An Open Letter to Dee Hart and the rest of the Michigan Recruits

Submitted by ChalmersE on

Like Michigan fans around the country, you may be a little perplexed and nonplussed about the Michigan coaching situation.   However, I'd like to give you a little perspective.   Regardless of who is coaching you during your four (or perhaps five) years at Michigan, you will have a quality individual for a coach, and you will have opportunities that you've never dreamed of.  Nowhere else can you combine the academic excellence of Michigan with the ability to demonstrate your athletic excellence.  Nowhere else can you play week in and week out before over 100,000 fans with every game televised nationally so your friends and relatives can see you perform even when they can't get to the game.  You may have heard about the so-called Michigan Man (or Woman).  It's not a myth.  Just ask Chad Henne or Mike Hart or Charles Woodson or Jim Mandich or Desmond Howard.  You will get a warm feeling when you walk down the street wearing a Michgan cap and someone says Go Blue -- and that can happen anywhere.  For me recently it happened on a street in a small town in Italy.  I know you may want to know who your coach will be for the next several years, but in this day and age, there are no guarantees.  Do you think the players who committed to Florida two years ago ever thought that Urban Meyer wouldn't be there forever.  You might be inclined to go to Alabama, but do you know how many different jobs Nick Saban has had in the last decade.  Some of you may be picking your school with a view to a career in the NFL, but if you're good enough you will make the NFL regardless of where you matriculate.  But, if you come to Michigan, you will get an education that will open doors for you the rest of your life even if your NFL career is frustrated by an injury.  Just ask Antonio Bass, who was a lock for college and pro stardom until he destroyed his knee in a pick-up game.  All this is a long way of saying, you will do fine at Michigan regardless of whether Rich Rodriguez or Jim Harbaugh or someone else is the Michigan coach.  Come to Michigan!

MGoBoard

Zone Left

December 18th, 2010 at 3:49 PM ^

It's your friend.  

Bruce Feldman says kids come to school for the following reasons:

1.  Girls

2.  Location

3.  Coaches/Team/Teammates/Record the past couple years

4.  Academics

I'd probably do the same thing if I were 17.

Edit: I forgot location.

Joined: 07/03/2008

MGoPoints: 16428

mGrowOld

December 18th, 2010 at 4:12 PM ^

Careful there.  I had the audacity to suggest that warm weather schools had more hot chicks than northern schools do and that recruits were influenced by such things and got negg'd badly yesterday.  

Apparently the overall quality of coeds has improved DRAMATICALLY since 1981 when I graduated.

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 212164

JBE

December 18th, 2010 at 4:21 PM ^

Growing up in and spending a significant amount of time in the south, I would have to say that SEC country trumps Big Ten country by a wide margin.  But that is just one perspective, and like you, I will probably see some negative consequences due to this statement.   

Joined: 08/18/2008

MGoPoints: 19316

mGrowOld

December 18th, 2010 at 4:32 PM ^

Here's how I see it.  When you're discussing the overall quality of the female population you are discussing averages and not absolutes.  Certainly there a a ton of smoking hot chicks at any school (even Michigan) but it's the raw number of smoking hot chicks versus the....oh i dunno.....less than smoking hot chicks....that separates north and south.  And I think it's primarly due to two fairly common variables:

1. Quality of academics - the harder the school is the more likely the females (and males - sorry guys) spent more time studying than partying in high school.  And as a general rule, it wasn't the hot chicks who hung around the library or at least they didn't back in my day. 

2. Heat index - the hotter it is outside the less clothes you wear.  The less clothes you wear the more other people can spot your imperfections so you work real hard to make sure there arent any.  Cold weather = parkas and you can hide a LOT of imperfections under a parka.  A bikini?  Not so much.

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 212164

mGrowOld

December 18th, 2010 at 4:41 PM ^

It's not just Tallahassee.  It's any warm weather city (I know - i travel a lot in my work) and again the reason is simple.   Good looking people mating with other good looking people tend to produce......wait for it.......wait for it......new good looking people.  And by in large people tend to live near the area they grew up.

Blame Darwin for this one.

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 212164

kevin holt

December 18th, 2010 at 5:32 PM ^

A lot of hot girls hang out in the library. Just maybe not on Friday nights, but they're there. I think sororities all go together or something. The ones that are smart AND good looking are more valuable to me, so I think our quality girl index is higher due to this.

But honestly, sometimes they just talk too damn loud. I mean, it's a library.

Joined: 03/16/2010

MGoPoints: 17447

maineandblue

December 18th, 2010 at 5:44 PM ^

Exactly. I spent 6 yrs at ASU for grad school. Yes, great looking girls everywhere (made it tough to focus on teaching at times), but mostly vapid. That place seemed like it was an average of at least 10 IQ points lower than anywhere else I've ever lived. Clubbing girls and meat head guys were drawn to AZ to focus on their tans and working out. To me there's nothing hotter than a cute girl with something intelligent to say. Michigan has that.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 3085

SC Wolverine

December 18th, 2010 at 9:11 PM ^

I graduated in 82 and have thought the same thing.  We used to complain about this issue all the time, although we were smart enough to marry girls from UM.  I got neg-banged hard a couple of months ago when I suggested that the babe factor was a negative for UM.  Maybe this has changed in the years since (although the stellar academics would tend against this).

Joined: 08/18/2010

MGoPoints: 7749

JBE

December 18th, 2010 at 4:08 PM ^

A couple of Lincoln's letters come to mind:

 

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. 

But, unless you are trying to unite a country, you might as well flog the dolphin.

Joined: 08/18/2008

MGoPoints: 19316

mGrowOld

December 18th, 2010 at 4:16 PM ^

An open letter to my fellow bloggers

Yes, open letters are the most pointless thing but they give the writer the feeling of empowerment...as if they speak for an entire group of people and not just themselves.  In this open letter, for example, I am inferring that my opinion is somehow shared by others even though i have ZERO factual evidence to support my position.

In conclusion I believe an open letter to discourage open letters is perhaps even more pointless than the original open letter.  But it is MY open letter and therefore....important.

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 212164

Go Blue Eyes

December 18th, 2010 at 3:55 PM ^

 

During my 20+ years in California as a Michigan grad I can say without a doubt that the University of Michigan football program is extremely well known on the west coast.  And I have no doubt that there is a bit of envy from many of the people that attended the lesser football schools out there.

I still remember leaving the Rose Bowl after Bo's last game and all the classless USC fans telling Michigan fans to go back to Michigan.  They couldn't celebrate a victory but had to deride the oppostion's fans.

As the OP noted anywhere you go with M apparel on you will get a comment, cheer, or even harassment (sometimes good natured and sometimes not).  That comes with the territory of being the winningest football program in the country.

And real quick about jobs, it is absolutely true that people value a Michigan degree very highly - don't let anybody ever say otherwise.

Joined: 12/04/2010

MGoPoints: 12671

NRK

December 18th, 2010 at 4:46 PM ^

My one serious experience with USC-fan confirmed it for me. Watched the Rose Bowl (01/01/04) in Whistler, British Columbia. Obviously being so close to Cali we knew we were going to be outnumbered, but it was bad. The bar was filled with a large contigent of USC fans who severely lacked class. Severely.

Joined: 02/20/2009

MGoPoints: 6411