Sam Webb out at 247?

Submitted by Bigfoot on

So, Sam Webb hasnt posted on wolverine247 since Saturday and mentions of him or his articles are being immediately deleted from the board.  Anyone know anything about this? Did Lorenz win the power struggle or did Rivals pony up to get the best man in the biz?  It will be interesting...

jamesjosephharbaugh

September 7th, 2018 at 10:34 AM ^

here's a reddit gold for that one.

 

related: i hope we keep sam on the beat regardless of who writes his paycheck. dude is plugged in. 

also related:  if he's indeed out, maybe it's time for BRIAN to PONY UP and GET SAM ON MGOBLOG 

copacetic

September 6th, 2018 at 9:39 PM ^

He posted on Sunday. One of the mods today said he was helping him put together articles, Sam was just in Oklahoma to interview Daxton Hill last week and then went straight to the game. Seems unlikely that he'd be out. 

ohio

September 7th, 2018 at 11:06 AM ^

Anyone else find it weird that there is a budget to fly Sam out to Oklahoma, or elsewhere, to interview a high school kid that might come to Michigan? I'm sure there's much better content gathered in person, but who is quantifying the value of getting these hot quotes from teenagers?

The kid must know this Ann Arbor radio guy flew all the way down there and back up north just to talk to him. And we wonder why kids like Aubrey Solomon have these ego's

Bigfoot

September 6th, 2018 at 9:39 PM ^

Heard that Sam had issues with how 247 let bucknuts shame Courtney Smith and how Steve Wiltfong more or less tweeted in support of domestic violence.  Don't blame the guy.

umich_fan1

September 6th, 2018 at 9:41 PM ^

The last year or two I’ve felt that Sam has gotten too close to the inner coaching circle to a point where his relationships impact his ability to be critical of the team. Prior to joining with 247, the preseason Scout fluff the last couple years has been on overdrive. It creates overly high expectations from the fan base that shits themselves when they realize it was just propaganda. I am uncertain to how this gets remedied. Rivals and ESPN are much worse so you keep handing over that $10 a month.

ST3

September 6th, 2018 at 10:11 PM ^

I think they are better at 3 positions this year and will soon be better at 4 once Ruiz gets another game or 2 under his belt. The big question is can that overcome the downgrade at LT. 

Regarding RT, last year the coaches could scheme around JBB. They don’t have that luxury this season. OTOH, our opponents are going to attack our LT this season, so maybe JBB won’t have to deal with their best rushers so often.

Can Saturday just get here already, please?

WestQuad

September 7th, 2018 at 9:46 AM ^

I was going to say that would be a pleasant surprise, but it would actually be a huge surprise bordering on miraculous.    I'm all for that happening.    I feel bad for Runyan; he's a good athlete and I assume a Michigan Man through and through, and he is playing out of position.   I'm rooting for the guy.

JFW

September 7th, 2018 at 9:04 AM ^

I didn't get that feeling from Sam, but I did feel that it was put out there by the program. Between Runyan and Dwumfor hype, basically, I'm in the spot now where I think that there is no way I can trust whatever comes out of Schembechler hall. It's either all North Korean type propaganda 'John Runyan played golf and got a hole in one on every hole!' or they are seeing him play well in practice and then poorly on game day. 

I still believe in the coaching staff. They are all good. But I think the situation prior to them coming in was worse, we paid through the nose for a couple of coaching changes in terms of recruiting cost, and the current staff had a longer time to get up to speed in terms of O line recruiting than I would have hoped. 

My future would be to keep Harbaugh and let him work it out. 

But at this point I see like a 7-8 win season with two more losses to the rivals. Maybe we beat MSU, and that could help, but I don't know. 

Unless we can start blocking gap again and actually be good enough at it to make our offense have a pulse we are in a shit storm. Too bad, kind of a waste of a good defense. 

 

ak47

September 7th, 2018 at 9:36 AM ^

Sam has always been a shill for the program, its how he gets his inside info. But it is still valuable information as long as you recognize that everything he reports is exactly what the coaches and program want out in the world. And his recruiting inside info is a good sense of how the coaches think, though he parrots the under the radar loved him the whole time bullshit about lower rated recruits we get after whiffing on higher rated ones.

And the reality is the oline was not that much improved. Runyan was clearly worse than Cole, Ruiz missed a bunch of line calls and stunts and Onwenu had a mediocre game which is exactly what he did last year and was getting pushed in fall practice. 

evenyoubrutus

September 6th, 2018 at 9:48 PM ^

If that's the only evidence you have then I doubt it. Sam usually goes for long periods without posting. He would have announced it if he were gone. Also his Twitter bio hasn't changed.