You can contend all you want about Boise being a top team or not a top team, but the fact is, no one really knows what will happen until Boise actually gets a shot to play one. That's probably not going to happen in the regualr season because I doubt a top school, like Alabama, Florida, or Texas will take the risk of scheduling them.
Anyone can talk an offer an opinion. I think Boise would beat OSU if they played them. I think a Boise game against Bama, Florida, or Texas would be anyones game. But that just an opinion. What we really need is a legitimate playoff to really settle who is the best. I don't think we even had a legitmate champion last season. Boise St., a team that lost one game in two years, and was unbeaten last year, did not even have a chance at it. For that matter, neither would Michigan if they would have went unbeaten. They would have been on the outside looking in, playing in some also ran bowl.
I hope Boise gets a lot of 1st place votes, all season if they continue to win. I'd like to see what they could do against so called top competition.
I would much prefer a playoff, with 16 teams, but outside of a playoff, I would like to see the BCS give much more weight to playing quality, out of conference opponents. I would like to see the system modified such that there is an incentive to playing good BCS opponents. Maybe take away BSC formula points if a teams play more than one non-BCS conference opponent , and give extra points more playing BCS non-conference opponents, and extra points for away games at BCS conference opponents. The thing I dislike the most about the BCS is the quality of non-conference games that are played now. I remember back in the 80's when the power schools would actually play each other in the non-conference.
Back in 1991, Michigan played Boston College, Notre Dame, and Florida State in the non-conference. In 1989 and 1990 we played Notre Dame, UCLA, and Maryland. In 1988 we played Notre Dame, Miami FL, and Wake Forest. It used to be that the ACC was our easy game. I miss the days when we played quality opponents week in and week out.
I like the fact that we are playing on Thanksgiving weekend. The weather is normally good in September for doing more outdoor things, but usually bad in November, so I'd much rather have the games played then. This is coming from someone who watches on TV usually rather then actually attending. In my ideal schedule, UM would start September 18th, and finish by beating the buckeyes on Dec. 4th.
I can really relate to number 4. I was watching the game at a bed in breakfast in Maine with my wife, and I thought we were in trouble when Sheridan started. I knew we were in trouble after watching a half.
I was at Bailey's in Troy. The place absolutely exploded with the goal. Everyone was shouting USA USA USA! I haven't enjoyed a game so much since Mich beat Florida in Lloyd's last game.
I'd say the Free Press is not so much creating news as it's creating controversies. News outlets have been doing it for a long time. News outlets exist mostly to make money. They need stories, so they have to create them.
It seems to go kind of like this. A news outlet will write a particular story and then say that such and such situation is controversial. Other news outlets will pick up the story and write the same. It doesn’t matter necessarily that a very small segment of the population thinks a given thing is controversial. The outlets throw an accusation out and it gets persons attention, gets them listening or reading. A number of persons may disagree that a particular item is controversial, but out of shock they read anyway.
We are in essence played by the media, a lot of the time.
I saw the replay and Galaragga got robed, but my first reaction was so. I know in MLB history a no hitter is a big deal, but in reality this was a baseball game. The final score wasn’t even affected.
I was mad about the 2001 UM-MSU game, which was basically the same situation, but the bottom line is sports should be just a fun diversion, nothing else. It's sad that we take it so seriously.
MLB should change the call. Who cares about precedence? It's the right thing to do.
As far a choosing a winner, european teams historically win when the Cup is played in Europe, South Americans whenever it's played elsewhere. If you picking a winner, history would favor Brazil or Argentina due to the location and of course the talent of the two squads.
I'd go with Boise State higher, certainly higher than TCU who they beat in a bowl game last year. They have been undefeated two years in a row. I think OSU is ranked a bit high. I thought last year Oregon basically fumbled the Rose Bowl away to them.
If anyones every been to Boise, it's a beautiful, with mountains mostly surrounding it. If your an outdoor enthusiast there are all sorts of things to do. Lots of great hiking trails going up over a thousand feet just outside of town. A nice ski resort just 45 minutes from town. Rivers nearby for rafting and hot springs.
I have seen all the bond movies and I liked Roger Moore the best. My favorites are "the spy who loved me;, "for your eyes only", and "octopussy" in that order. I liked his reserved, in control style with tongue in check humor.
I think a persons favorite bond tends to depend on when they were born. Baby boomers grew up on Connery and I think tend to like him best. I am an Xer and grew up in the early eighties, so I grew up with Roger Moore. I am not sure, but I imagine the younger kids would like Pierce Brosnan. For Gen Xer's like myself, Roger Moore bond films are nostalgic.
My favorite villian was scaramonger. He has a really cool line where he says something like "I thought I like training animals, but then I realized I liked killing people even more." Then Bond, who was bored up til then, suddenly gives hims this double take.
My favorite song was "for your eyes only", with "a view to a kill" a close second.
I am disappointed with the addition of San Diego State. I miss the old days, back in the late 80's and early 90's, when Michigan regularly scheduled top flight non-conference opponents. 85 thru 95, here is a list of some of our non-conference opponents. Notre Dame, Boston College, MIami Fla, Florida State, Colorado, Maryland, UCLA, South Carolina. We used to regularly play two really good non-conference opponents.
Many fans may be happy with that schedule, because scheduling easy makes good seasons more likely, but unless you make it to the NC game, going undefeated in the non-conference isn't as important to me as seeing interested match ups and good games, and does not prepare the team as well to compete for the one prize that is winnable on the field, the big ten championship.
Last year, even if we went undefeated, we still more than likely would not have played for the national championship. I understand that part of the reason for all the cup cake games is the gate revenue for the University, but as a fan it's still disappionting, and though I am not certain, I expect a team like Boise State or TCU would love an opportuntiy for a home and home with Michigan.
I also miss the days when the season didn't start until after labor day. I enjoy watching football more when the weather is bad, probably becuase I normally watch it on TV.
Does anyone else feel older when they her that a rock star that they grew up with passed away? I do. First it was Kevin Dubrow of Quiet Riot, now Dio. I certainly hope that he at some point in his life came to believe in Jesus Christ, whom I believe is the Savior of the world.
In all seriousness, I think that anyone one of us here on the MGOBLOG could have done a better job than Matt Millen. I think most, if not all of us would at least seek out and listen to people who know what they are talking about, even if we didn't. Many of Matt's picks just went against expert consensus. Most of us would have at least been smart enough to pick up Lamar Woodley in the second round instead of Drew Stanton.
I seriously think you'd have to try to do bad to do worse than him.
It's my personal observation that hockey refs are in general the worst of the big 5 (I include soccer because in many parts of the country it is bigger than hockey). I recall a few years ago in a critical Red Wings playoff game, an obvious kick into the goal was allowed to stand despite instant reply. I also recall a playoff game where the Wings had a one goal lead late against Anaheim, and a weak obstruction penalty was called on one of our players. They of course tied the game, and then won it in OT.
What was probably even worse about the penalty was that I actually figured that the refs would call some penalty on us, rather a good call or not, before they did. The inconsistency of the Refs has actually made it impossible for me to follow the Wings with any real emotion. Why pour emotion into a sport where you never know when a Ref is going to make a stupid call and thereby throw the game to the other team?
I haven't watched much college hockey, but I am guessing that it is refereed nearly as badly as the NHL.
I have been in ghost towns out west and down south, we even have them in the Keweenaw Peninsula up north. I have not been there, but I have been told Gary, Indiana is a modern day ghost town. I also hear that Flint is dying as well due to a lack of jobs. We just haven't seen it here in the US in a city as large as Detroit. Going back father in history, the city of Babylon and Tyre are both major cities from ancient times that were at some point completely abandoned and now how no one living where they used to sit. It happens.
If you spend anytime time in Detroit neighborhoods, you see whole blocks sometimes with one or two house, or even that have become all grass. Years ago, the used to have all these house fires, especially on Devils night. I guess if you burn down enough houses, vacant blocks is what you are left with.
I imagine a number of key injuries would lower the bar in terms of performance that Rich Rod needs, whatever that bar is set at. For what it's worth, I think we will have an excellant season this year.
I think Rich Rod does plan to run a lot of the 3-3-5 just based on the number of defensive backs he recruited last year. I thought we pulled in quite alot in the 2010 recruiting class, more than made sense even with the poor play and thin depth in the defensive backfield last year.
How many true freshmen are really going to help next season? Then later you may be stuck with a glut of DB's and guys not contributing because of depth. It really only makes sense to recruit so many, given the limited numbers of scholarships, if you plan on needing a lot more.
I really find it sad that so much has been wriiten and discussed about an item that should really be a non-issue. How many of us have been at the wrong place and at the wrong time in some point in our life, even us guys from nice suburbs? As someone posted earlier, the place this kid comes from is a high crime area. How many kids with scholarships from there have never hung with the wrong crowd in their lives?
With all the ink and air time this has gotten, you'd think we'd offered Micheal Meyers or Charles Manson a scholarship.
Michigan football is not your family. Most people who are Michigan fans are not blindly loyal. If this team is bad for long enough people will stop caring. That is the way it is. I think it will be real interesting if this slide continues to see just how loyal people will be. I went to Michigan but I don't have to watch. I checked out on the basketball team a long time ago. If they ever prove to be serious contenders again I may start paying attention attention again, but until that time, I don't care. I've got other things to do with my time other than get emotional behind a team that's got no chance.
That's what would ultimately get Rich Rod out, people not coming to the stadium and spending their money on Michigan products. Michigan Football is a business and a profit center. It exists to bring money into the University.
I am not nearly as optomistic on next season. We saw little improvement from Rich Rod's first year to his second. I see no reason why these players will be significantly better next season. I certainly hope they will, but I expect regression in terms of wins and losses. The only real improvement in that category we saw this year was we took a team the caliber of Utah off our schedule, and replaced them with Delware State, and we managed to beat both MAC teams we played rather than just one.
I agree with blueloosh that our success will hinge more on our ability to replace our two or three worst players on defense with capable starters rather than our top departee, and we need the quarterback, whoever he may be, to not be the turnover machine that Forcier became late in the season.
It's hard to say for sure what will happen next year, but I see 2 - 10. I think this team will regress in terms of wins and losses. Connecticut will be a very upper class team next year with a senior quarterback. I don't see us winning at Notre dame. Our two wins probably come in the non-conference with Bowling Green and UMass. We have to travel to Indiana next season, that's probably a loss. Who else can we beat on our schedule?
This team only improved very marginally this season. Why would we expect any big improvement next year? Basically we switched out Utah from last season for a guaranteed win against Delware State. We managed to erase a loss against Toledo by beating both MAC teams we played instead of losing to only one. Even some of the results were similar late in the season from this season to last, such as the Purdue game. Last year we lost to Purdue 48-42. This year we lost 38-36. Last year Illinois dominated us. This year they also dominated us. Where is the improvement.
Our starting quarterback has regressed into a turnover machine. Sometimes quarterbacks get better, sometimes they do not, but how can you forecast real improvement in the QB position?
Maybe a couple of our new recruits can turn into solid starters right away, like Marlin Jackson and Leon Hall were, and solidify the extremely pourous secondary, but you can't reasonably forecast that I don't think.
Recent Comments
I do believe in heaven and I hope Bo is there.
You can contend all you want about Boise being a top team or not a top team, but the fact is, no one really knows what will happen until Boise actually gets a shot to play one. That's probably not going to happen in the regualr season because I doubt a top school, like Alabama, Florida, or Texas will take the risk of scheduling them.
Anyone can talk an offer an opinion. I think Boise would beat OSU if they played them. I think a Boise game against Bama, Florida, or Texas would be anyones game. But that just an opinion. What we really need is a legitimate playoff to really settle who is the best. I don't think we even had a legitmate champion last season. Boise St., a team that lost one game in two years, and was unbeaten last year, did not even have a chance at it. For that matter, neither would Michigan if they would have went unbeaten. They would have been on the outside looking in, playing in some also ran bowl.
I hope Boise gets a lot of 1st place votes, all season if they continue to win. I'd like to see what they could do against so called top competition.
I would much prefer a playoff, with 16 teams, but outside of a playoff, I would like to see the BCS give much more weight to playing quality, out of conference opponents. I would like to see the system modified such that there is an incentive to playing good BCS opponents. Maybe take away BSC formula points if a teams play more than one non-BCS conference opponent , and give extra points more playing BCS non-conference opponents, and extra points for away games at BCS conference opponents. The thing I dislike the most about the BCS is the quality of non-conference games that are played now. I remember back in the 80's when the power schools would actually play each other in the non-conference.
Back in 1991, Michigan played Boston College, Notre Dame, and Florida State in the non-conference. In 1989 and 1990 we played Notre Dame, UCLA, and Maryland. In 1988 we played Notre Dame, Miami FL, and Wake Forest. It used to be that the ACC was our easy game. I miss the days when we played quality opponents week in and week out.
I like the fact that we are playing on Thanksgiving weekend. The weather is normally good in September for doing more outdoor things, but usually bad in November, so I'd much rather have the games played then. This is coming from someone who watches on TV usually rather then actually attending. In my ideal schedule, UM would start September 18th, and finish by beating the buckeyes on Dec. 4th.
UConn: L.
ND: L.
UMass: W
BG: W
Indiana: W
MSU: W
Iowa: W
PSU: L
ILL: W
Purdue: W
Wisc: W
Ohio State: W
Overall 9-3 and Big Ten champs, a slow start and a big finish.
If Denard has improved his passing to the point where he is remotely decent, I would go with Denard.
I can really relate to number 4. I was watching the game at a bed in breakfast in Maine with my wife, and I thought we were in trouble when Sheridan started. I knew we were in trouble after watching a half.
Dix coming with Hart might not necessarily be a good thing. He could be coming to disuade Hart while he is on his visit.
That was an awesome win too, no doubt.
I was at Bailey's in Troy. The place absolutely exploded with the goal. Everyone was shouting USA USA USA! I haven't enjoyed a game so much since Mich beat Florida in Lloyd's last game.
I'd say the Free Press is not so much creating news as it's creating controversies. News outlets have been doing it for a long time. News outlets exist mostly to make money. They need stories, so they have to create them.
It seems to go kind of like this. A news outlet will write a particular story and then say that such and such situation is controversial. Other news outlets will pick up the story and write the same. It doesn’t matter necessarily that a very small segment of the population thinks a given thing is controversial. The outlets throw an accusation out and it gets persons attention, gets them listening or reading. A number of persons may disagree that a particular item is controversial, but out of shock they read anyway.
We are in essence played by the media, a lot of the time.
I saw the replay and Galaragga got robed, but my first reaction was so. I know in MLB history a no hitter is a big deal, but in reality this was a baseball game. The final score wasn’t even affected.
I was mad about the 2001 UM-MSU game, which was basically the same situation, but the bottom line is sports should be just a fun diversion, nothing else. It's sad that we take it so seriously.
MLB should change the call. Who cares about precedence? It's the right thing to do.
As far a choosing a winner, european teams historically win when the Cup is played in Europe, South Americans whenever it's played elsewhere. If you picking a winner, history would favor Brazil or Argentina due to the location and of course the talent of the two squads.
I sure hope we can improve on defense as you said. The last two years have really been hard on a fan.
I'd go with Boise State higher, certainly higher than TCU who they beat in a bowl game last year. They have been undefeated two years in a row. I think OSU is ranked a bit high. I thought last year Oregon basically fumbled the Rose Bowl away to them.
If anyones every been to Boise, it's a beautiful, with mountains mostly surrounding it. If your an outdoor enthusiast there are all sorts of things to do. Lots of great hiking trails going up over a thousand feet just outside of town. A nice ski resort just 45 minutes from town. Rivers nearby for rafting and hot springs.
I have seen all the bond movies and I liked Roger Moore the best. My favorites are "the spy who loved me;, "for your eyes only", and "octopussy" in that order. I liked his reserved, in control style with tongue in check humor.
I think a persons favorite bond tends to depend on when they were born. Baby boomers grew up on Connery and I think tend to like him best. I am an Xer and grew up in the early eighties, so I grew up with Roger Moore. I am not sure, but I imagine the younger kids would like Pierce Brosnan. For Gen Xer's like myself, Roger Moore bond films are nostalgic.
My favorite villian was scaramonger. He has a really cool line where he says something like "I thought I like training animals, but then I realized I liked killing people even more." Then Bond, who was bored up til then, suddenly gives hims this double take.
My favorite song was "for your eyes only", with "a view to a kill" a close second.
I am disappointed with the addition of San Diego State. I miss the old days, back in the late 80's and early 90's, when Michigan regularly scheduled top flight non-conference opponents. 85 thru 95, here is a list of some of our non-conference opponents. Notre Dame, Boston College, MIami Fla, Florida State, Colorado, Maryland, UCLA, South Carolina. We used to regularly play two really good non-conference opponents.
Many fans may be happy with that schedule, because scheduling easy makes good seasons more likely, but unless you make it to the NC game, going undefeated in the non-conference isn't as important to me as seeing interested match ups and good games, and does not prepare the team as well to compete for the one prize that is winnable on the field, the big ten championship.
Last year, even if we went undefeated, we still more than likely would not have played for the national championship. I understand that part of the reason for all the cup cake games is the gate revenue for the University, but as a fan it's still disappionting, and though I am not certain, I expect a team like Boise State or TCU would love an opportuntiy for a home and home with Michigan.
I also miss the days when the season didn't start until after labor day. I enjoy watching football more when the weather is bad, probably becuase I normally watch it on TV.
Does anyone else feel older when they her that a rock star that they grew up with passed away? I do. First it was Kevin Dubrow of Quiet Riot, now Dio. I certainly hope that he at some point in his life came to believe in Jesus Christ, whom I believe is the Savior of the world.