When did UMBIG11 become Shawn L Martin?
UMBIG11 used to be calm and insightful, now anything he has posted since the season began has been nothing but negative or expressing pessimism on the outlook of the season.
Can we all just leave the hot takes at the door. Teams evolve throughout the season, see PSU in 2016.
Just relax.
September 18th, 2018 at 3:54 PM ^
Bugs Bunny: Rabbit
September 18th, 2018 at 9:28 AM ^
As long as he keeps feeding the blog the inside info, he's more than entitled to a September meltdown.
We are all waiting for that moment things get re-ignited, and it seems to be taking forever.
September 18th, 2018 at 9:29 AM ^
Actually, I appreciate this thread because I have thought the same thing. I have a feeling somebody got their feelings hurt by somebody on the staff or whoever he was connected to. The shots at Harbaugh are especially telling. I really wanted to call him out a couple weeks ago when he stated that "cracks were starting to form among 3 factions". I just assumed others would ask those questions. That was a pretty big statement to make around here to just get blown off
September 18th, 2018 at 9:31 AM ^
^THIS.
September 18th, 2018 at 12:54 PM ^
I noticed he’s also recently responded angrily to criticism. Which is odd because someone “in the know” doesn’t care if people disagree with him.
September 18th, 2018 at 5:17 PM ^
But his in the know stuff has been kinda wrong. That can be an owie for an insider.
You didn't have to be an insider to know Dylan McCaffrey was ahead of Brandon Peters. Just had to listen to Jim Harbaugh and Don Brown. Oh I forgot, Brandon Peters is 'injured'.
September 18th, 2018 at 9:35 AM ^
Yeah that was a weird post. Although I don't recall anything else he's posted recently (because 3.0 sucks and I don't spend nearly as much time on this site as I used to because of it).
Fuck was he talking about, 3 factions? Anyone even thinking about getting rid of Harbaugh after three winning seasons is a fucking moron.
September 18th, 2018 at 9:38 AM ^
And who the hell would be the 3rd faction???
September 18th, 2018 at 9:43 AM ^
Rich Rod's underground army I assume.
September 18th, 2018 at 9:45 AM ^
Scientologists
September 18th, 2018 at 9:52 AM ^
I'm going with the Heenan family
September 18th, 2018 at 9:56 AM ^
^ wins the internet for today
September 18th, 2018 at 11:15 AM ^
Can anyone link this post from UMbig?
September 18th, 2018 at 11:54 AM ^
What strikes me isn't just the opinion of what UMBig11 says now but also the TONE. Despite all of the great content and information he has provided to the board, he now comes across as just another pissed off fan ranting about everything Harbaugh does. There is no measure to anything he supplies anymore, which makes me think theytookourjobs's thoughts are correct.
Regarding the "three factions," if you're going to go down that road you probably need to back it up as there have been no other reports of dissent among the coaching staff. When someone questioned him on that yesterday ... radio silence.
Just my two cents. All of us, including UMBig11, are entitled to our opinions.
September 18th, 2018 at 5:23 PM ^
Well, there has been talk, going back to last year, that there is unhappiness in the system with Pep Hamilton, and his work in the passing game. When I say system, I don't mean exclusively the coaching staff, but with the people (more accurately, a person) above Jim Harbaugh at Michigan.
September 18th, 2018 at 2:00 PM ^
Yeah, I'm picturing the NSC meeting scene in Hunt for Red October...
"You're just an insider! What could you possibly know?"
September 18th, 2018 at 9:29 AM ^
First, what did he say?
Second, PSU in 2016 had massive injuries when they played us they didn't have a single starting linebacker healthy. They were also breaking in a new coach with a completely new offensive philosophy along with a first time starter. There are a lot of difference you can point to that explain the poor start. Just because you don't like what someone says doesn't make it not true. This team isn't that good and barring an upset will likely finish with around 8 wins and 3rd in the east again.
September 18th, 2018 at 9:38 AM ^
NEW offensive philosophy to cater to a NEW starter with a NEW LT, sounds a lot like some of the issues PSU encountered in the season.
Regardless if you agree with the PSU or not, we lost at ND by 7 points on opening NIGHT with a lot of new pieces trying to come together. Should we have won? yes. But we lacked contain, never wanted to play zone on 3rd and longs to help that, and we couldn't get Shea upright.
Everyone just relax.
September 18th, 2018 at 1:52 PM ^
Not to mention the whole reason we have a new LT is an injury (like Penn State's LB corps) and a guy was kicked off the team for video games him and his girlfriend without permission and transferring the video (Harbaugh could be like Staee or OSU and overlook these things, but he did the right thing instead).
I'm in the not blindly optimistic but let them grow camp.
September 18th, 2018 at 3:24 PM ^
Antler point restrictions are fruitless......
September 18th, 2018 at 9:56 AM ^
So us having a new play caller, a new offensive line coach, new WR coach, and first time starter isn’t a reason for us, but is for PSU? Also, unless all the healthy linebackers would have helped them score more than 10, them we would have had enough points to win after our first two possessions. Using injuries to explain away a game lost by 6 scores is ridiculous. We outplayed them in 2016 like they outplayed us in 2017 when we didn’t have Speight
September 18th, 2018 at 10:18 AM ^
Our new play caller is the head coach who has been on the staff for 4 years. A little different situation. Yes we outplayed PSU in 2016, we were a legitimate top 10 senior heavy team playing at home against a very young team dealing with a ton of injuries and learning a brand new system. I sure as shit hope we would out play them.
They are not an illustrative example as to what our team can do this year. Our tackles aren't bad because of a coaching switch or being too young early in the season, they are bad because they aren't good enough. We also don't have a Saquan Barkley on offense who can make up for poor line play individually.
September 18th, 2018 at 2:46 PM ^
Basically, they have a bunch of excuses as to why they got blown out but won the B10 and we don’t have any excuses and won’t get better. Cool. I’m still curious as to what injuries they had other than the 3 linebackers who came back and made Barkley run better as the season went on
September 18th, 2018 at 11:39 AM ^
....Says the idiot who obviously hasn't watched a single Big Ten game outside of Michigan this year.
September 18th, 2018 at 2:18 PM ^
I haven't seen anything about the big ten to be worried about any team other than OSU.
September 18th, 2018 at 9:37 AM ^
CB provides great insights and valuable tidbits. Yes, he is getting a bit emotional, but the passion is part of what makes him such an asset to the board.
September 18th, 2018 at 10:57 AM ^
Who is CB?
September 18th, 2018 at 12:18 PM ^
Chris Balas
September 18th, 2018 at 9:39 AM ^
What thread by him are you referring to? I would personally like to read it, because he is probably fairly correct.
Just because an opinion is not super rosey doesn't mean it is incorrect. It just means you probably do not want to believe it. Take for example my new favorite analyst, Doug Skene (does a couple thingys a week for Rivals). Read his opinion column after games, and compare it to the other guy in the same thread (this week was Ryan Van Burgen). Skene is objective/real. He is a stud analysts and nails what is wrong. The other guy is always super rosey.
There is something wrong with this team (besides just our 2 tackles). I cannot pin-point it yet, but something is wrong. On paper, this should be a more talented team than 2016, 2006 maybe. This team should be destroying everyone, Notre Dame included. But they are not.
One thing i can say is that Patterson is an absolute stud. Kid is amazing. If he had time to throw he would be setting every single season passing record Michigan has. I hate that we will probably be wasting his talents.
September 18th, 2018 at 10:29 AM ^
I think everyone is overreacting. The WMU and SMU games were fine. SMU was greatly helped by horrible PI calls and a roughing call. The game itself was frustrating because of all of the stoppages moreso than anything UM was doing wrong.
ND was disappointing, but understandable, especially given our issues at OT. Perhaps those will improve over the year - it already has appeared that the OTs have improved, albeit against lesser competition. The ND loss does not mean the sky is falling, and two pretty much dominant wins against lesser competition does not mean the sky is falling.
This team is closer to 2016 levels than it is to 2017 levels. And now we have a borderline great QB. Everyone needs to chill out and watch how the season developes.
September 18th, 2018 at 10:38 AM ^
This, my friendlies, is the true "calm and objective" post.
Or does he need to sling shade on Harbaugh in order to be "truthful"?
September 18th, 2018 at 11:16 AM ^
I don't believe we are closer to 2016 but I DO believe our competition (outside of OSU) is not as strong as we thought. It's possible we could string together a solid run based on our opponents having a down year and that's all we really need. A two loss season would do wonders for recruiting and next season we get another shot at it most likely with Shea at the helm and a more seasoned offensive line.
Might be enough to get us through all this BS.
September 18th, 2018 at 11:34 AM ^
The offense (even with major issues at OT) is leaps and bounds better than 2017. Mostly because we have an effective QB, and it also appears that we have a solid backup QB.
The defense has appeared to have taken a step back, but I think with some minor issues corrected could be good enough to be a top 10 unit again. All we need is to improve in a couple of areas, and have a bounce or two actually go our way for once, and we could have a great season. We have fewer apparent issues than pretty much every team on our schedule outside of OSU.
People are going to be disappointed for quite a while if we are using OSU as our measuring stick. We just aren't there yet. But I do believe we're working toward that.
September 18th, 2018 at 2:22 PM ^
The defense is at 7th in S&P+. The team overall is at 10th.
Everyone needs to chill the fuck out.
September 18th, 2018 at 9:39 AM ^
Looking back on his posts, it looks like he did a complete 180 after the ND game, soured a lot as compared to the summer and obviously before then.
September 18th, 2018 at 10:06 AM ^
Hard to blame him - Balas drank the kool aid and it did not occur to him that a loss to ND was on the table. He cares a lot and lost his cool. He is still one of the most valuable contributors. Also, unlike mineral king, he is not going anywhere soon - sports writers don’t lose eligibility!
September 18th, 2018 at 10:27 AM ^
I don't disagree that he is one of the most valuable contributors, he has given us a lot of great info. A lot of the defensive expectations were built obviously on past results but also as well as those with inside information, like him.
I think if the D causes a 3 and out in either of the first two drives of the ND game, the offensive play calling is a little different, I could be wrong though. But going back to expectations and meeting them, no one has looked great in the Big Ten. Wisconsin loses at home to BYU, Michigan State loses at Arizona State, Penn State almost loses to App St at home and Ohio State got a lot of big breaks against TCU this past weekend to make that score look like the victory was a lot larger than it was.
To say this is an 8-4 team when all of those teams have had their struggles or even have fallen already, I don't know.
September 18th, 2018 at 11:14 AM ^
Pardon my ignorance, but are you saying balas is umbig11 on here?
September 18th, 2018 at 12:01 PM ^
This is a revelation to me, as well.
September 18th, 2018 at 12:22 PM ^
Heard Umbig11 is Sam Webb and Chris Balas all in one with a little bit of Tom Beaver in him the last two weeks
September 18th, 2018 at 12:57 PM ^
umbig is Chris Balas, but fast.
September 19th, 2018 at 12:16 AM ^
I always got more of a Sam Webb vibe from Umbig11 just because he was always very careful about what he said and how he said it (very similar to Sam Webb on WTKA when discussing “information close to the program”). I don’t see Sam Webb going negative on Harbaugh, etc like ever. So I’ll buy Balas for a buck. Makes sense. Unless...it’s been Jon Falk all along!
September 18th, 2018 at 10:52 AM ^
Kind of?
While his tone has become decidedly more negative after the ND game, he claimed after the game that he predicted a close loss. And he did say before the game that he wasn't going to give the board a score prediction because they wouldn't like what he had to say.
So... he seemed really optimistic all through the off-season, but then on the cusp of the ND game predicted a close loss, which is roughly what happened, and yet now he is frustrated. Maybe he thought the team would look a fair bit different against ND but would still lose?
September 18th, 2018 at 9:41 AM ^
This OP is the very definition of shitposting. People are entitled to opinions, and you can debate said opinions to their face. Starting threads just to shit on other posters should result in a ban.
September 18th, 2018 at 10:20 AM ^
I would hardly call that shitting on him. UMBIG11 has had some pretty strong opinions on things lately, so what is wrong with questioning him on them?
September 18th, 2018 at 1:12 PM ^
You question him on his posts when he makes them, where he makes them, to his face. You don't start an entire thread to shit on a poster and invite others to do likewise.
September 18th, 2018 at 2:09 PM ^
Grumbler,
I’ve noticed several posters including myself do just as you describe and I don’t know that any of us have received any kind of response.
September 18th, 2018 at 9:42 AM ^
Have to agree. Used to provide great insight and inside info. Now it's just hot takes galore, which.. this site has plenty of people to handle.
September 18th, 2018 at 9:45 AM ^
Last I saw him post was that:
1. This team is closer to 8-4 than 11-1
2. Defense isn't as good as advertised
3. Harbaugh is overpaid
4. Harbaugh is the architect of a boring offense and Nebraska will be a test because of all the injuries.
I mean, I think there is merit to each of these comments. I'd be shocked if this team wins 11 games in a row. Defense has had some major lapses in the secondary thru 3 games. And the offense could be better, particularly the line going into year 4.
I definitely think the team will keep improving throughout the year on both sides of the ball. If they crater like the end of last season then we can talk.