Down Two Joneses and a Pace
Scout / Scout / AnnArbor.com
Yesterday's release of the 2011 media guide brought up a few questions about some guys not on the roster. I just got my answers from Athletic Dept. spokesman David Ablauf and they're un-good:
"Kellen Jones is no longer an enrolled student at the University."
Reason was neither asked for nor given. This is the end. One of you who doesn't like me gets to be the one to tell Brian we chose to post his 2011 Recruiting Profile right before some of the rumors hit the Twitters.
Impact: Kellen was considered one of the few 2011 recruits who might contribute immediately, and was expected to challenge for a spot on the two-deep at WLB. Short-term this will mean one of the other freshmen linebackers has a shot to play early. MLB/WLB depth chart currently reads Demens and ???s. Down the road it shouldn't matter so much once the 2012 class of Ross, Jenkins-Stone, Bolden and Ringer arrive.
As for some other roster incongruities, why was Christian Pace left off the roster, and did Teric Jones get listed with no number while two other guys switched to his 14? Because the gods hath no mercy:
"Christian Pace was medicaled; meaning his playing career is over due to an injury ... [answers other questions] ... Teric is also medicaled."
Impact of Losing Teric: Minimal. Jones is a 2009 scat-back who came in behind several guys in the '08 and '09 classes. He was part of the Cass Tech clan who re-established that pipeline. Teric did what he could to help, bouncing to DB when warm bodies were needed, but he made only a Darnell Hood-ian impact and moved back to RB, where he was a spare part behind 6-7 other guys. Teric lost the end of the 2010 season to a knee injury against Illinois.*
Impact Christian: Bloody Argh. Pace was the only OL recruit of the 2010 class, and those of us in bloggerland were ludicrously excited about him because he was an under the radar recruit whom smart coaches were hard after. Also he's as much of a David Molk clone as Taylor Lewan was a Jake Long clone coming out of high school. There's a huge difference between proto-Molk and Molk, but Pace's high school tape (as in just watch every play) is a series of the ball being snapped followed by something being shot out of a cannon and ending 4 yards downfield on top of a pitiable fool. He was perfect for the spread 'n shred, which suggests he's not perfect for non-spread-and-shred. I still had unreasonable hope, but even general hope for Pace in a Hoke Manball offense was pretty high. This year he was behind Molk and Khoury, who has been serviceable. Down the line this opens the path for Miller, or else one of the big guards-like objects from 2011 and 2012. Further injuries to the undermanned OL will result in wanton trotting out of an Angry-[Position]-Hating God tag.
Last piece of info, which isn't any info.
No change on Darryl Stonum's status.
I'll let Tim follow up with specifics since everyone I would call will be at his presser anyway.
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* I hate to throw this into a post about one of Michigan's best academic performers and team players losing the 2nd half of his career, but considering the staff plans to sign the full 26 in 2012, this feels a little…convenient. #oversigning fears. EDIT: This is NOT an accusation and as posters have pointed out it would be a bad idea for the coaches to pull a "convenient" move with a kid from our biggest in-state pipeline. It bears mentioning only because it would arch an eyebrow at another school, and because this space has been critical of those other schools when there's even a whiff. Discussion cont'd in the comments.
Losing Pace and Jones is decidedly inconvenient.
Do we have any long term statistical data, other than the very small window shown in the chart, and oversigning.com's rants? Have they actually shown how often it happens across the board, or are they picking and choosing their stats to make their point?
And beneath you. And the flaccid "Edit" doesn't do much. The pretty chart has pretty colors, but it's a ridiculously small sample size and means nothing but illustrates Bama is way excessive. Anecdotally it seems to me that we have one of these every year or every other year, which isn't that far off, but maybe significant. Two in one season isn't common, but going a year without one would be too. If your looking at the non-Bama number, at least a ten year span for the SEC would be nice. Or even better, a look at Michigan from at least Carr through the present to see our numbers.
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<br>Basically saying something is fishy is an accusation, not a "this bears further watch". But the fact that timeline and logic doesn't really make much sense, it comes off as still more sour grapes from those that would rather cling to a funk of a failed era than be happy we recruiting our asses off. You don't have to worry about Hoke working with class or character. Continued remarks like this in these spaces is beginning to make me wonder if the same can be said here.
Especially with our recruiting situation, I think this is pretty clearly a "good result" in terms of strictly for the benefit of wins and losses or at least you can easily make that argument
That in and of itself is a perverse incentive, and one that we(you) SHOULD keep an eye on
Making a big deal about 2, or even 3, being above the average is ridiculous. Aren't you all the ones saying don't just use simple statistics? If the avearge is above 1, clearly some teams have had at least 2. Further, we actually have heard in all three cases there were underlying injuries. How can you be annoyed at Freep journalism when you throw thi out with no actual research?
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<br>For instance, why don't you actually interview someone involved? If we start to see this happen where players complain, or where there is no history of significant injury, it might bear watching, but till then?
That average of just above 1 is for a three year period. Having 2 or possibly 3 (Talbott) in one season is significantly above average and is closing in on Alabama's 4/year. Throw in the fact that it's happening during the change in regimes and Mispogen is right, fans of certain schools that this blog has been ripping for the practice are going to raise an eyebrow.
Now, I hope and think that any medical hardship Michigan hands out is legitimate. But to not even acknowledge that it will look fishy to certain people is just sticking your head in the sand.
I really do want us (Michigan) being honest and up front about these things. I don't want to play the part of a hypocrite. It is good to be aware of things and monitor them, I don't see any issue doing this, it is called due diligence.
Cosign. Hoke hasn't done a damn thing to merit this suspicion.
Perhaps after our own Bama-Jihad regarding oversigning we error on the side of caution in such a comment however Hoke has no history of such and the comment should be retracted.
I would like to add that with Terry Talbott down for the count, we would have only four DT's on this roster if the staff only signs one this year.
Add in the fact that only one of those guys has seen the field, is considered a bust up to this point, and will be a senior in 2012 - it gets a little scary only signing one true DT.
Some of this would be alleviated by moving Wormley inside (if he signs), or moving to the 3-4. But... I really, really hope we get 2/3 from: Pipkins, Day, and Danny O.
On Teric from March 15:
Hoke: "Teric Jones is out for sure. Mike Shaw broke his hand the other day, falling on the turf and trying to catch himself. So he'll be limited on Saturday for sure," but will play with a cast after that. Teric Jones's injury is a "significant" one to his knee. It's too early to say whether he'll be out or limited in the fall."
If he got Saban'd (which I don't think happened) then Hoke really plans ahead. Still, for good measure:
This basically says it all regarding Jones, there should be no other argument.
I'm not too worried about Teric Jones right now. It's only one player and an iffy example at that. I see it like what's happening with Zack Follett and the Lions. Follett could play if he wanted to this year, but at a serious risk of re-injury, and a permanent re-injury at that. So maybe Teric just decided that being a Utilityman and playing Special Teams wasn't worth having a messed up leg for the rest of his life.
Pace and Jones are really gonna hurt though, especially if AM-insertposition-HG comes back this year. I never even knew Pace was hurt. Did it happen over spring practice?
Yes, losing him will hurt, but there are quite a few guys who are either small linebackers/big safeties all competing for that FS role. I'd assume one of the losers of that battle would get shifted over/T Gordon to get more reps.
My very first thought (before reading) was "i just started my dynasty yesterday"
In all seriousness though, it really sucks more for the players who may no longer be able to play a sport that they love and have been playing all their lives.
Did you ask the AD about Talbott?
I didn't ask 'cause he was on the roster. I have a followup in obviously.
Other than Miller and Stacey, it seems like Bars is the only other OL who might be able to play center. 6-5, 275 doesn't seem too big for center. No idea if he has the skills for it.
I'm hoping Hoke and company can find a stud guard/center for OL #6. With all this recent attrition, maybe we go with OL #7.
Rivals is reporting that Terry Talbott is also off the team due to medical reasons.
I'm trying to figure out if this is a typical time of year for heavy attrition. It seems like this would be the time we would find out about anything that happened since the spring game so heavy attrition at this time of year makes some sense.
Is it typical to lose 3ish players between the spring game and the start of Fall practice?
Wow.
Is it now the stated position of the MGoBlog that Michigan's football team has to keep players on its 85-limit scholarship roll that have career-ending injuries?
Did MGoBlog have the same outrage when Cory Zirbel was "medical'd"?
All these injuries have either been whispered about or explicitly talked about for months. Hell, we saw Jones's happen in a game.
Perhaps there was a reason WHY Hoke knew he'd sign a class of 23-26 - because he showed up with 5-6 guys with career-threatening injuries, and unfortunately, those careers are ending.
That's not Brady Hoke's fault.
IMO, a name we need to look for at center after Molk->Khoury...is Kyle Kalis.
Braden-Bryant-Kalis-Magnuson-Bars...
Even though I think this is more likely
Braden-Bryant-Miller-Kalis-Magnuson
But don't be surprised to see Kalis move inside similar to what OSU did with Michael Brewster.
Stacey has a better chance moving to C than Kalis.
Not if he's not one of the 5-6 best OL...we're going to put our top 5-6 on the field and find a center from there. Notice Stacey wasn't in my lineup.
Not saying he won't be, who knows...I'd love for him to be an All-Big Ten lineman...but going off ratings, offers and what's currently out there. He's not in that group just yet.
They both could end up at center to be honest...projecting OLmen 3-4 years out isn't ever going to be realistic...or sane.
Love the Hood-ian phrase. Needs to be a regular part of the MGoBlog vocabulary.
I saw the EDIT, so I won't pile on about the whiff of "convenience" these injuries seem to be. I can't see Hoke being one of those guys, but if this were to happen again my ears would definitely perk up a bit. That said, guys get hurt all the time, and I had heard smatterings about Teric being hurt worse than it might have appeared. As for Kellen, that's a really tough loss and makes me wonder what changed his mind - I'm sure the coaching change was a factor, but he's had some time and (it seems) usually kids don't leave this late in the year when the changes occurred months ago. Either way, wish him the best.
Hope Teric and Pace are still able to take advantage of the opportunities available to them at UM, and I wish Jones the best in his future endeavors. But man, this is a kick in the gonads.
About our commitment. The kid looks good looks to have some talent. The best part about him is he looks and sounds like a hard worker and plays to the whistle which is very important very important. Welcome to the maize and blue we are really happy to have ya. Now this stuff with jones, pace, teric we need to look at this as a positive thing. I think it adds more scholarships to a class that is building nicely. I mean this haul of a class could be so huge i know it is not going to make a huge difference in 2012, 2013 2014 look out we are going to have a solid team. Especially solid defense. RR had such bad luck in his recruiting it is unbelievable how many of his guys did not pan out in some sort of way. The biggest one of them all demar dorsey that dude was a balla. He could run like denard but he would lay the wood too. I said when we got him that he looked like an Eric Berry type safety. Woops couldnt qualify it is a shame. I believe in what hoke is doing i think if he and matty think this Souma kid is the deal he is the deal.
:'(
Man that sucks.... I was really, really excited about Kellen Jones... :(
I was excited to see the addition of Kellen Jones. The family singing the Victors to RR was great, as he announced his commitment. It's to bad. Wish you well! Christian Pace seemed like a Molk 2.0 in the making. WIsh you all the best with your recovery! Teric Jones I liked. Guy played his heart out for UM football. They needed a RB he was there. A corner, well he attempted that as well. Good luck Teric in the future!
GBOD
knew talbott, pace and teric were injured. we all knew there was a good chance they would be off the team due to medical issues. there is no way you can keep 3 players on scholarship if they have little chance of even sniffing the practice field because of injury.
people who have a problem with it are the ones that have had a problem with hoke since his hire. they are the same hypocrites that called out people for accusing rich of running off mallett and boren, yet they are doing the same to hoke.
Do they get to hang around the team as some sort of manager/intern/coach/trainer? Not for social sake, but to get some sort of footing in coaching or training. Do they get access to rehab from university and how about tutoring And eating, etc.? I would hope the team and uni just don't cast these guys (injuries) into the general student population without any of the perks that they were due If they weren't injured.
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<br>Also, wouldn't the player have the last say in how convenient to make things? If he weren't hurt and thought he could make something playing elsewhere, I suppose it would be more convenient on the school for him to transfer.
implying that Brady Hoke and staff are engaging in unethical use of medical scholarships is nothing less than character assassination of coaches that have been in place for little more than six months.
It's profiling, not character assassination.
It's a new staff with a lot of players who don't fit the characteristics that the coaches will want to have, and there's a big, high-rated class coming in. That fits the profile of staffs who previously have done some roster manipulation.
What I've done is pull them out of line at the airport for a bag check, and it's no more a reflection of their character than TSA's checks are.
So let's do a bag check: Teric's knee injury happened in the middle of last year, with the prognosis at the time being maybe missing as much as all of 2011. With a medical redshirt Teric might have still been eligible to play in 2012 and 2013, but considering he's an academic all-star and there's not much chance of him getting on the field in the coming years, he probably would only have used 2012. He comes from a high school we'd have to be stupid to upset.
I don't even think it's enough to ask the AD's office about.
...your ridiculous assertion. It's going so well to date.
If you "don't even think it's enough to ask the AD's office about," then how could it be enough for you to raise it on the front page of the most widely read Michigan blog? Sorry, but this one of the most irresponsible and poorly reasoned posts I've ever seen on the front page of this site.
And thus we come to the quandary of this whole blog. Is this a sports news agency, or is it a blog by Michigan fans.
The biggest difference to me is in how much the author should keep his thoughts to himself. If I was writing a news article, I'd have left it out entirely. Newspapers put news and opinion in entirely different places so you know which one you're reading and have different expectations for what gets brought up (not that this stops an enormous amount of blithering idiots writing letters to the editor bitching about opinions in the opinion section)
Maybe that's something blogs need to start doing too, or at least keep news and opinion to separate posts. I see the value in both sides. Just know that in a blog, it felt wrong not to say anything. Better to have it out now among ourselves so that when Bama Guy or whomever starts saying Michigan's getting liberal with the medicals to make room for Mondo Class, we can point at the individual circumstances and use the reasons come up with below.
My sense is the biggest problem people have with oversigning being even mentioned with regards to our coaching staff is that it's criticizing the coaching staff. Self-critique is difficult for more polarized personalities; in other words a friendly suggestion and disloyalty to some people are worlds apart and to others they're very close. It's always a fear -- nobody wants to lose popularity -- but I had to make a judgment call and I stand by the call I made for the reasons I laid out. If you think I can do better, I very much welcome your criticism.
Because MGoBlog hasn't been know for it's detective work. (And feel free to tell me I'm wrong, but I'm going to take a wild guess and say in your jobs outside of MGoBlog you're not a huge proponent of profiling, TSA or otherwise).
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<br>Which might even work if your profile fit. The overriding problem isn't one of just transition, where guys help move along players that don't fit their system, but just do it, pushing out guys they recruited to make room for someone better (Les Miles says "hi!"). And it's done after the call is overdrawn, not before you even know if you need the slot or not.
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<br>But the bigger problem is what was pointed out above - if this was the Freep accusing Rich of something just because it kinda seemed to fit, the front page would be having a hissy fit. "Mallett was gone no matter what" (even though there was never anything but innuendo to that point, and he wasn't a system guy who was really encouraged to stay), "Mitchell left because he was a fat ass", even though he had eligibility left, and there was a need for linemen...though not his type. And every other media snide insinuation is STILL being whined about by this blog...usually right after they say something nice about Hoke. Yet actually injuries we've known about for awhile are "suspicious". People have accused the site of being hypocritical because while they dressed down the Freep for seeing what would stick if they threw enough monkey poop, now that the shoe is on the other foot, it seems like the same thing. The truth of the matter is there'd never be such an insinuation on these pages when Rich was coach, and that it was deemed worthy now just seem like jilted lover vindictiveness. Maybe it's time to realize that while there every right to feel however you want to feel, the vast majority have gotten over it, and are excited. And the choir you're trying to preach to is more like a barbershop quartet.
Not a huge fan of profiling -- justice-wise I'd rather trade a bit of security for liberty. By mentioning that I was acknowledging what feels wrong about mentioning oversigning as a possibility. Because of the editorial tone on oversigning in the past on this site I think we've been forced to accept a level of vigilance where we can't even take a few medical redshirts for granted.
I want you to believe me when I say I see a major difference between an accusation and a "let's talk about this." Having any self-crticism be off-limits until proof of guilt can be found is the Gordon Gee route and I'll have none of it in my own writing.
Right now Michigan has 21 players signed for 2012, and is still recruiting more. Before Teric, Kellen, Terry and Christian were removed from the list, Michigan had, with 15 seniors leaving, 18 open spots. Now nobody thought that would mean just 18 recruits should have offers. There's always some attrition, and typically some redshirt juniors who aren't getting any playing time will plan on graduating in 4 years and getting on with their lives. Just so you know where my fears are, let's say Kellen Jones gets his personal stuff figured out and wants to enroll in January, and Cox and T-Rob both end up graduating, and say one other guy decides to transfer in the normal way of things, a reasonable scenario has Michigan with 24 spots remaining. If 26 sign in February, Michigan would be in a position where we need 2 guys to leave the program next year so everyone can fit. If, say Teric did want to keep his playing scholarship in the hopes of coming back and playing as a senior, that would be one more spot. It's not about the individual situations, but the general situation of making sure we never get to a point where someone has to leave. What's triggering fears isn't who the coaches are or Teric's possibility of seeing the field if he ever recovered from his injury - it's the expectation of a huge class coming down the line that should get Michigan if not at, very close to the 85-man limit.
I find your characterization of it as an agenda against this staff completely ridiculous. The only reason oversigning never seemed like an issue for Rich Rodriguez is so many guys were leaving his program so fast that I don't think he had a single year at 85 scholarships.
However you are absolutely right that transitional attrition is very different from pushing kids out to make space. With Rodriguez there was a lot of that attrition, but it never sparked fears of oversigning because the attrition was almost universally voluntary. For me, the fears of RR's attrition were more along the lines of "do these guys even believe in their coaches?" I had it in for Gibson and GERG for a while (there's your agenda) and this sparked alarmist posts from me when Emilien and Turner transferred and Warren went to the NFL, not just because of the depth problems being exacerbated, but because I had lost faith in Gibson and if the players didn't want to play for him I knew the position was going to be in bad shape for the foreseeable future.
You should know me too well by now to think I would ever want to preach to a choir. I'd much rather have smart people trying their hardest to crack my strongest points. Learning is far better than being right, don't you agree?
(I'm not even sure what that means. It just sounded good).
I believe with you that there is a difference between a discussion point, and an accusation. I know you well enough (in a writing sense, not that "I KNOW WHAT MISOPOGON IS MADE OF") that I sincerely believe you intended to do former, not the latter. But I think the tenor of the responses show a failure in writing, not intent. The "isn't it CON-VIEEEENNNN-ENT" tact is loaded. It comes off far more as an accusation than a "him....is this something to watch....I don't know...it seems to be on the up and up, and we've know about these injuries for awhile...but it wouldn't hurt to make sure all the T's are crossed and i's dotted," THAT'S a talking point.
And if it was taken as an "Agenda against the staff", then I too may have chosen words too harshly, because I really don't believe anyone involved officially with the blogs wants Hoke to fail. (I DO believe there are a few posters who do...and that a few of each won't feel too bad about saying "I told you so".). But I do think there's a double standard in coverage. One that was maybe excusable in the first month or so from shock, and disappointment. But as we're approaching two a days, it's looking more an more like a bias of feelings, that is getting scarily like Rosenberg getting all bent out of shape because his ass wasn't kissed and there was too much swearing.....which all amounts to "I didn't get my way/what I wanted/hoped for, so I'm going to be snarky and overblow every fault and gloss over every positive." Which was rightly loathed by this site previously, but seems to be leaning in a Good for the Goose way now. We now have two posts by you, one by Tim, which threatens the "wrath of Brian" when he returns. It's an editorial position no less in lock step by the major players than Rosenberg/Snyder/Sharp at this point. If that's a hurtful comparison, it might be time to take a step back. It goes far beyond "Rich oversigning being unlikely". I thought it was prose exaggeration when in the roundtable in the annual you talked of "being in the fetal position wondering the purpose of life" (exaggerated paraphrasing), but the passive aggressive negativity makes me wonder if the proprietors of this blog have stopped figuratively sucking their thumbs yet.
There was a defensive tenor when it came to Rich, because he was the Michigan coach, and that is how it should be. It didn't mean criticism of how bad the defensive hires were couldn't exist. It just meant that all this off the field nonsense he was attacked for was deplored. And maybe, a couple of weeks before camp, it's time to get back to some of that rather than analysis of how great Rich's offense REALLY WAS, and WHAT WENT WRONG...THE FIVE YEAR ANALYSIS. You don't have to preach to the choir, in lock step, goose-stepping. But the point of saying things to only antagonize the majority of your customers was something I only thought Drew Sharp could fathom. But I guess everyone has different business models.
Wait a darn minute...
YOU GOT YOUR COPY OF HTTV ALREADY?!?
Dammit U.S. mail, this is war! (I do have the pdfs from editing but it's not the same).
As to the rest I think you're mistaking Brian's position for mine. When Hoke was hired I was probably more shocked and disillusioned by having been dead wrong. One thing I get out of writing for MGo is being able to be the guy everyone asks about Michigan stuff, thus fulfilling my ultimate goal of turning every conversation I have with someone to Michigan football (strangely enough, until I found this blog, most people I met found this annoying about me.)
So now just imagine how many people I know at work, in family, among friends, etc., who heard me say "no way is it Hoke!" This literally led to me getting slapped in the face, because for some stupid reason bets among my friends always come down to the winner getting to slap the loser across the face. Fortunately this was not videoed because the Bama fan friend's face-slap was videoed and made some rounds on YouTube (we took it down once people realized none of the accents were Southern).
The shame of being wrong in the analysis was the biggest shake for me, and that's what caused the (incredibly true) Descent into Dylan I mentioned in the roundtable. I think it was Brian in the fetal position, but that's just because I was kicking him for making me sound like an idiot to everyone I know.
As to the phrasing, I see what you mean, and I'm pleased it really was just a semantic disagreement. I'll take a stab at changing the language (I don't want to lose the word "convenient" because it's too accurate) but since this post is over a day old now I'm not sure how many people will see it.
Because not only have I had it for weeks, I didn't even order it the day they first emailed me, or Brian mentioned it. I got mine last year in the mail after it hit the stand, and I felt dumb for paying S&H when I could have had it in my hand already, so I waited, then everyone said "OH, I got mine already!", so I ordered it, and it came.
And I won't tell you what you think....I'm not THAT arrogant; but it's a safe bet you couldn't have been more wrong about Hoke than 0.0% Brian. Possibly equally.
And there's nothing strange about the tried and true slap bet. I bet How I Met your Mother stole it from you.
And don't change what you think it right. It wasn't a point about not to offend. More one of taking a lesson of what you say doesn't always sound like what you mean to others. (Again, they don't know what you're really thinking, just what they read). And changing it now, while agreed, pointless, will just make the whole comments seem weird. It is what is it. And if there's much more "offense" here than in other nameless front page columns, I like to think (and know, on my part at least), it's because you are respected, and people know you may have a different view, but underlying insinuation didn't seem up to your extremely high standards. But as you said, it's good to know it more a lack of standards in wording than thought process. An "oops" vs. a "WTF?"
No one holds it against you for not being able to predict Hoke. Even those who said "never say never", because they knew how much he was respected in the Fort, it's still not "I told you so." (Except for Brian, because he keeps predicting what will happen, mostly negative, and it is a pretty sort point to the contrary). Sounds like you've had enough slaps over that.
...of ideas you two have had. While this argument is somewhat stale, I'll pile on.
Misopogon, I appreciate your work and your ability to turn a phrase (and a chart), but the convenient/inconvenient construct is typical of your tendency to overreach with your cleverness. If you had turned that construct around by discussing how inconvenient this all is to Michigan you could have finished the piece by showing that any notion of this being a convenient decision on the part of the football program is a shallow reading of the issue.
To achieve editorial consitency regarding oversigning/medical scholarship issues it is not necessary to take a "we're watching you, Hoke" stance. This isn't about giving Michigan and Hoke the benefit of the doubt, it's about looking at this specific issue rationally and objectively and being careful about ensuring that the intended message of a piece is the message that is actually delivered. In that sense, your piece clearly failed.
I hope you'll take this criticism in the constructive way that it is intended.
I do, and I appreciate it, Shoe. And honestly the fact that you were pissed to begin with was like an "oh God what did I do" moment for me because you're one of those guys whose opinion carries a lot of weight with me.
The thing is I'm really not all that clever -- I'm good at compiling other peoples' cleverness into a narrative. I didn't think the issue through but threw it out there for the board to help me think it through. What I probably should have done is thought it out a bit longer before posting. This article was rushed because it was important I thought to get the news about three (now four) guys being off the roster on the front page ASAP, and also provide some editorial thoughts. I probably gave half an hour to fiddling with the "convenient" language in that one part so I could get across that I wasn't accusing, just being wary that this needs further discussion. The Last thing I want to do is have people come read this and start thinking "our coaches are oversigners" because the evidence doesn't fit that. I wanted people to help discuss it so we could build a cohesive narrative.
...of your intent. I do think that the critical response to this post, Tim's UV post and your 200 Days post are sympotmatic of the MGoBlogerati zeitgeist and that Brian, Tim and you should weigh that factor a little more than you have into editorial and writing decisions.
Looking forward to your next piece.
And reasonable exchange of ideas is no credit to me. I like to argue, and I'm kinda an ass. Misopogon's reasoned responses deserves the credit for keeping the conversation at a praise-worthy level.
It'd take a lot more than a snide remark for me to turn Misopogon and dislike him. After all, I invited him to his wedding. ;-) (Yes, I typed that right)
will be medicaled.
makes a lot more sense now. Big, strong bodies that, with some coaching, might just fill the holes nicely until Kalis, et. al arrive.
having those OL walk-ons come in. They are big, strong bodies that can be taught to hold the fort until Kalis, et al come in.
I have heard from credible sources (don't ask, just trust) the reason for Kellen Jones' absense from the roster. I heard about this a week ago after the rumors came out (which I heard there were rumors, but didn't know about what.)
Kellen Jones' absense from UofM is not because of something he did, however it is being kept private for personal reasons.
I was asked to not say anything about it, so I can't really elaborate any further.
Just wanted to make sure we understood that Kellen didn't do anything wrong and is absent from UofM for reasons beyond his control. Nothing criminal in nature as the rumours (which I just heard) suggest.
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