Unverified Voracity Has Ur Email Comment Count

Brian

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SEEMS LEGIT

DIRECTORY STALKING IS THE NEW REAL ESTATE STALKING (WHICH WAS THE NEW FLIGHT AWARE). A couple of gentlemen with names matching prospective assistant coaches and no marker to indicate they're students, alumni, or faculty have popped up in the UMich directory: Tim Drevno and DJ Durkin. John Morton is also being kicked around, but if you log in it shows he's not that John Morton. It would be a bit of coincidence if the first two gentlemen were not football coaches, though. Not gospel, Bayesian estimate move, etc.

Fred Jackson, meanwhile, is listed as a retiree, disappointing many who had hoped he would be retained as Michigan's Director Of Reasonable Comparisons. Oh, and Brian Cole and Alex Malzone are on the thing now.

Remember when bloggers were the only people scouring the directory? Now who's in the basement? I don't even have a basement.

GALLON DOCUMENTARY. A full half hour:

Returning starters: we got 'em. Phil Steele compiles returning starters in the Big Ten:

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Michigan has a 17th coming back in Desmond Morgan as well. Find a QB and some guys who can rush the passer and you're in business.

OUT AND FRUSTRATED. John Chavis left LSU for a DC spot at Texas A&M, and the reason is the same reason it's tough to watch LSU play most of the time:

The sources said the contract negotiations, the Aggies offered $340,000 more annually, were a non-issue in his decision to leave LSU and that Chavis simply felt it was time to go.

Chavis' frustrations reached a crescendo this season when LSU finished first in the SEC in total defense, No. 8 in the nation and second in scoring defense. LSU was 11th in total offense and last in passing offense in the SEC, resulting in an 8-5 record, tied for the worst in coach Les Miles' 10 seasons.

In the past four seasons, Chavis' LSU defenses finished no worse than No. 15.

"(Chavis) threw his hands up and felt he'd done all he could do," one source said. "They made zero progress offensively and it became a sore point, not that he was pointing fingers, but it led to some uncomfortable feelings.

LSU has a lot of returning starters, but I would not be surprised if this was the beginning of the Les Miles death spiral. Better in Baton Rouge than here.

THE NEW OC. Nick Baumgardner tracks down old Tim Drevno charges and asks them about Michigan's new man:

"When you're going through a coach Drevno individual period, you're going to be tough, or you're going to be looking to transfer," says Ben Muth, a former offensive tackle at Stanford during the early part of the Harbaugh era. "You're going to bang heads and there aren't a lot of blocking dummies used. You're going up against other guys, guys who get the hell beat out of them early in their careers.

"It's live. It's intense. And you're going to hit people with him."

Even if Michigan hires a separate OL coach expect Drevno to be heavily involved. Stanford split its coaching between interior line and OT/TE… I would expect something similar.

CHAIT ON HARBAUGH. On his return:

From Harbaugh’s standpoint, if you think of college football as nothing more than a business, it is an act of professional irrationality. The only possible way to make sense of his choice is to consider the possibility that he actually believes what he said in 2004: that he believes he did not merely provide free labor in return for skill development but belonged to a community; that this community stands in his mind for something larger than the self-interest of its component parts; that all this talk about turning boys into men is not just hokum.

UH-OH. Dish announces a small package of channels they'll sell over the internet for twenty bucks. Two of those channels: ESPN and ESPN2. I've been complaining about the shortsightedness of adding Rutgers and Maryland for a lot of reasons, most of them much more important than the amount of money the league makes.

But since the amount of money the league makes is the only possible argument in favor of the expansion, I do take pains to point out that the era of stealing a dollar from New Jersey grannies who don't even know what Rutgers is was always an ephemeral one. Once the cable monopoly shatters in the face of the internet, the only people paying for your content are the people interested, and the fanbases of Maryland and Rutgers are not going to carry the freight. For a momentary bump in revenue the Big Ten galloped towards the nonsense that is a 14-team collegiate conference, but Jim Delany will be retired by then so he DGAF.

WE CAN ACCESS ABOUT ONE OF THESE GUYS. Texas may be in the market for a grad QB after Tyrone Swoopes fell flat this year. Barking Carnival runs down their options, many of whom are JUCOs Michigan isn't likely to acquire. They do mention Kevin Hogan as well:

While he hasn't yet announced formally for transfer, the Stanford graduate clashed withDavid Shaw over his conservative offense and had the unenviable task of replacingAndrew Luck - arguably the most gifted QB walking the planet.  The rumor mill is running hard and fast that he wants out and would like a show case for his wares. While imperfect - and possessing a slow release that Shaun Watson could help him with - Hogan is a proven competitor with good athletic ability and a live arm.  He has 48 touchdowns to 21 career interceptions, won a Rose Bowl, started 30+ games and has a career QB rating around 145.  Yet people treat him as if he's chopped liver.  He's not.  He's also a sneaky running threat who isn't afraid of contact.  He's an upgrade and wouldn't be particularly terrified taking a snap from under center in South Bend next year.  He's roughly comparable to a sophomore David Ash, but with veteran experience.  That's a significant upgrade from Swoopes.  He could help us.  Now forward him this post immediately and get the illegal contacts started.

FAREWELL. Lake The Posts is closing effective January 15th. Always sad when one of the originals hangs it up.

ETC.: If you were vaguely worried that Lavall Jordan would end up at Butler after their coach had to take medical leave, the Bulldogs have taken the interim title off of Chris Holtmann. Stephon Diggs heads to the draft. MVictors has entertaining Harbaugh/Yost trivia and old-timey player intros. Dylan Larkin had an awesome WJC.

Comments

alum96

January 5th, 2015 at 7:12 PM ^

Lots of mocks have Calhoun as a 1st but the smoke says he was told by NFL draft advisory he is a 2nd.  May sway him to come back to earn a 1st round grade.  He was being mocked top 10 overall to begin the year but didnt really have a follow up to last year's breakout campaign - a solid year but not great.  And I think the loss of Marcus Rush is understated - he is a very good DE, a tweener for the NFL but a very productive player at the college level.

Their DTs on the other hand are on par with ours - they are loaded and have a ton of young guys.  I expect a McDowell to split out wide if Calhoun goes as they have a boatlod of young DTs behind McDowell.  But then they go very young on their ends with guys like Sweat and Cooper.

They only lose 1 LB in Jones and have a ton of candidates to replace including the 89th Bullough.  The big loss will be Waynes.  They had 2 NFL corners in 2013 - now they will be throwing out younger guys and Hicks who was up and down - some of those guys will eventually probably be very good but Dennard + Waynes is a different animal.  Drummond leaving at S is also big as that defense isolates DBs tremendously.

The OL will be stout and if you have a good QB + top notch OL you can plug and play RB and WRs.  So they will be a good offensive team whatever the case and the D will develop as the year goes by as they do every year over there.

Tater

January 5th, 2015 at 4:55 PM ^

The points about Miles are pretty much what I have been saying all along, except with facts to back them up.  On offense, Miles seems to think it's the 1970's.  I am very glad that the CC ended up the way it did this year.

East German Judge

January 5th, 2015 at 7:10 PM ^

You are right, given all the great talent Les can get in that part of the country, he continues to barely squeak by on offense thanks to his great defenses and timely trick play calls.  His days could be numbered in the SEC West, especially if the Mississippi teams are for real.

bronxblue

January 5th, 2015 at 7:58 PM ^

That was a major reason I didn't like Miles either during the coaching search; he's a defense-first coach to the extreme, and when he loses easy access to the boatload of top talent in LA, I suspect he'll falter even more.  He's not a bad coach by any means, and when he was on he was great, but at this point in his career he basically needs a 2013-type roster with Odell Beckham, Jeremy Hill, and Jarvis Landry (three players taken in the first 2 rounds of last year's draft) to field a competent offense.

Magnus

January 5th, 2015 at 5:11 PM ^

It's already a pretty polished turd, what with that national championship and everything... Miles wasn't my first choice, but an 8-5 season and an unhappy defensive coordinator aren't earth-shattering failures.

The Rake

January 5th, 2015 at 5:37 PM ^

If he's obtainable then he deserves a long look. As for asst coaches, I wonder if Coach is just waiting for a mass introduction versus a "here are 2-3 guys while I try to fill out staff." A touch bummed about marrow/turley news but hope/suspect alternatives are in same realm of quality.

switch26

January 5th, 2015 at 5:28 PM ^

How does he have michigan state returning 3 starting DB's?  Waynes is leaving, drummond is graduating.. and outside of that they really don't have much for talent

alum96

January 5th, 2015 at 5:52 PM ^

They return 2 of 4 starters - he probably didnt account for Waynes leaving as he probably just listed seniors and not early entries leaving.

Please stop with the lack of talent crap with MSU on defense.  Saban and Dantonio have proven to be 2 of the best DB coaches in the country.  Full stop.  Dantonio is sending two 2/3 stars to the NFL as 1st round draft choices at corners in back to back years.

Nicholson is a high 4 star recruit that started a few games this year at S, in a program that shelves almost every freshman for a year.  They will move him to CB if they need be - Narduzzi said he is the most physical fast CB they have had if they choose to move him there.  Hicks struggled some but that system kills your CBs in isolation if he is not top notch and will come back with a year under his belt.  They return RJ Williamson as a SR safety.  And Cox is probably their other starter who is a high 4 star out of PA who started getting a lot of playing time the 2nd half of the year. 

They have a bunch of guys as RS FR RS SO who have never played who will compete and get very good coaching.  Then they will find another "athlete" like RJ Shelton and convert him to CB and he will probably be a 3rd round draft choice in 2 years in the NFL.  He played CB at the beginning of the bowl after never playing it vs Baylor of all teams.

Are they going to have 2 NFL corners like they did in 2013?  Probably not.  But if they have lack of talent I'd love to hear your assessment of UM secondary the past half decade.

MI Expat NY

January 5th, 2015 at 6:20 PM ^

They were starting Tony Lippett at the end of the season...

While saying thay have no talent in the secondary may be a bit of hyperbole, I don't think it's a stretch at all to say that they have serious questions in the back four, a back four, which to my eyes, was fairly mediocre this season.  I think it's fair to say that when you turn to a true freshman and a WR (or two if what you say about Shelton is correct) late in the season, your coaching staff isn't all that thrilled with the state of the rest of the position group.  

alum96

January 5th, 2015 at 7:17 PM ^

They lost some key players and their DBs have the most questions aside from DE (if Calhoun leaves).  If Calhoun comes back basically they replace 1 DE and 1 LB.  And the DBs are the question.  BUt again they have a whole horde of underclassmen who have been redshirted and in their system for 2+ years now.  They always find new guys.  Until they stop doing that it, I wont doubt Dantonio on DBs.   But the 2013 crew was an outlier - you had 2 NFL 1st round picks at corner and Drummond who is mocking 3rd roundish at S.  Expecting that every year is impossible so yes they will fall from that level.  I doubt very far.

bronxblue

January 5th, 2015 at 7:45 PM ^

As noted, there second corner was a two-way WR. Nobody is saying MSU is going to fall off a cliff, but expecting them to just keep popping out elite corners every year isn't likely. And their safety depth has to be troubling for them. The lost Lewis from last year and the defense dropped a substantial amount. Their offense will be better, but good offenses moved on them this year and next they'll be down two more stars.

M-GoGirl

January 5th, 2015 at 5:48 PM ^

through most of the search, but if he'd have chosen to stay in the NFL just to knock a Super Bowl off his list and wanted to be here eventually, I could have seen them hiring Miles for a few years to get us into the Harbaugh era. Thankfully, our shiny new head coach saved us from finding out how that would have been. No Les. No more. If he ever dreamed of coaching here, it will remain a dream.

htownwolverine

January 5th, 2015 at 6:58 PM ^

Jeremy's parents rock. Those are two fine people. Discipline and giving a shit about what your kid is doing is so important. Too many people either forget this or ate too lazy to care.

alum96

January 5th, 2015 at 7:22 PM ^

Which aside from Mullen's less than stellar record his first 5 years (beating up on bad teams - mostly OOC and Vanderbilt and TN, losing to good ones) his 2014 season really stands in question.  In retrospect he beat a bad A&M team, a LSU team that had no offense (and lost to ND), and an Auburn team that was below recent vintage and lost to Wisconsin. 

With the rise of Arkansas who I believe will be a top 15 team next year if they can get ANY QB play, Auburn getting Muschamp, A&M with Kenny Hill having some experience, Ole Miss restocking 1 more year with Treadwell, and Bama being Bama I think Mullen in 2015 will be seen as Sumlin of 2014 - a guy whose stock was much higher 12 months prior.   Miss State could finish in last in the division.

bronxblue

January 5th, 2015 at 8:09 PM ^

Absolutely agree.  He was one of the acceptable options for the new HC because of the paucity of viable options, but I never bought the "look what he did this year" argument because (a) the SEC was very much down, and (b) he still didn't beat anyone with a much of a pulse, and historically his teams have been fine.  As someone else noted, Arkansas under Frat Boy had as many impressive wins this year as Miss St. had during Mullen's entire tenure.  He would have been fine at Michigan, and while he won't be #1 next year I do think continuity and some improved recruiting from this year could help keep him competitive in the SEC.  But his hiring would have been a pretty big downer for the fanbase.

Brodie

January 6th, 2015 at 2:21 AM ^

I think this is the reason Mullen was willing to be our plan B (all signs point to this, especially him not signing his extension). I think he had to have been crushed when we got Harbaugh and he was faced with the prospect of another 7 win season in Starkville.

As you know, I don't agree with the contention that having winning seasons every single year at Mississippi State can be called "less than stellar", so I expect Mullen will still find a way out of there (I could see him at Miami or South Carolina) even with a let-down year.

Detwolverine2009

January 5th, 2015 at 7:34 PM ^

"It's live. It's intense. And you're going to hit people with him."

Sounds like my high school practices, our coach used to have us beat the tar out of each other. I bet it's rare to have a real physical team if they don't practice physical.

Don

January 5th, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^

...which is occurring at the same time Miles turned over the offensive reins to Cam Cameron. What a surprise. Why CC continues to be so highly regarded by so many UM fans is a mystery to me.

bronxblue

January 5th, 2015 at 8:06 PM ^

My issue with the a la carte argument for channels is that, for most Americans, they get their internet and cable from the same provider.  And in practical terms, your TV and internet signals are indistinguishable on the wire, meaning that it's all just bandwidth in the end.  So if everyone stops buying cable and tries to save money only picking the channels they want (which could actually be more expensive overall depending on what channels you purchase), but the providers can simply raise the rate of your internet service to compensate, claiming additional bandwidth requirements and service adjustments.  So yes, you'll cable bill won't necessarily be $70, but your internet bill will likely increase, to say nothing for the potential issues related to Net Neutrality that get too close to politics for my blood.

I thought expansion was dumb and short-sighted from a football perspective (basketball and other sports I'm not so sure - Maryland is very good at basketball this year and both schools field competitive squads in other sports), but helped keep the conference attractive on a national level, especially give expansion by other conferences.  And yes, the money argument is weakened when/if cable companies change their model, but I don't see this ever being a money loser for the conference in the long term.

Brodie

January 6th, 2015 at 2:27 AM ^

my issue with bundling is that nobody thinks through the consequences fully wrt what content will be available. Simple math dictates that a great number of the present niche or specialty networks will either cease to be viable or be forced to broaden their appeal dramatically to survive. The fantasy scenario where you just pay for the Smithsonian Channel is just that.