Originally, the announcement of the new Michigan apparel deal with Adidas rubbed me the wrong way. The tradition of Michigan being one of the original Nike schools, and the affinity I gained for Nike by virtue of their officially licensed UM gear really made me wish that Michigan would have stayed with the swoosh.

However, upon further reflection, I realized that these reasons weren’t good enough. If anything, they are actually criticisms of the athletic department by many Michigan fans: doing things the way they’ve always been done because that’s the way they’ve always been done, or because tradition mandates it. So in the end, while I’m sad to see something that has become somewhat of a tradition (being one of the original Nike schools) come to an end, it’s time.

There are also definite advantages of switching from Nike to Adidas as well. As mentioned by Brian, Nike has lately seen itself as the spectacle on display in sporting events, rather than just clothes worn during said events. The ugly Nike jerseys are no longer a threat to the aesthetics of the Michigan football team (for the record, I do not hate the piping on the away jerseys, though I’m apparently the only one). The Adidas deal also allows for slight redesigns to uniforms that may not have been possible staying with the same outfitter, allowing the Michigan look to maintain tradition without getting stale. And finally, the money factor. Michigan is making much more money out of the Adidas deal than they ever did from Nike, and the new contract has a clause guaranteeing Michigan preferred treatment from the clothier.

In the end, it’s sad to see one tradition end, but it opens the door for a new (and quote possibly better) one to begin.

Posted under Misc.

Carson Butler and Chris Richards, dismissed from the football team for being monumentally stupid, have completed their trials in the St. Patrick’s Day assault case. Butler was found not guilty, whereas Richards was guilty of aggravated assault and assault and battery.

Though found not guilty in the court of law, Butler was still deemed a troublemaker by the Michigan football program, so don’t get your hopes up about a return to the Wolverines.

Coming Soon: My thoughts on the Nike/Adidas situation, though it’s nothing more than my opinion, and even that isn’t anything particularly original.

Posted under Personnel

In the Dark Ages before a strong, Michigan blogosphere developed, the only outlet online for a fan to see others’ opinion and voice his or her own were free, online message boards. Premium message boards and blogs have claimed the best posters from the ESPN.com message boards and left them a demolished wasteland with sticky caps-lock keys. I plan on venturing into these groups of partisan savages and report back with the most outlandish claims and back and forth claims of “OWNAGE!1”

In today’s edition we explore the rantings and ravings of a poster who goes by the handle WCD34. He is what the local refer to as a “troll.” A vagabond poster who travels from board to board bringing any intelligent discussion to halt.

In this thread he is defending Notre Dame and trying to justify his position of Michigan losing to Notre Dame. When someone mentioned that pretty much every Notre Dame offensive unit is worse than the corresponding Michigan unit, he (I assume) came back with this:

Moving on…Our RB situation is BY FAR MUCH BETTER than Michigan’s. Again, it’s young, but sick. Do you guys even pay attention?

…

Guys, we’re going to have so many RB’s, you’re not going to be able to keep up with which one is which. And ALL OF THEM are talented. I know plenty of Irish Fans who are happy that D. Walker chose the draft. I can’t wait to see the shocked looks on your faces when ND rushes for over 200 yds in Ann Arbor. :)

The dotted out section is a list of running backs who haven’t really played (except for a bit of Blue & Gold game action). So his argument is that their running backs by batallion composed of totally unproven players is better than Michigan’s give the ball to one of the premiere running backs in the country approach.

Let’s take a look at this…

Adding up the yards that all the running backs he mentioned gained last year we get… 241 yards. Michigan’s top returning back-up (Brandon Minor) has 249 yards. To get over the whole “Michigan runs more” argument, the Notre Dame running backs had 65 attempts while Brandon Minor had just 42.

So… with Michigan’s primary back-up posting better numbers than the entire field of Notre Dame backs AND having a preseason Doak Walker candidate, I really can’t see where he is coming from.

I understand being exciting about a good group of young studs, but to say that potential is better than a top-5 back, not to mention a few young guys with their fair share of potential, is just down right dumb. I guess that is why he’s cruising around ESPN message board, and maybe why he’s a Notre Dame fan (I kid…).

[Click here to see the thread]

Posted under Misc.

John Wienke… What do we know about him? I found this video on youtube, and the username posting it was “mgoblog” but I found nothing about it posted on mgoblog itself, so pardon me if it’s a repost of Brian.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcM81DaAEBI]

He is a left-handed quarterback who chose Michigan over Illinois and Iowa, with other offers including Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Kentucky, Iowa State, and MAC teams.

He is a 6’6″ lefty, and was the MVP amongst the quarterbacks at Michigan’s summer camp, as well as the Nike camp at Colorado.

With his size and (presumed) mobility, he is a prototypical Michigan quarterback, aside from the whole lefty thing.

Wienke is ranked as low as he is (not at all! ZING!) mainly due to exposure, rather than because of his skills. I assum he’ll be a strong three or low four in the final rankings. He seems capable of serving as a capable backup for Mallett for a couple years, and likely won’t be the project that Cone was/is. With Mallett and Cone in the same class, Wienke will probably redshirt to get a year of separation, and be ready to start being the primary backup in ’09 (jesus, are we seriously talking about kids who won’t see the field for more than two years?). Wienke is more developed than the Navarre-esque Cone, but Cone will also have two years in the system before Wienke is actually a Wolverine.

The main issue with the kid is probably going to be the fact that he is left-handed. This changes a lot of things on the field, including the snap, the dropback, play action, even the spiral on the ball as wide receivers go to catch it (see: Lloyd bragging about Zoltan’s lefty spin on punts being harder to catch).

Posted under Recruiting

In the Dark Ages before a strong, Michigan blogosphere developed, the only outlet online for a fan to see others’ opinion and voice his or her own were free, online message boards. Premium message boards and blogs have claimed the best posters from the ESPN.com message boards and left them a demolished wasteland with sticky caps-lock keys. I plan on venturing into these groups of partisan savages and report back with the most outlandish claims and back and forth claims of “OWNAGE!1”

In today’s edition we explore the rantings and ravings of a poster who goes by the handle WCD34. He is what the local refer to as a “troll.” A vagabond poster who travels from board to board bringing any intelligent discussion to halt.

In this thread he is defending Notre Dame and trying to justify his position of Michigan losing to Notre Dame. When someone mentioned that pretty much every Notre Dame offensive unit is worse than the corresponding Michigan unit, he (I assume) came back with this:

Moving on…Our RB situation is BY FAR MUCH BETTER than Michigan’s. Again, it’s young, but sick. Do you guys even pay attention?

…

Guys, we’re going to have so many RB’s, you’re not going to be able to keep up with which one is which. And ALL OF THEM are talented. I know plenty of Irish Fans who are happy that D. Walker chose the draft. I can’t wait to see the shocked looks on your faces when ND rushes for over 200 yds in Ann Arbor. :)

The dotted out section is a list of running backs who haven’t really played (except for a bit of Blue & Gold game action). So his argument is that their running backs by batallion composed of totally unproven players is better than Michigan’s give the ball to one of the premiere running backs in the country approach.

Let’s take a look at this…

Adding up the yards that all the running backs he mentioned gained last year we get… 241 yards. Michigan’s top returning back-up (Brandon Minor) has 249 yards. To get over the whole “Michigan runs more” argument, the Notre Dame running backs had 65 attempts while Brandon Minor had just 42.

So… with Michigan’s primary back-up posting better numbers than the entire field of Notre Dame backs AND having a preseason Doak Walker candidate, I really can’t see where he is coming from.

I understand being exciting about a good group of young studs, but to say that potential is better than a top-5 back, not to mention a few young guys with their fair share of potential, is just down right dumb. I guess that is why he’s cruising around ESPN message board, and maybe why he’s a Notre Dame fan (I kid…).

[Click here to see the thread]

Posted under Misc.

The Stonum commitment was expected, and he is gladly welcomed. The Weinke commitment wasn’t expected, but was certainly not a surprise, and he is welcomed as well.

Stonum is a high four-star player, and I’d be surprised if he doesn’t become a five-star player by the time the final Scout rankings come out. He is a tall(ish) receiver, around 6’2″, and speedy as well, with a 4.4 forty-yard time. The main area that it seems as though Stonum could improve is his strength, which will undoubtedly increase with some time in a college weight-training program. Stonum was in Michigan’s top tier of WR targets for the ’08 class, along with Jon Baldwin, so he was the guy the coaches want. With Baldwin reportedly favoring Notre Dame, Stonum’s commitment is huge for this recruiting class.

Weinke is a high-three or a four-star qurterback. He has been invited to this summer’s Elite 11 competition, so while his name may be a little unknown, his skills are nothing to sneeze at. He only recently appeared on the radar, but this was more likely due to exposure than the caliber of player that he is. Weinke was the best week-long camper at the quarterback position, and while he may not be the super that some fans want every year, he is not a sleeper, either. Weinke will probably redshirt his freshman year, putting him two classes behind Ryan Mallett. While he is more highly rated than David Cone (who will likely be Mallett’s backup), Cone will have spent two years under the tutelage of Scot Loeffler by the time he is serving as second-in-command.

Both of these players are quality pickups on the offensive side of the ball, leaving Michigan with only a couple more meeds there (RB (McGuffie?) HB(?) (C. Wilson?), maybe one more OT and TE). The rest of the recruiting efforts for the year will likely be spent on the defense, looking for an elite DE, maybe another DT, a couple more linebackers, and a host (hopefully 3-4) of defensive backs.

Posted under Recruiting

I fell asleep before the announcement. Without futher delay…

WR Daryl Stonum (6’2″+, 180, 4.40) from Sugarland, TX Dulles (alma mater of incoming freshmen Brandon Herron and Troy Woolfolk) has committed to the Michigan Wolverines. Scout ranks him as the #15 Wide Receiver in the country, but his ranking is likely to improve over time. He picked the Maize and Blue over USC and Florida.

This commitment is Michigan’s fourth from Texas over the last two recruiting classes, and the Wolverines are perhaps opening a pipeline in the Lonestar State. This is especially true if RB Sam McGuffie (he of Youtube fame) commits to Michigan as well.

Bill Martin has mentioned playing games in regions with large alumni bases or to help recruiting, so maybe we’ll see a home and home with a Texas team at some point in the future.

Posted under Recruiting

This is usually Tim’s territory, but he’s currently up North, so he left me to monitor the commitments over this weekend. He sent me an e-mail letting me know that Daryl Stonum was going to announce this Sunday as well as be on the look out for a commit from Sam McGuffie. So I did my homework on those two guys so I won’t sound completely like a fish out of water.

So I get home from work around 10pm and check Scout for any Stonum news. I see an article that says “Michigan Gets Commit #9!” So I’m getting ready to throw the stuff up about Stonum or McGuffie when I click the link and see John Wienke’s kind of smiling picture staring back at me.

So… Michigan gets its clip-board holder for the Ryan Mallet era. Luckily John Wienke (6’5″ 205lbs) looks to be a decent back-up prospect. He was selected as an Elite 11 Quarterback and put up some decent numbers (3221 yards. 56% completion rate, and 34 TDs to only 7 INTs) his junior year at Tuscola HS.

I’ll update the recruiting chart and keep my eye on Stonum’s announcement that should on around 11:15pm EDT.

Posted under Recruiting