Unverified Voracity Redshirts Tall People Comment Count

Brian

The glory of signing with Alabama. Three-star DT Darius Philon announced he'd be going to Alabama on Signing Day. He did it like this:

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If that seems unusual, it's because Philon had probably just been told that he wasn't actually going to Alabama. Alabama swung a decommit and pulled his offer; Philon ended up signing with Arkansas, a school he hadn't so much as visited. The actual video is… weird:

The AJC says the "moral of the story" is…

If you commit to Alabama, it’s safe unless you get injured or Alabama has the opportunity to upgrade at your position before you officially sign the paperwork.

Inspiring stuff.

Horford redshirt update: happening. Jon Horford's injury redshirt has been increasingly likely with every game he misses and now seems all but certain. Horford himself says as much:

"If coach said, 'We absolutely need you to come back,' I could come back," Horford said Sunday following Michigan's 64-54 loss to Michigan State. "But other than that, I've missed so many games that I feel like coming back at this point would almost be a waste of a season."

In the long run that's probably a good thing for the program as it will move Horford out of Jordan Morgan's class and give the team a fifth-year senior to rely on after he departs (and who knows what Mitch McGary's going to do). That will help bridge the gap between this generation of posts and the Bielfeldt/Donnal setup. Speaking of Bielfeldt…

Bielfeldt hype. Beilein talked up the redshirting freshman in a conference call recently:

He came in here with really bad tendonitis in his knees and was not nearly as athletic as he (had shown in the past)," Beilein said during the Big Ten coaches teleconference. "He was really just struggling. But he's young, with a young birthday, and given the fact that we were still evolving with some positions here, it did not make sense for him or for us to burn a redshirt."

The tendons have gotten better and allowed him to play scout-team center:

"He's a big man with good hands, and those aren't a dime a dozen," Beilein said. "He's a tremendous rebounder. Where he's not gifted vertically, he's really good in small spaces."

It'll be interesting to see what he plays like… and where. He doesn't seem like either a four or a five at 6'7", 240. Presumably he'll be a backup at both spots for his first couple seasons.

The move. I'm not in agreement that Belichick's decision to let New York score in the waning moments of the Super Bowl was "the ballsiest call in Super Bowl History." It was obvious. The choices there are between watching an NFL kicker attempt a virtual extra point with no time on the clock or giving Tom Brady a minute with which to attempt the comeback.

It would have been ballsy if Belichick had come out of the two-minute warning with a red carpet and instructed his defense to bodily carry any Giant with the ball into the endzone. It also would have been correct:

The smartest play of all would've been for Belichick to have allowed the touchdown even earlier. The Patriots certainly could have done so on the play prior to Bradshaw's touchdown run, when he was stopped for a one-yard gain, forcing New England to burn its second timeout. In fact, they probably should have allowed a touchdown as early as the two-minute warning.That's the point at which the Win Probability of receiving a kickoff down by four or six points (0.23) exceeds the Win Probability of trying to stop the Giants from bleeding the clock dry (0.2). The Patriots would have had almost two minutes, two timeouts, and all four downs available to get a touchdown and steal the win. The lesson: New England didn't lie down soon enough.

Always quit, son.

The difference. There are many reasons I couldn't give two craps about the NFL. Many derive from the fact that merely contemplating Tom Coughlin's staid, fun-murdering face seriously damages my quality of life.

Many others are summarized by the Lombardi trophy presentation. Michael from Braves & Birds contrasts Barca's celebrations after winning the Champions League with the ceremony last night:

Instead of a football icon handing the trophy over, we get Roger Goodell, a life-long NFL suit who is most noted for giving himself the power to suspend players for any reason he sees fit and for persuading Peter King to write the most sycophantic cover story that I can recall reading in Sports Illustrated. Instead of a [Barcelona FC] totem like Puyol or a cancer-survivor like Abidal accepting the trophy, we had the New York Giants' owners getting the honor. Puyol and Abidal got the right to hold the trophy aloft because they established themselves as some of the best players in the world at their positions; John Mara and Steve Tisch got the right to hoist the Lombardi Trophy because they inherited the team from their parents.

The Michigan equivalent would be handing the Sugar Bowl trophy to Dave Brandon. This, thankfully, does not happen. Instead we get Junior Hemingway breaking down.

Juxtaposing a Michigan-MSU game at Breslin with the Super Bowl on the same day really drove the point home.

I am much more invested in the stories of people who have reasons to do what they are doing other than "I have a contract."

Tooley. Derek Dooley is amazingly hypocritical:

“I’m still trying to figure out what I’m missing,” he said. “You have these contracts. It’s called quid pro quo. We give you this. You give us that. But if they don’t give us that and we decide not to give them this, then it’s the worst thing you can do. I’m still struggling to understand that issue…”

This verges on "I'm not even mad, I'm impressed" territory.

Etc.: Jim Herrmann might be coming back to be Iowa's DC, which would be the most Kirk Ferentz move ever. NCAA president urges school presidents to support multi-year scholarship offers. 2012 hockey recruit Justin Selman's stock seems to be on the rise.

Comments

Erik_in_Dayton

February 6th, 2012 at 5:54 PM ^

It's hard to believe that Horford wouldn't be rushed back onto the court - long-term health be damned - if Saban was U of M's basketball coach.  Screw that guy and all his lousy friends.

LB

February 6th, 2012 at 6:00 PM ^

their children be treated this way. Someone there should have had some inkling, and gotten him out of there. Video is forever.

MGoShoe

February 6th, 2012 at 6:12 PM ^

...should have allowed the Giants to score as soon as the Giants got the first down at the 2 min warning (in fact, my tweet saying this was posted 3 secs after Brian's). The problem is how to make it happen. The Giants got a vote as well and in the TD play, we saw that they clearly were trying to deny the strategy (Bradshaw just didn't execute the kneel down correctly).

So it seems in the face of an opponent who is aware of the value of bleeding the clock before scoring, the only way for the defense to cause a score is to literally bodily pick up the ball carrier and deposit him in the end zone!!!! That seems like an exceedingly hard thing to actually pull off.

Erik_in_Dayton

February 6th, 2012 at 6:29 PM ^

But it might not happen, of course, as it didn't last night.  A lot coaches (and players) would be afraid to turn down points if given the chance to score them. 

You are right, though, that you cannot force the Giants to score.  You could let them run down to the one yard line (if they stopped there), where the would at least have fewer downs (by virtue of having fewer possible first downs) with which to run the clock.   In fact (to borrow logic from another thread and Buddy Ryan), you could penalize yourself again and again so that they were forcibly moved to the one foot line, where they could take three kneel downs before kicking.  You would save yourself time by doing this, but not (of course) the full two minutes. 

EDIT:  As absurd as it may sound, could you not carry an opposing player to the end zone?  An offensive player can't do that, and the whistle will eventually be blown if a defender is pushing a ballcarrier backward, but is there a penalty against a defender carrying a ballcarrier forward?

zlionsfan

February 7th, 2012 at 11:44 AM ^

A player can give himself up without defensive contact.

7.4.1 An official shall declare dead ball and the down ended:

a) when a runner is out of bounds or declares himself down by falling to the ground and makes no effort to advance.

Note that this is separate from a QB kneeling (7.4.1.b) or from any player sliding (7.4.1.c):

(c) whenever a runner declares himself down by sliding feet first on the ground. The ball is dead at the spot of the ball at the instant the runner so touches the ground.

So Bradshaw could either fall down (and stay down) or slide feet first (I thought that applied only to QBs, but it does not), ending the play either way.

ontblue

February 6th, 2012 at 7:07 PM ^

and all, there's no getting around that. But I have to laugh at the whole thing after watching this kids broadway production of his announcement.

Mr. Rager

February 6th, 2012 at 7:17 PM ^

You are going to make an argument as to why you don't watch the NFL, "Because their championship trophy presentation is misguided"?  Really?  Seems like a major stretch.

NFL is so popular these days that by not watching / following, as a man, you are blatantly standing for defiance of the brand.  

I just don't get it.  It's football.  Played with professionals.  So there are more commercials and corporations and billionaires.  Who cares.

blueheron

February 6th, 2012 at 8:13 PM ^

"... merely contemplating Tom Coughlin's staid, fun-murdering face seriously damages my quality of life ..."

No kidding! He seems like the kind of guy who was educated by steel-ruler-wielding devotees of "tough love." That will scar most people for life.

jehu22

February 6th, 2012 at 8:36 PM ^

1. What's the difference between Roger Goodell handing over the Lombardi trophy and the President of AllState handing over the Sugar Bowl Trophy?

2. The President of AllState gave the trophy to Hoke, not Hemingway. Hemingway's speech came on the MVP trophy. Eli could have broken down like Hemingway did...but Eli doesn't know how to talk or feel emotion. 

If you're looking for differences between the NCAA and the NFL, corporate sponsorship isn't a good place to start. 

 

PhillipFulmersPants

February 6th, 2012 at 8:36 PM ^

let the Giants score with 2 minutes on the clock, might it have conceivably set off a counter lay down? Giants only had 1 TO at that point if I recall. Woudn't it have been prudent of them to return the favor to the Pats and lay down if there were a 110+ ticks on the clock and the Pats had 2 TOs?  Granted the Pats needed a TD (and maybe you take your chances with the D, which the Giants probably would), but that scenario almost ensures a longer possession than just having to drive into FG range. What would have been the "smart" play by Coughlin at that point?  I suppose the Win probably in that hypothetical upon hypothetical wouldn't be close to what the Pats were facing, given the chip shot certainty of the FG the Giants were setting up for.  I guess I answered my own question. Never mind. 

 

M-Wolverine

February 6th, 2012 at 11:35 PM ^

So I could be a flaming idiot and suck at my job while saying cosmically stupid things and still get paid millions of dollars to do it.

imafreak1

February 7th, 2012 at 9:41 AM ^

It couldn't be the ballsiest call in Super Bowl history because the Pats weren't even the first team to do it. The Packers let Denver score a TD in 1998.

Amongst recent Super Bowls, I would take the Saints surprise onside kick against the Colts.

Thinking more historically, in Super Bowl X the Steelers elected to run up the middle on 4th and 9 rather than punt because they were afraid of a punt block and instead put it on their defense to hold the Cowboys out of the endzone. Just from the standpoint of making a decision that will backfire horribly if it doesn't work, that was amazingly ballsy.

Wazoo

February 7th, 2012 at 12:43 PM ^

A group going to next year's game should roll out a huge banner that lists all the Bama kids that Saban has messed with.  If it's big enough, it wil get huge publicity across the country and draw attention to the hypocrite that Saban is.  Kind of like the "Ruth did it with hot dogs and beer" banner they rolled out for Barry Bonds a number of years ago.