Unverified Voracity Demands Eternal JLS
I missed you. John L Smith, never leave us again. We have gone too long without a college football coach organizing "etiquette team dinners."
College football should institute a rule: every year one team who fires their head coach is randomly chosen, and John L Smith coaches that team on an interim basis for a year. It's for the good of everyone. Yes.
Across this line you DO NOT… Hoke restating the obvious:
"The in-state rivalry is always something that's important to us," Hoke told sports editors and reporters at Weber's Inn. "We have not done our job the last four years if you're on the Michigan side of things. That's coaching, and that has to be better.
"But the Ohio game is the Ohio game. I don't think (that importance is) going to change," Hoke said. "And that doesn't lessen anything on the Michigan State game at all, because we realize in this state, you draw a line in the sand."
Obviously this was in response to some question about whether people respond to stimuli—
Hoke was asked if the Michigan State game carries even more importance for Michigan now than when he was here as an assistant under former coach Lloyd Carr, in part because of the improved Spartans under coach Mark Dantonio and also because of the Big Ten title game.
Right.
"Brady Hoke, can you be accurately defined as a life form?"
"Well, Lansing-based reporter, I can tell you I do respond to stimuli. Here, look. I shine a light in my eye. The pupil contracts. I hope this has been informative."
Hoke is also in favor of keeping the Ohio State game at the end of the season.
BREAKING EXCLUSIVE. Hearing that Connecticut offensive tackle Harry Poggins will commit to Michigan by Tuesday at the latest, or may have already done so. EXCLUSIVE DO NOT REPORT.
So… the long snapper. I don't get it either, man. In case you missed it, Michigan picked up a longsnapper with much fanfare yesterday. The fanfare comes because Scott Sypniewski says he's got a full ride, and this makes people confused. I am among you. Michigan picked up a walk-on who seemed pretty good last year (not the one MSU poached) and has a couple years of Sugar Bowl receiving MVP runner-up Jareth Glanda left. You'd think Michigan would wait and see if they could turn that slot into an excellent prospect before spending it on a guy whose main goal will be total anonymity.
Sometimes these things are confused. Lloyd Carr's last act as Michigan head coach was to bring George Morales aboard, but I don't think he ever factored into scholarship discussions. We'll see if Sypniewski signs a letter of intent. He may have been offered a conditional scholarship in the event Michigan has one at the end of the year, that sort of thing. If it's an out and out scholarship offer to a long snapper in early June that would be… odd.
Goodnight noon. Air Force and UMass are both 3:30 kickoffs, UMass on BTN and Air Force an ABC/ESPN2 reverse mirror. If those games aren't at noon it's hard to imagine Michigan will play more than one or two games then all year.
If you go to the games and care a lot about college football, that sucks. Most of the interesting games are on at the same time as yours and you can't watch the end of the noon games. Then you miss a chunk of the evening games. I feel like I've been getting less informed about everything going on in CFB, and that's a main reason why. Also, do we understand how many humiliating Notre Dame losses we're not seeing because of overlapping game times? THIS IS SERIOUS.
This is admittedly less of a problem during lame nonconference weeks in which Air Force-Michigan is worthy of ABC. The games we'll be missing in that window include Syracuse-USC, Purdue-Notre Dame, and… uh… UNC-Wake Forest. Songs will not be sung about September 8th, 2012.
Side note: a while back I was told that BTN could not show 3:30 games because of the ABC contract. Clearly there are some exceptions to that. Maybe it's just conference games?
The lines? Jamiemac promises a full evaluation of the hypothetical lines put out by Beyond The Bets on this here site a bit later. I'll be interested to hear his take on their assumptions. The conference schedule, with games Michigan is an underdog in bolded:
- @ Purdue: M –7
- Illinois: M –18
- MSU: M –6.5
- @ Nebraska: M +3.5
- @ Minnesota: M –14.5
- Northwestern: M –17.5
- Iowa: M –14(!!!)
- @ OSU: M +4
Those are not real lines. I assume a line with Michigan favored by two touchdowns over Iowa would be obliterated in ten minutes. But I don't bet. That's Jamie's area of expertise. For his part, Jamie wants to jump on MSU with the point.
Anyway, if those assumptions are anywhere near accurate that's about equal to a prediction of a 6.5-1.5 record. That feels a half-game high to me.
Position paper: Chick Fil'A. As the Big Ten-SEC blogger fight drags on into a sixth decade, positions must be taken. Here is one on Chick Fil'A: it's not as good as Southerners claim, especially displaced Southerners, but it is a cut above competing chicken sandwiches from other fast food joints. I'm sorry if this has caused anyone to snap in disappointment in either direction.
Big Two, Little Ten update. ESPN revamps/expands its rankings. No significant moves except a bit of a fall for Mike McCray and the addition of Dukes, Butt, and Gedeon to the specifically ranked. Michigan has 16 guys in their 300, OSU 12, the rest of the Big Ten combined: 9.
This is their list of the top 17 players in the midwest:
![Auu0pEaCAAABRS5[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/UV_BEC7/Auu0pEaCAAABRS51.png "Auu0pEaCAAABRS5[1]")
Hokemon, yo. Note that the two linemen not committed to Michigan on the list didn't have a chance to pull the trigger. Also, damn you Lane Kiffin.
Weekly Glenn Robinson III hype. From the Indy Star:
"Every time I see him play," said Indiana All-Stars coach Craig Teagle, "his stock goes up with me."
The 6-6 Robinson, who goes by "Tre," has earned rave reviews with his All-Star teammates this week. On a team filled with talent from the immediate area -- nine of the 13 players on the roster are from either Marion County or a neighboring county -- there was a bit of unfamiliarity with Robinson, who played at Lake Central High School in the extreme northwest corner of the state.
It didn't take long for the Michigan recruit to make an impression with his above-the-rim style, dunking nearly everything he touched in a scrimmage on Sunday.
"Wow," said North Central guard Patrick Ingram. "I've seen him play before, but didn't really know him that well. I like his game a lot. He can dunk from anywhere."
This basketball season promises to be fun.
Etc.: Wisconsin kerfuffler Jared Uthoff transfers to Iowa, ensuring that Bo Ryan goes out the Woody Hayes way. Ohio State gave back its Sugar Bowl profit for tatgate, but Gene Smith kept a 60k bonus for reaching the game. Hockey recruit Alex Kile profiled. Michigan pays their assistants money.
Obtaining a Verbal from Scott Sypniewski in June is about as dumb as the hiring of Brady Hoke in January of 2011. The experts don't like the move, so it's probably good and proper.
I say let the kid have his moment in the sun, leave the moaning and groaning for a more appropriate time.
The next minute, he doesn't know what the hell he is doing.
to moan and groan. And BTW comparing this to Hoke's hiring makes no sense.
These are real people that commit, not mere objects of your disaffection. Anytime is probably a good time for you to piss on a kids big day. Go ahead tell it like it is. You so Realz
This makes sense to compare with Hoke because many of the same know it alls who were ignorantly compelled to be the first to bitch and moan about Hoke will know rake a teenager over the coals because he's not 4* WR.
Is that we as alums hold ourselves accountable to the high road. These coaches are recruiting to a plan. Probably a long term plan, and if they have decided that this is the year to take a special teams specialist for the 2013-2016 seasons, then so be it.
There is a 17 year old athlete out there who has signed up to play for us for four years. Clearly he is among the elite at his position. Being an elite player at any position does not come easily.
It's time to bury the complaints, respect the coaches decisions, and hold all the angst until we see how this plays out 3 or so years down the road.
Guys this is Michigan fergodssake! Chill and just welcome our latest recruit to the team. I have a hunch that given half a chance he'll play in the proud tradition of Michigan.
Thanks, I agree. Very avuncular of you
way awesome. As expected from Gordie Bell, though. A bazillion plusses (NOTE - mine are worth their wieight in gold, as opposed to all of the other worthless plusses everyone else awards you).
All of the questiioning of this kid's value to the program and the questioned justification to his scholarship makes me fucking sick. YES, ITALICACS AND BOLD, MOHTERFUCKERS.
The coaches that just won the first BCS game for Michigan in almost a decade just decided this guy was worth it. What jugdement in football have any of you made that compares to this? But let's just disregard this and crap on this kid so that he can savoir it while reading this crap on the internet. GREAT.
I have witnessed too many games where a "margina"l snap from a "preferred walk on" lost a goddam game. One marginal snap can easily lose a game. And I have seen too much poor special teams play to know that a season can be lost due to one bad snap.
Yeah, that might be percieved as quite a leap, but given what the present coaching staff has achieved PROFESSIONALLY over thier careers versus the ARMCHAIR QUARTERBACKS we have here, I'll go with the guys who have actually demonstatrated that THEY ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT THE ___ THEY ARE DOING.
When you type in all capitals, it makes you more right.
with the fact that I was joking about June being the time to bitch, since there is nothing else going on, a common theme on the board. Enjoyed your moral outrage and lecture though.
While throwing him a single scholly shouldn't be something to get too upset about, he has zero chance of having impact of a head coach, especially a head coach so successful in jersey selling, rivalry tide turning and whatnot. The fact is, the upside of a possibly excellent long snapper is only so much compared to a typical long snapper.
This is the same coaching staff that brought us the "32 Star Weekend" in freakin' February! I think they have earned our trust. If they want to offer a scholly to a long snapper, then I am fine with it.
Welcome about kid. I look forward to not having to worry about a long snap for the next few years.
I just think we don't understand this move. I don't want to say it was a good move or a bad move, it's just that it doesn't make sense. Is there a way to express confusion without seeming to criticize the coach. I don't think Brian said anything about liking or disliking the move; it just seemed like he was trying to make sense of it.
My theory is that the roster was looking a little light on Polish names. We've got, what, Swieca, Burzynski, Kwiatkowski, & Paskorz?
Now here's my theory: the long snapping kid has got some kind of dirt on Coach Hoke, probably a picture of him wearing a red hat or something. Who knows, maybe it was Christmas Eve and Hoke put on a Santa hat before he realized what he was doing...but oh the scandal if those pictures ever get out!
Can't find the link, but I believe there was a change in the TV contract allowing BTN to start broadcast 3:30 games.
This is 100% correct.
i always loved the 3:30 games when i went to umich. it meant waking later and more time to drink in the sun (a high quality combo).
^^^This. It sucks to tailgate at 9:00 AM. Your heart is just not in it. Plus, as it gets later in the year, you get a litttle bit of a bonus "night game" effect toward the end of a 3:30 game. Then it's dinner and the bars. What could be better?
What the hell? That's practically blasphemous. The best part of Saturday was rolling out of bed at 6 or 7am and immediately starting the party.
The 3:30pm games are horrible because everybody knows that it is the perfect time for a late afternoon nap before rallying and heading into the Saturday night.
Nevermind how Michigan is recruiting across the midwest; focus on Ohio instead. By ESPN's estimation michigan is going to land a greater number of the top 20 kids in Ohio than will tOSU. UM has 8 so far; the best Ohio State can manage (on present rankings) is 7.
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/databaseresults?f…
In the off season, coaches do a lot to instill qualities they desire in their players. John L. Smith teaches etiquette using someone like Emily Post. Brady Hoke teaches leadership using Navy Seals. I guess we'll just have to wait and see which approach yields the best results.
...is it broken for anyone else too?
....Brian's Google Reader feed? Oooh, turn a watermelon into a keg!
I completely agree with regard to 330 starts. You miss the last half of the noon games, and the first half of the late games. I'd way rather go to a noon game any day of the week.
Also, re: the long snapper. I get that Brady Hoke is the coach, and we trust the coaches, and whatever. That is a stupid meme. Of course I have to trust the choices; I don't have the choice to distribute scholarships as I'd like. That said, there's never anything wrong with questioning decisions that seem unusual, and this is definitely unusual. Other schools have given scholarships to long-snappers, yes. But have other schools done that in June? When they still have several other positions of (perceived) need? Doubt it. This is what doesn't make sense to me, and to many of us.
Per Tremendous yesterday: The longsnapper on Michigan's national championship team in 1997 was Jeff Holtry, recruited at LB and taught to long snap by the coaches.
Honest question, what are our positions of need left? We have plenty of RB's and o-line, LB;s, Def line, QB, TE, and secondary members. we need a WR, we still have a schollie left for him.
I disagree that we have enough DL and secondary members. We should bring in one more DL in this class, and probably another DB, preferably a safety. We brought in 3 safeties last year, but two of them are sleeper-types who could totally pan out but might not. The year before we brought in one (Tamani Carter) who might be a corner and might not be good, and this year we only have one safety.
That means that over 3 classes, we have 2 four star safeties, and only 5 total.
As for the DL - I really like the guys we have so far, but we should probably bring in one guy per position on the DL.
And wouldn't it be nice to take two more WRs if good ones are available? Wouldn't a back-up QB be more important than a long snapper?
I will respectfully disagree about the dline. We have 5 guys this current year and 3 next year. OK, let's say you are right, 1wr, 1dl,1 cb. What schollie is the LS taking. We have probably 3 schollies left.
They aren't going to bring in a QB just to bring one in. There isn't a QB available that would compete with Shane, and we will have depth there in 2013. I wouldn't be surprised if we took 2 QB's in 2014. We will certainly take one, but for this class, I'll gladly pass on using a scholarship on one.
Our DL is stocked right now between last year and this year's class. I have to assume, this staff will continue to recruit DL at the same rate each year. Remember you have 2 defensive line coaches, one being the head coach and the former Ravens Defensive Coordinator doing the recruiting. If there's a position on the football field that won't get ignored, it's defensive line.
I agree with you, I would love another secondary guy in this class, but listen to yourself, you are complaining about having 5 safeties in the last 3 classes, two of wich are 4 stars and highly sought after recruits. If that's our biggest problem, things aren't bad at all.
Another WR is a given, and a spot will be left open for it. Hopefully Treadwell fills it, but if not him, another highly sought after recruit will.
These coaches don't play around!! There's a clear recruiting plan, and they execute said plan better than anyone I've ever seen at Michigan.
Other schools have given scholarships to long-snappers, yes. But have other schools done that in June?
What other school has had 20 commits in June and ranked number one across all recruiting services?
There's no frame of reference for your question.
Also, our staff, though it's June, are finishing up the 2013 recruiting class. We have a commit for every position of need at the moment. A spot will remain open for Treadwell until he commits as said before.
They have moved on to 2014 for the most part. Someone yell down to Urban "keep up!"
I don't think that makes a difference at all - if anything, it strengthens his point.
What he was suggesting (and I think makes sense) is that a lot of teams who offer scholarships to long snappers do so at the tail end of the recruiting cycle once they see that they cannot fill that slot with someone else, or at least with someone else good. MSU gave a scholarship to a LS last year because they didn't fill up their class, so they felt that using a schollie on a snapper was better than waiting a year (and risk not filling it again). I bet if MSU would have gotten the commits they wanted, they wouldn't have offered Pepper, otherwise they would have offered him well before they did.
A lot of schools hold spots for particular players, and when those players commit elsewhere, they send a late offer to someone who was committed to a lesser school or who was planning on walking on somewhere, not just specialists, but at all positions. When mega-rectuit X makes his signing day decision to not-your-school or one of your commits makes a last second switch, most coaches feel it's better to grab someone than no one. Sometimes that's a 3-star safety who could have potential. Sometimes that's a kicker or snapper who was going to walk-on somewhere else.
Since Michigan has a damn good chance at filling their class by February (hell, by November) with high quality recruits, this offer is puzzling, to say the least.
While i see your point, I am wondering if the staff knows something that none of us have heard about the prospective recruits. That could be the only reason, we are not looking good for the remaining guys.
I also see your point, and you make sense. With that being said, I'm convinced this staff is ready to move most of their focus on 2014. LS was addressed as a position of need, and we went after the best available at the position.
What's the point of waiting if you have put an "X" through every position of need on your big board because you have filled it with a commit. We have 3 spots open (yes 3). One is obviously for Treadwell, the other 2, your guess is as good as mine, but I assume, a highly sought after recruit will fill them.
I agree that a highly sought after recruit will fill our open spots. Which is why I think a highly sought after recruit would have filled this LS spot too.
You look at "position of need" as if it is either a need or it isn't. It's not that black and white. Do we need another safety? Maybe not, but we could use one. Is a four star safety more valuable than a long snapper? Holy God, yes. If we waited until Treadwell and McQuay and Green and Bailey and Mathis and Teller and Vanderdoes and Fuller and all of the other top guys we're in on made their decisions and we still had a spot open, I'd be OK with offering a long snapper. But what if we only have 2 more spots available, and 3 of those guys want in?
All of them want to come to Michigan; no more slots open up; no one backs out of their commitment; and we turn away 4*+ talent?
Vs. the odds that people are pulling their hair out for something that will have absolutely no bearing on anything come February?
I know which one I'm putting my money on....
I read in that Detroit News article that Hoke "has yet to beat the Spartans during his tenure." That really puts the situation in perspective. /s
there are some other decent games on that day, might be some overlap, although based on the geography and tradition, i would expect ark, stanford and msu to be at night. cal v osu is kind of meh, vt v pitt, also meh, watchable, but meh.
alabama v arkansas, USC v stanford, ND vs MSU, Cal v ohio st, VT v Pitt
/firstworldproblems
I hate to say it, but I'm going to side with the South on this one. It is that good.
Chick-fil-a isn't open on Sundays. That is all.
Their blatant religious devotion is reason enough to stay away.
And their grammar and spelling efforts are just atrocious.
I've had it three times, b/c each time I thought, 'Man, this will be awesome' based on all the hype. It was not awesome. Better than McDonald's or Burger King, sure, but nothing special.
C'mon, this "conditional scholarship" business is starting to sound like 11warriors talk.
OSU fan: "It doesn't make sense to me that a kid would choose another school, therefore their scholarship must not have been commitable."
MGoBloger: "It doesn't make sense to me that we would offer a scholarship to a long snapper, therefore there must be some special conditions attached to it."
Just because you may not agree with it doesn't mean it isn't reality. It may be time for all of us to accept it, for better or worse. Or at least, let it rest.
Those are not even close to the same. Kids choose not-your-school all the time. In fact, more kids choose other schools than your schools. 11W trying to justify to themselves an easily explainable thing is stupid.
However, teams who have a small number of open spots left in June don't often use one of those on a long snapper. This is a weird, rare event that I've never seen before. So it's not a stretch so think there might be something wacky going on with it.
Using a scholarship on a Long Snapper in June, or that there are a small number of open spots left in June?
And you wonder why you've never seen it before...
What has happened with Steve Elmer? When he committed to ND, I thought he was supposed to be the best OL in the Midwest.
Haven't you guys heard? Long snapping is the new planking/tebowing
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