss most of that year with a knee injury? 

 

As for Monus and Isaac: I'm not sure if the quote below (or the trial statements that it refers to) was/were meant to suggest that Tressel intentionally set an improper relationship in motion with his first phone call or whether things just shook out that way. 

 

Monus and Isaac, who had pleaded guilty to attempting to bribe a juror on ­Monus's behalf, disclosed their financial dealings while Isaac was a student and alleged that Tressel had set these in motion with that first phone call. 

MGoShoe

June 6th, 2011 at 9:04 PM ^

...the first game I attended post-graduation. I was stationed in Newport, RI and my wife bought me two tickets so I could take an M NROTCU shipmate who had just been stationed in New London, CT. It's still the best birthday present I've ever received because we really couldn't afford it but she did if for me anyhow.

jmblue

June 6th, 2011 at 6:56 PM ^

There's a misconception out there that Alexander was the go-to guy until he got hurt, and then Desmond stepped up.  Desmond actually had more receiving yards in 1990 (1,025), when Alexander was healthy, than he did in '91 (985) when he won the Heisman.  Without Alexander, it was easier to double-team him.  He may have had fewer TDs but his overall production wouldn't have been much different.

NoMoPincherBug

June 6th, 2011 at 5:10 PM ^

That Boston College game / footage always reminds me of  the movie "The Program" with Jimmy Caan...where Joe Kane of ECU played a Michigan team lead by fellow Heisman candidate Tim Waymen.  Bo even did the color commentary for that game....however I do think he would have disapproved with the way that the Michigan players were tieing their jerseys in knots below the shoulder pads to expose their abs ala-Sooner style in the 80s....

the jerseys of ECU and BC were nearly identical

TrppWlbrnID

June 6th, 2011 at 6:21 PM ^

1) the big ten is to blame for tressel's mess since they pushed for the tat 5 to play in the sugar bowl - 8 MONTHS AFTER TRESSEL KNEW WHAT HE DIDN"T KNOW!

2) As the younger generation so eloquently explains, “Don’t hate the playa, hate the game.” stuart scott doesn't even say that anymore!

clarkiefromcanada

June 6th, 2011 at 6:53 PM ^

I was equally amazed at his line of reason that Tressel made a mistake, Pryor made a mistake...but yes, the Buckeyes and their leadership cowed before the sustained pressure of the whole of the B1G. That's right Michigan fans...they played the Tat5 in the Sugar Bowl for you. Charity begins in Columbus.

I am compelled by this line of thinking among Buckeye apologists that there was some sort of singularity in the mistakes made...as if Tressel didn't make, literally, dozens of mistakes and/or undertake a program of outright lying for months before he made that mistake about not apologizing in March. Pryor is of course no better acting like a caricature of Brian Bosworth and Maurice Clarett with a Troy Smith chaser during his years in Columbus. Was the B1G complicit? Certainly, Delaney is no innocent bystander on this one (Tat5 lobbying) but you would think that if the B1G was aware of the nuclear level of brand related damage that an entitled coach and a group of entitled players would do to their school and the B1G then you know they would have acted in a rather different manner.

Ultimately, the responsibility for all of this in Ohio comes down to the Ohio State fan/booster who so happily coddles and enables Buckeye players in Columbus. These fans/boosters clearly had the ear of Gee "I hope he doesn't fire me" and Smith and you can see what their influence has eventually wrought. The only peace I take out of the whole Tat5/Tresselgate scandal is this...and hear me clearly LeCharles Bentley...the Buckeye fans who most "supported" the program are also the ones who have brought it the most shame. 

Don't defend the liars...hate the lies.

 

iawolve

June 6th, 2011 at 5:37 PM ^

Because the Big Ten strives for a new look and profitability, TPeezy took extra benefits? I must have missed the Delany memo requiring all teams to get a dual threat quarterback. I also must assume that TP is the first dual threat QB the league ever had, hence the need to update its image of statue-like figures handing off to running backs or occasionally passing. Yes, LeCharles, it is much more clear now as to why those guys who were guilty of "being kids" traded their goods for tats and possibly cars.

Spot on with the Mayo comparison.

Number 7

June 6th, 2011 at 5:48 PM ^

Doesn't UConn play in Atlantic hockey? I could see them comimg in with ND into hockey east, what with their large and genwrally entrepreneurial athletic department.

M-Wolverine

June 6th, 2011 at 6:34 PM ^

But to give you an idea how good that team was, the other TE was Tony McGee who MAY have been the best Tight End Michigan's ever had. But it was good all over. Jesse "Housecat" Johnson was maybe the last time we had a legitimate 3 player rotation at RB.  And that O-Line that would graduate following the next year (mostly) was monstrous. Skrepenak,  Everitt, Cocozzo, Doherty, and Matt Elliott (the only Mr. Irrelevant I can remember who played a number of years in the NFL). (And I have to throw out some love to Burnie "Burnie" Legette, who won't go down as one of our greatest FB's, but was a hell of a nice guy....and a good player).

But the D was pretty stacked too. Buster Stanley, (great name candidate) Ninef Aghakhan, Chris Hutchinson, Steve Morrison, Erick Anderson, Matt Dyson, Alfie Burch, Lance Dottin, Corwin Brown.  There's a reason we won 5 straight Big Ten Titles. And that particularly year just got out-shot out in a shoot out with a stacked FSU team (and still scored 31 points), and the aforementioned Washington team that was maybe the last of the great steroid teams from that era. That team was more state pen than Penn State on the spectrum of programs.

M-Wolverine

June 7th, 2011 at 2:27 AM ^

But I'm a bit slanted on the subject because I don't think I've ever seen a better running back play for Michigan than Wheatley. HOWEVER, if you want to go for great running backs (and not overall talent), in 1994 you had-

Tyrone Wheatley

Ed Davis

Tshimanga Biakabutuka

And actually, I might take the following year's group over 1997-

Clarence Williams

Anthony Thomas

Justin Vargas

 

rockydude

June 6th, 2011 at 7:05 PM ^

Anyone who says, "don't hate the playa, hate the game", is a moron. You don't need to waste time listening to another word they say - that is time you will never get back.

justingoblue

June 6th, 2011 at 7:18 PM ^

This might not make me too popular, but I think Desmond and Denard look more like father-son or half brothers than they do twins. Some of their features are really, really close (eyebrows and brow for one; cheeks and smile shape for another) but others are off. Desmond has a much squarer head than Denard does and that shows a lot in his forehead and chin. This might be overplayed because of the different hair and facial hair though. Also, Denard looks like he has more muscle (you would have to get a picture of 20 year old Desmond to really tell) and their skin is a shade off from each other.

Don't know why I just broke that all down, but I had been thinking the same thing last night and didn't post it. Either way, they could be close relatives and it is funny, I just think I see more differences than twins would allow.

WolvinLA2

June 6th, 2011 at 7:24 PM ^

My wife (who is terrible with surprises) just told me that my Christmas present this year has already been purchased: 4 tickets to UM-OSU for her, my dad, my brother and me.  We had already booked our trip back to GR for Thanksgiving and she picked up the tickets last week. 

Yep, cool story bro, I know.  If you're in Section 21 just behind row 13, we will not be sitting down. 

michmbk

June 6th, 2011 at 7:32 PM ^

Am I the only one who noticed this - as I recall from playing basketball against Desmond, he was at best 5'9".  Doesn't look like Denard is more than an inch taller at most in that shot.  The 6'0" on the roster may be a little embellishment...

desmondintherough

June 6th, 2011 at 8:00 PM ^

Minor correction Brian, that Schiano proposal was to eliminate kickoffs because of how dangerous they are, not punts.  I think it's pretty interesting in good matchups, but just think of the carnage that would ensue with a buzzsaw like Oregon against the tasty 1-AA cupcakes on the schedule.  Though, that was already pretty bad anyway...

funkywolve

June 6th, 2011 at 9:12 PM ^

1. Would make 2 positions become really important - the punter and the punt returner.  If you have a great punter and/or punt returner you already have a great weapon, but now you'd be able to use them even more.

2.  Late game situations.  This would make it interesting.  You score and your options now are try for a 4th and 15 or punt vs. on-side kick or kick off.  This could really make a difference for teams that are very run oriented - GTech, Wisky, Air Force, etc.  Getting 15 yds on a run doesn't happen very often, and none of those teams (especially GTech) are that great at passing the ball when they have to pass.

3.  If they were to do this, I think they should move it out to the 35 (possibly the 40).  I'm guessing the average net punt for college football is barely 40 yds, if that. 

JDW

June 6th, 2011 at 9:47 PM ^

Lots of talent .... I have often wondered what would have happened  If Gary Moeller had stayed as head coach .he was more wide open on offense then Lloyd  Carr was with no huddles and  things like that