I'm a Syracuse basketball fan and the only move that I really wanted to see (despite knowing it would never happen in our case) was for them to back the Brinks truck up onto Jay Wright's lawn. Maybe he could be convinced given that a rebuild can be a much quicker process in the NIL era. He certainly has nothing to prove though and I'd stay happily retired if I were him.
The amount of cope emanating from fans of rival programs as they realize the INSTA-DEATH PENALTY™ ain't walking through that door.... it's a wonderful thing.
Knowing you can't please any of them is almost freeing in a way. Nothing short an extreme suspension / dismissal of Harbaugh — and/or Michigan pulling the plug on this season — would placate them. So don't. There's no reason to try.
It seems M was pushing for a compromise position of a two-game suspension over the weekend — if B1G became amenable to that this week (plus the attached condition of leaving us the frig alone until after the season / the conclusion of the NCAA investigation), I feel like M / Santa / Harbaugh should take it.
But part of me is also rooting for chaos and for us to say, "Nah, screw it" and release the hounds.
Yeah... true. If they decide he can't coach against Penn State on say Saturday morning, what can we do about it? I remain hopeful they have good standing to obtain a TRO if B1G tries anything but timing could gum that up.
I remain skeptical anything affecting this season actually holds up. Seems like M is armed and ready to fight back in court right away with good legal standing to do so.
Keep kicking the can down the road, the fire will die down and more details of how shady and collusive this effort has been will emerge. They'll deal with next year next year.
Right, I think it's a perfect analogue — it's a blurry line regarding a rule that really shouldn't exist. People are consistently tiptoeing across that line, and you can make a reasonable argument that going another few steps over isn't that huge a deal in the current environment... but if you're going to go bury a program over Michigan's vast network, there isn't a good faith argument to not also do so over this.
If Harbaugh knowingly broke a rule / directed staff to do so, that's clearly a no-no and deserves to be punished. But based on what we know now, it's not a fireable offense, and it seems unlikely major NCAA sanctions are coming. Michigan's reputation takes a bit of a hit, but mostly among people who are already inclined to hate Michigan anyway.
If Michigan wins the title this year (KNOCK ON WOOD), they can throw any asterisks and yeah-buts on it and strip it retroactively or whatever else they want to do — I frankly won't care and it will be one of the happiest days of my life as a sports fan.
Agree. Whatever value he was bringing, he seems unhinged enough that someone's spidey senses should have been tingling enough to keep this guy at arm's length. I'm sure dealing with overzealous dudes like this is a really annoying part of the job if you're on the staff.
Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere but I haven't seen it. I've heard that one of Michigan's top players is going to transfer to play lacrosse at Syracuse. I'm very interested as a big M fan and a Syracuse alum. Have you heard this? Who's the player and what's the scouting report?
OMG YEER 4? wUT ABOUT YEER THREE LOL
The OP is right to look to year 4. I think the sad fact is that year three will probably be a lot like year two -- hopefully with a defense that's at least somewhat improved and an extra win or two to show for it. Year Four, though, will feature an absolute juggernaut of an offense with upperclassmen starting at basically every position and a defense three years into the GERG Era with more experience for the current players and two years of recruiting depth behind them. (You can't expect too much out of the true freshmen next year.)
Of COURSE you have to assume no career-ending injuries and of course we don't know what the incoming recruiting classes will look like or how they will perform. That's why this is, to some extent, an exercise in futility. But for the purposes of what the OP was trying to prove, he was right to look ahead two years.
One thing that I really like and is hard to ignore while an opponent is shooting free throws is counting their dribbles. We tried to do this in the band a couple years ago but there are very few of us so it was hard to hear. (I then transferred to Syracuse and let's just say at women's hoops games there, where there might be 500 people for a big game, it's a bit more noticeable.)
If the entire student section / band / other intelligent fans could be completely silent except for a loud "ONE... TWO..." etc. in unison as the player did his pre-shot routine, and then shrieked as the shot was just about to leave his hands, I think it could be effective, depending of course on the constitution of the opposing player in question.
Didn't say that was likely nor did I base what I wrote on last year's Game, just that it was probably Michigan's only chance: a low-scoring game (by some miracle) into the third quarter where Tressel plays a bit conservative and a few big plays open it up.
I hope you're right because that's Michigan's best chance for a win: a typical LloydTressel-ball game where after going up 14-0 or something, Ohio State takes their foot off the gas and leaves the door open for Michigan to score a couple big play touchdowns in the third quarter -- a Stonum return TD, perhaps? -- and before we know it it's 14 all in the fourth quarter, the Big House is going nuts, and M has fifteen minutes to save its season.
So that strategy would be absolute best-case for Michigan. Worst-case: Tressel goes all '08 Capital One Bowl on us to take advantage of the secondary.
I had a dream last night that Forcier threw a bullet to Mark Moundros who went deep (remember, dream, no logic, etc.) and Moundros came down with an amazing circus catch with nobody within 15 yards, but then he forgot which end zone he was heading toward and ran 90ish yards for a safety despite Michigan players trying to tackle him. Dream-announcers were horrified. Oh, and it was the last play of the game, and Michigan was up by one and just needed a first down to win.
I'm hoping this was just a dream and not some sort of Jedi prophecy.
I agree with the "buckle up and go hard" sentiment... but a win next Saturday would effectively un-"ruin" the season because Michigan would get to a bowl game. Not saying there's really anything "to lose" because it's such a long shot at this point but a win would go a long way toward saving the season; if you look back 10 years from now and Hey, Michigan fell apart in the Big 10 but then they beat Ohio State and MAC team du jour in the Little Caesar's Bowl and finished 7-6, that's really not so bad.
Forcier transferring would set the program back quite a bit -- Robinson doesn't have his polish or accuracy, and no matter how good Gardner is he will have the oh-so-familiar problem of being just a freshman -- and I really hope this doesn't happen. That said, we shouldn't be too worried about it. Let it play out. Surely if it's going to happen it's not going to be before the Wisconsin game.
I detect skepticism on your part and while I agree that one game does not a season make or break, if that ends up being the win that pushes Michigan to 6-6 and getting them into a bowl, I'd argue that it really does fix the season.
Of course, a win at Wisconsin will (hopefully) render that point moot.
Issue's not with the fact checking but rather with the content itself. How do you "fact check" a story a reader sent in? Try to hunt down someone else from the event, or the coach (who'll obviously deny it, to the delight of snickering Deadspin commenters)? No, the answer is, just don't rely on uncheckable, reader-submitted garbage for the vast majority of the site's original content, or at least keep it to non-potentially-reputation-killing stuff, like dick security guards at baseball stadiums or Sports Poop.
I drive a Volvo. He drove a 89 Mazda that literally died the next week.
And if you're telling me you don't have The Victors in your music library, you're insane.
Between the ESPN bitchfit, Deleted Scenes, Sports Poop, Why Your Stadium Sucks, and now this A-Hole Coach Digest, 90% of Deadspin's content that isn't a one-line blurb rehashing some other site's story is crap sent in by readers or anonymous tips that could be blatantly false. I know they don't really claim to be journalists -- or, that it's "obvious" when they try to be and when they don't -- but it's hardly better reading than National Enquirer at this point.
College athletes' Facebooks are funny to look at but they're an example of internet anonymity and how low people will go when they're not looking at someone face to face. When Donte Green (good riddance) declared for the NBA Draft after his freshman year at Syracuse, his wall was full of "Donte what the fuck you lied how you could do this asshole" etc., etc. Really inappropriate and sometimes threatening stuff. If we were as visible as these guys are, we'd probably want our privacy cranked all the way up and wouldn't accept random friend requests, but then again, we'd be too busy to even think about Facebook. I'm sure that had Tate realized what a firestorm he'd set off, he'd have never posted that comment. But he's not stupid for being a college freshman and using Facebook -- people who comment on his stuff and start flame wars there are.
This isn't as epic a maneuver as your story but dropping a buddy who goes to Ohio State off in Columbus in February 2007, my friends and I rolled down our car windows and blasted The Victors and Florida's fight song, did the Gator Chomp, etc., as he ducked under the back seat in abject terror. (Thinking back, we probably should have been more scared for our lives, too.)
That's what I thought when the read the topic -- like Michigan was going to retire the winged helmet as a counter to Ohio State's throwbacks and somehow Wall Street Journal was the only outlet to get the scoop. Although, this is sort of a smart look:
From Crumley dot org.
He makes just over a million, looks like, but I don't think that's a case of senility convincing him that one million (!) dollars is a huge sum, Dr. Evil-style. IIRC, Paterno makes a conscious effort to keep his salary down and doesn't want the multi-millions that other big-name coaches are making.
I would tend to agree with you but I think Tate Forcier is a pretty tough basis for comparison for him. Unless there's any indication that he could really be a good enough defensive back or slot receiver to start, I would hate to see one of the most talented athletes on the team languish for three years in the depth chart. I would love to see Michigan get a little adventurous and try some crazy stuff with Denard Robinson... line him up at receiver with Forcier at QB and send him in motion into the backfield prior to the snap or something. Give him a couple tosses as a slot, or a couple carries as a running back. Or maybe a receiver option pass play, since he can (sort of) throw. He clearly isn't going to get too many meaningful snaps at quarterback as long as Forcier's around and healthy -- probably more so next year, if Gardner doesn't redshirt -- so why not use him all over the place on offense? He'd be the defense's focal point on every single play he came in for, so perhaps Michigan could use him as a decoy to draw double coverage, too.
I think Steve Kragthorpe, clocking in at a cool $1.2 million, is a serious candidate for most overpaid coach. Petrino may be a "weasel coach" if you asked Gregg Easterbrook (ugh), but Louisville really has taken a pret-tay, pret-tay steep nosedive after his departure.
I agree. A third defensive coordinators in as many years is not what a team searching for identity and consistency needs. Stay the course with GERG, maybe make a few positional coach changes, but see if he can live up to his (significantly damaged but nevertheless extant) pedigree with some real talent.
Kind of -- terrifyingly -- reminds me of Syracuse's hiring of GERG in 2005. Outgoing AD Jake Crouthamel pledged support to (floundering, but in a 6-5 kind of way) Paul Pasqualoni, and the Chancellor Nancy Cantor supported "that Paul be retained." But Crouthamel retired some months later, and when the new (universally loathed) AD Darryl Gross stepped in, he wasted almost no time in canning Pasqualoni and hiring Robinson. I'm sure you all know what has happened to Syracuse football since; it's not even a shell of the program that thumped Michigan in 1998 anymore.
Now, the last few years of the Coach P Era were terrible, and there was a large contingent of the fanbase calling for his head. I'm NOT saying the Syracuse AD was wrong in making a move; it's a different situation that Michigan's. And the way that program was headed, they had to do something because the status quo was not working (a la Michigan in 2007). But a new AD coming in and making a move to shake things up because it's his town, now, dammit... I just hope for Michigan's sake that it doesn't happen in Ann Arbor. Not for a few years. Because Syracuse fans would KILL to be a perennial 8-4ish, fringe Top 20-type team again, with the occasional breakout BCS year. KILL. Making a rash move in the heat of the moment can murder a program, and I really hope Martin's replacement will understand that.
The losing streak hurts, for sure. (And this year, hey, you never know. Stranger stuff has happened -- a little luck, a couple turnovers, a big play or two.) But it really does take time to come back, and that's just the harsh reality. I don't think there's a coach in the country who could have coached last year's talent to a win against Ohio State. The coaching doesn't take time to get back to strength -- the recruiting and personnel do.
how short all fans' memories are, including Michigan fans. Yes, we're in a substantial collective rut right now. Things are pretty bad. In fact, I'd say they're "scream obscenities in the tunnel heading out of the stadium after The Horror, get told by a security guard to 'cool it,' and walk all the way back to North Campus just because of a need to settle down and think"-bad. Or "leave during the third quarter of the Oregon game, despite never EVER leaving a game early"-bad.
Every setback for every diehard fan is the worst sports-induced pain imaginable. I'm guilty of it too. But at a certain point everyone's gotta turn down the venom and just let it play out. (Regular sex helps.) Unless you're a bajillionaire donor, nothing you say is going to figure into the coaching process.
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I'm a Syracuse basketball fan and the only move that I really wanted to see (despite knowing it would never happen in our case) was for them to back the Brinks truck up onto Jay Wright's lawn. Maybe he could be convinced given that a rebuild can be a much quicker process in the NIL era. He certainly has nothing to prove though and I'd stay happily retired if I were him.
Bet 〽️
The amount of cope emanating from fans of rival programs as they realize the INSTA-DEATH PENALTY™ ain't walking through that door.... it's a wonderful thing.
This is why it's fun to be a Michigan fan lol
I don't think it's really about the NCAA so much as B1G. The NCAA won't care, but the B1G doesn't want its members' dirty laundry aired in the media.
Commish and the B1G brass have misplayed their hands badly.
Knowing you can't please any of them is almost freeing in a way. Nothing short an extreme suspension / dismissal of Harbaugh — and/or Michigan pulling the plug on this season — would placate them. So don't. There's no reason to try.
This seems like a reasonable and likely outcome.
It seems M was pushing for a compromise position of a two-game suspension over the weekend — if B1G became amenable to that this week (plus the attached condition of leaving us the frig alone until after the season / the conclusion of the NCAA investigation), I feel like M / Santa / Harbaugh should take it.
But part of me is also rooting for chaos and for us to say, "Nah, screw it" and release the hounds.
Yeah... true. If they decide he can't coach against Penn State on say Saturday morning, what can we do about it? I remain hopeful they have good standing to obtain a TRO if B1G tries anything but timing could gum that up.
Basing that on seeming like we have our ducks in a row to be granted a TRO. I could certainly be over-optimistic there.
No, but I'm sure they'd use that as grounds to fine Michigan, extend Harbaugh's suspension, etc.
But all that notwithstanding, would still love to see them run him out there anyway for the schadenfreude factor.
EDIT to add knock on wood
I remain skeptical anything affecting this season actually holds up. Seems like M is armed and ready to fight back in court right away with good legal standing to do so.
Keep kicking the can down the road, the fire will die down and more details of how shady and collusive this effort has been will emerge. They'll deal with next year next year.
Right, I think it's a perfect analogue — it's a blurry line regarding a rule that really shouldn't exist. People are consistently tiptoeing across that line, and you can make a reasonable argument that going another few steps over isn't that huge a deal in the current environment... but if you're going to go bury a program over Michigan's vast network, there isn't a good faith argument to not also do so over this.
hands cramping from squeezing my dang pearls so hard.
So what's the Rutger equivalent for more players suspended (or, heck, arrested) than points scored? A Stateger? Spartyger? Fulmer Cup-ger?
If Harbaugh knowingly broke a rule / directed staff to do so, that's clearly a no-no and deserves to be punished. But based on what we know now, it's not a fireable offense, and it seems unlikely major NCAA sanctions are coming. Michigan's reputation takes a bit of a hit, but mostly among people who are already inclined to hate Michigan anyway.
If Michigan wins the title this year (KNOCK ON WOOD), they can throw any asterisks and yeah-buts on it and strip it retroactively or whatever else they want to do — I frankly won't care and it will be one of the happiest days of my life as a sports fan.
Agree completely — Warde is much easier to replace (and given how the hockey situation was handled, in much more urgent need of replacing).
Agree. Whatever value he was bringing, he seems unhinged enough that someone's spidey senses should have been tingling enough to keep this guy at arm's length. I'm sure dealing with overzealous dudes like this is a really annoying part of the job if you're on the staff.
He gives off James O'Keefe / Project Veritas energy.
Fantastic work, holy crud. Maintaining hope the 600-page manifesto sees the light of day.
If my mgo2007 knowledge serves right, I think house style is "The Post-Apocalyptic Oregon Game."
M on top.
where I thought I read that; if I do or if I hear anything else I'll let you know.
Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere but I haven't seen it. I've heard that one of Michigan's top players is going to transfer to play lacrosse at Syracuse. I'm very interested as a big M fan and a Syracuse alum. Have you heard this? Who's the player and what's the scouting report?
LloydTressel-ball game where after going up 14-0 or something, Ohio State takes their foot off the gas and leaves the door open for Michigan to score a couple big play touchdowns in the third quarter -- a Stonum return TD, perhaps? -- and before we know it it's 14 all in the fourth quarter, the Big House is going nuts, and M has fifteen minutes to save its season. So that strategy would be absolute best-case for Michigan. Worst-case: Tressel goes all '08 Capital One Bowl on us to take advantage of the secondary.