OT - Tom Beaver leaving Scout
Tom had a post on the scout insider board today letting everyone know that his 2 year contract with scout expired today and they are not offering to renew or extend. It'll be interesting to see if scout adds someone to take his place, but in the mean time you may see some former scout posters on other boards. I'm considering a move to rivals myself, but I'll wait to see how it plays out. How good are the insiders on rivals and 247?
I think it's better to not pay for recruiting sites and wait for the information to get posted here. If it is important it always ends up on the mgoboard. Fo Free
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Eh, I'm too addicted and am fully willing to spare with $10 a month for more information and to get it immediately. Tom was the most frequent posters of the scout mods, though, so I'm worried the information flow will go down significantly if Sam doesn't pick up the pace a lot on the board.
Just remember how much time and emotion you invested in the recruitment of, say, Justin Turner, and it will become apparent how much of a waste of time it is to be overly committed to NCAAFB recruiting.
This.
I was HOOKED for a couple years. Started with Ronald Johnson. I invested way too much time following recruiting on the Scout board. Then eventually I just got tired of it. I still follow recruiting, but no where near as intensely. It's just not worth it. Now, I basically wait until signing day to learn more about the players in the class that year.
Although, I do miss some of the benefits of following recruiting, like knowing more about different players in general, even when they don't end up at Michigan.
He was the most frequent but it was at least 95% someone else's story he was posting to the board or comments from his "coach buddy," an unnamed...former.. high school FB... assistant coach...whose opinion GBW readers were supposed to place importance on re: various subjects from recruiting to schematic details.
In addition to breaking no new content whatsoever, he's been known to personally insult people who express contrarion opinions. Personally, I'm not a fan, and I think this is actually addition by subtraction, and the site gets an instant credibility bump by his absence going forward.
I honestly would love to know what's going on in the world of recruiting at all times but feel that paying for the information isn't worth it to me. The way these young men change their minds and how frequently it happens would drive me away from keeping up to date on all the information out there
Five minutes is a long time to wait though.
April 30th, 2015 at 10:03 PM ^
I don't disagree and don't pay for recruiting info either, but this comment is getting so damn old.
...kidding, you all aren't that lucky.
Got ESPN insider and never look at it. Get all info I need on this site!!
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I hear Beaver and Spath will start a new recruiting site together and be best friends.
I was on the Scout premium board for many, many years. I liked Tom's information, and more often than not his posts and personality were OK too. However, I also think he had a bit of a "God complex" on the board, and was way, way too quick to insult and dismiss any information that was not his own. Sometimes, the information he would dismiss would be minor or even unequivocally correct, but if it wasn't his (or Sam Webb's, etc.), then it simply could not be correct. After a while, debate was not tolerated. It got very annoying tip-toeing around him, and that was one of the reasons I quit...
I think 247 is better than Rivals. Rivals "insiders" are behind the 8-ball or flat-out wrong too often.
They are often caught off guard and if Tim gets a pick right it will be the first time. To their credit they nailed the coaching search.
Small adjustment:
They nailed the coaching search THIS time.
Back during the 2011 coaching search, they were all over the place. So they must have found a better source of information in the intervening four years.
But recruiting-wise, the site has taken a big dip since Josh Helmholdt left a few years ago. I can't stand Tim or Brandon's writing style, fluff pieces, etc.
Completely agree. The source was Jack Harbaugh and a couple of other insiders that I won't reveal here. As for 2011's search and the loss of Josh, you are spot on!
Agreed. I had to give up on rivals after the blatant homerism during this last season. Just blew away their credibility for me.
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I think you mean behind the Crystal Ball...
is all the insider info I'll ever need.
I would actually tend to agree with this, primarily for a reason stated upthread - as this blog has grown and as its footprint has expanded, it has become a great secondary source for most of the important items that otherwise come from 247 and Rivals. Typically, within an hour, the information is on this site, and sometimes I think we've even scooped them.
#1- 247 #2- Scout #3- ESPN #4- That 12 year old who steals all the info #5- Rivals
That 12 year old is 16 now.
I'm actually pretty interested to see what Ace Williams does when he is grown up.
You should change the title because he didn't "leave". I'm in agreement with the other dude in this thread about Tom's God complex. The guy was wicked annoying and was a dick a lot of the time.
I don't know if anyone out there ever took a class with Brian MacPherson in the Philosophy department but I have a theory that Tom Beaver is his internet message board alter ego.
Brian MacPherson...you mean the bearded guy who used to beg for change outside Kaleidoscope?
The Canadian guy who would chew tobacco during class and was late half the time because of "traffic on the bridge" (i.e. he had too much to drink the night before)? Yeah, I had him.
Hahahahahahahaha.
That is all.
Find it odd that he one of the mods, but lives on West coast, rarely makes events in AA and doesn't attend many camps. Most of the info starting coming from third party sources or Sam. Sam rocks of course.
Even before (about 10-15 years ago) I knew about this blog and how quickly it (and the board) could filter through pay-site info and report it for free, I got sick of paying subscription dues to a scout site whose authors misspelled their entries that often. And nobody had worse spelling and grammar habits than Tom Beaver. At least back then.
Total douche.
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April 30th, 2015 at 10:17 PM ^
I heard story after story about him being an ass.
He had some good Harbaugh coaching tid bits early on in the process I'll admit.
mgoblog > paywall sites
Just about everything useful on those sites is either offered here within a day or two, or is directly implied almost immediately. I had one of those 247 free trials for a while and it's just a lot of rumors and a fractional head start on knowing things
April 30th, 2015 at 10:30 PM ^
Rivals is the only one worth it IMO.
goodbye: ace?
It's been a while since an MGoRaid by one of the other sites
I wish Tom well. I first got into following recruiting from him when he use to post on rivals message boards back in the late 90's.
Brian should hire him just so we can neg him.
Also: http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/meta-beavermonkeys-must-die
I never understood paying for sports news you can get for free. Or any sports news for that matter.
What am I going to do with my life now?
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Get that damned flux capacitor straight; that's what!
The guy's giant ego and arrogance was stifling, considering the whole point of these blogs is to encourage open discussion.
I may now subscribe to Scout!
Love 247. Have had that, and Rivals. Lorenz is about as accurate as can be. He never blows smoke or gives false hope, and he admits when he's wrong or didn't know. Worth the money:
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Nice beaver
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Thank you. I just had it stuffed.
I love 247. Lorenz is honest and will tell you everything he knows, which Is usually pretty good.
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Well, I've been reading this site since 2008, so I might a well make my first post! I've been on scout for 5 years and TGB is someone I tolerated, but someone whose style really annoyed me. I think he's a love em' or hate em' guy. He never had much new or enlightening. I think Sam and Allen are the bedrock of the site. Personally, I think it's' addition by subtraction. I can see why many think it's crazy to pay for recruiting info. These days with all the recruiting shenanigans I think it's even more true. I suppose I'm just crazed for as much information as I can get, even if much is redundant. Mgoblog is certainly the best source I've found - especially for the price! I appreciate the writing, the research, the humor, and the member base. Hopefully this post doesn't put me in the negative off the bat! HARGAUGH!
Completely agree. The source was Jack Harbaugh and a couple of other insiders that I won't reveal here. As for 2011's search and the loss of Josh, you are spot on!