That '21 game gave us Seth's "hat" metric in UFR (initially titled for that first game as WRDIS--pronounced "werr-dis"--meaning "Wide Receivers Doing Insane Shit").
+1 (not an alum, but a UM fan for 35 years who lives in Columbus).
Not sure what Brinds' odds of making the CBJ are next season, but it's not like the CBJ don't have spots up for grabs. And their AHL team is actually good.
I'm curious (and ignorant, so please feel free to tell me if I am being so) if there's an aspect of "can get some of his current guys to portal with him" in hiring a coach. For example, FAU only has three seniors on its roster (more portal targets), whereas CSU has five grad students and two seniors (so, fewer potential portal targets).
Considering our roster is a smoldering crater right now, being able to bring a handful of guys with you--provided of course UM lets them in--might be a tie-breaker.
I stand corrected, thank you. As a kid growing up, I always heard about the two of them both going to Syracuse but never bothered to look at the years.
Regardless of this announcement, it's a stupid click-bait question. I'm 46 so my memory is limited to a certain time frame, but Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas were in the same Oklahoma State RB room at one point. I also know due to my Browns fandom that Jim Brown and Ernie Davis were together at Syracuse though obviously Davis wasn't able to have NFL success due to his untimely passing.
They didn't know what it would mean at the time, but as freshmen Alabama had BOTH Derrick Henry and Alvin Kamara in their RB room (Kamara left after that season, went JUCO and then to Tennessee). Some others just off the top of my head:
Reggie Bush and LenDale White (USC)
Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown (Auburn)
Darren McFadden/Felix Jones/Peyton Hillis (Arkansas)
I mean he recruited TreVeyon Henderson who was a 5-star and got 3-star Miyan Williams most likely either a late round draft or UDFA onto an NFL roster. We could do worse.
But I would only counter with this: part of what allowed us to keep that group of players together for that three year run is that they weren't guys out there chasing the top dollar. Michigan won because they scouted and developed guys, and they built a culture of guys who play for each other, not for the dollars. We lost ONE impact player to the portal after a coaching change and staff overhaul. How many did Bama lose?
If you recruit in a way in which you're paying the top guys, you have to wonder what their true motivations are and if you'll ever keep them around for three years to the point where they become those dominant top-3-in-the-draft guys. They're always going to be looking to where the price of the brick is the highest.
Perhaps, but shit like this should be an automatic insta-ban:
This hit was literally just at the 3rd period buzzer in a game that was 3-1. Should Laine have been trying for an empty netter at that point? No. Did he deserve to miss three weeks while the guy that hit him only got four games? Fuck no.
The Jackets and Flames play each other twice a year. This hit happened at the end of the game. How does an enforcer rectify that?
Mine was mix a bottle of Mirolax with a jug of lemon-lime Gatorade and then take that in 8oz servings over the span of a few hours + take 4 Dulcolax tablets. It was easy peasy.
This may be a Karen response from me, but the only thing that will stop cheap shots, IMHO, is if the DoPS starts indiscriminately giving out 15 game suspensions for them.
I think the biggest issue is that a fair amount of the offense this past season was predicated on the fact that McCarthy could run a bit, both in terms of escaping pressure and in being a running threat out of the backfield to make defenses spend a guy in the box on him (or two guys, we see you 2022 OSU). With a Speight-like player, that threat is non-existent.
From my chair (disengaged Browns fan pulling for the Lions as a kindred "if they can figure it out maybe MY team can figure it out too" spirit), it really was the fumble that changed the entire complexion of the game. If you can go out after that flukey pass play that led to the TD and then string your own drive together, catch your collective breath, give your defense a chance to rest... maybe the Lions settle back in and do what they were doing on offense in the first half.
That fumble got in EVERYONE'S heads AND got the crowd going again. The ensuing 3-and-out once it was tied was killer, because the Lions' D was gassed and the whole team seemed to have a collective "WTF just happened" thing going on.
The funny thing is that almost all of the Chevy dealers in the Columbus area have been bought out by Marky Mark (no word on whether or not The Funky Bunch is involved).
Don’t know that he cares one iota about OSU football, though.
As a Cleveland Cavs fan, I can relate. When LeBron left a second time, it didn't matter. He came back, made things right, got a ring... go live in LA and do whatever you want. That banner is hanging forever.
I've generally been ambivalent about McAfee and his schtick on Game Day, I did THOROUGHLY enjoy him calling out Rece Davis on the air when Davis was talking about Jalen Milroe's "Let a Naysayer Know" silliness (as the two Black members of the panel were trying not to lose their shit on live TV laughing).
Things like Brian predicting Iowa to score four points? I found that to be more of a back-handed jab at the Ferentzes and acknowledging that Iowa is built only to score as much as their defense can give them rather than an actual prediction.
I think Iowa's defense was very good, but we elected not to try to test them at all. After the punt return and TD run to make it 10-0, there was no upside to trying to force anything because the game was effectively over.
This means they get the option for the second half, where they will choose to take the ball.
2. Michigan has to choose to take the ball.
Technically, Michigan has their "option" and could pick which direction they want to go, but Bama gets to take the ball in the second half because they deferred their "option" (and why wouldn't you take the ball in the second half).
If UM chooses to "not look into the sun" then Bama gets the ball in the first half as well.
Scrambly, sometimes great throws, can throw it a long distance, is big, but sometimes bad throws, sometimes holds it too long, sometimes bad decisions.
I think the underrated part of Minter's prep for the OSU game is the amount of coverage looks he threw at McCord et al. Yes, you have to have guys execute, and ours did... enough.
But, with a guy like Milroe especially, if you can get him to have to take that extra beat to figure out what he's seeing before he makes a decision and throws it, that's an extra beat that Jenkins/Graham/Grant can get in his lap and move him off his spot. If we have a Colson/Barrett spy of sorts to keep him from getting to the edge untouched, I like our schematic ability to throw different looks at him that get him to make late throws or throws to the wrong spot/man.
And one of the overlooked things is that Maserati Marv was the #160 player in 2021, and the #21 WR (both per 247 composite). Egbuka and Jayden Ballard also were in OSU's class that year, ranked #1 and #4 WR, #9 and #55 in the composite.
Egbuka is very good, and Ballard has nine career catches in three years.
Stars matter, but they aren't the only thing that matters.
I remember in '21 when we were up 14-3 and Iowa kept pinning us (thanks, Henning) inside the 10 with punts. My buddy was getting agitated that we kept basically going run-run-run-punt and he was calling for them to do something.
I turned to him and said, "This is what Iowa wants you to do. Get impatient and make a mistake. The only way they score against us is if we throw it to them inside our 25."
Midway through the second half he said, "You were right."
These are the kinds of things that the braying national media (and average OSU fan) jackasses won't understand: signs are stupid when two coaches are going head to head at *this level*. Minter is doing his best to create--and HIDE--coverages the OSU staff and QB have never seen, and Day is doing his best to get the defense to tip those so he can read them and later exploit them.
To continue to beat this drum that a guy who looked at three GAs holding up a Spiderman, poop emoji, and $ on poster board could somehow give Michigan some huge advantage in decoding what the offense is doing as they go tempo while also trying to keep his defensive players aligned in their disguise without tipping AND having them in position to succeed...
I'm sorry, it's asinine.
Then I read shit like this on 11W, and... yep. That's what they're going with, not realizing that if UM "still had illegal scouting data" and OSU didn't change their fucking signs or, God forbid, go on Amazon and buy a $10 wrist band for McCord to put plays with numbers on it, that it's on them. (Honorable mention to the "suspending Harbaugh actually HELPED Michigan" take, here. Breathtaking.)
I tend to come down on the side of: the officials are generally going to let a fumble like that play out and let replay fix any mistakes. ALWAYS jump on the ball.
[edit] Though I do think it's largely moot, as it literally bounced right into the arms/chest of Egbuka, eerily reminiscent of what Brian always likes to call "JK Dobbins dribbling the football to himself" in 2019.
That's even better, because it's an incredible self-own.
Right? I kept seeing stuff on 11W and Twitter where their fans are like, "Literally any other playoff team will DESTROY Michigan. They're so mid." And it's like, YOU JUST LOST TO US. AGAIN. HOW DO YOU NOT SEE THE OWN-GOAL HERE.
I mean, I'm 46 and I was a freshman in college for the Biakabatuka game in '95. The 1993 shocker was 30 years ago. I only remember 1992 was a tie because my dad took me to the game in Columbus (and it was very awkward after because no one knew what to say to the opposing fans; we all just kinda filed out).
I can tell you that UM won in 93, 95, 96, and 97, as well as 99 and 00, but other than Biakabatuka in 95 and Woodson in 97 I'm afraid I don't remember much specifically about those games because I was in HS/college and generally preoccupied with other stuff.
A lot of the OSU fanbase that is most vocal and cooler-pooper-y is too young to remember that time, and even those of my age remember "The Cooper Years" badly because of that; a lot of them don't remember how stacked his mid-90s teams were, especially that '98 team that gagged at home to Sparty.
They just remember that he didn't beat Michigan enough and those late 90s/2000 bed crapping teams with that led to him finally getting canned. Anyone under the age of 35 probably has no real lasting memory of Cooper's tenure at all.
Tiniest nit-pick: 2015 was actually *Joey* Bosa, not Nick. He was unblockable.
Nick came the same year UM got Gary (I think they were ranked 1st and 5th in the 247 composite that year). I don't remember him being a game-wrecker against UM in '16 or '17, and in '18 he was hurt and opted out of trying to come back to get ready for the draft.
If they kept divisions and the division scheduling, you'd only get one cross-over game per year. If I'm USC or Oregon, am I jumping ship to a conference where I only get to play one of the OSU/UM/PSU three per year, and then if the schedule rotates there are SIX years where I'm not playing any of those?
It wouldn't have been much of a selling point to those three programs to say "yeah, 67% of the time you don't get to play our three best, but you get SIX games EVERY YEAR against absolute crap."
Eh, the 2018 defense was every bit as talented across the board, minus the murder grinder at DT. But it had Gary, Winovich at ends, Devin Freakin' Bush, and TWO legit CB1s plus two good safeties. And OSU hung 60 on them because our CB3 couldn't keep up with their receivers on crossers.
I feel like it’s only natural to go into a shell when you go from down 3-0 to up 23-3 in less time than it might take to hit the rest room and get some concessions.
My only concern was our DBs looking ordinary against WRs that are a very large step below what we’ll see next week.
The conference unilaterally blocking them from the conference championship game and thus a chance at a national championship would certainly be a potential downside...
If true, this to me makes me wonder if the Big 10 was threatening to keep UM out of a potential BTCG. Their suspension letter indicated that they would keep on adding punishments if this kept going, and so I wonder if UM dropping the challenge takes that off the table.
Still fucking sucks, but holy balls would it be great to smack OSU by 20+ without Harbaugh on the sidelines. Would they even let Day back into the state?
Recent Comments
That '21 game gave us Seth's "hat" metric in UFR (initially titled for that first game as WRDIS--pronounced "werr-dis"--meaning "Wide Receivers Doing Insane Shit").
Only bummer was that Adam wasn't healthy enough to play with Brindley for his debut.
+1 (not an alum, but a UM fan for 35 years who lives in Columbus).
Not sure what Brinds' odds of making the CBJ are next season, but it's not like the CBJ don't have spots up for grabs. And their AHL team is actually good.
Topical for this blog:
I'm curious (and ignorant, so please feel free to tell me if I am being so) if there's an aspect of "can get some of his current guys to portal with him" in hiring a coach. For example, FAU only has three seniors on its roster (more portal targets), whereas CSU has five grad students and two seniors (so, fewer potential portal targets).
Considering our roster is a smoldering crater right now, being able to bring a handful of guys with you--provided of course UM lets them in--might be a tie-breaker.
He got him to come back for one more year despite being horribly underutilized by his OC. THAT's a solid job of recruiting!
I stand corrected, thank you. As a kid growing up, I always heard about the two of them both going to Syracuse but never bothered to look at the years.
Regardless of this announcement, it's a stupid click-bait question. I'm 46 so my memory is limited to a certain time frame, but Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas were in the same Oklahoma State RB room at one point. I also know due to my Browns fandom that Jim Brown and Ernie Davis were together at Syracuse though obviously Davis wasn't able to have NFL success due to his untimely passing.
They didn't know what it would mean at the time, but as freshmen Alabama had BOTH Derrick Henry and Alvin Kamara in their RB room (Kamara left after that season, went JUCO and then to Tennessee). Some others just off the top of my head:
Reggie Bush and LenDale White (USC)
Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown (Auburn)
Darren McFadden/Felix Jones/Peyton Hillis (Arkansas)
Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson (Alabama)
I mean he recruited TreVeyon Henderson who was a 5-star and got 3-star Miyan Williams most likely either a late round draft or UDFA onto an NFL roster. We could do worse.
But I would only counter with this: part of what allowed us to keep that group of players together for that three year run is that they weren't guys out there chasing the top dollar. Michigan won because they scouted and developed guys, and they built a culture of guys who play for each other, not for the dollars. We lost ONE impact player to the portal after a coaching change and staff overhaul. How many did Bama lose?
If you recruit in a way in which you're paying the top guys, you have to wonder what their true motivations are and if you'll ever keep them around for three years to the point where they become those dominant top-3-in-the-draft guys. They're always going to be looking to where the price of the brick is the highest.
It is, that's my bad. I conflated the two links with the Isles and Flyers fights OP mentioned.
Perhaps, but shit like this should be an automatic insta-ban:
This hit was literally just at the 3rd period buzzer in a game that was 3-1. Should Laine have been trying for an empty netter at that point? No. Did he deserve to miss three weeks while the guy that hit him only got four games? Fuck no.
The Jackets and Flames play each other twice a year. This hit happened at the end of the game. How does an enforcer rectify that?
Mine was mix a bottle of Mirolax with a jug of lemon-lime Gatorade and then take that in 8oz servings over the span of a few hours + take 4 Dulcolax tablets. It was easy peasy.
Wife's was the jug of fun and she was miserable.
This may be a Karen response from me, but the only thing that will stop cheap shots, IMHO, is if the DoPS starts indiscriminately giving out 15 game suspensions for them.
What, no mention of him pre-arranging a fight pre-game with Mathieu Olivier in Columbus and then getting his entire ass handed to him?
I think the biggest issue is that a fair amount of the offense this past season was predicated on the fact that McCarthy could run a bit, both in terms of escaping pressure and in being a running threat out of the backfield to make defenses spend a guy in the box on him (or two guys, we see you 2022 OSU). With a Speight-like player, that threat is non-existent.
As a Browns fan, I have to go with:
LeRoy Hoard
Steve Everitt
Derek Alexander
Aaron Shea
Braylon Edwards
From my chair (disengaged Browns fan pulling for the Lions as a kindred "if they can figure it out maybe MY team can figure it out too" spirit), it really was the fumble that changed the entire complexion of the game. If you can go out after that flukey pass play that led to the TD and then string your own drive together, catch your collective breath, give your defense a chance to rest... maybe the Lions settle back in and do what they were doing on offense in the first half.
That fumble got in EVERYONE'S heads AND got the crowd going again. The ensuing 3-and-out once it was tied was killer, because the Lions' D was gassed and the whole team seemed to have a collective "WTF just happened" thing going on.
The funny thing is that almost all of the Chevy dealers in the Columbus area have been bought out by Marky Mark (no word on whether or not The Funky Bunch is involved).
Don’t know that he cares one iota about OSU football, though.
Yeah, but why settle for a coach with one Joe Moore award when you can come and play for a coach with TWO of them?
As a Cleveland Cavs fan, I can relate. When LeBron left a second time, it didn't matter. He came back, made things right, got a ring... go live in LA and do whatever you want. That banner is hanging forever.
I've generally been ambivalent about McAfee and his schtick on Game Day, I did THOROUGHLY enjoy him calling out Rece Davis on the air when Davis was talking about Jalen Milroe's "Let a Naysayer Know" silliness (as the two Black members of the panel were trying not to lose their shit on live TV laughing).
Things like Brian predicting Iowa to score four points? I found that to be more of a back-handed jab at the Ferentzes and acknowledging that Iowa is built only to score as much as their defense can give them rather than an actual prediction.
You could also play it at half speed so that it's four hours
I think Iowa's defense was very good, but we elected not to try to test them at all. After the punt return and TD run to make it 10-0, there was no upside to trying to force anything because the game was effectively over.
No, no it won’t.
Just know we were with you in COLUMBUS FUCKING OHIO tonight
Literally to Seth's right (our left as we look).
…
Was coming to say the same.
1. Bama wins toss, defers.
This means they get the option for the second half, where they will choose to take the ball.
2. Michigan has to choose to take the ball.
Technically, Michigan has their "option" and could pick which direction they want to go, but Bama gets to take the ball in the second half because they deferred their "option" (and why wouldn't you take the ball in the second half).
If UM chooses to "not look into the sun" then Bama gets the ball in the first half as well.
It's Gumby, damn it!
I think the underrated part of Minter's prep for the OSU game is the amount of coverage looks he threw at McCord et al. Yes, you have to have guys execute, and ours did... enough.
But, with a guy like Milroe especially, if you can get him to have to take that extra beat to figure out what he's seeing before he makes a decision and throws it, that's an extra beat that Jenkins/Graham/Grant can get in his lap and move him off his spot. If we have a Colson/Barrett spy of sorts to keep him from getting to the edge untouched, I like our schematic ability to throw different looks at him that get him to make late throws or throws to the wrong spot/man.
And one of the overlooked things is that Maserati Marv was the #160 player in 2021, and the #21 WR (both per 247 composite). Egbuka and Jayden Ballard also were in OSU's class that year, ranked #1 and #4 WR, #9 and #55 in the composite.
Egbuka is very good, and Ballard has nine career catches in three years.
Stars matter, but they aren't the only thing that matters.
I remember in '21 when we were up 14-3 and Iowa kept pinning us (thanks, Henning) inside the 10 with punts. My buddy was getting agitated that we kept basically going run-run-run-punt and he was calling for them to do something.
I turned to him and said, "This is what Iowa wants you to do. Get impatient and make a mistake. The only way they score against us is if we throw it to them inside our 25."
Midway through the second half he said, "You were right."
I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze.
These are the kinds of things that the braying national media (and average OSU fan) jackasses won't understand: signs are stupid when two coaches are going head to head at *this level*. Minter is doing his best to create--and HIDE--coverages the OSU staff and QB have never seen, and Day is doing his best to get the defense to tip those so he can read them and later exploit them.
To continue to beat this drum that a guy who looked at three GAs holding up a Spiderman, poop emoji, and $ on poster board could somehow give Michigan some huge advantage in decoding what the offense is doing as they go tempo while also trying to keep his defensive players aligned in their disguise without tipping AND having them in position to succeed...
I'm sorry, it's asinine.
Then I read shit like this on 11W, and... yep. That's what they're going with, not realizing that if UM "still had illegal scouting data" and OSU didn't change their fucking signs or, God forbid, go on Amazon and buy a $10 wrist band for McCord to put plays with numbers on it, that it's on them. (Honorable mention to the "suspending Harbaugh actually HELPED Michigan" take, here. Breathtaking.)
I tend to come down on the side of: the officials are generally going to let a fumble like that play out and let replay fix any mistakes. ALWAYS jump on the ball.
[edit] Though I do think it's largely moot, as it literally bounced right into the arms/chest of Egbuka, eerily reminiscent of what Brian always likes to call "JK Dobbins dribbling the football to himself" in 2019.
Ehhh, that DL had Glasgow, Hurst, Charlton, and Wormley on it, with Gary and Winovich subbing in. That DL was a meat grinder.
Right? I kept seeing stuff on 11W and Twitter where their fans are like, "Literally any other playoff team will DESTROY Michigan. They're so mid." And it's like, YOU JUST LOST TO US. AGAIN. HOW DO YOU NOT SEE THE OWN-GOAL HERE.
It's the same sub-set of their fan base that still thinks Tressel got railroaded because "it was just some tattoos, what's the big deal?".
I mean, I'm 46 and I was a freshman in college for the Biakabatuka game in '95. The 1993 shocker was 30 years ago. I only remember 1992 was a tie because my dad took me to the game in Columbus (and it was very awkward after because no one knew what to say to the opposing fans; we all just kinda filed out).
I can tell you that UM won in 93, 95, 96, and 97, as well as 99 and 00, but other than Biakabatuka in 95 and Woodson in 97 I'm afraid I don't remember much specifically about those games because I was in HS/college and generally preoccupied with other stuff.
A lot of the OSU fanbase that is most vocal and cooler-pooper-y is too young to remember that time, and even those of my age remember "The Cooper Years" badly because of that; a lot of them don't remember how stacked his mid-90s teams were, especially that '98 team that gagged at home to Sparty.
They just remember that he didn't beat Michigan enough and those late 90s/2000 bed crapping teams with that led to him finally getting canned. Anyone under the age of 35 probably has no real lasting memory of Cooper's tenure at all.
Tiniest nit-pick: 2015 was actually *Joey* Bosa, not Nick. He was unblockable.
Nick came the same year UM got Gary (I think they were ranked 1st and 5th in the 247 composite that year). I don't remember him being a game-wrecker against UM in '16 or '17, and in '18 he was hurt and opted out of trying to come back to get ready for the draft.
If they kept divisions and the division scheduling, you'd only get one cross-over game per year. If I'm USC or Oregon, am I jumping ship to a conference where I only get to play one of the OSU/UM/PSU three per year, and then if the schedule rotates there are SIX years where I'm not playing any of those?
It wouldn't have been much of a selling point to those three programs to say "yeah, 67% of the time you don't get to play our three best, but you get SIX games EVERY YEAR against absolute crap."
That's no moon.
Eh, the 2018 defense was every bit as talented across the board, minus the murder grinder at DT. But it had Gary, Winovich at ends, Devin Freakin' Bush, and TWO legit CB1s plus two good safeties. And OSU hung 60 on them because our CB3 couldn't keep up with their receivers on crossers.
It wasn't the talent. It was Brown.
It wasn't just Don Brown. It was bringing in Moore. Mike Hart. Ron Bellamy.
It was a complete overhaul of staff, approach, and culture.
You joke, but you just know there's an NFL coach or two convinced that he can "coach it out of him".
I feel like it’s only natural to go into a shell when you go from down 3-0 to up 23-3 in less time than it might take to hit the rest room and get some concessions.
My only concern was our DBs looking ordinary against WRs that are a very large step below what we’ll see next week.
The conference unilaterally blocking them from the conference championship game and thus a chance at a national championship would certainly be a potential downside...
How many times are we going to let Lucy pull away the "Michigan is going to burn everyone to the ground!" football before we stop trying to kick it?
To me, the most important line is:
If true, this to me makes me wonder if the Big 10 was threatening to keep UM out of a potential BTCG. Their suspension letter indicated that they would keep on adding punishments if this kept going, and so I wonder if UM dropping the challenge takes that off the table.
Still fucking sucks, but holy balls would it be great to smack OSU by 20+ without Harbaugh on the sidelines. Would they even let Day back into the state?