This Month in MGoBlog History - July 2007: Les Miles? Expansion! The First HTTV! McGuffaggedon!

Submitted by Maize.Blue Wagner on

Previously:

June 2007



July 1 - Sunday

Hello John Weinke. So I always thought he was a younger brother of Chris, but I can’t find any evidence of that now.

July 2 - Monday

Hello Darryl Stonum.

Monday Recruitin’ with updates on Michael Shaw, Jonathan Baldwin, and Christian Wilson.

Unverified Voracity Approaches the Matrix. Quotes from a Toney Clemons profile. His mother’s name is Tonie. Also, Sam McGuffie is looking like more of a sure thing.

July 3 - Tuesday

A little more information on  newest commit Darryl Stonum.

July 6 - Friday

Is Les Miles the best candidate to replace Carr? Brian says no way.

July 9 - Monday

Monday Recruitin’ without much news. However, Sam McGuffie is expected to announce his decision next week.

July 10 - Tuesday

More Miles discussion:

LSU seems to be a ramshackle train of enormous talent that implodes on a regular basis because it is lax, undisiciplined, and plain dumb. Take Miles away from the ridiculously fertile recruiting grounds of Louisiana and slap his hand when he tries to import guys who can't spell "cat" in three tries and visions of Michigan State dance in front of my eyes. My personal preference is for either a proven tactical expert like Jeff Tedford or someone who will just recruit his ass off. What, exactly, is Les Miles good at? He must be good at something, but I don't know what it is.

July 11 - Wednesday

Unverified Voracity Bids Nike Adieu. The announcement has been made, Adidas is coming. Also, the McGuffie announcement date is off for now.

Kevin Porter is planning to come back for another year.

Sketchy rumor at this point, but it looks like QB Steven Threet will be transferring to ‘M’. He will be eligible to play in 2008.

July 12 - Thursday

A scouting report on Threet. This will be great for the 2008 season:

He is indeed 6'6" and criticisms leveled at him are usually along the lines of "graceful as a water buffalo"; he offsets said criticisms with a big arm

July 13 - Friday

Unverified Voracity Identifies Crackheads, Owls. Brian goes after an ND preview from Blue Ribbon that struggles with meaningful content.

The idea of moving a player stuck behind an established starter to another, nearly identical, position? While still having him take some reps at his previous, nearly identical, position? I... wow. Let's just say that never would have occurred to anyone else in the history of coaching.

Junior Mike Turkovich (6-6, 299) is the starting left guard, but he is also a candidate to move to tackle if anything happens to either sophomore right tackle Sam Young (6-8, 315) or junior left tackle Paul Duncan (6-7, 292).

Confusing?

Um... no?

Yes.

N... no?

But it's necessary, Weis says.

I wonder if he can explain this mystery to us.

"[Wenger] is not beating out Sullivan at center, so if he's going to get on the field it's going to be at guard," Weis said.

July 14 - Saturday

OH TE Kevin Koger could commit at any time. Right now it looks like it will be OSU, and that would be somewhat of an upset because of how early ‘M’ was in on him.

July 16 - Monday

Monday Recruitin’. MN WR Michael Floyd has a top four of Florida, ND, Michigan, and OSU. It’s strongly expected that he will choose ND.

July 17 - Tuesday

Fall opponent previews start with Minnesota and their new coach Tim Brewster.

Brewster, at the very least, has a wicked talent for hyperbole. He also claimed Minnesota's coming corporately-named stadium "will be the finest on-campus stadium in America today" and that he would take "the Gopher Nation" to the Rose Bowl. If you were to point out the analogue of Gopher Nation on a map, what would it be? Andorra?

The only name of note is Sophomore WR Eric Decker. Brian predicts a 4-7 season. They would finish 1-11.

July 18 - Wednesday

A review of NCAA ‘08. First impressions are positive. There are a number of good changes from the previous year’s edition.  

Hello Kevin Koger.

July 19 - Thursday

Unverified Voracity is All About the Ladies. A Penn St. blog roundtable is asking each other who they would rather be a fan of: OSU, Michigan, or ND. It’s unanimously Michigan with this being the best reason:

Michigan hands down. Buckeyes think winning national championships is their birth right. Notre Dame fans think your respect is their birth right. Michigan fans think not having to talk to stupid people is their birth right.

July 20 - Friday

Penn St. preview. Not many familiar names, except for the LBs of course: Dan Connor, Sean Lee, and Navarro Bowman. Brian predicts 10-2. They would finish the season at 9-4.

July 21 - Saturday

‘M’ vs. ND series is going to take a break. Sounds like it’s ND’s choice. No big name replacements have been announced.

July 23 - Monday

Monday Recruitin’. ‘M’ leads for NJ LB JB Fitzgerald.

July 24 - Tuesday

Unverified Voracity Wonders if the FCC Thinks the BTN is an RSN LOL. No, don’t say this!

Game of the Century of the Year. We had a #1-#2 matchup last year that didn't work out so well. If voters see fit to place Michigan #2 to start the year, we'll have another: Appalachian State is #1 in I-AA. Slightly higher probability we come out on the right end of this one.

Hail to the Victors 2007. Interestingly, all the non-Brian writing was done by other bloggers. This sounds like a good read:

Christopher P. Anderson on Jim Harbaugh's rapid rise to the Stanford HC position, complete with speculation about whether he'll be the new HC here. Yes, written before his multiple outbursts. Still a great article.

July 25 - Wednesday

Before there was Draftaggeddon, there was McGuffaggeddon.

Brian got a Skype interview with BTN President Mark Silverman. It seemed like satire at first, but apparently it’s real, and it also changes Brian’s opinions of the network somewhat.

July 26 - Thursday

More details on the legal fight over whether or not the BTN is a regional sports network.

Unverified Voracity Vicariously Sexes Duff because Hillary Duff and Mike Comrie are a couple. Also, Hail to the Victors will be sold at Borders and Barnes and Noble.

July 27 - Friday

Pros and cons of Big 10 Expansion. Lots of interesting stuff here, regarding Rutgers...



PROs: Also an academic fit. Better location than Syracuse; has the only program in the universe that could get New York City interested in college football even a little; even if it doesn't still brings in New Jersey. Provides a real rival for Penn State.

As potential world domination plans go, "conquer New York" is third only to capturing Notre Dame or audaciously (and mildly senselessly) picking off Texas from the Big Twelve.

CONs: Has been a total doormat for the enter non-Schiano existence of their program. Last year's Texas Bowl win was great... but as a 40 year high point not so much. Basketball program also bleah.

Verdict: A high stakes gamble, and how. Michigan's in on a ton of New Jersey recruits this year, so I've noticed a new trend: these guys are actually listing and seriously considering Rutgers. Safety Brandon Smith has them slightly trailing us. JB Fitzgerald has them in his top group with UF and us. Witherspoon listed them. They're probably going to get offensive lineman Art Forst. This is a new development, and even if they're striking out on the kinds of guys that get offers from Michigan and UF they're probably going to recruit better than a lot of mid-level Big Ten schools this year. Joining the Big Ten would probably be another boost. So... I don't think this is a flash in the pan. As long as Schiano stays.

That's the bet here: that Schiano can be a program patriarch for the Scarlet Knights. That Rutgers success can be sustained. That when Joe Paterno finally retires, he stays. That the move to the Big Ten provides a further boost. That the program is relevant enough to retain people's interest. Because the downside here is stark: my God, we've admitted Temple.

...and West Virginia...

PROs: Darling of the moment with Rich Rodriguez staying, and if he turns down 'Bama's millions he's probably in for the long haul. Will have a good, if sleazy, basketball team with Huggins around.

CONs: Isn't WVU a really crap school? Huggins should be a net negative. Football program has strong flash-in-the-pan characteristics.

Verdict: Academics are a dealbreaker, I think.

...and Nebraska...

PROs: Rich football tradition. Would be competitive and bring cachet. Nebraska fans travel like mofos and would probably be fun to have around.

CONs: No other sports of note. Geographically distant. Nebraska is not a rich area to pluck recruits from. They would remind us of [BOWL REDACTED] and force us to strangle them and then we would be in jail.

Verdict: Nebraska fans occasionally bring this up as a possible escape hatch from the Big Twelve and their unbalanced TV contracts. An interesting possibility, but the geography is a negative and they don't bring anything except football. Tempting, but no.

Ultimately, here is Brian’s wish list:

1. Texas

2. Notre Dame

3. Louisville

4. Rutgers

5. Boston College

6. Nebraska

7. Missouri

8. Pitt

...the rest I don't care for.

July 29 - Sunday

McGuffaggedon is nigh. It’s down to ‘M’ or Texas A&M. Lots of highlight videos here.

July 30 - Monday

Monday Recruitin’. So McGuffie committed, but no hello post apparently.

Unverified Voracity is Small, Feisty. An interesting note on the troubles that newspapers are having with reporting on an issue like McGuffie where the most interesting item (Youtube videos) aren’t something they know what to do with. They reference the videos but provide no links or embedded videos.

Now the Notre Dame series is back on...for another 25 years. There had been a lot of back and forth with ND fans about who was responsible for not renewing the rivalry, but apparently none of that was true.

July 31 - Tuesday

Mailbag covering what ‘M’ fans should do with ESPN Gameplan package, scheduling  non-conference opponents, how much McGuffie will play in 2008, freshman uniform numbers, and if Carson Butler will be reinstated.

More roster notes. LB/FB Qunitin Patilla, DL James McKinney, and OL Justin Schifano are out of the program.

Hello Mike Cox. The CT RB is a surprise take, especially since (based on other recruiting pieces) in-state RB Jonas Gray is still un-offered.

















 

Comments

The Maizer

July 19th, 2017 at 8:39 AM ^

I love this feature. I wasn't mgohere 10 years ago so it's fun to see these posts. That having been said, this or next month's might be the last I read. About to get depressing.

stephenrjking

July 19th, 2017 at 12:28 PM ^

Agree with Brian's objections to Miles. Tedford, though? RR was cleanly a better candidate than Tedford. A great recruiter would've been nice. We got years in the wilderness instead.

Brian argued positively about Rutgers. I... I mean...

FMblue

July 23rd, 2017 at 9:35 PM ^

Everyone thought RR was gonna be a West Virgnia lifer after he turned down Alabama. I don't think anyone could've predicted he would end up at Michigan (especially back in July 2007). As far as Tedford goes, he was a hot name at the time because Cal had gone 10-3 (tied for first in the Pac 10) in 2006. 

stephenrjking

July 19th, 2017 at 12:40 PM ^

Oh, and I had to look at the linked UV that fisks the Weis article, because the block quote here is hard to follow. It's Brian mocking Weis for making routine position movement sound like a decided schematic advantage, and mocking the article author (Graham Couch under a nom de plume, perhaps?) for breathlessly reporting it as an advanced idea.

What isn't quoted is Brian's subsequent discussion of ND's (actually bad, portrayed as great) secondary situation, a discussion that perfectly foreshadows their annihilation at the hands (and feet) of Mario Manningham that fall.

M-Dog

August 5th, 2017 at 12:23 PM ^

This explains his rationale pretty well:

Verdict: A high stakes gamble, and how. Michigan's in on a ton of New Jersey recruits this year, so I've noticed a new trend: these guys are actually listing and seriously considering Rutgers. Safety Brandon Smith has them slightly trailing us. JB Fitzgerald has them in his top group with UF and us. Witherspoon listed them. They're probably going to get offensive lineman Art Forst. This is a new development, and even if they're striking out on the kinds of guys that get offers from Michigan and UF they're probably going to recruit better than a lot of mid-level Big Ten schools this year. Joining the Big Ten would probably be another boost. So... I don't think this is a flash in the pan. As long as Schiano stays.

That's the bet here: that Schiano can be a program patriarch for the Scarlet Knights. That Rutgers success can be sustained. That when Joe Paterno finally retires, he stays. That the move to the Big Ten provides a further boost. That the program is relevant enough to retain people's interest. Because the downside here is stark: my God, we've admitted Temple.

(Bold emphasis is mine)

His opinion was justified at the time, IMO.  2007 Rutgers was not 2017 Rutgers.

 

Thread Jack

July 22nd, 2017 at 2:05 PM ^

Or does Brian seem generally tamer now than he was 10 years ago (notwithstanding recent material about Hugh Freeze)?  i still wouldn't want to be in his journalistic sights, but man, that writing about Les Miles was pure acid.  I must quickly add, however, that Brian was right about Les.  And he was right about Freeze.