This Month in MGoBlog History - February 2008: Snake Oil For Sale

Submitted by Maize.Blue Wagner on

Previously:

January 2008

February 1 - Friday

The basketball team is regressing. Brian gives a few observations from half of a particularly rough outing against Minnesota.

February 3 - Sunday

Sunday Recruitin’. Hey, Trotwood Madison might yield some great recruiting results.

February 4 - Monday

Unverified Voracity, Now with Really Long Categories and a youtube link of a Big House tour with Bo.

Monday Recruitin’ says FL QB Justin Feagin and TX WR Terrance Robinson are committed. Also, Terrelle Pryor is now likely to announce on signing day, probably.

February 5 - Tuesday

The Leopold Brothers are leaving Ann Arbor.

Tuesday Recruitin’ with lots of Pryor talk. Where will he go, when will he announce, etc. Also, Roy Roundtree has been removed from the board.

CFB Blogging award nominees.

Yep, Pryor will sign tomorrow.

Hello Patrick Omameh.

A few sources popping up that are saying Pryor will commit to Michigan. Including an OSU fan who sat next to Jerome Bettis on a plane who was in turn with Charlie Batch the night before. Sounds legit.

February 6 - Wednesday

Signing Day is here! And what a haul: FL OL Ricky Barnum, OH WR Roy Roundtree, and FL RB Michael Shaw. Also, Pryor’s commitment is off again. No word on when it will happen.

Allegedly, Pryor is leading toward Penn St.

What? Seriously? I mean... we all understand that the surest way to murder your prospects for the NFL is to get "coached" by Jay Paterno, right?

I think we're out, bizarrely. At this point Penn State is a much better option for Michigan fans, as PSU's class outside of Pryor is pretty crappy everywhere except linebacker, especially if this Shaw switch is legit (upon which more later). If there's any school in the country guaranteed to staple Pryor's butt to the bench for two years and then concoct an offensive scheme that minimizes his talents, it's Penn State.

Nick Perry has committed to USC.

Despite some wavering earlier, Shaw is for sure in. However, now there is panic over McGuffie who has not yet sent in his LOI.

Signing day recap. Rodriguez did a good job in just filling the class with anyone, let alone getting a number of highly rated, potential contributors. This is reflected in how the overall ranking was maintained throughout the coaching transition. There are concerns though that there is only one DL and three DBs.

Rodriguez presser notes. Still waiting on 1 to 3 players: Pryor, McGuffie, and Demens. But the post is updated that Demens LOI is in.

February 7 - Thursday

McGuffie LOI is in!

Is there a German word like schadenfreude that means making fun of someone else's future but it actually turns out just fine for them and then you want to forget you ever said anything in the first place? Cause that’s what happens when you write a post about how Michigan State brought in a terrible recruiting class and they’re claiming they’re going to play in the Rose Bowl and isn’t that just ridiculous? No? Ok, let’s move on.

February 8 - Friday

Unverified Voracity Takes Nine Steps, Then Shoots. Joe Tiller is not happy with Rodriguez for violating a “gentlemen’s agreement” about poaching recruits from other Big Ten programs. Brian shreds this idea. Also, FL WR Martavious Odoms still hasn’t signed and could yet join Michigan’s class.

More shredding of the gentlemen’s agreement idea. Almost every coach in the Big Ten has poached players from within the conference.

February 9 - Saturday

#1 ‘M’ hockey is in the midst of a weekend series with #2 Miami. They won the first game. A second win would really strengthen their position for the rest of the season.

February 10 - Sunday

Hello Martavious Odoms.

February 11 - Monday

The Stupidity of Hope. Boy if that doesn’t sum up the last decade. This very long post deals with Pryor and parses the various rumors and statements from the last few days.

Unverified Voracity Ducks. Lots more about snake oil and refuting arguments about Rodriguez’s dishonorable tactics. Apparently, Tiller was trying to take one of Brady Hoke’s Ball St. commits on the morning of signing day.

February 12 - Tuesday

Recruiting review of QBs and RBs. Here are  the fun YMRMFSPAs:

QB Justin Feagin : Pat White

RB Sam McGuffie : Noel Devine

RB Mike Cox : Mister Simpson

RB Michael Shaw : Antonio Pittman (although everyone expects Shaw to play WR)

February 13 - Wednesday

Recruiting review of TEs.

Brandon Moore : Mario Urrutia

Kevin Koger : Carson Butler, minus the attitude

February 14 - Thursday

Recruiting review WRs.

Darryl Stonum : Mario Manningham

Terrance Robinson : Steve Breaston

Martavious Odoms : Devin Hester

Roy Roundtree : Jason Avant, on a starvation diet

February 15 - Friday

Hockey recap of last weekend’s series with Miami and the upcoming games against a very bad LSSU team.

Brian wrote a piece for Fanhouse criticizing Alabama’s oversigning practices. This made a lot of Alabama fans mad. He responds to them here.

Unverified Voracity BEHDL DEH TOOTH. Rodriguez shocked many by holding an open, undergrad try out. Some interesting tidbits were shared.

What I can vouch for is that Barwis is amazing. His presence is absolutely terrifying, he's so incredibly motivating that even in the brief time I was there I would have done absolutely any drill he made me do as hard as I could. He's a very, very special coach - you want to do exactly as he says because you're so very sure that it'll make you better. During the suicides that we did at the end, he singled me out because I was lagging and screamed at me; I've never willed my body to go faster ever in my life. Awesome.

February 18 - Monday

The basketball team has won three straight, and there is mild excitement for the program. So much so that the court was rushed after a win against a mediocre OSU team.  

Unverified Voracity Briefly. Pryor is looking more and more like a OSU vs. PSU battle.

More back and forth with Alabama fans about oversigning.

February 19 - Tuesday

Another hockey recap. ‘M’ is now up five points on Miami in the CCHA. More importantly:

PWR Breakdown

Hokay. It's like this. By virtue of Michigan's performance to date they have locked up a tournament bid and will be no worse than a two seed no matter what happens from here on out. Michigan could go 0-6 the rest of the way and be a two seed.

Recruiting review OL:

Dann O’Neill : Jake Long

Kurt Wermers : Matt Lentz?

Elliott Mealer : Matt Stenavich?

Rocko Khoury : “uh, that other un-touted guard person”

Ricky Barnum : Rod Payne?

Patrick Omameh : ????

February 20 - Wednesday

Recruiting review DBs:

Boubacar Cissoko : Chris Houston

JT Floyd : Charles Stewart

Brandon Smith : Jamar Adams

February 21 - Thursday

Mailbag. Lots of smoke about bad news coming from the athletic department. Maybe something along the lines of players being funnelled into easy classes.

Unverified Voracity was Going to Wonder about the Sky but it’s Obviously Green. Varsity Blue looks at Rodriguez’s ‘99 Clemson team to try to determine how a big, slow, white QB (ie Threet) will perform.

February 22 - Friday

Brian is heading to NYC for a rest. Posting will be sporadic for awhile.

February 25 - Monday

Recruiting review DL and LBs:

Taylor Hill : Larry Foote

Marcus Witherspoon : Shawn Crable

JB Fitzgerald : Victor Hobson

Kenny Demens : Chris Graham

Mike Martin : Terrance Taylor



 

 



 

Comments

Gitback

February 6th, 2018 at 8:50 AM ^

Well, to be fair, the 2008 class didn't end up playing in the Rose Bowl (if my math is right) and the kids that they were touting from that class, Fred Smith, Tyler Hoover, Caulton Ray, Charles Burrell... didn't exactly light it up for them.  Kirk Cousins was in that year though, I think, with Cunningham, Rucker, Winston.  

They did "lay the foundation" so to speak, I guess, as this class came in just after the first of the 9 game bowl streak that was snapped last year.  

Obviously, intimating that Little Brother was going to continue to bow down to the might of Rich Rod was, well, not accurate.  But honestly, the last decade was not something anyone could have predicted. 

The signs that MSU was going to flip the script on us weren't there at all... until all of the sudden it was happening and we went back and looked at things and went "oh yeah, well, sure, I see it all now."

thombrowne

February 6th, 2018 at 10:19 AM ^

The "Posting will be sporadic for awhile." line reminds that mgoblog hasn't been very productive with original content lately. I don't want to sound like i'm complaining, and I know that the writers work hard and have jobs and other life responsabilities, and I know that this site is free.

Thing is, I don't remember the last Crootin' Anyday of the week post, there's no analysis or OC, all I see is hockey and Bball recaps (which frankly I dont read). I've been waiting on this "this month in mgoblog" as an assured new post. Haven't seen any breakdowns or UFR for Osu or Scar games. No exit posts for Doyle, no hello post for that kicker we just got. No hellos for the GA or the analysts. Maybe this is just the way the offseason is for college sports blog, but , as an addicted reader of this blog who goes to it everytime im on internet, I've been starved...

Then again,  the writers owe me nothing and I shouldnt be insensitive and maybe this is normal...

thombrowne

February 6th, 2018 at 10:30 AM ^

As one of my favorite, and imo best sports blogs on the internet, I hold this site to a high standard. Considering the "this is just the way the offseason is for college sports blog" I dug around at ElevenWarriors, another high quality college sports blog to compare it in the offseason to our dear site.

On that site, IN THE LAST DAY,  I counted 5 original content articles (analysis,rosterbating, nfl stuff) and 3 reporting articles (coaching moves, roster moves, news) - all about football.

Surely we can keep up.

peterfumo

February 6th, 2018 at 10:33 AM ^

I’ve noticed the same thing recently and didn’t want to complain since the site is free. I am not into basketball or hockey so I ignore those posts. I got the sense after the football season that Brian was disgusted with the takes on Harbaugh and the disappointing season. Just wonder if he is a bit burnt out on football right now. This is my favorite site for Michigan football and starving at this point for content.

Bambi

February 6th, 2018 at 2:04 PM ^

"Even the two four-star guys on the roster are kinda crappy: Sims is a horrendous defender and rebounder and Harris is a turnover machine." 

Not the greatest hot take Brian

stephenrjking

February 8th, 2018 at 7:34 PM ^

That MSU recruiting burn didn't age well at all, with the exception of some prescient shots at Mike Rosenberg. 

The recruiting comparisons aged poorly, too, except for Roy Roundtree's. The "???" next to Omameh is ironic because he has had the most successful football career of that entire class. Who would have thought that at any time during his time at Michigan?