Previously:

July 2008

August 1 - Friday

Unverified Voracity, Sponsored by the Letter H. The football team is ranked 24th in the preseason coaches’ poll. Probably means 8-4...seems about right.

Hello Mike Jones.

Hello Darius Morris. A long expected commitment is now official. UMHoops says he is better at this point than Daniel Horton was.

August 4 - Monday

Monday Recruitin’. SC OL Quinton Washington has dropped ‘M’; however, Pahokee duo LB Brandin Hawthorne and RB Vincent Smith look likely to commit by the end of the month.

Unverified Voracity Knows You are Getting Tingly. The athletic department has signed a deal with IMG to handle gameday media.

August 5 - Tuesday

Fall camp is open, like wide open, like reporters were allowed to attend the first thirty minutes, and there was a press conference after. There’s a Long Snapper on scholarship?

A recruiting overview before the season starts. Lots of three stars, but there are reasons. DE and OL are a bit troubling at this point.

August 6 - Wednesday

Unverified Voracity Finally Posts It, one of the most bizarre renditions of the The Victors ever. Brian accurately compares it to Marilyn Monroe’s rendition of Happy Birthday. And two commenters discover they were at the same wedding where this was played.

Brian is looking for CSE students to help with some projects.

August 7 - Thursday

Penn St. season preview. Brian predicts 9-3. They would finish 11-2 with a Rose Bowl loss to USC.

Lots of practice bits. The offense might be struggling a bit.

Many additions to the Blogpoll, all listed here.

August 8 - Friday

Unverified Voracity Coming to Your Citttayyyy. This is a monthly thing: BTN might not be available for everyone. The current culprit is Time Warner.

Mailbag. Will ‘M’ take three QBs? And if Forcier commits does that mean Newsome or Beaver is out the door? Hey, we had inexperienced QBs in 2004, 2008 should be no different, right?

Personal note: MGoAsh and I were married on Saturday, August 9. We honeymooned for the next week on the north shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota, and I don’t recall much of the news that was happening at this time at all.

August 11 - Monday

Monday Recruitin’. TX WR Josh Gordon says he really wants a ‘M’ offer.

Unverified Voracity is on Message. An anonymous insider is offering bits of information on the internet, including nuggets about the new check down pass that is a flare route to the sideline, but maybe it’s being practiced too much?

This is why Coach Rod is recruiting those elusive slot type players because they will be asked to get about five-six yards out of virtually nothing. So far, our Quarterbacks are throwing this pass excessively often and think it is due to lack of confidence.

August 12 - Tuesday

Brian shares his philosophy on voting in the blogpoll, but he acknowledges that everyone does what they want.

August 13 - Wednesday

Unverified Voracity Cries Uncle. The season is coming fast and hardly any other team previews will be done.

Uh...Nick Sheridan is the current leader at QB? That is unexpected. Also a picture of Carlos Brown handing off the ball. Someone should write an alternate history novel about Brown winning the QB job and being an effective bridge to junior and matured Tate Forcier.

August 14 - Thursday

Minnesota team preview. Brian predicts 4-8. They would start the season at 7-1, but finish at 7-6 including a loss to Kansas in the Insight Bowl.

Mailbag. Does the lack of DE recruiting mean a future switch to 3-4? Will Carlos Brown take Justin Feagin’s snaps at QB? Will the offense look like Arkansas with a lot of wildcat formations?

August 15 - Friday

Unverified PHELPS PHELPS PHELPS. The one non-honeymoon thing I remember from this week is Michael Phelps winning a lot of gold. Also, Utah blogs are expecting that they will win the opener.

August 18 - Monday

Preseason Blogpoll Ballot.

There are so many Rodriguez pressers during this camp, that no new information is coming from them. The latest news of interest is that OLs Mark Huyge and Corey Zirbel have suffered injuries and further thinned the OL.

Hello TX K Anthony Fera.

Unverified Voracity, Sad to Slay. New liveblog technology will be tested out tonight on BTN’s coverage of a ‘M’ practice.

Liveblog

August 19 - Tuesday

LS George Morales appears to only be guaranteed one year at a time, not four as is generally the case with scholarships.

Tuesday Recruitin’. OH OL Marcus Hall might have dropped ‘M’...or might not have, but he’s probably going to OSU anyway...and will end up becoming part of every MGoBlog game thread in the future.

Kevin Newsome decommits.

August 20 - Wednesday

Preseason Blogpoll.

Unverified Voracity is in a Box. The starting OL is starting to be clarified.

It the starting line for Utah appears to be Ortmann-McAvoy-Molk-Moosman-Schilling, with Perry Dorrestein the first guy off the bench and Hold Me I Feel Like Dying the second. (He's foreign.)

August 21 - Thursday

Corey Zirbel’s injury is more serious than thought and will likely mean he’s out for the year. In all seriousness, the second reserve will either be a true freshman or a converted DL.

Brian will be in New York City on Tuesday to talk to the Alumni Association.

Blogger Roundtable. Which current sovereign nation is your team most like? Brian says Georgia.

Like Georgia, Michigan has flung off the shackles of a backwards, stagnant system and now looks to modernize with the help of a controversial leader. However, there are problems, mostly in the form of red-clad douchebags who are either in tanks or just plain tank-sized.

August 22 - Friday

Unverified Voracity Assures You Your Shirt is Coming. The Adidas hockey jerseys are met with high approval. Also, the DL who is moving to OL is John Ferrara. He admits he has no OL experience, and now it sounds like he has a shot at starting.

August 25 - Monday

Before the Rodriguez era begins, Brian takes one last look back the forty years of Bo’s legacy.

I’m happy that the empire of the fallen has finished its long slide into the sea. I’m happy it’s been replaced with something young and vivacious and very likely successful. But on Saturday something that lived for forty years sees the last shovelful of dirt on its grave, and I wish it hadn’t come to this.

Monday Recruitin’. CA QB Tate Forcier is coming in for the Utah game; hopefully he will fill the hole created by Newsome’s departure.

August 26 - Tuesday

Unverified Voracity is Up Early, Mildly Cranky. Lots of ORs on the depth cart, headlined by RB where Minor, McGuffie, Brown, and Shaw all get listed as the starter.

Team Preview: The Story.

It’s going to be a fiasco. It’s going to be ugly and tantalizing and dispiriting and awesome. I can’t wait.

Team Preview: Offense Unit by Unit. The unit ratings are: QB-1, RB-4, WR/TE- 3, and OL-1.

August 27 - Wednesday

Time Warner and Charter have finally come to terms with BTN.

Team Preview: Offense, Five Questions and Five Answers.

Stupid Predictions

• People are very excited about Martavious Odoms going into 2009, like Steve Breaston excited.

• Sheridan starts off the starting quarterback, is replaced at some point, but ends the season as the guy.

• Junior Hemingway establishes himself a starter midseason.

• The running back situation involves a mess of players; Minor, Brown, McGuffie, and Shaw all see 100 carries. Brown has the best YPC.

• Michigan has a better offense in-conference than they did last year. (Ninth.)

• Ricky Barnum ends up starting five or six games.

• Michigan is around 50th in yardage.

August 28 - Thursday

Mailbag. How do I watch the game in Florida? How do I watch the game in Japan? Will BTN create a disadvantage in recruiting for Big Ten schools? The other times ‘M’ was left out of the preseason AP poll, they finished with impressive seasons, that will probably happen again, right?

We’re probably a few years away from reputable live streaming on the internet

Team Preview: Defense Unit by Unit. The unit ratings are: DL-5, LB-2, and DB-4.

August 29 - Friday

NCAA hockey decides to announce an upcoming midwest regional...in St. Louis.

Team Preview: Defense, Five Questions and Five Answers.

Stupid Predictions

BONUS: a quick review of last year’s stupid predictions. This is perhaps the most accurate thing I’ve ever pulled out of my ass:

• 23rd in scoring defense.

Michigan was exactly 23rd last year. But, uh:

• Aw, hell: Brown has a great debut and gets everyone totally excited about his potential. The safeties are good.

This could not have been more wrong, obviously.

On with the variably accurate show:

• Brandon Graham has monster year and departs for the NFL draft after it.

• Ezeh does get much, much better.

• The other linebackers are a persistent issue.

• Trent makes All Big Ten and goes in the second round of the draft.

• Michigan has a top 20 run defense and top 15 overall defense.

• Boubacar Cissoko is fun to say.

Team Preview: Special Teams and Wrap Up. Unit ratings are: return game-3, kicking-4, and punting-3. Brian puts the worst case scenario at 4-8 and best case at 9-3, but in the end, he predicts 8-4. And no, I don’t feel like linking to the wikipedia page for this season. We’ll get to that soon enough.

Unverified Voracity, T-Minus 13 Hours. A special plaque just for Marques Slocum.

Brian gives a programming note relating what content can be expected throughout the season.

Here goes nothing.

The program risks changing into something people drift away from because it has drifted from them, or, worse, something that you only wish you could drift away from. It also promises fireworks and fun and victory and a feeling that’s something other than that thing we’ve felt so much before. Other fanbases go through this every five or ten or fifteen years; for us it’s been 40.

I could welcome it, I guess, or celebrate it, or proclaim inevitable dominion over the land. But I don’t feel like it. Nor do I feel like fretting over imaginary scandals future. Like Canham, I just hope it works.

August 30 - Saturday

Utah game open thread.

On August 30, Utah beat Michigan 25-23. Highlights.