Considering I make the blog as essentially a resource for myself, rather than actually to give information to anyone else, mad props go out to MGoBlog (see link in the sidebar) for actually managing to not only find it, but find something worth posting about on his blog.

Posted under Blog News

“Money” is the name of an IM basketball team made up of UM football players (and captained by Steve Breaston). I went to their game on Monday to check some of the players out. It was the second game of theirs that I’ve been to. This time, they put more effort into it, seeing as how it was a playoff game. Unfotunately, however, they lost. Even worse, they pretty much had the game taken from them by the refs (but at least they’re used to that).

Adrian Arrington looks a lot lik Vince Young. He is not as tall as I thought he was, but was still usually the tallest guy on the court. He jumped to block one shot, and ended up with his hand more than halfway up the backboard. He was rocking a pair of ankle braces.

Steve Breaston is actually more built than he looks on the football field. He also can jump and grab the rim with pretty much no effort, despite being not particularly tall.

Leon Hall is a lefty with a good outside shot. He was about high middle of the pack in terms of athleticism.

Mike Hart was moving really well, though he stills sports one ankle brace.

Charles Stewart was a more physical basketball player than I would have expected. Hopefully he brings some of his intensity to the field next year, too.

Johnny Sears Jr. is the man that everyone has been asking about for next year. Will he start at #2 corner? Well, here’s a brief rundown of the observations I made on him. First, he didn’t seems that fast (i.e. not as fast as Breaston, but who really is?), though he seemed very very quick. He also had some ups. Right now, he is sporting an amazing russet-colored afro (it was pulled back in a ponytail for the game). He was also inexplicably wearing one of Jamar Adams’s football practice tank tops, complete with name and number (Adams was present at the game as a spectator).

If you have any question about these guys, I may be able to answer a couple of them, so don’t be scared to ask.

Posted under Misc.

MGoBlue link.

Posted under Coaching

Now that Jim Herrmann is gone, there is a need on the coaching staff for a Linebackers coach. There is no verified news, but the rumor is that Steve Szabo is the man that has been hired. He was Jacksonville’s LB coach from 94-02, and was most recenty DB coach at Buffalo. Here’s some more information on him.

Keep checking back, as I’ll update this post with more info on Szabo as I find it.
Interesting article.

On the scout boards, there was discussion that this could just be a couple-year thing, as Szabo is 62. He is great friends with DeBord, so some suspect that it may just be a good friend being able to coach for a couple more years.

Posted under Coaching

Last year, the Penn State game happened to fall over our Fall Break (as well as PSU’s). As a result of these two factors combined, there was a huge crowd of Penn State students at the away game for them, as well as a smaller-than-normal crowd of Michigan students at a home game. This actually had a pretty large impact on the crowd noise at the game. The Penn State student section seemed to be almost as loud (and sometimes noticeably louder) that the home student section.

Now, I won’t get into how dumb it was to schedule a home football game during our fall break, since I’m sure that didn’t even go into consideration when making the schedule. Even if it had, I wouldn’t be surprised if the athletic department had counted on students staying in town just because there was a home football game (as I’m sure many did). However, the point remains the same: A lot of PSU students showed up, in no small part because the game was during their Fall Break.

This upcoming season, the tables have turned. Yet again Michigan plays Penn State in the middle of October, and yet again this means it falls during study break for UM (Penn State’s academic calendar for next year has not yet been posted on the web). I’m going to make the call right now that Michigan students need to return the favor, and travel en masse to University Park, and show the Nittany Lions what true fans are. I’d love to see a massive road trip down there.

The athletic department also should feel a responsibility to encourage students to attend this away game. As they always do (though I’m not exactly sure how this process usually works), they will be given an allotment of tickets, and sell these to students. However, I don’t think that this will be enough. There need to be advertisements, etc. that encourage students to go (even if it means they can’t actually get into the game, or if they have to scalp tickets).

In the near future, I’m definitely going to be posting more resources about how to make this happen, because I really want this to go down. Despite their losses, Penn State is going to be a very solid team next year, and the Wolverines will need all the help they can get to ensure a win.

Posted under Analysis

As just about everyone suspected, former Michigan DC Jim Herrmann is going to the New York Jets. I wish him the best, although he certainly didn’t seem to give it the whole time he was here.

On a more interesting note, the article says that Lloyd would have never considered demotin Herrmann, and English was only offerred the DC job after it became apparent last week. that Herrmann was going to leave of his own will. I wonder why the stories broke so far apart in the opposite chronological order, then.

Posted under Coaching

From yesterday’s Ann Arbor News

Posted under Misc.

Ron English has changed his mind. He’ll be returning to the Wolverines next year as DC.

Scout Article
Rivals Article

In the future, I’ll try not to just post lilnks to two articles a day or two late, without any sort of analysis.

Posted under Coaching

DBs coach Ron English has definitely decided to leave for the Chicago Bears. Here’s an Ann Arbor News article with some player reactions, including recruit Jonas Mouton.

And QB coach Scot Loeffler has made it official that he will be sticking around in Ann Arbor. Check out the article on Scout.com here.

Posted under Coaching

And they’re not the changes that most people wanted to see. It seems from the looks of the mass exodus, Lloyd may be on his way out with in the next couple years.

English to Chicago Bears, Terry Malone to New Orleans Saints, Mike DeBord new OC.

I’ve heard lots of good things about DeBord (specifically in terms of recruiting), but the English loss is really going to hurt the recruiting factor, as is the possible loss of Scot Loeffler, who may be taking a job with The New England Patriots.

Posted under Coaching