Unverified Voracity Withstands Sophomoric Indignities Comment Count

Brian

Hard edge. Via Martell Webb's twitter, here's Webb and Devin Gardner in their CB4 phase:

devin-gardner-martell-webb-cb4

Needs moar jericurl but pretty good otherwise.

Pay your rent, eh? So Kenny Demens and Boubacar Cissoko have gotten sued for not paying rent. Like, any rent:

Hidden Valley Club Apartments is suing Demens and Cissoko for $9,925, plus interest and attorney fees. The suit, filed in 15th District Court, alleges Demens and Cissoko signed a lease, agreeing to pay $850 each month for an apartment from May 1, 2009, through May 31, 2010. The apartment complex “fully performed all of its obligations under the lease,” the suit claims, but Demens and Cissoko “failed to pay the agreed upon rent.”

Demens was served with the suit Sept. 27, court papers filed this month say. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.

…and Demens being locked on the bench for the first six games gets a lot less mysterious. They're suing for 11.5 of 13 months worth of rent, so they probably paid a security deposit and then never wrote another check. Maybe the details will again point to Boubacar Cissoko and his sad disintegration, but it's probably hard to put your faith in a guy who's involved in a suit like that.

Hockey time. It's a bye weekend for football but Michigan has a key nonconference series against UNO coming up. UNO recently left the conference for the WCHA and so far they're the top-scoring team in the country; that's a little worrying after Michigan gave up more than 40 shots and required what sounded like a stand-on-your head performance from Shawn Hunwick to tie UNH 3-3. UNO is #10 in the most recent polls and pounded Michigan last year in the series that finally killed Michigan's flickering at-large hopes.

The games figure to be choppy. Via Yost Built:

They're also 10th in the country in PIMs at 20.5 per night. That's still far behind Michigan's national lead at 26.2 minutes a night. You know the CCHA officials are salivating. Don't expect much flow to these games.

Hopefully that's an aberration born of small sample size for Michigan. Even if it is, special teams will be key.

sophomoric-indignitiesOld school. I link a lot of MVictors stuff on the sidebar but every once in a while it's good to put it on the front page in case anyone's new and hasn't been brought up to speed on the awesome historical content provided by Mr. Dooley. A post earlier this week on the 1910 season is extensive and awesome, as you can see at right.

"They are the men who stayed indoors during last year's underclass war." "Outrages of a further and still more vicious character were being planned and executed." This is why Mad Men is such a cultural touchstone. I miss newspapers that wrote like that and people who talked like that, or newspapers that massaged quotes so it seemed like they did. Same difference.

Michigan punched Ohio State to death 33-6, by the way, and slid by Michigan State 6-3 in a game the Daily headlined like so: "VARSITY BESTS FARMERS IN HARD-FOUGHT BATTLE." The Notre Dame game was cancelled because of a dispute over ineligible players, causing the Daily to sub-hed their article "Cancellation of today's game probably ends relations with Catholics." Sure, polio and whatever, I don't care: 1910 was awesome. Michigan even won the national title.

Ban Salsua Secundus. If you were doing that thing where you knew you'd seen that Oregon team before but couldn't quite put your finger on it, I can help you out: they are Sardaukar—relentlessly drilled, elaborately and garishly costumed, and completely without mercy.

/nerdcore

Old stuff you've probably already seen. Wojo interview with Rich Rodriguez is frank:

Q: But most of the criticism is simply based on your won-loss record (13-18).

A: No question. That's the reality of it. OK, but why are the wins and losses there?

Q: Tell me, what are people missing?

A: In football, it's not as easy as saying, 'OK, you go to a place like Michigan that has so much winning tradition, you can screw up and win eight or nine, right?' Maybe that's not the case.

I think every program nowadays, it's not as easy to win. It doesn't automatically happen. I'm not making excuses, I'm just telling the truth. We haven't been good enough, but we're getting closer, and we'll get there. But it's gonna take longer than anybody wants, especially us.

So was Rodriguez's joke about Vince Lombardi not having a magic wand that he can come in and wave to make Avery, Talbott, and Cullen Christian juniors, but that didn't prevent Drew Sharp from calling Rodriguez Bobby Williams or this guy with a wicked leather jacket from writing something that I can link because it's not (quite) stupid enough to kill the elderly:

In the midst of a two-game losing streak where your team is giving up an average of 36 points, and with your defense ranked in the bottom 20 of college football, the best thing to do is joke about it.

Not so subtly hidden in all the knee-slappers Rodriguez delivered Monday was him taking zero responsibility for his defense's short-comings.

Behind closed doors, he can talk about his lack of contributions to the defense all he wants. To the media and Wolverine fans, Rich Rod has to be accountable for everything his team does.

Media people of earth: words said in press conferences do not matter. Rodriguez is fully aware that he needs to win games to keep his job. "Taking zero responsibility" is just answering your inane questions for the tenth time in a half hour with something other than Senator Tressel's ray of infinite boredom. This guy with a wicked leather jacket later fulminates that "this is not the time for levity." John McKay disagrees, and everyone's better off for it. Rodriguez should have gone with this after the 605th question about Denard's durability:

Following a game in 1967 in which O.J. Simpson carried the ball over 30 times, Mckay was asked "Why are you giving the ball to Simpson so often?" McKay replied, "Why not? it's not heavy, and he doesn't belong to a union."

But no. Press Conference is Serious Business.

serious-business

This is what happens when you don't actually have anything useful to say. It's also why newspaper commentary is down to cheap outrage and the Washington Post making a content-sharing deal with Bleacher Report makes sense. Who can tell the difference? One RABBLE is like any other once it passes through an editor that turns it into English.

Kicking argh. I thought this was going to be a Rivals article from The Wolverine, but it turns out to be an incredibly well-timed article from the AP about kickers and how college kids are basically on their own:

Many coaches admit they don’t have any expertise in kicking and say they can’t devote an assistant coach solely to teaching it. The NCAA limits schools to one head coach, nine assistant coaches and two graduate assistants, and most programs choose to focus their staffs on positions from quarterback to defensive tackle to fullback.

That means the kickers end up coaching themselves to a large degree.

“A lot of them have got to be masters of their own trade, and that’s a discipline part of being a kicker at this level,” said Eric Russell, the Tennessee special teams coach who splits time between the kicking game and supervising tight ends.

“You’ve got to be able to correct yourself,” he said. “You don’t get a lot of one-on-one attention, and you’ve got to be able to adjust on a dime.”

Michigan's stellar 2 for 8 is mentioned. I'm not sure what Rodriguez can do about the current situation except spend another scholarship on a kicker this February and hope. That would have Michigan in the unusual situation of having two guys on scholarship at the same time, but is there any other freshman who can come in and radically improve his position from day one? Other than Dee Hart?

Etc.: "Superdenardman and Young Tatewalker." OSU blogs break down what went wrong against Wisconsin, and also what went wrong against Wisconsin. General replicability of these things by Michigan: minimal. Holdin' the Rope takes a breath and looks around.

Comments

simonsays

October 22nd, 2010 at 11:34 AM ^

If every Mgoblog reader sends a dollar to Hidden Valley Club Apartments in a envelope marked "Explictly not related to Kenny Demen's rent", think they'd just drop the issue?

That would definitely not be an NCAA violation......heh

Feat of Clay

October 22nd, 2010 at 11:47 AM ^

I'm sorry to hear about this issue, but honestly it's pretty easy to construct an explanation.  They arrange to room together, Cissoko bails out (ha!) for obvious reasons, Demens can't pay the rent alone (or just reneges on the lease altogether).  He may think "no big deal" because the inability to fulfill their lease is obvious to him, and who the hell really cares about all those "joint and several" clauses in the lease anyway?  Who reads those?  However, the landlord doesn't think so, natch, and it's got the law on its side.  The amount soars because Hidden Valley can't mitigate the loss by re-renting the apartment (because the rental market is shit right now for landlords). 

So those two are on the hook for the whole thing, and I think we know Cissoko isn't going to be paying his share.

I don't mean to poo-poo a legal problem, or a lawsuit, or the obligation of a signed lease, but this is hardly an uncommon situation in Ann Arbor.  And it isn't IMO indicative of Demen's discipline or character or whatever.  Where he may have screwed up is not seeking help immediately from student legal services or the athletic department.  I assume he didn't do any of that, because I also assume that they would have found a way to solve this had they known about it.

speakeasy

October 22nd, 2010 at 11:57 AM ^

The rental market in a broad sense might be shit right now, but given that most of Ann Arbor's rental market is driven by two things that are increasing, in students and university employees, I doubt the rental market has much to do with this

The only connection might be that it's hard to rent places just as the school year is starting because most people already have arrangements, but that is cyclical and not a market weakness.

speakeasy

October 22nd, 2010 at 1:43 PM ^

And that certainly may bring prices down a little (I know nothing about Courtyards, but Zaragon and 4Eleven figure to be in the 1000/mo range and probably won't affect the middle or bottom end of the student rental market), but all I was saying was that the greater national rental collapse wasn't really huting Ann Arbor's student rental market as (I think) the parent post implied.

zlionsfan

October 22nd, 2010 at 5:11 PM ^

and the way someone responds to problems isn't necessarily indicative of their character, but it could be related.

Hopefully this was just a case of Demens getting into a bad situation and not knowing how to get it resolved. If he had been benched for this (and not for something else still unknown to us), it was probably Rodriguez saying "just so you know, not doing anything about it is not the correct action," and next time he'll know better.

Desmondo

October 22nd, 2010 at 3:13 PM ^

I worked in AA property management for a number of years, and I can all but guarantee this is correct.  The courts, however, will not hold up a judgment for the full lease amount though...I've been through it enough to know it'll get capped somewhere around a month of rent, the security deposit, and some late/court filing fees.  This is the definition of a "Nothing to see here, move along" situation.

acs236

October 22nd, 2010 at 11:54 AM ^

Brian -- I agree with the comments above.  I think you're jumping the gun on the rent issue.  There could be lots of different explanation.  The idea that this had anything to do with playing time seems more like a wishful way of explaining a poor (at least in hindsight) coaching decision. 

Captain Obvious

October 22nd, 2010 at 11:59 AM ^

You think Demens was benched for not paying his rent or being bad with money?  I guess RR should be going over each player's credit card statements to make some decisions on playing time.

"Stonum, $1100 at LensCrafters?  Hit the showers, son.  You aren't playing against Penn State."

GBOD79

October 22nd, 2010 at 12:21 PM ^

The fact remains that we do not know Demens role in all of this. It could be that Demens paid BooBoo who would then pay the landlord. Maybe BooBoo did not pay the landlord. We do not know.

Anything is possible and even if it was all on BooBoo Demens name would appear in the case because his name is on the lease. Lets let it play out.

mGrowOld

October 22nd, 2010 at 12:01 PM ^

It is obvious that Sharp has made it his life's mission to get RR fired before his newspaper goes bankrupt and he has to either find other work or leave the state.  

I am betting on RichRod dancing on Sharp's occupational grave.  And he'll be wearing a Michigan coaches hat when he does.

Jivas

October 22nd, 2010 at 12:13 PM ^

Hahahahahahahahahaha....

I demand this headline on MGoBlog after a game against Sparty at some point in the future, when the UM-MSU football relationship returns to its rightful place and the universe returns to its proper balance.

Hannibal.

October 22nd, 2010 at 12:13 PM ^

I don't understand what paying rent has to do with not playing. 

Also, I don't understand how you can not pay rent for that long and not get evicted.  The last time that I lived in an apartment, I forgot to pay my rent when it was due and I got a notice on my door that they were instigating eviction proceedings against me about a week later.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

October 22nd, 2010 at 12:39 PM ^

Such a question is why Feat of Clay's explanation makes some sense.  If they'd actually been living there it'd be a lot more likely they'd have been evicted within a month or two and the suit would have been served a lot earlier.  That it took so long kind of suggests the landlord waited until the entire lease period was up so he knew how much money he was actually on the hook for.  Also, living there without paying rent is squatting, which = crime, which = suspension, which also would have happened a lot sooner.

MGoObes

October 22nd, 2010 at 12:18 PM ^

that is NOT why demens wasn't playing and boubacar was the one that didn't pay his half of the rent. that suit was filed over the summer but "for some reason" is just now being put out by the media.

Don

October 22nd, 2010 at 1:05 PM ^

The editorial staff at the rotting, shuffling corpse of the old Ann Arbor News called a meeting of all its reporters after looking ahead at the schedule back in early September. They saw the black hole that the bye week was going to cause, and said "What are we gonna do for hits on our website that week? We'll be hearing crickets around here unless one of you crack reporters digs something up."

briangoblue

October 22nd, 2010 at 12:43 PM ^

some people are just waiting for the clock to strike midnight and Demens to turn into Ezeh, Carson Butler or whatever, but I think reserving judgment on anything Cissoko is involved in (and may be at fault for) is the logical way to go.

bronxblue

October 22nd, 2010 at 1:08 PM ^

McKay also has my favorite quote by any coach:  

Following yet another Tampa Bay Buccaneer loss in their early seasons, he was asked what he thought of his team's execution. He replied "I'm in favor of it."

As for the kicking, I think you just hold more tryouts for walk-ons and if one works out, then hand out a scholarship.  It seems like all of the top kickers for 2011 are spoken for, and at this point any decent kicker should first be able to show he can kick a ball 40-45 yards with some consistency before any investment should be made.

oriental andrew

October 22nd, 2010 at 1:15 PM ^

re: leather jacket wearing guy, this is the message I got when I tried to access his bio:

Access Denied (content_filter_denied)



Access to this webpage is restricted.



URL: http://connect.mlive.com/user/radiotto/index.html

Category: News/Media;Suspicious

Date: 2010-10-22

Even my company firewall is suspicious of this guy!!!  And seriously, Ottoman Empire?  Radiotto?  C'mon, man...

Seth

October 22nd, 2010 at 1:19 PM ^

Also includes this abomination created from mixing the genetic material of Molk and Gardner.

I give you: THE DEVINMOLK:



It can snap a pass to itself, then execute a perfect reach block to spring itself for six.

Not that it's gonna supplant the Brady/Desmond this year, but the DEVINMOLK could be a serious threat down the road for Big Ten defenses.

M-Wolverine

October 22nd, 2010 at 3:24 PM ^

...but a college football thing: Considering how important kicking is in football, and how bad bad kicking can be/hurt you (as we've seen), I can see not using a full time coach for just that, but shouldn't even school have at least one grad assistant dedicated to kicking?  50% of the college kickers in American should be getting paid to go to grad school and help out undergrad player perfect kicking and punting. Because even though we went through all the student assistant/hours ARGH ARGH stuff, I think you can spare one grad assistant from assisting some full time coach and dedicate him to just kicking, because I think ANY help in that area can be offset, and the return would be worth it.

And I hate to say it, but there's a reason Tressel (and Lloyd) and all gave answers that made press conferences perfect sleeping material.  Because you can't say anything to the media that they're not going to twist.  It's not like this media = scum thing is a new animal. But, if as is stated, press conferences mean nothing, we as fans really don't need to hear anything "fun" or "funny" from them, and Rich certainly doesn't need the headaches, and we all don't need our blood pressure to go up on a regular basis, so while it's not him, it'd probably be to everyone's advantage (but the newspapers) for Rich to go a little more Tresselball, at least press conference style. It may not be his style, but on a risk-reward basis, it's probably for the best.