Input: [Date] 4 years 24 weeks ago [Title] A meandering post of baseless anger in search of a target [Body]

Output: This whole post seems to be just sarcasm and misguided anger masquerading as analysis, but the one comment that stands out as the most inane is this one: "Hopefully we'll start seeing some reason for optimism other than Mattison soon. Nothing in the intervening weeks qualifies, not even Jason Whitlock's endorsement." You haven't seen any reason for optimism from the moment Brady Hoke stepped behind the podium when he was introduced? Come on. None of us can predict the future, but if you cannot see any reason for substantial optimism in the way our new coach has gone about his first month on the job, then you're never going to see it. The way he has handled himself has been nothing but refreshing, along with the way he has represented the university and interacted with current and future players. He has a lot of excellent tangible and intangible qualities and I get a little tired of unsupported predictions that everything will get worse offensively just because the predictable spread run by RR piled up a lot of yardage against weaklings, making for some pretty, meaningless stats because it could not score against quality teams. For every stat this site continues to rely on to cast dirt on the new coaching staff, the simple counter-argument is Michigan went 0-6 last season against the six best teams on our schedule. Constantly dwelling on rushing stats means nothing. Those are averages run up against the weaklings on our schedule who were unable to tackle Denard -- but ranking high in rushing and much lower in scoring tells us a lot. When push came to shove, we got shoved -- for three seasons, not one. So be honest. No strong team had any problems keeping us out of the end zone, and that's really all that matters. I therefore don't get the point of the attacks on Al Borges, who is a highly qualified coach who has run lots of great offenses that do something the RR offense cannot: Score against physically imposing teams. I do not understand the constant praise of Rodriguez's offense. It did not succeed in the conference in which we play. You can't win a national title without winning the Big 10 first, no matter how flashy it looks. I don't know if Brady Hoke is the next superstar in coaching, but I think he's a pretty damn good coach. And I think he gets Michigan, and it shows. He has shown a lot of class, including toward Rodriguez, and including wisely staying silent as RR makes stupid comments about how he "didn't get to finish the job" (of completely destroying the football program, I assume) and how "we were just about to turn the corner," which is a galling statement after our final three games against Wisconsin, Ohio State and Mississippi State. Yeah, we were turning the corner -- right in to an oncoming locomotive known as our 2011 schedule. And based on Hoke's track record, I see no reason why he will not excel at Michigan starting this fall with a team that will be much more able to compete against the teams we play every year. So not only am I pleased with what he has done so far, I am more far more optimistic than I would be if RR had been given a fourth year. It's not even close in my mind.


Input: [Date] 4 years 24 weeks ago [Title] If Michigan is .500 in Big Ten play... [Body]

Output: ... then we should be in regardless. Getting to 9-9 in conference play will be a tall order for our team. I like the direction and I like the young talent, but we've still got a lot of work to finish .500 in a very tough league. We do that, we'll get in and I agree with the poster who said that if we arrive at the MSU game with a 9-8 Big Ten record, we'll be in. Maybe one win in the conference tourney to assure it, but with the expanded field, I say we'd slip in. The hard part will be getting to 9-9 in the conference. A lot of good basketball will need to be played to reach that level.


Input: [Date] 4 years 24 weeks ago [Title] 'Projects' need to earn schollies [Body]

Output: I have to agree with LandonC. One cannot conclude much from this film. He was pushing down kids much smaller than him, I didn't see him tangling with guys who were more physically mature. And yes, he's 6-7 and has a great frame, but the world is filled with large men who suck at sports even though everyone sees how big they are and assumes otherwise. I don't think there's any question we'd love to have him as a preferred walk-on. We get depth that may project and we risk nothing. But a scholarship at this point? I just don't see it, but I'm not a coach. Maybe they work this kid out and like what they see. I just hope they're not seeing a kid who is a worthwhile project for a lower-tier school, but not for Michigan. He has been invited to visit by 3 Big Ten schools, so they are seeing something. But they'd have to be super impressed with his mental makeup, his agility and his upside to even think along those lines. He looks rawer than raw. And if he's playing at one of those 'academies,' that usually means weak competition, almost every week. To me, a big decision for Hoke and his staff only needs to be made if the kid has decided he'll only be a preferred walk-on at Ohio State, and it will take a scholarship for Michigan or another school to lure him away. Then it's a big decision. It may not come to that. Hopefully, we sell him on choosing Michigan as the place to be a preferred walk-on with an opportunity to earn a scholarship. Because it seems a stretch to think this kid, as of today, would beat out any of the potential members of the recruiting class of 2012, which is how he needs to be judged. We're going to want every scholarship we have to put together an outstanding class during a year that is being touted already for being full of great talent across the Midwest.


Input: [Date] 4 years 26 weeks ago [Title] Almost none of the guys you list... [Body]

Output: are even playing. RR also did not recruit Mike Martin, and would not have wanted him. Go to some games. Wisconsin ran 31 straight running plays on us. If that's not getting run over, I do't know what is. And if you don't think RR purposely built a smaller team, you're just wrong. That was a stated goal.


Input: [Date] 4 years 26 weeks ago [Title] Don't count out Tech [Body]

Output: .. if only because Cooper is from ACC country. But I like our chances if it's a Big Ten school. I can't see him picking MSU over Michigan. I have felt, based on his comments, that Ferentz impressed him and Iowa was the leader. Cooper bringing his mom and brother with him to Ann Arbor is a big plus. Can only help us. Plus, he wants to go to business school and play early. We have a great business school and he can play right away. It really comes down to how he did or did not connect with the coaches and players.


Input: [Date] 4 years 26 weeks ago [Title] Just a brainless comment [Body]

Output: Michigan always has recruited well because of its academics. Lamar Woodley was a 5-star player who came because he said it was the best school. People go to SEC schools only for football, and then they either make the NFL or work as greeters at casinos and soup kitchens -- a degree from LSU, Mississippi State, Auburn, etc., is worth almost nothing. A houseplant could graduate there if you could get it to go to class. RichRod recruited smaller players. The star rating systems attach a lot to SIZE and speed, not just speed, and that's why we saw him bring in a lot of 3-star recruits. But to say recruits don't care about the academics is preposterous. It's one of the top public universities on Earth and anyone has ever had a job that involves hiring can tell you there is no comparison between Michigan grads and, for example, Michigan State grads. The intellectual divide between those two schools is great and it's simply because Michigan attracts and demands far better high school graduates. Secondly, recruiting players means recruiting their parents, and the parents care almost totally about academics and are persuasive with their sons. Finally, all those 'better football teams' at Tech, State and Iowa only became better against RichRod's little guys, who have been run over for 3 straight years. I don't think there's anything in your comment that has a factual basis.


Input: [Date] 4 years 26 weeks ago [Title] We need Super Cooper [Body]

Output: DT Darian Cooper, who is from a town right up the road from me, is a key recruit if we can land him. We really need a defensive tackle. Very thin on roster, though there is an expectation that Hoke will move some players around because the previous staff seemed to be very unsure of where some players fit -- either due to the players underperforming (Campbell) or the defensive staff not all being on the same page about the player's position (Roh and a host of DBs). But even if we find a few DTs on the roster (and new recruit Chris Rock may end up there) we still need bonafide tackles. Doubt it will be a problem after this year because it is a position Hoke really knows how to recruit, but landing Cooper -- and LB Leilon Willingham -- gives us some players in this class who might get on the field this fall. (I put Cooper and Willingham both in that category). And I think we have a chance. I'd still call Iowa the favorite -- they had him almost locked up until Mattison visited his home and persuaded him to at least visit. But the weightlifting incident, and more importantly, how Ferentz handled it by largely blowing it off and staying on the road recruiting, has produced a backlash and some concerns. It provides an opening. Unsure if Hoke and Mattison can turn Cooper this weekend, but don't forget Cooper is well aware of the Ravens D -- that's his hometown NFL team -- and the draw of playing for a coach who can get him ready for the NFL is he has that kind of ability, well, that's one of selling points. One more point: Cooper wants to go to business school. The Ross Business School is in the top 5 in the U.S. Will be interesting to see how it plays out, but I will say we have taken our best shot with this youngster, and I think he's a heckuva talent with a big upside because he is not close to topping out and plays with an unbelievable motor. If you read his comments on twitter, it's pretty clear he has opened up his mind and came to Ann Arbor this weekend sincerely interested. He's not just taking a visit because he had one more to take, which is what a lot of kids do and what I hope Jake Fisher is doing at Oregon.


Input: [Date] 4 years 26 weeks ago [Title] If test score is there, he gets offered [Body]

Output: That's my prediction. They're not going to offer or not offer a guy based on whether some silly recruiting service gives him 3 or 4 stars. Those are just scouting reports and consensus views, they are hardly scientific. It's not like kids go on to perform based on their spot on those lists. How hard they work, their mental makeup, a lot of things carry them further along or see them plateau. People associate great recruiters with being persuasive. That is only part of it. The most important part is talent evaluation -- is the kid's best football ahead of him or behind him? There are a zillion instances in which a coach's evaluation has a kid higher or lower than he appears on a list. The guess here is they like Rawls' talent. I like what Hoke is doing in terms of evaluating upside and taking players who will excel as they physically mature. It is not true that only the guys with Big Ten-ready bodies in high school go on to be big stars in college. The All-Big Ten lists are filled with guys who were 3-star recruits. They also expect some attrition, so the current scholarship number is not a hard cap. We're going to lose a few players after this year, it's inevitable. It also is true that our biggest needs left in this class our, in this order: Defensive tackle, offensive line, tight end and then an RB. That assumes we get Willingham. Michigan needs LBs who can come in and compete for playing time. If we land Bryant and Fisher, and then get Cooper at DT, it's a strong class. Add Clark, Barnett and Rawls on top of that, it's an excellent class. Personally, I think Barnett will be tough to land, but given Hoke's performance so far, don't count him out. I think we will get Clark, which is a great get and a takeaway from State, which already is counting him out after his U-M visit.


Input: [Date] 4 years 27 weeks ago [Title] Agree on VanBergen [Body]

Output: Unless he gets hurt, VanBergen definitely starts next season. It was the other side, played by Greg Banks and others, where we were really hurting, But if we put our best four out there on the D-line, it's going to be Martin, VanBergen, Roh and someone else. We need players who are in the system to make their mark, possibly starting with Richard Ash and Terry Talbott. It's hard to say from the mix of recruits over the past two seasons who is still even on the defensive line. One task for Mattison and crew is to straighten that out. Are Campbell and Washington on the O-line or D-line? To me, the DT spot is overall, the weakest on our team, so we may be looking at playing a lot of 3-man fronts with varied, zone blitzers. Everyone is so focused on recruiting for the secondary, but the fact is the biggest glaring weakness is most likely going to be problems stopping the run. We just don't have depth there and we have not yet identified depth out of what we have. It will be very interesting to see what this coaching staff does with the roster it inherits. At LB, guys like Kenny Demens, J.B. Fitzgerald, Josh Furman, Jake Ryan, Isaiah Bell, Marvin Robinson. Who steps up? Guys who have been on the team will most likely outplay freshman. Experience is not everything. Greg Banks has been there forever and all he really proved last season was why he never played when we had better talent I don't think we've signed a new defender yet who will get on the field this season, but if we get Willingham maybe he plays at LB. McClure possible at DB. We are signing a lot of talent, but these guys need some experience being in college, getting bigger, stronger, working their way up on the team. I would say the goal is to redshirt most of the class, with just a few exceptions. If it's more than that, then our class has some surprises in it or our defense is just that bad. I have to think Mattison is going to go with experience and see how those players respond to his staff's coaching.


Input: [Date] 4 years 27 weeks ago [Title] Are you kidding me? [Body]

Output: How would he know it? Any recruiting coordinator worth having would know it. It is their job to collect background information, tapes, anything of note. Indeed, making sure the coach has everything he needs on any potential recruit of interest is the one thing they must make a priority. Have you ever spent any time around a D-I college football program? I have. I have seen Saban's system when he was at LSU. I can guarantee you if this kid had four previous generations at U-M, Saban would not only know it, he'd act on it. These programs have all of this information on everyone. They get tapes, they have full biographical information. If he did not know it, it confirms what most people who have worked with Rodriguez -- he is not detail-oriented, which is why he didn't have the players fill out the required forms on voluntary workouts, which is the sole reason we got put on NCAA probation. A coach who said he thought that had been done and "didn't know" that it wasn't, even though it his job to know. He is ultimately responsible. And so we went on probation because when the NCAA asked for the forms every single team in the country fills out, Michigan had none. It's right there in the NCAA investigation. He should've been fired immediately for being so stupid. So if he didn't know about Wile, well, that's consistent with all the things he should have known but didn't. If he did know it and didn't recruit him at all, which is the case, then it's just more arrogance on his part. Stop making excuses for the guy. To say he should not have been expected to know Wile's background is naive. That is what recruiting coordinators do. The stuff they have on these guys is remarkable. My guess is he did know it and didn't care. And for all who say, Rodriguez is gone, let's move on, he's not gone. We're paying for it for the next 3 years because this guy just drew up plays all the time and did nothing else. It appeared no other unit on the team even had a coach -- the defense or the special teams. Everyone knows the voluntary workouts aren't really voluntary, at any school -- Ohio State's players said as much. But they said they understood what was voluntary and what was not by filling out and signing the forms. Only our former coach blew off the paperwork. So we have this guy hanging over us until the probation ends. Let's not be cutting him slack on Matt Wile. It is just another example of incompetence, not the only one by a long shot.


Input: [Date] 4 years 27 weeks ago [Title] Those rankings mean very little [Body]

Output: Yeah, other guys got on some little list, and Wile was picked to kick in the Army All-American game, where he played well. The rankings are always, always wrong. Smart coaches don't recruit by them. A bunch of recruiting experts on the web don't know anything and these rankings, especially on positions like kickers, are always wildly off. I stand by what I said: Expecting the coaching staff to know that a Div. I kicker has four generations of Michigan history is hardly asking him to know the background of every recruit in the country. That is a highly unusual fact, not simply where his mom and dad went to school. If it were a routine fact, I could see it, but kids like this don't come along too often. And it's a valid point to make now, because it demonstrates all the qualities Hoke had that we have needed. He gets it.


Input: [Date] 4 years 27 weeks ago [Title] Agreed [Body]

Output: I know Gibbons is on scholarship, is the other guy? Let's hope they finish their degrees. Nothing wrong with them as people, and they are still on our team. We all want them to succeed.


Input: [Date] 4 years 27 weeks ago [Title] Look, if he can make a 35-yarder, that's [Body]

Output: ...going to give us points where we couldn't get them the past two seasons. The bar is not too high. We just want a guy we can send out there if we get to the 25 or closer, that's all we ask. He doesn't need to be Janikowski. They other two, Brookshankin and Squibbons, can't hit their ass with both hands. One question: How in the world was Rodriguez not recruiting an All-American kicker with all this Michigan lineage? Every day, I am more and more glad he's gone. Think of the year of rebuilding we have saved by bringing in Coach Hoke -- and Greg Mattison -- right now. Amazing.


Input: [Date] 4 years 27 weeks ago [Title] No stopping the Hoke freight train [Body]

Output: We are quickly moving from hoping to salvage a decent recruiting class to now wondering just how good it can be? Don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but in two weeks Michigan football has come a long way from what it would have looked like headed into next season. I like the kinds of guys Hoke is going after -- and landing. If we can get Stefan McClure, Jake Fisher (again), Tony Posada, Leilon Willingham, Frank Clark and Matt Wile -- and a QB (as in, switch the kid who pledged to BC), a D tackle and Chris Bryant, that is one helluva class and might even finish as a top 25 class (of course,the rankings never turn out to be right four years later). And it would be nice to get a WR, whether it is Hakeem Flowers or someone else. It also sounds like RB Thomas Rawls, who is visiting next weekend, will commit just as soon as U-M offers (Rawls may be an academic question). That would give us in the neighborhood of 19-21 recruits and we're off to a nice start in the Brady Hoke era.


Input: [Date] 4 years 27 weeks ago [Title] Heitzman, Remember That Name [Body]

Output: I am reminded of what Nick Saban once told me about recruiting -- ignore the experts, evaluate the kid, make your own call. Watch the tape, check out his character, does he have skills and, if so, does he work hard? Don't take kids who are lazy by nature. The hardest part about recruiting, he said, is to separate the kids who are playing close to their best football in high school, and will only get a little better, from the ones you are catching early. There are lots of stars in every college sport who were not high-profile commits. As I always like to point out, Glen Rice was Bill Frieder's third choice at small forward -- true story. You know, the guy who broke the scoring record for a single NCAA tournament. Signing kids such as Keith Heitzman is smart. I don't mind people taking stock of where he is now, but writing speculative predictions such as whether he will or will not ever make All-Big Ten, we start stepping off the ledge with that kind of talk. Heitzman will redshirt, and he's still getting bigger -- who knows what he'll look like in two years, much less five. Michigan history is filled with guys who transformed. Watch the tape on this kid. He runs well and he's going to get unbelievably stronger with Wellman. You may not recognize this kid in two years because I bet he'll never miss a workout. And I love the name: How many times have we had some kid from Ohio with a name like Heitzman playing for Ohio State and drilling us? Heitzman is the kind of guy you hate if he's on the other team, the constant motor type, but you love him on our side. So welcome Keith Heitzman. We can use smart athletes with a big upside. And the mark of a great program is you recruit guys to come in and work for a few years, then see what you've got. That is the preferable way to operate. Freshman who play should be great, not a desperation move. So let's use Heitzman as a guy to watch. Almost no buzz when he committed, yet he was going to a good school in Vandy, which by the way actually has produced some strong SEC defenses. I predict he's going to help us and he's not going to be a dumbass doing dumb things. I trust this staff's ability to evaluate. Let us not forget that when Hoke's Ball State team played Michigan, they nearly beat our butts. He's building this thing back to be strong for a decade, not just the next few years.


Input: [Date] 4 years 27 weeks ago [Title] Solid analysis [Body]

Output: I like this breakdown. Don't know for sure if it all will turn out that way, but it's logical and it illustrates a key point -- don't underestimate the probability that the last staff's defensive coaches had many players out of position. I thought Glen Mason had a good point when he looked at our players and said, "I saw good athletes who could run," but they couldn't make they plays because they were often fundamentally unsound. The problem was the scheme and they probably had a lot of the wrong guys out there. So I have to think we'll see players put in places where they can excel and I think Robinson could be a star at linebacker. I also am high on Carvin Johnson on the back end. He's a smart, private school kid from New Orleans who knows what to do and hits. Kenny Demens, J.B. Fitzgerald, Quinton Washington, Jibreel Black, Richard Ash, William Campbell -- it is not as hopeless as one might think if some of these guys step up. The season between the first and second year is the one when most players improve the most and we have a number of guys in that category. I think we have some players. If Woolfolk steps right in and another corner emerges (sleeper: Christian is a great athlete, let's see how he does with better coaching), and we can land one hotshot (McClure? Taylor?), things start to look better. If we could get a handful of guys who redshirted last year and out of this year's class who can help on defense, this unit will get a lot better in a hurry. It's being coached now.


Input: [Date] 4 years 27 weeks ago [Title] Diversity on the coaching staff [Body]

Output: I just want to say that I not only agree with the writer raising the issue, I commend him. Of course he is right. These kids come from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures, and the coaching staff should reflect that, not in rigid percentages or quotas, but significantly enough to show the university's good intentions. At the end of the day, you always choose the best person. But if you find yourself never choosing a minority coach as the best person, in my view perhaps the evaluators need to at least discuss whether they're making every effort. Football is a social society as much as anything, it should reflect society. There's a diverse group of great coaches out there and it's not like Michigan is a tough sell. And it would seem that with coach Brady Hoke, as real as they come and off to a start that I'd call masterful, a world-class university such as Michigan would see the value in bringing in a few young, talented coaches who also bring diversity to the staff. You never know, one of them might go on to be head coach at Michigan.


Input: [Date] 4 years 27 weeks ago [Title] Don't Fight the Feeling [Body]

Output: Let's face it folks: People don't just like Brady Hoke, they respect him and really admire him. It's coming from all corners. Once people meet this guy, they love this guy, and they love him forever, want to be around him. He's obviously treated scores of people well in his life and it's flowing right back to him in multiple ways. His former players couldn't wait to help him. His former fellow assistants can't wait to work with him. Regardless of what you thought the day he was announced, it would be hard for any new coach to turn in a stronger performance than he has his first week. He has done everything right. Check out Mattison's comments about Hoke in the story up tonight on the Detroit News site. If it wasn't Brady Hoke, he's not coming. Our new head coach is the real deal and we may be on to something with this guy. I love his OC and DC, and I love the way he has attacked this job. So, we're all wondering, is it too good to be true? Is it too much to believe that Michigan really has found the right guy? I don't think so. I think it's our fatalist attitude. I think this guy is going to win and I think we're going to land bigtime players on both sides of the ball. A defense led by Hoke and a former NFL coordinator won't hurt us on the recruiting trail, and neither will Al Borges' pro style offense. And these guys, we should note, are smart: They sell the school, the school, the school. We forget sometimes, but a Michigan degree gets your foot in the door of places other degrees can't. Our coaches don't have to sell the football facilities. Just give a tour and the kids are wowed. When it comes to recruiting, it's obvious Hoke knows what he's doing. I'm willing to say right now he'll have a strong class next fall, after his first season. And who knows, maybe he'll pull some surprises over the last few weeks this year. I'm not counting him out. He seems like a relentless force of positivity. I'm not fightin the feelin, I'm lovin it. Have a cold one, sit back and let the man do his thing.


Input: [Date] 4 years 27 weeks ago [Title] A defense of Brandon, and moving on [Body]

Output: I don't personally know Stanley Jacobs of the LSU supervisors, but I did work in New Orleans for a number of years and I do know about the Tiger Athletic Foundation, the giant fundraising arm formed as a private nonprofit so it can basically do whatever it wants for LSU football, so I want to offer a sane scenario of why Brandon's visit to Baton Rouge was not necessarily to land Les Miles. 1. If Brandon had really wanted to land Les Miles, Miles would be at Michigan. 2. The people saying Miles was twice offered the job are Lousiana politicians. They certainly aren't going to say they got snookered, because a lot of LSU fans don't even like Miles. He has to be portrayed as being wanted elsewhere because he is substantially unloved by LSU fans. 3. Brandon's plan was indeed to fire Rodriguez and hire Harbaugh, who definitely would be the coach if he had wanted it. But by Brandon saying he didn't offer the job to Harbaugh, whenever everyone knows he would have, it gives Miles cover to secure a contract extension at LSU, which is all he really asked for out of the deal from Brandon, his teammate at Michigan. And Harbaugh was just one of those things: The NFL got in a feeding frenzy over him, and he was gone. And it was an itch he was bound to scratch, so better than dealing with those rumors every offseason even if he had come to Michigan. 4. The reason most LSU fans were ready to fire Miles during the 2010 season is because he is a wacky coach, but he's a consistently fortunate coach if that's the case. He wins, but somehow you don't end up sold on him. Ultimately, Brandon wasn't sold on him. And he met with Miles after he'd already spent a lot of time with Hoke, and was wowed by his interview. Miles was not the right fit and Brandon knew it, but a faction of Michigan faithful wanted him to get a look. It was a four-hour deal, period. 5. Michigan would've had to break the bank to hire LSU and his very highly paid assistants, which is fine if you're getting a coach you are super excited about. But what if you aren't excited? What if, at the end of it all, you kind of liked Hoke, the guy you had just spent the weekend with? Why unload all that cash for a staff you don't really want? 6. Brandon flew in to Baton Rouge for a pit stop. He didn't even stay overnight. He wasn't there to hire a coach, he was there to have dinner with an old teammate, tell him it was going to be Hoke and discuss how to handle it. 7. A lot of NFL players and a lot of former Michigan players who didn't make the league but are doing well in life called Brandon to recommend Hoke, with many saying he was an influence on players on both sides of the ball even then. Do not underestimate the cumulative impact of this display of loyalty. Also don't underestimate its value to Michigan going forward. 8. With more momentum than the public realized rolling behind Hoke, Brandon was never locked in on Miles. After Harbaugh, it was open, and as soon as Brandon got to know Hoke, he was the new favorite. 9. Brandon is not modeling himself after Bill Martin's pursuit of a big name. Brandon would more like to emulate the Michigan Godfather, Don Canham. Canham didn't set out to hire big names, he set out to hire promising coaches who were about to become big names once they got to Michigan, with all its resources. Hoke is an excellent recruiter -- just iike he was at Michigan -- and the two turnarounds he just pulled off did not happen at quality programs suffering a down period. We're talking Ball State and San Diego State, and his impact on those programs is impressive. The overall record is meaningless. You're getting a great coach for Michigan with almost 100 college games of head coaching experience. Hiring purely off stats is just stupid. And we also should look back and think about the defenses we had in the eight seasons when Hoke was previously on the staff. I think he will be fine. 10. So I can definitely see why Brandon did it the way he did it. He was a CEO. You check out all the candidates, then you make a decision. You don't hire in midstream, ever. Hoke is a very sincere guy, a hard-working coach who knows defense and knows to turn the offense over to a guy like Al Borges. He's also beloved by his players, the classic father figure, a guy who really can coach and also happens to love the place. Think about this: As I am writing this, you can rest assured Hoke is working for Michigan tonight and well into the night. That's the guy Brandon was spending time with before he met Miles, and that's why the Michigan plane wasn't on the ground in Louisiana for very long. 11. No matter what your view of the process, ultimately you have to judge the AD by whether he got the right guy. I am confident Brandon did get the right guy and I think Hoke will have success because of how he does things and because he's going to be a lights-out recruiter at Michigan, if not this year definitely after his first season. I'm really not worried that Hoke won't win. He's got the knack, the evidence is there and know one can sell Michigan any better than he can. 12. LSU was still smart to extend Miles and they are nuts if they ever get rid of him. He has enough talent returning to win a national title this year, and he knows it. I wish him the best and I'm glad we have Brady Hoke instead.


Input: [Date] 4 years 28 weeks ago [Title] Hack Henning and Michigan State [Body]

Output: All Lynn Henning pieces would prefer to be fluff pieces about Michigan State. That's the place he loves the most, because MSU students actually consider his writing to be somewhat avangarde, at least by East Lansing standards. They don't question his average-ness. MSU is all about average. Occasionally, he is forced to fluff someone else, but it's must a momentary diversion until he returns to servicing Dantonio. That was the entire point of praising Hoke for potentially making an immediate impact -- an impact "just like Dantonio."


Input: [Date] 4 years 28 weeks ago [Title] Hoke's staff vastly superior to Rodriguez's 'innovators' [Body]

Output: Puh-leeze. We'd be better off if we hired every San Diego State assistants compared to the creampuff staff of buddies brought in by Rich Rod (with the exception of Barwis, who we hate to lose.) But let's be candid: If Rodriguez's Michigan team would've played Hoke's San Diego State team in a bowl game this past season, we would've gotten killed. The Aztecs had a great offense, not that it takes a great offense to score on a Rodriguez defense cuz even UMass runs wild, but SDSU also had a defense. . Indeed, Hoke's old San Diego State team will give Michigan all it wants this season, and if Rodriguez were still the coach, it would be a loss for sure. The band of not-so-speedy-midgets signed by Rodriguez gets run over by everyone. And for all this criticism of 'manball' by this site, it is in fact the style of play that wins games in the SEC and every other self-respecting league. Midget ball does not win, and we proved it, except maybe in the Big East or CUSA, where everyone is undersized. The silly stats on this site that tout 'improvement' also don't win games. Our players are going to grade out a lot better once they are really coached. I'm not going to criticize Hoke for being a coach who believes the game is won up front, on the offensive and defensive lines. That is an undeniable fact. It's exactly how Tressel builds his teams. Anyone who thinks otherwise knows nothing about football. Try telling an NFL coach the game does not start there. He'll laugh in your face. Rodriguez always believed the game was won in a little room where he and Clueless Calvin Magee draw up plays that they think no one can stop, though honestly, we really only ran about 5-6 plays in his 'innovative' offense for most of the game. The Mississippi State players said they had great coaching on which play Michigan would favor out of which formation, and that's how it went in the game. They toyed with us. Hoke is ten times the coach Rodriguez is. It's not even close. Any coach who presides over the three worst defenses at a school that has been playing football for more than 100 years must really suck. And to blame it all on Carr's players -- when in fact the defense got worse the more Carr's players moved on and Rodriguez's came in -- is just a fraud. And RichRod took a school not so known for a strong kicking game and made it not just worse, but remarkably worse. Breathtakingly bad. So I for one am glad the worst coach in the history of Michigan football is gone. And I welcomed him when he came: The guy can't win in a bigtime league and that's all there is to it. No amount of so-called 'analysis' will convince me he was about to turn the corner next year. That's all designed to avoid giving credit to Hoke when he starts winning. RichRod would've gone 7-5 again if we were lucky, and he would've gotten physically dominated by every good team on our schedule. Imagine Nebraska against a Rodriguez team? Ouch. He got outscored 100-24 in three games against Ohio State. Things were not getting better. This site needs to stop whining about the lost promise of RichRod's program. He devastated us with his giant ego and 'me first' approach to everything. It's not about the press picking on RichRod and loving Hoke. RichRod brought it on himself, he totally deserved it because of how he treated people. Arrogant and unyielding in fitting the schemes to the talent. Often wrong, never in doubt. His first order of business was to make sure Ryan Mallet knew he did not want him. The guy is a jerk. It's also not true the players all loved him -- we're already seeing that come out. Now that he's gone, maybe our best running backs can play -- the big, strong ones -- not just the ones who kissed his ass because they were 5-foot-6. Yeah, we'll take our lumps in recruiting and next season. But at least we got the revival started and did not waste another year watching Michigan get drilled with a predictable spread offense and a bend over defense.


Input: [Date] 4 years 30 weeks ago [Title] The comment was about the SEC [Body]

Output: Not about BCS bowls. All I'm saying is, Michigan owns the SEC.


Input: [Date] 4 years 30 weeks ago [Title] We will be fine, and Denard won't leave [Body]

Output: I personally think RichRod is gone only if Harbaugh wants the job and I think that is the right move. If Harbaugh says no, Rodriguez is back with certain stipulations, though in looking at our schedule and the little guys RR recruits, I don't see him doing better than 7-5 next year. We were so far from winning the five games we lost, really, not even competitive, that we aren't going to jump up and win those games next year. Wisconsin, Nebraska, Ohio State -- they will steamroll our small, speedy defense. I really like Rodriguez as an OC, but he runs a system built for the Big East or ACC, not the Big Ten, SEC or Pac-10. My reasoning? It's a turnover-prone offense (his WVU and M teams have led their respective conferences in turnovers for five straight years), his defensive approach struggles against power teams, and his offense is so tricky to run that you're constantly in the position of suffering a dip whenever the starting QB leaves. True, a dropoff is inevitable when any offense sees a change at QB, but it is more pronounced with the spread because of the type of offense it is. Look at Florida: Tebow leaves and Brantley might be talented, but their offense looked horrible this season. Ohio State changes QBs and it doesn't even matter. Of course, they play defense, and not with little fast guys. Look at LSU: Their offense has been average or worse, their QBs are sporadic, but Les Miles recruits defense and they average 8 or 9 wins a year, even with the down years. Sometimes, they win 10-12 games. With a more traditional pro set or I-formation approach, the offense is not so totally reliant on the QB. You can spread the risk, bring the player along slowly and the winning from year to year is more consistent. There is a reason Tressel's buttoned-down style wins -- it can be tailored to use the more experienced players more often until the QB grows up. There is a reason teams that run the spread are so up and down -- the QB is the whole offense, far more than in other offenses. They build for that one great season, then suffer a huge drop when new personnel comes in. You see it with every team that runs it. We don't want that at Michigan. It cannot consistently win. My fear is more that we won't get Harbaugh, we'll go 7-5 or 6-6 next year and we've then lost another year to get the team straightened out. I am not too impressed by the 7 teams we beat this year. We had 5 quality teams on our schedule and they all manhandled us. That's not happening if Harbaugh is the coach. Our defense will get better immediately and our offense won't get our QB killed. Denard is not going anywhere. He'll do great in any offense and, given that he did not make it through a single complete game this year, he'll see the wisdom of remaining healthy, using his teammates more, building a power running attack with Hopkins and winning a lot of games. He would love Harbaugh, who will help him become a complete quarterback and prepare him for the pros. This guy is a great recruiter and the NFL resume makes a difference with these kids. I'm for Michigan no matter what, and that means supporting Dave Brandon. If he thinks a change is the best long-term move for the program, it's his job to think about the long-term. The sky is not falling if he pays RR $2.5 million and sends him on his way. RR will get hired somewhere else and Michigan will be far better equipped to compete in the Big Ten than we are now. The nonconference inflated 4-0 record means nothing to me. If we can't win in the Big Ten, nothing else matters. So let's recognize that RR has a gift for his style of offense, but also recognize its limits.


Input: [Date] 4 years 30 weeks ago [Title] M vs. the SEC [Body]

Output: I believe we are 7-3 in bowl games against the SEC, including wins in 3 of 4 appearances in the Cap One bowl, which includes a 2-0 record against Florida and another win over Auburn. Indeed, we own the SEC. It's the Pac-10 teams that have given us trouble.


Input: [Date] 4 years 35 weeks ago [Title] Agreed [Body]

Output: Anyone seeing anything they did not expect? I would dearly love to see a second-half miracle. It is nauseating to watch these Buckeye fans have a 3-hour party in the stands. But I agree with you. RR is a great offensive coordinator, but let's end it right there. And I think he is a nice guy who the players love. He is not a head coach. He ignored the defense and the special teams and that's why we cannot beat a good team. We don't have a half-team, we have one-third of a team. Our special teams are the worst in the country. The worst. And our defense is -- by far -- the worst defense of any team in a BCS conference, and it's the worst one we have had under Rodriguez. Hard to believe it could be worse than his first two, but it is. We gain a lot of yards. But we are not a fundamentally sound team. We have been dominated by every good team we played this year and really, the only reason Rich Rod had any chance of saving his job is because of one guy -- Denard Robinson. Take him off the team, we lose to Illinois, we lose to UMass, we probably lose to Indiana. There is no real 'progress' from the first 3-9 team except we have a superstar at quarterback. But there is more to the game. Tressel's teams are always solid across the board. They win. Flashy may be fun, but RR runs a mistake-prone brand of football that often beats itself. It takes the whole package to be the Michigan coach. We can keep some of the spread plays -- who says you have to be all one or the other? -- but we should not keep the coach. If we do, it means next year you can expect lots of yardage and about seven wins. Anyone who expects differently with this staff is just dreaming, hoping for the best. We need a head coach who can recruit across the board, not an offensive tinkerer who is literally obsessed with only one part of the game.


Input: [Date] 4 years 35 weeks ago [Title] Actually... [Body]

Output: Cmon, is this that hard? Politically it becomes difficult to fire Rodriguez if he beat Ohio State. That's pretty obvious. I threw that in there because it would become a consideration, but it is so unlikely, let's not worry too much about that. It's not going to happen. And I am not saying that definitely save Rodriguez. I am saying that is his only chance. Personally, if I knew I could get Harbaugh, I'd fire Rodriguez win or lose. Harbaugh will not set us back two more years, he'll stop us from getting set back 4 years on defense. As for whether Harbaugh wants it, yes, he wants it. But lots of times it does not work out. What if the 49ers offer him $6 million a year? There can be other factors. He may very well want it, he may want more millions even more. Go out on the Web right now and look up what Andrew Luck said about next season. He considers Harbaugh like a second father and he is already saying he is concerned whether Harbaugh will be back. He loves Michigan, but what if someone offers him twice the money? These things do happen. But he is gone from Stanford. I'll pass on responding to the sarcasm. No one believes RR purposely chose overmatched players. But it is true that he pays little attention to it because he believes great offense solves all. He's not a great evaluator of defensive talent. He's not even a good defensive coach. And he is loyal to his friends to a fault. Opposing teams look at the Michigan defense and are amazed at how fundamentally unsound it is, no matter who is playing. Look, I don't hate Rodriguez. But no one should feel bad when he gets canned. The bottom line is we should be competing with the big boys, not desperately seeking to score our way into the top half of the Big Ten.


Input: [Date] 4 years 35 weeks ago [Title] Stay tuned [Body]

Output: ... maybe you don't know what sources I have. Be sure to tell me I'm right when this goes down.


Input: [Date] 4 years 35 weeks ago [Title] Improved every year? [Body]

Output: Come on. We did not beat a single good team this year. As for whether RR will make the defense better, no, he won't! That's the point. It will never be any good. He's never had a defense that could play in the Big Ten anywhere he's been. But what you're missing is this is about Harbaugh's intention to leave and Brandon not wanting to pass him up. If it were not for that, and the fact that we'll be humiliated tomorrow, perhaps RichRod gets another year. But don't tell me he's a great coach. He's a great offensive coordinator. As for asking me what record would make me happy, well, that's the point I am making. A winning record should not save the coach. We are non-competitive with the best teams, we beat only the bad teams. I don't care about any specific record, but this is a non-competitive team that will do no better against the top Big Ten teams -- plus Nebraska -- in 2011. And Brandon knows it. Everybody wants to attack when someone offers a real analysis of an offensive-minded coach who cannot win in the Big Ten. But I'm not wrong and there's nothing in this guy's performance to merit keeping him if Jim Harbaugh is saying he'd love to be the coach. If you put the two side by side, who would you hire? That's how Brandon is looking at it, not whether RichRod has made 'progress' from his first 3-9 team. If you say you'd take Rodriguez, great, we disagree. Of those two, I'd hire Harbaugh. That is the decision.


Input: [Date] 4 years 35 weeks ago [Title] Say what you want... [Body]

Output: ...but I notice you did not offer any evidence to refute it. The argument I put forth is the analysis going on at Michigan. Remember what I wrote. The reason it's going to happen is Harbaugh is forcing their hand and Brandon really, really likes him. He doesn't hate Rodriguez (Mary Sue Coleman does not really care for him) but Brandon also is not sold enough on Rodriguez to pass up Harbaugh. He sees next year's schedule and he sees 7-5 again, maybe. Plus, if Michigan does not hire Harbaugh, the San Francisco 49ers will, or some other NFL team. So Michigan will make the move, as you shall see. My sources are not wrong and they are the same ones who told me three years ago that Michigan had decided not to offer Les Miles the job, which prompted Miles' famous press conference in which he acted like he had turned down a job he had never been offered. Every bit of that information was right on the money. The only way Rodriguez stays is if Michigan beats Ohio State (not going to happen) or cannot close the deal with Harbaugh (doubtful, given both sides' interests). But even if Michigan strikes out with Harbaugh and keeps RichRod, he will then be forced to hire a top DC and let him pick his assistants. Things can always go wrong in a negotiaton, but that's all that will save RichRod. Brandon is shrewd. If Harbaugh wants it, he's the new coach.


Input: [Date] 4 years 35 weeks ago [Title] Cool post [Body]

Output: ... of course, it's easy to be cool when you know your team is going to kill us. The only silver lining is it will be crystal clear to all Michigan fans why David Brandon has decided to replace Rodriguez with Harbaugh. You can't win with half a team, or a coach who only knows half the game and won't turn the other half over to someone who could turn it around.


Input: [Date] 4 years 35 weeks ago [Title] The OSU backup QBs are awful, but.... [Body]

Output: ...that won't matter. If they can hand the ball off, that will be enough against the Michigan defense. Used to be knocking out a star player meant something in this game, but Michigan cannot stop any offense, good or bad. If Ohio State has no turnovers, they win by 21, easy. Because they will stop our offense enough by just forcing it into mistakes.


Input: [Date] 4 years 35 weeks ago [Title] What's next? Harbaugh [Body]

Output: Here's now you will know it's Harbaugh: If Rich Rod gets fired. If he's not fired, that means Brandon could not land Harbaugh. He won't make a move unless he is certain. He won't fire the coach and take a chance on a coaching search. If he cannot get JH, Rich Rod gets another year with a new defensive staff. But if RichRod gets fired, then you can be sure Brandon has his man ready to take over. It's down to that.


Input: [Date] 4 years 35 weeks ago [Title] The Night Before Rodriguez's Last Michigan Game [Body]

Output: All you have to do is look at how we did against the four best teams we played -- Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan State and Penn State -- and you will know we have absolutely no chance in this game unless Ohio State has 5-plus turnovers and we get touchdowns off of four of them. I like the spread offense, I really do, but I am a little tired of all these people on here saying that, 'Now that we have the offense in shape, once we add the defense next year, we'll be great!" No, we won't. Rich Rodriguez has never had a great defense. In the Big East, there is no such thing. His 'great' 3-3-5 defenses there would have gotten decimated in the Big Ten. All you need to do is note that Michigan, which is not close to contending for the Big Ten, whipped a mediocre UConn team that may very well clinch the Big East's BCS berth. There is absolutely nothing to support the argument that our itty bitty defenders are going to do any better next year. The truth is, no matter how dynamic the offense, it means nothing because touchdowns mean nothing in Michigan games. They only mean something if we can stop other teams from scoring at will, which we have not been able to do for 3 years. The recruiting claim is hogwash. This defense has gotten worse every year. Indeed, the three worst defenses in Michigan history are the past three seasons -- and this season's is the worst of all. If he was still our coach next year, the defense might even get better, but it still will be the fourth-worst defense in Michigan history. No one can argue that. It's over folks. Laugh at Wojo and Lynn Henning all you want, but has no one noticed the abrupt change in the tone of Wojo's writing the past few weeks? In his long interview with RichRod about a month ago, he sounded quite supportive. He's not banging that drum anymore. You know why? He's got sources and he knows something. So does Henning. These guys are around the program a lot. They know that Rodriguez is gone. The winning record will not save him. Michigan has not beaten a good team all season. It's a joke. These columnists are sending signals in their columns, they're not guessing. If you're not seeing those signals, that may be because most are analyzing this the wrong way. It has nothing to do with whether one can argue Rich Rodriguez deserves another year. In a perfect world, he does. Hard to argue that. He's only had 3 years. But here's the problem: Harbaugh is leaving Stanford. Gone. Period. It might be Michigan, it might be the NFL, but he is gone. Bank it. Even Andrew Luck, who is going to turn pro, mentioned that one reason is he's not sure Harbaugh will be back. So for David Brandon, here is the crossroads: If you don't want Harbaugh, then you bring Rich Rod back. If he doesn't work out next year, you get someone else. By then, Harbaugh is someplace else. But if you do want Harbaugh, you make the move when you can get him. And quite frankly, it's a move I would make. I like Rich Rod, I think he is one great offensive coach. I do not think he is a great head coach. I think he shows it all the time. A great coach does not let his defense get this bad. A great coach does not keep his friends on staff on a defense this bad, he fires them. A great coach does not get so obsessed with his offense that he convinces himself marginal defenders won't matter, because no one will stop us. There is a problem when the offense is in the top 10 in the nation and the defense is in the bottom 10. If you see that kind of disparity, there is a problem with the head coach. That cannot happen at a place like Michigan and there's nothing to make me believe he has it in him to admit he knows nothing about defense, get rid of his buddies and bring in a DC who has full authority. Rodriguez thinks he has it on the right track. He is that stubborn. And Brandon has figured that out and he's going to end this now. So the reason Rodriguez will be fired is two-fold: 1) The 'progress' is deceptive, and the 'progress' does not win games. Yes, the team is better on offense this season, but that's only because it has been so horrendous the past two seasons. But the gap between where Michigan is now and actually DEFEATING talented teams is wider than ever. We are not just losing, we were non-competitive against every good team we played except maybe Iowa, and even in that one we were only within striking distance, but not outclassed completely. Brandon is looking at that competitive gap and he does not see this staff, with its philosophy and the head coach's stubbornness, closing that gap. Brandon might have given him one more year except... 2) Harbaugh is leaving Stanford, he has made sure Michigan knows it, and so it is now or never for Michigan. It is going to be now. The man is a complete football coach who could be at Michigan 20 years. It's the job he wants. He wants to coach in the Big Ten, and we should be thankful Michigan State did not hire him four years ago. Brandon cannot pass him up and don't look at our current 7-4 record (7-5 after tomorrow) to make a case for Rich Rod. Look at the huge competitive gap in the games involving the Big Ten's top teams. Brandon has to address it and he knows that if he brings Rich Rod back, it will be another year of big scoring and giving up big scoring. No one should say Rich Rod did a great job. He cost himself a winning season with stubborness and stupid personnel decisions in year 1. He was an interesting experiment and that's how we'll remember him, but he took 40 years of winning and replaced it with a speedy team of midgets that gets steamrolled by quality Big Ten opponents. A head coach with a big-picture view of what it takes would never have made that mistake, and Harbaugh will start correcting it immediately. Denard is not going anywhere. He'll win more games when we have a complete team, led by a complete coach. So don't argue about the pros and cons of Rich Rodriguez. We all have seen it. This is about Harbaugh's availability and a new CEO-minded AD who is going to grab him before someone else does. We should all wish Rodriguez well. He has quite an impact on college offenses. But he is not the complete package, as our half-team proves. Go Blue!


Input: [Date] 4 years 38 weeks ago [Title] It doesn't matter who plays.... [Body]

Output: I like J.T. Floyd. He seems like a good kid, probably could be a pretty good Big Ten player. But let's be honest: It simply does not matter with this defense. I can tell you, on very good authority, that the press corps that covered Greg Robinson at Syracuse thought he was a nice guy, but quite possibly the worst coach in the history of the Orangemen. He speaks in code, his teams always suck, and his great resume touts his defenses at Texas and with the Denver Broncos, but neither of those teams won with defense. Texas had Vince Young, the Broncos had John Elway. Does anyone even remember the defenses on those teams? And now, Robinson gets fired at Syracuse and the team is instantly better, in terms of record and on defense. I am so tired of hearing youth blamed. I am so tired of hearing Lloyd Carr blamed. The best part of this defense is the D-line -- all recruited by Carr. Has Rodriguez recruited a single impact player on defense? The only way I keep this coach is if he is ordered to bring in a strong D coordinator and leave him be. Hell, bring back Gary Moeller, the best post-Bo coach we have had. And if Rodriguez resisted, I'd fire him and not look back. Also, all everyone talks about is Harbaugh. He's not coming to Michigan. I went to school with the guy. He wants an NFL job. We don't need someone who just wants to step to the NFL. Great coach, but he's likely headed to the Carolina Panthers. He sees his brother's success and all the fame and money of the NFL and that is his preference. Don't expect to see him in Ann Arbor, even if Rodriguez is fired.


Input: [Date] 4 years 47 weeks ago [Title] Very good analysis, but I'll stick with 8-4 [Body]

Output: I will admit to a feeling of falling off the cliff when I heard about Troy Woolfolk's injury until I remembered that he is a super athlete, really fast, but not a great football player, at least at DB. And I recalled what Nick Saban once told me at an LSU practice about a highly recruited, super fast guy, who never played, as he raced down the field ahead of everyone else: "He's fast, he's strong, he's a great athlete, but he can't cover anyone and every time he has a chance to make a play, he doesn't. I don't play those guys." So I'm going with our freshman, just because I've seen our 'experienced' players. My sleeper for the secondary is Cullen Christian, who has the goods to pick things up quickly and play well. I stand by my 8-4 call, which means we go 3-1 in nonconference (we might drop one in South Bend, though the Irish are also defenseless and their coach seems to hate stopping people even more than ours). I'm not buying the MSU hype and we correct that little, disturbing trend and anger the most classless coach in the league. We'll also beat Indiana, Illinois and Purdue, the latter not as tough as some might expect. And if we start 3-1, we'll need one win out of this group: Iowa, Wisconsin, Penn State (word is Kevin Newsome can't hit the broad side of a barn), Ohio State. I know which one I'd prefer.


Input: [Date] 4 years 47 weeks ago [Title] Free Press owned by Gannett, not Newhouse [Body]

Output: Folks, Not to throw cold water on this discussion, because the Free Press so-called investigation of Michigan was about as flawed and biased as they come (not helped, of course, by the failure of the Rodriguez staff to fill out routine forms regarding voluntary workouts that all D-I programs lie on), but the Detroit Free Press is owned by Gannett Newspapers and was previously owned by Dean Singleton's company. It has never been owned by Newhouse. Also true, and more to the bias point: The Free Press reporters lied to Michigan players, particularly freshman, and wrote a series that was deceptive in its breathless declarations that greatly embellished and exagerrated the facts. And then the paper took the view that any NCAA violations made their entire series true, but as we know, that is not so and the reporters remain guilty of lying. The JeRon Stokes quotes, and the response from the kid's father, are exhibit A on that point. Anyway, way back when, Newhouse bought Booth Newspapers, which was a family chain, and that gave Newhouse the papers in Ann Arbor, Flint, Bay City, Saginaw, Jackson and Grand Rapids. Curiously, they decided to close Ann Arbor, a city with more potential readers than any of the others, as a grand online experiment which led to what could arguably be called the worst newspaper-converted-to-online-only-disaster in the history of the internet. If you pulled Charles Woodson and replaced him with Jordan Kovacs' little sister, that would be an appropriate football analogy. I have no quarrel with the point about the inherent bias of the MSU grad being in charge at mlive.com, though I am not surprised an MSU grad is at the helm as it is one of the ugliest, most poorly organized web sites around with millions of dollars behind it. The problem with bias here, in my experience, is that Michigan grads always have found it much easier to view Michigan State properly and objectively (which is to say, if you cannot get in to Michigan and you don't care all that much about future total household income, MSU is a reasonably decent place to get a degree that will make you one of the more polished barristas at Starbucks) than Michigan State fans have in viewing graduates of the great, world-class research institution in Ann Arbor. (The overall problem, I believe, stems from every MSU grad secretly wishing they were U-M grads, because that degree can take you somewhere that is not an A) lowly paid school teacher, and God knows MSU cranks out a lot of dumbass teachers or B) a hotel manager, because you can major in that there, which is the suit-and-tie version of majoring in welding.) Personally, I don't think MSU grads should be able to draw unemployment because they knew that was going to happen and they went to school there anyway. So of course the mlive.com guy is a little mad. That job pays like crap, too, and you can tell by looking at that sea of garish type that passes for one of the state's major news sites. Now, back to the bias discussion!


Input: [Date] 4 years 47 weeks ago [Title] Stats are worth analyzing, but we should hammer UConn [Body]

Output: Hey folks, I am new to this site, which I turned to because some genius decided to stop publishing the Ann Arbor News, I cannot stomach the writing of Michael Rosenberg and Drew Not-So-Sharp in the Free Press, and I am so happy that someone else has stepped up. So good for the founders of mgoblog. While I thank god for Wojo in the News (and what a mismatch it is when he and Rosenberg write on the same days) I firmly believe this site is now the best thing out there covering Michigan football. I'm also in the media business, having previously run the East region sports coverage for The Associated Press before moving to D.C. a few months ago. So I have seen a lot of these East region football teams play and overall, I'm not all that impressed with the Big East. That great Cinci team of last year would've gotten drilled four times in the Big Ten. In fact, I think one of the reasons Rich Rod's defenses at Michigan have struggled is because he came from the Big East, where teams are simply do not play the same physical, bruising style seen from teams that have given Rodriguez's Michigan teams a lot of problems. This data is interesting and worth noting, but the problem is these teams play in different leagues, so it must be qualified. The Big Ten is stronger than the Big East, markedly so. No one in the Big East is great on defense. Cinci had one of the worst defenses I've ever seen, and they won the league. (A story for next week, but when it comes to not playing defense, Brian Kelly takes a backseat to no coach. Expect a porous Irish team.) So, sure, UConn is a scrappy bunch and Edsall is a disciplined, Carr-like caveman who has done a great job. LET'S NOT GET CARRIED AWAY. 8-5 in the Big East doesn't wow me. Being picked as one of four teams that could win a league only tells us no one is that great. UConn has a lot of weaknesses. They don't have great team speed, the QB is very suspect (the better one got suspended), they essentially have one quality RB and they are burdened with - yes, it's true - a secondary that looks as bad as Michigan's only doesn't even have the potential upside of youthful talent. They'll try to line up and jam the ball down Michigan's throat because, hey, it works for everyone else. That's the key thing to notice here: If we cannot stop a running team that doesn't throw it all that well, we've got problems. Again. Never mind the secondary. Can't stop the run? Done. I expect Michigan to be better against the run, if only because we literally cannot get much worse. And this may not be what anyone wants to hear, since the last thing we'd like is to ponder another new defensive coordinator, but Greg Robinson made Syracuse a lot better just by leaving. Doug Marrone comes in from the New Orleans Saints, has very little to work with, and the Orange defense is immediately, markedly better. Did anyone catch Robinson talking about his defensive philosophy on the Big Ten network? He is incomprehensible. If that's how he teaches it to players, no wonder we stink. The jargon-laden nonsense he spews makes everything sound a lot more complicated than it should. Let's hope 'simplifying' the defense started with getting another coach to handle explaining it to the players. He makes my eyes glaze over. The only stat that really matters in games in which one team has significantly better talent - but perhaps lacks confidence - is turnovers. Michigan has a lot more talent than UConn - if the Wolverines don't put the ball on the ground or throw it to the other team, Michigan wins. WINS BY 10 POINTS OR MORE. The skill positions are a mismatch, with the possible exception of Todman (who piled up yards, but in the Big East.) UConn does not have great speed on defense or offense. The Huskies come with a very workmanline attack. Our problem going in is that, under Rodriguez, Michigan has become a turnover machine. Everyone seems to fumble. It's the biggest problem the team has had. Under Bo/Moeller/Carr, to beat Michigan, you had to beat us, and our defense was going to make it hard. You just did not often see Michigan beat itself. Under Rodriguez, you just wait for Michigan to screw up and pick up easy scores against our matador defense. So, I know we all should be respectful and all that, but let's be honest: Michigan should shred this team if it doesn't bring about its own demise with the sloppy play that has been the hallmark of Rodriguez's tenure.


Input: [Date] 47 weeks 2 days ago [Title] don't sell yourself short. [Body]

Output: don't sell yourself short. Your threads are much better than mine. I guess I just expected something more than an ND open thread where we refer to people as a "gamer". Also I hate it when people play school, but it is "next week's opponent".


Input: [Date] 47 weeks 2 days ago [Title] should of just entitled this [Body]

Output: should of just entitled this thread "guy watches ND game"


Input: [Date] 47 weeks 2 days ago [Title] Turn off your phones and [Body]

Output: Turn off your phones and enjoy a moment in your life.


Input: [Date] 50 weeks 6 days ago [Title] glad to know recruiting [Body]

Output: glad to know recruiting journalism is mostly your ability to tweet unsolicited at minors.


Input: [Date] 51 weeks 2 days ago [Title] While this is a great trade [Body]

Output: While this is a great trade for the Tigers, it makes the Doug Fister trade look even worse in retrospect.


Input: [Date] 51 weeks 2 days ago [Title] Doug Fister trade says hi. [Body]

Output: Doug Fister trade says hi.


Input: [Date] 1 year 1 week ago [Title] I hate to rip a sponsor, but [Body]

Output: I hate to rip a sponsor, but as a habitual daily fantasy player, this isn't really a merger. It is essentially Draftstreet dying, with some of the DS staff going on to work for DKs. If any daily fantasy player wanted to be playing on DK, they would have done so already. It isn't "one great realm of... fantasy". It is essentially a loss of all of DS features, and a loss of choice for the consumer. There is even some questions about whether the merger will pass (or should have passed) antitrust review. Basically, this "merger" means: -loss of DS game types not offered by DKs, such as pick ems and H2Hs. -loss of the DS pricing algorhythm, which was considered to be one of the best (at least for baseball) -loss of DS's community chat (none offed by DKs) -players forced to use the crappy DK interface -players forced to play under rules where not all positions lock at the start of the first game, meaning you can't just spend a few minutes setting up but have to constantly check for news before every game start time. In other words, a sad day for daily fantasy sports.


Input: [Date] 1 year 3 weeks ago [Title] Atrocious figures. If you [Body]

Output: Atrocious figures. If you are going to use two shades of greys to distinguish your categories, they should never overlap like that.


Input: [Date] 1 year 3 weeks ago [Title] this will go far with no [Body]

Output: this will go far with no content.


Input: [Date] 1 year 7 weeks ago [Title] Plagarism is actually handled [Body]

Output: Plagarism is actually handled in house at Duke (and many other institutions).


Input: [Date] 1 year 7 weeks ago [Title] Frankly, I'm neither sure [Body]

Output: Frankly, I'm neither sure that the testimony of a friend of the accused who saw them get out of a taxi is really relevent nor that Duke handled themselves correctly.


Input: [Date] 1 year 7 weeks ago [Title] Tid bits from the local [Body]

Output: Tid bits from the local press: - The standard of guilt used in this case was "more likely than not". - The panel found the student was too drunk to give consent - The alleged victim is a freshmen more info here: http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/a-duke-senior-sues-the-university-after-being-expelled-over-allegations-of-sexual-misconduct/Content?oid=4171302


Input: [Date] 1 year 21 weeks ago [Title] Is there a point to this [Body]

Output: Is there a point to this thread besides your passive aggressiveness? EDIT: that came off mean-spirited, so let me add this: it is great that you have taken an interest in predictive models. They are fun to examine and even more fun to build. I'd suggest that rather than posting random threads where you multiply two numbers and post a list, or other threads which seem to say "HAHA Kenpom sucks" (although not in those words) that you take the time to read about the various models and how they work. In your previous thread it looked to me that people were more attacking your concept than you. Take it and learn. SECOND EDIT: Screw it, I’ll enjoy Bolivia. This series of threads represents pretty much everything wrong with the internet. Anyone can spew whatever they want, and the result is society fails and people like AJ Mass are employed journalists. Sure, here it is just sports, but the same stuff has terrible outcomes on science (won’t get into it cause of the no politics stuff). Just because you can do basic math doesn’t mean it has any value whatsoever. Kenpom has spent years trying to perfect a predictive model that most of us wouldn’t be able to understand. He has essentially dedicated his life to the issue. But hey guys, look at this, I can take his values and then multiply by another number and get a different ranking! Oh wait, you don’t like this thread! Delete it so I can make another one where I give an N of 1 with absolutely no context. Please just stop for a second and try to learn what others have done before presenting your latest “findings”. I’m done.


Input: [Date] 1 year 21 weeks ago [Title] Do you really think that [Body]

Output: Do you really think that something like Kenpom would be so popular if it didn't already account for strength of schedule? Do you not realize that AdjO and AdjD already do this correction? Might as well just multiply each team's Kenpom by their longitude. It would be just as accurate as what you did.


Input: [Date] 1 year 37 weeks ago [Title] Ace williams is still [Body]

Output: Ace williams is still 16. Chesson blocked 3 ND players on one play. We aren't Florida.


Input: [Date] 1 year 38 weeks ago [Title] Pretty sure this consitutes [Body]

Output: Pretty sure this consitutes bullying and we should be ashamed of ourselves.


Input: [Date] 1 year 40 weeks ago [Title] FIRE MATTISON! [Body]

Output: FIRE MATTISON!


Input: [Date] 1 year 40 weeks ago [Title] FIRE MATTISON [Body]

Output: FIRE MATTISON


Input: [Date] 1 year 40 weeks ago [Title] pretty sure kyle bosch burned [Body]

Output: pretty sure kyle bosch burned his redshirt. Did he enroll early?


Input: [Date] 1 year 40 weeks ago [Title] MATTISON [Body]

Output: MATTISON


Input: [Date] 1 year 43 weeks ago [Title] doesn't look young at all [Body]

Output: doesn't look young at all


Input: [Date] 1 year 43 weeks ago [Title] my apologies, the "always" I [Body]

Output: my apologies, the "always" I recalled was indeed not about the follows but about asking them if they want to talk about recruiting afterwards.


Input: [Date] 1 year 43 weeks ago [Title] While perhaps an honest [Body]

Output: While perhaps an honest mistake, he also tweeted Jack Beneventi to follow back each of the last two days after saying he always does it just once. Then of course perhaps it wasn't an honest mistake, as he said Beneventi was the only one not to immediately reply.


Input: [Date] 1 year 43 weeks ago [Title] yes, this. In my opinion, [Body]

Output: yes, this. In my opinion, the twitter account in question is quite embarassing. It is Brian's blog and he can do what he wants, but I'm very reluctent to continue supporting a blog (through store purchases and page hits) with such practices.


Input: [Date] 1 year 43 weeks ago [Title] so someone got perma banned [Body]

Output: so someone got perma banned for posting a name that had already been on the front page of this site?


Input: [Date] 1 year 43 weeks ago [Title] I have to agree with this. [Body]

Output: I have to agree with this.


Input: [Date] 1 year 43 weeks ago [Title] "I definitely have not talked [Body]

Output: "I definitely have not talked with the parent or the coach of every recruit, but to me that's only necessary if the parents or coaches deem it to be." How are you supposed to know what the parents/coaches of a recruit deem to be necessary if you never talk to them?


Input: [Date] 1 year 45 weeks ago [Title] could we please change this [Body]

Output: could we please change this title to something factually accurate?


Input: [Date] 1 week 3 days ago [Body] So long as Harbaugh doesn't try to run out the clock at halftime down seven, I'm not gonna boo. [Title]

Output: So long as Harbaugh doesn't


Input: [Date] 1 week 5 days ago [Body] The active molecule(s) is (are) the active molecule(s) regardless of whether they were made in a living plant or an industrial plant. [Title]

Output: The active molecule(s) is


Input: [Date] 5 weeks 1 day ago [Body] On the contrary I had Orgo Freshman year and greatly enjoyed the challenge. If you're wondering if you want to major in the physical sciences, you might as well jump in early to see how you like it. [Title]

Output: On the contrary I had Orgo


Input: [Date] 9 weeks 5 days ago [Body] Threats of violence are always harmless and innocent, until they aren't. [Title]

Output: Threats of violence are


Input: [Date] 10 weeks 4 days ago [Body] Gravity can affect time (relativity links space and time together.) For instance, the clock in GPS sattelites have to slightly correct themselves because they're much farther from the center of the Earth than we are. Now multiply that factor by a huge number (black holes are really massive,) and you have the time dilation of being near a black hole. [Title]

Output: Gravity can affect time


Input: [Date] 12 weeks 5 days ago [Body] I wonder which QB Cleveland will be taking next year. [Title]

Output: I wonder which QB Cleveland


Input: [Date] 14 weeks 2 hours ago [Body] Well I'm not voting for him again. [Title]

Output: Well I'm not voting for him


Input: [Date] 14 weeks 5 days ago [Body] Found the masochistic Lions fan (speaking as one). [Title]

Output: Found the masochistic Lions


Input: [Date] 14 weeks 6 days ago [Body] When this was first posted I thought, "Dis gun b gud." I guess I wasn't disappointed. [Title]

Output: When this was first posted I


Input: [Date] 15 weeks 15 hours ago [Body] Ace on vacation? Setting the over/under at 4.5 commits. Any takers? [Title]

Output: Ace on vacation? Setting the


Input: [Date] 16 weeks 1 day ago [Body] O [Title]

Output: O


Input: [Date] 16 weeks 1 day ago [Body] I [Title]

Output: I


Input: [Date] 16 weeks 6 days ago [Body] Some things should never be said, even in jest. [Title]

Output: Some things should never be


Input: [Date] 17 weeks 4 days ago [Body] Well that's how you beat the press: play good D so they never get the opportunity to press. [Title]

Output: Well that's how you beat the


Input: [Date] 18 weeks 10 hours ago [Body] Since it doesn't stop solid objects, it won't be much good at helping our passing defense. Protecting the fans from the shock wave of a Jabrill Peppers tackle, on the other hand, would be a worthwhile endeavor. [Title]

Output: Since it doesn't stop solid


Input: [Date] 19 weeks 2 days ago [Body] How many teams can even think about hitting .500 after losing seven of the team's best players in only one year? Beilein uber alles. [Title]

Output: How many teams can even think


Input: [Date] 19 weeks 2 days ago [Body] From what I heard about Berkley, I believe that. The STEM programs there are intense. [Title]

Output: From what I heard about


Input: [Date] 19 weeks 4 days ago [Body] Send in the subs! [Title]

Output: Send in the subs!


Input: [Date] 20 weeks 6 days ago [Body] Why wasn't that foul ten seconds ago? [Title]

Output: Why wasn't that foul ten


Input: [Date] 20 weeks 6 days ago [Body] All right pack it in guys. It's over. [Title]

Output: All right pack it in guys.


Input: [Date] 20 weeks 6 days ago [Body] WHY CAN'T WE HAVE NICE THINGS? [Title]

Output: WHY CAN'T WE HAVE NICE


Input: [Date] 23 weeks 5 days ago [Body] He sees a vision of himself ruining the program. He does not know what he did. [Title]

Output: He sees a vision of himself


Input: [Date] 25 weeks 6 days ago [Body] It's amazing how Michigan transitioned from the best scoring outfit in KenPom history to a scrappy defensive squad. For a "system guy," Coach B has got to be the most versatile coach in the game. [Title]

Output: It's amazing how Michigan


Input: [Date] 26 weeks 5 days ago [Body] This Will Be Ugly But Who Cares Because HARBAUGH!!!!!!!!!!! [Title]

Output: This Will Be Ugly But Who


Input: [Date] 27 weeks 2 hours ago [Body] Like that time he won the Super Bowl? [Title]

Output: Like that time he won the


Input: [Date] 27 weeks 6 days ago [Body] Hello Senior Levert? [Title]

Output: Hello Senior Levert?


Input: [Date] 28 weeks 4 hours ago [Body] o.O [Title]

Output: o.O


Input: [Date] 29 weeks 1 day ago [Body] Most accurate kicker in NFL history? Thanks for the jinx. [Title]

Output: Most accurate kicker in NFL


Input: [Date] 29 weeks 1 day ago [Body] Welp. [Title]

Output: Welp.


Input: [Date] 30 weeks 1 day ago [Body] #1 run defense my ass. [Title]

Output: #1 run defense my ass.


Input: [Date] 1 day 9 hours ago [Title] I don't think that anyone can [Body]

Output: I don't think that anyone can be ruled out, especially when dealing with type A personalities competing against other type A personalities on a daily basis. I look at a case like Verlander or Roy Halladay and wonder if the drop off in performance (from elite to run of the mill) is not due to a positive test that was never made public, because there was no second positive test. I don't think it diminishes their accomplishments since such a large portion of the league was using, but I don't think that it makes their accomplishments any better either. Did you think Andy Pettite was using PED's?


Input: [Date] 1 day 9 hours ago [Title] Steroid Era [Body]

Output: So you are just going to assume that only hitters were juicing? The guys on the bump were doing every bit as much as the rest of them.


Input: [Date] 8 weeks 2 days ago [Title] I love my career. [Body]

Output: I sell propane and propane accessories. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I always liked to think that if I hadn't broke my ankle back in '83, maybe I would have played for the Cowboys, but then I realize that Strickland Propane will always be the place for me.


Input: [Date] 12 weeks 6 days ago [Title] Sprints [Body]

Output: Sprint Cars on a dirt track. Favorite racer of all time is Bill Elliott. Second is Dick Trickle for obvious reasons.


Input: [Date] 20 weeks 6 hours ago [Title] My usual go to [Body]

Output: Is a bottle opener. But you can always use a lighter, or any of the other things MacGyver types use to open those bottles.


Input: [Date] 21 weeks 4 hours ago [Title] Ya don't say? [Body]

Output: IBD


Input: [Date] 22 weeks 6 days ago [Title] Huh? [Body]

Output: It's like the world's most poorly timed April Fool's Day joke ever.


Input: [Date] 25 weeks 5 days ago [Title] DeWeaver? [Body]

Output: Is this why Messiah de-committed? I think that with Harbaugh, he could make any player a good quarterback, I tell ya what. Except for probably Bobby, that boy ain't right. Now Joseph on the other hand...


Input: [Date] 26 weeks 4 days ago [Title] Fool me once.... [Body]

Output: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me five times and I would begin to think maybe I was the problem. That or my doctor.


Input: [Date] 28 weeks 5 days ago [Title] Who knew? [Body]

Output: You must drive like my great grandmother. Denver is a two hour drive from Laramie, Salt Lake City is a 7 hour drive from Laramie, you can enjoy the outdoors in peace, and there are no big pimply a-holes like you to bug the locals. Matter of fact, when I retire from Strickland, I might just move to a place like Laramie. Almost forgot about the water.... It's great there!


Input: [Date] 29 weeks 6 days ago [Title] I'm so excited... [Body]

Output: "I'm so excited for the first week of winter conditioning, to get that started. Let's find out exactly what our intent is." Anybody else go from 6:00 to Midnight on that one? There is a plan, a process, and now a leader to ensure it is ruthlessly implemented. We are in good hands again.


Input: [Date] 30 weeks 6 days ago [Title] A head coach [Body]

Output: A head coach is typically minded one way or another (offense or defense). The biggest issue I believe you are overlooking is his leadership. His determination. All reasons he has turned around three programs (two of which were historically bad football wise) and would most likely win here. No one is claiming an inherent schematic advantage, just the hope that we will actually start to "out-physical" teams instead of just talking about it.


Input: [Date] 31 weeks 4 days ago [Title] Best Harbaugh thread yet, [Body]

Output: Best Harbaugh thread yet, followed by the worst. What the fuck was that man?


Input: [Date] 31 weeks 5 days ago [Title] IBD [Body]

Output: Monkey Rodeo?


Input: [Date] 31 weeks 5 days ago [Title] ? [Body]

Output: First it was your gut and now it is in your bones...


Input: [Date] 31 weeks 5 days ago [Title] Also, [Body]

Output: At least this is worthy of a new thread. Good insight. IBD Can we get some monkey rodeo?


Input: [Date] 31 weeks 5 days ago [Title] WTF? [Body]

Output: You even got the "old saying" wrong!


Input: [Date] 36 weeks 9 hours ago [Title] You forgot one name. [Body]

Output: Bill Cowher is the S&C coach.


Input: [Date] 37 weeks 2 hours ago [Title] Thank you [Body]

Output: For your apology. It will be taken into consideration.


Input: [Date] 38 weeks 5 days ago [Title] Malibu's Most Wanted [Body]

Output: Malibu's Most Wanted


Input: [Date] 39 weeks 1 day ago [Title] He still has one advantage. [Body]

Output: He can hear what a good team sounds like.


Input: [Date] 39 weeks 1 day ago [Title] Not for lack of trying? [Body]

Output: This is Michigan Fergodsakes.The job requires more effort than what has been put in, obviously. So yes, it has been for a lack of trying. Folksy football coach can't coach football. Hoke has been the loudest about "expectation", and they have not been met (outside of great practices), so we will stomp wherever we please.


Input: [Date] 41 weeks 4 days ago [Title] Tricky situation. [Body]

Output: The coordinators see the team practice all week from field level, yet they watch the film of opposing defenses from a press-box vantage point. Aesthetically, it would seem that the view from the box would give you a much broader view of the game, and making it easier to pick up tendencies, coverages, weaknesses, etc. and exploit them. Forest for the trees argument. However, if the coaches, who are WELL into their coaching careers at this point and thus, presumably well versed (though this season is becoming a contradiction to this point) in all facets of their job see the game all week at field level, wouldn't you want that same experience on Saturdays? Just my two cents, now onto reality. The obvious answer is that Nuss probably wants to call plays from the booth, but Hoke said he couldn't because he wanted to be able to communicate with him directly. No headset for Hoke = no direct communication to coordinators. I still do not understand this argument from him. Coaches throughout the country coach players very well during games while wearing a headset. Why can't Brady Hoke? Is there so much going on for him that he cannot effectively do his job with a headset on? If so, he is simply not qualified for the job.


Input: [Date] 44 weeks 2 days ago [Title] Still being a dick [Body]

Output: At 15? Maybe the man is in medical school, or perhaps the traditional route was not suitable and that is why he has to study. Regardless, wtf is the OP talking about?


Input: [Date] 51 weeks 15 hours ago [Title] Let me take this as an opportunity... [Body]

Output: To warn everyone here about the dangers of cooking with charcoal. Here at Strickland Propane, we say, "Taste the meat, not the heat." That is because propane is a clean-burning, odorless and tasteless gas. Enjoy the rest of your summer, and remember to step away from that bag of Kingsford if you truly want to enjoy that cut of meat.


Input: [Date] 1 year 12 weeks ago [Title] Belichek [Body]

Output: That is BB. 3/4 sleeves would have made it more obvious.


Input: [Date] 1 year 12 weeks ago [Title] You were right. [Body]

Output: Definitely Betty white. Assuming it was a bad joke like you said. My mind told me it was Marge Schott, but upon closer inspection, it is definitely Betty White.


Input: [Date] 1 year 13 weeks ago [Title] That is fucked up, [Body]

Output: and racist too.


Input: [Date] 1 year 13 weeks ago [Title] Exhibition? [Body]

Output: Saw no mention on an exhibition game. Just pointing out that a high elevation does not make a game unsafe.


Input: [Date] 1 year 13 weeks ago [Title] Wyoming [Body]

Output: The Wyoming Cowboys play home games at the same elevation.


Input: [Date] 1 year 35 weeks ago [Title] Me Too [Body]

Output: Section 23, Row 23 Seat 19 or 20.


Input: [Date] 3 years 43 weeks ago [Title] My Experience [Body]

Output: Has been a little bit of both. But beware, the Purple Line stop after games is insanely crowded.


Input: [Date] 3 years 43 weeks ago [Title] Pretty Funny?!?! [Body]

Output: I am laughing so hard that our group admin came into my office to see what the hell was going on. I then sent the link to an OSU alum and she is now howling in her office...holy tap dancing christ that is hilarious.


Input: [Date] 3 years 43 weeks ago [Title] Just an FYI [Body]

Output: Driving to, and parking in, Evanston for a game is a nightmare. I live a bit north of Evanston and end up taking the Metra and walking whenever we play the Wildcats.


Input: [Date] 3 years 46 weeks ago [Title] Only [Body]

Output: Twenty-three times for me. I am bummed, my face is totally blurry....


Input: [Date] 3 years 46 weeks ago [Title] Above Posts Have Covered Things Very Well [Body]

Output: All I will add is this awesome nugget. When it became evident that Gallon was wide open, an ND fan behind me yells at the top of of his lungs "JESUS TAP DANCING CHRIST, WHERE IN THE HELL IS THE SAFETY!?!?!?!?!". My father-in-law leans over and says to me, "in the middle of the field, covering a ghost".


Input: [Date] 3 years 50 weeks ago [Title] Certainly Is [Body]

Output: Got an opportunity to meet him a few months back, and I totally understand why he is such an amazing recruiter.


Input: [Date] 4 years 1 hour ago [Title] Well Put. [Body]

Output: Stan just can't seem to come to grips with the fact that his son is a Grade A dipshit.


Input: [Date] 4 years 4 days ago [Title] Valenti [Body]

Output: Isn't stupid. He is a world class a-hole, but not stupid. He knows what will happen over the course of the next few hours. Angry Michigan fan will call, he will interrupt and subsequently hang up on them, all the while being the twatwaffle that he is. And people will listen, which is the whole point. Oh, and Dantonio is a smug, hypocritical dickhead.


Input: [Date] 4 years 2 weeks ago [Title] Mercifully... [Body]

Output: I have compartmentalized 2008-2010 and completely forgotten about it. Watching the 2008 Capital One Bowl is my last memory... Bad jokes aside, that Wisky game was crazy. We had a few Badgers in our section and man were they (justifiably so) ornery when the 2pt conversion failed.


Input: [Date] 4 years 11 weeks ago [Title] We Recently [Body]

Output: Did the same thing. Moved to MI after living in Chicago for 14 years. I wanted to be within 30 minutes of Ann Arbor, so that ruled out W. Bloomfield, Birmingham, etc. Eventually narrowed things down to Northville and Plymouth (we wanted a home in a downtown setting, walking distance to parks, blah, blah, blah). Chose Northville because of the public schools. It's a great town..but housing is on the more expensive side.


Input: [Date] 4 years 19 weeks ago [Title] A Wee Bit of Misinterpretation [Body]

Output: I intended no offense, though re-reading my original comments I can see how it came off the way it did. Don't get me wrong, I am fully aware of how crazy lucky I am.


Input: [Date] 4 years 19 weeks ago [Title] Good God [Body]

Output: Tuition has gotten outrageous. Gotta give mom and dad a huge thanks for footing the bill during my three years in Ann Arbor for law school. I can't imagine busting my ass, getting to April of 3L with a brain that resembles oatmeal only to finish with a mountain of debt. I is lucky.


Input: [Date] 4 years 20 weeks ago [Title] I Woke Up To [Body]

Output: The radio saying "earthquake and tsunami" without hearing where it was and nearly hypervenilated. My wife is in India right now and given where the last disaster of this type happened, I damn near had a panic attack. Video and photos of this are pretty scary.


Input: [Date] 4 years 21 weeks ago [Title] None... [Body]

Output: Lamentably, those things destroy my thirty-eight year old stomach. One of our associates brought a mountain of them into the office this morning and I must resist temptation....


Input: [Date] 4 years 27 weeks ago [Title] At the Time [Body]

Output: His being on the sidelines during the first and third quarter never really struck as quite odd. Rita's however, did. Could not for the life of me get why she was allowed there. That said, when DB was behind the team during the PSU disaster, I couldn't help but think "RR is in deep trouble..."...proved to be very true.


Input: [Date] 4 years 28 weeks ago [Title] I Didn't Mind it at First [Body]

Output: Seven years of my life flew by in about 10 minutes. The last three were stressful. Was on planes more often than pilots and working constantly. No wonder I am 38 and single! I made the decision to leave right about the time for me to be considered for partner. My mentor told me I was nuts (and at the time she was probably right), but I just didn't have it in me anymore.


Input: [Date] 4 years 28 weeks ago [Title] Agreed [Body]

Output: At the time, law school felt like the inner circles of purgatory. Both brain and liver were elated in the spring of 1997 when it was over. Ashley's and Grizzly Peak were probably a bit sad that I graduated, as the amount of money spent on booze during those three years probably added a fourth year of tuition. Mercifully, my parents paid for it. I have no idea how I managed to pull that off, so I can't speak to the debt situation. That said, I can give you a perspective on what it has done for me. I was at Winston Strawn in Chicago for 10 years and left in the fall of 2007 to start doing PE work with a handful of friends. During the lovely meltdown of 2008/09, I wondered (maybe a few million times) "what on gods green earth have I done"...), but now I can tell you that it was by far the right move. The degree, connections and experience have proven invaluable. I miss the 90+ hour weeks like a dog misses fleas...


Input: [Date] 4 years 30 weeks ago [Title] The Behavior [Body]

Output: Of our fanbase over the last few days - years actually - is nothing short of deplorable. And...that some are going virtually postal over the mere possibility of Hoke is an embarassment. Given where we are as a football program, we all just need to shut the hell up and see where this goes.


Input: [Date] 4 years 30 weeks ago [Title] If Brandon [Body]

Output: Is using this game as part of his evaluation, RR is d-u-n. Pathetic effort today.


Input: [Date] 4 years 34 weeks ago [Title] Yikes [Body]

Output: As if we need further evidence of how fractured this fanbase has become. Brian is fired up, I spend more time typing this crap than working on my IP cases, and you could practically feel Stan Edwards anger through the phone...Regardless of outcome, I cannot wait for this to be over so we can move on and look forward to 2011.


Input: [Date] 4 years 35 weeks ago [Title] I Tend to Agree [Body]

Output: Forgive the stream-of-consciousness nature of this... Should we play the totally nonsensical/hypothetical what-if game, if would be wise of Harbaugh to see how the final BCS standings look before he makes any decision. Further, Brandon needs to have a candidate wrapped up before he decides anything with regard to Rich. We cannot have a circa 2007 open-market circus on our hands. Brandon has gone on the record about the Michigan "brand", and games like this past Saturday (along with Sparty, Iowa, etc.) drag that brand into the toilet. Totally disgree with Rittenberg's logic here. If anything, this timelines completely undermines RR should he in fact stay. Letting him twist in the wind for a month while we all get assaulted with 'RR going to school X" coupled with brutal negative recruiting is a dangerous game to play. My best guess is that Brandon is trying to time this as best he can in order to minimize carnage.


Input: [Date] 4 years 35 weeks ago [Title] Merci [Body]

Output: I could be blind, or experiencing exhaustion induced system failure...either way, thanks.


Input: [Date] 4 years 35 weeks ago [Title] Am I Blind? [Body]

Output: I am looking at his twitter page right now...and there is no such post.


Input: [Date] 3 years 52 weeks ago [Title] Thanks Tim [Body]

Output: Awesome post as usual. I need to make it to one of the Cincy area games. I forgot we had that many from Cincinnati.


Input: [Date] 4 years 3 hours ago [Title] Love This Guy [Body]

Output: He's doing great so far and I hope it translates into on field performance. I find it funny that he likes the media about as much as he does ohio.


Input: [Date] 4 years 3 weeks ago [Title] Great Post [Body]

Output: I laughed out loud a couple of times. Illinois and Minnesota were my favorites.


Input: [Date] 4 years 6 weeks ago [Title] I don't like the uniform much [Body]

Output: I don't like the uniform much but I like the idea behind it. One nice byproduct is that it garners attention (the good kind) and more people will talk Michigan football in June. Maybe catching the eye of a couple of talented defensive linemen that have yet to commit wouldn't hurt.


Input: [Date] 4 years 6 weeks ago [Title] Awesome [Body]

Output: I thought this would happen due to Tom's updates. This is great news along with Strobel. Guys that are on the fence better reserve a spot or they'll have to go elsewhere.


Input: [Date] 4 years 7 weeks ago [Title] Could be something else [Body]

Output: Can giant douchebags cross the border?


Input: [Date] 4 years 7 weeks ago [Title] Best thread title ever [Body]

Output: Best thread title ever


Input: [Date] 4 years 7 weeks ago [Title] That would be cool but I [Body]

Output: That would be cool but I think they tried that a couple of years ago with probation/eligibility and it wasn't executed well. I used Michigan and had a couple of incidents over 4-5 years but a friend of mine playing with a SEC school (imagine that) complained about it being a huge pain in the ass. He lost several players for random amounts of games due to academics and off field issues. Maybe they'll try again in the future. I'm not sure why but EA loves to drop features and bring them back years later claiming they are "new". I'm still waiting for the play editor to return. Having Denard with full dreads and 99 speed/acceleration will ease the pain slightly.


Input: [Date] 4 years 7 weeks ago [Title] I don't really care for it [Body]

Output: I don't really care for it but they will still have the best helmets in the country to balance it out.


Input: [Date] 4 years 7 weeks ago [Title] This is insane. I can't wait [Body]

Output: This is insane. I can't wait to see what happens next. Anybody see a signed TP pimp cup on Ebay yet?


Input: [Date] 4 years 7 weeks ago [Title] Seems like a good choice [Body]

Output: Seems like a good choice versus playing outside. Lets hope Michigan can turn the house that Peyton built into the Big House south.


Input: [Date] 4 years 7 weeks ago [Title] That's nice. Maybe it should [Body]

Output: That's nice. Maybe it should also have a line about being a colossal douche but I guess you would have to be to even consider coaching there.


Input: [Date] 4 years 7 weeks ago [Title] Just go away Jimmy. Have fun [Body]

Output: Just go away Jimmy. Have fun coaching at Backwater U. God I hope ESPN doesn't sign that smarmy bastard.


Input: [Date] 4 years 7 weeks ago [Title] I watched it earlier today [Body]

Output: I watched it earlier today and it was just as painful as the first time. Maybe they'll show this game to the players as an example of how not to play defense.


Input: [Date] 4 years 8 weeks ago [Title] Nice. Maybe ESPN could print [Body]

Output: Nice. Maybe ESPN could print out a couple more issues for the rest of his small, evil body so we could have a life sized dart board for our walls.


Input: [Date] 4 years 8 weeks ago [Title] Great video. Even dogs are [Body]

Output: Great video. Even dogs are smarter than tsio fans.


Input: [Date] 4 years 8 weeks ago [Title] This just keeps getting [Body]

Output: This just keeps getting better