Chris Graham’s sister tragically dies in a house fire. Jacqueline Love was a single mother, and donation information to support her daughter can be found in the article.
Rich Rod’s Morgantown digs up for sale.
By the way, since I hadn’t said this yet, the Yost series has been condensed to 5 parts, not 8.
It’s been a busy week, what with the hockey things and all these football commitments. Here’s what I have coming up in the next couple of weeks:
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Both the Detroit News and the Michigan Daily (featuring quotes from Mary Sue Coleman, the most obvious source in the world for a story like this!) have articles that essentially sate Jim Carty is nothing more than a gossip monger, trying to make a name for himself by making something out of nothing. In the Daily article, even Professor Paris, Carty’s crucial witness, declined an interview because he wanted nothing to do with Carty’s slam piece.
The only point I haven’t seen Carty ridiculed on is his assertion that athletes were allowed to enroll in classes only a month before the semester ends, with professor permission. What Carty fails to mention is that this is the late Drop-Add deadline, during which any student can enroll in a class with prohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.giffessor permission.
Etc.: Michael Shaw and Brandon Moore excel in Ohio state track finals. Charles Woodson gives back. UM, not PSU may finish runner-up for Pryor.
Later today: Hockey highlights.
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Brief summary of Carty’s (again idiotic) points:
1. Athletes want to get their degrees (just like just about everyone else at the University).
2. They want to make getting their degree as easy as possible (just like most other students).
3. They go about getting their degrees in a legal and ethical way by taking an easy major (like about half of other students (I’m looking at you, fellow Comm majors)).
4. When one degree (kinesiology) became to hard to get, a number of athletes switched to a different, completely legal and ethical degree path.
Smoking gun, Carty still seeks. 0 for 2 so far. The main frustration for me is that real life journalists and ESPN journalists are going to take this drivel and run with it, giving Carty some sort of credibility that he is no where close to deserving.
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I will not link to it, because it’s mostly really crappy, but Jim Carty’s long-awaited article (written with John Heuser and Nathan Fenno) regarding some sort of academic scandal involving student-athletes at Michigan has finally been published by the Ann Arbor News. The general idea is that a lot of athletes take independent study courses with professor Jon Hagen.
Brief Synopsis of Carty’s Arguments:
1) There are easy classes at the University.
2) Some athletes take these easy classes.
3) Academic advisors help athletes pick their classes.
All of these points so far are like, duh. He is actually trying to criticize advisors for doing their jobs, which… what?
Brief Summary of Carty’s sources:
1) Two disgruntled former University employees.
2) Student athletes, who describe their classes.
3) A guy in the psych department who got passed over by the professor in question for a promotion, and admits he is not an impartial source.
4) Not Mary Sue Coleman, who agreed to answer some questions over e-mail, and was turned down by Carty.
Carty also notes repeatedly that there have been repeated reviews of Hagen’s classes by the psych department and the college of LSA, all of which has proven that his independent study courses are aboveboard. So, what’s the problem? There is no Auburn situation here.
Apparently this is the first in a series of four articles on the topic, but if this is supposed to be the bombshell article, it was certainly a dud. This article proves nothing other than that Jim Carty is trying to make a name for himself, and will take a standard situation, and try to spin it into a controversy.
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If you only check this blog once a day, make sure you don’t miss out on the post about Junior Day, directly below this one.
The Recruiting Board has been updated slightly to include headings for each column. This was based on the requests from a couple of readers. Also, OK RB David Oku now has an offer.
A request regarding said recruiting board:
Do readers prefer Hometown and School fields OR State and Hometown/School fields? Leave your response in the comments to this post (and any other requests/suggestions you may have for the board, while you’re at it).
The Big House Thing
Various fans and members of the blogosphere are up in arms about Michigan Stadium’s capacity being below that of Beaver Stadium during the next two years. Personally, I think it is no big deal.
While having the largest stadium in the nation is something nice to be able to hang your hat on, I’m pretty sure avoiding constant litigation is more productive for the athletic department. Being able to get on the good side of the ADA also holds Michigan to the higher moral standard that I believe is an important aspect of our Tradition, and rids us of the annoyance of John Pollack, who Brian dubs (not-so-affectionately) “The Hero of Tienanmen Square.”
It’s also important to note that Michigan Stadium, despite announcing it was the home of “the largest crowd watching a football game anywhere in America today,” did not in fact hold this distinction on two Saturdays. The September 8th contest against Oregon was outdrawn by Notre Dame’s visit to Happy Valley (109,733 to 110,078) and Michigan and Penn State’s respective beatdowns of Eastern Michigan and Iowa had the attendance battle go to the Lions as well (108,415 to 108,951). The top 15 most-attended games in ’07 were all in Ann Arbor or State College, with the top 4 taking place in the Big House.
It is important to note that Michigan Stadium was not at or below official capacity (107,501) once in 2007, nor would I expect this to be the case in 2008 (at 106,201). With a new headman in Ann Arbor, and a lot of media interest surrounding this change, it is likely that there will be many members of the media in attendance, at least for the first game. Media a
nd other game services personnel account for the difference between capacity and attendance. Penn State is also the only school in America who averaged more than Michigan Stadium’s projected new capacity (other than Michigan, of course). An exciting style of play, as Michigan is expected to have, will only help the case.
So, do I think this is a lot of hand-wringing about something that won’t greatly affect anyone? Yes. There is little practical reason to have a dick measuring contest in terms of attendance. It won’t impress recruits (they will still be awed at the sheer expanse of Michigan Stadium, and think that Beaver Stadium looks like an erector set gone wrong (for the record, I like the stadium, but it is far from aesthetically appealing)).
Recruiting Woes
Speaking of fans being irrationally concerned over matters, many are starting to express worry over the lack of Michigan commitments so far in this class. There are a few points that people will need to take into account before they start jumping of bridges.
Rich Rodriguez and staff had to play catch up on 2008 before they could worry about 2009. While other staffs had their 2008 classes completed, and were sending out feelers to 2009 prospects, Rodriguez had to first secure all of Lloyd Carr’s previous commitments, then get more players to sign with the Maize and Blue (Hill, Floyd, Feagin, Roundtree, Shaw, Robinson, Odoms, Barnum, Omameh), almost all of whom were four-star prospects. Odoms’s recruitment even stretched out past signing day, and Terrelle Pryor’s is obviously still ongoing (even if many Michigan fans have given up, don’t think for one second that Rodriguez has). Thus, other schools (including Michigan State) had a head start on Michigan.
Mark Dantonio’s class is looking good, but the players haven’t signed anything yet, and some of them might not fit Michigan’s new system. Brian covered this yesterday.
Michigan is one of the last schools to have its junior day. While schools like Texas get nearly their entire classes to commit at junior days, Michigan hasn’t had an opportunity to hold its junior day yet. This is mostly because of playing catch-up (see above, in addition to the coaches getting to know existing players and each other). Junior Day is finally coming tomorrow, and with more offers likely being given out, and a good possibility for a commit or two, Michigan will jump back into the recruiting game with a vengeance.
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A lot of removals on this week’s board. In the next week or so, I’ll roll out a new version of the board with decision/enrollment timeframes, offer status, and maybe another couple things.
Added:
TN WR Marlon Brown. He has a Michigan offer, and will likely end up a top-25 national player.
LA WR Rueben Randle. He also has a UM offer.
OH OT Marcus Hall. Not sure we have a great chance with this guy, considering his school (Cleveland Glenville). He has been offered.
AZ DE Devon Kennard. He has reportedly been offered.
FL DB/QB Brandon McGee. He has an offer now as well. Interesting to see which position he wants to play in college.
VA CB Javanti Sparrow. Teammate of QB Kevin Newsome.
Removed:
TX QB Russell Shepard. A single tear is still on my cheek.
TX RB Hasan Lipscomb. He was really only included because I thought he might commit to LSU, convincing Shepard to go to Baton Rouge. Hey, I had it backwards!
MI RB Larry Caper. He is now somewhat committed to THE Michigan State University.
New Information:
VA QB Tajh Boyd. MVP of the Air7QBU quarterbacks camp.
A few new articles about prospects receiving offers, so lots of new prospects added to the board. Larry Caper to MSU hurts a bit, because he’ll be one of the top couple in-state prospects, but he had gotten too big to be a fit for the RR spread. Craig Loston is tenuously still included on the board, because I feel he may follow Shepard to LSU, for their dream class.
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Once you are heading a corporation that has over $15B in real estate assets as well as serving on the boards of many influential equity groups, you get a lot of coin. But the problem becomes finding stuff to spend it on. There has to be some sort of upper limit on the marginal utility of another solid gold toilet. So what is a loaded alum to do?
So what is left for him to do with all of his money? Buy a majority stake in the Miami Dolphins, I guess. Wayne Huizenga will remain the controlling partner until he decides it’s time for him to step aside or he is asked to step aside. What this means for the Dolphins? Likely nothing. Mr. Ross doesn’t strike me as the Jerry Jones type, but rather he just likes to see his name on buildings.
So what could be next for Stephen M. Ross? This seems like the only logical next step.
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The Blog that Yost Built (consistently excellent. If you care about hockey at all, I’d suggest visiting it regularly) has uncovered newspaper reports detailing Kevin Quick’s alleged reason for getting dismissed from the Michigan hockey team.
In happier hockey news, the team took 3 points from Miami over the weekend, returning them to the top of the CCHA (now with a guaranteed CCHA playoff bye), and the country. They face off against Lake State for 2 games in The Old Barn this weekend.
Sadly, no more WOLV games until the CCHA playoffs. I’ll keep you updated.
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Hockey highlights from Saturday.
Recap of Rich Rodriguez press conference, including an exclusive (and brief) interview with new DC Scott Schafer.
Recruiting season recap, once all remaining recruits sign (either here or elsewhere).
A bunch of stuff about the 2008 Football team.
2009 Recruiting kickoff (yes, already).
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