According to Jerry Jones.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/13707237.htm

Posted under Coaching

Well, apparently some of them play IM Basketball. Various players (including Adrian Arrington and Mike Hart) are on an IM team organized by none other than Steve Breaston. I’m actually pretty surprised that their coaches let them play, especially considering that some of them were injured during the year. I wouldn’t want some freak ACL tear to happen to one of my players in the off-season.

Just though I’d keep you up to date on off-season happenings.

Posted under Misc.

It appears as though DC Jim Herrmann really is on the way out. USA Today reports that he is a candidate to be LB coach for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

There is still no news on who the replacement might be, or if there will be any change to the offensive coaching staff.

Posted under Coaching

For having the largest crowds at just about every home game, Michigan Stadium is not as intimidating as it should be. There are multiple reasons for this, such as the outward architecture of the stands, and the lack of anything for sound to reflect off of, down to the field. However, the most important issue that leads to this problem is the lack of fan involvement.

At every field in the country, the student section is expected to be the leader in creating havoc for opposing offenses. However, at most schools, there is substantial support from almost every section of the crowd. The best examples of this are SEC schools. At Michigan, however, this is not present. The alumni, who occupy the middle of both sides of the field, are most guilty of being too quiet. The end opposite the student section is actually louder than I woul have expected (as I experienced on the field for the Penn State game), but still not that loud. Though the students may use this apathy as an excuse for not being enthusiastic, it should instead be motivation to be that much more of a factor. As it is my area of experience, the student section will be the topic of this article.

The first thing I’d like to discuss is the vocal noise that the student section makes. First off, not everyone even makes noise. There are two groups that are guilty of this. First is those who just couldn’t care less about the game, and only go because everyone else does. They are essentially a lost cause. The other group, however, is about as frustrating as it gets. These people are the same ones who bitch about how quiet the atmosphere is in the stadium, and are constantly calling for Lloyd Carr’s head (and Tommy Amaker’s). These are the people who waltz around saying they are the only “true” fans, when this is clearly not the case. Among students who DO make noise, however, there is still a problem. It seems as though everyone is missing the point about making noise. They think that their voice simply has to be present, regardless of volume. This has always bothered me, as the point is to be as loud as possible.

Another issue I take with the students is the other means of making noise. I mayh be the only one on this side of the fence, but I think that the “key play” is stupid, and should be done away with ASAP. It is unoriginal, and not loud. Plus, students seem to think that jingling their keys absolves them of their yelling duty. Given a choice between the two, I would much rather have people making vocal noise. If I ever see another freshman “hilariously” waving the keycard to his room again, I think I’m going to have to punch his lights out.

Other than these two forms of making noise, there isn’t a whole lot going on in the student section. The cowbells are out there, but those are for more of cheers that take place randomly, rather than specifically when the team is on defense. I’d love to see students stomping on the bleachers, and making other types of noise (bring noisemakers, people!) to help out when the team is on defense.

One last (smaller) issue that I have is that there aren’t a whole lot of coordinated cheers throughout the student section. I’d like to see more of those, such as chants, etc. I will be so happy if the marching band learns the Super Mario Bros. theme to accompany big plays by Manningham next year.

The stadium does cause the volume to be lower than it would be in another stadium with the same fan enthusiasm. However, the fans must stop using this as an excuse, and start pumping up for the games.

Posted under Analysis

This time It’s Max Martin to Alabama.

I wish him luck, and offer my apologies that it didn’t work out here for him.

Note the bottom of this article, which mentions that Big Gabe has signed with agent Drew Rosenhaus. It’ll be interesting to see how that turns out.

Posted under Personnel

Well, it looks like Michigan’s 12th opponent for next year will be Vanderbilt.

This means that it will not be DivI-AA Maine, as had been rumored recently. Had Maine been the opponent, I would have been so disappointed in the Athletic Department that I wouldn’t have known what to do with myself.

Instead, I’m pretty pleased with the selection. I think it is a good idea to play OOC games against BCS Conference opponents. Vanderbilt is also a good selection from this bunch, because they were a pretty decent team last year, despite not going to a bowl. Save for getting absolutely fucked by the officials in the Florida game, they would have been bowl-bound.

The Commodores did, however, graduate their leader and quarterback, Jay Cutler. Either way, they should be a decent, but still beatable, team in 2006.

MGoBlue Article

Rivals article

Vanderbilt Website

Posted under Misc.

So far, the recruiting year has gone pretty well. Michigan’s recruiting class is currently ranked 13th by Rivals.com and 6th by Scout.com. I’ve never been too heavily into recruiting, but judging by how some prospects were rated that panned out well (and poorly), I’d say that Scout is more accurate, though the real value should be somewhere in between the two.

So far, we have 15 commits. 2 of them, Justin Boren (OL – Pickerington, OH) and Carlos Brown (RB – Franklin, GA) have decided to graduate high school early, and are currently enrolled at the University.

Rivals has our recruiting class as currently having only one five star recruit in Brandon Graham (LB – Detroit). Scout, on the other hand, has four of our recruits as five-stars. The additional recruits are Boren, Jai Eugene (CB – Destrehan, LA), and Marques Slocum (DL – Philadelphia). However, Slocum was a commit from last year who needed a year of prep school to meet academic standards. As a 2005 recruit, Rivals deemed him 5-star worthy.

I won’t go too much into other recruits right now, but they are definitely all worth mentioning a little something.

Posted under Recruiting

I think the group of receivers that we will have should be pretty good next year. From last year, we will have Mario Manningham, Steve Breaston, Antonio Bass, Doug Dutch, and Carl Tabb returning after being major contributors. Also, Adrian Arrington will be back after taking a medical redshirt because of an ankle injury suffered in the Northern Illinois game. As far as tight ends go, Tyler Ecker and Mike Massey should be pretty solid at the position.

As far as positions go, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Arrington as the #1 guy, since when he came in, he was supposed to be the next Braylon. This is especially ture, because with his height and speed (6’4″ and 4.46, respectively), he should be a pretty decent deep threat. Manningham had an amazing freshman year, and will probably be delegated the #2 man. All I really have to say about that is the marching band better start learning the theme to “Super Mario Brothers.” Although Breaston has the most seniority of any of the main receivers, I’d like to see him at #3, only because he seems to flourish in the slot, and not do so well on the outside. Obviously these positions will be shuffled around in different packages, but as far as main sets, I think this should be the way we want to go.

I’d also like to see Antonio Bass continue to get reps at other positions than receiver (i.e. QB and RB). Even if he doesn’t end up getting the ball on the play by way of QB Draw, toss sweep, swing, etc., he would certainly serve as a distraction back there. I see him as the same sort of player as Breaston, utilized a little better to show his versatility.

With our current depth at wideout, I don’t foresee a whole lot of action from incoming recruits, unless we have a bad year with injuries.

Posted under Personnel

According to an Ann Arbor News article. He’ll probably be a beastly I-AA QB. I wish him the best of luck.

Posted under Personnel

I’m a couple days late, but here’s a Free Press article saying that the coaching staff is likely to get shaken up.

Posted under Coaching