This Month in MGoBlog History - January 2008: Terrelle Pryor, Come on Down

Submitted by Maize.Blue Wagner on

Previously:

December 2007

January 1 - Tuesday

Michigan beats Florida 41-35 in the Citrus Bowl. Wolverine Historian highlights part 1. Part 2.

Brian is surprised by the outcome, but happy.  

January 2 - Wednesday

Unverified Voracity is Just a Bunch of Video Embeds. Lots of Citrus Bowl videos. Also a UFR will be coming since ‘M’ was basically in a passing spread.

A roundup of numerous rumors regarding current commits, class size, possible transfers, and the coaching staff. The position of DC is still open, and Jeff Casteel is a strong possibility. Brian refutes the idea that the 3-3-5 wouldn’t work in the Big 10.

January 3 - Thursday

Reports that Mallett is transferring. However, this means that Terrelle Pryor will likely come to ‘M’.

Florida Game Column...also covering WVU beating Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

Rich Rodriguez put that team together, and though he was absent the framework of that team's offense and defense were his responsibility. That team's offensive and defensive coordinators will be Michigan's offensive and defensive coordinators. That team's recruiting coordinator will be Michigan's recruiting coordinator. And that team was a national-championship-caliber one cobbled together from quarterbacks LSU wanted as a wide receiver and terror-beast fullbacks from Division III schools in Wisconsin.

This might have been a good hire.

General Offseason Plan.

  • Basketball will not have a lot of effort dumped into it. They're really brutal this season and I'm just not that into college basketball. Hideous refereeing, that kiddie three-point line, and games against Northwestern are detraction enough when your team is better than the Wildcats. When it's debatable? Not so much.

  •  

January 4 - Friday

Unverified Voracity Knits. Manningham says he is coming back. Mallet is still uncertain.

Now it is sounding more and more certain that Mallett is gone. The rumors are centering on him going to UCLA.

A breakdown of the probable assistants. At this point, it looks like Casteel will probably come.

January 5 - Saturday

More on assistants. Casteel and Tony Dews are the biggest question marks. If not Casteel, Wake Forest DC Dean Hood is a possible alternative.

Unverified Voracity Says Hello, Goodbye, Hello. Hello NJ S Brandon Smith. Jeff Casteel and Tony Dews are staying at WVU. Bruce Tall is on the fence. Maybe Erik Campbell and Steve Stripling stay.

January 7 - Monday

More assistant updates. Now Dews and Tall are both coming to ‘M’. DC is still a mystery.

Manningham is 90% likely to stay.

Dews and Tall to ‘M’ is official per WVU.

January 8 - Tuesday

Jay Hopson is rumored to be the next DC.

Details to voters for the final blogpoll vote.

Rodriguez says Mallett, Arrington, and Manningham are all likely gone.

January 9 - Wednesday

Exeunt Unverified Voracity. Rodriguez confirms those departures, and Hopson is confirmed as a staff member though not necessarily DC. Also, it looks like BTN and Comcast have come to a settlement.

January 10 - Thursday

WVU is reportedly hiring Florida DB coach Doc Holliday, so maybe Casteel is still in play? Turns out not.

Recruiting Board Update. Lots of Terrelle Pryor videos, but other options will be explored.

Expect at least a couple sleeper types and possibly a JUCO or two. (I've been told that Rodriguez is talking with the admissions department about a couple of JUCO quarterbacks.) I also expect Rodriguez to pursue already-committed recruits in the Midwest corridor he picked up most of his Mountaineers in: meh dual-threat QB Dominick Britt, a Cinci commit, virtually anyone in the Pittsburgh area he thinks can help out, and IN QB Marqueis Gray, who committed to freakin' Minnesota at the AA game.

Year End Blogpoll.

Hoke for DC rumor, but not that Hoke. Maybe Jon Hoke, but this is debunked even before the end of the post.

January 11- Friday

Unverified Voracity Casts Stones. Brian says he is remiss to not mention the Mealer situation earlier. An update and address for gifts is included.

Rodriguez will be playing Score-o at the hockey game tonight.

Scott Shafer will be the next DC. He has been hired away from Jim Harbaugh at Stanford. This sounds familiar with Harbaugh’s hiring of Don Brown.

[New Stanford coach Jim] Harbaugh had never spoken to Scott Shafer when he pulled up last year's NCAA statistics on the Web. But he knew what he was looking for. Harbaugh wanted to lure a coordinator from one of the top-rated defenses.

There, at No. 11, was Harbaugh's man.

Last year, Shafer's defense at Western Michigan was ranked 11th overall, sixth against the run and first in sacks and interceptions.

Shafer says his defense will be multiple. No 3-3-5.

Press conference audio for Rodriguez and Shafer.

January 14 - Monday

Monday Recruitin’. TX WR Terrence Robinson and FL QB Justin Feagin have been added to the board.

Video of Rodriguez on the ice at the hockey game. Brian is excited about the systematic shift in the coaching staff.

Hello OH LB Taylor Hill.

January 15 - Tuesday

Goodbye Mario Manningham.

Unverified Voracity is a Little Girl because Mike Barwis is amazing.

New Rodriguez-related MGoShirts!

The first Rodriguez controversy after coming to ‘M’. He is accused of shredding lots of documents in his WVU office, including personnel files for each player.

Terrance Taylor is planning to come back. Tim Jamieson is the last possible early entry.

Raise your hopes for Terrelle Pryor. He has moved up his planned visit to this weekend.

January 16 - Wednesday

BHGP wrote a piece for comedy that attacked Rodriguez and MGoBlog, but Brian took it seriously. Lots for vitriol.

Reaction and updates to the shredding incident. Also, there might have been improper phone calls to recruits.

Brian realizes that BHGP was joking. Lots of embarrassment.

January 17 - Thursday

More shredding reaction, this time from Rodriguez.

Mailbag. Is it possible that Rodriguez’s first year will be a really bad transition year like Beilein’s first year?

Unverified Voracity Goes eeeee Again. Here is Tom Lemming’s ranking of Michigan’s recruits. Yikes…

  • #11 Sam McGuffie(!)

  • #45 Brandon Smith

  • #49 Boubacar Cissoko

  • #59 Dann O'Neill

  • #80 Daryl Stonum

  • #93 Brandon Moore

January 18 - Friday

Several links to responses from Rodriguez.

2008 Recruiting Board. The names are updated, but most of the content isn’t.

There is great controversy about why Rodriguez made 112 calls to a tiny WV town. Turns out those were calls to check his voicemail.

Brian asked those attending the basketball game to encourage Pryor, but not to forget about the other recruits.

January 19 - Saturday

Alex Mitchell and Jeremy Ciulla will not be returning.

January 21 - Monday

Now Calvin Magee is making accusations back at WVU, insinuating that he wasn’t considered for the head coaching job because of his race.

Monday Recruitin’ says that Pryor was on campus and said it was “cool”. Allegedly, he’s already made up his mind but will milk the process for maximum drama.

There are CFB blogger awards coming up.

January 22 - Tuesday

Mailbag with several perspectives on Shafer and less-flattering reviews of Rodriguez.

A short biography on Ted Sarniack, a “friend” of Pryor who happens to own corvettes and a prosperous business in Jeanette, PA. Also, he has been meeting with OSU coaches last week.

Tuesday Recruitin’. Marcus Witherspoon and Christian Wilson are opening up their recruitment. Nick Perry has a top three of ‘M’, USC, and Miami.

January 23 - Wednesday

Now there’s a picture of Pryor with that corvette. Somehow Charlie Batch is involved too.  

Basically, West Virginia is a mess. Brian agrees with Bill Stewart that this all needs to end.

Assumptions going forward: the shredding thing was much ado about precisely nothing, Rodriguez is neither Satan or Carr, and no one should particularly care about the outcome of the WVU-Rodriguez lawsuit. Occasional links might make their way into UV or on the sidebar; from now on this is all sideshow.

January 24 - Thursday

OSU fans are upset that Pryor is considering Michigan and incredulous that there could be a breath of wrong-doing about their program. Probably a good time to recap their recent improprieties.

Thursday Recruitin’ with three interesting names added to the board: FL QB BJ Daniels, FL WR Martavious Odoms, and OH OL Patrick Omameh.

January 25 - Friday

Unverified Voracity is Reminded. Chad Henne has made comments that all the current QBs (Threet and Cone) might be looking to transfer. There is a chance the QB play in 2008 might be bad.

Hockey update. Michigan is #1 in the country and should have the first seed locked down.

January 28 - Monday

Monday Recruitin’ has an update on the remaining prospects on the board:

Probable Commits

  • TN CB JT Floyd

  • TX WR Terrence Robinson

Decent Shot

  • MI DE Nick Perry

  • SC WR Jaron Brown

  • FL QB Justin Feagin

  • FL QB BJ Daniels

  • OH RB/WR Michael Shaw

  • PA QB Terrelle Pryor

Wildcards

  • MS S Charles Mitchell

  • FL WR Martavious Odoms

  • FL OT Rhonne Sanderson

  • OH OT Patrick Omameh

That looks like five or six guys to me.

Unverified Voracity with Throbbing Temple Surprise. Brian tries to figure out how Drew Sharp is still employed.

The Free Press' logic is probably straightforward: I bet he gets a lot of hits on his pieces. Every time he writes a rip job on someone, incensed people post links on the relevant message boards. Despite the 100% guaranteed "don't give this guy attention" response posted two seconds after the initial link, people click and absorb the latest tripe.

January 29 - Tuesday

Quarterback Mailbag. OSU fans pushback against Brian, saying he could damage Pryor’s career by insinuating that he has been involved with anything unethical.

January 30 - Wednesday

Wednesday Recruitin’. Not much going on yet. Marcus Witherspoon is solid now, but JB Fitzgerald is saying nice things about Rutgers.

January 31 - Thursday

Hello SC CB JT Floyd. He had been a Tennessee commit for about a year, but was recruited by Carr and Rodriguez.

Pryor might be pushing off his decision until after signing day. In retrospect of the 2008 season this explanation seems much more plausible:

If he pushes things back it's to visit spread-friendly Oregon, not the act of a guy who's a "lock" anywhere. Unless, as the hardcore tinfoil-hat types have decreed, Pryor is such an OSU lock that he's under orders from Tressel to lead Michigan on until such time as other options like BJ Daniels and Justin Feagin have freaked out and gone elsewhere.

And Michigan has stopped recruiting BJ Daniels. Pryor or bust?











 

Comments

Maize.Blue Wagner

January 8th, 2018 at 8:57 AM ^

Yeah, there were a number of things in this month that pointed to his work habits as being slipshod, at best. In one of the mailbags there was someone who claimed to work for a major booster at Tulane who said RR wasn't considered for the head coach after Tommy Bowden left because he always had one major skrew up (something to that effect). Now, it certainly seems like more of a pattern. 

shotvig

January 8th, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^

Right around now, is when reading these "10 years ago..." posts, is going to get very painful.  also, arrington going pro early was very puzzling at the time, and may have contributed to his 9 reception NFL career.  Fun fact though, he is now the offensive coordinator of the cedar rapids titans, an indoor football league team.
Good for him!

theintegral

January 8th, 2018 at 12:12 PM ^

Always felt bad about Steven Threet.  4 star out of Adrian, MI who went to Georgia Tech just as they were switching to their famous running game.  Sits out a year after transferring here only to slam into RR's spread.  Transfers again to Arizona State where he beats out Osweiler and has a decent junior year.  Retires at the end of that year because of concussion problems.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/player/stats/_/id/232227/steven-th…

 

 

Tuebor

January 10th, 2018 at 12:45 PM ^

Cool Story Bro Time:

 

In August of 2006 at Pioneer High School during a 7v7 get together (wasn't a tourney or practice just 4 teams getting together for 7v7) I intercepted a pass from Steven Threet.  I was playing Middle Linebacker and dropped right under the Adrian TE and he threw it right in my gut like he never saw me.  Wasn't a particularly athletic play and I never played MLB in a game, just DE.

4roses

January 8th, 2018 at 2:00 PM ^

While these can be painful to read through, I always enjoy having my memory jogged at some weird aspect of days gone by. My favorite from this edition . . .  Remember when Tom Lemming was someone we actually paid attention to? 

JWG Wolverine

January 8th, 2018 at 9:00 PM ^

Geez. I remember reading all this. What a different time.

I always love these posts because they are selective and interesting flashbacks that bring back memories, reminding me of how quickly this site and the state of Michigan Football changes.

Thanks for posting as always!

M-Dog

January 10th, 2018 at 10:32 AM ^

Great job on these.

I like how you do them in the present tense as if they are happening right now, without giving away the ending all the time:

"Reports that Mallett is transferring. However, this means that Terrelle Pryor will likely come to ‘M’."

"A breakdown of the probable assistants. At this point, it looks like Casteel will probably come."

"Rich Rodriguez put that team together, and though he was absent the framework of that team's offense and defense were his responsibility. That team's offensive and defensive coordinators will be Michigan's offensive and defensive coordinators. That team's recruiting coordinator will be Michigan's recruiting coordinator. And that team was a national-championship-caliber one cobbled together from quarterbacks LSU wanted as a wide receiver and terror-beast fullbacks from Division III schools in Wisconsin.

This might have been a good hire."

It makes you really re-live it all, good and bad.  We only knew what we knew at the time.

We thought it was Peanut Butter Jelly time.

Who knew?

 

 

greatlakestate

January 29th, 2018 at 9:34 PM ^

Reading it is like looking at one's last diary entry before getting hit by a bus.  We were so happy and excited and had no idea how many years of pain (and losing to OSU) we were in store for. I guess it's better we didn't know then.  I wish I still didn't know...

greatlakestate

January 29th, 2018 at 9:34 PM ^

Reading it is like looking at one's last diary entry before getting hit by a bus.  We were so happy and excited and had no idea how many years of pain (and losing to OSU) we were in store for. I guess it's better we didn't know then.  I wish I still didn't know...