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

…because they SUCK at basketball.

OK, so maybe I’m being a little harsh, but for the most part, it’s true. While Obi Oluigbo can nail the outside shot, when he misses, it’s not even close. Rondell Biggs is a good inside presence, but he has terrible hands, and can’t rebound or receive passes. Mike Hart isn’t bad, and is actually a pretty good defender. He’s just so damn small. I can see Steve Breaston being a dominant high school player. He is fast, and just beats everyone down the court (even if they’re in front of him). He can probably jump high enough to dunk, but I didn’t see him do it at all. I was actually somewhat surprised at how big (muscular) he seemed. I wish Adrian Arrington would have put in some effort, since we didn’t get to see him on the football field this year, I’d like to have a gauge of his athleticism. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to care that much, so that’s still somewhat of a mystery.

Mike Hart rocks a brace on the ankle. Steve Breaston had some sort of weird brace on his entire right calf, but I don’t know what it was for.

Posted under Misc.

Jai Eugene decided that he didn’t want to be so far from his son, and switched his commitment to LSU. That’s a shame; he could have been great here.

Jonas Mouton, on the other hand, is apparently headed to UM.I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

After signing day (which is tomorrow, in case you didn’t know), I’ll have a post breaking down recruiting, and I’ll start looking forward to some on-field stuff.

Posted under Recruiting

Sun Belt officials admit some mistakes.

Some of the things they say in this link are dead wrong, too. For one, the back judge was in perfect position to see the Manningham interference call – I was right behind him in the first row, and it was blatantly obvious. The low-tier official was just tricked by the Nebraska player doing the “I’m innocent” pose right after interfering with the receiver.

Also, some of the rules that they cite as example are just plain wrong. According to Section 1 or Penalty enforcement in the NCAA Rulebook, when live-ball fouls are enforced as dead-balls fouls, there is NO offsetting. The penatlies are instead administered in order of occurence. This means that regardless of the penalties called on the final play, there should have been one more down.

There are various other errors that are made in that article, but I don’t even really feel like dignifying most of it with a response. Maybe some other time I will.

Posted under Analysis

I’m sure it’s old news by now, but Washington OT Steve Schilling committed to UM. IF we somehow managed to snag Mouton, I would feel really good about this recruiting class.

Posted under Recruiting