Monday, December 16, 2013

Michigan Monday: Plate is Full Today!

It was a busy weekend with a loss to the #1 team in the nation and Jabrill Peppers on campus.   Lets first hit a topic from this past Friday:

  • Big Al owes Pat Narduzzi $150,000.   When you think about the top assistants in college football, I would guess many of you that follow this blog wouldn't think Big Al would be one of them.   As Voice of Reason pointed out a couple days ago, it's a clear sign that you don't have top assistants when other schools don't come calling to interview them for head coaching positions.   Well, the USA today last week released their database on the highest paid assistant coaches in the country.    Greg Mattison has the 4th highest salary in the country and highest paid assistant in the Big Ten.   Yes, his defense hasn't been great a 100% of the time but I'm on board on the improvements he has made and the great job he does on the recruiting trail.   What blows me away is that Big Al is the 7th highest paid assistant in the US at over $700,000 a year.   He makes more then Pat Narduzzi, Everett Withers and every other assistant in the Big Ten (other then GMat).    If you are going to measure performance with compensation, something is really wrong here.   Normally, you pay your assistants big dollars to keep them for going to other programs.  Which programs are coming for Big Al?   Pat Narduzzi is turning down head coaching jobs at BCS conferences.   BTW if your wondering, Big Al is not known as a top notch recruiter and doesn't hit the road hard like GMat does.

  • Michigan loses the lead late against Arizona:  This Michigan Basketball team is still trying to find ways to win.   They lead most of the game against Arizona on Saturday and faltered at the end.   I like the schedule John Beilein put together this year and it's one that top programs play in the pre-Big Ten season.   The issues is, if this team loses to Stanford this week, playing that hard of a schedule is going to be in real question for this and future years with 5 losses before Big Ten play.   BTW:  I hate the defense call where McGary flashes to trap the guard on the top of the key, when you need a stop.  That leaves somebody wide open and you can't do that against a talented team like Arizona.   That call should only be early in the game or early in the second half.    It also seems the 1-3-1 causes the other team a ton of problems, how about we see more of it?

  • You looking for a good read over the holidays?  How about a inside look at Michigan's Final 4 run last year by Josh Bartelstein (foreword by Zack Novak).   It's an ebook called We On and you can find it here for less then $8.

  • The Spring Game has been scheduled for April 5th.

On to the recruiting weekend:

  • Don't you want to be a Pepper to? Jabrill Peppers was in A2 this weekend and it seems he is fully committed to the Wolverines.  To my knowledge he hasn't publically said he won't take other visits yet but he has told other commits that he is 100% committed to the Wolverines and wants to play the next 4 years in Ann Arbor.   That is very good news!

  • One guy this is really getting a ton of recruiting buzz lately is 2015 DB Shaun Crawford, who the Michigan coaches were in on early.   Shaun has a crazy good junior season tape and Urban personally came out to offer him.  Shaun was considering visiting Ohio State, but he was also on campus this weekend and his dad tweeted he is 100% blue. 

  • No word on Vic Enwere visit yet, he is still expecting to take a visit to CAL in January.   So he will be a late maybe even a signing day decision.   I wonder if the Michigan coaches are willing to hold his spot that long?


  • Denard almost had his first NFL TD.  Almost!
Denard Robinson going in for the touch...DAMNIT DENARD!

3 comments:

Scott K said...

I hope Denard finds his nitche and becomes a contributing member of some NFL squad... there isn't a more deserving kid. The sad part of that video was that it ended in a fumble. Granted, it was a defensive play knocking the ball loose from behind, but fumbles have kept Denard from being included in much of the game plan thus far.

Unknown said...

I wish that they'd get rid of that $2,000/lb formula for big Al and pay for performance!.......Perhaps if that was the case they could have afforded a QB coach for Denard and Devin so that they could have realized their potential!

uncle ron said...

What I really don't understand is that former Wolverine Scott Loeffler had been available for the last 2 years and probably still is. I have this gut feeling that Scott would drop everything to have a chance to return to Ann Arbor.