WTKA MGoBlog Roundtable
Just in case people wanted to listen to it before/if it gets put on the main page.
http://www.wtka.com/2012/09/06/podcasts/
See if you can identify the exact moment where Brian strokes out because Ed and Craig have no clue what they're blathering on about.
February 9th, 2018 at 11:17 AM ^
Brian's pretty down UM football right now.
February 9th, 2018 at 11:22 AM ^
I was wondering about this. I don’t listen to the podcast. He hasn’t written a thing about football in a while with all of the coach shuffling, recruiting fails, etc. I know he doesn’t get involved with the rumor mill much, but I would like his take on some of these things.
February 9th, 2018 at 11:23 AM ^
Grim. Bleak. Gloomy.
He addresses how he feels in the podcast.
February 9th, 2018 at 11:25 AM ^
I'm guessing part of the reason for the lack of posting is that the entire MGoStaff has been sick for weeks.
February 9th, 2018 at 11:29 AM ^
I wish he'd snap out of it and more actively engage a career choice he made that is incompatible with "not wanting to talk about it."
For now there's nowhere better for me to go, but as his malaise continues, he creates a vacuum. Sure, there isn't presently a competitor poised to supplant mgoblog, but the longer that Brian remains hypersensitive about football talk and, therefore, avoidant, the more likely it is that a supplanter will finally find room to arrive.
In that sense, Brian is not only behaving in a manner that is (at least temporarily) incongruent with his vocation but he likewise risks taking his readership for granted.
February 9th, 2018 at 1:17 PM ^
Maybe we should make our own MGoBlog, but with blackjack and hookers!
February 9th, 2018 at 2:38 PM ^
I'm in!
February 9th, 2018 at 3:21 PM ^
Don’t forget whiskey and blow.
February 9th, 2018 at 4:16 PM ^
Let's do it! But maybe withou the blackjack. And MGoBlog
February 9th, 2018 at 7:10 PM ^
I think the Pitinos already run this.
February 9th, 2018 at 1:18 PM ^
This is really for Brian:
Yeah the QB play was quite bad, especially at the end of the year.
Yeah the OL play was bad, especially in pass blocking.
But those of us writing for and reading this blog for a long time have all "gone to hell" (like 3-9, apology to MSU, 5-7, etc) and been back.
8-5 this year was a bad thing. Does it put on more pressure for 2018? Yep. Would a "mediocore 9-4" in 2018 put on even more pressure in 2019? Yep.
But we have been here before. And we know it can get a lot worse. So, get up and attack the day. Generate some optimism. Look at past recruits like Devin Bush (national rank #312) and Khaleke Hudson (national rank #386) or the fact that Notre Dame sucked ass at 4-8 last year and that MSU sucked even more ass at 3-9 last year AND they both bounced back to 10-3 this year.
And we just have to recover from 8-5? Jeesh. Don't be a such a pussy.
Signed,
The JMFH Fan Club
February 9th, 2018 at 2:19 PM ^
That's right. Mgoblog's origin story is half about Brian's writing style (and his obsession for M football and penchant to meld that with quantitative logic and, even, philosophy) and the other half is about the readership, which flocked to and joined this space because what it was serving matched the readers' voracious appetite far more closely than any other platform at the time.
But in recent months those married halves have - in places - peeled apart. And it's for a very fundamental reason. Readers still obsess over consuming the maximum allowable dose of great content. But Brian has at least temporarily demonstrated that he can turn off that obsession and write much less of it.
One way or the other, market forces will correct this. And we all hope it happens the fun way -- with Brian returning to frequent offseason editorials that obsessively flesh out minute details of the M Football machine.
February 9th, 2018 at 2:48 PM ^
As MGo has grown, the readership has too and apparently they're almost all complete idiots. Kind of makes it hard for an intelligent writer to want to write for an audience that is full of fools. That's my opinion on it.
February 9th, 2018 at 3:01 PM ^
Says patient zero of the 2010 RichRod sympathizer campaign :)
#thegoodolddays
February 9th, 2018 at 3:05 PM ^
Fools have always been a part of this community. Look no further than yourself - you’ve been here since 2008.
February 9th, 2018 at 6:18 PM ^
Another poetic gem from his rudeness!
February 9th, 2018 at 3:18 PM ^
That's true, but the rational and productive way to combat that isn't to get emotional and stop writing.
Perhaps - and when I say perhaps, I mean it - Brian could solve the same problem by writing *more* often while making the content more esoteric, nuanced or highbrow. Then he could go back to having a positive influence on the readership and the comments below his pieces would be less likely to fry the happiness from his face.
February 9th, 2018 at 3:35 PM ^
I mean, you can only milk the hype train for so long. We've done it with three coaches in a row. It's getting old when the same thing keeps happening. Especially when we landed the hottest coach on the market the third time around. Disclaimer, I'm not saying Harbaugh won't get it done, but the way things are right now doesn't give me much confidence, and it's clearly the same with a lot of fans, including Brian.
February 9th, 2018 at 3:42 PM ^
I don't come here for hype material. I come here for good material, period. I don't care if it's negative so long as that is real/deserved.
I want to consume whatever is real/deserved. I want to be forced to think harder about football and roster building than i knew an amateur could. And that is compromised not when the material becomes depressing but when it stops existing.
February 9th, 2018 at 3:39 PM ^
If everyone is a fool but you, maybe the actual fool is you. You should join Maizen in seeking out professional help. They have medications now for people with your condition.
P.S. Brian seems to be doing most of his writing for Twitter. If you want to talk about a cesspool of fools, look no further.
February 9th, 2018 at 3:30 PM ^
The fan base feels like a real tire fire right now. Sam was talking about a 2019 commit getting harassed for talking about taking visits today. Things feel really whiny and entitled. Even when comes to the site.
February 9th, 2018 at 3:37 PM ^
And why did said recruit want to take visits? He probably sees the same things a lot of us are seeing. The only thing that's gonna fix this is wins.
February 10th, 2018 at 11:02 AM ^
For me. I’ve pretty much checked out of this place since then. It is hard to have interest in a blog that doesn’t have interest in writing about the very thing the blog is dedicated to.
February 10th, 2018 at 11:55 AM ^
While I enjoy Brian's writing, if he's at a point where he just can't bring it on a consistent basis, for whatever reason, I'm fine with reading some well-written insight by someone (anyone) else. Maybe Brian needs to be more of an editor-in-chief for a while and have a couple other writers provide content. Or maybe I just look further than MGoBlog to get my UM sports writing fix. Nothing punitive on my part, but if I go to my favorite bar and they're out of beer, I'm heading down the road.
February 9th, 2018 at 4:36 PM ^
I think the whole "generate some optimism" idea is contrary to what most people would like to achieve through their writing an analysis. I think the reality of Michigan football is that it doesn't appear to be improving to a level that we should be predicting wins over rivals, or titles of any kind. What you're asking him to do is more of the same old "things will be better next year" type of nonsense that so many people have been spouting on these boards since mgoblog became a thing.
Things were bad last year and very little has happened since the end of last year to point in the direction that things will be fixed in the face of the hardest schedule in the country next year. So, sure, he could blow smoke up everybody's ass and say that Patterson is our savior and he'll fix all our offensive woes, but that'd be disengenuous and pandering. Is that what the readers here want; another mouthpiece for the athetic department telling us our recruits are just underrated, and that next year is the year (just like every year?)
February 9th, 2018 at 7:59 PM ^
This is also for Brian:
We have sucked at football from the first day of this blog's existence. I have tried very hard to ignore it and I keep repeating correlation is not causation, correlation is not causation, correlation is not causation but enough is enough. It is time to shut this website down and start over with something new. If you really loved Michigan you would do it.
February 10th, 2018 at 7:09 AM ^
It’s a double edged sword.
His writing drew us here because it’s honest and hits the right note. It’s not manufactured to please us, so if he is indifferent right now then well...that’s what we get
February 9th, 2018 at 1:23 PM ^
Maizenbrew has had some decent content recently.
February 9th, 2018 at 1:27 PM ^
podcast. Enough depressing shit out there without having to listen to Eeyore whine about this that and the other thing.
February 9th, 2018 at 12:31 PM ^
Understandably so. They lost their last 3 games, including blowing a big lead to South Carolina in completely embarrassing fashion, follow that up with changes to the coaching staff that instill no confidence for offensive improvement, and top it off with a piss poor finish to the recruiting class by whiffing on all the biggest targets and landing a class between Tennessee and Nebraska.
What's the upside? Fingers crossed really hard that a transfer QB will fix everything?
February 9th, 2018 at 1:18 PM ^
I gotta be honest, I'm as down now as I was going into the 2014 season. No championships, major bowl wins, an offense that didn't get better all year, blown lead in a bowl game, a meh recruiting class, and barely a better record overall than Hoke. If you thought any of that is what was gonna happen when we first hired Harbaugh, you're lying to yourself. This past year reeks of something really off. People can dismiss it as a HOT TAKE all you want, but the Harbaugh we saw this year was not the same as the one for the first two years. And not having a plan for the offensive staff still this late doesn't make anything better.
February 9th, 2018 at 1:41 PM ^
Harbaugh said let's figure out who the best defensive coach out there is and get them to Michigan. So... why not recognize dead weight and do the same thing for your offense?
What exactly is the post-season evaluation process like and what did our staff to produce to get these mulligans?
February 9th, 2018 at 2:13 PM ^
with your points, but I can think of two differences between the situations.
1. Durkin left, so no one had to be fired to bring a new defensive coordinator on board.
2. Harbaugh's expertise is on the offensive side of the ball. Maybe, he thinks he can fix this problem without outside assistance.
February 9th, 2018 at 4:33 PM ^
Agree with the Durkin note because they hit the ground running with an open spot.
But why the fuck are we fixing issues with the same o line coach going into year 4? I mean smaller-ish things like learning a new QB cadence or trying to learn a trick play or two is understandable as they come with time. Playing musical chairs with our lineman (who by Drevno's own admission have been poorly served) without landing top quality recruits is just baffling. The longer we wait to "fix" these problems will only put us farther behind the top power teams and let those beneath us catch up as witnessed last year.
February 9th, 2018 at 2:05 PM ^
I would love to see Brian put together a "state of the program" type piece to lay out all of his thoughts and rationale on them and where he thinks things stand and are headed. I'm sure we have something of an idea what that is but it would be nice to see those really fleshed out.
February 9th, 2018 at 11:25 AM ^
Brian is not a fan of Drevno. You can tell that makes Sam Webb uncomfortable when he brings it up on the air.
You would think Sam would get tired of having to apologize for a bad staff in order to maintain his access to the program. At some point it has to get old.
February 9th, 2018 at 11:26 AM ^
That segment had to be rough on Sam. He has to carry water for both the staff and the recruiting services.
He's got Brian taking shots at Drevno, and Ed/Craig talking nonsense about recruiting rankings.
February 9th, 2018 at 1:30 PM ^
I thought both Ed and Craig made good points. The guys seeing the field this year will mostly be from those two top-10 classes. And Craig rightfully pointed out that due to the sheer number of 3* players, you will see some of them outplay their rankings.
Nobody is arguing that recruiting higher-rated guys isn't the goal, but there has been staff turnover and you have to assume some of that will pay off. But having a bad season hurts recruiting. I don't particularly love Drevno as a coach, but people are shitting on him and Hamilton quite a bit based on a whole lot of speculation and assumptions that may or may not be valid. I mean, this very blog thought Hamilton would be pretty good not that long ago.
February 9th, 2018 at 3:07 PM ^
Eh, I wouldn't call the pisspoor offense that we've all seen with our own eyeballs the past few years "speculation and assumptions"
February 9th, 2018 at 4:45 PM ^
Drevno's apology is proof of that.
February 9th, 2018 at 11:30 AM ^
No disrespect to Sam but he has to be careful because is basically the mouth piece for the Football and Basketball teams now it seems. He can't and won't say anything to hurt his standing, which I understand.
That being said, I believe his information must be taken with a grain of salt because it is what they want to get out.
Just my opinions and obviously I could be way off base.
February 9th, 2018 at 11:57 AM ^
They're the cheerleaders for inside Michigan information, they are not 100% crediable information. That's fine if you know that going in. The last thing I'm sure they do to do is lose their inside track. I get where they're coming from but at this point its ringing way hollow. I can hardly listen anymore because they're just team apologists, and can not give an honest take.
February 9th, 2018 at 12:30 PM ^
Brian and Sam operate under different business models. Brian’s is one of objective critique, whether it be good or bad. It does not entail access and he has always been careful to keep a distance between himself and the athletic department
Sam’s business model entirely depends on access to coaches, players, and the administration. He needs to preserve that access, which means you won’t get the unfiltered truth from him. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong. They both serve a vital purpose in the MGoEcosphere.
February 9th, 2018 at 1:15 PM ^
so the analogy for me is Sam is the banker always talking up the client never wanting to piss them off while Brian is the equity analyst who issues a sell rating. As you said, both part of the system but playing very different roles.
February 9th, 2018 at 3:53 PM ^
diligence on them and passed.
February 9th, 2018 at 12:34 PM ^
I always get the feeling that WTKA is too buddy-buddy with the athletic department to ever be critical of anybody. Ira is the worst about this, but Sam isn't much better. God forbid that people that deserve criticism get criticized.
February 9th, 2018 at 2:25 PM ^
Yup, always thought that. Sam is not really honest when it comes to the athletic department which is really annoying. And what's worse is that, nobody in the local media has ever directly asked Harbaugh why he values drevno so much when he is not worth a damn. Meritocracy right? My ass